Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith
Food & Cooking Podcasts
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 the way we live, making the link between delicious food and the impact of food production on the land, all through four food moments from the books of our favourite food writers.
Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith is the winner of The Guild of Food Writers' Best Broadcast or Podcast Award 2022, and was shortlisted for Fortnum and Mason Best Podcast 2022 and 2024.
Hear how A-lister food writers have changed the conversation about food as Gilly talks through their four chosen food moments from their latest books. As she joins the dots between stories from the old country and food identity, plant-based recipes and climate change, she shows how a deeper connection with food really could save the planet.
Listen to all your favourite food writers from Claudia Roden to Yotam Ottolenghi, Sheila Dillon to Anna Jones, Prue Leith to Elisabeth Luard, Gill Meller to Ravinder Bhogal, Dan Barber to Raymond Blanc as Gilly finds what's cooking in the minds of our food writing stars.
Do support the podcast by subscribing, and PLEASE leave a review. You can do this by clicking HERE for the link to Apple Podcasts, click on Listen on Apple Podcasts under the show title and then click on Rating and Reviews! Thank you so much.
For more information and to join the mailing list, visit Gilly Smith
Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith is rated in the top 2.5% of global podcasts by ListenNotes and in the top 40 of food podcasts globally by FeedSpot
Theme music by Willy Zygier
Gilly Smith is also the presenter of the delicious. podcast and Leon's How to Eat to Save the Planet which was highly commended in the Guild of Food Writers Awards 2021. She won the Investigative Food Work Award for Right2Food (now known as the Food Foundation Podcast) in the same awards.
She also produced The Big Table for Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming, and is the multi-award winning author of Taste and the TV Chef: how storytelling can save the planet (Intellect Books 2020)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Location:
United Kingdom
Genres:
Food & Cooking Podcasts
Description:
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 the way we live, making the link between delicious food and the impact of food production on the land, all through four food moments from the books of our favourite food writers. Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith is the winner of The Guild of Food Writers' Best Broadcast or Podcast Award 2022, and was shortlisted for Fortnum and Mason Best Podcast 2022 and 2024. Hear how A-lister food writers have changed the conversation about food as Gilly talks through their four chosen food moments from their latest books. As she joins the dots between stories from the old country and food identity, plant-based recipes and climate change, she shows how a deeper connection with food really could save the planet. Listen to all your favourite food writers from Claudia Roden to Yotam Ottolenghi, Sheila Dillon to Anna Jones, Prue Leith to Elisabeth Luard, Gill Meller to Ravinder Bhogal, Dan Barber to Raymond Blanc as Gilly finds what's cooking in the minds of our food writing stars. Do support the podcast by subscribing, and PLEASE leave a review. You can do this by clicking HERE for the link to Apple Podcasts, click on Listen on Apple Podcasts under the show title and then click on Rating and Reviews! Thank you so much. For more information and to join the mailing list, visit Gilly Smith Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith is rated in the top 2.5% of global podcasts by ListenNotes and in the top 40 of food podcasts globally by FeedSpot Theme music by Willy Zygier Gilly Smith is also the presenter of the delicious. podcast and Leon's How to Eat to Save the Planet which was highly commended in the Guild of Food Writers Awards 2021. She won the Investigative Food Work Award for Right2Food (now known as the Food Foundation Podcast) in the same awards. She also produced The Big Table for Philip Lymbery, CEO of Compassion in World Farming, and is the multi-award winning author of Taste and the TV Chef: how storytelling can save the planet (Intellect Books 2020) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Twitter:
@gillysmith
Language:
English
Contact:
44 7930400808
Email:
gilly@gillysmith.com
Episodes
BOSH! More Plants
2/19/2026
This week, we’re back with BOSH!, the recipe developing duo who have changed the conversation about plant-based diets.
Gilly has followed their journey over the last 10 years and watched them become the biggest influencers in the plant-based space. Now, as she explores their latest book, More Plants, she finds out how they got their ready meals to the supermarket ready meal shelves - and why that matters.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of BOSH! including a recipe from More Plants.
You can buy it from the CTB shop at Bookshop.org which supports this ad-free listen.
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Duration:00:30:23
Tamar Adler: Feast on Your Life
2/12/2026
This week we are LIVE in Brighton with James Beard award-winning New York food writer, Tamar Adler to learn how to Feast On Your Life.
