This week, we’re off to Malaysia with The Malay Cook, Ranie Saidi.

The Malay Cook is the debut cookbook from this lawyer turned supper club host at Soho House and Curry Club London and now author.

It's an homage to the memory of his grandmother, a wedding caterer who brought him up while his parents were studying. But the book is not just about her recipes as he remembers them, but about building his own identity in his new home in the UK.

For Gilly, it’s an opportunity to immerse herself in the tastes and smells of her earliest years growing up in Penang and Ipoh. Ranie’s recent remaking of her family’s curry recipe has been a highlight of her culinary year so far.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites to read all about it, and for the gulai recipe from the book which he reckons was its inspiration. Riches indeed.

On which, if you like what you hear, you can support CTB which is advertising and sponsorship free by contributing whatever you like via this link or becoming a paid subscriber on Substack.

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This week, we’re back with farming champion, Abby Allen and her latest book, The Farm Kitchen.

Abby was, until recently, the face of Piper’s Farm, the online farm shop which brought together the best farmers and producers in the South West. Her passion in creating a resilient food and farming system to food lovers across the Uk now comes from a new company, Pipers and co, run by Abby and husband Will which continues to build a network of farmers and producers who do the right thing by the soil, the planet, the animals and us.

And all while she’s been growing a whole new human called Olivia. Gilly begins by finding out how the mothering is going.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Abby including a recipe from The Farm Kitchen.

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This week, we’re with the queen of modern Caribbean cooking, Shivi Ramoutar.

It’s 10 years since her debut cookbook, Caribbean Modern: Recipes from the Rum Islands launched this Trinidadian lawyer and supper club host from Leicester to become the Caribbean queen of daytime TV.

The 10th anniversary edition – simply called Recipes from The Rum Islands is just as much about identity and belonging, but as the co-presenter now of Jimmy and Shivi's Farmhouse Breakfast and a regular on This Morning, not to mention a mum of three young wildlings, as she calls them, she’s got a different perspective. Gilly asks her to revisit a time when she first began to dive into her heritage and its food.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Shivi and a recipe from The Rum Islands.

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This week we’re exploring the cuisine of Saudi Arabia in Madeeha Qureshi's debut cookbook, The Red Sea.

Madeeha who spent her first 18 years in Saudi, came to our attention on Masterchef when she reached the finals in 2021, impressing judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace with her fusion of Saudi Arabian, Middle Eastern, South Asian and modern flavours.

Now, many of us will think of Saudi as a place which is repressive for women and the LGBTQ community, but this is not Madeeha’s story. If Cooking the Books is a place to explore the secret kitchens from different culinary cultures, it’s also about the lived experiences of the authors who tell that story – many of them women. Gilly asks Madeeha to show us around her Saudi Arabia through her food moments.

Pop over to Substack for Extra Bites of Madeeha including a recipe from her book, and for Gilly's post about the complexity of telling stories about place and politics.

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This week we’re in Brighton for Cooking the Books live with bean queen, Ali Honour.

The author of Beans describes herself as a chef and food systems agitator, which brings together the best things about beans – how delicious they can be while saving the planet and the health of the nation. In front a live audience of keen beans and bean deniers – let’s call them beanos - we find out why.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Ali and a recipe from Beans by clicking here. And do follow Bang in Some Beans on the Food Foundation podcast, produced by Gilly and presented by Melissa Hemsley. Here's episode 4.

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This week we’re discussing the shortlist for the Jane Grigson Trust–Sous Chef Award 2026 with two of the judges, Nicola Lando and Jeremy Lee.

This year, it celebrates its 10th anniversary with a stunning shortlist of books about secret kitchens and migrant stories which will all be featured here on CTB when they’re out in the bookshops. Ahead of next week’s awards, Gilly asks Nicola, founder of Sous Chef and a graduate of her How to Cook a Book food writing retreat, and Jeremy Lee, award-winning author of Cooking and chef proprietor at Awards HQ, Quo Vadis, what they look for in a winner.

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This week as millions of people all over the world are celebrating Ramadan, we’re with London-based Somali-Egyptian food writer, Ilhan Abdi to talk about her book, The Ramadan Kitchen.

A former Amazon corporate employee, she left to focus on cooking content, gaining 265k Instagram followers (@Ilhanm.a) through live Ramadan cooking sessions inspired by her mum’s dishes during lockdown, and has since become a mother herself. She tells us about her recipes inspired by Ramadan traditions, including suhoor and iftar dishes like Somali rice, samosas, and syrup-soaked doughballs.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Ilhan including a recipe from her book, and a beautiful prayer that means so much to her.

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This week we’re exploring the food and culture of Kurdistan with author of Nandên: Recipes from My Kurdish Kitchen, Pary Baban

Born in Southern Kurdistan, in Qaladze, a place known for its resistance and community, Pary fled Kurdistan with her family to escape what became known as the Anfal Genocide, and this is a hard listen. But it’s her passion for using the food of her land in her restaurant Nandine in South London and now the book, Nandên meaning kitchen to keep her Kurdish culture alive after generations of hardship and displacement, that makes this an essential listen.

Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Pary, including a recipe for Yapraxi bahara, the stuffed vine leaves in her food moments.

You can buy the book from the CTB Bookshop at Bookshop.org by clicking here.

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