Kim Thúy among finalists for Taste Canada awards, which recognize Canadian cookbooks and food writing
The Taste Canada Awards annually celebrate the year's best in Canadian food writing. Gold and silver medal winners were awarded across five English-language and five French-language categories.
Montreal writer Kim Thúy is nominated in the regional/cultural cookbook category for her cookbook Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen.
Thúy is best known for her novels, which include Ru, Vi and Man. Ru was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won Canada Reads 2015, when it was defended by TIFF executive director Cameron Bailey.
Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen is a collection of flavorful recipes and profiles the women who raised her to love cooking and sharing meals. Her mother and five aunts each have their own unique story to tell about Vietnam and their connection to food.
Globe and Mail journalist Ann Hui is nominated in the culinary narratives category for Chop Suey Nation.
In Chop Suey Nation, Hui drove to small towns across Canada and visited the family-run Chinese restaurants that dot the country.
TV personality Jillian Harris is nominated in the general cookbook category for Fraiche Food, Full Hearts, a cookbook Harris wrote with her cousin Tori Wesszer.
Other nominated cookbooks include Duchess at Home by Giselle Courteau, Let Me Feed You by Rosie Daykin, Wildness: An Ode to Newfoundland and Labrador by Jeremy Charles and Living High Off the Hog by Michael Olson.
The winners will be announced on Oct. 25, 2020.
The Taste Canada Awards have been recognizing Canadian food writing since 1998.
Last year's gold medal winners included Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse, French Pastry 101 by Betty Hung, Bottom of the Pot by Naz Deravian and The Mindful Glow Cookbook by Abbey Sharp.
You can see the complete 2020 English-languge shortlists below.
Culinary narratives
- Chop Suey Nation by Ann Hui
- Gardening with Emma: Grow and Have Fun: A Kid-to-Kid Guide by Emma Biggs and Steven Biggs
- Island Craft: Your Guide to the Breweries of Vancouver Island by Jon Stott
- Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food by Lenore Newman
- Pepper: A Guide to the World's Favorite Spice by Joe Barth
General cookbooks
- Duchess at Home by Giselle Courteau
- Gather: A Dirty Apron Cookbook by David Robertson and Kerry Gold
- Fraiche Food, Full Hearts: A Collection of Recipes for Every Day and Casual Celebrations by Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer
- Let Me Feed You by Rosie Daykin
- Olive + Gourmando the Cookbook by Dyan Solomon
Regional/cultural cookbooks
- Burdock & Co by Andrea Carlson
- Cedar and Salt: Vancouver Island Recipes from Forest, Farm, Field, and Sea by DL Acken and Emily Lycopolus
- Coconut Lagoon: Recipes from a South Indian Kitchen by Joe Thottungal and Anne DesBrisay
- Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen by Kim Thúy
- Wildness: An Ode to Newfoundland and Labrador by Jeremy Charles
Single-subject cookbooks
- Dirty Food: sticky, saucy, gooey, crumbly, messy, shareable food by Julie Van Rosendaal
- Living High Off the Hog by Michael Olson
- Modern Lunch by Allison Day
- Oven to Table: Over 100 One-Pot and One-Pan Recipes for Your Sheet Pan, Skillet, Dutch Oven, and More by Jan Scott
- Vegetables First by Ricardo Larrivée
Health and special diet cookbooks
- Eat More Plants: Over 100 Anti-Inflammatory, Plant-Based Recipes for Vibrant Living by Desiree Nielsen
- Peace, Love and Fibre by Mairlyn Smith
- Sprout Right Family Food: Good Nutrition and Over 130 Simple Recipes for Baby, Toddler, and the Whole Family by Lianne Phillipson
- The Living Kitchen by Tamara Green and Sarah Grossman
- The Long Table Cook Book, Plant-Based Recipes for Optimal Health by Amy Symington
