Dorothy Duncan

$ 35.00 240 pages

The Dandurn Group

Anyone involved in the food industry and tourism should know enough about the history of the evolution of Canadian gastronomic heritage.

While it is almost impossible to refer to Canadian cuisine as a cooking style, one must bear in mind the size of the country spreading from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and in the north to the Arctic.

Here, every indigenous population developed its own way of cooking, and the First Nations continued the tradition of eating and preparing what grew and was available to them. Above all else, food was seasonal.

Dorothy Duncan has been able to admirably capture in 19 chapters the evolution and diversity of food preparation in this immense country.

She not only gives the reader an excellent overview of how First Nations prepared and preserved their food, but also informs us how and why cod, now almost extinct in northern Atlantic, was so bountiful at one time that people referred to it as the “Beef of the sea”. Much of this valuable fish caught nourished millions of Portuguese, Spaniards, Italians, French and many others but also helped Canadian fishermen gain financial stability through exporting cod to the Caribbean. Full cargo vessels loaded with salted and dried cod sailed from Newfoundland to Jamaica and other islands and returned with rum. To this day Maritimers prefer rum to any other spirit and enjoy much of what is blended here and imported.

This highly informative and well researched book then goes on to explain how a number of immigrant waves brought with them their eating habits and styles of cooking. Who knew about naan, roti, paneer, curried goat and biriyani 20 years ago?

Canadians at the Table should be in every Canadian public and school library. Needless to say, anyone remotely interested in food a must reads it to understand the culinary evolution of Canada.

Now he consults and writes to increase wine, beer and liquor awareness. He conducts seminars and would be pleased to consider your requests. To peruse the list of his published books and order please contact him at hirayrberberoglu_3@sympatico.ca

Hryar Berberoglu www.littlefatwino.com