Throughout her 20-plus-year career as a corporate chef, recipe developer, culinary instructor and caterer, going to the cottage was always Andrea Buckett's escape. She grew up spending summers in Ingoldsby, Ont., at her grandmother's and great-aunts’ rustic cottages — "I'm talking outhouses and no running water" — and then her parents’ “slightly less rustic one” nearby, which she still visits today.
“It's two bedrooms, a little kitchen and then a living room. Very, very small compared to a lot of the other ‘homes,’ I would say, that are up there that are called ‘cottages.’”
It took some time for Buckett to arrive at the idea of merging her professional culinary life with her refuge in her debut, The Essential Cottage Cookbook (Appetite by Random House, 2025). All the pieces fell into place on a weekend at her parents’ cottage. Alone on Kashagawigamog Lake in the Haliburton Highlands, the setting of some of her happiest memories, the chapters came easily. She knew it was her book to write.
Read the interview, and don't miss the three recipes Buckett shared from The Essential Cottage Cookbook — first, an irresistibly dill-icious pickle dip (pictured).
"I'm a massive pickle fan. I have a whole shelf dedicated to briny things in my fridge," says Buckett. Pickles are undoubtedly having a moment, but when she wrote the book, Buckett was simply looking for a way to incorporate those flavours. "It's just one of our most favourite types of dip to have."
The second recipe, grilled zucchini and mozzarella salad with pesto was inspired by a dish at a restaurant Buckett went to.
"It was so beautiful. And I thought, 'Gosh, we use summer squash at the cottage all the time.' My sons love grilled zucchini, and it's so versatile.
But one day, I had some leftover, and I was like, 'I can make this into a cold salad.'"
Buckett likes to use a nut-free arugula and basil pesto with hemp seeds as the base (the recipe is in the book). "It's creamy, and then all those people allergic to nuts can have it."
Lastly, we have Buckett's honey-lime grilled sweet potato with poblabo peppers and corn.
"People might not think of it as an obvious choice in the summer, but lots of people do regular potatoes on the barbecue, so why not sweet potatoes?" says Buckett. "I wanted to give them a Southwest-ish flare without being overtly Tex-Mex."
If you can't find poblano peppers, use green bell peppers instead, and add some black beans if you're in the mood for something more substantial. "It's fresh, and it's hearty."
Photo by Betty Shin Binon (The Essential Cottage Cookbook, Appetite by Random House)
