This week, we’re with Anna Ansari, the American-Iranian author of Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing.

We meet at Helm Gallery in Brighton’s North Laine, in front of a live audience which includes members of the Network of international Women whose debate about the culinary variations of Kuku from Iran and Iraq to Syria, Jordan and Yemen becomes particularly heated in the Q&A. Food, travel and geopolitics, food memory and food identity - it's all here among many of the people who understand these issues most.

You can buy Silk Roads from the Cooking the Books shop at Bookshop.org by clicking on the link, which supports this advertising free podcast.

And do pop over to Gilly's Substack for the recipe for kuku and pictures of the live podcast event.

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This week, we’re with Sarah Bentley, the brains behind Made in Hackney, and its brand new cookbook We Cook Plants.

Made in Hackney is a charity founded 13 years ago by Sarah which teaches thousands the skills to cook with plants for survival, joy, and empowerment. It’s a glorious invitation to put more plants on your plate and be part of real food system change.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack to see some of the wonderful work they get up to at Made in Hackney, as well as one of the recipes from the book.

And you can buy the book at the CTB shop on bookshop.org by clicking here.

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This week, we’re revisiting The Natural Menopause Method with nutritionist, Karen Newby

We first met Karen last year when she explained how to arm 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.  Have a listen to that episode of CTB here.

This time, it's all about the cookbook as the companion book. Gilly finds out why it's so important to learn to cook up the method ourselves.

You can buy Karen’s The Natural Menopause Method Cookbook at the Cooking the Books shop on bookshop.org.

And head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites from Karen including a recipe from the book.

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This week, we are all about the bean - again. It’s Publication Day for Full of Beans, the second cookbook from Amelia Christie-Miller, founder of Bold Bean co., and lead singer in the campaign to bring beans back onto the British plate. 

We first met Amelia at Cooking the Books Live at Groundswell this summer to talk about her first book, Bold Beans: recipes to get your pulse racing Now, with her own little bean growing happily inside her, we caught up to celebrate the birth of Full of Beans and began by discussing the power of storytelling to change the way we eat.

Click here to buy Full of Beans from CTB's own page on bookshop.org, and here for Extra Bites of Amelia on Gilly's Substack, including a recipe from the book, and a glimpse behind the scenes at its photoshoot.

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This week, we’re off to a farm just outside London but which feels like it’s on a different planet, with Tamara Schiopu in My Vegan Farm Food.  

Tolhurst Organic, a 20-acre farm on the Hardwick Estate, is a dream of how farming could be – and is about so much more than growing. This is about community, where the growers work the land and live on the river under the famous willows of Kenneth Grahame’s children’s books. Hardwick Hall, the original inspiration for Toad Hall, overlooks the Victorian greenhouses and the 500-year-old walled kitchen garden where the produce is only half the story. Gilly, who has written the foreword to My Vegan Farm Food, finds out why Tamara, who co-wrote it with Samantha Kroes, chose to tell the story of Tolhurst in a cookbook. 

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for a glimpse of that extraordinary community life Tamara describes on Extra Bites

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This week, we’re off to Brazil with food writer and former Ottolenghi chef, Ixta Belfrage

Her latest book, Fusao meaning fusion, is about more than the melting pot of Brazil’s huge diasporic food cultures; it’s about who she is after a deep dive into her own ancestry, the histories of Brazil and her own connection with food as medicine. Gilly finds out if this weighty book, packed with stories and recipes is an attempt to find her own place in a country which she barely knew at all. 

And you can buy Fusao at the Cooking the Books shop on bookshop.org by clicking on the link.

Head over to Substack for Extra Bites from Ixta including a recipe from the book.

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This week, we’re with Tim Siadatan, the man behind one of the most iconic restaurants in London, Padella to chat about his eponymous debut cookbook.

Tim started his journey in food on an apprentice scheme at Fifteen, with the most iconic of chefs, Jamie Oliver. From there, he rocketed through the food firmament from St John with Fergus Henderson to Moro with Sam and Sam Clarke, before setting up his own restaurants, Trullo and Padella with his mate from the River Café, Jordan Frieda.

With Padella on the bucket list for every tourist coming to Borough Market, it’s no surprise to find Tim’s first cookbook sub-titled ‘Iconic Pasta at Home’. Gilly asks him what iconic means to him.

Head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Tim, and if you'd like to buy the book, head to Cooking the Books page at Bookshop.org

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This week, we’re back with Cooking the Books favourite, Tara Wigley and the second in her brilliant series of culinary confusions, How the Cookie Crumbles.

After co-writing the Ottolenghi big hitters with Yotam and other members of the Test Kitchen, she’s found her own niche in rhyme.  After How to Butter Toast charmed a whole new readership, she’s back with all we  wanted to know about ingredients, cooking and kitchens, but were afraid to ask.

And it's that sense of anxiety, over-thinking and delightful neuroses that makes her stand out in the food writing community. Gilly chatted to her a month about that nail biting bit before publication, and asked her how she thought the cookie’s going to crumble.

Head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Tara. And if you'd like to buy the book, head to Cooking the Books' page on Bookshop.org where you can find many of the books featured on the show.

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This week in a special extra episode, we’re live in Paris at the legendary Belleville bistrot Le Mistral with Chris Newens, the winner of the 2024 Jane Grigson Trust Award for best debut food writer for his gastronomic journey through the arrondissements of Paris, Moveable Feasts.

The name of the book is a nod to Chris’ idol, Ernest Hemingway and his memoir of a struggling expat writer making his way in Paris during the 1920s. And in front of a live audience made up of many of his friends and fans who have already made that left turn and are living the expat dream, we talked about curating the bubble of Parisian gastronomy. We began with an introduction to the evening by the queen of French food, Francophile journalist and author of Amuse Bouche, how to eat your way around France, Carolyn Boyd

And you can buy Moveable Feasts and Amuse Bouche at the Cooking the Books shop on bookshop.org by clicking on the links.

And then head over to my Substack for the fascinating Q&A at the Paris show on Extra Bites. 

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This week, we’re with yet another lawyer turned chef, Malaysian restaurateur and award-winning author of Sambal Shiok and now Simply Malaysian, Mandy Yin.

She’s the super-driven restaurateur who started selling satay burgers at a street stall after getting burnt out in corporate law, and who went on to be lauded by all the food critics for her London laksa bar, Sambal Shiok.

As a mum of a three year old now, she’s making it easy on herself, and on the growing number of people who really really want to cook her super tasty laksas and satays in Simply Malaysian. This is about giving yourself a break – as a mum.  

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Mandy's Extra Bites, including some top tips for new mums!

You can buy Mandy's book from the Cooking the Books shop at Bookshop.org which supports independent bookshops.

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This week, we’re off to the Cairngorms of Scotland with anthropologist, food journalist and woman of the wilds, Ghillie Basan.

After bringing the food of Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon, The Middle East, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Kenya to an international readership hungry for different flavours and food cultures, Ghillie's latest book, Food Whisky Life focuses more on her own life. It’s a story of resilience, enterprise and whisky, getting on with it as a single mum in the wilds and pulling brilliant ideas out of the bag to make life work deliciously.

You can buy Food, Whisky, Life from the Cooking the Books shop at Bookshop.org which supports independent bookshops. And head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Ghillie.

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This week, we're with Channel 4 news writer, social media food influencer and nominee for the Jane Grigson Trust Sous Chef Award for debut food writing, Felicty Spector.

Bread and War: A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope  is an exploration of the profound role of food in wartime Ukraine.  Felicity’s trips through devastated villages, bombed cities, family kitchens, and precarious bakeries meeting everyday extraordinary people showed her how food, particularly bread, has become a powerful symbol of Ukrainian identity, resistance, and hope.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Felicity.

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This week, we’re off to the Greek Islands with chef and food historian, Carolina Doriti for a deeper dive into the stories of Greece through its food.

Taking the tourist to see the traditions, the artisans and the produce of our favourite holiday islands, says Carolina, helps to connect them more with the food and the people, an essential element of sustainable travel. As she takes us through four food moments from four of her favourite islands, we learn about how to slow-cook chicken in a tserepa, why to pair Samos wine with poached peaches and how to transform rusks with lemon leaves.

Head over to Gilly's Substack for a recipe from the book and for Extra Bites of Carolina.

