Serpent’s Tail acquires Ruby Tandoh’s new ‘affordable and achievable’ cookbook

Serpent's Tail has acquired former "Great British Bake Off" contestant Ruby Tandoh’s new cookbook, Cook as You Are: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks and Messy Kitchens.

World rights, including audio, were acquired by editorial director Cecily Gayford from Stuart Cooper at the Stuart Cooper Agency. Publication is scheduled for autumn 2021.

The publisher said that with her new book, Tandoh wants everybody to cook whether they have experience or the right cooking equipment or not, with Cook as You Are aiming to "put the joy back into cooking". The book is aimed at everyone, but especially those with a busy schedule. 

Cook as You Are features 100 "affordable and achievable" recipes including sweet-spicy plantain with chilli and peanuts, sea salt butterscotch mug cake and golden pumpkin rice. The book is tipped as an "accessible, radical and inspirational addition to any and every kitchen".

Tandoh commented: "When the opportunity arose to work on a genuinely inclusive, anti-aspirational cookbook with a publisher I love, I knew it was time to ditch the cynicism. I feel so passionately that cooking should be accessible to all, no matter who they are, the size of their budget or how fancy their kitchen is. Cook as You Are is about real kitchen stories and the myriad ways that food is entangled with culture, politics, love, capital and identity."

Gayford added: "I am beyond delighted to be publishing Cook as You Are – Ruby’s second book with Serpent’s Tail, and our first ever cookbook. Ruby writes about food like nobody else does – she can make you see the magic in Viennetta, the poetry in the humble carrot stick and the radical politics of simply nourishing yourself. I know she’ll bring all this to this book, and a warm, accessible and supportive spirit that makes this a cookbook for everyone – whoever you are." 

Tandoh published Eat Up! Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want with Serpent's Tail in 2018, and previously Crumb and Flavour with Chatto & Windus.