If you love food, gardening or good books - or better yet, all of the above - this one's for you.

Author Evaleen Jaager Roy will be in Burnaby for three upcoming signing events for her book Four Chefs One Garden.

The book is described as a "love poem, told in flowers and fettuccine."

As a press release explains, it weaves together backyard gardening tips with recipes from Vancouver's leading chefs - including Italian celebrity chef Umberto Menghi, sushi master Hidekazu Tojo, Indian fusion pioneer Vikram Vij and acclaimed French chef Michel Jacob.

Divided into seasonal sections, the book also includes interviews and horticulture tips from some leading gardeners, including Brian Minter of Minter Gardens, all illustrated with photos showing Vancouver's changing seasons in the garden and the kitchen.

It's a practical resource guide - but, more than that, it's also an expression of Jaager Roy's vision to slow down her life, after taking a sabbatical from an international career.

"One year ago, I walked away from the boardroom, overnight flights and BlackBerrys and stepped into my garden," she explains in the press release. "And bit by bit, as spring turned to summer and summer to fall, the world began to slow down. I was left with a few simple joys: the joy of digging in the dirt and watching things grow and the joy of cooking."

Jaager Roy will be on hand at Gardenworks on Holdom Street on Nov. 18, from 6 to 10 p.m.

She'll also be at the Scandinavian craft fair at the Scandinavian Community Centre, 6540 Thomas St., on Nov. 28, between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., and then again at Gardenworks Mandeville in South Burnaby on Dec. 7, at 7 p.m.

Check out www.fourchefsonegarden.com for all the details.

FILM SERIES SET

Film lovers, I hope that you've marked Monday on your calendars.

The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts is continuing its Black Box Film Series on Nov. 8 with a showing of Mao's Last Dancer.

The film is the true story of Li Cunxin, adapted from his bestselling autobiography. It tells how, amidst Mao's Cultural Revolution, he was chosen to leave his peasant family and sent on a journey - "as it turned out, towards freedom and personal triumph," as a press release explains.

The film is directed by Bruce Beresford.

It screens at 7 p.m. in the Studio Theatre at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, 6450 Deer Lake Ave. Tickets are $10. Buy them at www.shadboltcentre.com or call 604-205-3000.

PHOENIX RISES

Now that's what choral music should sound like.

As regular readers may recall, I had been eagerly anticipating the Phoenix Chamber Choir concert on Saturday, Oct. 30 at Holy Rosary Cathedral.

Knowing Phoenix's well-earned reputation as one of the country's top choirs, with a program that included Fauré's Requiem and Missa Rigensis, by the Latvian composer Ugis Praulins, it promised to be an exciting concert.

And indeed it was.

Singing for a full and appreciative audience, Phoenix (based right here in Burnaby) turned in an exquisite performance of the Missa Rigensis - a fascinating, complex composition that gave the choir a chance to show off its many strengths, both as a group and as individuals.

Their technical excellence was in evidence at all times. Knowing their director, Ramona Luengen (the Burnaby resident who also conducts the Amabilis Singers), this didn't surprise me in the slightest. Anything less than brilliance in pitch, timing and shaping of musical line would have been less than I expected, and the singers did not disappoint.

What they also offered, however, was far more than mastery of technique - it was the ability to carry us all into the music with them and to hold us suspended in a world where all that existed was the moment they had created.

Fauré's Requiem, with organist Roy Campbell and the Shaughnessy Heights United Church Choir, also brought some transcendent moments - as well as gorgeous solos by baritones Colin Hamilton and Rob Hollins and soprano Bonnie Vermeulen (the latter of whom had many heads swivelling towards the choir loft in search of the source of the angelic sounds).

And Amazing Grace, the traditional folk song arranged by the young Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds, was simply magical. Soprano soloist Patti Fletcher had the audience mesmerized from her opening notes, and the choir's performance of the exquisite arrangement left us all in awe.

Save the dates now for their next concerts. A Phoenix Christmas is set for Sunday, Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. at Shaughnessy Heights United Church. And, in the spring, the choir will be performing Revelations III - a concert featuring new works by the participants in its Young Choral Composers Development Program. That's on April 30.

Check out the choir at www.phoenixchamberchoir.bc.ca.