Taste of Timmins cookbook features diverse local recipes

Timmins -

Just in time for the festive season, a new cookbook has launched in Timmins. 'Taste of Timmins' is a 172-page collection of local family recipes and snippets of their history.

“This cookbook is really a celebration of our community -- its diversity and its heritage," said Helen Yaschyshyn, president of the Timmins Multicultural Society.

"The profits stay local and they will benefit the food programs at the Anti-Hunger Coalition and there’s really something in this cookbook for everyone."

Categories include soups and salads, family favourites, wild game and desserts -- including Thel's Christmas Pudding, which is one from the mayor's mother.

“We had seven kids in the family and when my mom was making that at the kitchen table, we were all around that table with her so you know it just brings real good memories back to me and memories of my mother especially," said George Pirie, mayor of Timmins.

Ifeoma Kasimanwuna is a local immigration partnership co-ordinator with the Timmins and District Multicultural Centre. She said the cookbook is important because it will help bring people of diverse cultures together.

“It becomes like a melting pot of cultures so you taste a part of my culture; I taste a part of your culture and in a way we can relate," Kasimanwuna said.

"When people ... attend potlucks ... they begin to share stories. This ends up in a way bringing people together."

The spiral-bound books are colourful and include anecdotes from those who submitted their recipes. They cost $20 each and may be purchased at a variety of locations throughout the city, including the Timmins Museum.