Helena Bonham Carter, cheese toasties with sticky shallots, and a prosecco

0:00Turn up the heat this Valentine's Day with a meal that brings a little steam to the table. Impress your loved one with some succulently sweet and slightly nutty tender stem broccoli, giving you that fine dining feeling without the faff. Simply boil, steam or grill your tender stem in just a few minutes and let this versatile veg take center stage on your Valentine's plate. This is Valentine's cooking, but better with tender stem broccoli. Add a pack to your weekly Waitrose shop, subject to availability. Dish from Waitrose is a cold glass production. This podcast may contain some strong language and adult themes.

0:39Hi, welcome to Dish from Waitrose. My name's Angela Hartner. My name is Nick Ribshaw. And here we are for Dish in 2026. No, it's not. It's a 2026 episode, but it's 2025. Yeah, no, I know where I am, but they're watching a list of this in 2026. But it's time, isn't it? Yeah, but if you're... It says in the cards, I read the cards. Yeah, he says you don't have to pretend it's 2026 on it. It's not. But you just did. I didn't. I didn't say, oh, I'm in 2026. Anyway, hello. I said it's 2026. Oh, here we go. Not that. Well, we're not going to pretend it's not. We're not. No. But it is. It is. Yeah. How is your Christmas?

1:20No, that's pretending. Well, no pretending. That's pretending. Hey, we're in a different place today. I know. This is second home. Is it? It's our new second home. How are you, Anne? I'm very well, thank you. And your good self? I'm good. And do you know what? I'm excited today because two things I'm really excited about are a guest, Helen Bonham Carter, who I've never ever met in my life. Oh, that's surprising. She pretty much met everyone. And I feel like she doesn't do too much stuff. No, she doesn't. And I really, really love her. She's an incredible actor. And I'm also really excited about something else I'm a huge fan of.

1:55Cheese toasties. Oh, excellent. So two of my favorite things. It's like Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we had a great Christmas back in 2025, didn't we? Oh, yeah, yeah. I think that Helena Bonham Carter has been the one that my friends have been most excited about. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. I think so, yeah. Yeah, she is incredible. She's super smart, super beautiful. Well, she's just beautiful. Have you ever met her? No, never. Ever cross paths? But I've known big fans since way back. I'm old enough to remember one of her early films, A Room with a View, set in Italy. Yeah. Stella Carr, she's been brilliant.

2:34She's been in so many good movies. So many great films. And I loved her in The Crown. I thought she was fantastic. Oh, of course, yeah. As a queen sister. So Helena is here. I feel like Helena Bonham Carter, I don't know those names you have to say. Yes, the half title. Helena doesn't feel right, does it? No, it feels like really short. Helena Bonham Carter is here to talk about Agatha Christie's Seven Dials, which is a new Netflix show. But first, we should talk about what's in and what is out. Chicory. Chicory. Chicory. Okay, what's the difference between a chicory and an endive? They're the same thing.

3:04It's the same thing. Chicory, you get more, it's the family name. And this is like an endive, chicory endive, they call it. And you can get little smaller ones, but it's quite bitter, but which I like. I think you can cook with these. They're perfectly fantastic in a salad. They go really well with things like strong cheeses. Like there's this amazing restaurant in New York called Estella, which you've been to, I think. On your recommendation. And they do this great chicory salad with the endive here. And it's lovely, the leaves, and then they put these toasted walnuts and then this umbriaco cheese, which is like this Italian cheese soaked in red wine.

3:43And it's absolutely delicious. So it's great. And I think this something's perfect with a mustard dressing. Or if you want to, you can cook with them and it goes really well with things like duck and chicken. You can cook them slowly, roast them in butter, add some orange juice, and it takes on all those beautiful, lovely citrusy flavours. And that would be work with a Christmas dinner, a lunch. It would work. For next year. For next year. For Christmas 2026. When you're panning your menu, you could do those. It would be lovely. I love chicory. And also, this is the time of year, 2026, when you want to start thinking about health.

4:19Health, yes. And this apparently goes to detox the liver. Oh, is it? You'd need that after your boozy Christmas, wouldn't you? It's a pot kettle. Speaking of boozy, last time I saw you, you invited us round. Oh, yeah, you and me. Round to Casa Range. And we were going out to a charity dinner that you were working on, which was so fun. Fun night. Really fun night. We raised nearly half a million quid. Wow. It was nuts. Wow. 400 ,000, 450 ,000. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, it was incredible. Yeah, it was great. But I loved the next day I woke up and I thought, my highlight was you pouring as a Michelin-starred chef.

5:02A woman that has eaten and worked in some of the best kitchens in the world. I'm not exaggerating. Every single time Angela poured a drink, she spilled it. Every time. And I just loved it so much. I said to Misha I said what about Ange and Misha she was like that carpet every time Ange got this lovely carpet she poured Misha champagne poured it all over the phone she's like oh shit it's a nice carpet that's what did mine poured it on the carpet did one for herself poured it on the carpet I was like Angela and she's like oh shit every time like six or seven times I know they're silly sized glasses silly sized these f***ing glasses I loved it I loved it oh I know yeah you were both like shoes off I said no don't worry about it don't worry about that I'm going to pour a bottle of champagne on my carpet I know that poor carpet disinfectant oh that was such a nice night thanks having us it was great fun yeah well it's time to get Helena Bonham Carter in hi hello welcome so good to see you how are you I'm free to I'm on the mode nice to see you this is your kitchen yes it's not home this is our kitchen and we live together.

