Desert Island Dishes

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Ravneet Gill: Pastry Chef, TV Presenter and Author

Season 13, Ep. 5

My guest today is Ravneet Gill

Ravneet is fast becoming one of the best known pastry chefs of her generation.

After completing a psychology degree, she studied at Le Cordon Bleu before working her way up the ranks in different pastry sections at some of the best restaurants in London - most notably, St. John, Llewelyn's, and Wild by Tart.

Ravneet published her first cookbook - in April 2020 entitled 'The Pastry Chef's Guide: The Secret to successful baking every time' as a handbook to dispel the fear around baking. And since then it looks as though her feet have barely touched the ground.

She joined both the Telegraph and Guardian Feast as their new baking columnist and starred as a judge on Channel 4’s Junior Bake Off alongside Liam Charles and host Harry Hill. A winner at the 2021 GQ Food & Drink Awards, this year she also launched The Damson Jelly Academy online cookery school

In 2018 she set up an organisation called Countertalk; a platform designed to help connect chefs, provide education and promote healthy work environments in the hospitality industry. The countertalk platform has gone from strength to strength over the last few years through Ravneet's hard work.

In addition to all of this, She has just brought out her second cookbook, Sugar, I Love You.

Ravneet has said:

‘Pastry is an art but it is also food so remember to stay in touch with your ingredients, reflect the seasons in your food and, for the love of God, don’t use strawberries in December.’

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Thank you to our season sponsor Cooks Matches for helping us to bring the show to you each week. Head to their website www.cooksmatches.co.uk for lots of recipes and foodie inspiration.

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Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Side Dish: The Dream Dinner Party with Esther Coren (mini episode)

Introducing our new mini episode...it's a little after dinner something to keep you going through the week. It's The Dream Dinner Party. It's short and sweet, just one simple question. Each week we will have a different guest guiding us through their Dream Dinner Party. They are allowed 4 guests, they can be dead or alive and of course we want to know why they will be invited. They're going to be talking us through their dream dinner party menu, what will their dream guests be feasting on and what will they drink?I'm so excited for this and our first guest sharing her dream dinner party is the wonderful Esther Coren. It only felt fitting to have Esther as our first Dream Dinner Party guest as she was my very first guest on Desert Island Dishes before I had a single listener and so that felt like a fun full circle moment. Thank you Esther for being so generous with your time – and for taking a chance on me and my little Dictaphone that I plonked on the floor between us. Esther is a fantastic writer, she’s so witty and I just love her writing . She has a brilliant Substack which you should all subscribe to and can find here. Do make sure you're subscribed to catch all episodes of The Dream Dinner Party and Desert Island Dishes. Thank you so much for listening, bye!Find us on Instagram and Tiktok @desertislanddishes

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Twiggy on life as the face of the swinging sixties, winning 2 golden globes and life as a self confessed foodie

Season 14, Ep. 10

Twiggy is one of those rare celebrities known by a single name.She was the girl from Neasden, north London who became the face of the swinging sixties. With her petite frame at just 5ft 6 Twiggy smashed the stereotypes of what it meant to be a supermodel. Her pixie hair cut and wide eyes will forever be iconic. As the model of her age she was propelled into the glamorous world of fashion and photography and later she found success as a singer, dancer and actress. She starred in Ken Russell’s film The boyfriend – a performance for which she won not one by two golden globes. In 1983 her talents took her to Broadway for her debut in the musical My One and Only.She is a wife, mother, grandmother and of course fellow podcaster. She has said of her many successes “ I think I’ve had a brilliant career. And more importantly I’ve had a very happy life.”Listen to Twiggy's podcast Tea with Twiggy wherever you get your podcasts.Thank you to our sponsor Lloyds Bank for supporting us this season and for helping us to bring the show to you this weekDon't forget to come and find us on Instagram and Tiktok @desertislanddishes

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Max La Manna on sustainable living, why painful sandwiches are the best and a surprising last meal

Season 14, Ep. 9

Max is a champion of the low waste and sustainable lifestyle. He’s a chef, presenter and award-winning author and has been described as a bona fide millennial heartthrob. His recipe content and food shows have been seen by over 1 billion people.He talks to Margie about why the best sandwich are painful to eat and his choice of his last supper might surprise you! What would you pick? I know it's a very hard question to answer but it's also impossible not to think about your own choices.Max has been plant-based since 2011 and says his biggest ambition has always been making sure his recipes are accessible to everyone without being at all preachy about being vegan. Through his viral recipe videos and work with BBC Earth and beyond, Max has inspired hundreds of thousands of people across the world to rethink their approach to food consumption and made it his mission to breathe new life into leftovers that are typically destined for the bin. The son of a French chef father and a mother of Italian heritage, food was very important to them as a family when he was growing up. In the early days of his career, he supported himself by cooking everywhere from pizzerias to Michelin-starred restaurants and it was this ultimately that led him to challenge his own values.Max has got a new cookbook out now called You can Cook This which you can buy here.Thank you to our sponsor Lloyds Bank for supporting us this season and thank you to this week's episode sponsor, St Pierre Bakery, for helping us to bring the show to you this weekDon't forget to come and find us on Instagram and Tiktok @desertislanddishes

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Annoushka Ducas founder of Links of London and Annoushka Jewellery talks to us about how her mother's fish business was the catalyst for her hugely successful jewellery career

Season 14, Ep. 8

Annoushka's mother had a business selling fish to all the top restaurants in London and it was this business that accidentally set Annoushka onto the path to become one of the most successful jewellers in the UK. Annoushka does not believe she's a good cook but you really wouldn't know that from her delicious choices of dishes.Annoushka Ducas MBE is a jewellery designer, creative director and entrepreneur who founded British jewellery companies Links of London and Annoushka Jewellery.After studying in Paris in the 1980s, Annoushka embarked on the first of many extensive world travels, stopping to spend time in Hong Kong, where she first began to design jewellery.In 1990, together with her husband, she founded Links of London – a global luxury jewellery brand. In 2009, she went on to launch the brand Annoushka Jewellery. Annoushka enjoys a star-studded fan base that includes the likes of Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez and Kate Middleton.In 2012, Annoushka was awarded an (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her services to the British jewellery industry, which spans three decades. In 2019 she launched the Brilliant Breakfast which generates money for disadvantaged young women and girls in the UK. It’s raised over 2 million to date and is the only annual fundraiser dedicated to enabling disadvantaged young women in the UK.Thank you to our sponsor Lloyds Bank for supporting us and helping us to bring the show to you each week.Don't forget to come and find us on Instagram and Tiktok @desertislanddishes

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Jessie Inchauspé, known online as The Glucose Goddess on her life changing discovery and why parmesan is everything

Season 14, Ep. 7

Jessie is a French biochemist, bestselling author, and founder of the Glucose Goddess movement. She's helped millions of people improve their health by making cutting-edge science accessible. Her whole philosophy is one that focuses on the idea of adding things to your life and not taking them away. She’s very clear that she doesn’t advocate a certain type of diet, her whole focus is on the science and that actually the biggest benefit can be found in changing the order in which we eat. Her book, the Glucose Revolution, is a #1 international bestseller and has been translated into 40 languages.She holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from King's College London and a master's degree in biochemistry from Georgetown University.Jessie has said she didn’t set out to change the world, her whole story is a very personal one based on her own journey with her mental health following a life-changing accident she had at the age of 19Thank you to our sponsor Lloyds Bank for supporting us and helping us to bring the show to you each week.Don't forget to come and find us on Instagram and Tiktok @desertislanddishes

Thursday, May 4, 2023

Sophie Ellis-Bextor on the best meal she's ever eaten and why lockdown was the making of her

