You're never too old to learn something new. Nor are you too old to find your niche in life.
Danielle Gordon from Cherryville is the poster woman.
Gordon, 52, is competing in an online competition called Favourite Chef which, since 2023, "has been igniting the culinary world" by bringing together top chefs, home cooks and creative food artists in an "epic showdown of skill and flavour."
The winner will receive $25,000, a trip to New York City, a chance to cook with famed Food Network and HBO host Carla Hall, and appear in the pages of Taste of Home magazine.
As of Wednesday, April 16, Gordon was sitting fifth in her group 鈥� out of how many, she doesn't know. She has already advanced out of one round. ends at 7 p.m. Pacific time Thursday, April 17 (click on the link to vote).
"Cooking is my way of honouring my past, my family, and the resilience that shaped me," said Gordon in her online bio for the event.
She is currently attending the Baking and Pastry program at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts located on Granville Island in Vancouver.
Gordon began the six-month program April 7. She leaves her White Rock bunk at 6:45 a.m. Monday to Friday to catch a bus that takes her to school. She arrives about an hour early for class, which gives her time to weigh out the day's measurements for whatever delight she and her classmates will make.
Following a daily 30-minute lecture, the class gets down to baking. Four hours on their feet completing many recipes. Then it's back on the bus for the trip home.
The 75-minute daily transit commute is impressive, as is how Gordon got to this spot in life.
She grew up on the streets on-and-off as a runaway. Multiple traumas led her to a party life, working in bars. She tried hairdressing and did some other different things before finding her niche during the COVID pandemic.
She made a pie in 2020, a tourti猫re, which is a meat pie usually made at Christmas, inspired by her late m茅m猫re (grandmother) Mary, who died in 2015.
"I was very happy how it turned out when I made that pie, and I said to my husband (Rob Gordon) I'm going to throw this on (Facebook) Marketplace, not knowing to make sure I was approved by Interior Health and that I couldn't use my own kitchen," chuckled Gordon at the memory. "I did everything I wasn't supposed to do."
She got approval and, well, the pie was so popular she ended up with more than 250 orders for tourti猫re.
As she rolled dough until 1 a.m. in the morning, crying, Gordon vowed to keep the word she had put out about making the pies. And it was while standing over her stove creating tourti猫re that she felt "something in my heart and soul really connecting me to my grandma."
"The blood, the sweat, the tears...if I'm going to do something, to carry on my family values, it's the legacy of my m茅m猫re," said Gordon. "She is always my angel. Even when she was alive.
"My all-time favourite dish to make is tourti猫re. It鈥檚 more than just a savoury meat pie; it鈥檚 a legacy of love, tradition, and resilience. Every time I make it, I honour the generations before me. looking down and proud. She inspired me to go to baking and pastry school, and doing something I love to do.
"To carry my m茅m猫re鈥檚 legacy means that much to me."
M茅m猫re Mary first showed Gordon the true power of food.
Whether she was feeding workers in the hay fields or gathering large family around her table on a Manitoba farm, every dish she made carried love, tradition, and purpose.
Gordon also draws on her Indigenous background as she prepares meals. And she gets plenty of cheers from back home in the North Okanagan.
Husband Rob, owner/operator of a gravel truck, is her why; her anchor; her biggest supporter, said Gordon. The couple, together for 25 years, have three adult children and two grandchildren. And like her family, the Cherryville and North Okanagan communities are rooting for her, with the love helping her through a low point with her mental health over the winter.
"People are voting me on Favourite Chef every day and continue to vote for me," said Gordon. "I realize I'm not as alone as I thought I was."
Should she win Favourite Chef, Gordon will put the winnings toward culinary school and travel for herself and Rob. She plans to become a private chef after completing school.
