The Go To Food Podcast

This week, we’re joined by Andrew Clarke of Acme Fire Cult for an episode that goes everywhere — from fire cooking and restaurant building to addiction, recovery, music, and the moments that change a life. This is a conversation with a true original: chef, restaurateur, former Maverick of the Year, co-founder of Pilot Light, plant medicine facilitator, and owner of what may well be the best facial hair in London.
We recorded this one at Acme Fire Cult in Hackney, and Andrew paints the full picture of how the restaurant grew from a scrappy lockdown car park operation into one of London’s most unique dining experiences. He talks about starting with barely any money, serving on palm leaf plates because proper crockery was out of reach, and slowly reinvesting every pound back into the space. There are brilliant details throughout — the dark walk down Abbott Street before you reach the yard, the old wine bar they inherited, the butternut squash cooking overnight in residual heat, the signature leeks with pistachio romesco, Marmite bread made from brewery yeast, and the way Acme turns into a “curry house” each winter inspired by his travels through Mumbai, Goa and Kerala.
But what makes this episode really special is just how much Andrew gives us. He shares stories from his childhood eating pie, mash and liquor, his early years wanting to be a professional musician, playing in metal and hardcore bands, DJing to fund his record habit, and drifting into kitchens almost by accident. He takes us through working at places like The Square, St. John, Anchor & Hope, Rita’s, Brunswick House and St Leonards, with all the chaos that came with it — tattooed chef prejudice in old-school kitchens, sleeping on banquettes, wild post-service nights, and the intensity of trying to create great food while his life was unravelling behind the scenes.
This episode also gets incredibly raw. Andrew speaks movingly about depression, cocaine addiction, telling his dad he didn’t want to live anymore, and the long road back through honesty, friendship, therapy, men’s circles and plant medicine. He tells unforgettable stories — a terrifying first ayahuasca ceremony in a blacked-out room in Essex, reviving a collapsing croquembouche at a wedding, a non-paying table turned into tequila-shot regulars, and the mad reality of building restaurants with brilliance and dysfunction happening at the same time. It’s hilarious, heavy, generous and packed with hard-won wisdom — and by the end, you’ll understand why Andrew Clarke is one of the most compelling figures in hospitality today.
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Michael Caines joins Go To Food for one of the most raw and revealing conversations we’ve ever had. Fresh from winning a Michelin star at The Stafford just months after opening — and still chasing that elusive second star at Lympstone Manor — he breaks down the realities of modern fine dining. From why tasting menus might be getting too long, to why à la carte is far from dead, to the financial tightrope of running a destination restaurant in rural Devon, this is Michael in full flow: honest, sharp and unapologetically ambitious.
He takes us back to the beginning — a young lad from Exeter set on joining the Royal Marines before a last-minute pivot to catering college changed everything. We hear about staging at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, walking an hour each morning from a B&B just for the chance to cook for Raymond Blanc, and then heading to France to work under Bernard Loiseau and Joël Robuchon. The brutality of those kitchens, the silence, the stove inspections, the mind games — and a young Gordon Ramsay in the same brigade — it’s a masterclass in what elite training really looked like in the 90s.
Then comes the moment that changed his life forever. Driving home exhausted, a split-second lapse, the car flipping — and waking up to see his arm gone. Michael recounts the crash in chilling detail: running from the wreckage, asking surgeons if they could save his arm, and returning to the kitchen just two weeks later with no insurance payout, no safety net. Teaching himself to cook left-handed. Learning to fillet fish and truss pigeons again. Being written off — and refusing to accept it.
Four years later, he wins his second Michelin star at Gidleigh Park. A crowning moment earned through pain, grit and sheer bloody-minded belief. From building the Abode hotel brand, to rethinking pricing strategy with sold-out lunch offers, to explaining why too many chefs obsess over micro-herbs and tweezers instead of flavour — this episode is packed with stories, lessons and hard truths. It’s about resilience, reinvention, and why great chefs — like great restaurants — survive by evolving.
Pre Order Ben's Incredible Book - All You Can Eat - By Clicking Here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-You-Can-Eat-British/dp/1805221523

Get 2 Months of Blinq For Free - With Code - GOTOBLINQ - https://blinqme.com/

Order The Greatest Meat In The Country From HG Walter Here & Have Restaurant Quality Meals From Home - www.hgwalter.com

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This week, we sit down with a man who is reshaping how the world sees Middle Eastern cuisine: the one and only Fadi Kattan. Born in Bethlehem, classically trained in Paris, and now leading acclaimed restaurants in London and Toronto, Fadi is more than a chef — he’s a storyteller, a cultural historian, and one of the most important voices in food today. From his grandmother’s kitchen to Michelin recognition, from Venetian influences to Palestinian terroir, this is a conversation about identity, resistance, generosity, and flavour — with a side of glorious beard and just enough nicotine to get us started.
We dive deep into his London restaurant Akub in Notting Hill — a place where Palestinian produce and philosophy meet seasonal British sourcing. Fadi talks us through slow-cooked short rib with feta, coarse-textured hummus (the way it should be), mansaf with fermented jameed — the “Arab umami” — and eggs with sumac that honour sacred breakfast rituals with his father. He unpacks the politics of shakshuka, the beauty of kaleid mandala, and why hummus has absolutely no business being chocolate. It’s food rooted in Bethlehem’s old souq, in farmers knocking on the door at 7am, in adapting to what’s available — never cherry tomatoes in January.
But this episode goes far beyond the plate. Fadi opens up about launching a gastronomic restaurant in Bethlehem during the Second Intifada, cooking by head torch when the electricity was cut, refusing to overcook 40-day-aged lamb, and building a wine list that proudly features Palestinian producers. He reflects on brutal kitchen culture in 1990s Paris, the scars — literal and emotional — that shaped him, and why culinary education must return to mothers’ kitchens instead of espuma machines. There’s sharp commentary on food appropriation, trends, terroir, and what it really means to cook with integrity.

