Ep 150: Angela Hartnett

James, huge news from the world of off-menu and indeed the world of the world.

Yes.

Ever heard of the Royal Albert Hall?

I have.

We've done live shows there.

And guess what?

We're doing more live shows there next year.

Sure, a lot of them are sold out already.

But we thought, hey, throw these guys a bone.

Let's put on one final Royal Albert Hall show in that run.

The show will be on Monday, the 16th of March.

It's going to be a tasting menu, a returning guest coming back, receiving the menu of another previous guest.

Those shows have been a lot of fun.

We cannot wait to do them live.

Who will we pull out of our little magic bag?

You'll have to come along on the 16th of March to find out.

If I'm correct in thinking, presale tickets go on pre-sale on the 10th of September.

Pre-sale tickets are 10th of September at 10 a.m.

And then the general sale is 12th of September at 10 a.m.

So if you miss out on the pre-sale, don't forget general sale is only two days later.

The day in between is for reflecting.

Get your tickets from royalalberthall.com Hall.com or offmenupodcast.co.uk

Suffs, the new musical has made Tony award-winning history on Broadway.

We demand to be heard.

Winner, best score.

We demand to be seen.

Winner, best book.

We demand to be quality.

It's a theatrical masterpiece that's thrilling, inspiring, dazzlingly entertaining, and unquestionably the most emotionally stirring musical this season.

Suffs, playing the Orpheum Theater October 22nd through November 9th.

Tickets at BroadwaySF.com.

Pura brings smart fragrance and function together.

Premium scents, smart app control, and sleek design.

And here's the best part.

Your first set of fragrances is free.

Hurry to Pura.com now and upgrade your home today.

Welcome to the Off-Menu Podcast.

Taking the hairy shell of the internet, cracking into it with the hammer of humor, and supping on the wonderful podcast Milk Within.

Coconuts.

Coconuts, welcome.

Belito looks very confused.

I knew it was coconuts.

Yeah.

That was Ed Gamble there, giving you a lovely intro.

My name is James Daycatter.

This is the Off-Menu Podcast.

We run a dream restaurant and we invite a guest every single week.

We ask them their favorite ever starter, main course dessert side dish and drink.

And this week, our guest is

Angela Hartnut.

Angela Hartnutt, a wonderful chef.

Yes.

A wonderful chef.

She's been on TV lots, lots and lots as well.

She's been on things like Master Chef.

She did Britain's Best Home Cook, I think 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.

I mean, look, 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.

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 this.

Yep.

But regardless of all of that and Angela's brilliant background as a chef and her fantastic book, if she has 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.

Are there no beans in a Texas chili?

Maybe not.

Maybe I'm getting that wrong.

Feels like to me that they put baked beans in there.

Baked beans?

Yeah.

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.

Yeah.

Unless I can get black beans.

I think everyone should go beanless.

Yeah, I think beanless, especially when it's kidney beans, they're pasty inside.

They're horrible.

Evette Castor 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 Castor.

Spelled with a Y.

Yeah, Miss 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 my tour that is 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.

So 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.

Cass's Guide to Quitting Social media being the best you can be and curing yourself of loneliness 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 flawed there.

You struck me.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, guys.

Welcome to the heart 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.

No, no, I don't.

I definitely don't.

Definitely want a night off, day off, week off, months off, even.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Am I sounding bitter and twisting?

At home, are you the one cooking?

Because, of course, your husband's also a cook.

What?

Yes.

Who is this guy?

Who is this guy?

Neil.

Yeah, he could.

No, we take it in 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 only cook 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 managed to do.

It's just worked out so perfectly.

You only cook at weekends.

Oh, there you go.

Well, let's talk about your new book,

for chance you have a coffee.

Oh, 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

I bet you bring some little stuff to crisp sandwiches that that might be interesting to hear so if you want to tell the listener now to be fair isla 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 crisps no flavoured crisps okay and my fellow chef for 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 who the hell puts brown sauce you put that in a bacon butty or a chip butter you do not put put it in a crisp sandwich.

Sorry.

Buttering and crisp sandwich.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

As many calories as you've got.

Sorted butter you can put in there.

Salted butter, sorted 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.

I know what you're saying.

There's a lot of,

I was looking at the book a minute ago and like Tom Kerry just said how brilliant it is, Stanley Tucci.

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 book.

Thanks, Ed.

Very good.

Very good.

I love, I tell you who's a great food writer I love is the guys from Honey and 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 goddess 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 right?

I said, yeah, yeah, I I think they're.

But, you know, even I'm like, have I missed out an ingredient?

But delias, 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 puddings, it's going to work.

You go to Delia without doubt.

Oh, that's good.

Very nice.

I've tried using, I bought Tom Carriage's Hand and Flowers.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And even when I told him that I had that, he went, you're never going to make it.

And I looked at him and I was like, well, of course not, because I don't have a blast chiller at home.

Don't you have your sous machine?

Of course.

Guess what?

We discovered recently in my flat flat?

That 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 as well.

Okay, nice.

That's her favourite dish.

Lovely.

We absolutely love it.

Any particular broccoli, may I ask?

Or just, you know?

Well, kind of like your standard broccoli, but

it's the stems, not 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, is it thinking Angela?

Is this an interesting story?

Yes.

We used to,

you know, have, well, how are we going to use these stems?

So then we got this recipe and we did that.

And now we're like, are we going to use these heads?

That is an interesting story.

That's how much we love this literary recipe.

That's stunning.

That's stunning.

I know I host them up in the weekend.

Yeah.

Okay.

Marvellous.

But like,

yeah,

we know it so well.

We were like, where have we even got this recipe from, didn't you?

Tom Kerridge.

