The Pepperpot Diaries

Andi Oliver shares the glorious diversity of Caribbean food

Mark Diacono, delicious

Andi Oliver's debut cookbook is brimming with the delicious Caribbean flavours she is renowned for celebrating, incorporating her travels in Antigua to create a unique, excuberant culinary experience.

Liz Earle Wellbeing

Not just a cookbook - it's an exploration of heritage and identity, in which mouthwatering recipes for fried dumplings, shrimp fritters, chocolate goat curry and ackee, callaloo and saltfish are interspersed with essays and diary entries from Andi's extended stay in her ancestral home of Antigua.

Paul Kirkley, Waitrose Weekend

Passionate, autobiographical and rammed with Oliver's infectious personality. I defy anyone not to love it.

Tim Hayward, Financial Times - Best Summer Books of 2023

A feast of Caribbean cuisine

Richard Hopton, Country & Town House

Andi Oliver shares the glorious diversity of Caribbean food, influenced by the islands’ indigenous peoples as well as "those who have come and gone". This is a personal book, communicating the experience of a black British woman drawn to her roots, and the recipes – tea-brined spiced chicken, sticky star fruit pork chops – are really inviting. As Oliver puts it, while there’s "a dark shadow in the story… in our food, there is light and joy and survival…"

Mark Diacono, delicious BEST COOKBOOKS OF 2023

Broadcaster and chef Andi Oliver describes Caribbean food as ‘constantly evolving and bursting with flavour’. This warm, chatty book mixes tales from her own life with recipes from all over the Caribbean; highlights are chocolate curry goat, green banana and coconut dumplings, and a spicy rice pudding. A delightful guide to this vibrant cuisine.

Constance Craig Smith, The Daily Mail

Family and history told through plates of food. When Andi Oliver was stuck in Antigua for three months during the pandemic (her mother’s family is from there), it resulted in this, her first cookbook. All the Caribbean classics you hope for are here: fried dumplings; ackee, saltfish, callaloo; pepperpot; rice and peas; and roti. Many others, too. The dish I cannot wait to eat is the curry goat with chocolate. The hack I’ll use most often is the green seasoning. The recipes are punctuated with diary notes and stories (meet Vicky, the car-park meat-dealer, Sister Hector and Granny), all in Oliver’s warm, infectious voice. She is UK food’s best-loved personality, The Pepperpot Diaries can only add to that.

Allan Jenkins, Observer Food Monthly - BOOKS OF 2023