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PODCAST

The Go To Food Podcast

Go To Podcast Company

The Go-To Food Podcast is where the world’s most influential chefs, restaurateurs, food writers and critics share the stories behind their craft. Hosted by award-winning presenter Freddy Clode and chef and food writer Ben Benton, this weekly show dives deep into the experiences, inspirations, and “Go-To” favourites that define a life in food. From hidden gems to the restaurants they return to time and again, each episode serves up intrigue, insight, and the untold moments that shaped their journey

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All Episodes

28:26

Rob Roy Cameron - From Being Albert Adria's Right...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/12/25

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

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51:32

Mandy Yin - From Corporate Burn Out To Creating A...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/12/22

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

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49:02

Max Rocha - How Skye Gyngell Changed My Life -...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/12/18

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

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30:10

Mark Hix - Part 2 - Marco Pierre-White's Shocking...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/12/15

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

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54:22

Mark Hix - Part 1 - When Gordon Ramsay Stole All My...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/12/11

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

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40:49

Carl McCluskey - Crisp Pizza - From Semi-Pro...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/12/08

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

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1:01:00

Natty Can Cook - From Getting Stabbed & Serving 2.5...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/12/04

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

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1:03:16

Björn Frantzén - From Pro Footballer To Being The...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/12/01

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

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50:54

Tommy Banks - How Being Bedridden For 2 Years With A...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/11/27

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

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56:55

Robin Gill - MasterChef Fallout - Marco's Madness &...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/11/24

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

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57:12

Rick Stein - Backpacker Stories, Kitchen Chaos and A...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/11/20

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

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56:28

Alison Roman - Working In A Kitchen For $7 An Hour To...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/11/17

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

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43:11

The Secrets to Hospitality, Restaurant Success and...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/11/13

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

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44:58

Chris Galvin - Why Sir Terence Conran Hated Me...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/11/10

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

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54:01

Margot Henderson - How Fergus & I Started London's...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/11/06

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

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1:06:45

Merlin Labron-Johnson - From School Cook To Creating...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/11/03

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

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30:53

Emily Chia & Alex Keys On; Cooking For Anthony...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/10/30

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

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57:56

Ravneet Gill - Getting Bullied By Chefs, The Magic Of...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/10/27

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

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1:01:03

Diana Henry - Multi Award Winning Food Writer Reveals...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/10/23

This week on The Go-To Food Podcast, Freddy and Ben sit down with the extraordinary Diana Henry, whose food writing has shaped how we cook and think for over two decades. With warmth, humour, and striking honesty, Diana shares stories from a life steeped in flavour — from her mother’s soda bread and Sunday puddings in Northern Ireland to her teenage awakening in France, where vinaigrette and apple tarts revealed food as art, culture, and freedom.She recalls her early dinner parties — prawn

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40:04

Anna Tobias - Has PR Homogenised The Restaurant...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2025/10/20

Anna Tobias joins us at Café Deco with a rollicking origin story: letters to Jeremy Lee straight out of Oxford, a crash-course at Blueprint Café (including emergency ice-cream runs mid-service), and the Garden Museum saga that sparked an industry-wide outpouring of support. From Hong Kong lettuce-wrap memories to Lower Saxony kale festivals, Anna’s food map is as eclectic as her menu—anchored by that now-iconic egg mayonnaise (halved, dolloped, criss-crossed with anchovy) that made the New York

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256 results

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