Flavours of Vancouver

What if you organized a potluck supper and invited restaurateur Manuel Ferreira ( Le Gavroche), Tinn Chan from the Gyoza King Izakaya Japanese restaurant, Rick Cluff of CBC Radio’s The Early Edition; and cheese maven Alice Spurrell of Les Amis du Fromage.

According to Flavours of Vancouver: Dishes From Around the World, the menu could very well consist of brioche aux escargots; ton shabu hiyayako (pork jowl salad); curried minced beef with fried curried tomatoes; and baked cottage pudding. One can imagine the conversation around the dinner table would be equally eclectic.

Flavours of Vancouver, the latest cookbook from Vancouver publisher Douglas & McIntyre, belongs to a genre that is usually inspired by Chamber of Commerce or Junior League fund raising projects -- a madcap mix of personal and family favourites contributed from a wide cross section of good townfolk citizens.

In this case, the contributors are the broadcasters and listeners of CBC Radio. The charity is Save the Children Canada, to whom partial proceeds from the book will be donated.

Edited by CBC Radio Specials Producer Sheila Peacock, and tested by the sophisticated and world travelled home cook, Joan Cross, the recipes are a charming jumble of Anglo-Saxon, European and Asian comfort dishes – many of them inseparable in the donor’s mind from the warm memory of a relative or friend: Mom’s Marvellous Prawns, Nessie’s Oatmeal Scones, Grandma Yerbury’s Welsh Cakes, Eleanore’s Borscht; Nobue Peacock’s Square Oshi Sushi and Papa Jacob’s Poulet Farci, to name just a few.

Beyond the friendly appeal of recipes that make you want to get out your pan, rub it with your elbow and start cooking (ours is fated for the Iranian Walnut Chicken with Rice), the personal anecdotes that preface each one, plus the cozy, fold-y, tactile nature of the paperback stock also make this little book a bit of a bedtime reading pleasure as well.

Something that really appealed to us about the content was the fact that most of the contributors were not from the usual roster of food industry “celebrities�, but instead, were civilians from all walks of life and all professions. These include a few restaurant people that we don’t often hear from, such as: Justin and Lea Ault ( Hapa Izakaya), Kim Thai ( Sutton Place Hotel), and Allen Liu ( Kirin Seafood Restaurants).

… and maybe the best thing about personal choice recipes … in discussing them you often find out things about familiar people that you never realized. Joan Cross, we never knew your heritage was Norwegian! Much lutefisk, lefse and Aquavit to you for a job well done!