MORE than 40 food lovers attended the launch of a new cookery book at the Bunch of Grapes restaurant in Bradford on Avon.

Author and free range chef Beth Al-Rikabi organised the launch with help from restaurateur Steve Carss, head chef and proprietor of the Bunch of Grapes.

The new book, Tales from my Happy Place: Recipes from the Free Range Chef, was launched at the restaurant’s Summer Vegetarian Supper Club. Beth and Steve created a vegetarian menu for the occasion, put together by the restaurant’s kitchen team on the night.

Beth said: “The night was a great success although extremely hot and sweaty on the hottest day of the year so far.

“We had 40 people come along including family, friends, locals and Instagram followers for the six courses of seasonally-inspired vegetarian food and half of them bought a copy of the book at the end of the evening.”

She added: “We are lucky enough to have some great food producers around including Teeny Greeny, Mayfield Organic, Grown Green, Homewood Cheeses, Pistachio Provenance and New Macdonald's Farm. Even the flowers were provided by local business Electric Daisy Flower Farm."

Beth’s first venture into publishing would not have been possible without Matt Inwood, a photographer and designer whom she met at the Bunch of Grapes.

“I'm so pleased with the response to the book so far with plenty of internet downloads as well as requests for hard copies. Here's to many more cookbooks in the future!”

You can download a copy of the ebook from Beth’s website: www.thefreerangechef.com

Hard copies are limited and only available while stocks last from Beth’s market stalls and events, which are also listed on the website.