Pakistan wins at the ‘International Gourmand Awards’

Yantai, China:

Pakistan’s premier independent publisher, Markings, proudly represented Pakistan for the second time in a row at the coveted Gourmand Award ceremony, for the Hindi-Urdu, Pakistan-India collaborative cook book, ‘Zaiqay Frontier Kay – Dera Ismail Khan Kay BhulayBisrayPakwan’. The cookbook has been honoured by the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Award committee in the “Cookbook For Peace: India-Pakistan” category. The cookbook was also nominated in the Best Vegetarian Cookbook, Best Culinary History Cookbook and Best Local Cuisine Cookbook categories!

The winners were announced on Tuesday June 9, 2015 at the annual Gourmand Awards event, which took place in Yantai – the food capital of Shandong province in China. Representing the book at the event were the entire Bagai family, including AtulBagai and the author’s granddaughter SaudaminiBagai. CEO Markings, Kiran Aman and Creative Director, Markings Tuba Arshad, represented the book’s publishers and Pakistan at the event.

Markings won their first prestigious Gourmand Awards for the title ‘Deliciously Yours’ by Lal Majid, in the“Best Pastry Sweets Cookbook” in 2014.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau and endeavour to recognize and honour the best authors, publishers, food writers and all those who “cook with words”. The annual Awards have established themselves as the premier cookbook recognition authority and are widely regarded by international journalists as the “Oscars” of the Cookbook Awards . Indeed, the growing number of countries, from 136 in 2009 to 205 in 2014, that participate in the program is indicative of the Awards growing stature and prestige .

The 20th Gourmand Awards were held in Yuntai, China from 8th June to 9th June 2015 and featured a variety of engaging culinary themed activities over the course of the event including food celebrations, a Fushan dinner in the birthplace of Shandong and Imperial cuisines, barbecue parties and the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards itself. The event also featured a host of conferences with sessions on topics such as world trends in food, “Pears and Health” and “Food on the Silk Road” among other fora focusing on natural food, organic food and health.

Speaking about the international recognition that ‘Flavours of the Frontier’ has garnered, Kiran Aman CEO of Markings has said, “The Gourmand Award recognition is an honour for all of us at Markings Publishing and we are excited to be a part of this pioneering initiative. This cookbook is no way a mere collection of recipes but rather a tribute to the shared cultural heritage of Pakistan and India, a forgotten history and is in essence an emblem of peace. It has been recognized by the prestigious Gourmand Awards body as significant across-border collaboration, an initiative that proves that disparate nations, cultures and peoples can connect with each other through unifying commonalities such as through cuisine. We are delighted to be representing Pakistan on the global stage once again; this time promoting the message of cultural harmony and peace through food.”

Sharing his thoughts about the recognition, son of PushpaKumariBagaiAtulBagai said “It is a tremendous honour to have my mother’s work so widely recognised by the international community. Cooking was a passion that ran through the veins of my mother Pushpa and a skill that she passed down through generations as a treasured family heirloom. The cookbook is a tribute to her skill and tenacity as a culinary expert and aptly represents the culture and rich heritage of Dera Ismail Khan through the form of gourmet cuisine. Having this book published in the country where my mother belonged to and to see it garner the praise it has achieved is a phenomenal feeling for all her children.”

Last year, CEO Markings Kiran Aman and son of PushpaKumariBagaiAtulBagai jointly held a talk titled “Peace and Cookbook” where they discussed the execution of Bagai’s vision for the book and the culinary heritage of the Hindus of the Frontier, highlighting the cultural similarities between Pakistan and India and the importance of such books as a means of bridging the divide between the two nations. The talk was held during the conferences taking place as part of the “Beijing Cookbook Fair.” In India, the cookbook was jointly introduced at the prestigious Jaipur Literature Festival by iconic Indian media personality Mr. VinodDua whose family also hails from Dera Ismail Khan, and by the esteemed Pakistani media personality Moneeza Hashmi, who is also the daughter of renowned poet, the late Faiz Ahmad Faiz. The book will next be launched in Bhutan at the country’s signature national Literature Festival.

Translated as ‘Flavours of the Frontier – Forgotten Recipes from Dera Ismail Khan’, the book brings together the rich flavours of the Subcontinent and is in essence a cross-border and cross-cultural initiative, which indeed embodies the spirit of food for peace and the preservation of culture. Written by the late Pushpa Kumari Bagai, the cookbook is a collection of Bagai’s coveted recipes, with an introduction by her daughter Dr. Anjali Malik, a Professor of History at the Delhi University.

Indeed Bagai was the custodian and exponent of a very special culinary tradition – the vegetarian cuisine of the Hindu Pathans of Dera Ismail Khan. It was through Bagai’s preservation of the dietary customs of DI Khan’s Hindu Pathans in Delhi, that many families within her community were provided with a nostalgic comfort through cuisine that helped preserve their sense of identity.