2024 – 30th anniversary
Saturday 4 May, noon to 4 p.m. (Toronto)
Huge Sale of Cookbooks and Food History Books
Ralph Thornton Community Centre, second floor (accessible)
765 Queen Street East, two blocks east of Broadview Avenue in Toronto.
Limited street parking. Green P parking lot 045 at 111 Broadview Avenue.
Cookbook collectors! We have some rare 19th-century cookbooks. We have lots of rare and familiar, old and new, important and not, repro and original, big and small, 20th-century cookbooks from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., plus a few from Asia, India, Australia and Europe. We have cookbooks for children. A nice selection of cookbooks by Madame Benoît too. Fill in some of your collection’s gaps from more than 2,000 cookbooks available.
Food historians! We have encyclopedias, national surveys, bibliographies, dictionaries, biographies and histories of familiar and obscure topics. We have books on the history of chocolate, beverages, Christmas and more. Expand your knowledge by choosing from more than 500 books exploring topics in food history.
Many of the books are donated from the personal libraries of well-known Canadian food historians Mary F. Williamson, Carolyn Crawford and Fiona Lucas, who are all downsizing, and the late Dorothy Duncan, who bequeathed her entire and enormous culinary book collection to CHC. We have many duplicate Canadian cookbooks donated by McGill University’s library too.
Historical baked treats are available for purchase too. This is a 30th-anniversary fundraiser for the Culinary Historians of Canada. Admission: Free. Open to everyone! For more information, visit our Facebook page!
Tuesday, December 31, 2 to 6 p.m. ET (Ottawa)
Hogman-eh!
CHC closes out our 30th-anniversary year with a visit to the Scottish Society of Ottawa’s traditional New Year’s Eve festival. Our exhibit on the influence of Scottish cooking on Canadian cuisine will be just a small part of an evening that includes family activities, Celtic music, whiskey tasting and Auld Lang Syne.
Saturday, October 5, 2024, 2 to 4 p.m. ET (Toronto & Zoom)
CHC Annual General Meeting
All members in good standing are eligible to attend and vote at the CHC AGM. This year, we have special plans for the AGM, including our first hybrid meeting (with the first live component since 2019) and extra features to be announced later.
Sunday, April 14, 1 p.m. (Zoom)
114 Years of Jollof Rice: From Senegal to Nigeria to Canada – postponed until further notice
An exciting look at an African classic with Nigerian food explorer, culinary anthropologist and food historian. Ozoz Sokoh of Kitchen Butterfly. Ozoz is a professor of Food and Tourism studies at Centennial College. Her research and documentation explore the roots of Nigerian and West African cuisine, the impact of West African intellectual contributions to global development from the American South through the Caribbean to Europe and Latin America, and the connection to the Afro-diaspora.
Her ongoing project “Coast to Coast: From West Africa to the World” traces the histories and edible trails of West Africa and its diaspora. She has spoken at TEDx and at conferences hosted by the Culinary Institute of America. Her work has been featured in Smithsonian magazine, Gastro Obscura, CNN African Voices and Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. Admission: $20+$1.99 ticketing fee (general); $17+$1.89 ticketing fee (Culinary Tourism Alliance members); $10+$1.64 ticketing fee (CHC members). Tickets are available now on Eventbrite.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 (Guelph, Ontario & virtual)
Cooking Up History: 30 Years of the Culinary Historians of Canada — Exhibit Launch with U of Guelph
In honour of the CHC’s 30th anniversary in 2024, special events are being prepared through a collaboration with the Archival & Special Collections of the University of Guelph.
Under the guidance of professor Rebecca Beausaert and archivist Melissa McAfee, two groups of students are studying Canadian historical cookbooks and presenting their analysis to the public through writing and installing a short-term physical exhibit in the archives and adding a digital exhibit to U of G’s What Canada Ate website, which already holds several exhibits on historical cookbooks created by earlier students.
