Self-published Canadian cookbook star Jean Pare dies at 95 in Edmonton

An Alberta-born international cooking icon and Order of Canada recipient died on Christmas Eve in Edmonton.

At age 95, recipe maker Jean Paré died, her family confirmed to CTV News Edmonton. Best known for authoring more than 200 Company's Coming cookbooks, she was also a mother of four and ran a catering business for 18 years.

Born in Irma, Alta., in 1927, she formed Company's Coming Publishing Limited with her son, Grant Lovig, in Edmonton. It went on to become Canada's largest publisher of cookbooks.

Lovig explained how the idea behind Company's Coming started while his mother worked at her catering company in Vermilion.

"People would come up to her in the kitchen and say, 'Oh, I've got to have the recipe for these squares or that dessert or whatever it might be,'" Lovig said. "And she would write it out by hand.

"And then, the next person would ask for the same recipe, so she would write it out by hand again, and that's when she said I'm going to write a cookbook," he added.

"She had so many requests for recipes that she said, 'One day, I'm going to write a cookbook.' And she actually got to the point that she bought a typewriter."

(Source: Amanda Hagg)

Later, he decided to pitch publishing a cookbook to her. Lovig said it was a way to combine his entrepreneurial spirit with a desire to help his mom, he said, while repaying her for all the "rotten things" he did as a teenager.

At 53, Paré and her son started the publishing company in 1980, with the name honouring her parent's home that overlooked Irma's main street.

"You could see when people were coming over," Lovig said. "Her mom would always say, company's coming."

After 30 years, more than 30 million cookbooks have been sold. Each focused on providing recipes containing accessible and affordable ingredients.

"Every book we ever published was a best-seller many times over. We just had tremendous support from right across Canada and right across the world," Lovig reflected. "These are cookbooks made to be used; they are kitchen workbooks."

(Source: Grant Lovig)

To this day, Lovig says people most appreciated his mother's cookbooks since they were quick, easy recipes.

"My mom was a very practical person," he added. "If it couldn't be said in just a few words, then it wasn't worth saying. So she had a way of distilling these recipes down to something that was just right to the point, no fuss, no muss."

Lovig described his mother as a dedicated and loving person. While she may have been Canada's most loved cookbook author, to him and his family, she was mom.

"She'd always be the first one at the office. She'd bound up the stairs and turn on the coffee and get it ready for the staff to come," Lovig said. "I'm proud of her and what she accomplished. But again, I'm happiest that she was mom."

He's happy that a little piece of his mom will live on in kitchens across the country for years to come.

"Jean's legacy will be upheld through her four children, plus her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren," said Amanda Lovig Hagg, her granddaughter.

(Source: Grant Lovig)

"[Paré's] passions outside the kitchen included travel, and helping others in need — especially women," Lovig Hagg added in a statement.

"She loved to tell a good joke and couldn't resist chocolate, often eating her dessert first."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jessica Robb and Kyra Markov