Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S14 Ep 3: John Torode

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

What do you cook for a Masterchef judge?!? That is the question. This week we are joined by mum’s favourite, John Torode. And it’s about time. After a LOT of back and forth on the menu, mum s...ettled on some staples; her infamous chicken soup followed by Lebanese lamb then a damson galette and olive oil ice cream. It was very gorgeous.This is a foodie episode, where we talk about John’s favourite chefs, the dish he was most proud of making, his wife’s sausage and sourdough bake and his secret tip for making cheese toasties extra crispy (I can confirm it works). This year, he was made an MBE & is celebrating 40 years of professional cooking, what an amazing achievement. What a total honour it was to cook for and host this wonderful man, who showered us in cheese, cider, chocolate and flowers.  Such a great evening. Listen now. X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to Table Manners. Darling, I don't think I've ever been more nervous in my life. Well, you've said that before. Come on. It's a big challenge, darling. He's a nice guy. He might be nice, but he judges food. He judges your favourite cooking programme. And it is my favourite cooking programme on earth.
Starting point is 00:00:21 You've never missed an episode. He's a very nice man. Is he? Very nice. In fact, we probably won't bring this up in the episode because it may embarrass him, but when I was a judge on MasterChef, I was nine weeks postpartum, and the only thing I said yes to doing for work was MasterChef because it was an honour. And I was on MasterChef Professionals, and the day was going a bit longer than one had told me it would go.
Starting point is 00:00:47 And so my boobs started leaking with my red dress. Jessica, I don't think people need to know this. And John Turow was the only person that said, get her a serviette, get her a napkin. What a guy. Darling, do you really want to know? Well, I don't know. It's a story about John Turow. Do you really want to know about lactation? Well, I just wanted to show that he's a very nice bloke.
Starting point is 00:01:05 Oh, and I had chicken in my teeth and he was the only bugger that told me I had chicken in my teeth. I'd rather hear about the chicken in your teeth and lactation. Well, you know, I'd call that a good guy. John Turow, he used to live around the corner, I think. Where does he live now? Yeah, he moved. I don't know, but you love his partner's recipes, don't you? I like his partner's recipes, but I have to be honest, I've been anxious about cooking. Why? Well because he's a judge so I've tried to push the boat out but having some of the
Starting point is 00:01:31 staple dishes that I know I can cook. I do think some of them have been a success but I do worry about my olive oil ice cream Jessie. Well I used olive oil that was harvested on james and rose's new land they're from their olives they press the olive oil themselves james and rose they're friends from scopalos right okay and they got 70 liters crushed with their own bare feet well no they went to the olive oil factory and it's absolutely the most delicious olive oil so i thought i'd make olive oil ice cream gorgeous right so i thought i'll push the boat out and got my burford browns which we love which we love with that very orange yolk i think i'd have done better with a paler yolk to be perfectly frank
Starting point is 00:02:16 i now have neon orange olive oil ice cream well it's unique it's your usp orange olive oil ice cream looks like orangeade darling does it taste orange olive oil ice cream it looks like orangeade darling does it taste like olive oil ice cream yeah but i think when you look you're testing bloom and do you think when you look at something it needs to suggest what you think is going to go in your mouth you know what about the fruit meat pie thing that heston does do you know what i mean yeah meat fruit fruit meat yeah maybe anyway i've made some chicken soup i love this can we just that Heston does. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Meat fruit. Fruit meat. Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I've made some chicken soup. I love this.
Starting point is 00:02:49 Can we just... I've kind of done it casually. We're pretending that mum just has it in the fridge because... No, I didn't. I'm going to say I made it today for your children. Lies. If you listen to this podcast, you'll know that when we have a critic or a chef on well someone i want to impress mom wants to pull out all the stops and she delivers the chicken soup which a lot of you
Starting point is 00:03:10 have now tasted if you've come on the live tour but mom doesn't want it to look like she's tried too hard so she's trying to say like i made it for jesse children um i did but i did buy some more little cartons in case he wanted to take some home my god you're so pushy so we're weirdly having chicken soup and matzo balls followed by Lebanese lamb oh yeah oh have you heard that one listeners before who did you do that for last I don't know the last one I did it for that's another one that you just didn't want you didn't want any stress did you it has It has been stressful. Has it? Yeah, a little bit.
Starting point is 00:03:46 My galette. Okay, so your galette is from the damsons in my garden, which fall from my grumpy neighbour's garden. And we seem to get all of the damsons, which, you know, is great. But I'm telling you, I'm going to make like a gin distillery, dams and gin distillery. Oh, that'd be great.
Starting point is 00:04:04 Because I have so many damsons. Well, we've now got damson galette. So we've done a damson galette. To go with the olive oil ice cream. What are we serving the lamb with? We're doing a warm aubergine and spinach salad with sun-dried tomatoes and tahini and pine nuts, which is delicious. And you're doing some carrots well i just thought maybe we didn't have like a tang because sorry look listen it's gorgeous the warm salad i love it jesse and the
Starting point is 00:04:35 sun's right but maybe john tarot would be like you've over complicated this you didn't need it and i will accept that critique but i wanted something to cut through. And so I've done ribbon carrot salad. And the dressing is olive oil, red wine vinegar, orange blossom, cardamom, cumin, honey. And you do that and you dress it with some fresh mint, crumbled feta and pistachios. So I just thought that was going to be quite nice. And like, kicks through. Should I go and... Sorry if I bored you. A little.
Starting point is 00:05:06 Shall I go and get the spinach on? Would you want to announce who we're having? Because I've kind of... Oh! We're having the fabulous master chef
Starting point is 00:05:14 genius that is John Turode. I'm John, hello. Hi John. Hello. Hi, John. How are you? I'm very well. Oh, God, you've come with a lot of gifts.
Starting point is 00:05:33 Is that why you were late, John? I'm very pleased to meet you. I was late because the traffic's horrendous. Oh, thank you. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming. Please come and sit down. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:05:44 Do you want a drink? No, I just want to look at you. How are you? We've got white wine. We've got Whispering Angel, which Jessie says is very naff, but I love it. It's a bit naff, isn't it? I love it. It's a bit naff.
Starting point is 00:05:54 We've got some champagne. I'll drink some water. I'll be bringing it. And then whatever you're drinking. Do you want fizzy or stale water? Anything. As long as it runs. I don't mind. Yeah. You look look great oh god thank you yeah last time i saw you i was very tired
Starting point is 00:06:11 also the other thing last time you saw me you were lactating oh mate oh i know i know i said it i said and i was like mate yeah i it was very kind well that's why i don't know i've been working overtime well you people are late my boobs told everybody that I was working overtime. I'm really sorry, you've got to go. You must have been the only time you lacked it. I know. She could breastfeed. I know, that's the bugger. I've struggled to breastfeed so much, but yet on the time in your bloody judging dishes
Starting point is 00:06:36 on MasterChef, you have leaky boobs. It was just so sods long. It's the excitement, isn't it? Does anybody fancy a glass of champagne? I think you do, and I will join you, Mum. Obviously. Look, I'm never going to say no. Thank you very much. So how... Fucking strong. Does anybody fancy a glass of champagne? I think you do and I will join you
Starting point is 00:06:45 I'm never going to say no Thank you very much Oh well listen You know It's tough When we had Jay Rayner on He kind of gave us an email Being like please don't go to too much effort
Starting point is 00:07:01 Because people can really freak out when they cook for me Because he's a food critic You're obviously a chef and obviously you're a very renowned master chef critic um judge you know but do you find that people stress out when they're cooking for you i think people yeah i think sometimes people do and i i try to say to people i remember going to a friend's house and they said do you want cheese or do you not want cheese with a burger and I was such a relief this sort of thing of going
Starting point is 00:07:30 because it was cool there was some salad on the table and I liked that but my friends who I have dinner with all the time, never worry because why would they I mean you go to people's houses because you love them
Starting point is 00:07:45 you don't go there because it's also it's probably quite nice to not be cooking but then actually do you ever cook now John yeah I cook
Starting point is 00:07:52 I cook all the time do you you're not fatigued by an exhausted how can you be fatigued by cooking so are you inspired by when you
Starting point is 00:08:00 when you're judging MasterChef straight in but when you're judging MasterChef do you go right I'm doing that when I get home for me and Lisa there are certain things that I will always walk away from with MasterChef and say that is cool
Starting point is 00:08:14 love the idea I think that's beautiful it's really because you're always learning aren't you there's always something new and I think one of the things with MasterChef is that the amount of cultures that we have now coming on. Yeah, yeah. And what we've seen is an amazing emergence of where there's people who have kept their home lives and their home life and their culture and the food they eat at home very secret.
Starting point is 00:08:41 Almost if they're embarrassed about it. Yeah. they eat at home very secret almost if they're embarrassed about it and now they're coming out and they're showing everybody this amazing food and where they shop and all these incredible things so suddenly things like subsea which is iranian and stuff like that which is like wow and that's what i thought some enjoy because the world's such an extraordinary massive joint isn't it how how many years have you been judging? 17. I mean, it's got to be the best gig on telly.
Starting point is 00:09:10 I have the best job. I think you do. I think it's amazing. But I've just had my birthday, and that means that I have just celebrated 40 years of professional cooking. Congratulations. Well, cheers to that. Yeah, and you got a big gong this year, didn't you?
Starting point is 00:09:23 We did, yeah. No, you did, personally. Or was it both of you? We both got one. Yeah. Was it an MBE? MBE. I know.
Starting point is 00:09:32 Can you imagine? For your services? Well, apparently, yeah. But, I mean, there was some sort of big hoo-ha, because I haven't had a British passport. I got one now. It doesn't matter. They'll probably promote you to the House of Lords.
Starting point is 00:09:45 You don't need a British passport to get there. We won't talk about politics, shall we? Let's just leave that somewhere else completely. But yeah, thank you. Yeah, MBE was a bit of a surprise and actually Greg had rung me and said, ah, g'day mate, we've got MBEs. I went, don't be ridiculous. Did you think he was just trying to do one of his dad jokes? Yeah, just, what are you talking about? He said, you've not
Starting point is 00:10:01 got the email? No, I don't know what you're talking about. Why didn't you get the email? Because somehow or another it had gone through somewhere else and somehow they had to question whether I did have a British passport or not. So apparently you can get an OBE
Starting point is 00:10:13 if you don't have a British passport, but an MBE, you've got to have a British passport. Okay, so where did you eat after you got your award? I haven't had the investiture yet. Oh,
Starting point is 00:10:21 is it Windsor, the Buckingham Palace? Don't know Palace don't know don't know who it's going to be the only thing I've got which I was very very excited about
Starting point is 00:10:28 the only thing I've got which actually makes it formal besides it was in the paper was on the Saturday morning which was something like the
Starting point is 00:10:35 third I got a a little bing at the door and a letter came from Buckingham Palace which was great but inside it was a lovely card from Highingham Palace which was great but inside it
Starting point is 00:10:45 was a lovely card from Highgrove Estate and it was a little personal note from Camilla just saying congratulations I met her a couple of times
Starting point is 00:10:52 I know her son Tom Parker Bowles of course and so I got this really lovely personal note which was just like that's really nice that's a nice touch
Starting point is 00:11:00 yeah almost as nice as champagne I'm really sorry I was late okay you were like five minutes late I was nine minutes late I champagne. I'm really sorry I was late. Okay, you were like five minutes late. Yeah. I was nine minutes late.
Starting point is 00:11:07 I love this. I don't know. Sarah was like, we've had this email from John's team saying he is so sorry. He is going to be five to ten minutes late and he is so upset and he's been in the car since 5.45
Starting point is 00:11:18 and she said, has he seen you rinse people that are late? Like, I went for Mel B. Scary spice. Yeah. She arrived an hour and a half late and we'd done a roast. You have absolutely, has he seen you rinse people that are late? Like, I mean, I went for Mel B. No, the only one was Scary Spice. Yeah. She arrived an hour and a half late, and we'd done a roast. You have absolutely stretched that.
Starting point is 00:11:31 It was, I think it was 65 minutes. It was over an hour, Jessie. Anyway. Okay. Anyway, I thought, no, you just, you don't like being late. I don't like being late. I don't like having people's contact number,
Starting point is 00:11:39 and somehow or another, the team, were just sort of so secretive about everything, so I couldn't even ring you and go look I'm really sorry I'm left on the corner well we'll give you your numbers we'll give your numbers to you absolutely but that's um do you think your timekeeping is because of being in the kitchen and being under pressure and having to you know deliver those services yeah I think that and also I think it's just respect yeah you know if you've got to do something and especially when people are talking about cooking and you know you're a guest be on time you know i think it's really important and i think you should because
Starting point is 00:12:13 you know there's nothing worse than sort of hanging around waiting come on because that makes everybody just a little bit edgy doesn't it can i can i ask you because i had a barbecue at the weekend and i said for people to come at three and we were doing this big spit roast thing we were kind of trying to do a gyros and my husband and I we've got this brilliant bit of tech it's this Somerset grill barbecue and it's got a rotisserie on it yeah so we're like right we're gonna have half of it lamb half of it pork shoulder it's gonna go for you know three four hours it's gonna actually actually was quite disappointing in the end but the lamb worked better than the pork anyway i said come at three so i had the food ready for us to eat at like quarter past 3 30 i know and then people are like rocking up at like 3 40 and i'm like no no i said to come at three i mean three when. When I say three, come at three. What do you think? When you invite people over for dinner, what's the etiquette that you go by?
Starting point is 00:13:08 Well, I think I'll always give them about 10 minutes leeway. 10 minutes. Okay, fine. Fine. But I think if you say to somebody, I'm cooking dinner, be there at three. I think 3.30, rocking up 3.30, 3.45, it's a bit much. You think? I don't.
Starting point is 00:13:23 Even if it's relaxed barbecue. Because I was like, no, I've got a system. Maybe it's now that you've got to reword it and sort of go, food's at three. Food is on the table. You're so to the minute, though. Yeah. Because usually you want to go to bed.
Starting point is 00:13:40 Yes, I do. There's your brother. I like to go to sleep. My brother's about to start a night shift. Right. Are you going to come and say hi to John Turek Alex hi Alex
Starting point is 00:13:48 he's going to be a doctor oh good man on your bike on his bike you got to go far no not far
Starting point is 00:13:56 just Waterloo you've just got to say yes a really long way in all the time travel miles to say bye alright Alan where's your helmet
Starting point is 00:14:04 darling just round the back ok good see ya bye darling bye In all time. Travel miles to say bye. All right, Al. Where's your helmet, darling? Okay, good. See you. Bye, darling. Bye. I love that. You're going to check, where's his helmet? He used not to wear it, and now he does all the time, which is good.
Starting point is 00:14:16 And then he's moving out. So, yeah, he's moving near to me, which is great for babysitting. So how's your day been, John? What's it look like today? Today's been a good day actually I've had a nice day. I have um I rode my bike into this morning which is in White City and I did a little dish for this morning did some baked eggs with some cheese toasties. What was in your cheese toasty to make it? Just two different types of cheese gruyere cheese and cheddar cheese.
Starting point is 00:14:45 And then on inside, mustard and tomato ketchup. And on the outside, before you put it in the fry pan, because you fry pan the cheese toastie, you put mayonnaise. Mayonnaise makes the bread go crispy. Oh, and I thought butter did the same. It can do the same, but actually mayonnaise, it doesn't go sort of like that, but mayonnaise makes it go prosperly crispy on the outside to get it crispy, crispy outside.
Starting point is 00:15:06 Where did you find that out? One of my home ec team, who when we were doing John and Lisa's weekend kitchen, told us about it. They said, if you put mayonnaise on the outside of a toasted sandwich. See, so I did use it. And literally, it was only a few weeks ago, and I've got to use it.
Starting point is 00:15:18 I love that. But I will always credit them. Alex, thanks very much indeed, mate. It was brilliant. I love you. Oh, yeah. Your Lisa has changed my life. Her pavlova, changed my life. Her pavlova recipe from her mother. She's so jealous about tonight. I said come along. She should have come. I said the same. I said come along. She went no I can't do that.
Starting point is 00:15:35 Oh my god she should have come. She should have come with pleasure. That's what I said. I said come along. I'm sure they'll really be happy. And if they don't like you, you can sit in the garden. Very good. She could have come. Should I get the soup on, Mum? It's on. Oh, it's on. Okay. Should we tell John what we're having? Can I just tell you something?
Starting point is 00:15:49 The kitchen smells amazing. Does it? Absolutely amazing. I've been trying to tidy up because I know you like it. I am a complete MasterChef addict, so I've never missed an episode. I love everyone. And I said, Jesse, he hates an untidy kitchen and tidy area so i've been trying to tidy up it's funny it's about the difference between home and and work environment
Starting point is 00:16:12 like that you know and i i you know i with lisa we when we work together yeah i always wipe down i always clean up the dishes i do what i do but you know what's your home that's completely different from actually well i think it's very different from being professional kitchen the problem with professional kitchen is you're feeding other people who are usually paying for it yeah and so therefore you've got to keep it tidy well yeah i agree it's also i think the more chaotic the people are on master chef the more chaotic their food they don't finish on time they're not as well organized maybe that's in the edit mum no i don't know i think that they're not as well organised. Maybe that's in the edit, Mum. No, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:16:46 No, I think that's true. I think it is true about cooking. What's really interesting, I think, about it, is that we've been doing this, you know, with MasterChef, we've been doing this where we get the dish served to us and the person comes and gives it to us. And you can tell by just looking at the plate, A, if they've had a bit of a fluster,
Starting point is 00:17:03 or if they are chaotic, if they're really neat. And every so often you're saying, accountant. Because they're really reordered. And it's really fascinating. I think you can tell somebody's personality, I think, by food. Right. Can I just tell you something? Because I was going to kind of do it very casually.
Starting point is 00:17:20 But one of the best things I... Let's tell the truth, Mum. One of the best things I cook is my chicken soup with matzo balls. So it doesn't really go with this dinner, but I decided I'd make you some anyway. She only does it for the best. So you need to have a go with it. I'm really excited.
Starting point is 00:17:37 Good. And, you know, it will be a small portion. And I've brought some little cartons so you can take Lisa with some chicken soup and matzo balls home. She'll be very excited. Good,. Some chicken soup and that's the ball's home. She'll be very excited. Good, good, good. So that's what we're having as a starter. But she was going to pretend that she just made it for the kids.
Starting point is 00:17:51 And, oh, would you like to try some? But no, you need to because you're the, you know, you're top dog. And this is something you grew up with? Yeah, it's something I grew up. And she, it's really good. Actually, I haven't tasted this. Oh, shit. You seem better to taste it before we did the survey.
Starting point is 00:18:05 Oh, no, now I'm stressed. It's fine. I mean, hello. How many times do you think you've made it? I can do it without... Oh, how many times? Sometimes your seasoning is different. But you can smell it, can't you?
Starting point is 00:18:15 You can smell it now, can't you? But you can smell it. You'll know what's right and what's wrong by the smell of it. Yeah. And I love that. Because I still think, and I'm going to say something really controversial here,
Starting point is 00:18:26 I think that women cook very, very differently from men, and their food usually tastes a lot better. That's interesting. There's something very loving and maternal about a mother's food. Yeah, I think this is true. And everybody will always return to their home, because that's where the best food was. And I'm gonna say something probably
Starting point is 00:18:47 that's gonna get in trouble too, but I think that, and I don't, and I'm making a total generalization and I'm speaking to somebody who is a chef, who's a male chef, but my, I mean, I'm really haphazard. That's just what I'm like when I cook. But I actually think my husband's far more methodical and I feel like men sometimes are a bit more methodical.
Starting point is 00:19:09 Is that right? I think men are more confident. Yeah, there's a kind of cockiness about men when they cook. Peacock. That it's going to be good. I mean, we're speaking to you and you are very good. Do you think Lisa's better than you? I think Lisa's food is completely different from what I cook and I've
Starting point is 00:19:26 learned a huge amount from that but I mean you know I grew up without a mother so when I've always cooked and my father's always cooked it's always had that same sort of thing it's feeding a family and I've always fed a family that's what I do I feed a family. How many of you were there in your family? Myself my two brothers and my dad. When did your mum pass away? When I was four. Oh, John, that's awful. Yes, but it is. But people say, oh, you know, we don't know any difference. No. Did he remarry? He did. Yeah, he did remarry. And that was slightly dramatic because my brother was 16 at that time. I love that you're wincing that you knew that was going to happen. Yeah. It wasn't going to work. But then, yeah, my father's such a good cook, an amazing cook. But, I mean, there is something extraordinary about food
Starting point is 00:20:14 that I think that comes from the home. And my grandmother, my nana, taught me to cook originally when I was very young. And I can still taste her food. I can still smell the food. I can still, and just the tiniest things. It would be a grilled lamb chop, just the way she did it there was just something about it and it's very hard so you were born in australia born in australia yeah where i was born in sydney yeah then we moved down to melbourne when i was quite young which where everyone says is the best food
Starting point is 00:20:39 very good food now yeah it was but 1970s we're talking about i mean it wasn't great no i think we probably had you know lots of tins of things yeah um and my nana when we moved with my nana in the 19 early 1970s and my my nana and when in her kitchen probably never ever saw a pack of pasta would have never probably opened a tin of tomatoes everything she had was you know it was just you know it was meat and two veg and it was stuff from the local bakery or whatever it might be um what have we got i mean it smells a lebanese lamb which you cook only for 40 minutes wow back to your childhood so you lost your mum at four and then your dad was a great cook when do you remember one of i mean and you say your nana
Starting point is 00:21:25 taught you how to cook was there a really memorable dish that you remember learning or tasting from your childhood yeah well see the thing is but when my dad when my i my mum died i was four my next brother was five and my older brother was seven and so in those days there was no such thing as support for a single father so So a widower, there was no support at all. So we actually packed up our stuff from Melbourne and went back up to New South Wales and lived with my grandmother for about five years or four or five years. And so... Was that his mum? No, my mum's mum.
Starting point is 00:21:56 Oh, okay. In a little place called Maitland, sort of middle of rural Australia. And my nana cooked really well so from the age of probably six I was cooking with her and I loved her I used to sit with her and I'd stand with her on a stool
Starting point is 00:22:12 and cook with her we had a combustion stove so you had to load the stove with oh my goodness me you're trying to get me a bit tipsy that's what we liked to do we had a combustion stove so my nana would go down
Starting point is 00:22:23 and cut the wood, firewood until my brother was a little bit older and then he'd do it in the morning that's how we got hot water and had our stove without that
Starting point is 00:22:30 we didn't have hot water on the stove and but my nana first taught me to cook a roast chicken how to make gravy and how to roast the chicken
Starting point is 00:22:38 and do you still do your gravy like your nana exactly the same way don't tell us exactly the same way what do
Starting point is 00:22:45 you do so the roasting tray has the chicken in it and it has usually has some onions in it which have been roasted up with the chicken on top of it chicken always has water inside it with salt and pepper never season the outside because it doesn't work and then um hold on never season the outside of the chicken only only a little bit because the skin yeah doesn't season the meat the seasoning comes from the inside. So you always season inside? Inside. I've never done that.
Starting point is 00:23:10 Have you ever done that? Inside. Mum, have you ever done that? I've done it with seasoning on butter and put it under the skin, but not normally. So if you look at the Chinese, right, where they put a duck, they roast a duck, they always put the stuff on the inside. And if you put lemon and garlic and parsley and stuff inside a chicken yeah and a half glass of wine and seal it all up or the lovely lisa does one which you've probably seen which is with creme fraiche yeah she puts creme fraiche and lemon
Starting point is 00:23:32 inside it and then the seasoning goes inside the chicken and it makes it really moist moist everything else so that's what my okay yeah i bung a i bung a load of stuff and inside but i've never done kind of this you You salt it inside too. Okay. Thank you, John. Okay. For your first tip. And so she taught me that.
Starting point is 00:23:50 And then you take the roasting tray. There's usually just a little bit of fat and then not very much in there. You put it on the stove, bring it to the boil. Add to it a couple of tablespoons or a tablespoon of flour. Sprinkle across the top. Let it bubble up. When it bubbles up enough, then you start to stir it and it's got to go slightly brown and then you go right in the corners as much as you possibly can the corners but take it off the heat a little bit and then it's water no stock nothing else not vegetable
Starting point is 00:24:13 water just any well if there's some around maybe but just water no i would do you put vegetable water in yeah but it's my nana yeah i mean she would probably keep that she always had a dripping water yeah well anything that was left over i mean it was you know it was probably beans usually I always put them vegetables. Yeah, I mean, she would probably keep that. She always had a dripping. The cabbage water. Yeah, anything that was left over. I mean, it was probably beans, usually. Is your background... You must have come from somewhere if you ended up in Australia. So where is your father from or your mother from? My grandparents were some of the Irish.
Starting point is 00:24:39 And then my grandfather came from Guernsey. Oh, wow. And I've got an amazing picture on my wall, actually, when he was nine years old of the lighthouse at St. Michael's Mount, which he sketched when he was nine years old before he left and went to Australia. Is Thoreau a French name then? Thoreau is apparently.
Starting point is 00:24:56 Well, apparently it's, this is my story. It's apparently comes from Thor's rod. Yeah, it's in God of Thunder. But what his rod, the one he holds, he holds, that's what I'm talking about. So his torode is in his hand. That's it, yeah. Okay. Better tell your son that.
Starting point is 00:25:12 Okay. I'll let him know. I was with a relative of Thor. Yeah. Okay, great. He's a good-looking Australian, isn't he, Thor? He is. Very good.
Starting point is 00:25:21 Oh, God, yes. So what was the kind of first dish that you felt really proud of making when you were younger? I remember going into secondary school and deciding that they were going to do this thing. And they wanted me to make something. And we decided to make falafel. Now, why, I have no idea. Why? No idea at all.
Starting point is 00:25:42 But I remember that by this time, we'd moved back down to Melbourne with my dad. And what was this, like, 80s, late 70s? Late 70s, yeah. Okay. Yeah, late 70s. Because in Australia, of course, we had lots of those big Greek community, Italian community, Turkish community. And, you know, and so we end up with falafel.
Starting point is 00:26:01 And I made falafel. And I remember making these falafel. And we made, I think, enough for 100 people in my first year of secondary school. I don't know why I did that. And I was really proud of that. And we bought pita bread in, and we bought in some tahini and various things,
Starting point is 00:26:17 and it was just great. I often wonder, if you're a good cook, I mean, I don't mind cooking, but I don't know how I could cook for hundreds of people. And you do in your restaurant now. Well, now I don't have a restaurant, don't know how I could cook for hundreds of people and you're doing your restaurant now. Well now I don't have a restaurant which I'm really pleased about. Don't you? You had, was it Smith's? Smith's yeah. And I loved it. We all loved it.
Starting point is 00:26:34 Do you know what, the amount of babies that came out of that restaurant which I think is always a really good sign. So you don't have one at all now? No. That's why I'm saying. Was it so stressful having a shop? Oh, you know, look, you consider the last couple of years. Now it would be worse.
Starting point is 00:26:48 Anybody who's in the industry, whoever's done the last couple of years, congratulations to all of you because it's amazing what you've done. It's tough. It's tough. There's no two ways about it. Exhausting. But so rewarding, you know, watching people and just, you know, the different clients and stuff.
Starting point is 00:27:04 And years later, like you say, you loved it. And, you know, people and just you know the different clients and stuff and years later like you're saying you loved it and you know we had different environments and i really wanted the sort of power of australians egalitarian thought to go into smiths and so there was the greasy spoon downstairs and turned to a bar and djs there was cocktail bars it was great food and there was oysters and steaks and there was dining rooms and burgers and you'd come in a pair of shorts and a pair of flip flops like I call thongs if you wanted to you know
Starting point is 00:27:29 do what you want you could dress up now you don't have any competition because you're not in it who's your favourite chef where would you go for a celebration
Starting point is 00:27:38 I was I actually got to give Ruthie Rogers a hug last night oh you went to River Cafe yeah and she came last night. And I haven't seen her for quite a while.
Starting point is 00:27:48 And God bless her poor husband's soul. It's just awful. But she is, her and Rose, Rose, my warmest back cry. Rose was such an inspiration to me. I love her. I mean, loved her. And when I first met her, which was 1995 they came in for dinner the next day they sent me the biggest bunch of
Starting point is 00:28:08 flowers I'd ever seen in my life I mean just such lovely wonderful people but their food, it's simplicity and delicious yeah and there's just something about that love that goes with it and you know Rose would run across to
Starting point is 00:28:24 Italy for the first lot of olive oil and bring back suitcases with her. And Francesca, who delivered the mozzarella, was doing my mozzarella. Greg, my lovely Greg Wallace, was supplying the fruit and veg and the pale aubergines to the River Cafe when we were doing stuff. So there was a sort of amazing time
Starting point is 00:28:41 that was going on in the 90s. And I loved it. I mean, I was involved in this world I could run away from Australia because I didn't drink beer I didn't really fit in I didn't play rugby so I didn't really fit in you know and I found a place that I loved and I grew up in and I changed and I became part of a family I suppose and so seeing you know Ruthie last night was just a really extraordinary thing and just everything they do and they touch is real
Starting point is 00:29:07 it's there for a reason and if it's a piece of mozzarella and they slice it and they put olive oil over the top of it it's beautiful mozzarella with beautiful olive oil and it's there for a reason it's not frivolous and it's not peacockish I love hearing you talk
Starting point is 00:29:24 We haven't overdone it I feel like maybe we've peacockish. Oh, God. I love hearing you talk. And we haven't overdone it. What? I feel like maybe we've peacocked a bit. We've peacocked a bit. Well, actually, no, it's pretty simple. I think you've showed off a bit, Jess. What are you talking about? With your carrot.
Starting point is 00:29:32 Mum, I've done a carrot salad. I just thought you needed a bit of a cut and tang. Yeah. That's all I'm saying. I'm looking at the soup here, which is as clear. As a cons. As a consomé. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:43 And all these people, they haven't made a consomé. Well, can I say, come around here and you get yourself something which is absolutely clear as a cons as a consummate and all these people who haven't made a consummate well can I say come around here and you get yourself something which is absolutely bloody amazing she just puts a bit
Starting point is 00:29:50 of paper towel on the top shoves it don't you mum you did skim it you did your skim it what do you think what do I think
Starting point is 00:29:57 I think I've just gone to heaven it's do we believe do we believe in heaven yeah absolutely Jamie said
Starting point is 00:30:04 they were the best matzo balls he's ever eaten. That's what I just wanted to tell you about. Your matzo balls are beautiful, Mum. Thank you so much. It is clear, as clear as clear. And the matzo balls are fantastic. They are. They're light.
Starting point is 00:30:14 Mum, if you went on MasterChef like celebrities... I couldn't. I would not be able to do it. Really? I don't have enough recipes. I couldn't make up recipes. Like, I think... You have loads of recipes, I do think the guy that won last year was absolutely the most worthy winner because he was so amazing.
Starting point is 00:30:32 Eddie. Eddie. Pookie was something else, wasn't she? TV gold. She was absolutely amazing. TV gold. I mean, absolutely incredible. I mean, have you seen Priscilla, the Queen of the Desert?
Starting point is 00:30:43 That's as far as I'm going. She was a kind of gay icon, wasn't she? Incredible. And so much fun and so full of love and so full of caring. And clever.
Starting point is 00:30:53 Her food was... Just to look at it was like a painting. It's thought about in a completely different way. When she did that invention test and made goldfish... Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:31:02 Not just... Made goldfish. Yeah. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. So, for mains, we've fish, made goldfish. Yeah. Incredible, absolutely incredible. So for mains we've got mum. Right so I've done this Lebanese lamb. Do you have a ginger pig near you? No. I love them, they're great. They are very good. Fabulous meat. Thank you. I have a Hampstead butcher. Oh you've got a Hampstead butcher. You'm not used to live around here i did yeah it's just around the corner yeah like literally just around the corner there and then just over there
Starting point is 00:31:28 over that way yeah i think i once saw you in coolio's the italian restaurant in bathsea probably not in bathsea in balance yes probably and i that was a good one i like their calamari i used to do that yeah and the other one we used to go to all the time was the one in on it on Northcote Road you know the big one. That's like my childhood. Walking there even now and it's hi John. I love it. It's great isn't it. I love they used to do that primavera pasta and I used to think. But I like number six. Oh number six a bit more fancy pants, but the Buenos Aires, like, it was always so fab. Oh. See, I've got an Iranian rice cooker. That's Tad. Yeah, well, you know what it is.
Starting point is 00:32:10 Tell the world. Tadig. Yeah, how do you say it? I call it Tadig. What do you call it? Tad. Do you call it Tadli? I don't know what Tadli is.
Starting point is 00:32:18 Oh, anyway, Tadig. It is Tadig. Yeah. So it's crispy bottom of the rice, which is crispy. Yeah. Yay. What do you want, John? Do you want red or white?
Starting point is 00:32:27 I'll do whatever you want. No, you say. What do you feel like? She's got everything. Because you said red first, I think you want red. Okay, there's red, darling. Oh, this is... There you go.
Starting point is 00:32:39 Thank you. It's good here. I like it. So we've got a carrot salad, which is looking very zhuzh, and I believe by the smell of it, it's quite tangy. Well, I like it. So we've got a carrot salad which is looking very zhoosh and I believe by the smell of it it's quite tangy. Well, we'll see. Right, I've got the fluffiest rice in the world. Lovely salad. So the carrot one's there and then what's the other one?
Starting point is 00:33:03 The carrot one's there and the other one. This is a spinach, aubergine, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, tahini and lime salad. Kind of warm salad. Thank you. No, I'll hold. Oh, thank you. I'll play, Mum. I want to know what your favourite dish is that Lisa makes at the moment. Okay.
Starting point is 00:33:29 mates at the moment okay when when lisa cooks for me and we it's usually i've had a sort of pretty hard stressful day and i've been eating food which is really posh and it's all over the place yeah she makes this amazing sausage and sourdough base now this sounds really odd right yeah go on but she does sausages and onions in this in roasting tin, and then roasts them so they get sort of all crispy and crunchy on the outside. Then there's stock added to it, then there's bits of sourdough which are all sort of broken up, and then more stock's added, and it goes back in the oven. So half the bread's soggy at the bottom, but it's crispy at the top. But it's not too hard. It's kind of like a bread and butter, it's like kind of, what is it, like bread and butter?
Starting point is 00:34:06 It's like the best sausage sandwich but hot that you have to eat all at once. Did she make it up? She made it up. Oh it sounds amazing. With a bit of mustard, honestly, and after a day where I'm... You're in heaven. Just so happy. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:21 So happy. And this, she, amazing cook. I mean anything she does she's amazing do you need salt anyone no cheers thank you so much for being amazing wow wow cheers so you're less of a sweet person you love a cheese I actually love a dessert but not as much as Greg Wallace well no I grew up when I was a sort of young kid i was told i had bad asthma and that they then took me off milk so i didn't really have many much dairy products so i didn't really eat cream or ice cream or anything so i never got that sort of sweet what i call lactose sweet tooth which i think a lot of young kids get
Starting point is 00:35:01 so but i really appreciate a good dessert. But I don't, no, I don't suck on my spoon in the same way as the bald one does. Because he does have a, there is a majesty in the way in which he sucks on that spoon. He just gets so excited. But it's one of the joys, isn't it, of doing stuff like Mousetrap and John and Lisa.
Starting point is 00:35:19 Are you doing that at the moment as well? We've just filmed 10 more. How's it working with your partner? Your wife? She's my wife. Your wife. How is it? My wife.
Starting point is 00:35:27 Yeah. She's gorgeous. I need to ask about what you ate. She's the best of the three, I've got to say. Sean! Sean! Well, that's true. You must like being married.
Starting point is 00:35:40 Well, yeah, it's not cheap though, but anyway. But, yeah, you're working on your show. So we just did ten more episodes. So we go out in September through to October, September, October for the first bit. Then there's the whole thing to do with sport on ITV. And then we've got a whole Christmas, New Year thing going on. Nice. And Christmas, New Year does really well.
Starting point is 00:36:03 People love it. It is what it is. And we just bounce off each other and we like each other. And Christmas New Year does really well. People love it. It's, it's, it is what it is and we just bounce off each other and we like each other and she's a good looking girl. She's gorgeous. Yeah, she's gorgeous.
Starting point is 00:36:12 Is she acting as well at the minute? She's acting at the moment but it's all secret what she's doing. Okay, is it exciting? You can tell us.
Starting point is 00:36:19 I can't tell you. I'm teasing. Unless I want to, I'd love to tell you. Have another drink, John. No, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:23 Let me tell you something. There's certain things we just don't talk about. But she, uh yeah she's great I mean and she does so many different things I need to know about the wedding meal you know this is your third time having a wedding and a wedding meal so I need to know you know I presume it was the best meal yet but what did you eat what and how how were there arguments about this meal? Was it very important or did you kind of go, you know what?
Starting point is 00:36:51 Well, no, because we, we have this thing that we do with, with people come around. If you get invited to the, the Tarrade Fortner house, which we,
Starting point is 00:36:57 I would hope that you might accept the invitation. We're in. So we do this thing where we roast the chicken, but we put lots of butter underneath the skin and then we put truffles underneath the skin as well. And then we roast the chicken with lots and lots of onions and stuff in the tray. And then what we do then is we take the chicken out and the tray goes to the table as a starter with bread. And you just dip it in the bread in the roasting tray and you get all the juices and stuff.
Starting point is 00:37:23 Jess, you've got to be confident to serve that i respect that that's my kind of eating then we just pull the chicken apart usually serve it on top of something like dauphinoise potatoes and everybody just digs in and does what they want what sides would you have just dauphinoise potatoes and maybe with a green salad oh okay lettuce and some blue cheese maybe that's about it and that was our wedding that's what we did so we had oysters first and then our great great friend of mine now from doing MasterChef a few years ago Drew Baker who's got tempers here. Oh Drew Baker. He's got his charcuterie.
Starting point is 00:37:51 Where's his restaurant? He doesn't have a restaurant but he makes charcuterie. He makes an amazing charcuterie. He was one of the best. Incredible. And Tim I thought was great. Which one was Tim? American.
Starting point is 00:38:02 Tim's the American who's mad about Japanese. No he was on my one. Oh was he on yours? He's mad about Japanese food. Yeah he's a lovely lovely man lovely lovely man and quite unusual and quite interesting. But yeah so we did that we did so charcuterie and then we did oysters and we had some phirs and then we had the juice of the truffles and chicken and Dofus potatoes and some salads down the middle of the table and we made everybody serve themselves.
Starting point is 00:38:33 Because there's nothing worse than going to a function and getting a plate of food and you don't want to eat it all. Because you're not hungry or you don't want to eat it or you don't like it. What's your favourite?
Starting point is 00:38:44 We were trying to work out what your favourite food is and i think i know from master chef that you quite like food quite spicy food fusion japanese or things like or am i wrong asian food he nearly shed a tear yesterday at river cafe i think i know you love italian food but you do like quite like i do but i love thai, but you do like quite, like spiced. I do, but I love Thai food because I arrived in Thailand and I,
Starting point is 00:39:09 because I didn't, didn't have milk and dairy and I didn't have things like ice cream and you know, my brother's loving ice cream and strawberry topping and stuff. I never had those,
Starting point is 00:39:17 what I would call bursts of flavour. I had sort of stuff which was pretty ordinary as a kid in Australia. Was your asthma really that bad? Not anymore. I've got my inhaler upstairs. So why do you get asthma?
Starting point is 00:39:26 So what happened? I decided I wasn't going to use any medication. And? I'm fine. And are you eating ice cream now? I eat yogurt. Lots of yogurt. Because apparently yogurt,
Starting point is 00:39:36 and Tim Spector, the great man who looks after people's guts. Oh, your guts. Yeah, he says that it starts to eat the lactose, so therefore you don't have the amount of lactose in yogurt because so i i don't i see maybe that's what you should do that's interesting because i think i've got a lactose intolerance because i've been doing that fodmap thing which is a fucking pain in the ass and i think lactose is my issue but i didn't want to go to greece and not be able to have greek yogurt with a nectarine and honey talk to talk to tim
Starting point is 00:40:03 really i mean, he'll... Did he... No, I've read lots of his stuff, but talk to him. Because I reckon he'll probably help you out. But I mean, I eat yogurt now with fruit and almonds and stuff all the time. I think yogurt is fine, Jessie. Yeah, I think it's... But milk I can't do.
Starting point is 00:40:18 Yeah, and I'm okay with milk I can live without. Cheese you don't eat? Well, apparently you can have hard cheeses, but just quite small quantities and the other thing he always says is about pasture unpasteurized as long as living your gut will eat it and that's the thing is so much stuff has not been done anyway back to thailand because of that when i went to thailand there were these amazing flavors and there was no dairy and i I could eat anything I wanted. And it was just...
Starting point is 00:40:46 Exciting. When it's that hot sometimes on the street, as far as temperature, and then there's food that's like that as well, and you're watching all the locals eating it, it's not for tourists. You go and you're eating food that everybody's eating, because that's what they do.
Starting point is 00:40:59 And when you eat it, and there's so much chilli in it, you've got this amazing buzz. I mean, it was... Don't drink booze. So when you're in Thailand, you don't really drink booze you just go out and eat you greet papaya salad and with salty crab and you just walk along the street and go thanks very much it's great i love that food however you me if i went to france and i had a piece of roast chicken or i went to france and had a baguette and a tomato,
Starting point is 00:41:27 baguette, butter, tomato, salt on it, thanks for... I know. It's something... I want stuff that just tastes good. Like your food. I think that's... You know, it tastes... The rice tastes of rice.
Starting point is 00:41:41 It's cooked beautifully. It's cooked... The lamb tastes of lamb and it's cooked beautifully that's all that's it thank you John but that's it I'm going to cry
Starting point is 00:41:49 but that's all you want isn't it but I think when we go to Greece peaches taste of peach and tomatoes I'm sure they're not all grown in
Starting point is 00:41:59 no but I think one of the things that we forget and one of the things I really still love about Thailand is they don't have refrigeration.
