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foodgillysmith

I’m a food podcaster, journalist and author, and this is where I post about my life in food.

14/08/2026

Nearly there.

Seven brand new episodes of Bang in Some Beans presented by Melissa Hemsley 🌱 real food recipes as part of the campaign to double the consumption of beans in the UK by 2028 coming soon to The Food Foundation Podcast.

13/08/2026

It’s Throwback Thursday as I take a month off Podcast Day on Cooking the Books. Let me take you back to November 2023 with one of Britain’s very best food writers, the award-winning author of First Bite and The Way We Eat Now, Bee Wilson Bee Wilson

After years of writing about the psychology and history of food, The Secret of Cooking is Bee’s very first cook book. It’s packed with recipes for an easier life in the kitchen, as the sub title suggests, but the Secret she alludes to is not just a treasure trove of simple dishes, but the alchemy of cooking as a healer, as she learnt when her husband of 23 years left in the summer of 2020.

Click on the link to CTB in my bio to listen to a gentler guide to life, in and out of the kitchen.

06/08/2026

What a delight to chat to acting legend and ambassador for Compassion in World Farming Peter Egan about banging in some beans! Even his dogs are keen beans with their daily diet of Give a Dog A Bean from Dr Arielle Griffiths .

Peter Egan, seriously cool bean, coming to a new series of Bang in Some Beans for The Food Foundation in September.

06/08/2026

It’s a throwback Podcast Day on Cooking the Books as I take a break in August. And where better to cast ourselves than to the very first Cooking the Books LIVE at Rockwater in Hove, an audience with Guardian Feast columnist, rachel .

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. First published in 2015, it’s now been reissued without the photos to celebrate the brilliance of her prose.

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 multi- award winning food writer. In front of an audience of fans, food writers and foodies, I found out what that was.

Scroll back through the archive, bumping into treasures along the way, or simply Google ‘Rachel Roddy Cooking the Books Live’ to find the link.

Enjoy. She’s one of Britain’s best food writers.

31/07/2026

‘I’d text Jules and say let’s take the kids to the park and I’ll read you Nigel Slater’.

Cat and Jules have been friends forever. They’ve brought up their kids together, and championed each other’s creative projects even amid the mayhem of motherhood.

When they saw my January post about Write By The Sea, a monthly writing group which uses food books to inspire their prose, they were in. For Jules, it was Samin Nosrat ‘s Salt Fat Acid Heat that made her think about food as a device for exploring her writing about photography. Cat blames Nigel. It was always him.

Today, anissa helou was the prod to think about the (un?) reliable narrator, the point of view, the telling of someone else’s story, even in fiction.

If you’re in Brighton and fancy joining us, we’re upstairs at the Kemptown Bookshop every month.

30/07/2026

It’s Podcast Day on Cooking the Books and 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. Just look at her in this image so superbly captured by Kristin Perers

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. This is a story we all need to hear.

Pop over to my Substack for Extra Bites of Lebanon and recipes from@the book. And if you’d like to support CTB which is advertising and sponsorship free, contribute whatever you like via the link in my bio, 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 my articles. Huge thanks to those of you who have already done so. 💋❤️💋❤️💋🎶🎶🎶

26/07/2026

Supper Club Sunday with the indomitable Asma Khan Darjeeling Express

Coming soon to Bang in Some Beans, the podcast for the The Food Foundation ‘s campaign to double the consumption of beans in the UK by 2028. Black chick peas

24/07/2026

As I press pause on Cooking the Books for August (pressure of work rather than a chance to put my feet up), what better guest than the legendary anissa helou to remind me why I do this podcast. What an absolute privilege to spend time with a woman who has contributed so much to modern food writing.

Anissa Helou, coming next week to Cooking the Books.

23/07/2026

Meet the gamechangers who’ll be bringing BrightonFoodStory to life in New Road on October 3rd.

Zoe Collins was the first to put her hand up and say ‘I’m in!’ when I first posted about a nascent plan to change the conversation about food in Brighton and Hove.

Here’s a little about who she is.

Zoe Collins is an award winning media, content and commercial strategist with over 20 years’ experience building audience-led brands in food, hospitality and lifestyle.

As former Managing Director of the Jamie Oliver Group, she led the development and commercialisation of one of the world’s most successful food media businesses across television, publishing, digital, licensing and live experiences winning BAFTAs, Emmys and more.

Zoe now advises founders, investors and growth-stage businesses on brand strategy, audience development, partnerships and new revenue opportunities.

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