Bread and Butter . . . And Other Dishes That Made Me
- 11 Mar 2027
- 9781837265657
- £18.99
- 240 pp
- 141×220mm
- 11 Mar 2027
- 9781837265688
- £15.19
- 240 pp
In a few words
A memoir in 12 meals from beloved restaurant critic & journalist
In a few words
A memoir in 10 meals from beloved restaurant critic & journalist
Oh this wonderful, lyrical and wise voice. Chitra is as warm and funny on the page as she is in person, and with great joy and wit, illuminates and shares tales of dishes , food, people and place with a beguiling ease, a true natural. More please
Jeremy Lee
A triumph of delicious prose and scintillating storytelling . . . wise and tender
Sathnam Sanghera
Bread and Butter is as delightful as it is masterful. Ramaswamy’s writing about food elevates a Maccy Dee’s to a profound mediation on time and belonging. A gorgeous book
Denise Mina
I have learnt more from reading Chitra's work than I have from any other British restaurant writer
Jonathan Nunn
VittlesMore about
the book
What do a lime pickle sandwich eaten in a 1980s school canteen in London, a lasagne sent in the post and a mango stone chased by a dog have in common? They are all dishes that have made Chitra Ramaswamy who she is. In this lyrical exploration of the joys of breaking bread, one of Britain’s most original writers and brilliant restaurant critics traces twelve meals that have shaped her.
Bread and Butter takes us from a family takeaway in a McDonald’s drive-through car park to a Michelin-starred tasting menu eaten alone. From the historic Bangalore tiffin room where a daughter glimpses her mother’s younger self over masala dosas, to a Glasgow cafe where a chance encounter over liquorice sticks sets in motion the everyday miracle of a child’s birth.
Through her desert island dishes Ramaswamy celebrates the extraordinary power of the table: to collapse time, repair what is broken, and deliver, in a single bite, an appetite for life itself.
More about
the book
What do a lime pickle sandwich eaten in a 1980s school canteen in London, a lasagne sent in the post and a mango stone chased by a dog have in common? They are all dishes that have made Chitra Ramaswamy who she is. In this lyrical exploration of the joys of breaking bread, one of Britain’s most original writers and brilliant restaurant critics traces twelve meals that have shaped her.
Bread and Butter takes us from a family takeaway in a McDonald’s drive-through car park to a Michelin-starred tasting menu eaten alone. From the historic Bangalore tiffin room where a daughter glimpses her mother’s younger self over masala dosas, to a Glasgow cafe where a chance encounter over liquorice sticks sets in motion the everyday miracle of a child’s birth.
Through her desert island dishes Ramaswamy celebrates the extraordinary power of the table: to collapse time, repair what is broken, and deliver, in a single bite, an appetite for life itself.
Bread and Butter is as delightful as it is masterful. Ramaswamy’s writing about food elevates a Maccy Dee’s to a profound mediation on time and belonging. A gorgeous book
Denise Mina
I have learnt more from reading Chitra's work than I have from any other British restaurant writer . . . I am sure that in a few decades [her] backlog of reviews will be one of the most comprehensive primary sources on how the country's food and restaurant culture has transformed
Jonathan Nunn
VittlesPRAISE FOR CHITRA RAMASWAMY’s HOMELANDS:
‘Homelands is beautiful in unusual and wonderful ways, beyond the grace and magic when its prose rises almost to poetry. It is an extravagant exploration of the imaginative possibilities of empathy, of how a friendship can build a bridge across differences in origins and age, how you can enter into another life, why you should, what happens when you do’
Rebecca Solnit
Remarkable
PRAISE FOR CHITRA RAMASWAMY’s HOMELANDS:
‘Homelands is beautiful in unusual and wonderful ways, beyond the grace and magic when its prose rises almost to poetry. It is an extravagant exploration of the imaginative possibilities of empathy, of how a friendship can build a bridge across differences in origins and age, how you can enter into another life, why you should, what happens when you do’
Rebecca Solnit
Remarkable
A fabulous piece of work
Cal Flyn
Achingly beautiful
Chitra Ramaswamy
View profileChitra Ramaswamy is a writer, journalist, and critic. Homelands (Canongate), a book about her friendship with a German Jewish refugee called Henry Wuga, won the Saltire Non-Fiction Book of the Year and was included in The Guardian’s top memoirs and biographies of 2022. Her first book, Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy (Saraband) won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for the Polari Prize, and was reissued in spring 2024. She has contributed essays to a number of collections and judged literary prizes including the Baillie Gifford prize for Non-Fiction, the Gordon Burn Prize, and the Desmond Elliot. Her latest book, a collection of micro-essays called Rich Things for the Alasdair Gray Archive, was published in spring 2026. She is the restaurant critic for The Times Scotland, for which she has won Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards for four consecutive years and been shortlisted twice for Restaurant Writer of the Year at the Guild of Food Writers. She is also an occasional restaurant critic for The Observer, a TV critic and writer for The Guardian, and a regular contributor to Writers Mosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund. She is from London and lives in Leith, Edinburgh.
Chitra Ramaswamy
View profileChitra Ramaswamy is a writer, journalist, and critic. Homelands (Canongate), a book about her friendship with a German Jewish refugee called Henry Wuga, won the Saltire Non-Fiction Book of the Year and was included in The Guardian’s top memoirs and biographies of 2022. Her first book, Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy (Saraband) won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for the Polari Prize, and was reissued in spring 2024. She has contributed essays to a number of collections and judged literary prizes including the Baillie Gifford prize for Non-Fiction, the Gordon Burn Prize, and the Desmond Elliot. Her latest book, a collection of micro-essays called Rich Things for the Alasdair Gray Archive, was published in spring 2026. She is the restaurant critic for The Times Scotland, for which she has won Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards for four consecutive years and been shortlisted twice for Restaurant Writer of the Year at the Guild of Food Writers. She is also an occasional restaurant critic for The Observer, a TV critic and writer for The Guardian, and a regular contributor to Writers Mosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund. She is from London and lives in Leith, Edinburgh.
