Bio: DINAH KOO & JANICE POON

DINAH KOO – chef and caterer

              As one of Toronto’s most influential caterers, Dinah Koo has left her culinary mark on the city.  Thirty years ago, she opened Dinah’s Cupboard, the first gourmet store in Toronto offering loose tea, custom blended whole bean coffee, herbs, spices and gourmet ingredients such as hard-to-get fine olive oils and vinegars. She began catering and, at a time when dinner parties in Toronto were synonymous with rubber chicken, Dinah taught her clients to love and enjoy bold flavours, crunchy vegetables and cross-cultural cuisine. Later, at Tiger Lily’s Noodle House, her Zagat-rated Queen Street restaurant she extended her chef’s touch to the bar and created fresh luscious cocktails to match her wonderfully prepared food. Now, she continues to garner critical acclaim at “Wanda’s in the Kitchen with Dinah”, a food shop she shares with well-known baker, Wanda Beaver. The store offers great gourmet goodies for the cook, sublimely flavoured food for take-away and, as always, her superb catering services. Dinah’s many television appearances include co-hosting “We’re Talking Homemade”. She lives in Toronto.

JANICE POON – designer and writer

Janice began her career as a magazine designer, then moved to the world of advertising to be an art director. After a stint in Los Angeles, she returned to Toronto to open a home décor boutique in Yorkville, and landed right next door to Dinah’s Cupboard. Proximity being the larger part of destiny, she began designing party décor and food presentation to assist in Dinah’s burgeoning catering business. In time, Janice’s home décor business metamorphosed into corporate décor and she began doing large painting and sculpting commissions across Canada and the US - all the while continuing to team up regularly with Dinah for major catered events. Then, after travelling transatlantic to create wedding gowns for several Saudi princesses, she embarked on a career of haute couture. Now involved in props and set decorating, Janice helps set the scene for many major motion pictures and television series. Foodstyling still plays a large part, as she is often called upon to create specialty food and tablesettings, especially for period films. She lives in Toronto.