My guest today is the founder of Hoppers - Karan Gokani. Combining his passion for cooking with his love of the country of Sri Lanka he has built a restaurant empire celebrating the food of Sri Lanka and Southern India. I went to Sri Lanka last year for the first time and completely fell in love with the food. I’ve been to Hoppers many times so I kind of knew what to expect but honestly it’s just the most amazing country and the most delicious food so it was brilliant to hear from Karan about...

This week we have Ravneet Gill on The Dream Dinner Party– she is an extraordinary pastry chef who just makes the most amazing cakes and puddings. She’s also a TV presenter and cook book author – her third – Baking for Pleasure is out now and it’s all about baking for the pure joy of it. She has been a guest on Desert Island Dishes – a few years ago but well worth a listen. I knew Rav loves to entertain so was great to hear more about that and how she envisages her Dream Dinner Party. Thank...

My guest today is Bee Wilson. In all honesty, Bee is one of the most interesting and thought provoking food writers and historians we’ve ever known. She is the author of 8 books about food and eating. Her books have won multiple awards, and she’s won 5 Guild of food writers awards for her journalism. After over 20 years of food writing, this year she released her first cookbook, The Secret of Cooking, something she says she’s dreamt of doing since the age of 8. She has been described by Yotam...

This week we have Zena Kamgaing on The Dream Dinner Party. I love bringing you Desert Island dishes but I also selfishly do love the dream dinner party – it’s a just a little bit of fun, I love how everyone of the guests have really embraced the theme and taken it seriously – in a very unserious way. Zena was no exception – I love the sound of her dream dinner party – there is a part in this where she gets me to play one of the games she likes to play but we cut out the actual game part as I...

My guest this week is the world famous photographer David Loftus. David is one of the most influential photographers of all time often fondly referred to as Lord Loftus. Award-winning and internationally acclaimed, David has done the photography for the books of Jamie Oliver, Rachel Khoo, Gennaro Contaldo, Elizabeth David and April Bloomfield. For over 20 years, David has photographed over 150 books including all but one of Jamie Oliver’s international best-sellers. His work with Jamie Oliver...

Hi I’m Margie Nomura and welcome to another episode of our side side dish: The Dream Dinner Party. This is the mini episode where we invite a guest to tell us all about their dream dinner party. And this week we have the one and only Rick Stein – I know so many of you loved his episode of Desert Island Dishes so I’m thrilled he also joined us to share his Dream Dinner Party. I think Rick would be a popular choice on lots of people Dream Dinner Party guest list so it was so interesting to hear...

We are back! For a short mini series but back nonetheless! I missed you! And I'm very excited that today my guest today is Claudia Roden. Described as the food writer who never goes out of fashion. She began collecting recipes in 1956, while a student in London. The Suez crisis of that year turned many people from Egypt into refugees: preserving the food culture of the Jewish community was as much practical as it was emotional.  These recipes led to her debut masterpiece A Book of Middle...

My guest today is Rick Stein. A highly requested guest, I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did recording it. Rick is, of course, a chef, restaurateur, cook book author and television presenter. He has written over 25 cookery books, a memoir and made over 30 television programmes. His latest cookbook, Simple Suppers is out now. It has been nearly 50 years since he first opened The Fish Restaurant in Padstow, an area of Cornwall he fell in love with at a young age and has made his...

This week we have Donna Hay on the mini episode The Dream Dinner Party. Donna is the much loved and respected queen of cooking in Australia – she’s got a new cookbook out Even More Basics to Brilliance – which is the follow up to her first of this series. I was honoured to host Donna's supperclub at Fortnum and Mason a few weeks ago where we talked about the new book and then were served the most delicious food all from the book. Donna is extremely fun and she did not disappoint with her...

My guest today is Zena Kamgaing. Zena describes herself as a passionate home-chef, recipe creator and food enthusiast. Before going full time as a freelance recipe creator, She worked for a charity and ran their anti human trafficking initiative, worked for a food media company as head of ops before working at Mob kitchen – the food media platform. Zena burst onto the food creator scene when she appeared on Jamie Oliver’s Cook Book Challenge and since then her career has gone from strength to...

This week we have Clodagh McKenna on our mini episode: The Dream Dinner Party. Clodagh is so much fun. She makes the most delicious food but she also makes the setting and everything look so beautiful. You’ll have seen her cooking on ITVs this morning, as well as her brilliant instagram videos she did during lockdown that brought a lot of cheer to people. I think she is one of the only dream dinner party hosts where I have actually been to a dinner party she hosted and it was so much fun. A...

My guest today is Ed Gamble Ed is a comedian, an actor, host of the Off Menu podcast amongst others, and judge on the Great British Menu. He can now also add author to his bio of credentials as his debut book Glutton has just been published. His career in comedy began at Durham university performing with the Durham revue before heading to the Edinburgh fringe for the first time in 2011  His stand-up comedy is largely observational comedy, often aimed at himself, including discussion of his...

My guest today is Rachel Belle Rachel is an award winning journalist with over 20 years of experience. She lives in Seattle and is the creator & host of Your Last Meal, a James Beard Award finalist for Best Podcast,  Her food writing has been published in places like Lucky Peach, Eater and The Stranger, she has appeared on The Cooking Channel (as a taco expert!) Rachel says she loves traveling the world, hiking through wildflowers, campfire cooking, and trying as many dumplings and pizzas...

My guest today is Russell Norman  Known as The Restaurant Man. He is a writer, broadcaster and award winning founder of celebrated restaurants with first THE POLPO restaurant group and now BRUTTO.  Hailed as “London’s coolest restaurateur” and having been described as the man who saved restaurants after the financial crash, Russell is a restaurateur with over 20 years experience in London restaurants – he worked his way up from bartender, to waiter, maître d, general manager and operations...

Today’s guest on The Dream Dinner Party is Donal Skehan who is so much fun and who has been on Desert Island Dishes before – a few years ago but defiitrly worth having a listen to his main episode as it’s a goodie. I think he was in the very early days when I just turned up with basically a little Dictaphone recorder and hoped for the best. Donal has a new book out called Home Kitchen and honestly Donal’s books are really great – I don’t know how he does it, I tried to get him to give me all...

My guest today is Sarah Wilson Sarah started I Quit Sugar in 2011 as a lifestyle experiment for a column she was writing. This led to an e-book, then three New York Times bestsellers and a business that saw 1.5 million people signing up to an eight-week nutrition programme. But as time went on, Sarah wasn’t enjoying it anymore. She says, ‘The business got to a point where it had gone from being a joy – creating, inventing, connecting with people – to a business concern. It felt...

This week we have Madeleine Shaw, is a nutritional therapist based in London as the guest on this weeks episode of our side dish: The Dream Dinner Party. Interesting fact for you, I’ve done one live recording of Desert Island Dishes and Maddie was the guest! So if you want to go back and listen to her episode of desert island dishes, it was a few years ago now but that one was recorded in front of a live audience. I actually don’t know how I managed to record it as I didn’t have anyone...

You may well know Jon from his friendly, down-to-earth cooking videos online where he has amassed a huge following of avid fans but what you may not know is that Jon is where he is today through a lot of hard work and determination to turn his life around completely. He left school at the age of 16 with no idea what he wanted to do, he found himself hanging out with the wrong crowd and was constantly getting into trouble with the police. In 2008 he was sentenced to 6 ½ years in a young...

Hi I’m Margie Nomura and welcome to another episode of our side dish: The Dream Dinner Party. This is the mini episode where we invite a guest to tell us all about their dream dinner party. This is a game I know a lot of people have played on long car journeys or maybe first dates so it’s really fun to sit down with a different guest each week and hear who they would invite and what they would serve. You’re allowed to invite 4 people – anyone you want, and I think its impossible to listen...

My guest today is Tara Wigley Tara spent a decade working in publishing–before going to cookery school in Ireland. Where she spent 3 months with her twin toddlers and her dog. She has developed, tested, and writen recipes for Ottolenghi’s weekly column in the Guardian magazine and monthly New York Times’s columns, as well as for his cookbooks.  She is the co-author of the award-winning Falastin, - in-house writer of Team Ottolenghi, Yotam’s co-author on eight of the biggest food books,...

This week we have the queen of dinner parties and a woman who has the knack for making everything look so completely gorgeous – Skye Mcalpine. We recorded this in Skye’s kitchen, which if you follow her on Instagram you will know is just absolute heaven – a kitchen of dreams with a long flowing table, the prettiest plates and crockery piled high in a dresser and adorning the walls. She had cakes waiting for us, which were delicious of course. Her third book came out earlier this year – A...

Thom Bateman started his career as a chef at the age of 17, after training at Buxton College and gaining a knowledge of the classical techniques. He quickly rose through the ranks and became head chef at the tender age of 18. In 2009 Thom decided to leave the culinary world behind him, in order to protect his mental health and get a change in scene, a chance to travel to learn more about the world but also himself. 10 years later, Thom started a food blog page known as Bboxfood reigniting a...

Hi I’m Margie Nomura and welcome to another episode of our Side Dish: The Dream Dinner Party. This is the mini episode where we invite a guest to tell us their dream dinner party.  We find out everything from their dream guest list to what they would serve as the menu and where it would be held. This week we welcome Poppy O’Toole to tell us all about her dream dinner party and her choice of guests and the venue are guaranteed to make this a very fun dinner party. Poppy O’Toole, also known as...

My guest today is Jane Dunn. You may know her through her recipes online as Jane’s Patisserie. She has amassed a following of over 1.3 million with her easy to follow but super indulgent recipes for all levels of bakers. From her large Instagram following, regular This Morning stints and record breaking stats, Jane’s hugely engaged following make her this generation’s go-to baker and have her being called the Mary Berry of the Instagram age.  Her debut book, Jane’s Patisserie, became the...