The Award

Winners of the Jane Grigson Trust Award for New Food Writers 2020 Announced

Kirstie Scobie and Fenella Renwick, for ‘The Seafood Shack’

The Jane Grigson Trust is delighted to announce the winners of the Jane Grigson Trust Award for 2020 are Kirsty Scobie and Fenella Renwick (@Seafood_shack1) for The Seafood Shack which will be published by Kitchen Press (@Kitchen_Press) in November 2020.

Kirsty and Fenella set up The Seafood Shack in Ullapool on the north west coast of Scotland in 2016, out of frustration at the serious lack of seafood available to eat in their home town despite being its packed with fishermen and fishing boats. The Seafood Shack has built up a strong fanbase and this book will mix Kirsty and Fenella’s most popular recipes with their story of creating a new food business, a look at the Scottish seafood and fishing industry and a reflection on the lives of the fishermen at its heart.

The two runners up are:

• Sisters, junior doctors and supper club hosts Amy Chung and Emily Chung (@RangoonSisters) for The Rangoon Sisters Cookbook to be published by Ebury (@Eburypublishing) in July 2020.
• Writer, editor and founder of At The Table, Miranda York (@mirandayork_) for The Food Almanac: Recipes and Stories for a Year at the Table to be published by Pavilion Books (@PavilionFood1 / @ @PavilionBooks ) in October 2020.

 Chair of judges of the Jane Grigson Trust Award, Geraldene Holt, comments:

“At the Jane Grigson Trust we believe that food writing can help in times of crisis by providing escapism, solace and perhaps most importantly at the moment, recipe ideas. So we are pleased to be celebrating this genre tonight and welcome these new voices into the community.

“We are delighted to name Kirsty Scobie and Fenella Renwick as the winners of the Jane Grigson Trust Award for 2020. Drawing on their own experiences of cooking in a shack in the Scottish coastal town of Ullapool, this inspiring book is packed with plenty of simple yet delicious recipes for fish and shellfish that are already wildly popular with their customers.  But Kirsty and Fenella also record their own stories about fishing – its past, present and possibly uncertain future, thereby not only giving readers important insights into what we eat, but also helping us to value properly this beautiful wild food from the rich seas that encircle the British isles.”

On winning the Jane Grigson Trust Award, Kirsty and Fenella commented: “We are both absolutely overwhelmed to have won the Jane Grigson Award today, especially being up against three inspirational women, Amy, Emily and Miranda.  To have even been shortlisted with these ladies is a privilege.  We couldn’t have done it without our amazing publisher Emily at Kitchen Press, who encouraged us to enter, but also the community of Ullapool and our fab customers.  Without you all, there would be no Seafood Shack!  Thank you so much. “

Now in its fifth year, the £2000 Jane Grigson Trust Award, created in memory of the distinguished British food writer Jane Grigson, is made to a first-time writer of a book about food or drink which has been commissioned but not yet published. In the spirit of Jane Grigson and her writing, the Award is for a non-fiction book on food and drink in the widest sense, from any genre – cookbook, memoir, travel, history – as long as the primary subject is food or drink.

 The winner receives a cheque for £2000 award and the runners-up receive £100 of book tokens.  All shortlisted authors receive copies of The Best of Jane Grigson.

Joining Geraldene Holt (author and chair of the Jane Grigson Trust) on the judging panel for the 2020 award were: Angela Hartnett (chef); Karen Barnes (editor of Delicious magazine); Donald Sloan (Trustee of the JGT and director of the Oxford Cultural Collective) and Jill Norman (Trustee of the JGT, food writer and editor).

For media enquiries, please contact Laura Creyke at MHM

on laura@markhutchinsonnamagement.co.uk / 07951 777407 / @MarkHMgmt

NOTES TO EDITORS

• Previous winners of the Jane Grigson Trust Award are: Elly McCausland for The Botanical Kitchen and Dan Saladino for The Ark of Taste (joint winners), Angela Clutton for The Vinegar Cupboard, Vicky Hayward for The New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar’s Kitchen Notebook and Alex Andreou for The Magic Bayleaf.
• The Jane Grigson Trust Award is open to UK citizens or to foreign nationals who have been resident in the UK for more than three years
• The Jane Grigson Trust is an educational charity set up in memory of the celebrated food writer Jane Grigson (Registered Charity No. 1002742)
• Members of the judging panel and the shortlisted authors are available for comment and interview

www.janegrigsontrust.org.uk             @JGrigsonTrust      #janegrigsontrustaward

Past Winners

The winner of the Jane Grigson Trust award 2019 was:

Elly McCausland: The Botanical Kitchen

The Botanical Kitchen, an in-depth exploration of our passion for all parts of the plant – from rose petals to raspberries, blackcurrants to bergamot, and lavender to lime leaves – will be published by Absolute Press in the sprnig of 2020. It will combine Elly’s love of literature, food culture and history with her passion for herbs, spices, fruit and tea.

Winning the award was the most wonderful thing to happen in the development of my book, giving me a renewed sense of inspiration, energy and a sense of why food writing continues to matter in the world. It gave me the drive to push forward in finishing a book that I hope Jane herself would have enjoyed.

The winner of the Jane Grigson Trust award 2019 was:

Dan Saladino: The Ark of Taste

In The Ark of Taste, radio journalist Dan Saladino will take the reader on a revelatory journey of discovery into the world’s most endangered foods and disappearing flavours.

Winning the award made a significant difference to the direction of my first book. On a practical level it made an important research trip possible and led to new ideas and themes being added. But equally important; the award gave me a huge amount of confidence in the stories I was telling and the messages I wanted the book to get across.

The winner of the Jane Grigson Trust award 2018 was:

Angela Clutton: The Vinegar Cupboard

In this fascinating and unique book, food writer and historian Angela Clutton demonstrates the many great ways vinegars can be used to balance and bring flavour, which will enable modern cooks to make the most of this ancient ingredient (to be published by Absolute Press in February 2019).

The Jane Grigson Trust Award has made just the most enormous difference to the development of The Vinegar Cupboard. To anyone who has done the amazing feat of getting a first book commissioned, I can only wholeheartedly say they should - must - apply for this because it is a very, very good thing indeed.

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:

My heartfelt thanks go to the Trust for the 2017 Award; it has drawn me back to Jane’s scholarly, inclusive, independent writing and, in so doing, it has given me inspiration for the years to come.

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 – awaiting publication)

At precisely the point when the project looked far too titanic to tackle, when I had begun to doubt myself – as every writer must – the Jane Grigson Trust Award put the wind back in my sails. It gave me the boost, focus and breathing space to break through my barriers. I will be ever grateful for Jane Grigson’s vision and the Trust’s faith.