Jean Pare And Vermilion

Jean Pare And Vermilion

Craig Baird

Columnist

One of the most successful writers in Canadian history was Jean Paré. Over the course of her life, she wrote over 200 cookbooks, which sold 30 million copies.

Her cookbooks, under the Company’s Coming brand, were found across the world and widely beloved by home chefs everywhere. She personally oversaw the publication of more than 17,000 kitchen-tested recipes that appeared in her books. Through her life, she collected 6,700 cookbooks. In 2009, she donated all of them to the University of Guelph. For her contributions to cooking in Canada, she received the Order of Canada in 2004. She also received the Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal.

But did you know that she had a very significant connection to Vermilion?

Jean was born in Irma, Alberta in 1927. Today, the community has a museum devoted to her in the house she grew up in.

In 1959, with her then-husband, she moved to Vermilion. Her husband operated the Vermilion Auction Mart. In the community, Jean started to build a successful local catering business. That career began in 1963 when she catered the 50th anniversary of the Vermilion School of Agriculture. Working out of numerous kitchens, she served over 1,000 meals in a single night. The menu was a lot of potato salad, glazed ham and ice cream for dessert.

After her first marriage ended in divorce in the 1960s, she took out a $1,000 bank loan and opened a café in Vermilion. It was there she met her second husband, Larry.

At the same time, her catering business was thriving, and word of mouth spread across the region.

Over time, she started to compile recipes of her most requested dessert recipes from local residents. In 1981, she self-published 150 Delicious Squares. This became the first cookbook in the Company’s Comping series.

Jean passed away on Dec. 24, 2022 at the age of 95.

Around the world, her fans marked her passing and reminisced about the many recipes she had compiled that they had cooked themselves.

And that story began in Vermilion with a catering business.

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