Hall of Fame
Marg Fraser
by Helen Hatton
Marg Fraser - best selling author of great cookbooks including “A Century of Canadian Cooking” (co-authored with Carole Ferguson) plus four books for Canadian Living; Marg Fraser - who has held positions as associate food editor of Canadian Living, and associate editor of Canadian Living's excellent and too short-lived publication, “Food”; Marg Fraser - one of Canada's foremost food stylists, food writers and Home Economists, and major player on the CHEA Metric committee.
Our Marg Fraser's opening sentence to me over lunch a few weeks ago was “I feel like a phony. I don't know half as much as other people!” Marg was so modest over lunch that we had to get additional information from Wendy Sanford and sister, Jean Fewster.
Marg hails from Saskatoon with a degree in Household Science. Wondering what to do next, Marg took a summer job studying dietetics at Eaton's in Toronto. Those were they days of Eaton's Round Room, and the Georgian Room when employees DRESSED in white gloves, hats, stockings, even on your free time and weekends!
The next summer Marg worked at Sick Children's Hospital, and discovered that hospital dietetics was where she wanted to be. She continued her Dietetic Internship at Toronto Western Hospital, and came on staff; however, the hours were bad and the split shifts horrible. So, Marg moved to Shirriffs, the jelly mix people. Shirriffs also made cake mixes, and Marg fell into food styling for company photographs. One day Ruth Fremes asked Marg to ice four cakes as an audition to help her on TV commercials. Fremes loved her, and Marg never looked back.
Marg had lovely things to say about Grace Lewis, her mentor, whom some of you may remember as a successful consultant, freelancer and food stylist. From the early days of her career, Marg has been in high demand as a freelance Home Economist by companies, advertising agencies, and photographers.
Her first article was for Chatelaine, followed by a metric cope-kit for them. Jobs at Canadian Living led to a position as Associate Food Editor. The payoff for this success was great travel, with suitcases filled with props, knives and pans. One memorable trip was a media tour for Random House who published “The Canadian Living BBQ Book” in the USA. In New York, there was a car to chauffeur her to D'Agistino's for groceries, Zabar's for the trimmings, and a driver to carry the bags while Marg shopped.
The next morning she and the 6′ 5″ Harry Smith shot their segment in Central Park at Tavern on the Green. It went beautifully. What no one else saw was Marg, the previous evening in her posh New York City hotel room, with all those groceries, cleaning chickens, cutting the watermelon in the bath tub, and trying to keep it all chilled overnight in the tiny bar fridge!
Marg worked tirelessly on the CHEA Metric committee and was instrumental in disseminating correct metric information and recipe presentation through usage in Canadian Living magazine. Wendy Sanford said those published recipes were used extensively as reference models both in Canada and the USA
Marg's awards include the Silver Ladle Award from Toronto Culinary Guild (shared with Elizabeth Baird), and the THEA Marjorie Flint Award (shared with Carol Ferguson).
Marg may say she's retired, but we all think differently. Congratulations, Marg Fraser!