Stephen Fry loves Spanish food so we served him Basque-inspired tapas | Dish Podcast | Waitrose

What a misery! I suppose he thought he should be served first. We hear you love cucumbers. It's just the texture, the crisp, watery texture. You never regret a cucumber. You're never like, oh, I regret a cucumber. I wake up at three in the morning. I go down and I start to make their names. It's so weird to think of fish having cheeks. Having cheeks, yeah. Cheeks and loins. I have a leg of haddock. And then I got sent this big manuscript that said Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I thought, well, what's this? They make your pee smell. They do. Something I did not know about sugar puffs. Help me, I'm in hell and I'm smiling. Oh, hello. Welcome to Dish from Waitrose. I'm Nick Grimshaw. And I'm Angela Hartnett. And we are here on Ang Cam in the Dish kitchen. And you are making the food for our guest Stephen Fry today. But what did you just do? I made these, everyone. What are they? Tell us. Woo! Thank you. And so watch and learn. What are they? Watch and learn, Ang. Get a cocktail stick. Marvellous. You get a little pepper on it like that. Yeah. Is there something special about that pepper? Not really. Pickled. Oh, OK. Pickled. Spicy. Yeah. An anchovy. Fold it back on itself. Pop it on. Stick an olive on it. You've got a gilder. Marvellous. It's like you're in San Sebastian. And that's it. It's like we're in North London. Is there a reason we're making these? Yes. We have a great guest on who loves Spanish food. Oh, that's right. Yes. Remember, we're doing a podcast. Yes. So we made these for Stephen Fry because he loves Spanish food. Yeah. So we thought we'd make these because San Sebastian. And what else have we got going on here? Then we've got stuffed peppers with feta and ricotta. And we've got a little salsa verde on top. Then we're going to do cucumbers. He loves cucumber. And we're going to do a little bit of avocado on there and some crab. Just a warning. That is a hot pepper. Oh, yeah. Occasionally you get them. Real spicy. So you're done on your gilders? Yeah. That was my cooking for the day. Marvellous. Can you tidy your mess up? Yeah. I'll get rid of this, yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Shall we welcome him in? Yes. Let's do it. Lord. Hi, Stephen. How are you? Welcome. I specifically asked for a small table in a corner not too near the band. And look what you've done. And look who you've got. The main one. So good to see you. My heart and heart. Welcome. How are you? Nicholas, how are you? I'm good. You okay? Very well. Yeah? Good. Take a seat. You want me over there? Yeah, you go. What do you want to drink? Ooh. Well. Well, we're going to have a wine. But do you want a vodka soda, vodka tonic? A vodka soda. I can tell you a story about the vodka. Please. I was sitting waiting for takeoff on a Qantas flight. And the steward came and sort of squatted in front of me as if to let me into a very good secret that he was going to open the bar for me rather than just serve the usual orange juice and warm champagne or whatever that you might get. So he said, would you like anything from the bar? And I said, well, could I have a vodka and soda water? And he said, one skinny coming right up. When he came back, I said, did you call this drink a skinny? He said, well, that's what they call it on the catwalk, darling, because you get your maximum alcoholic bang for your minimum calorific buck. So I thought about this. And as it happened, it was about this time of year. So a week or so later, it was Nigella Lawson's birthday. She was having a party. And we were meeting in a bar somewhere in London before going off to eat. And I thought I'd try out my newfound knowledge. So I said to the barman, can you do me a skinny? And he said, sure. And Nigella was very fascinated. I told her the story of the Qantas steward. And she went, good, that's good. Then I saw her three weeks later. She said, oh, my God. I made such a fool of myself. I said, what happened? She said, I went into a bar and asked for a skinny. Isn't that fabulous? We are beside ourselves to welcome the very wonderful Mr. Stephen Fry is here, everybody. Thank you. Stephen was just telling us when you came in, you didn't realise there was this set up. There's a big gang, big gang. I'm used to a dusty corner somewhere. Or even a Zoom for a podcast. Oh, my God. We didn't realise. This was bigger than Saturday brunch. We like to think we're competing. I just said to Anne, why don't we present Sunday brunch? And she said, absolutely no way. This is as big as it's getting. This is daily commitment. We're going to start with, as directed by Stephen Fry. A nude. A nude, garnish-free skinny. Cheers. Good health. Cheers. Here we go. Here's to Nigella. Always. Very nice. It's good, isn't it? It's simple, clean and pure. It has to be good vodka, though. You don't want that little petrally taste. No. Well, thank you for coming to see us. We've been very excited