Podcast · Arts & Books

Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

Cooking the Books is about all of life through the prism of food, from climate change to culture and politics to people. 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, a

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 30 min
Latest: 15 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026 · 30 minNew

Charlotte Wood: Love and Hunger

This week, we're with the award-winning Australian novelist, Charlotte Wood and her ode to cooking and food, Love and Hunger. To Charlotte, cooking is 'creativity in its purest form', but it’s taken nearly 15 years to capture the attention of British readers with this book. Thanks to Nigella Lawson writing the foreword for this UK edition, and raving about it on her socials, comparing its flavour to Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, she’s big in Britain. We chatted about the sensibility an award-winning novelist can bring to observations, confessions and memories through food, but she began by…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

S27 · E6 · 8 Oct 2026 · 27 min
Vicky Bennison: Eat Everything
In the last of our mini series of speakers from BrightonFoodStory, the food festival Gilly produced this year in her home town which is aimed at changing the conversation about the way we eat, we’re with Vicky Bennison, the James Beard award-winning author of Pasta Grannies: Eat Everything. Vicky was at BrightonFoodStory last weekend to talk about nonnamaxxing, the Instagram trend of yearning for the slower, simpler, more resilient way of the grandmother. You can find out more @BrightonFoodStory on Instagram and Substack. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites and a recipe from Eat…
S27 · E5 · 1 Oct 2026 · 31 min
Karen Newby: The Post Menopause Method
Ahead of BrightonFoodStory , the food festival on October 3rd that Gilly is producing in her home town aimed at changing the conversation about the way we eat, we’re meeting some of the speakers on the various panel discussions. This week, we’re with Karen Newby, author of the Natural Menopause Method and its cookbook partner, and now The Post Menopause Method . Karen will be on the Nonnamaxxing panel to talk about how to age healthily. The Instagram trend has highlighted the global yearning for a slower more wholesome approach to life, and Gilly asks her why we need a method to get through…
S27 · E4 · 24 Sep 2026 · 30 min
Hodmedod's: Whole Food
This week, we meet Nick Saltmarsh and Josiah Meldrum of Hodmedods to talk about the magic of beans in their debut cookbook Whole Food. Now, Hodmedods has long since become the byword for beans in Britain, and can claim a major role in elevating the plucky pulse to enjoy its moment in the sun. Gilly's just finished another series of Bang in Some Beans for The Food Foundation Podcast – watch out for that coming in mid October presented again by Melissa Hemsley - and it seems that beans really are having their moment. Whole Food tells the whole story, joining the dots between farming and fibre,…
S27 · E3 · 17 Sep 2026 · 28 min
Andrew Turvil: Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears
This week we’re with former editor of the Good Food Guide, Andrew Turvil and his book, Blood, Sweat & Asparagus Spears: The Story of the 1990s Restaurant Revolution. Like Andrew, Gilly was right in the centre of the birth of what another editor of the Good Food Guide, Drew Smith called Modern British Cooking, and has written her take on this story in a biography of Jamie Oliver, and Taste and the TV Chef. As Andrew curated the story in the Good Food Guide from a consumer guide’s point of view, they discuss where the narratives coincide. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Andrew,…
S27 · E2 · 10 Sep 2026 · 26 min
Jeremy Lee: Kitchening
This week, in an extended episode, we’re with one of the most important voices in British food writing, Jeremy Lee with Kitchening , his follow up cookbook to the 2022 multi award winning Cooking . Jeremy has taken his time to become one of the central storytellers of modern British cuisine – with his cookbooks at least , despite being right there at the birth of modern British cooking. Do listen to Sheila Dillon’s brilliant interview with Jeremy for The Food Programme, but also to the CTB episode with Food Foundation ambassador and campaigner against food poverty, Dev Sharma. For a 17 year…
S27 · E1 · 3 Sep 2026 · 28 min
Claire Thomson: Dear Grace
This week, we’re celebrating Back To School and Uni season with Claire Thompson and her latest book, Dear Grace. This is a book unlike any Claire has written before. She wrote it while her heart was breaking as her eldest daughter, Grace, set off for university, and the letters from mother to daughter – and daughter to mother - about how to survive are a universal weep as fledglings all over the world spread their wings and head off into the big wide world. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites and a recipe from Dear Grace. And if you like what you hear on this ad free podcast, you…
S26 · E13 · 30 Jul 2026 · 30 min
Anissa Helou: Lebanon
