The Folies Bergère in Paris, minutes in before the awards ceremony is starting.

It was the biggest and perhaps most glamorous Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Gala ever: 1,250 guests attended the ceremony in the worldwide known theater of the Folies Bergère in Paris on March 3.

The big stars were: Alain Dutournier from France, who has been awarded for his outstanding career. Richard Grausman from the U.S., Chakall from Argentina, Vefa Alexiadou from Greece, Suman Roy from Canada, Harumi Kurihara from Japan and the new Hall of Fame entries Michel-Jack Chasseuil from France for "100 Bouteilles Extraordinaires" (Glenat) and Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Billet for their book "Modernist Cuisine" (The Cooking Lab).

In the category "Best Cookbook in the World" a book won, that really started something: "Me´a Kai" by Chef Robert Oliver, Dr. Tracy Berno and Shiri Ram. "This cookbook is a new step forward. It helps farmers and people from all the island to work hand in hand with all the tourism industry, the hotels and restaurants to build sustainable cuisine and sustainable farming. It opens doors for countries all around the world", said Gourmand President Edouard Cointreau in his laudatory.

The most emotional moment was when Sara Baer-Sinnott appeared on stage to hand over the award for the „Best Mediterranean Cuisine Book in the World", which has been named after her deceased husband and Oldways-co-founder Dun Gifford. „Dun would have loved this prize named after him", she said.

Gourmand has chosen this award to wear the name of Dun Gifford, because he was so succesful in promoting the Mediterranean Diet in the USA.

The prize-winner Zouhaїr Ben Jemaâ from Tunisia then dedicated his award to „the revolution of Tunisia". Immediately the audience confirmed its solidarity with the people by standing ovations.

Tom Vandenberghe from Belgium made the other big political statement, which was also the funniest moment of the Awards Gala. After receiving the award for „Best Street Food Book in the World" he said:

After the gala everyone has been invited for a party in the foyer of the Folies Bergère where Le Cordon Bleu students served champagne and other drinks. Award winner or not, on this evening everyone felt that he was part of something special. The magnificent fact of the Gourmand Awards is the absence of stardom - here everyone is a colleague, no matter if he sells one million books or just two hundred. At the end of the party many guests did some photos in the fantastic foyer of the Folies Bergère as a memory of a perfect location and a perfect evening.

More pictures of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards on the following pages or on T. Báràny´s website:

http://www.tiborfoto.com/GOURMAND-PARIS2011/paris2011.html