Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

This week, Gilly is with Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, Masterchef 2017 winner and author of Khazana, a history of the Mughal empire whose day job as gastroenterologist has inpsired her latest book Foodology, a food lover’s guide to digestive health. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly talks the politics and culture of cake and bread with craft baker at Fortitude Bakehouse, Dee Rettali who was one of the first people to bring biodynamic, organic foods to London in the mid '90s. She's also made cakes for Madonna and Prince Charles, so famed is she for the sustainability and  craft  she puts in the mix. She founded Patisserie Organic in 1998 and her...

This week, Gilly is with surely everyone’s food hero, Claudia Roden who brought Jewish and Middle Eastern food to the world. Yotam Ottolenghi and Sam and Sam Clarke at Moro are among the many chefs who say that it all started with Claudia. Now, at 85, she’s got a new book out, Med which brings her personal stories and inventive flourish to the flavours of the Mediterranean. And she's still FULL of...

This week Gilly is at the Abergavenny Food Festival with Financial Times restaurant critic and Kitchen Cabinet panellist, Tim Hayward. His latest book, Loaf Story is a love letter to bread, but tells a story of Britishness and class.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Gilly is with one of the most important voices in food right now, sheep farmer and award winning author, James Rebanks.  His books The Shepherd’s Life and English Pastoral beautifully and powerfully remind us of the connection between what we eat, where it comes from and the relationship between humans, nature and climate change in a way that will make you punch the sky and cry...

This week, we're staying in the Mediterranean as Gilly sniffs the lemons of the Amalfi coast with everyone’s favourite Italian, Gennaro Contaldo. Since Gilly first met Gennaro, the conversation about food has changed: veganism, eating less but better to save the planet, regenerative farming for soil health, it’s a whole new language. But, as Gennaro shows us in his latest book, Limoni, it’s actual...

This week, Gilly is with GP, Dr Simon Poole whose latest book The Real Mediterranean Diet shares the latest science behind the world’s oldest and healthiest diet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with Kylee Newton  w hose fermenting and pickling masterclasses were featured in the Guardian and The Times.  Formerly a fine purveyor of presrves and pickles, her brand Newton & Pott has morphed from production to media as Kylee’s latest book The Modern Preserver hits the shelves.     A serial entrepreneur and all-round creative, her stor...

This week, Gilly Smith talks to scientist, Guardian food writer and finalist for a James Beard food photography award, Nik Sharma. He argues that his Flavour Equation is about the emotion, sight, sound, mouthfeel, aroma and taste of food which add up to the only way to eat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly talks to Orlando Murrin, former editor of BBC Good Food magazine, founder of Olive magazine, Waitrose columnist and president of the Guild of Food Writers about his role in creating modern British food culture back in the 90s and 2000s. And as a seasoned trendsetter, he tells us how his new book Two’s Company tackles the issue of waste. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

This week, we’re on a bit of a summer special when Gilly is in the hot seat for a change. Food writer Bee Farrell chats about her book, Taste and the TV Chef , which recently won a clutch of awards including the International Impact Award. Bee is currently doing a PhD in the anthropology of food in the C21st and is fascinated with the rituals and performance surrounding eating, regenerative gastro...

This week, Gilly is off to Puglia to catch up with adventuress-in-chief and legendary food writer, Sophie Grigson two years after she upped sticks and left the UK for a brand new post-kids adventure in Italy. Her new book, A Curious Absence of Chickens is an immersion into the heart of her new world, and a set of goals for anyone who wants a taste of a more delicious way to live. Hosted on Acast....

This week, we’re off to the Baltic with Polish food writer, Zuza Zak whose latest book Amber and Rye takes us to Estonia, Lativia and Lithuania, an arty new Europe where food has so much to say.  Zuza tells Gilly how her trip to the Baltic cities of Vilnius, Tallinn and Riga was a journey back through her childhood memories to a place made magical through separation and storytelling.  Th...

This week, Gilly is Zooming down to Cornwall to meet the woman of the moment,Emily Scott, one of only two British chefs chosen to feed the leaders of the Western World at this summer’s G7 summit. Her debut cookbook, Sea and Shore is an ode to the simple life, something she's finally managed to balance with feeding Joe Biden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly heads down the Regent’s Canal to Hackney’s favourite café, The Towpath with owners and authors of the book of the cafe Lori de Mori and Laura Jackson. It's a place which Keira Knightly, no less, says is the reason she lives in London and, as Gilly explores why it is a ' jewel-like dream of a place', she stumbles across the meaning of life . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...

This week, Gilly Smith Zooms to Rome to talk about the the jigsaw puzzle of pasta shapes that make Italy what it is for Guardian food columnist and multi award winning author, Rachel Roddy.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly Smith is off to Vietnam through the memories and food of film maker, supper club host and food writer, Uyen Luu to talk about her new book, Vietnamese.  Uyen arrived in the UK aged 5 with her mother and brother, part of a mass exodus of over 800,000 boat people who fled Vietnam between 1975 and 1995. By 2010, she would become the word on Vietnamese cooking and a contributor t...

This week, Gilly Smith is with Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovitch from Honey and co. as they chase smoke and cook over open fire around the levant. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly Smith is off to Sicily with Norma chef, Ben Tish via the four food moments in his latest book Sicilia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is zooming into Manhattan with Bill Buford, the former fiction editor of The New Yorker and author of Dirt to hear how he uprooted his family and immersed them for five years in an epic adventure in French cooking. Through his four food moments, he tells her how he went in search of the roots of great French food and found the heart of food culture in Lyon, gastronomic centre of t...

This week, Gilly is with Raymond Blanc OBE, and it's been a big year for him. His beloved mother, known affectionately as Maman Blanc died while suffering from COVID, he survived a very serious dose of COVID  himself through which he learned, finally, to meditate. And he’s released not one but two books – The Lost Orchard in which he lovingly reintroduces us to the apples and pears of ou...

This week, Gilly is with Kim Duke, co-founder of Life Kitchen, the cookery classes and book for people living with Cancer which are all about working with super-flavour to learn to taste again when in chemo. Her debut cook book, Weekly Provisions comes three years after this collaboration with her best mate, Ryan Riley and hot on the heels of COVID which also ripped the pleasure of taste from so m...

This week, Gilly is with Anna Jones, vegetarian queen of simple, creative, delicious sustainability in the kitchen on the four food moments from her latest book One Pot, Pan, Planet, how Jamie Oliver helped to light her fire, cooking for the Obamas and how a simple life really is the way to save the planet.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is in the Syria of Anas Atassi's childhood which inspired his book Sumac. He and his family left the country before the war began in 2011 which has left more than 380,000 people dead and devastated its ancient cities and their cultural heritage. But as Syrian refugees spread across the world, its food has become its identity, and as Anas takes us through the food from the old...

This week, Gilly talks with Rob Howell whose book Root tells the story of one of the new stars of the Bristol sustainable food scene. Root the plant-focussed restaurant, comes from the stable of Josh Eggleton, a long-time advocate of the field to fork movement at the Michelin -starred Pony and Trap, and co-founder of the Eat Drink, Bristol Fashion festival which promotes the importance of foo...