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This week, we’re celebrating the food culture of Palestine with one of its most vocal champions, Sami Tamimi

Sami’s first solo cookbook, Boustany, meaning 'my garden', is about the abundance of vegetarian recipes that make up the heart of Palestinian cooking. He and Yotam Ottolenghi, largely through their first book, Jerusalem have done more to bring the food of the Middle East to the world than anyone, and most of us will know our way around a labneh or a pomegranate molasses by now.

Falastin, his cookbook co-written with Tara Wigley took him back to his homeland to begin to tell the story of Palestinian food culture, and in Boustany, he continues that mission. Gilly asks him how he feels about chatting about Sumac roasted plums with cardamom cream and pistachio when food is being weaponised in his own backyard.

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This week, we’re off to Bordeaux with chef, author and friend of the podcast, Emily Scott to talk about fish in her latest book, Home Shores.

After the kids have left home and as she faces a big birthday, Emily’s tells us how she's changing up her life. She may have left Cornwall where she was the first woman commissioned by the UK Cabinet Office to cook for royalty and world leaders at the G7 summit dinner at the Eden Project in 2021, but she’s on a mission to make the most of life. She’s the Executive Consultant Chef and Creative Director at the Calypso Grill in the Cayman Islands, all while setting up a whole new home in France. In short, she’s living the dream.

Head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Emily.

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This week, we’re back at Gilly's How to Cook Book food writing retreat at her house just outside Lewes in East Sussex with muse-in-residence, the grande dame of British food writing, Elisabeth Luard.

After bringing the flavours of Spain to a British readership from the 1980s on, her Classic Spanish Recipes: 75 signature dishes is part of the Hamlyn Classic Recipes series celebrating 75 years of publishing some the most admired chefs and writers in the world for their pioneering approach to food culture - Anna del Conte on Italian food, Ken Hom on Chinese, Chetna Makan on Indian.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack from Extra Bites of Elisabeth's Spain.

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This week, we’re with British-Caribbean writer, Keshia Sakarah whose debut cookbook, Caribe was shortlisted with Irina 

Janakievska and Dina for the Jane Grigson Trust Award in 2023. It's a history of Caribbean cooking with 125 recipes from 23 nations - from Montserrat to Haiti, Antigua to Guadaloupe, capturing the cultures through food in what this Leicester born young writer calls 'resistance through retention'.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Keshia.

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This week, Gilly is with the British Iranian/Pakistani human rights activist and food and travel writer, Yasmin Khan to talk about her latest book, Sabzi.

Sabzi, meaning greens and herbs in Persian, the language of her mother, and vegetables in Urdu, the language of her Pakistani father, is about how to reduce the amount of meat in our diet with delicious recipes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and South Asia. It’s as political and environmental as we’d expect from Yasmin, but it’s also a book about her ancestors and the food from their land – as well as a hard-won journey to motherhood. Gilly finds out why she chose vegetables to convey such a big story.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Yasmin

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In extra episode from Groundswell, the Regenerative Agriculture Festival that Sheila Dillon calls 'the Glastonbury of Food and Farming', Cooking the Books Live discusses the influence of cook books and books about food on changing the way we eat and buy our food

In front of an audience of farmers and food businesses, pioneers and innovators who are changing the way we eat, Gilly asks a panel of writers with influence, Thomasina Miers of Wahaca, Amelia Christie-Miller of Bold Bean company, Alice Robinson of British Pasture Leather and David Finlay of The Ethical Dairy what a book can do to change the story of food. 

Check out Gilly's Substack here and get in touch on Instagram here

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This week, we’re back at Rockwater in Hove for Cooking the Books Live with Gurd Loyal.

Regular listeners will know that Gurd is probably the writer who Gilly think's best uses the lens of food to examine life. His first book, Mother Tongue won the Jane Grigson Trust award for Best Debut, and he has become the word on Third Culture food, prising open the liminal spaces between where we come from and who we can be.

His second book, Flavour Heroes is a lighter read, a pantry book giving us technicolour ways to elevate the simplest dishes with 15 superstar ingredients. After the food world clucked around him over Mother Tongue, Diana Henry calling him boundary breaking, Felicity Cloake dubbing him the Willy Wonka wizard of flavour, Gilly asks him in front of a live audience, how he felt about the notoriously difficult second album. 

Head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of CTB Live with the Q&A

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