Masterchef 
Canada’s Judge on the Sense and Sensibilities that Mean Most in the Kitchen

Celebrity Interview by Janine Eva Trotta (From GayCalgary® Magazine, March 2015, page 18)

Claudio Aprile was only 5 when he took interest in cooking, and 14 when he started to make it a vocation. The Uruguay-born and Canada-raised MasterChef judge says he has spent more of his life in the kitchen than anywhere else.

“Cooking is really something that’s been an integral part of my creative process,” he says. “I wouldn’t say it’s a hobby – but it’s definitely something I get a lot of pleasure from doing.”

Touted ‘one of Canada’s most celebrated and visionary chefs’, Aprile has built a solid name for himself in Toronto, where his restaurants Colborne Lane and Origin have received countless awards and accolades, the latter being named the #1 restaurant in the city by Toronto Life and NOW magazines. What stands out to him, or appeals most, about a good dish is really quite simple, and some might say even carnal.

“Aroma really tells me everything,” he explains. “How a dish smells is really the first impression for me. A dish has to be visually appealing as well.”

Aprile is all for the classics.

“Risk taking – that concept kind of frightens me sometimes,” he says. “Again aroma is such an important factor for me, not only when I am judging a dish on MasterChef, but even when I am in a restaurant … I always smell the dish first.”

“Animals do that too. It’s a survival technique.”

It’s also a means for staying alive on the show; creating pleasant, well-executed dishes that follow the instructions outlined in the judge’s challenges.

“We give away all the secrets if you listen,” he tips. “So many of the lessons are laid out in the presenting monologue, or whatever you want to call it. It’s all there.”

He offers the outcome of last Sunday’s episode as example. The Elimination Challenge ingredient was selected, by contestant Cody Karey, as truffles.

“One cook, ‘Concrete’ Dave, he listened; he made the truffle the star of that dish and he completely slayed everyone in that competition,” Aprile says. Contestant Kevin Gregory, presenting a “Decadent Eggs” dish that confused the judges with its lack of truffles, was sent home.

“I always gravitate towards a chef who is quiet but, you know… they are a good listener,” he explains. “I tend to gravitate towards people that have a bit of an underdog character to them.”

Humility and generosity are two additional traits Aprile says he looks for in a winning chef.

“Always remain a student,” he says. “Accept the fact you picked a career where no one ever becomes a master.”

This timeless logic stands true for even Aprile himself. With over 30 years in the industry, he admits he is still learning. MasterChef was his first experience appearing on a televised cooking show as a judge.

“I’ve done a few things here and there… but never pursued television,” he says. “I was very cautious of merging those two worlds.”

In MasterChef, however, he found a unique way to do that.

“The show… has been a very steep learning curve,” he says. “I find a lot of the cooks very inspiring in how so many of them have taken a leap of faith… [and] given up their family lives and work lives to be on the show.”

“The show has really taught me… the importance of … empathy, and also it has taught me how to be live.”

Appearing in front of a barrage of cameras and crew is something quite different from heading a kitchen.

“There is an incredible team behind us, guiding us through the process,” he says. “I definitely feel like I’ve been thrown in the deep end… [but] it’s great to try something new.”

With filming having wrapped last fall, Aprile admits critiquing never became natural.

“It is challenging to tell someone – a home cook – that their dish isn’t good enough. I always find that a bit difficult, because it’s someone that put a lot of time and effort into that dish.”

When Aprile comes home from a day of work he is sure to hang his chef hat at the door and let his wife, Heather, take the helm.

“Home food, for me, is very different than restaurant food. Restaurant food is very precise, time sensitive and, in many ways, it is very standardized. Recipes have to be the same every time you prepare them,” he explains. “Home food, for me, is more relaxed… At home I tend to check the chef at the door and my wife is really in charge of the home kitchen.”

He says her soups are some of his favourite dishes to come home to, naming, specifically, Heather’s lemongrass, chicken and corn summer soup as a top notcher.

“I’ll pretty much eat anything my kids make me,” he adds, proudly noting that both his son, 13, and daughter, 7, love to cook too.

As for future stints on television, Aprile is doubtful. He is very content with his experience on MasterChef.

“The show is such a special show; it’s such a special program. We celebrate home cooking, which is really the place where most of the chefs on the planet started – cooking at home.”

“It would be difficult to find something as unique as MasterChef.”

We can, however, keep on the lookout for a cookbook that may come out in the future.

“I have a secret stash of recipes and a few books that have never been published,” he says. “Binder after binder full of recipes.”

“You never know what’s around the corner,” he furthers. “It doesn’t get much bigger than MasterChef.”

MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. MT on CTV, returning on March 22. The season finale is set to air sometime in May, the date TBD.

Teen Horror:

Jack Black to play beloved author R.L. Stine in first Goosebumps movie

Celebrity Interview by Janine Eva Trotta (From GayCalgary® Magazine, May 2014, page 39)

He’s the author of more than 300 books – a staple read for most people now in their late 20s – and likely one of the few great multi-genre writers that can boast he’s never been at a loss for material.

“I hate to say a number because then I have to go take a nap,” the glib writer says on the baffling quantity of volumes he has turned out during his lengthy career. “I’m just here typing… I’m a machine – I’m a writing machine.”

Stine never designed to be scary writer. In fact, he started writing in the comedic vein. Up until the age of 9 or 10 Stine only read comics, until discovering fantasy/sci-fi/horror author Rae Bradbury’s books. He sites Bradbury as one of his greatest influences, saying Bradbury’s books are what turned him into a real reader before he studied English at the Ohio State University.

“I wrote a hundred joke books before I got scary,” Stine says.  “I never planned to be scary; I always planned to be funny.”

Indeed, Stine once penned under the name Jovial Bob Stine; heading the Scholastic humour magazine Bananas and putting out funny paperbacks. Then in 1986 he scribed his first horror novel, Blind Date, and three years later he started writing the well-known Fear Street books.

“I never sit down and just start writing,” Stine says on his paramount ability to stave off writer’s block. “I think a lot of people think that’s how you write a book…

I do an amazing amount of planning first.”

Before Stine sets out on a new novel he already knows how it’s going to finish; how every character will act and what motivates them to do so.

“I have my ending…I did a 30 page outline first,” he explains. “So I’ve done all the hard work so the writing is just easy. I’ve done all the thinking. I know everything that’s going to happen in the book…I can just enjoy it and enjoy the writing.”

The Ohio-born author does the bulk of this work in his New York City apartment, his King Charles pooch Minny by his side.

“She’s sweet,” he says. “She keeps me company during the day here.”

In this atmospheric writing room a three-foot long cockroach also makes its residence, a human skeleton is set on display, and a ventriloquist dummy of the author’s own person watches on.

“It’s pretty scary,” Stine says of this dummy, which was made to do an intro on the Goosebumps television series that aired in the mid to late ’90s. “The dummy was a little better than me.”

The cadence of his tone is happy, articulate, and tongue in cheek. He reminds me of a less hyper Woody Allen, but he has often been toted the Stephen King of children’s books.

“One magazine once called me – this is terrible – a literary training bra for Stephen King,” Stine shares. Ironically, the two have never met.

“I do all the book festivals…[King] never leaves Maine.”

Stine says, though he knows many of his counterparts loathe making their appearance at writers’ conferences and expos, he has learned to quite enjoy them.

“I have a good time,” he says. “It’s great to see my fans.”

Having spanned numerous decades with his Fear Street and Goosebumps series, this fan base can run the gamut.

“When I do a book signing now I get 7 year olds…and 25 year olds…and people bringing their kids,” he says. “I’m nostalgia to them…it took me a while to get used to that… but at the same time it’s really lucky, isn’t it?”

And it could be that these kids will in turn be bringing theirs. A Midsummer Night’s Scream is the author’s latest book, but he is still writing both new Goosebumps and, after a 15 year hiatus, a new Fear Street book. Stine says his Twitter feed was inundated with fans asking him to bring it back, so he acquiesced.

“I’m killing off more teenagers…everyone enjoys that,” he jests.

As the title would suggest, his latest novel is a haunted twist of a Shakespearean classic.

“Nothing like stealing from Shakespeare, right?” he says. “I took parts of the plot, but I turned it into…a horror novel.”

Just as Goosebumps enters into its 22nd year of publication, its first feature length film has been confirmed, and is slated for release in March 2016.

“Did you know we started filming a Goosebumps movie on Monday?” Stine asks me during our conversation mid-April. “It has been 20 years in the making. I’m a character in the film… Guess who plays me?”

None other than comedy king Jack Black does!

“We’re like twins, Jack and I. We’re like twins,” that sarcastic, smiling voice says, describing having had lunch with Black not that long ago. “I think he just flew in [from LA] so he could look at me, figure me out.”

The premise is awesome. R.L. Stine is a grumpy, retired writer. All of the monsters have escaped from his books, so the kids who love reading them plot to find him and petition the author to write one more book that will round up the monsters on the fiction lam.

Stine says that a Goosebumps movie has been in the works for the last 20 years, and he is ecstatic that now it is finally happening.

“It’s going to be a lot of work this movie,” he says, describing the monsters and special effects that will be involved in the film which is being shot in Georgia.

He is likely hoping that the movie glitz will allure his son, Matt Stine, to the theatre, as it is his son’s claim to fame that he has never read a single one of his father’s 300-plus books.

“Out of making dad nuts,” Stine states as his son’s motive. “He brags about it.”

However the younger Stine now maintains his father’s busy website, so “he’s sort of forced to keep up with things.”

Stine sites his son as a music guy, currently working with artist David Bern on a musical in New York.

“He’s having the time of his life; he loves it.”

On the opposite track, Stine’s wife has likely read more of her husband than anyone.

