Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ed and James and Willie and Joe’s Perfect Chocolate Christmas
Episode Date: December 25, 2020Yes, we made it happen. Willie Harcourt-Cooze and Joe Thomas meet at last for a festive, lamb-based chat with Ed and James. Merry Christmas!(And this episode was recorded before Tier 4 was announced.)...Buy Willie’s chocolate at www.williescacao.comRecorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive Productions.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design) and Amy Browne (illustrations).Follow Off Menu on Twitter and Instagram: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Watch Ed and James's YouTube series 'Just Puddings'. Watch here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Hello, listeners of the Off Menu podcast. It is Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu podcast.
I have a very exciting announcement. I have written my first ever book. I am absolutely
over the moon to announce this. I'm very, very proud of it. Of course, what else could
I write a book about? But food. My book is all about food. My life in food. How greedy
I am. What a greedy little boy I was. What a greedy adult I am. I think it's very funny.
I'm very proud of it. The book is called Glutton, the multi-course life of a very
greedy boy. And it's coming out this October, but it is available to pre-order now, wherever
you pre-order books from. And if you like my signature, I've done some signed copies,
which are exclusively available from Waterstones. But go and pre-order your copy of Glutton,
the multi-course life of a very greedy boy now. Please?
Merry Christmas, everyone out there. Welcome to Off Menu. We are the burning brandy on
top of the podcast pudding. It's lovely to be here with a little surprise Christmas episode,
James.
With comfort and joy, welcome to Willie and Joe and Ed's and James's and Bonito's Perfect
Chocolate Christmas. Yes, indeed. It's a very special Perfect Chocolate
Christmas episode. It all ties back to the Joe Thomas episode. So, what I would possibly
say actually is if you're listening to this now and you haven't heard the Joe Thomas episode,
I would recommend listening to that for the full backstory and context.
And if you want to go hardcore, listen to that and then listen to the Andy Oliver episode
to know how this came about properly. It's as dense and complicated as the Marvel Cinematic
Universe at this point. It is, absolutely. So, do your research. But if you don't want
to do that, quick explanation. Joe Thomas buried a lamb. It didn't go well. He did it
because he saw it on a TV show called Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas, which is presented
by a man called Willie Harcourt Coos. This episode is us talking to both of them.
Yes, Andy Oliver put us in touch with Willie. We sorted it out. It's a Christmas miracle
and hopefully we can get Joe to discover where he went wrong and learn from his mistakes
so that one day he will be able to achieve his dream of becoming Willie.
But if he's with them and mentioned the secret ingredient, they are out of here and the secret
ingredient this week is lamb. Chocolate.
No secret ingredient this week. It's a special chat episode and we just hope you're having
a lovely Christmas. Yeah. Hope you're having a nice day. Obviously, 2020 very weird. The
Joe Thomas episode was actually probably in the first week of lockdown, I think it went
out. So, here we are now. At the end of the first week of lockdown, a lot of us didn't
think we'd still be doing all this stuff at Christmas time. So, I know it's a bit difficult
everybody. But listen, this episode is going to change your life and you don't have to
worry about COVID anymore. Yeah, exactly. So, you might be having some different sorts
of Christmases. You might not be seeing the people you want to see. But we hope that you
now realise the only people you want to hear from on Christmas Day are Willie Harkill-Kuze,
Joe Thomas, Ed Gamble, James A. Caster and The Great Benito. You don't hear The Great
Benito in this episode. You never will. He's got no voice.
All those sound effects that you hear in between the edit points, that's The Great Benito does
them with his voice. He plays them live with his voice.
He does it all with his voice. He's got an amazing beatboxer as well as a good magician
and rollercoaster fan. Yeah. And we're looking at The Great Benito now. And he was just brought
a bowl of something and he looked surprised that he was brought it. And he looked at it
like Kenneth Williams looks at a boobs or a bum in Carry On.
He did. He did. Very excited.
What shows what's in the bowl, Benito? Oh, no, it's soup. Soup. Soup. He's got a bowl
of soup that he nearly poured out while showing it to us. Anyway, Merry Christmas, everyone.
Please enjoy this episode. We're very happy. We managed to get this team together. So enjoy
Merry Christmas and we'll see you again in a bit. Bye. Bye.
Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Off Menu, the episode that people have
been crying out for, for months, for years, for decades. I met Gamble sitting over there
in his flat as James A. He has to say hello. Oh, we're sticking with this, are we? We're
maintaining the genie. Welcome, Ed Gamble. We've been expecting you for some time. Yes.
Hello. So we should probably explain, Genie, what's going on with today's episode. So normally,
of course, Off Menu would be speaking to a special guest about their dream meal.
Favorite ever? Start a main course dessert, side dish and drink, but not today, Ed. Not
today. Today is a special Christmas episode because we take you back to an episode we
recorded with Joe Thomas where he gave his dream main course as a lamb dish that he
buried in a field. And it went very, very wrong, but he got the inspiration for that
dish from a television program called Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas.
Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas. So it's with great pleasure that we welcome back Joe
Thomas, of course, and we also welcome Willie from Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas. Hello,
how are you both? I'm great. I'm good too. Just so the listeners know, say your names. I'm Joe.
That's Joe's voice. I'm Willie. That's Willie's voice. Willie, for the listener, could you,
I mean, you seem like a man for all seasons. You've got a lot of stuff going on, but could
you sum up what your vibe is, what you do on a day-to-day basis for our lovely listener? Oh,
but I make chocolate. There we go. Thanks. Straight in. I rise at 5.30. I have, you know,
toast and avocado and fried duck eggs with 100% cacao grated all over it with hot sauce. Then I
head to the factory and I make chocolate all day. Do you really put chocolate on your breakfast,
Willie? Oh, yeah. If you grate 100% or avocados, you know, I don't use butter, but and duck eggs
because the yolk is bigger and 100% cacao. Once you've done it, you will never have another
breakfast. And the chili, the chili lifts it. So I've got hot chili selection, which, you know,
I've troubled around the world doing trade shows and stuff. And I buy hot sauces, different hot
sauces. And, you know, and that gives the cacao a lift. And then, you know, I go to the factory
and then about 11 o'clock, I'll have a hot chocolate made with hot water and a tiny little bit
of chili and a little bit of sugar. So I say a hot chocolate, half a cylinder, so about 90 grams.
We worked out that on a year, 90 grams is equivalent to about 130 with sugar. So and that
computes to a kilo a week. So that's 50 kilos a year, just in hot chocolate. You know, so people
talk about the average 10 kilo European. And actually, I'm not fat. Congratulations. You know,
and obviously I'm proof that the right chocolate. Yeah, I have got a speedy something. I don't know,
all my family suffer from underactive thyroids. I think I've definitely got an overactive one.
And, you know, then I do the lunch, which is salad out of the garden as tin official,
whatever, tin of sardines and no chocolate with lunch. Yeah, he probably put a table around in that.
I'm just genuinely, I'm very, very relieved that you, Willie, it actually exists because I thought
I might have dreamt this program. And then after we and also it was a program that I sort of I
kind of turned it on halfway through. And then I enjoyed it. And I was left with this sense that
this lamb thing was, it seemed to be very easy, like, because you did it and then all your friends
came around and you dug it up and it was brilliant. And then I then had to try and explain this to my
sort of group of chumps who I'd enlisted to bury this lamb. Can we just go over all ground, I'm
sure. And could you tell Willie who the group of chumps were that you buried the lamb with?
Because saying group of chumps makes you sound cooler than you are.
Okay, that's fair enough. Okay. Let Willie know who this gang is who you used to hang out with.
Oh, you're onto, you're onto my, my, uh, making myself, you're onto that, you're onto that set
together. So the gang I used to hang out with was, um, my mate's dad. Actually, you know, it was my
brother's mate's dad, who, um, was a local man from my parents' village. He was like my,
I guess my best friend, as always. Then it was, um, another one of my brother's
mate's mums, she was in the gang. Soft touch. Soft touch. I think that was what we christened her.
And, um, it was, it was her garden that we, that we buried the lamb in. Then the other,
the other, the other group were a boy called Giles. He's the son of, of the lady.
Of soft touch. He's the son of his mum. He, he, he dug the pit. He dug the pit.
And, um, my, my brother, and I think, I think that's, those are, those are the main players.
Yeah. So that, that was the gang, the chumps, the chumps, basically. And I guess also if people
didn't listen to the, to the first episode where, where we went through this, basically,
I saw this program that I guess in hindsight, I just wondered whether I'd literally just
dreamt cause, cause I, the, the lamb went so wrong. But in it, a lamb was buried, a whole lamb.
Yes. Bye, Willie. Bye, Willie. You think you've dreamt it, et cetera, but we should probably
throw it to Willie now and just work out whether this was the recipe that you remembered. Willie,
do you remember burying a whole lamb for the show Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas?
I actually did it twice. Okay. Yeah. Because the first time when I came, when they said they
wanted to do something interesting and what was the most interesting thing I did? I said, well,
it was burying a lamb and, and they actually didn't believe me. So they said, okay, so could you do it
so we can see it, you know? Uh, so being sort of TV, I suppose. Yeah. They bought a really big lamb.
Right. Yeah. And, and, and my last memory, I mean, I dug a hole so deep, I remember thinking,
as am I heading to China, it was up to my chest. The hole was, I thought there's no way I'm going
to mess this up. And so I dug this whole huge hole and built this massive fire. My last memory
was the TV producer and director at 10 o'clock at night in the pouring rain, abandoning me while
I was holding this lamb wrapped in cow coat, you know, like a dead body. And that, and that was the,
that was the, that was my last, that was my last memory. Then you blacked out. I felt really
abandoned. You woke up in the pit. You had to dig yourself out. The BBC had buried you.
No, I mean, it was funny. You dig a massive hole. I put lots of rocks inside the bottom.
Yeah. And then built a, when I say big fire, it was six foot wide, the pit, six foot long, at least,
and up to my chest, filled it with rocks, built a massive fire, got it going. It was pure embers,
almost level to the ground. And then I had to pull out with a spade on a shovel on a long stick,
a lot of the coals. Yeah. And then I stuck inside the lamb. I had branches of rosemary and big bunches
of garlic, which I smashed up. And then I wrapped it in cow coat, which is a kind of canvassy white
material. And I was, I was worried it was going to burn. So I wet it all, wet the cow coat. Very
important to wet it, wet it all. And then I whacked in the lamb and then I pushed in all the embers
over it. So I had a good, I suppose, a couple of feet of embers on top. And then I put the earth
on top and it looked like I buried somebody. Now, Joe, yours didn't go as well as that, did it?
Can you hit, from Willie's description there, can you work out what went wrong with yours?
Yeah, I can, I was, yeah, but little, little bits and pieces were jumping out at me there.
Do you want to tell Willie how you did it? Did you do the stage, Willie, where this was a stage
that we added to your method as a slight improvement, where after you've lit the entire fire, you
and your brother and your brother's mates basically just pour so much water on the fire
that the fire just goes out. And therefore, when you bury the lamb, there's not actually any heat
at all. Because that was the stage that we, that was the stage that we did.
Were you drinking? We weren't drinking. No, because he was hanging out with his
mate's dad. It was possible. I've realised you were younger. I was younger.
How old were you, Joe? No, I'm 37 now, so I was 27. Oh, okay. And just a quick reminder,
how old was your best friend? He's about, well, he's in his, in his 50s.
But you know, an absolute lad. I mean, that's not, you know, as much of a lad as I am, and we're
talking. Top lad. Top lad. Yeah. But yeah, it's interesting just hearing that description back
with you, because actually, I've already realised that I'd remembered quite a lot of details wrong
from watching your programme. The main one actually was that I told all my friends that
you put the fire out before you put the, or you damped it down, whereas actually you
wet the calico. I wet the lamb, because if you wet it, then the heat just gets transferred,
doesn't burn, it just gets transferred. But once you've got it in the fire, you cover it with
the embers, and then you very quickly cover it with earth, which puts the fire out. Yes, that's,
yeah. But all the embers have got all the heat. You've got the heat, yeah. So basically, Joe,
just to recap, whether you wet the lamb and you thought, oh, I should wet the fire.
Oh, you're at the fire, yeah. Yeah. But if it makes you feel better, so the TV people came back,
and it was nighttime, and dug up the lamb, and it was perfectly cooked. I remember. No,
it was perfectly cooked. That was the pre-cooking. Oh, right. But actually,
then they said, now we want you to do it on the front lawn. Right. And on the front lawn,
the hole was in beautiful black, loamy earth. And they got even a bigger lamb.
Oh, my God. It was a lamb at the back a couple of weeks before the real lamb. And then on the
night of the real lamb, you know, when we dug that hole, it didn't cook that well. A, because they
bought such a big fucking lamb. And two, because the soil was black and loamy. And whereas in the
back garden, not in the front, it was really clay-like, which obviously, the big fire had been
helped by the clay holding the heat. Nice. Yeah. But I think a lot of it was the size of the lamb.
So, but, you know, TV, so once they discovered it wasn't perfectly cooked, we whipped it out,
we put it in the oven and cooked it. Hold on a second. Hang on. Hold on a second, Joe. Yeah.
The lamb that you saw on Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas was cooked in an oven in a kitchen.
No part. I cannot believe that things I've seen on television are not completely true.
I should, I should, I should know this. I mean, I have, I have worked in television,
not recently, but I don't know. You're doing a play, so they had to go, by the way.
Well, I got cancelled because of coronavirus. Yes.
The program is what we should dig into as well, because we asked Joe, when Joe was on off menu,
what Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas was. And considering it was a show that changed his life,
he did not remember it very well or what happens in it. It was more like a sort of biblical vision,
which I sort of vaguely remembered and then tried to transcribe down as much as I could afterwards.
And did a terrible job, as we've established. So Willie, what was the show Willie's Perfect
Chocolate Christmas? Because, of course, it's a remiss of us to not also mention Andy Oliver,
who we had on the show, who said that she knew you as well. And we had a chat about you on
Andy Oliver's episode. So can, what happened in the show Willie's Perfect Chocolate Christmas?
Because lamb is not a part of a chocolate Christmas, as far as I can work out.
Was it, I thought it was that, I don't think that was in the Perfect Chocolate Christmas.
Oh, Joe. Was it? It's possible that that's not the name of the show as well, I should say.
I think it was Willie's Chocolate Revolution.
So, that was a while ago. So many more, Joe.
Is your name Willie? Have I got that one?
We did do the Perfect Chocolate Christmas, but I think we did the lamb in Willie's Chocolate
Revolution. Oh, my God. I mean, it's becoming increasingly clear that I took almost nothing
from this program. You've misremembered a lot, for sure. Whilst we're here as well, it is Christmas.
I feel like we should get your dream Christmas meals from both of you.
We'll go with Joe first, just because I feel like Willie puts a lot into his cooking,
and I feel like there's going to be a great description coming up.
But Joe, I don't know what you're doing. Are you burying a turkey? What's going on?
What's happening? I don't actually know where I'm going to be for Christmas because of all the
sort of lockdown stuff, and whether I can be with my parents or... I've been told that they are doing
venison, which I've sort of against, really, but apparently because it's kind of ethical,
because ideas are... I don't know. That'll be it. That sounds right.
That sounds right. That worries me a bit because I think it throws the whole rest of the meal out
of kilter. I don't know. I can't really imagine having it happening. I guess that means they
won't be having the trimmings that would go with turkey, which seems like, to some extent,
the best part of the meal. I assume they're not going to have the pigs in bacon, because pigs
in blankets, because that defeats the point of having the ethical venison.
I'd imagine if you tried to make pigs in blankets, you'd misunderstand and actually put a pig in a
blanket. The driest blanket ever. I'd be like, they're called duvet pigs. You get...
No, they are. They are. I saw half a program once. I suppose I'm quite... I mean, I do
still eat meat. That's probably wrongly, but I am... Joe, sorry. Has anyone ever asked you this
question before and have you been able to answer it? Because we asked you what you would like
for Christmas dinner, and you're currently in an existential crisis wondering if you could even
eat meat. I can't believe I asked you first, because I thought Willie's answer would be longer.
Yeah, how long have we got? I guess it would be pretty much... I don't want to say bog standard,
because that doesn't seem very Christian. But, yeah, just a bog standard Christian feast, please.
Bog standard Christian feast. I do sometimes think that there is a tendency to overcook turkey.
That would be my sort of... I often, that turkey breast just seems dry as hell. I would like to do
a Christmas dinner this year and cook it myself. If I do a turkey myself, my main... I suppose my
answer is a moist turkey. A moist turkey with all the traditional trimmings. We know I like my food
moist, because I pour water onto you. Yeah, you like it soaked and raw. Now, Willie, you must be
cooking Christmas dinner, right? Yeah, yeah, I'm going to just have it with my kids, actually. We're
not moving anywhere. Oh, lovely. Eight-year-old parents. So, when everyone meets in Wales normally,
but we're staying at Devon. Do you know what you're going to cook? Have you planned it out already?
Well, you know, traditional turkey, to be honest with you, you know. It's so big, the turkey. I
would definitely be making molipoblano afterwards. So, I'll do the traditional.
And then molipoblano is a chocolate sauce. It's a very well-known Mexican dish. And so, I've actually
got discs, which I've made with all the ingredients, which I put into small stone
millingers. And so, you literally do... You know, normally, that takes a whole day to prepare.
I'll just melt it in a cup. It's a hot water and a can of tomatoes, and it's done.
How are you going to make sure the turkey is moist? Little tip for Joe.
God, if the fucking turkey isn't moist. I'll feed it to the ducks.
Well, you know, it's very easy, to be honest with you. If you really... I mean, you calculate your
pounds and you watch it. But to be really honest with you, you just really want a thermometer
that you stick it up the arse of the turkey, and you know how hot it is inside.
That is the easiest way, you know. Once it reaches a certain temperature inside, you know it's cooked
and take it out. Most people screw up their turkey. They either don't have one of those gizmos,
or they're unlucky, and it's just in there too long. I have actually got a thermometer,
but I've only ever used it to take my own temperature, which I did during...
Because you couldn't get a thermometer so high for something.
So, in terms of Covid, are you looking to be below medium? Is that essentially the...
Yeah, I guess you want blue, don't you, with Covid?
No, I think blue is dead, right? You probably want medium-rare and you don't have Covid.
The lamb I cooked didn't have Covid. That's more or less all that can be said in its favour.
And what about desserts? Are you both traditional Christmas-put people?
I love brandy butter, and just that something that goes with brandy butter.
And I think we've been through this, that my favourite food is butter.
Yeah. And Willie, what are we talking for pudding on Christmas? Chocolate cake?
Because I've got my kids, they're all, you know, they're not all into eating everything,
so you tend to slide the way. They're all like chocolate gooey puddings, obviously,
with their favourite jam. So everyone gets to have where they want strawberry jam,
where they take two seconds to make. My daughter loves making them, you know,
and they're like little volcanoes as it comes to jam and they smother it in cream.
And it's not too big. You've had all that, you know, it's like a...
It's a ramekin-sized thing, isn't it? I've got a duck in the freezer as well,
because my neighbour knocked on the door on Saturday and said,
there's been an accident, because I bought four or five ducks at lockdown.
It's been an accident and I looked at him and I was actually just about to have a nap,
so I was a bit kind of, I was literally going under and I thought,
fuck, what's he going to say to me? And he said, I've killed one of you,
I've run over one of your ducks and then he paused, I thought it was joking,
then he paused and he said, and I've killed one of mine too.
And so I came out and there was carnage on the drive. Oh my God.
And incredibly, he had run over his duck and it was completely flat,
but he'd only run over the neck of mine. So I said, well, hang on a second.
That's not an accident. I can eat that. So I picked up my duck
and I plucked it and I've got it in the freezer. My kids love crispy duck with pancake.
So that is, that is for a boxing day, that is what we're having.
Now it's very difficult because the neighbors have only got one duck left
because they were like pets and they want me to have their duck.
And basically their duck's got bad habits, doesn't like go to bed.
So I said, I'm really sorry, I tried it. I let their duck in my duck house
and then they didn't fucking go to bed every night. And I said to the ladies,
she's very, they're a lovely family. I said, look, your duck's naughty
and I can't have it sleeping with my ducks.
And so she said, well, what do you expect me to do? And she said,
well, I can't have it. I'm really sorry. Can I not sleep with you?
Anyway, so that night she took it away, but I felt a bit bad because I wanted,
she only had two ducks and one was dead and I wanted to be helpful.
But that sounds like they've accidentally run over your duck
and then killed their own duck as a sort of penance.
Yeah, I don't know. We've had some duck stuff going on because first,
Mr. Drake, Mr. Drake disappeared. So I bought three females in the mail.
Hang on. Is Mr. Drake a duck or is that someone else?
They're Indian runner ducks. So we called him Mr. Drake because he had a big neck.
Mr. Drake mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the day.
And so then there were no drakes. But then his offspring grew up. So then I had eight.
So I think there was a certain amount of, I've now got too many ducks,
perhaps, you know. But the numbers are going down because the neighbours are culling them.
Yes, they've gradually run in them over. Well, when Joe was last on the podcast,
he said on more than one occasion that he wanted to be you and he wanted to be
Willie. Do you have any advice for Joe if he wants to, I mean, maybe you want to get a bit
of a feel of what Joe's life is like now and then how he can change that to become more like you?
Well, get a lawn with clay, buy some ducks and make sure you've got neighbours.
At the moment, Joe, what's your setup like at the moment? Is it possible for you to buy ducks
right now? They could live in the window boxes outside my flat, I suppose. I do have neighbours,
but I don't think they're going to be able to run over the ducks, which seems to be an important
part of the setup. I suppose that what's standing in the way of my dream of becoming Willie at the
moment is I live in central London in a flat without any outside space and I don't think I'm
allowed pets. But other than that, it's fine. I'm getting there.
Well, let's not draw a line under this then. Your quest to become Willie is still there.
We're going to put a pin in it and then hopefully one day we can all meet up and bury a lamb in
Soft Touch's back garden. On that note, Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you're having a
wonderful festive time. This has been absolutely brilliant fun. Anything else to say, James?
I'd really like watching you meet each other for the first time. Do you have any final words you'd
like to say to each other? Maybe, Joe, you'd like to tell Willie how much he means to you?
Willie, watching that program really put me in mind of a potential future for me.
And even though our experiment in Soft Touch's back garden completely failed,
it was a beautiful dream. And also, I'm glad that you're a real person and not a figment of my
imagination. That would be what I would say. And that must be reassuring, I hope.
Oh, yeah, I'm glad I'm real. Yeah.
What a treat this has been. Thank you so much to Joe and thank you so much to Willie.
We hope you have a very Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody.
Well, there we have it. I mean, I absolutely loved that, James.
It was, I warmed the heart to see the two of them connecting over food and animals and crazy
capers. I loved it, Ed. Not a lot of animals came out of that unscathed, though, did they?
No, it was a massacre. And after the phone call, Willie told us that he likes to eat road kill
and recently got a deer off the side of the road and put it in his car and took it home and ate it.
So it didn't stop there. It didn't stop. After the record, the carnage continued.
Now, I know that we went into this knowing that Joe Thomas wanted to be Willie. Having met Willie,
I want to be Willie. He is living your life. He's, I mean, what we didn't get to talk about in the
episode behind him was loads of like pickled stuff. He was picking garlic, which goes down into
this like amazing kind of, what was he saying? Is it like a relish? He said it's like a relish.
And he was surrounded by pumpkins, genuinely surrounded by pumpkins.
He's grown in his garden all through lockdown. Yeah, he's living your life.
What a guy. And one day I will live that life. But for now, I will have to put up with living in
London, not surrounded by pumpkins, and googling Willie's chocolate and checking out
willyskekow.com. And I think, as we all know, one day I will live Joe Thomas' life. So, you know,
it's all good. Indeed. Thank you very much, James. Merry Christmas to you.
Merry Christmas, Ed. It's been a pleasure. I mean, thank you so much for doing this podcast with me
this year, Ed. It's really, it's got me through. You're welcome, James. And if you're a good boy,
it's been fine. If you're a good boy, I'll carry on doing it with you next year.
Oh, thank you so much. And that's your Christmas present.
That's the best Christmas present ever. You're welcome. Merry Christmas to you.
Merry Christmas to the great Benito. And Merry Christmas to all the listeners out there.
Goodbye. Merry Christmas, everyone. Goodbye.
Hello, it's me, Amy Glendale. You might remember me from the best ever episode of Off Menu,
where I spoke to my mum and asked her about seaweed on mashed potato and our relationship's
never been the same since. And I am joined by me, Ian Smith. I would probably go bread. I'm not
going to spoil it in case. Get him on, James and Ed. But we're here sneaking in to your podcast
experience to tell you about a new podcast that we're doing. It's called Northern News. It's
about all the news stories that we've missed out from the North because, look, we're two Northerners.
But we've been living in London for a long time. The new stories are funny.
Quite a lot of them crimes. It's all kicking off. And that's a new podcast called Northern News.
We'd love you to listen to. Maybe we'll get my mum on. Get Glendale's mum on every episode.
That's Northern News. When's it out, Ian? It's already out now, Amy. Is it? Yeah,
get listening. There's probably a backlog. You've left it so late.