It doesn’t feel like work. It’s good fun
DJ NICK GRIMSHAW AND TOP CHEF ANGELA HARTNETT TALK TO MARION McMULLEN ABOUT THE RECIPE FOR A SUCCESSFUL PODCAST
How did new podcast Dish come about?
Nick Grimshaw: I wanted to do something I had not done before - a podcast about hosting and having dinner parties because I love food, I love drinks and I love Angela Hartnett.
Angela Hartnett: The idea came through and, I never really read these things properly, but it sounded like fun. We were then set up on a date effectively to check we had chemistry and that was really funny. I really enjoyed that and I thought I could work well with Nick.
All I have to do is cook a dish and then we interview the guests... and we have great guests.
Essentially you are inviting people you love and admire to have some food and then you get to chat with them for an hour.
It doesn’t feel like work, maybe shouldn’t say that, but it’s good fun.
What is it like working together?
Nick: I’m well excited about hosting this new podcast with Angela – one of my food heroes. It see us doing what we do best, hosting dinners, serving drinks, and chatting for eternity.
It’s been so much fun. It really does not feel like going to work at all. We don’t do it in a traditional studio. We just sit around a table and we’re in this really nice kitchen.
Angela: Working with Nick on this has been hysterical. I spend the whole time laughing. What’s not to love about cooking, eating, drinking, and chatting with our dream dinner-party guests?
Who have been among your celebrity dinner party guests on the podcast?
Nick: We’ve had Hannah Waddingham and Phil Dunster from the cast of Ted Lasso and we’ve recorded with James May, Rylan, newsreader Clive Myrie, Brit Award-winning Mabel, the film director Paul Feig – a really great array.
We did an episode with Strictly’s Giovanni and we did a Italian carbs special. We’ve also got Katherine Ryan coming on. Angela: You hope they like the food we serve. We did a trial dish with a friend of ours and I put way too much chilli in, but we check with the guests what they like.
I’m not going to give a big piece of roast meat to someone if they are a vegetarian or something and so far so good. I think Nick would be quite honest if I made something that tasted terrible... so far he’s loved everything.
Nick: Everything that Angela makes obviously tastes delicious.
On the days that we are recording I have to have a small brekkie because you could be having three courses or so, and if you have a breakfast and a dinner then you could end up having eight meals in one day.
I have to be careful that I don’t stuff my face.
Do you have any dream guests you’d like to invite on the podcast?
Angela: I’d love Ricky Gervais. I think he would be really funny and I love Helen Mirren. I think she would be amazing.
I’m going for Hollywood big stars. I’d love to interview football pundit and exMan United player Gary Neville as well. There are loads of people.
I think we are going to get Stanley Tucci on as well. He’s agreed to do it, but it’s trying to get diaries sorted, so that might be the next series.
Nick: I would really love to have Stanley on. I love his TV show – nice things to eat in Italy is a dream show.
I would really love to have Grace Jones, I’m a big fan, and Ricky Gervais ... and I’d love Graham Norton to come.
What is your own idea of food heaven?
Angela: Just a simple roast chicken. I love that. And crisps, I love crisps. I try not to eat them because I find them addictive.
If you put a bowl of crisps in front of me and a bowl of chocolate, I would never go for the chocolate, I would always go for the crisps.
I’m not sure if that’s food heaven or food guilt. I don’t have a sweet tooth. I like fruit and things like that, but I was never one of those kids that liked sweets.
I’ve always loved savoury – pasta, cheese and all that sort of stuff.
Nick: I don’t have a sweet tooth either. I like desserts that are not too sweet like pistachio ice cream or really dark chocolate.
For food heaven, I don’t think you can beat a really good pasta or a really hot pizza when it’s fresh out of the oven.
My neighbour has got a proper pizza oven and I swear it’s the nicest pizza I’ve ever eaten. He handed me a slice over the fence once and I think about that pizza a lot.
Nick, are you doing more cooking since doing the podcast?
Nick: (Laughs) It has encouraged me, but I’ve yet to do it. Everything that Angela has made I think ‘I’ve got to make that’ and I take pictures of it and I say ‘can I do this?’ and she says ‘yes, it’s easy’ but I’ve yet to try. I’ve just been on holiday and every day I would be ‘I’m going to cook tonight. I do a podcast with Angela Hartnett’. I’m working up to it.
Dish, a podcast from Waitrose & Partners, is available on all podcast providers