EPISODE 60

COOKBOOKS… REAL VS COFFEE TABLE

Listen: ON SPOTIFY

Watch: ON YOUTUBE

In this episode of Behind!, we sit down at the table with two blokes who’ve spent more years in kitchens and dining rooms than most of us have spent behind a stove. And what starts as a simple chat about cookbooks unravels into one of those long, winding campfire conversations — the kind that only happen when you’re swapping stories with people who've lived the life for real.

Tony and Pete dive deep into the books that shaped them — the bibles, the beat-up workhorses, the ones with splattered pages and broken spines. From LaRousse to White Heat, from the classics to the cult favourites, we walk through the recipes that worked, the ones that never did, and the ones that should’ve been thrown into the fire after the first attempt.

There’s talk of the old industry… the yelling, the bruises, the madness, the camaraderie. And the new one… where apprentices aren’t tested like they once were, where the fundamentals are fading, and where a cookbook can still be a lifeline if you know which one to reach for. It’s honest, funny, raw, and occasionally unhinged — the way good kitchen talk should be.

And somewhere in there, we even get to the big question: Why the hell hasn’t Tony Kelly written a cookbook yet? The answer’s part humility, part chaos, and part “maybe one day.” So pull up a chair, pour yourself something decent, and settle in.

This is a conversation about cookbooks — but more than that, it’s about the craft, the culture, and the stories that bind people to food for a lifetime.