Some books are so scrumptious you wish the pages could be made from rice paper. Eat Up isn’t a cook book and it’s certainly not an attempt to woo you into yet another self-styled foodie cult… it’s Ruby Tandoh’s ode to homemade meals, the mighty creme egg and eating your heart out.
Ruby doesn’t hold back when it comes to putting pleasure back on the plate. She celebrates everything from the joy of a steaming hot take away to our national obsession with cake (as you would expect from a GBBO alumni). Downright delicious descriptions run rampant in this thoughtful comment on our relationship with food and why those feel-good favourites are so important.
With the clean eating brigade out in force as bikini season strikes again, it’s a perfectly timed remedy to the inescapable Instagram ideal. The philosophy undergrad in her can’t help but theorise on our eating habits as we all try to navigate the weird and wonderful world of food. Rife with positive pep talks, she moves swiftly from the power of a nice cuppa to confronting fatphobia, mental health and the damage inflicted by decades of diet culture. Eat Up is a food odyssey and will have you hooked from the opening anecdotes. It’s funny, challenging and is guaranteed to get your tummy rumbling.
Eat Up by Ruby Tandoh. Serpent's Tail, 2018.