Books a great last-minute gift for the foodie in your life: Andrew Coppolino

The last hours are clicking by and if you're stuck on what to get the foodie in your life, a book can be a good option.

David Worsley of Waterloo's Words Worth Books in Waterloo, Ont., offers this short list of last-minute gift suggestions.

For Worsley, the food-writing genre can capture the essence of food and food culture, and he adds that each year, books about food drive customer traffic to the store.

"Food writing is great because it showcases not just food, not just culture, not just 'Hey, this tastes good,' but it's the quality of the writing, front to finish," he said.

"There's a long history of food writing and it attracts people who really know how to work with a pen."

Eating Like a Mennonite

This year, one such book that has driven traffic has an historic and close connection to Waterloo region — Marlene Epp's book Eating Like a Mennonite considers what food means for this lesser-understood sub-culture that, in many places in Canada, is subject to "migration, modernization and politics," and outside influences that they can't control, Worsley said.

"But they do control their own small corner, and food is a huge part of that corner that Epp explores. It's a rare thing: the book is a scholarly work that reads like a great drama," Worsley said.

Few local food lovers and food-history aficionados need to be reminded of the presence of Edna Staebler and her food writing. Of course, Wilfrid Laurier University's Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction recognizes annually the best creative nonfiction book that exhibits Canadian locale and significance.

The Lost Supper

The 100-mile diet has been embraced by many people who have staunchly supported the idea of local and now hyper-local food.

However, Tara Grescoe's The Lost Supper looks at the very distant past for clues as to how sustainable eating in the future, including at restaurants, might rely on what humans ate millennia ago.

"What did the Greeks, the founding civilizations, do that pre-dated industry and the industrial revolution, climate change and biotechnology, and so on? What happened hundreds or thousands of years ago with our food production that was sustainable and just plain worked? And what are restaurants able to gather from this information as presented by Grescoe?"

Worsley says Grescoe's book is penetratingly discerning food-for-thought about an institution that many love but perhaps take for granted.

Jamie Oliver and Mary Berg

Describing these two cookbook authors and media food personalities as "blue chip," Worsley selects Five Mediterranean Ingredients and In Mary's Kitchen as among the most popular books for seasonal gifts.

"If you've got a foodie in your life and you're not 100 per cent sure and it's December 23, you're not going to wrong with either Jamie Oliver or Mary Berg. Both of these cooks and stars are stalwarts on the Food Network," he says.

And both are published by Random House's Appetite, a major imprint which Worsley says "knows a thing or two" about publishing in the food genre.

The Scottish Kitchen

The book might be described as a look into a little-known cuisine, at least on this side of the pond, according to Worsley; he adds that he's sure Scotland isn't known as "a world power" when it comes to food.

"I seem to recall several jokes about it on the stand-up comedy circuit, but The Scottish Kitchen gives you everything you want to know about root vegetables, all manner of fish and whatever's cooked in Glasgow, Edinburgh and points Scottish."

101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die 

What the Scots do execute very well is whisky. And the bracing beverage is a popular sipper for the upcoming cold winter months and then when all-things-Scottish are saluted on Robbie Burns Day later in January.

For Worsley, Ian Buxton's book, now in its fifth edition (also published by the Appetite imprint), presents the approachability of the revered spirit and does a deep dive into lesser-known whiskies from around the world to which Worsley proffers his own self-deprecating squib of humour.

"What I love about 101 Whiskies is that it's a populist work, in the best sense, not just a collection of really expensive stuff that nobody but Russian oligarchs can afford. Rather, what's the really good stuff that, well, booksellers can afford? I dip into this as bedtime reading," he said with a smile.