Olivia Potts is the Guild of Food Writers’ Cookery Writer of the Year 2025. She hosts The Spectator’s Table Talk podcast and writes Spectator Life's The Vintage Chef column
36 min listen
Marcus Wareing is a celebrated, Michelin-starred chef, a judge on Masterchef: The Professionals and Chef Patron at Marcus in Knightsbridge. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Livvy about eating in school canteens, working with Gordon Ramsay, and catering during coronavirus.
From our US edition
When we talk to guests on The Spectator’s food and drink podcast, Table Talk, school dinners never fail to elicit strong opinions: from those who loved spam fritters, stodgy crumble and vats of custard, to others who shudder at the mere thought of a gloopy, tepid rice pudding. One dish that seems to have the fewest detractors is cornflake tart: a cheap and cheerful pudding, that required little more than store cupboard staples to make, and satisfied generations of children with its sky-high sugar levels. Food has the power to evoke nostalgia like almost nothing else. Dishes can be a shorthand to memory, to shared experience — good and bad; smells and tastes bringing back things we thought we’d forgotten.
35 min listen
Sharmadean Reid is an entrepreneur and the founder of Beautystack. On the podcast, she tells Lara and Livvy about her grandfather's allotment, cooking roasts and trying crab for the first time.
23 min listen
Dan Keeling is a wine writer behind the magazine and restaurant Noble Rot. He tells Lara and Livvy about how he discovered his love of wine; working in the music industry; and how to start a restaurant with zero experience. Presented by Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts.
From our US edition
Bonfire night in Britain this year, like most of the occasions we celebrate, was a little different to previous years: no hustling lines to public displays, squeezing spectators in like sardines, standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Many of us can’t have people round to ours, even in our gardens. It’s never been more important to lean into a shorthand to create a sense of occasion, something that reminds us of the rhythms and rituals of our year. Those foods that we eat at certain times are an ideal shorthand, filled with memory, nostalgia and the ability to transport us. And when it comes to Bonfire night, you can see why honeycomb has become so associated with it: bright, smokey and with more than enough sugar to gird you against the cold, it’s the perfect November treat.
I have always been a bit of a stew-pusher; it tends to be my answer to any of life’s dilemmas, culinary or otherwise. Friends coming round? Stew. Cold and dark outside? Stew. Feeling sad? Stew. To be honest, it doesn’t matter whether or not the weather demands it, I am always in the mood for stew. I’d eat mince and dumplings in June, a slow-cooked sticky oxtail ragu in high Summer. But once Autumn arrives, and my obsession is legitimised by the cold and the dark evenings, there’s no stopping me. In our household, it’s casseroles from now until Spring. I struggle to think of something more comforting and cosy than a big, generous dish of braised meat, tender vegetables and a beautiful sauce arriving at the table.
Nigella Lawson is many things to many people: the perfect hostess, the TV star, the thinking man’s crumpet. To me she’s always embodied the joy of sharing food with friends and family. Her books and television shows burst with conviviality, with parties and suppers. Now we are in the middle of a pandemic that has all but taken that pleasure away, but luckily the Domestic Goddess has always had an uncanny knack for moving with the times. Cook, Eat, Repeat, Lawson’s 12th book, is a celebration of home cooking — a defence of repetition in the kitchen and on the dining table which couldn’t feel more apposite.
20 min listen
Olia Hercules is a chef and food writer. On the podcast, she tells Lara and Livvy about growing up in Cyprus; being disappointed by British ingredients; and teaching her son to love Ukrainian cooking.
20 min listen
Ian Rankin is a bestselling crime writer, most known for his Inspector Rebus novels. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Livvy about living in a motel during his first year at university; how eating curry for the first time was 'a revelation'; and the snacks that keep him going while he writes. Tell us your thoughts on our podcasts and be in for a chance to win a bottle of Pol Roger champagne by filling out our podcast survey. Visit spectator.co.uk/podcastsurvey.
44 min listen
Dolly Alderton is an author, journalist and podcaster who hosts 'The High Low' podcast. On the episode, she talks to Lara and Livvy about campaigning for gender equality (and cooked breakfasts) at her boarding school; how taste in food can make or break the attractiveness of a man; and the importance of planning a desert island dish.
37 min listen
Annie Gray is a historian, cook and writer who specialises in food from 1600 to present day. On the podcast, she tells Lara and Olivia about a childhood of eating 'frisbee-like' omelettes, why male hares are inedible, and how an episode of Antiques Roadshow nearly jeopardised the release of her new book. Annie Gray's Victory in the Kitchen: The Life of Churchill's Cook, is out now.
29 min listen
Skye McAlpine is a Sunday Times columnist and the author of two cookbooks. She joins Lara and Olivia down the line from Venice, where she grew up. On the podcast, she talks about moving to the city as a child, her favourite Venetian meals, and why, despite being a dinner party maestro, she doesn't believe in starters.Subscribe to The Spectator's first podcast newsletter here and get each week's podcast highlights in your inbox every Monday.
45 min listen
Rory Sutherland is the vice-chairman of the renowned advertising firm, Ogilvy, and the Spectator's 'Wiki Man' columnist. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Olivia about everything and anything from the dreadful British food of the 70s, why he loves chain restaurants, and the best and worst kitchen gadgets. As well as his incredibly eclectic and international death row meal.
27 min listen
Greta Bellamacina is an actress and poet, who has published numerous collections and made her acting debut in Harry Potter. On the podcast, she talks to Lara and Olivia about what it was like to be on set for Harry Potter, growing up with four siblings, and why her favourite restaurant is an over-priced Chinese restaurant in Paris. Greta also mentions her favourite restaurant in London - the Indian restaurant Paradise in Hampstead. If you can't get a takeaway from there, try this recipe for a lamb vindaloo from Olivia's column The Vintage Chef.
24 min listen
Rhik Samadder is an actor and columnist for the Guardian, where his column Wellness or Hellness? reviews kitchen gadgets and life hacks. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Olivia about his mother's adventurous dinner table, his teenage battles with anorexia, and the worst kitchen gadgets he ever reviewed (including a mug which had a biscuit compartment). Rhik tells Lara and Olivia that he grew up on a diet of frozen pancakes. For a make-from-scratch alternative, here's a recipe for buttermilk blueberry pancakes from Olivia's Vintage Chef column for Spectator Life.
46 min listen
John Williams is the ebullient Executive Chef at the Ritz. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Livvy about breaking into the London fine dining scene as a boy from Tyneside, how the Ritz is as far from rustic as you can get, and his friendship with Margaret Thatcher, when she lived at the hotel in her last years.
Are toasties the ultimate comfort food? For me, they have to be in the top three at the very least. Toasties mean late nights or early suppers; they mean eating in the kitchen, standing up, or sitting on the sofa, probably in your pyjamas; they mean picking the little bits of escaped melted cheese from the pan before you plate them. They mean waning hangovers and catch-ups with close friends; they mean solitude and they mean company; they mean ease and speed, a direct route to something crisp and hot and oozing. But crucially, toasties are completely delicious. They don’t rely on nostalgia (although I have plenty of nostalgia for them) to deliver their comfort, they aren’t bland nursery food, or esoteric family favourites. Toasties hold their own.
28 min listen
Rory MacLean is a historian and travel writer. His latest book, Pravda Ha Ha, is out now. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Livvy about how his mother was the inspiration for Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny, singing a duet with David Bowie, and the time he was taken to lunch by a Vietnamese drug lord.
28 min listen
Ryan Riley is a chef and entrepreneur, whose organisation Life Kitchen gives free cookery classes to people with cancer. On the podcast, he talks about his own mother's struggle with cancer, how the best ideas always come on Tuesday nights (and with a drink), and why umami is the key to cooking for people with taste. Ryan's cookbook with favourite recipes from Life Kitchen is out now.
Over the last few weeks of lockdown, I've found myself going through a number of different cooking emotions: normally a form of solace, something I turn to in times of crisis, it has become a little more complicated. I already knew I was privileged to have a well-stocked kitchen, radio 4 burbling away in the background, as I pottered about making whatever came into my head that day, but I don't think I'd considered how stabilising the time I spent in there was. When the pandemic first came to Britain, I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place: not wanting to stockpile and deprive others, while also not knowing whether, if forced to quarantine, I'd have enough in to keep us going for a fortnight.
