My last In the Kitchen blog post

Dear readers, I'm both sad and excited to say that this is my last blog post for Chatelaine. After six wonderful, exciting and stuffed-to-the-brim years of working in the Chatelaine test kitchen, I've decided to embark on a freelance food writing career - the exciting part, but also the sad one, as Chatelaine is very close to my heart (and so are all of you). For my last post I thought I'd share a round up of some of my favourite Chatelaine moments and the things I'll miss the most. 1. Developing recipes These Rhubarb Berry Tarts are one of the first recipes I developed in the Chatelaine Kitchen. Little did I know, I would have the opportunity to develop hundreds more recipes; I feel so lucky to have had the chance to do that. 2. The Chatelaine Test Kitchen This humble spot is where all the recipes from the magazine are produced. I've spent lots of time developing, testing and brainstorming recipes in this space along with the rest of the fabulous Kitchen staff. 3. Tasting In The Chatelaine Kitchen, we put our minds and our taste buds together and adjust our recipes until they are deliciously perfect! But...I may not miss the constant tasting. Here we are tasting 15 different kinds of canned salmon. I'm hoping my scale will be kinder to me. 4. Writing about food! Working on this blog, editing our upcoming Chatelaine cookbook and working on the pages of Chatelaine have been some of the most amazing and exciting opportunities I have ever had. 5. Photography and video shoots Being on set where the pictures for the magazines are photographed by a team of people — including an art director, a photographer, food stylist and prop stylist n is very inspiring. These creative teams are responsible for making the magazine pictures pretty. Below is a photograph of the first cover shoot I ever attended. It was the Triple-Chocolate Cheesecake on our February cover. Here are just some of the garnishes, food stylist, Ashley Denton brought to the set for the cake. Another highlight was working on Cooking Class food videos for Chatelaine with videographer and producer Laura Lanktree and producer Jen O'Brien. Our most recent one is Dulce de Leche pudding. 6. The Chatelaine Staff I have had the opportunity to work and collaborate with some of the most talented and lovely people in the industry. Here are some photos of great Chatelaine moments: This is a photo of the retirement lunch for Chatelaine's former food editor, Monda Rosenberg. I was blessed to work with such an incredible editor and a Canadian icon. This lunch was a memorable moment in time. I'm so glad I could share it with several more talented people (left to right) Lyn Chua (who also guided me through my entire time in the kitchen), Monda Rosenberg, Heather Trim, Meaghan Baron and Lindsay Evans. Below, more of the awesome Chatelaine editorial staff celebrating our beautiful June relaunch issue: And last but not least, is the current Chatelaine Kitchen staff — left to right, Test Kitchen intern Irene Ngo, Food Editor,Claire Tansey, Assistant Food Editor Lyn Chua, Freelancer extraordinaire Heather Trim. This great team, works to create new and beautiful recipes each month and soon you can also look forward to lots of fantastic blog posts from them too. Stay tuned! Thank you, as always, for reading this blog, and good luck in your future kitchen adventures, Victoria Walsh