Lecker

A visit to the Ideal Home Show, with author Eli Davies.Eli's book The Spinster Cookbook: Culture, Politics and Pleasure in the Single Woman's Kitchen is out now! [aff link]Find Eli online:Instagram: @elidaviesssSubstack: elidavies.substack.comRelated episodes:Trophy Cabinets (Kitchens episode 1) [LINK]Moving House, Moving Kitchen [LINK]---Lecker is a podcast about how food shapes our lives. Recorded mostly in kitchens, each episode explores personal stories to examine our relationships with food – and each other.Looking for something else to read? Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker:Patreon: patreon.com/leckerpodcastSubstack: leckerpodcast.substack.comApple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lecker/id1158028729Merch:  leckerpodcast.com/merchListen everywhere: leckerpodcast.comInstagram: @leckerpodcastFull transcript available at leckerpodcast.comMusic by Blue Dot Sessions

How still life reflects - and defines - the food of an era, featuring artist Ben McDonald and author Katie Goh.Find Ben online:Instagram: @ben___mcKo-Fi store: ko-fi.com/benmc/shopFind Katie online:Instagram: @katie_goh_Website: katiegoh.co.ukYou can find a list of books referenced and artworks mentioned at leckerpodcast.comRelated episodes:A Personal History of the Orange with Katie Goh [LINK]Oranges and Lemons [LINK]---Lecker is a podcast about how food shapes our lives. Recorded mostly in kitchens, each episode explores personal stories to examine our relationships with food – and each other.Looking for something to read? Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker:Patreon: patreon.com/leckerpodcastSubstack: leckerpodcast.substack.comApple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lecker/id1158028729Merch:  leckerpodcast.com/merchListen everywhere: leckerpodcast.comInstagram: @leckerpodcastFull transcript available at leckerpodcast.comMusic by Blue Dot Sessions

Sculptor and miniaturist Alice Hewitt explains the secrets of her tiny kitchen tables.There's also a lo-fi video version of this episode with images of the tables discussed on YouTube. You can also buy the book from the exhibition, with images of each table and their accompanying texts HERE.Find Alice online:Instagram: @alicemakesathingTikTok: @alicemakesathingYouTube: @alicemakesathingWebsite: alicemakesathing.co.uk ---Lecker is a podcast about how food shapes our lives. Recorded mostly in kitchens, each episode explores personal stories to examine our relationships with food – and each other.Looking for something to read? Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker:Patreon: patreon.com/leckerpodcastSubstack: leckerpodcast.substack.comApple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lecker/id1158028729Merch:  leckerpodcast.com/merchListen everywhere: leckerpodcast.comInstagram: @leckerpodcastFull transcript available at leckerpodcast.comMusic by Blue Dot Sessions

Have you ever thought about what you might put on your gravestone? A quote, a poem....a recipe? Rosie Grant, the world's leading expert on gravestone recipes, explains all.About Rosie Grant:Rosie Grant is a writer, researcher, and archivist whose work explores the intersections of archives, folklore, and family storytelling. She is the creator of @GhostlyArchive, where her exploration of gravestone recipes and the histories behind them has reached hundreds of thousands of followers across social media. TO DIE FOR: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes is her first book.Find her: Instagram: @ghostly.archiveTikTok: @ghostlyarchiveFind all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Further Listening:Sunday Roast Rites: on death and cookingMoots: on the food related traditions of Hop-tu-Naa, the Manx celebration of Samhain---Lecker is a podcast about how food shapes our lives. Recorded mostly in kitchens, each episode explores personal stories to examine our relationships with food – and each other.Support Lecker:Patreon: patreon.com/leckerpodcastSubstack: leckerpodcast.substack.comApple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lecker/id1158028729Merch:  leckerpodcast.com/merchListen everywhere: leckerpodcast.comInstagram: @leckerpodcastFull transcript available at leckerpodcast.comLecker is part of Heritage Radio Network - heritageradionetwork.orgMusic by Blue Dot Sessions

Joké Bakare on Nigerian Food, Michelin Stars and West African Hospitality Chef Joké Bakare joins Lecker for a live recording at the Festival of Encounters in Brixton - the same neighbourhood where she first emerged from the tube in 1999 to encounter the bright lights of Brixton. From selling 300-400 meat pies every Sunday outside her church to becoming the first Black female Michelin-starred chef in the UK, Joké's journey is one of persistence, community, and staying true to the food she grew up with. We talk about growing up in a multi-ethnic Nigerian household where food was a celebration of Yoruba and Igbo cultures, the specific ripeness of plantain that matters more than most people realise, and why she refuses to call her cooking "elevated."Many thanks to Van Gogh House for including Lecker in the 2025 Festival of Encounters programme! Special thanks to Anna Bromwich and Elysia Krishnadasan Torrens for all their work putting it together. And thanks to everyone who came to the event.  About Joké Bakare: Joké Bakare is a Nigerian chef and founder of Chishuru Restaurant in Fitzrovia, London. She started her business with a food van outside her church in Southeast London, won a competition for a popup residency in Brixton Village, and in 2024 became the first Black female Michelin-starred chef in the UK. Find her: Instagram @jokebakare / @chishuru / chishuru.com Related Lecker episodes: Permission to Write with Melissa Thompson - on navigating a violent colonial legacy in the food of your heritage Matooke Goes With Everything - on the significance and specificity of sourcing ingredients ---Lecker is a podcast about how food shapes our lives. Recorded mostly in kitchens, each episode explores personal stories to examine our relationships with food – and each other.Support Lecker:Patreon: patreon.com/leckerpodcastSubstack: leckerpodcast.substack.comApple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lecker/id1158028729Merch:  leckerpodcast.com/merchListen everywhere: leckerpodcast.comInstagram: @leckerpodcastFull transcript available at leckerpodcast.comLecker is part of Heritage Radio Network - heritageradionetwork.orgMusic by Blue Dot Sessions

