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Digestible Bits and Bites #91, November 2020

Digestible Bits and Bites

The monthly newsletter of the
Culinary Historians of Canada
Number 91, November 2020
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Fabulous fall fruits (apple and plum) in simply sensational seasonal tarts, part of October's #fallfood challenge. Photo and baking by Elka Weinstein.

Index

  1. CHC News

  2. News and Opportunities

  3. Destinations

  4. Food for Thought (book reviews)

  5. Events of Interest

  6. International Conferences


1. CHC News and Upcoming Events

 

Left to right: Pat Crocker, CHC president Luisa Giacometti and Anita Stewart on the occasion of her induction as an Honorary Lifetime Member at the CHC AGM at Swansea Town Hall, October 20, 2018. Photo by Mark D’Aguilar.


In Memory of Anita Stewart, OC

The CHC is very sorry to announce the sudden and unexpected loss of one of our Honorary Lifetime Members, Anita Stewart, on October 29. Food Day Canada, of which she was the founder, wrote that "her spirit and passion for Canadian cuisine and the people who make it happen was unrivalled."

Anita spoke, wrote, lobbied and organized across Canada and internationally for over four decades on Canadian cuisine. She wrote 14 cookbooks, notably The Flavours of Canada: A Celebration of the Finest Regional Foods (2000) and Anita Stewart’s Canada: The Food, The Recipes, The Stories (2008). She was the first Canadian to graduate with an MA in Gastronomy, was awarded a Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) by the University of Guelph in 2011, where she served as food laureat, and held an honorary PAg designation.

A life member of the Canadian Culinary Federation of Chefs and Cooks, she founded both Cuisine Canada (Taste Canada’s predecessor) and Food Day Canada. Anita was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada for her contributions as a journalist, author and culinary activist, and for her promotion of the food industry in Canada. She was a 2012 inductee to the Culinary Landmarks Hall of Fame, and just two years ago CHC made her an Honorary Lifetime Member. 

Food Day Canada requests that tributes and photos be shared on her personal Facebook page for her family. A memorial fund is being set up in her name. On October 30, Niagara Falls was illuminated in red and white to honour Anita Stewart, a fitting tribute to someone who cared so much about our national identity.


Victorian Christmas Baking: Save the Date!
Our popular annual cooking class, Baking for the Victorian Christmas Table, normally takes place in a historic kitchen. The setting is of course charming, but it only accommodates 20 participants at a time. This year, we're making lemon-laced Christmas punch with COVID lemons and bringing you a virtual version. Join us on Zoom on Thursday, December 10 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. for a video class exploring historic recipes.

Victorian England is the source of many Canadian Christmas traditions, including Christmas cards and fruitcake. Queen Victoria herself popularized such German customs as the Christmas tree. This Victorian Christmas baking workshop features CHC's star baker, historic cook Sherry Murphy. She'll be demonstrating recipes for traditional plum pudding and mincemeat tarts from cookbooks that were current during the Victorian period (1837–1901). Sherry will be cooking over the open hearth in the historic kitchen at Montgomery’s Inn in Etobicoke, Ontario.

The virtual workshop will show how plum pudding and mincemeat tarts were made in Victorian times, while also explaining how to translate the recipes to modern kitchens. Look for a link for tickets soon!

New Chair of the Outreach Committee

Join us in welcoming a new member to the CHC board: Susan Peters of Morrisburg, Ontario, is our new Outreach Chair!

With a background in both history and anthropology, Susan has a long-held interest in material cultural and culinary history. This passion led her to become a tea sommelier, and a writer and educator in tea history. After 30 years of experience as a historical researcher, she has learned to look to many resources for evidence of culinary traditions. She is the archivist for the Dundas County Archives in rural eastern Ontario.

We are so pleased that Susan has decided to join us to help extend our reach to new places!
 


Taste Canada Hall of Fame Inductees

On Sunday, October 25, CHC Lifetime Members Fiona Lucas and Elizabeth Driver announced the 2020 inductees into the Culinary Landmarks Hall of Fame / Le Temple de la Renomée du Livre Culinaire Canadien, which 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. This year's inductees are Stephen Yan and Norene Gilletz.

