The Go To Food Podcast

Joe Otway has built one of the most exciting restaurant groups in the country, and in this episode he tells the full story, properly. From Brighton to Manchester by way of Cape Town, New York, San Francisco and Copenhagen, Joe charts the long, obsessive road that led to Higher Ground, Bar Shrimp and Flawd. We meet him fresh off national recognition and immediately get into what really matters: not lists, not PR, but full dining rooms and food that actually moves people.At the heart of the conversation is Higher Ground’s farm-led philosophy. Joe explains how Cinderwood Market Garden shapes everything, from baby cabbages grilled hours after picking to a cheddar tart that’s never left the menu. He talks candidly about putting offal ragu on the menu, expecting guests to run a mile, and instead watching the North embrace it. It’s serious cooking without the theatre, light-hearted on the surface but absolutely ruthless underneath.The origin story is wild. Joe and his partners meet at Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns, get snowed in during a historic freeze, and decide they are going to build something together. What follows is an education in chaos and intuition: farm chores, goose slaughter, no written menus, thirty-five dish services changing daily. He then stages at Benu just before it wins its third star, learns brutal discipline in an Indian kitchen back in Brighton, and eventually lands in Copenhagen at Relæ, where the four-day week model reshapes how he thinks about leadership and life in restaurants.Along the way there are smashed windows in Copenhagen, racist guests thrown out in Cape Town, bike thieves, nightmare services, and a brutally honest take on chasing accolades in modern hospitality. We finish with Joe’s ultimate three-course meal, from cockles on Brighton beach to chicken biryani and rhubarb and custard, and a glimpse at what might come next: a Manchester deli and farm shop to rival anything in London. It’s funny, sharp and properly revealing, and if you care about where British food is heading, this is one you need to hear.

David Carter does not do the neat, pre-packaged rise. In this episode, he takes us from a childhood shaped by Barbados heat and roadside grills, through Toronto and LA, into London kitchens where the stakes were real and the pressure unforgiving. He talks candidly about cutting his teeth at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, realising hotel life was never going to satisfy him, and why layers of process can kill creativity stone dead. It is a sharp, funny look at how those early years formed his instincts, his impatience with bullshit, and his obsession with food that feels alive.From there, the conversation opens up into the brutal reality of building something from nothing. David relives the years of juggling failing cafés, overnight smoking shifts, 4am meat-market runs and festival chaos that eventually became Smokestak. He talks honestly about being stretched to breaking point, why “washing its face” can still drag you under, and how chasing too many ideas at once nearly sank him. There are big lessons here about focus, knowing when to let something go, and why making one thing excellent beats doing five things badly every single time.Finally, David unpacks the thinking behind Manteca, Agora and Michelin-starred Oma. From why fire is non-negotiable in his kitchens, to how queues, bread, price points and design quietly create “vibe”, this is a masterclass in building restaurants people actually want to be in. He explains why the Michelin star was never the goal, why nothing changed when it arrived, and why excellence, generosity and energy still matter more than any accolade. Presented by Blinq, this is one of those episodes that will change how you think about food, leadership and what success really looks like.

From ballet dancer and Billy Elliot hopeful to Michelin-starred chef, Michael O’Hare’s journey is anything but conventional. In this episode of The Go-To Food Podcast, Michael traces his path from Middlesbrough to the top of British fine dining via aerospace engineering, Jamie Oliver cookbooks, formative kitchen years and time spent at Noma, before blowing the doors off the scene with The Man Behind the Curtain. It’s a story shaped as much by instinct and curiosity as by rebellion against tradition.Michael speaks candidly about what success really costs. He breaks down the brutal economics of Michelin-starred restaurants, the impossible margins, the pressure to keep raising prices, and the moment he realised that even full dining rooms no longer meant financial survival. For the first time in detail, he explains the HMRC debt that followed the closure of his restaurants, how his wages became reframed as loans, and what it actually means to “go bankrupt” in modern hospitality. It’s a rare, unfiltered look behind the headlines.Beyond the business, Michael unpacks his philosophy on food and creativity. He rails against homogenisation in restaurants, arguing that haute cuisine has slipped into fast-fashion thinking, where identity is lost and trends are copied plate for plate. He challenges ideas around seasonality, menu poetry and performative complexity, and tells the stories behind some of his most infamous dishes, from raw prawns and potato custard to why a “tikka prawn” can be more honest than something that looks clever on paper.The conversation moves effortlessly between the serious and the absurd: chaotic kitchen stories, onion-ring addictions, shower cups of tea, the strangest customers he’s ever faced, and why he believes restaurants should feel more like homes than institutions. We also hear about his new chapter, a radically intimate restaurant built around balance, control and cooking purely for joy. Funny, fierce and deeply human, this is Michael O’Hare as you’ve never heard him before.

Carl Clarke is the sort of guest who makes you pause mid-intro and think: how is one person allowed to have this much life on a CV? DJ, chef, author, filmmaker, raver, and yes, a full-blown chicken deity, Carl has lived about six parallel careers, usually at the same time, often on zero sleep, and always with a story that somehow gets even more unhinged as it goes on. Carl takes us from a 15-year-old runaway with £200 and a half-baked plan for France that accidentally ends in Jersey, to the brutal, hilarious reality of old-school hotel kitchens (including a banquet tale involving a missing blue plaster that you will not forget). From there it is trench-foot potato prep, the Marines, and a world suddenly cracked open: ships, Florida, discipline, trouble, and the kind of hard-won perspective you only get when you have been dropped into the deep end repeatedly and survived.Then comes the rave years: Turnmills, illegal parties, global gigs, and a Buenos Aires night so surreal Maradona is literally standing behind the decks while Carl is stretching out Donna Summer like a religious experience. And just when you think he will stay in the chaos, he swerves back into kitchens because he cannot help himself. Marco. Fear. Perfectionism. The cold larder. The kind of intensity that makes you laugh while you are quietly grateful you are not the one on the pass.From there, the stories go truly international: Dublin’s Clarence during its moment, improvised custard hacks that somehow impress the right people, Harvey Nichols in Istanbul, envelope-thick cash, and the kind of hospitality madness you only hear from someone who has actually been there, lived it, and can tell it with zero varnish. And threaded through it all is the thing Carl does better than almost anyone: taking serious technique and turning it into food people really want, paving the way for the pop-up boom and ultimately giving London Chicken Shop royalty in Chick ’n’ Sours and Chicken Shop. Strap in, because this one is a ride.

Today we’re at the Michelin-accredited Mambow, home of the brilliant Abby Lee, a chef with more grit, talent and sheer force of will than most people manage in a lifetime. We start at the beginning: Abby arriving in Lewisham at 14, completely alone, trying to find her feet, her voice, and a sense of belonging in a new country. Then comes the proper immersion: Singapore, then Italy, where the romantic fantasy of the trattoria quickly gets replaced by the brutal reality of kitchen life. When Abby talks about Italy, she doesn’t romanticise it for a second. She tells the truth about the kitchens, from the intensity and long nights to the darker, uglier realities, including male chefs forcing her to watch porn while she was just trying to do her job. It’s shocking, infuriating, and vital to hear, especially when set against the myth of the idyllic European food pilgrimage.Back in London, Mambow is born, and it’s a wild ride: early hype, big reviews, and then the kind of nightmare you wouldn’t wish on anyone, including a genuinely traumatic incident where customers are held at knifepoint in a shared market space. And just as the restaurant begins to soar, Abby is hit with a breast cancer diagnosis. She speaks with huge honesty about chemo, losing her taste, the psychological shock of being taken out of the kitchen, and the slow, ongoing work of rebuilding a new relationship with food, her body and her life. It’s one of the most powerful conversations we’ve ever had!