This week, we're with an absolute legend in food writing, Anissa Helou and her culinary celebration of Lebanon . Listed by Arabian Business magazine as one of the "500 Most Influential Arabs" and "100 Most Powerful Arab Women, she’s among the greats of modern food writing with the likes of Claudia Roden and Elisabeth Luard. Now, after 32 years of writing about the everyday food of the Middle East and beyond, Lebanon, A Culinary Celebration takes her back to where she began. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Lebanon . If you'd like to support CTB which is advertising and…
S26 · E12 · 23 Jul 2026 · 39 min
Cooking the Books LIVE: Honey and Co.
This week, we are live in Brighton on the hottest day of the year so far with Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer, aka Honey and Co. to talk about their new book, Honey and Co.Daily. Against the sound of a massive fan at Patio Wine Bar, we talked about the huge dollop of love that the Honeys have made their brand, and how a warm hug of hospitality has not only saved their business but reminded us all of what people really want from a restaurant. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Cooking the Books Live at Patio, Brighton, plus a recipe from Honey and Co. Daily, and from the Ingrid…
S26 · E11 · 16 Jul 2026 · 33 min
Rebecca Seal: Irritated
This week we're with author, journalist and broadcaster, Rebecca Seal and her deep dive into the world of allergies in Irritated She's spent 20 years writing about food, not least as the deputy editor of Observer Food Monthly, and her life was all about the deliciousness of food. But it was her younger daughter’s allergy to soy which prompted her to explore the rise in the allergy epidemic, and to piece together a fascinating puzzle of the way we live. If you'd like to support CTB which is advertising and sponsorship free, contribute whatever you like via this link , or become a paid…
S26 · E10 · 9 Jul 2026 · 29 min
Trine Hanhnemann: Midnight Sun
This week we're with Danish food writer, restaurateur and campaigner, Trine Hahnemann and her latest cookbook, Midnight Sun . This is a book about long lazy summer days - cycling to the beach, stopping off to buy strawberries from a local stall, peeling shrimps to eat with homemade mayo and bread.. But under the haze of a Scandanavian sun, food for Trine is about much more than a picnic. It’s about history, time, geography and culture, a sum of the past and a warning about the future. Gilly asks how the simplicity of a long hot summer could say so much. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for extra…
S26 · E9 · 2 Jul 2026 · 31 min
Ozlem Warren: Istanbul
This week, we’re with the WORD on Turkish food and heritage, Ozlem Warren to dig into her latest book, Istanbul. We’ve followed Ozlem on Cooking the Books through her writing career, from Ozlem’s Turkish Table which inspired a fund raising supper club for the earthquake in 2023 at Gilly’s house, through vegetarian Turkish in Sebze, and now to Istanbul, her most confidant work yet, and her warmest welcome to her homeland. If you'd like to support CTB which is advertising and sponsorship free, contribute whatever you like via this link , or become a paid subscriber on Substack which gives you…
S26 · E8 · 25 Jun 2026 · 30 min
Rachel Khoo: The Smallest Restaurant in Paris
This week, Gilly is with the author of The Smallest Restaurant in Paris , Rachel Khoo Now, you may know her as the author of The Little Paris Kitchen and the star of the BBC’s cooler original version of Emily in Paris - without the haute couture or the PR job, a young Brit abroad, feeling her way through being in Paris and cooking in her tiny kitchen. Now she’s written a memoir about those years, and – whisper it - published it herself. A self-published book by someone with 400k followers on Instagram? How? Why? Well, as we find out, Rachel has never been the kind of girl to do what she’s…
S26 · E7 · 18 Jun 2026 · 28 min
Sudi Pigott: Consider the Anchovy
This week, we're with travel and food writer, Sudi Pigott to Consider the Anchovy. Part memoir, largely a travelogue, this is a deep dive into the story of a big hitting little fish. Stuffed with maverick, rakish characters, it's a passionate manifesto making the case for the anchovy as a leading mover and shaker in world culinary history. Rachel Roddy described it as "an anchovy odyssey, a journey in search of a small fish of enormous importance — fascinating, unexpected and utterly enticing." Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Sudi and a recipe from the book. If you'd like to…
S26 · E6 · 11 Jun 2026 · 33 min
Ella Risbridger: The Kitchen Book
This week, we're with Ella Risbridger and The Kitchen Book Now, we know Ella intimately through her memoirs, Midnight Chicken and The Year of Miracles , both of which blended grief, joy, love and loss with food, gathering serious accolades and scooping up the awards. Here, she’s happy. Her life is good. Her writing is full of joy and the reception over on Instagram in particular has been effusive. And it’s an instant Sunday Times bestseller. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Ella and a recipe from The Kitchen book. If you'd like to support CTB which is advertising and…