Stephen Yan was an ambassador of Chinese cooking. He was the first Chinese-Canadian chef to host a cooking show, CBC’s wildly popular “Wok with Yan” (1978 to 1995). From Hong Kong, Yan emigrated to Vancouver in 1967 at age 19, where he eventually opened restaurants and self-published many cookbooks.

His syndicated show and cookbooks encouraged home cooks to experiment with Asian ingredients, techniques and equipment, especially the cleaver and the wok, his specialty. People young and old fondly remember the show and books. His delicious stir-fry recipes were simple, colourful and quick. Stephen Yan’s world-wide fans loved the puns emblazoned on his aprons: “Don’t wok the boat” and “Wokkey Night in Canada” are but two.

Posthumous Inductee Norene Gilletz (1940–2020), known as "Canada’s queen of kosher cuisine," died in February 2020, age 79, still writing and blogging about Canadian food. Her first cookbook, Second Helpings, Please! (1968), reprinted 17 times, is now subtitled The Iconic Jewish Cookbook. Her final cookbook, The Brain Boosting Diet, appeared last December.

She wrote ten others, plus many food columns and blog posts for the Canadian Jewish News. Her Facebook group boasted over 10,000 members, who happily called themselves “Noreners.” Gilletz was famous for her humour, culinary knowledge, and generous mentorship of food writers, teachers and fundraisers. Her recipes are delicious and reliable; thousands still make her Sweet and Sour Meatballs and Carrot Cake. Gilletz’s books united communities as varied as Jewish women’s groups, food processor owners and thyroid cancer sufferers.

CHC is proud to honour these two unique culinary voices.
 


Photo of Rose Murray by Stan Switalski.
Rose Murray Presentation Video

Due to the vagaries of the Internet, we were unable to present acclaimed cookbook author Rose Murray with her Honorary Lifetime Membership in the CHC at our Annual General Meeting in September. What technology takes away, it can also give back, however. Thus we are pleased to be able to offer a virtual award presentation. You can see Rose receiving her certificate from CHC president Carolyn Crawford on our YouTube channel.

And, in case you missed it, you can also get to know Rose better by watching her episode of our video series Behind Every Great Cook Is a Great Mother.
 

Our First Online Book Launch!

Our first-ever virtual book launch and author chat took place on Thursday, October 8. CHC welcomed author Suzanne Evans to discuss her new book, The Taste of Longing, the true story of the remarkable role food played in the lives of prisoners at Singapore’s Changi Prison during World War II.

Suzanne joined us on Zoom for an enlightening and often moving chat that traced the life of Canadian Ethel Mulvany through the fall of Singapore in 1942, the years of her internment, and back home to Canada. About 30 people attended the session, and we look forward to future forays into this field.
 



November Cooking Challenge: Holiday Preparations

As skies turn grey and leaves fly from the trees, our thoughts turn naturally to warm stoves, bubbling pots and the familiar aromas of holiday baking. Our challenge for November comes in the form of a request to peek into your kitchen to see what you're cooking up to prepare for the winter and especially the holidays to come.

Whether you're dreaming of tourtière or turrón, plum pudding or panettone, mithai for Diwali, sufganiyot for Hannukah or gingerbread for Christmas, we want to see what you're dishing up. Those who post photos and comments with the hashtag #FestiveFare on our Facebook page by midnight on Friday, November 20 will be featured in the December newsletter. 

For inspiration, you might enjoy having a look at the newest addition to the Canadian Cookbooks Online section on our website: Diary of Celebrated Christmas Recipes from Lake of the Woods Milling Company Limited in Winnipeg (the Five Roses Flour folks), circa 1938; see the image above. It was kindly digitized for us by Joyce Sirski-Howell.



#FallFood Challengers
In our last issue, we challenged readers to prepare something special relating to their traditional celebrations for autumn. The results—ranging from pies to complete dinners—were mouthwatering! Elka Weinstein's Thanksgiving apple and plum tarts (pictured at top) were served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Mark D'Aguilar, who's always up for a cooking challenge, shared his sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner for two (pictured above), which featured roast turkey, glazed roasted heirloom carrots, roasted maple-mustard glazed Brussels sprouts with cranberries and walnuts, mashed potatoes with gravy, sticky toffee pudding with maple-whiskey toffee sauce, fresh fruit and Lola wine.

"Sticky Toffee Pudding is a favourite British dessert that was introduced to England during the Second World War by two Canadian Air Force officers who shared their recipe with the owner of a Lake District country hotel where they were lodging. Bringing it back home to Canada!" he notes.



Mya Sangster writes, "I arrived in Canada in November 1966. My first Christmas here my Canadian husband gave me the Laura Secord Canadian Cook Book. The next November I made my first Pumpkin Pie from this book. I have used this recipe every year since. My two lovely grandchildren love it."



Kathy Chant of Eat Your Books reports that a "favourite #fallfood on a dreary, rainy autumn night" is her meatloaf with roasted beets, parsnips, carrots and scalloped potatoes (pictured above): "Book club fare and a comforting dinner at the end of a rainy day."

Kathy also shared the recipe for her family-favourite autumnal Golden Dome of Cauliflower (pictured below) on the CHC Facebook page. Inspired by the Canadian Living Christmas Book recipe, "it really is so delicious—it almost convinced me to go completely vegetarian," she writes.

One of our Facebook followers, who posts as "Vignettes In-Time," contributed an intriguing selection of old-fashioned European baking. "Although my four girls are spread about the corners of the earth, I will still bake on occasion—especially when given an opportunity with an open hearth and wood-fired bake oven," she writes.

Pictured above is "an apple-butter tart based upon a 17th-century receipt, Appel-taert, which has the addition of a titch of ground coriander seed and aniseed, scraped vanilla bean and full fat cream. [It] has a braid of dough representing St. Nicholas' crook."

Below:
  • Top left: Evenveeltjes, "essentially a Dutch 'Quarte Quart’ receipt based on four equally weighted ingredients," writes Vignettes In-Time. "The varied-shaped small cakes are made in a Evenveeltjes pan, which is copper, handled and footed and tin-lined, also baked in a wood-fired bake oven. In Dutch, Eventveeltjes means 'equal little somethings' (equal-weighted ingredients), and I place equal amounts of batter in each shaped depression, which has been buttered and floured. They are delicious with preserves and clotted or whipped cream."
  • Top right: An apple pie in the bottom of a copper Dutch oven. "The pastry design on top is little apples on a cluster of leaves," she notes. (For more of her baking and recipes, visit our Facebook page.)
  • Bottom left: Sherry Murphy presents "a Butternut Squash Pie recipe, same as Pumpkin Squash Pie! My Thanksgiving tradition!"
  • Bottom right: "Autumn has arrived in cheesecake form!" proclaims Sean Bromilow ("Diversivore"). "I'm delighted to share this new recipe for Pumpkin Apple Cheesecake, sponsored by BC Egg!" he writes. "It's actually three recipes in one: the cheesecake filling, the gluten-free oat-based crust, and the decadent apple caramel."
Top left: Deborah Abbott baked a lovely apple torte with cognac and hazelnut. "I made the torte using locally milled Red Fife flour," she writes. 
Top right: Deborah also made pretty little apple hand pies with Paula Red apples and topped them with fresh whipped cream with maple syrup.
Bottom left: Michael Gallant writes, "We always have apple pie for Thanksgiving. Very often I bake pies in cast iron."
Bottom right: Miranda Burgess celebrated her schnitzel with pineapple salsa and carrot patties, as well as (not pictured) her apple-carrot slaw.
Join the Culinary Historians of Canada!



The membership year runs from one annual general meeting (usually late September/early October) to the next. Download a membership form here and join us today! 

2. News and Opportunities



Taste Canada Winners 2020
On October 25, Taste Canada, now in its 23rd year, announced the 2020 Taste Canada Award Winners. Here's the full list (follow links to reviews previously published in Digestible Bits & Bites).

