COURTESY LAURIANNE STREIFEL-JACOBS
In a kitchen far, far away, in Oyen Alberta, Kahnawa’kehró:non Corey Jacobs cooks his heart out, with his wife Laurianne Streifel-Jacobs, catching it all on tape.
From bacon cheeseburger pasta and Mexican corn salad to asparagus grilled cheese and barbeque ribs, Jacobs has been cooking up a storm for everyone to see.
“Cooking is a place for me to escape,” said the 42-year-old. “It was a thing I did to spend time with my family, and forget about the outside world.”
Along with his YouTube channel, “Cooking with Corey Jacobs,” the chef has published a cookbook titled, “The Official Cooking with Corey Jacobs Cookbook,” all while working at a restaurant called Debmart.
Making this cookbook was not a walk in the park, and Jacobs said he could not have done it without the help of his incredible wife. “She’s my ghostwriter,” he said. “She wears all the hats.”
Streifel-Jacobs was impressed by the cookbook’s versatility. “There’s a big variety of pretty much everything in there,” she said. “There’s even family-friendly kinds of meals.”
Starting on this professional cooking journey only four months ago, Jacobs’ path has been anything but straight. Moving away from Kahnawake nearly 20 years ago, he was desperately looking for a change.
“I was selling drugs and guns and I was just in the wrong space,” he said. “I had a hard time holding down a job, so when I got to Alberta I was trying to fly straight.”
He moved to Camrose to live with his sister, but unfortunately, the location change did not solve his problem and he started drinking and gambling, falling back into his old ways.
He then decided to move to Oyen, where he met his wife. “Eight months later, I stopped drinking and cleaned up my act,” said Jacobs. “Now I had to take care of somebody else.”
Jacobs and his wife work as an excellent team, creating new content and promoting their work constantly. They are looking to expand their business, creating new cookbooks, sharing their message in schools, catering events, and perhaps one day, even work in a studio.
This business is opening many doors for exciting opportunities, and the duo is ready to take on what lies ahead.
Jacobs is not just working hard for his own benefit, but also has a goal to one day open a foundation for his parents, Diane and Lionel Jacobs. Both his parents passed away with cancer, and he wants to raise money using proceeds from his business to give back and help the cause.
In the meantime, Jacobs is continuing to work hard, build his brand, nurture his family, and most importantly, share his love for food with all of us!
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