• Toronto’s small coffee shops are opening second and sometimes third outposts in the city, raising questions about their indie credibility. [National Post]
• Mississauga Secondary School is doing away with the unhealthy pizzas and burgers in its cafeteria, instead serving its students healthy wraps, subs and soups—and winning awards in the process. [Mississauga News]
• Last fall brought a flood of tomes by celebrity chefs, but the newest releases are a batch of idiosyncratic cookbooks on Argentine- and Cajun-style cooking, and preparing the perfect taco. There must be a can-do spirit in the air. [New York Times]
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Three Canadians earned top prizes this week at the James Beard Foundation Awards, which recognize the stars of the eating and drinking industry. Torontonian Jennifer McLagan snagged the Cookbook of the Year Award for Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes—a volume we mention often because of our mutual appreciation of pork, poultry, beef and lamb fat, as well as other gelatinous delicacies.
The travelling food-writing duo of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid also walked away with honours. Their sixth book, Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China—a travelogue-cookbook account of culinary culture in China—earned them this year’s International Award. This is the second win for the pair, who took Cookbook of the Year in 1996 for Flatbreads and Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas.