LauraCalder

Laura Calder

Host of French Food at Home and Judge on Recipe to Riches; Bestselling Author of French Food at Home, French Taste, and Dinner Chez Moi

As the host of Food Network’s French Food at Home, Laura Calder’s knowledge and passion for French cuisine is contagious. Calder spent ten years in France researching, writing and cooking her way through French culture and cuisine. After returning to Canada, Calder wrote and hosted 78 episodes of the Food Network series, French Food at Home. Additionally, Calder is the author of the cookbooks, French Food at Home; French Taste: Elegant, Everyday, Eating and Dinner Chez Moi: The Fine Art of Feeding Friends.


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Foodies everywhere love Laura Calder.

As the host of the Food Network’s French Food at Home, Calder’s knowledge and passion for French cuisine is contagious. Her accessible, easy-going approach has helped to demystify the ideas and attitudes that surround French cuisine.

Beginning her career in a desk job as a journalist, Calder left the corporate work behind to follow her dreams of being a food writer. After attending the Dubrulle Culinary Institute in Vancouver, she worked first in wine in California’s Napa Valley and then landed at Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne in France. During the ten years that Calder spent in France, she fell in love with French cuisine. There, she researched and wrote her first cookbook, French Food at Home, and worked as a freelance writer.  Her work was published in Gastronomica, Salon.com, Vogue Entertaining and Travel, Gourmet Magazine, The Times of London, The Wine Journal, and Flare Magazine.

After returning to Canada, Calder wrote and hosted 78 episodes of the Food Network series French Food at Home, which won a James Beard Award for best food television show in a fixed location. She also hosted the James Beard-nominated one-hour special, The Château Dinner, and was a participating host in the Food Network Canada Christmas special, 'Twas the Night Before Dinner.

In addition to French Food at Home, Calder is the author of French Taste: Elegant, Everyday, Eating, the gold winner at the Canadian Culinary Cookbook Awards in 2012, and Dinner Chez Moi: The Fine Art of Feeding Friends.


  • 4. Celebrity Division

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  • 3. No Free Lunch: The Risks, Regrets and Rewards of an Unconventional Career

    In this personal presentation, Laura traces her career from the moment she decided to leave a stable, corporate job and follow her dream of becoming a food writer to the present where she finds herself a household name through food television and an award-winning author. On paper, it all looks perfect, but as Laura reveals the journey has not been without its sacrifices. She’ll share what gave her the courage to abandon stability and pursue the dream, how a seven-month contract in France turned into a decade, and why the war in Iraq almost brought her to ruin.

  • 2. "The Pleasure Principle": Why French Food is for Everyone

    Too fattening, too difficult, too time consuming!  These are the accusations made against French cooking and which Laura banishes as myths. Laura discusses why the “pleasure principle” around French eating is something we all should adopt for healthier, happier living.

  • 1. Time for Dinner: On Feeding Family and Friends

    A subject close to her heart, Laura talks about the significance of using high quality ingredients and of continuing to keep alive culturally relevant recipes.  She also shares her philosophy on why home cooking today is so important and why sharing good food with the people we care about matters so much, personally and socially.

  • Dinner Chez Moi
    September 2011

    Dinner Chez Moi: The Fine Art of Feeding Friends

    Laura Calder is one of Canada's most charming Food Network hosts, proving herself witty, engaging, an excellent teacher and a great deal of fun. Laura's passion for cooking and writing about food shows in her elegant cookbooks, and Dinner Chez Moi is no exception. A menu-based, seasonal cookbook offering multiple options and mix-and-match menus gives cooks as many ideas for meals as there are days in the year. Dinner parties, Laura says, are not stuffy and difficult ordeals; rather, as she puts it, "in my world, 'dinner party' just means eating with others. It can be as simple as an omelette or a baked potato, but if I’m not stuck eating it alone, that's party enough for me!" Dinner Chez Moi is a book for anyone who wants to cook for people they love. Menus deliver delicious food, thoughtful advice and amusing real-life stories, with a light touch.


  • FrenchTaste
    April 2009

    French Taste

    French food has an intimidating reputation. Delicious and spectacular, yes, but also complicated, time-consuming, rich for today's tastes and requiring a professional chef's arsenal of techniques and equipment. Not so! Laura Calder, host of Food Network Canada's hit program French Food at Home, has a different approach, and she's here to show you that French food is easier, lighter and even more wonderful than you ever imagined.


  • FrenchFood
    January 2003

    French Food at Home

    The French cooking of everyday life is lighthearted, accessible, and suited to modern tastes. Whether it's getting weeknight dinners on the table fairly fast (Basil Beef, Rhubarb Chops, or Carrot Juice Chicken) or leisurely cooking for dining at a slightly slower pace (Lamb Tagine, Holiday Hen, or Fennel Bass), Laura Calder shares recipes she's created at home in her own French kitchen.