Between Two Waters - by Pam Brunton (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An insider critique of the food business by award-winning chef Pam Brunton, interrogating sustainability in food culture and documenting the early days of her Green Michelin Star restaurant Inver

When world-class chef Pam first opened Inver, her restaurant on the shores of Loch Fyne, she set out to discover what makes 'modern Scottish food' - or if it even existed. This book traces Pam's journey to answer that question and in doing so reveals what we can all gather from our culinary heritage. Part memoir, part manifesto on the future of feeding the world and a feminist critique of the food business, it documents the difficult early days of her now multiple award-winning restaurant, reflecting on how the immersive experience of 'destination restaurants' can both help and hinder our understanding of wider land and food culture.

From the soil to the kitchen, Between Two Waters interrogates the influences on what we eat: capitalism, colonialism and gender, as well as our own personal and cultural histories. Yet it also captures with real heart all that the dinner table has to offer us: sustenance, both physical and imaginative, challenges and adventure and, most importantly, communion with others.

More than anything, it is a blisteringly original work from one of the world's most innovative thinkers about food, sustainability and landscape.

Review Quotes

'Beautifully written, thoughtful and knowledgeable, full of feeling and a sense of the writer's deep connection with the place'-- "The Sophie Coe Prize"

'I laughed and cried a little, reading the book with Pam's voice in my head. A true inspiration on every level as a memoir and, as only Pam can, tells us all what we need to do'--ANGELA HARTNETT OBE, chef-patron of Murano, Café Murano and Cucina Angelina

'The best kind of food book - full of family, funny stories and fierceness about our dislocated food culture'--PEN VOGLER, author of SCOFF and STUFFED

'The best writing defamiliarises the quotidian, and Between Two Waters does just that. This is not a feel-good book. But it is an invitation to feel deeply. If you open Brunton's book, you will find her ardour for truth, and a homeland. You will find a landscape to love'--Gutter Magazine

'A reflective book which explores how destination restaurants can both help and hinder food culture'-- "Country & Town House"

'Memoirs about the back-breaking effort involved in launching something ambitious somewhere remote are not unusual, but those that parse the thinking of John Locke, are called "morally urgent" by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer and seek to define an entire country's cuisine certainly are'-- "Financial Times"

'Funny, piercingly intelligent, thoughtful, iconoclastic about every sector of the food trade but cuts through this deftly and with integrity. This is someone who takes life, food, and food's role in the kitchen and social relations with a mix of seriousness and perspective. A wonderful book'--TIM LANG, author of FEEDING BRITAIN and Emeritus Professor of Food Policy

'This is not a book about the success of Inver. Its mainstay is in much bigger questions. [Between Two Waters] puts food at the centre of a spiral which takes in politics, economics and identity, suggesting that perhaps, after all, we are what we eat'-- "Scotsman"

'A wild ride of a book mixing memoir, political manifesto and philosophy to examine the past and suggest a new way forward for the future. Like a delicious meal, this book will stimulate your mind and linger long after you have finished'--LOUISE GRAY, author of AVOCADO ANXIETY

'I loved this book. It is as morally urgent as it is beautifully written as it is wonderfully entertaining'--JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER, author of EATING ANIMALS and WE ARE THE WEATHER

'Incredible . . . So brilliantly written, beautifully sewn together. A call to arms of sorts, pushing us to look ahead and understand and learn from the past instead of dwelling on it. I loved it'--MELISSA THOMPSON, author of MOTHERLAND

'What a book, what a cook, what a woman, what a mind! This vital and marvellous voice in food weaves the toils and triumphs of a restaurant and a gravely wounded planet with informed verve'--JEREMY LEE

'In Between Two Waters, Pam Brunton attempts to reconcile history and modernity without flinching at how colonialism, capitalism, and extraction have determined the globalized ways we eat today -- and shows that we could change our menus for the better. Using her native Scotland as the lens, Brunton tears through the weeds of the global food system with aplomb'

--ALICIA KENNEDY

About the Author

Pam Brunton is the acclaimed Scottish chef behind Inver restaurant on Loch Fyne, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2025. Inver has won countless awards and is a recipient of the Green Michelin Star praising sustainability alongside world-class food. Prior to opening Inver, she worked at heavyweight restaurants all around the world. Pam holds an MSc in Food Policy from City University and spent four years working with food campaign groups Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, and the Soil Association.

inverrestaurant.co.uk @inverrestaurant