Welcome to Cook with Lerato ~ Allow me to re-introduce myself. READ THIS!
How to cook with me & make the most of being a member of our community.
Welcome
Welcome to our place, a community and a magazine in the form of my letters with recipes and stories for you.
SINCE YOU ARE HERE, YOU MUST LOVE FOOD TOO!
Cooking it, eating it or both. You may have just acquired a copy of my cookbook Africana, read or heard about it, or we may have met on my book tour. You may have seen me on television feeding a spice girl and offending cauliflower lovers of the world. You may have heard me cackling on the radio while sharing the best pineapple recipe of all time, my secret to an eggless meringue or campaigning for scotch bonnets. You may have attended my cookery class where you mastered the art of cooking Jollof, or my supper club where you were free to be the greedy gob you always wanted to be, or perhaps you found me through the substack network and thought? What’s a Lerato? However you found your way here, thank you and welcome!
Africana Cookbook
My debut cookbook Africana was published with over 120 recipes, alongside stories from my childhood, travels, and stories friends and inspiring people i have met all through different stages of my life. I am incredibly proud of Africana, how it celebrates flavours from across the continent in a cohesive way for all the world to learn and share. I wanted a book like this, to fill the hunger i had for travel and food from across the vast continent. With this book I take you by the hand as you travel with me dish after dish.
A special edition of Africana was published in the US, same book, different cover and slight edits to Americanise words like coriander to cilantro!
‘It is a glorious book: an education and an invitation. There is such life in its pages, and such food!’ Nigella Lawson
Telegraph's Best Books of Autumn 2022
"There isn't a recipe I don't want to cook." - Diana Henry
"An outstanding new book. Lerato is a genius with flavours." Delicious Magazine
Observer Food Monthly Best of 2023
Winner, Gourmand World Food Awards 2023
Passion & Purpose
Many of you have watched me grow into my passion and purpose across different continents. From running a food business fresh out of university, to presenting on TV, launching a cookery school in the U.K. and publishing my first cookbook. And now inspired by my cookbook, which came about as a result of this dream, we have embarked on a big dream of creating new memories together on our unique cookery retreats across the African continent. Since our launch in March 2023 with sold out trips to Ghana & Morocco, we have been going full steam ahead with more destinations and dates added. Join us on this exciting journey.
Why Cook With Lerato?
I live to eat, I travel for food and I love to share stories of food, family, and all that I learn from my travels both near and far. My passion and purpose are very clear, despite my love for food from across the world, it is also a great purpose of mine to celebrate the diversity of African recipes and stories which have for many years been far from the centre of attention. Bringing people together to enjoy memorable food, rich culture and heartwarming stories that inspire and bind us together.
I started writing Cook with Lerato to share that which is not widely taught or shared in the mainstream, to share my unique experience and perspective and also as a way to connect better with you, and for you to connect with each other as we have done so many times at our events. While I am blessed to have been featured in some of the most widely read publications, here I can communicate freely without the pressure of someone else’s style, structure, or agenda. We can build and nurture a community for us to converge, communicate and share our passion for food, culture and travel.
My bio is filled with unexpected twists and turns that have led us here. And in order to keep this post brief and easily digestible I’ll leave links to some selected interviews, and features that reflect my work and journey, including upcoming events and news, so that you do not miss a thing.
You can expect my newsletters to drop into your inbox weekly with a mix of recipes and stories, videos, Q&A’s travel guides and behind the scenes of all that I do on radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, including my travels. Please leave comments, suggestions, ask questions, participate in our threads and community chats and send me an email if you wish to, as many of you already do.
For updates of my adventures including recipe videos, check out my social channels, useful links and recipes you may have missed with all links below.
I would love to know more about you. Please introduce yourself in the comments, what do you love to eat, cook, what are your dream travel destinations? You might even hate cooking, and that’s okay too.
You can also, ASK ME ANYTHING! Our community send their questions in, which I answer as part of my letters to you!
I hope you join me and our growing community on this journey to fulfilling a life of passion and purpose. With fabulous food of-course! Let’s get cooking!
Useful Links
ARCHIVES
All my recipes and stories on this newsletter
EVENTS, CLASSES & RETREATS
If you would love to meet, cook and travel with me, you can find all upcoming events, cooking classes & holidays/retreats here.
WRITING
Flavours of Nigeria ~ National Geographic Traveller Feature
RADIO
Listen to me on BBC Radio 4, The Kitchen Cabinet hosted by Jay Rayner, where I am a now a panelist. Biggest news to start the year 2023!
INTERVIEWS
Live on South African TV
Meet Lerato ~ with my friends at the enchanting Watergate Bay Hotel in Cornwall
PODCASTS
Africana on Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith
👩🏽🍳 Read about Cook With Lerato & see more here.
❤️ Are we friends on socials? Say hello and tag me when you try the recipes.
☀️ Find me here: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest
✍🏽 Or write to me: www.leratofoods.com
I love Scottish food, and I love African food too.
You know, I have travelled the world, and food is the best way to share cultures: whether sitting cross legged by a Japanese table on a small cushion, eating under the stars at an Australian BBQ, feasting on seafood in the Caribbean, having a curry at a music festival, or tucked into an Afro-cuisine restaurant in Brixton.
Please subscribe to my free substack, and I'll aim to bring you some wild and foraged delicacies from Scotland: I only post a few times a year, so it won't bother you and you might learn something about foraging wild food, from gathering mussels, mushrooms, and wild garlic, to berries and herbs.
If meat is your thing, I also forage roadkill venison, hare and pheasant - I never leave good food to go to waste, and that shows respect for the animal, as well as supplying my household with lots of free , healthy and low fat organic protein.
Lerato, you need no reintroduction! Your food and your personality are inspirational.