Kitchen Cupboards #8: Margie Nomura, Desert Island Dishes
The private chef and podcast host who bought us all Stanley Tucci's favourite sandwich.
Welcome to Kitchen Cupboards, a monthly ingredient column where, rather than exploring some of my favourite ingredients, I’m taking a peek into some of my favourite food writer, creators and producers kitchen cupboards to talk about which ingredients shape their everyday cooking.
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I was quite early into listening to podcasts, and for my daily walks around Bishops Park and along the banks of the Thames when I was living in West London I can only remember listening to one podcast and one podcast only: Desert Island Dishes. I have no idea where I found it, but I was instantly obsessed with this brilliant listen where host and private chef Margie Nomura expertly interviews chefs and foodies by asking them the same set of questions about the most important dishes in their lives including about the dish that reminds them most of their childhood, the dishes they eat most often, their favourite sandwich, and what their last meal would be before being cast off to a desert island.
Yes the concept of Desert Island Dishes is quite brilliant (Margie shares on how she came up with it below!) but I think it is her bright, bubbly, friendly and accessable hosting style which is what has managed to attract so many listeners and what has persuaded so many big names in food to come on the show - who doesn’t want to listen to Anna Jones, Niki Segnit and Alison Roman talk about their best childhood food memories? Listening to her podcast is like you’ve made another friend happy to enthuse all about food with you, ready to introduce you to all the brilliant people she knows. However I must warn you, listening will make you very, very hungry so it is a great one to pop on whilst you’re getting dinner ready!
You can find and subscribe to Desert Island Dishes on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify. I also love following Margie on Instagram where she shares fridge forages and excellent recipes from the podcast guests she’s recently interviewed.