Taste Canada Announces the 2021 Winners of Canada’s National, Bilingual Food Writing Awards

For the 24th consecutive year, Taste Canada Awards / Les Lauréats des Saveurs du Canada has announced the winners of the country’s only national, bilingual food writing awards. 

This year, 73 cookbooks entered the competition, representing authors from 9 provinces. A shortlist announced in June narrowed the competition to a maximum of 5 entries per category. The 19 gold and silver award winners were revealed at the Taste Canada Awards Virtual Ceremony on November 14, streamed on Facebook Live, co-hosted by Shahir Massoud and Ariane Paré-Le Gal. 

The annual ceremony brings together writers, publishers, chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, industry professionals, media, and cookbook fans to promote a vibrant national conversation about food and the art and culture of culinary writing. The theme this year was One Canada. One Kitchen. Due to Covid, all of the programming was once again held online, including a new ambassador program, which brought together home cooks, chefs, and cookbook authors from across Canada. 

CANADA’S BEST COOKBOOKS 2021 

English-Language Books / Les livres langue anglaise 

Culinary Narratives 

Gold 

The Taste of Longing: Ethel Mulvany and Her Starving Prisoners of War Cookbook by Suzanne Evans, Between the Lines, Toronto 

Silver 

Flat Out Delicious: Your Definitive Guide to Saskatchewan’s Food Artisans by Jenn Sharp, TouchWood Editions, Victoria 

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General Cookbooks 

Gold 

Flavorbomb: A Rogue Guide to Making Everything Taste Better by Bob Blumer, Appetite by Random House, Vancouver 

Silver 

Hawksworth: The Cookbook by David Hawksworth, Jacob Richler and Stéphanie Nöel, Appetite by Random House, Vancouver 

—

Regional/Cultural Cookbooks 

Gold 

Kiin: Recipes and Stories from Northern Thailand by Nuit Regular, Penguin Canada, Toronto 

Silver 

Eating Out Loud: Bold Middle Eastern Flavors for All Day, Every Day by Eden Grinshpan, Penguin Canada, Toronto 

— 

Single-Subject Cookbooks 

Gold 

Baking Day with Anna Olson: Recipes to Bake Together by Anna Olson, Appetite by Random House, Vancouver 

Silver 

The Hunter Chef Cookbook: Hunt, Fish, and Forage in Over 100 Recipes by Michael Hunter, Penguin Canada, Toronto 

— 

Health and Special Diet Cookbooks 

Gold 

Eat Good Fat: Nourish Your Body with Over 100 Healthy, Fat-Fuelled Recipes by Lee Capatina, Penguin Canada, Toronto 

Silver 

Oh She Glows for Dinner: Nourishing Plant-Based Meals to Keep You Glowing by Angela Liddon, Penguin Canada, Toronto 

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Les livres langue française / French-Language Books 

— 

Les narrations culinaires 

Or 

Supernaturel : Immersion dans le monde du vin nature par Vincent Sulfite, 

Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal 

Argent 

Le cidre au Québec : histoire, cidreries et coups de coeur d’ici par Stéphane Morin, 

Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal 

— 

Livres de cuisine générale 

Or 

Chez Lesley – Mes secrets pour tout réussir en cuisine par Lesley Chesterman, 

Les Éditions Cardinal, Montréal 

— 

Livres de cuisine générale 

Or 

Chez Lesley – Mes secrets pour tout réussir en cuisine par Lesley Chesterman, 

Les Éditions Cardinal, Montréal 

Argent 

Les recettes de Mandy : salades gourmandes et autres délices par Mandy Wolfe, 

Rebecca Wolfe et Meredith Erickson, Les Éditions La Presse, Anjou 

— 

Livres de cuisine régionale et culturelle 

Or 

Mangez local. Recettes et techniques de conservation pour suivre le rythme des saisons 

par Julie Aubé, Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal 

— 

Livres de cuisine sujet unique 

Or 

Ces muffins dont tout le monde parle par Madame Labriski (Mériane Labrie), 

Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal 

Argent 

À la plaque par Ricardo Larrivée, Les Éditions La Presse, Anjou — 

— 

Livres de cuisine santé et diète particulière 

Or 

La Cantine Végane – Recettes Pour Bons Vivants par Marie-Michelle Chouinard,

Groupe Ville-Marie Littérature (VLB éditeur), Montréal 

Argent 

Presque Végé par Geneviève O’Gleman, Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal 

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 Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Culinary Historians of Canada. 

The first inductee for 2021 is the late Noorbanu Nimji. Noorbanu was born in Kenya in 1934 into an educated, entrepreneurial Ismaili Muslim family originally from Gujarat, India. When she married at 19 she couldn’t cook yet, but she quickly demonstrated talent. In 1974 the Nimji family settled in 

Calgary. Noorbanu’s unintentional cooking career began while teaching Ismaili recipes to homesick students. Her four cookbooks, collectively entitled A Spicy Touch, have been called “community connectors.” Volume one was published in 1986, followed by the others in 1992, 2007 and 2015. The last was subtitled Family Favourites from Noorbanu’s Kitchen and co-written with Karen Anderson, which won a Taste Canada silver award in 2016. Over 250,000 A Spicy Touch books have been sold. Noorbanu’s cooking embraced her North Indian ancestral roots, her East African upbringing and its British colonial influence, and her life in urban Alberta. Noorbanu died in 2020, but her self-published Canadian cookbooks have preserved the oral culinary culture of the dispersed Gujarati-Kenyan Ismaili people in Canada and beyond.

The second inductee for 2021 is Bonnie Stern. Chances are you have cooked out of at least one of her twelve cookbooks. Her first was 1987’s Bonnie Stern’s Cook Book and her twelfth was Friday Night Dinners, which highlights her Jewish heritage. In between were her four famous and best-selling Heart Smart cookbooks, with one of them winning a Taste Canada award in 1998, and Bonnie Stern’s Essentials of Home Cooking, winner of an International Association of Culinary Professionals award in 2004. In 1971, Bonnie was an early graduate from the George Brown College chef school. She soon launched her career by opening a cooking school, which operated for 37 years, but she also wrote a national newspaper column and hosted three national television cooking shows. In a 2016 TEDx talk, she summarized her life of communicating flavourful everyday cooking by introducing herself as “a home cooking warrior.” 

Taste Canada and the Culinary Historians of Canada are very happy to induct Noorbanu Nimji and Bonnie Stern into the Hall of Fame. 

COOKS THE BOOKS PRESENTED BY CANOLA EAT WELL 

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 virtual award ceremony. 

The gold medal was awarded to William Besner and Jean-François Perron from École des Métiers de la Restauration et du Tourisme de Montréal (EMRTM) in Montreal, QC for their Pâté Chinois (Shepherd’s Pie). 

The silver medal was awarded to Haley Mai Dong and Tamara Travner from Fleming College in Peterborough, ON for their Duet of Duck with Spiced Grape Gastrique and a Foie Gras & Morel Mushroom Bread Pudding. 

Cooks the Books – A Student Chef Battle, was also virtual this year. The students submitted recipes and styled photos, which were reviewed and judged based on their writing technique, creativity and presentation by Christine Couvelier, Ian Bell, Renée Kohlman, and Simon Thibault. The competition is presented by Canola Eat Well, with premium sponsorship from Canadian Food Focus, and educational awareness partner Canadian Beef.