Appetite: A Memoir in Recipes of Family and Food

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Ed Balls was just three weeks old when he tried his first meal: pureed roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. The result is Appetite, an entertaining memoir told through food, complete with recipes for key dishes in his life.

Balls was taught to cook by his mother, and later in life it was through her meals that the family got the first inklings of her dementia, as the ever-reliable cook began serving uncooked food. Appetite is a memoir with a twist: part autobiography, part cookbook, each chapter is a recipe that tells a story. Pleasantly surprised by this sweet bio, which combines a rather readable account of EB's time in Parliament and his upbringing with the dishes that defined each time of his life along the way. There’s an interesting account of Peter Mandelson’s way with lunch: “small and exquisite tomato soup, crusty French bread, and a little green salad with baby tomatoes and a lightly tossed vinaigrette”.Appetite, however, is image free which is its loss considering we live in a world of readily accessible imagery. For you to see your mum, who had always cooked Sunday lunch, produce something raw, was a jarring moment. However, the primary purpose of Balls’ memoir is not political, but rather a celebration of the joy of cooking in family life.

Moving through the ranks, from adviser to Cabinet minister and on to Shadow Chancellor, he occupied a central and influential position in and out of power during a pivotal period in British history. When Balls explained that he had always made the birthday cakes for his children, even Berry’s cockles were warmed. The Balls family still often has Friday fish and chips in Castleford, Yvette’s constituency, and it was a key dish in Ed and Yvette’s early relationship. 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.

I’ve saved some of the recipes to try: including the baked chocolate mousse, the custard (I’ve never actually made custard from scratch, so when it comes around to apple picking time I might make a crumble and serve it with homemade custard, instead of my usual extra thick double cream.

I definitely wanted slightly more detail on Ed’s life - events were briefly described and then we were moved swiftly on - but I really enjoyed this book. But the serious point is that you think, ‘Now is the time to do all the things you’ve really wanted to do, because you’ve got the chance’. He cooks it every Sunday for his MP wife Yvette Cooper and their three children, served it to his campaign team the night before his political career ended, and prepared it for Little Mix's Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock after they scaled Mount Kilimanjaro together for Comic Relief. Balls has said that he’s comfortable with the idea people will remember him for his Gangnam Style routine rather than his achievements in government. However, what you are likely unaware of is that Ed Balls, former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, is also a pretty good cook.During the pandemic, with his mother in full-time care, his dad started to experiment with dishes he would never have tried before. former MP for West Yorkshire and a Chancellor of the Exchequer who lost his parliamentary seat in the election of 2015 but then he gave us Strictly Come Dancing fans his unforgettable Gangnam style and so Westminster's loss is TV's gain! 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. Whether it's the book of his favourite recipes he gives to each of his children on their 18th birthday or the time he spends teaching his father to make a cheese souffle, he demonstrates that food is a way of showing he cares.