Comfort and Joy

Shortlisted for Fortnum & Mason Cookery Writer of the Year - Ravinder Bhogal for work in FT Weekend Magazine

Vegetables are the soul of the kitchen.

Comfort and Joy is a fresh take on vegetarian and vegan cooking; not geared towards health or denial but indulging all the senses with a decadent global larder.

This is a cookbook of great bounty, promising fortifying curries and stews, the warm embrace of aromatic fried bhajis and rich, satisfying desserts. For Ravinder Bhogal, food should be made and shared with abundance in mind, and this sense of pleasure is conveyed on every page. From Mango and Golden Coin Curry, Shiro Miso Udon Mushroom and Kale Carbonara to Strawberry Falooda Milk Cake, this is food as pursuit of pleasure.

Ravinder is one of the best food writers in Britain today, and interwoven throughout these recipes are stories of a life led by the feel-good, life-enhancing power of vegetarian food.

Raw, modern and sensual, Comfort and Joy applies Ravinder's creative ingenuity to approachable veg-centric recipes for home cooks. The vegetarian option will never again be relegated to second choice.

About the Author

Born in Kenya, to Indian parents, Ravinder Bhogal’s food is inspired by her mixed heritage and the UK’s diverse immigrant culture. Ravinder is a journalist, chef and restaurateur. Her debut restaurant, Jikoni, was ranked 56th in the UK by the National Restaurant Awards within 7 months of opening and achieved a coveted place in the Michelin Guide in the same year. She has authored two books; her last Jikoni: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from an Immigrant Kitchen, (Bloomsbury July 2020) won an IACP award for Best Restaurant Cookbook and was been shortlisted for the André Simon Award, and a Fortnum and Mason Award for Best Cookery Book. Her debut book Cook in Boots (HarperCollins, 2009) won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for the UK’s Best First Cookbook and was awarded the first runners-up prize of the World’s Best First Cookbook at the Paris Cookbook Fair in February 2010.

In June 2020, Ravinder launched a sustainable vegetarian home delivery brand Comfort and Joy, a sister brand to Jikoni last year. Ravinder has frequently appeared on UK and Indian television, and she is a monthly food columnist for the FT Weekend Magazine and Guardian Feast, a contributing editor at Harper’s Bazaar, and regularly writes for The Observer Magazine and Vogue online.