Culinary Narratives/Les Narrations Culinaires

English French
  • Or: Mieux conserver ses aliments pour moins gaspiller par Anne-Marie Desbiens (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal)
  • Argent: Le goût de la bière fermière – De la tradition à l’innovation locale et écoresponsable par Martin Thibault (Druide, Montréal)
General Cookbooks/Livres de Cuisine Générale

English
  • Gold: Let Me Feed You by Rosie Daykin (Appetite by Random House, Vancouver)
  • Silver: Duchess at Home by Giselle Courteau (Appetite by Random House, Vancouver)
French
  • Or: Olive + Gourmando : Le livre de recettes par Dyan Soloman (KO Éditions, Montréal)
  • Argent: Soupers rapides par Geneviève O’Gleman (Groupe Sogides/Éditions De L’Homme, Montréal)
Regional/Cultural Cookbooks/Livres de Cuisine Régionale et Culturelle

English
  • Gold: Coconut Lagoon: Recipes from a South Indian Kitchen by Joe Thottungal and Anne DesBrisay (Figure 1 Publishing, Vancouver)
  • Silver: Burdock & Co by Andrea Carlson (Appetite by Random House, Vancouver)
French
  • Or: Tables véganes – Menus d’ici et d’ailleurs par Élise Desaulniers et Patricia Martin (Trécarré, Montréal)
  • Argent: FORÊT Identifier, cueillir, cuisiner par Ariane Paré Le Gal et Gérald Le Gal (Les Éditions Cardinal, Montréal)
Single-Subject Cookbooks/Livres de Cuisine Sujet Unique

English
  • Gold: Oven to Table: Over 100 One-Pot and One-Pan Recipes for Your Sheet Pan, Skillet, Dutch Oven, and More by Jan Scott (Penguin Canada, Toronto)
  • Silver: Modern Lunch by Allison Day (Appetite by Random House, Vancouver)
French
  • Or: Parcours sucré par Patrice Demers (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal)
  • Argent: Cuisine de pêche par Stéphane Modat (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal)
Health and Special Diet Cookbooks/Livres de Cuisine Santé et Diète Particulière

English
  • Gold: Eat More Plants: Over 100 Anti-Inflammatory, Plant-Based Recipes for Vibrant Living by Desiree Nielsen (Penguin Canada, Toronto)
  • Silver: Sprout Right Family Food: Good Nutrition and Over 130 Simple Recipes for Baby, Toddler, and the Whole Family by Lianne Phillipson (Penguin Canada, Toronto)
French
  • Or: Loounie cuisine par Caroline Huard (KO Éditions, Montréal)
  • Argent: Savoir quoi manger – TDAH par Elisabeth Cerquiera (Modus Vivendi, Montréal)
 

Culinary History Online
Here are some of the outstanding food-history events and experiences being offered by historians, chefs, universities and museums this month. And since they're all virtual, you can attend from anywhere in the world!
  • Monday to Friday, November 2 to 6: Eat Medieval: A Taste of the Past, adaptable to different time zones. Durham University’s Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS) and Blackfriars Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne present a five-day interactive medieval cooking course based on 12th-century recipes, complete with live demonstrations and shopping lists. Admission: £99.
  • Tuesday, November 10: Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Food Systems, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. York University (Toronto) brings together medicine and food scholars Joe Pitawanakwat from Wikwemikong First Nation, William Kingfisher from Rama First Nation and Chandra Maracle from Six Nations of the Grand River to discuss the concept of “Indigenous food systems” as part of a series titled Miijim: Food as Relations. Admission: Free on Zoom (pre-registration required), live-streamed on Facebook.
  • Wednesday, November 18: All You Can Eat: A Culinary History of America since 1850, 6:45 p.m. Smithsonian Associates presents a talk by Allen Pietrobon, an assistant professor of global affairs at Trinity Washington University and an award-winning historian, who will examine how what Americans ate both drove and reflected historical changes in the country. Admission: $30 (general); $25 (members); $15 (students).
  • Saturday, November 28: Women in the Kitchen, Twelve Essential Cookbook Writers Who Defined the Way We Eat, from 1661 to Today, 10:30 a.m. Culinary Historians of Chicago present a chat with author Anne Willan about her latest book, an homage to the women who have written culinary history, such as Hannah Woolley, Fannie Farmer, Alice Waters and Julia Child.
  • Also, from CHC member Nora Gubins, a link to Heritage Toronto's Good Eats: A History of Food and Dining. "I realize it’s very Toronto-centric, but it may be of interest to culinary historians," she comments.
What’s Cooking? (Member News)
CHC MEMBERS: Please let us know what you're up to! We'll publish all suitable news items received at cadmus@interlog.com by the 25th of each month. (Please write your announcement directly into your email window, with no attachments except a photo. Be sure to include a web link for further information!)

In mid-October, CHC president Carolyn Crawford was featured in a long and informative article by Bonnie Sitter in The Rural Voice, "the magazine of agricultural life," which discusses her extensive cookbook collection and the activities of CHC in detail. She was also interviewed for the Meet the Members section of the Spring/Summer 2020 edition of Home and Country, the magazine of the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario (FWIO), after a talk she gave to the Silver-Wood WI in the Guelph, Ontario, area (see page 16).



CHC vice-president Samantha George, who serves as curator at Parkwood National Historic Site in Oshawa, Ontario, oversaw the preparation of a 1940 Budget Thanksgiving as proposed by Toronto Star food columnist Marie Holmes, first published October 9, 1940. It was prepared by members of Parkwood's historic foodways group, War in the Kitchen.

The menu included mock whole ham, mashed potatoes, baked pepper squash filled with canned green peas, celery curls, carrot pudding, foamy sauce and a beverage. "Thank you to the Toronto Star archives," Samantha writes.



On October 24, CHC member John Ota spoke with author Lenore Newman about her fascinating book Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food as part of the Toronto Food Film Festival. Then, on Thursday, October 29, he launched a six-part series for Hot Docs Curious Minds titled Private Homes, Public Lives: Houses of Cultural Icons. The sessions, which discuss Thomas Jefferson, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Armstrong, Julia Child and Elvis Presley, contain substantial material from John's book, The Kitchen. Course registration is $49, with discounts for Hot Docs members.



CHC Lifetime Member Mya Sangster took a break from recreating Georgian-period recipes to visit Southampton, Ontario, where she arrived in the midst of a banner pumpkin (and gourd) harvest.



3. Destinations

Do you know of a great historic site with a food program? Send a short article with one or two of your best photos to sarah@culinaryhistorians.ca by the 25th of the month to have your write-up included in our next issue!

Montgomery’s Inn (Etobicoke, Ontario)
Text & images by Sarah B. Hood

In this season of the year, quite a few CHC members would normally be spending time at Montgomery's Inn. It has often hosted our Baking for the Victorian Christmas Table event, and CHC vice-president Sherry Murphy organizes the annual Stir-Up Sunday there on the traditional day for preparing Christmas puddings. On that date, CHC members usually help make an array of 19th-century Christmas treats to lay out on the inn's long dining-room table (as pictured above), garnished with holly from the inn's own garden.

Then there are Karen Millyard's Jane Austen dinners and Breton storytelling nights, and chances to assist with the inn's Dickens dinners, the brainchild of Kate Hill. And that's just through the eight weeks of the holiday season! This year, of course, is different—although we will be bringing you a virtual class with Sherry from the kitchen fireside (see the very first item, above).


Left to right: CHC members Carolyn Crawford, Sherry Murphy and Sharon Majik animate the historic kitchen at Montgomery's Inn.

The inn was built around 1830 for Thomas and Margaret Montgomery, who ran it until 1856. The property was later farmed, and then passed through several hands until the early 1970s, when it was restored, refurnished and reopened as a historical site operated by the City of Toronto, a project driven by CHC Lifetime Member Dorothy Duncan.

In its current incarnation, the inn combines a modern office, gift shop and commercial kitchen with a historic ballroom, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms, office and barroom, as well as some large activity spaces. There are several working fireplaces and a wood-fired outdoor bake oven. Over the past few years, the property has undergone a rigorous restoration, and in October 2020 it received an Ecclesiastical Insurance Cornerstone Award from the National Trust for Canada, recognized as one of six “Transformative Projects” nationwide. It's nice to know that, whenever it's safe again, the inn will be waiting patiently, as it has done in the past, for its kitchen fires to be lit again.


Ingredients for the inn's popular Irish stew await chopping, after which they'll be boiled up in an iron pot hung on a "crane" over the open fire.

4. Food for Thought

Have you missed a book review? You can read reviews from all our past issues online. If you are a CHC member who would like to contribute, please contact Elka Weinstein at elka.weinstein@utoronto.ca or Sarah Hood at sarah@culinaryhistorians.ca.

   

Grandma’s Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Sweets: The Best of Canada’s East Coast by Alice Burdick (Formac, 2020). Reviewed by Amy Lavender Harris (pictured above).

