By having fun with ethnic foods that, as a bonus were generally cheap, women across class and cultures could engage in mutual cultural exchange and share a healthy respect for culinary divers In short, these foods were cultural gifts that could be used to enrich the treasure trove, or smorgasbord, of Canadian national unity. A few immigrant and working-class women participated in the project but West held the cultural reigns of power and she and her middle-class friends decided what got into the booklet. Nor did their pluralism preclude promotion of "Canadian' cookbooks with recipes for flapjacks, biscuit cheese squares, pies, and French Canadian pea soup.