Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith
225 episodes - English - Latest episode: 20 days ago -Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith is the winner of The Guild of Food Writers' Best Broadcast or Podcast Award 2022, and was shortlisted for Fortnum and Mason Best Podcast 2022 and 2024.
It's about all of life from climate change to culture and politics to people through the prism of food. It's for foodie book lovers who want to hear something more profound about the way we live, making the link between delicious food and the impact of food production on the land - through books.
Hear how A-lister food writers have changed the conversation about food as Gilly talks through their four chosen food moments from their latest books. As she joins the dots between stories from the old country and food identity, plant-based recipes and climate change, she shows how a deeper connection with food really could save the planet.
Listen to all your favourite food writers from Claudia Roden to Yotam Ottolenghi, Sheila Dillon to Anna Jones, Prue Leith to Elisabeth Luard, Gill Meller to Ravinder Bhogal, Dan Barber to Raymond Blanc as Gilly finds what's cooking in the minds of our food writing stars.
Do support the podcast by subscribing, and PLEASE leave a review. You can do this by clicking HERE for the link to Apple Podcasts, click on Listen on Apple Podcasts under the show title and then click on Rating and Reviews! Thank you so much.
For more information and to join the mailing list, visit Gilly Smith
Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith is rated in the top 2.5% of global podcasts by ListenNotes and in the top 40 of food podcasts globally by FeedSpot
Theme music by Willy Zygier
Gilly Smith is also the presenter of the delicious. podcast and Leon's How to Eat to Save the Planet which was highly commended in the Guild of Food Writers Awards 2021. She won the Investigative Food Work Award for Right2Food (now known as the Food Foundation Podcast) in the same awards.
She also produced The Big Table for Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming, and is the multi-award winning author of Taste and the TV Chef: how storytelling can save the planet (Intellect Books 2020)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
Chris Van Tulleken: Ultra Processed People
July 03, 2024 05:00 - 38 minutes - 30.5 MBThis week in an extra episode in the run up to the UK General Election to remind everyone why we must get the next government to fix the food system, Gilly meets Chris Van Tulleken, TV, radio and infectious diseases doctor who catapulted the term ultra processed food into the public consciousness in 2023 with his book Ultra Processed People. Now out in paperback, Gilly asks him about power, politics and the ultra processing food industry. Click here for Extra Bites of Chris on Gilly's Su...
Giulia Crouch: The Happiest Diet in the World
June 27, 2024 05:00 - 30 minutes - 24.8 MBThis week, we’re with Giulia Crouch to look at the diet of the Blue Zones that will make us not only live long and healthy lives, but is the Happiest Diet in the World. A little known fact: the very first book Gilly wrote back in 1993 on the back of a Channel 4 series called Food File was The Mediterranean Health Diet: the delicious way to lose weight and live longer. The TV show and the book was about a village in Southern Italy which scientists had discovered best diet in the world – and...
Anna Haugh: Cooking with Anna
June 20, 2024 05:00 - 29 minutes - 23.9 MBThis week, we’re with Irish chef, Anna Haugh to talk about her first cookbook, Cooking with Anna. Anna is a massive part of the story of British food culture, leaving Dublin as a young woman to cook in the steamiest kitchens in London – Shane Osborn’s Pied a Terre, Philip Howard’s The Square and Gordon Ramsay’s London House. But in 2019, she opened her own, Myrtle in Chelsea, more than a nod – a deep bow to Myrtle Allen, the doyenne of Irish cuisine and the inspiration behind Darina Allen...
Mark Diacono: Vegetables
June 13, 2024 12:30 - 31 minutes - 25.6 MBThis week, we’re talking to friend of the show, Mark Diacono about his latest book, Vegetables. This is a book packed with ideas about how to get more from food from the land, a journey through the seasons which Ottolenghi calls 'simple, soulful, seasonal.' Bee Wilson calls it 'joyful', and Julius Roberts says it's 'an inspiring veg bible'. But for a gardener like Mark, it was Monty Don calling it 'a wonderful book, something truly inspiring and beautiful' that brought life to full circle. ...
