Suzanne Evans and TV chef Bob Blumer among winners for Taste Canada Awards celebrating Canadian food writing
The awards celebrate Canada’s best cookbooks of the year
Five titles, including work by Ottawa author Suzanne Evans and Montreal-born TV chef Bob Blumer, have won the 2021 Taste Canada's gold medals for English-language books.
The only food writing awards in Canada, the Taste Canada Awards celebrate the best Canadian food writing of the year. Gold and silver medal winners are awarded across five categories.
Evans' The Taste of Longing won gold for culinary narratives.
In The Taste of Longing, Evans looks at the Second World War through the eyes of Ethel Mulvany. The biography chronicles Ethel's journey through the fall of Singapore in 1942, the years of after her internment and her life after beyond. Vintage recipes and transcribed tape recordings are woven into the narrative, serving as the testament of women's strength and resilience during wartime.
Evans is an author and historian from Ottawa. She was a research fellow at the Canadian War Museum and her work has appeared in publications such as Canadian Military History, The Globe and Mail and The Ottawa Citizen.
The silver medal for culinary narrative went to Flat Out Delicious: Your Definitive Guide to Saskatchewan's Food Artisans by Jenn Sharp.
LISTEN | Suzanne Evans discusses The Taste of Longing:
Blumer won the general cookbooks category for Flavorbomb.
Flavorbomb: A Rogue Guide to Making Everything Taste Better features two sections: the first half of the book includes tips, strategies, ingredients, techniques and gear, while the second half consists of 75 step-by-step recipes to make the dishes come to life. Blumer channels his worldly culinary experiences, and helps readers reproduce the same flavours at home.
Born in Montreal, Blumer is best known as a host for Food Network and has written six cookbooks. He now lives in Los Angeles.
Hawksworth: The Cookbook by David Hawskworth, Jacob Richler, Stéphanie Nӧel won the silver medal in the general cookbooks category.
LISTEN | Bob Blumer shares his best food waste tips:
Kiin: Recipes and Stories from Northern Thailand by Nuit Regular won the gold medal for regional/cultural cookbooks. Regular takes the readers on a journey through northern Thailand in 120 authentic recipes with location photography and the unique flavours of northern Thai food.
The silver medal went to Eating Out Loud: Bold Middle Eastern Flavors for All Day, Every Day by Eden Grinshpan.
Baking Day with Anna Olson by Anna Olson is the winner for single-subject cookbooks. The cookbook is filled with 120 sweet and savoury recipes with a range of difficulty levels, to bring friends and family together,
Michael Hunter won the silver medal for The Hunter Chef Cookbook: Hunt, Fish, and Forage in Over 100 Recipes.
Eat Good Fat by Lee Capatina won gold the category of health and special diet cookbooks. In this book, Capatina makes eating healthy simple and shares the best healthy-fat foods to be incorporated into daily meals and snacks.
The silver medal winner is Oh She Glows for Dinner: Nourishing Plant-Based Meals to Keep You Glowing by Angela Liddon.
The 2021 winners are selected from 46 finalists from six provinces.
