Hay Festival Winter Weekend 2024

There’s no time of year better for a bit of comfort eating than the cold, dark days of winter. A simple dish of beans and toast recalls childhood memories. A hearty soup warms us from the inside out. A rich hot chocolate gives us a moment of calm. Restaurant critic Grace Dent knows the value of comfort food for our bodies and minds. Talking to writer Oliver Bullough, she looks at what makes great comfort food and the foods we like to eat when no one is watching. Sharing her own favourites, Dent discusses what food can tell us about our lives, memories and experiences, and why we can find such joy in eating by ourselves.

Dent’s latest book Comfort Eating is inspired by the award-winning podcast of the same name, and is an intimate collection about the food we turn to behind closed doors, featuring interviews with people including Jo Brand, who loves fried bread sandwiches, and Scarlett Moffat, whose go-to snack is Wotsits-topped beans on toast. Dent is a columnist, broadcaster and author and the Guardian’s restaurant critic. Her memoir Hungry won the 2021 Fortnums Debut Book Award.