Now in its 27th year, the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards is an international competition that celebrates food and drink-related books from around the world. This week, two first-time Canadian authors, Renee Kohlman of Saskatoon and Rebecca Wellman of Victoria, received regional awards for their books All The Sweet Things (Kohlman) and First, We Brunch: Recipes and Stories from Victoria’s Best-Loved Breakfast Joints (Wellman) in the English Canadian category. Both cookbooks were published by the Vancouver Island-based publisher TouchWood Editions and received plenty of attention over the past year.

Regional winning cookbooks from around the world will now be compared to one another by the international awards' judging panel. Think American Idol, but with more reading and less Simon Cowell. Once the decisions are made, the worldwide winning titles will be announced at a lively awards ceremony on May 27th and 28th, 2018 in Yantai, China.