Honey And Co: The Food Talks

It’s not often that you get to meet a living legend: Fabrizia Lanza’s cookery school in Sicily is a food lover’s mecca. Fabrizia’s family have been in Sicily for centuries and through their school and farm they preserve knowledge and flavours passed down through the generations. We talked about preserving food and preserving traditions, drank Sicilian wine and cooked some of Fabrizia’s amazing food for everyone who came. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In a small converted greengrocers in South London (her ice cream shed), Kitty Travers patiently creates an array of iced delights – fresh ice creams that taste of the real, whole fruits; and eye-popping, palate-tickling sorbets that will enliven the taste buds of all those lucky enough to sample them. Kitty came to talk to us about how she fell in love with making ice cream and her new book, La Grotta Ices, containing over 100 inventive flavours of real ice cream, sorbet and granita. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We had a very special evening celebrating the launch of our new book Honey & Co: At Home – Middle Eastern Recipes From Our Kitchen, out now! Usually The Food Talks involve one or both of us chatting to our favourite people in the food world but for one night only the tables were turned and our producer Hester got to grill us for a change. We talked about home food throughout our lives, what we cook in our precious weekends and our favourite recipes for each other... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Signe is a Norwegian-American cook and the author of How to Hygge and Scandilicious. She joined us to talk about her latest book Solo: The Joy of Cooking for One. Celebrating the joy of self-reliance and self-sufficiency, the book is all about becoming more selfish in the kitchen and is full of recipes for happy solo cooking. From uncomplicated no-cook fast food to one-pot dishes that will transform your daily routine. We talked at length about the perfect fish finger sandwich, how to shop for solo dishes and how much dill is too much dill. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Self-taught chef Stephen Harris transformed what was once called a “grotty rundown pub by the sea” on the coast in Kent into a Michelin-starred restaurant that has been named Britain’s number one. At The Sportsman, Stephen uses the best ingredients available in the immediate land surrounding the pub – the pork is sourced from the farm next door; they make their own butter and the salt is sourced from the sea. We chatted about the transformation of the pub and of Stephen himself as well as his new book. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nick is one of three founders of Hodmedod’s, Britain’s pulse and grain pioneers. They’ve been working with British farmers since 2012 to bring a growing range of forgotten and new crops to British kitchens, from fava beans and carlin peas to quinoa, camelina and naked barley. We use a lot of these products in the restaurants and so we were very excited to have Nick join us to share the Hodmedod’s story. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After a life-changing meal at Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkley in 2010, Samin began cooking there; a job which determined the course of her life. The chefs she cooked with used four key principles to make any food taste great if used in the right way; salt, fat, acid and heat. Samin spent years creating her book in order to teach others how to master the art of good cooking. We spoke to Samin about the serendipity of her journey into food, how we can develop our palettes and which feta reigns supreme. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We can’t think of anything better than cooking up a feast with Sabrina Ghayour, the queen of simple and flavourful Middle-Eastern cooking! She joined us to talk about her new book, Feasts, which features tailored menus and dozens of recipes for celebrations and occasions with family and friends. We learn all about her debut £2.50 supper club, boil-in-the-bag rice memories and what it's like to be a crisp aficionado... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Reem Kassis left Jerusalem for the US at the age of 17, gained four graduate degrees and set her sights firmly on a stellar business career. She promised herself she would never end up in the kitchen like previous generations of women in her family, yet Reem found herself appreciating the simple pleasures of cooking for and feeding the people you love. She came to talk to us about her debut cookbook The Palestinian Table, how to define Palestinian food and how to make the best Baba Ghanouj. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A favourite restaurant of ours, The River Café has championed simple, good quality Italian cooking since 1987. We are so happy to have Joseph come and talk to us about 30 years of the River Cafe, what makes a restaurant ride high in the London food scene for so long, his unique experience working with the Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, and of course a cherished subject of ours – Italian food. The new cookbook River Cafe 30 marks three decades of memories and good food at the restaurant. The team revisited and updated the best dishes from the first blue cookbook and introduce 30 new favourites from the menus today – panzanella, ravioli with ricotta, raw tomato and basil, risotto with porcini and girolles and the outstanding chocolate nemesis. We can’t wait to cook and share with you some of these recipes. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Most of us want to forget that back-to-school feeling by kicking off our shoes and hunkering down with a soul-soaring supper – one that can be eaten with friends at the table, with book in hand by the fire, or in front of the TV. In The Sunday Night Book Rosie shares how to make Sunday night the best evening of the week, by perfecting the last, lazy meal of the weekend. All the recipes in the book are simple and make clever use of store cupboard staples and leftovers. Rosie came to talk to us about cooking in small, high-stakes, destination restaurants in the British countryside with the likes of Joyce Molyneux, how she ended up recipe testing for Delia Smith and why it’s ok to drink cocktails on a Sunday night.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Roï Hendel is based in Paris but travels the world in search of extraordinary spices… a dream job, in our eyes! Working exclusively with organic small scale farms and wild harvests around the world, Shira Spices aims to introduce the concept of terroir to the spice world. By working directly with farmers and NGOs, the hope is to ensure a fair income to all of their partners. We chatted to Roï about the life of a modern day spice trader and sampled his spices under expert guidance. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Killian Fox is a food writer who regularly contributes to The Observer Food Monthly and many other publications and he is the co-founder of The Gannet: an online magazine that explores people’s lives through the food they cook and eat. Killian gave us an insight into the world of food writing, tell us about the realities of having such a dream job, and we heard about his new book The Gannet’s Gastronomic Miscellany, which collects together interesting stories and facts about food – covering everything from radioactive bananas to 5,000-year-old bog butter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rachel McCormack is a broadcaster and writer, known mostly as a panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet. The proud daughter of a Macallan drinker, Rachel was introduced to whisky via flu-alleviating hot toddies from an alarmingly early age and has never looked back. In her first book Chasing The Dram, Finding The Spirit of Whisky Rachel sets out to discover why Scotland had no tradition of cooking or eating with whisky. Rachel visited us at Honey & Spice to impart her newfound wisdom on the subject. We tried some whisky and heard all about her year-long adventure across Scotland in search for the spirit of whisky. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Fuchsia Dunlop is a cook, food-writer, broadcaster and author of some of our favourite books, specialising in Chinese cuisine. Fuchsia visited us at Honey & Spice where we talked about her latest book, Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China which is full of beautiful recipes from the Jiangnan province in eastern China, where she likes to eat in Chinatown and the best tools and ingredients for cooking authentic Chinese food in your own kitchen.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’ve been following Mark Ogus and Owen Barratt of Monty’s Deli across London for the last few years now – from their Maltby Street market stall to their place under the railway arch and now to their long-awaited bricks and mortar place in Hoxton – all for the joy of their bagels. One of the few places to make their own salt beef and pastrami, the guys have also perfected their own bagel recipe, pickles, house mustard and of course chicken soup, all inspired by the food of Mark’s Jewish grandfather, Monty. Mark joined us to chat pickles, crowdfunding and Jewish soul food.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nasrin Rooghani is a chef with Mazi Mas, the social enterprise that hires female immigrant chefs in the UK to be part of a roaming restaurant. Born in the north of Iran next to Azerbaijan, she later moved to Tehran, so grew up eating and learning about Azeri and Iranian cuisines. Taking influence from her mother and grandmother’s cooking, she taught herself to cook as a teenager. Nasrin explains the impact of war on her childhood, how it feels to belong to two countries, and shares her secret saffron tips. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ed Smith from the hugely influential blog Rocket & Squash joined us in our deli, Honey & Spice, to talk about life in the food blogosphere and about his excellent new cookbook, On The Side, a book that puts side dishes centre stage. Ever since we got this book we wanted to cook a meal consisting of side dishes only, as the selection in this book is so good it really doesn’t need a main course. Listen to hear about Ed's best hangover cure, how he transitioned from lawyer to food writer and how the programme 'Ready Steady Cook' influenced his career.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Olia Hercules was born in the south of Ukraine. After studying and working as a journalist in the UK, she retrained as a chef at Leiths. Olia visited us earlier this year talk about her first book Mamushka, a personal journey that celebrates her family recipes from Ukraine and across eastern Europe. This time she visited us to chat about her new cookbook Kaukasis - a culinary journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan and beyond. Olia explains how the Soviet Union affected the cuisine of the region, her eventful research trip and how to cook this food at home.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Angela Frenda is the Food Editor of the prestigious Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Angela has been at the forefront of the relatively new world of food writing in Italy. She has also written two cookbooks, Racconti di cucina (Cooking Stories) and La Cucina Felice (The Happy Kitchen). Angela tells us about her transition from political journalism to food, why food writing is still new to Italians, and even shares her favourite places to eat in Italy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.