Taste Canada Award winners 2018

Taste Canada Awards / Les Lauréats des Saveurs du Canada (tastecanada.org) has announced the winners of the country’s only national, bilingual food writing awards. 

 October is National Cookbook Month #Love Cookbooks #MoreThanRecipes

#TasteCanada

Date: Oct 29th, 2018

Location: Fairmont Royal York Hotel

At the gorgeous and opulent Royal York Hotel a group of food writers gathered to show their appreciation for great cookbook writing and fantastic food blogs.

This is a look at some of the winners. I kept it to the English category for space and my audience.  Photos below are just a few of the winners of the Taste Canada Awards.

A champion of cookbook authors and food bloggers, Taste Canada inspires readers to discover delicious recipes and diverse food stories written from a Canadian perspective. Taste Canada is a not-for-profit founded in 1998. More than just recipes, cookbooks and food blogs reveal Canada’s unique history, culture, and diversity.

“When we write about food, we are really writing about humanity and community; about love and death and biological imperatives; and about the powerful connections and similarities between us. Food writing has been as undervalued as the actual work of food preparation. Taste Canada is the only body in the country recognizing the importance of the work of food writers. Food stories are after all, the real stories of our lives,’ said Lindy Mechefske, author of Out of Old Ontario Kitchens, and Sir John's Table: The Culinary Life and Times of Canada's First Prime Minister (2016 Taste Canada Gold Award Winner for Culinary Narratives),

This year, 91 cookbooks and 50 food blogs entered the competition. A shortlist announced earlier in the year narrowed the competition to a maximum of 5 entries per category.

The 26 gold and silver award winners were revealed at the Taste Canada Awards Gala on October 29 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, co-hosted by Shahir Massoud and Claire Tansey. The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Her Honor Elizabeth Dowdeswell delivered the welcoming and opening remarks. 

The Hall of Fame Awards were presented to The Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr (living) and Constance Hart (posthumous), the first Jewish person in Canada to write a cookbook. This award, sponsored by the Culinary Historians of Canada, goes to authors of a stellar culinary book or body of work that has had a lasting impact on Canadian cuisine.

The annual Gala brings together writers, publishers, chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, industry, media and cookbook fans to promote a vibrant national conversation about food and the art and culture of culinary writing.  

The evening started with a welcome reception by Summer Fresh, followed by the awards presentation, and then, aone-of-a-kind gastronomic celebration, presented by Good in Every Grain,featuring food by Fairmont Royal York Executive Chef j.W. Foster, as well as Ivana Raca (Ufficio), Matt Basile (Lisa Marie/Fidel Gastro’s), Ted Reader (Ted’s Famous BBQ), Trevor Lui and Hemant Bhagwani (Fat Rabbit), Charlotte Langley (Restaurants Canada), Brad Lomanto (Conestoga College), Brian McCourt and Benjamin Lillico (Ignite Restaurant Group), Daniel Stubbe (Cacao Barry), Dufflet Rosenberg (Dufflet),  Trevor Ritchie (Bocuse d’Or Team Canada), and Vanessa Yeung (Aphrodite Cooks). Wines were presented by the Niagara College Teaching Winery. 

In 2017, the total units sold in Canada for books in the “Cooking” subject category amounted to 1.4 million for a total value of $47.4 million, according to BookNet Canada's national sales tracking service for the print English-language trade market, BNC SalesData.

Award Categories (English and French Language)

• General Cookbooks / Livres de Cuisine Générale
• Single-Subject Cookbooks / Livres de Cuisine Sujet Unique
• Regional/Cultural Cookbooks / Livres de Cuisine Régionale et Culturelle
• Culinary Narratives / Narrations Culinaires
• Health and Special Diet Cookbooks / Livres de Cuisine Santé et Diète Particulière
• Food Blogs: General / Blogues culinaire
• Food Blogs: Heath and Special Diet (English only) 

About Taste Canada A champion of Canadian cookbooks and food blogs, Taste Canada inspires and encourages readers at home and abroad to discover delicious recipes and diverse food stories written from a Canadian perspective. Taste Canada brings together Canadian food and beverage writers, publishers, chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, industry, post-secondary culinary colleges, media and cookbook fans, recognizing that food connects us all.  Since 1998, Taste Canada, a national, bilingual not-for-profit, has presented awards to the best Canadian food writers. Awards are presented each year at a Gala in Toronto. For more information, visit tastecanada.org. 

Taste Canada Awards would like to thank our partners who support our mission to champion Canada’s culinary writers including the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, Summer Fresh, Fairmont Royal York, Good in Every Grain, Egg Farmers of Ontario, Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, Restaurants Canada, Toronto Star, Canada’s 100 Best, Eat Your Words and Education Awareness Partner, ThinkBeef.  For more information, visit, tastecanada.org.

TASTE CANADA AWARDS / LES LAURÉATS DES SAVEURS DU CANADA
THE 2018 AWARD WINNERS

English-Language Books
Culinary Narratives

Gold
Vij, Vikram. Vij. Penguin Canada, Toronto

Silver
Phillips, Rod. 9000 Years of Wine. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Markham

General Cookbooks

Gold
Crawford, Lynn. Farm to Chef. Penguin Canada, Toronto

Silver
Wimbush-Bourque, Aimée. The Simple Bites Kitchen. Penguin Canada, Toronto

Regional/Cultural Cookbooks

Gold
Anderson, Lindsay and Dana VanVeller. Feast: Recipes and Stories from a Canadian Road Trip. Appetite by Random House, Vancouver

Silver
Butters, Rod. The Okanagan Table: The Art of Everyday Home Cooking. Figure 1, Vancouver


Single-Subject Cookbooks

Gold
Kohlman, Renée. All the Sweet Things: Baked Goods and Stories from the Kitchen of Sweetsugarbean. TouchWood Editions, Victoria

Silver
Gardner, Kristy. Cooking with Cocktails.Countryman Press, New York

Health and Special Diet Cookbooks

Gold
Podleski, Greta. Yum & Yummer: Ridiculously Tasty Recipes That'll Blow Your Mind, But Not Your Diet!Author/One Spoon Media Inc., Kitchener


Silver
Wright, Laura. The First Mess Cookbook. Penguin Canada, Toronto

English-Language Food Blogs

General Food Blogs

Gold
Rhubarb & Cod, Susan Keefe
www.rhubarbandcod.com

Silver
The Lemon Apron, Jennifer Emilson
www.thelemonapron.com

Health & Special Diet Blogs

Gold
Oh She Glows, Angela Liddon
www.ohsheglows.com

Silver
Joyous Health, Joy McCarthy
www.joyoushealth.com

I will post more about the Cooks the Books event on my next blog post.  Too much to get into one post but a little bit about it.

The winners of Cooks the Books, a cooking competition that invites Canadian culinary students from across the nation to compete for the title of Canada’s Best New Student Chefs, were also announced at the Gala. The Silver Medal was awarded to  Celina do Souto and Sydney Lutz from Conestoga College (Kitchener, Ontario) for their Braised Beef Cheeks with Roasted Squash & Maple Milk Foam recipe.  Jessi Coulter & Kaitlin McCarthy from Assiniboine Community College (Brandon, Manitoba) won the Gold Medal for their Cast Iron Seared Hudson River Arctic Char with Smoked Maple Birch Glaze, on Heritage Grain recipe written.  Cooks the Books – A Student Chef Battle was held at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen in Toronto on October 28.  This competition is presented in partnership with the Alberta Canola Producers Commission and sponsored by Summer Fresh, with Education Awareness Partner, ThinkBeef.ca. 

I have only included the English Canada Categories for the French Canadian winners please check out the Taste Canada Website www.tastecanada.org

The Superfood Chain Documentary

THE SUPERFOOD CHAIN

A Feature Documentary by Ann Shin

70 min | 16:9 | 1:1.78 | 5.1 mix | English Subtitles

Screening at Planet in Focus, October 25-28^th, Toronto, Ontario

Do you know where your food comes from?

The SUPERFOOD CHAIN Documentary is a film by Ann Shin that takes a look at the effects of the so called "Super Foods" on the Food Chain and the people who grow and live on these foods and the companies that change the playing field along the way.  Filmed in Bolivia, Ethiopia, Philippines, and Haida Gwaii.  Director Ann Shin speaks to the people who grow and cultivate the food and survive on the food and income from the farming of these Super Foods and how the marketing industry affects a shift in the Chain.  Do you know why you buy your food and where it comes from and what the actions of your purchases affect the farmers that grow the food and the local community that depend on it? This documentary will make you think twice before randomly buying into the hype while shopping in your local grocery store. 

I asked Director/Producer/Wriiter Ann Shin 7 Questions about the film and the Superfood world.

1.  What was the influence in creating the documentary around the Superfood Chain?

As a mom I try to feed my kids healthy foods, and I've been a bit of a sucker when it came to foods marketed as 'superfoods.' I thought serving up superfoods might be a way to get concentrated goodness into the kids. I was serving up quinoa and my youngest daughter scrunched her nose and asked me where this 'squishy stuff' came from and why did she have to eat it? I didn't really have a good answer for that, other than, it's good for you. She was not convinced. So that set us off on a journey of trying to understand where these so-called 'superfoods' come from, whether they're really that good or not, and how our consumption of it affects farmers who cultivate them.

2.  It seemed to me that the title and some of the events in the film were about different things so was what you intended to document changed drastically during filming?  Was there a certain section you had in mind you wanted to discuss? If so, please feel free to let me know.

I can say that I was surprised to learn about the multiple issues faced by the small coconut farmer in Philippines. Not only did they lack the machines required to process coconuts in order to sell them to virgin coconut oil processing companies, but they were even facing eviction from the land they and their families had been living on for generations. 

3.  How long did it take to film the documentary?

2 years 

4.  Was there any push back from local government or businesses?

One of the issues we explored was the pressure on salmon stocks by the 3 competing fisheries: commercial, sport and aboriginal fisheries. Sport fishery companies would not speak about it, but we did manage to get one representative from a commercial fishery to speak about it. 

The issue of the farmers' land rights in Philippines was complicated, and while there wasn't government push back per se, there were two different government bodies each pointing the finger at the other saying it was not their jurisdiction, but the others. So we didn't make much headway there.

5.  What did you think was the most shocking and frustrating thing that you learned in the making of the film?

Global food trends can cause real havoc with food sustainability in growing regions. For example, when quinoa first became popular in North America as a 'superfood' there was a quinoa price boom in Bolivia, which benefitted farmers, but it also made quinoa unaffordable for locals, and created land disputes among people who wanted to start growing quinoa. As quinoa started being planted by large farms in the US, China, Canada and elsewhere, quinoa prices plummeted so now many Bolivian farmers who once grew quinoa crops are no longer growing quinoa. They can't make a living off it.

A second concern is about land rights which is a real issue for farmers in developing countries who have lived on land for generations without necessarily owning land titles. As the country develops, people with business interests can move in and initiate paperwork for titles to land hitherto unclaimed, and then proceed to evict farmers from the land. This is what Susan and her fellow coconut farmers in the Philippines are facing.

6.  What can people do to make a difference in the Superfood Chain of the future?

1) Think sustainability -- think about local, sustainable food alternatives to popular 'superfoods'. For instance, wild caught salmon is a 'superfood' known for having a lot of omega 3 oils. But did you know that sardines and anchovies are much smaller fish that are plentiful, they are more sustainable as a food, and are also high in omega oils.

2) Buy fair trade. I learned that fair trade organizations not only help farmers get paid fairly for their work, but they do other important work like lobby for farmers' land rights and form co-ops to provide small farmers access to processing machinery. It's worth going out of your way to buy fair trade.

7.  Is there anything else you would like people to know about your experience or the people in the film that you couldn't put into the film?

What my daughters and I really benefitted from the journey was getting more connected with our food, and the people who cultivate it. We saw how most superfoods are ancient foods from cultures with traditions around the cultivation and preparation of these foods. The way coconut is infused in so much of the cooking in the Philippines, from soups to breakfast to dessert, it's a natural part of their diet. It's similar with Teff and the local diet in Ethiopia, Quinoa in Bolivia. We got a deeper sense of the connection with the land and the cultural traditions around each food. I think if we all cultivated a deeper connection to the food we eat (that is, find out where it comes from, how it's grown) we will naturally make more sustainable, nutritious and delicious(!) choices.

Here is the link to Ann's website: website   Twitter @FathomFilm    Facebook / FathomFilm Group

www.thesuperfoodchain.com