2018 Foodies of the Year: Kevin Kossowan

When the apocalypse hits, we’re making a beeline to Kevin Kossowan’s house. His yard in a modest central Edmonton neighbourhood is better stocked than most produce aisles: a set of fruit trees (including three varieties of cherry, two apple and a pear), raspberries, haskap bushes, saskatoons, strawberries, currants and too many greens and veg to name. Then there are five laying hens scratching around in a backyard coop, near a hand-built cob oven and an epic woodpile stash. To round out his family’s larder, this next-level DIY foodie and independent filmmaker and a handful of his culinarily inclined friends hunt, fish, and forage the Western Canadian wilderness.And the realities of procuring wild foods, as well as the mind-blowing abundance, is the basis for his 2018 James Beard Award nominated video-on-demand series From the Wild. “We explore the wild culinary spaces around us,” says Kossowan. “It’s our family and friends. We’re not casting a TV show, so it’s a highly personal journey.” Watched by subscribers all over the world and now in season 4, Kossowan’s show is changing the way we see the boreal forests, mountains, lakes, streams and coastlines of Canada. And he makes us question where we got the notion that food should ever come from a grocery store.

2018 Foodies of the Year ▸▸▸