Ken Kostick (1 June 1953 – 21 April 2011)"Cooking show celebrity Ken Kostick dies".
CBC News. Retrieved 23 April 2011. was a Canadian chef and television and radio personality, best known for co-hosting the television series '' What's for Dinner?'' with Mary Jo Eustace.

Early life

Kostick was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

on 1 June 1953 and was raised in the

North End, Winnipeg Winnipeg's North End is a large urban area located to the north and northwest of Downtown Winnipeg. Paskievich, John. The North End Revisited, Photographs by John Paskievich. University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg 2017. It is bordered by the Red ...

area. He also attended St. John's High School.

Broadcasting career

He cohosted the

Life Network Slice is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel primarily broadcasts programming targeting young adult women, including comedy, reality, lifestyle, and true crime programming. It was launched on J ...

series ''What's for Dinner?'' with Eustace in the 1990s and early 2000s. The show was noted particularly for Kostick and Eustace's comedic banter, focusing in part on whether or not Kostick and Eustice were a couple, as well as Kostick's public ambiguity at the time about whether or not he was

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

. He also wrote several bestselling

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (food), course (appetize ...

s and put out an

eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

line of cooking products. Kostick and Eustace debuted on Toronto's new

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

-focused radio station Proud FM in 2007 as cohosts of the morning show. Eustace left the show in June 2008, following which Kostick continued to host alone until leaving the station in December of that year. The duo then reunited for the new

W Network W Network (often shortened to W) is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel primarily broadcasts general entertainment programming oriented towards a female audience. W Network was ...

series '' He Said, She Said with Ken and Mary Jo''.

Death

On 21 April 2011, Kostick died in Toronto of complications of

pancreatitis Pancreatitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the pancreas. The pancreas is a large organ behind the stomach that produces digestive enzymes and a number of hormone A hormone (from the Ancient Greek, Greek participle , "se ...

. He was 57 years old. It was later confirmed after his passing that he was gay.

References

1953 births 2011 deaths Canadian radio hosts Canadian television chefs Canadian cookbook writers Deaths from pancreatitis Canadian gay entertainers Canadian gay writers Writers from Winnipeg Canadian LGBTQ broadcasters Canadian chefs 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people {{Canada-tv-bio-stub