Gourmand World Cookbook Award

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau as the World Cookbook Awards.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards are the only truly international competition. They are the “Oscars” for food and wine books.

Format

The objectives of the Awards are:

• Reward and honour those who “cook with words”.• Help readers find the best out of the 24000 food and wine books produced every year.• To help publishers with international rights to translate and distribute food and wine books.• To help book retailers find the 50 food and wine books that each year should be offered to clients.• To create an opportunity to access the major markets in English, German, Spanish or French for books originated in other languages.• To increase knowledge of, and respect for, food and wine culture, which promotes peace.

The winners in each language are announced in November, and compete for the Best in the World, announced in April of the following year at a gala dinner.This year, the Gourmand Award Ceremony takes place in Olympia Theatre, London, on April 13.

History

“Gourmand has created a wide spectrum of representationand entertainment with the awards ceremony: at the samemoment glamorous and humorous, elegant and funny.”Herta Gal, Author, Germany

1995: Frankfurt, Germany

1996: Frankfurt, Germany

1997: Paris, France

1998: Périgueux, France

1999: Versailles, France

2000: Périgueux, France

2001: Sorges, France

2003: Brissac, France

2004: Barcelona, Spain

2005: Orebro, Sweden

2006: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2007: Beijing, China

2008: London, UK

Jury

*Edouard Cointreau, Chairman of the Awards Committee
*Dun Gifford, President of the [http://www.oldwayspt.org Oldways Preservation Trust] (USA)
*Prince Franz-Wilhelm of Prussia (Germany)
*Jean Jacques Ratier, Commissaire du Salon International du Livre Gourmand, Mayor of Sorges (France)
*Bo Masser, Director of Booktown Grythyttan (Sweden)

The Impact of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

Winner’s books get more visibility in the marketplace and higher sales, often with new print runs.Translations and international rights deals are negotiated. Winners use self-adhesive stickers to announce their award to the public. They issue press releases in their local markets, which helps make the Gourmand Awards known worldwide.The winners give permanent presence to the awards on their internet sites, in publisher’s catalogues and in the following books and authors biographies.

“Awards are amazing things. When you win, you reallybelieve in them, when you don’t, you pick holes in them.Having been a professional judge of many different things,including food, wine, cooking, recipes, books, radio andtelevision, I know how difficult a job it is.What doesn’t change is the effect awards have on sales.They really do help. It’s particularly important for the smallmarket we have here in NZ. Our books are competing withzillions of others coming in from overseas. It is fantastic tohave international recognition for NZ books”.Julie Biuso, Author. New Zealand

External links

* [http://www.cookbookfair.com Cookbook Fair web-site]

References

Cointreau, Edouard. "Press Release", March 6 2005 (Madrid: Gourmand, 2005)