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 Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825–1949 by Elizabeth Driver (University of Toronto Press, Toronto)

Canadian Landmarks is a definitive history and bibliography of Canadian cookbooks from the beginning, when La Cuisinière bourgeoise was published in Quebec City in 1825, to the mid-twentieth century. Over the course of more than ten years Elizabeth Driver researched every cookbook published within the borders of present-day Canada, whether a locally authored text or a Canadian edition of a foreign work. Every type of recipe collection is included, from trade publisher’s bestsellers and advertising cookbooks to home economics textbooks and fundraisers from church women’s groups.

The entries for 2,276 individual titles are arranged chronologically by their province or territory of publication, revealing cooking and dining customs in each part of the country over 125 years. Full bibliographical descriptions of first and subsequent editions are augmented by author biographies and corporate histories of the food producers and kitchen-equipment manufacturers who often published the books. Driver’s excellent general introduction sets the evolution of the cookbook genre in Canada, while introductions to each province identify regional differences in developments and trends. Four indexes and a chronology of Canadian cookbook history provide other points of access to the wealth of material in this impressive reference work.

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The Edna

Edna Staebler (1906-2006) was a Canadian icon and one of the first Canadian authors to extol the virtues of local (regional) food in her best-selling Schmecks cookbooks. Her portrayal of Old Order Mennonites and Waterloo County food lifted the region into a culinary destination in Canada. In 1996, Cuisine Canada inaugurated a lifetime achievement award (The Edna) given that year to Edna and thereafter to an individual who has contributed to the promotion of regional cuisine and who exemplifies the region through his or her work.

This year, Robert Arniel is the recipient of The Edna.

Mr. Arniel is recognized for his exceptional and long-standing contribution to regional cuisine in the field of restaurant and food service. He has lived and worked in St. John’s for the past 23 years. From 1985 to 1995, Bob worked as Sous Chef at the Hotel Newfoundland, Executive Chef at the Stel Battery, Chef Instructor at the Marine Institute, and Food Production Manager at the Health Care Corporation.

Among his many accomplishments, Chef Bob has been a competitor, coach of junior teams and judge of national culinary competitions, representing Atlantic Canada three times at the National Dairy Bureau Competition. In 1989 he was named Newfoundland Chef of the Year and in 2007 he was a member of a Team Canada chef expedition to Brussels for Fisheries Canada.

Throughout his career Bob Arniel’s philosophy has been to use local ingredients whenever possible and to promote them to the world. But most of all, teach people how to cook them with passion.

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The Founders Award

Cuisine Canada’s Founders Award is given on occasion to those Canadians who have achieved a lifetime of service to the culinary community of Canada. They may be come from any field of culinary endeavour.

This year’s recipient of the Cuisine Canada Founder’s Award is Judy Creighton.

Every single week of the year she provides Canadian Press and the people of Canada with what she calls a “Food File.” It is a massive array of stories – a feature with images and recipes; a cookbook review; a timely, issue-focused food interest piece plus five feature recipes which include images, the caveat that one of these recipes must be vegetarian. This file is delivered on line to over 100 newspaper outlets from Yellowknife and Fort McMurray to St. John’s Newfoundland. The websites www.cbc.ca routinely picks up her work as does Associated Press.

From her Canadian Press platform, Judy has always focused on the Canadian food scene, whether it is an update on how the peach season is looking this year or why Canadian garlic is so hard to buy. She talks to the people who have worked to develop both distinct Canadian cuisine and Canadian-grown food. She knows farmers, fishers, cookbook writers and chefs from coast to coast. She covers the trends before they even are trends — Judy wrote about the eat-local food trend long before others did. And she does it with the discerning eye of a seasoned journalist whose beat just happens to be food.

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English-Language Culinary Books

Canadian Food Culture Category:

books that best illustrate Canada’s rich culinary heritage and food culture

GOLD:
Anita Stewart’s Canada
by Anita Stewart (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Toronto)

Anita Stewart’s Canada draws upon the personal element of local and regional cooking. Each chapter describes the history of the theme ingredients, and every recipe carries a story and a tradition. This book is the culmination of years of work, with many wonderful personal stories from Canadian food producers, restaurateurs and home cooks.

