The Dirty Dozen, with Daphna Rabinovitch

Everybody wishes they had a friend like Daphna Rabinovitch. Just imagine being the willing guinea pig of an award-winning ex-executive pastry chef and Canadian Living's Associate Food Editor.

You can get the next best thing however, with her newest cookbook, The Baker in Me (Whitecap Books). In the book, Rabinovitch eschews her rigorous training and gets back to her roots as a home baker. Practical and warm, it brings her voice to the page in a way that is rare in cookbooks. 

We're thrilled (and a little hungry) as we welcome Daphna on the site today as part of our Dirty Dozen series. In keeping with the warm and personal mode of The Baker in Me, Daphna shares twelve unexpected facts about herself here, opening the door to not just the kitchen but plenty of funny, silly, and personal anecdotes. 

Daphna spills to us about her secret nickname and how it lead her to her acclaimed cooking career, tells us about a couple of unusual (and very cool) hobbies of hers, and explains why she'd be a great person to roadtrip with.  

1. I have a nickname that very few people know about. It started one summer when I was Business Manager at The Outward Bound Wilderness School up in Northern Ontario, about 2 hours north of Thunder Bay. Although I was the Business Manager, I found myself in the kitchen most of the time, helping make meals for the staff, crew, and students. The cook was nicknamed Tentfly (that’s another story) and he nicknamed me Dizzydean. Although this referred to a baseball player, the nickname stuck, and people who knew me from that time in my life still call me “Dizzy” or “Diz”. Interestingly enough, it was during that sojourn up north that I decided to pursue a culinary career.
2. I have a huge crush on Hugh Jackman, and watch any movie that he appears in. I’ve seen all of the X-Men movies and every other movie he’s appeared in. I’m attracted not only to his looks, but to his humour and the fact that he seems like a down to earth guy, who has a solid marriage and the fact he has adopted two kids, doesn’t hurt either.
3. I have a few hobbies that I don’t talk about. From the time I was in my late teens until I was in my early thirties, I used to build large dollhouses. I got introduced to dollhouses on a visit to a friend at Dartmouth College in Vermont and bought my first kit there. From then on, I made my own, building them in the Tudor period (another era which fascinates me) and buying or making furniture for them. I gave them away after I had finished them, sometimes to hospitals or my nieces. Now, I make jewelry using mostly fresh water pearls.
4. Two foods that I simply cannot abide are liver and coffee (okay, three, and olives). I’ve tried liver all sorts of different ways and can’t seem to acquire a taste for it. And, although, I’ve tried to like coffee my whole life – especially when I lived in Italy where everyone drinks coffee – with milk, with sugar, with cream, anything to mask that bitter taste, I can’t wrap my head around it. Some say that because I’m a supertaster, I’ll never really like it. Shame!
5. I don’t like nor do I eat fast food but, to me, there’s a big difference between fast food and junk food. I like Honey and Dijon mustard flavoured potato chips and love chocolate covered raisins.
6. I am actually very good with technology – I’m very good at computer stuff, fixing all sorts of gadgets and putting together complicated electrical stuff.
7. Since I was born in July, I’m a cancer sign according to the Zodiac. Interestingly, I am a true Cancer through and through so I do believe in this. As a person born under the Cancer water sign, I’m loyal to a fault, tenacious, sympathetic, can be overly sensitive, very creative, love my home and love celebrating with food.
8. Although I have loved swimming all my life, (I am a Cancer after all), it wasn’t until I was 14 that I taught myself how to dive, one weekend at a cottage in the Eastern Townships in Quebec. I just stayed with it until I accomplished it – after many, many belly flops. That gave me enough confidence to go and get my lifeguard certificate which I still have to this day.
9. For comfort, I will always turn to pasta carbonara, made the old fashioned way, just oil, pancetta, a bit of heat and eggs and cheese, no whipping cream here. Or to risotto with dried mushrooms, preferably cepes. In a pinch, a really good grilled cheese sandwich will do, made with egg bread, extra sharp Cheddar and a bit of Fontina and sliced tomatoes.
10. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. After that I wanted to be a photographer, and then I got my undergraduate degree in Political Science and Economics – go figure!
11. I love cars and I love driving. When I was much younger, I took a mechanic’s course, just so I could get to know my car better.
12. Lastly, and perhaps not surprisingly, I have over 800 cookbooks in my collection now. I have, of course, hundreds on baking, desserts, cookies, and chocolate, but I also have many Jewish titles, lots of Italian, bread baking tomes, and Asian cookbooks as well.

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Daphna Rabinovitch is Canadian Living's Associate Food Editor. Daphna grew up in Montreal, arriving in Toronto in the late '70s to pursue her BA in Political Science and Economics at the University of Toronto. But food had always been a passion and, after graduation, Daphna combined her love of food with her business background to operate a catering company. A year later, she traveled to San Francisco to train at Tante Marie's Cooking School, at the same time apprenticing with chef Bradley Ogden and pastry chef Steve Froman at the Campton Place Hotel. 

She has worked as Senior Pastry Chef at the prestigious David Wood Food Shop, co-authored two cookbooks, and taught pastry and dessert classes at local cooking schools. She also authored "Canadian Living Cooks Step by Step," which was nominated for a Libris Award, was their Associate Food Editor, and was a co-host of Canadian Living Cooks. Daphna lives in Toronto with husband Skip and son Jacob.