Olivia Potts

Olivia Potts

Olivia Potts is a former criminal barrister who retrained as a pastry chef. She co-hosts The Spectator’s Table Talk podcast and writes Spectator Life's The Vintage Chef column. A chef and food writer, she was winner of the Fortnum and Mason's debut food book award in 2020 for her memoir A Half Baked Idea.

With Skye Gyngell

13 min listen

Skye Gyngell, an Australian chef best known for her work as food editor for Vogue, and for winning a Michelin star at the Petersham Nurseries Cafe. She is now the founder of Spring at Somerset House and the culinary director of Heckfield Place. On the podcast, she talks to Lara and Livvy about being subjected

With Sarah Langford

36 min listen

Sarah Langford is a barrister and author of the best-selling In Your Defence, which follows 11 real-life cases in the criminal and family courts. On the podcast, Sarah tells Lara and Livvy about her family’s background in farming, the vending machine diet of a barrister, and how MeToo killed the drinking culture in chambers. Presented

Buttermilk waffles recipe

I don’t like one-use kitchen gadgets. Well, that’s not true, I do like them actually. I love them. I am drawn to them in those little catalogues that come through the door, brimming with plastic and promise, like a magpie. But my small kitchen doesn’t love them. My overflowing drawers and crowded worktops don’t love

With Mark Diacono

32 min listen

Mark Diacono, food writer, farmer and photographer, who is the founder of Otter Farm in East Devon. The author of seven books, his latest, ‘Sour’, is out now. He talks to Lara and Livvy about what inspired him to start growing food, how to turn 17 acres of land into a farm producing Szechuan peppers,

With Max Pemberton

39 min listen

Max Pemberton is a Daily Mail columnist and medical doctor specialising in mental health and eating disorders. On the podcast, he talks about his milkman father and activist mother and what family mealtimes were like, remembering to eat on shifts as a junior doctor, and dissuading patients with serious eating disorders of the ‘clean eating’

With Will Lander

14 min listen

Will Lander is the owner of the beloved restaurants Quality Chop House, Clipstone, Portland, and the new Amelia. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Livvy about growing up with the FT’s restaurant critic for a father (not many trips to McDonalds), a childhood dream to become a restauranteur, and the secret to traditional

Sichuan cuisine with Fuchsia Dunlop

25 min listen

Fuchsia Dunlop is a writer and chef specialising in Chinese cuisine, especially that of Sichuan. She tells Lara and Livvy about the international lodgers who trained her adventurous palate growing up, why some Chinese foods can be so challenging for westerners (hint: it’s the texture!), and the 23 different types of Sichuan spicy. Presented by

With Alexandra Shulman

19 min listen

Alexandra Shulman is the former Editor-In-Chief of British Vogue. On the podcast, she talks to Olivia and Lara about her mother Drusilla Beyfus’s etiquette tips, wining and dining as a journalist in the 80s, and how doughnuts never lasted long at Vogue. Presented by Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts.

With Jessie Burton

24 min listen

Jessie Burton is the bestselling author of The Miniaturist and The Muse. In this episode of Table Talk, she tells Lara and Livvy about growing up with her dad’s packed lunches, the diet of a budding actress, and her dislike for marzipan (despite The Miniaturist!). Jessie’s new book, The Confession, is out now. Presented by

With Kavi and Shamil Thakrar

29 min listen

Kavi and Shamil Thakrar are cousins, and they’re also the co-founders of restaurant chain, Dishoom, inspired by the cafes of early 20th century Bombay. They join Lara and Livvy to celebrate the launch of their first cookbook, and chat Bombay street food, the risks of profit-maximising, and the great British curry house. Presented by Lara

With Jose Pizarro

32 min listen

Jose Pizarro is a Spanish chef, writer, and restauranteur. He came to London in 2000 and opened a series of well-loved Spanish restaurants, including Jose’s Tapas Bar. He is the author of five cookbooks. In this episode, he talks to Lara and Livvy about growing up on a farm in Spain, why he loves sherry,

With Olivia Potts

27 min listen

Lara speaks to Olivia Potts, Spectator Life’s Vintage Chef and co-host of the Table Talk podcast, about Olivia’s new book, A Half-Baked Idea. Before she became a food writer and Cordon-Bleu trained chef, Olivia was a former president of the Cambridge Union and a high-flying criminal barrister. But her mother’s death changed all that. Tune

With Tracey MacLeod

34 min listen

Tracey MacLeod is a broadcaster and food critic, known for hosting the BBC’s The Late Show and for regularly guest starring in Masterchef. She is friends with Helen Fielding, who based the character of Jude from Bridget Jones on MacLeod. In this special edition of Table Talk, brought to you live from the sofas of

With Jeremy King

31 min listen

Jeremy King, one half of the restaurateurs Corbin and King, is behind some of the most iconic restaurants in London, including the Ivy, the Delauney, and Fischers. In this episode, he talks about why he left banking for hospitality, how he redecorates restaurants according to their architectural influences, and people watching in his establishments.

With Tom Parker-Bowles

28 min listen

Lara and Livvy talks to food writer Tom Parker-Bowles about his mother’s roast chicken, prep school gruel, and why, as a food critic, he still loves McDonald’s. Presented by Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts.

With Jo Thompson at Chelsea Flower Show

12 min listen

Jo Thompson is a prize-winning garden designer, whose upcoming book ‘Rhubarb Rhubarb’ is a correspondence between a hopeless gardener and a hopeful cook, taking a look at both gardening and cooking. Jo tells Livvy about the fresh buffalo mozzarella in her family home in Italy, her father’s Italian restaurant, and the one dish she can

With Cressida Bonas

18 min listen

Actress Cressida Bonas talks to Lara and Livvy about growing up on shepherd’s pie and pop-tarts, her trypophobia, and the best curry she’s ever had.

With Nathan Outlaw

28 min listen

In this episode, Michelin star chef Nathan Outlaw joins Lara and Livvy to talk about his love for Cornwall and seafood, training under celebrity chef Rick Stein, and how he totally didn’t help his ten year old daughter win a baking competition.

Recipe: Spotted Dick for grown ups

Spotted dick is synonymous with school dinners: it’s one of a field of puddings that divide the nation – like rice pudding and jam roly poly – into those who, haunted by sloppy or stodgy memories, cannot countenance the idea of enduring them again, or those who seek them out in a fit of nostalgia.

With Adrian Chiles

30 min listen

In this episode, broadcaster and writer Adrian Chiles joins Lara and Livvy to discuss a childhood of Croatian home cooking, how an incident with a Turkish lamb turned him vegetarian, and why he prefers ‘mindful drinking’ to ‘drinking responsibly’.