From her hosting gig on the Food Network to penning bestselling cookbooks, Trish Magwood has become well-known in the world of food content. Her passion for media and publishing started at Branksome Hall.
“When I was in high school, I remember being obsessed with television and media. I used to practise saying, ‘This is Trish Magwood for CBC News,’ ” she says. “I always wanted to do radio or television or work in publishing.”
And so, after graduating from Queen’s University, she knocked on the door of Toronto Life magazine and got a job doing promotions, ventures and developing their website. Her love of publishing grew alongside a passion for creating food content, which led to Magwood attending chef school in New York City. Add that to a summer spent in Muskoka as a private chef for the Martin Short family, and her career started to take shape.
“I fell in love with all things that had to do with a sense of place in food and gathering around food,” she says. She then opened Dish Cooking Studio, a cooking school, catering company, café and store.
“Right when I opened Dish, I was approached by the Food Network. They were launching in Canada and asked me to be a host for them,” says Magwood.
Her television career took flight, and she also dove into cookbooks, the first one being Dish Entertains.
“A few years later, as I started having kids, my second book was about tradition, old-fashioned cooking and family origin of food. That’s when I did In My Mother’s Kitchen with my mom and my grandmother,” she says.
Her career then brought her back to Branksome. Magwood did consulting work with principal Karen Jurjevich and deputy principal Karrie Weinstock.
“They were building a health and wellness centre and wanted to make sure the food was upholding the same vision. So we ensured the food offering for the girls was meeting the rest of the promises of the school,” says Magwood.
Apart from consulting, Magwood is developing simple, instructional video content on her new YouTube channel called Trish Magwood and has a couple e-commerce and retail projects.
She worked with founder Steve Harmer to launch Feast, a fresh food delivery company that is moving into wholesale and retail.
She’s also planned a holiday pop-up shop in December called Picks by Trish selling food and home essentials.
But that doesn’t mean she has put down the pen for good.
“I have two books in my back pocket that I didn’t have an opportunity to do when I was working full-time,” she says. “My parents have a working farm in Creemore, so it’ll be anchored in farm to table and in my dad’s garden.”