Her latest book is the result of a deep depression that overwhelmed her after the publication of An Everlasting Meal, which is now widely seen as a modern classic. Feast on Your Life is a record of daily food delights that she wrote to find her way back to the light, and the result is an extraordinary, gentle reminder to look at the small things, to focus on life through the prism of food and find joy even in the darkness.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Tamar and Cooking the Books Live including a recipe for the green risotto from Tamar’s food moments cooked up by Ingrid Wakeling and her team from Sussex Surplus.
You can buy the book from the CTB shop at Bookshop.org by clicking here, and you can book tickets for the next CTB Live on March 10th here.
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Duration:00:52:54
Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees: You&Me&You&Me&You&Me
2/5/2026
This week, we’re with husband and wife novelists, Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees to celebrate Publication Day of their new time travelling rom com, You and Me and You and Me and You and Me
Their use of food as device in this story of Jules and Adam’s long-term marriage hitting a midlife wobble and getting a second chance is a glorious way of getting under the skin of the writing process. Writers, listen up. Gilly popped down to their home in Brighton a couple of days before the book hit the streets and the airwaves, voiced by Sally Phillips and Rory Kinnear, and shortly before a MAJOR streaming channel propels it into the stratosphere.
Click here to buy the book, and here for Extra Bites of Josie and Emlyn on Gilly's Substack
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Duration:00:29:29
Rowley Leigh: The Andre Simons Awards
1/29/2026
This week, we’re with Rowley Leigh, chef, food writer and the food books assessor for the 2025 André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards to discuss the shortlist.
Rowley is an award‑winning food writer himself, but it’s his mastery of storytelling through the theatre of food that Gilly wanted to know about before we got on to the shortlist. His Notting Hill gastrodome, Kensington Place was all about being seen eating the coolest food in late century London, fashioned by his time with Roux Brothers in the kitchens of Le Gavroche and le Poulbot, and Joe Allen, Covent Garden’s post theatre supper hang out. Gilly asks how that melting pot created one of the greatest stories of modern British food.
Five out of seven of the shortlist have already been on the show. Click on the links below for the episodes.
Julian Baggini: How the World Eats: Where Our Food Comes From and Why It MattersAlissa Timoshkina: Kapusta: Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern EuropeNoor Murad: Lugma: Abundant Dishes And Stories From My Middle EastRichard Hart: Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough BakingBee Wilson: The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects
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Duration:00:17:21
Clare Coghill: Cafe Cuil
1/22/2026
This week, we’re on The Isle of Skye with the author of Café Cuil, Clare Coghill.
This is so much more than a recipe book celebrating the best of Highland produce, and the CUIL, the Gaelic for cosy nook - is much more than a play on words. This is a story of brilliant enterprise in the face of adversity drawn from a sense of identity and belonging – Gilly's favourite ingredients in any cuisine.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Clare including a recipe from Café Cuil for Lobster Roll with Nduja Butter You can buy the book from the CTB shop at Bookshop.org by clicking here, which supports this ad-free listen.
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Duration:00:31:47
Ozoz Sokoh: Chop Chop
1/15/2026
This week, we’re diving into Nigerian food culture with culinary anthropologist, food historian and now author of Chop Chop, Cooking the Food of Nigeria, Ozoz Sokoh.
Her Kitchen Butterfly blog has been documenting the back story to this West African cuisine since 2009, but Chop Chop, her debut cookbook, has been a long time coming. It’s already been nominated for an Andre Simon award and builds upon a rich tradition of cultural prodding at a food landscape that stretches way beyond the old country.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Ozoz including a recipe from Chop Chop. You can buy it from the CTB shop at Bookshop.org by clicking here, and this supports this ad-free listen.
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Duration:00:24:43
Jeffrey Boadi: Plant Fuel
1/8/2026
To kick off a brand new year, we’re diving straight into the power of protein with Jeffrey Boadi, author of Plant Fuel.
As a former semi-professional footballer and tennis player, Jeffrey has been a top level athlete for most of his adult life. But it was his decision to go vegan overnight that has given him a place on the podium in the plant protein world. Gilly finds out how it happened and how he gets enough protein in plants.
Click here to buy Plant Fuel from the CTB shop at Bookshop.org and here to get to Jeffrey's Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack.
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Duration:00:27:58
Alison Roman: Something from Nothing
12/31/2025
This week, we’re creating Something from Nothing with Alison Roman.
The former chef, food columnist for the New York Times, senior food editor at Bon Appetit, author of Dining In, Nothing Fancy and Sweet Enough, and now owner of her own store in upstate NY is all about about doing the bare minimum beautifully.
