The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards have been variously described as the cookbook Olympics or “a sort of Nobel prize for cookery writers.”

As if James Walt hasn’t enough accolades in his apron, he gears up for the Winter Olympic season with his newly released Araxi: Seasonal Recipes from the Celebrated Whistler Restaurant having just won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Chef Book in Canada. 

The objective of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards is to “honour those who cook with words.”  More tellingly, the awards aim to help book retailers find the 50 food and wine books out of the 26,000  published each year worth putting on the shelves. 

Araxi will now be entered in the Gourmand Best in the World competition. They may bring home the first gold medal of the season. The Gourmand Best in the World competition results will be announced at the Paris Cookbook Fair on February 11th, 2010, just 2 days before the launch of 2010 Winter Olympic Games.