Season 14, Ep. 6

Sophie Ellis-Bexter is a double platinum selling artist. She started out as the lead singer of indie band the audience at the age of 17. She shot to fame with her single with Groovejet which earned her her first number 1. Since then she’s gone on to release 6 studio and 2 compilation albums, written a memoir, went on Strictly come dancing, appeared in Game of Thrones, launched her own podcast, wrote a cookbook with her husband and Kept everyone dancing during lockdown with weekly discos streamed live from her kitchen. Shes acheieved all this and much more whilst also being the mother of 5 boys. In 2021 she did a 24 hour kitchen disco danceathon with raised over a million pounds for Children in Need. I am thrilled to have the undisputed queen of lockdown with us today, thank you so much for listening. To enter the brilliant competition we have with The Garden Trading Company, where you can win £250 to spend on their site, simply click here to enter here. Good Luck!Thank you to our sponsor Lloyds Bank for helping us to bring the podcast to you each week.See you next week!

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Shelina Permalloo: Cookery Author and TV Chef on how Masterchef changed her life

Season 14, Ep. 5

Shelina describes herself as a cook, an author and restaurateur.She grew up in Southampton with her Mauritian parents and siblings. It was only in 2011 that she decided to follow her heart and gave up a career in diversity and equality to enter the MasterChef competition. Over 6.5 million viewers watched Shelina triumph in the MasterChef final: with her instinctive spicing and intense flavours, she brought Mauritian food to TV for the first time, inspiring legions of home cooks to try out her recipes at home.Since winning the title, she has written two cookbooks, is a regular on TV and Radio and has opened her own restaurant serving Mauritian food in her home town of Southampton. Shelina has said - “It’s true what they say – ‘winning MasterChef can change your life’.Thank you to our sponsor Lloyds Bank for supporting us and helping us to bring the show to you each week. Don't forget to come and find us on Instagram @desertislanddishes and check out the website www.desertislanddishes.co Thank you so much for listening, See you next week!

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Dan Keeling: Co founder of Noble Rot, restaurateur and the man responsible for discovering Coldplay on

Season 14, Ep. 4

Dan is an award winning wine writer, magazine editor and restaurateurHe is the Co founder of Noble Rot named for the fungus that shrivels and sweeten grapes which began life as a cult food, wine and popular culture magazine. The magazine created a space that is as informative as it is witty and serves up wine with alongside sides of life and culture. The brand has since expanded to two award winning restaurants and a wine shop Shrine to the Vine.Dan has won numerous awards for his writing about wine and food and has written for the Financial Times, The Spectator and Melody Maker. Before Noble Rot Dan was previously managing director of Island Records. He was the one who found and signed Coldplay who then went on to sell 5 million copies of their debut album.Find us on instagram @desertislanddishes and visit the website www.desertislanddishes.coThank you to our sponsor Lloyds Bank for helping us to bring this with you each week.And thank you very to you for listening!See you next week,Margie

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Shivi Ramoutar on being the Queen of Caribbean Cooking and how getting made redundant was the best thing to happen to her

Season 14, Ep. 3

Shivi has been dubbed by The Guardian as the “Caribbean Food Supremo”, and it has been said she is the "Queen of Contemporary Caribbean Cooking". She is a food writer, cookbook author, TV chef and presenter. She was born in Trinidad but was brought up between there, New York, the English countryside and London. This diverse upbringing has really influenced her style of cooking. She says her culinary mission is to twist classic Caribbean dishes and make them into her own vibrant, fresh and easy to make recipes. She’s had a fascinating career - Starting out as singer / songwriter – training as a lawyer before going on Masterchef and turning her dream of working in food into a reality. She’s now written three cookbooks, and can regularly be found cooking on TV. She is a regular guest on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and has previously hosted the show as well as a regular on ITV’s This Morning. She has just released her third cookbook, Cook Clever. Do hope you enjoy today's episode. Do rate, review and subscribe to the podcast if you are enjoying it and help us to spread the word. Thank you very much to our sponsor Lloyds Bank for helping us to bring the show to you each week. And thank you all for listening. Come and follow us @desertislanddishes and head to the website www.desertislanddishes.coSee you next week!