From Veterinary Surgeon to MasterChef Champion: Chef Brin Pirathapan on Sri Lankan Flavours

How Modelling Damaged My Relationship With Food: Emily English on Making Nutrition Joyful Again

In this episode, Theo is joined by the brilliant Emily English, a nutritionist, best-selling cookbook author, and one of the most influential voices in making healthy eating accessible, delicious, and joyful. With three Sunday Times bestselling cookbooks including her latest So Good Express which is available to order now from Amazon and Waterstones; millions of followers across social media, and a mission to strip away the restrictive narratives that have dominated nutrition for far too long, Emily's journey is a testament to the transformative power of resilience, passion, and cooking with purpose. From being scouted as a model at 17 and spiraling into disordered eating to studying nutrition at King's College London under some of the country's leading academics, running a delivery kitchen during lockdown, and building a supplement brand called Epiome, Emily represents a new generation of nutritionists who celebrate bold flavours, family style eating, and the emotional connection we have with food. Emily prepares her beloved Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta, a vibrant one pan dish inspired by her husband's former vegan days that beautifully encapsulates her cooking philosophy of maximum flavour with minimum effort. Using jarred roasted red peppers for smokiness and convenience, cashew nuts for creamy richness and natural umami, a spoonful of miso for depth, fresh garlic and shallots for aromatic sweetness, a touch of crème fraîche to bring it all together, and finished with a squeeze of lemon for brightness and acidity, this recipe is nutritionally complete, deeply satisfying, and designed to leave you feeling full and content hours after eating. Served with fusilli pasta to catch every bit of that luscious sauce, this dish proves that healthy food can be indulgent, comforting, and bursting with joy. Throughout the episode, Emily shares her remarkable journey from growing up working in her grandmother's restaurant Cornfield where she fell in love with the transformative power of feeding people to being scouted at a music festival at 17 and joining ASOS as an in house model, the moment a modelling agency commented on her thighs and sent her spiralling into an obsessive relationship with food where she was weighing spinach leaves and avoiding family dinners, and why leaving the modelling industry to study nutrition at King's College London became her way of reclaiming her love for food. She discusses why so many nutritionists on her course couldn't cook and the disconnect between the science and the soul of food, running a delivery kitchen called the Nutritionist Table during lockdown where she boiled 50 eggs a day and created her own take on a McDonald's breakfast muffin, and why her chicken shawarma recipe from her first book remains a weekly staple that fans always mention at events. You can find Emily's full Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta recipe on the Filippo Berio website at www.filippoberio.co.uk/theo, and be sure to check out her latest cookbook So Good Express for 80 quick, nutritionally balanced recipes with clear prep and cook times, plus guides on stocking your pantry and building the perfect bowl. The Recipe podcast is hosted by Theo Randall, Chef Patron at the Theo Randall Cucina Italiana. In each episode we meet a special guest who loves food, and they'll tell us all about their favourite recipe as we celebrate the stories behind the dishes that define us. Please do subscribe, follow, and share the podcast wherever you listen so you never miss an episode; and for more delicious stories and inspiring dishes. Follow The Recipe with Theo Randall: /therecipe.podcast (https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/]) Follow Filippo Berio: /filippoberio_uk (https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/ [https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/]) Follow Theo Randall: /theo.randall (https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/ [https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/]) The Recipe with Theo Randall is a Listen To This Production for Filippo Berio.

How Lyme Disease Led Me to a Michelin Star: Chef Kirk Haworth on Plant-Based Cooking

In this episode, Theo is joined by the brilliant Kirk Haworth, chef and co-founder of Plates London, a restaurant that achieved a historic Michelin star for its holistic plant-based methodology and was crowned the 2024 Great British Menu Champion of Champions. From growing up in Northcote with his father, chef Nigel Haworth, to battling Lyme disease for six years and rebuilding his life through food, Kirk's journey is a testament to the transformative power of resilience, creativity, and cooking with purpose. After working in legendary kitchens including The Square with Phil Howard and The French Laundry in California, Kirk stepped away from traditional fine dining to create something entirely new, a restaurant that celebrates bold, inventive plant-based cooking without compromise, proving that vegetables can be just as exciting, indulgent, and technically brilliant as any meat or fish dish. Throughout the episode, Kirk shares his remarkable journey from growing up in a hospitality household in Lancashire to moving to London at 21 and struggling with the intense, isolating environment of Michelin kitchens like The Square, getting bitten by a tick in Australia and developing chronic Lyme disease that left him unable to walk up stairs or work for years, and spending six years moving from doctor to doctor trying to find answers whilst living back at home with his dad. He discusses the moment he had to stop cooking entirely to focus on his health, why changing his diet and cutting out processed sugars transformed his life, and how his illness inspired the creation of Plates, a restaurant that would never have existed if he hadn't got sick. Kirk also opens up about his mission to create a positive kitchen culture where his team works only four days a week, why he believes energy and how you make people feel is more important than the food itself, his community table initiative that offers free meals to people struggling with chronic illness, and why winning Great British Menu Champion of Champions after failing on his first attempt three years earlier was the best feeling of his life. You can find Kirk's full English Rice Pudding with Vanilla, Yorkshire Rhubarb and Medicinal Spice Milk recipe on the Filippo Berio website at www.filippoberio.co.uk/theo, and be sure to visit Plates London to experience his boundary pushing plant-based cuisine for yourself. The Recipe podcast is hosted by Theo Randall, Chef Patron at the Theo Randall Cucina Italiana. In each episode we meet a special guest who loves food, and they'll tell us all about their favourite recipe as we celebrate the stories behind the dishes that define us. Please do subscribe, follow, and share the podcast wherever you listen so you never miss an episode; and for more delicious stories and inspiring dishes. Follow The Recipe with Theo Randall: /therecipe.podcast (https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/]) Follow Filippo Berio: /filippoberio_uk (https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/ [https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/]) Follow Theo Randall: /theo.randall (https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/ [https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/]) The Recipe with Theo Randall is a Listen To This Production for Filippo Berio.

