Culinary Landmarks is a definitive history and bibliography of Canadian cookbooks from the beginning, when La cuisinière bourgeoise was published in Quebec City in 1825, to the mid-twentieth century. Over the course of more than ten years Elizabeth Driver researched every cookbook published within the borders of present-day Canada, whether a locally authored text or a Canadian edition of a foreign work. Every type of recipe collection is included, from trade publishers' bestsellers and advertising cookbooks, to home economics textbooks and fund-raisers from church women's groups.

The entries for over 2,200 individual titles are arranged chronologically by their province or territory of publication, revealing cooking and dining customs in each part of the country over 125 years. Full bibliographical descriptions of first and subsequent editions are augmented by author biographies and corporate histories of the food producers and kitchen-equipment manufacturers, who often published the books. Driver's excellent general introduction sets out the evolution of the cookbook genre in Canada, while brief introductions for each province identify regional differences in developments and trends. Four indexes and a 'Chronology of Canadian Cookbook History' provide other points of access to the wealth of material in this impressive reference book.

Elizabeth Driver
is an editor and writer who has spent over twenty years researching the culinary history of Canada and Britain. She is fascinated by the history of food and an avid collector of cookbooks and antique kitchenware. Elizabeth lives with her husband and two children in Toronto, where she is the Foodways Program Officer at Mongomery's Inn museum. She demonstrates such historic techniques as cooking on an open hearth, returning home most days with the smell of wood smoke on her clothes. Elizabeth is a past President of the Culinary Historians of Ontario. She is the recipient of the Tremaine Medal for 2007 from The Bibliographical Society of Canada and in 2009 she was inducted into Taste Canada's Hall of Fame.

Elizabeth Driver's profile page

• Winner, Culinary Hall of Fame Award awarded by Canadian Culinary Book Awards