The Guild of Food Writers Awards 2024
June 13, 2024 05:00 - 23 minutes - 18.9 MBIn this special extra episode on the morning after the Guild of Food Writers Awards 2024, we leaf through some of the best food writing of the year in four of the 16 categories to explore what judges Laura Nickoll, Lyndon Gee, Kalpna Woolf and Fliss Freeborn were looking for in their shortlists. Click here for the Awards brochure and the full set of categories and nominees. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Fuchsia Dunlop: Invitation to a Banquet
June 06, 2024 05:00 - 35 minutes - 28.5 MBThis week, we’ve been invited to a Chinese Banquet with the word on Chinese food, Fuchsia Dunlop. Her multi award winning book, Invitation to a Banquet is a huge and deep dive into Chinese life through the prism of food. After 30 years of writing about Chinese food culture, she has a seat at the table most of us can have no idea about. Click here to head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Fuchsia’s China. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Frankie Paz: Plant Feasts
May 30, 2024 05:00 - 30 minutes - 24.5 MBThis week, we’re off to the jungles of Colombia and... London with Modern Medicine Woman, Frankie Paz Her book Plant Feasts is about how to live in the concrete jungle or the madness of modern life with the wisdom of the ancients. It’s about slowing down and finding how to live – how to really live by connecting with friends, family and nature – even if, like her, you live in a city. Click here for Gilly's Substack to get Extra Bites of Frankie's wisdom for life. Hosted on Acast. See ac...
Amber Guinness: Italian Coastal
May 23, 2024 05:00 - 31 minutes - 25.6 MBThis week, we’re off on an Italian road trip along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea with Amber Guinness and her latest book Italian Coastal. We first met Amber a couple of years ago on Cooking the Books when she told us about her book A House Party in Tuscany, the story of restoring and reclaiming her childhood home. This time, she takes us to some of the hidden gems of her family holidays from Maremma to The Aeolian Islands, cooking up food and memories along the way. Head over to Gilly's ...
Yasmin Fahr: Cook Simply, Live Fully
May 16, 2024 05:00 - 26 minutes - 21 MBThis week, we’re off to Menorca on a bit of an Eat Pray Love story with New York Times journalist, Yasmin Fahr. Her latest book, Cook Simply, Live Fully is about the options in life. It’s about cooking consciously, taking time to think about what you really want to eat, and being a little kinder to yourself – and the planet. Following your nose, turning left when everyone else is turning right, and having the guts to say 'hell yes' to an adventure is what she’s all about. Head over to Gil...
Ozlem Warren: Sebze
May 09, 2024 05:00 - 28 minutes - 22.6 MBThis week, Gilly catches up with the queen of Turkish cuisine, Ozlem Warren. We’ve met Ozlem already on Cooking the Books to talk about her 2020 book Ozlem’s Turkish Table, but this time she’s talking about the side of Turkish cuisine that perhaps we don’t know so well, the vegetables, the sebze, inspired by thousands of years of diverse food histories. Head over to Gilly's Substack to try out one of the recipes from Ozlem's food moments, and have a listen to her special Cooking the Books...
The Fortnum and Mason Awards 2024
May 03, 2024 05:00 - 20 minutes - 16.6 MBIn this extra, special episode, Gilly is with Angela Clutton, who, with Itamar Sulovitch from Honey and co and Leyla Kazim from the Food Programme, was one of the three judges of this year's Fortnum and Mason Awards. By the time you hear this, the glitz and glamour of these Oscars of the food world will be over for another year. The mass of talent in the room will be nursing their hangovers while the winners will be stroking their crowns. And as one of the nominees recording this before the...
Caroline Eden: Cold Kitchen
May 02, 2024 05:00 - 31 minutes - 25 MBThis week, Gilly is with award winning travel writer, Caroline Eden. Her Cold Kitchen in Edinburgh is where we find her comfort cooking up the recipes she remembers from her travels. Her memories take us on the Trans Siberian Railway, through the dark back streets of a winter in Istanbul and the political chaos of a coup in Kyrgyzstan, and remind us of what travel can do for humanity. This is the recipe for food books which Gilly found so compelling when she first interviewed her about ...
