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13 Mar 2022, 14:42
The journalist and food guru joined the Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose to talk to our Andi Peters about his love of food, his favourite kebab and his most keen celebrity guest.
He told Andi about the podcast: "We opened season seven with Stephen Fry and then on Tuesday comes Bill Bailey and it's been a labour of love. Podcasting is weird for those of us who are brought up on broadcasting with major organisations... you're just throwing something out there.
"The premise is, I take an interesting person to a restaurant that suits their dietary needs. If they have none, then I take them anywhere. We have a fantastic meal and I interview them for about two hours.
“The interesting thing about the format is we put microphones over the top of people. We record it in a private dining room to control the sound and what we found from the very first episode was very quickly when the whole drama of food starts arriving it's just like you're sitting in a restaurant. They forget about the microphones and they talk. So if you've done your research, then you can get what I think is a different interview.
"I'll be honest, it's not like an interview with Stephen Fry is rare. Even he would say there are a lot of Stephen Fry interviews, but can you get a different one? Can you get one that tells you things you might not have heard before and that's what I pin it on.
"We also have Rob Bryden, Rose Matafeo, Sarah Parrish. We have a great lineup for series seven and there's 95 or so other episodes. Lots and lots of great people; Minnie Driver, Jamie Dornan. They're all there, wherever you get your podcasts."
So what do celebs need to do to get on the podcast?
“You just have to wait for the call. The only person who's actually asked is Jack Whitehall. I mercilessly took the mickey out of him for begging. It's not pretty.”
Is he a scary critic? He shared: “What I would say is if the restaurant is professional, they don't bat an eyelid. Maybe they then run off and go ‘we've got that bloke in’. But here's the thing, restaurants are very like theatre. With theatre, you can't rewrite the script, you can't re-cast. You can't change it. But once the audience is in, that's what the play is and restaurants are essentially the same.
"They have their recipes, they have their training, they have their decor, they have their menu, it's all the same. Just because I turn up, a restaurant that’s bad can't become good. So if they’re professional, they're just going to go, oh, he's in, right, we better do our thing.”
On his favourite ever kebab vs Salt Bae's stinking-rich steaks, he said: "An interesting man from Turkey who goes by the name of Salt Bae opened his steak restaurant in Knightsbridge selling steaks wrapped in gold leaf for up to £1,450. Some of my colleagues or so-called rivals managed to convince their editors to let them go in and spend the money. I wasn't going to do that. We’ve got better things to spend our money on.
"So I thought it would be brilliant if I went and got a takeaway kebab and ate it at a picnic table outside the restaurant. But I wanted it to be a good one. I knew that Kebab Kid in South West London, Wandsworth area is brilliant and so that's what I did. You've got to rate things against themselves. I wasn’t saying the steak and the kebab were the same, but I think I was saying that it was a better way to spend your money.”
Catch up on Out To Lunch here.
Listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show every Saturday AND Sunday from 9:30 am on Virgin Radio or catch up on-demand here.
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