Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

Gilly is with Pam Brunton, chef/owner at Inver restaurant on Argyll and Bute, author, philosopher and star of Rick Stein’s Food Stories on BBC1.Her book, Between Two Waters: Heritage, landscape and the modern cook is a deep dive into everything that we need to know about food - the philosophy, the politics and the provenance of what we eat. It’s part memoir, part manifesto on the future of feeding the world, as well as a sharp, feminist critique of the power of the global food economy, and has been heralded as a fiercely original work of narrative non-fiction, from one of the world’s most exciting thinkers about food, sustainability and landscape.  Head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Pam. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with Saturday Kitchen regular and author of nine cook books, Claire Thomson, aka Five o Clock apron. Her latest book, Veggie Family Cook Book is, like Claire, what it says on the cover – genuine, real, easy-going, with 120 recipes to make life more interesting. Gilly finds what makes her so appealing - and enduring - in the plentiful world of cookbooks.Pop over to Gilly’s Substack for Extra Bites of Claire and a recipe for Spanakopita. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly has her hands on on the brand new, much awaited book from Ottolenghi, Comfort. Written by the 'four hungries', Yotam, his original co-writer Tara Wigley, Helen Goh and Verena Lochmuller, these are the foods that provide a comfort blanket for them, and mark a departure from the big Ottolenghi books of the past. In a deliciously raw, often indiscreet chat with three of the 'hungries' while Yotam is out of the Zoom room, we learn what makes Ottolenghi Ottolenghi, the connected nostalgia of their favourite comfort foods and Yotam's guilty pleasure when no-one else is looking. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of the Ottolenghi crew, and a recipe from the book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, in the last of our summer holiday specials, we head to the Good Kitchen in Sicily with community chef and adventurer in all things good, Danny McCubbin.His story is one of a leap of faith, driven by a sense of purpose coursing through his veins and cultivated by his 17 years working with Jamie Oliver, including mentoring chefs at Fifteen who had come from challenging backgrounds. Gilly first met Danny at San Patrignano, an extraordinary rehabilitation community committed to building a better society on a beautiful farm in Northern Italy. He spoke very little Italian then, but Gilly watched in awe how he communicated through something much more primal, a massive heart, and of course, food. You can listen to that interview for the delicious podcast here.He’s done the same, against all odds, in Mussomeli, Sicily, and his book, The Good Kitchen, Love and connection Through Food, tells that story.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s we’re off to the Med – yup, all of it - with chef, Ben Tish.Ben’s latest book Mediterra follows his deep dive into bits of the Mediterranean; Moorish looked at the influence of the moors over hundreds of years on food of the Med, while his book Sicilia was a visceral guide to the street and home food of Sicily. This time, he covers the whole Mediterranean – north, south, east, west to bring us the flavours that Greece has in common with France, Lebanon with Spain, Turkey with Egypt. Head over to Gilly's Substack for more of Ben, including a recipe from the book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with Meera Sodha, author of Made In India The Times’ book of the year in 2014, Fresh India, which won the 2017 Observer Food Monthly's Best New Cookbook Award, East which drew from her Guardian’s New Vegan column, and now Dinner, with a rather different story.This is about the food that helped her recovery from burn out, scribbled in her orange notebooks which, after three years of not being able to cook at all, she would cook only for pleasure. She talked to her just after a piece she wrote about her breakdown for the Guardian prompted an outpouring of love, support and sharing and asked if she felt that she had inadvertently touched a nerve.Head over to Gilly’s Substack for Extra Bites from Meera including original recipes from her orange notebooks side by side with the finished product in a rather beautiful meditation on process.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we’re back at Rockwater, Hove talking LIVE with Melissa Hemsley, food writer of six best-selling cook books, including her latest, the Sunday Times bestseller, Real Healthy.A delicious reminder of how to unprocess our diet with easy, everyday recipes, the book is an antidote to ultra processed foods. Gilly chats to Melissa about everyday activism, elevating the simplest of flavours and the recipe for joy.Click here for Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack including a recipe from the book as well as the Q&A from the evening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we’re going back to London, 2002, a time before pomegranate molasses, when Nigella and Jamie were first on the telly and Ottolenghi had yet to chuck his flavour bombs into the salad bowl of British cuisine, to the publication of the very first Diana Henry book, Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons.Click here for Gilly's previous chats with Diana  about How to Eat a Peach and Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, but this time, we’re going back to a time when they were both TV producers, intoxicated by the smells and eating habits of an increasingly diverse and exotic capital. Click here for Gilly's Substack and Extra BItes of Diana. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, in the very first Cooking the Books LIVE at Rockwater in Hove, an audience with Guardian Feast columnist, Rachel Roddy.Rachel is the author of three books about her life in Italy including the multi award winning Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome which was first published in 2015 and now reissued in 2024.It’s the story of a 32 year old woman from Harpenden who turned up in Rome with little more than a travel toothbrush and a phone, planning to stay a month, maybe, before heading south and on in search of who knows what.  What she found in Testaccio, the tiny corner of Rome where she put her bag down, launched a career as a mutli award winning food writer.  In front of an audience of fans, food writers and foodies, Gilly finds out what that was.Click here for more from the Q&A on Gilly's Substack and here for the further reading Rachel mentions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, as the schools get ready for the long summer holidays, Gilly is with the woman everyone needs to pop in their suitcase if they’re heading to France, Carolyn Boyd, author of Amuse Bouche, How to Eat Your Way around France. Carolyn has guided Gilly through the best food destinations – and therefore THE best destinations in France for the last couple of years though her articles in The Guardian, The Times, National Geographic Traveller Food and BBC Good Food. And that includes a recent trip to Hauts de France, a part of the country most of us scoot past en route to more exotic destinations. But Carolyn argues that food opens a door to some hidden gems - if you know where to find it. Click here to read Gilly's adventures, inspired by Carolyn's Amuse BoucheAnd stay on Substack for Extra Bites from Carolyn, including a mini guide for your summer drive through France. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we’re off to Seoul with British-Korean writer, Su Scott.Su has lived in Britain longer than she lived in Korea where she grew up, and has raised her own daughter in London. But her latest book, Pocha tells the story of the country she left behind, her family and the food they shared, often in the pochas, the covered markets and food stalls which are about so much more than food. Click here for Extra Bites of Su on Gilly's Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, as the UK (and France) go to the polls, Gilly chats to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall about the best way to support the NHS, his latest book How to Eat 30 Plants a Week.Last time we met to talk about the River Cottage’s Good Comfort, his message was to swap out the less healthy ingredients for more, eating healthily not by taking stuff out of them, but by putting more in. This time, he’s upped his game and using the best of the latest science, he’s showing us how to eat 30 different plants a week. Click here for Extra Bites of Hugh and here for the Food Foundation's Manifesto on how to put your own pressure on the next government to create a healthier nation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 Substack, and here for more information on the various parties' takes on food policy from the Food Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 the reflected the interest in what even the Government back then was telling us would save our NHS, already buckling under the weight of diet-related disease. 30 years later, many Western societies are obesogenic s with increasing numbers living in food insecurity, undernourished by an all powerful fast food industry. Gilly asks Giulia why she thinks we’re still trying to work out how to eat well.Head over to Gilly's Substack for more from Giulia's Happiest Diet in the World Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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's legendary Ballymaloe Cookery School  Click here for Extra Bites from Anna at Gilly's Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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.Head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites from Mark. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 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.

