The Award

Riaz Phillips wins the Jane Grigson Trust Award for New Food and Drink Writers 2022

The Jane Grigson Trust is delighted to announce the winner of the Jane Grigson Trust Award for 2022 is West Winds by Riaz Phillips @riazphillips which will be published by Dorling Kindersley in June 2022.

In West Winds, Riaz Phillips tells countless tales of Jamaica through its dishes, drawing on his memories of growing up in the Caribbean diaspora of London and his time spent living in Jamaica. Recipes rooted in centuries of culture through folktales and anecdotes make West Winds so much more than a cookbook – it is an ode to Jamaica, its people wherever in the world they are and their heritage.

Riaz Phillips is a writer, videomaker and photographer born and raised in London. A lover of foods from all corners of the world, he is particularly passionate about connecting the dots between the various African heritage foods he grew up with.

Pictured above: Lesley Bucchan (centre), collecting the award on behalf of Riaz Phillips; with Niki Chang (left), literary agent, and Stephanie Miller, editor at Dorling Kindersley Publishers.

The two runners up are:

• Or Rosenboim @orrosenboim for Air and Loveby which will be published by Picador in May 2024
• Cynthia Shanmugalingam uma for Rambutan which will be published by Bloomsbury in June 2022

Chair of judges and outgoing chair of the Jane Grigson Trust Geraldene Holt said: “Riaz brings his fresh, honest insight into the food culture of Jamaica and West Winds deserves the widest possible audience.”

Sarit Packer, of Honey & Co and one of the judges, comments: “I loved the connection Riaz makes between ingredients and cooking and as someone who is a child of immigrants, I identify with the feeling of being in limbo in both worlds, which comes across strongly in Riaz’s writing.”

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. Previous winning and shortlisted books include a fish and seafood recipe book from the much-loved Seafood Shack in Ullapool, an exploration of vinegar by Angela Clutton and Dan Saladino’s journey of discovery into the world’s most endangered foods.

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, food writer and out-going chair of the Jane Grigson Trust on the judging panel for the 2022 award are: Xanthe Clay, food writer; Felicity Cloake, food writer and trustee of the Jane Grigson Trust; Lucy Hambidge, trustee of the Jane Grigson Trust and Sarit Packer, chef and co-founder of Honey & Co.

For more information please contact Laura Creyke at MHM on laura@markhutchinsonmanagement.co.uk / 07951 777407 / @MarkHMgmt

NOTES TO EDITORS

The previous winners of the Jane Grigson Trust Award are:

Gurdeep Loyal for Mother Tongue

Kirsty Scobie and Fenella Renwick for The Seafood Shack

Elly McCausland for The Botanical Kitchen

Dan Saladino for Eating to Extinction

Angela Clutton for The Vinegar Cupboard

Vicky Hayward for The New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar’s Kitchen Notebook

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

Past Winners

The winner of the Jane Grigson Trust award 2021 was:

Gureep Loyal: Mother Tongue

In the book, Loyal uses his own experience as a second-generation British Indian as a starting point to explore the popular traditions of second-generation food writers who both celebrate their parents’ legacy and see themselves as cultural in-betweeners. With recipes for everything from chat paneer hot dogs to coconut crab crumpets, Loyal shows how the blended cuisines of second-generation children around the world today should be celebrated in their own right. The book will be published by Fourth Estate in April 2022.

The endorsements, love and support I've received since winning the award in 2021, have felt like adding rocket-fuel to the development of my first book. It has focussed my direction, given me resources to deepen my research and fired my passion to tell this story of British-Indian identity through food. Thank you to the Jane Grigson Trust and my publisher 4th Estate for giving me such a brilliant launchpad.

The winner of the Jane Grigson Trust award 2020 was:

Kirsty Scobie and Fenella Renwick: The Seafood Shack

Kirsty and Fenella set up The Seafood Shack in Ullapool in western Scotland in 2016. 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.  It will be published by Kitchen Press in the Autumn of 2020.

We are both absolutely overwhelmed to have won the Jane Grigson Award, especially being up against three inspirational women. 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.

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.