you would come in. Have you guys met before? Where have you guys crossed paths? A few times. Yeah, I've been lucky enough to have been fed by Angela. Oh, yes. We have mutual friends, particularly one friend. But I've also been a customer at Limewood down in the New Forest. Yes, love it there. Amazing place there. Yeah, Murano and other places. Other establishments. Other establishments that you make your own. Yeah. And I'm a big fan. I have to say that. Oh, thank you. You can see the food is beautifully arranged. But it's not, as I was saying earlier to someone before we came on, it's not tight. No. It's in the tradition of some of my favourite cooks, like Simon Hopkinson and Richard Corrigan and you. You all are able to produce food of the highest quality, but without it looking like an art direction. I mean, sometimes it's exciting to get really, really remarkable food on the plate in terms of visual appeal. But in the end, it's got to be. But when it's just one mouthful. You want that now. You've got to have the fishiness of the fish and the laminess of the lamb or whatever it is you're eating. Did you ever think about going that way? When you see food with a skinny little carrot and a foam, did you ever experiment with that? No, I think you can have a little bit of that, but essentially the main product has to be delicious. And what it says on the plate, as you say, the fish has got to be great, the meat and the vegetables. So we do have a little bit of that because chefs do like to get that. We're a Michelin star and all the rest of it. But I think in my heart, and I think that's when I've always cooked for Stephen, it's very Simon Hopkinson. I love that. We heard you love Spanish food. So that's why we've got that situation. So we've got some lovely stuffed peppers with ricotta and feta cheese and a little salsa verde on top. Perfect. Then we hear you love cucumbers. Cucumbers are probably my favorite. I mean, I've never heard anyone love them so much. Technically, aren't they? I know there's hardly a taste of anything. It's just the texture, the crisp, watery texture. You never regret a cucumber. You're never like, oh, I've had over at the cucumber. Do you know what I mean? It's always an enjoyable little snackette. I'm just going to check the fish. Yeah, you check the fish. And then you've got some little cucumber stuffed with some avocado and crab. And then Nick made the gilders. So you have to try one of those. Please try a gilder. Oh, wonderful. We've done it with like a pickled spicy pepper, anchovy. Jalapeno. And an olive. Yeah. Oh, all the good adult taste. All of the good taste. So we'll put that very complex recipe in the show notes on how to. I'll let Ang know how to do it as well. Thank you. Thanks for that. This is how we've grown up as a nation. In the 60s, it would be cheese and pineapple and possibly a glace cherry on it. And that would be considered good. Whereas this is everything that when you were a child, you first tried it. You thought, oh, no, I've had a bad one. You realize it's supposed to taste like that. It's meant to taste like that. I remember when I was younger, I always wanted adult tastes when I was a kid. Really? Yeah, I always wanted to like coffee or olives or like dark chocolate. Did you ever have any tastes as a kid that were, you know, not necessarily for a child? I'm afraid I was. Love a martini. I was totally a child in my generation. The year I was born, sugar pups were born. Oh, yes. And by the time I was able to pour them out into a bowl and add cold milk, I would just have bowl after bowl and, indeed, eat them from the pack like popcorn. They make you pee smell of sugar pups. And they sort of stick to your hand. Yeah, that's right. That's disgraceful. I did not know that. Sugar pups? The sticky bit, but not the pee bit. Oh, that was the pee bit. Oh, yeah. Yep, like asparagus, only very different. Yeah, I'm sure. So you loved a sugar puff as a kid. Yeah, I wrote a whole sort of screed on my sugar addiction, really, when I was young, and how, in a strange way, it, I mean, it's almost accidental. I'm not accusing the commercial entities behind confectionery of this. But, you know, at the school tuck shop, there was a thing called Spanish galleon, and it was in waxed paper, and it looked, it was shredded coconut, but dark. They dyed it with cocoa or something, and it was sold to look like rolling tobacco. Oh, wow. And you could get chocolate cigarettes wrapped in rice paper. And you could get candy cigarettes with a red end. Oh, I remember that. And you could get, this is getting darker and darker, you could get sherbet fountains where you could suck up a white powder. Wow. Yes. So they were laying down the conditions for adult addiction in childhood addiction. I never thought of that. Yeah. And then what made you fall in love, I'm going to try one of these. Oh, yes, they're gorgeous. What made you fall in love with the Spanish taste? Was there a particular trip or a journey that introduced you to