Cookbook for mission launched and sales soar after release

Jane Berthiaume, Jill Kanwischer and Annie Hall hold copies of the new Amherstburg Celebrity Cookbook that was launched last Wednesday night. Proceeds benefit the Amherstburg Food and Fellowship Mission. 

A new cookbook has quickly gained popularity and is helping a local non-profit organization to boot.

The Amherstburg Celebrity Cookbook was unveiled last Wednesday night with the 97-page cookbook the subject of a launch at G.L. Heritage Brewing Co. Proceeds from the cookbook will benefit the Amherstburg Food and Fellowship Mission, with Mission president Tim McAllister featured on the cover.

Creation of the Amherstburg Celebrity Cookbook was led by Mission board member and volunteer Jill Kanwischer, her cousin Annie Hall from OurRecipeTree.com and Kanwischer’s sister Jane Berthiaume. 

“We wanted to do a fundraiser that would be a little bit different,” explained Kanwischer. “We wanted to tell Amherstburg’s stories through food.”

Kanwischer added Hall founded OurRecipeTree.com originally as a family project.

“She created the website for our family,” said Kanwischer. 

The website has evolved and Kanwischer, Hall and Berthiaume partnered to develop the cookbook as a way to give back to the Mission. Kanwischer added she loves to tell stories and wanted to capture those stories and the history behind them.

It was the stories that were really special, she added, and the recipes were paired with them in the cookbook.

Kanwischer said the end result was “beyond expectations for sure” and that plans initially called for a 50-page book. Families First Funeral Home provided the printing free of charge.

“We printed 300,” said Kanwischer. “Our pre-sales were 130.”

By last Thursday morning, over 200 had been sold and the bulk of the books were sold by that evening, organizers say. Limited copies of the cookbook are on sale for $20 each at the Amherstburg Food and Fellowship Mission, the Acai Shack, Heritage Tire, Joe Meloche Ford, the Marsh Historical Collection, Pointe West Golf Club, Site Zero General Store & Eatery, the Panetteria, Ure’s Country Kitchen and the Waterfront Ice Cream Parlour with organizers hoping to be able to print more.

“The book didn’t cost the mission a dime,” said Kanwischer. “Everything is sponsored.”

Work on the book has taken about one year, she added.

Hall stated she was very proud of how the book turned out.

“Jill worked so hard and this is going to be a gift for the entire Town of Amherstburg,” she said. “I feel overwhelmed and blessed. When I pick it up, I feel nothing but blessed.”

Cookbook for mission launched and sales soar after release

By Ron Giofu