meet the chef

Chef Christine Tizzard

By Karen Irvine

Christine Tizzard is a Chef, Food Stylist, recipe developer, model, actor, television host of Best Recipes Ever, guest Chef on many morning television shows, The Social and kitchen Judge on HGTV’s Renovation Resort with Scott McGillivray and Bryan Baeumler this year. She has written two cookbooks - Honest to Goodness: Everyday Recipes for the Home Cook and Cook More, Waste Less which is extremely relevant today due to high food costs.

Christine modeled from the age of 15 until she went to chef school. She also had acting roles. I asked her about that and she said, “I had a pretty lucrative career. I traveled the world. When I had kids I decided to just do acting. When I decided not to act anymore, the kids were in the kindergarten stage and I enrolled myself into chef school. I had big plans to open my own restaurant. While I was in chef school I still had the odd acting and modeling jobs. People started to notice that I cook. All of a sudden I ended up in front of the camera again, but with cooking.” (laughs) She became the host of The Best Recipes on CBC.

This year, HGTV’s TV show, Renovation Resort (with Bryan Baeumler and Scott McGillivray), was shot near Campbellford where her brother Ken lives. “It’s so funny, they had a hotel room for me and told me the shoot was in Prince Edward County. I visited Ken the day before shooting, and he asked me where the location was. It turned out to be right down the road from his house. So I didn’t need the hotel room,” she laughed.

I asked her if her experience judging kitchens for Renovation Resort was different than her other television appearances. (We featured Bryan in the Fall 2021 issue) She said, “Yes, I’ve never worked on a renovation show before. I’ve done behind the scenes work on cooking contest shows, but it was interesting to see how massive a production Renovation Resort was, how many moving parts there are and, having done my own food productions, I was intrigued to see how they pulled it off.”

With so many different facets in Christine’s work schedule, (two cook books, chef, food analyst, recipe developer, television producer, culinary productions on Master Chef’s first season, Food Writer, Television appearances, television show host, judge on Renovation Resort, actor, model, YouTube channel) I asked if it was overwhelming and how she balances it. She replied, “My mind works like a ticking clock. Some days it feels like every minute counts. Being in the freelance business, it’s constantly a hustle and when it rains, it pours. I’m very organized. The things that make me good at my job are the things that drive other people crazy. You just figure it out. It’s not easy to juggle all these things, but at this point in my life I’m very good at it.”

Her client list is very impressive and I asked how she got there. She said, “I think it’s a combination of a bunch of things and also right place, right time. It’s like someone saw me somewhere and managed to contact me. I’m a hustler when it comes to the grind and getting work done. I’m definitely not a hustler when it comes to schmoozing. I think getting on CBC was really the best thing because it brought me into the TV industry and was totally by chance. I just got out of chef school and met someone at a party who represented chefs. The chef hired to do a series of TV morning shows was no longer available and the PR company was scrambling to find someone, so a friend suggested me for the job. The producer of The Best Recipe saw me on a morning show and asked to have me audition.”

Chef Christine’s latest cookbook - Cook More, Waste Less – is so important today with the high cost of food and needs to be addressed in the current climate. She said, “It’s very, very important. I feel like what I’m doing right now is basically a public service announcement - I try to get the message out there and drive it home. Five years ago when I pitched this, there was nothing out there. Even when I started the website www.zerowastekitchen.com there were no zero waste Instagrammers and nothing else out there. As a mom, it’s so hard to get kids to eat leftovers and throwing food away drives me crazy. Growing up in Newfoundland we always repurposed things. I hate to say this, but the biggest part of the food stylist business is buying so much food just to make one thing look pretty for the camera. You try your best to donate to Second Harvest but they only take certain things - there are so many rules and regulations. I just became obsessed with repurposing food. Nobody was writing about it and there were no cookbooks or information on how to reduce food waste at home. This is not just about leftovers, it’s about how to make food last longer, properly store it, wash it, etc. After researching, I real- ized all the things that even I was doing wrong. I had a feeling it was going to be a hot topic. Now there is so much social media about it.”

For those who feel zero waste isn’t achievable, Christine says, “It doesn’t really take time, but some people think it does and that it’s a lot of work. When you go back to the basics, the number one thing we should do is stop over buying stuff. Some people feel they don’t have the time to learn how and people that aren’t into cooking eat out all the time or their partners cook for them.”

My friends who are in their 50s and 60s are now shopping for the discounts. People who are retired can’t afford to waste food and are getting more frugal. The rewards of sourcing out a deal are exciting and hopefully more people will see the fun in it as well. She says, “I get really excited now when I find a deal. (laughs) You feel like you are getting away with something.”