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My favourite podcast is a delightful newbie!

April 14, 2021

Dear gosh. Thank you, dear reader, for not forgetting all about me. Life has been so busy with the move and various peaky days and then Easter and then my new book coming out. I have hardly had a moment to write here. This week, however, things are looking quieter. Only three interviews (!) and all my uni assessments are done (for now!)

So let’s get on with it and talk … podcasts! (I accidentally wrote podcat there at first and did not hate it.)

Okay. Look. Podcasts. I have a few that that I treasure. That I clutch close to my buzoom. That I turn to in the dead of night when I’ve woken at 3am and decided a cup of tea and a natter is just the thing. I will tell you about them all over the next few months, I swear. But first? I want to tell you about my absolute favourite. The one I love the most. And why I love it.

My favourite podcast is … The Cookbook Circle.

What is it?

Two clever lasses cooking their way through a long list of Britain’s favourite/most popular cookbooks. Each episode is centred around a different book. So far they have covered classics like Nigella Lawson’s How To Eat, Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries, some Ottolenghi and a few others (I won’t spoil it all for you!)

They each cook a few – or a couple – of dishes and then they chatter away about how that went and whether they were delicious or not. There is a lot of talk of shopping for ingredients and how things come together … and they share photos of their finished dishes on Instagram so the listener can see if they look like the sort of thing they might want to cook.

Why I love it:

1/ There are lots of giggles. But not the annoying sort of in-joke giggles that exclude the listener. These giggles are the sort that have the listener (aka me) chuckling along from their cosy pozzie under the blankets.

2/ It’s useful. If you are anything like me, you have heaps of cookbooks and some of them may not have had a turn around the kitchen for quite some time. The Cookbook Circle reminds us to grab those bookish wallflowers and let them shine.

3/ It’s clever. Well. Not it. THEY. They are clever. Hannah and Victoria, I mean. They know their foodie stuff (except when it comes to coriander, sometimes … ) and that makes for an intelligent AND funny listen.

4/ No boring bits. Don’t you find that some podcasts have a heck of a lot of prattle/selling in them? Or they smack of the newfangled authority so many are sporting on the socials? Not this one, my friends!

5/ Overt fan-girling. I love the fangirl life. I do. H and V are birds of a feather with the fanning as well. They fan freely.

6/ For lots of other reasons too.

Please do listen. Perhaps you’ll even subscribe. #NonSpon

x pip

3 Comments

  • Reply Anna King April 15, 2021 at 2:49 AM

    How have I not heard of them before? Right up my street, thank you off to listen now. My gift to you is the Fortunately podcast with Jane Garvey and Fi Glover. Two funny and clever women talking about interesting things. I’ve described this FANTASTIC podcast badly but I promise if you listen to it, you’ll want to be their friend!!

  • Reply Josephine April 14, 2021 at 1:25 PM

    Thanks for the tip, Pip! Listening now at work ??

  • Reply Reannon April 14, 2021 at 1:10 PM

    I love knowing that I’m not the only one awake in the early hours of the morning, 2.33am for me, listening to something. I used to do the podcast thing but recently switched to audiobooks. I pop my phone under my pillow so I don’t wake anyone I find if I’m listening to someone else then my own mind is less inclined to talk to me which is good!
    I will add this straight to my listen list as it sounds totally my kind of thing!
    Did you ever listen to Ottolenghi’s Simple Pleasures podcast? I loved it!
    So lovely to hear from you Pip xx

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