Starting point is 00:42:06 Anywhere you go to eat, nothing's ever been refrigerated. It comes from a farm, it goes to a market. It goes from a market to a market stall and it's sold. And a peach that you're talking about in Greece, or an apricot that you get when you're in somewhere like Menorca or Mallorca, and it's been in the sunshine, it's never seen a fridge. And therefore it's not been held back sunshine it's never seen a fridge and therefore it's not being held back it's like blooming and blossoming and for anybody who actually wants
Starting point is 00:42:31 their strawberries to taste like strawberries put them on a table out in the garden for a day let the flies have as much fun as they like with it but let the sunshine get it and then go out there and smell what happens to that that. And the same as a tomato. Leave your tomatoes in your fruit bowl. Don't put it in the fridge. When you walk in the kitchen, leave the truss on them, you'll smell that lovely smell of a tomato. And I think that's what is... A baguette in France has never seen a fridge.
Starting point is 00:43:00 It doesn't come out of a plastic bag which has been frozen. It's some guy who's there and sweated all over it, which adds to the flavour, guys. This is a galette that I made with Jessie's damsons. From my garden. Yeah. How many damsons have you got? Too many.
Starting point is 00:43:17 Too many. Freeze them, send them along. No, I've got so many. But, you know, you have to check that some don't have maggots. None of these do, because we've checked them. Sorry, so enjoy. Well, they've been cooked anyway. They've have to check that some don't have maggots. None of these do, because we've checked them. That's right. Well, they've been cooked anyway. They've been cooked, but also there's no maggots.
Starting point is 00:43:29 Cooked maggots, good. But, so yeah, I did a pavlova at the weekend with roasted damsons and hazelnuts, and that was really nice, but I was like, just take some damsons. So mum has made damsongalette. Oh my goodness me, I'm so excited. Right, so I've made this damsson galette but i the real star should have been this which looks like it's got a little bit of something there's probably got maggot yeah maggot from the damson so i've got two lovely friends who live in greece where i go to and they
Starting point is 00:43:56 did their own olive oil so i thought i'd make olive oil ice cream so i thought i'll push the boat out it's john to road And I got Bertha Brown eggs. And that's why that's bright. It's bright orange. It's gone orange. It looks like it's our Mandarin. And it should really look pale, kind of yellow. I think it looks lovely.
Starting point is 00:44:15 So I'm very, very sorry about that. I think it's a surprise. Yeah. How amazing. I thought she was hesitant. So tell me how you did. Yes, I will eat ice cream. I'll leave all the ice cream.
Starting point is 00:44:23 It's got milk in. That's fine. I'll be really, really good. Right, do you want to cut the galette here? Do you know about dams and vodka? Well, I'm going to be making it. That's what I told Jessie to do. Yeah, I'm going to be doing it all.
Starting point is 00:44:33 But you've got to freeze them first. Oh, really? Or you take the skins and you've got to prick them with a fork. Because otherwise they don't leach out the juice. So, hold on. Freeze them first, then prick them. No, if you freeze them first, they pop. Okay.
Starting point is 00:44:45 That's why you freeze them, so you don't have to worry about it. Big bag. And then smack them around a little bit. Yeah, so the skins break. Yeah, so they break and they sort of start to bleed. Then into a jar, a bit of sugar, and then the cheapest vodka or gin you can buy. And that's everyone's Christmas present. How long do you need to leave it for?
Starting point is 00:45:01 Three months. If you do them now, it's Christmas time. Well, I think that's what we're going to be having to bloody do, because there's literally so many. They're taking over. They are an interesting thing, Damson, because a lot of people don't know, and they are hard to work with.
Starting point is 00:45:14 I don't think this is... They're more tart than a plum, right? This is very tart. I love the fact they're really tart. And in a tart, they're tart tart. Thank you, John. You're so helpful thank you
Starting point is 00:45:26 thank god the ice cream's delicious the ice cream's bloody good yeah really good that's amazing this is a bit sharp isn't it it's sharp
Starting point is 00:45:32 but it's okay because you've got this ice cream I think the whole thing's amazing so I love it John we haven't even bloody asked you
Starting point is 00:45:41 about your last supper Jesus we've been too busy guessing best guest last supper last supper start Jesus, we've been too busy guessing. You're the best guest. Last supper. Last supper. Start a main purge drink choice.
Starting point is 00:45:53 Well, what upsets me is that I've got to die at this stage. No, you don't. You're going on a desert island for six months. Sorry, it's my last supper. It's the last thing I eat. I don't know if any of you know this, but last means you don't have any more. okay well we had to change it because she got upset last supper
Starting point is 00:46:07 last before you go on the desert island okay so the deal is realistically for me well if I go on the desert island well I don't know about that see desert island I've got my
Starting point is 00:46:14 you're taking it all too literally just give me your favourite start at main and push John I've just been told I've got your daughter she's had enough now she wants to go home this is where she gets tired and she wants to go home this is where she gets tired
Starting point is 00:46:27 and she wants to go to bed isn't that this is it the car's outside i need to go to bed dear anyway so um it's going to be uh it's got to be a pair of shorts it's got to be barefoot it's got to be on a beach there's gonna be sand between my toes the sun's got to be shining absolutely um i would never do start a main course in dessert, ever. I would always do lots of little things that I have, so tasty bits and pieces, because I can never really decide on one thing. So like when I'm at the River Cafe,
Starting point is 00:46:55 you've got to have lots of different things all the time. You're my kind of guy, honestly. That's how I like to, yeah, you've got to, so to have a good opinion on it. Yeah, so I'd probably have to go sort of wandering along the sort of beach stalls in somewhere like an island in thailand somewhere and somebody might be some grilling some fish and then some chilies or whatever and then a really large glass of probably rose with lots of ice in it i know neanderthal neanderthal having ice in my wine
Starting point is 00:47:21 i know i don't really give a shit bad Bad luck. That's why I like it. And then afterwards, once I've done it all, take my shorts off and go into the water naked. Oh, John Trowd. You're a big nudist, naturist. Well, do you know what? Exclusive. You've got it here.
Starting point is 00:47:37 If the Germans can do it on the islands of Mallorca. Is that what you were doing in Mallorca? What I saw there was amazing. A bit of mayonnaise and naked swimming. Oh my goodness me. You see things you'd wish you'd never seen. Honestly. Is that what you were doing in Menorca? What I saw there was amazing. A bit of mayonnaise and naked soy mayonnaise. You see things you'd wish you'd never seen. Honestly. I mean, forget the last supper, darling.
Starting point is 00:47:54 So what's the pudding in this situation? I don't think you're a big pudding person. No, no, no. I've done lots of different courses. Oh, I'll tell you what. What? Best bit of dessert. Jean-Georges, New York.
Starting point is 00:48:09 Jean-Georges? Jean-Georges von Richter, who was an amazing chef, but Jean-Georges, the big restaurant, really, really posh, had about nine courses. Man comes to the table and he says to us, gentlemen, it's time for marshmallow. So he's got this sort of big jar and he pulls out big lots of marshmallows and cigar cutter and chops off bits of marshmallow in the meantime he's carving a pineapple at the side of
Starting point is 00:48:30 the table he's got dried mint and sugar in a mortar and pestle grinds the the um the mint and the sugar together slices the pineapple which is ripe and warm like it's just come off of a tropical tree puts on a plate sprinkles it with some kirsch and then did you like that i really like the clink of the bowls ladies and gentlemen is jesse actually eating the rest of the no you can't she won't sleep you know she's got to go home to sleep now anyway go on and they kirsch across the top and then then just sugar and mint across the top but pineapple honestly that sounds amazing
Starting point is 00:49:07 best thing of all the nine courses we had while we were there and which restaurants is it was called Jean Georges in New York Jean Georges before we
Starting point is 00:49:14 well not let you go but do you like you mean before you go hand in hand before I fuck off do you
Starting point is 00:49:22 do you like karaoke you go to Thailand. My voice is really shit. Does it matter? That's okay. That's better. I'm sort of one of those things where I like to dance, right?