What Makes the Perfect Recipe: Barney Desmazery on How He Writes Good Food Recipes

In this episode, Theo is joined by the brilliant Barney Desmazery, the man often described as the architect of the modern British recipe and one of the most influential voices in food media. As Food Director at BBC Good Food for over two decades, Barney has overseen thousands of recipe tests, collaborated with every major celebrity chef in the country, and quietly shaped the way Britain cooks at home. From his early days training in the kitchens of southwest France to building one of the most trusted recipe databases in the UK, Barney's journey is a testament to the power of precision, passion, and understanding your audience. With his debut cookbook One Dish Four Ways, Barney is finally stepping out from behind the scenes to share his philosophy of seasonal cooking, clever shortcuts, and dishes that work harder for the home cook. Barney prepares his beloved Duck Parmentier, a deeply personal twist on the classic cottage pie that beautifully bridges his English and French heritage. Using tinned confit duck for convenience without compromising on flavour, a classic mirepoix of finely chopped leeks, carrots, and shallots cooked gently in duck fat, fresh thyme, bay, garlic, and flat leaf parsley, all topped with buttery, cheesy mashed potato and finished with crispy baked duck skin for texture and indulgence. This dish encapsulates Barney's cooking philosophy of making restaurant quality food accessible at home, celebrating comfort and tradition whilst embracing clever techniques like starting the mash from the outside in to avoid pushing the filling up, and using every part of the tin including the rendered fat for maximum flavour. Throughout the episode, Barney shares his remarkable journey from growing up in Notting Hill with a French mother and an English father who cooked his way through Elizabeth David to spending five months in a small village in the Dordogne called Les Eyzies de Tayac near Sarlat, where he discovered the magic of foraging wild mushrooms, cooking with ceps and discovering confit duck for the first time. He discusses why his French chef never raised his voice and ran the kitchen like an orchestra with half of it outside overlooking rolling hills, the importance of speaking polite French which the kitchen loved, and why his stage in Gascony taught him that food has a sense of place. Barney also opens up about losing his mother at 18 and gravitating towards two older women who fed him dishes like this, his annual foraging trips to Wales with chef Jonathan Jones from the Anchor and Hope, and why he believes the difference between development and testing is what makes Good Food recipes so reliable. You can find Barney's full Duck Parmentier recipe on the Filippo Berio website at www.filippoberio.co.uk/theo, and be sure to check out his debut cookbook One Dish Four Ways for 25 classic dishes reimagined across the seasons with clever twists and accessible techniques. The Recipe podcast is hosted by Theo Randall, Chef Patron at the Theo Randall Cucina Italiana. In each episode we meet a special guest who loves food, and they'll tell us all about their favourite recipe as we celebrate the stories behind the dishes that define us. Please do subscribe, follow, and share the podcast wherever you listen so you never miss an episode; and for more delicious stories and inspiring dishes. Follow The Recipe with Theo Randall: /therecipe.podcast (https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/]) Follow Filippo Berio: /filippoberio_uk (https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/ [https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/]) Follow Theo Randall: /theo.randall (https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/ [https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/]) The Recipe with Theo Randall is a Listen To This Production for Filippo Berio.

Why I Left Ottolenghi After 20 Years: Sami Tamimi on Palestinian Cooking & Going Solo

