Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

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 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 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 at Sussex Surplus who spun their food moments into small plates for an adoring crowd. 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 author, journalist and broadcaster, Rebecca Seal and her deep dive into the world of allergies in IrritatedShe'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 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 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 bites of Trine and a recipe from Midnight Sun. 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 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 access to Second Helpings, monthly Zooms with a CTB guest, and a massive archive of Gilly's articles. 

 This week, Gilly is with the author of The Smallest Restaurant in Paris, Rachel KhooNow, 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 told.In true Rachel Khoo spirit, Gilly is paving her own streets of gold on this podcast through the economy of kindness. If you like what you hear,  do click here to make a contribution.Then pop over to Substack for Extra Bites of Rachel and the recipe for the baby baguettes from her food moments.

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 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 Ella Risbridger and The Kitchen BookNow, 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 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 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.