Appetite: A Memoir in Recipes of Family and Food

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Photograph: Alex Lake/The Observer View image in fullscreen ‘There are Le Creusets and frying pans and bowls and sieves…’ Ed Balls in the kitchen. Whether you recognise Ed Balls from the Commons or as a cook, Appetite will leave you full of anecdotes and hungry for more!

Disappointingly, we were soon back to family gatherings and the banal logistics of Sunday roasts and Saturday BBQs. The result is Appetite, an entertaining memoir told through food, complete with recipes for key dishes in his life.On the night of 7 May 2015, Ed Balls thought there was a chance he would wake up the next morning as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. Who can forget those childhood comfort foods; the smell of the kitchen as your favourite dish was on the stove?

I knew from Best Celebrity Home Cook which he won in 2021 that love of food and family is of vital importance to him and inextricably linked, especially Sunday Roasts as taught by his mum. I hope there are more books from Ed as I genuinely enjoyed reading his stories and would definitely read another of his books, if it was in a similar vein. Ed always seems likeable on TV and radio appearances and comes across favourably in this well-written book. The majority of these though are clearly prior fans of Ed Balls, from his participation in the celebrity dancing show and his hilarious Gangnam Style moves; they mentioned this upfront so I suspect glowing reviews would still have been forthcoming had a book been about lifelong involvement in seal clubbing. A lovely clean, fine and bright copy of the first impression which is signed, in name only, by Ed Balls on the front fly leaf which has a special box on it for his signature.When he got round to the cathartic book, Speaking Out, it was more readable than the usual political doorstops, a series of life lessons presented in digestible chapters. As dawn broke on a Conservative government, Balls found himself not only without a ministerial post, but seatless. However, what you are likely unaware of is that Ed Balls, former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, is also a pretty good cook.

I can't say I ever cared much for Ed Balls during his years in politics, and I am generally wary of (former) politicians and their cultural efforts, but "Appetite" is a gorgeous feast of moving memories, extremely relatable family stories and mouthwatering recipes. Later, Balls was present for the infamous dinner on Upper Street in Islington, at the now defunct restaurant Granita, where Blair and Brown are said to have agreed how they would divide up the leadership of the Labour party. Taught to cook by his mother, he’s now passing these recipes on to his own children as they start to fly the nest. Balls believes that the ritual of eating together is crucial for "our collective sanity and wellbeing".Credit cards not directly accepted, but credit card payment can be made via the US PayPal service, or via ABECom.

I spent years in a world where there was this drive and competition to get to the top and to feel the pressure of that.A diehard Norwich City fan – and club chairman for three years until 2018 – Balls was a regular in the MPs v hacks fixture. When Balls explained that he had always made the birthday cakes for his children, even Berry’s cockles were warmed.