Acknowledgements

A gigantic cake-filled thank you to all of my recipe testers, who saved my sanity when the task seemed just too enormous. An especial thanks to Laura, my best friend, chief recipe tester and the wittiest person I know, who somehow managed to try out more of my recipes than anyone else while simultaneously navigating the challenges of new motherhood. Also to Oliver, whom I am sure helped in some small way, if only by eating up any surplus raw cake mixture. If baby Joshua’s first words aren’t ‘please bake me something from The Botanical Kitchen’, then I will be sorely disappointed. I should also thank Annis and Michael, my chief vegan recipe testers, for their enthusiasm and dedication in testing everything I threw at them (not literally). Thanks to my mother, for tirelessly baking strawberry and curd tarts until the recipe was just right and for providing moral support in times of crisis (food-related and otherwise), and my father and brother, who did absolutely zero recipe testing but made appreciative noises at the correct times when eating the results. Thank you to my wonderful Granny, whose shortbread remains the best I have ever tasted and whose cooking was a high point of my childhood. Also Kate, Diane, Merlin, Emma, Adrienne, Emily, Amy, Randolph, Sarah, Vana, Annie, Suzy, Holly, Katherine, Natasha, Erin, Miruna, Eleanor, Grace, Henry and Patrick (you two probably win the award for ‘most precise recipe feedback’), Hannah (you win the award for ‘most thoroughly documented with photo evidence’) – I cannot tell you what joy I found in you telling me that you had enjoyed my food, and your feedback was invaluable. Tore, Norrun, Anna Ma and Johannes: a huge thank you for letting me install myself in your delightfully koselig kitchen and offering yourselves up as my guinea pigs. Danny: for willingly consuming everything I put in front of you and tolerating the hours I spend in the kitchen when I could be staring at a wall with you instead. I would also like to thank every random stranger and friend who ever uttered the words, ‘You really should write a cookbook.’ Here it is. Please buy it.

Thank you also to the Guild of Food Writers, without whose generous award back in 2016 this journey would probably never have happened. My agent, Charlie, for his encyclopaedic knowledge of the London food scene, good company and invaluable help in taking this book from vague dream to actual reality. The fabulous team at Absolute: Jon, Emily, Marie and Anika, for bringing this book to life and for all your creative input, and Adam, Siân and Polly, for making my food look like something out of a fairytale – your talent knows no bounds. The Jane Grigson Trust, for believing in this book from the beginning and honouring it with your wonderful award in 2019. I hope Jane would be pleased with it.

Finally, thank you to Jack Van Praag, who many years ago inspired a love of food and cooking that has taken me places I never imagined. Not bad for a girl who lived off cheese sandwiches and fish fingers until she was seventeen.

Publisher

Jon Croft

Commissioning Editor

Meg Boas

Senior Editor

Emily North

Art Director and Designer

Marie O’Shepherd

Junior Designer

Anika Schulze

Photography

Polly Webster

Food Styling and Home Economy

Adam O’Shepherd

Food Styling Assistant

Siân Williams

Copyeditor

Judy Barratt

Proofreader

Rachel Malig

Indexer

Zoe Ross

Typefaces

Set in Prata, Baskerville and Futura