Georgina Hayden: Greekish
April 25, 2024 05:00 - 32 minutes - 26 MBThis week, Gilly is with Georgina Hayden, our favourite Cypriot food writer to talk about Greekish, her everyday recipes with Greek roots. This is about the mash up of all that she is – North London, 2nd generation Greek Cypriot, who with full support from her yiayia, her grandmother, has cooked up a whole story of her family life in the kitchen. Gilly finds out whether the ish in the title has to do with how she feels about spending the last 19 years writing recipes from her intercultural ...
Kevan Roberts: The School of Artisan Food
April 24, 2024 07:28 - 24 minutes - 19.5 MBThis week, Gilly is off to stunning Welbeck country estate in the heart of Nottinghamshire to the School of Artisan Food to meet head baker, Kevan Roberts. His book Baking Sourdough takes us on a sensory journey to the roots of traditional bread making, and as the School prepares for this years’ summer school courses, Gilly finds out why sour dough and artisan food matters so much. Check out Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites from the School of Artisan Food. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...
Nicola Lamb: Sift
April 18, 2024 05:00 - 30 minutes - 24.5 MBThis week, Gilly is with Nicola Lamb, one of the nominees of this year’s Jane Grigson Trust Award for best debut food writer. Her book Sift is an extraordinarily accomplished first book by a pastry chef trained in London and New York by the best - Ottolenghi, Dominique Ansel and Little Bread Pedlar. Her Substack, Kitchen Projects was praised as an ‘incredible resource’ by The Observer, and her recipes have been featured in Serious Eats, The Guardian, Olive, Vogue, and ESMagazine and she hos...
Michael Zee: Breakfast of China
April 11, 2024 05:00 - 26 minutes - 20.9 MBThis week, Gilly explores art, philosophy and food with third generation British-Chinese photographer and Instagram superstar, Michael Zee His Symmetry Breakfast account featured his photographs of symmetrical breakfasts every day for 10 years and has 667k followers. In his latest book Zao Fan, Breakfast of China, it's with his anthropological eye that he looks beyond the dishes to place, people and home. Check Gilly's Substack for recipes and photography from Michael's book. Hosted on...
Spasia Dinkovski: Doma
April 04, 2024 05:00 - 26 minutes - 21.2 MBThis week we’re off to North Macedonia via Crawley with Spasia Dinkovski Spasia’s book, Doma, meaning home, is one of Gilly's favourite journeys, back to where it all started. She may have been born in Crawley, but her heart, she finds out through her cooking and her writing, is with the women who fed her soul in Macedonian summers. Already spotted as an Observer Food Monthly Rising Star, she took an Instagram lockdown hobby and made it into a supper club and shop in South London called...
Chris Newens: Moveable Feasts
March 28, 2024 06:00 - 28 minutes - 23.1 MBThis week, Gilly takes us back to last week's Jane Grigson Trust Awards for debut food book writers to meet the winner, Chris Newens. He may still be writing his book, Moveable Feasts: Paris in Twenty Meals, but Gilly helps him unpack four food moments which open a door on Parisian food through its 20 arrondissements. Check into Gilly's Substack to listen to chair of The Jane Grigson Trust, Don Sloan explain what the judges were looking for in this year's nominees. Hosted on Acast. See ac...
Rebecca Sullivan: First Nations Food Companion
March 21, 2024 06:00 - 30 minutes - 24.5 MBThis week, Gilly Zooms over to the Clare Valley just outside Adelaide in South Australia to catch up with food writer, TV presenter, sustainable living advocate, urban farmer, entrepreneur and the queen of Granny Skills, Rebecca Sullivan to talk about her book, with partner Damian Coulthard, First Nations Food Companion. Gilly first met Rebecca in 2016 at a conference at the University of California in Berkely about the role of food In the health of everything that we care about. Although ...
Anna Jones: Easy Wins
March 14, 2024 06:00 - 37 minutes - 30.3 MBThis week, Gilly is discussing Easy Wins with the award-winning and best-selling queen of vegetarian food, Anna Jones. Her latest book is packed with stunning recipes and ideas for getting so much more taste and less waste on our plates. Easy Wins has 125 brand new recipes around 12 hero ingredients, all designed to make our lives easier. But with two small kids, that can’t be an easy win for her. Gilly finds out how she does it. Do head to Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack to get a taste o...
Angela Clutton: Seasoning
March 07, 2024 06:00 - 35 minutes - 28.8 MBThis week, Gilly is with Angela Clutton to talk about her latest book, Seasoning. This is so much more than a bit of salt and pepper. It's about how climate is changing our seasons with its earlier springs, longer summers, warmer, wetter winters and the role we play. It has all the hallmarks of a modern classic, a book packed with the rigour we associate with Angela’s award-winning writing but brimming with flavour and delicious ideas to reduce our waste and get more – much more – out of t...
Charles Clover: Rewilding the Sea
February 29, 2024 06:00 - 26 minutes - 21.2 MBThis week, Gilly is with Charles Clover, author of Rewilding the Sea to dive deep into the world behind our fish. Charles is a seasoned environmental journalist, super campaigner, co-author of King Charles’ Highgrove: Portrait of an Estate. And as co-founder of Blue Marine Foundation, he’s bringing life back to our oceans. Margaret Atwood calls his book a 'game changer,' Isabella Tree says 'it’s desperately needed', George Monbiot says ‘what if our seas became productive again with giant ...
Karen Newby: The Natural Menopause Method
February 22, 2024 06:00 - 32 minutes - 26.2 MBThis week, Gilly is with nutritionist, Karen Newby hot on the heels of an Instagram live with the Queen of the Menopause, Davina Mcall, on her new book The Natural Menopause Method. It’s a book for our times. Since Davina’s documentary about HRT, everyone’s talking about menopause. Karen's book is all about food, but it’s not a recipe book. This is about arming women with the information we need to dodge the drug industry, understand how food heals and to live in harmony with one of the nat...
Michel Roux Junior: At Home
February 15, 2024 06:00 - 33 minutes - 26.8 MBThis week, Gilly is with one of the main players in the story of modern British food, Michel Roux Junior His Mayfair restaurant, le Gavroche is a London legend, and its closure last month 57 years after his father and uncle, the Roux Brothers changed the game in British food, is a milestone in the way we eat. At 63, he’s ready for the next chapter, and he’s marking it with his latest book, Michel Roux at home. I asked him how he’s feeling. Head to Gilly's Substack Extra Bites for recipes...
Ashia Ismail-Singer: Ashia's Table
February 08, 2024 06:00 - 24 minutes - 19.3 MBThis week, Gilly is with Ashia Ismail- Singer to talk food identity and how food culture travels across borders. Her books Ashia’s Table and Saffron Swirls and Cardamon Dust, and her 3rd, The Laden Table which comes out in April, are about her Indian food culture, born in India, brought up in Malawi and the UK and fused with the best of New Zealand. Check for the recipes from Ashia's food moments on Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...
Dina Macki: Bahari
February 01, 2024 06:00 - 28 minutes - 22.5 MBThis week, Gilly is with the word on Omani food, Dina Macki. Her first book, Bahari: Recipes from an Omani Kitchen and Beyond is out today, but it’s been a long time coming; the Jane Grigson Trust Award which she won in 2023 is the annual pointer to the best of the brand new food writers before their books are even finished, and the world has been longing to see what the fuss is all about. Born and brought up in an Omani community in Portsmouth, she tells us how learning about her own foo...
Gemma Ogston: The Healing Cookbook
January 25, 2024 06:00 - 31 minutes - 24.9 MBThis week, as part of a new season for the New Year on how to live, be and do better, Gilly is with plant-based chef and author, Gemma Ogston to talk about how to get well enough to be your best self. Gemma's journey through dis-ease led to a career in addiction counselling and nourishing DJs and 24 hour party people back to health in her temporary home in Barcelona. Her simple guide to wellness in her second book, The Healing Cookbook is about long term health, and has catapulted her to f...
