Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ep 150: Angela Hartnett

Episode Date: May 25, 2022

Michelin starred chef Angela Hartnett gives James some tips for his chorizo broccoli pasta in today’s episode.Angela Hartnett’s new book ‘The Weekend Cook’ is out on 26 May, published by Bloomsbury. Buy it here. Recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.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.

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? Welcome to the Off Menu podcast, taking the hairy shell of the Internet, cracking into it with the hammer of humour and sopping on the wonderful podcast milk within. Coconuts. Coconuts. Welcome. Belito looks very confused. I know it was coconuts. That was Ed Gamble there giving you a lovely intro. My name is James A. Caster. This is the Off Menu podcast. We run a dream

restaurant. We invite a guest every single week. We ask them their favourite ever starter, main course dessert, side dish and drink. And this week, our guest is Angela Hartnett. Angela Hartnett, and wonderful chef. Yes. A wonderful chef. She's been on TV lots and lots as well. She's been on things like Master Chef. She did Britain's Best Home Cook. I think it was the name of the show. They did a celebrity version of that as well. And it turns out Ed Balls can cook. Really? Yeah. He's an amazing cook. But enough of that. Angela is an absolutely brilliant chef. She's

got a couple of restaurants in London. I think she's got Murano. She's got Cafe Murano. And I would go to both of those. But also she has an absolutely brilliant book, which is out tomorrow called The Weekend Cook. The Weekend Cook. Good food for real life. Yes. Which is important sometimes. I've got a lot of cookbooks where I read through them and I'm like, well, I'm never going to make that. So to actually have a good cookbook by an amazing chef, which features recipes that you could do at home, very exciting. There's, I mean, just some of the examples of things. Wild garlic gnocchi, sausage rolls

and apple tart. Lovely. I mean, what more could you ask for? And you are right. That is the exact kind of cookbook that I want. It breaks my heart. Sometimes you kind of get a cookbook, open it and go, I haven't got any of these things. I don't know how to do whatever technique they've just described. This is a non-starter and something like this. You go, great. I can get all these at the shop. I actually can follow this recipe easier than I expected to. And I'm pretty sure I can make the thing in the picture. Yes. Yeah, exactly.

And I'll feel really great at the end and a big sense of achievement. Yeah. And I think this is going to be great. I'm definitely going to cook stuff from Liz. Yeah. But regardless of all of that, Angela's brilliant background as a chef and her fantastic book if she's a secret ingredient that we have decided upon in advance, we will remove her from the restaurant. Sorry, Angela. And this week, the secret ingredient is kidney beans. Kidney beans. James, I'm so glad this has finally come up.

Yes. I think it's a slightly controversial opinion, but I hate kidney beans. I don't like them. I mean, I won't put them in a chili. Oh. If you don't like something, don't put it in a recipe. I don't like kidney beans. I'd rather put black beans in a chili. I love black beans. You know what? Sometimes I go full Texas style and there ain't no beans in it at all. I don't know beans in a Texas chili.

Maybe not. Maybe I'm getting that wrong. It feels like to me that they put baked beans in there. Baked beans? Yeah. But Heinz baked beans. In a Texas chili. Well, look, I was worried I might be wrong, but it's lovely to meet someone who's more wrong.

Yeah. Always. No, I'd almost go beanless, really, unless I can get black beans. I forget when you go beanless. Yeah. I think beanless, especially when it's kidney beans, they're pasty inside. They're horrible. Evette Caster suggested that. Yes. On Twitter. And, you know, James, if you want to suggest secret ingredients,

you should just come to us. You don't need to make up Twitter accounts. Ms. E. Caster. That's about it for why. Yeah. Ms. Y. Caster. But yeah. Good stuff. Yeah. Just suggest them in future, James. You don't need to make up any Twitter accounts. Okay. I don't know. It worked. It clearly worked.

It did work. Kidney beans is a secret ingredient. So as you can see, if you send in secret ingredients, we will possibly use them. So if you want to get your secret ingredients to at-off menu official on Twitter, that would be absolutely wonderful. We will potentially use your suggestions as a secret ingredient. I am on tour starting in September. It is the extension of my tour that's called Electric. I'm going all over the place. It's been a lot of fun. I can't wait to do the September dates. If you're in London, I'm doing the Hammersmith Apollo on October 22nd. I'm finally coming over to Dublin and Belfast. I've come to those. It's been a lot of fun, and I can't

wait to do more. Go and see the show. I was going to say it's a great show, but I'm going to come and see it on that leg. Come see it at theapollo.EdGamble.co.uk for tickets. Fantastic. Also, you can pre-order my book. James A. Caster's Guide to Quitting Social Media, Being the Best You Can Be and Curing Yourself of Learning. That's volume one. Order it wherever you get your books. I was going to say it's a great book, but I've not read it yet.

Oh, that's great. I can't wait. Synergy. Can't wait. But for now, this is the off-menu menu of Angela Hartnett. Welcome, Angela, to the Dream Restaurant. Thank you very much. Sorry, I'm just floored there. You struck me. Yes, thank you. Thank you, guys. Welcome, Angela Hartnett, to the Dream Restaurant. We'll be expecting you for some time. Here we are.

Very happy to be here. In the Dream Restaurant, you get to come to a Dream Restaurant. You don't have to cook in the Dream Restaurant unless you want to. Marvelous. No, no, I don't. I definitely don't. Definitely want a night off. Day off, week off, months off, even. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I sounded bitter and twisted. At home, are you the one cooking? Because, of course, your husband's also a cook. What? Yes.

Who is this guy? Neil. Yeah, he could. No, we're taking turns. I mean, not like there's no rotor or anything. You know, we're not like that. But, you know, if I'm cooking something easy and quick, I'll just do it and then he'll do one night. But to be fair, we're only cooked really at the weekends because most of the time we're either out eating or we're off at work. Well, I mean, this is probably the quickest link into a book that we've ever made today. It's just worked out so perfectly. You only cook at weekends. Oh, there you go.

Well, let's talk about your new book, The Weeknd Cook. For a chance, you have a coffee. That was amazing. That was very good. So this is, I guess, the heart of the book, is it's the things that you would cook at home? Yeah, it really is. And to be fair, there's some nights or days when we've had people over and we've gone overboard with cooking, like we've done, like brought the restaurants to the home. And there's other times it's just a bowl of pasta or a simple salad or,

you know, I mean, I do partake in a lovely crisp sandwich every now and again. I mean, that's not in the book, but, you know, I think we all know how to do that one. But, you know, so you say that you bring some little stuff to Chris sandwiches that that might be interesting to hear. So if you want to tell the listener now, to be fair, I look, it's got to be white bread, proper rubbish white bread. You know what I'm saying? None of that sourdough nonsense, you know, just proper standard white bread butter and then plain crisp, no flavored crisp. And my fellow chef Chris who works for Paul Ainsworth, I heard him the other day saying, put brown sauce in it, never in your life.

Such a no, no. You put that in a bacon butty or a chip butty, you do not put it in a crisp sandwich. Sorry. Are you buttering a crisp sandwich? Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. As many calories as you can. Saucy butter you can put in there. Saucy butter, sausage, crisps, heart attack, sort of food after a hangover, sort of, you know, you know what I'm saying. Oh, I know what you're saying. There's a lot of, I was looking at the book a minute ago and like Tom Carrey just said how brilliant it is, Stanley Tutti. I was wondering, do chefs use each other's cookbooks at home? Do you have cookbooks by other chefs that you use?

I do actually. Yeah, I have quite a lot. I've got Tom's books. Thank you, Ed. Very good, very good. I love, I tell you he's a great food writer I love. He's the guy from Honey & Co. Itamar, he's fantastic. I love Valentine Warner. I think his cookbooks are great. River Cafe, yeah, I do actually. You dip in and out. There's no one. I mean, the God S is Delia without doubt because I tell you for why all her recipes work. Yeah. I mean, I hope to God all of those too because my mum's always saying do you check these recipes? Are you sure they're us? I said, yeah, yeah, I think they're both. You know, even I'm like, I missed out on ingredients. But Delia's like Mary. They test

and test and test. They're so thorough. You know, if you want a recipe that you suddenly go, I want Yorkshire Puddin's to go to work, you go to Delia without doubt. Oh, that's good. I've tried using, I bought Tom Carage's Hand in Flowers book. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And even when I told him that I had that, he went, you're never going to mention it. When I looked at him, I was like, well, of course not, because I don't have a blast chiller at home. Don't you have your sous vide machine, of course. Guess what we discovered recently in my flat? The chorizo broccoli pasta. This is one of James's recipes. Okay. Me and my girlfriend make chorizo broccoli pasta all

the time, probably twice a week. It's our favorite dish. Lovely. We absolutely love it. Any particular broccoli, may I ask? Well, kind of like your standard broccoli, but it's the stems, not the heads. So just chop the stems. Nice, nice. I like that. No wastage. Yeah, yeah. So you do the stems. Oh no, then he throws all the rest of the broccoli away. That's what's great about it. We're used to, here's a thing, Angel, is this an interesting story? Yes. We're used to, you know, how are we going to use these stems? So then we got this recipe, and we did that. And now we're like, how are we going to use these stems? That is an interesting story. Because that's how much we love this recipe.

Stunning. I love it. I like the most of it up in the weekend. Yeah. Okay. Marvelous, yeah. But like, yeah, we know it so well. We were like, where have we even got this recipe from? I didn't know. Tom Carridge. Tom Carridge. You're right. Tom Carridge recipe. Yeah. Do you put chilli in there as well? A bit of garlic, yeah? Yeah. Chili's, garlic, capers. Capers, nice, yeah. Obviously chorizo. Yeah, obviously chorizo. I always forget the name of the pasta that we prefer. But we, you know, I only have it in chorizo, broccoli pasta.

Do you use the main bit of the chorizo, or is it like the stem to use the metal, the metal in the end? Yeah, it's like a 20p in a Christmas pudding. Yeah. Okay, I know. We let them be in there. Spot the chorizo. Yeah, you're lucky to get the old metal bits. God, can't wait to come to your house. I'll make you chorizo, broccoli pasta. Because that was one of the things I was going to do at one point. We jokingly said on the podcast, I don't know when, that I would make chorizo, broccoli pasta for Tom Carridge. Yeah. But then I didn't know at the time it was his recipe.

Right. Oh, gosh. Now I'm merely scared. You'll be fine. You'll be fine. Add your own interpretation. That's the great thing about recipes. There's no copyright. So literally, you know, I mean, you can see it sometimes, that people have just changed one ingredient or something, and suddenly they say a recipe. So claim it as your own, you know, add something into it. I mean, have you ever had a bit of parsley? A bit of parsley in there. Oh, no, I wouldn't be so bold.

Have you ever had anyone make one of your recipes for you? I don't know, actually. I think people have. I mean, my family have done stuff like that. They've tried stuff and friends have. But yeah, I love it when people cook for me. I think it's just one of the best things because you're working all the time. And it's a real treat, actually. And I never, it's only when we're in the cab home that we bitch about it. We're very polite when we're there. It's amazing. So how did you do this? And then what was that? Why is that? Why is that when their husband put number cards?

Come die with me when it shows them in the cab. Given the two when they've been so nice, like, oh, you motherfucker. Oh, we always start with still or sparkling water? Sparkling. I do. I do like start sparkling water. Yeah, I don't know why, but I've always liked it. Yeah, I just think it's nice, refreshing, bubbly. I find it thirst quenching. You drinking it at home? Do you drink it at home? We've been very sustainable and bought one of those soda streams now. So we do our own, you know, which is good. Don't buy the bottle. It does work,

yeah, except when obviously soda thing runs out and then it's flat water. But yeah, I like it. James always asks if it works because we got sent a soda stream machine. Oh, did you? And I like the soda stream machine. And James said it didn't work because he was doing it wrong and it was spraying all over him every single day. I've been doing it wrong. They sent me a broken one. Did you attach the bottle properly, James? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Are you sure? I don't attach a bottle. I definitely did it right. It doesn't work. It flooded my whole kitchen. Right, OK. Would you like me to come and show you how to make one to do, you know? Good luck if you, you know, give you use of that piece of junk. It's a hunger junk. OK, all right. I quite like my soda stream if you're listening. You clearly didn't get a faulty one.

I feel like soda stream is going to be happier that Andrew was on board with it rather than you, to be honest. Well, you know, I've got, you know, if that's what it takes to operate a soda stream, you have to be a professional chef and actually understand the entire culinary world. Yeah. I'm the every man. Yeah, you are the every man. So the soda stream is going to be like, oh, baby, yo. It made it too complicated just to attach the bottle, press the button.

I mean, that, yeah, it's a challenge. Forgot to make it operable for people with no opposable thumbs. Well, come on. Come on, let's not slug off the thumbs. That's exciting. So when people come in, like, when you've had, like, people come into, like, restaurants and stuff and you're looking at them and the customers, you judge them if they order still or sparked and what would you have? No, no. Are you like, are you very judgmental about what's for you to, I'm feeling, feeling there's something underneath here. Some guests are that we have.

Oh, really? Some guests are like, ah, Ladi Dar, sparkling water, or some people are like, I'm afraid I'm going to go Ponzi and never sparkling water. You know, they really, it's a lot of weird stigma attached to it. I mean, to be fair, we always, I like the tap, you know, I'm all for the Thames tap water. I think that's the best. That's what we have. I mean, it's not like I go and get special water to put in the soda

stream without the tap. I just make it bubbly. That's all I do. But no, no, you know, you've got me feeling guilty. No, no, I do. Is there a bit of judgment with, okay. So here's, if I go to a really nice restaurant, regardless of how nice the restaurant is, when I've been to Murano, yeah, love your restaurant. Thank you.

I will always go in and I'll say, do you want any water? And I'll always go tap. Yeah. The server always looks a bit crestfallen as if to say, well, they're not spending any money. Yeah. There's probably that. Getting the freebie straight away.

No, you shouldn't. Well, hopefully they're trained enough that they don't do that, because, you know, at the end of the day, it's what people are thinking. Oh, I'm always looking for that. Yeah, you're looking. It's probably the way you go tap, you know, very aggressively. I might add to that, you know, maybe it's more that than the fact they've said tap water.

But yeah, I can get it. And I know there's certain people that will come in and exactly that. They want to tap because they think there's, there is a mark up on water. Of course there is. You know, it's where you're making the money. We have to make some money. But that's where they'll definitely go tap like that.

So yeah, all right. I think I'm going tap now. Jeez, you didn't even offer tap you to. You made it policy by saying sparkly or still. We're doing it just like all the restaurants. They never offer the freebie. We always offer tap. He's going to check on that now.

Get a letter next week. I don't blame you for not, if you don't offer tap, why would you offer the freebie? It's like going around going, have you looked at the menu or would you like some free food? That I've got in the kitchen. If you have my lunch, if you like. Yeah, exactly.

You want to start off. At the end of the charita. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Nice. Pop it up some bread. Oh. Pop it up some bread, Angela Hartnett.

Pop it up some bread. Bread, bread, bread without doubt. Bread, bread, bread. That got shouted at me earlier as well. The mouse shouted it. Yeah, when I was Neil's chef in the kitchen. I was like, what are you doing? He goes, I'm preparing you.

And I went, oh my God, all right. Josh, I said, calm down. Yeah, freak me out slightly. No, definitely bread. I love bread. I love popcorns as well, mind you. But I just do. And because of my background of the Irish background

on my dad's side, about Italians on my mum, bread was their lifeline. You know, the Italians eat bread through the whole of the meal. It barely even stops at dessert. Bread is there from start to finish. The Irish love a good bit of bread. And yeah, and God, yeah.

And that's my biggest. Two things I really would struggle to give up. I could give up meat tomorrow. Booze and bread. And even I walk in the restaurants and we have this amazing for capture and stuff. And I literally would just walk over, take a bit of salami, slice it,

make myself a little panini, then walk around the kitchen. Oh, morning, morning. And you do that in four restaurants. No, I can't be self-like. It's not going to happen. And it's, you know, it's a killer. Because, you know, I don't know, it's delicious.

Yeah, it is so good. I love the idea of you walking into your own restaurant and me just making a sandwich and walking around like, hey, guys, how's it going? Morning. You should have chat with you up too, checking on the stuff. Yeah, it's, you know, and you do munch away, you know.

And you're like, we have breadsticks. You eat a few of that. You know, I mean, it's really difficult to give up. The only way I can't eat, I don't eat, is if I don't buy it. If I buy it, I'm basically buggered, you know. And there's too many nice bakers in London. Yeah, yeah.

That's the key. Yeah. Is it the fridge I'm eating in? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, absolutely. But are you, what, you keeping bread in a fridge? Oh, no, I mean anything. Just checking.

Yeah, now I'm with you there. If it's there, I'll eat it. I often think, oh, well, as long as I don't have things in the house, that's fine. But unfortunately, because of this podcast, we regularly get sent things. Oh, of course you do, yeah. Got back from a tour show last night.

It was about midnight. And I thought, well, I'm going to bed. I've just got to go to bed. And then I saw a little box that was on the doorstep. And James' sister has started a flapjack company and sent loads of flapjacks. Nice. So I just stood, and there was four different types

of flapjack. And I stood in my coat and shoes still and tried a bit of each of the flapjacks. And I'm like, yeah, that's a nice one. Very good. Yeah, nice, yeah. Coffee, delicious. Peanut butter, delicious.

Marzipan, amazing. That's my favorite. I said it was my favorite. Well, I told you that. Yeah, that is the best one. My favorite was the chili, chili, and lime, and chocolate. Oh, yeah, that's the most popular one. Chili, lime, and chocolate.

Wow, that's an interesting combination. But that's going. If it's in the house, that is going. Yeah, yeah. That's it. That's the problem. If you've got it there, you'll eat it. So just don't buy it.

Yeah. But then you can't live your life like not buying stuff and eating stuff. So yeah, forget it. I've given up trying. What sort of bread are you going for in the dream restaurant then? Would you like a sort of a combo of the Irish and Italian?

I think, I'll tell you, he does a great combo of breads, his own Mr. Corrigan, if you haven't had him on. He does a great soda bread, which I think is delicious. Because soda bread is one of those breads that's great fresh. It can also be a couple of days stale, then you can toast it. And it's also soaks in the butter when you spread it on there. So I love soda bread.

And then I love focaccia because I love that crunchiness. I'm not so fussed about having brown bread or anything like that. And I have to say, controversial as I may say, I'm slightly over sourdose. I'm done with them. I've just, you know, if anyone gives me another sourdose sandwich that's so thick and toast,

you can't actually be going to break your teeth on it. It's like, you know, there's reasons that you want to wipe back for a bacon sandwich because that bread works. And it's, you know, soaks up all the fat and stuff. So, yeah, I'm over the sort of sourdose for them. Got a bit emotional then. Sorry, you're in love.

No, I do not. I agree with you. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, finally, someone's coming on here and saying it. Yeah. Because like, I'm sick of it. What is everywhere in it?

Yeah, it's too much. And you know, and this great one is a god. Yeah, I've got some great friends who have baked it and make it. But it's just like enough now. Just I like bread for the right reasons. So I say a white bread for certain things. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah.

It's a good white bread. When something becomes the default, it's time to move away. Like, I'm sure we all remember a time when you could get unsalted caramel. Yeah. Not anymore. Not anymore. Well, but amen to that.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Amen to that. I love salted caramel. Yeah, but it'd be nice to have the option, right? Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We like options in life.

Yeah. I don't even know if my brain would know the difference now. I think if I ate unsalted caramel, my brain would just fill it in and put some salt in there. Yeah. I don't trick or trick myself. Yeah. I'd be like, well, there's most of salt in it.

And then I just tell myself I was eating salted caramel. So I forgot what that tastes like. Let's get onto your menu proper then. Yeah. Dream starter. Was this difficult for you being a chef? Oh, God, it was horrible. Yeah, because there's so many dream starters.

I mean, I could, you know, depending on mood, occasion, where you are. But I've thought about it and then I was thinking of my main course and, you know, because you want sort of a meal that's going to work together. And so I came up with actually a really delicious, simple bowl of pasta with chili, tomato sauce, garlic in there, fresh basil, probably like a puttanesca with capers,

black olives in there. So nice and spicy, delicious tomato flavor, loads of olive oil. It's a go-to dish. It's a pasta I love as a course. And, you know, the bread can mop up the sauce, cappata, that sort of thing. And yeah, that would definitely be.

And it can be eaten anyway. You can have it up in the mountains if you're up in the mountains. I don't know why I said that. But all by the sea or sitting in your flat in East London, you know, it doesn't really matter. But, you know, it's, and actually that dish, you can, it's all staples.

Everyone's got capers, olives, all that sort of stuff in their fridge. And anchovies, of course. Great anchovies. You know, or I would even just have a bowl of pasta with butter and parmesan. I mean, just that is bloody delicious. I love a puttanesca.

Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. It just proper kicks you in the face. Yeah, exactly. It's so many different flavors. Yeah, it is the best. Oh, it's great. I'm just sitting there by the sea eating it.

Yeah, it's great. That would be my go-to starter. I've got a tin of anchovies I still need to use up because when I had COVID in January 2021, our friends, Amy and Nish, did a shop for me. I'd filled out what I wanted, and they just chucked a tin of anchovies in there as a bonus.

Contravertial. Without asking me. There's like, there's a little bonus item in there for you. And did they charge you for that, anchovies? Was it gifts or was it a chargeable gift? You paid for those anchovies. No, I think they paid for it for me. And then when they had COVID, I was like,

hey, I can pay you back now. I can get you the shopping. And they were like, no, we're all right. Because they had COVID recently when it was like, everyone was running around anyway. You should have just gone out of the house and posted a tin of anchovies. Yeah, exactly.

I mean, I was tempted to do it. I think now it's too late for the joke. I've still got it in the cupboard. So you're not using anchovies? Well, actually, to tell you the truth, they put two tins of anchovies in there. And I have used one of them. And I think I chucked it on a pizza.

They got pimped up a pizza I was making. And I chucked it on there. Because you had made that nice pizza with the anchovies on it, with a lamb. But I didn't have lamb. You know, you can put it on your broccoli dish. Yeah, I was going to say that. Even the tops of your broccoli,

which are sort of building up in your kitchen because you don't know what to do with them, you can roast those off a bit of olive oil or a bit of butter in a pan, slice them up, add your anchovies, let that melt down. So you've got like an anchovy butter, a bit of chili in there. And that's a great salad for you.

Maybe I should do that tonight. There you go. Or put them on toast. Oh, my God, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, just nice toast, lovely butter, or even no butter with just the anchovies and the oil as well.

It's delicious. I'll do it tonight. Yeah, supper for you. There you go, James. Yeah, I'll do that. So just me tonight. Just me on my own some. Just you on your own some.

Eating anchovies and watching Moon night. Yeah, actually, maybe if it's just you on your own some tonight, you shouldn't eat a tin of anchovies. That would feel pretty sad. I know, but it's OK when you're in a relationship. When she's coming back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Then it's like, oh, good. I get to be tragic for an evening on my own. You know, nice break from the happiness. I'll be back. Yeah, yeah. She'll love it. Yeah. That sounds great.

OK, happy with that. Fresh basil as well. It's always exciting to me. Yeah, I like fresh basil. Yeah, or even parsley. If you haven't got basil, that's fine. But parsley's good. Bit of a flat leaf in there would work, I think.

I think I used to working not like proper kitchens, but kitchens. I thought you were going to tell me a green graces there. I used to work in a parsley farm. OK. But like, I had to chop parsley all the time. Yeah.

Because I was, you know, that was my level. Yeah, OK. And what are you, the mash king as well, don't you? I was also the mash king. OK, right, OK. I was the major basher of potato in town. Did you, what, do you put milk, cream, butter? Cream.

Cream, controversial. Cream, butter, salt. Do you put the butter in first? I put butter in first. Yeah. Give it a bit of a mash. Yeah. Dump all the cream in.

Actually, though, salt and pepper were going before the cream. Yeah, yeah, of course, yeah. And then dump all the cream in, mash it again, then loads of orange cheese. Wow, you know, like, orange colour cheese. OK, cheddar, cheddar. Orange cheddar cheese.

Orange cheddar cheese. That's an interesting one. Chuck that in. Yeah. Mash it up. And then everyone would go in. I love the mashing up like this. Yeah, two-handed, two-handed, two-handed.

Kettering style, just beat it up. No, no, no, mash is in my hand. And everyone loved it. Everyone would say, you are the mash king. You are the mash king. Yeah, now some guests have suggested that it was a job that no one else wanted to do and so I got called the mash king

so that I would do it more. I'm not saying nothing. I'm saying nothing. But I don't care. Yeah. Honestly, you know, there were days when I would go in and someone else had done the mash in the morning. It wasn't as good.

I'd have a little bit of it. I'd be like, that is lumpy. Yes, that's it. I don't like that. Not enough orange cheese. The flavour, not enough orange cheese. And it's lumpy because they put the cream and milk or in first.

You've got to put the butter in first. Yeah. Then that avoids the lumps. Is that right? Yes. It's like a tip. Get all your lumps out. I didn't even know I was doing that.

You were doing it right instinct, you see. You're a natural. You're a natural, Joe. Natural, yeah. Pretty good. Also, you've got to get the orange cheese just right so it doesn't, you don't want it tippin' over into making the mash orange.

So you've got to get the fresh roll. I take some grief with that, yes. You've got to get it just right so that it doesn't colour the mash, but you get the cheesy flavour in there. Do you agree with the orange cheese full stop? I mean, if I'm honest, no. I've got to be honest with you there.

The fact that you're calling cheddar orange when it's clearly yellow most of the time. This is orange cheddar cheese. This is orange cheddar cheese. All right, OK. Or red Leicester. Right, yeah. OK, all right.

Then kept me and we called it orange cheddar. OK, all right. That's fine. OK, I'll give it a go. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure it adds a lovely flavour, but you do an orange mash, do you? No, so you kind of...

Could you substitute it with, like, a stronger cheddar that is less orange? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you could. You know, just go your own way with it, really. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Feel ad lib a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A bit of parmesan.

Was that too much? That controversial. I know, I could parmesan. I mean, you know, parmesan goes in the treats of broccoli pasta at the end. Oh, yeah? So, you know. All right.

You're his parmesan lover. He's not again the parmesan lover. He's not again that. Yeah, fabulous. I love putting some parmesan in there. All right, Mesh King. Thank you. Thank you.

She admitted it. So, you were chopping the... I don't ever use parsley in anything because it makes me feel like I'm back in the kitchen again, working. Oh, right. So, it's trauma-related then. I don't like it, yeah.

OK, that's fair enough, OK. I don't like it, yeah. But parsley would work in your broccoli cheddar, chorizo pasta. Yeah, it would, yeah. Well, it's never going anywhere. Yeah, but you don't have to chop it. You can just pick the leaves

and just throw it in at the ends. But obviously, I feel there's something deeper here that we need to talk to, maybe off sort of microphone, lying down that you need to sort of get it all out of your system, whatever they made you do with that parsley. You know, anyway. I mean, I was good at that as well. Yeah.

You know, you balance the... Put... Press down on the knife on one end and you need to use it as a pivot. Shhh! Go all over it, get it really fine. Yeah. Satisfying.

Yeah. Satisfying when it's like the crunch of the parsley, when you're chopping it up. Yeah, when your problem's out on the best. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd be thinking about, oh man, I'm going to be in a band one day and this place will eat my dust. Yes.

That's what we're thinking when I was chopping the parsley. Got on desperate to know where you're working now. Who's going to eat your dust? Yeah. Ah, the star in Geddington and the trading post in Kettering. But you know, still, good places. Have you been back and done an act there?

You know what? No, not done an act there. But like, I mean, the trading post I haven't been back to, it's like a chain, I don't know, Hungry Horse or something. Okay, right, yeah. But like, you know... What are you talking about, Hungry Horse? What are you, what's a Hungry Horse?

They're going to be like so full to, you know, Friday night now after they hear this. It's like, this is it. It's a chain of like family pubs. It's catering, that's what we're saying, you know. They've got a soft play area. Got a Hungry Horse. That's like a cheesy mash for all these hungry kids.

I don't know if it was Hungry Horse, but like, it was one of those, it was a soft play area and it was like... And they did mash and it's the Hungry Horse. No, they didn't do mash at that one. No mash. I didn't do mash at that one. I didn't mash at the star.

Right. Different chef now, but the chef who was there at the time was really good. And, yeah, it was like a family run pub. I don't know who owns it now, but I was back there. Within a month, I've been back at the star at the Village pub quiz. Nice.

Oh, don't tell me Hungry Horse have taken over the star. No, never. They would never do that. Troubled their hooves all over the rest of catering. Don't even joke. They would, they would have... They would never give up the star to anyone like that. It's been for a lot of owners over the years.

Maybe you should go back and, you know, invest in it, you know, get a little village all of you together. Word has it. Ridley Scott was in there recently. Whose word? Well, someone at the star came up to me and said... There's a man in the little room. I can be like Ridley Scott, but I'm not getting health charts.

Is he Ridley Scott? I was at the quiz. I was at the quiz. I was sitting with my family in the quiz team. Yeah. And a man, and a lady was going around selling the raffle tickets. And a man came over while the lady was selling raffle tickets and said, to me, guess who was in here the other day?

Ridley Scott. I never met the man. Yeah, yeah. But, like, he was like, Ridley Scott was in here. And then the lady went, who the bloody hell's that? And I just explained to her that... Then someone says, the guy who's two doors down the road.

Yeah, I said, he directed Alien. And she was like, what's he doing in here? Well, he's allowed to be in here. If you direct Alien, you're allowed to go to the star. When I worked in a pub in Reigns Park, I went in after a day off and they went, you never guess who we had in here. And it was an awful pub.

They went, Louis Walsh came in, took a couple of parts. I went, no, he didn't. Why is Louis Walsh coming in here for a couple of points? They went, yeah, I've got it on CCTV because we kept CCTV because a woman went mad and flipped the table over. And you can see Louis Walsh in the background.

And I looked at the CCTV and it's literally the back of a man's head with gray hair. And like, that is not Louis Walsh. There's like a woman going, flipping a table. Oh my God, brilliant. I love it, I love it. When I moved into my flat, my, the guy who works in the building,

he said to me, there's a harvester, like, door to door, I'd take a minute walk for my flat. That's why I moved there. Yeah, definitely. Never been there still. Have you not? I was on a date at a harvester once. Well, yeah.

Many back in the day. Back in the day. It's all right. We're not married to put it like that. We never went much further than our dates at the harvester. But you know, you can't judge, can you? Was this before you were a chef? Before I was a chef,

I was sort of still probably at college and stuff there. But yeah, before, yeah. You're not taking a chef on a date to a harvester. Surely. I mean, you know, I was taken to a pizza place on a date when I was a chef or still am a chef and they put pineapple on the pizza. I never went out with him again after.

Oh, really? Very, yeah, certain rules. You've got to have your standards, James. Pineapple on Pete. Oh, my God. Pineapple on Pete. We're going to fall out. Oh, really?

I bet. I bet. Get my coat now. I also put pineapple in my Nando's wrap. I've never had a Nando. So I can't comment on that. I cannot comment on that. But pineapple on Pete.

So we need to go out and have pizza together. You need a little education on that one, James. They actually be telling me chicken and coriander. Chicken, coriander, and pineapple pizza. That's his favourite. Oh! How do you know? The guy from the building was like,

if you've been to the harvester yet, I went no. And he went, I'll tell you who's always in there. I said, who? He went Paul Sinner. Paul Sinner was a comedian who was also the cinnamon on the checks. And I was like, there's no way. I know Paul. There's no way he's going to that harvester regularly.

He's like, yeah, he's always in there. Like, no, he's not. He might have been there once, maybe. Wrong. Yeah. He's always in there. There's no way. Paul is a man of, yeah, he has an explicit taste.

Yeah. We need to get Paul in and ask him about that. Yeah, we need to get Paul now. Make a note of that, Benito. Do it there, take him there. But Paul, yeah. Would you have to record it in the harvester? This is him, isn't it?

Oh, no. Don't I get anything like it? Yeah, yeah, exactly. He's never been in there. Never met him before in my life. That's the guy from the chase. Yeah. Your main course?

Main course is, well, I'm sure someone said it. Roast chicken. I just absolutely love it. Bet you who said it. Claudia Winkerman, who has said, this is a brilliant cookery book by a brilliant woman about the weekend cook by Angela Hart. Oh, I love you, James.

Love you. Yeah, just it's just the best thing, isn't it? You know, on every level, the juices, the meat, all the accompaniments. And it doesn't always have to be a classic roast accompaniment. It doesn't have to be roast potatoes, all the vegetable and all that. You could just have roast chicken, sage and onion stuff.

You can have it with French fries, gravy. I love the way Hicks used to do it with his sort of, you know, you had the roast chicken, you had loads of French fries and burné sauce, or, you know, chicken sauce. And so anything like that. And chicken, and actually chicken is probably my favorite meat.

Like I'll do it in sort of bread crumbed and fried. Chicken burger, chicken wings, pretty much chicken, you know. So anything chicken orientated, but certainly just your classic roast chicken, sage and onion stuffing. Lemon up its bottom. Time, loads of rosemary, garlic all in there. So when you, the garlic slowly cooked in the juices,

you squeeze that all over the chicken. And the one that a friend of mine did it, when his restaurant, Ed at Braun, when it came and he used to serve this roast chicken, he'd put the bread underneath. So it'd soak all the juices. So you just had like this chicken-y spread soaks. I mean, it was just delicious.

Or I like it when people put the potatoes under these. So all the fat of the chicken soaks onto there and roast them. You're salivating there, Ed. Oh my goodness, yeah, I really am. I love a roast chicken. Well, it's the best. At home, if you do roast chicken, you just do it with like Greek salad or something.

And then it's like a proper nice middle thing. Yeah, exactly, yeah. You don't need to kill yourself with all the sides and all of that. No, you know, I think you've got to be in that mood to do all the roast and stuff. Neil does it where he chops it all down and then literally has, and it's that sort of leftover in the fridge.

So you'll take any veg, chop all that up. If there's some tomatoes, we'll throw those in a bit of chili, garlic. He just puts that in a pan, slightly roasts all the veg off, then puts the chicken on once he's browned the skin and just puts the whole lot in the oven. And that's it.

So all the juice is cooked with the veg, and then it just goes on the table. That's it with the, you know, it's just one pot and it's so easy and simple to do. You know, if he does that great thing like a chef, he just pulls things out of the fridge and goes, and this, how long has this been in here? I said, just put it in the chicken.

Yeah. And this, who bought this? Who bought this? I said, we're not a work now, Neil. No, stop, take kneading, all right? Simmer. Yeah, so that's it. Oh, that sounds delicious.

That was so good. I did a roast chicken for my nephews. Yeah. And they could not get over the fact I'd put a lemon up its bum. Really? Oh, yeah. For a kid, that's mind blowing, right?

They were like, what is going on here? You should have gone and now for the orange. Now for the grapefruit. For a while after that, they kept from threatening to put lemons up people's butts. Because they thought that was a thing. So, yeah, which is good, because it made a change for them threatening,

because for a while, the main threat was that they'll blow up your house. And so now they changed you to put a lemon up your bum. They got less controversial. They started worrying in their own ways. I'd imagine there's a little call from a teacher regardless of the way. Do we need this stuff?

Do we need a child line here? Do we need to do something? I think they threatened to blow up my house. Yeah. They're like, okay, good news. They stopped all that. They have threatened to insert a lemon up the anus of another child.

Nice. They waited to do a bunch of skep, because when I'd done the chicken, and they'd been eating it all, but like obviously the carcass was there with the lemon still in there, and they wanted to film a bunch of sketches of them. Every sketch consisted of them walking into the kitchen

and then noticing that there was a lemon up the bum of the chicken. And then calling out to me, as if I wasn't in the room going, why have you done this? Why is there a lemon up the bum of the chicken? That's great though, isn't it? It's entertaining.

Popping a lemon up the butt of the chicken. Great. I think a lemon in anything's really good. I think it's just delicious. And again, it's that whole sort of squeeze over the end of it. And that's the whole point about, I mean, you two know that better than anyone.

Just keep it simple. Don't mess around with it. Don't try and be too clever and just do something that's just easy. And that's the thing I like, like cooking at home. And you know, I don't know whether you've gone to people's houses

and they not show off, but they're going over the board. But then they spend the whole time in a kitchen having a nervous breakdown. And it's just like, just do something that's, you know, it's already set in the fridge for dessert, easy, you know, cold starter.

And one pot wonder, I call it. Just put it on the, you know, and I screw up quite a lot when I'm cooking at home. I did it. I mean, I did this once that I basically had all my family coming over. And I thought, oh God, I just haven't got it. So I literally ran to the local supermarket

and bought all these different varieties of gazpacho, mixed it all in together, seasoned it with loads of cherry tomatoes I bought in basil and olive oil. And anyway, so I served all this gazpacho and they were like, oh, delicious. And just so love. Michael's like, how'd you do it, my brother?

I said, oh, we are married and I ate it overnight. You know, you have to do that, chop everything really fine and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, and we live in this sort of terrace house, but kitchen's in the bottom there, but we're eating up the next floor. And so everyone always helps clear plates downstairs. So my friend cleared it.

She opened the dishwasher and sees all these plastics, you know, gazpacho containers. And she goes, what's sadder? The fact you literally have barefaced light, your mother, brother, uncle, aunt, sister, or that you're so sad, you keep all the plastic containers, you know. And so now every time she comes around,

they're like, you know, no. And my family are very good at sort of keeping everything very base level. You know, there's a cousin of mine that she, she's great. She's one of these annoying people that makes presents for Christmas. So you already hate her because she's made everything. You know, whereas I'm like throwing money at the problem.

And one year she made these like, like the flapjack, she made these Florentine biscuits, wrapped them all up, and all my mum was like, oh, it's delicious, Angel. You should really learn how to make these. You know, I'm like, are you kidding me? I've just cooked for you like 30 people and now you're all giving me shit about these bloody biscuits. I said, you're not part of my family yet.

You haven't married yet, really. So we have many days like that at our family. And I'm sorry, digressing away there. Have you learnt the Florentines though? No, I haven't. No, no. Give me a break. I've just literally cooked for them

like a whole Christmas lunch and then they're bitching make some biscuits. I said, are you kidding me? No, no, I haven't. I'll give you the recipe. Thank you. I love Florentines. Do you?

Yeah, they are good. Yeah, they are good. You should learn to make them. And they were good. Yeah, thanks for that. Thanks, yeah. Mum will be pleased. I've forgotten the name of it.

Thomas Fudge or Thomas J. Fudge's Florentines. I buy them for my family every Christmas. Oh, yeah, I know the ones you mean. I had them back. There was a... As in the fudge people who make a finger fudge? No, different companies. Oh, no.

It's like one of those companies where they've invented a man to make it sound posh. Yeah, absolutely. Is that Thomas J. Fudge written in there? Yeah, he's got like a little... Well, that was his real signature. And he lived for 100 years ago. Yeah, it's OK.

Is that right, Benito? Yeah, I had them backstage at a festival once. Yeah. It was in the tent that the comics had to wait in. And they had this plate of Florentines and I went absolutely crazy. Yeah. Because I had one and I was like,

I never want to stop eating these now. Yeah. Now that's every Christmas. You're on a high on stage, weren't you? Florentine high. I was flying. I can't even remember the gig. But I don't think there's been a gig

where James hasn't been high on Shaker at some point. Fair enough. You got really sweet tooth. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm trying... You're saying about if stuff's in the fridge. I'm having a really... I'm trying to get on top of it now.

Really? I'm trying to be a bit more controlled. It's a running joke on this podcast of, well, one day your metabolism's going to give up a year and all this. It's happened. We've all been waiting and we're very happy. You've been excited.

I'm really happy. So now I'm like, right, now I've got to learn discipline, which I've never had to learn before. No, hard that, isn't it? Never had to learn because I've had fluky metabolism my whole life. And now I'm actually having to learn how to not do stuff. Not eat rubbish all the time.

Yeah, yeah. I haven't cracked it yet. Well, basically, not having anything in the house is good. And I've also learned that as soon as I have one sweet thing in the day, that's it. That's you've got. Then the flug gates are open. So I have to just never...

And sweet, is it like a cake or a biscuit? Or do you just go and buy like chocolate or is it anything? Kind of anything. Apart from all not sweets, sweets. Not sweet sweets. Yeah, don't be like that. I don't really like any of that. But like yesterday, I was working,

I was on like a set for something. And they kept on offering like biscuits and chocolate and stuff. And I was like, I've got to say no. Yeah, fair enough. My role now is it has to be worth it. So if it's like something really special, great. Yeah. Like your sister's flapjacks.

Like the sister's flapjacks. In on that straight away. If they go, do you want a breakaway bar? Between takes. Not this point. Absolutely not. That's the main rule. So what is your chocolate of choice to see?

Because I always... My friends make posh chocolate. And I always say it's too posh for me. Right. I like a flake or a mortise. That's my level of chocolate. And I don't have much chocolate. I'm very rare.

So what's your go-to chocolate bar? Well, I quite like posh stuff. So actually... Oh, you're a posh boy. So that's quite well for me. That I don't just go into a shop and get a Mars bar or anything. Even though they are nice. And I like those in the fridge.

Yes, yeah. But I've said on the podcast before that Whittaker's is a New Zealand brand. And like their peanut butter chocolate is probably still my favourite chocolate. Really? Okay. And has got...

That's good as well because it feels posh, but it has also got this level of sweetness that you're finding like a regular chocolate bar. So it's got that, yeah. So a lot of their stuff I like. And Ed's got me into the Chocolonely, the Tony's Chocolonely. Tony's Chocolonely.

Love that stuff. Tony's Chocolonely. That sounds like Tony's Chocolonely. Yeah, okay. And recently, Hotel Chocolar got in touch and were really spoilt as rotten. Yeah, I bet. And I got to do like a little day in their kitchen

and like make some chocolate with them. And also they sent me like a box of... I just got to go on the website and go crazy. And that was like... Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And the email me and said, we sent James some stuff. Would you like anything?

I go, just send me exactly what James sent. I went exactly the same. This huge box of stuff where I was all like, oh my God, are you kidding me? But I've been on tour. So obviously I get frequent texts from my wife going, is it possible? Could I have a look at the Hotel Chocolonely box?

I'm like, yeah, fine. But all I want, I want to taste each one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So don't eat all of anything. Don't, yeah, exactly. So I get back off tour and all of these boxes are sat there with literally one chocolate in all of them.

I'm like, right, I suppose she did stick to the rule. Yeah, yeah. That was the rule. That was what you said. That was the deal. That was the miles of being at them. Yeah, exactly. Oh, Plesa Cotswax.

Do you dream side dish? Sounds really boring, but I love it. Green beans. But different types of green. You've got the flat beans coming in now, runner beans, just your normal green beans. I love beans. I love that.

And there's this great thing. It will be coming in soonish. Fresh almonds. Now I am getting, you talk about the water. This is getting all cheffy and posh and boncy. Like fresh almonds that you crack them out of their little shells and stuff. You put those on there.

And I like it with basil and peaches, bizarrely. Oh, no. That's, but in season, when you've got great beans, fresh peaches, as sweet as anything, these almonds and they're just a really great mustardy vinaigrette. It's a dish in itself, but it's absolutely delicious as a side as well.

We put it as a dish on the restaurant. It just works because the peaches are never so sweet. You know, they are sweet and they're ripe, but you've got those beans and it's got an all-bit room temperature, kind of anything from the fridge. And, you know, a nice bit of salt, lovely, but pep, you can put a little bit of loveage in there

if you want to be a little controversial with your herbs. So all that sort of stuff I love, anything fresh with beans. So the almonds like fresh and raw. So they're raw, they're a bit of bite to them. Yeah, a bit of bite to them. Yeah, yeah. And it's one of those things now that absolutely,

they still have a season, you know, they will come in and I mean, chefs hate it if you put it on the menu, because they literally have to get a hammer and hammer into these almonds. And they're like, are you kidding us? And you get like literally a waffa thing, this almond.

I'm like, oh yeah, we need about 10 in a salad. They're like, are you kidding me? You know, you talk about the mash and stuff. This is like, give this job to someone who's like, annoyed you. Yeah, you can do the box of almonds today. Add them to the menu now. Yeah, exactly, yeah.

So, I love those sort of things, but yeah, they're a pain in it, but they are a seasonal thing. So you can't buy them anywhere else. You can't buy them in the supermarket. They just come at one time a year. So I'm getting a bit posh and cheffy and poncy. Sorry about that.

Honestly, that sounds delicious. Yeah. And the peaches, are you cooking them down or are they going on raw as well? Raw, absolutely raw. And the texturally, they're a bit bite to them as well. Proper rip in the season. It's one of my pet hates is unripe tomatoes

and unripe fruit. And that's partly because I'd be honest, I've been spoiled. You know, when we used to go on holiday to Italy and stuff, you know, it's ripe and it's delicious. And I remember one summer, I'd always go off to my aunt's place and she lived by the sea and stuff and we'd always have ripe peaches.

And then one summer they said, this is all we've seen your summer is with a peach in your mouth. You know, because they're just the best. And you know, again, it's the sweetness, the season, and so delicious. So yeah, raw, nicely thinly sliced, you know, and then mix that all with, you know, like a bit of Dijon there in the vinaigrette, you know.

So good. Yeah, delicious. When is the season? Peaches won't really start till August time. And it is, it goes against a lot of the morals of sustainability because you do have to import. Much as our weather is changing, I don't think we're a country that can grow peaches. We're getting better with tomatoes.

But yeah, in the next sort of couple of months, and almonds will be coming in the next couple of months as well. So if I book to come to your restaurant in August, and I'll probably get that done. Yes, you will, yeah, make sure. Now it's going to be full of everyone who listens to this podcast. So you're going to be there.

You'll be swamped by the fans, Matt. Yeah, well, that's fine. As long as I've got my big bowl of green beans. Yeah, as long as you've got a big bowl of green beans. Yeah, exactly, yeah. You're going to have a rush on green beans now. Yeah, that would be it. They're going to hate me about those almonds.

So many almonds. The whole dining room wants almonds. They'll be sending them back home. But she said 10. There's not 10 in here. It's only like two. Yeah. But who's crying in the kitchen?

Yeah. The almond king. The almond king, yeah, exactly. Let's stick him next to the parsley king. Nice to hear Dijon Mustard getting a shout out there. I love Dijon Mustard. Love English, but I love Dijon. Well, let's rank the Mustards then.

Yeah, we can do that. Oh, God. Got to be Dijon. I'd have to say that. Dijon first. I love English Mustard. I think that's a great one. And actually, because I'm quite traditionally,

like I said about, I don't like my pineapple on the peach. I don't like all these fancy Mustards as well. Keeper Mustard is like whole grain after that. And probably they're my three, really. I mean, horseradish isn't really a mustard, is it? You know, it's a condiment for all the mustard. Yeah. What other ones?

I'm trying to think what other ones? They're my three in the fridge. Like a French's hot dog mustard. Oh, God. The really bright yellow stuff. To be fair, yeah, we do have a jar of that in the fridge. Yeah, I do like that. Yeah.

That's a good one. Yeah, I'd put that above the whole grain. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I might do the same. I go through phases with whole grain. Yeah, I'm like that. I sort of, they work with certain things, like you might put in potato salad or something.

But to be fair, Dijon, if I don't have that, because we put it in vinaigrettes, I put it on anything. And I love it with anything, actually. I think that's my favourite, yeah. Yeah, I've got a jar of whole grain in the cupboard. I don't remember buying it. I'm not really totally sure.

Maybe your care package with the anchovies, maybe. Maybe it was snuck in there. Yeah. But I've got to figure out what to do. Is there a whole grain and anchovy recipe I can do? No, I can't say. But it does work with things like, do you like pickled fish or anything like that?

Not really. I've had it in restaurants and stuff, and it's nice, but... Yeah, that sort of thing. I think potato salad, it works. And it does work in dressings. You can put it in dressings. We have been known to put it in a vinaigrette when we've run out of every other muster

and can't be bothered to walk around to the supermarket. I would have it on like a gammon sandwich. Oh, good call, good call. Yeah, that's a very good call, actually, yeah. Actually, that's what, when I did my gammon joint, I think I just put Dijon on it. Yeah, that was a nice day in lockdown when I did myself a gammon joint.

And I said, Ed, the photo. And? What did it look like? It was delicious. Well, I said Ed, the photo of it bubbling in the pot, actually. Nice. Because you couldn't see the joint, but you could see all the different things I put in the pot.

I said, Ed, going, guess what's this in here? And did you? It said, guess what's this in here? Yeah, this is someone's head to wrap it. Yeah, yeah. What did you serve it with? Did you do the whole part? Well, you maybe didn't do it, parsley sauce,

because of the trauma of parsley. I remember what I did. And it was very decadent. Really? Ah, yeah. Again, this is a perk of the podcast. Yeah. But we had shouted out Simon Rogan's Berkswell pudding.

Nice, yeah. We'd shouted out on the podcast. Yeah. He had very generously sent us a lot of them that we could make at home. Yeah. So I lit that. I think I still got the photo on my phone.

Yeah. I sat there and ate loads of Berkswell puddings with the gammon joint that I got Dijon with. I was in heaven. Loved it, loved it. I was there on the sofa, just like this is the best day of my life. Yeah.

That's great. I had a really nice bit of gammon at St John, actually, quite recently with the parsley sauce and all that. Oh, I love it. And cabbage. Oh, so good. Oil cabbage is the best. I sat there in that dining room,

just thinking about you're in the 19th century. It is, yes, yes. Yeah, it feels like it. Yeah. That is like proper old-school English cooking, but I love it. You've got to get over the parsley to be fair, James. Yeah, I'll try to.

Can't not have gammon without parsley sauce. I think I've told this story on the podcast before, but my grandma every year used to do a massive gammon and then eat it for breakfast on Christmas morning and have it like the next day and stuff. Really good. And then she passed away a few years ago, and I was like, right, I'm doing it.

And I spent ages on it, and it was rubbish. And it all just fell apart, I think, in the pan or something. Like it wasn't tied up properly. So I had two halves. I was like, right, I'm going to do them differently. I'm going to do one half with a different glaze and another half with a different glaze, and both of them were rubbish.

And you've been having it on it since? No, I'm going to try again. You've got to get back on the horse. I had to buy such a big pan, and then we didn't have room for the pan, so I had to give the pan away. So now I've got to get another pan. Yeah, exactly.

I remember the disaster of the gammon. I didn't know it had emotional roots. It was linked to your grandmother. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So I was laughing when Ed was having a bad time with it. I thought it was fun. She'll be laughing about it as well. Don't you worry.

She'll be laughing. She'll think it's hilarious. But we all have those designs. I remember cooking one year trying to be fancy for Christmas, and I cooked duck, or was it goose? I'd cook one or the other. And then for some, I don't know what possessed me, left it in like a turkey.

I mean, they literally were there going, is anyone got any peaking sauce? It was so dry. Wow. And it was just, I just said, and he was like, what on earth? I said, I don't know. And then it was like, it's like, it had shriveled to this.

And it stopped like this. Mum goes, she goes, I think next year, we'll just stick to chicken. Thanks Mum. Thanks for that. Anyway, it's happened to all of us. Yeah. Don't worry about it.

Oh man, that's what I should have tonight, is the duck fillets are the duck breast. I love the way the mind works. Just round them, you know. And out loud as well. Yeah, yeah. You can have it with ranchovies and broccoli. My girlfriend doesn't like duck.

Oh, I see. I've got some duck breast in the freezer. And then I always remember when she's away, get it out, or out, have another duck breast. How are you cooking your duck breast? I do it in the frying pan. I say, put them in. Cold pan?

Cold pan. Cold pan. So put the oil in, spread it around fat side down, and then like, yeah, then put the hob on. Yeah. Do you score your duck breast? Yeah, I'll score it, 10 out of 10. And I...

What? What's into that one? But I do score it, too. Okay. Yeah. And I'll put salt and pepper on it. Also, on the meaty side, put a little bit of Liam Perrin's. Fancy.

And a little bit of lemon. And eight minutes fat side, five minutes the other side. And if it needs it, you put it on its side as well and lean them against each other in a little... Like you've made a little... Like they're a gang. Yeah, like a little gang. Lean them against each other, lean like that.

Leave them to rest for a while. Yeah, nice. Then have it with some bird's-eye potato waffles. But I think I'd spend ages on duck breast making amazing duck and stuff, and then I'd have it with instant packet noodles. Yeah, why not? Love it.

Go for it. Very good. I wouldn't put oil in the pan. That's the only difference. Yeah, I wonder. Yeah, I'm not an oil in the pan. Dry pan, yeah. So much fat from the duck breast.

It's what the old website told me to do. It's what the old website told me to do. I just did it to do what the website told me to do. If it works for you. Yeah. It works for you. What website? I can't remember. I Google duck breast.

The old website. Yeah, again, drew a lot down. I was like, I really want some duck, something that I'm going to make at home. Yeah. And that's what the, I guess it was at the top, the result or whatever. Love it, yeah.

Or the one that the photo looked to the nicest. Yeah, it's a website for an oil company. Yeah, yeah. Now, this next one, this is one chefs probably struggle with the most. In fact, most chefs have a drink for every single course of the meal. They kind of find a loophole and do that

because they want that. And you've already said this would be one of the hardest things to quit would be booze. Yes. But so dream drink. Red wine would be the one. Yeah. To be honest, I'd love it like,

I do like a glass of the old bubbles or I love a negroni. I think it's a cocktail of choice. I love a negroni and I think that's brilliant. But I think I would go red wine. I'd go Italian red and I would go from Pimonte rather than Tuscany. So some of the Barolos or Barbarescos up there.

And just not, I always say when I buy wine, is it going to, I don't want it so strong, like medium. I don't want that sort of heavy, heaviness the next day. And a wine that you can also drink with your supper. But also you can just have a great glass of wine. Just have a great glass of wine, you know. And also, given that I'm not a dessert,

unlike you, I'm not a sweet tooth. I quite like it with cheese, you see. I like the follow on that you can have wine at a meal. Look, my God, I might just taxi for one. I mean, the looks I'm getting around this table. I'm on board, I'm on board. And I agree. I love a Barolo, I love Barbaresco, like all of those.

I mean, Italian red is just fantastic. And I think the great thing about Italian wine, James has gone into a coma now over there, the venture of cheese. It's that, you know, you can have the big fancy reds that are really big money. Whereas you can get actually some great Italian wines that are really affordable and just delicious.

And there's some brilliant supplies in London now that just bring them all in. So, am I okay with that, James? I had a lovely bottle. Well, I don't know how I'm meant to relax now, because now I'm worried that there's going to be no desserts. We're talking about wine, don't worry, we're talking about wine. You like red wine.

You like red wine? Yeah, you like red wine. But like, not when I'm nervous that there's like, maybe not a pudding coming around the corner now. I had a lovely bottle of Nebbiolo the other day. Oh, nice, yeah. I'm right up in like the mountains in the border of Switzerland.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very, very good. That would work, yeah, yeah. Now, definitely, I love that sort of stuff. Are you looking at the desserts? He's looking at desserts. In the back of the weekend, Kurt. I feel like we've got a sugar rush here that we need to adjust.

Oh, that looks to little floating islands. Yeah, that's a good one, actually. I haven't brought that. This looks amazing, a Cremon glaze. Yeah, you see. I do do desserts. With meringue and caramel. I make them if Kevin, you came round for supper, James.

I'd make sure there was dessert. You know, you're a guest, I'd look up. Humstreet chocolate mousse here. Yeah. Poached apricots with ricotta. He's loving it, you said. Delicious. A gato basque.

Yeah. You can have that in a couple of days as well. Like a prune pie? Yeah. Pretty much. Is this the summer pudding? You're going to read out all the desserts here? It is.

I just started the beginning, you know, the whole thing. Paris breast, praline paste and caramelised hazelnuts, machine pastry, chocolate sauce. Finish with double cream and ice and sugar. I'd say Paris breast, maybe. Paris breast, such a sense. It says Paris breast. I'm leaving when it says that.

I'm not a proof reader. Would you like to ask Angela the question, James? Let's stop putting it off. This is a big thing for him to put in, isn't it? Oh, it's huge. Yeah, this, I feel, you know. It's huge. And if...

Have you two had an argument occasionally about it? I've never had an argument, but there has been arguments on the podcast before, depending on what people think. We've had arguments in a lot of places. I mean, he's looking quite serious. When we went to Tom Coders place, and you were like...

He looks quite gently. I was sort of, there was like a little glare over. I felt them from James. So he just came over me. Many years ago. Yeah. We went to Carragers bar and grill, and I had cheese and biscuits.

Oh. The dessert, and it didn't go down well. James threatened to throw me into Trafalgar Square. Which, you know... Okay. It's a... And I will make the same threat to you, Angela. And it's a longer distance from here.

Kevin just bar and grill, so he's down the right from Trafalgar Square. So they just tricked him up, and he would have been in the square. And this is... We're crossing down, we're crossing bridges here now. I could just lob you over on the shard, if you like. That's where we are at the minute.

Jesus, crikey. The aggression on a Friday. Yes, a lot of aggression here. Yeah. Um, I mean, I'm a bit nervous to ask. I probably don't want to ask. Dream dessert. A dream dessert.

I do have a dream dessert. You do? I do, yeah. I would love to slip a cheese course in, if I was allowed. Yeah, you would love to slip a cheese course in. I would love all people to do that. I would like... Because you're drinking your red wine,

and it'd be nice to finish it with cheese. And we do it the way... I can never can remember. We have it... I like the cheese first, then the dessert. But I love... My favorite all-time dessert is a vanilla tart. Which, and I think one of the best people that make it

is a guy called Gary Asher up north makes an amazing vanilla tart. And it has to have that little wobble, you know, when you sort of shake it, and it's just... And the reason I like it is because it's not overly sweet, and it's got two things I like. I love pastry. You know, sweet pastry is fine,

so it's cooked like a biscuit. And then I love vanilla. That's one of my favorite things ever. And then the nutmeg on top. And when I was working years ago, back in the day for Gordon, you know, we were working so many hours. But, you know, they used to have these vanilla crème brûlées and vanilla rice pudding.

That if they would go on the staff shelf when they weren't being used, and I'd go in at seven in the morning because you're exhausted, you talk about your sugar ass, I'd get my spoon out and I'd stand there in the food just eating the rice pudding and the crème brûlée just giving me like a sugar vanilla rush. And I'd come back out and I'd go, right, here we go. You know, but so vanilla for me, you know, and proper vanilla.

None of that, you know, vanilla essence. You know, you've got to, I mean, it's not cheap, but that sort of thing. And my other thing is, if I'm allowed, James, I mean, I'm very respectful. I'm a guest in your house. You see, if I don't want to have the dessert, and I want something sweet,

we do this thing in Italy called vin santo. So it's like a little liqueur. And I bought you two little sweet little treats for you. Oh, wow, wow. So because, although it's stuck because they were hot out the oven today. So I brought you some Maddolens from Neil's place because Neil's helped don't write this book as much as me.

And some little ritchirelli. And then you have your sweetness with a little sweet wine, you see. Without having to have a full dessert. I mean, that could help you wean yourself off, you see. Yeah. Still a little bit of sweetness, but not quite. Yeah, don't tell him that, though.

That's probably what. Don't tell him that, though. He'll turn up at the next podcast, absolutely pissed out this morning going, I've had another bottle of vin santo on the way here. I'm weaning myself off. I'm weaning. Anyway, I'll leave you to enjoy.

Thank you so much. That was a pleasure to see. So I would, if I'm honest, I'm allowed to be. I would probably go for more a little bit of sugar and then cheese. But my whole time is my vanilla tart. I love a vanilla tart. What about it feels like a special meal?

It's a bit of cheese. Yeah, a bit of cheese, yeah. Which we can go into in a bit. James won't listen. Vanilla tart. Yeah. And then some of these and a little bit of vin santo. Oh, yeah.

A little coffee at the end of the meal. Loving that. Loving that. Now, I'm all over that. That's great. Yes, lovely. Yeah, loving that. Yeah, that's great.

Exactly. Marana, your restaurant, you do. You can make a choice where you have a lot of courses. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You can have your cheese. You can have dessert. You have two desserts. Yeah.

Yeah, there you go. So you could come and you could allow, you know, Ed to have his cheese course. You could take a walk around the block if you wanted while you ate it. And then you could have your two courses to, you know, two desserts together, you know. Yeah, yeah, lovely. You know, with that work.

Yeah, that would work for me. I thought I'd have to look at him when he's eating. So I mean, yeah, just walk around the bar, you know, go and have a sit around here. I don't mind if he has a dessert after the cheese course like you're doing. I mean, that seems nice to me when people, you know, have a cheese course and have a dessert.

Right, yeah. Lovely. Yeah, no worries. That's my choice, but I think a lot of the time it's socially frowned upon. Yeah, well, you know, it's more frowned upon when you have it instead of a dessert. I mean, that's where you do not live in life.

What cheeses would you like on your little cheese course? Oh, well, I love, I love one of my favourite cheeses. It is Vacheran. You know, that one you get in the winter time when it melts and then you can dunk a potato in it. See, I just like keeping the savoury going. That's my thing. That I love.

And I do like a bit of the old cheddar, not quite the old orange one. Love a bit of gorgonzola. Anything. Well, Patricia does it best, doesn't she? Look for marjorie. That shop in London who does great cheeses. And I think you just, I would say to her,

just give us a selection. And, you know, but I think Britain, we make some incredible cheeses. And we always do this thing at home, like burn supper where we do the haggis. And yeah, you see them all. It's not even offering you one. Well, look, it's quarter past 12.

He's already said earlier that if he starts, then it's the wheels have come off. The eyes of glaze. Yeah, they have, they genuinely have. The eyes of genuinely glaze. They're like a pair of Krispy Kreme donuts as well. I'm not listening to your cheers chat. Yeah, because you look like the caterpillar

from Alice in Wonderland. There you go. Thank you so much for being there. You see, the thing is, if you went to the French, you know, talking about, you know, Neil's place, you know, like, this is what I do. I would, we might not have a dessert, but we'll have an ice tray of Madeleine's.

Yeah. Fresh out the oven. Marzipan, what's that? Oh, that's a Riccierelli. So it's a little almond. I like it. Got your palate there. Yeah, almonds in there.

Yeah. That is good stuff. Yeah. Do you want a glass of this for you? Yeah, you might. Yeah, we'd have to fill you up. Fill you up. No, no, no, no, no, no.

That's the first thing I've eaten today. Oh, gosh. We know how to divide this up. I'll be taking this out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Vincentos coming straight back to mine. Yeah. That's fair enough.

Put it in your fridge. Have a nice, chilled glass later when you're back in the gig. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Have I been forgiven for saying the cheese thing? All is forgiven. All right, yes. And I genuinely didn't hear a word

of the actual cheese conversation. No, you didn't. Tell you things about it, man. Don't know what you said. You could have said anything. There's one in town that's like a cheese conveyor belt thing that we've been asking.

He wouldn't come. No, well, I stand by the conveyor belt. I punch at each cheese as it went past. What would I do? Have you liked cheese? Cheesy mash? Yeah, I like cheese. Yeah, so, you know.

I like cheese. Yeah. But like, you know, there's not in place of dessert. Understood. Point taken. Got it. Yeah, there's a lot of things I like. Yeah, got it.

But we're not, you know, nothing in place of dessert. I love, yeah, I love films. I love watching films. But not in place of dessert. Not in place of dessert. No, obviously, yeah. You know, I love my family. Not in place of dessert, yeah.

Yeah, you've got your league table of things and the answer at the top. We understand. We understand. And then films and then family. Yeah. Here we go. I'm going to read your menu back to you now.

See how you feel about it. OK. You've got sparkling water. Yeah. You've got like Corrigan's Soda Bread and Focaccia. Yeah. Starter. You've got like Puttanesca Pasta.

Yeah. Main course, roast chicken with sage and onion stuffing. Yeah. Side dish of green beans with fresh almonds, basil, peaches and a mustardy vinaigrette. Yeah. Drink. Barbaresco Italian red wine.

Yes, red wine. You know the word wine, don't you? Yes. And you've got your cheese course with that as well. Dessert, gary ashes, vanilla tart. Yeah. With and then followed by Vincanto and Madeleines. Yeah, yeah.

That's good. I'm happy with that. That sounds very nice. You're happy with that? Yeah, yeah. Lovely. And many of these things, of course, we could get the recipe for from the weekend cook.

So, yeah, certain things. Yeah, not the Madeleines. We're not giving those away if you come to the restaurant. But yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah, of course. Yeah, thank you. This has been great. Thank you very much, Angela. Thank you, Angela.

Well, there we are. Well, that was a great episode, wasn't it? That was a wonderful episode. Everything that I like from an off-menu episode there. Food chat, laughs, someone who's very nice and kind, although also sees us for the idiots we are. Yes, perfect. And it had all the jeopardy of skirting close to a cheese board.

So you got really angry, but then it was a proper dessert. And then when Angela pulled out the box of actual sweet treats, I've never seen anyone more satisfied in my life than you at that point. Yeah. It was literally like she was trying to placate a child. Because you were all angry and upset and you got all cross. And then she went, OK, have a little cake.

And you go, fuck you, Angela. Yeah, that was what it was like. Also, like, you know, it was like I was watching a film and like the end was going to be like a really sad ending. I was like, oh, no. And then it's like, no, it's the happiest ending you could hope. Yes, yes. You should get Angela's book, everyone.

The Weekend Cook, Good Food for Real Life. That is out tomorrow if you're listening to this on the day. It's out on the 25th of May, 2022, published by Bloomsbury Absolute. And it's in hardback when it comes out. It looks absolutely amazing. I cannot wait to cook some stuff from it. Yes.

And Angela didn't say kidney beans. That's why it was a perfect episode for me, James. No kidney beans were mentioned. That would have been a very sad twist to this particular episode if we had to kick Angela out of the restaurant. Horrible pasty beanie twist. Yeah, yeah. Hate kidney beans.

May they? Joe, what? No. Leave all that in. Oh, no. Also, you heard Ed talking about the flapjacks that my sister sent over to him. Fabjax Bakery is the name of the company.

You can get fabjaxbakery.co.uk. That is where you can order the flapjacks from if you would like them sent to your house anywhere in the UK. I'm very excited. Honestly, it was such a treat to get home and they were there yesterday. And you know, you're going to get, there's a proper weight to them as well

because there's so much flavour and just so much stuff going on in them. And I'm thinking about that Chilean lime one right now. I'm annoyed it's at home. Yeah. Yeah, because I only had a little chunk of each yesterday. So I was like, it's pretty late. I shouldn't be eating massive bits of flapjack now,

but I wanted to taste all of them. So I had a little sort of taste. There's like little corners. But I hope when I go home from this leg of the tour that there is some Chilean lime life. And among her repertoire is the Bakewell flapjacks that I attempted and failed to make on the Great British Bake Off.

How it should be done. Yes, that's good. That's a good angle. Yeah. That's really strong. Go and get some flapjacks. Yes. And after you've eaten your flapjacks,

come and see me on tour. I'm starting the extension of my tour in September, right through to November, going to lots of places, including a big date at the Hammersmith Apollo on the 22nd of October, edgamble.co.uk for tickets. It's going to be the place to be, man.

I can feel it. Yeah. But I've already filled the atmos before you take the stage. All the movers and shakers are going to be there. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be fizzing movie.

I wouldn't see Joel Domit there. And Larry Lamb was in the audience. So you don't know what's going to happen. Who knows? Maybe Lamb will be in the audience for me. Yeah, maybe. Joel got him on stage to pretend to be a drummer. Yeah, he did.

Yeah. Drummer. Drummer. But I mean, like how you said, drummer. Joel got him on stage to pretend to be a drummer. Yeah, he did. I think we're both, like our brains are just dust this morning.

Yeah, that's it. But we can't, I couldn't say red wine earlier. You can't say drummer. Drummer. That's it. A drummer. And of course, many, many restaurants get mentioned and recommended on the Off Menu podcast.

And I must stress, we do keep a record of all of those there on the website, offmenupodcast.co.uk. Go and look at the little menu for things. Oh, menu. We're on menu on the website. There is a menu and you click restaurants and there's a list of where the restaurants are. And then you will need to go through those and look at them.

And then they are recommended. Just saying that. Don't message Bonito to ask what the restaurants were. Yeah. Don't message us to ask what the restaurants were. There is a list there. And to the person who messaged me the other day saying, I'm going to New York,

I've looked at the list of restaurants on the Off Menu website, but could you recommend particular restaurants off that list? No. No, no, I can't. I think at the end of the day, at some point, you have to know what you like. You're going to have to take responsibility for your own holiday.

I'm sorry. All of the stuff that's recommended on the website will be nice, but you might need to narrow it down based on your own taste. And it will say who's recommended each one. So you can go like, oh, you know, Bob Mortimer. Do I have a similar taste to him as McCahn? You can think about what kind of persons recommended it. Maybe that would correspond to you as well.

Yeah. Thank you very much for listening. We will see you again next week. Goodbye. Goodbye. Hello, it's me, Amy Gledhill. 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. Sure, but we've been living in London for a long time. The news stories are funny. Quite a lot of them crimes. It's all kicking off. And that's a new podcast called Northern News,

which we'd love you to listen to. Maybe we'll get my mum on. Get Gledhill'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.