Great Chef's Cook at Barbara-Jo's issues from Barbara-Jo McIntosh's Vancouver cookbook store, which features a fully equipped kitchen in which, I gather, a horde of celebrity chefs line up to cook a meal and socialize with Vancouver's foodies. The book is heavy on cross-testimonials: Vickie Gabereau introduces the book, McIntosh praises each celebrity with a private anecdote, and many of the celebrities themselves provide testimonials to McIntosh. Along with the celebrity caricatures by the talented Bernie Lyon, there's barely room for the recipes, which thankfully are pretty clear and quite good.
Since there are some very good restaurants in Vancouver, and some very good chefs, local or otherwise pass through, I suppose all this high-fiving is justified, and it's hard to fault McIntosh-who has clearly made life better for well-heeled Vancouverites with time on their hands-for liking herself and her shop to excess. Unfortunately, the end result isn't quite a useful cookbook, and there aren't many cooking secrets to be found in it, except maybe that Sarah McLaughlin travels with her own chef, and apparently enjoys eating cakes that would turn a less-disciplined foodie into a facsimile of the Goodyear Blimp.