Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

This week, we’re live at Petworth Literary Festival with one of Britain’s very best food writers, Diana Henry to talk about her latest book, Around the Table: 52 Essays on Food and Life.In front of an audience of 250 food fans in the stunning St Mary’s Chuch in Petworth, Diana tells us why she wanted to publish a compilation of essays drawn from twenty years of her cookbooks.Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of this lovely evening with Diana. 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 access to Second Helpings, monthly Zooms with a CTB guest, and a massive archive of Gilly's articles. .

This week, we’re with historian and food writer, Priya Mani and her latest encyclopaedia of flavours, Spiced.After her success with The Visual Encyclopaedia of Indian Food, an A–Z, this is a ground breaking deep dive into a whole world of spices from Norway to the Greek Islands, Yunnan to the Gulf of Guinea, with recipes gathered from people on buses to long table dinners along the way, essays from friends and esteemed colleagues and a foreword from Harold McGee, it’s a modern classic. Pop over to Substack for extra bites and a recipe from Spiced.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 access to Second Helpings, monthly Zooms with a CTB guest, and a massive archive of Gilly's articles.

This week, we’re with Alissa Timoshkina and her third cookbook about Eastern Europe, Lozhka.Loshka, meaning spoon, is about the symbolism of connection through nourishment. It is, she says, 'the simple kitchen object which time and again has the power to soothe and lift'. After her first book, Salt and Time in 2019 and Kapusta in 2025, Lozhka feels like she’s found a new confidence not just in telling stories about her homeland, but with an urgency in sharing its recipes and histories before they fade.Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites and a recipe from Lozhka.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 access to Second Helpings, monthly Zooms with a CTB guest, and a massive archive of Gilly's articles.

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 telling me how she was sprinkled by Nigella’s fairy dust.Pop over to my Substack for extra bites and a recipe from Love and Hunger. And if you like what you hear on this ad free podcast, you can contribute to the Economy of Kindness by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.

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 Everything. And if you like what you hear on this ad free podcast, you can contribute to the Economy of Kindness by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.

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 what she says could be the happiest and healthiest time of our lives.Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites and a recipe from The Post Menopause Method. And do come along to BrightonFoodStory on Saturday October 3. It's all free.And if you like what you hear on this ad free podcast, you can contribute to the Economy of Kindness by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.