Suzi and I made a great mistake. We did not begin watching The Great British Baking Show until last season. The slate of amateur bakers was strikingly diverse in terms of backgrounds and age: kids just out of school, prison warden, …  They did, of course, all share an enthusiasm for baking and all were so talented. And one person, Flora Shedden, caught our eye. Young, just 20, pixie pretty and vibrant, Flora was our favorite.

We did not know at the time that Flora gone to school to be an architect and then dropped out. She loved design, but not it turns out that style of school. She had been in the kitchen since she was a toddler with a very skilled mom.She entered the Baking Show and she rose high. Her tendency to fashion over-the-top creations final did her in. One too many failures and she did not make the finals.

But everybody fell in love with her because of her own culinary passion and her clear skills as a cook. Happily, book publishers have seen the potential too and that potential is fully realized in Flora’s new, first cookbook, Gatherings: Recipes for Feasts Great and Small. For Flora, everything is a feast.

The chapters here span the day and our food needs, from the quick to the grand:

• Mornings Quick and Slow, depending on how soon you need your car keys
• Small Plates, since we all sin with little bites when we can
• Food to Fling Together when time is pressing us
• Everything Baked, since the woman is a baker heart and soul
• Food to Take Your Time About, when you can’t find the car keys and don’t care
• Drinks and Other Things to Celebrate With, because she does drink
• Sweet Plates and Puds, because she is very Scottish

And very British. The recipes here reflect that constant tug they feel in Britain to go to the garden:

Asparagus and Ricotta Tart with Herbed Pastry

Asparagus Risotto

Spout Salad with Peanuts

There’s protein on the plate, served with elegance:

Duck Salad with Poached Eggs

Steak with Feisty Green Olive Tapenade and Garlic Mayo

Sherry and Tarragon Chicken with Pearl Couscous

Tomato and Horseradish Beef with Tenderstem Broccoli

The small plates could be a meal here or surely a big start. Consider:

Radicchio, Fig and Apple Salad

Watercress and Almond Soup

Mackerel Pâté

And then there are the beverages:

Elderflower Gin Gimlet

Whisky Mojitos [she lives in Scotland]

Blood Orange Vodka Blush

Mulled Cider with Calvados and Fresh Ginger

If you know Diana Henry, then the simple thing to say here is that this is a Diana-Henry-class book. It’s lovely and different and quite sophisticated — a striking accomplishment for a very lovely but still very young woman. Flora makes the point that she has not gone to culinary school and she is not a nutritionist. Her cookbook has but one agenda: cook lovingly for your family and friends. Her standard for quality is high, but isn’t that what a feast demands?

On the TV show, Flora was bright and bubbly. She just radiated the enthusiasm for cooking and did seem to relish in fashioning challenges for herself. In writing this book, all challenges have been conquered. It’s a serious cookbook companion you’ll want to keep at your side. And, yes, you will cook and drink from it. How could you not?

Start with the cocktails. She knows her alcohol.