WINNER: The Guild of Food Writers Investigative Food Writing Award, 2025!
WITH A FOREWORD FROM TIM SPECTOR, author of The Diet Myth, Spoon-Fed and Food for Life
Named BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme Book of the Year, chosen by Dan Saladino
“Kitchen Confidential dances with Peaches, Oranges, and Tomatoes.”
Dan Pope, HUNGRY podcast
Let flavour guide our food choices – and lead us to a better food future. In Search of the Perfect Peach shows us how this simple desire can bring about a healthier, tastier and brighter future for our food, the people who produce it and the soil it grows in.
That first bite of a perfectly ripe peach can be truly transformative – a joyful moment that will stay with you forever. For Franco Fubini, founder and CEO of Natoora, this encounter also leads him to realise that flavour is not simply a fleeting, visceral experience but a window into the farmer, a connection to our natural environment and a taste test for our food system.
What makes a great-tasting tomato? Why is scarring on a greengage a good sign? Does ‘eating local’ narrow our priorities to the exclusion of others? In Search of the Perfect Peach follows Franco as he navigates the food system in pursuit of this elusive element. As he takes us from Sicily’s citrus groves to the streets of Mexico City, he shows how we have allowed the wider industry to compromise on more than just flavour.
Franco’s search for the Greta peach culminates in his own clarity and conviction: by looking to flavour, we can unpick the industrialisation of our food production, restore nutrition and seasonal diversity to our plates and the craft of growing back to our landscapes. And, above all, we can find that perfect peach every summer.
“Fubini takes readers on a tour—from tomato growers in Italy to flower farmers in Cornwall to citrus groves in California . . . [and] makes a compelling case for strengthening the connections between consumers and farmers.”—Civil Eats
“A pioneering approach.”—Anna Jones, cook and bestselling author of Easy Wins
“This exciting and important book now brings Natoora and all its ingredients not just to restaurants like ours but … to everyone’s home.”—Ruth Rogers, chef and co-founder of The River Cafe
“An incredible read for those who love food and care about its future. In Search of the Perfect Peach is both a love story and technical guide.”—Kyle Connaughton, chef and owner of SingleThread Farm, Restaurant and Inn
“By valuing and reclaiming flavour, Franco argues that we can transform the system and also enrich our relationship with food. Essential reading.”—Dan Saladino, journalist, broadcaster and author of Eating to Extinction
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