For food maven Bonnie Stern, right, Friday night Sabbath dinners are sacrosanct and always will be.

“From a Jewish point of view, it’s our night,” she explained. “For others, it’s goodbye to the work week and hello to the weekend.”

With this idea in mind, Stern – one of Canada’s most respected culinary authorities – wrote her latest book, Friday Night Dinners, published recently by Random House Canada.

“I wanted to write a family book,” said Stern, whose previous 13 books run the gamut from Bonnie Stern’s Essentials of Home Cooking to Simply HeartSmart Cooking.

“For me, Friday night dinners, a perfect time to share a meal with family and friends, seemed like a great theme.”

Friday Night Dinners is a family affair.

Her son, Mark, a television story producer, took the photographs, while her daughter, Anna, a graduate student in speech pathology at the University of Toronto, assisted her brother.

Stern’s husband Raymond Rupert, a physician who knows his way around a kitchen, cheered them on.

Out of respect for the Jewish tradition of Friday night dinners, the recipes in Stern’s 309-page volume are kosher friendly and feature chapters on Rosh Hashanah, Passover and Israeli cuisine.

But within this framework, Stern  ranges far and wide, offering readers easy-to-follow recipes for Italian, Indian, Asian, Greek, Australian, Middle Eastern, South African, vegetarian, barbecue, fast food fish and al fresco meals.

Although her parents were not particularly observant or even kosher, Stern was raised on Friday night dinners. And after they died, this tradition was even more important to her.

“At least once a week, it’s wonderful to share a family meal,” she said, sipping tea and sharing home-baked mandel brot and shortbread/chocolate cookies with a reporter at the Bonnie Stern School of Cooking, a business she has run since 1973. “People who grew up with this tradition are so lucky.”

Stern cut her teeth in the kitchen when she was just a little girl, baking cookies and cakes. In Grade 8, she began cooking meals for her family, who appreciated her efforts.

Stern’s interest in and dedication to food was whetted my her home economics teacher at Forest Hill Junior High School who, she said, had a considerable influence on her.

As she recalls, her mother, the scion of Polish Jews, was an adventurous cook who had to curb her enthusiasm because no one else in the family shared her proclivity for cutting-edge fare.

Her father, a chartered accountant, was a “plain eater,” while she was a “fussy” eater.

“I don’t like things that are too rich or complicated,” she said.

Looking back, she liked nothing more than poached eggs on toast, lamb chops and carrots, and on Friday nights,  brisket, rib roast and apple crisp.

After graduating from high school, Stern earned a BA degree, majoring in English, at the University of Toronto.

She intended to pursue a career as a librarian, but eager for a break, she enrolled in a two-year chef training and food administration course at George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology.

“My parents weren’t happy,” she said. “They wanted me to continue my academic education. But they also wanted me to be happy.”

Back then, food did not have the same social cachet it has now. “It was nothing, not the big thing it is today.” Yet Stern was hooked. “Next to reading, the only thing I loved was food.”

In retrospect, George Brown made her what she is today.

“I learned cooking techniques and how to be really organized in the kitchen. I did well and gained lots of self-confidence.”

Stern worked in several restaurants, in culinary and management positions, after leaving George Brown. Then she landed a job as a cooking demonstrator at the Eaton’s department store.

“I was supposed to get people excited about food so they would buy kitchen supplies.”

Stern might have remained at Eaton’s indefinitely had not one of its suppliers asked her to open a cooking school.

Eventually, she bought out her partners, and today, she offers classes to individuals and corporate groups.

So far this year, she has taught courses on 10 “super” foods, braising meat, Asian and Italian cuisine, fish, cheese and vegetarian cooking.

Later this month, she will teach a challah workshop and the basics of Middle Eastern cooking.

Moroccan, Egyptian and Lebanese food appeals to her, though Stern has never visited Morocco, Egypt or Lebanon.

Five years ago, in keeping with her lifelong passion for literature, Stern formed a book club at her school, inviting local authors to discuss their works with her students and then share a sumptuous meal together.

Since 2004, Stern has also led food tours to Israel.

On her first-ever trip to Israel six years ago, one of her travelling companions, Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, warned her that she might not take kindly to Israeli food.

Stern, however, was blown away by Israel’s gastronomic treats.

“I thought the food was incredible. The carrot soup flavoured with cumin. The chicken baked with dried fruits. The phyllo pastry. It was the most interesting food I’d had in years. It’s very exotic, yet familiar, and I love the spices and herbs.”

Stern was to have led her fourth food tour to Israel last month, but cancelled it due to the war in the Gaza Strip. She hopes to reschedule it.

Apart from her books and cooking school, she has hosted two TV shows, Bonnie Stern Cooks and Bonnie Stern Entertains, and hosts a website featuring recipes and food news.

Even after all these years, Stern enjoys cooking, generally dishing up four family dinners a week.

“I like everyday home cooking,” she said.

In this age of fast food and pre-cooked meals, she encourages people to prepare their own meals.

“Cooking is really easy and fun, though food companies lead you to believe that cooking is hard. And, of course, everything tastes better when you share a meal, especially on Friday nights.”