The Modern Spice Rack Recipes and Stories to Make the Most of Your Spices

The Modern Spice Rack is a comprehensive guide to the most common spices in our cupboards, and how to best make use of them everyday.  Spices have, historically, been a tricky ingredient. They're prevalent in everyone's kitchens, but too often are underused, stored badly and kept years beyond their 'best before date'. There's the perceived alchemy of making a curry from scratch and the stringent marrying of certain spices to specific cuisines. This cookbook encourages liberal, creative and everyday use – a well-timed pinch to elevate a dish, with a focus on great taste rather than being tethered to tradition.  With colourful introductions give context to lesser-known spices and provide new insights into more familiar varieties, and accompanying recipes that are modern, global and taste-led, The Modern Spice Rack will transform standard groceries into something special.

Rachel Walker was working on the food desk at The Sunday Times when she founded Rooted Spices in 2018. She’d spent a decade working as a food editor and writer – watching the pace of change in the coffee and chocolate industries – and figured it was time that spices caught up. She has driven a long section of the spice route (in a Nissan Micra – from London to Mongolia) and has also travelled by train round the perimeter of India. Rooted Spices was born from a dream of making those vivid bags of spices she’d cram in her rucksack available to everyone. Rachel now continues her spice explorations – often with her husband and two year old in tow – bringing the most fresh and delicious spices to the UK market.  

Esther Clark is a freelance recipe writer, food stylist and editor, based in London. She trained as a chef in her early 20s before working as a chef in Italy and Northern India. She soon became a freelance food writer, followed by a three-year stint as deputy food editor at one of the UK's leading food brands, BBC Good Food. In 2020, she won the PPA 30 Under 30 Award for her recipe writing. Esther’s clients have included Guardian Feast, Sainsbury’s magazine, Co-op magazine, OLIVE magazine, BBC Good Food, Waitrose Food Magazine, BOSH, Harper Collins, Pavilion, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times and many more.