Where The F* Is My Dining Table?

Ask Matt Glover

After four and a half years of brutally hard work and events that would make most people run screaming into the sea - including but not limited to an actual lightning strike -

Matt Glover

has finally birthed a beautiful bouncing cook book.

It’s exciting for so many reasons. Before I get into the meat (and veg) of why the book is brilliant, let’s go back in time and set the scene.

I first met Matt when I was reluctantly looking for someone to do some brand photography for the teeny weeny vintage clothing business I ran for a while before trauma took over my life. It was extremely difficult for me to accept that not only did I need a photographer, but that I needed a photographer to take photos of me. I hated having my photograph taken and my ideal position when someone started wielding a camera was about five hundred miles away curled under a rock, in the dark.

A mutual friend introduced me to Matt, saying that she knew just the photographer to work with someone who hated having their photo taken. She set up the meet and accompanied me for moral support. Just as we were about to shoot, this friend instructed me to smile. I immediately started freaking out about this because I hate weird, fake smiling in photos. Matt saw what was happening, stepped into the fray and said: ‘No. We have to take photos of Katy, not generic photos. If she doesn’t want to smile, that’s fine.’ That was when we clicked and we have stayed clicked ever since.

Matt is a brilliant photographer who genuinely gets the best out of everyone he shoots. Even if you don’t want to buy his cookbook, he is the only photographer I ever recommend, whether it be photographing your wedding, or a nice bowl you made. So you should hire him, pronto. He is particularly adept at working with awkward bastards like me. Here’s one of a series of festive shots he did for me, which are perfection.

His work, for me, is art and his unique view of the world always makes his shots more interesting, no matter what they are of. All the photography in the cook book is his. I met a man who works in films and specialises in food photography recently. He said he got bored of car chases and shots of stars and working with food is far harder and more satisfying all round. Having watched Matt teach himself how to photograph food, I can attest to the hours of work that goes into learning to make food look as beautiful through a lens as it tastes when you eat it. Check out this sexy, panzanella. Just looking at it makes me feel hungry.

In the years since we first met, we have started an art project together (more of which in another post), gone on endless strange, beautiful and inevitably wet road trips and eaten a lot of delicious food together. We came for the photography, we stayed for the snacks.

I was lucky enough to have been involved in the cookery book project since the start. It started its gestation in lockdown with Matt’s need to create something hopeful that was nourishing inside and out and which tied together all his interests in the perfect, creative expression. Using social media, Matt started to catalogue his recipes and everything he was learning, which was a lot. A very lot. Four and a half years to see the project completed might seem like a long time, but when you are doing everything yourself and learning on the job, as well as weathering an actual pandemic and holding down another job, it really isn’t.

This is more than a cook book (as M&S might say). This is the document of a dream that, despite setbacks along the way, has finally come true. I know what it took behind the scenes to make this book work, and no words can fully express how proud I am of Matt for seeing this through to its beautiful completion.

Let’s get into it:

First of all, it’s a collection of delicious recipes that are easy to make and which genuinely taste great. I know this because I have eaten a lot of them as they progressed through the test kitchen. I know that the wild dining dishes work, no matter what the weather because I've eaten a fair few of them crouched on a rock in the teeth of a howling gale. The date nights, the batch cooking, the food to share with friends and family, it’s all so tasty and fit for purpose and everyone, no matter how basic their cookery skills are, can make these dishes. I won’t review a cook book without testing the recipes, and these deliver. If you like food with a Mediterranean vibe, packed with flavour and guaranteed to lift your heart, and your stomach, this is for you.

Second of all, if you like a cook book with a story, this is for you. This was conceived in a pandemic and the stories behind the dishes are a snapshot of that time. What is joyous about it is that each recipe is a little taste of hope that things can and will change for the better. The book is a reminder of the friends and connections that kept us sane during the most insane of times. It’s genuinely beautiful.

Third of all, it’s really funny. If you’re ever in the position to meet Matt in real life and you’ve read and used this cook book beforehand, you will definitely feel like you already know him. I read the whole thing hearing his voice talking to me in my head (in a good way). His humour, his intonations and his love of a good gay hook up are all in the book. I’ve never read a cook book with so many references to the gays and I’m here for it. It made me laugh, a lot.

Matt learned to photograph food. He taught himself about flavour pairings and sourcing produce. He visited farms and producers. He went to people’s houses and learned how to cook their favourite dishes. He learned to write a book, a good one. He tested recipe after recipe so that they worked for everyone and not just in his own kitchen. He learned how to navigate through the publishing industry and he crowd funded the book through Kickstarter to get it made the way he wanted it. Every, single aspect of this is truly his. At the launch event last week, which was really beautiful, he thanked a whole bunch of people, but really and truly, this is all his work and he deserves for it to be a success. It’s a testament to not just talking the talk but actually and properly walking the walk. It’s hard to change your life so radically, really hard, but this book is a fitting testament to that hard work and it deserves to pay off, big time.

Finally, and don’t let this put you off, I’m in it. I have a vested interest in being in as many people’s bookshelves as humanly possible before I die, and being in Matt’s book is far easier than finally pulling my finger out and writing one myself. Humour me here.

You can buy the book here.