Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

This week, Gilly has her hands on on the brand new, much awaited book from Ottolenghi, Comfort. Written by the 'four hungries', Yotam, his original co-writer Tara Wigley, Helen Goh and Verena Lochmuller, these are the foods that provide a comfort blanket for them, and mark a departure from the big Ottolenghi books of the past. In a deliciously raw, often indiscreet chat with three of the 'hungries' while Yotam is out of the Zoom room, we learn what makes Ottolenghi Ottolenghi, the connected nostalgia of their favourite comfort foods and Yotam's guilty pleasure when no-one else is looking. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of the Ottolenghi crew, and a recipe from the book.

This week, in the last of our summer holiday specials, we head to the Good Kitchen in Sicily with community chef and adventurer in all things good, Danny McCubbin.His story is one of a leap of faith, driven by a sense of purpose coursing through his veins and cultivated by his 17 years working with Jamie Oliver, including mentoring chefs at Fifteen who had come from challenging backgrounds. Gilly first met Danny at San Patrignano, an extraordinary rehabilitation community committed to building a better society on a beautiful farm in Northern Italy. He spoke very little Italian then, but Gilly watched in awe how he communicated through something much more primal, a massive heart, and of course, food. You can listen to that interview for the delicious podcast here.He’s done the same, against all odds, in Mussomeli, Sicily, and his book, The Good Kitchen, Love and connection Through Food, tells that story. 

This week’s we’re off to the Med – yup, all of it - with chef, Ben Tish.Ben’s latest book Mediterra follows his deep dive into bits of the Mediterranean; Moorish looked at the influence of the moors over hundreds of years on food of the Med, while his book Sicilia was a visceral guide to the street and home food of Sicily. This time, he covers the whole Mediterranean – north, south, east, west to bring us the flavours that Greece has in common with France, Lebanon with Spain, Turkey with Egypt. Head over to Gilly's Substack for more of Ben, including a recipe from the book.

This week, Gilly is with Meera Sodha, author of Made In India The Times’ book of the year in 2014, Fresh India, which won the 2017 Observer Food Monthly's Best New Cookbook Award, East which drew from her Guardian’s New Vegan column, and now Dinner, with a rather different story.This is about the food that helped her recovery from burn out, scribbled in her orange notebooks which, after three years of not being able to cook at all, she would cook only for pleasure. She talked to her just after a piece she wrote about her breakdown for the Guardian prompted an outpouring of love, support and sharing and asked if she felt that she had inadvertently touched a nerve.Head over to Gilly’s Substack for Extra Bites from Meera including original recipes from her orange notebooks side by side with the finished product in a rather beautiful meditation on process.  

This week, we’re back at Rockwater, Hove talking LIVE with Melissa Hemsley, food writer of six best-selling cook books, including her latest, the Sunday Times bestseller, Real Healthy.A delicious reminder of how to unprocess our diet with easy, everyday recipes, the book is an antidote to ultra processed foods. Gilly chats to Melissa about everyday activism, elevating the simplest of flavours and the recipe for joy.Click here for Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack including a recipe from the book as well as the Q&A from the evening.

This week, we’re going back to London, 2002, a time before pomegranate molasses, when Nigella and Jamie were first on the telly and Ottolenghi had yet to chuck his flavour bombs into the salad bowl of British cuisine, to the publication of the very first Diana Henry book, Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons.Click here for Gilly's previous chats with Diana  about How to Eat a Peach and Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, but this time, we’re going back to a time when they were both TV producers, intoxicated by the smells and eating habits of an increasingly diverse and exotic capital. Click here for Gilly's Substack and Extra BItes of Diana.

This week, in the very first Cooking the Books LIVE at Rockwater in Hove, an audience with Guardian Feast columnist, Rachel Roddy.Rachel is the author of three books about her life in Italy including the multi award winning Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome which was first published in 2015 and now reissued in 2024.It’s the story of a 32 year old woman from Harpenden who turned up in Rome with little more than a travel toothbrush and a phone, planning to stay a month, maybe, before heading south and on in search of who knows what.  What she found in Testaccio, the tiny corner of Rome where she put her bag down, launched a career as a mutli award winning food writer.  In front of an audience of fans, food writers and foodies, Gilly finds out what that was.Click here for more from the Q&A on Gilly's Substack and here for the further reading Rachel mentions.

This week, as the schools get ready for the long summer holidays, Gilly is with the woman everyone needs to pop in their suitcase if they’re heading to France, Carolyn Boyd, author of Amuse Bouche, How to Eat Your Way around France. Carolyn has guided Gilly through the best food destinations – and therefore THE best destinations in France for the last couple of years though her articles in The Guardian, The Times, National Geographic Traveller Food and BBC Good Food. And that includes a recent trip to Hauts de France, a part of the country most of us scoot past en route to more exotic destinations. But Carolyn argues that food opens a door to some hidden gems - if you know where to find it. Click here to read Gilly's adventures, inspired by Carolyn's Amuse BoucheAnd stay on Substack for Extra Bites from Carolyn, including a mini guide for your summer drive through France.

This week, we’re off to Seoul with British-Korean writer, Su Scott.Su has lived in Britain longer than she lived in Korea where she grew up, and has raised her own daughter in London. But her latest book, Pocha tells the story of the country she left behind, her family and the food they shared, often in the pochas, the covered markets and food stalls which are about so much more than food. Click here for Extra Bites of Su on Gilly's Substack