Meet Aimée
Bonjour! And bienvenue.
My name is Aimée Wimbush-Bourque, and I’m the editor and writer around here.
I do the cooking for our close-knit family of five: my husband and high school sweetheart, Danny, me, our two sons, Noah, 8, and Mateo, 6, and Clara, the toddler.
All photos by Tim Chin
We’ve recently celebrated three years living on our semi-urban homestead – a third of an acre of land that backs onto a maple forest just outside of Montréal, Canada. We’ve put in a beautiful raised bed garden, are raising a few chickens, and are working on a cookbook, too.
A ‘real food’ upbringing
Cooking has always been my preferred recreational activity, creative outlet, and source of relaxation. My biggest inspiration is my mother, who was about 30 years ahead of the recent “real food” movement. She and my father homeschooled us four kids and raised most of our own food, which gave me ample ‘Little House on the Prairie’ opportunities as a little girl. Milking goats, collecting eggs, hauling wood, and baking bread were just a few of my daily activities.
That rural upbringing on Canada’s West Coast instilled a permanent connection to nature and the simple things in life like camping trips, mushroom foraging and pulling carrots from the kitchen garden. Even though we lived remotely, I was not overly sheltered and was always encouraged to follow my heart.
At age 20 I ate my way around the world, was bitten by the travel bug and have now visited a total of eighteen countries on four continents. My heart then led me to Quebec, which I now call home, to follow a certain bright-eyed engineering student, to whom I am now happily married.
From Restaurants to RSS
Before the kids arrived, I went to culinary school, which led to several years of cooking in fine-dining establishments, and lastly, I dabbled in catering and some personal chef work.
After falling in love with motherhood and wanting to stay at home with my babies, and after nearly ten years in the professional cooking industry, I traded my tongs and chef whites for cloth diapers and a laptop, and married my two passions by becoming a food/mommy blogger.
Not surprisingly, I’m much busier as a home manager and blogger than I ever was in the fine-dining industry – and happier, too! I’m a big advocate of kids in the kitchen and encourage them to be creative and have fun with food.
Life today
I could never cook without good quality spices, olive oil and sea salt, I could never function without dark roast coffee or homemade cookies, and I don’t take for granted how fortunate I am to be able to cook and write for a living – all out of the comforts of my own home.
For that I thank YOU, the reader. I feel honoured and humbled daily that each one of you take the times to visit my little corner.
Want to contact me? Head here. I wish I had more time to write you back, but please know I read every email that comes my way.
I’m admittedly addicted to Instagram, where you can catch my snaps of our #familyfoodlife, watch Clara grow up (#clarascloseup), or see what I’m currently canning (#SBCanIt).
Also, please feel free to follow me on Twitter, ‘Like’ this blog on Facebook, or browse my gazillion Pinterest boards for inspiration on everything from winter salads to home preserves.
Want to tour my kitchen? Read an exclusive interview on blogging, motherhood and food with Saveur magazine? Tour the homestead through the eye of The Kitchn? Catch my conversations with friends over on The Kitchen Generation? Oh, and here’s an interview with Best Health Magazine.
Interested in meeting in person? I’m headed to speak at the Food Bloggers of Canada conference next fall. See you there!
Thanks for stopping by.
~ Aimee