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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Joan Peterson
Phone: 608-217-7466
Email: [email protected]

eat smart culinary guides win best culinary series in the world!

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Publishers Joan Peterson (left) and Susan Peterson Chwae (center), along with executive chef Edward Chwae (right).

about the series

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The EAT SMART Guides explore the cuisines of foreign destinations. To date, guides are available for Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Sicily, and Turkey.

Never out-of-date, these informative and comprehensive guides contain food history, insight on regional specialties, contributed recipes to preview the tastes of the country, useful phrases, handy shopping tips, and two extensive, bilingual dictionaries to simplify navigating menu and market. Also included are a cross-referenced index and a bibliography.

The guides are all about “what” there is to eat. People who travel for business or pleasure now can easily determine what’s on the menu, what’s in the market, what’s on their plate, and what they can ask for as they travel. Dining out in a foreign country no longer needs to be gastronomic guesswork.

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about the publisher

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Joan Peterson received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology/Electron Microscopy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1993 ​she began a second career. She started the publishing company, Ginkgo Press, and created the EAT SMART series of guidebooks designed for travelers and cookbook lovers. To date she has written or co-written 11 of the 14 available culinary guidebooks (Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Morocco, Sicily, India, Peru, Norway, and Portugal). She has traveled extensively for many years, and leads culinary tours to Turkey, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Norway, Peru, Portugal, and Sicily.
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The EAT SMART culinary guidebook series, published by Ginkgo Press, Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin, was awarded the 2018 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards' top honor -- 'Best in the World' in the Food Series category on May 27 at Gourmand's annual awards event in Yantai, China.

Publishers Joan Peterson and Susan Peterson Chwae, along with Ginkgo Press executive chef Edward Chwae, traveled to China for the Awards ceremony and were thrilled when the EAT SMART culinary guidebook series was announced as the winner.

The EAT SMART series had won the ‘Best in the USA’ in the Food Series category earlier this year. The series then went on to compete with other countries entering books for the ‘Best in the World’ title in this category.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards organization has been celebrating the best food and wine books in the world for the last 23 years. The competition has become the most prestigious of its kind and has informally become known as the Oscars of the cookbook world. Publishers from over 200 countries nominate thousands of books each year.

The four-day awards event in Yantai was attended by nearly 500 people--including food and wine book authors, publishers, and others who are involved in some aspect of food and wine book production. Daily tastings and cooking demonstrations from international authors and chefs also highlighted the awards event.

Joan Peterson founded Ginkgo Press and the EAT SMART series 25 years ago. She started the series after extensive travel all over the world with her husband, having realized that there were no guidebooks dedicated to the foods of a country. Joan felt that the best way to get to the heart of a culture is through the food, so she decided to write them herself. The first guidebook was “Eat Smart in Brazil.” Twenty-five years later there are 14 guides in the series, with 11 of them authored or co-authored by Joan. Three others were written by Madison authors: Ronnie Hess (France, co-author Portugal), Carol "Orange" Schroeder and her daughter Katrina Schroeder (Denmark), and Mary Bergin (Germany).

In 1998, Ginkgo Press began creating culinary tours primarily based on the EAT SMART books. In 2019, tours will be offered to Morocco, Turkey, India, Portugal, and Jordan.

Earlier this year, Ginkgo Press teamed up with DelecTable / vomFass on University Avenue in Madison to present the ‘Dinner with the Author’ series. Every other month a 5-course dinner with beverage pairing is offered. On June 28 “Eat Smart in Turkey” will be featured along with author Joan Peterson. More information and tickets are available at www.eatsmartguides.com.

Previous Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

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2006 Best Culinary Travel Guide ​in the World

Eat Smart in Peru
by Joan Peterson and
​Brook Soltvedt
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2014 Best Culinary Travel Guide
​in the United States

Eat Smart in Denmark

by Carol L. Schroeder and
​Katrina A. Schroeder

Published by Ginkgo Press, Madison, Wisconsin. For more information on the award-winning EAT SMART series, and for images of the authors and book covers, visit www.eatsmartguides.com or email [email protected]. Distributed by the University of Wisconsin Press, 608-263-0734; 608-263-1132 Fax; or email [email protected].
Copyright 2025 - Ginkgo Press, Inc.  2018 Chamberlain Ave., Madison, WI 53726 • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Our Guides
    • Brazil
    • Denmark
    • France
    • Germany
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Mexico
    • Morocco
    • Norway
    • Peru
    • Poland
    • Portugal
    • Sicily
    • Turkey
  • Our Tours
    • Our 2025 Tours
    • Terms
  • Our Blog
  • Store
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Meet the Authors
    • Awards
  • Media
    • Best in the World
    • University Neighbors
  • Travel Smart Tours by Design