Bonny Reichert in conversation with Talia Schlanger

Join us in the gallery for an in-conversation event with Bonny Reichert, author of How to Share an Egg, and radio host and musician, Talia Schlanger.

How to Share an Egg is a moving culinary memoir about the relationship between food and family—and sustenance and survival—from a chef, award-winning Canadian journalist, and daughter of a Holocaust survivor.

When you’re raised by someone who once survived on potato peels and coffee grounds, you develop a pretty healthy respect for food.

Bonny Reichert avoided everything to do with the Holocaust until she found herself, in midlife, suddenly typing those words into an article she was writing. The journalist had grown up hearing stories about her father’s near-starvation and ultimate survival in Auschwitz-Birkenau, but she never imagined she would be able to face this epic legacy head on.

Then a chance encounter with a perfect bowl of borscht in Warsaw set Bonny on a journey to unearth her culinary lineage, and she began to dig for the roots of her food obsession, dish by dish. Tracing the defining moments of her life, from her colorful childhood in the restaurant business to the crumbling of her first marriage and the intensity of young motherhood, her decision to become a chef and that life-altering visit to Poland, the author recounts a tale of scarcity and plenty, stepping into the kitchen to connect her past to her future.

Books will be available for sale from Ben McNally Books.

Bonny Reichert is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist. She has been an editor at Today’s Parent and Chatelaine, and a columnist and regular contributor to The Globe and Mail. When she turned forty, she had a now-or-never feeling in her bones and quit her job to enroll in culinary school. After that, she began to explore her relationship with food on the page, seeing her childhood in the restaurant business and her background as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor in a new light. Bonny was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and lives in Toronto with her husband and little dog, Bruno. Her three almost-adult children come and go.

Talia Schlanger is a songwriter, musician, producer and broadcaster whose intimate and explosive debut album "Grace for the Going" was named one of Exclaim!'s Most Anticipated Canadian Albums of 2024. As former host of the NPR-distributed radio show World Cafe, Talia has interviewed some of the most exciting musicians and artists working today. She is frequently heard sitting in on CBC programs including q with Tom Power and As It Happens, and her earlier work for CBC Music earned her a Canadian Screen Award as co-producer. Talia's latest EP "Latent Lounge live from The Hangar" was produced by Cowboy Junkies' Mike Timmins and her writing was recently published in the book How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music. Talia began her professional performance career at age 14 and her various theatre credits as a singer/dancer include the original Canadian cast of Queen’s We Will Rock You and the first US tour of Green Day’s American Idiot