foodgillysmith (2025)

02/10/2025

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and this week, we’re off to a farm just outside London which feels like it’s on a different planet, with Tamara Schiopu and her book, My Vegan Farm Food.

, a 20-acre farm on the Hardwick Estate, is a dream of how farming could be – and is about so much more than growing. This is about community, where the growers work the land and live on the river under the famous willows of Kenneth Grahame’s children’s books. Hardwick Hall, the original inspiration for Toad Hall, overlooks the Victorian greenhouses and the 500-year-old walled kitchen garden where the produce is only half the story.

Tamara invited me to write the foreword to My Vegan Farm Food after I visited in April and to capture the extraordinary magic that she and husband, the pioneering and infamous Iain ‘Tolly’ Tolhurst have created there.
I find out why she and co-author Samantha Kroes, chose to tell the story of Tolhurst in a cookbook.

Follow the links in my bio to listen, and to get to my Substack for a glimpse of the community life Tamara describes on Extra Bites.

29/09/2025

It’s almost time for the October How to Cook a Book writers’ retreat. This is one of my favourite times of year to get into the woods, cosy up inside the house and cook up some delicious local food together - AND get some serious food writing done.

It’s an opportunity to work out the knots in your writing project, find out what you want to say and give yourself time to get on with it, and all in the company of people like you. And yes, there are tears.

Monday night is arrivals and settling in before we get to work. Tuesday morning, after optional yoga/walk in the woods/ lie in, we’ll be joined on Zoom by a panel of writers, agents and publishers who’ll give us the back story to getting a book out in the food world.

Then after Elisabeth Luard’s now legendary recipe writing session on Tuesday afternoon and the cook together dinner, we’re into the realms of magic on Wednesday as we Dreamwrite up the voice you’ve been waiting to come and play. There will be tears.

And it doesn’t stop after you leave; the post-retreat WhatsApp group is now a self propelled buzz of creativity, skill sharing and energy boost that comes free. And all for £365? Yup, it’s all true.

Message me or email [email protected] to bag the last couple of rooms.

25/09/2025

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and this week, we’re off to Brazil with food writer and former Ottolenghi chef, .belfrage

Her latest book, Fusao meaning fusion, is about more than the melting pot of Brazil’s huge diasporic food cultures; it’s about who she is after a deep dive into her own ancestry, the histories of Brazil and her own connection with food as medicine.

I find out if this weighty book, packed with stories and recipes is an attempt to find her own place in a country which she barely knew at all.

And you can buy Fusao at the Cooking the Books shop on bookshop.org by clicking on the link in my bio. Pop over for Extra Bites of Ixta on my Substack (also in bio) for a fabulous Spotify playlist which could be the soundtrack of the book.

Head over to Substack for Extra Bites from Ixta including a recipe from the book.

23/09/2025

Cooking the Books Live is back from Paris with stories to tell and people to see.

Second Tuesdays of the month are when we’ll be cosying up with sheepskin throws and lovely company Hove to talk about all of life through the prism of food.

Tuesday October 14 is when Iranian-American lawyer turned food writer, Anna Ansari aka will be taking us through the Silk Roads from Baku to Beijing and this time, feeding us some of her food moments. This may well become a regular THING.

If you love food, food culture, culture.

Stay tuned for in November’s CTB Live.

Click on the link in my bio to book.

18/09/2025

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and this week, as we reach across the pond to our new American chums via , we’re diving deep into the way we eat in British restaurants with , the man behind one of the most iconic in London,

Tim started his journey in food on an apprentice scheme at Fifteen, with the most iconic of chefs, Jamie Oliver. From there, he rocketed through the food firmament from St John with Fergus Henderson to Moro with Sam and Sam Clarke, before setting up his own restaurants, Trullo and Padella with his mate from the River Café, Jordan Frieda.

