Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

This week, Gilly Smith remembers the late great Anthony Bourdain, surely the most exciting storytelling in food who shocked the world by taking his own life in 2018. His assistant, lieutenant, gate-keeper and co-author is Laurie Woolever who had just begun to put together their next book, a travel guide to some of Bourdain’s favourite cities. As she talks through her four food moments from World T...

This week, Gilly is with the star of the future of the British curry house, vegan cook and serial entrepreneur Grace Regan, a Young British Foodies street food finalist, a Red Magazine Women of the Year short-lister and long-lister for the BBC Food Rising Star Award. Her street food stall, curry house and now book, Spice Box draws on her great aunt Dolly’s food from the old country and her an...

This week, Gilly is walking through the back streets of old Bombay with Naved Nasir, executive chef at Dishoom to find the Irani Cafes which inspired the book and the restaurant chain, and to talk about nostalgia, cultural appropriation and how to save a restaurant in a Pandemic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with Ollie Hunter, activist chef and hyper local champion whose restaurant The Wheatsheaf near Hungerford won the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s Business of the Year award in 2019. A former Masterchef finalist, he’s a philosopher. an alchemist and a revolutionary, and his latest book Join the Greener Revolution is his manifesto to eat to save the planet. Hosted on Ac...

This week, Gilly's in Florence with Australian-Japanese food writer, Emiko Davies who has made Tuscany her home. In her latest book, Torte della Nonna, s he digs deep into the culinary and family history of Florentine sweets to find a tradition sticking deliciously to what it does best. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with Durkhanai Ayubi whose book Parwana tells the story of her family’s memories and recipes from her native Afghanistan set against a sweeping history of a country ravaged by power plays and unwelcome international interference.  To access the recipes from Parwana as well as a curated collection of hundreds of the world's greatest cookbooks with over 87,000 recipes, CKBK...

This week, Gilly is with food writer, Katie Caldesi who wrote The 30 Minute Diabetes Cookbook with her husband, the Italian chef Giancarlo Caldesi after he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. With a foreword by Dr David Unwin, the pioneering low carb GP whose diabetic patients have seen astonsihign results, and expert nutrition advice from Jenny Philips, it’s a must read for anyone with a tell-tal...

This week, we hop into the back seat of chef Theo Randall’s parent’s car and head through 1970s Italy, stopping at markets and stalls, delis and trattoria to find the inspiration behind some of the best food in London and Theo’s Italian Deli Cookbook.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is virtually in Birmingham with chef Brad Carter whose book Staff tells the story of his journey through DJing and all-night raves to his Michelin starred restaurant, Carter’s of Moseley.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with JP McMahon, chef patron at Michelin-starred Aniar and the brains behind Galway’s food symposium, Food on the Edge. His activist influence is vast, and even in a pandemic he’s doing his bit with a new book, Lessons from Lockdown , an anthology of thought-provoking letters to an imaginary young chef from his vast network of brilliant chefs around the world. Hosted on Acast....

This week, Gilly is at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, chef Dan Barber's restaurant deep in the countryside of New York.  In his 2014 book, The Third Plate, Dan wrote a new manifesto in food, taking us right back to its roots to tell a story which has changed the way many chefs all over the globe are thinking about the way we eat. And this month at the top of the show,  we’re finding out about...

This week Gilly Smith talks British food and class with food historian, Pen Vogler in a romp through etiquette and faux pas, dysfunction and obsession around food in her new book, Scoff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly Smith talks to Kirsty Scobie and Fenella Renwick about winning the Jane Grigson Trust award for new food writers with their debut cookbook The Seafood Shack . As they take her through their four food moments, the stories of the sea, the local fishermen and the scallop divers set against the 80 delicious recipes reminds us that food is much more than what’s on the plate. &nbsp...

This week, Gilly talks to Sam Rice, co-author with Mimi Spencer of The Midlife Kitchen whose new book The Midlife Method offers a more holistic approach to the way we eat as we get older. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with Sam Gates’ whose Batch Cook Book went straight to number one on Amazon when it came out at the end of last year. It's a sure sign that people are desperate for tips on how to get the most out of their Lockdown cook ups but also, perhaps it's an indicator of an interest in reducing waste. Plus the last of the soundbites from this year’s online version of the Oxford Real Far...

This week, as we head towards Blue Monday, the day when the credit card bills hit the door mat and midwinter can feel very bleak indeed, Gilly meets Razzak Mirjan whose recipe book From Beder’s Kitchen raises awareness around mental health as a tribute to his brother, Beder who took his own life. Razzak and chef,Tom Cenci talk about food and mood, mental health in the professional k...

This week, Gilly talks to Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone, two former restaurant owners from the Wirral who have made simple, healthy food accessible to millions of people who never learned to cook. What started as a WeightWatcher’s blog has became a triple whammy cookbook sensation, and here they take us through their four food moments from the latest in the series, Pinch of Nom: Quick an...

This week, Gilly talks with the visionary writer, architect and philosopher, Carolyn Steel whose book Sitopia was one of 2020’s most important reads. Through four food moments tracing right back to the beginning of civilisation, Carolyn redraws the lines around a food-shaped world, joining the dots in the history of how we eat, and pointing out where the breaks began which left us fighting to save...

This Christmas week, Gilly talks with Danish food writer and activist chef, Trine Hahnemann about a gloriously plant-based, uncommercial hygge Christmas in her latest book Scandinavian Green. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly talks to doctors, food writers and supper club hosts Emily and Amy Chung, aka The Rangoon Sisters about the four food moments from their debut cookbook, which is number 8 in the Observer Food Monthly’s top ten food books of 2020.  The sisters have been cooking up their Burmese family food since their first visit back to the old country in 2012, and find the food from the...

This week, Gilly is off to Indonesia with Australian caterer and food writer, Lara Lee to explore food and identity in her debut cook book, Coconut and Sambal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Italian food expert, Christine Smallwood takes Gilly Smith through the markets and osterias of Puglia to the cool new restaurants of Milan and childhood memories of Ischia as she discusses the place of the vegetable in Italian cuisine. This season is sponsored by  Odysea  whose range of Mediterranean foods are just what we need to get through a COVID winter. This week, home mi...

This week, Gilly Smith chats to Pie Man, Calum Franklin about the four food moments in his new book The Pie Room. We learn how he pulled out pies from the depths of British culinary history and turned them into a story that has captivated his 120k followers on Instagram, had super star chef Thomas Keller send his teams over from California to watch and learn and beaten Jamie Oliver to the top...

This week, Gilly Smith talks to Tom Kerridge about the four food moments from his brand new book, The Hand and Flowers Cookbook. Expect insider tips on getting a first Michelin star, Instagram’s influence on curious young chefs and for a masterclass in Elizabeth David’s original crème brulee.  This season is sponsored by  Odysea  whose range of Mediterranean foods are just what we n...

This week, Gilly is transported to Burma and the deeply exotic hills of the land of rubies through the childhood memories and family stories in MiMi Aye's beautiful book, Mandalay. This season is sponsored by Odysea whose range of Mediterranean foods are just what we need to get through a COVID winter. This week, we learn about Odysea's Extra Virgin Olive Oil, produced from polyphen...