Where to start?
I was born and raised in Montréal, Canada. My father was a Frenchman from Bretagne (Brittany) in the northern part of France and my mother was born and raised in Montréal. Like many Europeans, my father crossed the Atlantic in the mid 1950’s for a better life in North America. My parents met at the French Alliance (l’Union Française in those days) and my mother was smitten by my father’s French charm. They married within a year at the same place they met, and three little girls were born 18 months apart after that.
As soon as my parents could afford a house, they built one in the far suburbs of Montréal, where we could have some land to cultivate. I believe it’s innate among the Europeans; they just need a plot of land to grow or raise something. And indeed, we did. As soon as I can remember, we had a vegetable garden and always had some animal to eat. But that’s just what Europeans do. This comes from a history of always living off the land and also later on from famine and numerous wars.
To this day; if I have a little dirt around my house, I will plant something. I must, it’s in my genes. I will also keep potted herbs in my house if able to. But I cherish theses growing memories of learning how to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers from a seed. I also cherish memories of helping my father bring bags and bags of food bought at the Italian market. We would then spend Sunday afternoon preparing a wonderful feast. We ate everything from tripes to snails and quails to considered weird produce in those days like; artichokes, chestnuts and leeks.
It’s then not surprising that I decided to study nutrition even though I didn’t know of any nutritionist or my parents and sisters didn’t go to University. I assume it was in the stars for me to become a dietitian/nutritionist. Because I went into accounting, then I quit school and then went back to become a diet tech and then, after all that I finally realized that I needed to go all the way to University and become a dietitian. It was not easy as I did all my previous schooling in French and then switched to an English University. It was hard to learn everything in English, I had studied English since I was a kid but relearning biology and chemistry in English; that needed a lot of memory and I am more of a logical person than one that memorizes. It was also difficult since my father suffered from stomach cancer the whole time I was in college and passed away just before I started at McGill University.
After graduating, I started a private practice in down town Montréal. I learned a lot about different cultures and food habits with the vast array of clients I had. I knew about French food more than the average person, but I learned a lot about the Italian, Muslim, Greek, Lebanese and Asian food and culture. That was really priceless. Also living in the Montréal cultural melting pot was wonderful. One day I could go shopping in a Lebanese market, the next day to Chinatown or an Eastern European market. I had the inclination and passion to talk and use food as a medicine.
After leaving Montréal to live the Caribbean life style, I landed in Florida where I have been for 13 years. I went to work for LeSport a Spa Hotel in St-Lucia for about 2 years and came back to Boca. I worked in clinical nutrition and long term care and then spent these last four years at Sensei where my expertise in food and cooking was a major asset to develop meals for our weight loss program.
And then one day after watching ‘Under a Tuscan sun’, ‘A good year’ and ‘Julie and Julia’; I realized that I also wanted to move to France or Italy. But since my Italian is not up to par and I refuse to ever be cold again and after talking, writing and following the Mediterranean diet for over 20 years; I decided to live on the Mediterranean, hence I chose Nice as my new home. Even if I still have cousins in Brittany, it’s too cold over there and I need to be on the Mediterranean Sea. It is also essential to note that Italy is only an hour away. So, it’s the best of both worlds.
I invite you to share my new adventures and you can also suggest places to go and see. This is my new life and I am looking forward to all the new experiences and people I will meet. Now if I can just fly out of Miami as I am writing this Sunday, April 18 2010 days after a volcano erupted in Iceland and shut all European travels. I guess this is a great way to start an adventure!
Thank you.
Peace and Love
Josée Derrien
Registered Dietitian
