BATTLE OF THE BESTIES
Stars turn out for the ultimate food fight!
Jamie Oliver’s right-hand man Jimmy Doherty spills the beans on the latest season of their show.
Who has been your favourite guest star so far?
We have such an array of guests. Some of my favourites have to be comedians because they are naturally just funny people and great talkers. So I would say Greg Davies is brilliant, but Mark Hamill was definitely a highlight – having Luke Skywalker in the kitchen cooking is insane!
What’s Jamie like to work with?
We’ve known each other since we were about two, so we wind each other up all the time and get told off by the director quite a lot. He sets me off, I set him off and then it’s just a disaster. But it’s great – it’s one of those amazing moments in time that you think, “God, I am so lucky to be working with one of my oldest friends.”
How do you juggle family life with your career?
I do a lot of travelling for work, so I stay in touch through FaceTime and then when I’m home, I make the most of it. It’s important to make sure you get good-quality time at home – there’s always Sunday dinner and Saturday morning pancakes for the kids. It’s difficult, but anyone working with family, you’ve just got to get on with it.
What’s your favourite meal to cook for your family?
Well, it has to be Sunday roast because it is a time that everyone sits around the table. We’ve got three girls, so it’s a bit crazy. That Sunday meal is always so important – classic sitting around, enjoying the family and then going for a country walk.
What’s the best thing about working on Jamie and Jimmy’s Food Fight Club?
It’s the diversity of subject matter that we do. Like I do my Mad Barbecue Build and all that kind of stuff, Jamie does his recipe and then we do a little food story together. So it could be combating energy drinks that we’re finding kids are drinking too much of or wasting vegetables, or it could be not using the sieve properly – it’s really diverse.