Discover recipes by Diana Henry's favourite female food writers

Telegraph

08-03-2025

I hold the female food writers I most admire not just close to my heart, but at my core. That's because they're not, of course, 'just' writing about food. When I pondered whose cookbooks I'd be reading and cooking from in 20 years' time, the answer came easily: Ravinder Bhogal, Meera Sodha and Olia Hercules. Every so often you hear the phrase 'food is their language' and don't quite know what it means, but when I look at the work of these three, it's as clear as day. They recognise that food writing is a form of social history, a way of connecting to places and a way of connecting with you.
All these women were separated from their homes or their heritage, and cooking was the path back.
'I'm Kenyan by birth and spirit, Indian in heritage and heart,' Ravinder told me. 'And a Londoner through and through.' In 1987 she came to London with her parents and was bullied at school. Anxiety about how her parents would survive in this new country made her withdraw and food became central. 'Cooking was a portal to what I was pining for, what I'd left behind. Mealtimes – when I could smell spices – became a coping mechanism. You got through one meal at a time.' She's also the fourth daughter in a family that wanted sons: 'Educating girls was likened to planting a seed in your neighbour's garden: a pointless pursuit.'
Despite what she had to cope with, it was hard to crush her. She kept cooking, doing pop-ups and catering until the restaurant critic Fay Maschler told her to stop being a coward and open a place of her own. She describes her London restaurant, Jikoni, as 'an immigrant kitchen', because her life has crossed so many borders.
Meera Sodha also feels that she is 'the product of many places' and comes from a family that has known poverty, division and losing everything because of political upheavals. She describes herself as part-Gujarati as that's where her family is from, part-Ugandan as her parents grew up there, and part-Scunthorpian because that's where she was born. As with Ravinder, cooking helped Meera feel 'more at home in all of these places'.
Meera wrote her first book, Made in India – a bestseller – because she wanted to record the Gujarati family recipes she grew up with. Her huge work ethic has resulted in three more books. Her inspiration comes from all over the world, partly because she has known so many places and partly because of her love of flavour. 'A new recipe can originate from seeing two ingredients in the fridge that might not typically go together,' she says.
Success was expected in her family: 'Work came first and everything and everyone else came second.' Perfectionism and long hours led to burnout – she stepped back from work for several months, then published her best book yet, Dinner. Her recipe introductions reveal the whirring of her thoughts as she explains why you too can cook this, and why it works.
Olia Hercules, who moved here in 2011, was already known for her books on Ukrainian cooking ('I wanted everyone to know that it was full of colour and joy') when Russia invaded her home country. If you follow her on Instagram, you will know how raw her posts can be. I worried she was so traumatised she was breaking down before our eyes. She used her platform to get proper boots for men such as her brother, who chose to stay and fight, and urged us to hold dinners, lunches and cake sales to raise funds.
Cooking in the face of such brutality seemed almost hopeless but the #CookForUkraine initiative has raised more than £2 million and kept Ukraine at the front of our minds. Olia told me recently that she is even more interested in food than she was before the war. She recognises that food writing is a way to understand – and hold close – countries you've never been to.
Food binds us. We all fry onions.