Here are three new cookbooks to check out this fall

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It’s September: Time to get book-ish. Here are some cookbooks that will hit shelves in September and October — one is local, another is Canadian, and the third is for those skirting around food sensitivities.

My New Indian Kitchen by Vikram Vij and Jennifer Muttoo

No need to introduce Vikram Vij and his internationally recognized Indian restaurant, Vij’s. In the book, he and partner Jennifer Muttoo celebrate Indian cuisine with their hearts. “For me, the culinary world has been both a refuge and a lifelong passion, especially during times of personal challenge and heartache,” Vij says. Meeting Jennifer, he says, mirrored the harmony and contentment he felt in the kitchen. This, you might say, mirrors their love of food and one another. The “new” in the title, refers to a more free-ranging Indian cuisine which includes dishes such as Indian French Onion Soup and Rösti with Portobello Mushrooms.

Perch by Justin Champagne-Lagarde

This chef’s Ottawa restaurant, Perch, Champagne-Lagarde demonstrates unwavering commitment to sustainable, ethical food. “It’s a lot of work, adds an extra level of stress and requires full-time attention,” he says. But for him, it’s the only way. He replaces non-local ingredients with similar flavour profiles and turns cooking scraps into powders, consommés, and infusions for further use. Yet, he cooks at haute levels, with out-side-the-box dishes like Rose-cured Spot Prawns and Chaga Cake with Black Garlic Ice Cream and Birch Meringue.

In Good Health by Rachel Riggs

It often takes a health crisis to spur people into dietary rethinks. For Riggs, it was myalgic encephalomyelitis, more commonly referred to as chronic fatigue syndrome. The former foodshop owner feared limitations to life’s pleasure of sharing a meal with others. “It turns out my fear is shared by people with a variety of chronic conditions, food allergies or sensitivities,” she says. So the cookbook offers modern, vibrant dishes free of commonly triggering foods such as gluten dairy, nightshades, refined sugar, soy, shellfish, pork, grains.

Vancouver’s Chinese Restaurant Awards goes global

After 16 years, the Chinese Restaurant Awards, Vancouver’s benchmark for Chinese cuisine, is going global.

The 2025 awards, to be announced Oct. 29, will for the first time include winners not just from Metro Vancouver, but from across Canada and select cities in Asia. The Asia awards judging panel will be led by globe-trotting critic and author Agnes Chee, whose works include  Vanishing Flavour of Cantonese Cuisine and World-Changing Flavours.

The Canadian edition of the awards will be helmed by Lee Man, the respected Vancouver writer and critic who was a founding judge of the awards in 2008. The awards will be announced at a gala dim sum dinner held at the Vancouver Club that will feature dishes of local chefs and special guest chef Chan Hon-Cheong of Hong Kong’s iconic One Harbour Road. The gala is a fundraiser for research at the new St. Paul’s Hosptial that will to help restore hearing for British Columbians affected by hearing loss. Find more information HERE.