Podcast · Arts & Books

The Go To Food Podcast

by Go To Podcast Company · English · Arts & Books

The Go-To Food Podcast is where the world’s most influential chefs, restaurateurs, food writers and critics share the stories behind their craft. Hosted by award-winning presenter Freddy Clode and chef and food writer Ben Benton, this weekly show dives deep into the experiences, inspirations, and “G

New episodes: Several times a week
Typical length: 58 min
Latest: 12 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026 · 51 minNew

Spudman: The Secrets Behind Britain's Most Viral Food Business

How do you turn a humble jacket potato into one of Britain's biggest viral food sensations? This week we're joined by the one and only Spudman, the man behind Britain's most famous jacket potatoes, to uncover the extraordinary story of how he built his potato empire. From queues stretching for hours and millions of followers around the world to earning £40,000 a month through TikTok and turning down a staggering £1 million offer, Spudman reveals what it really takes to turn a simple food business into a global phenomenon. But behind the viral success is an equally remarkable personal story.…

Play episodeWhatsApp Download

Earlier episodes 29 most recent

8 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 33 min
Dylan Jones: Inside London’s Wildest Restaurant Era | David Bowie, The Groucho Club & Boris Johnson
Dylan Jones has spent more than four decades at the heart of British culture, from i-D and The Face to GQ, the Evening Standard and some of London’s most legendary dining rooms. In this episode, Dylan joins us to talk about the wild years of 80s, 90s and noughties London, from The Groucho Club, The Ivy and Le Caprice to David Bowie, Robbie Williams, Boris Johnson and the extraordinary overlap between restaurants, fashion, music, media and drugs. We also get into the characters who made London dining what it was, the rise of the power restaurant, Jeremy King and Richard Caring, the changing…
5 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Jacob Kenedy - How Bocca di Lupo Changed Italian Food in London & Why Great Restaurants Struggle to Survive
Today we're joined by one of the most important figures in modern Italian cooking in Britain, Jacob Kenedy, chef and co-founder of the legendary Bocca di Lupo and Gelupo. Jacob's journey is anything but conventional. Before becoming a chef he studied science, was a glassblower and a DJ, before a stint at Moro changed the course of his life and eventually led him to create the restaurant he simply wanted to exist in London. Jacob takes us inside the extraordinary story of Bocca di Lupo, from opening in the middle of the financial crisis to becoming one of London's most celebrated restaurants.…
1 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 22 min
Robert Reid & J-C Slowik: The Madness of Running Harveys, Winning 3 Stars for Marco at The Oak Room & Working for Raymond Blanc, Joël Robuchon & Roger Vergé
Between Robert Reid and Jean-Christophe “JC” Slowik, you have nearly 80 years of extraordinary restaurant history. From Roger Vergé and Raymond Blanc to Marco Pierre White, Harvey’s, The Oak Room and some of the defining restaurants of their generation, the pair have witnessed first-hand the madness, brilliance and brutality of elite restaurants. They join us to share incredible stories from those years, including life inside Marco’s legendary kitchens, the intensity of three-Michelin-star cooking and how London’s restaurant world has transformed since the 1980s. Then, in their mid-50s, they…
28 Sep 2026 · 52 min
Sertaç Dirik & David Carter: How They Created London’s Restaurant of the Year 'KID' | Reinventing Turkish Food, Michelin-Star Kitchens & Becoming Action Bronson’s Favourite Chef
🔥 Two of the most exciting names in London restaurants join us this week as David Carter and Sertaç Dirik reveal the story behind KID, their hugely anticipated new Turkish restaurant in Soho. David has built an extraordinary run of restaurants including Smokestak, Manteca, OMA and AGORA, while Sertaç transformed his family restaurant Mangal II into one of London’s most acclaimed dining rooms. Now, after nearly three years of planning, travelling and eating their way around Turkey, they’ve finally joined forces. We hear how a casual two-hour coffee after Sertaç left Mangal II eventually…
24 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 16 min
EXCLUSIVE - John Torode - From Running Terence Conran's Restaurants To Life After MasterChef
