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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

65:18

Jacob Kenedy - How Bocca di Lupo Changed Italian Food...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/10/05

Today we're joined by one of the most important figures in modern Italian cooking in Britain, Jacob Kenedy, chef and co-founder of the legendary Bocca di Lupo and Gelupo. Jacob's journey is anything but conventional. Before becoming a chef he studied science, was a glassblower and a DJ, before a stint at Moro changed the course of his life and eventually led him to create the restaurant he simply wanted to exist in London.Jacob takes us inside the extraordinary story of Bocca di Lupo, from opening

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81:59

Robert Reid & J-C Slowik: The Madness of Running...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/10/01

BetweenRobertReidandJean-Christophe“JC”Slowik,youhavenearly80yearsofextraordinaryrestauranthistory.FromRogerVergéandRaymondBlanctoMarcoPierreWhite,Harvey’s,TheOakRoomandsomeofthedefiningrestaurantsoftheirgeneration,thepairhavewitnessedfirst-handthemadness,brillianceandbrutalityofeliterestaurants.Theyjoinustoshareincrediblestoriesfromthoseyears,includinglifeinsideMarco’slegendarykitchens,theintensityofthree-Michelin-starcookingandhowLondon’srestaurantworldhastransformedsincethe1980s.Then,intheirmid-

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48:26

Sertaç Dirik & David Carter: How They Created...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/09/28

🔥 Two of the most exciting names in London restaurants join us this week as David Carter and Sertaç Dirik reveal the story behind KID, their hugely anticipated new Turkish restaurant in Soho. David has built an extraordinary run of restaurants including Smokestak, Manteca, OMA and AGORA, while Sertaç transformed his family restaurant Mangal II into one of London’s most acclaimed dining rooms. Now, after nearly three years of planning, travelling and eating their way around Turkey, they’ve finally

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1:11:16

EXCLUSIVE - John Torode - From Running Terence...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/09/24

In his first interview since his shock departure from MasterChef, John Torode joins us for an exclusive and deeply personal conversation about the end of his extraordinary 20-year run on the show. He reveals whether he was surprised by how it all came to an end, reflects on what MasterChef meant to him and the thousands of people involved in making it, and explains why, despite everything, he is determined to hold on to his “professional pride” and look towards whatever comes next.We also go back to

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53:22

Pam Brunton - Creating Scotlands Greatest Restaurant...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/09/21

We travelled to the shores of Loch Fyne to sit down with the brilliant Pam Brunton, chef and co-owner of Inver, one of Scotland’s most remarkable restaurants and the first in the country to receive a Michelin Green Star. Pam’s extraordinary career has taken her from dropping out of Edinburgh University to cook on Scotland’s west coast, through the kitchens of Tom Aikens and The Greenhouse, before stages at Noma, Fäviken and In De Wulf helped shape the restaurant she would eventually create.Pam takes

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42:40

Lorna McNee - Winning Glasgow’s First Michelin Star...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/09/17

Lorna McNee joins us at Cail Bruich to tell the remarkable story behind becoming the chef who brought a Michelin star back to Glasgow for the first time in 18 years. She takes us from washing pots in a small Italian restaurant and a teenage stage at Gordon Ramsay, to walking into Andrew Fairlie’s legendary two-Michelin-starred kitchen as an apprentice and immediately wondering whether she was good enough. Lorna spent the next 12 years working alongside Fairlie, who became her great mentor, and opens

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1:33:38

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Niland — The Chef Who Reinvented How...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/09/14

This week we’re joined by one of the most influential chefs of his generation, Josh Niland, the Australian chef who has completely changed the way the restaurant world thinks about fish. Josh tells us why our obsession with ultra-fresh fish may actually be holding us back, how learning to treat fish more like meat transformed his cooking, and why a piece of advice from legendary fish chef Stephen Hodges changed the course of his career. He also reveals the influence of Heston Blumenthal on his

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37:03

An Italian Odyssey, Rumours & Behind-the-Scenes Chaos

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/09/10

Welcome to a special edition of Go-To Food where Freddy and Ben ditch the guest and get into the industry gossip, rumours and behind-the-scenes stories that normally don’t make it onto the podcast.From the guests we’ve chased for years, the interviews that nearly never happened, awkward encounters with some very famous chefs and what really goes on before and after the microphones are switched on, we’re spilling a few stories from behind the curtain.We also get into the chaos of actually making

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46:41

Jack Coggins - Creating Smash Hits In Goodbye Horses...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/09/07

This week we’re joined by Jack Coggins, the chef behind Good Boy Horses, Stable Wines and The Dreamery, for a brilliant journey through one of the most unconventional careers in London food. Jack started helping out in an East London café at just 12, studied English with dreams of becoming a food writer, then found himself unable to afford the entry-level jobs in publishing and instead earning his living in kitchens.We hear about the moment during lockdown when Jack decided to take cooking

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59:44

Aktar Islam - Chasing 3 Michelin Stars, How Gordon...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/09/03

Gordon Ramsay told Aktar Islam he needed to break free. What followed changed his life and helped set him on the path to two Michelin stars — and now he wants a third.In this episode of The Go-To Food Podcast, we sit down with Aktar Islam, one of the most influential figures in modern British Indian cooking, for a brilliantly candid conversation about ambition, Michelin stars, Gordon Ramsay, the British curry house and the brutal economics of running restaurants today.Aktar made his name at Lasan,

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44:51

Sam & Alicja Bryant: How We Accidentally Created The...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/31

After seven years of residencies and pop-ups, Whole Beast have finally found a permanent home on Coldharbour Lane — and Sam and Alicja join us to tell the gloriously chaotic story of how they got there. They reveal how working for other people eventually reached breaking point — from having menus rewritten around them to being asked to start making pastries — until they stood outside one day, said “fuck it”, and decided they were done letting anyone else dictate what they cooked. Now they’ve built

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52:02

INSIDE TAVERN - Why Great Restaurants Become...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/27

This week we’re inside Tavern, one of London’s most talked-about new openings, from the team behind Michelin-starred Restaurant St Barts. After almost a decade of Nest, they explain why they decided two tasting-menu restaurants no longer made sense, why restaurants increasingly seem to need to be either brand new or about to close to get people excited, and how they’ve tried to build something more affordable, energetic and accessible without compromising the cooking. We also hear how a previous Go

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54:04

Marcus Wareing - Part 2 - My 15 Year Feud With Gordon...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/24

In Part Two of our extraordinary conversation with Marcus Wareing, we pick up his story as his career begins to explode. Marcus takes us inside the chaos of 1998, when he was suddenly fired despite holding a Michelin star, before Gordon Ramsay led a walkout that left the restaurants reportedly losing £15,000 a day and ended in a £1 million lawsuit. He also reveals how a chance walk into a near-empty restaurant led to the creation of Pétrus, and recalls the infamous £44,000 dinner that became one of

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1:00:54

Marcus Wareing - Part 1: Surviving Britain’s Toughest...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/20

In Part One of our exclusive two-part interview with Marcus Wareing, we sit down with one of the most influential chefs of his generation to trace the extraordinary story of how a shy teenager from Southport became one of the defining figures of modern British cooking. Marcus takes us from working in his father’s fruit and veg warehouse as a boy to leaving home at 18 for The Savoy, before literally knocking on the door of Le Gavroche and asking for a job in one of the greatest kitchens in the

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41:12

Naz Hassan - Opening Restaurants With Theo James,...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/17

This week we’re joined by Naz Hassan, the chef behind two of London’s most talked-about Italian restaurants, Lupa and Ornella, alongside co-founders Ed Templeton and Theo James. Naz tells us how a drunken conversation at a Christmas party somehow turned into opening restaurants with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, why Lupa being fully booked for its first three months became both a blessing and a curse, and what it really takes to survive the hype surrounding a major London opening.Born in

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1:01:35

Mursal Saiq - Escaping War-Torn Afghanistan - ...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/13

This week we sit down with the extraordinary Mursal Saiq for a conversation that goes far beyond food. Mursal takes us from a childhood shaped by war in Afghanistan and arriving in Britain as a refugee, to the devastating separation of her family at the UK border and the years that followed. She recalls the extraordinary places life subsequently took her — from Hackney to India and Italy, living on a fishing trawler in Portsmouth and even spending time with English showman families who couldn’t

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48:08

Layo & Zoë Paskin - Opening London's Greatest Night...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/10

This week we’re joined by Layo and Zoe Paskin, the brother-and-sister duo behind Studio Paskin and some of London’s most celebrated restaurants, including The Palomar, The Barbary and Michelin-starred Evelyn’s Table. Before restaurants, they were at the heart of London nightlife, helping build legendary nightclub The End into one of the most influential clubs of its era. They reveal why they chose to walk away at the absolute peak of its success, the huge offer that tempted them to close the doors,

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1:21:10

Adam Byatt Live - From Losing Everything to Building...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/06

Michelin-starred chef Adam Byatt joins us for a raucous live edition of the Go To Food Podcast, recorded in front of a packed audience at Bird House Brewery. The man behind Trinity, Bistro Union, Charlie’s at Brown’s, and the newly opened Rosina reveals how his latest restaurant secured 11,000 reservations and opened at full capacity from its very first service.Adam explains why every great restaurant needs a signature dish, how he built a social media audience of more than one million followers

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30:41

Keiran Mustafa - Behind The Scenes At 'Kismet'...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/08/03

This week, we join Keiran Mustafa at Kismet in Borough Market, surrounded by bulgur kofte, fried liver, lamb neck, chicken shish and what may be the greatest spread we’ve ever had on the podcast. Keiran reveals how a completely mad three-day trip through Cyprus and Istanbul with Dom helped inspire the restaurant, and explains the meyhane culture of meze, raki, music and long nights that they are bringing to London. Keiran tells us about Sundays with his Turkish-Cypriot nan in Edmonton, where he was

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1:03:31

Only Scrans - Why Food Influencers Need a Licence,...

The Go To Food Podcast ·

2026/07/30

This week, we’re joined by Only Scrans — one of the UK’s biggest and most engaged food creators, with more than 1.5 million followers and one of the most unusual career stories we’ve encountered. Jonny has toured the world as a guitarist, helped build LADbible’s audience past 100 million, launched FoodBible, worked with some of Britain’s biggest celebrities, built his own agencies and turned Only Scrans into a major food platform. Most recently, he has taken the ultimate step from commenting on

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256 results

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