Linda Miron Distad Culinaria
Linda Miron Distad (née Connors, 1944–2012) said, “I began cooking as soon as I was tall enough to reach the stove.” Raised in a “meat-&-potatoes” culinary environment, she later cultivated a far more cosmopolitan taste in food that ranged from French haute cuisine to traditional dishes from various regions. Distad's diversity of taste is reflected in the collection's emphasis upon national and regional cookbooks, of which she aimed to collect at least one example for each, although French and Italian cuisines are much more abundantly represented. A growing interest in food history, combined with a lengthy sojourn in England in 1971–72, led to the acquisition of numerous nineteenth-century antiquarian titles, which are now housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections. Although these represent only a small fraction of the more than 3,000 volumes in the Distad Collection—the bulk of which are housed in the Research and Collections Resource Facility (RCRF)—memorial funds from friends and admirers have made possible further acquisitions, including several unique manuscript cookbooks, the research potential of which awaits exploration by social historians who share Linda Distad’s strong interest in culinaria.
Getting started: Most student researchers will want to employ a series of keyword searches in the University of Alberta Library catalogue in order to find print and digital materials about culinaria in all U of A library locations and collections, including the Distad collection. To identify books in the Distad collection, search “Linda Miron Distad Culinaria Collection” in the library catalogue. For more information about research in the Peel library, see Finding and Requesting Peel Library Materials.
Further resources: This collection is explored in an online exhibition titled Culinaria: A Taste of Food History on the Prairies and it was celebrated in a popular in-house exhibition with an accompanying book/catalogue titled Collecting Culinaria: The Linda Miron Distad Culinaria Collection (2013–14) that was remounted in 2024-25.
Collection Formats: 19th Century, 20th Century, 21st Century, Books -- click to see other collections with this format
The title page and frontispiece from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (TX 717 B46 1912).
"A Collection of Miscellaneous Receipts in Domestic Economy, the Arts, etc." Manuscript Recipe Book, British (uncatalogued).
Elizabeth Yorke's Canada's Famous Foods and How to Serve Them, published by Eaton's department store (TX 715.6 Y68 1946).
Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (TX 951 C884 1930).
Photo of Linda Miron Distad.