The Real Food Companion

Fully revised and updated

by Matthew Evans

The definitive Matthew Evans book on food, celebrating resolute flavours, integrity, and the joy of home cooking with 200 simple, delicious, unpretentious produce-driven recipes. Erudite and enlightening, akin to having the farmer, butcher, and baker by your side.

The Real Food Companion includes more than 200 recipes, with photography by Matthew's long-time friend and collaborator, Alan Benson. It is the result of Matthew's four decades as a writer, chef and farmer, and multiple years' research. And its core mission is teaching readers how to ethically source, cook and eat real food.


Matthew Evans is a chef and food critic turned farmer-food activist. He lives on a mixed farm that occupies a one-time apple orchard in the Huon Valley outside Hobart with his partner Sadie Chrestman and son Hedley. He is nationally best known for his long-running SBS series Gourmet Farmer (six seasons), set on Fat Pig Farm's 70 acres, but also was the star of food documentaries What's the Catch? and For the Love of Meat. He has authored or co-authored 13 books on food, and is regularly interviewed on radio about all things to do with farming, growing, soil and eating. He has capitalised on his broad appeal hosting weekly farmhouse feasts and on-site cooking classes, which are often booked out months ahead. He is beloved of television audiences but also widely respected in the food world as someone who lives his truth - giving up the apparently coveted life of a Sydney food critic to create something real and meaningful with Sadie on their small parcel of land in southern Tasmania.

Hardback