Setting a Fine Table : Historical Desserts and Drinks from the Officers' Kitchens at Fort York

Setting a Fine Table is a selection of dessert recipes from historic Fort York in Toronto.

The recipes, from the officers' kitchens in the Fort, take you back to a time when food was truly local. The 30 recipes include the original, historic recipe as well as its modern equivalent. Each recipe is introduced by an explanation of why it was chosen, how it would have been used at the Fort in the past and how it is used at the Fort today. With beautiful photographs as well as a bibliography of the historic cookbooks from which the recipes were drawn, this book will appeal to anyone interested in historic cooking and Canadian history.

Elizabeth Baird has been helping shape Canada's culinary landscape for more than three decades. It was the cookbook Classic Canadian Cooking, Menus for the Seasons, published in 1974, that started her career in food writing. Elizabeth's column, "Canadian Cookbook" was a weekly feature in the Toronto Star, she was the food editor for Canadian Living magazine for 20 years and she has authored and co-authored many cookbooks, including the popular Whitecap title Canada's Favourite Recipes. Elizabeth continues to write a weekly column, "Baird's Bites", for the Toronto Sun and is a volunteer historic cook at Fort York.

Bridget Wranich is one of the founders of the Culinary Historians of Canada and the program officer at Fort York. Her work and contribution to the food scene has been profiled in many newspapers and magazines, including the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. She is a feature speaker at almost every historical food event in Toronto and an expert in the cooking processes of the 18th and 19th centuries.