London Feeds Itself

London is often called the best place in the world to eat - a city where a new landmark restaurant opens each day, where vertiginous towers, sprawling food halls and central neighbourhoods contain the cuisines of every country in the world. Yet, this London is not where Londoners usually eat. There is another version of London that exists in its marginal spaces, where food culture flourishes in parks and allotments, in warehouses and industrial estates, along rivers and A-roads, in baths and in libraries. A city where Londoners eat, sell, produce and distribute food every day without fanfare, where its food culture weaves in and out of daily urban existence. In a city of rising rents, of gentrification, and displacement, this new and updated edition of London Feeds Itself, edited by the food writer and editor of Vittles, Jonathan Nunn, shows that the true centres of London food culture can be found in ever more creative uses of space, eked out by the people who make up the city. Its chapters explore the charged intersections between food and modern London's varied urban conditions, from markets and railway arches to places of worship to community centres. 25 essays about 25 different buildings, structures and public amenities in which London's vernacular food culture can be found, seen through the eyes of writers, architects, journalists and politicians - all accompanied by over 125 guides to some of the city's best vernacular restaurants across all 33 London boroughs. Contributors: Carla Montemayor, Jenny Lau, Mike Wilson, Claudia Roden, Stephen Buranyi, Rebecca May Johnson, Owen Hatherley, Aditya Chakrabortty, Yvonne Maxwell, Melek Erdal, Sameh Asami, Barclay Bram, Ciaran Thapar, Santiago Peluffo Soneyra, Virginia Hartley, Jess Fagin, Leah Cowan, Ruby Tandoh, Jeremy Corbyn, Dee Woods, Shahed Saleem, Amardeep Singh Dhillon, Zarina Muhammad, Yemisi Aribisala, Nabil Al-Kinani, Sana Badri, Nikesh Shukla.

About the Author :
Jonathan Nunn is a food and city writer based in London who founded and co-edits the magazine Vittles. He is the editor of London Feeds Itself. 

Review :
' 'I couldn't order this fast enough!' - Nigella Lawson ' - ' '[Jonathan Nunn's] writing makes a huge tangible, day-to-day improvement to people's lives. He's also a really gifted prose writer.... Like, how many writers are there on the planet who combine those two things? Almost nobody. That's a big reason why he's become such a cult figure.' - Ned Beauman ' - ' '[London Feeds Itself] explores how factors such as rising rents and gentrification are changing food culture, often for the worse - while also celebrating the ingenuity of the communities and creatives who feed the capital. Its arrival, arguably, heralds a new era in food writing, where the politics of the plate are taken as seriously as the flavours.' - Coco Khan, Guardian ' - ' 'Nunn is impressive. He has built something serious, with diligence and a rare depth of expertise.' - Finn McRedmond, New Statesman ' - ' '[London Feeds Itself] look[s] beyond conventional notions of food as a commodity to consider how it fuels and lubricates social relationships.... [A] humane and often positively mirthful exercise in popular sociology.' - Keith Miller, Literary Review ' - '' -