Anna Ansari on Silk Roads: Tracing Food, Migration and Identity Across Asia Iranian-American writer Anna Ansari joins Lecker to discuss her debut cookbook Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with recipes from Baku to Beijing. Cooking Risotto alla Bukhara in her East London kitchen, we explore how ingredients, people, and culinary traditions have moved along ancient trade routes - and how Anna's own journey from suburban Detroit to China to Scotland connects to these stories of migration and belonging. We cover:  The movement of ingredients across the Silk Roads (melons from Uzbekistan, spinach from Iran, apples from Kazakhstan)  How Anna's Turkic heritage connects to Central Asian and Chinese cuisines  Experiencing Uyghur food in Beijing as a teenager and recognising familiar flavours  Adapting traditional recipes like bakhash into dishes recognisable in different contexts  The immigrant experience: giving up a legal career to move countries and start over  Cooking rice as a constant across homes and continents  Authenticity, authority, and whose food stories get told  About Anna Ansari: Anna Ansari is an Iranian-American writer with a background in Asian Studies. A former trade attorney, she now writes at the intersection of food, family and history. Her debut book Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey is out now. Find her: Substack - Where in the World is Anna Ansari? / Instagram @thisplacetastesdeliciousFind all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Further Listening: What is a National Dish? with Anya von BremzenGastro-Spirituality with Jenny Lau--- Lecker is a podcast about how food shapes our lives. Recorded mostly in kitchens, each episode explores personal stories to examine our relationships with food – and each other. Support Lecker: Patreon: patreon.com/leckerpodcast Substack: leckerpodcast.substack.com Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lecker/id1158028729 Merch:  leckerpodcast.com/merchListen everywhere: leckerpodcast.com Instagram: @leckerpodcast Full transcript available at leckerpodcast.com Lecker is part of Heritage Radio Network - heritageradionetwork.org Music by Blue Dot Sessions

On this month's Lecker Book Club – a regular interview series with authors writing in or adjacent to food culture – All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh.Ruby’s new book, All Consuming, is really a natural progression in her work: taking the unique position she occupies as both a professional cook and baker but also something of a commentator and observer in order to deeply and thoroughly investigate the culinary landscape we find ourselves in. From Dubai chocolate to Nara Smith, there's no-one else I would rather read on decoding and digesting contemporary food culture.Lecker is now part of Heritage Radio Network! Find out more about this independent podcast network dedicated to food, beverages and the culinary world and discover their many fantastic shows at heritageradionetwork.org.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.All Consuming is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

​​This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.How can the practice of eating together secure a sustainable future for our kitchens?In the final episode of the series, Joanne MacInnes and Betul Piyade from the community centre West London Welcome describe what it's like for refugees and asylum seekers to live indefinitely in hotel rooms without kitchens. And academic and "food crisis responder" Marsha Smith explains why social eating is so important for us as a society, and explains how it's the key to future proofing our eating habits.Lecker is written and produced by Lucy DearloveThanks to my contributors on this episode Betul Piyade and Joanne MacInnes at West London Welcome, and Marsha Smith.West London Welcome is an amazing place. You can donate to support their work via LocalGiving here.The transcript of the episode is here.Buy the Kitchens print zine featuring original essays and illustrations!Original music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music by Blue Dot SessionsResearch and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.Editorial feedback by Rory DearloveCover collage by Stephanie HartmanSupport Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Find Lecker on instagram.

​​This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.Does it matter what fuels our fire in the kitchen? Javon Bennett explains how his family adapted their cooking when they moved from Jamaica to England, and Carwyn Graves explores open fire cooking and other Welsh kitchen traditions.A full transcript is available on the Lecker website.Lecker is written and produced by Lucy DearloveThanks to the contributors on this episode, Javon Bennett and Carwyn Graves. And also thanks to Naomi Oppenheim who put me in touch with Javon via the British Library Caribbean Foodways project and also to my friend and previous Lecker guest Sian Stacey for telling me about Carwyn’s work.Buy the Kitchens print zine featuring original essays and illustrations!Original music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music by Blue Dot SessionsResearch and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.Extractor fan recording by Victoria FerranCover collage by Stephanie HartmanSupport Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

​​This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.Prefabs – built to help counter the post war housing shortage - were actually some of the earliest examples of fitted kitchens in the UK, and came with built-in fridges at a time when this technology was unaffordable to most people. Jennie Thomas reflects on growing up in a post war prefab in Hackney, and Alice Wilson, whose academic work examines tiny houses, reflects on the movement as a reaction to the housing situation in contemporary Britain.Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove.Thanks to the contributors on this episode, Jennie Thomas and Alice Wilson. Find out more about the OpHouse project.A full transcript is available on the Lecker website.Buy the Kitchens print zine featuring original essays and illustrations!Original music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music also by Jeremy, and by Blue Dot SessionsResearch and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.Additional guest research by Sarah Woolley.Cover collage by Stephanie HartmanSupport Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.Why are so many of our kitchens so unsociable? Lucy meets Johnny Grey, a kitchen designer who’s been fighting for decades to make kitchens a place for leisure not work, and Katie Pennick, a disability campaigner whose work has changed the face of London transport – but who still can’t cook in her own kitchen. Plus Sean Warmington-Wan reflects on the unsociable kitchen in his shared London house.Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove.Thanks to the contributors on this episode: Sean Warmington-Wan, Katie Pennick and Johnny Grey.You can find a full transcript for this episode on the Lecker website.Buy the Kitchens print zine featuring original essays and illustrations!Original music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music also by Jeremy, and by Blue Dot SessionsResearch and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.Cover collage by Stephanie HartmanSupport Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

​​This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.Kitchens are inextricably linked with the woman of the house. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that the fitted kitchen was literally designed as a workspace to fit around a woman’s body. But what does this mean for women - and men - now? How are traditional gender roles built up and broken down by the kitchen itself? Michael Etheridge reflects on the distribution of domestic labour in his own home, and food writer Gemma Croffie talks about the narrow definition of accepted womanhood when it comes to domestic work.A full transcript for this episode is available on the Lecker website.The title Meal Machine comes from the companion guide to the 2011 MoMA exhibition Counter Space: Design + The Modern Kitchen: “Meal machine, experimental laboratory, status symbol, domestic prison, or the creative and spiritual heart of the home?”Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove.Thanks to my contributors on this episode: Michael Etheridge and Gemma Croffie. You can read Gemma’s piece Kitchens on the Path, which inspired this episode, in the print zine released alongside this audio series. Buy a copy now at leckerpodcast.com/kitchens.Original music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music also by Jeremy, and by Blue Dot Sessions.Research and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.Cover collage by Stephanie Hartman.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

​​This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.Aspirational kitchens are an integral part of our food media, but where did they come from? And what does it mean for those who can never attain a beautiful, cookbook-worthy kitchen? Design historian Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan explores what came before the fitted kitchen, and how the room itself has shape-shifted drastically over the 20th century. And food writer and author Ruby Tandoh considers the aspirational kitchen in food writing.You can find a full transcript for this episode on the Lecker website.Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove.Thanks to the contributors on this episode, Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan and Ruby Tandoh.There’s also a print zine featuring original essays and illustrations about kitchens released alongside this audio series. Buy a copy now at leckerpodcast.comOriginal theme music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music also by Jeremy, and by Blue Dot SessionsResearch and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.Additional guest research by Sarah Woolley.Cover collage by Stephanie HartmanSupport Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

On this month's Lecker Book Club, a regular interview series with authors writing in or adjacent to food culture, The Jackfruit Chronicles by Shahnaz Ahsan.The Jackfruit Chronicles is a recipe book and memoir hybrid which integrates food into the text in a very specific way. In the book, Shahnaz tells the story of her family’s migration - three generations across three continents - which begins with the arrival of her grandfather Habib in Manchester from Bangladesh in the 1950s.You can still sign the open letter which Shahnaz was involved in creating and circulating, calling on Keir Starmer to take action over the Israeli government’s deliberate and systematic campaign to use starvation as a weapon of war against the Palestinian people of Gaza. Link here.Lecker is now part of Heritage Radio Network! Find out more about this independent podcast network dedicated to food, beverages and the culinary world and discover their many fantastic shows at heritageradionetwork.org.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.The Jackfruit Chronicles is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

On this month's Lecker Book Club, a regular interview series with authors writing in or adjacent to food culture, Katie Goh's Foreign Fruit.Foreign Fruit is a memoir which explores Katie’s experience growing up and existing as a mixed heritage person in the north of Ireland, but also documents alongside this personal narrative a history of the orange; how the fruit moved from East to West, gaining and shedding symbolic meaning along the way.You can find the previous Lecker episode about citrus, Oranges and Lemons, linked here.Lecker is now part of Heritage Radio Network! Find out more about this independent podcast network dedicated to food, beverages and the culinary world and discover their many fantastic shows at heritageradionetwork.org.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.Foreign Fruit is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

On Book Club this month: Heather Parry's Carrion Crow, a novel about a woman in the attic which encompasses class consciousness, turtle soup and Mrs Beeton.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.An A-Z of Chinese Food is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

On Book Club this month: Jenny Lau's An A-Z of Chinese Food, an 'anti-glossary' offering a unique breadth of knowledge and insight into the Chinese diaspora and its food culture.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.An A-Z of Chinese Food is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Down a little alley in the centre of Hastings you can find Crêperie by the Sea serving traditional French buckwheat crêpes and galettes. Owner and chef Penelope Foster explains the fundaments of a good crêperie, and what it takes to spin perfect pancakes.Find Crêperie by the Sea on Instagram.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Introducing....The Lost Food of Soho, a new audio piece commissioned and published by Vittles and written, narrated and produced by me (Lucy Dearlove).This is just a very small taster, you can listen to the whole thing for free on Vittles itself, or on all good podcast platforms. https://www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/the-lost-food-of-sohoWith big thanks to Jonathan Nunn and Adam Coghlan who I worked closely with through the production of this piece, and to the other Vittles editors who provided crucial feedback.CastHilary Armstrong – writer, worked in Andrew EdmundsMarcus Harris – DJ/promoterRussell Davies – creator of eggbaconchipsandbeansJeremy Lee – chef proprietor of Quo VadisChristine Yau – former owner of Y MingDarren Coffield – artist and author of Tales From The Colony Room: Soho’s Lost BohemiaIain Sinclair – authorPolly – sex work and organiser with SWARMMegan Macedo – writer and former Sister Ray employee

On Book Club this month: Anna Sulan Masing's Chinese and Any Other Asian, an eye-opening and moving book about East and South East Asian identity in Britain.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.Chinese and Any Other Asian is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

In the final episode of To Be Delicious, Anna considers the future of MSG in the UK. Drinks culture has an inherent playfulness and creativity that makes it the perfect experimentation lab for seeking out where MSG might go next. She meets two key figures in London (and the world!)'s bar scene to understand how they're using it as an ingredient, and how umami as a flavour presents itself in drinks.Ryan Chetiyawardana, whose goes by the moniker Mr Lyan, has bars that have reshaped cocktail culture in the UK and around the world, shares how his approach to bartending and recipe development within drinks makes space for savoury and umami flavours. And Cyan Wong, bartender and Schweppes brand ambassador, mixes a unique savoury cocktail for Anna and Lucy.Watch Ryan’s new TV show, Mr Lyan’s Taste Trips, where he travels the world exploring flavour through drinks on YouTube https://youtube.com/@mrlyanstastetrips?si=fyLXUMDnv8H2_8eSIn To Be Delicious, Dr Anna Sulan Masing explores MSG - and more broadly umami - through the lens of East and South East Asian food heritage and diaspora food culture in the UK. From fritters to instant ramen, fermentation to takeaways, these five episodes open out the conversation around MSG and find a breadth of new ways for us to think about its usage within cooking, and its importance within cultural heritage.Credits:Hosted by @annasulanProduced by @dearlovelucy & @annasulanOriginal theme music by @midorijaegerPodcast artwork by @npl_illustrationAdditional music by Blue Dot Sessions.The series is completely editorially independent and was made possible, along with Anna's wider research, by support from the European Committee for Umami and Ajinomoto.Anna's book, Chinese and Any Other Asian: Exploring East and South East Asian Identity in Britain is out now! Order here. 

On umami in diaspora, from chicken salt to bay leaves.Dr Johnny Drain explains how garum is the root of many of our umami based sauces. Author and cook Kate Young prepares a classic Australian English mince on toast, with essential MSG. Chef Dara Klein reflects on how she's learned to find home everywhere, via the kitchen. Noby Leong considers adaptation and evolution in his family cooking.Plus chefs SongSoo Kim and Tim Anderson on some of the gastronomic and linguistic nuances of umami.In To Be Delicious, Dr Anna Sulan Masing explores MSG - and more broadly umami - through the lens of East and South East Asian food heritage and diaspora food culture in the UK. From fritters to instant ramen, fermentation to takeaways, these five episodes open out the conversation around MSG and find a breadth of new ways for us to think about its usage within cooking, and its importance within cultural heritage.Credits:Hosted by @annasulanProduced by @dearlovelucy & @annasulanOriginal theme music by @midorijaegerPodcast artwork by @npl_illustrationAdditional music by Blue Dot Sessions.The series is completely editorially independent and was made possible, along with Anna's wider research, by support from the European Committee for Umami and Ajinomoto.Anna's book, Chinese and Any Other Asian: Exploring East and South East Asian Identity in Britain is out now! Order here. 

Chinese takeaways are a national institution in the UK, and have also - for many years now - been the frontline where public understanding of MSG comes to a head. Angela Hui, whose book Takeaway has shone a light on life growing up behind the counter, and her mum, Jin Tian, spend a day with Lucy and Anna; showing them around their home town in South Wales, then Jin Tian's garden and home kitchen, while considering and dispelling the prevalent stereotypes around British Chinese takeaway food. Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter is out now in paperback, available from all good book shops.In To Be Delicious, Dr Anna Sulan Masing explores MSG - and more broadly umami - through the lens of East and South East Asian food heritage and diaspora food culture in the UK. From fritters to instant ramen, fermentation to takeaways, these five episodes open out the conversation around MSG and find a breadth of new ways for us to think about its usage within cooking, and its importance within cultural heritage.Credits:Hosted by @annasulanProduced by @dearlovelucy & @annasulanOriginal theme music by @midorijaegerPodcast artwork by @npl_illustrationAdditional music by Blue Dot Sessions.The series is completely editorially independent and was made possible, along with Anna's wider research, by support from the European Committee for Umami and Ajinomoto.Anna's book, Chinese and Any Other Asian: Exploring East and South East Asian Identity in Britain is out now! Order here. 

AKA infinite ways with a packet of instant noodles. Georgina Quach, a journalist and archivist, makes her personalised ramen for Anna and Lucy, and considers the importance of comfort in the food she makes, as well as how her Vietnamese heritage informs the savoury flavours she uses in her cooking.Chef and Chinese food creator Chin Taylor reflects on assumptions of how takeaway food is made and how they affect people's perceptions of the work that goes into it – and how MSG fits into this. Chef and author Tim Anderson talks about dashi, and fermentation expert and food scientist Dr Johnny Drain goes deeper on the science behind why umami is so important in a water-based cuisine like Japan's. And SongSoo Kim, head of sourcing and development at the restaurant group Super 8, talks about the complexity of umami. In To Be Delicious, Dr Anna Sulan Masing explores MSG - and more broadly umami - through the lens of East and South East Asian food heritage and diaspora food culture in the UK. From fritters to instant ramen, fermentation to takeaways, these five episodes open out the conversation around MSG and find a breadth of new ways for us to think about its usage within cooking, and its importance within cultural heritage.Credits:Hosted by @annasulanProduced by @dearlovelucy & @annasulanOriginal theme music by @midorijaegerPodcast artwork by @npl_illustrationAdditional music by Blue Dot Sessions.The series is completely editorially independent and was made possible, along with Anna's wider research, by support from the European Committee for Umami and Ajinomoto.Anna's book, Chinese and Any Other Asian: Exploring East and South East Asian Identity in Britain is out now! Order here. 