These new complementary exhibits will celebrate the 33 cookbook authors currently inducted into our Taste Canada Hall of Fame, featuring some of the authors’ cornerstone books and including oral histories with living authors. Most excitingly, these exhibits will also celebrate the Culinary Historians of Canada, which sponsors the annual Hall of Fame. They will launch live at the U of G’s McLaughlin Library exhibit room, as well as virtually, with special appearances by chef Jamie Kennedy and CHC cofounder Fiona Lucas. Online registration is still open!
Sunday, November 12, 1 to 2:30 p.m. ET (virtual)
Where We Ate: A Canadian Restaurant Love Letter
CHC is pleased to present critic and journalist Gabby Peyton discussing her debut book Where We Ate: A Field Guide to Canada’s Restaurants, Past and Present, a love letter to 150 Canadian restaurants and the stories and people behind them—from pre-Confederation to present day, from Victoria to St. John’s. Gabby will talk not only about the history of Canadian restaurants, but also about immigration, cultural movements and the origin stories of Canada’s most iconic dishes (donair, poutine, Ginger Beef, California rolls and Hawaiian Pizza, just to name a few.).
Where We Ate is part history book, part restaurant bucket-list guide, and part cookbook—a cross-section of the mom-and-pop shops, high-end dining establishments and local favourites that make up Canada’s amazing dining scene. Gabby’s talk on the book and the restaurants will be illustrated with photos and menus from archival collections, as well as some recipes inspired or contributed by featured restaurants, some of which are still operating. A question-and-answer session will follow.
Gabby Peyton is a food writer based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, who is obsessed with cheese, historical fiction and planning her next trip—to eat. She is a trained art historian (she has an MA from the University of Toronto and spent three summers working on an archeological dig in central Turkey) with a degree from the University of King’s College. Her food-writing career began with her blog The Food Girl in Town in 2012, and she has been writing about food ever since for such outlets as The Telegram, enRoute, Chatelaine, the CBC and Eater.
Admission: $10 (general); $8.50 (Culinary Tourism Association members); $5 (CHC Members). Pay As You May tickets are also available. Tickets are available via Eventbrite.
Sunday, November 5, 3 to 4:30 p.m. ET (virtual)
William Morris Cakes Event: CHC Member Discount
CHC is pleased to announce that we’ve entered into a partnership with the Canadian Society of Decorative Arts that will allow members of the two organizations to enjoy a discount to some of each others’ events. Upcoming is the William Morris Society Cakes event coming up on November 5, part of CSDA Sundays: The Expert Series. CHC full members in good standing will be able to attend free of charge.
For 14 years, Laura Bright and Gianna Wichelow have created cakes in celebration of William Morris, the great British designer and socialist. The cakes were created to celebrate his birthday each spring at a lecture hosted by the William Morris Society of Canada. On Sunday, November 5, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. EST, they will share techniques and inspiration for their sweet tribute to the British design legend in an illustrated, online presentation.
Admission: $10 (general); free of charge for CHC members with the promo code CULHIS2023, CSDA & William Morris Society of Canada members. If you’d like to become a CSDA member, you can purchase a discounted annual membership and attend the event for free. Tickets and memberships are available on Eventbrite.
Monday, October 30, 5:30 to 10 p.m. ET, Fairmont Royal York Hotel (Toronto)
Taste Canada Awards Gala
The 2023 Taste Canada Awards, the biggest night in Canadian cookbooks, will be an intimate evening with great food and terrific company, as Canada’s top cookbook authors, bloggers and influencers, publishers, producers, chefs and restauranteurs, media and cookbook fans, gather to celebrate Canadian culinary writing.
Canadian comic Ali Hassan (host of Laugh Out Loud on CBC Radio) will host the evening and reveal which cookbooks will take home the Gold and Silver awards. And of course, CHC will reveal this year’s inductees into the Taste Canada Hall of Fame.
Admission: $118.48. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Sunday, October 15, 2023, 2 to 4 p.m. ET (virtual)
CHC Annual General Meeting
All members in good standing will receive an invitation to attend via Zoom. To join or renew, simply visit the membership page on our website. If you are not certain whether your membership is still up to date, check in with our membership chair, Judy, at membership@culinaryhistorians.ca.
We are actively seeking new board members, and hoping to fill the positions of president, treasurer, co-chair of communications, PR co-ordinator and members-at-large. Interested parties can find out more at info@culinaryhistorians.ca.
AGM Documents
- Agenda
- Draft minutes of the CHC AGM of 2022
- Board reports (including Treasurer’s Report)
To submit your name for one of the executive positions (president or treasurer), please download and submit a nomination form.
If you will be unable to attend, you may choose another member to vote in your place by downloading and submitting a proxy form.
Further information will be posted here soon.
Sunday, September 17
1 to 3 p.m. EDT (virtual) & 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. MDT (in person)/
Tour of Heritage Park Historical Village (Calgary)
CHC presents a foodways tour of one of Western Canada’s oldest and largest living-history museums, Heritage Park Historical Village (1900 Heritage Drive SW, Calgary). Led by Chief Curator and CHC Vice-President Kesia Kvill, our tour will make stops at a prospector’s tent, rectory, Métis farm, fur-trading fort and Chinese café. Knowledgeable interpreters and cooks will meet us at each site to share the engaging history of Western Canadian foodways from local Indigenous groups through to the settlement boom of the 1910s.
Admission: Free (CHC members), $10 (non-members), $8.50 (members of the Culinary Tourism Alliance. In-person attendees must register by Friday, September 15, at 10 a.m. MDT. (Park admission is waived for CHC members and registered attendees.) Live attendees should meet Kesia at the Engineered Air Gazebo in Heritage Park’s Plaza at 10:30 a.m.. Email vp@culinaryhistorians.ca with any questions.
To attend, visit this link for the in-person version of the event, or click here to register for the virtual tour.
Saturday, August 5, 12:30 to 4 p.m
20th Food Day Canada
In celebration of the 20th Food Day Canada, CHC is sponsoring a demonstration of historic Canadian cooking at Campbell House Museum in Toronto. Members Sherry Murphy, Mya Sangster, Pat Currie and Tess Sciberras will demonstrate recipes from such famous Canadians as Catharine Parr Traill to tickle our Canadian tastebuds. Entrance to the museum is $10 (adults) or $6 (seniors), and includes a tour.
Sunday, June 11
From Figgy Duff to Loblolly: History of the Newfoundland & Labrador Table
Author Jennifer Leigh Hill will discuss her book The Foods of Newfoundland and Labrador: Tracing the History of the Province’s Cookery, which looks at the history of how some of the various dishes that are typically served in both homes and restaurants around the province have evolved, and continue to evolve, from the 1600s to the present.
It examines food that can be traced back to the early settlers: the English, Irish, Scottish, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Basque, and recipes that are representative of each group are presented. Examples include Figgy Duff (England), Boxty (Ireland), Scotch Eggs (Scotland), Croquettes (France), Sardinhas Asadas (Spain), Char-Grilled Octopus (Basque), and Egg Tarts (Portugal).
Tickets for CHC members are free; non-members pay $8.50. Both members and non-members may choose a “pay as you may” option to donate the amount of their choice.
Sunday, April 23, at 1 p.m. EDT (virtual)
Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper
Neil Buttery will talk about his new book Before Mrs. Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper. Mrs. Raffald first published her own highly successful book The Experienced English Housekeeper in 1769. Not content with book publishing, she also set up a cookery school and ran a high-class tavern attracting both gentry and nobility, gave birth (reputedly) to 16 daughters, wrote a book on midwifery and was an effective exorcist of evil spirits. Dr. Buttery has lots of information to share about this remarkable woman and her tumultuous life. Admission is $10.09 (free for CHC members).