ottawa foodies

Need another cookbook like a hole in the head, but I picked up Ottawa Cooks, Anne DesBrisayès compilation of contributions by Ottawa Chefs. A beautiful book. For me, more like food porn as the food looks a bit complicated for my simple skills, but a great read. Got it at Thyme and Again.

I think it is also available at Costco. I am going to the store in Nepean tomorrow so I can check.

PL -- it is definitely at the Nepean Costco as I saw it there last night.

Don't buy it at CostCo, buy it at one of the restaurants who are featured in the book. The restaurants fronted the money to publish the book and some of them are donating their cut to charities such as the food bank.

FYI many of the chefs featured are donating a portion of the book price to local charities. Union 613 is donating to the Ottawa Food bank and Absinthe is donating to the Parkdale Food Centre.

Also, the featured chefs contributed to the cost of having the book published by purchasing your book directly from a chef/restaurant you are supporting a local charity and the chef makes a bit of that upfront money back.

Costco will only be supporting Costco.

I love this site! I learn something new everyday;) I found out about the Costco option when I was on facebook yesterday and thank you Food Buddy confirming that they have it. And thanks to AD_2 and lovetoeat for letting me know the participating restaurants have it and will be donating a portion of the proceeds to charity. I will explore that option.

I am glad that I did not buy it at Costco ... would much prefer benefiting local charities. Thanks for the info AD2 and LTE.

This will be great, if anyone is interested!

Books on Beechwood is hosting a book dinner for Anne's book
Sunday September 18, 5.30 PM.
She will talk about the book and a family style dinner is included, Table 40 is part of Fraser Cafe.

Titles@Table40 is a special series of author dinners hosted by Books on Beechwood at the Table 40 restaurant on Springfield road.
The evenings start at 5:30pm with dinner, followed by the author presentation and book signing. Attendees must reserve their spot through the bookstore with a non-refundable deposit of $20.00 which will go towards the cost of their meal (a set menu with a vegetarian option). The total cost of the meal is $40.00, which includes three courses (family-style). No substitutions will be allowed.

Tax, 18% gratuity, and refreshments are not included.

Tickets are now available in-store for our September and October dinner events. Tickets for our November events will go on sale Friday, September 30.

Bought one today from Atelier - and won tickets to the opening week of THRU! Marc had the books sealed up, and 10 contained tickets. My lucky day!

Congrats sourdough... Nice one!! Please let us know how THRU goes. :-)

Ivan from Union 613 blasts DesBrisay's interview on what's hot/not for 2017 in Ottawa's food scene, with extra contempt for the Ottawa Cooks book deal:

www.facebook.com

Reading their facebook rants burnt my retinas (and may have also damaged my iris). Love how he complains about sales in the rant then notes he sold all copies long ago (and made $1,750.00 straight cash which they donated and was very nice of them, plus advertising). Faulting Anne DesBrisay for selling her books in chapters and at Costco is incredibly naiive. Instead of using common logic, blaming everyone else for everything instead of being accountable for the realities of life seems par for the course for Hipsters and I'm also tired of it. Their minor variance struggle was a perfect example.

Even if I liked their food and drink (which I do not), Ivan's social media rants leave a terrible taste in my mouth. Sometimes I agree with his positions, but not how he presents them.

When you consider all of these restaurants coughed up 1750 to undewrite the costs of the book, turning around and selling them at Costco for 20.00 is an @sshole move imo

If at the pitch, the restaurants had been told you get 35 copies to sell and Costco will be selling them for 20.00, that is a different issue. But the restaurants were not told this. No, I am not taking Ivan's word for it. I was told that by two other restaurants.

Union made it very clear from the beginning that they were donating all the proceeds from the book sales to the Food Bank. Patrick Garland from Absinthe donated the proceeds to the Parkdale Food Centre. Neither restaurant made any cash off the deal. Both supported charities that they already are known to support.

Things need to be shaken up, if not stirred, every once in a while, I enjoyed Ivan's Facebook comments, even if I did not agree with all of them. He raises some valid points, and on other topics, is just venting, as is his right, that's what FB is for.

Fair enough, but I think comparing one of the most well respected food writers in Ottawa to a "shady drug dealer he knew in University" is somewhat uncalled for. As he mentioned, businesses are difficult, and writing books is a difficult way to earn a living. I applaud his efforts towards sustainability ect.. but going after a local writer who probably isn't even making much money on it for not using locally sourced paper is outlandish. Regardless, i'm sure the social justice warriors are having a field day in the comment section.

At the end of the day I think the consistent use of self-righteousness as a way to bully others and the smug, condescending diction is probably what bothers me most.

Okay, I bought my copy at the Wellington Gastro pub back end of November for $35 and they said proceeds to a non-profit but cannot recall 100% if it was Parkdale Food Bank or another. I only know to get it from a restaurant who paid for it to be published versus Chapters or Costco from OF due to posts above from AD_2 and lovetoeat.

I ended up putting it in the Christmas gift pack for my niece and her fiancé. He is a foodie. I was running out of time and not enough things to throw in so did even though I really liked the book

So I intend to buy another copy and will get it from also from a restaurant when I have a little more time to breath. Coconut Lagoon has it on for $30 but did not say proceeds (I presume net of the original $1750) to charity so will likely go for another restaurant that supports a cause with proceeds. I think for me the book is worth $30 and $35 so if it supports a charity too, so much the better.

Chapters gives 40% discount (so likely $21) so it would have been fairer for publishers to say they intend to sell the books at Chapters and Costco too. Not strictly necessary by the letter of the law but a fair and ethical thing to do to give full disclosure.

So the publisher collected $70K from 40 restaurants. So it is low or no risk proposing for them and they get paid and costs covered while the book is being published. I wonder how much Anne Desbrisay got from the $70K advance fronted by the restaurants and how much she gets per book..

Okay a quick check and Figure 1 Publishing are the publishers out of Vancouver.
figure1pub.com/about/

figure1pub.com/books/
They have similar books to Ottawa Cooks for the following cities
* Edmonton 2016
* Winnipeg 2015
* Montreal 2015
* Toronto 2014
* Calgary 2014

Vancouver Cooks and Vancouver Cooks 2 are published in 2004 and 2009 respectively by Douglas & McIntyre.. The Figure 1 president Chris Labonté used to work at D&M so not sure if he was the original owner of the idea or took the idea from his previous employer.

He appears to have a bit of a persecution complex. Every generic comment they made (food waste, pop ups, hipster waiters, beets, kale) he seems to take directly as a shot at his restaurant. As we often tell our children, sometimes, it's not all about you.

Thank you FoodTravel for that breakdown, and for referencing the Publisher and not just the Ottawa representative / curator of the collection Ms Desbrisay.