Tom Kerridge, you feel like.

It's like the Tom Kerridge recipe.

Yeah.

Do you put chili in there as well?

A bit of garlic.

Chili, garlic, capers.

Capers, nice, yeah.

Obviously Torizo.

Yeah, obviously Torizo.

And I always forget the name of the pasta that we prefer.

But we, you know, I only have it in Torizo broccoli pasta.

Do you use the main bit of the chorizo, or is it like upstairs?

Do you use the metal, the metal on the end?

Yeah, the metal that in.

Yeah, it's like a, like, a 20p and a Christmas pudding.

Yeah.

Okay.

We let them be a little bit.

It's a chorizo.

Yeah, you're lucky to get the old metal bits.

God, I can't wait to come to your house.

Yeah, I'll make a chorizo broccoli pasta.

Because that was one of 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 treats of broccoli pasta for Tom Kerridge.

Yeah.

But then I didn't know at the time it was his recipe.

Right, oh.

Now I'm really 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 it's their recipe.

So claim it is your own, you know, add something into it.

I mean, have you ever had parsley?

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 uh 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 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

it's amazing stuff how did you do this and then what was that you know

come dine with me in the cab on the way home

hold up, you got a number card.

Why is Andrew and her husband brought number cards?

It's very odd.

Yeah, come dine with me when it shows them in the cab.

Give it a two when they've been so nice.

I go, you motherfuckers.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We always start with still or sparkling water.

Sparkling.

I do like sparkling water, yeah.

I don't know why, but I've always liked it.

I like, yeah, I just think it's nice, refreshing, bubbly.

I find it thirst-quenching.

Are you drinking it at home?

do drink it at home we've been very um 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 the soda thing runs out and then it's flat water but yeah I like it James always asks if it works because we 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 done it wrong they sent me a broken one

did you attach the bottle properly, James?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I don't know how to attach a bottle.

I don't think it did it right.

It doesn't work.

It flooded my whole kitchen.

Right, okay.

Would you like me to come and show you how to make one?

Good luck if you, yo.

Give you use in that piece of junk.

It's a hunk of junk.

Okay, 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 are going to be happier that Andrew is on board with it rather than you, to be honest.

Well, you know,

I I think yo 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 everyman.

Yeah you are the everyman.

So like soda stream are gonna be like oh baby yo they've made it too complicated just attach the bottle press the button yeah 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 stop when people come in like wa when you've had like people come into like restaurants and stuff and you're looking at them and the customers do you judge them if they order still a sparkling water?

Do you ever no no?

Are you very judgmental about water you two?

I'm feeling feeling there's something underneath.

Some guests are that we have on the water.

Oh really?

Some guests are like oh Lardi Da sparkling water some or some people are like oh I'm afraid I'm gonna go Ponce and never sparkling water you know they really there's a lot of water 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're I mean it's not like I go and get special water to put in the soda stream.

It's out of the tap.

I just make it bubbly.

That's all I do.

But no, no, you know, you've got me feeling guilty.

Is there a bit of judgment?

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,

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 a bit.

Getting a freebie 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 want to think.

Yeah, you're looking.

It's probably the way you go tap, you know, very aggressively, I might add, Edge.

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 tap because they think there's a markup 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.

Jeezy, you you didn't even offer tap, you two.

You made it possible.

Yeah, we're doing

sparkling or stiff.

We're doing it just like all the restaurants.

They never offer the freebie.

We always offer tap.

We're always going to check on that now.

Get a letter next week.

I don't blame you for not even 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?

You can have my lunch if you like.

Yeah.

Which, yeah, exactly.

End of the Chorita.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Nice.

Poppin up some bread.

Oh.

Popped up some bread, Angela Hart.

Poppin' bread.

Bread's bread.

Bread, bread, bread, without doubt.

Bread, bread, bread.

That got shouted at me earlier as well.

Families shouted at me.

Yeah, one of Neil's chefs 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.

It freaked me out slightly.

No, definitely bread.

I love bread.

I love poppadoms as well, mind you.

But I just do.

And because of my background of the Irish background on my dad's side, but 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 I, 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 forcapture and stuff.

And I literally will just walk over, take a bit of salami, slice it, make myself a little panini, and walk around the kitchen.

Oh, morning, morning.

I've just, and you do that in four restaurants.

No, I can't be sylph-like because that would happen.

And it's, you know, it's a killer.

Because, you know, bloat, I don't know, it's delicious.

Yeah, it is.

I love the idea of you walking into your own restaurant and just making a sandwich and walking around like, hey, guys, how's it going?

Morning.

China chat, what you're up to, checking on and stuff.

Yeah, it's just, you know, and you do munch away, you know, and you like, we have breadsticks, you eat a few of that, you know, I mean, it's really difficult to give you 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 it's in the fridge i'm eating it yeah exactly yeah absolutely but are you what are you keeping bread in a fridge oh no i'm i'm eating anything just checking yeah no i'm with you there if it's there i'll eat it i often think oh well i if as long as i don't have things in the house that's fine but then 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 i'm going to bed i've got i've got to go to bed and then i saw a little box that was on the doorstep uh and uh james's sister has started a flapjack company and uh 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.

Yep, that's a nice one.

Very good.

Coffee, delicious.

Peanut butter, delicious.

Marzipan, amazing.

That's the I said it was my favourite word.

I told you that.

Yeah.

It was the best one.

My favourite was the chili, chili and lime chocolate.

Oh yeah, that's the most popular.

