foodgillysmith (2025)

23/01/2025

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and this week, I’m talking vegan baking with

His book, A New Way to Bake reimagined recipes for plant based cakes, bakes and desserts won the debut cookbook award last year at the Fortnum and Masons. But his day job as head pastry chef at Harrods has given him an opportunity to turn up the dial on veganism at the top end of London’s food scene.

Listen on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and then click on the link to my Substack for Extra Bites of Philip’s vegan creme brûlée recipe.

Image by Matt Russell.

16/01/2025

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and this week, CTB Live is back at Rockwater, Hove in the first of a series of second Tuesdays … and a rather fabulous food book club.

And who better to start with but Brighton’s favourite novelist, - and the inspiration for her latest murder mystery, Mrs Isabella Beeton.

Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency is a classic whodunnit, but it’s the protagonist, Alice Beeton’s distant ancestor who haunts the story with recipes from her 1861 masterpiece Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management peppering the plot.

Josie explains why her legacy simmers on, how her recipes put meat on the bones of her characters and how food stirs her plots.

Listen on Spotify etc and then head to my Substack for Extra Bites of Josie, including the Q&A from the evening. Link in bio.

And come and join us next time when we’ll be celebrating Cooking the Books 5th birthday at Rockwater with

Tickets in bio.

13/01/2025

We’ve spent the last 10 years or so feeling our way in the rewilding of our land. Neither of us are born to it, but a lot of my food chats are rooted in conservation, and we’ve learnt that apart from a little occasional helping hand, messy Mother Nature usually knows best what to do with our ponds, meadows and woodland.

So although we invited the conservation students at Plumpton College over today to give us their thoughts on why the bull rushes might have stopped growing on the little pond, leaving no shelter for the geese family who’ve been coming here for years to build their nest, it turned out to be a much more extraordinary visit.

They quickly found water hog lice and diving beetles, water boatmen and even shrimps in the little pond. Nothing wrong there that a quick trim of the trees and a rake across the bottom won’t solve. Zero dredge to avoid disturbing life means Jed’s going to have to do it from a little boat. Who’s got one we can borrow?

They then headed down to the big pond, a vision of what the little pond was five years ago. One eagle-eyed student spotted a little bank vole poking his head out of his home to see what was going on.

The teacher explained how the wild flower meadow with its long grass providing the perfect habitat for butterflies and crickets, would also be a haven for many of the amphibians that live in the big pond. And therefore the bats and owls and all kinds of creatures who feast on such delicacies...

Our Heath Robinson style coppicing got full marks, and we learnt that our creature habitats are actually called hibernacula. Big brownie points there from the students. It seems that the abandoned woods we rescued 10 years ago are now an important part of the wetland eco system here. Who knew?

We’ve never had any experts here before, and while the most excellently named Will Mound gave his students an afternoon of their dreams, we feel rather validated in our city folk efforts to do something important with this lovely place.

Thanks to for the intro.

09/01/2025

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books and this week, as the Oxford Farming Conference and the Oxford Real Farming Conference open their doors to discuss the role of farming in modern British life, I’m talking meat with Pipers Farm’s

The Pipers Farm Sustainable Meat Cookbook came out in 2022 but is one of my favourite reads and recipe resources. It’s a manifesto and a reminder of all the principles that guide my world, with some of the most delicious ways to enjoy the food that comes from them.

Listen on Spotify, Apple etc and then head over to my Substack for Extra Bites of Pipers farm with recipes of Abby’s food moments.

02/01/2025

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books in a brand new year of food chat. And as we head towards CTB’s 5th birthday in February, we’re kicking the year off with a thoughtful look at How The World Eats with philosopher,

He’s the author of over 20 books about philosophy for a general audience, but it’s what he says about food that had .saladino of BBC’s The Food Programme voting this global food philosophy his best book of 2024.

As we’re busy making plans to do better this year, I find out what a philosopher can do to help us out of the mess of our global food system.

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts -where you might even give it a little review - and then head over to my Substack for Extra Bites of Julian.

Happy New Year!

27/12/2024

So it seemed that yesterday was not our day. If two broken chargers en route from Paris to Calais, a six hour drive and race against time to get the dogs wormed and the car fully charged to get home wasn’t enough, Le Shuttle’s Pet Reception’s ‘non’ most certainly was. It’s not like we didn’t know that we’d have to wait 24 hours after the worming to get back into the uk. It’s not like we’d not been there before. Doh.

So what would turn this one around? For Loulou it would be a hotel breakfast; for Jed Novick, a charger in the hotel garage; for me, a fabulous dinner. The dogs suggested a vast sandy beach walk in the morning.

Ta daaaa! Look what we found just off the Rue Royale! The Hotel Meurice is straight out of the Belle Epoque (although it first opened in 1771) with quirk and style a go-go. And a charger in the garage.

After dinner at Au Vieux Fourneau, proper job trad French, a late night whisky at the hotel bar and Loulou Novick’s dream breakfast, we’re ready for the beach.

As she heads off on her travels next week, I think we’ve reminded her that we’re not the kind of folk to make a drama out of a crisis.

26/12/2024

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, but I’ve got my eye on something else over the holidays.

Instead, can I suggest you scroll through the archives and listen to something from way back? I love , Henrietta Lovell from March 2020, Claudia Roden from December 2022, possibly the last ever interview with the lovely Russell Norman from Nov 2023 for starters.

As CTB heads into its FIFTH year in 2025, there’s a smorgasbord of gorgeous food chat to elevate your eating and change the way you buy coming your way.

Thanks for listening for however long you’ve been on this fabulous journey into food writing. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and I’ll be back next week with the philosopher to discuss How The World Eats.

20/12/2024

Cooking the Books Live is back on second Tuesdays of the month from January, and should be an excellent Christmas present for your foodie chums if you’re in the area.

is first up on Jan 14 to tell us how the spirit of the late great Isabella Beeton stirs the plot in her latest must-read Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency.

will be in the house on Feb 11th to talk One Pan Beans, followed by River Cottage’s .lucy on March 11th. She’ll be sharing her Honesty Box, a memoir about love, divorce, neurodiversity and a giant marrow.

I’m away in April but back on May 13th for ‘s first solo title, Lugma. Form an orderly queue.

Get your tickets by clicking on the link in my bio to Cooking the Books Live. Your £15 includes £5 off a signed copy from the stall by the bar. Seaside, sheepskins and excellent food chat… What a great way to get through to spring.

19/12/2024

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and I’m with Kate Hall, the author of The Full Freezer Method: Five Steps to Transform How You Shop, Cook and Live.

She’s all over morning telly and the nationals as the Freezer Queen giving tips from her fantastically useful book which really could help us save waste; as she points out, 70% of global food waste comes from the home.

But this isn’t just about batch cooking and having an endless supply of ready meals; this is a whole new way of thinking about how to use your freezer.

Listen on Spotify or Apple pods etc and get involved with the freezer revolution! And Kate shows us around her awesome freezer organisation skills over on my Substack, as well as sharing a lovely brownies recipe.

14/12/2024

Well hello It’s so nice to see you getting us back where we belong.

If you’re in Lewes/Brighton area, pop in for some brilliant sustainable Christmas presents.

13/12/2024

coming soon to Cooking the Books.

12/12/2024

I’m having a clear out of my gazillion cookbooks.

This lot are just some of those that have been on Cooking the Books or which weren’t quite right, but are in excellent nick. If you’re looking for presents for your foodie pals, there’s some real bargains here. Have a browse, if only to read the hilariously bad AI descriptions. Prices set by eBay if they seem a little random!

Link in bio.

12/12/2024

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and this week, I’m with , former head baker of iconic bakery, in San Francisco, the Londoner whose Hart Bagaris across Copenhagen began with a test kitchen at Noma, and the man who taught Marcus from the Bear how to bake.

His book, Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking is more of a love letter to bread than an instruction manual. It’s a read that makes your heart rate drop, the descriptions of dough, a metaphor for all that is wonderful in life.

You can hear the collaboration with his extraordinary wife, Henrietta Lovell, in his words. This is about falling in love as much as it about baking bread. Richard says it’s the same thing.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Pods etc and then head over to my Substack for much more of Richard, including a stunning playlist of songs he bakes to. A masterclass in style and beauty.

07/12/2024

Now if there was ever a day to snuggle up with …

If you’re in the Brighton and Hove area, do come and chat with us about her latest page turner and all things Beeton on Jan 14 . Tickets in bio.

Now, where was I. Ah yes….

05/12/2024

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books and this week, I’m with Irina Janakievska, the North Macedonian born former lawyer turned chef who trained at Leiths and worked in the Ottolenghi test kitchen before becoming a runner up for the prestigious Jane Grigson Trust award for her debut cookbook, The Balkan Kitchen.

It’s massive book reaching deep into the history, peoples and politics of the Balkans, but also into her own family story and her exploration of her own identity through recipes from all Balkan kitchens.

Most of all, it’s a love letter to the Balkan cuisine – one of the most under-explored gastronomies in the world and overshadowed by conflict.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Pods etc and then head over to my Substack (link in bio) to hear Irina read the poem that inspired the book cover. Plus her recipe for Slatko, one of her four food moments.

Photo by Stephanie McGehee

04/12/2024

There’s a light 🎵..

Ok, so I can’t promise the shenanigans that Frank N Furter and the gang had to offer at his place, but if you’re looking for a food writing retreat, the House of Dreams near Lewes, East Sussex from Jan 20-22 is where we’ll next find out How to Cook a Book.

This is where you take time to hone those wonky ideas, those whispers of a story, that pull of purpose into a book proposal to hand to an agent. It’s where you give yourself time to write, cook together, share your deepest hopes and fears and where the kindness of strangers makes you feel differently about life way after you’ve left The House of Dreams.

Our muse in residence, .luard will be taking you through her recipe writing session that’s now almost as legendary as she is. Our Zoom panel of experts includes , former editor of delicious mag and now queen of Substack, and .meller who’ll tell us about the process of writing his latest book. I have no doubt that it will be brilliant.

Great food, excellent company and a WhatsApp community that has your back forever, and all for £365. If you’ve got a food book in you, give it yourself for Christmas. As Frank & co would say 🎵 don’t dream it, be it 🎶

29/11/2024

Lunch with Ali Bucknall and Susan Elkington could only have been Nasi Goreng and Beef Rendang, just like my mother used to make, at Satay House, London’s OG Malay.

All three of us spent our first years in Malaya, as it was then, which thrilled the waitress no end. ‘I’m from Ipoh!’ she squeaked when I told her I’d lived there as a child.

Holed up together in a Harry Potter style boarding school for seven years from the age of 10, it feels like we’ve known each other forever, and somehow not at all. There will be more lunches, I’m sure.

What a lot of life.

28/11/2024

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and this week, this week, I’m with Claire Dinhut aka

Claire is a culinary history graduate and the author of The Condiment Book. A dual national of the US and France, she splits her time between LA and her family home, a mill in the French countryside where the rituals, traditions and flavours of both have inspired this little till-side treasure. Watch it fly off the shelves this Christmas.

Listen on Spotify, Apple pods or click on the link to CTB in my bio, and then head over to my Substack for Extra Bites of Claire who’s taken us to that mill house in France to make that crème de marrons in the picture.

foodgillysmith

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