Twenty years of Toronto kitchens taught me a lot about cooking, and almost nothing about the people eating the food.

Long shifts, big rooms, hundreds of plates a night going out to a dining room I never set foot in. I got very good at it. I just never got to see whether anyone enjoyed it.

Meals by Alex is the opposite of that. I write the menu, do the shopping, and cook every portion myself — no line, no second pair of hands. On Sunday I hand it to you and you tell me what you thought. If something isn't right, you're talking to the person who made it.

It stays small on purpose. I know what's in every container and who it's going to.

— Alex, Toronto