This week we’re joined by Harneet Baweja: restaurateur, operator, and the man behind some of London’s most-loved restaurants. Over the last decade he’s built an absurdly good line-up: Gunpowder, Empire Empire, Moi et Toi, Fortune Fried Chicken, and the recently opened Master Jackie back in his hometown of Kolkata. It’s a 10-year anniversary conversation with proper bite. Harneet talks about celebrating Gunpowder’s first decade by doing something borderline outrageous: rolling back the menu to 2015 prices, with some dishes down around 70%. It’s not a stunt. It’s a clear-eyed look at what restaurants are up against right now, and what it takes to pull off something generous without collapsing, from suppliers pitching in to the team simply trying to keep the wheels turning.You also get the origin story that explains everything: the tiny Spitalfields site, the chaos of opening, doing everything yourself, and the scrappy early days that shaped how he runs a business now. Harneet unpacks what it was like trying to convince London that Indian food could sit outside the old stereotypes, and how a community of regulars, critics, and champions helped put Gunpowder on the map. He’s funny, blunt, and refreshingly unpolished about the luck, the grind, and the moments that could have gone either way.Harneet also runs through his actual go-to orders and favourite spots, the drinks he really wants (whiskey, barely any water), his love for Old Monk rum, and the ultimate nibbles he’d put out for friends, from the rasam bomb to those famous lamb chops. There’s Kolkata food intel, Chinatown history, late-night favourites, nightmare service stories, and a whole lot of heart underneath the swagger.

Ben Benton is usually the man behind the mic, but this week the Go-To Food Podcast flips the script. In a special episode, Ben steps into the hot seat as the guest to celebrate something properly massive: his debut book, All You Can Eat: The Search for a New British Menu. PRE ORDER IT NOW - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1805221523?psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDpBefore food took over his life, Ben had already lived a few careers. He started out in the City during the financial crash, walked away from it, then poured everything into launching a clothing brand, only for it to collapse and leave him bankrupt. That brutal reset sent him into kitchens, where he cut his teeth at Margot Henderson’s Rochelle Canteen and went on to work for Stevie Parle at The Dock Kitchen, learning the reality of food from the inside out.Since then, he’s cooked, written, tested and built menus for some of the most influential names in modern food, from Meera Sodha to Max Halley, stacking up years of chaos, graft, disasters and hard-won knowledge along the way. Now all of that lived experience pours directly into All You Can Eat: The Search for a New British Menu, a book that is less about best restaurants and more about what Britain actually eats. Ben drives the length of the country in a car, deliberately avoiding the obvious destinations and big-name kitchens, stopping instead at markets, roadside cafés, seaside towns, village shops and places you would normally drive straight past. Along the way he eats seafood pulled straight from cold water, jollof rice served far from any food trend, kebabs, curries, faggots and peas, smoked fish, market sandwiches and meals that are brilliant, baffling, occasionally awful and often unexpectedly moving. The result is a funny, honest and sharply observed portrait of modern Britain, told through food, where regional habits, migration, class, comfort and taste collide. It is a travelogue, a memoir and a food book rolled into one, capturing the chaos, boredom, joy and small moments of connection that come from eating your way through a country without a plan.

This week on The Go-To Food Podcast, we are joined by Neil Rankin, the chef behind some of London’s most talked-about restaurants: Pitt Cue, John Salt, Smokehouse, Bad Egg and, of course, Temper. We trace the slightly unconventional route that took him from a sandwich business and a proper career wobble into Michelin kitchens, then on to finding his true groove via BBQ, fire-cooking and big, bold flavours.Neil Rankin speaks candidly about the darker realities of the industry. Bullying versus brutality, kitchens that nearly broke him, and the moments where power, ego and silence caused lasting damage. There are stories here that are genuinely shocking, including one workplace experience he describes as the worst of his life, and others that reveal how close he came to walking away altogether.We also get into the headlines. Neil talks about publicly calling out Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White, what prompted it, and why he still stands by the wider point, even if the internet reaction was slightly more chaotic than intended. It is candid, funny in places, and full of the kind of context you only get from someone who has been in the middle of it.Neil is brilliant on what it actually takes to build hit restaurants, and what people never see. The reality of learning fast, long shifts, the difference between hard kitchens and outright bullying, and how a good head chef can change everything. ------