Student Story: Meet Anya Peach

Anya Peach is the founder and host of Cookbook Club (@cookbook.clubs). The success of her Coookbook Club just goes to show what you can achieve with passion and a brilliant idea. It’s made her friends; broadened her network; and exposed her to cuisines and cultures she didn’t know before. You can follow Anya on Instagram at @anyapeach.

Tell us about your Cookbook Club. That sounds like a fun idea. How did it come about?

“I started it initially in 2018, when I lived in Essex. I did it once a month at a local pub but had to stop in covid times. I moved to Manchester for a bit, then in December last year, we moved to Winnersh near Reading. And how do grown-ups make friends? By going to work. At the time I was still working for my employer in Manchester remotely so I didn’t really go out and meet people, so I thought I’ll start a book club. I reached out to the local council, hired a space, and I’ve been running it since January. I’ve achieved what I wanted to; I’ve met some brilliant people. We socialise outside of cooking club — I’ve got people to come and look after my cat when I go away —we go out on shopping trips together to Asian supermarkets or Turkish grocers. Things that maybe not everyone does for fun but we see it as fun!”

How does it work?

“At first, I just pick a book that I think will be accessible for most people — so no super special ingredients — and I pull together a menu and share the recipes if people don’t have the book. I try to go mostly vegetarian, again to make it more accessible. People sign up and they choose what they want to bring along and we meet on the evening, and we eat and we talk about food. Last night everyone brought two dishes and we had so much food. We all left with leftovers. As the club grows, I ask people “what would you want to do next?” The last couple of books were chosen by the book club members.

I love it. It gives me an excuse to buy an additional cookbook every month. Recently, we did Plenty by Ottolenghi. We did Korean Vegan [by Joanne Lee Molinaro] earlier in the year, which again was a hit because it was completely vegan. We did Polpo [by Russell Norman.] I’ve had people in the past put together a menu for the book club. I had people like Alissa Timoshkina put together a menu for us, and Rosie Birkett. When we did Bahari by Dina Macki this year, she wanted to come along but sadly it clashed with another event. Whenever authors hear about it, they’re quite excited, because it just gets more people into their cooking and into their culture.”

How did your love of food come about? 

“I wasn’t always into food. I grew up with a mother who didn’t like to cook. I grew up in Latvia, an ex-Soviet country, so we didn’t have much in terms of seasoning and spices and exciting ingredients. Don’t get me wrong, some of the food was great, but I was never really into food until after I left university and I started living with my partner, so we had our own kitchen, and we started travelling." 

Do you work in food?

“I do now, actually. I freelance for a recipe app called Plate Up. I do recipe admin for them, edit recipes from influencers and celebrity chefs to the Plate Up format, and I also contribute some recipe writing each month. I also work for a blend company Spice Kitchen, doing a bit of everything, social media, marketing, recipe writing, and testing out new cookbooks for their website because they stock cookbooks to sell as gifts with their blends. I also have a PAYE job to keep me steady.

What plans do you have for the club? 

“I want to keep going with it and probably later in the year to try and launch supper clubs and actually feed people. I love hosting cookbooks clubs but I do want to have more of a creative opportunity to create a menu.”

It feels like a good time to be working in food at the moment, would you agree? 

“I think whatever you are into, you can find your niche, so people who write about ingredients, people who write about cultures, people who write about food policy. With publications like Vittles, you get all sorts of writing from people that you potentially wouldn’t have heard otherwise. People get involved in all different ways. Some people want to work in restaurants. I know that’s not for me but if an opportunity arises, I’d love to run supper clubs. There are definitely opportunities. For me, having done the Leiths Online course [Chef Skills], it’s given me the kind of confidence to back up what I know with an official kind of certificate to say “yes, I know my stuff”.

Talking about your Leiths Online course, what made you decide to do the course? 

“Is it bad to say that it was like a quarter life crisis! I was stuck in a job that I wasn’t enjoying.

I’ve known for years that I want to work in food but it’s really hard to break into food without contacts or experience. So I thought I’ll do the course then at least I’ll have something on my CV that backs up the skills that I have and my knowledge.”

We have to ask; do you have a favourite cookbook?

 “I don’t have one favourite cookbook. I have a few that I go back to. Nigella Lawson’s At My Table; I also love Sabrina Ghayour’s Feasts, Koreatown [by Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard], and Tim Anderson’s Japaneasy. I like to try different things. And luckily my partner is always down to try everything so we go from Eastern Europe to Korea to wherever else!”