But as one of the early queens of social media, she’s been through the highs and the lows of influencer stratosphere and cancel culture. Her recipes were among the first to go viral – listen to that chat on the delicious podcast back in 2019, and Gilly finds out what she knows now about social media that she didn't know back then.
You can buy Alison’s book - and all your food books at the CTB page on Bookshop.org
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Duration:00:32:01
Emiko Davies: The Japanese Pantry
12/25/2025
On Christmas Day, we’re combining all the things that Cooking the Books is about – identity, belonging, food cultures and vicarious travel thorugh food with Emiko Davies in one of Gilly's favourite books of 2025, The Japanese Pantry.
As Emiko puts the pieces of her Italian living Australian-Japanese ancestry and influence together through all her books, The Japanese Pantry reads like she’s landing softly among the flavours of her Japan. Gilly explores that journey with her.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Emiko, including an outtake of the book. You can buy her book from the CTB shop at Bookshop.org which supports this ad-free listen.
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Duration:00:30:49
Skye McAlpine: The Christmas Companion
12/18/2025
This week, we’re with the Spirit of Christmas herself, Skye McAlpine and The Christmas Companion
Among all the talk of the pressures, the aspirational values and the industry of Christmas, Gilly finds herself feeling like the Grinch in the presence of the Christmas Fairy as she asks Skye about about the nostalgia, the beauty and the magic of giving.
Click here for Extra Bites of Skye on Gilly's Substack and here to buy The Christmas Companion on the CTB shop at Bookshop.org
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Duration:00:27:44
Cherie Denham: The Irish Kitchen
12/11/2025
This week, we’re with Northern Irish food writer Cherie Denham and photographer Andrew Montgomery in The Irish Kitchen
If you’ve listened to Gilly's chat with Andrew on her Substack a couple of weeks ago, you’ll know that this is no ordinary book. It follows their first book, The Irish Bakery, published by Montgomery Press, Andrew’s own company designed to do exactly what he wants.
The 90 recipes by Cherie are framed within stories about memory of home and rural life while Andrew’s extraordinary atmospheric photography captures the people, landscapes and food traditions still alive and well in contemporary Ireland. It’s part-cookbook, part cultural document of Irish home cooking and small producers, and a work of art. I
You can only buy The Irish Kitchen from Montgomery Press, and Andrew has even given CTB fans a discount. Click here and use COOKING10 as the promo code.
And do pop over to Gilly's Substack to see some of the wonderful photography, as well as a recipe from the book in Extra Bites.
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Duration:00:29:00
Nat Thaipun: Thai - Everywhere and Anywhere
12/4/2025
This week, we're with Masterchef winner and the hottest name in Thai food, Nat Thaipun.
Her book THAI: Anywhere and Everywhere is packed with glorious flavours of Thailand via Melbourne where she grew up. But it was when Jamie Oliver as one of the judges on Masterchef spotted her talent that she really saw what a book could look like. We find out about the role of MasterChef as the global phenomenon in nurturing chefs, and the might of the Jamie Oliver mentorship.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack for a recipe from Nat, and to see the original photos David Loftus took of her when Jamie first brought her to London.
And if you’re looking for a way to suppport this ad free pod, do consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack and buying all your food books from the Cooking the Books shop at Bookshop.org by clicking on this link.
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Duration:00:32:01
Evie Harbury: My Bohemian Kitchen
11/27/2025
This week, we’re off to the Bohemian Kitchen of Brit-Czech writer, Evie Harbury
My Bohemian Kitchen is a nostalgic trip through the memories of a place Evie only knows through summers with her Czech granny and her dad’s childhood memories as she investigates the traditional cooking techniques of this largely untapped culinary region. The result is an adventure in refusing to follow the rules and finding a kindred spirit among the Bohemians of her bloodline.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack for a recipe from My Bohemian Kitchen which you can buy from the Cooking the Books shop at Bookshop.org to support this advertising free podcast.
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Duration:00:24:38
Cooking the Books LIVE: Mark Diacono
11/20/2025
This week, we’re with one of our favourite CTB pals, Mark Diacono in front of a live audience at Patio, the buzziest yet somehow most intimate bar in Brighton to talk about his latest book, Abundance.
Abundance is Mark's pioneering way of writing a food book, a Substack post every week over a whole year, supported by a global readership of paying subscribers. Of course the publishers piled in to scoop up the ready-made market, and Quadrille have produced a thing of real beauty which you can buy here. It’s a masterclass in writing, observing, reminding yourself of the most important things in life and disrupting the traditional publishing model.
Click here for Extra Bites on Substack where you can also show your appreciation for this ad-free podcast by becoming a paid subscriber.
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Duration:00:46:32
Amber Guinness: Winter in Tuscany
11/13/2025
This week, we're with Amber Guinness whose latest book, Winter in Tuscany takes us into her own home to rifle through her pantry and cook what she cooks. But, as Gilly finds out, it’s also a stroll through a time and place still rooted in tradition, where cooking with the seasons and the frugal legacy of cucina povera is a reminder of the simple, good things in life.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack for a recipe and Amber’s playlist made especially for Cooking the Books. And if you’re looking for a way to support this ad-free pod, do consider becoming a paid subscriber to Substack with access to the entire archive forever.
And you can buy the book from the Cooking the Books shop at Bookshop.org by clicking here.
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Duration:00:29:00
Stephen Harris: The Sportsman at Home
11/6/2025
This week, we’re celebrating 25 years of great British cooking with chef patron of The Sportsman and former punk, Stephen Harris.
He’s the chef who put “cuisine de terroir” on the map, hyperlocally sourcing the foods from the land that have been the inspiration behind his award winning cooking. The Sportsman has held a Michelin star since 2008, but in The Sportsman at Home, he takes us into his own kitchen, to create the kind of book that taught him to cook back in the day when he was a university student trying out his ideas on his mates.
And you can listen to Stephen’s playlist specially curated for Cooking the Books, as well as try out one of the recipes, on Extra Bites on Gilly's Substack, and you can buy The Sportsman at Home at the CTB shop on bookshop.org by clicking here.
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Duration:00:37:10
Cooking the Books LIVE: Anna Ansari
10/30/2025
This week, we’re with Anna Ansari, the American-Iranian author of Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing.
We meet at Helm Gallery in Brighton’s North Laine, in front of a live audience which includes members of the Network of international Women whose debate about the culinary variations of Kuku from Iran and Iraq to Syria, Jordan and Yemen becomes particularly heated in the Q&A. Food, travel and geopolitics, food memory and food identity - it's all here among many of the people who understand these issues most.
You can buy Silk Roads from the Cooking the Books shop at Bookshop.org by clicking on the link, which supports this advertising free podcast.
And do pop over to Gilly's Substack for the recipe for kuku and pictures of the live podcast event.
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Duration:00:55:17
Sarah Bentley: We Cook Plants
10/23/2025
This week, we’re with Sarah Bentley, the brains behind Made in Hackney, and its brand new cookbook We Cook Plants.
Made in Hackney is a charity founded 13 years ago by Sarah which teaches thousands the skills to cook with plants for survival, joy, and empowerment. It’s a glorious invitation to put more plants on your plate and be part of real food system change.
Pop over to Gilly's Substack to see some of the wonderful work they get up to at Made in Hackney, as well as one of the recipes from the book.
And you can buy the book at the CTB shop on bookshop.org by clicking here.
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Duration:00:34:52
Karen Newby: The Natural Menopause Method Cookbook
10/16/2025
This week, we’re revisiting The Natural Menopause Method with nutritionist, Karen Newby
We first met Karen last year when she explained how to arm women with the information we need to dodge the drug industry, understand how food heals and to live in harmony with one of the natural events in our lives. Have a listen to that episode of CTB here.
This time, it's all about the cookbook as the companion book. Gilly finds out why it's so important to learn to cook up the method ourselves.
You can buy Karen’s The Natural Menopause Method Cookbook at the Cooking the Books shop on bookshop.org.
And head over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites from Karen including a recipe from the book.
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Duration:00:29:34
Amelia Christie-Miller: Full of Beans
10/9/2025
This week, we are all about the bean - again. It’s Publication Day for Full of Beans, the second cookbook from Amelia Christie-Miller, founder of Bold Bean co., and lead singer in the campaign to bring beans back onto the British plate.
We first met Amelia at Cooking the Books Live at Groundswell this summer to talk about her first book, Bold Beans: recipes to get your pulse racing Now, with her own little bean growing happily inside her, we caught up to celebrate the birth of Full of Beans and began by discussing the power of storytelling to change the way we eat.
Click here to buy Full of Beans from CTB's own page on bookshop.org, and here for Extra Bites of Amelia on Gilly's Substack, including a recipe from the book, and a glimpse behind the scenes at its photoshoot.
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Duration:00:29:58