Tom Davis falls in love with our steak pie

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The wonderful Tom Davis is going to be with us today. on Dish, which we'll get into in a second. Before we do, though, we wanted to go into the Ange archive. Oh, crikey. We've rewound 20 years to 2006. Yeah. Do you remember what you were doing? In 2006, it was I was still at the Connacht. Yeah, I was still at the Connacht. So we were serving people like, who came to that? We had amazing guests at the Connacht. Liza Minnelli came. Shut up. I did David Beckham's OBE party. we did his lunch party then um who else do we have paul mccartney came michael kane came what was liza liza was amazing she was really gorgeous lovely polite much smaller than you think who was she with so she was the partner at the time david guest yes who was an interesting character yeah as shall we say i mean i will never forget the story of them shopping do you remember that video of them in shops together do you remember that no i don't remember i don't remember what it was for was there like ruby wax was it with ruby wax maybe because she was doing all her interviews um and i think it was and it was like ruby i think it was ruby following liza minnelli and david guest and they went to like a department store and they were like shopping and he's like do you want it baby and she's like i want it and he was like buying her like diamond necklace it was some of the best telly ever it's amazing i'm gonna have to look that it's really incredible Please, everybody look it up. She's a star. Yeah. She's an absolute star. Liza. Liza. Liza. Liza. So I was in the Connaught then, yeah. Oh, Angela. It's faster. Well, also in 2006, 20 years ago, you competed in the first series of Great British Men. Ah, yes, indeed. Representing Wales. God, that was 20 years ago, God. It was hosted by Jenny Bond. That's right, yeah. Off of the royal family. I know, because it was for the Queen's birthday. or the Queen's Jubilee. Oh, right, right. Well, she loved telly. Yeah, she loved it. Great Britishman, yeah. She was always watching it. Loved it, yeah. She was addicted after that. Loved the telly, yeah. How was that? That was quite fun. I mean, that is nuts that that was 20 years ago. That was Pat Llewellyn who came up with that idea. And Pat was from Wales. Unfortunately, she's no longer with us. And she rang me and she said, Angela, I need you to do this for me. I said, Pat, I was never born in Wales. I don't sound Welsh. She said, yes, but you've got a connection because your mother grew up there. So come on. And I said, all right, I'll do it for you. And I love Pat. She was like a dear friend. So it was great fun, actually. There was me, Marcus, Richard Corrigan, Bryn Williams. And yeah. Strong lineup. Strong lineup. It was good fun. Great telly. And today we have another star of great television. Oh. Tom Davis. I know. Don will be with us. You'll know him as an actor, a comedian, a writer, South Londoner. Yeah. Been in lots of stuff. Loads of great stuff. Yeah. Lover of bread and potatoes. Yes, good. And he's also best friends with Ramesh. I know. I wonder if they've called each other and said, by the way, what are you doing this week? Are you going on it? Are you going on it? I'm going on it. They have their very own podcast, Wolf and Owl. I know, they're busy boys. And Tommy's here to talk about his new tour. Yeah. He's going to be with us in a second. But before Tom, I would love to talk about cabbages. I know, you've always thought that. I would love to talk about cabbages. Beautiful cabbages. It's cabbage season. It is cabbage season. How are you celebrating? I've had a cabbage party. Yeah, I've had a cabbage party. I've invited you and me, Shren, a few others. We're just going to have cabbage. So your pointy cabbage, or hispi, we always seem to call it in the restaurant world, and then your savoy cabbage. Both delicious. I like them just cut, steamed, a little bit of butter, black pepper. But also these ones, you can wrap things in and steam them. So a lot of things, like Italians, we'll fill this with a little bit of sausage meat with some thyme and garlic. After you've blanched them, and then wrap the cabbage around that filling and then steam them, and you can serve them with a little bit of sauce. And I think they're both delicious. Very good for you nutritionally as well. Love cabbage. And we're going to serve some with Tom. So we're making Tom a lovely pie. Oh, we're making a nice pie and a little cabbage. And we're going to have some cabbage on the side. How are you going to do it for Tom? So for Tom, I'm just going to slice it, put it in a tiny touch of water, lots of butter and black pepper. It's funny because as a kid, I'd always hate cabbage. I always hate the sound of it. I mean, no disrespect to Eileen. I think it's probably because she overcooked it. Yeah, definitely. Or just boiled it. Yeah, boiled it so much. I mean, you can, I like, my mum always used it. She'd cut it, wash it, and then in that water that was sort of left on it, that's how she'd cook it. So a little bit of water and then steam it. And then it worked brilliantly. And this as well, this one, you can roast and do it with things like harissa paste, lovely pestos, and really like nice spices, I think, as well. Oh, so you'd roast it. Would you char-grill it first? You can char-grill it and roast it with like a little harissa butter. How long are you roasting like a hispy? Until it's soft. when you put the knife in until it's soft, about 10 minutes. Oh, really? Oh, no. Very versatile, our cabbages. Easy. Easy-peasy. Okay, time to get Tom Davison. My granddad used to have bread with everything. Ange, do you want some bread? Oh, it's on the table. No, it's fine. Put it on the table. Oh, are you doing plates? Well... Making a right palaver of this. It's a bit of bread and butter. Well, f***ing no smaller plate. You're going to have to have a... Do you want a plate? No, I'm fine. I'm fine. Don't you worry. Is that the salted bit of the butter? There's actually no... There were two ones. Oh, I don't know which one's which. Or cookie bar. It's the one nearest to you, if that makes sense. Yeah, that's the salted one. All right, get us that plate off. Okay, should we do our intro? I get very embarrassed in the intros. Yeah, me too. I always want to be like, we were expecting a bigger guest. Yeah, we were expecting... No, please, Tom. We have an actor, comedian, writer, and book I have here, which I love. You can judge the mood he's in by the glasses he's wearing. Oh, so what are these ones saying about you? Hopefully that's a good choice, please. A round of applause for Tom Davies. Thank you. Hi, Tom. That was a nice intro. That was a nice intro. Is that a true story? About the glasses? Yeah. These are like, I'm an open book today. These are happy glasses. Yeah, they are happy glasses. Excellent. If I'm wearing two small ones, it means I'm closing off. Yeah. I associate more of a thicker ringed glasses. That's when I'm in showbiz mode. Right, okay. By the way, I think I... You know, like you do those sort of interviews where someone asks, you had to, I don't know, it was in a paper, I had to write a load of those. And I tried to make things funny or just say something. And I said that in this interview, I said that. And I also said that I can't dream. I said I've got an inability to dream, like physically, like when I go to sleep, I've never had a dream. And I said it was a stupid thing. And then I was on the one show and they had picked up on it. And we were having a jokey sort of conversation about a show and then all of a sudden it got very serious. and so I went, now we've heard about this situation where you can't dream. And I went... When you're dying or something. I said it and they were like, so you sleep but you can't dream, you've never had a dream. And I went, oh no, I was taking a mic. It was just, yeah. It was sort of like, yeah, bridge over trouble. I love that. Yeah, lighting change. I love hearing about other people's dreams. I love a gear change on the one show. It's beautiful. Well, welcome. And we've made you this. We've made you like an alcohol-free cocktail, essentially. Delicious. Fativo, elderflower cordial, some tonic, a bit of thyme and a bit of lemon. Mocktails have come on so much, haven't they? Oh, yeah. What? No, mocktails. Like, really, it's not just the equivalent of a mojito that's not an alcoholic anymore. Yeah, yeah, no, that's good. You need that bitter, you can only really get from like a Negroni. Whenever I have one, I always just think, yeah, it's the times I miss drinking. Yeah. That's the danger of an alcohol-free. I still taste a non-alcohol-free beer and I'm like, let's get on. Hey, before we go any further and talk about your tour, I want to talk about your time as a chef. Because we don't know if this was true or not that you were a chef. Yeah, yeah. How long were you cooking for? So like, a bit of content, I started working very young. I was working on building sites. I was a sort of, I mean, when I first did TV and I remember being on Sunday brunch and said I was a scaffolder. And one of the guys I worked with you're never a scaffolder, you're a labourer, mate. You're a labourer. You're a labourer. They're not going to know it. They're not checking it out. But I've done that for like, a lot, I've done that for like 10, 15 years. And I sort of got to a point where I was like, I need to do something else. I was sort of just a bit disillusioned with picking stuff up and carrying it. What age did you start doing that? So this would be about 25. Right. And I sort of got, you know, I wasn't just labouring scaffolder, you know, labourers carry bricks, plaster balls. If you need to, I carry them. They carry everything. I carry them. And I always enjoyed cooking. My nan was incredible in the kitchen. Food has always been a big part of my life. And I went to Carl Shorton College. And I was doing that in the evenings. And then weirdly got a job, like going in, like doing work experience and did a little bit of commie chef in Lois of the Loat at the Connaught. Oh, wow. And then Michelle Bourdain. And enjoyed it. But also it was like a shock to the system. So who was the chef though when you were there? Bourdain? Yeah, Bourdain. Wow, that's really amazing. I remember trying truffles for the first time. Oh, God. He did the eggs with the truffle, which was amazing. Yeah, yeah. But I was doing you know essentially pot wash and scaling I thought I go in and I be like ratatouille I bolt in without the rat under me I thought I knew it all. And I got cut down pretty quick. It was a very interesting, it was way more alpha than actually being on a building site. It was one of the old hierarchical kitchen. He'd had the same menu as well for like years and years. But it was really run in the old French way. So like they had a staff canteen at the corner where you guys would all go and eat. But then head chef Michel Baudin and his sous chefs would all go in the office and the commies would have to cook for him and then serve the food. It was really like, we're like this, you're like, you know. It was all that sort of thing. Yeah, you knew your place. And did that for a while. And then from there went and worked in an Italian restaurant in Car Shore called La Veranda. Nice. And that was more like actually getting into sort of proper cooking. Yeah, proper cooking. I just felt like I was going up to the corner and if I sort of wanted to be somewhere smaller, like a football one. Huge kitchen. It's terrifying. It's terrifying. And you felt really, I think I missed the sort of camaraderie of being around and having a laugh. You want someone to sort of tap you on the shoulder and look after you and chat to you. And I remember like literally all the only things I ever seemed to hear was faster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd be scaling fish and someone would come in and then you'd take too much off or whatever and you just constantly felt you weren't doing anything well enough or fast enough. It was a very strange thing of like almost changing your persona and who you are. I think I was so terrible. And this French, the chef who tracked this, Yannick, was very much like, you know, know your place kind of thing. And actually sort of as a builder or a labourer, I was an awful labourer. I was very lazy. I was like, but I had a big character and I'd take a look out of people. So people would often keep me around. I mean, to put it into perspective, yeah, I did my first Edinburgh. I was still working on a building site. And I went away for a month to the Edinburgh Festival. and I came to the foreman, I said to him, look, I've got this thing where I can go away and do stand-up for a month. Like, if I give you half my wages, I'll take the other half. And he was like, you know, cool, yeah. And I said, hopefully it'll be all right with me gone. And when I came back, he was like, actually, we were far better as a group. That's all houses. It was like, he didn't miss you at all. You're sort of like the best of the building type, maybe. You're like, we just like the vibe that you bring. You can turn up in a cast, tell a few jokes, and then go, oh, that would be a good thing. Do you want some bread, Tom? I'm looking at the bread. Get involved on that, yeah. Tom, should we do your food likes and dislikes before we get into what we're going to eat today? So today we're going to have a pie. I'm very excited. I'm a pie fan, you're a pie fan. We're all pie fans. We're pie fans. We're having a pie because it basically jumped out from your list of likes and dislikes. Alongside pies, you said that you love Indian food for a snack. Yeah, I love it. I mean, I love it. The best and worst. One of the things I'm proudest of in my life is that once I did the Big Five. Have you heard of the Big Five? What's the Big Five? So you do a McDonald's, a KFC, a pizza, Pizza Hut, Express, whatever, a curry and a Chinese, and you do that in a day. Wow. Wow. I'm pretty proud of that. McDonald's, KFC, pizza, curry and a Chinese. In that order. No, no, you can do it any order. Any order. But that is, I'd say McDonald's breakfast is the way to know. That would make sense, wouldn't it? You're not going to have a Chinese... Well, you could have a Chinese... I tried to go last. Chinese last. Yeah, yeah. I've probably done three in a day. That's pretty amazing. That's pretty impressive. Push yourself. Push your limits. Like a bad angle, fam. Yeah. It's always hangover through. Yeah, yeah. The fives. Five's quiet. It's something I'm... And how old were you when you did this job? It wasn't even that long ago. Last week. It wasn't that long ago, actually. And I tried to sort of do it like I was trying to accomplish something. and my wife was like, what a heart attack. Yeah, exactly. What have we accomplished? Have you done the big five-inch? No, never. What have you done? I've probably done McDonald's. I've definitely done KFC, but not in the same day, no. I've had a McDonald's and probably had another meal, but probably not another takeaway or anything, I'll be honest. I've never heard of that. You've done one? Just one, sorry. I wish I'd filmed it, that's the only thing, but it was before social media was as big as it is. Maybe I'll have to do it again. Do it again. We'll come along. Let's try it. I'd say that would be an honour to have you both there. I think that's genuinely impressive. Yeah, very. That's brilliant. It's like Everest. Yeah. And how much are you eating? Like, when you say like... By the way, it's like, it's frowned upon in the community if you're... If you're having a cheeseburger. It's got to be a McDonald's meal. No, you've got to have a McDonald's meal. It's got to be a whole pizza. So you have chips and chips. Yeah, of course. Pizza, a proper pizza, not a slice. Not a slice. Your pizza's almost the easiest one, I think. Yeah, I think so, yeah. You can scoff back at me. That I may have done is pizza during the day in like Indian or Chinese. I might have done that. And then all you've got to do is add the McDonald's for your breakfast. Or add the McDonald's breakfast. And then you're on three. Yeah. But the only trouble is then Chinese late on always plays havoc. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in bits. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you are. I'm impressed you did that not drinking though. No, I think I was drinking better. Oh, I was going to say. Yeah. I'd have to be paralytic to get all of that. Doing it sober, yeah. With a gut full of beer as well. Yeah. Plus beer. A gut full of Stella. I feel genuinely impressed. Oh, thank you. I feel a bit astral. As well as that, you said you love lasagna. I love lasagna. You love haggis, neeps and potatoes. Lovely, yeah. Do you have that a lot? Not enough. If I'm in Scotland, I might now and again just sort of... I love haggis. But my wife doesn't like it. She's not having it. Oh, I love it. I love it. We love this answer because this is very much same as me and Andrew we ask if there's anything you don't like and your answer was not really no not really I'm really open I love food I think it's my happy place yeah perfect that thing I enjoy now my daughter she's four and it's a really important thing for me to be like socialising that's what it is and also just a sort of number of different places for me and my wife the thing that we do if we're going out it's all about the food now it's all about we'll go out You know, she's got a friend, she'll have a few drinks. But, yeah, it's always picking somewhere where it's a bit different, a bit unique, and that making that the night. And when you travel in, I always think it's the country, you know, as much as the food I want to eat in that country. We went to Vienna for Christmas, my daughter's birthday. Yeah. And it was, yeah, just the cakes, the shudels. Yeah. The meat out of it was incredible. But I think what you've just said is one of the most important things about food. It's not actually what goes on the plate. is that socialisation and that community. And I think that's one of the saddest things is when you don't sit down as a family or sit down, you know, to sit and share a meal. That's what it's about, you know, breaking bread as we literally are, you see. Yes, kind of beautifully, by the way. Thank you so much. But breakfast, do you know as well, I don't think anything bonds people as much as bad food. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think a bad meal is the best thing in all. Sometimes if you go out and it's awful, like it's not the expectation. The laughs and jokes you can have about that and you'll talk about it for years. I'm very scathing on TripAdvisor. Oh, are you? I'm quite addicted. I'm going to go and check this steak pie now. Hopefully we remember this for the right reasons. Do you get on TripAdvisor? I went for a phase. I've got a very obsessive, addictive personality. And yeah, it will come down to the minutiae of commenting on something. If I've had a bad meal or a good meal. But my praise is ever so thirsty. You could read it and go, no food's this good. this guy is completely insane he's lost it and did you always do that like I like the idea of you guys wanting to sit around the table and have dinner did you have that as a kid was that something that you would always do yeah yeah just my immediate family my wider family it was always a very important thing of like when I think back of like Sunday lunches and with my gran and granddad a very like important thing of like my dad's dad he was one of the first people of his sort of around the area I was from who tried garlic he was oh wow it was a weird insane day I remember when Pizza Hut came to Sutton and my dad one of the girls at my school's dad worked there and my dad turned around he went he was showing off down the pub and he went yeah we're off to Pizza Hut this weekend Tom's going to school with the maitre d's daughter he'd heard that in Falls and Horses he was the maitre d maitre d walking in like he's in Goodfellas I was thinking 20 quid in his top pocket. There we go, mate. Here's a nice move in the corner. But I remember, yeah, like the thought of pizza. Wow. I wanted to talk to you as well about Nando's because key to your life because you had your first date there with you. No, no, no. I met my wife. You met her there? Yeah. How do you meet someone in Nando's? It's called the meet-you. It's the meet-you. But it's quite an in-and-out experience, isn't it? It's not like a lounge. It is when you're talking to date. I've been sitting in Nando's since it opened that day. I was living with an actor called Neil Maskell at the time. And Martin, I don't know, Martin Compton, he was living with us. He was living on our sofa at this time. So the three of us had popped into Nando's to get something to eat. And we were sitting and having our food. I was sort of king chief in Nando's. I knew everything. I was, you know, it was the one, yeah. And the table next to us, my wife was there with some friends. And I was giving it to the big guy, swearing about Nando's. Refilling. Mixing my fizzy parts. No shit's given. Oh, come on. Have you seen the geese over there? He's got 7-Up and Pepsi together. He doesn't care. He's a maverick. What does he look like? He's like a big Nelson Muntz. And she'd ordered a vegetarian burger and she was saying how disgusting it was. And I sort of made like a sort of cocky, that's what you're good if you order a vegetarian burger and a chicken joint. Sort of thing. And... What a mate's like. I literally just got this follow on Twitter I followed her back and DM her and she DM me and Bessie Nando me Oh wow look at it This is incredible Oh wow that does that amazing We've got a pie here, Ange. Yeah. We've got a steak pie. Yeah. Tell us about this recipe because you've also, by the way, thank you, you've done two pies. Gluten-free pie for me. Yeah, gluten-free. Extra gluten for you guys. Yeah. I'm actually not far away from making quite orgasmic sounds about this. I'm not going to lie. Mate, it's incredible. Carry on song. As a 46-year-old man, this is... Maybe before, yeah, before I go to bed on a sort of date night, I'm going to have a little slice of pie. You're lively tonight. Add pie. So what have we got here, Ange? So we've got a steak pie by Diana Henry, who we love. She writes a lot for Waitrose. And it's roasted braising steak. Roasted off in a pan. Remove that from the pan. Then you add your carrot, your onion. Celeriac she puts in rather than celery. Roast that off. nice dice of that. A little bit of tomato puree and then everything back in the pan with some bay leaf thyme and some beef stock. So you cook all your pie filling until it's nice and lovely thick and unctuous and delicious. Probably boiling? No, simmering, simmering, low simmer. And then she's got this little tip which we made gluten free actually, which was she then mixes a little bit of flour and butter while it's just at the finishing up to thicken it and you put that back in like a little root. Yeah. You know, just to thicken up the pie filling and the sauce. And then it's short crust pastry underneath, which is flour, butter and salt, and that's pre-cooked. And then add your pie filling and then finish that with puff pastry on top and cook it for 30 minutes in the oven. This has inspired me to know next time my dad comes around, I'm going to cook you my proper pie. Take this one. And then what sort of steak? It's just braising steak. So either chuck steak you can ask for or shin or, you know, not rump steak. and just ask for braising steak. That's what they get. And it's just a slow cooked and it will just, you know, over time, that's where all the flavour comes through. Tell me about this cabbage because this is absolutely delicious. How do you do this? Literally in a tiny little bit of water, really quickly boiled and then just butter and a bit of pepper. That's it. That's it. Cabbage-wise. Cabbage-wise. Go on, I feel there's a question here. No, I love a drop of cabbage. Yeah. But like we had, I used to go to school with a boy whose house always smirked of cabbage. Oh. I had a friend of onions. Yes, it was onions. You go around their house. Yeah, it's not good. You go, I go, oh, we're having cabbage for tea. She goes, no. No. What makes you smell that? What was that smell? Yeah, it always smelled of... What was that smell? I don't think people opened the windows years ago, did they? No. Yeah. The heating was too much. I don't think they did. No fresh air. I'm obsessed with opening a window. If it's freezing, raining, the windows are opening. I don't think we open the windows. When I go to my mum's, the windows are locked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's under attack. I'm like, why is every window locked? She's like, what do you mean? I'm like, can we open a window, please? And then these mashed potatoes taste... You know what it is, butter, butter, butter. I was going to say, they taste so good. Tell me it's not just butter. Boil your potatoes, evenly cut, salted water, drain them well, and then butter in when you mash them. But make sure they're really mashed to the consistency you want before you add your milk. Because once you add your milk, you can't do anything. That's it, it's gone. And there's also a wine pairing. If you wanted to do a wine with this, If you want to make this pie at home, there's a Malbec that pairs with it. And Malbec, good because, you know, this is quite a hearty... Firm tannins, bold flavours. Wintry, heavy wine with a nice heavy pie. Yeah, would go well. If you want the wine or the recipe or the ingredients, waitrose.com forward slash dish recipes. They are all on there. When you're talking about Waitrose, by the way, this is a... We moved to a place where my wife's from, Stanford, in Lincolnshire. A lot of my friendship group from when I lived there became the people who worked in Waitrose. It's so tragic. I didn't know anyone, and it was around pre-COVID, going into COVID, at the end of COVID. So I sort of hadn't met any real friends as COVID kicked off. I've got, like, Instagram friends and Facebook friends from Waitrose, because that was the place I went to. That was the other place to socialise. Yeah, I literally, you know, like Norm from Cheers. Yeah. That was like me. You can wait for that. Tom! I used to think, oh, he's popular, but really it was like people going, oh, God, that's sad prick, aren't they? Four and a half hours. Just get a job here, mate. Come on. Everyone's at work. Stop talking to them. They always make me feel part of it. Go and get those trolleys, David. Should we do your fast food quiz? Yeah, let's go. It's quick fire. Are you ready, Ange? I'm ready. Okay. Tom, tell us your favourite way to eat eggs. Oh, scramble. Favourite sandwich filling? I was going to say with a fork. A fork? With my fingers. I was going to scramble everything with my fingers like that. I did wait for a sand pit. Sandwich filling, go on. Oh, wow. Three meat, always. Three meat? Three different meats. Turkey, a little bit of beef. Corned beef, actually. Oh, nice. Corned beef is so underrated. What is your favourite former potato? Roast. Favourite herb? Rosemary. What's your favourite chocolate bar, Tom? Oh, wow, my word. You've got hard-eating questions, Tom. Yeah, I need some meat, Tom. Lime bar. I'm going to go lime bar. Lime bar. Okay, nice. Favourite Sunday roast? It's got to be beef. I think roast beef is the one. Beef, yes. And finally, what is the best crisp? oh my word what's it in tomorrow's soup we call them croydon croutons croydon croutons I love that if you want to if you want to change up the game and you're talking about getting in late from work one night you throw tomorrow's soup tomorrow's must be Heinz my dad that's one of my favourite things when I earned for the first time a bit of money I took my mum and dad out for a really nice meal the way it went behind my dad and he was like what are you thinking of having the soup is it Heinz and the waiter went no And my dad went, I don't worry about it. I love that. I love that. Hey, Tom, we should talk about your tour when you're going to be back on the road for Spudgun. Excellent word I've not heard for years. Yeah. Explain. That's a good tour name. It was my nickname on the building sites. Spudgun. Yeah. How did they land on Spudgun? Yeah. Well, I was just affectionate. Yeah. Essentially, the idea is that Spudgun only fires quite watery water. Right. So it's sort of the idea that you haven't quite got the minerals to be a real man, I think. Okay, right. Yeah, but I always quite liked it. Oh, Spudgun. So I took a long time out of stand-up. I came into this industry for doing that and loved it. And then through one thing and another, my confidence just drained. And I got such anxiety. I mean, you can see I like food. and I wouldn't eat for like a day at a gig. I'd be so anxious. I just couldn't. Oh, that's awful. And like, because I just have so much fear of it going really badly wrong. I think you get to a place in this as a job where you've put so much emphasis on like, oh, I've had one bad gig or this thing goes wrong. You know, I'm like, is that going to be the end of everything? Yeah, yeah. So I sort of just stopped and I concentrated on the acting, the writing. And I was very fortunate to do that. But then there was also this bit of me that was really wanting to get back to it. so I was very fortunate really Romesh was a big part of that Romesh was really really a point in making you go back and helping you get back yeah helping me and like as a friend and sort of someone who sort of built up built up because I had no confidence for it and I remember like he was doing a tour and he asked me to come and open for him and I turned up and I was just absolutely like so needy and pathetic like shaking before I'm going to all happen he was like well this is actually about me I don't care it's a testament to Romesh as what a beautiful human being he is and I think that's the thing with stand-up how do I just try to get better at this thing how can I be more open, more honest I think this shows a lot more I think raw in a sense of talking about mental health and trying to make that funny or just the difference in men and women when you get to my age I listen to my wife and her friends talk they're so open it's beautiful to listen to women talk and how they're there for each other it's incredible they're going through the same thing there's changes happening so they're there and one's a bit older and they're giving advice, one's a bit younger, they're giving advice, you should be on this supplement, maybe you should try this. There's a guy with the idea of turning around and going, you haven't had an erection for a month. Oh, no way, mate. Come on. So, yeah, and we do have this weird thing. And, you know, as I say, from kitchens or building sites, I've been brought up in a very alpha world where, like, people will be constantly, and we have this thing now, we need to talk, men need to talk more. And actually, in any situation I've been with a group of men, I've never ever sat there and thought, I don't know what to say. No, it's just very quiet. It's constant barrage of like that. Who's going to win the league? But actually talking about emotionally where we're at or physically where we're at or even actually more than talking, just listening and going, oh, actually Danny seems like he might be going through it. And recognizing someone. Oh, so you're a dad, are you? Oh, well, you want problems, mate. you should listen to this, it's not one-upmanship and we bring that to it. Yeah, of course. So he's trying to bring that element and being a bit more earnest and the people that I like and I watch, you know, I watched Romesh's last tour, for example, and I've known Romesh for 13 years and watching him do what Rom does and go, oh wow, you can see how much better and better he's got by, you know, pushing yourself. Yeah. I think that's kind of what I want from this tour. Yeah. I think that, you know, it's so understandable to have that. I think about anything, I think, in the public eye or anything where you've got to stand up and do something. Yeah. And be judged. But I think comedy especially. It's the one art form that's like, you can be in a movie and people go and see it, but you don't know their reaction. No. You know, yeah, if you're a West End show, you do, but it's the audience. You know, I can cook a meal, but I don't necessarily go to the table and see people eat it. Do you not ever peek out No not sometimes You ask a manager Yeah But I think you react to how the audience reacts So if you feel they not with you that hard to sort of you know get back to go It can be like the hardest thing to do, but it's also like the late. It's rewarding as well. Yeah, if you're in a room and people are laughing and you're on a riff and you feel like, oh, we're sharing something. It's pretty amazing. I've been very fortunate to now do this and to have done the things I've done. Come on this podcast. To be fair, this meat pie is a highlight. Actually, the cabbage is better than some of the TV stuff I've done. I guess you get the proper immediate reaction from Lance. You might get compliments to the chef. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What happens? So if someone says compliments to the chef, the waiter comes and... The waiter says, oh, table four, love the risotto, so it was the best they've ever had or stuff like that. So you go, I'll say thank you very much. And you go, yes! Yeah, well, generally, it's not me that's cooked. I'll go, well done. Stephen or Mark whoever's on the section say well don't you hear that risotto is so rewarding to cook in it yeah when it's done really well yeah but it's a beautiful thing when you get it right it's true and there's so many people get it wrong and you can't leave it yeah you can't 20 minutes it's like a sort of yeah stirring it away it's like someone having a fall and you're the only person there you're like I'll be here with you until this is done until the ambulance is here until that butter and cheese go I find a risotto it's like it's a food equivalent of that We should talk about a few of your other projects. We should talk about Wonka, first of all. I think the last time I saw you, you were promoting Wonka and I was promoting something. And we were on the one show together. We were on the one show together, yeah. Was it your book? No. I can't remember what it was. Anyway, we're not here to talk about me. It might have been this podcast you were providing. Oh yeah, maybe it was this. Probably it was, that makes sense. I was promoting Dish you were promoting Wonka Wonka was a huge fan with Timothy Chalamet who's now maybe going to be up for the Oscar in case we edit this and he's won he just won the Oscar he just lost the Oscar and Olivia Colman as well and she came on Dish we had a great time with her on Dish it was great fun with Benedict they've just done two films with they're both just two of the most incredible people but Olivia was like sort of like she just was very like my daughter had been born like maybe a month before like we started filming Wonka and I think the first day the makeup chair I was struggling with some stuff like personal stuff and she like said look can we have a moment and we went out and just stood and chatted and she just gave me so much advice and throughout the whole of that film I was going through quite a lot and she was just like the most gracious person like to act with it was like yeah she's an Oscar winning an actress um i was just absolutely like wow i'm you know the true greatness like uh with her and timothy you know they're two of the most lovely people i've worked with but how she looked out for me i don't think i'd seldom think it's sort of quite sad on my part i couldn't really remember any that many romesh but that many people in my life who instantly just felt like oh wow this person's got my back professionally and personally yeah what i learned as an actor just being around those two and Paul King was amazing but actually just how gracious and decent Olivia Coleman is as a human being that's the thing that I went away from that job thinking more than anything else really she's a she should be treasured because this truly beautiful human being great experience having a huge film like that someone with that experience to look out for you because it's daunting I mean, she also ripped me to... Yeah, I bet. When I broke the marshmallow bridge... Do you know about this? No. So we got a tour of the set, which is incredible. They built a... Yeah. And they took us to the Chocolate River. Oh, yeah. And Olivia's like, oh, my God, this is amazing. And I'm like, it's incredible. There's this Chocolate River and there's a marshmallow bridge. And I lost my mind. I was like, oh, my God, look at it. And I was like, yeah, it's proper. and I just went across the marshmallow bridge and my foot just went right through it. And it smashed. And Olivia just went, Tom's broken the marshmallow bridge. Tom Davis has broken the marshmallow bridge. And everyone's like, what the bloke's coming up. We've been working on that for six months. You've done, you fool of that. And I was like, well, I thought, because Timothy's going to skip across it. And Timothy weighs like eight stars. I weigh like 24 stars. I'm like, I'm three Timothy Chalamets. I'm like Timothy Shalemar carrying our three other cast members on his back and then we should talk about your new project as well this is something brand new The Reluctant Vampire it's like an amazing thing to be involved in so Eric Morecambe wrote these kids books called The Reluctant Vampire and I got a call about a part in it and Lenny Rush who's an incredible young actor BAFTA winner and just, yeah, he's like a phenomenal talent. I mean, I've been very fortunate to work with incredible people, but he's just, and the cast is just Joe Wilkinson, Charlie Cooper, Bill Bailey, Sean Clifford, Asim Chowdhury. It's like Ross Noble. It's a really amazing cast of people, like a comedy ensemble, but it's a really beautifully, beautiful sort of, kind of old school sort of sitcom. It feels like very family friendly, really funny jokes. It's just really nice, delicious before Christmas and it's a really lovely thing. and it's a lovely thing to have been a part of. Oh, amazing. What a fan. We come to the end of the show question. Yes. This is your chance to win this Waitrose goodie bag, Tom. I don't know why I feel this bit so nerve-wracking. A gold envelope just throws you. Yeah. Just the tension. Yeah. Tom. Tom. Your chance to win the Waitrose goodie bag. Yeah. Has anyone ever not won one of these? Nah. We're very generous. No. We're all 50. The angel is just dragging it all right. I think it should be Bully, just take me away It should be more cutthroat Yeah, we're too nice I think the build could be more cutthroat I love that Tom's just grafted it near him I'm so excited about this Yeah, it should be like What's the population of Cairo? Yeah, exactly Like You've got to know Well, you don't know Check it out To win the Waitrose goodie bag It's a simple decision See, too easy already Heart versus head What is it to be? Potatoes or bread? Oh, wow. That is a really... I mean, it's... Do you know what? I could say anything. No, no, but these are the questions in my life I take more seriously than I do. I don't want people listening to this and going to hear half-heartedly answer. Yeah, please. Come here. A world without sandwiches feels one I don't want to be in. And I think that bread is just, yeah. I think there's nothing like kicking back in a restaurant and the moment the free bread arrives. And actually you go, this has surpassed everything else. this is like everything's downhill potentially the bread no no no the bread but the bread I think I just love that a night out and it's the anticipation of the food of fun just as you crack that butter a little bit of marmite butter and a hot bit of bread and do you know what it's never not a treat is it you're never like oh here we go bread again just a slice of bread just just yeah so all day I mean the potatoes bread wins yeah honourable second in a two horse race but bread he is well bread he's the winner the goodie bag is yours I'd love it it's just full of potatoes all the potatoes just going what's going on with him it's like a loaf of bread you prick yeah Tom thank you so much that was a lot of fun thank you thank you so much round of applause Tom Davis thank you a massive thank you to Tom Davis for joining us on Dish to talk about his tour. Now, Angela, did you know that Dish has the power to create national holidays? I did not know that. Because according to our listener, Jill, it does. Dear Nick and Angela, my son Chris and I are huge fans of the podcast and regularly exchange ideas about the latest episode. He's in the Netherlands, so Christmas is always a time when we can relax together at his house and indulge our mutual love of cooking. this Christmas we decided to do a dish day we agreed on the Puttanesca tart from Stacey Dooley's episode followed by the roast trout with soy, orange and chilli from Brian and Nicole Ansari Cox's episode although we use salmon and to finish cheese scones while together we watched the relevant episodes again which was a first for me as always listen to the podcast we want to thank you for the inspiration for this event and also for the joint inspiration thank you and good wishes for 2026 Jill, thank you Jill oh isn't that lovely wow Jill, a dish day yeah dish day I love that they call it it's quite an eclectic menu I know and I love that for Christmas Day because there was nothing we've done like four Christmas episodes and she chose nothing for many of us nothing Christmassy nothing at all but I'd love to thank you guys to do that well thank you Jill lovely Jill thank you and thank you Chris and Jill happy new year too Jill happy new year I love that idea, Dish Day. If you do want to get in touch with us, you can email us, dish at waitrose.co.uk is the way to do it. So yeah, get in touch. Come say hi. And that's it for this week. Fab, let's go. Angela! Thank you for listening. We will see you next week. See you next week. And yes, let's go. If that episode has left you wanting more, find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Just search Dish. If you want to make any of the meals I cook on Dish, head to waitrose.com forward slash dish recipes for all the ingredients and the recipes. Email your questions, thoughts and suggestions to dish at waitrose.co.uk Dish from Waitrose is a cold glass production. Waitrose, the home of food lovers.