“My wife is actually my editor. Can you imagine that? It’s a nightmare! It’s all we fight about is plots!” he animates. “She’s really tough.”

Jane Waldhorn has her own publishing company, Parachute Press. Her eye is obviously keen as Stine has sold over 400-million copies of his books to date.

“Those were the days – the ’90s,” he recalls. At one time they were shucking four million Goosebumps off the shelf per month.

The Calgary Expo will have been Stine’s first trip out to western Canada, though his current TV show, The Haunting Hour, films in Van-City. As for what he will put out next, expect nothing less than volumes upon volumes of more titillating horror.

“I always have a few new books.”

Mr. Gay World Competition Sparks Controversy in Africa

Sentiments on the withdrawal of Mr. Gay Zimbabwe from this Year’s Competition

News by Janine Eva Trotta (From GayCalgary® Magazine, April 2012, page 32)

This April Johannesburg, South Africa will welcome a host of talented gay men including, for the first time in the competition’s running, three black representatives from countries within Africa. Mr. Zimbabwe, sadly, will not be one of them.

Homosexuality is still criminalized in the countries these men hail from. Not only will this year’s competition afford an opportunity to represent one’s nation, for these men it will also be a chance to advocate the rights of gay individuals unjustly penalized on their home soil.

Already a billboard placed in a highly visible area in Johannesburg has been met with a hoard of attention, both good and bad. The billboard features the faces of Mr. Gay South Africa 2010 Charl Van den Berg and current title holder Mr. Gay South Africa 2011 Francois Nel.

“Africa needs a great deal of attention in terms of the advancement of LGTBI rights, and it would have been very favorable to have full representation of the African Continent in the competition,” Nel stated in a recent release. “But nevertheless my thoughts are in complete agreement with the response from the Mr. Gay World directors, that even just entering the competition is already a very brave and commendable achievement.”

Delegates in the Mr. Gay World Competition act as ambassador and spokesperson for their country, encouraging a greater acceptance of the LGBQT community and shedding light on various local and international issues and causes.

“I wish Taurai  [Mr. Gay Zimbabwe] all the best in future endeavors, and want to congratulate him on the brave achievement of entering the competition, especially seeing that his home country does not yet apply equal human rights,” Nel says. “We hope that we can advance the progress of the last years’ achievements in terms of LGTBI rights advancement by having the full quota representing when Mr. Gay World takes place in Johannesburg in April. “

A ‘full quota’ means that a search for a fourth delegate from Africa is still being conducted.

Thomas Egli will be representing Canada this year in South Africa. Born and raised in Calgary, he still considers ‘cow town’ his home, but moved to Vancouver after his first year of university to pursue an exciting career in marine biology.

“In fact, from now until immediately before flying to Johannesburg, I’ll be underwater surveying for sea cucumbers in coastal northern British Columbia,” Egli says. “I’ll be going from living on a small fishing boat without a toilet for ten days to sharing space in a lovely South African resort with 25 delegates from all over the world. Never a dull moment in my life.”

Despite being deservingly jovial toward his upcoming adventure, Egli is keeping both Taurai and his family somberly in his thoughts.

“I can only imagine the fear that they are experiencing right now from the backlash resulting from him winning the Mr. Gay Zimbabwe competition,” he says. “The queer rights situation in much of Africa is alarming, and Zimbabwe is no exception.”

“Homosexuality is not only feared, but it is illegal and punishable by long prison sentences.  Sadly, the Mugabe government is instrumental in preaching messages of intolerance toward the gay community and same-sex marriage in Zimbabwe, claiming that they are Western values that should be shunned.”

“Learning that Taurai chose to withdraw from Mr. Gay World as a result of him and his family being threatened only highlights the main goal of the competition.  Here, in North America, the queer community faces challenges, but gay people in Africa and other parts of the world are still fighting for basic human rights. “

“I am proud to be part of a community that strives to teach acceptance in a modern, inclusive world.”

Heading up to the competition Egli has been doing his research.

“One of the first countries in the world to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation, South Africa has seen some sweeping changes since the end of Apartheid,” he says. “I feel honoured to be going to such an important and fascinating part of the world.”

This is Egli’s first time embarking on an opportunity like Mr. Gay World, and it is one he is not taking lightly. He is already planning a realm of projects he can take on upon his return to Vancouver to help raise awareness on queer issues both locally and worldwide.

“Once the competition is over, I hope to be coming back to Canada with a renewed understanding of the struggles faced daily by people like me in other countries,” he says. “Although in Canada the homosexual community has come a long way to being respected and accepted, there is still some work to be done, particularly in regards to issues of trans peoples.”

Beginning April 8 four days of intense competition including runway fashion, photo, and sport challenges will ensue in Johannesburg.

“I know it will be a very special time and experience for [this year’s hopefuls],” Nil says. “…especially because there is still such a journey for the advancement of LGTBI rights in Africa.”

“The win is in participation.”