Edinburgh International Book Festival: Food Highlights
From sunny Spain to Eastern Europe, this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival brings together a dream team of culinary experts, writes Gaby Soutar
Edinburgh International Book Festival is spoiling us with an overflowing pantry’s worth of food-related events this year. The majority are Table Talks that will be taking place at Elliott’s Studio – a charming green-fronted ground floor tenement on Sciennes Road that’s run by local chef and author, Jessica Elliott Dennison.
These hot-cake tickets include Modern Middle Eastern Cooking with Sabrina Ghayour (August 14), who is often dubbed The Golden Girl of Persian Cooking. Poet Marjorie Lofti will be chatting to Ghayour about her latest cookbook, Persiana Easy, which features dishes including smoked aubergine salad with pickled chillies and feta. The ticket price of £30 includes a welcome drink and a taste of something delicious. For another spicy amuse bouche at Elliot’s Studio, there’s Delicious Magic: A Table Talk with Ixta Belfrage (August 20). Her cookbook, Fusao, celebrates the fun side of Brazilian cuisine.
Another guest at this venue is Diana Henry, the familiar author of a smorgasbord of cookbooks, including How to Eat a Peach. She’ll be appearing at From There to Here: A Table Talk with Diana Henry (August 12), where she’ll be discussing the new edition of her 2019 book, Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons, and the stories from the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa that inspired it. Again, expect a welcome drink and a taster.
If you miss that appearance, Henry will be popping up again later that day at the Spiegeltent, for Diana Henry: A Life in Food, where she’ll be sharing further tales from two decades of eating, writing and travelling.
The EIBF’s food programme will also feature two appearances from restaurateur and writer Jose Pizarro, who was head chef at the Michelin-starred El Mesón de Doña Filo in Madrid and now looks after six restaurants in the UK. Have Lunch with Jose Pizarro (August 23) offers exactly that – a “flavour-punch of a meal”, inspired by his latest cookbook, The Spanish Pantry. They say that the key ingredients at this event will be tomatoes, lemons, saffron and Manchego. We hope they’ll allow more than one helping. Perhaps not, though Pizarro will be back for seconds at a Redefining Spanish Cooking talk at the Spiegeltent (August 24).
From sunny Spain to Eastern Europe, and in Olia Hercules: A Taste of Ukrainian History (August 10), the author will be at the Spiegeltent discussing her book Strong Roots, part memoir, part recipe guide, and an ode to her beleaguered homeland.
Follow this event up with Best Root Forward: A Table Talk with Alissa Timoshkina (August 14), whose book, Kapusta, features vegetable-based and vibrant Eastern European dishes. At the Spiegeltent, she’ll be chatting with fellow author Caroline Eden, including discussing her work for global fundraising campaign #CookForUkraine, and bigging up her favourite herb, dill.
If you want to skip the savoury courses entirely, there’s always Something Sweet with Benjamina Ebuehi (August 10). This Great British Bake Off quarter finalist has written I’ll Bring Dessert, and they’ve promised a vast spread of cakes, tea, coffee and fizz. Bring a healthy appetite.