Indian cookbooks grab honours at global event

The awards are broadly divided into number one, two and three and then there are sub-categories. In the ‘number one in the world’ group, Maria Goretti’s “From my Kitchen to Yours” has won the ‘best television chef book in English’, Veena Bath’s “Paramaanna Prapancha” the ‘best foreign cuisine book’, and “The Indecisive Chicken, 8 Dharavi Women Cooks, Dharavi Biennale” by Prajna Desai the ‘best charity cookbook in Asia’. 

In the ‘number two’ group, the ‘best television chef book outside Europe’ was bagged by Shipra Khanna for her “Sinfully Yours”, Viji Varadarajan the ‘best entertaining book’ for “Festivals”, and Sreeja Jayaram the ‘best local cookbook’ for “Happiness is a Stomach Full: Kerala Cooking”. “Cooking for Happiness” by Kornelia Santoro (best innovative cookbook) and “Five Morsels of Love” by Archana Pidathala (best self-published cookbook) were placed in the ‘number three in the world’ category.

“The top 3 get the same respect, and have the rights to the best in the world logo and certificates. A total of 211 countries participated this year. The awards event was in Yantai, China,” Gourmand World Cookbook Awards founder Edouard Cointreau said. 

Besides US-based Padma Lakshmi’s “Love, Loss, and What We Ate” won in the ‘lifestyle, body and soul’ section and Christiane Philip’s “Nazeema’s Kerala Kitchen” in the ‘Indian and Sri Lankan cuisines’ section.

Founded in 1995, the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards honour the best food and wine books, printed or digital, as well as food television every year.