In his first interview since his shock departure from MasterChef, John Torode joins us for an exclusive and deeply personal conversation about the end of his extraordinary 20-year run on the show. He reveals whether he was surprised by how it all came to an end, reflects on what MasterChef meant to him and the thousands of people involved in making it, and explains why, despite everything, he is determined to hold on to his “professional pride” and look towards whatever comes next. We also go back to the very beginning. John opens up about losing his mother as a young child, finding comfort…
21 Sep 2026 · 57 min
Pam Brunton - Creating Scotlands Greatest Restaurant 'Inver' & The Craziness Of Working For Tom Aikens, Noma & Fäviken
We travelled to the shores of Loch Fyne to sit down with the brilliant Pam Brunton, chef and co-owner of Inver, one of Scotland’s most remarkable restaurants and the first in the country to receive a Michelin Green Star. Pam’s extraordinary career has taken her from dropping out of Edinburgh University to cook on Scotland’s west coast, through the kitchens of Tom Aikens and The Greenhouse, before stages at Noma, Fäviken and In De Wulf helped shape the restaurant she would eventually create. Pam takes us inside some of the toughest kitchens of her generation, explains what she learnt from the…
17 Sep 2026 · 46 min
Lorna McNee - Winning Glasgow’s First Michelin Star in 18 Years, How Great British Menu Changed Her Life & The Night Police Had To Drag Protesters Out of Her Restaurant
Lorna McNee joins us at Cail Bruich to tell the remarkable story behind becoming the chef who brought a Michelin star back to Glasgow for the first time in 18 years. She takes us from washing pots in a small Italian restaurant and a teenage stage at Gordon Ramsay, to walking into Andrew Fairlie’s legendary two-Michelin-starred kitchen as an apprentice and immediately wondering whether she was good enough. Lorna spent the next 12 years working alongside Fairlie, who became her great mentor, and opens up about the moments she wanted to quit, what made him such an extraordinary teacher and why…
14 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 37 min
Josh Niland — The Chef Who Reinvented How We Cook Fish, Heston Blumenthal’s Magic & Why Some Chefs Think He’s Crazy
This week we’re joined by one of the most influential chefs of his generation, Josh Niland, the Australian chef who has completely changed the way the restaurant world thinks about fish. Josh tells us why our obsession with ultra-fresh fish may actually be holding us back, how learning to treat fish more like meat transformed his cooking, and why a piece of advice from legendary fish chef Stephen Hodges changed the course of his career. He also reveals the influence of Heston Blumenthal on his thinking, why so many chefs initially thought his ideas were completely mad, and how he went from…
10 Sep 2026 · 41 min
An Italian Odyssey, Rumours & Behind-the-Scenes Chaos
Welcome to a special edition of Go-To Food where Freddy and Ben ditch the guest and get into the industry gossip, rumours and behind-the-scenes stories that normally don’t make it onto the podcast. From the guests we’ve chased for years, the interviews that nearly never happened, awkward encounters with some very famous chefs and what really goes on before and after the microphones are switched on, we’re spilling a few stories from behind the curtain. We also get into the chaos of actually making Go-To Food — the shoots that have gone wrong, unexpected moments with guests, the things people…
7 Sep 2026 · 50 min
Jack Coggins - Creating Smash Hits In Goodbye Horses & The Dreamery & Why Food Creators Need to Stop Stealing Recipes
This week we’re joined by Jack Coggins, the chef behind Goodbye Horses, Stable Wines and The Dreamery, for a brilliant journey through one of the most unconventional careers in London food. Jack started helping out in an East London café at just 12, studied English with dreams of becoming a food writer, then found himself unable to afford the entry-level jobs in publishing and instead earning his living in kitchens. We hear about the moment during lockdown when Jack decided to take cooking seriously, the glorious lawlessness of Hot 4 U, and the extraordinary night out that ended with him…
3 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
Aktar Islam - Chasing 3 Michelin Stars, How Gordon Ramsay Saved My Career & The Problem With Curry Houses
Gordon Ramsay told Aktar Islam he needed to break free. What followed changed his life and helped set him on the path to two Michelin stars — and now he wants a third. In this episode of The Go-To Food Podcast, we sit down with Aktar Islam, one of the most influential figures in modern British Indian cooking, for a brilliantly candid conversation about ambition, Michelin stars, Gordon Ramsay, the British curry house and the brutal economics of running restaurants today. Aktar made his name at Lasan, winning both The F Word and Great British Menu, before walking away to build something…
31 Aug 2026 · 49 min
Sam & Alicja Bryant: How We Accidentally Created The UK’s Best Burger, Why We Ditched Service Charge & Why Every Restaurant Needs Draught Beer
After seven years of residencies and pop-ups, Whole Beast have finally found a permanent home on Coldharbour Lane — and Sam and Alicja join us to tell the gloriously chaotic story of how they got there. They reveal how working for other people eventually reached breaking point — from having menus rewritten around them to being asked to start making pastries — until they stood outside one day, said “fuck it”, and decided they were done letting anyone else dictate what they cooked. Now they’ve built one of London’s most exciting restaurants around fire, whole-animal cooking, nostalgia and a…
27 Aug 2026 · 56 min
INSIDE TAVERN - Why Great Restaurants Become Irrelevant, The Problem With Tasting Menus & The Worst Behaved Diners Ever
This week we’re inside Tavern, one of London’s most talked-about new openings, from the team behind Michelin-starred Restaurant St Barts. After almost a decade of Nest, they explain why they decided two tasting-menu restaurants no longer made sense, why restaurants increasingly seem to need to be either brand new or about to close to get people excited, and how they’ve tried to build something more affordable, energetic and accessible without compromising the cooking. We also hear how a previous Go To Food episode directly led them to a British quail supplier — who then drove from Suffolk to…
24 Aug 2026 · 58 min
Marcus Wareing - Part 2 - My 15 Year Feud With Gordon Ramsay, The £1m Lawsuit & Why He Never Won 3 Michelin Stars
In Part Two of our extraordinary conversation with Marcus Wareing, we pick up his story as his career begins to explode. Marcus takes us inside the chaos of 1998, when he was suddenly fired despite holding a Michelin star, before Gordon Ramsay led a walkout that left the restaurants reportedly losing £15,000 a day and ended in a £1 million lawsuit. He also reveals how a chance walk into a near-empty restaurant led to the creation of Pétrus, and recalls the infamous £44,000 dinner that became one of the most talked-about restaurant bills of its era. Marcus then charts the extraordinary rise…
20 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
Marcus Wareing - Part 1: Surviving Britain’s Toughest Kitchens, The Lost Art Of Cooking & Winning His First Michelin Star
In Part One of our exclusive two-part interview with Marcus Wareing, we sit down with one of the most influential chefs of his generation to trace the extraordinary story of how a shy teenager from Southport became one of the defining figures of modern British cooking. Marcus takes us from working in his father’s fruit and veg warehouse as a boy to leaving home at 18 for The Savoy, before literally knocking on the door of Le Gavroche and asking for a job in one of the greatest kitchens in the world. Marcus then takes us inside the brutal, exhilarating kitchens that forged an extraordinary…
17 Aug 2026 · 45 min
Naz Hassan - Opening Restaurants With Theo James, Surviving Toxic Kitchens & The Problem With Chef Ego
This week we’re joined by Naz Hassan, the chef behind two of London’s most talked-about Italian restaurants, Lupa and Ornella, alongside co-founders Ed Templeton and Theo James. Naz tells us how a drunken conversation at a Christmas party somehow turned into opening restaurants with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, why Lupa being fully booked for its first three months became both a blessing and a curse, and what it really takes to survive the hype surrounding a major London opening. Born in Bangladesh and raised in Milan, Naz also opens up about rejecting his Bengali identity as a…
13 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
Mursal Saiq - Escaping War-Torn Afghanistan - Fighting Racism in Kitchens & Gordon Ramsay’s “Authenticity” Problem!
This week we sit down with the extraordinary Mursal Saiq for a conversation that goes far beyond food. Mursal takes us from a childhood shaped by war in Afghanistan and arriving in Britain as a refugee, to the devastating separation of her family at the UK border and the years that followed. She recalls the extraordinary places life subsequently took her — from Hackney to India and Italy, living on a fishing trawler in Portsmouth and even spending time with English showman families who couldn’t pronounce Mursal and instead called her “Roger” — before eventually finding her place in food. Her…
10 Aug 2026 · 52 min
Layo & Zoë Paskin - Opening London's Greatest Night Club 'The End' - Breaking Fat Boy Slim & Creating; The Palomar, Barbary & Evelyn's Table!
This week we’re joined by Layo and Zoe Paskin, the brother-and-sister duo behind Studio Paskin and some of London’s most celebrated restaurants, including The Palomar, The Barbary and Michelin-starred Evelyn’s Table. Before restaurants, they were at the heart of London nightlife, helping build legendary nightclub The End into one of the most influential clubs of its era. They reveal why they chose to walk away at the absolute peak of its success, the huge offer that tempted them to close the doors, and why, looking back, Layo wonders whether they made the right decision. We hear how the…
6 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 25 min
Adam Byatt Live - From Losing Everything to Building an Incredible Restaurant Empire
Michelin-starred chef Adam Byatt joins us for a raucous live edition of the Go To Food Podcast, recorded in front of a packed audience at Bird House Brewery. The man behind Trinity, Bistro Union, Charlie’s at Brown’s, and the newly opened Rosina reveals how his latest restaurant secured 11,000 reservations and opened at full capacity from its very first service. Adam explains why every great restaurant needs a signature dish, how he built a social media audience of more than one million followers without compromising his craft, and why telling his own story has proved more powerful than…
3 Aug 2026 · 34 min
Keiran Mustafa - Behind The Scenes At 'Kismet' London's Sexiest New Restaurant
This week, we join Keiran Mustafa at Kismet in Borough Market, surrounded by bulgur kofte, fried liver, lamb neck, chicken shish and what may be the greatest spread we’ve ever had on the podcast. Keiran reveals how a completely mad three-day trip through Cyprus and Istanbul with Dom helped inspire the restaurant, and explains the meyhane culture of meze, raki, music and long nights that they are bringing to London. Keiran tells us about Sundays with his Turkish-Cypriot nan in Edmonton, where he was instructed to sit down and eat continuously before being sent home with bags of leftovers. We…
30 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 7 min
Only Scrans - Why Food Influencers Need a Licence, His £40k YouTube Gamble & Building LADbible’s 100 Million + Audience
This week, we’re joined by Only Scrans — one of the UK’s biggest and most engaged food creators, with more than 1.5 million followers and one of the most unusual career stories we’ve encountered. Jonny has toured the world as a guitarist, helped build LADbible’s audience past 100 million, launched FoodBible, worked with some of Britain’s biggest celebrities, built his own agencies and turned Only Scrans into a major food platform. Most recently, he has taken the ultimate step from commenting on hospitality to living it, opening his own sports bar and discovering exactly how difficult it is…
27 Jul 2026 · 53 min
Ali Borer - Late Nights Cooking With Guy Ritchie, Burning Out At Smoking Goat & Opening London’s Hottest New Restaurant - Appalachia
This week, Freddy and Ben head to Shoreditch for a special episode of Mise en Place from Appalachia, one of London’s most exciting new restaurant openings. They are joined by head chef Ali Borer and restaurateur Ryan Sheehan to discover how the cooking traditions of the Appalachian Mountains have inspired a bold new menu in the heart of London. Ali serves up some of the restaurant’s most talked-about dishes, from a three-day pig’s head and ox tongue skewer to his curried crab omelette, pimento cheeseburger and butter-brined chicken with grits. He explains why flavour will always matter more…
23 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
Alexis Gauthier - I Lost 99% of My Customers Going Vegan, Feuding With Jeremy Clarkson & Why Michelin Is Stuck in the Past!
Alexis Gauthier spent decades at the summit of classical French cooking, training under Alain Ducasse, earning Michelin stars and building one of London’s most celebrated restaurants. Then he did something few chefs of his generation would dare to do: he removed meat, fish, dairy and every other animal product from his menus. When Gauthier Soho became fully plant-based, Alexis says he lost 99% of his existing customers. In this remarkably candid conversation, he explains why he took the risk, how he rebuilt the restaurant around compassionate French gastronomy and why his greatest regret is…
20 Jul 2026 · 53 min
Cynthia Shanmugalingam - From HM Treasury To Opening One Of London's Greatest Restaurants 'Rambutan'
This week on the Go To Food Podcast, we're joined by one of the most fascinating figures in British food today: Cynthia Shanmugalingam, founder of Rambutan, the Borough Market restaurant that's redefining how London experiences Sri Lankan cuisine. From studying economics at Cambridge and working at HM Treasury to building one of the UK's most celebrated restaurants, Cynthia's journey is anything but conventional. We dive into the extraordinary story behind Rambutan, from losing her first restaurant site during the pandemic to spending six months travelling around Sri Lanka researching family…
16 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Jack Stein - Accidentally Deleting Rick Stein's Cookbook, Working As A KP At 12 Years Old & Running Britain's Most Famous Seafood Empire
What was it really like growing up as Rick Stein's son? This week we're joined by Jack Stein for one of our favourite conversations yet. From washing pots aged 12 and accidentally deleting his dad's first cookbook, to training in Paris, Sydney and Japan before returning to help lead one of Britain's most iconic restaurant groups, Jack tells the stories you've never heard before. We dive into the reality of family businesses, the pressures of carrying one of the biggest names in British food, why Michelin stars were never his obsession, and the lessons he brought back from some of the world's…
13 Jul 2026 · 46 min
Josh Emett - The Untold Story Of Gordon Ramsay's Right-Hand Man Who Won Michelin Stars Across Three Continents
From a remote dairy farm in New Zealand to the most feared kitchens in the world, this week we're joined by one of the greatest chefs you've probably never heard enough about. Josh Emett spent over a decade as Gordon Ramsay's right-hand man, helping lead Michelin-starred restaurants across London, New York, LA and beyond before returning home to build one of New Zealand's most celebrated restaurant groups. Josh takes us inside the reality of life at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay during its golden era, working alongside chefs like Paul Ainsworth and James Knappett, the pressure of chasing Michelin…
9 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
Eddie Huang - From Corporate Lawyer To Drug Dealer To Award Winning Restaurateur!
Chef. Filmmaker. Bestselling author. Restaurateur. Streetwear pioneer. Former lawyer. Former drug dealer. There aren't many people who have lived as many lives as Eddie Huang. In one of our favourite conversations ever, Eddie joins us for an unfiltered deep dive into the decisions, failures and moments that shaped one of food's most original voices. This is funny, brutally honest and completely unpredictable. We talk about everything from opening BaoHaus and changing the perception of Taiwanese food in America, to why he fell out of love with restaurants before rediscovering his passion for…
6 Jul 2026 · 46 min
Margaux Aubry - 12 Years Of Naughty Piglets, Getting Fired From Trinity & Becoming Andrew Lloyd Webber's Business Partner!
Margaux Aubry has quietly built one of London's most influential neighbourhood restaurants. As the owner of Naughty Piglets, she's spent the last 12 years helping redefine what modern London dining can be: brilliant produce, fearless cooking, incredible natural wine and a restaurant that genuinely feels part of its community. In this episode, she joins us to tell the remarkable story behind one of the capital's most beloved independent restaurants. We dive into her journey from growing up in Lyon to arriving in London as a teenager, falling in love with hospitality and eventually opening…
2 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
Mario Carbone – Why Michelin Is Bullsh*t, Critics Don't Matter & The Secret Behind Carbone's Success
One of the most influential restaurateurs of the last decade joins us on the Go To Food Podcast. Mario Carbone, co-founder of Major Food Group, sits down for a wide-ranging conversation covering everything from building one of the world's most sought-after restaurant empires to why hospitality should feel more like theatre than dinner. From Queens to New York, London and beyond, Mario shares the philosophy behind Carbone, the power of storytelling, and why every detail in a restaurant matters. We dive deep into the psychology of great hospitality, including the famous "moves" that define the…

About The Go To Food Podcast

The Go To Food Podcast is a English arts & books podcast from Go To Podcast Company. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Go To Podcast Company
Language: English
Category: Arts & Books
New episodes: Several times a week
Typical length: 58 min
Latest episode: 12 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1726742385
Rights: Go To Podcast Company

RSS feed Apple Podcasts

More English arts & books

Take it with you

The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.