Magic Cat title becomes first children's book on Fortnum & Mason award shortlists

Chef Laura Gladwin and illustrator Zoe Barker’s Feast Your Eyes on Food (Magic Cat) has become the first children’s book to be shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards.

An independent panel of expert judges selected finalists in 14 categories from work published or broadcast during 2021, including six categories dedicated to books. 

Feast Your Eyes on Food, a compendium that toasts the variety and abundance of more than 1,000 things to eat from all over the world, is shortlisted in the Food Book category. It is up against Sophie Grigson’s A Curious Absence of Chickens: A Journal of Life, Food and Recipes from Puglia (Headline Home) and Jessie Ware’s Omelette: Food, Love, Chaos and Other Conversations (Hodder & Stoughton). They are joined on the shortlist by Dan Saladino’s Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them (Jonathan Cape). 

In the Cookery Book category Claudia Roden’s Med: A Cookbook (Ebury Press) is shortlisted alongside Crave: Recipes arranged by flavour, to suit your mood and appetite by Ed Smith (Quadrille) and Take One Fish, The New School of Scale-to-Tail Cooking and Eating by Josh Niland (Hardie Grant) 

The award winners will be announced on 12th May at a live celebration at Fortnum & Mason co-hosted by Claudia Winkleman and Angela Hartnett. 

The book award shortlists in full: 

Food Book 

A Curious Absence of Chickens: A Journal of Life, Food and Recipes from Puglia by Sophie Grigson (Headline Home) 

Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino (Jonathan Cape)  

Feast Your Eyes on Food: An Encyclopedia of More Than 1000 Delicious Things to Eat by Laura Gladwin (Magic Cat) 

Omelette: Food, Love, Chaos and Other Conversations by Jessie Ware (Hodder & Stoughton) 

Debut Food Book 

Fibre for Life: Live longer and healthier with nature’s miracle ingredient by Dr Khosro Ezaz-Nikpay (Pavilion) 

The Female Chef: Stories and recipes from 31 women redefining the British food scene by Clare Finney & Liz Seabrook (Hoxton Mini Press) 

Cookery Book 
Crave: Recipes arranged by flavour, to suit your mood and appetite by Ed Smith (Quadrille) 

Med: A Cookbook by Claudia Roden (Ebury Press) 

Take One Fish, The New School of Scale-to-Tail Cooking and Eating by Josh Niland (Hardie Grant) 

Debut Cookery Book 

Baked to Perfection: Delicious gluten-free recipes with a pinch of science by Katarina Cermelj (Bloomsbury) 

Baking with Fortitude: Sourdough Cakes and Bakes by Dee Rettali (Bloomsbury) 

Sambal Shiok: The Malaysian Cookbook by Mandy Yin (Quadrille) 

Drink Book 

A Year in Beer: The Beer Lover’s Guide to the Seasons by Jonny Garrett (CAMRA Books) 

Trouble Brewing in the Loire: The Braslou Biere Chronicles by Tommy Barnes (Muswell Press) 

The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails edited by David Wondrich with Noah Rothbaum (Oxford University Press) 

Debut Drink Book 

The South America Wine Guide: The definitive guide to wine in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru by Amanda Barnes & Amigos (The South America Wine Guide) 

The Philosophy of Whisky by Billy Abbott (British Library Publishing)