Lynn Cassells: Our Wild Farming Life
January 18, 2024 06:00 - 29 minutes - 23.4 MBThis week, Gilly is with Lynn Cassells who with her partner Sandra Baer are two of the most inspiring women you’re likely to hear on Cooking the Books this year. Our Wild Farming Life is their story of following a dream, moving from South East England to the Scottish Highlands to regenerate an 150 acre farm. It was more than a dream – it was a calling to reconnect with the land, to find out what role people can play in nature, and to tell their story to people who are aching to know the an...
Nik Sharma: Veg Table
January 11, 2024 06:00 - 30 minutes - 24.3 MBThis week, Gilly is with food writer and photographer, molecular biologist, multiple James Beard award-winner, Nik Sharma. His latest book Veg-Table is all over the Best of the Year lists for his original scientific take on vegetables which has opened up a whole new way of eating. Check out Gilly's Substack for Nik's Extra Bites Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Official 2024 Veganuary Cookbook with Toni Vernelli
January 04, 2024 06:00 - 20 minutes - 16.3 MBTo kick off a brand new year of life through the prism of food, Gilly is with the Head of Communications and Marketing at Veganuary, Toni Vernelli to talk about the 2024 edition of the Official Veganuary Cookbook. It's 10 years since Veganuary first made January its own, encouraging people all over the world to try out a meat free month for the sake of our own health and that of the planet. And it’s been a phenomenal success with only two countries in the world - North Korea and the Vatica...
Alex Jackson: Frontières
December 28, 2023 06:00 - 29 minutes - 23.9 MBThis week, Gilly is with Alex Jackson, Noble Rot chef, former restaurateur at Sardine and author of Frontieres. He talks about his long love affair with France, and particularly with its food, but it’s the edges that we’re after here, The Italianness of the French Riveiera , the spices of Provence, melting pot of Marseille. It’s about an adventure in French cooking through the prism of the others that make modern France French. Head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Alex's Fron...
Kevin Geddes: Keep Calm and Fanny On
December 22, 2023 06:00 - 32 minutes - 26.3 MBThis week, Gilly's with a man after her own heart. There are very few people who write about TV chefs and their place in British food culture, but Kevin Geddes, author of Keep Calm and Fanny On and Gilly, who wrote Taste and the TV Chef (2020) are two of them. Channel 5 is showing an hour long documentary on December 28th called the 70s Dinner Party in which Gilly joins Dr Annie Gray to talk about the social history of the TV chef. She and Kevin celebrate by diving deeply into the '70s foo...
These Delicious Things: a charity cookbook for Magic Breakfast
December 21, 2023 06:00 - 26 minutes - 21.6 MBThis week, Gilly is with private chef, Jane Hodson, food writer, Lucas Hollweg and probably the most influential of social media food influencers, photographer Clerkenwell Boy to discuss These Delicious Things, a charity cookbook featuring recipes and childhood food memories from the likes of Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and Stanley Tucci. The idea began when Jane and Lucas, hunkered down on a winter’s night, as Jane writes in the introduction, wondered if a collective memoir, featuring th...
Dina Begum: Made in Bangladesh
December 14, 2023 06:00 - 28 minutes - 23 MBThis week, Gilly is with Dina Begum, whose book, Made in Bangladesh celebrates the food and folklore and of the old country which she left when she was four years old. It was first book, Brick Lane which first opened the door on what was happening in the kitchen of our East End curry houses, and propelled her into pole position as authority on British Bangladeshi culture. Gilly explores with her why she chose to take us back to Bangladesh and what she wanted to find. Check into Gilly's Sub...
Joe Woodhouse: More Daily Veg
December 07, 2023 06:00 - 26 minutes - 21.2 MBThis week, Gilly is on Hove seafront with an old friend of the podcast, Joe Woodhouse to talk about More Daily Veg. A lot has happened since they first met on Zoom to talk about his first book, Your Daily Veg. While the Ukraine war has rocked his family life – his wife is the Ukrainian food writer and Cook for Ukraine champion, Olia Hercules, their three year old son, Wilf was diagnosed with a mild form of autism, and vegetables have actually landed properly on the British plate. Gilly cat...
Alexina Anatole: Bitter
November 30, 2023 06:00 - 32 minutes - 25.8 MBThis week, Gilly is talking to Alexina Anatole about the least pleasant of our five tastes: bitter. Or is it? Alexina's series of cookbooks on the five tastes: Bitter, Sweet, Salty, Sour and Umamia is a step-by-step exploration of flavour, and an impressive start to a what looks like a masisve career for this bright young spark who swapped the trading floor for Masterchef in 2020. In the first book, Bitter, she sets out to tame bitterness, showing us how to soothe it with dairy, balance ...
Russell Norman: Brutto
November 23, 2023 06:00 - 33 minutes - 26.7 MBThis week, Gilly is with Russell Norman, the award-winning restaurateur, writer and broadcaster who brought Italy to the British high street, first through Polpo, the book and chain of Venetian style restaurants which gave us small plate food culture, and now Brutto, the Florentine trattoria next to London’s Smithfield market. Brutto, the book, is about much more than the recipes of the restaurant. It’s an ode to Florence where we find what Russell calls the 'ugly but beautiful' food that t...
Donal Skehan: Home Kitchen
November 16, 2023 06:00 - 32 minutes - 25.9 MBThis week, Gilly is talking about what home means to Irish TV chef, Donal Skehan. Donal has moved a lot in his massive career on TV, from Eurovision to Saturday Kitchen and on to Food Network in LA. Now, with wife Sofie and their two young boys, he’s come home to Ireland. His 11th cook book, Home Kitchen, is a meditation on home, nostalgia and who he is now as a food writer. Check Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites from Donal Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Bee Wilson: The Secret of Cooking
November 09, 2023 06:00 - 33 minutes - 27.2 MBThis week, Gilly is with one of Britain’s very best food writers, the author of First Bite and The Way We Eat Now, Bee Wilson. After years of writing about the psychology and history of food, this is Bee’s very first cook book. It’s packed with recipes for an easier life in the kitchen, as the sub title suggests, but the Secret of Cooking is not just a treasure trove of simple dishes, but how food can heal, as Bee learnt from her own experience after her husband left her in the summer of 20...
Anya Von Bremzen: National Dish
November 02, 2023 06:00 - 34 minutes - 27.9 MBThis week, Gilly is digging deeply into the construction of identtiy through the food with multi award-winning Russian writer Anya von Bremzen. National Dish is a fascinating book which explores how certain foods become the cultural signifiers of France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Turkey. Mixing academic rigour with chats at bars and cook ups in local kitchens, she stirs up a load of our assumptions, but does she find the answer? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...
Giulia Scarpaleggia: Cucina Povera
October 26, 2023 05:00 - 31 minutes - 25 MBThis week, while Gilly is talking about the roots of Italian cuisine, Cucina Povera Giulia Scarpaleggia began her food writing career as a blogger and photographer before becoming one of the most respected writers on Italian food. Her book Cucina Povera is all about her respect for the inguity of peasant cooking which reveals the soul of Italian food at its best. Head to Gilly's Substack to hear why Giulia loves British food writers so much. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...
Julius Roberts: The Farm Table
October 19, 2023 05:00 - 33 minutes - 26.4 MBThis week, Gilly's with the king of Tik Tok, the idol of Insta and star of channel 5’s A Taste of the Country, Julius Roberts. His debut cook book The Farm Table is a beautifully written story of a young man following his dream from cheffing to farming, with goats who think they’re dogs, pigs begging for a tummy tickle and an idyllic walk through the seasons. An audience of 500k on both Instagram and Tik Tok has followed his insipring journey to find himself, while he’s become one of the mo...
