Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well! This month: Piglet by Lottie Hazell. I first came across Lottie’s writing when she contributed to the first Lecker zine I curated and published in 2019: Plum Jam, a piece of short fiction about a funeral, an underset blancmange and a broken tooth. I still remember...

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well! This month: Ramen Forever by Tim Anderson. Ramen has ended up as a cornerstone of Tim Anderson’s life. As he writes in the book, it was originally his love of ramen - as well as Japanese food more broadly - that took him to live in Japan, which steered the course of...

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well! In Made in Taiwan, Taipei based journalist Clarissa Wei beautifully captures the food and spirit of this proud island nation, and brings it to life on the page. The book is stunning - you’ll hear more about the thought and consideration that Clarissa and her team put...

Is it possible or productive to organise around a common language in order to reimagine how we produce grain and bread? In the third and final part of Good Bread, Kim and Ruth reflect on some of their experiences working on the project and consider what the future of good bread might look like. Good Bread is a three part series made with Farmerama exploring The Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberley Bell and artist Ruth Levene considering standardised grain...

Consistency is at the heart of industrial bread production, from the field to the mill to the oven. But what is it costing us? Good Bread is a three part series made with Farmerama exploring The Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberley Bell and artist Ruth Levene considering standardised grain testing and the possibility of reimagining measurement within the system that surrounds bread production. The Body Lab is funded by Farming The Future. Thanks to Shipton...

How is the quality of bread measured by the system that produces and consumes it?  Good Bread is a three part series made with Farmerama exploring The Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberley Bell and artist Ruth Levene considering standardised grain testing and the possibility of reimagining measurement within the system that surrounds bread production. The Body Lab is funded by Farming The Future. Thanks to Shipton Mill for their openness and generosity in...

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well! Conversations around food often - rightly - touch on attribution, ownership and identity, especially when it comes to certain dishes. But the subject is so, so complicated and many dishes we consider to be deeply entrenched within a country’s culinary history and...

Stories of moving house, and moving kitchen. Episode contributors: Ruby Mason Ruby is an editor at SAND, a Berlin-based journal of contemporary writing and art (www.sandjournal.com) Margaux Vialleron Margaux writes the newsletter The Onion Papers: https://theonionpapers.substack.com/ Maria Agiomyrgiannaki Maria is originally from Crete, now living in London. You can find her on instagram. Stephen Rötzsch Thomas Stephen writes the newsletter Ideas With Legs:...

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be cooking from the book and writing about that on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well! On this edition of the Lecker Book Club: Fliss Freeborn's Do Yourself A Flavour. Did you go to university? If you did, there’s a chance someone bought you - or you bought yourself - one of the many student cookbooks available. But did you...

Welcome to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be cooking from the book and writing about that on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well! On the first edition of the Lecker Book Club: Maria Bradford’s Sweet Salone. Maria grew up in Sierra Leone and moved to Kent, UK in her late teens. Sweet Salone is the first English-language book of Sierra Leonean recipes published...

An audio exploration of the most enigmatic meal of the day. Thanks so much to the guests on this episode: Bre Graham Bettina Makalintal Gurdeep Loyal Dan Hancox and Dr Kasia Tee Thea Everett Lara Lee You can listen to the full versions of all the Breakfast Season conversations by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack. Music is by Kevin McLeod at Incompetech

This is a preview of an episode of the excellent Cursed Objects podcast, featuring me, Lucy, talking to Dan Hancox and Dr Kasia Tee about the great British institution of Meal Deals. Listen to the full version on Cursed Objects.

I’m delighted to bring you a very short sweet taste of a conversation I had recently with the food writer Gurdeep Loyal. I’ve followed Gurdeep’s work for a few years now, and have always been in great admiration of what he does; not only in his own writing, and not even just in his platforming of other people’s work on his site and instgram page Mother Tongue, but also just in his general enthusiasm, charm and fostering of connections and community within food.  His debut cookbook, also...

Ginger and apple bircher, toast toppings, Australian pancakes; writer Bre Graham talks about being a breakfast person. Her debut cookbook, Table for Two, is out now! This is the first episode in a new interview series all about BREAKFAST! Future episodes will be available exclusively on the Lecker Patreon. For £3 a month you can get access to all episodes. Subscribe here. Merch is available via the Lecker website. Or you can go directly to Teemill for T-shirts and tote bags, and to...

A mythical-looking beast to be found on the hills of the Isle of Man; the loaghtan is a fascinating heritage breed sheep whose story is intertwined with Manx culture and history. Katie and Lucy meet farmer Jenny Shepherd from Ballacosnahan, who have one of the biggest loaghtan flocks on the island, make loaghtan croish cuirns with artist Rosie Wood and find out how to work with loaghtan’s unique flavour with chef and spice importer Kumar Menon of Leela’s Kitchen. Plus Annie Kissack is on...

Katie and Lucy take a deep dive to the heart of the Manx fishing industry to meet a true Isle of Man legend: the herring (skeddan in Manx). Blasstal is a podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin. Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie Callin Podcast theme music by Mera Royle Podcast artwork by Vicky Webb With thanks to all contributors and others who made the series possible! Music credits: Manx Folk Dance Music - Yn Guilley...

In episode 1 of Blasstal, Katie introduces Lucy to the vegetable at the heart of Hop-tu-Naa traditions of the Isle of Man. They explore the island's folklore with poet and folklore expert Annie Kissack, attend a Hop-tu-Naa celebration at Cregneash, carve their own moots, and finally head out Hop-tu-Naa-ing around Peel. Blasstal is a podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin. Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie Callin Podcast...

Welcome to Blasstal! A podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin. Launching 31st October. Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie Callin Podcast theme music by Mera Royle Podcast artwork by Vicky Webb

The writer and cook Melissa Thompson talks about her book Motherland; a very personal history of Jamaica. Melissa weaves the history of the country so elegantly with her own story in a way that makes it impossible to ignore that the violent history of colonialism in Jamaica is to do with all of us in Britain. As you’ll hear us talk about, she uses the physical walls of the Drax Estate in Dorset, where she grew up, to demonstrate how ingrained Britain’s colonial legacy is in the very fabric...

The writer and editor Thea Lenarduzzi talks about her book Dandelions; a family history of migration, cooking, living. So much of personal writing in food focuses on heritage and family - and rightly so! But - down, no doubt to the very white, middle class status quo - there can be a tendency towards simplification - of dishes, or even a narrative, a family’s history. What Dandelions does so well is capture how much of people’s lives rests in the spaces between, resisting categorisation and...

A conversation between Angela Hui and Rebecca May Johnson, recorded just after their respective debut non-fiction books had been published. An exploration of the importance of valuing and demonstrating labour within cooking, of novelty versus repetition, and of the idea of rejecting food writing as a category. You can find Takeaway by Angela Hui and Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson at all good bookshops now. Mentions: Cathy Park Hong's part poetry part memoir (Angela) Audre Lorde - Zami...

What's the secret of a successful cooking school? Jeremy Pang, founder of School of Wok, lets us in on it. This episode was hosted by Adrienne Katz Kennedy and produced by Lucy Dearlove. You can find out more about Jeremy Pang at jeremypang.co.uk and his new book, Jeremy Pang’s School of Wok is out now, wok clock illustrations and all. Ben McDonald creates original illustrations for Lecker - find them on the Lecker Twitter and Instagram. If you’re in a position to, please considering...

A love letter to the beating heart of Ugandan food, Matooke. With Katasi E. Kironde and Nakigudde Elizabeth Kibalama. Katasi is the founder of Elevate 256, an organisation that creates and curates inspiration content and events centred around Uganda. She was also a co-host on Unsavoury Ethnic Types podcast, who did a great episode about Ugandan food. She also guest-curated a recent issue of Fare magazine all about Kampala. We talked a bit more about a couple of pieces in the magazine, and...

Helen Graves talks about illegal rooftop barbecues, the joy of cooking and eating together outdoors, and why tenderstem broccoli is the thing everyone needs to grill. Helen's new book Live Fire is published by Hardie Grant. Helen Graves is a food and recipe writer and editor and she used to write a much loved blog called Food Stories. The Guardian podcast I mentioned in this episode is called Let's Eat! Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove Lecker is on Twitter, Instagram and...