The presenter of BBC Two’s The Big Family Cooking Showdown shares her foodie memories and her pride at winning BBC One's Celebrity MasterChef in 2017.
Angellica Bell presents The Big Family Cooking Showdown on BBC Two with chef Tommy Banks. She was previously the face of CBBC and has been a reporter on BBC One’s The One Show since 2007. Last year, she demonstrated her passion for food, winning Celebrity MasterChef. The mum-of-two is married to former CBBC co-presenter Michael Underwood. My first food memory is being in my gran’s kitchen in the Caribbean. I remember eating fried plantain, stews with dumplings and macaroni cheese. She was a cook at a school when she first arrived in the UK. I was a massive fan of school dinners. I loved fish fingers, chips and baked beans, and jam tart with custard – I never liked packed lunches. When my stepdad, from Yorkshire, joined our family, he kept talking about toad-in-the-hole. I was quite young, probably seven or eight, and I didn’t know what he was going on about. But then he made it and I loved it. My family were from the Caribbean and had settled in London and that area was all I knew but, because of my stepdad, we started to go up north and travel around the country. I think that’s when I started to love the countryside. When I got the job at CBBC, one of the first trips I did was to Lapland in 2000. I was filming Christmas links with Michael, but we were just friends then. I ate snails for the first time and reindeer, which is their traditional dish, and I remember everything being in aspic! The first meal that Michael cooked for me was shepherd’s pie. We’d only just started seeing each other and I was excited because it was the first time that someone I was dating had cooked for me. Michael is the sort of cook who has to follow a recipe step by step. I got to his flat at 7pm and the food didn't hit the table until 11pm. I was so hungry, I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to have to order a pizza.’ It was high-end shepherd’s pie – the vegetables were chopped beautifully and he did his own gravy. I was impressed, even though I was starving! Michael did MasterChef first, in 2012. He got to the final. We had just had a baby and it was a stressful experience because he had to practise in the evenings. I remember thinking, ‘I’m never doing that show.’ When they emailed me, I kept saying no, not least because I knew that, if I didn’t do as well as Michael, it would be the running joke for the rest of my life. In the end, in 2017, I said yes. Once I got to the final, I felt relieved and winning was the icing on the cake. When we have dinner parties, we share the cooking. He’ll cook the main and I’ll do dessert. Our philosophy was to start giving the children all sorts of food before they could talk and say, ‘I’m not eating that.’ They're quite adventurous and open-minded. They love being in the kitchen and my littlest is brilliant at cracking eggs. I'm trying to get them to enjoy making food like homemade pizza so they see the process and get excited about it. They love sea bass but their favourite is a roast chicken dinner with Yorkshire puddings. If there are no Yorkshire puddings, it’ll be a revolt! I am a big fan of the American breakfast. Another CBBC trip that Michael and I did together was to LA, where we filmed with S Club Juniors. We had the best breakfast at Denny’s, which is a chain of diners. We had pancakes, maple syrup, eggs, bacon – we just couldn’t stop eating. The last proper three-course meal that I cooked was in someone else’s house. I was the prize in a school charity raffle. I cooked butternut squash gnocchi with a blue cheese sauce, roasted tomatoes and pine nuts, and then duck breast on a bed of hispi cabbage with croquette potatoes, orange and carrot purée with a blackberry and red wine jus. Dessert was apple and walnut crumble tart with homemade vanilla ice cream and apple crisps. It was fun but stressful because whenever you cook for somebody you want it to be amazing. The winners had invited some friends round and at first they thought it was a bit random having me in their house, but I told them, ‘This is your night, I'm here for you to have a good time.’ I did everything and washed up and they were so happy. Quickfire questions: Your food heaven? My special carrot cake. People try it and always say, ‘Can I have the recipe?’ and I say, ‘No.’ And hell? Oysters. The idea of something slimy in my throat sends shivers down my spine. Favourite celebrity chef? I have to say Tommy Banks because we're presenting The Big Family Cooking Showdown together. Before that, I’d seen him on television and read his book. The first time we met to talk about the show, we went for a drink afterwards and were chatting for hours. We both love cooking but we're not formally trained – he taught himself because his family bought The Black Swan at Oldstead. Describe yourself in three words: Driven, loyal and fun. Your ideal weekend? It would start with a run or going to the gym. It would be a sunny day. I would try a new recipe, such as the strawberry galette I made when a friend came round last night. It gives me the feeling I’ve accomplished something. We’d do painting with the children, make smoothies together or go to the park, or out cycling. Michael and I value family time at weekends. Dream dinner party guests? Huw Edwards – he’s such a laugh and obviously very intelligent so we’d get some good chat; Oprah – I interviewed her on The One Show; Alan Carr – he is so funny and went to school with Michael. They were the only boys in drama class. Also, Adele, the Obamas and Damian Lewis, because I love redheads. What did you have for breakfast today? Banana, raspberries, vanilla yogurt and maple syrup, sprinkled with almonds and ginger. Favourite tipple? It needs to be a sweet drink like Malibu and Coke. I love coconut! Finish this sentence: ‘I am most happy when...’ dancing around the living room to music with my family, after having cleaned my house top to bottom. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Andi Oliver Food milestones - Ade Adepitan Food milestones - Ashley Jensen Food milestones - Jenny Agutter Food milestones - Ainsley Harriot Look out for Angellica in BBC Two's The Big Family Cooking Showdown. Photographs: Tessa Hallimann, Camera Press, Getty Images
The Strictly Come Dancing judge on her journey from growing up in a low-income family to eating steak and lobster in Beverly Hills.
Shirley, 57, of BBC One primetime dance contest fame, is one of the most decorated ballroom and Latin dancers in the world. Nicknamed the Queen of Latin, she won the British Open to the World Latin American Championships with her first husband Sammy Stopford and took the title twice with her second husband, Corky Ballas. Shirley retired from competitive dancing in 1996 and became an internationally renowned coach and adjudicator. She replaced Len Goodman as head judge on Strictly last year. We lived on the Leasowe housing estate (on the Wirral) and I was eligible for free school dinners. The other kids laughed at me but all I could think was, ‘I’m getting a hot meal and you’re having a sandwich.’ I would eat everything. People didn’t like semolina, they didn’t like spotted dick – I loved everything. I will forever be grateful for the hot dinners at Leasowe Primary. Even though we were broke, we always had a Sunday roast. We’d have mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, two veg, meat, lots of gravy made with Bovril and there would be a pudding afterwards. I was two when my father left, so I wouldn’t know what it was like to be a daddy’s girl. I saw him sporadically but I don’t remember him even giving me a pound towards a pair of shoes. I was raised by a single mother who did anything and everything to provide for my older brother David and me – babysitting, delivering leaflets or working in a bar. She taught me to do an honest day’s work and to stand on my own two feet. When I was 16, I headed for London and the bright lights of dancing. My mother worked at Cadbury’s at the time and she’d make me up a goodie box of tins of soya mince, beans and Smash potato and send it down. I would wash hair, do gardens and scrub anything to earn a living and, after I’d been in London for eight months, I got the opportunity to dance with Sammy Stopford. I married Sammy when I was 18 and we lived with a man called Bob who had a dog called Kiki. Bob would boil liver for Kiki and, one day, he asked me to do it. I’d forgotten to cook Sammy’s dinner, so when he got home, I gave him the boiled liver with a tin of corn and Smash potato. Sammy wolfed it down and said it was delicious! After I married Corky Ballas in 1985, I only cooked for him once or twice because that man could cook. Corky was from a privileged background – his dad invented the Weed Eater and was a restaurateur and Corky was a food and beverage director in one of his dad’s restaurants. He was also a dancer: I trained him up and we won the British Open to the World Latin American Championships – twice! When the children were small, we’d always stop at a McDonald’s on our way home from dancing competitions. As well as our son Mark Ballas, we also raised Derek and Julianne Hough. We had a big SUV and we’d sit in the back and eat nuggets and French fries and, whether we’d had a great day and everyone was happy or a miserable day and everyone was crying, we’d soon all be laughing and singing. Mark’s favourite food is pizza... And every birthday he insists on having beef Wellington, which his wife BC Jean cooks for him, and banoffee pie made by his dad. He’s hooked on Haribo sweets – so I just buy him fizzy coke bottles! Mark lives in the States where he’s playing Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys. I’ve seen it 50 times and, before the show, we always go to Starbucks and have the wrap with egg white and spinach and a coffee – it’s a good-luck ritual. And afterwards we always share a meal and have a glass of brandy and I’ll tell him how wonderful he was! My favourite restaurant is Mastro’s steakhouse in Beverly Hills which my son introduced me to. The food is amazing – from the lobster mashed potatoes to the steak. Mastro’s is my treat once or twice a year. One of the last meals I cooked was for my ex-boyfriend Yegor Novikov. He’s an American Smooth dancer and we were together five-and-a-half years. I cooked him spaghetti Bolognese and he ate it and even had some more. Later, he said it had been like eating wallpaper paste. We are still good friends and he will laugh and say, ‘Please, just don’t cook spaghetti Bolognese.’ Avocado, a boiled egg and brown toast is my all-time favourite breakfast. I once blew up an egg in a microwave; I opened the door and the egg exploded all over the ceiling – it was in my hair, it was everywhere. Hence, my children always say, ‘She can’t even boil an egg!’ My last supper would be.... My mum’s roast dinner and for pudding, apple tart or a Heinz treacle sponge with custard, cream and ice cream. I’d have it all – in for a penny in for a pound! Quickfire questions Your food heaven? Black pudding. And I’m also a Haribo freak – I often have one in my mouth when I’m on Strictly. And hell? Haggis. Favourite celebrity chef? Gordon Ramsay. Describe yourself in three words: Dedicated, hardworking, funny. Your ideal weekend? Spending time with my family and the people I love. Dream dinner party guests? Oprah, Freddie Mercury, Walt Disney, Karen Carpenter, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash (so my mother could sit next to him), Elton John, Frank Sinatra and Elvis. What did you have for breakfast today? Just half an avocado because I have red-carpet events coming up and I’m trying to get into my dresses – I’ve gained 5lb. Favourite tipple? A brandy and one ice cube. Finish this sentence: I am most happy when… I am dancing with my son. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Andi Oliver Food milestones - Tara Fitzgerald Fooe milestones - Ronan Keating Food milestones - Ashley Jensen Food milestones - Alexander Armstrong
The BBC presenter, chef and food judge reveals her favourite childhood treats, love of Mexican food and her culinary misadventures with daughter Miquita.
Chef Andi Oliver, 54, is a host on Saturday Kitchen Live and a judge on Great British Menu and BBC Radio 4's Food and Farming Awards. She has a restaurant, Andi’s, in London and is a regular on Radio 4’s Kitchen Cabinet. Previously she cooked with friend, singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry in Neneh and Andi Dish It Up. She lives in London with partner Garfield Hackett. Her daughter Miquita is also a presenter. We were an RAF family When I was five, we moved to Cyprus where I was hit by an explosion of colour, culture and food. My mum used to work on the base and she would take my brother Sean and me to a little van just outside her office which sold loukaniko – Greek sausage in a hot dog bun with melted halloumi. I absolutely loved them. We came back to England when I was 10 I missed the sun and outdoor living. We were the only black children in Bury St Edmunds, and I vividly remember being stared at and people whispering behind their hands. The one thing I liked were the puddings at school – spotted dick, jam roly-poly, chocolate sponge with chocolate custard. Steamed English puds and custard are still heaven to me. I met Neneh Cherry when I came to London and joined my brother Sean’s band Rip Rig + Panic Neneh and I have always cooked together – we used to do dance routines to the Jackson 5 while cooking. Food is the glue that holds our families together. At Notting Hill Carnival last year we cooked at Neneh’s house in west London and it was beautiful. We made trays of chicken, which we finished off on a barbecue in the garden, and a huge Mexican black bean salad with smoked chilli, avocado and red onion. We barbecued fish, too, and did rice and roast potatoes, and for the vegans we made smoked tofu, seared and coated with turmeric and toasted fresh coconut. Nothing makes us happier than a big table heaving with dishes. We like a banquet. My dad used to make amazing roasts These included chicken or lamb with perfect roast potatoes, rolled in seasoned cornmeal to get them crunchy. I always made the cauliflower cheese on a Sunday – it was one of the first things I learned to cook. My mum makes the best chicken and rice in the world. We call it ‘Nanny rice and chicken’. I still can’t replicate my mum’s rice and chicken. My mum and dad are from Antigua, and in the Caribbean they talk about the way you turn your hand in the pot. That’s what makes my mum’s food taste like nobody else’s. When I met Garfield 24 years ago he’d been vegetarian for 13 years I brought out this tray of gorgeous golden, honey-baked chicken; he looked at it, then he looked at me and said, ‘Oh God’ and started eating it. Now we call him Bacondread because he loves a bacon sandwich and roast pork. My daughter Miquita never used to cook in direct rebellion against me... But in the past five years or so she’s really gotten into it. She loves seafood. She came to me and asked, ‘Can you show me how to make mackerel skin crispy?’ So I started to teach her. She makes a sensational chargrilled fish curry. Miquita and I completed a vintage car rally across South East Asia Along the way, we had our worst ever meal. We did 4,000 kilometres in a Morris Minor in 12 days for a BBC show and all the food was amazing apart from in this one place in Vietnam. We ordered spiced battered aubergine – semi-raw slabs in thick soggy batter – and hot pot, which was a watery broth with unidentifiable things floating in it. It was so awful that we actually found it hilarious and became hysterical. I just went on a little trip to Mexico I got totally addicted to huevos rancheros: black beans, beautiful tortilla, perfect egg, a bit of chilli and gorgeous avocado. I had it every single morning. The last thing I cooked was... A new dish for my restaurant in Stoke Newington: belly of pork braised with green cardamom, juniper berries, coriander and fennel seeds and white wine. I am obsessed with wild garlic so I made wild garlic honey by blitzing up the garlic and stirring it into a jar of runny honey. Then I mixed that with a little shoyu and brushed it onto the pork, which I then put on the griddle. I love broccoli stalks so I julienned some so they were almost like shredded spring onion, mixed them with roasted onion and served them with the pork and a bit of crackling. My last supper would be parrillada This is a huge barbecue grill of seafood like shrimp, octopus and hake. Garfield and I had it in Sitges (Spain) and it was heaven. The seafood was straight out of the sea, whacked onto the grill with loads of rock salt and a squeeze of lemon. I'd also have fresh bread slathered with dark amber French butter and loads of salt, and piles of dark green salad and avocados. Pudding would be spotted dick or jam roly-poly with custard, and I would drink Pol Roger champagne. Quickfire questions Your food heaven? Parrillada And hell? I’m a bit allergic to tomatoes so tomato soup is disgusting and I can’t abide a Bloody Mary. Favourite celebrity chef? I am a massive fan of Rick Stein. He’s one of the most accomplished, feted chefs in the world, but he still travels with his notebook. He reminds me that we are on an endless journey to learn. Describe yourself in three words: Talkative, nosy, cook. Your ideal weekend? Staying in a house with a wrap-around porch on a beach in South East Asia with all my family and friends, and a barbecue. It would be a big cook-out, everyone laughing and joyful, with Neneh and me in the middle of it all. Dream dinner party guest? My brother Sean. He died 25 years ago of sickle cell anaemia and I miss him every single day. What did you have for breakfast today? Poached egg and crab cake on rye toast. Favourite tipple? A blood orange mezcal sour or an espresso martini. ‘I am most happy when…’ I am standing in the middle of my full restaurant and see people with their faces lit up, eating. If they're happy, so am I. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Ade Adepitan Food milestones - Ainsley Harriott Food milestones - Sara Cox Food milestones - Jenny Agutter Food milestones - Tara Fitzgerald Andi is on the judging panel for Great British Menu returning to BBC Two in August 2018 and a judge for Radio 4's Food and Farming Awards.
The TV presenter and Paralympian on the food that shaped his life, from Nigerian party food to pre-basketball match carb loading.
Nigerian-born Ade Adepitan moved with his family to the UK when he was three. He began to play wheelchair basketball at the age of 12, and went on to become a Paralympian, winning bronze in Athens in 2004. As a presenter, Ade has been all over the world with programmes such as the BBC’s Travel Show and Channel 4’s Dispatches and Unreported World. He has also hosted countless sporting events and co-presented the BAFTA award-winning coverage of the 2012 Paralympics alongside Clare Balding. This year, he published his first children’s book. My first food memory is making beans on toast for my younger brother and sister. When we were growing up, my parents both had two jobs and went to evening classes, so I would be in charge of cooking. When you’re six and seven and your older brother’s made you a cup of tea and beans on toast, and Danger Mouse or ThunderCats is on the TV, it’s not bad! I can’t remember the main courses we had a school, but I remember the desserts. These included bread and butter, semolina and jam, pink custard with chocolate cake. Sometimes we had blocks of ice cream in paper that you unwrapped and put between wafers. At school, there was a black girl and a black guy and a few Asian kids, but I was the only disabled person, so I was a novelty. On special occasions, mum and dad made Nigerian party food: spicy fried fish with rice and plantain. I was born in Nigeria, and contracted polio at 15 months. It became apparent to my parents that I was going to struggle in Lagos where, in the 1970s, people didn’t really know what to do with someone with a disability. They made the decision to bring me to the UK: it was heartbreaking because my older sister, Omoyile, had Down’s Syndrome and they couldn’t afford to bring us both over. They thought because I couldn’t walk, they would bring me over first. It was seven or eight years before my parents were able to afford to bring Omoyile over. By that time, we had a younger brother, sister and a cousin living with us – we were all in a two-bedroom council house in Plaistow, east London. In the early days of my basketball career, a nutritionist told me that what you eat today gives you your energy tomorrow. So the day before a big match, I would eat my carbs – plain pasta, rice and potato – and on the day it would be chicken or fish and lentils. I would only eat red meat once a month and, even now, I don’t eat much of it. I retired from international basketball in 2006, but I still play club-level basketball for my local team, London Titans. I met my fiancée (singer Elle Exxe) at the National Television Awards after-party at the O2. She is super shy and was sitting in the corner on her own. She had this amazing aura, and I was a little bit drunk so I went over and had a chat. I didn’t know she was a musician and she didn’t know anything about me. We kept in contact on Facebook for six months. I was trying to think of a cool date, and decided to invite her round my house to play DJ Hero on the Xbox. I thought as she’s a musician she’d like that, but then it seemed a bit forward. So I went to meet her for dinner in Guildford, where she was at the Academy of Contemporary Music, but, due to work, I was an hour late. It was freezing and I felt terrible. That was back in 2010; she went on to write a song about a date who was always late. We’re getting married this year. The most unusual meal I ever had was in Nicaragua, where I did a documentary for the BBC. We were travelling from one side of Nicaragua to the other and weren’t getting the opportunity to eat much meat. We were hungry, and we stopped in a town and the locals made us rice with meat. We were all trying to work out what meat it was and, as I speak Spanish, I asked. ‘Oh it’s a speciality we only give to special guests when we welcome them,’ they said. ‘It’s bull’s testicles.’ You know what? That meal was much tastier before we knew that. My last supper would be.... The Nigerian food my mum and dad used to cook, and for dessert I’d have the Cadbury’s Creme Egg cheesecake that Elle makes for my birthday every year, with a really nice Hungarian dessert wine. Quickfire questions Your food heaven? Any dessert. And hell? Brussels sprouts. Favourite celebrity chef? Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay. Describe yourself in three words: Inquisitive, determined and mischievous. Your ideal weekend? Lake Como with Elle. We got engaged there two years ago. We stayed at the Villa d’Este – it cost me an arm and a leg – and the food was beautiful. When I was younger I found Italian food too rich – I was used to east London chips and beans, but now I love lasagne, gnocchi and risotto. Dream dinner party guests? Nelson Mandela, James Brown, Oprah Winfrey and Albert Einstein. What did you have for breakfast today? Scrambled eggs on toast. Favourite tipple? A good quality glass of red, probably a pinot noir. I am most happy when… my family are happy and I’m challenging myself. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Sir Chris Hoy Food milestones - Ben Fogle Food milestones - Amy Williams Food milestones - Tara Fitzgerald Ade’s Amazing Ade-ventures: Battle of the Cyborg Cat by Ade Adepitan is out now (£5.99, Studio Press).
The Requiem, Game of Thrones and Waking the Dead actress shares her memories of her mum’s legendary cooking, and reveals why she adds bacon to her porridge.
Star of the BBC drama Requiem, Tara Fitzgerald, 50, made her name in the 1991 film Hear My Song. She went on to appear in Sirens with Hugh Grant and Brassed Off with Ewan McGregor and, in 1995, she won plaudits for playing Ophelia opposite Ralph Fiennes in Hamlet in the West End and on Broadway. On TV she is known for playing Dr Eve Lockhart in Waking the Dead and Selyse Baratheon in Game of Thrones. My mother is a very good cook, and her lasagne is famous throughout the land. She soaks the pasta and makes her own béchamel. She almost burns the sides of the lasagne so the outside is crisp and the inside is chewy. I had my first McDonald’s with my father. My parents split up when I was four or five and then my father died when I was 11. By then, they’d both remarried. My stepfather was the actor Norman Rodway and we lived in Primrose Hill. My mother is a photographer who also paints, and my father was a painter. On my mother’s side there were artistic people – actors, directors, writers. I had already decided I wanted to act but Norman reinforced the idea. I met his friends from the Royal Shakespeare Company – they were all eating my mother’s lasagne – and he was very helpful. He thought it better if I wasn’t a child actor because it would be harder to be taken seriously as an adult. My first food memory is of cocktail gherkins – taking them out of the fridge and helping myself. I must have been three and we were in the Bahamas, where we lived for a while with my mother’s parents. My grandfather was a lawyer there. Later, I was fastidious about keeping a diary, and I still have some from when I was eight and nine. The entries are all about food: ‘I had a lovely day, we had spaghetti.’ When I was 12, I went on a school trip to Switzerland and we stayed the night in Paris. The food in the restaurant we went to was inedible. I had a little escalope – I suppose it was veal – and I didn’t want to eat it. It was exactly the same size as the salver for oil and vinegar, so I put it inside the salver underneath a napkin, and put the oil and vinegar back on top! I started waitressing as soon as I was 16. I worked at a place called The Ark in a little wooden hut in Notting Hill Gate. It had a cult following, and the food was fantastic. It was 1970s bistro food. They did boeuf bourguignon, but my favourite meal was chicken kyiv, petits pois and chips. I worked there throughout my teens, and it helped to fund my training at the Drama Centre. The first meal I made my partner was less about cooking and more about sourcing! Edward is a property developer. We met in the 90s, and then re-met about 18 months ago. I made a smorgasbord of salamis, salads and cheeses. As I get older, I enjoy simple tastes. You can’t beat a good cheese on its own, with a bit of jelly. I have seven nieces and nephews, the kids of my sisters Arabella and Bianca. They range in age from about six to 26. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually cooked for them. If I did, it was probably pizza or pasta and pesto – anything with a ‘p’, just not peas! My recipe for porridge has evolved. It’s made with chunky oats, and I like it when it gets a bit too cooked at the bottom, as if it’s slightly toasted. I’ve started adding vanilla custard as well as raisins and banana, guava syrup or honey and bacon. The salt of the bacon works well with the texture of porridge. Somebody told me that we don’t psychologically feel we’ve eaten unless there’s a crunch so, if you eat soft food, you need to add something crunchy. I like to cook but Edward doesn’t, so we don’t fight over the stove. We both enjoy going out to eat. I like Granger & Co in Westbourne Grove. It’s an Australian chain, and the food is sensational because it’s healthy and ‘New World’, with lots of juices, extremely fresh food and interesting salads. I like their vegetable tempura, squid and risottos. My last supper would be my mum’s lasagne and a brûlée. The first pudding I made that I was proud of was a fruit brûlée with blackberries at the bottom, which exploded through the custard. I don’t have a blowtorch, so I just do the brûlée the old-fashioned way, under the grill. The fashion seems to be for a thin crust, but I like a hard crust made with demerara sugar. Quickfire questions Your food heaven? Lots of nibbles: little pots of pâté, salads and cheeses. I love bread as a dipper. You can’t beat breaking off a piece of crusty bread, it’s so satisfying. And food hell? Anything without sauce, or chewy, overcooked meat. Favourite celebrity chef? Heston Blumenthal: I have eaten at The Fat Duck. He creates an event around food, which I think has helped to create a different understanding of food in this country. It seems to me that people are now more interested in the provenance of produce – they care about food. Describe yourself in three words: Analytical, curious, sharp. Your ideal weekend? A surprise weekend, somewhere in Europe, with a heavy focus on food. Dream dinner party guests? My family, Edward and whomever I am working with. What did you have for breakfast today? Porridge. Favourite tipple? A nonalcoholic mojito. I also love coffee and teas – green teas and white teas. I stopped drinking alcohol a few years ago. I just went off it, and there are so many other things that you can do if you’re not sitting and drinking. Finish this sentence, I am most happy when… I’m surrounded by the people I love. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Jenny Agutter Food milestones - Mark Gatiss Food milestones - Alexander Armstrong Food milestones - Ashley Jensen Food milestones - Sara Cox Tara is supporting the terminal illness charity, Marie Curie, and inviting you to join its Blooming Great Tea Party fundraising appeal in June. To sign up, visit mariecurie.org.uk/goodfood
She spent a lot of her childhood eating exotic food abroad but, nowadays, the Call the Midwife star much prefers roast beef at home in Cornwall
Call the Midwife star Jenny Agutter, 65, was born in Somerset and rose to fame when she was 14, playing Roberta in the TV adaptation of The Railway Children and, when she was 17, starring in the 1970 film. Her other movies include Walkabout, Logan’s Run, The Eagle Has Landed, An American Werewolf in London and Equus, for which she won a BAFTA. Since 2012, the mum-of-one has starred as Sister Julienne in the BBC’s Call the Midwife, now in its eighth series. I lived in Singapore from the age of three to six. My father was stationed in the army there and my mother, older brother and I went out by boat to join him. The food sticks in my mind because it was often rice wrapped in lotus leaves. It was fragrant, different and lovely. At boarding school the food was really bad. I was at Elmhurst Ballet School in Surrey from the age of eight to 16 and they gave us steamed fish with crisps on top, which was a lovely idea but the crisps were always soggy. We also had pork belly which was chewy and still had hairs on it and grey minced beef. We were dancers so we were hungry and ate whatever we had, quickly. My favourite meal there was hamburgers which we had at summer weekends. It wasn’t so much that they were great, but more that we were allowed to eat outside, sitting on rugs, which made it more of an occasion. When my father was stationed in Cyprus, my mother always used markets rather than the army stores. She made a wonderful dish with a large sea bass or bream. She would cook it with herbs, olive oil and lemon and it was absolutely delicious. But my favourite meal was ‘chicken in a basket’ which my father used to make – chicken and chips in a basket lined with paper. In Cyprus we used to go up into the mountains and have meze. I was never keen on the okra, which always seemed slimy, but I loved the aubergine and tomato and the goat skewers. I’ve done lots of travelling and for me, a different culture is all about the food. After I made the film of The Railway Children, I spent four years doing theatre and television. I wanted to do more film but, at that time, the film business was dead in England, so I went to LA and stayed for 17 years. One of my favourite things was breakfast in a diner where the cook would yell, ‘Here’s your eggs, sunny side up!’ I met my husband John (Tham) in 1989 when I opened an arts festival in Bath where I was making a film called King of the Wind. I was still living in LA but we kept in touch and wrote letters and, when I came back to England to visit, we went on old-fashioned dates. I would be staying in hotels so in the early days I didn’t cook, I just made reservations! The first time I cooked for him was when he visited LA and I threw a dinner party so he could meet my friends. I did a whole baked salmon: I wanted to play it safe – I once had a dinner party and the oven switched itself off in the middle of my slow-cooked lamb and it was disgusting. John couldn’t bear LA so I came back to England in 1990, we got married the same year and, on Christmas Day, our son Jonathan was born. Jonathan has never been a fussy eater. He would try anything which was fantastic because, when he was five, I took him to Japan where I was playing the Princess of France in Tokyo. He used to love the little Japanese wraps I’d buy in the corner store – tuna or cooked meat wrapped in seaweed. He would eat everything I ate, including noodles. But he had a bit of a surprise when I bought what I thought were doughnuts for breakfast. They had curry in the middle of them. The most revolting dish I ever ate was a casserole in a pub which came with part of the container it had been microwaved in. I put my fork into the dish and came up with plastic! Three years ago, my husband and I went to a posh restaurant in Paris which had three Michelin stars. We felt rather pleased because they had squeezed us in but it was at the end of the day. In France, staff like to leave on time so our meal came fast and then, at the end after a huge wait, we eventually got dessert. It was a mousse/cake type of thing and it had Smarties on it. It looked a mess and tasted horrible. The chef had gone home and someone had rushed out and bought something. John and I just looked at each other – it was a Fawlty Towers moment! In November 2016, John and I spent a month travelling in New Zealand and ate some great food. Just outside Queenstown on the South Island we went to Amisfield vineyard, which friends had recommended and we had an amazing lunch. We drank pinot noir and ate a shellfish starter which had flowers around it and gold flakes on top, followed by tiny lamb cutlets. It was five courses and everything was truly delicious and beautifully presented: they even created the New Zealand fern insignia from a vegetable. The last dish I cooked was a slightly lazy thing. We were in Cornwall where we have a cottage on The Lizard peninsula. They have great beef in Cornwall so I bought a small fillet, sealed it on a very high heat and then stuck it in the oven for very little time. I tend to stick anything I am roasting – be it meat or chicken – on a mat of carrots, leeks and onions which I have cooked slightly before in the oven so they have started to get a flavour. Then I make a good jus by adding wine to the lovely juices in the pan. Quickfire questions Food heaven? A meal at Kurobuta – they have two branches in London: on the King’s Road and at Marble Arch. It’s highly inventive Japanese food – I love the hamburgers with amazing sauces. And hell? I like all food except butter beans (too floury). Favourite celebrity chef? Jamie Oliver. I admire his enthusiasm and he seems committed to changing people’s views on food from school age. Describe yourself in three words: Impatient, impatient, impatient. Your ideal weekend? Booking a last-minute flight to somewhere like Lisbon, which I did recently, and trying lots of new foods with my husband, John. Dream dinner party guests? Sir David Attenborough and, apart from him, family. What did you have for breakfast today? Porridge with wild cherry jam. Favourite tipple? Really good red wine. I prefer burgundies. Finish this sentence: I am most happy when... I am surrounded by family. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Sir Chris Hoy Food milestones - Mark Gatiss Food milestones - Alexander Armstrong Food milestones - Ronan Keating Jenny is patron of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. For further information go to cysticfibrosis.org.uk
Britain’s all-time greatest Olympian reveals the unhealthy lifestyle he had to ditch in his quest to become a gold-medal winner.
With six gold medals and one silver, Sir Chris Hoy is Great Britain’s most successful Olympic athlete ever. Born in Edinburgh, he won Olympic gold at Athens 2004, three at Beijing 2008, and his fifth and sixth in London 2012. He was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2008 and knighted in 2009. Since retiring in 2013, he has launched Hoy Bikes and co-created the Flying Fergus children’s books. He lives in Manchester with his wife Sarra and their children, Callum and Chloe. My first food memory is trying to get out of eating school lunches. Teachers would stand at the end of the table and, if you tried to throw food away, they would make you sit back down and eat it. I would finish my little carton of milk, pop the lunch inside and shut the carton. Then I could smuggle them into the bin. When I was a child I was obsessed with the film Jaws, and I couldn’t believe it when I saw shark on a menu in Spain. I went on and on until my parents let me have it. It was lovely, and I wrote a thank you card, with a picture of Jaws, to the chef. During my first term at St Andrews I lived on takeaways. It was only when I had pictures taken with the family at Christmas that I saw how much weight I’d put on. I’d barely touched my bike or done any training for three months. I’d been at the union every night having a brilliant time, but it wasn’t healthy. After university I moved to Manchester to be near the velodrome. I met Sarra in 2006 – she’d come from Edinburgh on a Friday and I would pick her up at 9pm after I’d finished training, had a massage and dashed to the supermarket. Dinner would be Walker’s Sensations crisps, a Pizza Express pizza and a bottle of red. I could have made more effort but I didn’t want to set the bar too high! The worst meal I’ve ever had was in Mauritius. Sarra and I had a tasting menu – the chef was trying a bit too hard. He had a liquidised caesar salad in a shot glass. I saw Sarra put it to her lips and try to swallow it, her eyes watered and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s going to gag.’ She managed not to, but said, ‘That was close.’ I said, ‘It can’t be that bad’ and downed mine. But, yes, it was! Since I retired, my diet has massively changed. I used to constantly graze between meals. You need the energy, but also you have an insatiable appetite. Sometimes I miss that because I love eating. The biggest change is that I can have a glass of wine pretty much whenever I want. During my career, I wouldn’t touch alcohol for 10 months of the year. At the end of the season we’d go for a celebration but, when you don’t have any alcohol at all, you become a complete lightweight and we’d all be on our knees after two pints. Nights out were cheap! Breakfast is my favourite meal... I had my best ever at Duck and Waffle, Dan Doherty’s restaurant in one of the tallest buildings in London. You’re 40 storeys up and the food is incredible. It’s open 24 hours and they serve breakfast all the time. I had the signature duck and waffle, outstanding: a waffle, duck egg, fried duck leg and mustard maple syrup. I do like cooking but – and this sounds a feeble excuse – because Sarra’s so good and enjoys it, I don’t cook a massive amount. I make the coffees though! I have a La Marzocco GS3, the Rolls Royce of coffee machines, and I’ve done a couple of barista courses. When you’re competing or training you’re not going to the pub, so cafés become your social hub on rest days. I got into coffee and bought myself a nice machine – a proper grinder – and I have freshly roasted beans delivered to the house every week from a roastery in Scotland. I usually have a ristretto, the very first part of the espresso pour which is really sweet. My last supper would be slow-cooked Wagyu beef and langoustines – a surf and turf, with an amazing bottle of Bordeaux. I’m not fussed about dessert, although as a kid it was my favourite part of the meal. I went to a restaurant in Australia once with one of my heroes, Graeme Obree, who was world champion back in the nineties. He is a kind of eccentric genius: he built his own bikes and reinvented the position he rode in on a bike. He ordered his dessert for a starter and I said, ‘What are you doing that for?’ And he said, ‘In case I haven’t got space for it at the end – it’s the best part of the meal.’ You can’t argue with that logic! Quickfire questions Your food heaven? High-quality barbecue. I love the flavour of red meat but there’s a vast difference between your average supermarket stuff and beef that’s been reared the right way. And hell? A wilted sandwich on a train or plane. Favourite celebrity chef? Tom Kitchin, because I’ve been to his restaurant in Edinburgh loads of times and he’s a down-to-earth, nice bloke. Describe yourself in three words. Driven and mildly obsessive – I sound like a right catch! Your ideal weekend? We haven’t had a weekend without kids since Chloe’s been born so I would love one-to-one time with Sarra. We’d leave Chloe and Callum with the grandparents, jump in the car and go straight up the M6 to Scotland, where we’d either go to Edinburgh and catch up with friends over a meal, or we’d stay somewhere remote in the Highlands, just the two of us. Dream dinner party guests? Rob Brydon: you would get 20 people for the price of one! What did you have for breakfast today? Poached eggs and ham on toast, with a bit of cracked pepper. Favourite tipple? Red wine: either a young Aussie shiraz or an old bordeaux. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Amy Williams Food milestones - Mark Gatiss Food milestones - Alexander Armstrong Food milestones - Ronan Keating
The winter Olympian on her mum’s special macaroni cheese, dietary restrictions and her obsession with honey.
Olympic gold medallist Amy Williams, 35, started her sporting life as a 400m runner in her hometown, Bath. While studying at university, she switched to the skeleton sled, which is essentially a tea-tray that hurtles down a frozen track at 80mph. She went on to represent Great Britain at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and won gold in the skeleton race. Her triumph saw her become Britain’s first solo Winter Olympian in 30 years, the first woman champion in 58 years, and also set a double track record in the sport. Following her success, she was awarded an MBE and named Glamour magazine’s Sportswoman of the Year. Since retiring as an athlete, she has become a television presenter and commentator, and taken part in the adventure shows 71 Degrees North and Alone in the Wild. In 2015, she married Craig Ham, who is in the army. They have one son, Oscar, and live in a village outside Bath. My mum would make all of our bread, so we had fresh rolls for our lunchboxes. She would never buy cakes or biscuits – if my brother, sister and I wanted something sweet at teatime we had to make it ourselves, so we were always in the kitchen baking! My dad – a chemistry professor at Bath University – would play with us in the garden and take us out for Sunday afternoon walks. All of my siblings loved sport at school, and I started training with the athletics club. Mum is the cook; I haven’t seen my dad cook anything more than beans on toast. Her speciality is macaroni cheese, which I used to request before I went away to compete. She'd make a massive one with a crisp topping, and add tuna and random things like boiled eggs. When I was a competing athlete, I was really strict with myself. Whatever went into my body had to help me win, and if I was going to train all day in the gym, I only wanted to fuel it with good stuff. I would eat at least five times a day and added plenty of vegetables and protein to each meal. Like any athlete, I wanted to eat within five minutes, so I wouldn’t slave over a dinner. I would often make a quick stir-fry in my wok, avoiding packet sauces to make it healthier, and supplementing my diet with protein shakes. I wouldn’t eat desserts or chocolate. I didn’t have alcohol. When I missed out on competing in the Turin Olympics in 2006, I became even more determined. I didn’t drink anything, even if it was a party or a wedding, and I would go to bed at half-nine every night. I met Craig on Tinder in March 2014. I’d just returned from the Winter Olympics in Sochi, and my friends persuaded me to get myself a date. We chatted on the phone first, then went to the Hall & Woodhouse in Bath the next day. I ate, he didn’t. I remember I had pigs in blankets, and it wasn’t even Christmas. We got engaged after three months: he proposed at Victoria Falls, so Africa is a special place for us. The first meal I cooked for Craig was probably one of my bog-standard stir-fries. I enjoy making lasagnes too, but if I get more adventurous than that, everything goes wrong. I’ll half follow a recipe and then go off on a tangent. We had a disaster once when we had a load of friends round for Sunday lunch. Craig was making Yorkshire puddings: I directed him to the wrong flour – gluten-free or coconut – and we ended up with solid biscuits. No one could eat them. Oscar refused to drink from a bottle, so I was still breastfeeding him at eight months. He's on solids now, so I mush up vegetables and cook him a basic spag bol before making it more flavoursome for Craig and me. I would like another child at some point but, because there’s a chance that I could have twins (my mum’s an identical twin and my sister Ruth and I are non-identical), I want to make sure Oscar is more of his own little person first. I'm obsessed with honey. There’s a whole shelf of different types in my kitchen. My friend’s mum makes her own in Scotland, so I have a pot of hers, and a friend from Botswana brings honey whenever he comes over – it really smells of the African bush. I’ll buy even more when I go to a farmers’ market! Quickfire questions Food heaven? Honey! And hell? Chilli. I don’t like spicy food. I order a korma when we have an Indian takeaway. Favourite celebrity chef? Mary Berry, because she’s from Bath too. I saw her at the train station one morning and I really wanted to say, 'I'm a massive fan', but I wasn’t brave enough. Describe yourself in three words Emotional, adventurous and loving. Your ideal weekend? I would go horse riding, then borrow some dogs and go for a dog walk with my little family. I'd top it off with a movie. Dream dinner party guest? Marilyn Monroe, because I used to watch her movies and sing her songs all the time. What did you have for breakfast today? I skipped breakfast because I was rushing over to my mum’s to pick up Oscar, but normally I would have scrambled eggs on toast with avocado and a coffee. Favourite tipple? I like a mojito, a nice glass of red wine and a Monkey 47 gin. I'm not a big drinker, but we discovered Monkey 47 at a friend’s wedding and it’s amazing with Fever Tree tonic and a slice of plum. Finish this sentence: I am most happy when… I'm sat on the sofa with my little boy, Craig and our rescue tabby cat, Captain. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Mark Gatiss Food milestones - Alexander Armstrong Food milestones - Ronan Keating Food milestones - Sara Cox
The Doctor Who and Sherlock star shares his memories of ghastly school dinners, preserved sausages and what he eats when the nights draw in...
After studying drama at Bretton Hall in Wakefield, Mark Gatiss, 51, created dark radio and TV series The League of Gentleman with Reece Shearsmith, Jeremy Dyson and Steve Pemberton. With Steven Moffat, he created the hugely successful and award-winning series Sherlock, in which he plays Mycroft Holmes. Mark has also appeared in Doctor Who, Wolf Hall and Game of Thrones. In 2017, Mark curated and directed Queers – a series of eight monologues for BBC Four to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which saw the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality. He lives in London with his husband, actor Ian Hallard. I have a vivid memory of being given a cake on my third birthday. It would’ve been a fruit cake, because that’s what I like. I used to love being allowed to scrape out the bowl after Mum made a cake. I'm the youngest and had to fight my brother, Phillip, and sister, Jill, for it. We always used to ask, ‘Why can’t we just have a big bowl of this – it’s much nicer than cake!’ At school, puddings like jam roly-poly, lemon meringue pie and bread and butter pudding were so ghastly they would bring me out in a rash. Many years later I discovered that they can all be lovely if properly made, particularly bread and butter pudding. At school I was a geek – even before the word was invented. I remember someone asking, ‘Are you going to be a professor when you grow up?’ That’s how I looked – my hair was all over the place, I had big glasses and I was obsessed with dinosaurs, astronomy and Dr Who. Dr Who and Sherlock Holmes have always been part of my life. To have made a career from things I love has been amazing. I grew up in the north east, where there was no concept of eating out. I didn’t eat at a restaurant until I was in my teens. Eating out was getting fish and chips. We made pasta pictures at school, and I had to buy pasta specially – canned spaghetti was the only pasta I knew. At home, we ate simple food. My favourite was corned beef hash, which I'm still very fond of. As the nights draw in, my craving for it increases. The first foreign holiday we had was Spain in 1979, and I remember being a little afraid of the experience. In the hotel we had preserved sausage for breakfast. I couldn’t get my head around the concept of these great pieces of mouldering flesh. All we ever had for breakfast were cornflakes and boiled eggs, so it was a real shock to the system. When I went to Europe on my gap year, my abiding memory is of constipation. I went with my first and only girlfriend, Sally, and several friends from school. We planned the trip for months but then all fell out within 24 hours and went our separate ways. Sally and I were so poor and had eaten so little that, when we got to Vienna, we had to go to a pharmacy to get laxatives. I am sure there must have been marvellous European epicurean delights, but I don’t remember them. When I was a student, Pizza Hut was a great friend to me. My first forays into eating out were in Wakefield. There weren’t any Michelin-starred restaurants, but I remember going for a proper Thai meal there for the first time. When I was at Bretton Hall, I met Steve and Reece, and Jeremy, who was at the University of Leeds. We collaborated and formed the League of Gentleman; an opportunity arose to put on a five-night sketch show and it all went from there. My Sherlock co-creator, Steven Moffat, told me about this place in Los Angeles called Katsuya, which he and his wife love so much they actually dream about it. You’re always wary of the hype around such things, but Ian and I went recently and it was genuinely one of the best meals I’ve ever had. They do a spicy tuna starter that tastes so good you don’t really want to swallow. We ended up saying, ‘Forget the main course, let’s just have more tuna.’ Early in our relationship, Ian roasted a chicken. It was my first Sunday roast in 15 years. When we met, I was vegetarian. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Alexander Armstong Food milestones - Ronan Keating Food milestones - Sara Cox Food milestones - Ashley Jenson Food milestones - Ainsley Harriot Food milestones - Ben Fogle
The Pointless presenter, singer and popular comedian shares his festive plans and memories of '70s school dinners.
Alexander Armstrong, 47, presents Pointless on BBC One with Richard Osman. He found fame as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller (with Ben Miller). In 1996, their sketch show was nominated for a Perrier Award at Edinburgh Festival, and their TV show won the 2010 best comedy BAFTA. Alexander has released two top 10 albums, A Year of Songs and Upon a Different Shore, and has just released a Christmas album, In a Winter Light. He lives in Oxford with wife Hannah, and their four sons, Rex, 10, Paddy, eight, Edward, seven, and Henry, two. We are having an urban Christmas for the first time in our children’s lives... As we’ve just moved to Oxford to be closer to their school. Food, drink and music will be at the heart of it. A friend provides our turkey every year, so we know where it has come from. The food critic Giles Coren is married to my wife’s sister and is a central part of our Christmas scene. He’s in charge of bringing smoked salmon from a place in London that does fantastic lox. We always make festive drinks. After a few days, drinking at Christmas can be a slog, but if you keep the cocktails varied and fun, even the dog end of Boxing Day can be a party. I’m a fan of a White Lady, a gin and lemon cocktail. It traditionally includes Cointreau, but we also make it with King’s Ginger –a Ginger Lady. I’ve also made chilli sherry, which is great in cocktails. Put dried chillies into a bottle of Tio Pepe until they fill a third of the bottle – drink some of the sherry to make room for them! – then leave for a month. A tiny capful of it gives soups and casseroles a lovely warm kick . Our guests arrive on Christmas Eve. We put on carols from King’s Cambridge, and sing along to the last few with Christmas cake and tea. Then it’s time to wrap presents, pack children off to bed early and have a jolly supper. On Christmas Day... We open stockings and then go to church. Of course, the boys resent having to leave the tempting pile of presents under the tree, but an hour of restraint does them good before chaos reigns in the wonderful way it always does on Christmas Day. When I was young, our holidays were always in Northern Ireland, where my mother’s family are from. We stayed in a cottage with no electricity or running water – it was idyllic. It’s on the Derry coast near a very dramatic cliff where they film Game of Thrones – whenever I see it on TV my heart skips a beat. We used to eat porridge for breakfast – it was a religious thing – and if you have porridge on childhood holidays, you’ll love it forever. There was a cup with the Three Bears on it that lived above the porridge pot, and the recipe we used was two cups oats to three cups water, with a bit of salt. Once cooked, we added milk and brown sugar. To this day I just can’t eat under-salted porridge: it has to be salty and sweet. In the ’70s, when I was at school, the cooking was ropey and you had to eat it all. I lived in utter dread of the day we had butter beans. Mr Hogan, the cook – chef is pushing it a bit – was a really angry man. He’d put a huge spoon of beans on your plate even if you said, ‘Please, not too many’. But there were happy times too: on Wednesdays we had meat pies with brown sauce. The pies came ready-made, so Mr Hogan couldn’t do anything to muck them up. In my year off between school and university, I did an haute cuisine cookery course. It was great because it meant I knew my way around a recipe and wasn’t scared of making anything. I love nothing more than being in a well-equipped kitchen with a stack of delicious ingredients – it’s one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon. But I rarely cooked as a student – the institutional hot plates would take ages to heat up. Very occasionally I warmed a carton of soup. The first meal I cooked for my wife was pasta. I have a long list of pastas I make, which I like to think are more sophisticated than spag bol. There’s a delicious one where I cook broccoli in with the spaghetti. I make a sauce with the finely cut broccoli stems and half a jar of anchovies in oil, then I toss in roasted pine nuts, capers, garlic and chilli. It’s one of my absolute favourite things to shove down my neck. Our 10-year-old, Rex, is a gourmand in the making. Paddy, eight, is a bit more discerning. He doesn’t like anything he’s told he will, even things like chocolate cake. We have eight or nine dishes that we cook for the boys on rotation – things like mince served with potatoes, but never mince with potato on top like shepherd’s pie. For some reason, they don’t like it. Mince and potatoes – yum! But call it shepherd’s pie – yuk! Breakfast is hard to top as a meal. In 1992, I was in Virginia on tour with a choir and I had grits for the first time. They were made with chilli – it was the first time I had a hot and spicy breakfast. My brother used to live in Malaysia, and when I visited, I discovered nasi lemak, a fiery curry with nuts and little dried fish called ikan bilis. It strikes me as the most indulgent thing in the world to be have rice and curry that brings you out in a bit of a sweat for breakfast. My last supper This would be a homemade curry with lots of different dishes, dips and breads. Some would be fiery as hell, some nice and bland. The great thing about touring is you get to visit lots of towns for one night only, and one of the best uses of Twitter is finding a good place to eat in each one. I’ve tried all sorts of great curry places. One Keralan curry that I ate in Northampton was truly memorable. Read more celebrity interviews... Food milestones - Ronan Keating Food milestones - Sarah Cox Food milestones - Ashley Jenson Food milestones - Ainsley Harriot Food milestones - Ben Fogle