S26 · E5 · 4 Jun 2026 · 24 min
The World Food Photography Awards
This week, we're with three of the judges from this year’s World Food Photography Awards which took place earlier this week at The Mall Galleries in London. The competition, first known as the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year, has pretty much put food photography on the map since 2011. With more than 120,000 entries from nearly 100 countries over that time, this year the judging panel led by legendary food photographer David Loftus, assessed 9000 images from professional and amateur photographers from 50 countries. Gilly caught up with 3 of the judges, food stylist, Sal Henley, Skye…
S26 · E4 · 28 May 2026 · 28 min
Chetna Makan: 5 Ingredient Indian
This week, we’re off to lunch with Chetna Makan, the Bake Off semi finalist who has become one of our national treasures with her massive YouTube channel, Food with Chetna . Her latest book 5 Ingredient Indian is yet another way of making Indian food simple enough to cook for quick weekday suppers while keeping all the flavour. Pop over to Substack for Extra Bites of Chetna, and a recipe from the book. And if you like what you hear on this ad and sponsor free podcast, you can contribute to the Economy of Kindness by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid…
S26 · E3 · 21 May 2026 · 40 min
Felicity Cloake at Cooking the Books Live
This week, we're back at Cooking the Books live in Brighton with Felicity Cloake (and Wilf the Wonderdog) to talk about her debut novel, The Underdog. We know Felicity from her Bridget Jones-on-a-bike style adventures across France in One More Croissant for the Road , the UK in Red Sauce, Brown Sauce and America in Peach Street to Lobster Lane . But she's also the Queen of Culinary Perfection in her Guardian column, How to Cook the Perfect... , and has somehow managed to combine both personalities in Katy, the hapless protagonist in her first rom com. Gilly finds a thin line between fact and…
S26 · E2 · 14 May 2026 · 35 min
Jago Rackham: To Entertain
This week, we meet Jago Rackham to talk about his first book, To Entertain: Instructions for a Dinner Party. But the book is not quite what it seems. The millennial Substacker who hosts supper clubs and pop-ups fashioned as dinner parties, has, with his long term partner, the artist Lowena Hearn, earned the social media title of East London’s power couple. But Gilly finds a rather old-school English couple from another time among the pages of this very literary book. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Jago including his playlist, and to see Lowena's art . And if you like what…
S26 · E1 · 7 May 2026 · 33 min
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: High Fibre Heroes
This week we’re with the prince of plants, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his High Fibre Heroes. Hugh and Gilly have been talking about the national diet for years on this show and before it was even born. They both campaign with the Food Foundation for policy change to make healthier food more accessible for every child in the UK, and Hugh's last book How to Eat 30 Plants a Week was all about adding way more colour and texture to the nation’s plate. Now he’s joined the growing family of fibre authors banging in some beans and plenty of veg for the sake of our health. Pop over to Gilly's…
S25 · E36 · 30 Apr 2026 · 50 min
Tim Anderson: JapanEasy Kitchen
This week, we’re back at Patio in Brighton for Cooking the Books Live with Tim Anderson and his latest book, JapanEasy Kitchen In front of a live audience, we find out about the nine magical Japanese pantry staples which Tim says can transform anything we want to cook, how this white man from Wisconsin has claimed the space in British food media as Mr Japanesasy and his insider tips for the best Japanese finds. We start by talking through his cannon of books ready to be signed and sold on the pop up CookBookBake stall at Patio and noticing just how beautiful they are. Pop over to Gilly's…
S25 · E35 · 28 Apr 2026 · 30 min
Judging The Fortnum and Mason Awards
This week, we’re looking in depth at the shortlists in the food categories at the Fortnum and Mason Awards with Marie Mitchell, one of the judges and last year’s award winner for her debut cookery book, Kin. Under the guiding eye of Mark Diacono who played head judge this year, Marie along with fellow judges, Ravinder Bhogal and Richard Bertinet have plucked the best of the best in food and drink – books, podcasts, radio, TV and social media - talks through the shortlists in the food categories, and how it feels to be one of last year’s winners. No Extra Bites this week, but if you like what…
S25 · E34 · 23 Apr 2026 · 30 min
Jad Youssef: Lebnani
This week, we’re off to Lebanon via Reigate with the man behind Comptoir Libanais and Yalla Yalla, Jad Youssef. Lebnani is Jad’s debut cookbook that's all about the Lebanon of his childhood, the rituals and traditions of the food from his homeland that he's brought to the menus of restaurants all over the world. His fear is that Lebanese food is losing its identity, not just through war, displacement and massive food insecurity at home, but through social media influencers and their chocolate hummus and sweet potato falafel. Gilly finds a man deliberately trying to keep a food culture alive…
