Hello everyone. I'm deeply impressed / grateful that so many of you seemed to make it though the whole of last week’s inaugural newsletter. (Those of you who were especially fast with your fingers on claiming the ‘reward’ should be getting Seasoning in the post very soon, if not already.)
This edition is snappier as I’m going to focus mainly on The Kitchen Bookshelf’s core cookbook club-ness given we have our first events coming up next week. Also announcing below a new event which will be our first about an actual cookbook.
Be so lovely to see you at any / all of these - Weds 15th, Sat 18th and the new one on Mon 27th. Info below. And remember too we have a chat area on The Kitchen Bookshelf - please feel free to put there your own cookbook chat thoughts and get the conversation you want started with fellow cookbook-lovers.
Angela x
COOKBOOK CLUB EVENTS
The first two digital The Kitchen Bookshelf events are coming up in the coming week:
Wednesday 15th May, 6.30 - 7.30pm: ‘Let’s get acquainted’
Our first event and so really a chance to say hello to me and each other. It’ll be the best place to hear directly from me about what The Kitchen Bookshelf is, and to share your thoughts and ideas on what you might like to see happen on The Kitchen Bookshelf. Plus lots of lovely chat about the cookbooks you / me / we have been loving recently.
Free to attend and - as this is the first event and has more of a getting-to-know-me vibe - it’s open to both free and paid subscribers. Send a message via the button below if you’d like to be part of it:
Saturday 18th May, 8.30 - 9.30am: In-conversation with delicious mag ex-editor, Karen Barnes
Now surely this is a nice way to start the weekend, no? Get settled in with your coffee and toast (pyjamas definitely allowed too), and join me in conversation with delicious magazine’s former editor, Karen Barnes.
In the 14 years that Karen edited one of the UK’s foremost food publications she was in prime position to see - and maybe also steer - cookbook trends. Now she is going to share with The Kitchen Bookshelf her take on how the cookbook scene changed (or maybe didn’t? I guess we’ll find out) over that time.
I’ll be talking live with Karen over zoom. Paid subscribers will be able to attend the event digitally, ask questions in advance or during the event, and / or share your own opinions. The event will be recorded for all subscribers to watch back at your own leisure.
Free to attend for paid subscribers only. Send a message via the button below to let me know if you would like to come along:
NEW EVENT Monday 27th May 10am - 11am (Bank Holiday in the UK): Sharing food and thoughts from this month’s cookbook club pick
Let’s gather together on zoom to share thoughts and dishes from this month’s cookbook club pick, Greekish by Georgina Hayden. (Members from the old Borough Market Cookbook Club days will remember this format well.) The basic idea is everyone cooks something from the book either ahead of time, or for the event, and gets a chance to say what you think about what you made and what you think about the book more broadly.
Free to attend for paid subscribers only. Send a message via the button below to let me know if you would like to come along:
THIS MONTH’S COOKBOOK CLUB PICK
This conversation needs a kick, guys! I know lots of you have Greekish because you’ve been messaging me to say so. So now I - and the rest of The Kitchen Bookshelf community! - want to hear what you think of it. Put your thoughts into the comments, or start a chat - whatever you prefer.
I’ve updated the book’s main page with my take on the first few recipes I’ve tried. But this isn’t (just) about me - it’s about you.
See also the info above about our cookbook club event for Greekish on Mon 27 May.
SEASONING - HOW TO COOK AND CELEBRATE THE SEASONS
Seasoning’s recipe for Asparagus, Hot-Smoked Trout and Pea Shoot was the focus of my conversation with Guardian Feast last weekend, about all things quiche and tart related. You can have a read here for my hot-take laying down the law on crimes against quiche (I’m afraid you have to read to the end to get the punnery).
In honour of that I am gifting you that recipe from the book. And it also heralds In Seasoning - a new area of The Kitchen Bookshelf where each week I will focus on a different aspect of something seasonal as featured, literally, in Seasoning. Sometimes it will be a snippet of a feature, sometimes a recipe, sometimes I’ll be reading aloud, sometimes focussing on the imagery…. We’ll see how it evolves. For starters, here’s a bit about asparagus and that tart recipe:
My next Seasoning book tour events are:
Saturday 11th May, 11am at Divertimenti in London - featuring a special offer for subscribers to The Kitchen Bookshelf
Saturday 25th May, 1pm at The British Library in London: Part of the British Library Food Season 2024 programme. I’ll be talking with bestselling author Katherine May about food, life, and the connections that come from being led creatively, mentally and culinarily by nature and the changing seasons. Chaired by Leyla Kazim.
Monday 3rd June, 7pm at The British Library in London: Part of the British Library Food Season 2024 programme. I’ll be talking with chef and farmer Julius Roberts about the pressures, joys and challenges of modern farming and how the digital world can help celebrate the rhythms of the farming year.
KITCHEN BOOKSHELF ODDS & ENDS
Odd scraps of news etc that don’t really fit elsewhere
The Kitchen Bookshelf’s chat space is building nicely into a place for lively conversation, opinions and cookbook recommendations. Remember, I’m really happy for you guys to start your own chat threads there as well as reply to mine.
I am incredibly lucky to get sent a lot of cookbooks in the post from publishers and writers. As those arrive I’ll be putting them (in chunks) into the chat so you can see what cookbooks are newly entering my life. Only some will make it onto The Kitchen Bookshelf Recommends - A rolling list of new releases to look forward to over the next few months, and a few oldies too.
I’d still love as many former members as possible of the old Borough Market Cookbook Club to get the chance to join this reboot. If you know anyone who used to be a member of that, please do send me their way or send them mine. And a reminder that all former members of the Borough Market Cookbook Club can take up for free being a paid subscriber here for 3 months.
It ends
Was this newsletter actually snappier in the end? I think so. Certainly I haven’t yet had my substack warning that it is getting to be too big for your inboxes so I am taking that as a comforting sign of relative brevity.
I leave you with this photo from last night’s opening event for this year’s British Library Food Season featuring Angela Hartnett, Michel Roux, Steven Doherty and Emily Roux - a guest appearance by Gordon Ramsay via video. It’s a huge honour and joy to be the programme’s co-director.
Angela x