MiMi Aye, a Burmese chef and cookbook author, has used MSG in her cooking for as long as she can remember. While preparing a meal for Anna and Lucy, she reflects on her processes in the kitchen, and how a misinformed narrative around the ingredient has impacted her personally.Also featuring insight into umami from Dr Kumiko Ninomiya of the Umami Information Center, and reflections on MSG 20 years on from his original Observer Food Monthly article about it from investigative journalist Alex Renton.In To Be Delicious, Dr Anna Sulan Masing explores MSG - and more broadly umami - through the lens of East and South East Asian food heritage and diaspora food culture in the UK. From fritters to instant ramen, fermentation to takeaways, these five episodes open out the conversation around MSG and find a breadth of new ways for us to think about its usage within cooking, and its importance within cultural heritage.Credits:Hosted by @annasulanProduced by @dearlovelucy & @annasulanOriginal theme music by @midorijaegerPodcast artwork by @npl_illustrationAdditional music by Blue Dot Sessions.The series is completely editorially independent and was made possible, along with Anna's wider research, by support from the European Committee for Umami and Ajinomoto.Anna's book, Chinese and Any Other Asian: Exploring East and South East Asian Identity in Britain is out in February. Pre order now. 

The brand new Lecker mini series launches Friday 31st January.In To Be Delicious, Dr Anna Sulan Masing explores MSG - and more broadly umami - through the lens of East and South East Asian food heritage and diaspora food culture in the UK. From fritters to instant ramen, fermentation to takeaways, these five episodes open out the conversation around MSG and find a breadth of new ways for us to think about its usage within cooking, and its importance within cultural heritage. Credits:Hosted by @annasulanProduced by @dearlovelucy & @annasulanOriginal theme music by @midorijaegerPodcast artwork by @npl_illustrationThe series is completely editorially independent and was made possible, along with Anna's wider research, by support from the European Committee for Umami and Ajinomoto.

This month: Kin by Marie Mitchell. I met Marie in the days before the book was published in June and we reflected on grief, demanding more from attitudes to Caribbean food in the UK and the importance of flavours at the heart of her recipes.Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!You can listen to the previous episode i made with Marie here.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.Kin is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!This month: London Feeds Itself, edited by Jonathan Nunn. This episode features Kurdish chef and writer, Melek Erdal, one of the contributors to the book, reflecting on the essay she wrote, The Warehouse, and on London and Kurdish food in general.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.The second edition of London Feeds Itself is out now, published by Open City and Fitzcarraldo. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

A meandering exploration of what surrounds our food: its packaging, history and meaning for our world.Featuring Hugo Lynch, Sustainability Lead at Abel and Cole, Alice Kain, curator at Museum of Brands, Renée and Anshu, founders of Dabba Drop and Sohini Banerjee, chef and founder of Smoke and Lime supper clubs.Dabba Drop are offering 50% off the first order for Lecker listeners in London zones 1-3! Enter LECKER50 to use this excellent offer.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.This episode features excerpts from longer conversations published for paid subscribers on Substack and Patreon. Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.You can buy zines on BigCartel. You can also order print-on-demand merch at Teemill.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it.This month: Namesake: Reflections on a Warrior Woman by N.S. Nuseibeh.Namesake is a collection of essays exploring what it means to be a young, secular Muslim woman today, told through the lens of stories of the author's ancestor, Nusaybah, the only woman warrior to have fought alongside the Prophet.N. S. Nuseibeh is a British Palestinian writer and researcher, born and raised in East Jerusalem. In Namesake, she weaves her own experiences of anxiety, of racism, of joy, of illness, of cooking in shared houses, of aubergines, with the myths and legends told of her ancestor. All of this makes this a book that I think should be required reading for everyone.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.Namesake is out now, published by Canongate. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.This month, all the revenue I would normally get from  Patreon, Apple Podcasts and Substack will be donated to mutual aid requests from Gazan people on Operation Olive Branch. If you would like to make your own donation, send me a screenshot and I'll comp you a subscription.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

A reflection on learning – and teaching – the fermented arts at the School of Artisan Food.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.You can buy zines on BigCartel. You can also order print-on-demand merch at Teemill.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.This ep isn't sponsored but I was invited to attend the school for free at the press day Thanks to the School of Artisan Food for hosting us. Special thanks to Martha Brown, Sally Ann Hunt and Kevan Roberts for the mini workshops (and the lunch) and to Alison Swan Parente for being part of this episode. Thanks to Emily Leary for all her work in getting us all there.

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!This month: Piglet by Lottie Hazell.I first came across Lottie’s writing when she contributed to the first Lecker zine I curated and published in 2019: Plum Jam, a piece of short fiction about a funeral, an underset blancmange and a broken tooth. I still remember how the piece unsettled me, placing complicated family relationships alongside difficult or reluctant pleasure derived from feeding others; or being fed by others. Her debut novel, Piglet, came out earlier this year and its writing is deeply rooted in what food can mean to us: physically, emotionally and socially.I loved talking to Lottie about Piglet so much! As you’ll hear me tell her in the episode, it was such an interesting experience to encounter such luscious, detailed writing about food in a fictional setting, particularly set alongside scenes of such discomfort. The book made me squirm, in a really intriguing way and I loved how the dishes and tablescapes Piglet makes and consumes dressed the set of her home and work lives.Heads up that if you haven’t read the book, we do talk about specific plot points in it so if you’d prefer to be spoiler free, go and read it first! And the book does touch on themes of body image, weight and some implied references to disordered eating, so if those topics are sensitive to you please take care.You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.Piglet is out now, published by Doubleday. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.Buy a copy of either/both of the Lecker zines on BigCartel. You can also order print-on-demand merch at Teemill.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.I'm speaking at Interesting24 on 15th May at Conway Hall in London! Buy a ticket to come and watch me talk about kitchens.

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!This month: Ramen Forever by Tim Anderson.Ramen has ended up as a cornerstone of Tim Anderson’s life. As he writes in the book, it was originally his love of ramen - as well as Japanese food more broadly - that took him to live in Japan, which steered the course of his future in many ways, including meeting his wife. Avid food TV watchers in the UK may also remember that ramen was at the heart of his Masterchef story; when he won the series in 20211, ramen was his winning main course in the final. He previously ran a ramen restaurant in Brixton, Nanban, which opened in 2015 and closed in 2021. But although he’s got five cookbooks already to his name, he’s never written a book entirely about ramen….until now.Ramen Forever is out now, published by Hardie Grant. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!In Made in Taiwan, Taipei based journalist Clarissa Wei beautifully captures the food and spirit of this proud island nation, and brings it to life on the page. The book is stunning - you’ll hear more about the thought and consideration that Clarissa and her team put into how it looks as well as what it says later in this interview -and it examines the current state of Taiwanese food in incredible breadth and depth. For me, someone completely new to the food of the country, it’s a beautiful and rich education.It was such a pleasure to meet Clarissa via video chat and talk about this book, which involved an astonishing amount of research and recipe development on the ground. I’m a big fan of her work as a journalist - the podcast series she made with Whetstone Radio Collective, Climate Cuisine, is one of my all time favourite listens - and it was so interesting to hear how she approached this book, the subject of which is something hugely personal to her but one which she wanted to approach journalistically, and write as an act of documentation. We talked about how missing home through food sometimes takes unexpected, shifting forms, her culinary collaborator on the book Ivy Chen, and why it was crucial that Made In Taiwan moved away from its original proposal as a “cosy” cookbook and became something deeply political.Made In Taiwan is out now, published by Simon and Schuster. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Is it possible or productive to organise around a common language in order to reimagine how we produce grain and bread? In the third and final part of Good Bread, Kim and Ruth reflect on some of their experiences working on the project and consider what the future of good bread might look like.Good Bread is a three part series made with Farmerama exploring The Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberley Bell and artist Ruth Levene considering standardised grain testing and the possibility of reimagining measurement within the system that surrounds bread production. The Body Lab is funded by Farming The Future.Good Bread is hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove.Thanks to everyone at Farmerama who has helped on this series in various ways: Jo Barratt, who was a fantastic exec, Abby Rose, Dora Taylor, Olivia Oldham, Annie Landless, Eliza Jenkins and Lucy Fisher. The music is by Owen Barratt. The artwork was by Hannah Grace. Thanks also to everyone else who has been part of the series: Fred Price at Gothelney Farm, Rosy Benson at Field Bakery + Mill and Chris Holister at Shipton Mill. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Breadline!Make sure you listen to Cereal, Katie Revell's Farmerama series about bread.

Consistency is at the heart of industrial bread production, from the field to the mill to the oven. But what is it costing us?Good Bread is a three part series made with Farmerama exploring The Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberley Bell and artist Ruth Levene considering standardised grain testing and the possibility of reimagining measurement within the system that surrounds bread production.The Body Lab is funded by Farming The Future.Thanks to Shipton Mill for their openness and generosity in allowing the Body Lab to explore these ideasGood Bread is hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove.Thanks to everyone at Farmerama who has helped on this series in various ways: Jo Barratt, Abby Rose, Dora Taylor, Olivia Oldham, Annie Landless, Eliza Jenkins and Lucy Fisher. The music is by Owen Barratt. The artwork was by Hannah Grace. If you haven't already listened to Cereal the previous Farmerama series about bread made by Katie Revel, I can't recommend it highly enough!

How is the quality of bread measured by the system that produces and consumes it? Good Bread is a three part series made with Farmerama exploring The Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberley Bell and artist Ruth Levene considering standardised grain testing and the possibility of reimagining measurement within the system that surrounds bread production.The Body Lab is funded by Farming The Future.Thanks to Shipton Mill for their openness and generosity in allowing the Body Lab to explore these ideas.Good Bread is hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove.Thanks to everyone at Farmerama who has helped on this series in various ways: Jo Barratt, Abby Rose, Dora Taylor, Olivia Oldham, Annie Landless, Eliza Jenkins and Lucy Fisher. The music is by Owen Barratt. The artwork was by Hannah Grace. If you haven't already listened to Cereal, the previous Farmerama series about bread made by Katie Revell, I really urge you to. 

