Prizes for the 1999 World Cookbook Fair

Versailles, October 21-23, 1999

The winners of the Versailles World Cookbook Fair Awards have just been announced, The books have been selected by an independent nominating committee organized by ICR-The International Cookbook Revue. All books published from October 1998 to October 1999 qualified. Thousands of books among the 20,000 published those years were reviewed and prizes were awarded. The international jury was composed of Xavier Darcos, Senator and Mayor of Périgueux and President of the Jury; Dun Gifford, President of the Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust; Oscar Caballero, international journalist; Prince Franz-Wilhelm of Prussia; and Edouard Cointreau, publisher of ICR-The International Cookbook Revue. The awards were presented on October 23, 1999 at the Versailles World Cookbook Fair.

Award winners received their certificates at the Gala Dinner. If they were unable to attend certificates were mailed to them after the awards ceremony.

The World Cookbook Fair takes place since 1990 in Périgueux (France), alternating with the Paris area. Until he became President of France, Jacques Chirac used to give the awards on odd years, at the townhall in Paris as Mayor of Paris. For the 10th anniversary of the awards and the end of the century, the World Cookbook Fair moves to Versailles. In 2000, it will again take place in Périgueux, with Italy as the invited country and wine writer Robert Parker as the guest of honour.

The list of award winners follows. Winners only appear in one category.

1- Prix La Mazille Best books of the year
2- The best in the world
3- The winners in each language
 - English - German - Spanish - Italian - Dutch - Japanese - Swedish - French

The World Cookbook Fair Awards are the only one in the world to first have books compete in their own languages and second compete globally for the best in the world all categories contest.

For more information contact: Tom Källene ICR-The International Cookbook Revue Lagasca, 27-1ºE, 28001 Madrid, Spain Tel.: +34-91-575 93 50, Fax: +34-91-575 99 62 E-mail: 101363.1076@compuserve.com

Press release

Trends in Food and Wine Books Publishing

Publishers and authors have sent for the Versailles World Cookbook Fair Awards over 1,500 books. This enabled ICR-The International Cookbook Revue, the organizers of the awards, to have a clear view of the trends in the sector.

General:

 Publishers want real authors, who have to be comfortable with and atractive to the media. 30% of the books are signed by chefs. Recipes continue to be the most important factor. ® Books subjects are now totally international in their market appeal. ® Health continue to be strong, with 12% of the awards. ® There is more and more serious historical and descriptive text, with history being the main feature of 10% of the awards.  Single subjects that are popular: herbs, tomatoes... ® There are suddenly books on matching food and wine in several countries. ® Italian cooking continues to lead, followed by French Mediterranean and Latino-Asian fusion seems to have levelled off. ® There are not enough fish or seafood books.

Country Specific:

Books in English get 37.5% of the awards, with books in French, Spanish and German each getting approximately 15%. Other languages (Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Swedish, etc.) get 18% of the awards. ® Within each country, publishers have a style and technique influenced by their market. They all feel their books are “The Best�. From the awards, we can draw some conclusions: ® The Australian are the most creative in their design and art direction. ® The Germans keep the best balance between text, photos and recipes. They have the best photographers. ® The UK have the best packagers in the world, and dominate the wine publishing sector. ® The US dominate the world production in interesting, focused books, with worldwide appeal. ® The French are still producing most books for internal market, but are starting to have books with worldwide appeal. However some of their best wine books, and even chef books are now done first in English. The French and Italian leading publishers still do not invest enough in the creation process, compared with the leading publishers in German and English. ® The books in other languages are generally still very national in their approach and do not think of the global market. It is the role of the awards to indicate the most interesting books and reward work, talent, initiative and courage.

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