She wrote a murder mystery to survive turning 40 — literally. British author Gemma Denham sits down with Matthew Gray to talk about her debut thriller The Storm, the “40 Before 40” list that pushed her into writing, and the real controlling relationship she turned into fiction. Gemma opens up about parenting differences between the UK and US, the creative shift from illustrator to novelist, and the hilarious moment her family taped her to a chair for book‑research accuracy.

A cozy‑crime, midlife, creative‑chaos conversation filled with British traditions, personal growth, and the joy of becoming a first‑time author.

📖 The Storm — available wherever books are sold

📲 Follow Gemma: @GemmaDenham on X and Instagram

Follow Matthew Gray: 🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray - Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly. Subscribe for more.

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#50TastesOfGray #author #MurderMystery #DebutNovel

Jay Reifel is a lot of things — simultaneously, always. He's a historical chef who owns a larding needle and uses it. He's a catering director feeding pro baseball teams, law schools, and high-end weddings in the same week. He's a published food writer, a fiction writer with a novel always in progress, a rock climber on unbolted traditional routes, and a chess player who uses the game as a deliberate cognitive reset between creative projects.

He's also writing a new cookbook — not a recipe collection, but a guide built around technique and logic. His argument: once you understand why braising works, you can walk into any kitchen, open the fridge, and cook something delicious without a recipe. The recipe is training wheels. The technique is the actual skill.

In this episode, Matthew and Jay cover: the logic of cooking vs. the tyranny of recipes · traditional climbing in the Shawangunk Mountains · writing fiction in your head on a six-mile walk · playing chess to clear the creative decks · a therapeutic farm in the country with no cell service and a commercial bakery · what being handed an axe and trusted with it can do for a person at their lowest · and carrying a half pig and a recently deceased rooster onto the New York City subway.

The rooster's feet smelled terrible. He felt bad about it.

Find Jay at jayreifel.com or @jayreifel on Instagram. He answers cooking questions in the DMs. He means it.

Christine Smith — better known as The Food Granny — joins me for a conversation seasoned with grit, jam, humor, and the kind of lived‑in wisdom that only comes from a life cooked slowly.

Born in post‑war Yorkshire and shaped by ration‑era kitchens, Christine learned to cook by watching her grandmothers move through a kitchen like it was a language. She talks about simple food, wooden spoons, jam that forces you to slow down, and why Italian food is “peasant food done properly.”

We explore her unexpected journey: breaking her arm in Vietnam, writing a book with one finger on her phone, and accidentally turning her cat Milo into an AI‑generated internet celebrity. We also dive into language, grit, Aussie‑isms that “rip her knitting,” and the joy of embracing who you are instead of performing for the world.

This episode is warm, grounded, funny, and full of the kind of small truths that sneak up on you. Pull up a chair. Pour a cup of tea. Let Milo sleep on the stool next to you. You’re going to love this one.

#TheFoodGranny #50TastesOfGray #CookingStories

Christine Smith – The Food Granny

Website: thefoodgranny.com.au

Instagram: @thefoodgranny

Book: Granny’s Gripes

Follow Matthew:

🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray — Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules.

📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray

📘 Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii

✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com

🌺 HawaiiFoodTours.com

▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray