# Paris Cookbook Fair hosts first international exhibition of charity cookbooks

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/02/20/paris-cookbook-fair-hosts-first-international-exhibition-charity-cookbooks/
- Published: 2011-02-20T11:01:01+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The first international exhibition of charity cookbooks will be held next month 
in Paris, marking the 200th anniversary of the originator of the fundraising tool.

Charity cookbooks have been popular fundraising tools for years, whether assembled
by local supporter groups or featuring the latest celebrity TV cook. Originally 
an English language phenomenon they have spread over the past 20 years across the
globe.

[Gourmand International](http://www.gourmandbooks.com) is hosting the first international
exhibition of charity cookbooks next month at the Paris Cookbook Fair. The catalogue
lists 240 cookbooks from 85 countries.

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Edouard Cointreau, President and founder of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards and
President of the Paris Cookbook Fair, attributes the popularity of fundraising cookbooks
to two reasons. First, their production fosters a sense of community and team spirit,
and secondly they offer an efficient and proven way to generate funds.

He traces the first fundraising cookbook back to London in 1847, a response to the
Great Irish Famine. Chef Alexis Soyer wrote his book “Charitable Cookery or the 
Poor Man’s Regenerator” from his experience of feeding up to 26.000 people a day
in Dublin. This year is the 200th anniversary of his birth.

The [first American charity cookbook](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25631) followed
in 1864 to help support those wounded, widowed or orphaned by the Civil War.

Because The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards started receiving an increasing number
of charity cookbooks, it was decided in 2008 to create a Gourmand Award for Charity
Cookbooks. There is one award for best charity cookbook for each continent. The 
next Gourmand Awards Ceremony is in Paris on 2 March 2011.

The International Exhibition of Charity Cookbooks takes place during the Paris Cookbook
Fair from 3 to 6 March 2011 at Le104 during the Paris Cookbook Fair, itself organised
by Gourmand International.

www.cookbookfair.com