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 tell you who does a great combo of breads is old 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 also soaks in the butter when you spread it on there so i love soda bread um and then i love full catcher because i love that crunchiness i'm not so fussed about having brown bread or anything like that and i have to say controversially as i may say i'm slightly over sourdoughs i'm done with them i've just you know if anyone gives me another sourdough sandwich that's so thick and toasty you can't actually be gonna break your teeth on it it's like you know there's reasons that you want a white bat for a bacon sandwich because that bread works and it's you know it soaks up all the fat and stuff so um yeah i'm over the sort of sourdough for that got a bit emotional then

sorry

no right 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 well it's everywhere isn't it yeah it's too much and you know and there's great ones for god yeah i've got some great friends who are bakers who make it but it's just like enough now just i like bread for the right reasons like i say a white bread for certain things nothing wrong with that yeah it's good white bread it's 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.

Amen to that.

I love salted caramel.

Yeah, but it'd be nice to have the option, right?

Nice to have the option.

Yeah.

We like options in life.

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.

I'd shit myself.

Yeah.

I'd be like, well, this must have salt in it.

And then I just tell myself I was eating salted caramel because I've forgotten what that tastes like.

Let's get on to 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 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 putanesca 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 the pasta i love as a course and you know and the bread can mop up the sauce gapata that sort of thing and yeah that would definitely be and it can eat it can be eaten anywhere 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.

Yeah.

There's every, 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 putanesca.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh my god.

It probably kicks you in the face.

Yeah, exactly.

So many different flavours.

Yeah, it is the best.

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.

Without asking me,

there's a little bonus item in there.

Did they charge you for that anchor fees?

Was it a gift or was it a charge for you?

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, well, all right.

You should have recently when it was like everyone just running around anyway.

You should have just gone over to the house and posted the tin of anchovies.

Yeah, I mean, I was 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, they put, 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.

I think I pimped up a pizza I was making.

Yeah.

And has chucked it on there.

But like, because you had made that nice pizza with the anchovies on it with the lamb.

But I didn't have lamb.

You know what?

You can put it on your broccoli dish.

Yeah, I was going to say that, Joe.

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, you know, 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 just the anchovies and the oil as well it's delicious oh i'll do it tonight.

Yeah.

Supper for you.

There you go, Danny.

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 Knight.

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 okay when, like, you know, when you're in a relationship.

When she's coming back.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Then it's like, oh, good, I'd get to be tragic for an evening on my own.

You know, nice break from the happiness.

She's coming back.

Yeah.

She'll love it.

Yeah.

That sounds great.

okay um fresh basil as well is always exciting to me yeah i like fresh basil yeah or even parsley if you haven't got basil that's fine but parsley is good a bit of a flat leaf in there would work i think i think i used to work in uh not like proper kitchens but okay i thought you were going to tell me a green grocer's there

okay um but like oh i had to chop parsley all the time yeah because i was you know that that was my level yeah okay

well you're the mash king as well i was also the mash king i was a mash okay right okay going town did you what do you put milk cream butter Cream?

Cream, controversial.

Cream, butter.

Did you put the butter in first?

I'd put butter in first.

Yeah.

Give it a bit of a mash.

Yeah.

Dump all the cream in.

Yeah, you know, salt and pepper would go in before.

Yeah, yeah, of course, yeah.

And then dump all the cream in, mash it again, then loads of orange cheese.

Orange cheese.

Well, you know, like orange colour cheese.

Cheddar cheese.

Okay, cheddar, cheddar.

Orange cheddar cheese.

Orange cheddar cheese.

That's an interesting one.

Chuck that in.

Yeah.

Mash it up.

And then everyone would come with it.

I'm just mashing up like this.

Yeah, just use it two-handed.

No mashes 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 I love it.

I'm saying nothing.

I'm saying nothing.

But I don't care.

I think, you know,

honestly, you know, there were days when I would go in and someone else had done the mash in the morning.

Which wasn't as good.

I'd have a little bit of it.

I'd be like, that is lumpy.

Yes, that's it.

Not enough orange.

The flavour got 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, and that avoids the lumpy cheese.

That's right.

Yes.

You're doing it right.

Instinct, you see.

You're a natural.

You're a natural, James.

That's right.

Pretty good.

Also, you've got to get the orange cheese just right

so it doesn't, you don't want it tipping over into making the mash orange.

So you got it.

You've got to get the fresh.

I would agree with that.

You've got to get it just right so that it doesn't colour the mash, but you get the cheesy flavour in there.

Yeah, do you mash the flavor?

Orange cheese full stop?

I mean, if I'm honest, no.

I've got to be honest with you there.

The orange, the fact that you're calling cheddar orange when it's clearly yellow most of the time.

This is orange cheddar.

This is orange cheddar cheese.

All right, okay.

And red Leicester.

Right, yeah,

okay.

In Ketmy, we call it orange cheddar.

Okay, all right, that's fine.

Okay, I'll give it a go.

I'm sure it adds a lovely flavour, but you do an orange mash, do you?

No, you can't.

Could you substitute it with like a stronger cheddar that is less orange?

Yeah, yeah, you could.

You know, just go your own way with it, really.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Add lib a bit, yeah.

A bit of Parmesan or is that too much?

That constantly?

No, no, no, parmesan.

I mean, you know, parmesan goes in and treats her broccoli pasta at the end.

Oh, yeah.

So, you know, okay, all right.

You're a parmesan lover.

He's not against that, yeah.

Fabulous.

I love putting some parmesan.

All right, Mash King.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mash.

She admitted it.

But you were chopping the.

Parsley.

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.

Okay, that's fair enough.

Okay.

But parsley would work in your broccoli chorizo pastly.

Yeah, it would, yeah.

Well, it's never going anywhere near.

Yeah, but you don't have to chop it, you can just pick the leaves and just throw it in at the end.

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.

Yeah,

I mean, I was good at that as well.

Yeah, you balance it, you know, put press down on the knife on one end, and you need to use it as a pivot,

go all over it, get it really fine.

Satisfying, yeah, satisfying when it's like the crunch of the parsley when you're chopping it on your popcorns out on the parsley.

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, you know.

Yeah.

That's what I'd be thinking when I was chopping the bus.

But I'm desperate to know where you're working now.

Who's going to eat your dust?

Yeah.

Oh, the star in Geddington and the trading post in Ketwin.

But, you know, still, good places.

Have you been back and done an act there?

You know?

Well, 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.

But like, you know.

What are you talking about?

What are you doing?

They're going to be like so full to, you know, Friday night now after they hear this.

It's like,

it's a chain of like family pubs that's flattering.

That's what we're saying.

Yeah.

You've got the soft play area.

Got a hungry horse.

And you buy the cheesy mash for all these hungry kids.

I don't know if it was hungry horse, but like it was, it was one of those.

There's a soft play area.

I didn't know that.

Well, no, they didn't do mash at that.

No, I didn't do mash at that one.

I did 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.

They've put their hooves all over the rest of Kettering.

Don't even joke.

They wouldn't.

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 invest in it, get a little village, all of you together.

Word has it.

Ridley Scott was in there recently

well someone at the star came up to me and said there's a man who looks remarkably like ridley scott's chance is he ridley scott i was at the quiz i was at the quiz i was sitting with my family in the in the 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 riddle scott i never met the man yeah yeah but like he was like riddley scott was in here and then the lady went who the bloody hell's that and i just

said it's the guy who's two doors down

he directed alien and she's like what's he doing in here?

I was allowed to be in here.

If you direct Alien you're allowed to go to the star.

When I worked in a pub in Rains 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.

I went no he didn't.

Why is Louis Walsh coming in?

They went yeah I've got it on CCTV because we kept the CCTV because a woman went mad and flipped a table over and you can see Louis Walsh in the background.

And I I looked at the CCTV and it's literally the back of a man's head with grey hair.

And like, that is not Louis Walsh.

It's just like a woman going, flipping a table.

Oh my god,

brilliant.

I love it.

I love it.

When I moved into my flat,

the guy who

works in the building, he said to me, there's a harvester.

Yeah.

Door to door.

I'd take a minute walk from my flat.

That's why I moved there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Never been there still.

Have you not?

I was on a date at a harvester once.

Were you?

Many back in the day, back in the day.

It's all right.

We're not married, put it like that.

We never went much further than our date of the harvester, but you know, you can't judge, can you?

Is this before you're a chef?

Before I was a chef, I was sort of still probably at college and stuff there.

But yeah, before.

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 afterwards.

It was very, yeah, certain rules.

You've got to have your standards, James.

Pineapple on pizza.

Oh my God.

we're gonna fall out aren't we really I bet I bet get my coat down also put pineapple in my Nando's wrap now I've never had a Nando's so I can't I can't comment on that I cannot comment on that but um pineapple and pizza we need we need to go out and have pizza together you need a little education on that one James thanks you'll be telling me chicken and coriander

chicken coriander and pineapple pizza that's his favourite

the guy from the building was like have you been to the harvester yet i went no and he went i'll tell you who's always in there i said who and he went paul cinnar Paul Sinnar is a comedian who was also the cinnamon on the chase.

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.

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,

he has exquisite tastes.

Yeah.

We need to get Paul in and ask him about that.

Yeah, we need to get Paul now.

Make a note like that, Benito.

Doing it there.

Take him there.

Book Paul.

Yeah, we need to record it at the harvester.

This is him.

I know.

Don't anything like him.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Never met him before in my life.

The guy from the Chase.

It's that time of year again, back to school season.

And Instacart knows that the only thing harder than getting back into the swing of things is getting all the back-to-school supplies, snacks, and essentials you need.

So here's your reminder to make your life a little easier this season.

Shop favorites from Staples, Best Buy, and Costco all delivered through Instacart so that you can get some time back and do whatever it is that you need to get your life back on track.

Instacart, we're here.

Pura is the smart way to fragrance your home.

Customize your scents with app control, schedule them to fit your life, and enjoy premium fragrances that last.

And here's something to celebrate: when you start today, your first fragrance is free.

It's the perfect time to discover why everyone's switching to Pura.

But hurry, this offer is for a limited time only.

Go now to pura.com and claim your free set before it's gone.

Your main course?

Main course is,

well, I'm sure someone said it, roast chicken.

I just absolutely love it.

Who said it?

Claudia Winkleman, who

has said, this is a brilliant cookery book by a brilliant woman about the weekend cook by Angela Hutton.

Oh, I love you, James.

Love you.

Yeah, 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 potato, all the vegetable, and all that.

You could just have roast chicken, sage and onion stuffing.

You can have it with French fries, the 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 Berno's 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 breadcrumbs 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, thyme, 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 would soak all the juices.

So you just had like this chicken-y bread soaked.

I mean, it was just delicious.

Or I like it when people put the potatoes underneath so all the fat of the chicken soaks onto them and roasts them.

You're salivating their edges.

You're good at this.

Yeah, and I really am.

I love a roast chicken.

You're the best.

At home, if we do roast chicken, we'll just do it like Greek salad or something.

And then it's like a proper nice middle.

Yeah, exactly.

And you don't need to kill yourself with all the sides and all of that.

No, you know, no.

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 he'll take any veg, chop all that up.

If there's some tomatoes, he'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.

You know, it's just one pot and it's so easy and simple to do.

You know, he does that great thing like a chef.

He just pulls things out of the fridge going.

