If you can stand the heat: One of radio’s Kitchen Cabinet on how fans’ questions turn up the temperature
Panellist shares much-loved cookery show’s recipe for success while leading foodies reveal their most memorable tips and tricks
After three decades as a professional cookery writer, it would be easy to assume there’s very little Sue Lawrence does not know about food.
When you are a panellist on one of the country’s most popular culinary call-in radio shows, however, every day is a school day.
For the past six years, Lawrence has contributed to BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, helping the show’s millions of listeners with questions on everything from how to cook potatoes to the best way of incorporating Arbroath Smokies into an omelette. The series, hosted by restaurant critic Jay Rayner, features the great and good of the food world, including Andi Oliver, Anna Jones and Tim Anderson, and Lawrence says the tips and tricks shared by the panellists during each episode are just as helpful to her as the listeners at home.
“Having done all my cookbooks and worked for so many years now, you would think there isn’t much left to know, but I learn so much myself from the show,” explained Lawrence, originally from Dundee, who won Masterchef in 1991.
“The panel is very cleverly comprised. I might be sitting alongside someone who’s an expert on, say, the cooking of India, or
I might be on with somebody who’s the authority on Korean or Japanese cuisine. It really depends who you’re on with, but I always learn so much.”
Ordinarily recorded in front of a live audience on location around the UK, coronavirus restrictions have necessitated a switch to remote recordings. Whatever the arrangements, panellists must get on their thinking caps to find a quick solution for the week’s listener questions. Whether it’s adding chocolate to savoury dishes or how to avoid crumbs during breakfast in bed, the panellists share their recipes for success.
She said: “We are only given the questions from the audience 15 minutes before we walk on to the stage. So, your mind whirs madly and, of course, someone else might have thought of your answer – we’re almost fighting it out to see who can get the easy one rather than the more obscure!
“Plus, we’re often in venues with very poor internet and phone reception, so it’s not as if you can just quickly Google something. We really are doing it by the seat of our pants, so it can be quite challenging.”
After almost 10 years and more than 200 episodes, The Kitchen Cabinet will now enter people’s homes in book form, as more than 100 hours of dinner-table talk has been distilled into a handy hardback almanac. Featuring month-by-month advice from panellists, the part-cookbook, part-nostalgia hit for long-time listeners highlights some of the series’ most memorable episodes, and is described as “the perfect companion to help you fill your year with flavour”.
For Lawrence, it has been a chance to wander down memory lane, recounting some of her favourite moments and episodes.
“Quite recently, a listener asked how he could impress his fiancée-to-be before proposing, which was an amazing question,” said Lawrence, whose latest
tin with loads of freshly grated Parmesan. Then I had some double cream and eggs and then loads of chives on top. Such a simple dish but so very seasonal. Or anything to do with apples because they are so in season at the moment.
A lovely sort of apple crumble tray bake perhaps with some toasted ground hazlenuts in the base and some lovely oat flakes on the top. Cinnamon can be overdone but just a hint with the apples is just delicious.