For the first time, the Village will include a huge area for the international cookbook market. It is the come-back of the Paris Cookbook Fair, with books from over 170 countries and the most important publishers, authors, agents, photographers, TV producers, graphic de-signers, tourism offices and specialized media. The professional area will allow them to network, trade foreign rights and launch new projects with colleagues from as many countries as possible.
Since 1995, the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards bring together the best culinary books of the world. The competition is free, and open to every country, publisher or author, regardless of power or influence. In 24 years, a huge network of professionals has been growing as over 1500 books are sent every year to participate, adding new members to this large family of food culture lovers.
That exponential growth allowed publishers, authors, TV producers, photographers, designers and wine- makers to multiply their contacts around the world. The need of a professional summit was clear: fantastic texts and recipes from all over the world were available to be translated and adapted from one country to another.
The Paris Cookbook Fair was created in 2010, at Le Centquatre, a splendid cultural center in the east of the city. In 2013, the fair moved to the Carrousel du Louvre, before travelling to China in 2014, where the publishing industry was becoming more and more open to international content. In 2015, Gourmand International found an agreement with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the major cultural event of the world, to develop the Gourmet Gallery where publishers meet every year since then. In parallel, Gourmand co-organizes the food and drinks area of the Beijing International Book Fair.
In 2019, the Gourmand World Summit at the UNESCO Headquarters brought together the huge network of food culture professionals, around a big exhibition of 2000 books from 170 countries. It was the opportunity to see what is done and written around the world, by alphabetical order, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. So many topics, styles, layouts, formats, angles, traditions, fusions and research were there to be discovered and shared. So many talented authors and creative publishers to be met.