Guess who’s coming to dinner?
Jessie Ware and mum Lennie serve up cooking and celeb chat
The eating habits of a touring musician are notoriously unhealthy, so it may be that Jessie Ware’s decision to team up with her mum was a cunning ploy to guarantee decent food at least once per week. The London-born singer’s life may now see her perpetually on the road, but while growing up, her mum Helena – better known as Lennie – was, despite her career as a social worker, always on hand to produce a home-cooked meal.
So, while returning to the parental home , why not invite a few famous faces to share in the delicious grub?
Those unfamiliar with Jessie and Lennie’s podcast may be surprised to learn that it began back in 2017, with its first guest, singer Sam Smith. And not, unlike so many similar ventures, as a pandemic project, the show having even graduated into print a couple of weeks before lockdown with the launch of ‘Table Manners: The Cookbook’.
Instead, Jessie moved to an Airbnb and spoke to radio DJ Nick Grimshaw remotely, in the first of series of virtual dinner parties and Covidsecure dinners, committing to releasing new weekly episodes, and keeping fans entertained throughout the pandemic, with a steady stream of guests from the worlds of music, culture and politics.
Now in its twelfth series, Table Manners has seen the pair chat with around 200 guests and listeners are at an all time high for the podcast, having hit over 30 million downloads.
This year alone it’s been a who’s who of the celebrity world, with the likes of
Dua Lipa, Sir Paul McCartney, David
Schwimmer,
Ed Sheer- an, Dolly
Parton, and
Maisie Williams dropping by.
We also hear from Mel B on the #MeToo movement, Twiggy on her iconic hair and nickname, Ronan Kemp on his father Gary’s Krayloving fans, and James Blunt developing scurvy from his meat-based diet.
Ware is still
taken aback by the show’s success. “What started out as a chat in mum’s kitchen with just one person has turned into a tribe of food loving devotees,” she enthuses.
The most recent episodes include Q&As from the live dates when the pair took the podcast on the road as a stageshow. Happily, it seems that they lived to tell the tale – if only just.
“If living together wasn’t enough… try being on a tour bus together…”
More at www. tablemanners
podcast.com