The Culinary Chronicles of Sara and Adam Waxman: Masters Behind DINE and DESTINATIONS Magazine

Sara: When my children started school, I felt the need to fulfill my creative side, as I had done pre-motherhood. I wrote several cookbooks. After the success of the first book, I was approached by one newspaper and then another to write columns about dining and lifestyle. And so began a twenty-seven-year newspaper-columnist career as a restaurant critic and international food and travel writer. At the same time, I was a Contributing Editor in three top Canadian magazines in fashion, travel and lifestyle. In 2001, when my husband passed unexpectedly, I left all my jobs. In 2006, I felt the urge to write and share my thoughts again. At the urging of my friends and family, and even those for whom I had written previously, I started my own magazine, and in 2007, the first issue of DINE magazine was printed. A glossy, oversized publication, it contained 100 full pages of advertising and food, dining and travel articles and was met with great fanfare in Toronto and across Canada. After the first issue, I invited Adam to join me in the magazine as a mother-son team, and this was the best decision I ever made towards our success.

Adam: I don’t know that there is a balance. It’s all personal. Our professionalism includes and demands that it’s personal. Everything we write, our relationship to our subjects and to our readers, has to come from a place of authenticity, and at the core of that is my relationship with my mother. We respect each other’s opinions and skills; there is no ego between us, and we share the same focus. We are of different generations have different interests and different influences, but we both have the same ethics and enthusiasm to share our experiences—and I learned that from her. The dynamics of the industry have been changing so much, and so we rely on each other more, and the fact that we can completely trust each other, is the reward that meets that challenge.

Sara: Many years ago in Shanghai, I was pleased to receive an invitation to a private dinner hosted by the Minister of Tourism. Adam, who lived and worked in Tokyo at the time, flew-in to join me. We all met in a beautiful private dining room with a table set in extraordinary splendor. The theme-colors were red and gold, and I recognized the exclusive English bone China pattern. The light reflected in the beautiful patina of the gold cutlery. When the Minister arrived with her assistant, Adam greeted her in a polite manner consistent with meeting a person of importance in Japan. The Minister's eyes lit up as she and Adam begin conversing in Japanese. It seemed that it was necessary in their profession to speak a second language, and she had chosen Japanese. Her Assistant had studied English at UCLA, so she and I spoke English. It would be impossible to describe the delicacy of the intricate dishes served, and the gracious style of service throughout. We were treated like royalty. But the conversation and connection through multiple languages—English, Mandarin, Japanese—was the most memorable part. We enjoyed our shared appreciation immensely. Sharing food together creates an intimacy and a friendship like no other experience. When you eat and drink with your neighbor, you can understand each other and live in harmony.

Sara: Our personal narrative is like a conversation that appeals to those who are reading vicariously for personal enjoyment, and for those who plan to travel to the destinations they’re reading about. No matter what changes we’ve encountered in this rapidly changing industry, we have never sacrificed the quality or authenticity of our content, because that is the commitment we’ve made to our readership, with whom we have built a trusted brand and reputation.

Adam: There are two decisions we’ve made spring to mind. The first is that for “Canada 150” we focused our 2018 publication on Canadian content, rather than a potpourri of subjects, and began publishing editorials in English, French and Mandarin. I believe through this, we conveyed our respect for our diversifying readership and probed deeper into regional and local interests with increasing attention toward responsible dining and sustainable tourism. That became a model for our successive issues. The second instance is when the pandemic began. Since the option of distributing print was not viable at that time, we were at a crossroad, and had to decide whether to fold or adapt. We transitioned to digital format, and with our first issue, gave away every single page of advertising complimentary. We wanted to show our support and solidarity with the restaurants, hotels and tourism associations with whom we were working. This has been a hallmark of our brand—that we support the dining and hospitality industries. That issue successfully launched our digital platform and enabled us to continue and thrive.

Sara: We have never followed trends. We have always actively sought out what is new and exciting. I was writing about risotto before it came to Toronto. I remember writing in my “year-end predictions” that we need to watch out for the $14 appetiser, back when that would have seemed exorbitant. When the pandemic began, Adam was one of the first to write about “ghost kitchens” and the rise in deliveries as the means of survival for Toronto restaurants. We’ve always been able to engage our readership and be relevant in our writing, because we’re always reading, and going out, and talking to people, because that’s what fuels our interests and our curiosities, as well.

Sara: I dream of having a beautiful print magazine again. I know that Adam would like to expand into more diverse media like podcasting and video. And of course, we’re always excited to collaborate with new partnerships, because you never know what new opportunities you’ll find when you turn to the next page. 

Adam: I think this goes back to your earlier question. It’s all personal. We can’t pretend to write about things that don’t matter to us. We investigate, explore and then share what we’ve discovered. That is our nature, and we believe that we have that to give; we have a trusted voice from which to promote the restaurateurs, vintners, farmers, artisans and wellness and tourism operators who are innovative and whose values comport with ours—values of responsibility, sustainability, accessibility and health. We put that into everything we do, and our readership feels the same way. Issues of seasonality or conservation are no longer esoteric buzzwords; they are vital to the healthy growth of each of these industries. We both believe that the opportunities we have to promote positive and constructive stories in an evocative and engaging manner, inspires and enriches ourselves as well as our readership. That is our mission and that is a great privilege.