The Taste of Nova Scotia Cookbook

Barbara Robertson is the author of Wilfrid Laurier: The Great
Conciliator and co-author of The Well-Filled Cupboard.

This handsome cookbook is a product of the Taste of Nova Scotia (TNS)
program, whose aim is to increase Nova Scotia restaurants’ use of
local produce from farms and fisheries, and to attract travelers eager
to enjoy good regional cooking. These are laudable ambitions, but where
do they leave the consumer of cookbooks and the cook in the kitchen?

The consumer of cookbooks will likely be pleased by the introductions
to each section, which describe the ethnic and geographic character of
the various regions of Nova Scotia, and the resulting culinary tastes.
This material will tend to entice the reader not to the kitchen but to
Nova Scotia, which, it seems likely, is the primary aim of TNS.

The cook in the kitchen, unless actually living in Nova Scotia, is apt
to be rather frustrated, for elsewhere many of the ingredients,
especially as they relate to seafood, are difficult to come by or
prohibitively expensive or both. Nor does it help that many of the
recipes call for fresh basil and fresh dill—herbs that lose much of
their flavor in the drying process, and that, when available out of
season, are of poor quality. Indeed, there is a certain trendiness about
many of the recipes (e.g., Strawberry Soup). The more traditional
recipes, such as Blueberry Grunt and Cucumber Salad, are similar to
those in Marie Nightingale’s Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens, a
homelier book that places greater emphasis on history and, in its
recipes, practicability.

Although their book seems more likely to attract travelers than cooks,
the authors of The Taste of Nova Scotia Cookbook are to be congratulated
for their serious attention to the possibilities of local ingredients in
creating a distinguished local cuisine.