Jane Grigson Trust Sous Chef Award Winners

2025 – Poppy Okotcha, A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us (Bloomsbury)

Poppy is a trained horticulturist and regenerative grower whose debut blends memoir, ecology, and food. A Wilder Way is about growing roots — in soil, in community, in ourselves. It’s filled with gardening knowledge, seasonal recipes, and folktales from her English and Nigerian heritage, all pointing to the power of reconnecting with the natural world.

See an extract of the book here>

2024 – Chris Newens, Moveable Feasts: Paris in Twenty Meals (Profile)

Chris offered a new way to see Paris — through twenty meals that each represent one of the city’s arrondissements. His book captures the flavours of diverse communities, from Algerian cafés to bohemian literary haunts, and reminds us that food is one of the most vivid ways to understand a city.

2023 – Dina Macki, Bahari: Recipes from an Omani Kitchen and Beyond (Dorling Kindersley)

Dina introduced readers to the underexplored food culture of Oman, with recipes that also reflect the country’s connections to Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean. Her book has been celebrated for opening new doors in food writing and giving a platform to a cuisine rarely seen in the spotlight.

See Dina's recipes here >

2022 – Riaz Phillips, West Winds (Dorling Kindersley)

Riaz’s West Winds is a joyful tribute to Jamaican food and culture, blending recipes with personal and historical storytelling. Award-winning and widely praised, the book captures the spirit of Caribbean cooking while showing how diasporic traditions shape food in Britain today.

2021 – Gurdeep Loyal, Mother Tongue – Flavours of a Second Generation (Fourth Estate)

Described by Nigella Lawson as “dazzling and yet warmly inviting,” Gurdeep’s debut explored the food of second-generation British Indians. His vibrant recipes celebrate heritage while embracing modern influences — a reflection of the way many of us cook today, mixing cultures and traditions at the table.

Explore some of Gurdeep's recipes >

2020 – Kirsty Scobie & Fenella Renwick, The Seafood Shack: Food and Tales from Ullapool (Kitchen Press)

Kirsty and Fenella captured the spirit of their award-winning seafood shack in Ullapool, Scotland, sharing both recipes and stories from their coastal community. Their book celebrates sustainable seafood and the people behind it — a reminder of how place and produce are inseparable.

2019 – Joint Winners: Dan Saladino & Elly McCausland

• Dan Saladino, Eating to Extinction (Jonathan Cape)
  A sweeping exploration of the world’s most endangered foods, Eating to Extinction became a prize-winning call to preserve biodiversity and protect food cultures at risk of disappearing.

• Elly McCausland, The Botanical Kitchen (Bloomsbury Absolute)
  Elly combined literature, botany, and cookery in this unique exploration of plants in the kitchen. Her thoughtful recipes and storytelling struck a chord with cooks interested in connecting nature and culture through food.

2018 – Angela Clutton, The Vinegar Cupboard (Absolute Press)

Angela turned a humble ingredient into a revelation. The Vinegar Cupboard shows vinegar’s versatility in cooking, from balancing flavours to transforming dishes. The book won multiple awards and cemented Angela as a respected voice in British food writing. Her later works, including Seasoning: How to Cook and Celebrate the Seasons, continue to inspire home cooks.

2017 – Vicky Hayward, New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar’s Kitchen Notebook (Rowman & Littlefield)

Vicky reinterpreted an eighteenth-century Spanish classic, giving modern readers a fresh way into Spain’s culinary past. Her book connects history, culture, and the joy of cooking simple, enduring recipes — an irresistible combination for food lovers keen to see how tradition shapes today’s kitchens.

2016 – Alex Andreou, The Magic Bay Leaf (unpublished)

Actor, writer and cook Alex Andreou blends memoir and recipes in The Magic Bay Leaf, an evocative exploration of Greek island food and family life. Though unpublished, his project marked the beginning of a career deeply engaged in storytelling and the flavours of his heritage.