Peruvian Cookbooks Among World's Best

I just received an e-mail from Catherine Criolla at Quixo, who tipped me off to the fact several Peruvian cookbooks had won prizes at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards held in Beijing in April.

These awards were established in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau of the Cointreau orange liqueur family.

According to Wiki, the objectives of the awards are "to reward and honor those who cook with words; to help readers find the best out of the 24,000 food and wine books produced every year; to create an opportunity to access the major markets in English, German, Spanish or French for books originated in other languages; and, to increase knowledge of, and respect for, food and wine culture, which promotes peace."

Photo: Finals of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Catherine first heard about the news of Peruvian cookbooks winning at this world cookbook event at Club de Peruanos.

My own further research led me to the award website, where I learned, at a page devoted strictly to Peru:

"Peru was very successful. The outstanding book, Perú Mucho Gusto, published by PromPerú and Editora El Comercio, received a Special Award of the jury. The promotion of food tourism is done with much taste in this world-class book. It should be seen by all publishers and tourism officers. The huge team that cooperated in this enormous project is very professional. Congratulations!"



Luckily, I had a chance to purchase this book at the Miraflores Book Fair the last time I was in Lima.


The award website goes on to say:

"The Best Guide in the World is also from Peru...the Guía Gastronómica del Perú (The Peru Gourmet Guide 2006) [published] in English and Spanish by Comunica2.

Peru is rapidly establishing all the structures to become the culinary center of Latin America."

Those were not all the accolades Peruvian cookbooks received from this international body.



"The best publisher of culinary cookbooks in 2004 was won by Universidad San Martín de Porres. This year [2006] its excellent dictionary of gastronomy by Professor Sergio Zapata was honored in Beijing. The University publishes books that show a deep understanding of older traditional food cultures as well as the modern changes in cuisine."

Zapata's book is another I was able to purchase at the Miraflores Book Fair.



There was still one more honor to be bestowed upon Peruvian food books:

"In Beijing, the book, Pisco Punch, was also honored in the Best Wine Literature category. It is an [historical] novel about the leading drink in San Francisco in 1900...by Guillermo Toro-Lira, a Peruvian now living in the United States."

Update: I just received word that yet another Peru-related book took gold in Beijing.


Named Best Culinary Travel Guidebook was Eat Smart In Peru by Joan Peterson and Brook Soltvedt and published by Ginko Press.

Congratulations to all the winners!




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TAGS: Peru, Peruvian, food, cooking, cuisine, cocina, comida, gastronomía, peruana