Picky

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What to expect

From fussy eater to professional food critic, Jimi's story is 'a culinary journey like no other' - JAMIE OLIVER



'An insightful, engaging and often profound memoir'
BEE WILSON, The Sunday Times

'Exquisite, evocative writing'
ANDI OLIVER

'A rich and nourishing story of food and identity'
ANGELA HUI

'Shows us that food is never just food - it's memory, identity, and home'
ASMA KHAN

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Food is never just food. It is freighted with our upbringings, our heritage and our sense of self.

Jimi Famurewa spends his days hunting out the very best food London has to offer and writing about it. But as a child, he hid gobbets of mash in his pocket at school, refused all vegetables and looked forward to Happy Meals in the back of a steamed-up car after late night football practice. He spent weekends in crowded flats at parties, watching his family preserve their Nigerian roots through jollof and fried plantain, as well as grow new shoots through American delights like Aunt Jemima's pancake syrup, furtively hidden in suitcases.

But what happens when he grows up, stretching beyond the joyful chaos of his mother's kitchen and into the uncharted territory, unfamiliar flavours and overlapping identities of the adult world?

With glorious dollops of nostalgia, Picky is as much a hymn to the gleam of the golden arches and the soft shine of worn formica as it is to opulent marble and tweezered micro herbs.

🍔 🍔 🍔 🍔 🍔

'Instantly likeable . . . Engaging . . . There is a palpable hunger (pardon the pun) in the pages for all cuisines'
KATHARINE SPURRIER, The Mail on Sunday

'Wonderful . . . A beautiful reminder that our appetites, like us, can transform beyond what we ever thought possible'
RUBY TANDOH

'A feast of a book packed to the brim with honesty, bravery, nostalgia and humour'
CAROLINE EDEN

'Sharp, funny and full of heart'
JAMIE OLIVER

'Vivid, funny and deliciously frank, I tore through this like an after-school bag of Monster Munch'
FELICITY CLOAKE

'Absolutely beautiful. Funny, warm and nourishing'
HASAN SEMAY ('BIG HAS')

'Filled with honesty, humour and packed with flavour. I devoured it'
GEORGINA HAYDEN

Critics Review

A culinary journey like no other - sharp, funny, and full of heart.
Jamie Oliver
Jimi writes with such warmth, honesty, and humour about his family in Lagos, his childhood in South East London and his glossy yet frantic life as a restaurant critic. His writing truly comes alive when he talks about food. Picky is a rich and nourishing story of food and identity.
Angela Hui
His words leap from the page and take a fully addictive delicious form! Exquisite, evocative writing from the heart, soul and very witty pen of Jimi Famurewa.
Andi Oliver
A feast of a book packed to the brim with honesty, bravery, nostalgia and humour. At its heart is the tale of a young boy who goes on to become one of our best food writers but present throughout are big universal themes that we can all relate to: love, loss and identity. I found Picky truly affecting and brilliantly written.
Caroline Eden
Jimi Famurewa shows us that food is never just food - it's memory, identity, and home. His journey from picky eater to food critic is a powerful reminder that what we eat can reconnect us to who we are, where we've come from, and who we're becoming.
Asma Khan
Picky is a wonderful book. It's a gift to write so incisively in such a seemingly effortless way, and this is what Jimi does so well - melding the personal and the cultural, the intimacies of his own food story with the broader social currents that guide his appetites and ours. This is a moving, charming but also wonderfully astute exploration of food today, across continents, and from the home table to the school canteen and the high-end restaurant. It's also a beautiful reminder that our appetites, like us, can transform beyond what we ever thought possible.
Ruby Tandoh
Vivid, funny and deliciously frank, I tore through this like an after-school bag of Monster Munch.
Felicity Cloake
An insightful, engaging and often profound memoir about what it means when a child adopts a selective attitude to food.
The Sunday Times
'Instantly likeable, Famurewa reflects without the rose-tinted (and grating) impression so many memoirs have . . . Engaging . . . There is a palpable hunger (pardon the pun) in the pages for all cuisines.'
The Mail on Sunday
Picky is absolutely beautiful. Funny, warm and nourishing.
Hasan Semay ('Big Has')
From fussy eater to embracing food not only as sustenance, Jimi takes us on a (mostly) delicious journey through his Nigerian South London roots. Picky is filled with honesty, humour and packed with flavour. I devoured it.
Georgina Hayden

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