it? Yes, yes, there was. I made a film back in the 90s, the latest 90s, I think, called Sabotaje, Sabotage, in which I played the Duke of Wellington. And it was a sort of farcical comedy, English language, but Spanish produced and directed. In fact, Basque produced and directed. And so we shot in and around Bilbao and the Basque area. And I don't know if you've been to Basque, Spain, but it has just about the most fantastic food tradition of any area in Europe, culminating, of course, in San Sebastian, which famously has at least three, I think, three-star Michelin restaurants. It's crazy, isn't it? Why is it, Ange? Why is it San Sebastian has all the Michelin stars and renowned for food? I don't know. Well, one, I think it is the area, and it's the number of chefs there. Ange, I've got to try one of these peppers. These peppers, they're so sweet. Very sweet. Yes. They're stunning. So how did you do these? Did you just wilt them? Roasted them in the oven, a little bit of salt, then deseeded them, and then filled them, as I said, ricotta, whipped with a bit of lemon juice, some feta cheese. Oh, you deseed them after they're cooked? Yes, it's a lot easier that way. They tell you to slip them, and then you just literally scoop them out. And then we have a salsa verde on there with some parsley, some basil, some mint, olive oil, Dijon mustard, which I think I put in everything, which I love, a little bit of vinegar and salt. I got your salsa verde in the dish patch. Oh, did you? Yes. And there was too much of it because it was for eight and only five of us, and I had it on every meal from about the Sunday to the Wednesday. Eggs, lunch. The salsa verde was so delicious. Good. Had it on everything, in a coffee. You're just getting it down me. I heard that you love mayonnaise, and you love to make mayonnaise. Never made mayonnaise in my life. Have you not? Never, ever. It's a very pleasing thing to do. I find if, this sometimes happens, I wake up at three in the morning, can't go back to sleep. You know that tossy and turny feeling. I go down, and I start to make mayonnaise. It's kind of bonkers. But it's a mixture of concentration and rhythmic relaxation that I think calms the brain down. And it's good for your hands to do things. Exactly. Because if the mind is churning like a full speed cement mixer, it's good just to try and find ways of getting it. And does it make you go back to sleep after that? Yes, and usually then I can go back to sleep. In the happy knowledge, there'll be a jar of mayonnaise with Dijon mustard in it, of course. Naturally. But it's amazing, if you take a beautiful, ordinary, quite yellowy French mayonnaise, and just one tablespoon full of hot water, and whisk it through, it'll turn white. Oh, wow. So it's still got all the flavor. Mayonnaise experiments. Yeah, well then, of course, you can do things that are emulsified in the same way as mayonnaise. Anything ending in A's. A's. Yeah, any A's. They do say to get up and get out of bed. I call it mayo-fullness. Mayo-fullness. Yeah. It's a form of wellness. We're going to have our main momentarily. You've gone very American there. A, you say momentarily, not momentarily. But B, and more important, semantically rather than in terms of pronunciation. Momentarily in English means for a moment. Oh, yeah. Not in a moment. In a moment. So I always used to think when I first went to America and say I'll be with you momentarily, I thought, well, that's no good. He just appeared. And they're out. But I guess it's crept over the Atlantic. It has. God damn it. You're so influenced by it. God damn it, yeah. Momentarily. We're going to be as we are at home, unless you probably, you probably change cutlery every time you do a new course. No, not at all. Lovely. I'm so pleased. No, this looks fantastic. Thank you, Angela. The food is here. Yes. Ang, what do we have? So we have cod with, a one-pot cod with peppers, tomatoes and potatoes. And literally one pot. So you poach it, you poach it in, in the, in the sauce. Yeah, cooked it in the sauce. Wow, tell us how you did it, Ang. Come on. So, a lovely little base of just the potatoes cooked in a touch of butter for about 10 minutes. Then you add your peppers in, your tinned tomatoes and a little bit of tomato puree. Cook the potatoes in the rest of that tomatoey sauce. And then add your capers, a little, I add a clove of garlic. One of you may have that clove of garlic on your plate. Just to season it all up. And then you cook your cod in that sauce on a low heat. Is cod the best fish for a one-pot one-pot? Cod, good, yeah. You just need to watch you don't overcook it because the flakes. Many flakes, yeah. But monkfish is probably your best because it's really meaty and all together. Yes, it's so meaty, isn't it? So, yeah, cod and this way. Sea bass works or a whole fillet of like sea bream would work as well. In the Basque country, one of the most popular dishes that they make themselves every day virtually is hake cheeks with parsley. Oh, they love that, yeah. And it's so good. And it's so weird to think of fish having cheeks. Having cheeks, yeah. Cheeks and loins. You never think about the cheeks. a little bit of, I think I'll have a leg of haddock. Yeah, I think I will. We could revelationalise menus now and change it all up. If you want to try this recipe or any of the recipes that we make on dish, just go on waitrose.com slash dish recipes and all the recipes are on there. You can try them out. This one is, this is really tasty. It sounds like a walk in the park. There is a wine pairing with this and what have we got, Ange? We've got Camel and Joseph organic Pinot Noir from the south of France. This Pinot is harmoniously balanced with fruit and freshness with a more spicy peppery and floral finish. Do we agree? Sure. I do agree. Do you like to cook, Stephen? I do. I sometimes I get overflustered about, there's a very good book, a friend of mine, Julian Barnes, the novelist, wrote. It's a small book that he gave as a gift to the world. I think it's called The Pedant in the Kitchen in which he agonises over a pinch, a touch, a sprinkle. You know, he said, I looked these up, they don't exist as units. Did I do too much? You know, you start to obsess about the details of a recipe and it sort of tenses you up a bit because you must put that in that order and this way and you watch a good natural chef as well as a good trained and an experienced chef and they're so much more relaxed about the way they do a recipe. And I think that, and I say that indeed about mayonnaise is to people who are just starting their mayonnaise journey is that the mayonnaise knows if you're frightened of it and it will split straight away. It will know and you'll swear you drop the oil in slowly, you'll swear but it will know you're frightened and I think that's sort of, you can expand that to food generally. You know, there's the pan, it knows if you're just going, ooh, and how much of that it does know whereas if you're just slinging it in, you know. But that's what my brother said to me because he always rings up, he lives in New York and he'll ring up about Thanksgiving. He's got it mastered now but for a while he'd ring up at 12 o'clock sort of noon time, you know, so the end of November we get in this Christmas and start wanting recipes about Thanksgiving and I would say things like exactly that, I said just sprinkle a bit of that or lob that in the pan and just say, and he goes, what am I lobbing? You're not articulating it. Lob it in! I said, Jesse, you go, I said, a handful of butter. He goes, but how much is a handful, Ken? And absolutely, now when I talk to someone I get that. It's weird, I could say that to Neil, my husband, and he would absolutely get it but if you're not, I couldn't, you know. I don't know what happened but there was before I did Dish I was always a bit of a nervous cook because if people would come in I'd see it as if it was some test on who I was as a person and the best thing that I've learnt from Angela and people always say you must be amazing now and I said, no, but what I have learnt is that Angie's just so relaxed and she's just eating food and just to see what happens and I see you cook sometimes and you take some liquid out or you add a bit of water and I'm like, of course you can just add a bit of water if that's it and you see like, put a bit of water and I'm like, oh yeah, chefs do that. So I think it's your relaxed energy and your confidence is what makes it so delicious. Don't be scared of the pan. It's like, I always sometimes think my hair knows if it's a big day and that's why you have a bad hair day because you're like nervous doing it and you're like, oh, I've had a bad hair day and it's like because you've got to show your hair and your pan and your mayonnaise who's boss. I'd love some of that, it was absolutely lovely. You've got to show them who's boss. Well, there's no doubt in Ang, the pans know your boss. Can we talk about your new book, Odyssey? Oh, please, yes. Please, let's talk about this because this is something that you started in 2017, this series and it's you reimagining these, you know, Greek stories and Greek myths and what made you fall in love with these stories? Did you read them when you were younger? I did and I was captivated by them. You know, there is a certain age you get when you are ready to be bombarded with a new excitement, a new thrill, a new hobby, a new passion, a new source of collecting information. For a lot of kids, it's football, it's their local club, nothing wrong with that and they learn everything about it, you know, they could go and become a mastermind for their club and its history or I can remember boys at school who drew, no, that's a, you know, no, oh look, that's a nice Messerschmitt, it's a Messerschmitt 109E and they would be very specific about it, you note the forward gun emplacement and through the, you know, propeller or whatever, all this stuff and that was their passion and for me, for some reason, Greek myths just hit me and for the retelling, there's something very pleasing about the fact that unlike most mythic titles, it really does have a beginning and end, the universe begins and then the world and light and dark and these primitive early gods and then a new generation and then a third generation become the Olympian gods that most people will know the names of, Apollo and Zeus and so on and it ends with this fourth one that I've just written, Odyssey. The Greeks had a very high sense, in fact, all cultures have had a very high sense of the central and I use the word very advisedly, the central importance of the hearth. In fact, the English word hearth gives us a clue because the first five letters of it are heart and it is the same origin as heart, the hearth. It's the heart of the house and the Greeks used cardia as well as oikos to mean hearth. Cardia means hearth as in cardiac and the Latin for hearth is focus and we've taken that word and we've extracted all these metaphorical meanings for focus but it originally meant the fireplace at the centre of a house. This whole idea of hearth and home, the impulse, the energy, the agony, almost, the tension and the excitement of the Odyssey is a man trying to get home. It's been a fabulous odyssey myself to follow it and to retell it and it's been great. And you can also get this as an audiobook and people can listen to you tell the story of the Odyssey. How do you find recording those and how do you find the reaction because you've voiced many a book and you've voiced the Harry Potter books that people must have such great memories of your voice in their head. It's extraordinary because when in the mid-90s I was asked by my agent do you want to do a children's story and I pictured a boy and the cat went to see the girl and the dog the end. Half a morning that'll be and then I got sent this big manuscript that said Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and I thought what's this and started to read and thought it was cultivating and said yes I'll do it but it's an adult sized novel and yeah and then I watched this phenomenon grow and grow until it became simply unprecedented and almost unbelievable what was going on and of course it was cassettes in those days I mean half the job wasn't reading the novel it was at the end when they go okay now the cassettes and I go alright cassette A side one cassette A side two cassette B side one wow end of side one end of side B oh god did I get it wrong what's going on on and on you go it's funny my friend she always listened to even as an adult you reading Harry Potter and then even when she was married to her husband she'd be like night and have to put Stephen Brown and he'd be like poor husband oh god and then at home there are three of us yeah her George and Stephen Fry we're going to do our fast food quiz with you this is a quick fire response it's never quick fire so no Stephen Fry what is your favourite form of potato mashed that was quick yeah that was mashed okay your favourite sandwich filling egg egg yeah I love that what's your favourite crisp salt and vinegar correct your favourite kitchen utensil I mean I do like a good cherry pitta just because you do feel you're really getting it done you know it's a little thing you just press with your thumb and out comes and you get covered in cherry juice feels like you've worked doesn't it yeah it feels like you've been on the farm yeah favourite pasta that's a really good question really good question because there's no wrong answer no there isn't linguine yes you get the joy of spaghetti but the little hint of the flatness yes I like that yeah please choose your festive favourites from the following panettone or Christmas pudding oh Christmas pudding correct mulled wine or mulled cider mulled wine okay stuffing or pig in blanket stuffing and mince pies hot or cold well I like both to be honest I really do but hot hot with double cream oh yes I love that I do as well and do you think mash belongs on a Christmas dinner plate or would you say roast potato I would say roast potatoes myself mash is as we know is the Thanksgiving yes and indeed in the south they put marshmallows in yes which sounds terrible but actually actually when we were chatting about you coming on we were saying you know you get asked that question like who'd be on your dream dinner party list and I reckon a lot of people would go Stephen Fry we said Stephen Fry hence why you're here but do you ever throw quite a fab dinner party and invite like a you know a who's who of who cares well I mean I have done but I certainly I think I can say this with all absolute truth that I've never assembled the list in order for it to be people who are so called great and good they are friends or people I think would like to meet the other people I've invited but sometimes you don't even think oh blimey I mean for birthday parties or something you think that's a lot of pythons or whatever and I think there I was when I