The Award
Winner of the Jane Grigson Trust Award
for New Food Writers 2018 Announced
The Jane Grigson Trust is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2018 Jane Grigson Trust Award is The Vinegar Cupboard by Angela Clutton.
In this fascinating and unique book, food writer and historian Angela Clutton will demonstrate the many great ways vinegars can be used to balance and bring flavour; and will enable modern cooks to make the most of this ancient ingredient. Angela has written on food and drink for a range of publications and runs the popular Borough Market Cookbook Club.
The Vinegar Cupboard will be published by Absolute Press in February 2019. @angela_clutton
The two runners-up are:
• Chef and food blogger Nargisse Benkabbou for Casablanca: My Moroccan Food which will be published by Mitchell Beazley in May 2018. @mymoroccanfood
• Venice-based blogger and food writer Skye McAlpine for A Table in Venice: Recipes from my Home which will be published by Bloomsbury in late March 2018. @skyemcalpine
Created in memory of the distinguished British food writer Jane Grigson, the £2000 award is made to a first-time writer of a book on food or drink which has been commissioned but has not yet been published. The two runners-up receive £100 of book tokens. All shortlisted authors receive copies of The Best of Jane Grigson.
Chair of judges of the Jane Grigson Trust Award, Geraldene Holt, comments:
“One of the many qualities of Jane Grigson’s writing was her mission to explain. Angela Clutton’s book is in this tradition. She explores the surprisingly broad spectrum of vinegars from around the world and rescues this essential yet often under-rated ingredient from the back of the kitchen cupboard. Angela shows us how vinegars – both ancient and modern – subtly enhance the flavor of a dish, and illustrates vinegar’s unique role in cooking with her own collection of recipes. This informative and inspirational book will be a valuable addition to every cook’s library.
The judges all agreed that the standard of entries was very high and that all of the books will be very successful. How wonderful to celebrate the debuts of three women who are dedicated and devoted to home cooking.”
The Winner:
ANGELA CLUTTON – THE VINEGAR CUPBOARD
Food writer and historian Angela Clutton takes a larder staple, vinegar, and not only shows how it has affected our culinary and medical history for thousands of years but how, in its many manifestations from aged Balsamic to rice vinegar, it can be used to magically enhance both sweet and savoury dishes.
The Runners-up:
NARGISSE BENKABBOU – CASABLANCA: MY MOROCCAN FOOD
In Casablanca: My Moroccan Food, Nargisse Benkabbou aims to uncover some of the secrets of Moroccan cuisine whilst celebrating standout dishes such as tagines and bastilla. Raised in Brussels by her Moroccan parents and having trained at Leith’s School of Food and Wine, Nargisse brings the delicious flavours and plentiful nature of Moroccan food to the fore and also demonstrates how Moroccan ingredients and flavours can be melded with other cuisines.
SKYE MCALPINE – A TABLE IN VENICE
Food blogger and Instagram influencer Skye McAlpine’s A Table in Venice showcases real Venetian home-cooking, looking at the flavours and ingredients which influence this exceptional regional Italian cuisine. Skye guides the reader through her adopted city with traditional recipes and beautiful photography.
The winner was announced at an award ceremony at Quo Vadis restaurant in Soho on Monday 12 March.
The judges for the 2018 Award were: Geraldene Holt (author, chair of the Jane Grigson Trust); Professor Linda Challis (Board director, University of Cumbria; Trustee of the JGT); Lucy Hambidge (Jane Grigson’s niece; Trustee of the JGT); Sheila Dillon (presenter of Radio 4’sThe Food Programme) ; and Shaun Hill (food writer and chef, The Walnut Tree, Abergavenny).
For media enquiries, please contact Laura Creyke at MHM on laura@markhutchinsonnamagement.co.uk / 07951 777407
_________________________________________________________________________
The closing date for entries for the 2018 Award was 31 October 2017!
The Jane Grigson Trust launched the Award for new food and drink writers in 2015 in honour of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Jane’s death.
Jane’s observation on writing, made in the last year of her life, has been a guiding principle in this award:
Writing a book is for me an act of faith and folly. You have a plan of course, but you bluster about in the work, following blindly, one step after another, slogging it out in the early stages. Then suddenly you come across one thing, one reference, one passage, that explains to you why you are writing this particular book, that gives you the theme, that shows you the way. You have in a sense to earn this discovery. It is a reward.
Literary prizes are usually given for newly published works or for books already on sale. The Jane Grigson Trust Award is, however, given to a promising new writer ahead of publication in order to help them discover ‘one thing, one reference, one passage… that gives you the theme, that shows you the way’.
The £2000 award is made to a writer new to food and drink writing (although they may have written on other subjects) who has already received a commission from a publishing house but whose book has not yet been published. In the spirit of Jane, the Award is for a non-fiction book on food and drink in the widest sense – so it could be a cook book, memoir, travel, history or anything else for that matter, so long as the primary subject is food or drink.
The Jane Grigson Trust intends that the writer will use the Award for further travel/research to deepen their knowledge of their chosen subject in the vital time between gaining a commission and delivery of the script.
The judges for the 2018 Award are:
- Geraldene Holt (author, chair of the Jane Grigson Trust)
- Professor Linda Challis (Board director, University of Cumbria; Trustee of the JGT)
- Lucy Hambidge (Jane Grigson’s niece; Trustee of the JGT)
- Sheila Dillon (presenter of Radio 4’s The Food Programme)
- Shaun Hill (food writer and chef, The Walnut Tree, Abergavenny)
Past Winners
The winner of the Jane Grigson Trust award 2017 was:
Vicky Hayward: The New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar’s Kitchen Notebook
Drawing on her deep knowledge of Spanish culture, Vicky Hayward gives a modern retelling of an eighteenth-century classic cookbook, including fresh, simple and surprisingly easy to make recipes. (Published by Rowman & Littlefield in the UK in September 2017)
Vicky said of winning the Award:
The winner of the Jane Grigson Trust award 2016 was:
Alex Andreou: The Magic Bay Leaf
In an evocative mix of memoir and recipes, Alex Andreou writes about the food of the Greek islands. (To be published by Chatto & Windus in spring 2018)
Alex said of winning the Award:
