Anita Stewart’s Canada (HarperCollins, 2009)
Written by Anita Stewart
Reviewed by Karl Wells

Anita Stewart’s Canada documents an extraordinary culinary journey across Canada. It is an impressive book because its voice is that of someone who demonstrates a deep interest in Canadian food culture. The book’s attractive cover, featuring buttery brioche slathered with blackcurrant preserve, belies the breadth and depth of the book’s rich content. Stewart’s description of ice fishing in Gimli, Manitoba is riveting as she tells of fishing on a frozen lake covered in drifting snow at minus 25 degrees Celsius. She uses that frigid setting to launch an account of Canadian fishing history, accurately pointing out that it was Newfoundland cod that the first Europeans sought, not “furs to clothe the fashionistas of the day.”

The book is slightly different in that it is divided by some less conventional food categories, i.e. Corn, Beans & Squash, Potatoes, Fruit & Nuts et cetera. However, Stewart begins each section by beautifully describing the importance of each food grouping in Canadian cuisine. In the Fruit & Nuts section she writes of going on a berry picking expedition with her mom in their 1959 Pontiac, “It was like we were going on an edible treasure hunt with no particular destination. We might get waylaid by a row of elderberries hanging seductively on the other side of a watery ditch in Proton Township, or by a hedgerow of chokeberries that we’d pick quickly…”

Real Canadians

What I particularly liked about Anita Stewart’s Canada and what I thought gave this volume such credibility, as a work of food journalism, was the many references to real Canadians. Stewart traveled the length and breadth of Canada and met with individual farmers, fishermen, cooks and characters. They told her in their own words about the food and cooking of their region. And those words describe the cuisine of our country.

There was Manitoba ice fisherman David Olsen, of Icelandic heritage, with a penchant for pan-fried pickerel, Dorothy Grove of Waterloo County Ontario, a Mennonite waffle maker extraordinaire, and John and Flossie MacDonald of Prince Edward Island, blueberry aficionados who shared a recipe for Island Blueberry Buckle, a recipe, by the way, that worked perfectly. In fact, all the recipes I tried from Anita Stewart’s Canada came out well, but I would have expected no less from the author the National Post describes as the “Wonder Woman of Canadian Cuisine.”

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A career television, radio, and print journalist, Karl Wells is a self-acknowledged lifelong foodie. Currently, Karl hosts the Rogers TV show, One Chef One Critic, featuring food stories, foodie guests and a popular cooking segment. He is also restaurant critic for The Telegram in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Photo by Karl Wells.