Great British Baking Show's Ruby Tandoh Just Announced Two New Books
Bake off haters, Ruby Tandoh is back announcing not one but TWO new book deals. Tandoh was the favorite youthful underdog of The Great British Baking Show during the 2013 season, using her tenacity, energy, and unusual flavor combinations to work her way into the final three (via The Happy Foodie). Known as "The Happy Foodie" online, she smiled her way into our kitchens with an accessible cooking style and intriguing flavors like blackberry ricotta cheesecake. Already a published author, Tandoh released Crumb and Flavour through publisher Chatto & Windus and Eat Up! Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want with Serpent's Tail in 2018 (via The Bookseller). In June of 2020, the rights to a new book, Cook as You Are: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks and Messy Kitchens, were obtained by the Stuart Cooper Agency with publication expected to occur in autumn of 2021.
While fans across the pond have been able to enjoy these books, American audiences have mostly had to watch from afar – until now. Literary agent Hannah A. Brattesani announced the British author reached a deal with American publishers for both Eat Up! and Cook as You Are (via Twitter). Says Brattesani, "No one, NO ONE, writes about food with more warmth and giddy joy than @rubytandoh. I am incredibly excited to say she's found her American home with @AAKnopf & if Ruby doesn't convince you of the merits of malt powder by the last page, I'll eat my weight in eclairs (gladly)."
Eat up! with Ruby Tandoh
Tandoh shared the announcement by Brattesani, saying to "watch out b****es" before adding "(seriously though this is v exciting and [I'm] looking forward to making a number of significant, but hopefully not career-ending, cross-cultural faux pas. [I] hope you're all ready to learn about chippy teas)" (via Twitter). Eat Up! is described as a collection of essays inspired by diverse cooks, including classical and modern sources. They are grown-up and youthful, with ideas drawn from Julia Child and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Cook as You Are is waiting to be shared with both British and American audiences now. Tandoh enthusiastically described how important that development was (via The Bookseller): "When the opportunity arose to work on a genuinely inclusive, anti-aspirational cookbook with a publisher I love, I knew it was time to ditch the cynicism. I feel so passionately that cooking should be accessible to all, no matter who they are, the size of their budget or how fancy their kitchen is."
That inclusiveness apparently extends not only to what is cooked but the scope of how the food is discussed. As Tandoh put it, "Cook as You Are is about real kitchen stories and the myriad ways that food is entangled with culture, politics, love, capital, and identity." No definitive date was given for publication upon the announcement, but fans can at least hope that Cook a You Are will arrive in the fall some time near its British counterpart.