And this, how long's 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 at work now, Neil.

no stocktake needed all right simmer yeah so that sounds delicious sounds so good i did a roast chicken for my uh 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 and now the grapefruit

for a while after that they kept on threatening to put lemons up people's butts

because they thought that was a thing so that yeah which is good because it made a change for them threatening because they for a while, the main threat was that they'll blow up your house.

And so now

they changed it to put a lemon up your bum.

Yeah, but less controversial.

They're kind of worrying in their own ways.

I'd imagine there's a little call from a teacher, regardless.

Do we need any stuff?

Do we need any child line here?

Do we do something?

Okay, good news.

They've stopped doing it.

They had to do it.

They just insert a lemon up the anus of another child.

They went to do a bunch of skeptic.

Because when I'd done the chicken and they were 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 button

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 butt of the chicken?

That's great though, isn't it?

It's entertaining.

Popping a lemon up the butt of the chicken.

Yeah.

I think a lemon in anything is really good.

I think it's just delicious.

And, you know, and again, it's that whole sort of squeeze squeeze it over the end of it and 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 on the you know and i screw up quite a lot when i'm cooking at home but i did it i mean i did this once that um i basically had all my family coming over and i thought oh god i just haven't got it so i literally ran to uh the local supermarket bought all these different varieties of gaspacho mixed it all in together seasoned it with loads of cherry tomato i bought and basil and olive oil and anyway so i served all this gazpacho And they were like, oh, delicious.

And she's so lovely.

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 a uh this sort of terrace house but kitchen's in the bottom the but we're eating up the next floor and um so everyone always helps clear plates downstairs so my friend cleared it she opened the dishwasher and sees all these plastic you know

containers and she goes what's sadder the fact you literally have bareface lied to 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 um 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 like the flap jack she made these fluorentine biscuits wrapped them all up and well my mum was literally going oh it's delicious and you should really learn how to make these you know i'm like are you kidding me i've just cooked for you like like 30 people and now you're all giving me shit about these bloody biscuits.

I said, you're not part of our family yet.

You haven't married, you know.

So we have many days like that at our family.

I know.

Sorry, digressing away.

Have you ever had 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 some Florentines.

And they were good, yeah.

Thanks for that.

Ed.

Thanks, yeah.

Mum will be pleased.

I've got on 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 make.

I had them back.

That was in the fudge people who make a finger of fudge, no, different companies.

Oh, no, no, no.

It's like one of those companies where they've invented a man to make it sound posh.

Okay, right.

Thomas J.

Fudge written in Latin.

He's got like...

I thought that was his real signature.

Curly Muddash and a bowler.

Is that right, Benito?

Yeah.

I had them backstage at a festival once.

It was 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.

I was like, I never want to stop eating these now.

Now that's every Christmas.

You were on a high on stage, weren't you?

Florentine high.

I was like, flying.

I can't remember the gig.

But I don't think there's been a gig where James hasn't been high on Shago at some point.

Fair enough.

You've 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 uh it's happened

we've all been waiting and we're very happy you've leave

so now i'm yeah now i'm like right now i've got to learn discipline which i've never had to learn before hard that isn't never had to learn it because i've had uh you know fluky metabolism my whole life and now i'm actually having to learn how to not do stuff not not eat rubbish all the time um i don't i haven't cracked it yet well basically not having anybody in the house is good And I also learned that as soon as I have one sweet thing in the day, that's it.

Then the floodgates are open.

So I have to just never...

And sweet, as in, like, a cake or a biscuit, or do you just go and buy like chocolate?

Or is it anything?

Kind of anything.

Apart from

not sweets, sweets.

No, sweet, sweet.

Yeah, I don't really like any of that.

No, I don't really like any of that.

But like, yesterday...

I was working, I was on a set for some of you.

Yeah.

And they kept on offering biscuits and chocolate.

And I was like, I've got to say no.

Yeah, fair enough.

My rule now is

it has to be worth it so if it's like something really special yeah like your sister's flapjacks like the sister's flapjacks yeah straight away yeah if they go do you want a breakaway bar yeah between takes i'm like absolutely not that's the main thing

so what is your chocolate of choice you 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 maltizer that's my level of chocolate and i don't have much chocolate i'm very rare so what's your go-to chocolate well i quite like posh stuff so so actually oh you're a posh boy fan.

So that's worked 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 mean, I've said on the podcast before that Whitaker's is a New Zealand brand.

Yeah.

And like their peanut butter chocolate is probably still my favourite chocolate.

Really?

Okay.

That's good as well because it's got posh, but it's also got the level of sweetness.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, you need that stuff.

It's a lot of their stuff I like.

And Ed's got me into the chocolate, the Tony's Chocolate.

Tony's Chocolone.

I love that stuff.

Tony's Chocolone.

That sounds like Tony's Chocolate.

Yeah, okay, yeah.

And recently, Hotel Chocolate got in touch and were really spoilt us rotten.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

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.

And they emailed me and said, we sent James some stuff.

What would you like anything?

And I go, just send me exactly what James said.

Exactly the same.

This huge box of stuff arrives.

I'm like, oh my God, are you kidding 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 chocolate 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 any of them.

Don't, yeah, exactly.

So I get back off tour, and all of these boxes are sat there with literally one chocolate.

Right, I suppose she did stick to the rule.

Yeah, yeah, that was the rule.

That was what you said.

That was the meals of being at them.

Yeah, exactly.

Oh, bless the cock socks.

Your dream side dish.

Sounds really boring, but I love it.

Green beans, but different types.

Like you've got the flat beans coming in now, runner beans, just your normal green beans.

I'd love beans.

I love that.

And I love it.

And there's this great thing.

It will be coming in soon-ish.

Fresh almonds.

