The popular ‘Newfoundland Recipes’ cookbook and its cover story
Cartoonist Kevin Tobin contributed his talents to what has become a kitchen classic
For years, Kevin Tobin has been the man behind the witty and fly-speckled editorial cartoons in the pages of The Telegram. He’s published 10 books of those cartoons and illustrated several humour magazines and books.
In 1978, however, he was a young man who could often be found on the side of the road with his thumb out, trying to hitch a ride from Grand Fallswindsor, where he worked as a layout artist for the community newspapers published by Robinson-blackmore, to his hometown of Stephenville to see his girlfriend.
“One of my biggest regrets was I would often get dropped off in front of (my grandmother’s) house in Badger and … I would never go in, because I always felt that I would miss my ride,” Tobin said. “They told me afterwards many times, they’d look out the window on a Thursday afternoon … ‘Oh, there’s my grandson … hanging out on the side of the road hitchhiking, not coming in.’”
So, when he was approached by the vice-president of Robinson-blackmore, Doyle Roberts, to illustrate the cover of a book called “Newfoundland Recipes,” he decided to capture his grandmother’s kitchen, as an homage, he said.
That book, with the first cover Tobin ever illustrated, was published in 1979.
Recently, Tobin shared the image of the cover on Twitter. Several people responded with stories, photos of their own copies, or to say they remember it from their parents’ or grandparents’ kitchens.
One of those people was Andie Bulman, a chef and writer in St. John’s. Her copy came from her grandmother, who found it last year in a pile of free magazines and old books in a library in Prince Edward Island where Bulman is from.
“My family knows that I was doing research on old Newfoundland cookbooks for my book,” she said. “It was such a find. This is one I haven’t found in the library, I haven’t found it in an archive, so I was so grateful.”
A big part of Bulman’s forthcoming book called “Salt Beef Buckets: A Love Story,” is updating old Newfoundland recipes with new flavours and new ingredients.
With “Newfoundland Recipes,” Bulman said she really loved the focus on game meat. For her book, she updated one of the recipes for turrs, the local name for the migratory bird called murres.
The fact the recipes were sent in from around the province is the charm of “Newfoundland Recipes,” she said.
“It does a better job of snapshotting time than a cookbook by a chef,” she said.
“A cookbook where people submit the recipes … you get a better sense of the time period.”
Over the years, people would show Tobin what they picked up at the local gift store while visiting the province and it always seemed that “Newfoundland Recipes” would be one of the items.
“Apparently, it’s been a popular item for 40-odd years,” he said.
There have been 28 printings of “Newfoundland Recipes,” with well over 70,000 in print, according to the Breakwater Books website.
“Salt Beef Buckets: A Love Story” will be published by Breakwater Books on Sept. 15 and can be pre-ordered from their website.