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be writing about it on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!Conversations around food often - rightly - touch on attribution, ownership and identity, especially when it comes to certain dishes. But the subject is so, so complicated and many dishes we consider to be deeply entrenched within a country’s culinary history and culture are no more than PR exercises dreamed up a few decades ago. In National Dish :Around the World in Search of Food, History and the Meaning of Home, Anya von Bremzen explores whether we can find nationhood on a plate - and what it says about us that we’re so obsessed with looking for it there.I loved this book. It’s fascinating and surprising but also Anya is such a great, dynamic writer that you feel like you’re on the road with her: party hopping at the Semana Santa in Seville, in the boardroom of an instant ramen company in Tokyo, learning to roll out the perfect pizza dough in Naples, drinking midday mezcal in Oaxaca. Anya and I spoke via video call a couple of weeks back, coincidentally on the day the book came out in the UK.National Dish is out now, published by ONE, an imprint of Pushkin Press. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Stories of moving house, and moving kitchen.Episode contributors:Ruby MasonRuby is an editor at SAND, a Berlin-based journal of contemporary writing and art (www.sandjournal.com)Margaux VialleronMargaux writes the newsletter The Onion Papers: https://theonionpapers.substack.com/Maria AgiomyrgiannakiMaria is originally from Crete, now living in London. You can find her on instagram.Stephen Rötzsch Thomas Stephen writes the newsletter Ideas With Legs: https://ideaswithlegs.substack.com/ Matthew CurtisMatthew is a co-founder and Editor-in-Chief at Pellicle. Eli Davies Like her doctorate, much of Eli's work is focused around women and home building; you can read some of it on Tribune here. She is currently writing a book about single women and cooking.You can listen to Kitchens if you haven't already! And buy the print zine too.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be cooking from the book and writing about that on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!On this edition of the Lecker Book Club: Fliss Freeborn's Do Yourself A Flavour. Did you go to university? If you did, there’s a chance someone bought you - or you bought yourself - one of the many student cookbooks available. But did you actually find it useful? I definitely owned a couple of these myself, and I can’t say that I distinctly remember cooking anything from them - certainly nothing memorable, and definitely nothing that I continued cooking once I left student life. Fliss Freeborn feels very strongly that these books are more often than not a waste of your time and money and with Do Yourself A Flavour she’s written a different kind of cookbook - for students, yes, but also for anyone who wants to get themselves out of a pesto pasta rut, as she puts it, and more importantly have a good time doing it.Fliss started university with a few years of cooking already under her belt, and so she wsas in the ideal position to start cooking for her friends, and eventually she wasn’t just providing delicious home cooked meals for them, but also recipes too. She started a food blog while studying, mostly so she’d have an easy way to send instructions to friends, and  this - a few years in - led to an unusual lucky break for her.Do Yourself A Flavour is out now, published by Ebury Press. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Welcome to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be cooking from the book and writing about that on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!On the first edition of the Lecker Book Club: Maria Bradford’s Sweet Salone. Maria grew up in Sierra Leone and moved to Kent, UK in her late teens. Sweet Salone is the first English-language book of Sierra Leonean recipes published internationally, and in it Maria wanted to share the unique nature of the food of her home country, but also celebrate the country’s people, including her own family. But it wasn’t necessarily a smooth process writing the book, as you’ll hear her talk about.We spoke about the culture shock she experienced on arriving in the UK; what it was like encountering strawberries and apples for the first time. But it was Maria’s deep-rooted curiosity about all kinds of food that eventually led her on a path to training at Leiths and setting up her fine-dining catering business, Shwen Shwen - a Krio phrase meaning ‘fancy’. It’s this outlook and experience that closely informs the recipes in the book: from traditional dishes learned from her mother and grandmother, to her very own brand of Afrofusion.Sweet Salone is out now, published by Quadrille. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

An audio exploration of the most enigmatic meal of the day.Thanks so much to the guests on this episode:Bre Graham Bettina Makalintal Gurdeep LoyalDan Hancox and Dr Kasia TeeThea EverettLara LeeYou can listen to the full versions of all the Breakfast Season conversations by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.Music is by Kevin McLeod at Incompetech

This is a preview of an episode of the excellent Cursed Objects podcast, featuring me, Lucy, talking to Dan Hancox and Dr Kasia Tee about the great British institution of Meal Deals.Listen to the full version on Cursed Objects.

I’m delighted to bring you a very short sweet taste of a conversation I had recently with the food writer Gurdeep Loyal. I’ve followed Gurdeep’s work for a few years now, and have always been in great admiration of what he does; not only in his own writing, and not even just in his platforming of other people’s work on his site and instgram page Mother Tongue, but also just in his general enthusiasm, charm and fostering of connections and community within food. His debut cookbook, also called Mother Tongue, is published this week and celebrates his heritage as -as Gurdeep himself puts it: "a descendant of Punjabi farmers and Leicester market traders.”This is part of a much longer interview over breakfast of crab crumpets - recipe in Mother tongue - which you can hear over on the Lecker Patreon or via Apple Podcasts subscription.Reminder that merch is available via the Lecker Teemill site or BigCartelMusic is by Kevin McCleod at Incompetech.

Ginger and apple bircher, toast toppings, Australian pancakes; writer Bre Graham talks about being a breakfast person. Her debut cookbook, Table for Two, is out now!This is the first episode in a new interview series all about BREAKFAST! Future episodes will be available exclusively on the Lecker Patreon. For £3 a month you can get access to all episodes. Subscribe here.Merch is available via the Lecker website. Or you can go directly to Teemill for T-shirts and tote bags, and to bigcartel for zines and patches.Follow Lecker on Twitter and Instagram.Music:"In Your Arms" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A mythical-looking beast to be found on the hills of the Isle of Man; the loaghtan is a fascinating heritage breed sheep whose story is intertwined with Manx culture and history.Katie and Lucy meet farmer Jenny Shepherd from Ballacosnahan, who have one of the biggest loaghtan flocks on the island, make loaghtan croish cuirns with artist Rosie Wood and find out how to work with loaghtan’s unique flavour with chef and spice importer Kumar Menon of Leela’s Kitchen. Plus Annie Kissack is on hand with some folktales about the sheep.Blasstal is a podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin.Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie CallinPodcast theme music by Mera RoylePodcast artwork by Vicky WebbWith thanks to all contributors and others who made the series possible!Music credits:Manx Folk Dance Music - Car ny FerrishynManx Folk Dance Music - Fathaby JigCaarjyn Cooidjagh - Ballakilpheric - 07 Irree ShiuCaarjyn Cooidjagh - Ballakilpheric - 11 Berree DhoneManx Folk Dance Music - 08 Thobm y Thallear (Tom the Tailor)Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Ballakilpheric - 02 Ny Kirree fo NiaghteyManx Folk Dance Music - 15 Car Juan NanWith thanks to Annie KissackEnjoying Blasstal? You might like Lecker’s brand new merch selection, including a very Manx bonnag T-shirt!Follow Lecker on Twitter and Instagram. Read more about Blasstal and see some behind the scenes photos at leckerpodcast.com

Katie and Lucy take a deep dive to the heart of the Manx fishing industry to meet a true Isle of Man legend: the herring (skeddan in Manx).Blasstal is a podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin.Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie CallinPodcast theme music by Mera RoylePodcast artwork by Vicky WebbWith thanks to all contributors and others who made the series possible!Music credits:Manx Folk Dance Music - Yn Guilley Hesheree (The Ploughboy)Manx Folk Dance Music - Reeaghyn dy Vannin (Dirk Dance)Manx Folk Dance Music - Peter O'TavyManx Folk Dance Music - Eunyssagh VonaManx Folk Dance Music - Car Juan Nanhttps://culturevannin.bandcamp.com/album/daunseyn-theayagh-vannin-manx-folk-dance-music ‘Daunseyn Theayagh Vannin: Manx Folk Dance Music’Manx trad.Manx Folk Dance Society, 1976.Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Arrane Y Skeddanhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9eSB5KkFA&ab_channel=CultureVannin‘The King of the Sea’Lyrics: J.F. Gill, Traditional melody: Yn Colbagh Breck er Sthrap, from ‘Manx National Songs’, ed. W.H. Gill (1896)Performed by LowennaAt the Manx Folk Awards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKvytxDIc8&ab_channel=CultureVannin ‘King of the Sea’Lyrics: J.F. Gill, Traditional melody: Yn Colbagh Breck er Sthrap, from ‘Manx National Songs’, ed. W.H. Gill (1896)Performed by Ballacottier SchoolAt the Manx Folk AwardsConducted by Katie LawrenceWith thanks to Annie KissackFollow Lecker on Twitter and Instagram. Read more about Blasstal and see some behind the scenes photos at leckerpodcast.com

In episode 1 of Blasstal, Katie introduces Lucy to the vegetable at the heart of Hop-tu-Naa traditions of the Isle of Man.They explore the island's folklore with poet and folklore expert Annie Kissack, attend a Hop-tu-Naa celebration at Cregneash, carve their own moots, and finally head out Hop-tu-Naa-ing around Peel.Blasstal is a podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin.Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie CallinPodcast theme music by Mera RoylePodcast artwork by Vicky WebbWith thanks to all contributors and others who made the series possible!Music credits:Manx Folk Dance Music - Guilley Hesheree (The Ploughboy)Manx Folk Dance Music - Eunyssagh VonaManx Folk Dance Music - Hop-tu-Naahttps://culturevannin.bandcamp.com/album/daunseyn-theayagh-vannin-manx-folk-dance-music ‘Daunseyn Theayagh Vannin: Manx Folk Dance Music’Manx trad.Manx Folk Dance Society, 1976.Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Manannan Beg BalladCaarjyn Cooidjagh - Mannin veg veenWith thanks to Annie KissackFollow Lecker on Twitter and Instagram. Read more about Blasstal and see some behind the scenes photos at leckerpodcast.com

Welcome to Blasstal! A podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin.Launching 31st October.Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie CallinPodcast theme music by Mera RoylePodcast artwork by Vicky Webb

The writer and cook Melissa Thompson talks about her book Motherland; a very personal history of Jamaica.Melissa weaves the history of the country so elegantly with her own story in a way that makes it impossible to ignore that the violent history of colonialism in Jamaica is to do with all of us in Britain. As you’ll hear us talk about, she uses the physical walls of the Drax Estate in Dorset, where she grew up, to demonstrate how ingrained Britain’s colonial legacy is in the very fabric of our life here - and it’s mostly been buried.I also asked Melissa how she approaches translating recipes which are very personal to her into a format which can be comprehensible and replicable by anyone who buys her book. Is anything lost or compromised in this process of translation?Motherland is out now, published by Bloomsbury.This is the third of three episodes this month about contemporary personal food writing and memoir. The first can be found here and the second here.Ben McDonald creates original illustrations for Lecker - find them on the Lecker Twitter and Instagram.If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast. This month's exclusive episode will include more from this conversation with Melissa!You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.Full transcript on the Lecker website.