Growing up in Ontario, the first-generation daughter of transplanted Maritimers, I inherited a vicarious nostalgia for "down home" cooking. Vats of porridge at morning, tureens of baked beans at noon and roasts of beef for Sunday dinner graced the dining tables of my childhood, interspersed seasonally with boiled fiddleheads, steamed scallops, new potatoes mashed with butter, and bread-and-butter pickles served with a silver fork.

I had not thought very much about the desserts until after my mother died. Among her cookbooks I found her hand-written recipes, darkened with age and spotted with grease, for macaroons and molasses cookies, holiday fruitcake and gingerbread, and fruit cobblers and lemon custards. These recipes opened a wide seam of recognition and longing, and all at once it seemed I could smell the allspice and hear her measuring spoons clanking against the countertop. While browsing the recipes on first read of this book, I stopped short at Aunt Mary’s Dark Fruit Cake—a fruitcake recipe so uncannily similar to the one my mother made every fall that, just reading it, I could taste the dried fruit and cloves.

Grandma’s Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Sweets elicits this feeling on every page. The recipes—originally compiled in 1967 by home economist Mrs. Florence M. Hilchey for a now long-out-of-print centennial cookbook called A Treasury of Nova Scotia Heirloom Recipes—are a cross-section of the familiar and the significant.

Down-home favourites like molasses crisps and rhubarb pie are interspersed with recipes that highlight the Maritimes’ British, German, French and Indigenous culinary heritage. Particular highlights include Boularderie Cookies, an Acadian confection that is both savoury and sweet; Government House Tea Biscuits, a delicate scone first prepared for the 1939 royal visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth; a recipe for Mincemeat Tarts that includes a venison option; and Old-fashioned Molasses Candy, a sponge-textured taffy with a familiar molasses taste. Another notable addition is War Cake, a make-do, ration-saving recipe dating to the First World War.

The recipes have been updated extensively, augmented with detailed instructions for contemporary cooks, and tested for functionality and taste. They are laid out in an accessible manner that will appeal both to experienced cooks and novice bakers, with attractive reference photographs that will whet any baker’s appetite for fresh confections.

Perhaps the most notable thing about Grandma’s Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Sweets is its regard for Nova Scotia history. Each entry is prefaced by a short note about the recipe’s historical and cultural origins, emphasizing that culinary traditions emerge from social conditions, not just individual kitchens.

Author Alice Burdick, a transplanted Ontarian, noted Canadian poet and Mahone Bay municipal councillor, is also an enthusiastic cook. Grandma’s Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Sweets is her first cookbook: culinary historians and Nova Scotians will be fortunate if there are others to come.

   

Mandy’s Gourmet Salads: Recipes for Lettuce and Life by Mandy Wolfe, Rebecca Wolfe and Meredith Erickson. (Appetite by Random House/Penguin Random House Canada, July 2020). Reviewed by Elka Weinstein (pictured above).

Before I began writing this review, I asked a long-time Montrealer whether she had ever been to a Mandy’s and what her favourite salad was. Her response was reassuring—yes, she loved Mandy’s, used to go there all the time on her lunch hour, and her favourite was the Cobb salad.
 
I have to admit that I have never been to a Mandy’s Gourmet Salads café in Montreal. I love salads, but I make my own because usually when you order a salad in a restaurant, even if it’s a restaurant devoted to salads, there’s something weird about the lettuce and other vegetables.

Restaurant salads mostly aren’t that good. Most of the time the vegetables weren’t grown locally and have been flown in from California or Mexico or Chile, which means that they have spent lots of time in a truck or on an airplane. After they have been purchased by the restaurant, they have been stored for too long in a refrigerator (yes, you can tell!) or they were chopped the day before and stored next to the garlic and/or onions. Most restaurants treat salads as an afterthought, and when salad is a side, the chef isn’t the one making it. 

Mandy’s Gourmet Salads (Salades Gourmandes) seems to have overcome these problems by putting salads at the top of the menu. This is a brave thing to do (see above for reasons why), because if you’re going to do this, your salad ingredients have to be: (a) fresh that day, and (b) prepared with care and love. Fortunately, that’s what seems to be on the menu at their cafés.
 
Again, I was reassured to read the following on page 17: "Our flavor combinations are often globally inspired, but whenever we can, we use local and organic ingredients (almost always). We have a special 'Monthly Salad' every month, and these are always in line with the seasons. During our Canadian winter months for example, we use fewer tomatoes and berries, but we ramp up on pears, apples, pumpkin, kale, and of course root vegetables like sweet potatoes, beets, squash, leeks, garlic, and fennel. And we crave our grain bowls (...) and farro and seeds to keep us going through those −30°C months!"
 
The story of how Mandy’s Gourmet Salads came to be is rather romantic, with a café begun in the back of her now-husband’s clothing store, Mandy Wolfe and her sister Rebecca chopped and sweated their way to what has become a small empire of eight stores scattered across Montreal, with the original in the Vieux Port, still in the back of Mimi & Coco. Smoothies, grain bowls and baked goods—including the family’s much-beloved chocolate chip cookies—have made it onto the menu. And now a cookbook for those who want to make their own healthy salads at home! 

The cookbook itself is pretty straightforward, with ingredient lists, easy-to-follow recipes, beautifully staged photos of decor and food, and of the sisters (and family), much like the popular cookbook we reviewed last year—Kitchen Party by Mary Berg. I would recommend this book for someone who really loves salads and can afford to buy fresh vegetables every week. 

   

Hawksworth: The Cookbook by Chef David Hawksworth, with Chef Stéphanie Noël & Jacob Richler. (Appetite by Random House/Penguin Random House Canada, October 2020). Reviewed by Frances Latham (pictured above).

For those who do not know Chef David Hawksworth, he is a Vancouverite who left Canada to train in England with renowned chefs before returning home to establish himself in his hometown. My first impressions: this is a beautiful book that invites me in with a lovely cover; it is modern and somehow reassuring. I was intrigued by the use of the title "Chef" before the authors’ names—this is something we do not often see.

There is a generosity of spirit throughout this cookbook. Hawksworth acknowledges unreservedly people who have trained him and people who have worked with him. There is a recognition that people using the book will have differing levels of skill and ingredients to hand, and he sensibly offers little tips and photographs that are superb and helpful at the same time. This cookbook achieves a balance in offering simple and more challenging recipes with great respect for the reader.

The chefs use a light touch throughout, attention to detail on every page, and every page is a delight to read and look at. That said, there is substance here for aspiring chefs and home cooks alike. The recipes are well organized into ten categories everyone will recognize, from starters to cocktails. Each recipe has a little story or introduction, while each section is preceded by a short essay sharing Hawksworth’s journey from his first job as a dishwasher in a fish-and-chips shop at 13 to his present-day employment as the chef-owner of a restaurant group with 300 employees.

People in the industry will recognize his culinary training; he worked with influential chefs Raymond Blanc and Marco White, among others, over the past 30 years, and he shares insider stories that are interesting. He also offers good advice to young apprentice chefs. The recipes are clear and straightforward, even when requiring challenging techniques. Home cooks should be able to approach the recipes with confidence, provided they read them through and have their ingredients ready.

In other words, this is a book that shares restaurant-level recipes scaled for home cookery. I have stickers on half a dozen recipes that I am planning to try, and I have already stolen little nuggets to use (Anchovy Breadcrumbs, page 309). I tried the Roasted Cauliflower with Green Harissa and Sunflower Seeds, which includes ingredients that are readily accessible, and I appreciated the uncomplicated recipe writing.

Chef Philip Howard, in his foreword, describes Hawksworth as a chef’s chef and an industry man. His cookbook is a worthy addition to the Canadian canon.

   

Aran: Recipes and Stories from a Bakery in the Heart of Scotland by Flora Shedden (Hardie Grant Books, 2019). Reviewed by Sher Hackwell (pictured above).
 
Aran is an enticing cookbook that unpacks a day in the life of its namesake, a bakery located in Dunkeld, Scotland. Aran—the Gaelic word for bread—features stylish photos of bakery favourites and breathtaking images of the Scottish countryside. 

Author Flora Shedden is part celebrity baker, twice-published author and, most recently, bakery owner. Her hands, covered in flour since childhood, ultimately led her to a semi-finalist standing on "The Great British Bake Off" series. The accompanying success and notoriety helped Shedden launch Aran Bakery—a project in which she discovered that "it takes a village to run a bakery." The book echoes her sentiment with pages that also give a nod to regular customers and suppliers.
  
