This week, we’re talking about cooking in schools again. But this time, we’re travelling back in time to the early 1970s when a young Jenny Ridgwell , clad in mini skirts, knee high boots and tank tops was teaching an unruly bunch of London kids to cook. Jenny has since written many cookery text books and founded The Nutrition Program , an online analyst of recipes and meals, but her memoir, I Taught Them to Cook , is a hilarious romp through a year in 1970s London as she negotiates the classroo...
Sep 01, 2022•30 min•Season 20Ep. 2
Just before we dive back into a new series of food after the summer break, we’re back at WOMAD’s World of Words tent where Gilly chatted to Wellcome prize winning neurologist , Suzanne o'Sullivan about her astonishing book The Sleeping Beauties . It’s her investigation of mystery illnesses, a wave of ‘mass hysteria’ in communities across the world. Terrifyingly, it’s affecting a growing number of people, usually children or adolescents and mostly girls who’ve lost hope for all sorts of sociopoli...
Aug 25, 2022•48 min•Season 20Ep. 1
This week, Gilly is with Gelf Alderson, executive chef at River Cottage and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstal l’s main man to talk his new book Great Salads . You know you’re going to get quality food chat when it comes from River Cottage, and after playing captain’s mate there for the last 10 years, Gelf is still pulling rabbits out of the bag. Literally. Gilly asks him what makes a River Cottage chef then, now and as we continue to look for ways to eat amazing food to save the planet. Don't forget th...
Aug 04, 2022•31 min•Season 19Ep. 21
This week, Gilly is with Amber Guinness whose book A House Party in Tuscany captures the spirit of her parents who lovingly restored Arniano ,a humble ruin of a farmhouse they found back in 1989 and where they raised their daughters. But this was no ordinary restoration; Tatler lists it among the ‘interior’ wonders of the world, which Amber has now turned into a retreat for artists where the stylish hosting is in the image of her parents. Her book is the story of the house, her family and their ...
Jul 28, 2022•30 min•Season 19Ep. 20
This week, Cooking the Books is off to South West France to hang out with Debora Robertson whose latest book Notes from a Small Kitchen Island is a celebration of hosting, of feeding friends and living life beautifully. Debora is the Telegraph columnist who shows us how it’s done. She’s the 'how to' guru, the doyenne of the declutter , the dog mother of canine cuisine and queen of cooking for cats. But she tells us that her Girl Guide ability to do things well comes from a rich family tradition ...
Jul 21, 2022•38 min•Season 19Ep. 18
This week, Gilly chats about the Great British breakfast with Guardian writer , author and culinary detective, Felicity Cloake . Her latest book Red Sauce, Brown Sauce is her second foray into food-as-national-identity by bike; she toured France for her last book One More Croissant for the Road and found much more than a tasty bite in both. After years of Brexit, Covid conspiracies and partygate, Britain is a divided nation, and Felicity has prised it open even further as she investigates the bi...
Jul 14, 2022•31 min•Season 19Ep. 17
This week, Gilly digs deep into the roots of Jamaican food culture with Riaz Phillips , winner of this year's Jane Grigson Trust Award for West Winds, recipes, history and tales from Jamaica . Riaz was a Young British Foodie award winner in 2017 for his self-published book Belly Full, a guide and history of the Caribbean eateries which have shaped the landscape of food in the UK since the Fifties. By 2018 he was on the Observer Food Monthly's annual list '50 Things we Love'. Since then, he's bec...
Jul 07, 2022•30 min•Season 19Ep. 16
This week, Gilly is with Olia Hercules , the award-winning food writer who put the food of her home country of Ukraine on the map, and has since found herself fighting to keep its stories in the headlines as Russia razes it to the ground. With her Russian food writer friend, Alissa Timoshkina , she has raised millions through their #cookforukraine campaign. It has inspired thousands of pop ups all over the country, not just to raise money but to keep that rich food culture alive in our hearts an...
Jun 30, 2022•40 min•Season 19Ep. 15
This week, Gilly is with early food blogger and publisher of Pit Magazine, Helen Graves whose book Live Fire is about so much more than a summer BBQ. in her homage to live fire traditions, Helen takes us through her London, and the wonderfully diverse cultures which cook over open fire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 23, 2022•31 min•Season 19Ep. 14
This week, Gilly is celebrating the poetry and timelessness of the great outdoors with award winning author and chef, Gill Meller . Outside is Gill's latest cook book which takes us to the elemental beauty of his home on the Jurassic coast on the Dorset and Devon border, just down the road from River Cottage where he has worked as a chef and tutor. His previous books Gather , Time and Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower have all captured this slice of Heaven, but Gill says that cooking outside doesn’t just...