S25 · E33 · 16 Apr 2026 · 29 min
Ranie Saidi: The Malay Cook
This week, we’re off to Malaysia with The Malay Cook, Ranie Saidi. The Malay Cook is the debut cookbook from this lawyer turned supper club host at Soho House and Curry Club London and now author. It's an homage to the memory of his grandmother, a wedding caterer who brought him up while his parents were studying. But the book is not just about her recipes as he remembers them, but about building his own identity in his new home in the UK. For Gilly, it’s an opportunity to immerse herself in the tastes and smells of her earliest years growing up in Penang and Ipoh. Ranie’s recent remaking of…
S25 · E32 · 9 Apr 2026 · 38 min
Abby Allen: The Farm Kitchen
This week, we’re back with farming champion, Abby Allen and her latest book, The Farm Kitchen. Abby was, until recently, the face of Piper’s Farm, the online farm shop which brought together the best farmers and producers in the South West. Her passion in creating a resilient food and farming system to food lovers across the Uk now comes from a new company, Pipers and co , run by Abby and husband Will which continues to build a network of farmers and producers who do the right thing by the soil, the planet, the animals and us. And all while she’s been growing a whole new human called Olivia.…
S25 · E31 · 2 Apr 2026 · 24 min
Shivi Ramoutar: Recipes from the Rum Islands
This week, we’re with the queen of modern Caribbean cooking, Shivi Ramoutar. It’s 10 years since her debut cookbook, Caribbean Modern: Recipes from the Rum Islands launched this Trinidadian lawyer and supper club host from Leicester to become the Caribbean queen of daytime TV. The 10th anniversary edition – simply called Recipes from The Rum Islands is just as much about identity and belonging, but as the co-presenter now of J immy and Shivi's Farmhouse Breakfast and a regular on This Morning , not to mention a mum of three young wildlings, as she calls them, she’s got a different…
S25 · E29 · 26 Mar 2026 · 23 min
Madeeha Qureshi : The Red Sea
This week we’re exploring the cuisine of Saudi Arabia in Madeeha Qureshi 's debut cookbook, The Red Sea. Madeeha who spent her first 18 years in Saudi, came to our attention on Masterchef when she reached the finals in 2021, impressing judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace with her fusion of Saudi Arabian, Middle Eastern, South Asian and modern flavours. Now, many of us will think of Saudi as a place which is repressive for women and the LGBTQ community, but this is not Madeeha’s story. If Cooking the Books is a place to explore the secret kitchens from different culinary cultures, it’s also…
S25 · E28 · 19 Mar 2026 · 49 min
Cooking the Books Live: Ali Honour
This week we’re in Brighton for Cooking the Books live with bean queen, Ali Honour. The author of Beans describes herself as a chef and food systems agitator, which brings together the best things about beans – how delicious they can be while saving the planet and the health of the nation. In front a live audience of keen beans and bean deniers – let’s call them beanos - we find out why. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Ali and a recipe from Beans by clicking here . And do follow Bang in Some Beans on the Food Foundation podcast, produced by Gilly and presented by Melissa…
S25 · E27 · 12 Mar 2026 · 27 min
The Jane Grigson Trust Sous Chef Awards Shortlist
This week we’re discussing the shortlist for the Jane Grigson Trust–Sous Chef Award 2026 with two of the judges, Nicola Lando and Jeremy Lee. This year, it celebrates its 10th anniversary with a stunning shortlist of books about secret kitchens and migrant stories which will all be featured here on CTB when they’re out in the bookshops. Ahead of next week’s awards, Gilly asks Nicola, founder of Sous Chef and a graduate of her How to Cook a Book food writing retreat, and Jeremy Lee, award-winning author of Cooking and chef proprietor at Awards HQ, Quo Vadis, what they look for in a winner.…
S25 · E26 · 5 Mar 2026 · 21 min
Ilhan Abdi: The Ramadan Kitchen
This week as millions of people all over the world are celebrating Ramadan, we’re with London-based Somali-Egyptian food writer, Ilhan Abdi to talk about her book, The Ramadan Kitchen. A former Amazon corporate employee, she left to focus on cooking content, gaining 265k Instagram followers (@Ilhanm.a) through live Ramadan cooking sessions inspired by her mum’s dishes during lockdown, and has since become a mother herself. She tells us about her recipes inspired by Ramadan traditions, including suhoor and iftar dishes like Somali rice, samosas, and syrup-soaked doughballs. Pop over to…

About Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith is a English arts & books podcast from Gilly Smith. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Gilly Smith
Language: English
Category: Arts & Books
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 30 min
Latest episode: 15 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1499255116
Rights: Gilly Smith

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