Growing up in a small town in Ontario (Blyth, Huron County), Erin Bolger realized her love for baking early on. From her first solo batch of shortbread at the tender age of nine followed a few years later by her first cookbook for the County Fall School Fair, unbeknownst to her, Erin was writing the recipe for her future. She may have been a late bloomer when it came to dating, and she may not have always followed her Mom’s dating advice even though, of course, Mom was right. But she did follow her Mom’s baking instructions, which always had a happy ending.

Though the pickin’s may have been slim back home, that all changed when Erin moved to the big city (Toronto) during her college years. Her adventures in baking and dating developed. Not only were the ingredients more available, so were the men. As her dating experiences became more complicated, her need for simple comfort baking increased. Her stories and baking became such apart of people in her every day life they prompted her to share them with everyone…and from that The Happy Baker was born…

Darryl Fletcher’s inspiration to pursue a culinary career began while watching Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet) and trying some recipes at home. He is a graduate of the Chef De Partie program from Humber College in Toronto, Canada.

Chef Darryl started his career as an apprentice in Toronto, Canada at Donato’s Italian Bistro, under Chef Roberto Arissa. After apprenticing he moved back to his home town of Kitchener, and worked in various establishments until becoming Executive Chef at the Kitchener Auditorium Complex (where he spent three years) before joining M & M Meat Shops as part of the New Store Development Team.

After several years with M&M Meat Shops, Darryl decided he needed to get back to his love of food and cooking, so he began work again as a chef in several well-known restaurants in Ontario, Canada and eventually became the Executive Chef for Weber’s Restaurants.

In 2001 Chef Darryl expanded into the role of Corporate Chef, first with a retail food broker and then with Toppits Foods Ltd., where he designed recipes for the website and worked in product development. At the same time, Chef Darryl enjoyed teaching cooking classes for leading Canadian retailers Loblaw’s and Zehrs in their “What’s For Dinner” program. He and his recipes have been featured in Canadian Living and Foodservice and Hospitality magazine’s Chef’s Corner.

Darryl is currently the North American Corporate Chef at Aqua Star, working in recipe and product development and corporate sales. He is a popular guest on the Canadian radio show, The Wine Ladies and in his spare time he lends his creativity to Gold Seal, Pillers Meats and The California Olive Oil Company.

He truly lives up to his nickname “Chef of the World”!