For the 25th consecutive year, Taste Canada Awards has announced the winners of Canada’s only national, bilingual food writing awards.
This year, eighty-seven cookbooks entered the Taste Canada competition, representing authors from nine provinces. The shortlist announced in June narrowed the competition to forty-five cookbooks, representing authors from six provinces.
CANADA’S BEST COOKBOOKS 2022 English-Language Books
Culinary Narratives
Gold – Bread & Water: Essays by dee Hobsbawn-Smith, University of Regina Press, Regina Silver
Silver – Food to Grow On: The Ultimate Guide to Childhood Nutrition from Pregnancy to Packed Lunches by Sarah Remmer and Cara Rosenbloom, Appetite by Random House, Vancouver
General Cookbooks
Gold – Well Seasoned: A Year’s Worth of Delicious Recipes by Mary Berg, Appetite by Random House, Vancouver
Silver – Fast Easy Cheap Vegan by Sam Turnbull, Appetite by Random House, Vancouver
Regional/Cultural Cookbooks
Gold – Eat, Habibi, Eat! Fresh Recipes for Modern Egyptian Cooking by Shahir Massoud, Appetite by Random House, Vancouver
Silver – Macedonia: The Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Balkans by Katarina Nitsou, Interlink Books (Thomas Allen & Son), Markham
Single-Subject Cookbooks
Gold – Jam Bake: Inspired Recipes for Creating and Baking with Preserves by Camilla Wynne, Appetite by Random House, Vancouver
Silver – The Zero-Waste Chef: Plant-Forward Recipes and Tips for a Sustainable Kitchen and Planet by Anne-Marie Bonneau, Penguin Canada, Toronto
Health or Special Diet Cookbooks
Gold – The Food Doula Cookbook: A Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy and a Nourished New Mom by Lindsay Taylor, Plumleaf Press, Oakville
HALL OF FAME
The Taste Canada Hall of Fame celebrates the personalities who have shaped Canadian culinary writing and made a lasting contribution to our culture through their influential and inspirational cookbooks. Collectively, these authors’ stellar books or bodies of work have had a durable impact on understanding the evolution of our unique Canadian cuisine. The Culinary Historians of Canada sponsor the Hall of Fame.
The first inductee for 2022 is the late Savella Stechishin. Savella Stechishin (1903– 2002) is inducted for Traditional Ukrainian Cookery (1957), still internationally acknowledged as the definitive English-language guide for Ukrainian cooking. It endures as a reference for Ukrainians while sharing their cuisine with cooks of other heritages. In 1913 at age nine, Stechishin immigrated to Saskatchewan. She married at 17 and bore three children, then earned a Home Economics degree. She became a cooking teacher, university lecturer and journalist. Stechishin received multiple honours for community advocacy, journalism, education, and establishing Ukrainian-Canadian organizations. Her Order of Canada recognized her dominant role as a teacher and writer who preserved and shared the treasures of Ukrainian-Canadian cuisine and folk arts.
The second inductee for 2022 is Micheline Mongrain-Dontigny. Micheline Mongrain- Dontigny published fourteen cookbooks on contemporary and historical Quebecois cuisine. As a chef, she taught cooking classes, worked in restaurants, wrote for magazines, and lectured on Quebec culinary history. She was a jury member for the Canadian Grand Prix New Product Awards and Taste Canada’s predecessor Cuisine Canada, for which she chaired the French-language cookbook committee. Her earliest cookbook was La Cuisine Renouvelée (1988). Her latest is Les Grands Classiques de la Cuisine d’Ici (2016). Her cookbooks celebrate traditional and contemporary recipes as prepared in Quebec today in both home and professional kitchens. We recognize her lifetime achievement in culinary writing.
Taste Canada and the Culinary Historians of Canada are happy to induct Savella Stechishin and Micheline Mongrain-Dontigny into the Hall of Fame.
TASTE CANADA COOKS THE BOOKS PRESENTED BY CANADIAN BEEF
The winners of Taste Canada Cooks the Books presented by Canadian Beef, a cooking competition that invites Canadian culinary students from across the nation to compete for the title of Canada’s Best New Student Chef, were also announced at the gala.
The gold medal was awarded to Adreanna Russell and Sahil Ahuja from Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario, for their Corned Beef Tongue with Mustard Jus, Pickled Cabbage & Glazed Carrots.
The silver medal was awarded to Margaret Joan Miller and Aidan Moher from Top Toques Institute of Culinary Excellence in Kitchener, Ontario for their Sous Vide Flank Steak Roulade with Smoked Maple Barley Parcels.
Cooks the Books – A Student Chef Battle, took place live the night before the gala. The students created a recipe and executed the dish, which was judged based on their technical recipe writing skills, professional conduct in the arena, adherence to competition rules and sensory experience delivered on the plate by Joshna Maharaj, Peter Sanagan, Ryan Marquis, and Trevor Lui. The competition is presented by Canadian Beef.
ABOUT TASTE CANADA
A champion of Canadian cookbooks, 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.
Taste Canada is a not-for-profit organization and remains sustainable due to the generous support and sponsorship received from industry partners and supporters.
Since 1998, Taste Canada has presented awards to the best Canadian food writers. Awards are presented each year at a Gala in Toronto. Additional information can be found at tastecanada.org.
