Towpath: Recipes and Stories (Finalist - Guild of Food Writers Award 2021)

Selected as a Best Cookbook of the Year by The Guardian, The Independent, Stylist and Daily Mail

'Towpath is one of the reasons I live in London.' Keira Knightley

'Dive in and cook up a Towpath feast for your friends and family.' Fergus and Margot Henderson

Inspired recipes from the beloved East London cafe, along with stories capturing the ebb and flow of community, food, and the seasons

A lot has changed since Towpath first rolled up its shutters 10 years ago on the Regent’s Canal in Hackney and everything but the toasted cheese sandwich was cooked from home across the bridge. And a lot hasn’t. It is still as much a social experiment as a unique and beloved eatery. What happens when seasonality means you close every year in November, because England’s cold, dark winters are simply inhospitable to hospitality from a little perch beside a shallow, manmade waterway that snakes through East London? What if you don’t offer takeaway coffees in the hopes that people will decide to stay awhile and watch the coots skittering across the water? If you don’t have a phone or a website, because you’d rather people just show up like (hungry) kids at a playground?
 
Towpath is a collection of recipes, stories and photographs capturing the vibrant cafe’s food, community and place throughout the arc of its season―beginning just before the first breath of spring, through the dog days of summer and culminating―with fireworks!―before its painted shutters are rolled down again for winter.

'The pages feel personal, with a sense of place, time and friendship that make the book feel incredibly meaningful…It is a cookbook original, charming, and tasty in equal measure.' Foodism

Lori De Mori is the author of four books about Italian cooking and food culture. Her writing has appeared in the Best Food Writing anthology (Marlowe & Company, 2000), Gourmet, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, The Independent, the Telegraph, Olive and elsewhere. Her last book, Beaneaters & Bread Soup (Quadrille 2007), was shortlisted for both the Guild of Food Writers’ and the André Simon Food Book of the Year. This is her first book about one of her own culinary adventures.

Laura Jackson cooked at Rochelle Canteen and at the Auberge de Chassignolles in France before coming to Towpath. She’s drawn chefs like Rosie Sykes, Davo Cook and Rachel O’Sullivan to cook with her in Towpath’s kitchen. Her food is seasonal, honest, unfussy and comforting – and so delicious people have been known to come for breakfast and stay through lunch. She delights in making everything from pickles to ice cream herself. And takes her inspiration where she finds it – so long as it’s about making the ingredients shine.