Leon Family & Friends: Book 4

The new LEON cookbook Big Flavours is out in Spring 2025.

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'The only challenger to Jamie Oliver's world domination in the healthy fast-food stakes is the team behind Leon, which has built a mini-empire on the ethos that "food should taste good and do you good"'. - Stylist

The first Leon restaurant, in London's Carnaby Street, opened its doors in 2004 built on the promise of serving good fast food that does you good. Now, 43 restaurants later, Leon serves thousands of devoted fans a week. Leon Family & Friends is their fourth cookbook, created by Leon co-founder John Vincent and cookery writer and broadcaster Kay Plunkett-Hogge.

At the heart of happy family life are meals spent together - sharing flavourful, nutritious food around the kitchen table and swapping stories of the day. Many of us feel we don't have the time to cater for our families in the way that we'd like but Leon Family & Friends shows you how to make the most of the time available to feed your family and celebrates the power of food to bring people together.

It's divided into three sections: Today, including great breakfasts and brunch ideas and post-school teas, Tomorrow, for those occasions where some planning is involved - weekend lunches, birthday parties, Christmas and picnics - and finally; Yesterday, a culinary celebration of family food memories. With more than 200 recipes and ideas, there are dishes to keep everyone happy. Children will love the snacks in Crunch! Squish! Slurp! Their parents will welcome the quick suppers in After Lights Out. While no teenager should fly the nest without 10 Things to Know How to Cook Before You Leave Home. A new Leon cookbook is something to celebrate and Family & Friends is destined to become a much-used classic on the kitchen bookshelf.

Kay Plunkett-Hogge is an acclaimed food and drinks writer, and the author of Aperitivo (Mitchell Beazley, 2017), Adventures Of A Terribly Greedy Girl (Mitchell Beazley, 2017), A Sherry & A Little Plate Of Tapas (Mitchell Beazley, 2016), Heat: Cooking With Chillies (Quercus, 2016) and Make Mine A Martini (Mitchell Beazley, 2014).

In addition to her own books, Kay has co-authored a further six books, working with the award-winning chef Bryn Williams on his two books Bryn's Kitchen and For The Love Of Veg, Academy Award nominated actor Stanley Tucci on his second cookbook The Tucci Table, and with the American pizza guru Chris Bianco. She also co-wrote Leon: Family and Friends with John Vincent and Cook Yourself Thin: Quick and Easy.

Born and brought up in 1970s Bangkok, Kay spent her childhood between two kitchens - inside for Western food, outside for Thai - before forging an international career in the film and fashion industries. It is an experience that has given her an in-depth knowledge of cuisines from all over the world.

Kay began her food career when she set up a bespoke location catering service for fashion shoots. Since then, and in addition to her writing, she has worked as a food consultant for a variety of restaurants and bars, including Leon, The Formosa Café, Isola del Sole, Ma Goa and The Luang Prabang Motorcycle Club.

Her cult book, Make Mine A Martini, was the Financial Times's pick for drinks book of the year, led to her induction into the Gin Guild (in the words of Heston Blumenthal: 'She shakes a damn fine cocktail.') and her writing regularly on cocktails for The Daily Telegraph and Sainsbury's Magazine. She has also written for the FT Weekend and Olive, and has published recipes in The Times, Hello and Borough Market's Market Life magazine. Kay currently writes a monthly column for Delicious.

She lives in London with her husband, two cats and a dog.