The chapters complement the book's dawn-to-dusk approach, with each heading marking the hour; for example, Elevenses (mid-morning), Twalhoures (midday) and Lòn (lunch). Recipes use plain language with detailed instructions for preparing traditional dishes like black pudding and haggis. Shedden incorporates tasty takes on recipes acquired from or inspired by other bakers and restaurants, such as a Dunkeld publican's sausage rolls, which she can't keep on the shelf. 
 
Classics receive the Shedden flourish—a chocolate rye cake, whisky Eccles, pea and nettle quiche and (her) Granny Joan's shortbread. Aran is not only a clever bakery-inspired cookbook but an ode to a town and its people. 

Review Contributors
  • Elka Weinstein (Book Review Coordinator, Toronto)
  • Judy Corser (Delta, BC)
  • Pam Fanjoy (Hillsburgh, Ontario)
  • Luisa Giacometti (Toronto)
  • Gary Gillman (Toronto)
  • Sher Hackwell (Vancouver)
  • Amy Lavender Harris (Toronto)
  • Sarah Hood (Toronto)
  • Frances Latham (Stratford, Ontario)
  • Maya Love (London, Ontario)
  • Fiona Lucas (Toronto)
  • Jan Main (Hudson, Quebec)
  • Lisette Mallet (Toronto)
  • Bennett McCardle (Toronto)
  • Dana McCauley (Toronto)
  • Dana Moran (Ajax, Ontario)
  • Valerie Sharp
  • Mary Snow (Conception Bay, Newfoundland)
  • Meaghan Van Dyk (Abbotsford, BC)

5. Events of Interest

Compiled by Jane Black, Kesia Kvill, Sarah Hood & Julia Armstrong

Although some museums and historic sites remain closed, many have resumed a version of their regular programming, including the following:

6. International Conferences


Compiled by Kesia Kvill

2020

November 13 to 14 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
AMSTERDAM SYMPOSIUM ON THE HISTORY OF FOOD
Theme: Food and the Environment: The Dynamic Relationship Between Food Practices and Nature.
Venue: University of Amsterdam.

November 27 to December 11 (Online, from London, UK)
THE DIASPORIC PLATE: FOOD IN THE CONTEMPORARY DIASPORIC WORLD IN TIMES OF CRISIS
Host: Institute of Modern Languages Research.

2021

May 13 to 15 (Online, from Guelph, Ontario) 
14TH TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE OF THE RURAL WOMEN'S STUDIES ASSOCIATION 
Theme: Kitchen Table Talk to Global Forum.
Venue: University of Guelph. Zoom or Webex are likely platforms for the conference, and previously planned activities will be adapted to this new format.
Of note: The RWSA is an international association that promotes and advances farm and rural women’s/gender studies in a historical perspective.

Spring 2021, TBD (Hamilton, Ontario)
FIGHTING SCARCITY AND CREATING ABUNDANCE: THE POLITICS OF FOOD AND WATER IN CANADIAN HISTORY AND BEYOND
Host: L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History.
CFP deadline: November 30, 2020.
 
June 2 to 5 (Las Cruces, New Mexico)
THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING
Theme: Challenging Crops & Climate.
 
June 11 to 14 (Archbold, Ohio)
ASSOCIATION OF LIVING HISTORY, FARMS AND AGRICULTURAL MUSEUMS ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Theme: Looking Forward … The Next 50 Years.
Venue: Sauder Village.
CFP deadline: November 15, 2020. Now accepting virtual presentations. 
 
September 7 to 10 (Rome, Italy)
INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR RESEARCH INTO EUROPEAN FOOD HISTORY
Theme: Eating on the Move (19th to 21st centuries).
Venue: Roma Tre University.
CFP deadline: November 30, 2020.
Across the far-flung regions of Canada, a lot is happening in the fields of food and history. This monthly digest is a forum for Canadian culinary historians and enthusiasts to tell each other about their many activities. This is a place for networking and conversation about Canadian culinary history happenings. Each month, Digestible Bits and Bites is shared with members of the Culinary Historians of Canada and other interested persons who ask to be on the distribution list. 
 
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