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ARCHIVED - Bon appétit!
A Celebration of Canadian Cookbooks

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History of Canadian Cookbooks

The Culture of Cooking

Cooking in the Regions
Fast Food, Slow Food

Fast Food, Slow Food

By the 1970s, North Americans were becoming addicted to the ease of cheap, fast food. The continued pull in the opposite direction eventually resulted in an international movement called, with a touch of humour, "Slow Food." Originating in Italy, the movement has spread around the western world. Its aim is to encourage cooks to take the time to prepare meals themselves using fresh, local foods (whenever possible), and to enjoy meals at a leisurely pace in the company of friends and family.

Title page of cookbook, A TASTE OF THE WILD

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Page 72 of cookbook, A TASTE OF THE WILD, with a text on wild leeks, a half-page drawing of a wild leek and a recipe for Cock-a-leekie Soup

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Page 73 of cookbook, A TASTE OF THE WILD, with recipes for Herbed Croutons, Wild Leek and Potato Soup and Wild Leek Casserole

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Blanche Pownall Garrett. A Taste of the Wild. Illustrated by Ilgvars Stein. Toronto: James Lorimer, 1975

Making use of foods from the countryside, from amaranth and arrowhead to sumac and violets, Garrett's book offers the reader recipes that "can transform an ordinary meal into a memorable feast, with just a taste of the wild" (p. 2).

Cover of cookbook, THE CANADIAN WHOLE FOOD BOOK: A GUIDE TO NEW AGE SUSTENANCE, with a photograph of a brown egg

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Title page of cookbook, THE CANADIAN WHOLE FOOD BOOK: A GUIDE TO NEW AGE SUSTENANCE

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Page 18 of cookbook, THE CANADIAN WHOLE FOOD BOOK, with a black-and-white photograph of a woman weighing food at a natural food store

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The Canadian Whole Food Book: A Guide to New Age Sustenance. By the editors of Harrowsmith Magazine. Camden East, Ont.: Camden House, 1980

The open bins pictured here in a health food store of the 1970s would soon require covers; serving tongs would be added, and other protections against impurities would gradually become part of the health food revolution. Harrowsmith, the magazine, was a major influence in the move to a new, healthier diet.

Cover of cookbook, THE LIGHTHEARTED COOKBOOK, with a photograph of a fish kebab with heart-shaped carrots

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Anne Lindsay. The Lighthearted Cookbook: Recipes for Healthy Heart Cooking. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1988

By the 1990s, healthy eating was on everyone's mind -- this in spite (or perhaps because) of the fact that eating fast food on the fly was beginning to be a way of life, and an unhealthy one for many. Anne Lindsay, with a number of titles in both French and English, was a lifesaver -- literally.