Vij, Crawford among food-writing winners

TORONTO — Celebrity chefs Vikram Vij and Lynn Crawford are among the top winners of the Taste Canada Awards for culinary writing.

Vij wins gold in the “culinary narrative” category for his Penguin Canada book Vij, while silver went to Fitzhenry & Whiteside’s 9000 Years of Wine, by Rod Phillips.

Crawford tops the general cookbook category for her Penguin Canada release Farm to Chef, while silver went to The Simple Bites Kitchen by Aimee Wimbush Bourque, also from Penguin Canada.

The 26 gold and silver award winners were revealed at an awards gala Monday in Toronto.

The annual gala brings together writers, publishers, chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, and cookbook fans to promote the art and culture of culinary writing in French and English.

This year, 91 cookbooks and 50 food blogs entered the competition.

Data compiled by Book Net Canada found 1.4 million English-language books in the “cooking” subject category were sold in 2017, valued at $47.4 million.

The hall of fame awards — for authors of a stellar culinary book or body of work that has had a lasting impact on Canadian cuisine — went to Graham Kerr for The Galloping Gourmet while a posthumous award went to Constance Hart, considered the first Jewish person in Canada to write a cookbook.

Here’s a look at the English-language winners: Regional/Cultural Cookbooks

Gold: Feast: Recipes and Stories from a Canadian Road Trip by Lindsay Anderson and Dana Van Veller (Appetite by Random House) Single-Subject Cookbooks

Gold: All the Sweet Things: Baked Goods and Stories from the Kitchen of Sweetsugarbean by Renée Kohlman (Touch Wood Editions) Health and Special Diet Cookbooks

Gold: Yum & Yummer: Ridiculously Tasty Recipes That’ll Blow Your Mind, But Not Your Diet! by Greta Podleski (Author/One Spoon Media Inc.)