Starting point is 00:49:33 And that's another reason why I wasn't very invited into Australia. I was really shit Australian. I mean, really, really shit Australian. Why? Well, I don't drink beer. Okay. I don't like Australian rock music. I mean, I literally hate it. I was a New Rom't like Australian rock music. I'm a literally hate it
Starting point is 00:49:45 I was a new Romantics fan completely which mean I will make up and stuff like that So I was definitely, you know on the wrong side of the fence made all you eat bats for the wrong side All right, and um, and I didn't play very much sport. So I was very much not an Aussie. So Yeah, just you know, so Karaoke yard like every so often I do it. So what would be your new romantic song that you do? Gold. Spantown Ballet!
Starting point is 00:50:11 Oh my gosh! It is a great song. Always believe in your soul. I know, it's an amour. You go. I mean, Tony Hadley, right? So Tony Hadley. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:22 My yellow Toyota, Beach Road Road 18 years old cassette player windows down listening to gold and and suddenly celebrity master he turns up how did you deal with that did you say your food's really good I love you yeah and I did we still have this mutual love affair being him oh he's great he's lovely he's a really great guy and then he came back into another year as well with us but he's just brilliant do you have good table manners?
Starting point is 00:50:52 I think he's done a lot I hope so I'm not very good with table manners I don't like I'm not very good with people who are off at tables oh really? why have you got criticism? no no no I'm interested because I guess I who are off at tables. Oh, really? Why, have you got criticism?
Starting point is 00:51:05 No, no, no, I'm interested because I guess, like, I wonder whether people ever criticise you. Does anybody want more ice cream before I put it in the fruit? Whether anybody criticises you on Twitter, when you know you're eating your food and it's hard when you're on telly. Do you actually go on Twitter still? No, I've come off it. It's the most awful place in the whole world.
Starting point is 00:51:21 Yeah, yeah. But the fact is that there was this thing of, oh, you've got your mouth full. I eat for a living. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, watch me. I'm eating my food and trying it out. Mum.
Starting point is 00:51:33 You all right there, Daddy? Yeah, you all right? Sorry. Just wanted to get it in, as the actress said to the bishop. So people complain that you've got your mouth full, that you're trying to eat the food. And when you go to eat your food and you're so excited about it and you want to say something
Starting point is 00:51:47 and you're looking at somebody and they're because you know some people are just waiting to know what you say you want to say and when you really love it so much and you can't do much else about it
Starting point is 00:51:57 you've got to sometimes just compose yourself but yeah no I think I think table manners are really important I think they make they make a massive
Starting point is 00:52:04 I think they make a massive... I think they're like a language. They're either one of, you know... And I try and instil in my children that it's a really good idea to make sure that you're well behaved at a table. Do any of them want to be chefs? I hope not.
Starting point is 00:52:18 Really? No, no, no. They don't want chef's arse. It's the worst affliction in the whole world. Do you know about chef's arse? Chef's arse's you've been doing this podcast for how many years i've never learned so much you've never heard of chef's art okay so when you first start in kitchens right and it's really really hot and i suppose happens more in
Starting point is 00:52:35 australia but what happens when you sweat a lot as a chef and you're over a stove yeah you're you know backs up sweat goes down your back and then what happens is the sweat goes into the crack of your bum yeah right and then of course you turn around to serve your food and then you because your bum's towards the stove then it dries out the sweat in your bum well sweat's got salt in it right so eventually there's so much salt built up inside the crack of your bum that as it sort of rubs together it's like nappy rash seriously so yes i think i got it tonight what chef's ass oh my yeah and i remember this great story about somebody being caught with their bum in a tub full of corn flour because corn flour apparently stops all the sweat now why has no one given us this
Starting point is 00:53:20 information in the past five years thank you john tarot no no promise at all I think it's good to impart knowledge so chef's arse have nobody ever talked about chef's arse no how come maybe they aren't as open and honest
Starting point is 00:53:33 as you John Turow you've been the most fantastic guest the best I wish we could just keep on chatting
Starting point is 00:53:40 so we'll just have to carry on having dinners together again and thank you so much I know I know what time your bedtime is when you come for know I know what time your bedtime is. When you come for dinner, I know what time I'm going to get you out. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:53:48 Late lunch works for me. Jessica! Brilliant! Four o'clock? Jesse! Don't you think that's good? Fucking ace! Listen, everyone fucks off by night.
Starting point is 00:53:57 That's it, yeah! Okay, everybody. Do you like this too? Let's do a new one called... What? Late lunch. Late lunch? Fuck off. Late Lunch. Late Lunch? Fuck off.
Starting point is 00:54:05 Late Lunch. I want to say something. Jerome didn't want to get out of here. Darling, I'm just slightly a bit in love. What, with the fact that he likes to swim naked like Edmund? No, darling. It's not that. Oh, ping.
Starting point is 00:54:33 He's texting you. No, he's not. He's giving us the date for dinner. Oh, he's saying we're having the roast chicken with the truffle. He was such good fun. Honestly, I haven't laughed. He was so fun. the fact that i met him on like a set and he remembered your lactation how could you forget
Starting point is 00:54:50 i'm glad that now your lactating boob is now the last thing you remember is my lactating chicken soup um but i love it that you were like oh i i said in the intro we'll just it's to not embarrass him let's not like talk about the the boob situation in masterchef and you were completely appalled first thing he said um he was so sweet generous funny funny opinionated ate everything gave us everything and more i just like the perfect table manners guest yeah perfect have i done enough cleaning up not really but it's fine um thank you john to road for being such a fantastic guest on table manners can't wait to eat him and lisa's food me neither i mean you know now we know how to cook a chicken i've been doing it wrong for 70 years that's mad isn't it yeah but i can
Starting point is 00:55:44 understand the seasoning thing because we always put you put garlic and you put i'm gonna actually you know what i'm gonna put it out to the listeners um please email us hello at table manners podcast.com um how you cook your chicken how you do your chicken because obviously we all shove a lemon up the butt and all that and an onion and an onion and thyme, whatever. I usually put butter under the skin. But I've never thought to season inside the carcass. So I want to know how many other people have been doing it wrong for the whole of their lives.
Starting point is 00:56:18 Can I just say my tadlik or whatever you call it was perfect. Tadik. Tadik. Tadik. We should really learn how to say it. It was perfect tonight. Beautiful. It was so crispy.
Starting point is 00:56:28 He said two things were beautiful. What? Your rice and your lamb. Your lamb was good, wasn't it? Good old Steve. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:56:46 Thank you for listening. The music you've heard on Table Manners is by Peter Duffy and Pete Fraser. Table Manners is produced by Alice Williams.

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