I’ve never been one to follow recipes to the T, but when guided by Ruby Tandoh, I feel encouraged that I should make the most of what I have in the kitchen already and trust my own intuition. Over the past month, I’ve been cooking my way through the food writer’s book, Cook As You Are. I’ve made sardine pasta, plantain curry, gnocchi with chilli crisp, capers, and parmesan, and my favourite so far is a hearty butterbean and tomato coconut broth — all receiving kind reviews from my dinner guests. As an often reluctant chef, I’ve cherished this practice of tending to my body and extending my creativity to how I feed myself and my guests especially as it gets colder outside. When we usually think of ‘wellness’, shady health hacks codified in respectability politics, whiteness, and fatphobia come to mind. Instead Tandoh says, “wellness is about loving food, caring for your body, and nourishing yourself.” 

In Cook As You Are there are no glossy photos to compare your creations to or assumptions about your budget. Tandoh is clear on wanting readers — whoever they are, and wherever they are on their cooking journey — to feel capable of feeding themselves. Each chapter begins with a list of suggested readings, cultural histories of various dishes, and adaptations for different levels of ability and time. Eating does not exist in a vacuum and her work as a chef and food writer recognizes this by considering context like the violence embedded in sugar production, empire of seeds, or how cheese goes extinct. After the October release of her latest book, AMAKA caught up with Tandoh on accessibility in the kitchen, the current state of the wellness industry and her relationship with food.

AMAKA: I became familiar with your work through your writing on the harmful fads of the wellness industry such as clean eating and dieting, and your manifesto ‘Eat Up’. What, if anything, has changed in public conversations around food since then?

I think the conversation has moved on, or maybe splintered, since then. On one hand, there's an increased understanding of the pitfalls of one-size-fits-all wellness. I think the illusory nature (and the highly gendered, racist and ableist subtexts) of that 'cleanness,' 'purity' and supposed health have been dissected even in mainstream contexts. We all like to have a laugh at GOOP's expense, for example. (Although it's questionable whether it's at their expense at all, given how any publicity seems to benefit them.) On the other hand, it seems to me that we're still having these conversations on a reasonably superficial level, and some of the underlying motives and beliefs are going unchallenged. The underlying assumptions of wellness — typically that fat is bad, that health looks like a thin cis white woman — remain in tact. There's a lot of work to be done!

Healthy Balanced Diet Tips for African Women

Cook As You Are really welcomes cooks at different levels, ability and lifestyles and you even have a free and easy read version — what was the importance of accessibility in developing this book?

I never wanted to write a cookbook just for the sake of it — if I was going to create this, it had to be useful, genuinely inclusive and informative. The thing about cookbooks is that they're functional texts: if a cookbook isn't helpful to the reader (whether in the kitchen or by expanding the food worlds of their imaginations), it's not doing its job. This cookbook had to meet people where they're at, right now, right here, in their real messy kitchen and in their normal, harried life, hence 'Cook as you are', which as well as being the title also serves as a kind of motto. I'm not going to pretend I have all this sorted [as] my previous books didn't really have this focus on inclusivity, and I wish I'd done better with them. This book is trying to fill in some of those gaps, I think to recognise that not everyone cooks the same, that not everyone learns the same, and that this difference is a good thing.

Something notable about the introductory text alongside your recipes is how you contextualize different ingredients in their cultural backgrounds and also recommend other chefs/ food writers that can be read alongside you, what informed that decision?

Something that tends to happen in recipes (and I have definitely done this), especially those that are written in mainstream publications or in cookbooks, is that the recipes have to be 'sold'. They have to have a USP, or be 100% traditional, or be perfectly unique, or be authoritative. In each of these very different modes, something is lost. I think it's important to acknowledge that a recipe is touched and reshaped through the experience of its writer, but also to hold onto the fact that the ingredients, techniques and lore around a recipe stretch back way further than just one cook. I wanted to signpost all that interconnection in Cook As You Are, and to resist the urge to sell myself as somehow the creator of these recipes. I'm a curator at best, and I rely on the knowledge and generosity of so many other cooks just like me.

Summer Goodness from the Wood Kitchen in Zambia

"I think to recognise that not everyone cooks the same, that not everyone learns the same, and that this difference is a good thing"

Do you have a favourite recipe in the book?

I love the gnocchi with chilli crisp, capers and parmesan SO much. It's so simple, a real 5-minute dinner, but also so deeply flavourful: savoury, briny, sharp, hot, comforting but also invigorating. I love it. I was nervous about the recipe, in case it's actually somehow an abomination, but so many people have messaged me to say they've made and loved it too. I'm relieved that it's not just a quirk of my palate that made me think it was delicious!In preparation to interview you, I’ve been cooking (loved the plantain curry and sardine pasta!), reading some reviews and looking up pictures online from people who have also cooked some of the recipes for inspo/motivation. 

What have people’s reactions to the book been so far?

Firstly, thank you for having a go at the recipes! It's been so lovely hearing that people have been cooking from the book — that's the entire aim, my main motivation. So I'm pleased it's finding a way into people's kitchens. The reactions have been lovely; some people have turned to it for weeknight dinner inspiration, other people have found reassurance in the variations and substitutions given, or in the tips for cooking e.g. with limited energy. Ultimately, everyone is interacting with the book differently and that's perfect. I want people to find something in it that reflects and appeals to them, and to run with that, and to make it their own.

Personally, how would you describe your relationship with food and feeding people?

Like a lot of food writers, I find it much easier to feed and care for other people than to feed myself! It's a neurotic way of approaching food that I think is really common — we invest in and prioritise feeding and softness and care, precisely because those are the things we find so difficult in our own lives. It's a kind of magical thinking, I guess, trying to manifest something for yourself by sending that energy in every direction other than towards you. 

Lastly, are there any food writers or publications that you’re very excited about right now?

I'm really, really looking forward to reading Yvonne Maxwell's forthcoming column for Vittles about Black foodways and communities in the UK. She's an amazing writer and so thoughtful in the things she creates — especially when you contrast that with the brashness and determined ignorance of some pockets of the UK food media. I also am really looking forward to all the radio projects coming soon from Whetstone Radio. I love gazing at the IG creations of Holly Haines and seeing Bettina Makalintal's food TikToks. I guess that's more visual than written, now I come to think of it, but that says something about the diversity of ways that we can learn about food: there's so much life beyond cookbooks.