On Friday, November 6, 2009, Cuisine Canada and The University of Guelph hosted the 12th annual Canadian Culinary Book Awards at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto, Ontario.
Some of Canada’s top food professionals, chosen as judges, spent the summer testing recipes and evaluating culinary books from more than 50 entered. The winners are:
Canadian Culinary Landmarks Hall of Fame
For the first time, in 2009, Cuisine Canada and The University of Guelph inaugurated a Hall of Fame award. The award is given to honour outstanding achievements in the field of culinary writing.
Culinary …

As a Home Economist and a Registered  Dietitian,  I am at times torn between loving food (and I mean ALL food – including the delicious crispy fat on a BBQ’d pork chop;  full fat Brie cheese with white crusty bread;  that yummy icing made out of sugar and lard on bakery cakes) and, well… being a Dietitian!
One  food that conflicts me is “seasoned” pork and chicken, which is not “seasoned” in the sense of having added spices or flavourings, as the name might suggest.  Instead, these products have been injected …

The shops are bursting with them.  Take a country drive, and you will see road side stand after road side stand.  Jack-o’-lantern pumpkins everywhere, and not a bite to eat.
Well, yes, you can eat them.  But why would you, when there are better choices for getting a really decent, and memorable eating pumpkin.
I was talking with Heather Lekx and Donald Bowyer, farmers at Ignatius Farm CSA in Guelph Ontario, and purveyors of pumpkins galore.  Their impression is that interest in pumpkins is split.  People either want a jack-o’-lantern, which usually …

The Canadian Culinary Book Awards promise lots of excitement on Friday, November 6th. But once the speeches are over and the reception food gobbled, things really start cooking. Literally.
We have a baker’s dozen of celebrity chefs lined up at the cooking stage. Some of Canada’s best known culinary stars will be sharing their secret ingredients while chef students from Liaison College, Georgian College, Stratford Chefs School and George Brown College prepare a signature dish.
As if that wasn’t enough? At each cooking presentation, six lucky people will win a place at …

Don’t touch that dial!
On Sunday, November 1st, three Cuisine Canada members will be hitting the airwaves.  Short-listed author, Rose Murray, nominated for A Taste of Canada, will be talking to Kitchener foodie and radio host, Andrew Coppolino, on “The Food Show.”  Micheline Mongrain-Dontigny, organizer of the French-language awards, will be calling in from Quebec while Fiona Lucas, incoming Chair of the Canadian Culinary Book Awards, also joins the discussion. Together they’ll promote our national awards to this local audience.
“The Food Show” is broadcast on Rogers 570 News each Sunday, from …

Trends, trends, trends.  Everyone’s talking about them.  Food trends abound, but which ones are here to stay (at least for the time being).  Bensimon Byrne’s recent Consumerology Report focused on food consumer trends for Canadians, and the insight is interesting.  Where we are going, as a nation, with how we interpret food and health, is enlightening, but also clouded in misconceptions, and full of potentials for food professionals.
No big surprises are here for anyone in the food industry, still let me summarize some of the most interesting findings:

Consumers are …

Cookbooks have come a long way since their inception. Simple line drawings have given way to glossy coloured photos, bare-bones directions have ballooned into detailed step-by-step instructions, and a well-planned index is a must.
Just as the contents of cookbooks has changed, so has the approach to promotion. While nothing will ever replace a good old-fashioned, face-to-face book signing, on-line social media is becoming a marketing essential.
To get an idea of what’s going on in the world of book promotions, we talked to long-time Cuisine Canada member Jeff Crump about how …