Tweet Treats Goes Gourmand

Regular visitors to writing.ie may remember an interview Barbara Scully did with writer Jane Travers last year on the publication of her quirky book, Tweet Treats. You can read the article, 'Tweet Treats is a Treat For All'  here.

We were delighted to hear that this fabulous book was nominated for a Food Writing Award recently and so asked its author Jane Travers to fill us in and tell us all about it.

"It certainly wasn’t what I expected when I opened an email from my publisher just before Christmas, but there it was; the news that my little book Tweet Treats had been shortlisted for an award, and a Gourmand Award no less. Tweet Treats is now competing in the category Fundraising (Europe) in Paris on March 6^th of this year, at the launch of the prestigious Paris Cookbook Fair. The Gourmand Awards were founded in 1995 to promote and celebrate the craft of writing about food in any form, including books, journalism and blogging. As of this year, 2012, 156 countries will compete in seventy-nine awards categories.

Like any writer sending a book out into the world, I have been beset by doubts ever since I first conceived the idea of Tweet Treats. I knew that the idea had merit, that it could create a really fun, non-pretentious and most of all a useful little cookbook, but would anyone else get it? Or would the entire book-buying public consider it to be a novelty piece of throwaway fluff, made worthwhile only by its charitable aspect?

Since Tweet Treats was launched in October of last year, I have been contacted by a number of people who have told me that they love this book. Many have said that it is the first cookbook they’ve ever actually used; one reader sent me a picture of a food-splattered dog-eared copy in proof, which delighted me. Alright, so some people were getting the idea of Tweet Treats and embracing it. I was satisfied.

I never expected to receive any kind of professional regard for Tweet Treats. Books that are popular and books that receive critical acclaim – in any category – are seldom the same. The fact that the judging panel of the Gourmand Awards – a group of professional chefs and food writers – have seen sufficient merit in Tweet Treats to shortlist it has thrilled me beyond description. 

Last year’s winner in this category was a cookbook from The Netherlands, called Topkoks voor Thuiskoks (Top Chefs for Home Chefs) issued by the UN World Food Program to raise money for nutritious meals for school children in Malawi. There is something pleasing and heartening about working from a cookbook to nourish your family and simultaneously knowing that your purchase is reaching across the world to nourish another family too. The same is true of Tweet Treats, all royalties from which are going directly to Médecins sans Frontières. MSF are working hard in countries such as Malawi, and also many other countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe to provide urgent medical care and nutrition to people stricken by war, famine and natural disasters.

I don’t know which book the panel will pick to be the ultimate winner in the Fundraising (Europe) category, but for the sake of MSF and the people they help every day, I’m hoping fervently that it will be Tweet Treats. Recognition of Tweet Treats by the Gourmand Awards would ultimately mean the world to people who have nothing."

(c) Barbara Scully January 2012

Jane Travers will be appearing at the Waterford Writers Festival 23-25th March with Catherine Cleary of the Irish Times to discuss modern Irish food writing at an event in The Book Centre.