GUELPH – Elora author Jan Feduck has won a silver award for her debut book Dining Out With History – At Atlantic Canada’s Historic Sites.
The book was recognized by Taste Canada, which has celebrated Canadian food writing with award ceremonies since 1998.
According to Taste Canada’s website, the organization “celebrates Canadian-authored cookbooks by showcasing the diversity and richness of Canada’s culinary landscape.”
Feduck said when she attended the Taste Canada Award ceremony in Toronto on Nov. 10, she was not expecting to bring home a trophy.
Being short listed was exciting enough – Feduck said Taste Canada Awards are like the “Oscars of Canadian Food Writing.”
But as Feduck sat in the crowd at the Royal York Hotel, the announcer called out her name for the second place winner in the English language culinary narrative category.
There are ten categories in all – five for English books and five for French, and gold and silver are awarded for each category.
The culinary narrative category is for food- or beverage-themed books that are not primarily recipe books, but instead use a narrative format to explore areas such as culinary history, politics, social awareness, memoir or biography.
Through Dining Out With History, Feduck uses food to tell stories about historic sites on Canada’s east coast.
To write the book, she visited many historic sites and wrote a short story about each.
Feduck said she thinks her book was of interest to the judges because it “brings the cooking of the period to life.”
She said her goal with the book was “to draw people to the different historic sites so they can learn about the different kinds of food, because they are so varied with cultures and time periods and so on.”
So it was a delight to Feduck when a couple approached her at the award ceremony to say they were using her book to help plan an upcoming trip, during which they would visit some of the sites she highlighted and try the different foods there.
“That was the happiest moment of the evening, beside getting the award,” she said.
Feduck noted she walked away with a “lovely, very tasteful glass trophy” in recognition of her win.
For more information about Taste Canada Awards, or to check out the other winners, visit tastecanada.org/2025-awards-winners.
Dining Out With History is available through Magic Pebble Books in Elora as well as other book sellers.
