Soup Kitchen

by Annabel Buckingham and Thomasina Miers

Annabel and I took two years to make this book after meeting over a coffee when I was working at Villandry.

We chatted about a mad idea of doing a book for charity full of recipes by famous chefs. No-one was really doing anything like this at the time and in a rush of enthusiasm we were off!

It took so long and at times resulted in me being homeless, Annabel going demented and both of us wondering if it would ever actually get published.

Richard Learoyd took all the beautiful pictures and donated them to the book for nothing and George Lewis, a friend of Annabel's, did the design.

Denise Bates, then working at Harper Collins, took the leap of faith and invested in us, this unlikely, motley crew and published the book, largely we suspect, thanks to the angelically kind forward by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

He also introduced me to his agent, Antony Topping, who has remained my agent to this day. The book sold tens of thousands of copies and we raised over £100,000 for homeless charities, including Centrepoint and the Salvation Army.

It is full of lovely soup recipes.

Available from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soup-Kitchen-Hugh-Fearnley-Whittingstall/dp/0007205406