about anna

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Anna moved to Toronto, Ontario with her family when she was six. Anna has fond memories of yearly trips from Toronto to New York State, Pennsylvania and Ohio to visit her grandparents, aunts and uncles, traveling through Niagara's fruit belt and the orchards bordering the route. The family would regularly make stops at farmer's fruit stands to pick up fresh goodies for the relatives.

Anna's family is of Eastern European heritage and baking and cooking has always been at the heart of every family gathering. It is within these family occasions, respecting tradition, that Anna first gained a love and appreciation for both baking and cooking. These childhood memories and experiences invoke the inspirations we see today in so many of her recipes.

Anna took her love of cooking from personal passion to professional career when, after achieving a degree in Political Studies from Queen’s University and a brief stint working in the banking world, she enrolled in the culinary management program at Johnson & Wales University in Vail, Colorado. Her work adventures ultimately led her to the Niagara region in 1995, where she has been happily settled ever since.

Anna comes by her creativity honestly; her Dad is a graphic artist who taught for many years at York University in Toronto. Using food as her creative medium, Anna starts with ingredients that "sound good" or "delicious", then works her way back, creating the components within the recipe body to get to the yummy end result. Recipe development is one of her great accomplishments, with six successful cookbook publications to her name and “Back to Baking” , released in Autumn 2011. Entering a new realm of media, Anna & Michael have launched the “Olson Recipe Maker” app for iPhone, iPad and Android in fall 2011.

Anna embraces her artistic talents with every new challenge. With her husband Michael (also a noted chef) by her side, Anna enjoys traveling and exploring other countries for exciting new ideas and flavours. Most recently, they had the pleasure to visit Southeast Asia, Barcelona, Paris and Brussels. If you ask to see photos from any vacation be prepared to get hungry - they tend to take more photographs of their meals than of the sites!

Anna truly enjoys life, saying, "the favourite part of my job is that it never feels like work". She spends any spare time she has with family and friends. She loves to shop with her mother Donna, while her step-daughter Mika keeps her young at heart.

While people may think of Anna as a "celebrity chef", she is incredibly humble about her accomplishments and is extremely generous and kind, giving back to many local and national charities. She enjoys visiting the local library of any new town or city she visits.