Adell Shneer had planned on a life in the visual arts. She graduated from York with Bachelor of Fine Arts intent on a career in graphic design. But somehow, along the way, she heard the call of the kitchen and became a food writer and recipe developer, with much of her career spent in the celebrated Canadian Living test kitchen. So, when it was time for a change, Shneer decided to combine her passions and has launched Cookies by Adell, a bespoke line of biscuits, each painted by hand.
Before setting up her atelier, Shneer went back to school at the Ontario College of Art and Design to study colour. “Everything is about colour,” Shneer told Good Food Revolution, going on to explain that she is particularly inspired and informed by the Swiss theorist and expressionist Johannes Itten. Shneer seeks to provide her cookie eaters with amusing colour matches, and each hue of icing is hand mixed for a precise effect.
The cookies are a “butter spice (not ginger)” wafer, with a pumpkin pie note to balance sweetness of the sugar icing. Shneer finds inspiration in her designs from her daily experience, whether it’s a Missoni ad or fabrics observed on vacation in the Caribbean. She keeps a scrapbook and displays her sketches, as well as executed works, on her Tumblr website.
While Shneer is currently busy taking private orders for Valentine’s Day and working with private commissions, with an eye to begin working with select retailers in the months to come.
Malcolm Jolley is a founding editor of Good Food Revolution and a Toronto-based food writer and journalist. He sits on the steering committee for Terroir 2013 and hopes all interested hospitality professionals have bought their tickets for this year’s conference, because space is limited.
