Chef turns heartbreak to healing with collaborative cookbook honouring late son

TORONTO - He was a free spirit who loved fishing, cooking and the outdoors. But days before what would have been his 20th birthday, Dan Snook's life was cut tragically short.

The teen died of a drug overdose after years battling addiction. He had turned to drugs to help cope with the horrors of sexual abuse suffered during what should have been a time of fun and adventure in a dream job at sea.

It's been more than three years since Dan's death, and chef Kevin Snook has combined his own culinary expertise and his late son's passions - channelling his grief into a touching literary tribute which also aims to help young people dealing with substance or sexual abuse.

In "A Boy After The Sea," Snook has collected fish and seafood recipes by an all-star roster of chefs from 14 countries, including Canada's David Hawksworth and the U.K.'s Heston Blumenthal, who wrote the foreword. Lush photographs of the colourful dishes are interspersed with stark yet serene black-and-white images of waterways.

But the book extends beyond merely an eye-catching collection of tantalizing dishes. Snook requested that the recipes submitted focus on local rivers, lakes or oceans and emphasize the use of wild, sustainable and pure ingredients, fusing Dan's love of both fish and nature.

Information is also highlighted in "words of wisdom" pages throughout the book drawing attention to fish farming and sustainable farming.

"As a family, we've always been very sustainable and we're into organics, and Dan was big on that as well," he said. "There's so much depletion out there in the world today around this, and I just felt it was necessary to touch on that."

"As you can see through the book, I've only sort of touched on it really to spark people to sort of look into it a bit deeper and make their own decisions."

The U.K.-based Snook, who owned restaurants on Vancouver Island and in Grand Bend, Ont., contacted chefs from all walks of life to participate in the book. He had known some of them personally, while others he had merely admired and respected.

While Snook had initially thought it would be a long process, the response from the chefs "blew my mind." Ninety per cent of those he wrote to agreed to participate, he noted.

"When I told them it was for charity and what the charity was hoping to do, they just with open arms - just sort of came forward. It was wonderful, really."

All proceeds from the book will benefit a Vancouver-based charity established in his son's name. The Dan Snook Trust Foundation aims to help young people between the ages of 15 and 25 who have been dealing with sexual or substance abuse - or both - to help them in moving forward with their lives. The book features details about the foundation and its goals, and ends with a photo of Dan holding a fish and a poignant remembrance from his family.

Snook, who divides his time between Vancouver, where his sons Chris and Elliot live, and a village in England, where he owns a successful cottage business, said the book has been a catharsis of sorts.

"In some ways it helped me deal with the loss really," he said in a phone interview from Bray on Thames. "I've sunk my teeth into the book. I've put all my energy and time into it and it was sort of a release for me."

"Ultimately, it's to help other people that have gone through similar situations to Dan. I want to keep Dan's name alive and I want in Dan's name to help other kids."