a story on food and longboarding...very odd

**skategeezer** · 05-07-2008 06:17 PM

Teen's tasty barbecue dish delish

Calgary's Dominique St. Jean grills up a winner

Shelley Boettcher , Calgary Herald

Cooking's a family affair around the St. Jean household. Maybe Dominique, 16, is cooking dinner with her mother, Filomena. Maybe she and her dad, Roger, are stirring up something good.
What's on the menu? A barbecued chicken pizza, perhaps, or pasta with homemade tomato sauce. Or maybe a hearty Spanish paella or tourtiere, a French-Canadian meat pie, in honour of her father's Quebecois heritage.
No matter what's on the menu, you can bet it will be tasty and homemade.

View Larger Image
Dominique St. Jean's Summer in a Bowl recipe combines tofu, Spolumbo's chicken-apple sausage and grilled vegetables in a sweet balsamic glaze.

Lorraine Hjalte, Calgary Herald

"I cook all the time, actually. I don't know why. I just love cooking," says Dominique St. Jean.
"Ever since I was little, my parents have let me help in the kitchen. I just got really into it and started making up my own recipes."
St. Jean, 16, is the winner of the sides category of the Great Real Life Summer Recipe Competition.
The Calgary teen wins two new cookbooks for her efforts.
The four winning entries are running in the Real Life section each Wednesday through to the end of July.
(The final winner will be profiled in next Wednesday's Herald.)
St. Jean won for her recipe, Grilled Summer in a Bowl, which features roasted eggplant, sausage, onions, peppers and tofu, marinated first in olive oil and fresh sage, then lightly covered in a balsamic vinegar and lime juice glaze.
The dish garnered big points with the judges because it's loaded with vegetables and rich, smoky flavour -- plus it's quick, healthy and easy to prepare. Some of us loved the smoky grilled tofu; others were surprised by the tenderness and flavour of the eggplant.
Variations of the recipe are a favourite Sunday night family dinner at the St. Jean household; it can be served as either a side dish or a main course.
"The grilled Summer in a Bowl, that was my Sunday contribution one week," says the teen.
"I love tofu. I used to hate it, but it's so good for absorbing the flavours in a dish. This one just really worked."
St. Jean, who will be in Grade 12 this fall at Bishop Grandin High School, is currently working as a dishwasher at Earls in Willow Park Village; she hopes to soon be working as a line cook at the popular chain of restaurants.
Despite her obvious skill in the kitchen, she's not yet sure what she wants to do when she finishes school. She's drawn toward possible careers in the sciences, visual art, or, yes, the culinary field.
A big fan of Food Network Canada, she also enjoys family camping trips and "doing artsy things," she says.
"I'll just have a creative idea -- I paint and draw, and I design my own clothes."
When she's not being creative, cooking or at school, she's often playing sports. She just returned from a soccer tournament in the U.S., and she also wrestles with the University of Calgary Dinos program.
She longboards, too. "It's skateboarding with a longer board," she explains. "It's the Cadillac of skateboards. It's a smooth ride and it turns really easily. That's what I do in my free time."
When she's older, St. Jean says she hopes to travel the globe, and learn more about food in other cultures.
"My mom's Portuguese. She was born in Portugal and came to Canada when she was young. She doesn't make much Portuguese food, but I wish she would," she says.