Nicola Twilley

Writer

https://www.ediblegeography.com

Biography

Nicola Twilley is co-host of the award-winning podcast Gastropod and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. She is deeply obsessed with refrigeration, and is currently writing a book on the topic, after having explored China’s coldscape for The New York Times Magazine and curated an exhibition exploring North America’s spaces of artificial refrigeration with the Center for Land Use Interpretation. She is co-authoring a book on quarantine with Geoff Manaugh, and, in her spare time, she makes smog meringues. Podcasts! Including my own (gastropod.com), but also Flash Forward, The Food Programme, Marketplace, and many more...

How To Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

Nigella Lawson

This was the first cookbook I loved (I think I bought it while I was still at uni!). Everything I have made from it works and many have entered my regular rotation. I really like Lawson's writing style and her taste.

Simple Food

Jill Dupleix

A gift from my Mum, and the source of my first real "dinner party" dish (Caramel Salmon and Lime). All the pages are spattered and stuck together.

Eat Good Food

Bi-Rite Grocery

Arranged seasonally (at least for Californians), which is helpful, and it has some great store cupboard dishes too. Much more than just a cookbook: lots of helpful advice on how to choose fish and store cheese, etc.

Honey & Co: Food from the Middle East

Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer

A relatively new acquisition, but everything I've made has been delicious and different. I'm saving up for their baking book now.

The Food Lab

J. Kenji López-Alt

I'm a fan of Kenji's Serious Eats column of the same name, but this book is amazing: it is a bible, filled with tips and tricks and things you didn't even know you had been doing wrong. I am cooking my way through all 800 pages, and becoming a much better cook in the process.

Every Grain of Rice

Fuchsia Dunlop

I bought this after travelling to China to report on their refrigeration boom for The New York Times Magazine. I missed the flavours I had tasted while in China, and Dunlop's recipes are simple enough for me to make without too much palaver, but the results still taste authentic.

The Ginger & White Cookbook

Tonia George

A gift from my lovely husband, who knows my fondness for British cakes and baking (the Great British Bake-Off is my favourite thing on TV). It's not just sweet stuff, but it's all delicious and unfussy. The savoury muffins have entered my regular repertoire already.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

This is the first Ottolenghi cookbook I owned (in the UK edition) and it's the best, I think.

Bitter

Jennifer McLagan

I discovered this while making an episode of my podcast, Gastropod, all about bitter. I'm not a bitter fan, usually, but Jennifer made me realise what I was missing out on — and gave me great ideas for how to add bitter flavours into my cooking. A bit of bitter melon in a Thai curry makes everything else taste sweeter and richer, for example.

Eat Mexico

Lesley Tellez

I went on one of Lesley's street food tours of Mexico City years ago. Lots of great recipes for making food that tastes like you're on the streets of DF, even at home in Brooklyn (or Queens, in her case).

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What's playing in Nicola's kitchen?

Podcasts! Including my own (gastropod.com), but also Answer Me This, Radiolab, The Allusionist, The Food Programme, Serial, Invisibilia, Marketplace, and many more...