Jun 16, 2022•28 min•Season 19Ep. 13
This week, Gilly is with the winner of Channel 4’s Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver , Dominique Woolf . She’s a publisher’s dream – a busy mum juggling three young kids in the kitchen and cross platform ideas sizzling away on every burner, a Thai mum and aunty whizzing up sauces that really do transform every dish and a new book packed with super easy Pan Asian cook hacks. This is a woman to watch; she’ll have her own TV show before you can even say Saturday Kitchen. For transcripts, g...
Jun 09, 2022•31 min•Season 19Ep. 12
This week, in a special extended episode, Gilly is on stage at the British Library in London whose Food Season has been tantalising food fans with a whole month of talks inspired by the cookbooks, recipes and culinary stories in its collection. Speakers have included Jessica Harris , Angela Hartnett , Dan Saladino , Alice Waters , Felicity Cloake , Frances Moore Lappé and Henry Dimbleby. Gilly's panel of experts explore 13th century Moorish cookery through an extraordinary story of a recently di...
Jun 02, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 19Ep. 11
This week, Gilly is with Joe Woodhouse to talk about cookery courses, food photography and launching your very first book in the middle of a war when your wife is Ukrainian food writer, Olia Hercules . His book Your Daily Veg has been lauded by Nigella , Anna Jones and Cooking the Books favourite, Rachel Roddy , and is packed with recipes inspired his career to date styling and photographing food from all over the world, but also by a lifetime of being a vegetarian. To get 10% off the Essentials...
May 26, 2022•30 min•Season 19Ep. 10
This week, Gilly is with the woman who made Cooking the Books happen in the first place! When Melissa Hemsley said yes to her invitation to be on a brand new indie podcast two years ago and before they'd even met, the rest of the A-listers flooded in. And that’s because she’s not just the best-selling green queen of Eat Happy and Eat Green , but one of the most generous, genuine and well-respected members of the food community. Her latest book Feel Good is what makes her so compelling as a read,...
May 19, 2022•33 min•Season 19Ep. 9
This week, Gilly's talking about The Year of Miracles by Ella Risbridger . Like her first book, Midnight Chicken and other recipes worth living for , it’s part memoir, part recipe book and reads like a novel. And despite not meaning to be a book about grief, it’s soaked in it. In a good way. Ella describes grief 'like an anvil crashing through the floor revealing a whole new level where you can live', and where she lives is a really interesting place which questions a whole way of being. A fasci...
May 12, 2022•42 min•Season 19Ep. 8
This week, is all about The Food Programme , the Radio 4’s mighty series which has been examining our food, its culture and its politics for 43 years, and its first BBC book by Alex Renton taking us through 13 Foods that Shape our World . Sheila Dillon , presenter of The Food Programme for much of that time has written the foreword. Gilly first met her back in 2017 for the delicious. podcast when the Food Programme was under threat from Radio 4. A mass outpouring of love for the show, new presen...
May 05, 2022•31 min•Season 19Ep. 7
This week, Gilly meets the judges of this year's Fortnum and Mason Awards (who shortlisted Cooking the Books for Best Podcast!) to discuss the food books nominated for these Oscars of the food world. The judges this year are three brilliant food writers, all of whom have been on Cooking the Books and were the pick of the best in 2021; Mark Diacono whose book Herb was on the shortlist, Georgina Hayden who won best Cookery Writer and Tara Wigley who, with Sami Tamimi, won best Food Book for Falast...
Apr 28, 2022•45 min•Season 19Ep. 6
This week Gilly is with Al and Kitty Tait , the dad and daughter team behind The Orange Bakery . Kitty was just 14 years old when crippling depression didn’t just change her life but her family’s too. Baking bread was just one of the many things they tried to get her back, but it worked. And some…Just three years later The Orange Bakery is already a thriving business run by Kitty and her dad, Al , and their beautiful book,, Breadsong tells the story. You can read the transcript here . Hosted on ...
Apr 21, 2022•39 min
This week, a subject very close to Gilly's heart and the work she does on the Food Foundation’s award-winning podcast , Right2Food – how to change British food culture through children. Chefs in Schools is a charity which teaches kids from the very youngest age to love food by growing it school gardens and eating the kind of dishes that makes most kids run screaming. Co-founder, Nicole Pisan i is a chef who has worked in top kitchens around the world from Rene Redzpei’s Noma to Ottolenghi’s Nop ...
Apr 14, 2022•34 min•Season 19Ep. 5
This week as it's Lent, we’re off to fast in Cyprus with Georgina Hayden , and to find a host of vegan gems in the traditional fasting food from religions and cultures of the Eastern Med and Eastern Europe. Her book, Nistisima borrows the vegan dishes from the Greek Orthodox Church which frames her family life, as well as the rituals around Ukraine, Russia and Serbia where fasting is a rich vein of inspiration for meat and dairy free recipes. But it’s about much more than food; it’s how family, ...