With Padella on the bucket list for every tourist coming to Borough Market, it’s no surprise to find Tim’s first cookbook sub-titled ‘Iconic Pasta at Home’. If you want to hear a humble Englishman trying at answer my questions about what iconic means to him, do listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts etc, and now, Heritage Radio Network. 😉

Head over to my Substack for Extra Bites of Tim, and if you’d like to buy the book, head to Cooking the Books page at Bookshop.org. Links in my bio.

16/09/2025

Cooking the Books is coming to America!

To continue its 5th birthday celebrations this year, CTB is spreading its wings. It’s already part of ‘ inflight entertainment as a and from this week is flying high across the USA and way beyond as part of Heritage Radio Network.

In conjunction with , Cooking the Books is now part of this US network of podcasts that ‘explores the rich and essential stories behind food, passing the microphone to both established and emerging voices.’

Here’s a little more about why you should have a browse:

Since 2009, HRN has collaborated with thought leaders, celebrity chefs, food advocates. Its shows cover everything from the artistry of baking to the craft of brewing, the complexities of cheese mongering to the challenges of solving climate change. HRN shows offer many different voices and topics, but they share the same goals.

HRN’s mission is to build a more sustainable world by shifting the way we think about food. Through storytelling, the aim is to amplify voices, spotlight solutions, and inspire change that helps foster equity and environmental stewardship for all.

I am enormously proud to be part of this network, and can’t wait to spread the stories of British food culture using their massive platform.

11/09/2025

Gosh! What a shock to hear about the loss of delicious. magazine via ‘s (excellent) Substack.

delicious. was where my journalism life started again and my podcasting career was launched in 2016 after taking time out to teach broadcast journalism at university. It had seemed a more realistic thing to do while navigating the family teen years, but I had been sleepwalking for years.

It was Seamus Geoghegan who offered me the nascent delicious podcast, then called ‘dish’, when I was interviewing him for my book Taste and the TV Chef; his role in developing BBC Books, the cookbook companions to the new generation of TV chef shows was a game changer.

I loved the challenge of creating a podcast for a food mag, and after just 6 months, it was nominated for a Fortnum and Mason Award up against The Food Programme and Kitchen Cabinet. Of course The FP won, but it was a heady time.

We were the first to slip sustainability into the rich mix of food stories, to change the narrative of food way before was a thing. Mob grazing, soil health, even pony meat to save the Dartmoor herd - we covered it all in the rich mix of celebs and food memories. I travelled the country - and the world - bringing food stories back to a greedy growing listenership. It was the best job in the world.

It was also where I realised how much there was to say about food through books; my interview about Black Sea with was a turning point.

Thank you Seamus, Ad, Karen and the team for making something truly thought provoking while keeping it utterly delicious. The thinning media scape will be all the poorer for its loss.

11/09/2025

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books, and after last week’s thrilling live show in Paris, we’re back in the Zoom room with .wigley and the second in her brilliant series of culinary confusions, How the Cookie Crumbles.

After co-writing the Ottolenghi big hitters with Yotam and other members of the Test Kitchen, she’s found her own niche in rhyme. After How to Butter Toast charmed a whole new readership, she’s back with all we wanted to know about ingredients, cooking and kitchens, but were afraid to ask.

And it’s that sense of anxiety, over-thinking and delightful neuroses that makes her stand out in the food writing community. I chatted to her a month ago about that nail biting bit before publication, and asked her how she thought the cookie’s going to crumble.

Head over to my Substack for Extra Bites of Tara. And if you’d like to buy the book, head to Cooking the Books’ page on Bookshop.org - links in bio.

08/09/2025

In an special extra episode of Cooking the Books this week, we’re LIVE in Paris at the legendary Belleville bistrot Le Mistral with .snewens the winner of the 2024 Jane Grigson Trust Award for best debut food writer for his gastronomic journey through the arrondissements of Paris, Moveable Feasts.

