Canadian Press food writer honoured for lifetime service to culinary community

TORONTO - Judy Creighton, a longtime journalist with The Canadian Press, has received a prestigious award for her lifetime of service to Canada's culinary community.

Creighton, 71, was given Cuisine Canada's Founder's Award on Friday at a ceremony on the opening day of the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto.

Creighton's byline is well known in Canadian food journalism. Her weekly columns appear in the country's largest and smallest newspapers and everywhere in between, including online editions.

Also receiving an award Friday was Robert Arniel of St. John's, N.L., who was honoured for his contribution to regional cuisine in the field of restaurant and food service.

Arniel got The Edna, an award named for Canadian icon Edna Staebler, one of the first Canadian authors to extol the virtues of local food in her bestselling "Schmecks" cookbooks. Her portrayal of Old Order Mennonites and food in Ontario's Waterloo area made the region a culinary destination. Staebler died in 2006 at age 101.

Creighton began her career in the late 1950s, joining a Victoria newspaper as a reporter after graduating from Norfolk House School in the B.C. capital. She worked for the London Free Press and the Toronto Star before joining The Canadian Press in 1975 as a reporter-editor. She became family editor in 1976 and lifestyles writer in 1986.

Although Creighton officially retired in 2000, she continues freelancing and every week provides The Canadian Press with a package of illustrated stories and recipes, which are featured in dozens of media outlets from Yellowknife, N.W.T., and Fort McMurray, Alta., to Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Creighton has focused on the Canadian food scene, whether it is an update on how the apple season is looking or why Canadian garlic is so hard to buy. She talks to the people who have worked to develop distinct Canadian cuisine and Canadian-grown food. She knows farmers, fishers, cookbook writers and chefs from coast to coast. She covers trends before they are widely known - Creighton wrote about the eat-local food movement long before others did. And she does it with the discerning eye of a seasoned journalist whose beat just happens to be food.

Creighton's column is a source of reliable advice for the home cook, especially those interested in "cooking Canadian" with local ingredients, and the accompanying recipes and tips have come to the rescue of countless cooks in need of dinnertime inspiration. The list of Canadian food stories she has written is immense, with topics ranging from the joys of farmers' markets and the Prince Edward Island shellfish festival to the history of Canada's sweet potato crop and Canadian cookie-making traditions.

Arniel, who has lived and worked in St. John's for the past 23 years as a sous chef, executive chef and instructor, began Chef to Go in 1995, catering to small groups in private homes. It has become a full-time venture for the last 12 years. He also offers cooking classes featuring Newfoundland cuisine, using local ingredients and buying from local farmers.

Passionate about developing a "nouvelle" cuisine based on Newfoundland and Labrador's bounty from the land and sea, Arniel prepares such dishes as Newfoundland coldwater shrimp and crab dumplings, Labrador caribou pistachio pate on organic greens, braised local lamb shanks with garlic mashed blue potatoes, and partridgeberry sorbet for his cooking classes and dining evenings.

Arniel has been a competitor, coach of junior teams and judge of national culinary competitions, representing Atlantic Canada three times at the National Dairy Bureau Competition. In 1989 he was named Newfoundland chef of the year and in 2007 he was a member of a Team Canada chef expedition to Brussels for Fisheries Canada.

Cuisine Canada is a national alliance of Canadian culinary professionals who share a desire to encourage the development, use and recognition of fine Canadian food and beverages. The Edna Award is sponsored by Canadian Living magazine.