Apr 07, 2022•40 min•Season 19Ep. 4
This week Gilly is with multi-award winning food writer and explorer, Eleanor Ford whose latest book The Nutmeg Trail takes us on an adventure to exotic islands and across trade routes to show how the intoxicating power of spice has changed the world. Eleanor is also the author of Fire Islands which won The Guild of Food Writers' Best International or Regional Cookbook 2020, the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award for best Food or Drink Book 2020 and two Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2020. Her...
Mar 31, 2022•26 min•Season 19Ep. 3
This week, Gilly is with Kalpna Woolf, founder of the Bristol charity 91 Ways which brings together the 91 languages spoken in her hometown of Bristol in a series of pop up peace cafés. Her book Eat Share Love features the recipes shared over the supper clubs where back story is the main ingredient. She's been awarded The Guild of Food Writers Inspiration Award, BBC’s Food and Farming Food Hero Award and the Asian Women of Achievement Award and is one of the 20 people listed by Waitrose Food Mag...
Mar 24, 2022•35 min•Season 19Ep. 2
This week, Gilly takes us to Tibet with Yeshi Jampa and Julie Kleeman, the husband and wife team who brought the Himalayas to Oxford through their legendary restaurant and food stall - and now, book - Taste Tibe t. Yeshi grew up in Tibet, herding livestock on the high reaches of the Tibetan plateau and learning to cook inside a yak hair tent at a young age. When he was nineteen, Yeshi walked across the Himalayas to northern India, where he eventually met and married Julie a travelling scholar an...
Mar 17, 2022•30 min•Season 19Ep. 1
After spending the last couple of months hearing the voice of Yemisi Aribisala introduce the best food books of 2021 in a special series with the Andre Simon awards , this episode is all about her book Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds. It won the Andre Simon’s John Avery award in 2016, possibly because of its use of food to prod under the skin of Nigerian life and poke at the politics and culture of her homeland. But in a country which doesn’t really like to talk about what...
Mar 10, 2022•29 min•Season 18Ep. 7
In the last of the Andre Simon Shortlist Special series, we meet Yasmin Khan whose book Ripe Figs transports us across the East Mediterranean, tasting the best food in Greece, Turkey and Cyprus in the company of refugees and activists. As they chop and chat about borders, memory and identity, Yasmin shows us how food can give dignity and humanise people in the harshest of circumstances. Plus, food assessor, the author Yemisi Aribisala explains why she chose Ripe Figs to be among the final seven ...
Mar 08, 2022•36 min•Season 18Ep. 6
In the 5th episode of this special series celebrating the Andre Simon Awards 2021 , Gilly discusses Mandy Yin ’s shortlisted book Sambal Shiok with Singaporean writer, Sharon Wee while Mandy is on maternity leave. Sharon's 2012 book, Growing up in a Nonya Kitchen was a victim of plagiarism last year, which shook the global food community. But she hit back and is now working on a revised version which will be out later this year. You can hear her episode of Cooking the Books her e. As she compare...
Mar 03, 2022•27 min•Season 18Ep. 5
In the 4th episode of the Cooking the Books Andre Simon Shortlist Special , we meet Mark Diacono , gardener, author and cook. He's no stranger to the Andre Simons; his stunning book A Year at Otter Farm won the Food Book of the Year in 2014. Before we hear his four food moments from his shortlisted Herb , we hear from food assessor, Yemisi Aribisala on why she's chosen it as one of her seven best books of 2021. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 24, 2022•32 min•Season 18Ep. 4
The third in this special series celebrating the Andre Simon Awards 2021 in which Gilly meets the authors shortlisted for the prestigious food book gong with an introduction by food assessor, the Nigerian born author Yemisi Aribisala whose memoir Longthroat: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds won the Andre Simon’s John Avery award in 2016. Four out of seven on the shortlist have already appeared on Cooking the Books, and this week, you’ll get a chance to listen again to Dee Rettali tell Gilly ho...
Feb 17, 2022•38 min•Season 18Ep. 3
The second in a special series in conjunction with the Andre Simon Awards 2021 .Each week, we'll start with an appraisal of each shortlisted author by this year's food assessor, the award winning Nigerian author, Yemisi Aribisala . Her book Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex, and the Nigerian Taste Buds , which won the John Avery Award in the Andre Simons in 2016, uses Nigerian food as an entry point to think more deeply and understand culture and society. This week, Yemisi describes the storytellin...
Feb 10, 2022•40 min•Season 18Ep. 2
In a special series celebrating the Andre Simon Awards 2021 , Gilly celebrates the authors shortlisted for the prestigious food book prize. Each week until the Awards themselves on March 8th, we meet the seven authors with an introduction by food assessor, the Nigerian born author Y emisi Aribisala . But first, we kick off with Dan Saladino whose book Eating to Extinction was one of Cooking the Books pick of the year in 2021, and meet trustees, Xanthe Clay and Sarah Jane Evans to chat through th...
Feb 03, 2022•54 min•Season 18Ep. 1
