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 Matters
• Alissa Timoshkina: Kapusta: Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe
• Noor Murad: Lugma: Abundant Dishes And Stories From My Middle East
• Richard Hart: Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking
• Bee Wilson: The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects
• Robin Sherriff: The Science of Fermentation
• La Mesa Mexicana: Rosa Cienfuegos

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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