This week on The Go-To Food Podcast, we travel to Guernsey to sit down with Nathan Davies at his restaurant Vraic. After walking away from the world’s most intense kitchens, Nathan chose the island to build something entirely his own. What he has created is confident, generous and already one of the most talked about new dining rooms in Britain.

A huge part of Nathan’s story is his formative years working alongside Gareth Ward at Ynyshir. He speaks candidly about the brutality and brilliance of that period, the pressure, the creativity, and the uncompromising standards that shaped him as a chef. It is a rare, honest look inside one of the most influential kitchens of the last decade, and what it really takes to survive and grow in an environment like that.

At Vraic, those lessons are everywhere, but filtered through Nathan’s own voice. The menu blends Welsh roots, Japanese influence, live fire cooking and Guernsey produce into something deeply personal. He talks about why flavour always comes before ego, why generosity matters more than luxury signalling, and how he has taken the best parts of his past without trying to replicate them.

This episode is about ambition without arrogance, discipline without fear, and building a restaurant on your own terms after working at the sharpest end of fine dining. If you want to understand how chefs carry their mentors with them while forging something new, this conversation is essential listening. Recorded at Vraic in Guernsey and powered by Blinq.

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Set deep in the Suffolk countryside, the Greyhound Inn is the kind of place that immediately feels special. Over 400 years old and restored with quiet confidence, it balances the warmth of a proper English pub with the ambition of a serious food destination. The welcome is generous, the bar stacked with thoughtful bottles, and the room hums with the sense that hospitality comes first. This is not a place chasing trends, but one grounded in time, community and craft.

At the heart of it all is chef Adam Spicer, whose cooking is rooted in hyper-seasonality, nose-to-tail thinking and an obsessive respect for produce. Menus change weekly, sometimes daily, depending on what local farmers, gamekeepers and fishermen bring to the door. One night might feature wild halibut, venison shot by a family member, or rabbit offal cooked with confidence and restraint. When ingredients are this good, Spicer’s philosophy is simple: do as little as possible and do it well.

Spicer’s journey here has been anything but conventional. Largely self-taught, he honed his fundamentals while cooking at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, before testing himself on MasterChef: The Professionals in 2019. The experience sharpened his focus rather than defining him. What sets his food apart now is not showmanship but depth, from long-reduced bone sauces to perfectly judged offal dishes that feel both generous and precise.

Underpinning it all is a shared belief in hospitality over margin. Wine is priced to be enjoyed, not hoarded, with a list leaning towards small, organic producers. Regulars mix easily with visitors from London, including the occasional appearance from local fan Ed Sheeran. With its roaring fires, serious cooking and unpretentious charm, the Greyhound Inn feels like a pub that knows exactly what it is and why it matters. It is a reminder that some of the most exciting food in Britain is happening far from the capital, quietly and confidently.

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He cooked at El Bulli at its absolute peak, worked side by side with Albert Adrià, and lived through a kitchen so intense you had to physically fight just to plate food. In this episode, Rob Roy Cameron strips away the mythology of the world’s most famous restaurant and tells the unfiltered truth about what service was really like behind closed doors.

From running an illegal bakery as a child in southern Africa to becoming one of Spain’s most in-demand chefs, Rob Roy’s career is anything but conventional. He opens up about brutal mentors, impossible standards, creative obsession, and the moment he realised molecular gastronomy had lost its magic. There are war stories, near-meltdowns, and a nightmare service with Spain’s greatest chefs watching every move.

Now head chef of Alta in Soho, Rob Roy reflects on walking away from the El Bulli universe, cycling solo through conflict zones, and why today’s diners crave simplicity over spectacle. This is a rare, honest conversation about ambition, burnout, creativity, and what really matters once the hype fades.

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From corporate law burnout to one of London’s most influential independent restaurants, this episode dives into the extraordinary journey of Mandy Yin, founder of Sambal Shiok. Broadcasting from her Holloway Road laksa bar, Mandy tells the story of how a chicken satay burger at a street food market sparked a complete career pivot, and how Malaysian food became her vehicle for creativity, survival and cultural expression in the UK.

At the heart of the conversation is laksa. Not as a trend, but as a mission. Mandy breaks down the obsessive detail behind Sambal Shiok’s signature curry laksa, made entirely in house from paste to broth, including a vegan version designed with the same depth and care as the original. She also lifts the lid on the brutal economics of hospitality, explaining why a £22 bowl of noodles is not excess but the bare minimum required to keep a restaurant alive.

This episode captures Mandy at her most candid. She talks about the physical grind of street food, the transition to bricks and mortar, the impact of Covid, and the moment she went viral explaining how VAT quietly cripples independent restaurants. There is frustration, but also clarity, particularly around kindness, sustainability and the widening gap between what diners expect and what restaurants can realistically deliver.

Come for the laksa, stay for the honesty. From nasi lemak and sambal Brussels sprouts to pandan cake and salted banana caramel, this is a conversation about flavour, resilience and refusing to compromise. It is an essential listen for anyone who loves eating out and wants to understand what it really takes to keep the doors open in modern hospitality.

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This week, The Go-To Food Podcast closes out the year inside one of London’s most talked-about dining rooms. Recorded at Café Cecilia on the canals of Hackney, the episode finds hosts Ben and Fred sitting down with chef owner Max Rocha at the height of Christmas service. It is warm, chaotic, funny and deeply human, the sound of a restaurant in motion as one of Britain’s most influential young chefs reflects on how he got here.

Rocha speaks with striking honesty about his journey through Spring, River Cafe and St. John, and the mentors who shaped him, particularly the late Skye Gyngell. He unpacks how Café Cecilia exploded from a modest, family-run opening into one of the hardest tables to secure in the country, without PR, without hype chasing, and without compromising on food that is rooted in simplicity, seasonality and care. This is a masterclass in building something quietly exceptional, one plate at a time.

The conversation goes far beyond the pass. Rocha opens up about burnout, addiction and the pressure of sudden success, describing how sobriety and exercise quite literally saved his life and his restaurant. He talks about rewriting kitchen culture, setting boundaries, banning hangovers, and creating an environment where young chefs can learn properly, from butchery to bread, rather than just survive service. It is one of the most candid discussions of mental health in hospitality you will hear this year.

Along the way, there is food, a lot of it. Guinness bread and butter, fritti with anchovy and sage, deep fried bread and butter pudding, big steaks, Dublin restaurants worth travelling for, and the dish Rocha would put in the Go-To Hall of Fame. Thoughtful, generous and quietly profound, this episode is a fitting end to the year and essential listening for anyone who cares about cooking, creativity and staying human in a brutal industry.

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Part 2 of our conversation with the legendary Mark Hix is here and it is absolutely packed. This episode dives deep into the roaring early days of the Ivy, the madcap menu development, the cult dishes, the shepherd's pie that became a national obsession, and the wild creativity that defined a generation of London dining. If you care about how modern British cooking was shaped, this chapter with Mark is essential listening.

We pick up right where the chaos and brilliance left off. Mark takes us inside the culinary revolution that lifted Britain out of its prawn cocktail fog, the rise of the gastropub, his unlikely journey into food writing, and the unfiltered truth behind working with giants like Corbin and King. There are stories here that have never been told quite like this, from scooter dashes between dining rooms to the menu decisions that still echo across the industry.

And of course, Mark opens up about striking out on his own and building a restaurant empire at full tilt. The risks, the rush, the mistakes, the insane highs, the legendary parties, the kitchen tales that feel almost mythic. He talks candidly about advice for young restaurateurs, about what British food has become, and even about the infamous final lunch of Keith Floyd which led to one of the most talked about menu tributes in London.

This episode is Mark Hix in full flight. Honest. Hilarious. Fiercely passionate. Brilliantly unapologetic. So settle in and enjoy the ride. And if you are listening on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, take two seconds to leave us a comment and subscribe. It really helps us grow the show. Thank you for supporting the Go To Food Podcast brought to you by Blinq, the greatest POS system in the world.

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Mark Hix’s Part 1 is basically a greatest hits album of British restaurant stories, told by the bloke who lived them. From boozy late nights at the Groucho with Richard Corrigan, to being Tonksed at 3 a.m, the episode opens in full chaos mode. From there, you get deep into the London years. Hix walks us through the Ivy, the Caprice, Scott’s and J Sheekey, the creation of dishes like the crispy duck and watercress salad that started life as pork, and a black ink risotto that made Jonathan Meades sit up and take notice. He tells the story of Challenge Hix in the Tram Shed kitchen library, where head chefs cooked against him under a 30 minute clock, and the rules were simple: no more than three main ingredients on the plate and a menu line that actually tells you how a dish is cooked. His disgust at the modern “ingredient, comma, ingredient, comma, ingredient” menu gets a full, glorious rant.

The episode is packed with the kind of stuff chefs whisper about. Mark remembers the days when critics like A. A. Gill, Faye Maschler and Jonathan Meades could make or break a restaurant, from rave reviews to absolute shockers. He talks about Gill slagging off the Tram Shed, texting him mid review over oyster details, and the surreal moment he opened a Sunday paper to see his cookbook recipes lined up against Gordon Ramsay’s pub dishes in a double page spread. There are tales of the Rivington Grill as a near empty bar that had to “rent a crowd” of Shoreditch artists, his art-for-food deals, and the moment he texted Damien Hirst for a sculpture and ended up with a giant cow and chicken in formaldehyde at the heart of Tram Shed.

Underneath the mischief there is a harder story too. Hix talks about growing up in Bridport, watching his grandfather run the local pub and paint business, getting steered into catering college by a family friend, and grinding through the Hilton staff canteen, the Grosvenor House and the Dorchester before landing at the Caprice. He also begins to lift the lid on the brutal side of restaurant ownership, from insane London rents to the moment his business partners put his restaurants into administration two days before lockdown, leaving him to stand in Tram Shed and tell 130 staff they no longer had jobs. It is funny, furious, nostalgic and very human. Part 1 feels like sitting at the bar with Mark Hix while he finally tells you how it all really happened.

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In this episode we sit down with Carl McCluskey, the quietly obsessive mastermind behind Crisp, the cult London pizzeria that has gone from a backstreet Hammersmith pub to one of the most sought after tables in the city. Carl walks us through the whirlwind first three weeks of his new Marlborough site and the sheer graft behind bringing a tiny pop up operation into a polished, high pressure restaurant setting. From staff struggles and stretching stations held together with rope to finally stepping into a dream kitchen, it is a rare look at the leap from local hero to full scale powerhouse.

Carl breaks down the craft behind his pizzas, including the infamous Vecna, born by accident during a chaotic Halloween party when he grabbed hot honey and burrata as a last minute experiment. He shares the Reddit conspiracies about his secret hydration levels, the ongoing myth that his dough sits in trays, and why he refuses to reveal the tiny tweaks that make Crisp different. He explains how his cousin Pedro became the best oven man in the world, how the team makes up to forty litres of hot honey a week, and why scaling too fast would destroy the magic.

The conversation turns to the business side, where Carl opens up about the heartbreak of leaving the original Hammersmith pub after impossible lease demands from Stonegate. He tells the wild stories that came with success, from seven hour queues to customers offering a thousand pounds in cash for a table. He recalls the day Dave Portnoy’s 8.1 review changed everything, the surreal moment an American number rang asking for margaritas, and the sudden global spike in calls from fans desperate to try his pizza. There is also the now legendary saga of the toilet graffiti that became a t-shirt, a Wi-Fi code, and a small legal dispute.

Carl’s life story threads through the episode, from his days as a semi pro footballer playing alongside the Wealdstone Raider to being raised in his nan’s old school London pub. He reveals the New York and LA inspirations behind his food, why an all day John and Vinnie's style concept could be his next move, and the places he eats on his own perfect food weekend. Honest, funny, and completely unguarded, this is Carl McCluskey at his best.

