Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

About Cooking the Books with 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 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 (https://www.gfw.co.uk/2022/guild-of-food-writers-25th-anniversary-awards-2022-finalists-announced/) 2022, and was shortlisted for Fortnum and Mason Best Podcast (https://www.fortnumandmason.com/food-and-drink-awards-shortlist)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 (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cooking-the-books-with-gilly-smith/id1499255116) 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 (http://gillysmith.com) Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith is rated in the top 2.5% of global podcasts by ListenNotes (https://www.listennotes.com) and in the top 40 of food podcasts globally by FeedSpot (https://blog.feedspot.com/cookbook_podcasts/) 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 (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Gilly Smith

Category

arts · leisure · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 Feb 2020

Latest episode

29 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

343 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Oct 2026

   Priya Mani: Spiced

   This week, we’re with historian and food writer, Priya Mani and her latest encyclopaedia of flavours, Spiced (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spiced-Recipes-Celebrating-Spices-Around/dp/1837292655). After her success with The Visual Encyclopaedia of Indian Food, an A–Z, this is a ground breaking deep dive into a whole world of spices from Norway to the Greek Islands, Yunnan to the Gulf of Guinea, with recipes gathered from people on buses to long table dinners along the way, essays from friends and esteemed colleagues and a foreword from Harold McGee, it’s a modern classic. Pop over to Substack for extra bites and a recipe from Spiced. If you'd like to support CTB which is advertising and sponsorship free, contribute whatever you like via this link (https://monzo.me/gilliansmith60?h=IWxUkf&account_type=personal), or become a paid subscriber on Substack (https://gillysmith.substack.com/) 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 (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   22 Oct 2026

   Alissa Timoshkina: Lozhka

   This week, we’re with Alissa Timoshkina and her third cookbook about Eastern Europe, Lozhka. Loshka, meaning spoon, is about the symbolism of connection through nourishment. It is, she says, 'the simple kitchen object which time and again has the power to soothe and lift'. After her first book, Salt and Time in 2019 and Kapusta in 2025, Lozhka feels like she’s found a new confidence not just in telling stories about her homeland, but with an urgency in sharing its recipes and histories before they fade. Pop over to Gilly's Substack (https://gillysmith.substack.com/) for Extra Bites and a recipe from Lozhka. If you'd like to support CTB which is advertising and sponsorship free, contribute whatever you like via this link (https://monzo.me/gilliansmith60?h=IWxUkf&account_type=personal), or become a paid subscriber on Substack (https://gillysmith.substack.com/) 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 (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   15 Oct 2026

   Charlotte Wood: Love and Hunger

   This week, we're with the award-winning Australian novelist, Charlotte Wood and her ode to cooking and food, Love and Hunger. To Charlotte, cooking is 'creativity in its purest form', but it’s taken nearly 15 years to capture the attention of British readers with this book. Thanks to Nigella Lawson writing the foreword for this UK edition, and raving about it on her socials, comparing its flavour to Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, she’s big in Britain. We chatted about the sensibility an award-winning novelist can bring to observations, confessions and memories through food, but she began by telling me how she was sprinkled by Nigella’s fairy dust. Pop over to my Substack for extra bites and a recipe from Love and Hunger. And if you like what you hear on this ad free podcast, you can contribute to the Economy of Kindness by clicking here (https://monzo.me/gilliansmith60?h=IWxUkf&account_type=personal) to contribute a little something, or here (https://gillysmith.substack.com/) to become a paid subscriber on Substack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Who has been a guest on Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Thomasina Miers
• Amelia Christie-Miller
• Alice Robinson
• David Finlay
• Gurd Loyal

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.6 / 5

13 ratings

Spotify

4.6 / 5

34 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 43 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

52

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

Contact Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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Questions about Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith