Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

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 Trayler of the London-based agency At Trayler and Angela Nicholson, founder of SheClicks, an award-winning community for female photographers to talk through the runners up and winning images in two of the categories. Pop over to Gilly's Substack to see the images for the runners up and the winners of those two categories on Extra Bites. And if you’d like to support this ad and sponsor free podcast, just click here to contribute to Gilly's economy of kindness.

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 subscriber on Substack.

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 fiction.Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites and a recipe for one of Felicity's food moments whipped up by Jo at Sussex Surplus.And if you’d like to support this ad and sponsor free podcast, don’t forget to click here to contribute whatever you like.

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 you hear on this ad and sponsor free podcast, you can give a little back by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.

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 Substack for Extra Bites of Hugh and two recipes from the book.Click to listen to The Food Foundation Podcast's Bang in Some Beans mini series produced by Gilly.And if you like what you hear on this ad and sponsor free podcast, you can give a little back by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.

This week, we’re back at Patio in Brighton for Cooking the Books Live with Tim Anderson and his latest book, JapanEasy KitchenIn 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 Substack for Extra Bites of Tim and a recipe from JapanEasy Kitchen. And if you like what you hear on this ad and sponsor free podcast, you can give a little back by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.

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 you hear on this ad and sponsor free podcast, you can give a little back by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.

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 in the Uk that's already moved on in the homeland, who tells her why it matters.And if you like what you hear on this ad and sponsor free podcast, you can give a little back by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.

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 her family’s curry recipe has been a highlight of her culinary year so far. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites to read all about it, and for the gulai recipe from the book which he reckons was its inspiration. Riches indeed.And if you like what you hear on this ad and sponsor free podcast, you can give a little back by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack.