Sarah Rankin launches her first cookbook, Kith

Kinross home cook Sarah Rankin, who made the final stages of MasterChef, has officially launched her first cookbook.

Sarah celebrated her debut book, Kith, at Loch Leven’s Larder with a demonstration of her skills and a Q&A session on Thursday.

The audience were treated to wild garlic soup and fried cod cheek with beurre blanc, as well as other nibbles from the recipe book.

Since reaching finals week on MasterChef in May 2022, Sarah has gone from strength to strength – running super clubs, writing monthly food columns and cooking at high-profile events.

Now, the marketing consultant has reached a new milestone in launching her own book.

Overwhelming

“It’s a really weird feeling to go from seeing it on a computer screen for so long to then seeing it as a physical thing,” she said.

“It’s quite overwhelming, actually. And it’s scary because it was mine and I’d done it and I feel very proud of it, but then it’s out there and people are going to read it and judge it.”

Many of the recipes that feature in the book come from Sarah’s own relatives – including her granny’s recipe for gingerbread which she found scribbled on the back of her wedding invitation – while others she has devised herself.

“The book is called Kith because the recipes are pretty much family recipes,” she said.

“My mum is an incredible home cook and we always had home-cooked food growing up, so that was just the normal way of things for us.

“And my granny was an amazing baker, so again, that was just what was normal.”

Recipe influences

The book was also influenced by Sarah’s personal passion for seasonal food.

She said: “A lot of them are my own recipes or adapted from stuff we had locally growing up – and everything is obviously seasonal.

“I think that is the most sensible and healthy way to eat. It’s good for us and it’s good for those who produce the food.”

Loch Leven Larder was packed for the book launch.

In an ideal world, Sarah Rankin envisions communities that eat local produce and avoid the supermarket entirely. Just like in her Granny’s day, who she says went to the shop for her ‘messages’ every three days, she hopes people can eat fresher food.

She said: “If we can get to a situation where there are more places like this [Loch Leven’s Larder] that have farm shops that are buying stuff from local people who are growing it, then great.

“Maybe not on a massive supermarket scale, but enough to sustain a local community, then that’s a great thing.

“Seasonality is a huge part of that. So, eating seasonally, eating stuff when it is in glut means it’s cheaper and it’s doing you good. It tastes better.”