Georgian Bay Gourmet Entertains

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

With a 20-year gap since their two previous cookbooks were published,
this team of four cooks from Georgian Bay, Ontario, returns with a work
certain to appeal to cottagers and others who revel in the informality
of lakeside living.

Fourteen color photos of dramatic windswept landscapes anchor the book
to the Bay more effectively than do the recipes because, apart from a
few fish and blueberry dishes, there really is no distinctive Georgian
Bay food style. Fresh, healthy, quick, quality—all these adjectives
could be applied to this collection, as they could to many others. With
little local material to work with, the authors draw inspiration from
today’s international food culture, incorporating Asian, TexMex,
Indian, and European influences.

The recipes are presented in menu groups, an approach that makes for
interesting browsing but becomes exasperating when one is trying to find
a specific recipe. The collection includes some Victorian Canadian
classics (e.g., watermelon rind pickles, lemon loaf, and lemonade syrup)
and a few standbys from the yuppie school of cooking (e.g., shrimp and
mango salad, cappuccino, bruschetta, grilled portobellos).

There are 36 menus with catchy titles (e.g., Asian Spring, Tandoori
Treasure, Crazy Eights)—most irrelevant to Georgian Bay. The hundreds
of recipes include both metric and imperial measures and the method is
always to the point and easy to follow. Complicated procedures are
avoided and ready-mades, like bottled spaghetti sauce, are used to cut
down on preparation time.

In the world of cookbooks, this one stacks up well with some
interesting features but overall comes off as lacking in identity and a
touch unfocused.