Eat Up! Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want, by Ruby Tandoh
For you fellow fans of The Great British Baking Show, you likely remember Ruby Tandoh (Ruby from Series 4, not Ruby/“Rubes” from Series 6): that year, the youngest of the group and remembered for/edited to capture her tears and stress and low self-esteem (rather than, more appropriately, for being a 3-time Star Baker and runner-up, FFS). My opinions on this aside, Eat Up! is the best food book I’ve ever read. Mainly because it’s (IMHO) a healthy discussion of food, beautifully written and crafted to make you taste and see and feel food (and feel good) while reading it. It’s also fun and funny, full of stories, fanciful, and frenetically passionate about all things food, cooking, and cookery (PLUS recipes!).
If you’ve ever ordered the dish, you think you should order rather than the one you really want. If you ever bought those awful Snackwell brand cookies or those terrible Lays potato chips made with Olean in the late 90s. If you’ve ever had negative thoughts about what you’ve just eaten. If you like the idea of cooking but don’t always have the time. If you’ve ever been in a food rut. If you have ever had a complicated relationship with food. If you like reading about food. If you Just. Like. Food. BUY THIS BOOK. It’s liberating rather than preachy. Refreshing rather than faddish. Enjoyable simply for her prose but also because of her sentiment around food. (Plus, she’s pretty dang funny, a side of her which the editors of GBBO never gave her a chance to show!)