Now I'm getting, you talk about the water.

This is getting all cheffy and posh and foncy.

Like fresh almonds that you, know you crack them out of their little um shells and stuff you put those on there and i like it with basil and uh peaches bizarrely oh wow 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 yeah but it's absolutely delicious as a side as well we put it as a dish on the restaurant it just works yeah because the peaches are never so sweet you know they are sweet and they're right but you've got those beans and it's got an all-bit room temperature can't have anything from the fridge and you know a nice bit of salt lovely but pepper you can input a little bit of lovage 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 are the almonds like fresh and raw so yeah they're raw they're white yeah 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 they're i mean kids 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 waff of in 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

do the box of almonds

exactly yeah

so um I love those sort of things.

But yeah, they're a pain, 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.

That sounds delicious.

yeah yeah and the the peaches yeah are you are you cooking them down or are they going on raw as well raw absolutely raw they yeah textually they a bit proper ripe in the season is one of my pet hates is unripe tomatoes and unripe fruit and that's partly because i'll be honest i've been spoilt 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 uh aunt's place and she lived by the sea and stuff and we'd always have ripe peaches and then one summer they said they said well we've seen you all 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 the you know like a bit of dijon there and the vinaigrette

you know it's 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, I'll probably get that.

Yes, you will, yeah.

Make sure.

Now it's going to be full of everyone who listens to this podcast.

You're going to be there.

You'll be swapped by the fans, man.

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.

You're going to have a rush on green beans now.

They're going to hate me about those almonds.

So many almonds.

The whole dining room wants almonds.

They'll be sending them back going.

But she said 10.

There's not 10 in here.

It's only like two.

And who's crying in the kitchen?

Yeah.

The almond king.

The almond king, yeah, exactly.

We're sticking next to the parsley king of the mash.

Nice to hear Dijon Mustard getting a shout out there.

Love Dijon Mustard.

Love English, but I love Dijon.

Well, let's rank the mustards.

Yeah, we can.

Oh, God.

Gotta be Dijon.

Yeah.

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,

I'm quite traditionally, like I said about, I don't like my pineapple or on the peach.

I don't like all these fancy mustards as well.

You know, keep a mustard is like whole grain after that.

And probably they're my three, really.

I mean, a horseradish isn't really a mustard, is it?

You know, it's a condiment rather than a mustard, yeah.

What other ones?

I'm trying to think.

What other ones?

They're my three.

The French is hot dog mustard.

Oh,

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.

Yeah,

I go through phases with whole grain.

Yeah, I'm like that.

They work with certain things, like you might put it in potato salad or something.

But to be fair, Dijon, if I don't have it, because we put it in vinaigrettes, I'll 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.

I've got a share package with the anchovies, man.

Maybe it was snuck in there.

But I've got to figure out what to do.

Is there a whole grain and anchovy recipe I could do?

No, I can't say.

But it does does work with things like do you like pickled fish or anything like that not really well i've had it in like restaurants and stuff and it's nice but yeah that sort of thing i think like potato salad it works yeah and it does work in dressings you can put it in dressings we have been known to put it in a vini garette when we've run out of every other mustard and can't be bothered to walk around to the supermarket i would have it on a on a like a gammon sandwich oh good call good call yeah yeah that's a very good call actually yeah actually that's what when i did my gammon joint joint, I think I just put Dijon on it.

But yeah,

that was a nice day in lockdown when I did myself a gammon joint.

And

I said, 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'd put in the pot.

I was saying to Ed going, guess what is in here?

Guess what is in here?

That's exactly what it's on.

It says, guess what is in here?

Someone's heads and ramp it.

Yeah, yeah.

What did you serve it with?

Did you do the whole parsley?

Well, maybe you didn't do parsley sauce because the trauma of parsley sauce I remember what I did and it was very decadent.

Really?

Yeah.

Again, this is a perk of the podcast.

Yeah.

But we had shouted out Simon Rogan's Berkswell pudding.

Alice.

We'd shouted that out on the podcast.

Yeah.

He had very generously sent us a lot of them that we could make at home.

Yeah.

So I literally, I think I've still got the photo on my phone.

Yeah.

Just sat there and ate loads of Berkswell puddings

with the gammon joint that

I got Dijon with.

And I was just, I was in heaven loved it i was there on the sofa just like this is the best day of my life yeah it was great

i had a really nice uh bit of gammon at st john actually quite recently nice parsley sauce and all that oh i love it and cabbage oh so

cabbage it's the best sat there in that dining room just thinking that you're in the 19th century it is yes

yeah feels like it yeah that is like proper old school english cooking but it's that i love it and i you've got to get over the parsley gate to be fair jam i 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 she'd eat it for breakfast on Christmas morning and 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 the other half with a different glaze.

And both of them were rubbish.

and you've never done it since no I'm gonna try again but get back on the horse I had to buy such a big pan yeah 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 gamut I didn't know it had emotional roots it was linked to your grandmother yes yes yes yes I didn't know so I was just I was laughing when Ed was having a bad time but I thought she'll be laughing about it as well don't you she'll be hilarious but we all have those design 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 has anyone got any peking sauce or got any pancakes it was so dry and it was just I just said and like Neil's going what on earth I said I don't know and it was like it's like it shrivelled to this and it started climbing

Mum goes she goes I think next year we'll just stick to chicken chicken

yeah thanks mum thanks for that anyway we've all it's happened to all of us yeah don't worry about it.

Oh man, that's what I should have to know.

It's duck fillets.

Are the duck breast?

I love the way the mind works.

Yeah, it's just random, you know.

And out loud as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You can slab it with anchovies and broccoli.

My girlfriend doesn't like ducks.

