Announcement
Stratford Chefs School is thrilled to announce journalist Ivy Knight as 2026 Writer-in-Residence.
“We’re very excited to have Ivy at the School this fall as our Joseph Hoare Gastronomic Writer-in-Residence,” said Randi Rudner, Program Manager at Stratford Chefs School. “I have long admired her writing, and am thrilled that she is able to carve out some time to work with our students. Ivy’s talent is multi-faceted, and I think each and every student will get something different out of working with her.”
The Program
The Joseph Hoare Gastronomic Writer-in-Residence (JHGWIR) program welcomed James Chatto as its inaugural writer in 2007. Since then the post has been held by Corby Kummer (6x James Beard Award winner), Molly Wizenberg and chef Gabrielle Hamilton (both JBA winners and New York Times bestselling authors) and James Oseland (former Editor-In-Chief of Saveur), among others.
“I’m honoured to be asked,” says Knight, who will spend two weeks in Stratford working with the students. “I look forward to spending time with this next generation of chefs and food writers.”
Alumni
Stratford Chefs School alumni include Pearl Morissette’s Eric Robertson, Cory Vitiello, Richmond Station’s Carl Heinrich and Ryan Donovan, Rich Francis, Monforte Dairy’s Ruth Klahsen, and others who have been instrumental in shaping the Canadian food scene.
Food Writing
During her two-week residence in Stratford, Knight will lead workshops about food writing, provide one-on-one consultations with students, and present readings and discussions of her work to both students and the public, with the overall goal of contributing to a well-rounded education for students, a primary objective of the School.
About Ivy Knight
Ivy Knight spent a decade cooking professionally before leaving restaurant kitchens to write full time. Her byline can be found in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Food & Wine, and more. Her short film series OPEN (created with JR Reid), is produced in partnership with the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning Roads & Kingdoms.
Knight also runs the world’s only Céline Dion parody meme account focused on the restaurant industry, @allezceline.
About the JHGWIR Program
The widely loved Joseph Hoare, former food editor of Toronto Life magazine, was immensely supportive of young writers interested in food and gastronomy. After his passing in 1997, his family chose to honour his lifelong passion for food and food writing by means of an endowment to the Gastronomic Writer-in-Residence Program at Stratford Chefs School, later renamed the Joseph Hoare Gastronomic Writer-in-Residence Program, now in its twentieth year.
About Stratford Chefs School
Founded in 1983, Stratford Chefs School is a not-for-profit Culinary School focused on the innovative, hands-on training of high-quality cook apprentices and culinary entrepreneurs, located in beautiful Stratford, Ontario.