Fortnum & Mason Food Awards shortlist announced

Fortnum & Mason has long been a resource for English cookery, providing quality ingredients to generations of cooks since its founding in 1707. The company’s annual food and drink awards celebrate the best publications and broadcasts in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The shortlist for the 2024 award dropped earlier today, and it includes a broad variety of subjects: an epic exploration of China’s culinary culture (Invitation to a Banquet by Fuchsia Dunlop); a book on how ultra-processed foods have impacted our lives (Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken); and books that celebrate different cultures (Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking by Emiko Davies, Yiayia by Anastasia Miari, and Frontieres by Alex Jackson).

Other books of note include Comfort and Joy by Ravinder Bhogal in the Cookery Book category, A New Way to Bake by Philip Khoury and The Secret of Cooking by Bee Wilson in the Debut Cookery Book category. I was struck by the title of one of the debut food books: Food of the Cods: How Fish and Chips Made Britain by Daniel Gray. The awards also feature several drinks book and other food-related writing nominees for publications (both in print and online) as well as television programs.

The winners will be announced on May 2 on the Fortnum & Mason website, and of course we will provide an update on the blog. You can see the complete shortlist in our Fortnum & Mason 2024 awards page (including links to EYBD Previews for several books).