I've always got some duck breast in the freezer.

And then I always remember when she's away, get it out, oil out, have another duck breast.

How are you cooking your duck breasts?

I do it in the frying pan.

So

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.

Did you score your duck breasts?

Yeah, I'll score it.

10 out of 10.

And

I.

What into that one?

Didn't I?

But no, I do score it.

Yeah, yeah.

And

I'll put salt and pepper on it.

Also, on the meaty side,

put a little bit of the imperrins.

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 it.

Lean them like that.

Leave them to rest for a while.

Yeah, nice.

Then have it with some bird's eye potato waffles.

But I do that with, I'd spend ages on duck breasts making amazing duck and stuff.

And then I just have it with instant packet noodles.

Yeah, why not?

I love it.

Go for it.

It's so good.

Yeah.

I wouldn't put oil in the pan, that's the only difference.

Yeah, I would.

Yeah, I'm not an oil in the pan.

Dry pan, yeah.

So much fat from the duck breasts.

What the old website told me to do.

So

I just did it.

What the website told me.

And if it works for you,

it works for you.

What website?

I can't remember.

I googled duck breast.

The old website.

Yeah,

during lockdown, I was like, I really want some duck, something that I'm going to make it at home.

Yeah.

And that's what it told me.

I guess it was the top result or whatever.

Love it.

But the one that the photo looked the nicest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Pura is the smart way to fragrance your home.

Customize your scents with app control, schedule them to fit your life, and enjoy premium fragrances that last.

And here's something to celebrate: when you start today, your first fragrance is free.

It's the perfect time to discover why everyone's switching to Pura.

But hurry, this offer is for a limited time only.

Go now to pura.com and claim your free set before it's gone.

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 their, and you've already said this would be one of the hardest things to quit, would be booze.

Yes.

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, is it, I don't want it so strong, like medium.

I don't want that sort of heavy, thud 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 that you all look like God I think I might just taxi for one I mean the looks I'm getting around this table

I'm on board

I agree I love a Barolo I love a Barbrasco like all of those I mean Italian red is just yeah I do and I think the great thing about Italian wine James has gone into a coma now over the mention of cheese

is that it's 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 suppliers in London now that just bring them all in.

So, am I okay with that, James?

I had a lovely bread.

I don't know how I'm meant to relax now because now I'm worried that there's going to be no dessert.

Talk about wine.

Don't you like your red wine?

Yeah, you like a red one, yeah.

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 uh Nebbiolo the other day.

Oh, nice from right up in like the mountains in the border of of Switzerland.

Yeah, yeah.

That would work.

Yeah, yeah.

No, definitely.

I love that sort of stuff.

Are you looking at the dessert

in the back of the weekend cook?

I think you've got sugar.

Strawberry ice cream here.

Oh, that looks floating islands.

Yeah, that's a good one, actually.

I haven't brought that.

This is a very good colour.

It looks amazing.

A creme on glaise.

Yeah, you see.

I do do desserts.

I make them if, Gev, if you came around for supper, James, I'd make sure there was dessert.

You know, you're a coffee cup.

You have to chocolate mousse here.

Yeah.

Post apricots with ricotta.

He's loving it.

Delicious.

A gato Basque.

Yeah.

You can have that in a couple of days as well.

Like a prune pie.

Yeah, pretty much.

You're going to read out all the desserts here.

It is.

Oh, Paris breast, pralien paste and caramelised hazelnuts with shoe pastry, chocolate sauce, finished with double cream.

Paris breast, maybe.

Paris breast.

It says Paris breast.

I'm believing what it says.

I'm not a proofreader.

Would you like to ask Angela the question, James?

Let's start putting it off.

This is a big thing for him, the puddings, isn't it?

Oh, it's huge.

Yeah, this, I feel, you know.

Have you two had an argument occasionally?

I've never had an argument, but there have been arguments on the podcast before, depending on what people had arguments in

when we went to Tom Kelly's place and you ordered choosing.

There was like a little glare over, I felt then from James when he just came over me.

Many years ago,

we went to Kerridge's bar and grill and I had cheese and biscuits for dessert and it didn't go down well.

James threatened to throw me into Trafalgar Square.

Which, you know,

it's a and I will make the same threat to you, Angela.

And

it's a longer distance from here.

Kevin's Bar and Grill is only down the road from Trafalgar Square.

I've just tracked him up and he would have been in the square.

And this is

crossing town.

We're crossing bridges here.

I could could just lob you up yeah lob you over on the shard if you like

that's where we are at the minute jesus crikey the aggression on a friday yeah

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 i would love to slip a cheese course in if i was allowed yeah you'd have to slip a cheese course in love i would allow 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 is it I can never can remember we have it I'd like the cheese first then the dessert but I love my favorite all-time dessert is a vanilla tart oh which and i think one of the best people that make it is a guy called gary usher 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 and i 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 finer.

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 creme brulees 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 creme brulees give me like a sugar vanilla rush.

And I'd come back out and go, right, 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 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 Vinsanto so it's like a little liqueur and I bought you two little sweet little treats for you

wow so because although it's stuck because they were hot out the oven today so I bought you some Madeline's from Neil's place because Neil's helped write this book as much as me.

And some little richarelli.

And then you have your sweetness with a little sweet wine, you see.

Yeah.

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, you know.

Don't tell him that though.

That's probably what I'm saying.

Don't tell him that though.

He'll turn up at the next podcast absolutely pissed out of his mind going, I've had another bottle of Vinsata all the way here.

I'm weaning myself off.

Anyway,

I'll leave you to enjoy

that.

So I would, you know, if I'm honest, allowed to be, I would probably go for more a little bit of sugar and then, you know, cheese.

Yeah.

