'A delightful collection of original, vibrant and heart-warming writing.' -- Nigel SlaterFood can embody our personal histories as well as wider cultural histories. But what are the stories we tell ourselves about the kitchen, and how do we first come to it? How do the cookbooks we read shape us? Can cooking be a tool for connection in the kitchen and outside of it?In these thirteen original essays, writers consider the subjects of cooking and eating and how they shape our lives, and the possibilities and limitations the kitchen poses. Rachel Roddy traces her life through the cookers she has known; Rebecca May Johnson considers the radical potential of finger food; Ruby Tandoh discovers other definitions of sweetness; Yemisí Aríbisálà remembers a love affair in which food failed as a language; and Julia Turshen considers food's ties to community.A collection to savour and inspire, In the Kitchen brings together thirteen contemporary writers who brilliantly capture their experiences in the kitchen and beyond.