Food is such an important part of our everyday lives, and the ways it’s cooked, served, and harvested vary from culture to culture. These BC books invite you on a flavourful journey through culinary traditions from around the world that have influenced what we cook and how we eat at home. Let these stories and cookbooks enrich your culinary experience, inspire you to step into the kitchen, and participate in food traditions you can taste.
Portrait of an Oyster by Andreas Ammer, illustrated by Falk Nordmann (Greystone Books)
Go beyond the shucked shell to reveal the rich and surprising world of the oyster and the artists, philosophers, explorers, and chefs the mollusk has inspired for generations. Illustrated with full-colour paintings, vintage advertisements, line drawings, and archival photographs, Portrait of an Oyster shares intriguing insights into the biology and cultivation of oysters as the author embarks on an expedition across Europe and North America to taste some of the world’s best.
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Arab Fairy Tale Feasts by Karim Alrawi and Nahid Kazemi, with recipes by Sobhi and Tamam al-Zobaidi of Tamam Palestinian Restaurant Vancouver (Tradewind Books)
In the latest title in the highly acclaimed Fairy Tale Feasts series, Arab Fairy Tale Feasts is a literary cookbook of enchanting tales by award-winning author and master storyteller Karim Alrawi, all featuring family friendly traditional recipes. Each is accompanied by intriguing anecdotes illuminating Arab culture and culinary traditions, offering rich context for the flavours, history, and hospitality woven into every dish.
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The Antiracist Kitchen: 21 Stories (and Recipes) edited by Nadia L. Hohn, illustrated by Roza Nozari (Orca Book Publishers)
The Antiracist Kitchen is an anthology featuring stories and recipes from 21 racialized and award-winning North American children’s authors about food, family, culture, and resistance in the face of racism. The authors share the role of food in their lives and how it has helped them reclaim culture and celebrate people with different backgrounds. Featuring recipes of the chopped, seared, marinated, and stewed, The Antiracist Kitchen highlights the power of sitting down to share a meal and how the simple act of learning about food can help bring us all together.
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Epiphany Bakes by Melissa Owen (Touchwood Editions)
From Epiphany Cakes bakery in Nelson, BC, comes a collection of 60 recipes to cover all your dessert needs, from the ultimate hiking cookies to showstopping three-layer cakes, and including options for gluten-free and vegan confections. Epiphany Cakes has been supplying sweet tooths, restaurants, and cafés across the Kootenays for almost twenty years. The bakery’s founder, Melissa Owen, shares 60 of her favourite dessert recipes with home cooks that will turn you into a dessert expert from the first page.
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The True Story of Vanilla: How Edmond Albius Made History by Ann Richards, illustrated by Arden Taylor (Orca Book Publishers)
Learn about one of the most commonly used ingredients—vanilla. In 1841, a 12-year-old enslaved boy named Edmond Albius revolutionized vanilla cultivation by inventing a hand-pollination method still used today. Despite his important achievement, as an enslaved person, Edmond didn’t receive payment or recognition for his contribution to science. The True Story of Vanilla tells Edmond’s story of how his method of pollination was key to bringing vanilla to the world, helping to create a billion-dollar industry that will truly fascinate the most curious of foodies.
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Babette’s Bread by Babette Kourelos (Touchwood Editions)
Dust off those bread-making skills from lockdown days and get baking with Babette’s Bread. This is a comprehensive and unpretentious guide to bread-making, with useful advice on how to make fresh homemade bread fit into even the busiest of schedules. With more than 60 recipes, accompanied by photos of delectable loaves and sun-filled work spaces, and interspersed with anecdotes from the author’s childhood, her apprenticeship in Vermont, and more, this is a complete guide to fitting bread-making into your life that will make you love being in the kitchen.
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