This 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.

This 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 acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 Substack for Extra Bites of Amber. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Yasmin, and if you'd like to see her in conversation with Gilly in a Cooking the Books Live at Rockwater, Hove on July 2nd, click here to book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 Spotfiy playlist, inspired by her DJ years at university in Scotland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 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 night, Cooking the Books will, whatever the outcome, be basking in the glory of the biggest food night of the year.They discuss the nominees and the winners in the food categories: Best Food Book, Best Debut Food Book, Best Cookery Book and Best Debut Cookery Book.Thanks for listening. Head over to Gilly's Substack for some blurry pictures of the night. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 her second book, Black Sea for the delicious podcast, and which was the inspiration for Cooking the Books. It was about  all of life through the prism of food. Head over to Gilly's Substack for a sound of Caroline's travels and a recipe from the her cold kitchen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 heritage.Check out a recipe from Greekish on Gilly's Substack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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/privacy for more information.

This 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 hosts sell-out pastry parties with her pop-up bakery, lark!Check out Gilly's Substack for a recipe from one of her food moments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly explores art, philosophy and food with third generation British-Chinese photographer and Instagram superstar, Michael ZeeHis 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 Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 Mystic Burek. The book is a story of a second generation immigrant ,inspired, like so many writers who come on to this show and  to Gilly's How to Cook a Book retreats, by her grandmother, her baba.Click here for Gilly's Substack and some Extra Bites of Spasia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 Gilly had written a lot about Australia over the years by then, what Rebecca told her over several glasses of wine one evening about the epiphany that led to the creation of her nations company, Warndu, blew her mind.  Pop over to Gilly's Substack to find recipes from Rebecca's food moments by clicking here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 of some of Anna’s recipes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 the here and now. Click here for Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 sturgeon, halibut and skate – it’s closer than you think.’Head over to Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack to hear Charles tell us another of his massive wins for the sea, this time in Dogger. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 natural events in our lives.Head to Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack to watch Karen make a simple minestrone soup rich in collagen – although she does drop her phone into it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with one of the main players in the story of modern British food, Michel Roux JuniorHis 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 from Michel's food moments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 information.

This 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 food culture has taught her about herself, and shows us around a country which has become so much more than a homeland.Click here for Gilly's Substack to find the recipes behind the food moments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 fame on Saturday Kitchen and This Morning with its immunity boosting shots and medicinal mushrooms to help us supercharge our every day lives.Do head to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites from Gem where you’ll find some of the recipes they discuss on the show.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 answer. it started with a mind map around a kitchen table. and Gilly began by asking Lynn if she looked back at it now, would she have followed the same path.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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.

To 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 Vatican City - NOT signed up for this year's month long meat free pledge. Gilly finds out the secret of its success.Do head to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites from the Veganuary crew. And if you want more plants in your life, do listen in next week to Nik Sharma on his latest book Veg Table. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 Frontieres. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 food world through the prism of Fanny Cradock, and find much more than green mashed potato and mince meat omelette.Head to Gilly's Substack for some Extra Bites on the Channel 5 show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 the shining lights of the British food scene could raise money for the charity Magic Breakfast. With the help of Clerkenwell Boy’s contact list and influence, it’s become the best anthology of its kind that sets a new standard in charity fund raising. Click on the link to Gilly's Substack for more delicious things in Extra Bites, and here to buy it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 Substack to watch Dina's mum make paan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 catches up with him on a bench over looking the sea to ponder on the enormity of it all Head to Gilly's Substack to see what Joe has cooked up for us over on Extra Bites Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 it with sweetness and distract it with acidity. But Gilly quickly became much more interested in this super-driven polymath of a woman who has everything food TV needs right now.Pop over to Gilly's Substack to hear more of Alexina's hidden talents. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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 the Tuscan capital is really all about.Don't forget to head to Gilly's Substack to see what Russell has cooked up over on Extra Bites Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This 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.