SILVER:
Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms
by Margaret Webb (Penguin Group Canada, Toronto)

On this passionate, cross-Canada odyssey, Margaret Webb introduces readers to 12 great farmers or, as she calls them, chefs of the soil and the sea, tractor-seat philosophers, poet biologists, thingamajig inventors, and zealous educators. Her stories of the challenges they face growing good food are inspiring, touching, gritty.

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Cookbook Category:

GOLD:
Small Plates for Sharing
Laurie Stempfle, Ed. (Company’s Coming Publishing Limited, Edmonton)

Small Plates for Sharing is a stylish collection of entertaining party food recipes. It offers everything needed for easy entertaining: menu suggestions, tips and tricks, how-to photos, and imaginative presentation ideas. In 2007, Company’s Coming commissioned Laurie Stempfle to research and develop the guidelines for a distinctly new cookbook series to be called Practical Gourmet, for which this is the first title.

SILVER:
The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book: The Essentials of Home Baking
by Elizabeth Baird (Transcontinental Books, Montreal)

The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book celebrates the pleasure of home baking and reflects the excellence of the magazine’s tested-till-perfect baking recipes. As Canadian Living’s food editor for more than 20 years, Elizabeth Baird is one of Canada’s foremost experts on Canadian cooking and foods.

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Special Interest Food and Beverage Books:

Books about food; non-cookbooks

GOLD:
Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China
by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (Random House Canada, Toronto)

Beyond the urbanized China lies the high open spaces and sacred places of Tibet, the Silk Road oases of Xinjiang, the steppes of Inner Mongolia, and the terraced hills of Yunnan and Guizhou. Peoples living in these regions are culturally distinct, with their own culinary traditions. In Beyond the Great Wall, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid bring home the flavours of this other China.

SILVER:
Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood
by Taras Grescoe (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Toronto)

Bottomfeeder is the first book to provide readers with a clear explanation of how to choose the best fish for our environment and our bodies. Taras Grescoe travels to the end of the seafood supply chain and back. He pulls up lobster traps in Nova Scotia and visits British Columbia’s salmon farms with a guerrilla ecologist. Grescoe discovers how out-of-control pollution, unregulated fishing practices and global warming are affecting the fish that end up on our plates.

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French-Language Culinary Books

Canadian Food Culture Category:

Books that best illustrate Canada’s rich culinary heritage and food culture

GOLD:
Québec capitale gastronomique
by Anne L Desjardins (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal)

This book is an attempt to reflect the immense collaboration between chefs and producers, which has allowed the region of the Capitale-Nationale to create a gastronomy that is at once distinct, original and close to its source. Anne Desjardins is a journalist specializing in food, gastronomy and wines.
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Cookbook Category:

GOLD:
Ricardo: parce qu’on a tous de la visite: cuisiner en toutes circonstances

by Ricardo (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal)

This book is for occasions we all encounter in our everyday lives. Ricardo: parce qu’on a tous de la visite is available in English under the title Ricardo: meals for every occasion. It proposes humorous, inspiring recipes that are simple and flavourful. Ricardo has published three cookbooks, his magazine “Ricardo” is available in French and English, and we can watch his TV food shows on the Food Network and CBC in French.

SILVER:
Gibier à poil et à plume: découper, apprêter et cuisiner
by Jean-Paul Grappe (Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal)

This book not only proposes delicious and original ways to prepare game but also a lot of information and techniques that will help hunters maximize their catches. Jean-Paul Grappe has been a great chef of many well known establishments, owner of many great restaurants and a professor at the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec for 22 years.

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Special Interest Food and Beverage Book Category:

Books about food; non-cookbooks

GOLD:
Les vins du nouveau monde, Volume 2,
by Jacques Orhon, (Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal)

In this second book dedicated to the wines of the New World, Jacques Orhon continues to explore the southern hemisphere by visiting the wineries of Latin America. Jacques Orhon is a wine professor, lecturer and expert in wine tasting.

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SILVER:
Répertoire des fromages du Québec, Édition augmentée
by Richard Bizier and Roch Nadeau (Les Éditions du Trécarré-Groupe Librex inc., Montréal)

This third edition is the reflection of the spectacular growth that is happening in Quebec regarding cheese making. It is a unique world phenomenon. Richard Bizier has been a food columnist since 1972 and Roch Nadeau is a stylist-photographer who specializes in artist and culinary pictures.

All winning titles have been deposited with the Culinary Collection at the University of Guelph.