Diana Henry: Roast Figs, Sugar Snow
October 12, 2023 05:00 - 35 minutes - 28.1 MBThis week, Gilly is with one of Britain’s very best food writers, Diana Henry. The new edition of her 2005 book Roast Figs, Sugar Snow is a lyrical walk through the autumn leaves and winter wonderlands of her favourite food places in the world as she shares the delicious finds that have made her one of Britain’s most well-respected and award-winning food writers. It’s a book that makes you feel warmed to your bones. But Diana has been dogged by depression for years, and has faced some majo...
Isabella Tree: The Book of Wilding
October 05, 2023 05:00 - 30 minutes - 24.4 MBThis week, Gilly is at Knepp with the queen of wilding, Isabella Tree. The Knepp estate is an extraordinary pioneering wilding project to restore nature which Isabella captured so beautifully in her 2019 book Wilding. Chris Packham called it ‘A poignant, practical and moving story of how to fix our broken land'. Now, The Book of Wilding breaks that story down into encyclopaedic form for everyone to refer to, however big or small their garden. And if you’d like more from Knepp, head over...
Bri DiMattina: Nostrana
September 28, 2023 05:00 - 27 minutes - 21.7 MBThis week on Cooking the Books, Italian-Kiwi gardener and cook, Bri DiMattina tells us how she’s grown a food forest using permaculture principles in her garden in New Zealand. Her book Nostrana, meaning ‘home grown’ is also an extraordinary story of Italian food heritage in New Zealand. It’s the legacy of her grandparents growing a new world for themselves and their fellow Italians during the economic migration in the early 1900s. But as Bri celebrates its publication in the UK - and Nigel...
Conor Spacey: Wasted
September 21, 2023 05:00 - 35 minutes - 28.3 MBThis week, Gilly is with Conor Spacey, chef, culinary director of Food Space Ireland and one of the movers and shakers behind the Chefs' Manifesto, a community of over 1000 chefs in 110 countries making real change in the world of food His book Wasted is packed with recipes for the kitchen waste we all have in our homes, and it’s ingenius. Check Gilly's Substack for a chocolate cake recipe made from stale bread! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Adriana Cavita: Cocina Mexicana
September 14, 2023 05:00 - 28 minutes - 22.4 MBThis week, Gilly is with Adriana Cavita, the brilliant Mexican chef and, now author of Cocina Mexicana, whose journey from her grandmother’s street food stall to top international restaurants like Pujol and El Bulli has brought the real flavours of Mexico to London. Have a listen to the resilience of this woman – she’s like a hurdler, jumping the barriers of gender, language, money and envy to open her own restaurant in London. She says that this book is for all the women of her home count...
Petty Elliott: The Indonesian Table
September 07, 2023 05:00 - 28 minutes - 23.2 MBThis week, Gilly is with the Indonesian chef behind her last sell out supper club, Petty Elliott. Her book, The Indonesian Table is a seminal work on the food of this archipelagic state of 17000 islands. We might think we know the flavours of Bali, Java, maybe even Sumatra, but Minangkabau? Manado? Banda Island? Probably not. Petty brought Indonesian food to a hungry public for the first time 20 years ago as a food journalist and chef, and has been cooking for some of the most influential p...
Helen Rebanks: The Farmer's Wife
August 31, 2023 05:00 - 31 minutes - 24.9 MBThis week, in the last of this mini series on Matrescence, Gilly is with Helen Rebanks, farmer, businesswoman, teacher, conservationist and a working mother of four. She's also wife to Britain’s most famous farmer, James Rebanks whose phenomenal success with his books The Shepherd’s Life and English Pastoral (as featured on Cooking the Books), changed the way we look at farming. Now Helen tells the story of The Farmer’s Wife and looks at the values of an old fashioned way of life rooted ...
Emiko Davies: Gohan
August 24, 2023 05:00 - 32 minutes - 26.1 MBThis week, Gilly is with Emiko Davies, the Australian born, half Japanese writer on Italian food who lives with her family in Florence to talk about Japan. Her book Gohan is the story of her childhood food, fed to her by her Japanese mother in Australia and by her grandparents in Japan. It's the Japanese word for rice, but it also means ‘family meal’ and for Emiko, the only word as the title for her latest book. As she explores who she is through her food, we learn how mothers can hold the...