COOKING BC STYLE

The Artful Pie Project: A Sweet and Savoury Book of Recipes by Denise

Marchessault

Can one have too much pie? We say no, and even amid a glut of recent titles focusing on sweet and savoury tarts Denise Marchessault’s The Artful Pie Project stands out. The Victoria-based chef and educator has created a comprehensive guide to creating the perfect crust and contents; think of it as an MA program for home cooks, with edible dissertations.

9781770503601 tCooking Tips for Desperate Fishwives: An Island Memoir by Margot Fedoruk (Heritage House $22.95)

Gabriola Island author, mother and soap maker Margot Fedoruk has penned a painfully honest memoir of her less-than-perfect life as a sea-urchin diver’s wife on a seemingly idyllic Gulf Island. It’s not all days on the beach and nights under the stars on the Canadian Riviera, but Fedoruk’s heartfelt text is enlivened by a number of recipes— including one for clam chowder that starts, reasonably enough, with gathering one’s own clams.

9781772033953

Whitewater

BC itself is home to a great diversity of microclimates, and here Nelson’s Shelley Adams returns to the Kootenay traditions of freshness and sustainability that she explored in five earlier Whitewater Cooks titles. The first, subtitled Pure, Simple and Real Creations from the Fresh Tracks Cafe, set out her mandate, and although Adams no longer runs a ski-lodge restaurant she remains committed to energizing yet more elegant cuisine.

9780981142449