The name of the book is a nod to Chris’ idol, Ernest Hemingway and his memoir of a struggling expat writer making his way in Paris during the 1920s. And in front of a live audience made up of many of his friends and fans who have already made that left turn and are living the expat dream, we talked about curating the bubble of Parisian gastronomy.

We began with an introduction to the evening by the queen of French food, Francophile journalist and author of Amuse Bouche, how to eat your way around France,

You can buy Moveable Feasts and Amuse Bouche at the Cooking the Books shop on bookshop.org by clicking on the link in my bio. And then head over to my Substack for the fascinating Q&A at the Paris show on Extra Bites.

04/09/2025

It’s a double whammy Podcast Day on Cooking the Books with a live show in Paris tonight with .snewens - and one I made earlier with Mandy Yin.

Lawyer turned chef, Malaysian restaurateur and award-winning author of Sambal Shiok and now Simply Malaysian, she’s the super-driven restaurateur who started selling satay burgers at a street stall after getting burnt out in corporate law. She went on to be lauded by all the food critics for her London laksa bar, Sambal Shiok.

As a mum of a three year old now, she’s making it easy on herself, and on the growing number of people who really really want to cook her super tasty laksas and satays in Simply Malaysian.

Pop over to my Substack for Mandy’s Extra Bites, including some top tips for new mums. And you can buy Mandy’s book from the Cooking the Books shop at Bookshop.org which supports independent bookshops. Click on the link in my bio to help all of us indies keep doing our thing.

03/09/2025

This time last year, we were celebrating our pivot on Jed’s birthday as we and the car ran out of juice in the middle of nowhere. Saved by a bottle of Smirnoff in the boot and a MacDonalds Drive Thru, it turned out to be one of the best birthdays ever, until yesterday’s trumped it.

Now, Tuesday is not a day to drive for 12 hours to the kind of village where the family has owned it and everyone in it for centuries, and where the menu at the only restaurant starts at €59 per head. Because, apart from this one, restaurants are closed in France on Tuesdays.

‘There’s a creperie in the next town’ said the receptionist, helpfully. ‘But it’s pretty poor.’ She actually used the word ‘bas’ which means low and tells you all you need to know about what the French think of their food.

So off we set in search of a crepe dinner, but instead found a buzzy bistrot, fairy lit and packed with locals, and a menu of my dreams. For €60 we feasted on cuisse de canard confite sauce poivre vert (moi) and a burrata pizza (lui), a bottle of delicate Provencale rose and a couple of cremes brûlées. Magnifique!

As we chatted later to the Brits stopping over at the ancient moulin on their road trip from Spain, they told us about their stunning Michelin standard dining experience, and wished they’d come with us.

A tale of two French eating experiences, and I love that both are up for grabs within 10 mins of each other. And on a Tuesday night too.

Onwards to Paris, where we shall explore the 20th ahead of Cooking the Books Live at iconic Le Mistral with Chris Newens tomorrow evening. He’s the man who moved to Paris 10 years ago with big dreams of becoming a writer, and wrote a classic about the city through its food.

And then southwards, slowly, with the help of our fab new EV charger app Electroverse from those lovely people at Octopus. Love an

03/09/2025

Morning from rainy Normandy. Off to Pareee later for Cooking the Books Live tomorrow evening. But I just wanted to remind you that there’s even more fun and gorgeousness coming your way next month with the first of the reading retreats - with k***s on.

Yes, you get plenty of time to read, but there’s also Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees talking about their latest book You and Me and You and Me and You and Me, Marleen Kinder on yoga and sound bath and Saturday afternoon at a private lock in at Wild Spa at WoWo. I know.

I can promise stellar company, excellent food, and even more of that to come in November and December at The House of Dreams.

Link in bio to retreats.

foodgillysmith

02/10/2025

29/09/2025

25/09/2025

23/09/2025

18/09/2025

16/09/2025

11/09/2025

11/09/2025

08/09/2025

04/09/2025

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