samara makes
spaghetti carbonara
What are you making for us today Samara?
I'm making spaghetti carbonara. It's early in the day, for me at least, and it's a breakfast pasta. It's bacon and eggs, so that was my thinking on that, it's also just a crowd pleaser.
What do you normally make for breakfast?
I almost always have eggs of some kind. I don't get people who eat oatmeal for breakfast every day. Or I'll try and have a smoothie but I usually have a very extravagant breakfast. I'll have two eggs, and a meat of some kind and a toast. There's probably some dairy in there too - I'll melt some cheese on the eggs, or a breakfast sandwich, like a big 'fuck off' breakfast sandwich. I don't really eat another meal in the day, so I always have a loaf of Winnipeg rye on hand.
“It’s not the one I bought for this dish because it’s not right for this kind of pasta but it’s called radiatore. It’s called that because it’s shaped like a radiator, and radiatore is Italian for radiator. It’s very specific, it’s the perfect vessel for sauce because there are so many grooves.”
What kind of food did you grow up eating?
I grew up in a house with my mom, my dad and my mom’s parents. Her dad was Polish and her mom was Ukrainian. My Baba was a huge home cook, she worked at Kelekis for a decade and also in the kitchen at Red Lobster. She was one of 14 kids so she knew how to be a mom and how to cook anything, she was sweet. She would make all kinds of stuff - fresh donuts is something we reminisce a lot about, pickerel and perogies, the best perogies. Everyone says that about their Baba but hers were so good. All the Manitoba/Ukrainian food, nothing fancy but also most things were made from scratch which was nice.
Do you think that's where your inspiration comes from?
Probably, I definitely cooked with her. I admired her, and I loved hanging out in the kitchen with her. I was actually pretty picky as a kid, so that was a big thing - learning to not be picky. My family gave in on somethings but others they were like 'you have to eat this.' It made me obsessed with food in a way that translates to today. Now I'm not picky at all, I'll literally try anything. It's just interesting how that changed over time. My family being really into food definitely was formative for me. I think my knowledge and respect for food and other cuisines in general has changed, my tastes are actually still pretty similar, the things I love are the things I've always loved but my interest in food is now far greater so I want to try everything. It's less for sustenance now and more because I want to try stuff, so of course I'm not going to say no, because it might be amazing, or maybe it's weird, or just something I've never tried before.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
When I was in Toronto I went to this restaurant called the Black Hoof. The owner Jen Agg has somewhat of a Canadian restaurateur celebrity status so we were really excited to go there. We had horse tartar, which was really good. Also we had a blood pudding, which was the first time I'd had blood. It has a distinctively irony taste and I'm kind of squeamish so was a bit freaked out. So that might have been the weirdest at the time.
I also had this horse meat sandwich from a late night sandwich joint in Sicily and was kind of wary of it because I know how people feel about eating horses. In Sicily it’s very common and street vendors grill it up. It was so good. I had met some guy on Tinder - basically to make a friend to take me around - who took us there. I wouldn't have known to go, it was like a locals-only-horse-meat-restaurant.
What's your favourite thing you own?
I'm not a big 'objects’ person, I lose things quite frequently. I had a baby blanket my whole life until I went on a road trip and left it at an Airbnb. It was made for me and given to me the day I was born. It always smelled like my mom. I also had all these knives that I had acquired for cooking which were stolen from my car in the summer, so I would have said my knife roll.
So now some maniac has a bunch of knives.
Yeah, but they were for specific things. I had a knife for slicing raw fish and I can guarantee that they are not using it for that. So that was sad. Practically, I choose my headphones. I use them all the time, I love them, if I don't have them I get upset because I love listening to stuff and I walk everywhere now. They're cordless, I love that, my head is just free to do whatever it pleases.
What's the worst job you've ever had?
Oh my god I've had so many jobs. Actually, I fully know, it was being a coat check girl at The Pyramid. That was definitely my worst job. I was working three other jobs at the time, I was working at Boys & Girls Club, I was the coat check girl at The Pyramid and I was a seasonal employee at David's Tea so I was like, fucking busy. I was 20. The Pyramid was so crazy. They had these nights - I forget what they were called - sort of like Ready Mix or Grippin Grain but EDM. They eventually stopped doing them because they made so little money. Everyone was drinking water. The bartenders were like, reading books and the bar would be full. During one of those nights, I was doing coat check and it's middle of winter, so serious business - people need their jackets. Some super drunk girl at the end comes up and says "where the fuck is my T&A coat?" What happened was someone else had her ticket and collected her coat, but she was still blaming me and saying it was 'on the Pyramid' to rectify the situation and she full on yelled at me, like let it rip. She was so pissed the owner ended up taking a portion of my tips to pay for her coat. So I was like "bye."
What were you like in high school?
People always describe me as ‘extremely chill’, which sounds so boring but I kind of got along with everyone. I was always a floater and friends with a lot of different people. I don't speak to anyone from high school anymore, I have no connection. Honestly my closest friend from high school was SMRTDEATH. We don't talk anymore but we were close in middle school and grade 9 and he was the only one that did the same things as me, like I'd see him out at shows and stuff and I wouldn't see anyone else.
What was your high school look?
Well I wore a uniform, so my high school look was a kilt. I went through a phase of having black hair, that was brutal. I had super straight across bangs for a portion of time so I guess I looked like Daria. I don't know what I really did to set myself apart, it was hard because the uniform was pretty intense. Everyone who went to that school was loaded and I was not, I was there on bursary and scholarships, so it was a lot to keep up with. I was happy we had a uniform - it just made life so much easier.
Why do you hate Christmas?
I actually had great Christmases growing up, nothing necessarily traumatic happened during those years, but then I had this string of really bad Christmases, starting when I was 18. Not to be so depressing, but my grandma died on Christmas day. That was a bummer Christmas. The next one I was on birthright, and we went to Yad Vashem which is the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. I was with my friend and we just cried all day. On Christmas. The one after that, my entire family decided to go on vacation and left me ‘Home Alone’ style, no one asked what I was doing and I was like 'yeah I guess I'll just spend Christmas alone.' That's when I started going to Chloe's family dinners. A nice thing about the holidays is the kindness of my friends inviting me.
I'm kind of anti-establishment too, so I just think it's 'the man' just making you buy shit, and now Black Friday is part of Christmas, and Boxing Day, it's just insane. And the fact that everyone knows that everything is going to become cheaper on Boxing Day but yet it's still tradition to buy all your gifts before Christmas? Why not give gifts on Boxing Day or the 27th? They just have us, y'know?
Why are you leaving Winnipeg?
I want to work in food, in some capacity, but I don't necessarily want to be a chef. I would rather work more in food media sector and I don't find that that really exists here in a way that I care about. And also, I just want to be around better ingredients. I want to taste more things that aren't available here. There are really great things that are available here, don't get me wrong, but it's just different.
What's your favourite kind of mustard?
Dijon.
Interview by Katy Slimmon & Ali Vandale
Photography by Ali Vandale