Food & Beverage News: Books - Indian Veggie Guidebook wins award at Food Oscars in China

More than 90 countries participated in Beijing, at the 12th annual Gourmand Awards, the Oscars of the food and beverage sector, with "Best in the World" winners from nearly 60 countries in various categories including writing. A book on Indian vegetarian cooking by Chennai based writers was adjudged Best In The World Award.

Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Jain won the award for their book 'Cooking at home with Pedatha.' Apart from winning the best Gourmand cook book in the world award, the book also was chosen to decorate the Leith restaurant at the London book fair, an honour which only 10 cook books in the world received. Pratibha is a PhD in language, while Jigyasa is married to the grandson of former President V V Giri. The book is a tribute to Pedatha, the former President's eldest daughter who is now 85 years old. (Pedatha is Telugu for paternal aunt). The two authors learnt different recipes from Pedatha and compiled the book over a period of two-and-a-half years. Pedatha herself is said to have been very excited about the project, posing for photographs and correcting the recipes.

Rare Malts by Ulf Buxrud won "Best Spirits Book in the World" this year. It is published by Quiller Books. The author is a Swedish pillar of the International Wine and Food Society, and is an expert on facts, figures and the taste of rare malts.

Spain, France, Great Britain, Sweden and the United States won the most awards. From the Latin American entries, five books about Peruvian food or wine received awards making it a big night for Peru. One of the books was "Eat Smart in Peru," a culinary guidebook written by Joan Peterson and Brook Soltvedt, and illustrated by Susan Chwae.

Edouard Cointreau founded the World Cookbook Awards in 1995, renamed Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2001. The awards event took place at the world's biggest book fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1995 and 1996. Over the past 11 years, the event has moved around the world, from Frankfurt to smaller cities like Versailles, Périgueux, Orebro, Sorges, as well as large mega-metros like Paris (2003), Barcelona (2004), Kuala Lumpur, and now Beijing. The 11th Gourmand awards were held in Sweden.

The Best in the World Gourmand Awards reward not only the best of a given year but also recognise and honour professionals in the food and wine writing and publishing business. An incredible number of books as many as 24,000 food and wine books are produced worldwide every year.

The Gourmand Awards are a competition with several categories. Since 2002, there have been three competitions for books in English-UK, the US, and the Rest of the World. Over 5, 000 books were received from 60 countries in 2004.

Books compete initially in their own language. The major number of entries are in English, which represents half of the world production and includes books from 20 countries. Since 2002, there have been three competitions for books in English-UK, the US, and the Rest of the World.

There are two separate categories for books in French, for those published in France and those outside France. There are two categories for Castilian-Spanish, for Spain and America.

Gourmand International examines the world of food and drink as presented through books, television and other media. Books are only accepted in their original languages. There are no entry fees. The competition is free and open to all. Books may be entered by anyone - authors, publishers or even readers. Gourmand World Cookbook Awards has 34 categories for cookbooks and 14 for wine books, a total of 48 categories

Other national food or wine awards around the world have 15 to 50 categories. For instance the German Academy of Gastronomy had 29 winners in German in October 2003, approximately one for every 45 food and wine books published in German. The French trade magazine Livres Hebdo has 47 headings in its classification for French food and wine books.

Eat Smart in Peru is a paperback (160 pages, published by Ginkgo Press) and is the latest title in the highly acclaimed and award-winning series, Eat Smart guides to the food of India, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, and Morocco authored by Ms Peterson.

As in the other titles, Eat Smart in Peru has two extensive glossaries (one for menus and one for markets), key recipes to preview the tastes before departure, insights on food history and regional specialties, useful phrases, and travel and shopping tips. The easy-to-use guide can help the reader understand Peruvian culture in depth.

Ms Peterson authored the Eat Smart series of guidebooks for travelers and cookbook lovers who want to get to the heart of a country's culture through its cuisine. She has traveled extensively for many years, and has led culinary tours to India, Morocco, and Turkey. She is a founding member of CHEW (Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin) and is the director of the Travel Publishers Association, a group she founded in 1996. Eat Smart in Peru was also a finalist for travel guides in the Best Books USA BookNews.com competition and was voted Best Food Guide of the Year by www.planeta.com. Buen viaje y buen provecho!