Podcast

Table Talk

Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts interview notable guests about their life, through the food and drink that has come to define it. Lara is the Food and Drink Editor of Spectator Life and Olivia is Spectator Life’s Vintage Chef.

Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts interview notable guests about their life, through the food and drink that has come to define it. Lara is the Food and Drink Editor of Spectator Life and Olivia is Spectator Life’s Vintage Chef.

Table Talk

With Melissa Thompson

Melissa Thompson is an award-winning food writer and cook who started a supper club, serving Japanese food in her front room in 2014. In September 2022, Melissa released her debut cookbook, Motherland. It explores the evolution of Jamaican food, from the island’s indigenous population to today.  On the podcast, she talks to Liv Potts about

Play 31 mins

Table Talk

With Capri Cafaro

Capri Cafaro was a member of the Ohio Senate for 10 years before becoming a political commentator. She can often be found on American television news channels and also hosts her own food podcast, Eat Your Heartland Out.  On the podcast she talks to Lara and Olivia about memories of cooking Italian-American classics with her Grandma,

Play 23 mins

Table Talk

With Ayesha Hazarika

Ayesha Hazarika is a journalist, broadcaster, stand-up comic and former advisor to three Labour leaders.  On the podcast, she discusses memories of her mother’s chicken curry, navigating bacon sandwich-gate with Ed Miliband and why all cooked orange coloured food is ‘minging’.

Play 21 mins

Table Talk

With Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. Before this he held prominent positions in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, including health secretary and culture secretary. On the podcast he recalls Friday night ‘chippy teas’ as a child, the oddity of having food items named after him and discusses his work tackling food insecurity

Play 24 mins

Table Talk

With Oliver Woodhead

Oliver Woodhead is founder of L’Entente, the British brasserie in Paris. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about what the French think about a traditional English breakfast, explains how he was inspired by London’s St. John restaurant, and asks what our hosts’ favourite ingredient is.

Play 24 mins

Table Talk

With Al and Kitty Tait

Al and Kitty Tait run the Orange Bakery in Watlington, and are the authors of Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives. On the podcast, the father-and-daughter pair explain how cooking changed their relationship, why baking helped Kitty out of depression, and why Watlingtons make such great customers.

Play 25 mins

Table Talk

With Paul Feig

Paul Feig is an actor, comedian and acclaimed filmmaker. He has directed films such as Bridesmaids, The Heat and the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters as well as episodes of Parks and Recreation and The Office.  On the podcast, Paul talks to Lara and Olivia about growing up thinking food was bland, the secrets of on

Play 25 mins

Table Talk

With Aidan Hartley

Aidan Hartley is a writer and entrepreneur. Born in Kenya, he grew up in Africa and England and has worked as a reporter for Reuters all over the world. Aidan has also written The Spectator’s Wild life column for the past 21 years. On the podcast, Aidan talks about spending his younger years on safaris

Play 23 mins

Table Talk

With Thom Elliott

Thom Elliott is the co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims. On the podcast, Thom tells Lara and Liv about growing up above a pub, learning to make pizza while touring Italy with his brother, and starting Pizza Pilgrims on his lunch break.

Play 33 mins

Table Talk

With Lily Dunn

Lily Dunn is a writer, teacher and lecturer in creative writing and narrative non-fiction at Bath Spa University. Her latest book Sins of my father: a daughter, a cult, a wild unravelling is out now. On the podcast, Lily talks about her first memories of picking blackberries in Cornwall, her love for all kinds of

Play 19 mins

Table Talk

With Olia Hercules on #CookForUkraine

On a slightly different episode of Table Talk, chef and food writer, Olia Hercules joins Olivia Potts for a second time on the podcast to talk about #CookForUkraine. Created with Russian friend and food writer Alissa Timoshkina, #CookForUkraine encourages people to post and share Ukrainian recipes and celebrate the comfort of food during this difficult

Play 22 mins

Table Talk

With Nell Hudson

Nell Hudson has starred in Outlander, Victoria and the latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. Her debut novel, Just for Today, is out now: it’s about a group of twenty-somethings in London, having ‘heady, reckless fun’. Nell speaks to Lara and Olivia about how she’s enjoying veganism and the one meat she misses, growing up on

Play 21 mins

Table Talk

With Nuno Mendes

Born in Lisbon, Portugal. Nuno Mendes grew up on a farm which inspired a passion and understanding for food. He attended the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco but after over a decade in North America, he decided he wanted to return to Europe. Moving to London, Nuno founded the cult domestic pop-up known as

Play 29 mins

Table Talk

With Tommy Banks

Tommy Banks is the youngest ever UK Michelin-starred chef, awarded in 2013 when he was aged 24, and is the owner of the restaurant The Black Swan which Tripadvisor named the best restaurant in the world. On the podcast, Tommy talks to Lara and Liv about how he turned to food after his dreams of

Play 24 mins

Table Talk

With Ameer Kotecha

Ameer Kotecha is a British diplomat, pop-up chef and food writer. His first cookbook the Platinum Jubilee Cookbook, in which he chronicles 70 recipes related to the Royals, Diplomacy and the Commonwealth comes out on April 28th. He has also launched alongside Fortnum & Mason’s the Platinum Pudding competition, which hopes to discover the next

Play 20 mins

Table Talk

With Michael Heath

Michael Heath is a British strip cartoonist and illustrator and has been working nonstop since the 1950s. He has been cartoon editor of The Spectator since 1991. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Liv about carrying German bombs into the local pub like milk bottles during the second world war, being given chewing

Play 35 mins

Table Talk

With Lance Forman

Lance Forman is the owner of H. Forman & Son, Britain’s leading salmon smokers and author of Forman’s Games. He was elected a Brexit Party MEP for London in the 2019 European election but quit the party to endorse the Conservatives. On the podcast, Lance reflects on his childhood in a traditional Jewish upbringing, eating

Play 22 mins

Table Talk

With Mitch Tonks

Mitch Tonks is an award-winning restauranteur and chef. He runs the Rockfish restaurant group in Devon and Dorset, and the Seahorse restaurant in Dartmouth. He has written six cookbooks. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about playing cards after dinner, enjoying his school’s ‘bright green custard with chocolate pudding’, and inventing his own

Play 18 mins

Table Talk

With Beata Heuman

Interior designer, Beata Heuman is known for her work based on playful, original designs characterised by Scandinavian attention to detail and longevity. Living in London, Beata published her own book last year Every Room Should Sing and believes that the same principle applies to her cooking. On the podcast, Beata talks about her life as

Play 23 mins

Table Talk

With Rory Stewart

Former Tory MP, Rory Stewart, has played many roles throughout his life. An academic, a diplomat, and a soldier. Rory is currently a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. On the podcast, he talks about eating sandwiches on a homemade raft as a boy in Malaysia, his university days spent talking

Play 17 mins

Table Talk

With Russell Norman

Russell Norman is an award-winning restauranteur, writer and broadcaster, and the founder of the Polpo restaurant group. Last year he launched Trattoria Brutto. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about enjoying Spam fritters, blagging his way onto the Orient Express, and how he changed careers from teaching to cooking.

Play 31 mins

Table Talk

With Ed Smith

Ed Smith is a food writer and chef who started his acclaimed blog Rocket and Squash while he was working as a solicitor. On today’s podcast, he tells Liv and Lara about how his passion for good food started, why he left the world of law, the changing nature of the London food scene, and

Play 25 mins

Table Talk

With Poppy Cooks

Poppy O’Toole runs Poppy Cooks on TikTok, where she shares cooking videos with her two million followers. She trained as a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant, and lost her job in March 2020 because of Covid. She started Poppy Cooks to pass the time during lockdown. Her potato series, which got millions of views, made her

Play 24 mins

Table Talk

With Bee Wilson

Beatrice ‘Bee’ Wilson is an acclaimed food writer and journalist, who has authored several books on topics from how bees make honey to the history of the sandwich. On the podcast, Bee discusses the fad of clean eating, how the internet has changed food culture, working with her charity TasteEd, her time as a contestant

Play 44 mins

Table Talk

With Alf Dubs

Lord Alf Dubs is a politician. He moved to the UK as a child when the Nazis invaded what was then Czechoslovakia, and went on to become an MP, a parliamentary under secretary for Northern Ireland, and a member of the House of Lords. He is a campaigner for refugee rights. On the podcast, he

Play 24 mins

Table Talk

With Theo Fennell

Theo Fennell is a jewellery maker. He has been designing and making jewellery in Fulham, London for over forty years and in 2008 founded The Original Design Partnership. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Liv about his childhood growing up in the colonies during the last days of the British Empire. He gives

Play 28 mins

Table Talk

With Dee Rettali

Dee Rettali is an artisan baker. She founded Patisserie Organic in 1998, and afterwards the Fortitude Bakehouse in London. She is the author of Baking with Fortitude: sourdough cakes and bakes. On the podcast, she tells Lara and Liv about enjoying tinned fish, relying on the custom of cyclists in lockdown, and learning from 1970s

Play 21 mins

Table Talk

With Rachel Roddy

Rachel Roddy is an author and food writer based in Rome. She has written for several publications, including the Financial Times, the Telegraph, Food and Wine, The Spectator, and has a weekly column in the Guardian. On the podcast, Rachel talks to Lara and Liv about growing up in Hertfordshire, coping with an eating disorder,

Play 30 mins

Table Talk

With Laurie Woolever

Laurie Woolever is a writer and editor, and for nearly a decade worked as the assistant to the late author, TV host and producer Anthony Bourdain. On the podcast, she talks to Lara and Liv about tending to garden peas from the age of four, finishing co-writing a book with Bourdain after he passed away,

Play 29 mins

Table Talk

With Grizelda

Grizelda is an award-winning cartoonist for publications including The Spectator, the New Statesman and Private Eye. She was Pocket Cartoonist of the Year in 2018. On the podcast, she tells Lara and Liv about her brother’s infamous cooking, how she comes up with ideas for cartoons, and why she only knows four recipes.

Play 24 mins