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Few journeys in British food are as dramatic as that of Nathaniel Mortley, better known as Natty Can Cook. In this episode Natty takes us from being a naughty kid in Peckham to becoming one of the most exciting young chefs in the country. He opens up about the night he was stabbed at just sixteen, the trauma and anger that followed, and how those years pushed him toward the streets, knives and choices that spiralled far from the kitchen he once loved.

Natty speaks candidly about losing his passion for cooking, getting arrested outside a rave in Vauxhall and receiving a five year prison sentence that could easily have ended his story. Instead, it became the turning point. He takes us inside Belmarsh and Brixton for a brutally honest look at prison life: the violence, the bullying, the humiliating controlled feeds, the strange economy of mackerel currency and the wild creativity of microwave cheffing and the legendary jail cake. His memories of the wing are gripping, raw and impossible to forget.

But this episode is also about redemption through food. Inside Brixton’s Clink restaurant, Natty rebuilt his confidence, his discipline and his love of cooking while teaching men who had never set foot in a kitchen. He describes the emotional shock of returning to the same prison years later to cook a four course tasting menu for 80 diners and a team of inmates who had no idea he once slept in those cells. It is a full circle moment that hits with incredible force.

Today Natty is on the Michelin radar, self funded, uncompromising and creating some of the most exciting Caribbean food in the country. From the chaos of his 200 cover soft launch to the rise of his viral Luxe Roast Challenge, from his pimento duck to his strict dress code and the unbelievable customer stories, this episode is a front row seat to a chef who fought his way back from the edge and is now aiming for history. It is powerful, emotional and completely unmissable.

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Bjorn Frantzen walks into the studio with nine Michelin stars behind him and the swagger of someone who has genuinely changed the direction of modern dining. The world calls him the greatest chef alive and for once the hype feels almost understated. In this episode of The Go To Food Podcast, Bjorn opens up about the journey from professional footballer to culinary architect and the heart condition that forced him to pivot from the pitch to the stove. What follows is a portrait of a man who rebuilt his entire life around flavour, discipline, and the pursuit of excellence.

Throughout the conversation, Bjorn breaks down the philosophy that powers his restaurants. He shares how early lessons in teamwork shaped him, why cooking a la minute remains his obsession, and how he designs dining experiences that feel electric from the moment a guest rings the doorbell. From moving diners between rooms to maintaining a kitchen that creates dishes in real time, Bjorn explains how fine dining becomes theatre, emotion, and engineering. He even reveals the thinking behind his legendary ingredient box, his seasonal discipline, and the creative engine that keeps three restaurants at the very top.

Bjorn also dives into the realities that most chefs never discuss. He recalls the brutal early days in London kitchens, the heartbreak of leaving football, the pressure of chasing a third star, and the even greater pressure of keeping it. He talks candidly about the partnership strain that played out on national television, the intense Nordic work culture, and why staying creative matters more than staying comfortable. Whether he is describing cooking scallops like meatballs on his disastrous first day or the thrill of a perfect langoustine, he delivers honesty with the confidence of someone who has earned every lesson.

This episode is a rare chance to hear one of the most influential chefs of his generation speak with total clarity about ambition, sacrifice, and joy. Bjorn Frantzen is a creator, a disruptor, and a force who refuses to settle. If you want to understand what greatness looks like in real time, pour yourself a drink, settle in, and enjoy a master of his craft at full power.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

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Step inside one of the wildest careers in modern British cooking as we sit down with Tommy Banks, once the youngest British Michelin starred chef, Great British Menu champion, author, farmer, preservation obsessive, cricket prodigy in a past life, and the man behind both The Black Swan at Oldstead and Roots in York. From hand milking cows on a tiny family farm to being crowned TripAdvisor’s number one restaurant in the world, Tommy charts the long, strange path that took him from near-empty dining rooms to global recognition. Along the way we hear about the early days of The Black Swan, complete with RAF chefs who bullied teenage Tommy at the sink, and his twenty-something imposter syndrome phase where he cheerfully admits to cooking straight out of Phil Howard’s cookbook before finding his own style.

The stories in this episode are the stuff of modern kitchen folklore. Tommy talks us through the heartbreaking illness at eighteen that ended his cricket dreams, the fierce work ethic that followed, and the moment Kenny Atkinson sat down for dinner and told him he had to get on Great British Menu. We hear about the ferocious creativity behind his fermentation rooms, the Douglas fir desserts, the legendary crab and beetroot dish, and the umeboshi-style strawberries now copied across the country. There is also the infamous pie-van heist that turned into a national news frenzy with Tommy fielding calls from Radio 1 through Radio 5 on the same day as he begged thieves to at least give the five thousand pies to charity. And of course the blackmail era of two-year waiting lists after The Black Swan went viral.

Tommy also gives us a hilarious and honest tour of life running an expanding Yorkshire empire. From the diners flying in by helicopter to tell him his restaurant is not the best in the world, to the email from an industry “expert” advising him to shut down the General Tarleton immediately, to his strict refusal to cook vegan food because he cannot grow lemons on the farm, the stories land one after another. We dig into Yorkshire pub culture, his dream blowout dinners, his disdain for truffle, and the perfection of a proper Sunday roast at The Abbey Inn. This is Tommy Banks in full flow: sharp, grounded, funny, straight talking, wildly inventive, and endlessly proud of his little corner of Yorkshire. A genuine must-listen.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

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We're back for a new week with a riot of energy as we sit down with the endlessly charismatic Robin Gill, the chef who helped reshape modern London dining. Fresh from opening his vibrant new Bar Brasso in Nine Elms and on the eve of his forty sixth birthday, Robin talks candidly about the craft, chaos and creativity that have defined his twelve years at the top.

In a breathless tour through his career, Robin revisits the brutal Dublin kitchen that almost broke him, the three star intensity of Marco Pierre White’s Oak Room and the militant precision of Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir. He shares what it is really like to cook every garnish a la minute, to send salt baked pigeon to the dining room with military timing, and to learn from mentors who combine obsessive standards with deep humanity. Along the way, he unpacks why vegetables are more interesting than meat, why bread should be a sacred pause in the meal, and how a single review and its unhinged comment section changed the trajectory of The Dairy.

We also dive into MasterChef Ireland war stories, viral nightmare customers, and why neighbourhood restaurants are the real engine of London’s food scene. Robin riffs on Dublin and Malaga as under appreciated food cities, on the death of the endless tasting menu and the rise of fast, shared, snacky eating, and on why value and atmosphere matter more than ever in a tough market. Packed with humour, grit and wild detail, this episode will leave you hungry, inspired and slightly desperate to book a table at Bar Brasso.

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Rick Stein arrives on the Go To Food Podcast in full storytelling flow, and from about five minutes in it just does not let up. He takes us from backpacking through Mexico in his teens, blown away by the balance of proper tacos piled with slow-cooked meat, fresh coriander, raw onion and searing chilli, to the smoky mangals of Istanbul and the small-plate culture of Turkey and Greece. Along the way we get leftover turkey tinga tacos from his new Christmas book, the reality of Australian road trips clocking up thousands of kilometres in New South Wales, cooking lamb beyond “the back of Bourke,” and a wild dinner where a whole “pest” deer is cooked over fire and served to laughing locals. It is a world tour of appetite, told with that calm, amused Stein delivery.

Then he pulls us right back to Cornwall and the making of a food institution. Rick relives the chaos of turning a failing nightclub into The Seafood Restaurant in the mid seventies, flyer-ing caravan parks with a megaphone to fill tables in a ten week season, and keeping lobsters in improvised beer cooler tanks while local fishermen quietly pinched them and sold them back. There are shark steaks on early menus, mountains of hot crab in scallop shells, the birth of oyster chorizo shooters, and monkfish heads with beautiful cheek meat that British fishermen still throw away. He talks about closing in winter to travel and write English Seafood Cookery, training at college while hiring serious chefs, and quietly helping turn Padstow into a true food destination long before “staycations” were a thing.

The episode also digs into TV, culture and how the industry has changed. Rick remembers the brilliance and self-destruction of Keith Floyd, the blokey, unscripted magic he built with legendary producer David Pritchard, and filming trips where they would rather stay joking in the minibus than roll cameras. There are scenes of chaotic kitchens with lobster tanks by the back door, early fame when the phones would not stop ringing after his first BBC series, and brutally honest talk about the state of restaurants today: 2 percent profit margins, fish so expensive it is almost unsellable, and a sector hammered by taxes and costs. He jokes about truffle oil as the tomato ketchup of the middle classes, explains why street food in India is often safer than hotel dining, and even tells the story of inviting a harsh YouTube fish and chips critic down to Padstow and winning him over in person.

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Welcome back to The Go-To Food Podcast, where we're joined by Alison Roman — chef, writer, and creator of some of the most talked-about recipes of the last decade. Alison takes us back to her first kitchen job at Sona in Los Angeles, working under David Myers for $7.25 an hour, crying daily but learning fast. It was a tiny, nine-person kitchen that ran like The Bear, long before The Bear existed. From there she went to Milk Bar in New York, then the Bon Appétit test kitchen — reverse-engineering photo-shoot dishes into recipes home cooks could actually make. The early days were brutal, pre-Instagram, and anonymous. No bylines, no fame, just biscuits, burnouts, and a deep sense that if you showed up more than anyone else, something would happen.

In London, Alison’s been eating with purpose — Café Deco’s anchovy-studded little gem, a quiche that insists it’s a frittata, and a beef stew she calls one of the best she’s ever had. She weighs The Devonshire against The Pelican and The Hart. There’s a fascination with pub culture, a debate over sharpened pencils at hotel reception, and a reminder that the best meals aren’t always on “the list.” We get her take on TikTok chefs, the chaos of phones in kitchens, and an unnerving AI ad that generates recipe ideas without authors — proof, she says, that food without humanity just doesn’t taste the same.

We talk legacy too. From Dining In to Nothing Fancy to Sweet Enough, Alison’s cookbooks built a blueprint for the way people cook now — easy, intuitive, quietly confident. She admits the dessert book nearly broke her, but Something for Nothing came easily because it mirrors how she actually cooks. There’s a new tomato sauce line born from her husband’s refusal to cook, a love letter to anchovies, and an argument for doing one thing well instead of a thousand badly. We end with her perfect menu: shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, ribeye in brown butter and lemon, and a slice of key lime pie — the ultimate Alison Roman meal, simple, specific, and unapologetically human.

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Get ready for a live podcast recorded at the Opentable Hospitality Summit at a sold-out Barbican, where we're joined by a heavyweight trio from the heart of UK dining. Please welcome Hawksmoor co-founder and CEO Will Beckett, Dom Hamdy of Ham restaurants, and Florence May Maglanoc, founder and chief executive of Donya and Panadera.

Our panel lifts the lid on what really matters right now. Will reveals the story behind Hawksmoor St Pancras and what London can learn from the high-voltage hospitality of New York and Chicago. Dom breaks down the shift toward high-value, high-theatre experiences that make dinner feel like a show without the ticket price shock. Florence speaks to the joy and grind of running both restaurants and bakeries, the rise of 45 past the hour bookings, and how to keep service swift without losing soul. Together they tackle the big questions. Earlier dining, smaller plates, smarter bar food, and the art of making guests feel not just comfortable but special.

Then we go under the hood. Operations, margins, and the tech that actually helps. From AI-powered fixes on a broken ice machine to the real game of showing up where diners now search, our guests map the road ahead. Expect sharp takes on perceived value, pre and post theatre flows, relentless incremental improvement, and how to keep regulars coming back with names remembered and off-menu surprises. If you want the blueprint for hospitality that wins in 2025, this live episode is your seat at the table.

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Today we're delighted to be joined by Michelin starred chef and restaurateur the wonderful Chris Galvin, who has been one of the important chefs in London over the last 40 years, from winning Sir Terence Conran his only ever Michelin star to launching one of the most famous restaurants in history in 'The Wolsely' with Jeremy King and Chris Corbin.

Stories tumble out. Michel Roux Sr. once told a 19-year-old Chris never to take a restaurant with fewer than 70 seats. Anthony Worrall Thompson was already running a small-plates playground that felt like the future. At The Ritz, Michael Quinn flipped menus into English and put British cheese on a pedestal. Later, Chris joined Jeremy King and Chris Corbin to sketch The Wolseley after a whistle-stop tour of Europe’s great cafés, locking in icons like the schnitzel and even commissioning hand-wrapped chocolate coins with pastry star Claire Clark. Sir Terence Conran’s notes sharpened Chris’s eye. Pierre Koffmann’s grouse with ceps still sits in his personal hall of fame. It is a roll call of British gastronomy and the impact still echoes through London dining rooms.

Chris is clear-eyed about the business. He tracks the return of the long lunch after the hits of Brexit, the pandemic, and a thinned-out City week. He talks about value in a Michelin-starred room, why sharing plates suit how people want to eat, and why consistency is the quiet superpower. He is honest about the ledger too, from paid-by-the-hour labor to ingredient costs that keep faith with farmers and winemakers under climate pressure. Strikes can wipe out six figures in a day. Even so, he argues the restaurant table is one of the last places we look each other in the eye, do deals, celebrate, and live fully in the moment.

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Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Blinq—POS made simple: £69/month, unlimited devices, 24/7 UK support, no contracts or hidden fees. Use code GOTOBLINQ for a free month. Got a true kitchen nightmare? Send it in—Ben’s favourite wins a year of Blinq.

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The Go To Food Podcast returns with a legend. Margot Henderson OBE joins us for a gloriously frank, funny, and deeply human conversation about the craft of hospitality. From the early days at The Eagle and The French House to the white heat of opening St. John with Fergus Henderson, Margot traces the rise of modern British cooking, the joy of whole-animal kitchens, and the art of building atmosphere without gimmicks. Expect big stories, bigger flavours, and the kind of kitchen wisdom only a lifetime in service can teach.

We record at The Three Horseshoes in Batcombe, Somerset, where the tomatoes burst like fireworks and the faggots arrive wrapped in caul and pride. Margot lifts the lid on a life spent nurturing chefs who fly the nest, the realities of PR, and why a great waiter can save a meal. She celebrates the producers around Bruton, tips her hat to Wescombe’s cheddar cave, and recalls the art world and Anthony Bourdain putting rocket fuel under St. John. This is a rolling feast of memories, mishaps, and moments that changed the way Britain eats.

There are love stories too. Sweetings proposals, bar counters, the rhythm of service, and the calm conviction that simple food, cooked honestly, can move a room. 

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Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Blinq—POS made simple: £69/month, unlimited devices, 24/7 UK support, no contracts or hidden fees. Use code GOTOBLINQ for a free month. Got a true kitchen nightmare? Send it in—Ben’s favourite wins a year of Blinq.

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In this episode of The Go-To Food Podcast, we sit down with one of Britain’s most brilliant young chefs, Merlin Labron-Johnson—the visionary behind OSIP, the tiny Somerset restaurant recently crowned Restaurant of the Year by the Good Food Guide. Merlin opens up about his move from the intensity of London’s dining scene to the calm of the countryside, explaining why creativity needs “mental and physical space” and how the stars over Somerset matter more than Michelin ones. He reflects on leaving the chaos of Portland and Clipstone behind to build something truer to his roots—a farm-led restaurant that grows almost everything it serves.

From learning to cook school lunches at 14 after being kicked out of multiple schools, to enduring the brutal kitchens of France and Switzerland, Merlin’s story is one of resilience and redefinition. He shares vivid tales of his early mentors—Michael Caines’ “Thai puree” at The Abode, and the revelatory salt-baked celeriac at In De Wulf in Belgium, where a chef finally asked him, “How are you feeling?” That question, he says, changed everything about how he cooks and how he leads.

Merlin also pulls back the curtain on life at OSIP today—where there’s no menu, dishes arrive as surprises, and the chefs might also be the ones who picked your carrots that morning. He talks about resisting culinary clichés (“Everyone needs to relax on caviar”), his devotion to balance and storytelling on the plate, and the creative discipline of cooking from what the land gives. From his love of Fergus Henderson’s prose to his dream pub pint of nameless cider at the Seymour Arms, this is an episode that captures the soul of a chef who’s rewriting what fine dining can mean.

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Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Blinq—POS made simple: £69/month, unlimited devices, 24/7 UK support, no contracts or hidden fees. Use code GOTOBLINQ for a free month. Got a true kitchen nightmare? Send it in—Ben’s favourite wins a year of Blinq.

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It’s a Go-To Food Podcast first — we’re coming to you from the hottest new opening of the year, Dockley Road in Bermondsey, where the doors officially open this week. We sit down with Emily Chia (Ex Head Chef at St John) & Alex Keys (Ex Head Chef at Rochelle Canteen) the creative minds behind this much-anticipated spot, to hear about them coming together to open this wonderful new restaurant. The result? A lively, behind-the-pass chat about friendship, food philosophy, and how years of experience in world-class kitchens have come together to shape one of London’s most exciting new restaurants.

From banh mi terrine inspired by Parisian-Vietnamese bistros to Lancashire hot pots inspired by St John's famous mince on toast and local stout, the chefs take us through their playful, thoughtful menu. They talk about sourcing from Bermondsey’s legendary suppliers, collaborating with cocktail wizard Nick Strangeway, and why this space fills a gap London didn’t know it had — a place to eat, drink, and shop the city’s best produce all in one spot.

There are plenty of stories too: burning soup on trial shifts at St. John, cooking for Anthony Bourdain, and learning the realities of restaurant ownership the hard way (hello VAT bills). It’s an episode packed with wit, warmth, and the kind of culinary energy that makes London’s dining scene so electric. Whether you’re a chef, a foodie, or just someone who loves a great opening night story, this one’s a feast.

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Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Blinq—POS made simple: £69/month, unlimited devices, 24/7 UK support, no contracts or hidden fees. Use code GOTOBLINQ for a free month. Got a true kitchen nightmare? Send it in—Ben’s favourite wins a year of Blinq.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ravneet Gill joins The Go-To Food Podcast with an episode full of chaos, charm, and honesty. She tells the hilarious story of how she met her now-husband Matty while developing menus at Llewellyn’s—he didn’t like her at first, unfollowed her on Instagram, and fell for her only after a passive-aggressive argument about blue roll on the hob. She relives his rainy proposal at Frieze Art Fair, the parking ticket that came with it, and their wedding filled with food from Lily Vanilli, Happy Endings, and half the London pastry scene. And of course, she shares the madness of opening Gina, their new restaurant in Chingford—five-star reviews from Faye Maschler, half a million pounds spent before serving a single plate, and one unforgettable Sunday when bad potatoes caused a local uproar.

Rav opens up about life behind the pass—what happens when trolls flood your Google reviews, when diners complain the “fish has bones,” and when a burger brings in the wrong crowd. She talks about juggling motherhood, TV, and restaurant life, plus the unexpected secret to keeping her marriage strong: living apart during opening month. There’s also the surreal story of being scouted for Junior Bake Off through a random DM she nearly ignored while private cheffing in Greece, only to sneak home in the night after her furious client found out she’d landed the gig.

She also rewinds to her sweet-toothed childhood above her dad’s corner shop, where Crunchies and chocolate-covered raisins ruled, and the fateful moment at 14 when she stopped being a fussy eater. From her first days at St. John (where Fergus Henderson once handed her a doodle of a pair of breasts that inspired a Paris-Brest dessert) to surviving bullying kitchens that pushed her to create Countertalk, Rav tells it all with warmth, humour, and absolute candour.

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Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Blinq—POS made simple: £69/month, unlimited devices, 24/7 UK support, no contracts or hidden fees. Use code GOTOBLINQ for a free month. Got a true kitchen nightmare? Send it in—Ben’s favourite wins a year of Blinq.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.