But, you know, my all-time is my vanilla tart.

I love a vanilla tart.

What about, it feels like a special meal.

The cheese, a bit of cheese.

Yeah, a bit of cheese.

Yeah.

Which we can go into in a bit.

James won't listen um vanilla tart yeah and then some of these and a little bit of vinsant a little coffee at the end loving that loving that i'm all over that

yeah loving that yeah actually murano your restaurant you do you you can make a choice where you have yeah a lot of courses yeah yeah exactly you can have your cheese you can have dessert you have two desserts 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, lovely.

You know, would that work?

Yeah, that would work for me.

I was also have to look at him when he's eating his cheese.

I mean, yeah, it's war out of the bottle, you know.

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

have a cheese course and have a dessert.

Right, yeah.

Lovely.

Yeah, nice.

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 think that's where you're just not living life.

What cheeses would you like on a little bit of cheesecake?

Oh,

well,

I love one of my favourite cheeses.

It is Vacheran.

You know, that one you get in the wintertime 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 le fromargerie yeah that shop in London that does great cheeses and I think you just I always 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 burns supper where we do the haggis and yeah he's eating them all he's not even offering you one is it's

quarter past it's quarter past 12.

he's already said earlier that if he starts then it's that's it he's gone

the eyes have glay they have they genuinely have

genuinely glazed they're like a pair of krispy cream doughnuts is eyes i'm not listening to your cheese chat yeah because you look like the caterpillar from alice in wonderland

stuff

there you go thank you so much for bringing me you see the thing is if you went to the french you know we're talking about how you get you know neil's place you know i this is what i do i would we might not have a dessert but we'll have a nice tray of madeline's yeah it's fresh out of the oven

Oh, that's a ricciorelli, so it's little almond.

I like you.

You've 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.

No, no, no.

That's the first thing we've eaten today.

Oh, gosh.

We know how to divide this up.

I'll be taking this home.

Even Santos coming straight back to mine.

Yeah.

That's fair enough.

Put it in your fridge.

Have a nice chill glass later when you're back from your gig.

Yeah, exactly.

Have I been forgiven for saying the cheese thing?

All is forgiven.

All right.

And I didn't even, I genuinely didn't hear a word of the actual cheese conversation till you're going to be a little bit more.

Don't know what you said.

Could have said anything.

There's one in town that's like a cheese conveyor belt thing that we've asked that he wouldn't, he wouldn't come.

No, well, I'd stand by the conveyor belt, I'd punch at each cheese as it went past.

That's what I'd do.

Maybe you like cheese, cheesy mash.

Yeah, I like cheese.

Yeah,

but like, you know,

it's not in place of dessert.

Understood.

Point taken.

Got it.

Yeah, there's lots of things I like.

Yeah, got it.

But we've got a lot, but you know, nothing nice.

I love films.

I love watching films.

But not in place of dessert.

No, but no, obviously.

I love my family.

You've got your league table of things and do that at the top.

Yeah, we understand.

We understand.

And then films and then family.

Here we go.

I'm going to read your menu back to you now, see how you feel about it.

Okay.

Sparkling water.

Yeah.

We'd like Corrigan soda bread and focaccia.

Yeah.

Starter, you would like putanesca 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 yeah red wine yes red wine you know the word wine joe yes uh and you would like your cheese course with that as well um dessert garry usher's vanilla tart yeah uh with and then followed by vinsanto and madeline's yeah yeah that's good i'm happy with that that sounds very

really really good yeah yeah lovely and many of these things of course we could get the recipe for from the weekend cook yeah certain things yeah not the madeline's we're not giving those away.

But yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah, of course.

Yeah, thank you.

It's 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.

Yeah.

And then she went, okay, have a little cake.

And you're like, fuck you, Angela.

Yeah, that was what it was like.

And 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, 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 really sad twist to this particular episode if we had had to kick Angela out of this.

It's a horrible, pasty beanie twist.

Yeah, yeah.

Hate kidney beans.

May they.

Joe what?

No.

Leave all that in?

Also, you heard Ed talking about the flapjacks that my sister sent over to him.

Fab Jacks Bakery is the name of the company.

You can get fabjacksbakery.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 like weight to them as well because there's so

flavor and just so much stuff going on in them.

And that I'm thinking about that chili and 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 chili and lime left.

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 fab jacks.

Yes.

And after you've eaten your fab jacks, 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.

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 we'll be i went to see joel dommit there yeah and uh 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

but he i mean he liked how you said drummer got him on stage

i think we're both like our brains are just dust this morning yeah that's it

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 Benito to ask what the restaurants were.

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 OffMenu website, but could you recommend particular restaurants off that list?

No.

No.

No.

I think at the end of the day, at some point, you have to know what you like.

You're gonna 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.

Yeah, so you can go, like, oh, you know, Bob Mortimer.

Yeah.

Do I have a similar taste to him?

Asma Khan.

You know, so you can think about, you know,

what kind of person's 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.

Pura is the smart way to fragrance your home.

Customize your scents with app control, schedule them to fit your life, and enjoy premium fragrances that last.

And here's something to celebrate.

When you start today, your first fragrance is free.

It's the perfect time to discover why everyone's switching to Pura.

But hurry, this this offer is for a limited time only.

Go now to pura.com and claim your free set before it's gone.

Hello, I'm Carrie Add.

I'm Sarah.

And we are the Weirdos Book Club Podcast.

We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival.

The date is Thursday, 11th of September.

The time is 7pm.

And our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies.

Tickets from kingsplace.co.uk.

Single ladies is coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September.

At the London Podcast Festival.

The rumours are true.

Saturday, the 13th of September.

At King's Place.

Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet.