Instagram story viewer> @marajernigan> Posts

Mara Jernigan

@marajernigan

2.2K

followers

5519

following

BC 🇨🇦 based Chef. Culinary adventures on land and sea. Guided Culinary tours in Italy since 2004. Chef, The MV Cascadia

POSTS STORIES REELS

Truffle hunting in the Piemonte hills. This year conditions are extremely dry and global warming has pushed the actual season much later while tourism has extended the truffle fair from one week to 2 months. This has resulted in outrageous prices and white truffles imported from outside the region. Locals are skeptical about the provenance of any white truffles but our guide Walter and his Lagotto Romagnolo dog Wanda ( pronounced Valter and Vanda) legitimately found 2 black and 1 white truffle, although not in the best condition. Photos: 1. Off on a trail past cultivated hazelnuts to the bosco 2. Walter and Wanda, a symbiotic relationship 3. Wanda sniffs out the truffles but doesn’t dig as she’s afraid to damage the truffles 4. Wanda is affectionate with Penny 5.The third truffle was white! 6. Carne crudo with shaved white truffles 7. Grating white truffle on Tajarin 8. Dinner at my favourite pizzeria in the Lange run by a couple who have been there for 55 years 9. Explaining that white truffles this year are expensive but not good so black it is 10. Pizza with fresh local black truffles and an egg by @marajernigan

24 hours in Torino with jet lag. Passegiatta, people watching, bollicine, Vespa ride, train to Bra by @marajernigan

The height of summer 2026. Twenty four days of cooking on the B.C. coast from Desolation Sound through the Wild Isles and winding channels and inlets to the Great Bear Rainforest aboard The MV Cascadia @mapleleafadventures musical inspiration @jkr_photo by @marajernigan

Connecting people and projects I love is one of my favourite things to do. And this week to travel with @mapleleafadventures through Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw territory with guests on board The Cascadia and visit the @nawalakwhealingsociety garden while the guests were visiting the repatriated treasures at U’mista was such a thrill. I haven’t seen the gardens in 2 years and Verna and her team of youth have come so far to grow healthy food for the elders and Y’alis ( Alert Bay) community in this beautiful spacious garden that just gets better and better every time I see it. Verna and grant writer Bill came on board for lunch and shared a huge box of fresh produce picked that morning. Last night I was able to create a final dinner for our guests using only the produce from the Nawalakw garden and local wild caught seafood from Finest at Sea for our guests dinner on board. All the food in this garden is grown and tended by paid summer students and given away for free to community members. I am so pleased to make a donation each year on Indigenous Peoples Day to offset the carbon for my Sicily guests flight to buy perennial fruit and edible plants for this worthy project. My special menu for the last night: Nawalakw salad with goat cheese stuffed zucchini blossom tempura battered, Ya’lis Thimbleberry vinaigrette / Hand made potato gnocchi with garden fresh pea puree, Dungeness Crab & chive flowers / Trap Caught sablefish in a Denman Island Miso broth, garden carrot & zucchini nage / Molten Chocolate Okanagan Peaches with Verna’s Strawberry Compote by @marajernigan

This weekend at the peak of summer I’m thinking about the late, great Anita Stewart, founder of @fooddaycanada and Cuisine Canada. Anita was a prolific writer, promoter and fierce defender of Canadian food and she personally knew and chronicled stories of our countries finest chefs and food producers from one side of the country to the other. She literally put a Slow Food brochure into the hands of Sooke Harbour House’s Sinclair Philip in 2000, (just after I had bought a farm with my ex) a life changing event that led to the web of culinary connections that became Slow Food Canada and led me to learn Italian and bring hundreds of Canadians to Italy in the last 26 years, including farmers and chefs to @slowfood_international Terra Madre to share and learn. In the last month I have had the great privilege to cook and travel by ship to Haida Gwaii, Feast with First Nations friends in Skidegate 🏀, go to Montreal to shop Jean Talon Market and cook with my son in cottage country in the Laurentians and back to my own backyard to harvest and bring backyard foods out to sea to share with guests on The Cascadia. I’m so grateful to the farmers, fishermen, butchers, bakers, foragers, chefs and First Nations communities that have allowed me to cook, share and enjoy the very best foods of Canada. Here’s to you Anita ⭐️❤️🙏🏼 Happy Food Day Canada. You are one of the giants so many of us in the Culinary community stand on the shoulders of. Photo taken at @terroirsymposium 2014 Toronto
@sinclairfromcanada @frederiquephilip @chef.paul1975 by @marajernigan

63 years old today and hard at work at sea!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life, like the sea, is always changing, it’s never going to be the same. I’m so grateful for the wonderful friends and co-workers, strength and good health that has (so far) given me a 50 year career of culinary adventure. So live your life TODAY and if things aren’t going well, hang it there, it will surely change. And go ahead, just order the crab! 😉 Happy birthday to me. 🦀 🎂🌊🏀❤️😊 by @marajernigan

A full day cooking on board in beautiful Gwaii Haanas for Indigenous Peoples Day & the Summer Solstice: Sgang Gwaii / lifting the kayaks / galley porthole views / The Cascadia / Heading towards the sun / Sun sinking on the longest day of the year @mapleleafadventures by @marajernigan

Haida Gwaii vignettes week 2
The Golden Hour / Prepping Cedar for weaving / Frying Chicken Schnitzel for lunch / Moody Galley porthole views / Eggplant Parmigiana with homemade ricotta / Trail to the village of Sgang Gwaii / Cedar Carving / Copper Work / Sheldon, Sgang Gwaii Watchman / Mortuary Pole // Making Potato Gnocchi / Tuna Sushi Bowl prep / GF Almond Crumble Dessert / Storm Brewing on Windy / Oolichan Grease / Composition of Potatoes with Oolichan grease by @marajernigan

Vignettes from Gwaii Haanas week 1 2026
A gentle swell on Cascadia / a closer look at Cape St James / view from my secret nap spot / life inside the washing machine / spruce root woven hat / assembling tuna sushi bowls / cherry clafoutis / baked oatmeal with blue berries / kayaks / 🇨🇦. ( guest images posted with permission) by @marajernigan

A beautiful day to watch the fleet of @mapleleafadventures head to Cadboro Bay for training! by @marajernigan

My latest story for Edible Vancouver Island is now available online. Read about the Evolution of Farm to Table Eating on Vancouver Island. Thanks to all those mentioned in the story for the things you do! by @marajernigan

Sicily Culinary Tours for Fall 2026 are sold out! Contact me if you would like to book for Sicily or a private trip anywhere in Italy in 2027. Next year I will be adding a tour or two in spring! by @marajernigan