Chef Angela Hartnett OBE and broadcaster Nick Grimshaw are now such a double act, if one has a coughing fit, the other follows.
“There’s nothing wrong with us by the way,” says Grimshaw archly, as Hartnett breaks off choking and he collapses into a hacking wheeze. “Well, when you do it, I want to do it,” he says sidelong to his Michelin-starred co-host, with a laugh. “It’s like when someone coughs at the theatre, and then you’re like, ‘Hmm, maybe I want to cough?’”
The pair are in the north London studio where they record their hit podcast Dish, from Waitrose, but this time they’re sat on the side of the table usually reserved for their celebrity guests.
So far, this season has featured actors Damian Lewis and Anna Maxwell Martin (“With Maxwell Martin, I’ve never laughed so much,” says Hartnett. “I was in tears, like, when you cross your legs and think, ‘Oh my God!’”) with Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon still to come.
It’s cosy, the Christmas tree is up, and you can see why Dish is so loved – the two of them seem like family. If you’ve never caught an episode, Oldham-born Grimshaw, 40, brings the chat, nosily quizzing guests on their lives and favourite crisps, setting each one up to sparkle. Meanwhile, Hartnett, 56 – imperious chef patron of the renowned Murano restaurant – cooks, so they can have a proper natter over a meal.
Now into their sixth series since buddying up in 2022, ask them how they feel about working together and they don’t miss a beat. “Awful, terrible,” says Grimshaw. “Nightmare,” adds Hartnett.
Then, to laughter from the whole studio, Grimshaw adds: “No, I feel like I’m actually taking the p*ss! That I get to come and just eat really nice food and have a laugh with Angela. Like, I keep thinking, what’s the catch?”
“I’ll tell you in season eight,” quips Hartnett.
Grimshaw adds, incredulous with joy: “We had 11am gin and tonics today with Rob Brydon!”
If they weren’t so lovely and curious about it all, from the food to the guests, we’d likely be too jealous to listen. Half the time the pair end up chatting away before their guests’ mics even are on, meaning the crew have to remind them to “save it for the podcast”.
“With Stephen and Rob, I forgot I was doing a podcast,” says Grimshaw. “You’re just sat there chatting and then look round and see 15 bored faces and you’re like, s***, I’m at work!”
They’ve learnt quite a bit already from this series. Like the fact comedian Judi Love doesn’t like risotto (“You don’t say that to an Italian,” says Grimshaw, deadpan, to Hartnett, who, yep, you guessed it, is half-Italian) and that actor Richard E Grant likes to salt his own food before he’s even tasted it (“He brought his own salt,” says Grimshaw.
“I saw how much he put on, it was a handful, plonked on!”). And Fry talked about how people don’t sit down for dinner as a family so much now. “The kitchen isn’t the heart of the household anymore,” says Hartnett. “It never used to be like that, and that’s really sad that’s happening.”
“I didn’t think there was another way,” says former Radio 1 Breakfast host, Grimshaw. “When I went to uni and everyone was having their dinner on their knees, I couldn’t do it. I was, like, trying to figure out how to eat. I’d genuinely never done it. So I love the idea of everyone, whatever they’re up to, school, college, work, all coming together and just having that time around the table.”
Making Dish has changed how, Grimshaw at least, cooks. “I used to find it quite stressful if people came round for dinner, and when my friends come around now, they’re like, ‘We can tell you work with Angela’. I don’t like, study Angela, but it’s Angela’s attitude to cooking,” he says, turning to Hartnett. “You’re not into being stressed out by it.”
“No, no one’s coming to your house for dinner to judge it.”
“I always thought that people were, like, it was Come Dine With Me and they were gonna score me,” he says. “And actually, it’s not.”
“Less is more,” says Hartnett. “If you’re trying to do a dinner party, do stuff you’re confident with. Because at the end of the day, if you’ve invited people around, you want to see them. You don’t want to just be harassed, stuck in the kitchen.”
She recommends putting dishes in the middle of the table and letting people help themselves. “And if you’re not into puddings, do a cheese board,” she says, before admitting she did recently get into a bit of a flap when she had friends coming over and realised she hadn’t done starters and there wasn’t pudding either. A lemon meringue pie was still being rustled up when everyone arrived. “My friends never leave, so they had it later!”
Ultimately, Hartnett hopes the pair of them “can encourage people to just feel relaxed about food”.
Grimshaw agrees. “I hope people have a laugh listening to it. I hope they feel part of it. I hope they get insight into someone’s life. I love hearing about what people eat and how they live at home, and I hope they feel more equipped in the kitchen and more confident to say, ‘Do you know what? Let’s have everyone around at the weekend,’ but don’t think you’ve got to put on the Ritz.
“No one’s expecting like, a three-course meal,” he says. “But I hope people feel like, ‘Oh, let’s get our neighbours around that we’ve not seen for ages, and like, have a bowl of pasta.’”
If that pasta meal is even a fraction as fun and cheering as listening to Hartnett and Grimshaw, it’ll be worth boiling the water for.
Dish from Waitrose is available on all podcast providers.
