Cookbook at the top of its game

Cazador: game, offal & the rest, co-authored by Rebecca Smidt, won Best Book. Photo / Fiona Goodall

New Zealand's best-looking book of the last year is a cookbook produced by a game restaurant.

Cazador: game, offal & the rest, written by restaurateurs Dariush Lolaiy and Rebecca Smidt and designed by Tim Donaldson and Amanda Gaskin of Sea Change Studio, took the top prize at a competition where books really are judged by their covers.

The annual PANZ Book Design Awards promote excellence in New Zealand book design and recognise the designers and artists who make our books look good enough to eat.

Judges declared the design of the book, from family-owned restaurant Cazador, lifted it above simply a cookbook, saying it broke its genre to become something of its own, artful and unique.

"The outward beauty is sensitively matched by a depth of thought that reveals the soul of Cazador [the restaurant] and its story. An outstanding package."

As well as the Gerard Reid Award for Best Book, Cazador - game, offal & the rest won the best cookbook and best cover categories. Other awards presented were:

Best Illustrated Book
Beach Life by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins (Penguin Random House) designed by Alan Deare, Area Design
Best Non-Illustrated Book
Extraordinary Anywhere: Essays on Place from Aotearoa New Zealand edited by Ingrid Horrocks & Cherie Lacey (Victoria University Press) designed by Jo Bailey & Anna Brown
Best Children's Book
Annual edited by Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris (Gecko Press) designed by Spencer Levine
Best Educational Book
Mataki Mai Ana Te Ao: Te Tawhio Pihirei o 1981 by Rachael Tuwhangai, Hone Morris and Pania Tahau-Hodges (HUIA) designed by Tim Hansen, Fay & Walter
Best Typography
Annual edited by Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris (Gecko Press) designed by Spencer Levine.

Already an award-winning graphic designer, Auckland's Sam Bunny was named Young Designer of the Year with a portfolio that judges said showcased a range of designs across a number of categories. Bunny worked on books as diverse as The Great Kiwi Pub Crawl to the children's books Grandad's Wheelies and The Impossible Boy.

The judges were book designers Rowan Sommerset, David Coventon and Anna Egan-Reid along with business commentator, journalist and publisher Vincent Heeringa.