2010 Canadian Culinary Book Award Winners

Yesterday I attended the awards ceremony for the 2010 Canadian Culinary Book Awards, held at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair by Cuisine Canada and the University of Guelph. I always find it inspring to be in a room full of several hundred people interested in food and publishing, all there to mark the outstanding accomplishments of their peers.

There were 68 entries in all this year, and several panels of judges not only read through them all, but tested recipes from short-listed entries. (This is a serious competition, folks!) Here are the winners, which are available for purchase at the Cuisine Canada table at the Royal, or at The Cookbook Store for the rest of the year:

Canadian Culinary Landmarks Hall of Fame

This honour was instituted last year, when Elizabeth Driver was recognized for her massive work Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825–1949 (University of Toronto Press, Toronto), a definitive history and bibliography of Canadian cookbooks.

Driver herself inducted three new members and two books. Carol Ferguson and Margaret Fraser were recognized for their 1992 book (now out of print) A Century of Canadian Home Cooking: 1900 through the '90s. Kate Aitken (1891 to 1971) was also honoured posthumously for Kate Aitken's Canadian Cook Book, and for her life's work in disseminating Canadian food culture and wisdom. Her family members accepted on her behalf.

Special Interest – Food and Beverage

• Gold (French language): Maison de Thé Camellia Sinensis, Thé: Histoire, Terroirs, Saveurs, Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal (about the history, cultivation and appreciation of tea)
• Gold (English language): David Sax, Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of the Jewish Delicatessen, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto
• Silver (French language): François Chartier, Papilles et Molécules : La science aromatique des aliments et des vins, Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal (a guide to molecular gastronomy as it relates to wine, and available in English as Tastebuds and Molecules)
• Silver (English language): Tony Aspler, Tony Aspler’s Cellar Book: How to Design, Build, Stock and Manage Your Wine Cellar Wherever You Live, Random House Canada, Toronto
• Honourable mentions: Richard Béliveau and Denis Gingras, La Santé par le plaisir de bien manger, Les Éditions Trécarré, Montréal (French, available in English as Cooking With Foods That Fight Cancer) and Ricki Heller, Sweet Freedom: Desserts You’ll Love without Wheat, Eggs, Dairy or Refined Sugar, Trafford Publishing, Victoria (English)

Special Interest – Canadian Culinary Culture

• Gold (French language): Manuel Kak’wa Kurtness, Pachamama : Cuisines des Premières Nations, Les Éditions du Boréal, Montréal (about the culinary culture and traditions of Quebec’s First Nations.)
• Gold (English language): Chefs’ Table Society of British Columbia, Vancouver Cooks 2, Douglas and McIntyre Publishers, Vancouver
• Silver (English language): Nathalie Cooke, editor, What’s To Eat? Entrées in Canadian Food History, McGill- Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston
• Honourable mention: Michael Howell, Atlantic Seafood: Recipes from Chef Michael Howell, Nimbus Publishing, Halifax (English)

Special Interest Cookbooks

• Gold (French language): Patrice Demers, La Carte des desserts, Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal (a luscious dessert cookbook)
• Gold (English language): Laura Calder, French Taste: Elegant Everyday Eating, Harper Collins, Toronto
• Silver (French language): Antoine Sicotte, Le Cuisinier Rebelle, Les Éditions Cardinal, Montréal (a fun-looking read by a tattoo-sporting musician/self-taught chef)
• Silver (English language): Anna Olson, Fresh with Anna Olson: Seasonally Inspired Recipes to Share with Family and Friends, Whitecap Books, Vancouver
• Honourable mentions: Carlos Ferreira, Ferreira Café : Du Portugal à Montréal, Les Éditions la Presse, Montréal (French) and Michael Smith, The Best of Chef at Home: Essential Recipes for Today’s Kitchen, Whitecap Books, Vancouver (English)

The Edna Award

Honouring Edna Staebler (1906-2006), a Canadian icon and one of the first Canadian authors to extol the virtues of local (regional) food in her best-selling cookbooks (Food That Really Schmecks, and others), this award honours an individual who has contributed to the promotion of regional cuisine and who exemplifies the region through his or her work. This year's recipient is Vancouver chef John Bishop (of Bishop's). Born in Wales, he worked first in England, and moved to Vancouver in 1973, where he worked first with local restaurateur Umberto Menghi as head chef and Maitre'd. He opened Bishop's, one of Vancouver's best restaurants, in 1985.

The Founder's Award

Created by Cuisine Canada founder Anita Stewart, this honour is extended on occasion to those Canadians who have achieved a lifetime of service to the culinary community of Canada. This year's recipient is Elizabeth Baird. Honoured earlier this year as Woman of the Year by the Women's Culinary Network, Baird not only served for two decades as Food Editor of Canadian Living Magazine, but is a remarkably generous and hardworking woman who is dedicated to increasing Canadian food knowledge in every way. Author of numerous best-selling cookbooks, she also is also a host of Canadian Living Cooks on Food Network Canada and contributes in many other ways to the culinary life of this country.

Her award was presented by The Honourable Gerry Ritz. Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, who (incidentally) made some remarkably enlightened comments about the importance of Canada's food culture.

You can read more about the Canadian Culinary Book Award Winners for 2010 on the Cuisine Canada blog.