TORONTO – Some of Canada’s celebrity chefs took top honours for their written work in Taste Canada’s food writing awards Monday.
Michael Smith, David Rocco and Josee Di Stasio each won for their cookbooks.
“Michael Smith’s Kitchen” (Penguin Canada), which contains 100 recipes the Food Network Canada host regularly uses in his own home, won in the general cookbook category. Di Stasio’s “A la di Stasio 3” (Flammarion Quebec), which draws recipes and tips from her Tele-Quebec television show, won in the same category for French language books.
Rocco’s “Made in Italy (HarperCollins), with beautiful on-location photography complementing his memoir/cookbook, won in the regional/cultural cookbooks category. In the same category in French, Vincent Beck and Diem Ngoc Phan’s “Asie: Un voyage culinaire” (Modus Vivendi) was the winner.
In the culinary narratives category, “Genese de la cuisine quebecoise” (Fides) by Jean-Marie Francoeur and Ottawa-based Natalie MacLean’s “Unquenchable” (Doubleday Canada) won.
“Spilling the Beans” (Whitecap) by Julie Van Rosendaal and Sue Duncan won for single-subject cookbook in English and “Nos 200 meilleurs desserts et biscuits” from Coup de Pouce (Les Editions Transcontinental) won in French.
Judges sorted through 73 submissions, testing recipes, reading narratives and studying the presentation to choose the winners, Karen Gelbart, national chairwoman of Taste Canada, said in a release.
Also at the reception in the recently renovated Arcadian Court in Toronto, culinary activist Anita Stewart was inducted into the Taste Canada Hall of Fame, which celebrates personalities who have shaped Canadian culinary writing and made a lasting contribution to our culture.
Stewart of Elora, Ont., has spoken, written, lobbied and organized across Canada and internationally for nearly three decades on Canadian cuisine. The author of 14 cookbooks was named earlier this year as a member of the Order of Canada.
There were several posthumous inductees. Pioneer Catharine Parr Traill (1802-1899) was author of “The Female Emigrant’s Guide” and “Hints on Canadian Housekeeping.”
Jeanne Anctil (1875-1926) was a teacher of household science, principal of the Ecoles-Ménagères Provinciales in Montreal and the author of “350 Recettes de Cuisine,” published in 1912, and reissued in 1915 and 1924.
Margo Oliver (1923-2010) is often referred to as Canada’s “Betty Crocker.” She wrote weekly columns between 1959 and 1982 as food editor of Weekend Magazine and its successor Today.
Taste Canada – The Food Writing Awards is an evolution of the former Canadian Culinary Book Awards, annually recognizing and celebrating writing and publishing throughout Canada’s English and French culinary world.
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