Eat Up

Eat Up—subtitled ‘Food, Appetite, and Eating What You Want’—is a manifesto in favour of food that combines personal anecdote, discussions of topics such as comfort food, mental health, dietary requirements, and cultural eating differences, and a sprinkling of recipes. Ruby Tandoh is known for being a contestant on Bake Off and talking about food, particularly on Twitter. In this book, she describes a lot of relatable material for many people, including the phenomenon of eating each Creme Egg like it is your last of the year, and also gives short accounts and information about major topics connected to food and eating such as eating disorders and supermarket production.

The content is interesting and the style is charming and quirky. For people who enjoy books about food, this may be something a bit different in that Tandoh tries not to prescribe or pass too much judgement. The proliferation of descriptions of food can get a bit much, especially if you’re not hungry when you read it, but this is a book full of affection that seeks to combine a love of food and eating with discussion of some important things to consider (and a nice little selection of recipes relating to the content).

Ruby Tandoh has the most exquisite writing style, when she describes food you can taste it, smell it, experience every moment of it. This book is more than just some beautiful prose though, it is a glorious life(however you want to live it, whoever you are)-affirming look at our relationships with food. Often times funny, always thoughtful, this book is perfect for people to love food and want to understand more about how we relate to each other through what we put on our plates.

This is one of the smartest and kindest books I have read and I am so grateful to Ruby for writing it. It brought me so much joy and enabled me to truly appreciate the food which nourishes me (I went straight out to buy chicken dippers! Is there any greater joy than chicken dippers?!) I bought a hardcover copy on the day of release and will keep it by my bedside to dip in and out of. It’s well researched, heavy but light, everything is contextualised. Thank you, Ruby.

Ruby Tandoh, best known as a finalist on the 2013 series of The Great British Bake Off, is a massively interesting figure, especially if you follow her Twitter, where she has increasingly been championing the joys of food and eating and discussing her dislike of fad dieting and the issues that still pertain to our culture regarding our consumption of food as a pastime. As someone who continues to struggle with her body and her own relationship with food, Tandoh's book was a breath of fresh air and a wonderfully sweet and comforting read to sink my teeth into.

This book is almost part memoir, part essay, part self-help book, part recipe book, but it is all collated into a genuine love of food and the nourishing qualities of all kinds of food. Whilst Tandoh does spend a lot of the book discussing the positives of good food and the things we can make out of it, she does not pretend that we can all very easily live a clean, pseudo-vegan lifestyle. There's an entire chapter about the Cadbury Crème Egg and the ritual that you take to eat one of those delicious little traditions. She speaks often about the joys of eating things that may not necessarily be good for your health, but are in turn good for your soul. One of my favourite parts was an anecdote about her girlfriend and herself being ill with the flu, but feeling almost immediately better after inhaling Indian food.

This book is short and sweet and was definitely something that I just wanted to keep with me. My only wish is that it was a bit longer so I could just stay in this book forever and read more to comfort me in my woes about food.

This is an incredibly refreshing and different take on food books as we know it. As a society, we're constantly told that food is fuel and we must feel guilty about the naughty things. Ruby makes food sound beautiful, elegant and almost sexy. Her use of language is stunning, and it resonates so deeply with the diet addict within me. This is a fantastic book for not only general book lovers, but should be given to anyone and everyone with food issues. Ruby is amazing!