• Everyone Can Cook Seafood
  by Eric Akis
  Whitecap Books, $22.95

  Food writer for the Times-Colonist newspaper, a follow-up to his successful Everyone Can Cook.

  
  
  
  

• Vancouver Cooks
  edited by Jamie Maw and Joan Cross
  Douglas & McIntyre, $40.00

  A book that brings together more than 50 members of the Chef's Table Society of British Columbia. They contributed over 100 recipes in total, run the gamut of cooking the best ingredients BC has to offer, tons of photos, many of the recipes are complex and it may be challenging to find some of the ingredients at your local supermarket.

  But it's a great book for someone who is more than casually interested in cooking and wants to try out their techniques on something more elaborate.

  
  
  
  

• Low-Carb Gourmet
  by Karen Barnaby
  Harper Collins, $39.95

  Although I think the whole low-carb thing is starting to ebb, if you are going to have a low-carb cookbook, it might as well be from Karen Barnaby, of the Fish House in Stanley Park. She has packed 250 recipes into her Low-Carb Gourmet cookbook, and Karen is big on flavour, so you're not going to lose out.

  
  
  
  

• Wineries of British Columbia
  by John Schreiner
  Whitecap Books, $22.95

  This is a completed revised edition, definitely made necessary by the blossoming BC industry. Schreiner has been writing about BC wines almost since the modern-day industry began….and he has visited every single winery in the province and provides amazing detail on the backgrounds of the winery owners and their products, an excellent reference book.

  
  
  
  

• Hot Sun, Cool Shadow
  by Angela Murrills and Peter Matthews
  Raincoast Books, $29.95

  Angela is the food editor at the Georgia Straight, but she spends about 4 months of the year at the house she and her husband Peter Matthews bought in the Languedoc region of France. Hot Sun, Cool Shadow is the story of how they have learned to savour the history, food and wines of that region, as they searched for their house and had it renovated.

  Angela's writing will keep ardent armchair travelers riveted to their seats, and Peter provides warm illustrations with just enough detail to set your imaginations in the right direction. And there are recipes dotted throughout the text to help your taste buds try to experience Angela and Peter's world.

  
  
  
  

• And two magazine recommendations…not BC magazines, or even Canadian, but gifts that will keep on giving for a whole year. Check out Cook's Illustrated and Taunton's Fine Cooking on the magazine shop shelves and you will see what I mean. Lots of tips, lots of recipes, not loaded with ads getting in the way of the editorial, excellent year-long gift giving, I know they're good because anytime I pick them up, I always find lots of recipes that I want to try.
  
  
  

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