The Award

Xanthe Clay, Felicity Cloake and Sarit Packer join the judging panel for the 2022 Jane Grigson Trust Award

Follow links for How to Enter and Rules of Entry

The 2022 Jane Grigson Trust Award for first time writers of books about food and drink is now open for entries. Joining Geraldene Holt, food writer and 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.

The £2000 Jane Grigson Trust Award, created in honour of one of the greatest food writers that Britain has ever produced, is made to a writer new to food and drink writing (although they may have written on other subjects), whose book has already been commissioned by a publishing house but has not yet been published. The intention is that the winner of the Award will use the prize money to fund further travel or research in the vital time between gaining a commission and delivery of the manuscript.

The judges are keen to hear from authors, publishers and agents not just of traditional cookbooks but of any books which have food or drink at their heart. In the spirit of Jane Grigson and her writing, the Jane Grigson Trust 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 closing date is 30 November 2021.

The 2021 Jane Grigson Trust Award was won by Gurdeep Loyal, @gurd_loyal for Mother Tongue – Flavours of a Second Generation which will be published by Fourth Estate in April 2022.  Of winning the award Gurdeep says; “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 other previous winners of the Jane Grigson Trust Award are: Kirsty Scobie and Fenella Renwick for The Seafood Shack (2020); Elly McCausland for The Botanical Kitchen and Dan Saladino for Eating to Extinction (2019 joint winners); Angela Clutton for The Vinegar Cupboard (2018); Vicky Hayward for The New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar’s Kitchen Notebook (2017) and Alex Andreou for The Magic Bayleaf (2016).

For media enquiries, please contact Laura Creyke at MHM on

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NOTES TO EDITORS

• The closing date for entries is 30 November 2021

• Entries can be made at janegrigsontrust.org.uk

• The shortlist of three will be announced in February 2022 and the winner will be announced in March 2022.

• For further details about the Jane Grigson Trust Award and Rules of Entry, go to janegrigsontrust.org.uk

• The Jane Grigson Trust is an educational charity set up in memory of the celebrated food writer Jane Grigson (Registered Charity No. 1002742) @jgrigsontrust

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.