Talks

Sam Bilton - A is for apple - C is for Castle

Where:

Castle Garden Stage - Castle Gardens

When:

11th September 2026
12:45 pm to 1:30 pm

Sam Bilton has been intrigued by food history ever since her grandmother gave her a battered copy of Mrs Beeton’s Cookery Book.

Inside this book was a collection of handwritten recipes dating from around 1871 collated by her grandmother’s Great Aunt Eliza. This little book would spark an interest in historical food which began as a hobby but would lead to a Masters in Culinary Arts and a career as a food historian, author, podcaster and supper club host/chef.

Sam’s first book on the history of gingerbread won a World Gourmand Cookbook award in 2021. She has also published Fool’s Gold: A History of British Saffron (Prospect Books, 2022); The Philosophy of Chocolate (British Library Publishing, 2023) and Much Ado About Cooking, in collaboration with Shakespeare’s Globe (October 2025).  She also contributed an essay on Christmas food traditions for the Phaidon Christmas Book (2023). Sam is the editor of Petits Propos Culinaires (PPC) an international journal on food, food history, cooking and cookery books and is a frequent contributor to national magazines, food festivals, television and radio.

Sam produces and presents the Comfortably Hungry podcast which won the audio award for the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards in 2025. She is also a co-host/producer on the A is for Apple podcast.

For further information visit sambilton.com  or follow Sam on instagram @mrssbilton and Bluesky @mrssbilton.