In this episode, Theo is joined by the brilliant Sami Tamimi, a chef whose food is a powerful celebration of Palestinian heritage and one of the most influential voices in Middle Eastern cuisine. From growing up in the old city of Jerusalem in the Muslim quarter to building a remarkable career in London and co-creating the Ottolenghi empire, Sami's journey is a testament to the transformative power of following your passion, embracing your roots, and cooking with purpose. After spending two decades as head chef and partner at Ottolenghi, Sami stepped away to focus on his own voice, documenting the vibrant, vegetable-forward cooking of his childhood through his stunning cookbook Bostani, which means garden in Arabic. Sami prepares his beloved Couscous Fritters with Preserved Lemon Yogurt, a deeply personal dish that takes him straight back to his childhood sitting on the floor with his siblings, spooning up bowls of his mother's simple couscous with tomato and onion. Using caramelised onions for sweetness, vibrant red pepper paste made from sun-dried fermented peppers, sweet carrots, fluffy couscous cooked like a pilaf, and a punchy yogurt dressing with preserved lemon, capers, and fresh mint, this recipe beautifully encapsulates Sami's cooking philosophy of taking humble, traditional Palestinian flavours and making them accessible, colourful, and bursting with bold taste whilst staying rooted in the soul of home cooking. Throughout the episode, Sami shares his remarkable journey from being kicked out of his mother's kitchen as a young boy to starting his cooking career at 17 washing dishes in a Jerusalem hotel, being promoted to running breakfast service after just three months because he learned so quickly, and why he was a rebellious kid who wanted to be an artist but found his creative outlet through food instead. He discusses moving to London and meeting Yotam Ottolenghi at Baker and Spice where their shared love of cooking, Arabic and Hebrew language, and being two gay guys new to the city created an unbreakable bond, creating the concept for Baker and Spice that introduced Londoners to colourful, vibrant, uncomplicated Middle Eastern food, and why opening the first Ottolenghi restaurant in Notting Hill in 2002 felt like doing the River Cafe but with a Middle Eastern twist. You can find Sami's full Couscous Fritters recipe on the Filippo Berio website at www.filippoberio.co.uk/theo, and be sure to check out his beautiful cookbook Bostani for more inspiring Palestinian recipes that celebrate tradition, memory, and the joy of cooking. The Recipe podcast is hosted by Theo Randall, Chef Patron at the Theo Randall Cucina Italiana. In each episode we meet a special guest who loves food, and they'll tell us all about their favourite recipe as we celebrate the stories behind the dishes that define us. Please do subscribe, follow, and share the podcast wherever you listen so you never miss an episode; and for more delicious stories and inspiring dishes. Follow The Recipe with Theo Randall: /therecipe.podcast (https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/]) Follow Filippo Berio: /filippoberio_uk (https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/ [https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/]) Follow Theo Randall: /theo.randall (https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/ [https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/]) The Recipe with Theo Randall is a Listen To This Production for Filippo Berio.

From Veterinary Surgeon to MasterChef Champion: Chef Brin Pirathapan on Sri Lankan Flavours

In this episode, Theo is joined by the brilliant Brin Pirathapan, winner of the 20th series of MasterChef UK in what judges described as the most exceptional victory in the competition's history. A veterinary surgeon who traded the operating theatre for the kitchen, Brin is bringing the bold, vibrant flavours of his Sri Lankan Tamil heritage to a wider audience through his debut cookbook Elevate. From growing up in Chelmsford surrounded by his parents' incredible feasts to discovering his passion for cooking at university and eventually winning over fifteen past MasterChef champions with a standing ovation, Brynn's journey is a testament to the power of following your passion, embracing your heritage, and cooking with creativity and purpose. Brin prepares his beloved Jaffna Mussels, a stunning fusion dish that perfectly encapsulates who he is as a cook. Taking inspiration from the classic French moules marinière and infusing it with the aromatic spices of Jaffna in Northern Sri Lanka where his parents are from, this recipe uses black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fragrant curry leaves, roasted Sri Lankan curry powder, fresh turmeric, fenugreek, sweet tomatoes, tangy tamarind, and creamy coconut milk to create a deeply flavoured base that allows the sweetness of the mussels to shine through. Served with toasted sourdough for dipping into the rich, spiced broth, this dish beautifully represents Brin’s cooking philosophy of melting together his Tamil Sri Lankan background with French technique and his British upbringing to create food that is bold, accessible, and full of heart. Throughout the episode, Brin shares his remarkable journey from watching his parents lay on incredible feasts throughout his childhood to turning his nose up at fish curries as a kid because he had to pick out the bones, discovering his love for cooking at university when he realised the food at home was far better than anything available, and using cooking as a way to decompress after long days as a veterinary surgeon. He discusses why his wife encouraged him to apply for MasterChef after hearing him complain about work one too many times, nearly pulling out before filming because of nerves, why his anatomical knowledge from veterinary surgery gave him a technical edge when filleting fish, and how his parents kept asking if he was still going to do veterinary work until he reached the MasterChef final. You can find more delicious recipes on the Filippo Berio website at www.filippoberio.co.uk/theo, and be sure to check out his debut cookbook Elevate for more vibrant, accessible dishes that celebrate bold flavours and creative fusion cooking. The Recipe podcast is hosted by Theo Randall, Chef Patron at the Theo Randall Cucina Italiana. In each episode we meet a special guest who loves food, and they'll tell us all about their favourite recipe as we celebrate the stories behind the dishes that define us. Please do subscribe, follow, and share the podcast wherever you listen so you never miss an episode; and for more delicious stories and inspiring dishes. Follow The Recipe with Theo Randall: /therecipe.podcast (https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/therecipe.podcast/]) Follow Filippo Berio: /filippoberio_uk (https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/ [https://www.instagram.com/filippoberio_uk/]) Follow Theo Randall: /theo.randall (https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/ [https://www.instagram.com/theo.randall/]) The Recipe with Theo Randall is a Listen To This Production for Filippo Berio.