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Guardian Faber gobbles up new book on comfort food from Dent
Guardian Faber will publish a “love letter to comfort eating” by restaurant critic Grace Dent, scheduled for publication in autumn 2023.
Commissioning editor Mo Hafeez acquired world English rights to Comfort Eating, including audio, from Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown.
Named after Dent’s podcast of the same name, the book delves into the food we turn to behind closed doors and the deeply personal role those dishes play in our lives.
The synopsis reads: “Grace catches up with famous friends to discover their secret snacks—from Jo Brand’s fried-bread sandwich smothered in HP sauce and Russell T Davies’s butter pepper rice to Scarlett Moffat’s crushed Wotsit-topped beans on toast and many, many more.
“So grab a plate and pull up a chair: unfussy, honest and filled to the brim with heartwarming personal stories and comfort-food tales, Comfort Eating is the perfect treat for food lovers everywhere.”
Dent said: “Comfort Eating is so close to my heart. Fancy menus are all well and good but when the going is tough, nothing beats spaghetti hoops on hot buttered toast. This book delivers all the joy, warmth, cosiness and fun of the podcast in page after page of unabashed deliciousness.”
Hafeez added: “Millions of people turned to comfort eating during lockdown for some much-needed warmth and cheer and I’m thrilled to be working with Grace to bring this book to hungry readers across the country. She’s an absolute star and I can think of no one better suited to celebrate the food we eat when no one’s around to watch or judge us. This truly is comfort food in book form.”
Dent is a columnist, broadcaster, author and the Guardian’s restaurant critic. She regularly appears on MasterChef UK and she presents Best of Britain by the Sea with Ainsley Harriott. She was named Restaurant Writer of the Year at the 2022 Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards. Her memoir Hungry (HarperCollins) won the 2021 Lakeland Book of the Year award and the Fortnum & Mason Debut Food Book award. She hosts the podcast Comfort Eating, which was named the Podcast of the Year at the 2022 British Media Awards.
