Taste Canada announced its national, bilingual food writing awards on October 30 in Toronto at an event hosted by Ali Hassan. Gold and silver winners were named in five English-language and four French-language categories: culinary narrative, general cookbooks, regional/cultural cookbooks, single-subject cookbooks, and health or special diet cookbooks.

Taste Canada also inducted two authors, the late Jean Paré and Anne Lindsay, into the Taste Canada Hall of Fame, which honours writers who have shaped Canadian culinary writing and made a lasting contribution to Canadian culture.

Jean Paré, who died in 2022 at age 95, was the author of many cookbooks and the founder in 1981 of Company’s Coming Publishing, the Edmonton-based cookbook publisher. Company’s Coming has published more than 200 cookbooks focusing on quick and easy recipes using easily available ingredients. Anne Lindsay, one of the first Canadian cookbook authors to reach global success, has been a champion of healthy eating and is known for her cookbooks written in cooperation with the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society.

All winners, including those in the French-language categories, can be found at the Taste Canada website.

The English-language gold and silver winners are:

Culinary Narratives

• Gold: Have You Eaten Yet? Stories from Chinese Restaurants Around the World by Cheuk Kwan (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Silver: Cooking Tips for Desperate Fishwives: An Island Memoir by Margot Fedoruk (Heritage House Publishing)

General Cookbooks

• Gold: Make Every Dish Delicious: Modern Classics and Essential Tips for Total Kitchen Confidence by Lesley Chesterman (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Silver: The Lemon Apron Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes for the Curious Home Cook by Jennifer Emilson (Appetite by Random House)

Regional/Cultural Cookbooks

• Gold: Where the River Narrows: Classic French and Nostalgic Québécois Recipes From St. Lawrence Restaurant by J-C Poirier with Joie Alvaro Kent (Appetite by Random House)
• Silver: New Indian Basics: 100 Traditional and Modern Recipes from Arvinda’s Family Kitchen by Preena Chauhan and Arvinda Chauhan (Appetite by Random House)

Single-Subject Cookbooks

• Gold: The Miracle of Salt: Recipes and Techniques to Preserve, Ferment, and Transform Your Food by Naomi Duguid (Artisan Books/Hachette Book Group)
• Silver: The Artful Pie Project: A Sweet and Savoury Book of Recipes by Denise Marchessault and Deb Garlick (Whitecap Books)

Health or Special Diet Cookbooks

• Gold: Good for Your Gut: A plant-based digestive health guide and nourishing recipes for living well by Desiree Nielsen (Penguin Canada)
• Silver: The Two Spoons Cookbook: More Than 100 French-Inspired Vegan Recipes by Hannah Sunderani (Penguin Canada)