“Food is one of the simplest ways that I know how to make things ok.”
Cookery writer Skye McAlpine returns to the podcast this week to talk about her new book, A Table for Friends. We wax philosophical about the deeply personal and empowering side to cooking our own food, and we discuss the role food has been playing in lockdown, how to set up two kitchens in different countries… and the genius of ready-chopped onions.
Things We Talk About In This Episode:
- The world changed between the time Skye wrote this book and when it was published. We talk about how she faced the challenge of publishing a book about feeding the people you love, when you’re not allowed to be with them. (Spoiler alert: being apart from the people we love makes us value those times we do have together, even more)
- The creative ways we have responded to lockdown, finding unique (safe) ways to gather, and cooking with limited ingredients
- How lockdown is impacting our children, but not necessarily in the same way that it is affecting us
- The positive ways in which lockdown encourages us to pause for meals and enjoy eating together
- Ready-chopped onions!
- The difference between simply cooking to one recipe, versus pulling an entire meal together
- How truly universal food can be (“everyone eats – if we don’t, we die!”) and the myriad cultural, historical and aspirational elements we bring to our cooking that make it so very personal
- How to set up two kitchens in two different countries
- Our guilty food confessions
- And the market for someone to invent a ready-made choux pastry!
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Skye’s new book, A Table for Friends
- Skye’s first book, A Table in Venice
- Hive online (where Skye suggests you can buy her book – and others – while supporting independent sellers)
- Skye on Instagram: @skyemcalpine
- Skye’s range of tableware for Anthropologie
- Me on Instagram – @me_and_orla
