The Menu: These are the inadvertent food lessons I learned from my mother

In her own peculiar way, she taught me how to truly appreciate good food

Patricia ‘Pat’ McNamee, née McDonald, mother of food columnist Joe McNamee.

Tomorrow, March 30, is Mother’s Day. Today, March 29, is my own mother’s birthday, her 93rd. She is a remarkable woman but let me first tell you of a time she rang up in the huffiest of huffs. She had heard me interviewed on a podcast. Though I praised her highly, I had referred to her as a ‘war criminal in the kitchen’. I chuckled — after all, her favourite joke, whenever I cook for her, is to say “I taught you everything you know”.

“You always received a nutritionally balanced diet,” she harumphed. “True,” I replied, divining discretion in brevity. “And you never went hungry.”