Pre Order Ben's Incredible Book - All You Can Eat - By Clicking Here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-You-Can-Eat-British/dp/1805221523

Get 2 Months of Blinq For Free - With Code - GOTOBLINQ - https://blinqme.com/

Order The Greatest Meat In The Country From HG Walter Here & Have Restaurant Quality Meals From Home - www.hgwalter.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mary-Ellen McTague is one of the driving forces behind Manchester’s modern food scene: a chef, restaurateur and community builder whose cooking is rooted in place, craft and proper hospitality. In this episode, she joins the go-to food podcast to talk about the city she helped shape, the dishes she can’t stop thinking about, and the hard-won lessons behind building restaurants that people genuinely love.
Her story runs from cooking for touring bands at Manchester’s Roadhouse as a student, to breaking barriers at the Michelin-starred Sharrow Bay Country House, and then into Heston Blumenthal’s inner circle at The Fat Duck. From the intensity and precision of a two-then-three-star kitchen to an R&D role exploring Britain’s food history at The Hind’s Head, Mary-Ellen’s career has been defined by curiosity, grit, and an obsession with flavour that actually means something.
Back home, she became synonymous with Manchester’s dining renaissance—opening trailblazing restaurants, earning national acclaim, and feeding not just thousands of happy punters, but (as the hosts proudly put it) well over 150,000 people across the city. She shares what it’s really like to build a “rotation” of ambitious young chefs in Manchester, why a dish like Lancashire hotpot can carry identity and memory, and how her love of simple, brilliant produce started with a life-changing stint in rural Provence.
The conversation also goes deeper: burnout, resilience, an ADHD diagnosis that “explained a lot,” and the purpose-led work of Eat Well MCR—turning surplus food and community energy into meals for people who need them most. Expect big laughs, kitchen war stories, and plenty of menu envy—especially when Mary-Ellen breaks down her PIP snack essentials and that signature hotpot (with oyster ketchup) that might just be the most “her” dish of all.
Pre Order Ben's Incredible Book - All You Can Eat - By Clicking Here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-You-Can-Eat-British/dp/1805221523

Get 2 Months of Blinq For Free - With Code - GOTOBLINQ - https://blinqme.com/

Order The Greatest Meat In The Country From HG Walter Here & Have Restaurant Quality Meals From Home - www.hgwalter.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the Go To Food Podcast, we sit down with the godfather of Spanish food in London, José Pizarro. From carving jamón door to door in the 90s with a bottle of Rioja under his arm, to building a Bermondsey Street empire that changed how Britain eats, José’s story is one of graft, instinct and relentless belief in the flavours of home.
We dive straight into Andalucía and his unforgettable Cádiz food trips during bluefin tuna season, unpacking the 3,000-year-old almadraba tradition, divers herding 450 kilo fish, and the almost mythical morillo cut from just above the eye. He explains how he would cook it, plancha, good salt, bread, maybe a perfect anchovy, and why that single bite can be one of the greatest things you will ever eat. We talk sangria with cava not prosecco, gin tonics done properly, and why Cádiz right now might be Spain’s most exciting region.
Then we rewind to Extremadura: milking cows at dawn, sucking warm milk straight from the cow, cream skimmed thick off the top for toast and sugar, migas fried for hours in olive oil, and baby goat stewed simply with garlic, paprika and wine. He tells us about hating his mum’s lentils with chorizo as a child, only for them to become one of the last meals he would ever choose. We hear about concentration struggles at school, nearly becoming a dentist, the moment he realised he could not face a desk for life, and the six-month gap that changed everything when he fell in love with kitchens from the sink up.
There are brilliant London stories too: arriving unable to speak English, nearly going home, wild Gaudí era parties, Air Brothers and the simplicity that shaped him, Brindisa and those electric early Borough Market mornings frying eggs, potatoes and jamón for shoppers with proper bags. He reflects on opening José and Pizarro before Bermondsey was Bermondsey, cooking for artists at White Cube, earning the Royal Cross of Isabel la Católica from the King of Spain, and still having his 92-year-old mum gently judging his cooking. Add nightmare kitchen floods, brutally honest takes on government and hospitality, a whistle-stop guide to where to eat in Cádiz, Galicia and Seville, and a perfect sign-off with Paco de Lucía, and you have one of the richest, funniest and most heartfelt episodes we’ve recorded.
Pre Order Ben's Incredible Book - All You Can Eat - By Clicking Here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-You-Can-Eat-British/dp/1805221523

Get 2 Months of Blinq For Free - With Code - GOTOBLINQ - https://blinqme.com/

Order The Greatest Meat In The Country From HG Walter Here & Have Restaurant Quality Meals From Home - www.hgwalter.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.