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By Gilly Smith
Cooking the Books is about all of life through the prism of food, from climate change to culture and politics to people. It's for foodie book lovers who want to hear something more profound about t
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1313 ratings
The podcast currently has 339 episodes available.
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This week, we’re celebrating Back To School and Uni season with Claire Thompson and her latest book, Dear Grace. This is a book unlike any Claire has written before. She wrote it while her heart was breaking as her eldest daughter, Grace, set off for university, and the letters from mother to daughter – and daughter to mother - about how to survive are a universal weep as fledglings all over the world spread their wings and head off into the big wide world. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites and a recipe from Dear Grace. And if you like what you hear on this ad free podcast, you can contribute to the Economy of Kindness by clicking here to contribute a little something, or here to become a paid subscriber on Substack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're with author, journalist and broadcaster, Rebecca Seal and her deep dive into the world of allergies in Irritated She'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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Gilly is with the author of The Smallest Restaurant in Paris, Rachel Khoo Now, 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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