Picky: Guild of Food Writers Food Book of the Year 2026, the must-read food memoir of the summer

From fussy eater to professional food critic, Jimi's story is 'a culinary journey like no other' - JAMIE OLIVER 'An insightful, engaging and often profound memoir' BEE WILSON, The Sunday Times 'Exquisite, evocative writing' ANDI OLIVER 'A rich and nourishing story of food and identity' ANGELA HUI 'Shows us that food is never just food - it's memory, identity, and home' ASMA KHAN ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ Food is never just food. It is freighted with our upbringings, our heritage and our sense of self. Jimi Famurewa spends his days hunting out the very best food London has to offer and wri ting about it. But as a child, he hid gobbets of mash in his pocket at school, refused all vegetables and looked forward to Happy Meals in the back of a steamed-up car after late night football practice. He spent weekends in crowded flats at parties, watching his family preserve their Nigerian roots through jollof and fried plantain, as well as grow new shoots through American delights like Aunt Jemima's pancake syrup, furtively hidden in suitcases. But what happens when he grows up, stretching beyond the joyful chaos of his mother's kitchen and into the uncharted territory, unfamiliar flavours and overlapping identities of the adult world? With glorious dollops of nostalgia, Picky is as much a hymn to the gleam of the golden arches and the soft shine of worn formica as it is to opulent marble and tweezered micro herbs. ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ 'Instantly likeable . . . Engaging . . . There is a palpable hunger (pardon the pun) in the pages for all cuisines' KATHARINE SPURRIER, The Mail on Sunday 'Wonderful . . . A beautiful reminder that our appetites, like us, can transform beyond what we ever thought possible' RUBY TANDOH 'A feast of a book packed to the brim with honesty, bravery, nostalgia and humour' CAROLINE EDEN 'Sharp, funny and full of heart' JAMIE OLIVER 'Vivid, funny and deliciously frank, I tore through this like an after-school bag of Monster Munch' FELICITY CLOAKE 'Absolutely beautiful. Funny, warm and nourishing' HASAN SEMAY ('BIG HAS') 'Filled with honesty, humour and packed with flavour. I devoured it' GEORGINA HAYDEN