And just like that, it's cookbook award season, with the announcement of the shortlist of the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards 2021. Simon was the charismatic leader of the English wine trade for almost all of the first half of the 20th century, and the grand old man of literate connoisseurship for a further 20 years. In 66 years he wrote an astounding number of 104 books. For 33 years he was one of London’s leading champagne shippers; for the same number of years the active president of the Wine & Food Society. His opus A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy sold an unprecedented 100,000 copies. The awards presented by the André Simon Memorial Fund honor his legacy.

In the leadup to the virtual awards ceremony on 8 March, you can learn more about the shortlisted books and authors on the podcast Cooking the Books with Gilly Smith, a food podcast that looks at life, culture and politics through the prism of food. The first episode, which premiered last week, featured Dan Saladino and his book Eating to Extinction, and the second, which debuted yesterday, is a discussion with Rachel Roddy about An A-Z of Pasta. A new podcast will run each week until the award is announced. You can see all of the shortlisted books along with previous years' winners on our André Simon awards page.

Assessor for food books this year is Yemisi Aribisala, who is best known for her thematic use of food writing to explore Nigerian culture. Her first book, Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds, won the 2016 John Avery Prize at the André Simon Awards. Assessor for the drink books is Rose Murray Brown, who is one of 418 Masters of Wine worldwide, and one of 151 female Masters. Brown worked in Tuscany for several wine estates, then returned to London to train with Sotheby's International where she worked for 12 years.

The shortlisted food titles for 2021 are:

The shortlisted drink books for 2021 are: