¶ Exploring Fanny Craddock's Culinary Legacy
Living with Maydaly . Living with Maydaly . Living with Maydaly . Maydaly . Living with Maydaly .
Hello and welcome to the podcast Living with Maydaly . This is series eight and it's episode 11 . I think I'm right in saying I am one of the hosts . I am Liam and the other host is Andrew Van Haag .
Yeah , changed my name by default to Andrew Van Haag after we were talking last week . I haven't really obviously , but I'd love to do that .
It would be cooler though ?
Yeah , it would be cooler Christmas cooking at Christmas .
I don't want to call it that cooking at Christmas . I mean it's sort of centrally themed around Fanny Craddock and what Angest does to have a look at . Yeah big shout out , we're going to do some free and easy Christmas TV chat , aren't we Christmas ?
cooking chat . Yeah , christmas cooking chat , yeah , but we're going to start with Fanny Craddock . Massive shout out to Angier , because I have to admit on here , because I , I have to admit , because I don't watch cook shows .
I don't really , I'm not you don't watch films .
You don't watch christmas cooking show . No , he spies that cookbook and he said , hey , that'd be no use to me . Uh , yeah , so I'm not into my cooking shows and I thought I don't really know what . He's . Brilliant fan of cruddy . I don't know if you've managed to watch any episodes of it , or I have .
I don't know if I've watched as much as you , but I have seen a few of them . Yeah , I think she advised the mincemeat episode was a key , key one to watch as part of the strategy .
But well , I've seen um a few others . I was wondering if you were the first tv chef on tv . But um tv chef on tv um but she weren't fanocratic appeared in 1955 , but the world's first ever televised cook show was programmed on the bbc um on the 21st of january 1937 .
Wow , imagine that it was called cook's night out and it was a french cook , mary berry , wasn't it ?
yeah , probably yeah , I like mary berry yeah , my mom .
Actually I was talking to her . She's already doing mary berry . She's been on tv ages . Uh , yeah , could mention her . We've mentioned her , so that's it yeah , it was the French cook , marcel Bullestine , who were born in 1878 , so and it was 15 minutes long , each one doing a recipe , and BBC had only been on air at three months at that point .
So I'm wondering outside of news is this the biggest , like the longest running genre in history of TV ?
I think probably last to some of mine was before that wasn't it ? Maybe , yeah , Rolling Down His Hill in 1922 or whatever it was .
Yeah , that might have been on a little bit before Cook's Night Out . Yeah , but Fanny Craddock . We'll start with Fanny Craddock . She first appeared , like I said , in 1955 . She appeared in 24 television series between 1955 and 1975 .
Do you know much about her ? No , it's kind of , obviously , because her name's funny , so I used as a , as a sort of funny thing , isn't it ? But yeah , I thought she was a bit of a uh , how can I word it ? Like a bit of a disaster , like I thought , oh , like a joke . Yeah , almost like . Oh , she got everything wrong , like it , but it's not .
People will say now with absolute seriousness oh , no , no , no , it's complex .
I'll just talk before I'll sort of go backwards . Yeah , a downfall , do you know how ? She because she were like literally a mainstay on tv all the way through like , yeah , I said for what ? Uh , 20 years straight through . A downfall came in 1976 when the winner of a cooking competition called gwent try , okay , anyway .
Well , so I think that's how you pronounce it we're selected for a bbc series called the big time and that that show was about talented amateurs who were given an opportunity to take part in professional events . I think we have it now , don't ?
We don't , don't ramsey do stuff like that , where they get amateur chefs or whatever , and he'll say there's a lot of stuff like that yeah , quite the same , but yeah there's Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares or whatever it is .
Craddock , along with three other chefs , were brought in to advise this amateur and basically Craddock just all the way through it , as she was eating her food , she twice pretended to throw up in her mouth and just basically berated every single dish she made .
And the Daily Telegraph said not since the 1940s has the people of Britain ever risen in such unified wrath because people were that disgusted . So I thought , fucking hell , I've got to watch this . So it's on YouTube .
It's so tame by today , when you've got Gordon Ramsay going , fuck you , you fucking bastard , you fucking idiot , and you've got Greg Wallace doing his thing .
Yeah , doing what yeah ?
yeah , gino flashing , which I sort of condoned last week by accident , but yeah , but it's so . She like , I mean she were alright , she were , and look , she was like sort of going , oh oh right , really over the top , you know the stuff .
She actually wrote a letter of apology after , but the BBC terminated the contract two weeks after the broadcast and she'd never present a cookery show again . She died penniless in 1994 and barely anyone turned up to her funeral .
so , merry , Christmas to everyone . I mean to be fair , though , like from what I've seen , she's absolute no nonsense , isn't she ? I don't know which ?
one . Do you see in me , another one who looks like Warnock . A lot of people look like Warnock .
Well , the funny thing for me as well and this , by the way , this is only a brief fleeting moment , I'm not saying that I thought this whilst I was watching the whole thing but on the mincemeat episode , I'm not very good with colours , obviously I'm not completely colourblind , but I see colours a bit funny and I think I've got like a blue light filter on my
phone so it's not kind of quite so jarring . But anyway , when I first watched the video , the mincemeat one for a second I thought she'd got like big , massive grey patches on the side of her head , you know , like Paulie Walnut , yeah , which she's got styled into .
I see we've got this right now , fucking hell .
But yeah , obviously they're not the big bows tied in her hair . She's not the big bow standing there , but she's quite a sort of striking woman to look at , isn't she ?
Well , the one that we watch is the only one that survived , actually , of all the TV shows , so the only one that survived the TV archives and it's Fanny Craddock Cooks for Christmas . It's been repeated in recent years and I watch four episodes from it . I just what a character .
I mean , I'd say I don't watch any cooking shows , but I were all fascinated by this and all scared . She has the worst demeanor of any TV presenter I've ever come across . She's like she starts and she'll be like putting something on a tree . She'll be like all right , yeah , putting this on a tree . Obviously , she talks a lot posher than that .
We do this . I mean , she's got that assistant that she keeps saying right she's brilliant . Yeah , take that away she clicks .
It's brilliant , clicks like you're like million dollar man when he's trying to get virgil's attention . Like she clicks like that . This sarah she's called , never speaks in it and I thought , well , that's just because fanny wanted the the limelight . But in those days the bbc apparently if you spoke on the bbc they had to pay you .
So they made this woman just come in . Look , they showed she was clicking like a fingers . The whole setup is just so odd . By today I think I was off . It's honestly fascinating to watch and I have to admit , like I said , when andrew asked us to do it , I thought I don't really understand why she's asked us to do this .
But it's a fantastic piece of television , even if you only watch one . It's only 15 minutes . I can't believe how quick she does stuff . It's like all in one take . So there's none of this like you know , like where I
¶ Analyzing Fanny Craddock's Cooking Style
don't know . Ainsley will say , oh hey , right up next I'm gonna be doing this , but how about ? Do you know what I mean ? And then it'll cut back to him . This is all .
One take , one shot the best thing that ainsley does . By the way , I absolutely love it , as he keeps telling people to look at ainsley . Look what ainsley's doing look what ainsley's doing .
I don't know why he's doing that accent . Yeah , look what ainsley's doing .
Ainsley look at Ainsley . Look at .
Ainsley . Look at Ainsley . Yeah , another thing is like how much shit she puts in things . So , on the mincemeat episode , I'm not even joking here . I think she I don't know , I'm no good with numbers , but I think she puts about 100 pounds of her sugar on her mincemeat omelette .
Yeah , the amount of icing sugar . And she and she does them like little mini wraps as well and just smothers them in icing sugar .
I I've never seen that done before .
I've never seen a mincemeat omelette cared about sort of calories and stuff , weren't it , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah I've never heard of a mincemeat I've never heard of a mincemeat , and she said well , it's one of those things at christmas that gets overlooked because you have mince pies , one , one , one , uh , you know one bite and it's gone .
But no , no , not with this . It's massive .
I think , like Vandero , she holds a grudge , doesn't she ? Because she's got it in for mince pies .
She seems really aggressive with Mia about people having mince .
And there's another one I don't know if you've watched where she's carving up a turkey .
Is it a duck ?
It might be a duck , I'm not but slug off the male in the family . But this is where pa messes about doing his thing , and look how easy it is , look , look and compare this to what pa would be doing . She's like furious with pa who's at some point tried to carve a bird in front of herself as a feminist and a husband .
I think we're called johnny . I've not really seen any evidence of this , but there's a lot of like people talking that she absolutely like just had a go at him . There's like loads of people who said they saw him in street and she was just like berating him in street and stuff .
By all accounts , and look , I don't , I'm the first time I've really come across fanny cradock , but one of those people anyway , you've heard the name but you don't really know anything about .
Yeah , I mean she's kind of like I don't know if you can use this phrase these days , but it's kind of almost like epitomizes , like the term like battle axe .
She's like a yeah , yeah , like an old sort of she reminds me of like , almost like a coronation street character .
Like , yeah , but it'd be like a head teacher in Grange Hill or something like yeah , everyone's scared of her . No nonsense .
Yeah , yeah , yeah . Come here boy Honestly , because I mean , look , I'm not having to go at her looks in terms of attractiveness , but just the obviously she paints her eyebrows on the top of her head . She , just she looks odd , she looks I don't know . It's genuinely quite scary , I think , to watch , if you , because she's so aggressive ?
I mean , we know Brad Pitt's . Yeah , I mean , you'll see , not yet . Well , no need for that mate .
I once got compared to Phil Mitchell , you know so Well , yeah , I suppose . So , yeah , so yeah .
But yeah , her hair is so high back on her head and she's got these eyebrows drawn just like halfway on her forehead and they're not together , like so what was ?
The only thing I can think is like maybe I'm overthinking this , but you know , like on stage where they have to really overdo the makeup to make it seem , was it like sort of the early day , because there's no backdrop or anything , is it ? It's just a plain . It's quite jarring actually , her dress against the backdrop .
Well , there's loads of comments where it's like , especially from Americans who said , because she's got a really deep voice , as well said I , because she's got a really deep voice as well . So I genuinely thought this until about five minutes in , I thought this were a woman in drag doing it like a a joke thing .
Yeah , a man in drag , sorry , yeah , uh , doing like a woman in drag . I wouldn't see every day . I know , yeah , it's like bloody one of those women in drag . She's dressed up like a woman again no , but people , and I can get it because she's got a really deep voice and she looks like .
I say it's not a look where she's got a broad shoulder as well .
Yeah , it would be quite an intimidating character .
I'm terrified of her , and do you notice how many times she says , in all the episodes as well it's all in the booklet , it's all in the booklet , and that booklet was something you'd be able to buy , obviously . Now he's gone live you she'd say it's all online .
But that was a fanny credit booklet and , by all accounts , most households had this fanny credit booklet because she was the main , the go-to . But she doesn't hold a great legacy today for her cooking skills .
A lot of food actually looks really poor . It's difficult to judge . It's a different time , but I mean she's holding herself up as this great home cook , but a lot of it doesn't look visually very good . But maybe , maybe in this time it was .
But yeah , I don't know . I mean , there's loads of good stuff where little things that you won't get away with now , where she hasn't got any . She hasn't got a sink in her kitchen , so she's got like a bucket of water underneath and that's how she washes her hands , like she just puts , puts her hand in the water , that's it .
That's like washed her hands then she's back to the next thing .
Frilly sleeves on and yeah , yeah , yeah , no gloves , no , no gloves or anything like that straight in like hands in .
And then and there's another one where she says something like she's got some like shears and she's don't worry , they've been sterilized . And about a minute later I thought does that mean she's been using them like for a garden as well ? Is that what she means ?
Yeah , I presume so yeah . Yeah , rather than saying don't worry , these are kitchen shears . Yeah , that must have been what she meant Don't worry , I've wiped the bits of flowers and cow manure off Dirt .
Yeah , fascinating character . She's not well held in regard by other cooks and , like I say , there's a there were documentary about your , you like a julia davis , um , who were on 99 . I've not watched it yet but I've watched it safe .
So , again , really do appreciate it for man , because I've gone down like a little bit of a fanny rabbit hole , um , and I've like sort of really I've been watching interviews with her . She's an absolute . She got married four times . In two of those um marriages which should have , she lied that she got divorced . So she got married . Uh , what's the word ?
I can't remember the word . There's a word for it , um , but yeah , so you know .
And then , apparently , like she , was a genuine yeah , I think I think that's right , yeah .
And then she , um , and like I say there's loads of complaints about her , and then she ruined her own tv career in the end by being you know . And then , like I say , really sad that she died penniless and apparently no one went to a funeral I mean there are some sort of older stuff there are .
There are some videos from the 60s on youtube as well I think , sorry .
This is the only series , though , that survived right , they're just like one off yeah , yeah , yeah yeah right um .
So which ones have you watched ? Thanks , I watched um I watched one to four all right , okay , and are you going to stick with them ? Are you recommending the rest of them ?
yeah , because I mean , for a start , every episode she puts a bit more on the christmas tree , um , and I want to see what that christmas tree looks like at the end . So , yeah , well , but there's lots of people I say , look , look at the comments and stuff . So we're fascinated by it .
People are all saying , like , watch this every christmas when we have a right laugh . I think goggle box did it , goggle box did a where they're watching it like as they're thinking , oh my god , look what she's doing . Now you know stuff like that I almost feel sorry , for it's a different age and it's all right , it's easy and it's a lot .
Back and laugh and everyone does it . You know saying , oh well , the words that they used then are the things that they did . This is proper history .
This is a woman born in the 1800s , cooking in a way that you will never see again on tv yeah , and a pioneer for , for what's become , like you say , a massive industry , as well , I don't know if you want a good segue here to someone you might want to talk about , about christmas thing , but delia smith says you were a huge um inspiration , because basically
she classes off as a massive feminist and you know , a woman being on tv having her own show at that point wasn't heard of really , so delia smith took a lot of inspiration from her well , yeah , I mean , if we're sort of moving on now from the fanny craddock stuff into the more free and easy chat yeah , yeah , we've got to mention dealer at christmas um , I
mean , it's a weird one , because you don't not only do you not cook anything , but you don't show any interest in cooking anything either , do you I ?
I cook , boy , I cooked . What did I cook today ? Uh , I could put pizza in the oven , or yeah , probably someone like that .
But yeah , I mean , like I say , I don't watch any of these . Anyway , these , these cookies I'm not really that bothered about
¶ Delia Smith's Culinary Influence
it .
Do you remember the sort of impact of Delia ?
Well , the fact that I know I mean , do you know she's included in the English dictionary Adelia doing Adelia or Adelia dish is talking about , you know , doing a recipe in the style of Delia Smith , which is mad . That's in the dictionary like doing a Delia . Yeah , doing a Delia .
No , I didn't know that , but I'm not sure if it when I first started at Sainsbury's so I think I was 17 , 16 or 17 , but it was that year when sort of her special came on TV . Do you remember the impact it had ? It might have been the year before you started , I'm not sure , but it was absolutely crazy .
So in sainsbury's everything she'd used on tv just sold out instantly .
Yeah , well that , yeah , there's loads of . That's happened three or four times in her career .
That was the first time I I remember being aware of that and the particular one was goose fat . So she did roasted potatoes and goose fat . I remember people coming in saying absolutely furious that they couldn't buy goose fat .
And I remember people coming in saying he was absolutely furious that they couldn't buy goose fat and it was like yeah , well , yeah , but last year we probably only sold 100 jars , so that's what they've ordered this year , and this year a thousand people are asking for it .
Yeah , an acceptable dealer said I should use goose fat yeah , well , just harking back to fanny craddock a bit , she did . You know that she had , um , she was actually just because you know that she had . She was actually Just because you mentioned pizza . She was apparently the first woman on TV To introduce pizza to the general public .
So she's had a massive impact In my life because it's the only thing that I couldn't realise .
So actually yeah , she's your go to chef .
Also credit for creating Prawn cocktail . Can that be true ? That's what it says , that's well , bookipedia says it , so you know , take it with them , but that's what it says . Just is credited with , um yeah , with the creating the dish prawn cocktail .
Well , this is something that sort of lends itself quite nicely and something that I want to talk about christmas tv , which is and again , you you probably don't know this , so I'm speaking to the listener more than yourself but what I love every year is obviously all these TV chefs all get their own special and they have to reinvent something every year as to
what it's going to be .
I know what you mean because I watch cookery shows every morning , because it's just the only thing on on a Saturday morning .
It's nice and easy watching a cooking show .
Yeah , everyone has it on saturday morning . Whatever you're getting ready , um , and you have what's his name ? I always forget his name . It's saturday kitchen . Whatever it's called , yeah , whatever it's this , yeah , whatever , and um , and they're all fucking doing the cooking and I think how many fucking .
I'm sorry , saturday kitchen . Yeah , james martin , but now that's um , I can't remember the other guy .
Yeah , yeah , it's mad because I just have it on in background . I'll probably . It's like him off Sky TV that we're going to get onto in a later episode Dave Jones , he's one of those people I've seen loads of times . I've watched Saturday Kitchen probably every Saturday .
I don't know anything about it , I don't know who presents it or anything , but yeah , and I always think like how is this still on ? There's about 50 cooking shows on at the same time . It's great background .
TV , though , isn't it ? I know if we've been away for a weekend or whatever and you're getting ready in the morning to go out . It's such easy TV to put on in the background . Nobody's really watching it , but everyone's off watching it Everyone's sort of nodding along when they say and what I'm going to do ?
I'm going to fry the black pudding , everyone's sort of just . I'm just going to fry that . Nobody's really watching . Yeah , yeah , just on , everybody putting their own spin on things . I did it , I did it on my other , did it on the other machine Technical error here , but let me let me do a live search for what I found earlier , cause it made me laugh .
But yeah , I think , like you're saying , though , though , like , um , everyone , like I don't know how it's going to be , on this christmas I'd , in all the channels put together , like in sky and everything , there must be at least 20 , 25 shows that are going to be about christmas dinners yeah , well , I haven't got it up in front of me , I can't .
We're not going to pause for me to go and get my other screen . But what I found really funny was so there was different chef's recipes for sprouts and it was like I don't know , I'm speculating who did what , but it's something like gordon ramsay sprouts with bacon .
And then there was somebody jamie oliver's sprouts with bacon and pecan nuts , and then there was somebody's sprouts with uh , pomegranate seeds that seems to be a thing . And then the one that made me laugh right at the end and it was a bbc good food one was burnt sprouts with pomegranate seeds , because it's exactly the same , basically just burn .
Yeah , just burn them like we've got to put our own spin on it . What we're going to do , why is finding mad in ?
supermarkets where a little uh celebrity thing . Here when I work at sainsbury's I would wilkinson the uh former yeah , the former um chef . He went to manage a leads manager . He wants to go to because where's your pizzas ? And I said , oh , they're just over here . And he goes oh , why do you have to have so many pizzas ?
I just want a pizza , because I have to go through all these like there's 100 pieces here . I just want a pizza . And I sort of get what he means when you go like shopping or whatever , and there's like a thousand of the same things , especially christmas like strip , I know , yeah , one box of cookies one pizza , one bit of butter .
It'd be amazing for me if he was really indecisive , right ? Because even when I'm picking a sandwich , I'm like oh , oh , oh , I'm like a proper existential crisis .
You can't have too much choice . Well , I've got an app now . If he's not bothered what the pizza is , just go and grab any pizza then .
It was genuine , it wasn't like being horrid . He just went oh , as if , like I've got to go through all this now I've got too much choice . Ready meals there's about like five dumpling ready meals , like dumpling with gravy , dumpling with mincemeat , dumpling Fucking . Just give me one .
I don't need them all . It's mind the quickest fire anyone's ever said dumpling on a podcast like three in a row ?
I reckon that's never been done before that dixon's dumpling , dumpling , dumplings . Um , but yeah , yeah , everyone just try and reinvent the dish , don't like ?
but yeah , but so so dearly , was great bit before my time um did you know ?
she baked the cake on the sleeve of the rolling stones as chart topping album . Let it bleed . I had no idea about that . It was cool even back in the day , 1969 . That's crazy , isn't it ? How did that come about ? I had no idea , because I've not done any bigger research .
That seems like a very sort of urban myth to me that it's true , well , again , wikipedia .
That's never lied to us um . It's on wikipedia to be honest . I don't know if I did get that from wikipedia , but I mean , I print the myth even if it isn't true , but I think it is true and she's um . She's sold 14 million bucks as of 2002 . That was what a terrible start .
That is as of 20 years 22 years ago she sold 14 million books .
We have no idea what she's sold since that's all I got , because I looked at the thing and it said 2002 and I thought that'll do me .
It's a bit of a cliffhanger , isn't it ? We'll have to look into that . Did she stop then ? Has she not sold a book since she's ?
not doing celebrity cooking anymore , but she's still doing recipes , apparently .
Can't be on celebrity cooking for love . No money Love no money .
no , obviously , I remember more for the let's be having you .
Yeah .
Let's be . I've always liked Delia . Look , I'm going to judge all these .
Nothing on the cooking skills but on , I've got nothing against Dele at all . So I think for me and there's more obscure ones that obviously you're not going to know . So I'm going to sort of throw some mainstream ones at you and see where you rank them , but I think Dele is top of the tree for me Really .
I'm really surprised by that .
Well , there's a bit of a caveat , because my kind of go-to one would be , because when I was getting into cooking , fair play to Jamie Oliver with his cheeky , chappy smile made it sort of quite accessible .
I just honestly . Then I honestly thought you said Neil Oliver . Well , I know you said Jamie Oliver and Neil Oliver pops in my head and I thought what's he talking about ? It's cheeky , cheeky . Well , what the government don't want you to do , imagine shit he'd be putting in the dull taste of sprouts , a metaphor for a sour taste of the environment .
It'd be unbelievable .
Are you just on that , by the way ? You team Oliver or team Ramsey Because they had a feud , didn't they ?
I think it's all behind them now , oh is it ? Are they all right now ?
I think so . Yeah , I mean , harry Rhodes has a pop at them all , doesn't he ? He's always in background having a pop , no longer with us . Is he dead ? Yeah , he died quite a long time ago . Yeah , well , I was getting mixed up with Nigel Kennedy , anyway , but anyway , I don't even know who Nigel Kennedy is .
You've said this on four separate pods that you don't know who . Nigel Kennedy is yeah , he's the violinist .
Oh , yeah , yeah . You put him up against Vanessa May , don't you sometimes ? Yeah , yeah , yeah , you honestly , it's incredible how much you forget Nigel Kennedy yeah , I'm just just checking now actually live research died 2019 in Dubai and .
I had no idea to be honest , but shame but you sound like having a pop at people ? Yeah , anyway , but these are going to get mentioned .
So so straight away , there we've got , we've got two to go at Oliver and Ramsey . What , what's your , what's your outsider views on them ?
Ramsay's , the more entertaining If they were on Christmas Day . Oliver's , you know , oliver's cheeky chappy , or I might put a bit . I don't know anything about cooking , so these are probably doesn't happen at all .
But what you want to do here , mate , is get your veg , chop it up as quick as you can , lob it in there and then they just have to wait a bit and just jush it and bosh it and bosh it , whereas Ramsay would be like I don't know , get your fucking pudding in this fucking oven now you prick , but Ramsay's obviously more chef-y , and this is sort of the
thing with some of these shows you were with Marco Pierre White , weren't you ? Am I right ? Yeah ?
yeah ,
¶ Discussing Celebrity Chefs and Christmas Cooking
his . This , to me , is where some of the fancier ones go wrong , and this is why I'm ranking oliver very high , because they're things you would cook and they're things you would buy . I think the problem is with the more chefy ones . Ramsey not so much , but you know um heston blumenthal . Have you seen any sort of fancy stuff ? No , no .
Well , obviously he's become famous by doing like , and he's moved on since now , but it but like snail porridge and all sort of weird and wonderful .
He's not a vegan , is he ? But he's like vegetarian dishes and stuff , he does . I think no , no , no , is he ?
not no , he's like really fancy showpieces .
Oh , I don't know what I'm talking about .
Like there's one we have to have the headphones with . That is .
That's just not accessible , is it so he has to dumb down what is his specialty imagine you bringing the girl back to your house what you got , what you got cooking for me . Put these earphones on what ?
yeah , seagulls and yeah yeah , but that's precisely my point . It's like he's famous for showy , restaurant-y sort of stuff , so it doesn't really translate into doing your Christmas dinner , does it ? Yeah , yeah , yeah , this is where Oliver and Delia , straight to the basics , do something you would cook .
I mean , I remember first year , first Christmas , I was with Jodie and we stayed at her mum's and she sort of did the dinner .
We tend to split it now , I thought you were going to say it and it were fucking awful . I had to throw it in bin .
No , no it was nice , but what she'd done is she'd taken all these different recipes so like the carrots were like honeyed lemon carrots give me some bloody carrots , parsnips were like cinnamon parsnips .
Yeah , too much going on . Marmalade sprout , yeah , just everything was like fucking mad flavour . All this just like the spices around the world , like mads and going Christmas dinner .
But this is where they all fall down to me , all these Christmas cooking shows , because the problem is they all want to get paid , they all want to find something new . But actually , just show us Delia , just show us Delia doing this Show us , delia .
She puts a pudding in the oven . She might put some onions in there , and that's enough .
Yeah , I don't like onions .
Oh , you don't . You actually once said that people who like onions are weak . I can't remember what you said .
Basically , you said , just accepting that you didn't like a particular food , you started having to go with the people who like onions . I remember that happening once , really , yeah , yeah , I couldn't believe it . I don't remember it . I I have a huge problem with onions . I think they're a horrible texture taste . You , jody , not having those .
There's no onions you put in this christmas then she eats onions .
Yeah , just just . I don't I either pick it out like a child or I , because I do quite a lot of cooking . I just cook it without the onion . I do that with mushrooms in my piece you don't like mushrooms . But I , I like mushrooms , but yeah .
So when I do like a chili or a I don't know bolognese or something , I don't put onion in , because I don't like you , I don't put you should do a cooking show that actually that's a good idea .
Cooking with living with madeleine . It's you showing me how to do different dishes and stuff and me just saying can I just put the pizza in ?
we could do that too . Yeah , come on .
Yeah , that's further down the line .
Tell me your thoughts on nigella lawson at christmas liam I was trying to find some examples of her because , like innuendo or double entendre , like they're supposed to be , like slips of the she said she didn't mean to do it actually wouldn't she , but yeah , yeah , she said she's not talented enough to , because I looked at it .
Because , again , I don't watch them . So to me , if you said well , what's nigella like ? Oh yeah , put this in here , baby , when I'm watching a bit of her . She doesn't really do anything , she just says . So what I'm gonna do here is put this Gary Rhodes actually I've
¶ Cooking and Kitchen Mishaps
got a quote from him . He said that viewers were more attracted to her smile than her cooking .
I mean , I think she's decent enough , but a lot of what she does .
She's not a trained chef , it's implied innuendo .
So actually she'll just say and at this time I like to baste the bird and then kind of glance to camera , like as if , like oof , like what's she ?
getting at , but that's not an innuendo . I know what you mean . No , I know , yeah , yeah , just I shall say like , and what we do now is pour water on the salt .
Yeah , it's all sort of like . I mean some of it kind of is it's like ?
pour the water on the salt salt .
Imagine that like anyway , a lot of it is like um , oh , and I , I love that now , as the juices start to flow , like it's , like there are some give it to ronald ramsey .
We're saying it , or , ainsley , you won't be if ainsley win , yeah boy look at ainsley making the juices flow oh , and then doing his sing songs yeah man , yeah , um , yeah , I don't . Yeah , I didn't know that her dad was the former Chancellor of the Exchequer , which is one of my favourite ever terms in politics , by the way .
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is a phenomenal term . Yeah , what is the Exchequer , the Exchequer ? I don't know . I don't want to know what the Exchequer is . I'm the Chancellor . What of the exchequer , the exchequer , the Chancellor ? It's a brilliant thing to use as well in real life . If you I mean I think Partridge would use it as something he says .
But if you say , oh , come on , you're not the Chancellor of the Exchequer . It's a real thing yeah .
Imagine him in Parliament doing all like that .
Oh yeah , that'd be amazing . Well , to be honest , she attracted publicity in 1989 . She's a Labour voter and she yeah , she criticised Margaret Thatcher in print when he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in her government , right .
Well , yeah , I mean Nigella , as I mentioned , because good TV it's one of them , isn't it ? I don't know if it's still a shock , because the problem I have now is that when I first found out her age , somebody said something like did you know she's 50 ? And I thought , wow , I would never have guessed that .
But now , because I've got this sort of thing in my head , that she's older than she looks , I think she must be about 60 , and then someone said she's 25 .
She's never aged . You know , she in your yeah um , you know she conceived the idea right in the first cookbook , because she went to a dinner party and the host was in tears because of an unset creme caramel .
So um , and she also did it , uh , declined an obe and she said I'm not saving lives , I'm just doing , um , I'm not doing anything other than something I absolutely love . So , did she say when ?
I set crap . I always make it hard .
Oh , and everyone went oh , she's done it again because I I think I might probably see more of people doing impressions of nigella lawson than actual nigella lawson . So I was grossly disappointed when when I put it wrong . Yeah , I'm just putting turkey in over now . Put it on it on gas for about five . There we go , that's it .
Cook it until it's hot , yeah , and then you get really disappointed . Who else you got familiar ?
with . I've got one that I despise , the man . You might not know him , nigel Slater . You ever come across Nigel Slater ? I ?
don't think I know . Nigel Slater , are you honest ? No , I don't know . No , I don't know .
I'm looking at him now . So Jodie watches loads of cooking stuff and I've seen it all . I've seen everything .
How comes you're I dare say you're a better cook than her if you don't watch all these shows ? Because you're a man ? Or is it just because you follow Delia's recipes ? A little from column a , a little from column b ? No , I think it's just a natural flare . I think , what natural flare ? You can't say that about yourself .
I've got natural flare I think people get stuck on like oh , yeah , but . But the recipe says this I think yeah , but we haven't quite got enough for that , so I'm going to do a little bit more of it . Things like yeah , but the oven's not preheated for 10 minutes . It don't mean to it's fine it's just getting hotter .
Yeah , it annoys me when people say things like oh god , I've had the oven on the wrong temperature . It should have been 180 . I've had it at 170 . Well , yeah , but but that other oven in next doors won't be the same temperature on that dial that dial's not exact I have problems with that with microwaves .
But yeah , oh yeah , that's it Like one minute on your microwave . Mine , I'm genuinely at a book .
Honestly at a book . Microwave meals for one like a cooking , but what ?
Put it in , press the button , that's it .
It's fucking . I mean I've got I don't like to talk about it , but I've got dyspraxia . Obviously Even I can do that . Well , I do struggle sometimes , you know , when you have to put the knife in the top of the , you know , to create holes in it . Sometimes I can be a bit heavy handed with that . Well , actually , I've got a thing actually , just on that .
Just break it off to this . Ten reasons why .
What I love that like we're talking about cooking a full sort of Christmas dinner and you're having problems with piercing the lid on a microwave meal .
On a lasagna , yeah , um right . So 10 reasons . Well , I'll not go through them all . But why this practice ? People just all be cooking . Um , the equipment is the main one . Um so , very poor with scissors , very poor with chopping what ?
this is like your sort of cv , isn't it ?
yeah , very poor with chopping um grip . You know like grip , gripping things . Yeah , this is one which I found so funny . Even I can do this . You struggle to put oven gloves on absolutely amazing .
So what's up , you made their own gloves that people who can't pull oven gloves I know , yeah , but I mean , look , I'm allowed to because I'm part of that yeah , you're one of the community um , but this someone said yes , I agree with this one .
I actually create my own gloves and I just stick them to my hand .
Think how big the opening is .
I can't get my head around this one , yeah .
If you can't put an oven glove on , I'm not sure how you can function in the world . It's almost designed to be the easiest glove you'll ever put on , isn't ?
it . And then the big one for me is the chopping . I do really struggle with ours , you can probably . I once cut . I tried to open a tin of pineapples once and I cut my my finger and I had to go to hospital because it went that deep .
Well , we yeah , we mentioned a lot . I don't know if it was on the podcast stuff just when I'm talking to you , but I was asking you if you remember when you tried to make yourself a sandwich in Tenerife or Gran Canaria .
I had some bad times with that . I'll tell you about my day later on . Go on , you didn't even know . You thought you'd done a good job . Yeah , it was good enough for me .
The bread was sawed at a really strange angle and not put away again . I've got flair , Flair isn't it . The butter . You just left the lid off it . It looked like you just scooped a bit out with your hand .
No , I'm not Fanny Craddock . Come on , let's not .
That just turned to liquid , yeah . And then you just ripped . Instead of like there's a clear bit on a pack of ham that says open here , you just sort of smashed your way in from the other end .
It weren't ham . I don't eat ham , so it can't have been ham , but it was something like that . Whatever it was it might have been some sliced cheese or something like that I once , while meeting a girl , we went to a cafe and we were in the middle of the day and I ordered a scone . I thought they'd have buttered it for me .
They didn't , and I just could not butter , this scone .
I've never seen a scone come pre-buttered , to be fair .
No , I don't know what . Well , I don't do it anymore .
I don't do it anymore .
I got a muffin at McDonald's on Saturday actually , and it came with jam , but you had to put your own jam on . That was a disaster . So you know , people don't Think about us at Christmas . Trouble is real . At Christmas you should play some light music . Now , that's all . I don't know , like I don't know , just give to people who distract you at Christmas .
Dun , dun , dun , dun , Dun , dun , dun , dun .
Any , I'm trying to think sorry , go on , carry on .
Well , what I was going to say is that you have no trouble tucking into a pint .
I don't pour myself have you seen me pour a pint before ?
to be fair , you often drink a pint with two hands . I do drink a pint . I don't see anyone else do that .
Sometimes I just drink a water bottle out the side of my mouth as well . Have you seen me do that before ? Like Popeye ? Like Popeye eats spinach . Yeah , I don't know why I do it , it's just just the way . Just the way . Yeah , yeah , yeah . What about Rusty Lee ? Do you like any of her stuff ?
I haven't got Rusty Lee on my list . I don't know . Rusty Lee does not spring to mind . Sorry , just on Nigel Slater , by the way . Oh sorry , yeah , Sorry , yeah go on , but for anyone who does , I struggle really to see why anyone is really . I mean , actually it reminds me of something I forgot to mention on the Fanny Cradd .
Do you not like the sound of somebody's voice and people might listen to that ? Well , they're probably not listening but might think we've got irritating voices . That's fine . But Nigel Slater does this like it's very light , weak , wet mouth sound . It's like and this is going to be a delicious piece of cake .
It's like it turns my stomach a bit to hear him speak . And what reminds me of Fanny Craddock is I'm horrible with . It turns my stomach a bit to hear him speak , and what reminds me of Fanny Craddock is how horrible were the noises when she was stirring the mincemeat . Did you pick ?
up that . Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , oh God .
Yeah , really , really , really awful . It's like somebody eating with their mouth open . Yeah , really awful .
Yeah , yeah , horrible .
I've got Rusty Lee open . Yeah , I know where Rusty Lee is now . I don't know if she's done any sort of . I don't associate her with Christmas cooking , no to be fair .
No , I mean . So your go-to would be if you were this Christmas . I don't know last minute . William , you're going to have to do Christmas dinner . What are you doing ? Are you going straight to Delia's cookbook ?
No , I'm probably going pucker , pucker .
You said , that , didn't you ?
pucker , go on , pucker , pucker , pucker . Yeah , well , yeah , he used to sort of like can you do an impression of Jamie Oliver ?
oh , I might no .
I don't like that though , is it ? No , he's a bit sort of Simon Jordan Jordanian , like he sort of can't say a lot of work yeah , I think that maybe no that's not right . It's not exactly Simon Jordan , no well they have .
A look at Mary Berry , by the way , jumping around him this turkey has not got the courage of his convictions . Mary Berry's 89 now yeah , yeah she's not Christmas , she's more like obviously your cakes and shit , though yeah , bacon , exactly yeah , that's what I associate her with . Marco .
Pia is he in wheels or yeah , he's just a bit of an angry man , marco Pia . I do like the other French guy , the other French guy , I think the other French guy . Eric Cantona well , raymond Blanc I quite like , but that's not the one I'm trying to think of , the one who's sort of part of the famous family he's got .
His uncle and his dad were famous chefs as well . I can't think of it . We're not going to say I don't know what . To search for Famous French chefs I could look for .
I want a good story . Fiori , we once went to when I did Media Studies , did a film and then they put it onto the big screen I don't know where it were , odian or something like that because , like every student got the , you know , the film shot at the odian .
And um , we did this film and , as they put it on at odian , someone's mom who were in our group , had taped it over with a ready , steady cook and they're that . Well , that , because obviously vhs takes its time . And that came on Ainsley as well . Look at Ainsley , look at Ainsley it was Michelle Rue .
I was thinking of Michelle Rue . Never met him , never met him . I mean , that's really loose chat around Christmas TV , chefs and cooking . We've said we're going to go free and easy , so there's very little research . The last bit I want to talk about , though , is something that Jodie reminded me of , which is the royal family cooking Christmas dinner .
What's that Not as in Charles and Camilla ?
Oh , I thought you meant .
I genuinely thought like Fair point , well made , barbera , I can imagine like Philip , like in his do you know ?
like Prince Philip , when he were alive . Fucking , get that fucking thing in here right now .
¶ Christmas Dinner Conversation
The bit with the . Have you seen it ? Do you know the bit I'm talking about ? Yeah , yeah , yeah . Why did Dave and Denise become , instead of just lazy , functioning people ?
You've mentioned in this before . Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah .
Yeah , so they started off as , like normal lazy people . By the time we get to that Christmas special , which is them cooking Christmas dinner , they're just absolute mental cases , aren't they Like ? What are they doing ? Yeah , you know what I'm talking about with Dave's dad .
Yeah , that's when he calls you a barbarian , doesn't he ?
Yeah , and it's excrement , excrement in the exhaust pipe . Jim Bell , yeah , but yeah , the bit at the start really . But it kind of makes me think of you sometimes , the bit at the start really annoys me , but it sort of reminds me of you as well . What the two ? No , no , no yeah .
You said the bit at the start , really annoys me and it reminds me of you . Yeah , go on . It's not a great start .
Go on the environment , and it remains with you . Yeah , go on . It's not a great start . Go on , well , no , no , what ? What annoys me is that these characters have been turned into these like incompetent people , to a point where they're talking about me again .
Yeah , go on , go on carry on .
I don't put you quite down on this level .
I don't think you're going to end this . You've got dyspraxia . They're not dyspraxic .
Yeah , that's very true , very true but they're trying to defrost the turkey in a bath and whilst having a bath with it . And then there's a bit oh , remember this , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , which is just ridiculous . And then it's like do you want the water after me , denise ? Yeah , go on .
Then it's appalling and a bit that really irrationally winds Jodie up is where they boot the turkey across the floor like wearing these big slippers into the airing cupboard yeah .
Would you ? No , obviously I wouldn't do it , I'm not a fucking idiot . Now I'd get pizza in for a kick-off or microwave meals .
Well , I'm thinking , you know , if it got to Christmas dinner and you said you were going to do it and you'd got a turkey that wasn't defrosted ?
I'd love to see you in that environment . Where are you ? It'd be like do you know , last of the summer wine ? I'll be at wheelbarrow going down that road for some reason . That's how I imagine it .
You know , with turkey like oh .
God , I need to take you around to a place or somewhere to get it , like to get it , to get it cooked . I don't know what I'd be doing .
Imagine , if you were doing Christmas dinner . I came to your house . Yeah , as I turn up your road , you wheel past me in a bath ?
that'd be amazing , wouldn't it ? Have you ever been anywhere ?
I did not see that coming . Have you ever ?
been anywhere for Christmas dinner . Would you like to recommend anywhere ? No , we looked into it this morning . I did not see that coming .
I would have to say that have you ever been anywhere for Christmas dinner Like would you like to recommend anywhere ? No , we looked into it this year . There don't seem to be as many doing it . This time I've never been .
Normally Manan's , to be fair , christmas . But yeah , she does that thing where I don't know if you prefer this , where someone's more she'll do do like a pudding and stuff first and then we'll have like a main dish and then some afters after , and my nan gets everything in the middle and you pick your own . What do you prefer ?
Um , because I imagine you're a bit of a weirdo when it comes to people picking foods , like going oh , he's got his . I don't know , I don't know . I can imagine you're not liking some of that . Or keep an eye on how many people , how how many things people are having . He's got fucking five potatoes .
Yeah , I tend to do loads , so I don't mind when I've done it and I do prefer to put it middle and get what you want . I think that's the best way for me . Keeping it warm is always a bit of a problem because I like to go for it .
I do the works , but it does annoy me a bit if I go somewhere else and like I don't know , there's not a huge amount of yorkshire puddings and somebody dies straight in with a double like I'm gonna grab two early on without seeing what's left for everyone else . No , I don't like that .
Yeah , yeah , but yeah , I do loads of stuff , so there's always there's loads when I do it .
But and what about the aftermath of christmas dinner ? Like , I mean to be fair , let's talk about this weekend , and they were talking about the best , about the aftermath of a Christmas dinner . I mean to be fair . I was at a club this weekend and they were talking about the best and worst bits of a Christmas dinner . So we'll nick that first .
What's your favourite and worst bits ? I don't like sprouts . I will have one . Normally , if my mom and mom does it , I'll have one because I think they've put the effort in .
If you're going to commit to putting that on your plate , I want to see you eat that .
Oh no , I will eat one , I will put one on there , but you won't put one on slice a little bit off , just for no , no , no , no , no , no .
I just think they've gone to effort to cook it and stuff , so I'll have one , I don't mind if somebody's put on five sprouts and they only eat four , are you ? I don't like people who say I'll have one but then don't eat it .
Leave it , if you're not going to have it , it's fine . Remember our mate Russell ? Russell obviously is called Russell Sprout . Yeah , when he went to Cubs when he was a youngster and he said , yeah , I left because someone called me Russell Sprout . Such a shit name , russell Sprout . What are you giving up , then , liam ?
I've got sprouts . I'm not bothered about red cabbage , but a lot of people don't put that on anyway yeah , I prefer red cabbage to white cabbage .
See with me .
I'm not bothered about any cabbage , to be honest , but I prefer , like , green cabbage . If I'm going to go , cabbage , but yeah , I could quite happily lose that if there's two meats on offer . Oh yeah , I'm not too fussed whether the pigs on blankets are available .
I'm not bothered about them , I don't eat them . I don't eat them .
Pigs on blankets Just don't like it , not a fan , I don't mind them , but if you're just having turkey , by all means let's have some pigs in blankets . Yeah , Got turkey and beef or turkey and roast pork , as I would say .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , pork's my favourite . I'll always ask for a pork if I get the choice , rather than a turkey , to be honest .
I do like turkey , but this is a terrible chat , really , isn't it ? But what about ham ? Don't like ham , don't like ham , not even like your proper roast ham .
Don't like roast ham .
Don't .
Do't do have , don't do Christmas cooking the best thing I think . I think Gravy obviously Needs to be on there . That's a given . You can't have a dry .
Gravy's like the enhancer , isn't it ? Yeah , you can't have that as an item . Almost that's something that makes everything better .
I think it's just not the same Without roast potatoes . I know that's an easy root one . I think puddings as well for me , would you ?
sacrifice mash for roast ?
Yeah , definitely Roast is all I would . Would you sacrifice York's ? Puddings for roast though no , so it is your option .
You can go mash and roast , or you can go York's pudding and mash . York's pudding and mash I'd go for . So you are giving up roast , then You're not that protective .
No , it's puddings for me . I love a pudding . I could eat a pudding every day if I want , but I'd be dead .
I reckon I'd be right in saying you could probably eat one now , couldn't you ?
Yeah , absolutely , yeah , absolutely . I've just had some salad , but anyway are we done ?
I think we've done that to death , haven't we I think we've absolutely covered Christmas cooking .
Really difficult one to do , Something we wanted to do anyway . Christmas cooking shows , cooking shows in general .
So we thought I think that's a terrible effort , but it's been some laughs along the way , hasn't it ?
Well , we've had a laugh , haven't we ? We've had a good bloody laugh about it . And I tell you what we'll have a laugh next time . Your choices aren't we ?
oh yeah , absolute festive necessity . We are doing well , we're going to make it more general , but the start off point is merry christmas , mr bean , it's the now . I'd be amazed if anybody listening hasn't watched that , but I have seen it yeah , I think I would say , go and watch it . It's an absolutely phenomenal piece of Christmas comedy gold .
I would say it's right up there . For me it was sort of Home Alone and I don't know , Christmas Carol . Masters of the . Universe All your sort of high-end ones . Mr Bean goes in there with me .
Yeah , fair enough . Mr Bean , I have seen this , obviously , but not for a long , long time . I think it's only half an hour . It is on YouTube . So , yeah , I'm looking forward to that .
It's on ITVX , which you have to sign up for , but it's free . I think we'll go more general , mr Bean . Afterwards We'll start with Merry Christmas , mr Bean .
Yeah , and we might go more general Mr Bean , and we'll see what sort of You're a huge fan of him aren't you ?
yeah , brilliant , yeah , I . I think it's universal comedy
¶ Irish TV Show Discussion
. I don't even think , you know , I even have to be from , uh , some of the what am I going to say ? I'm going to say the Emerald Isles , but that's obviously , that's Ireland , isn't it ? You don't have to be from the British Isles even there's more to Ireland .
Now there's even Irish . Like people can like this , can't they ?
non-Irish should I say yeah they don't just have to watch Father Ted . This is also available , but no , I think it's , I think it's worldwide , any age . Yeah , just it's brilliant , and the Christmas one in particular is a very good episode as well .
So , and actually we'll mention it in a thing , but a really good gag in there that Friends stole many years later probably got much more credit , for I don't know what you're on about here , but we'll not ruin it now .
Thank you for today , liam . I'm off to put pizza in the oven and I will . Yeah , I'll catch you next time , for Mr Bean certainly will alright , good evening .
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