Interview with award-winning author/illustrator Pierre Lamielle of Kitchen Scraps

I didn’t even make it past the foreword to Pierre A. Lamielle’s award-winning cookbook, Kitchen Scraps, before I was chuckling to myself and asking the one question I continued to ask aloud for the next 200 odd pages:

How does he come up with this stuff?!

This ‘stuff’ is brilliant and 100% original illustrations, paired with succulent recipes, and rounded out with downright hilarious captions and anecdotes.

It’s nutty, it’s wacky --it’s entirely engrossing.

If I hadn’t recently met Pierre in person (oh yes I DID!), I would have had a jolly time conjuring up what he must be like to produce such an off-the-wall cookbook. However, we recently sat down over coffee to talk about Kitchen Scraps and chew the fat over the publishing industry, food blogging, and the tireless work of Jamie and Julie (not together, although it’s not a bad idea), and I’m reporting back to you in all honesty when I say that Pierre seems like a fairly normal guy. A downright sweetheart, I may even go as far as to say.


So, wait, who is this fellow anyway?
I don’t think Pierre would mind me alluding to his obscurity, as he admits to keeping a low profile. Among being a chef-illustrator, Pierre is a semi-reluctant blogger, can’t get into Twitter, and modestly insists his life hasn’t drastically changed since Kitchen Scraps won a major international award.

Yes, that’s right, Calgary's Pierre A. Lamielle represented Canada in the recent Gourmand International Cookbook Awards and brought home the top prize in the Illustrated Cookbook category!

I’m nearly as patriotic as I am competitive, and was bursting with national pride when I heard this news via Twitter. (where I get all my news, these days.)

To think, I’ve even been published in the same cookbook as this fellow! Which he was kind enough to autograph for me. Thanks Pierre!
As if winning international recognition wasn’t enough, Kitchen Scraps has sold nearly 5000 copies and is close to making the Canadian Bestsellers list. Really, it’s pretty awesome. Despite Pierre's modest statement that life is more-or-less the same since his cookbook and award, I say, keep your eye on him. He is destined for great things.

Back to that cookbook foreword for a second though, if I may. The illustration of a handful of celebrity chefs squabbling over the honor of writing the foreword to Kitchen Scraps and accompanying self-written forward is reason enough to buy Pierre’s book. And that’s all I’m going to say.

Go pick one up right now and see if you don’t agree.

Kitchen Scraps is a cookbook for the whole family, well, the over-18, anyway, as some of the subject matter is -ahem- decidedly mature. It's easy to imagine the book traveling from the kitchen (where I whipped up the dead simple and deadly delicious Half-Baked Pot Brownies) to the bathroom with Danny (forget Calvin & Hobbes, this is perfectly suitable throne room reading material) to the nightstand, where my copy currently resides.

Again, let me reiterate, it's unlike any cookbook you've ever seen.

Here's what else I think: you need a copy. Like today.


Fortunately I can help out with that need for one luck reader...

Yep! It's giveaway time!

The folks at Whitecap have offered one copy of Kitchen Scraps to UtHC readers.

Just leave a comment below to enter - that's IT!

Giveaway ends Saturday, June 5 at Midnight, EST. Good Luck!

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You can read more about Pierre in this interview where he talks about his work ethics, income sources and where he stands on 'selling out'. You can also read his chat with The Hot Plate, the official blog of Pierre's old stomping grounds, the French Culinary Institution.

Both interviews are infinitely more professional than mine.

Pierre, thanks for taking the time to meet with me--and for Kitchen Scraps. Best of luck for the future!