was 13 and I didn't you know the idea that I could meet one of these was impossible so you know but being in the public eye and you probably feel the same is a picnic you get seats at wonderful performances of plays and concerts and whatever you can always ring up late and say is there any chance of me getting up I'm so sorry or we'll see what we can do it's unfair but it is one of the reasons being well known is a picnic and people are nice to you but all picnics are likely to be threatened by wasps and being in the public eye the wasps are social media and indeed mainstream media as Trump likes they occasionally mean you have to just run for home because you can't take anymore of their buzzing and stinging I can see why people will watch a figure in the public eye and think of course they only go in their car there and they go to that private members club but I used to like when I was a student I used to like pubs I just liked the atmosphere of them and I could nurse a drink for two hours you know and just have a packet of crisps or some pork scratchings or whatever you know and it was like but I literally find it impossible to go into pubs now not because people are mean or not because people crowd me up but there will always be someone who says hey Steve let me buy a drink now what do you do to that if you say yes you have to be a member of their group and talk to them for as long as it takes to drink the drink and possibly a bit longer especially if they're a bit drunk and they're putting their arm around you no Steve because I don't bullshit no that's it because I'm unreal you see I'm unreal I can't bear those people who aren't real please don't let me call you Steve Steve all of that on the other hand if you say no I'm just offering you a drink what's wrong with it why don't you go and have a drink oh you're so stuck up you just cannot win it's very tricky and I'm I'm not moaning I know how blessed my life is it would be fun to just go to a pub yeah just relax but you're always on display slightly plus you have to have a stupid smile on your face you know if you're in a shop and there's a queue for the till yeah and you happen to be in a bad mood you mustn't show it because people think I saw that Steve what a misery yeah oh my I suppose he thought he should be served first yeah oh god yeah so instead you have this smile plastered on your face help me I'm in hell and I'm smiling we come to the end of the show question this is a question for you Stephen Fry in this envelope special envelope if you choose to answer this question this waitress goodie bag is a is yours full of delights goodness and delights I say yeah thank you for coming on Dish we've been thoroughly entertained you wrote that before I wrote that just now oh did you on your typewriter with your best typewriter handwriting we couldn't think of a question you wouldn't be able to answer but we got excited about the format title Stephen's Fry Up and wondered if you'd indulge us what is the perfect fried breakfast well now again you come to real sources of argumentation obviously anywhere north of well Leicester certainly you would have to include black pudding oh yeah and I'm on for that I like black pudding I really like black pudding it works extraordinarily well that's like breadiness in it soaks up bits of extra egg yolk and so on and if I'm just saying to hell with the consequences I would probably want fried bread because it's so good if it's just crisp but with a give I'm not a believer that baked beans should be involved I love baked beans don't get me wrong I'll have baked beans as soon as anyone let's not get on twitter now no exactly I love a baked bean and companions but with a proper fry up which interestingly of course we say the great British breakfast in Northern Ireland as you know it's called an ulster fry I was in Uganda filming years ago and I was in one hotel and they offered a best breakfast and I said ah I said you're in trouble here because I was in Entebbe just yesterday in a hotel and they offered the best breakfast so who is the best breakfast we both do the best breakfast he said I said how can we both be best he said best bacon egg sausage tomato amazing best breakfast so even in Uganda it's a pretty standard thing to have a fry up but yes obviously bacon obviously sausage good juicy pork sausage and I prick it and then drop some and the imperins in it and eggs you know obviously perfectly fried you can do them American style over easy if you like but I'd rather have the sunny side up with the little petticoat of lace of slightly better cooked white at the edges a petticoat of a fry there and Stephen and thank you for joining us. You've been amazing. It's been a joy. Fantastic, thank you so much. Well, thank you for cooking for me. Pleasure, pleasure. It's always a delight. It was delicious, thank you. It really was. Thank you. A round of applause for Stephen Fry, everybody. Thank you, Stephen. And you have won the bag. Yeah, you have won the bag.