Desert Island Dishes

My guest today is Chris Smalling. Chris is a Manchester United and England International footballer. He’s been playing professional football for the last 8 years having played more than 300 games for Man United. He talks to me about turning his dream to become a footballer into reality and what it’s like to represent your country on the pitch. In January 2018 Chris made the decision to turn vegan...

My guest today is Isaac Carew Isaac is a chef, Instagram sensation and has also been working as a model for the last decade modelling for some of the world’s biggest fashion brands. He’s been described a chef-turned-model-turned-chef again He trained at culinary school for two years and received his big break in 2007 cooking alongside Angela Hartnett at The Connaught before being scouted as a mode...

My guest today is Jason Atherton Jason started cooking at a very young age in the seaside hotel run by his family. At 16 he ran away to London and got a job at a Michelin-starred restaurant -- all while living in a youth hostel. After years of working under esteemed chefs such as Pierre Koffmann, Nico Ladenis, Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay, he began building his own global restaurant empire...

My guest today is Joe Wicks. Otherwise known as The Body Coach - Joe has taken the fitness world by storm in just 5 years he has gone from personal trainer doing bootcamps in the park that sometimes people wouldn’t show up for – to a bonafide fitness guru with his own empire. He has written 7 cookbooks and is a multi million best selling author having sold 3 million copies to date. His first book...

My guest today is Chetna Makan. You may remember Chetna from The Great British Bake Off Season 5 where she made it through to the semi-finals and really stood out for her exciting use of flavour, creativity with her dishes and the fact that many of these dishes were completely new to her. She has gone on to write three cookbooks all showcasing the food of India in different and exciting ways. She...

My guest today is Clodagh McKenna Clodagh is a chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and a broadcaster. Originally from Ireland, she’s been cooking professionally for 20 years. She is the author of 7 cookbooks – her latest one Clodagh’s Suppers came out at the start of this year and is really brilliant. In Spring 2018 she became the weekly food columnist for the Evening Standard and she has regular...

My guest today is Madeleine Shaw. Madeleine is a bestselling cookery writer, a nutritional therapist and leading wellness blogger. She was really at the forefront of blogging when it all took off and has been a pioneer in the world of wellness. She’s written 3 best selling cookbooks, launched an app, amassed a huge following online, trained as a yoga teacher – had a baby and has just released The...

My guest today is Georgina Hayden. Georgie, otherwise known as "Georgie Pudding n Pie" to her hoardes of loyal followers and fans on Instagram. She is a hugely successful cook, Food writer and stylist from North London. Growing up above her grandparents’ Greek Cypriot taverna in Tufnell Park, Georgie developed a passion for cooking. She studied Fine Art at university, but after graduating – she la...

My guest today is Ainsley Harriott. Ainsley is a chef, a TV presenter, a business man and cookbook author. He has sold more than 2 million cookbooks worldwide and he now has his own range of supermarket foods, including couscous, risotto, soups and cereal bars. He won the heart of the nation during his time presenting Ready Steady Cook and became one of the most recognised TV personalities – he is...

My guest today is Tom Kerridge. Tom is a 3 star Michelin chef – his pub the Hand and Flowers in Marlow was the first pub to be awarded 2 Michelin stars. He’s been in the business for 27 years and my goodness has he done a lot of things. His second pub in Marlow, The Coach also has a Michelin star - he has a butchers / pub and last year he opened his first London restaurant – Kerridge’s Bar and Gri...

My guest today is Amelia Freer Amelia is a one of the leading nutritional therapist in the U.K. She has treated hundreds of clients through her private practice and clients rave about her approach to nutirion which is motivational, extreremely knowdeleable and done in a way which makes incporpating healthy food into every day life, enjoyable. Her client list is very impressive as some of her clien...

My guest today is Laura Jackson Laura is a TV presenter, a designer of clothes and homewares. In fact she has been described by Work Work Work - as a creative polymath with a career spanning food, fashion and TV. Since 2014 she has started a supperclub with her work wife – the other half of Jackson and Levine - Radio 1’s DJ Alice Levine. The pair brought out their gorgeous cookbook last year in 20...

My guest today is Felicity Cloake. Felicity is an award winning freelance journalist and writer. You may know her from her infamous Guardian column How to Make the Perfect:” or perhaps from her column in the New Statesman or perhaps from her many other writing features. She has written 5 books – with more in the pipeline. Her writing and recipe testing is meticulous and has made Felicity one of th...

My guest today is Gino D’Acampo Born into a large family in Napoli in the South of Italy – he came to London at the age of 19 back in 1995. You may know him from his regular appearances on This Morning where he cooks up a storm, or perhaps from his early days on Ready Steady Cook. He’s a TV regular, a best selling author and a successful restaurauteur. He has written over 16 cookbooks, holds six G...

My guest today is Ed Smith. You may know him by his pen name – Rocket and Squash. Ed gave up a high flying career in law around 6 years ago to pursue a career in food and I think this is a good listen for anyone thinking about changing career whether into the world of food or beyond. Ed is the author of the hugely popular and award winning website Rocket and Squash – which is sort of a smorgasbord...

My guest today is Donna Hay. Donna is a world famous food publishing phenomenon and most definitely the undisputed Queen of cookery in Australia. She has published 27 cookery books which have sold more than 6 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 10 different languages. And her TV shows have been broadcast in more than 14 countries. She launched her own magazine to critical acclai...

My guest today is Niki Segnit. Niki is the author of two books: the first being the Flavour Thesaurus which has sold more than 250,000 copies and has been translated into 14 languages which is just amazing. Her latest book is Lateral Cooking which I’m sure is going to follow in the foot steps of her first and it’s already received rave reviews. Niki counts Heston Blumenthal, Nigel Slater and Ottol...

My guest today is Magnus Nilsson. Magnus is the head chef of the Faviken restaurant in Northern Sweden. He initially joined as a sommelier and within a year he had taken over the running of the restaurant. At the age of 34 he has 2 Michelin stars and has been featured in PBS The Mind of a Chef and Netflix’s The Chef’s Table He has just published his third book – the Nordic Baking Book which showca...

My guest today is Rosemary Shrager. Rosemary is a chef, food writer and TV personality. She is both a cooking and food enthusiast Rosemary began her career in restaurant kitchens, working under Pierre Koffman and Jean-Christophe Novelli, and now runs her own cookery school and patisserie In terms of cooking – she’s really done it all - from cooking over a campfire in the Australian jungle on I’m a...

My guest today is Saliha Mahmood Ahmed Saliha was the winner of Masterchef last year in 2017 and she won whilst also working full time as a Junior Doctor – often turning up to film the show straight off the back of a night shift. In addition she also has a young son – so the whole thing was really rather impressive. Known for her big and bold flavours – Saliha wowed the judges with food steeped in...

My guest today is Gizzi Erskine Gizzi is a chef, a TV personality, a cookbook author and now business owner and restaurauteur. This has been an extremely busy year for Gizzi with the opening of her first ever permanent project, Mare Street Market in Hackney, which is a very cool food space that houses a restaurant, deli, record shop and a florist. On top of that – she also has a new book coming ou...

My guest today is Prue Leith. Prue is a restaurateur, a writer of both novels and cookbooks, a business woman, a TV presenter and of course judge on the Great British Bake Off. A champion of food and a passionate charity supporter - there was many great quotes from Prue on the record – whole articles dedicated to Prue quotes but one that stuck out for me was on food trends in the Telegraph where s...

My guest today is Theo Randall. It’s safe to say that Theo is one of the nation's most beloved chefs. Inspired by the food of his childhood trips to Italy, Theo has developed a life-long passion for Italian food. He spent 17 years at The River Café and was Head Chef when they won their Michelin star. In 2006 he left to set up his own eponymous restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel in London to...

My guest today is Donal Skehan. Donal is blogger turned TV chef, cook book author and general star of the food scene. He has written no less than 8 cookbooks, has nearly 250,000 followers on Instagram, 750,000 on his Youtube channel and has done countless TV shows. He is known for his simple no nonsense approach to home cooking and is adamant he is a cook rather than a chef. Even with the release...

We are back from the Summer break and hitting the ground running with today's guest. My guest today is Jack Monroe. Jack made her name as a food blogger writing the recipes she created with the £10 a week she had to feed both her and her young son. The recipes Jack created were both cost effective and delicious and they provided such a crucial service to so many people. Jacks recipes are healthy,...