Anna moved to Niagara in 1995, eager for change from her role as a chef in the fast paced restaurant life of New Orleans - Canada was calling her home.
It was here that she met her husband and business partner Michael Olson at Inn on the Twenty in Jordan Ontario, considered to be Ontario's premier winery restaurant, located in the midst of prime Niagara farm and wine country. Anna embraced the bounties of the local growers, changing menus seasonally and using only the freshest ingredients possible in the role of pastry chef. A good friend of Anna's recalls her first encounter. "Anna was returning from a visit to a local grower, when strawberries were in season. She had this huge smile on her face, as she brought in the season's first strawberries, as excited as a child at Christmas." Anna's friend Tracy expands, "It was at that moment that I realized how passionate Anna is about food, especially food that is grown locally."

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 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 under her belt including Fresh with Anna Olson, released in the fall of 2009.

Anna embraces her artistic talents with every new challenge. With her husband Michael by her side, Anna enjoys traveling and exploring other countries for exciting new ideas and flavours. Most recently, they had the pleasure to visit Spain and France and look forward to sightseeing in Italy sometime in the near future. 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!
The couple currently reside in a beautiful historic home in the heart of Niagara, dated back to the 1860s. It is here that she tapes her successful program "Fresh with Anna Olson," tantalizing our senses and taste buds with each recipe she prepares.

Anna truly enjoys life, saying, "my favourite part about 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. Anna and Michael's beloved beagle Oscar gives her the quality lap-dog therapy that is just so relaxing at the end of a long day.

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 charities and enjoying a visit to the local library of any new town or city she visits.