6:18Yes. Are you happy? How long has this been going on? We've been together a few years. Yes, we're very happy. Yeah, no. Take a seat. Yes, we'll bring you which one's yours. And we'll bring you over this, yeah. I suspect this is Mother Root. It is. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Do you know Mother Root? Thank you. I do, she's here. This is Mother Root. That is Mother Root. Mother Root. I shall worship at you. This is her. At your feet, Mother Root. Time to welcome our guest to Dish. You will know her, of course, from many a phenomenal film. From Fight Club, Sweeney Todd, The Crown, The King's Speech, A Room With A View.

6:51But did you know about her snack bag? No, you did not. No, we didn't. But today you will learn. Helena Bonham Carter, everybody. Welcome. Hi. Welcome. Hi, how are you? I'm okay. I'm waking up. You're waking up? Yeah. I'm so sorry that your wake up is about 18 people clapping under fluorescent light. Do you think, yeah, I've got to wake up fast? Yeah, well, good morning and welcome to dish. Are you slightly northern? I am. I'm from Manchester. Yeah, because, you know, because I've just been northern for months. Oh, yeah, of course. So it might just slip in, it might slip out. It might slip out.

7:28I've been doing it for four months. Yeah. Anyway, it might not come out right. But if it does, that's why, all right? No, it's good. Very good. I feel nice and warm. Would you like to try it, Angela? Oh, no. No, go on, Angela. Angela, Angela. Come on. Well, nice to see you. Thank you for coming to see us.

7:49We're starting with the mother root, which I believe you love. I love. Do you think? I think it works. It is delicious. I think it works. I'm always on the search for a non-alcoholic drink that is a proper tonic. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, it's still there, isn't it? But it's crap. At the end of the day, Like, if you go to a party, I don't drink alcohol, but you go to a party and you need to have something, an elderflower juice doesn't do it. No, it's not. And still, to this day, it's practically always, oh, champagne, da-da-da-da, elderflower juice. It's not an option. No, it's not good enough.

8:32Mother root, I think, is one of the ones that comes... Bativo is good. Yes, that's a good one. What other ones would you recommend? Seed lips, another one. Like a bitterness I wanted. See lip for me is a bit... No, too... It's a bit... Too elderflowery. Yeah, it's not got a bit of body. You need to have something. This has got apple cider vinegar, which I definitely think does something. Well, it's the bitterness that works with the tonic, I think, that makes it like, you know, like you feel like you're drinking a drink. Yeah. It does. Yeah. If you're not drinking, and if I have a bout of not drinking, about.

9:06Yeah. Having that bout. About. Like when you get to night time, and you're like, I drank water all day, I can't have another water. So you do need something that sort of says, you do want something, yeah. It's night time now. Well, also you need something to, definitely to face the socializing. Yeah. You need to have something. Yeah. This is a good one. And it's got the ginger, apple cider vinegar. I feel like I'm having a healthy drink here as well with the ginger and the apple cider. It is. It's a bit amazing. And there's no sugar. Yeah, I like it. Which is a big thing. And alongside that, you have a Coke, zero, a glass of water and three coffees.

9:39I know, it's sad. Yeah, it's quite the order. Are all three coffees always one a tea? I thought one was a tea. It was because this is indecision, really, I think. It's indecision plus the fact of trying to find something to wake me up, and nothing has so far. Okay. But sometimes, and it's sort of an ADHD thing, I'd say. Right, okay. Probably. I'd like to have a few accessory options. There's quite a lot of accessory options. Yeah, you want to know what is going to make you alert. Yeah, well, that can be the process of this podcast. Let's see if I've woken up. The dark chocolates are possible. Yeah, yeah.

10:08That's going to happen. We should talk about the dark chocolate. I'm going to apply some Diet Coke. Yeah, you can get some of that. Which is the least healthy. Yeah. Tell us about the snack bag because we've heard about the legendary snack bag of Helena Bonham Carter. Is this what is in your handbag at all times? This is the snack bag. Okay. Oh, wow, the bag of seeds. It's excessive. That looks quite heavy as well. It's excessive. The spoon is necessary. The spoon is ready. Are they dried fruits there? What are they, dried apricots? There's a whole load of things. I mean, this is like, and it's not necessarily comprehensive.

10:38This is me, again, not deciding. But I want to cover all eventualities. It's like I'm not a light packer. Even going to the set, I'm not a light packer. Definitely not going on holiday, I'm not a light packer. It's terrible. I mean, it's utterly neurotic. It's a picture of insecurity. But here, I've got... My main thing is when, since I'm paid shedlose just to pretend to be somebody else, I've got to make sure I'm awake. Yeah, you do. I've got to awake. Key. Conscious. Alert. Able to say your lines. Remember. Exactly. And also remember where to sit and do all those things. It requires instant coordination and concentration.

11:27It's the concentration. So my natural mode is unconscious. I'm a sleeper. So I have to raise that with any of these. And it's sort of like sometimes it takes something and that doesn't work. So then you try. Okay, so Mango, that worked really well last year when I was really hot. Right. And instant bit of sugar in a train sequence in the Agatha Christie thing. Oh, yes. That I happen to be promoting. Sponsored by Mango. Isn't it amazing? This is water with apple cider vinegar with a bit of cayenne. Do you want to try some? Do you have that every day? Yeah, I do, actually. That's really good for you, having the cayenne and stuff.

12:11It just makes me go, do you want to try now? Yeah, let's go. I don't, you don't. You don't mind backwash, do you? Yeah, let's try. Do you backwash? I don't mind backwash. I won't backwash. What? I won't backwash. Don't worry, great. Okay. We could sell it with some backwash. What do you think? Oh, yeah, I like it. Is that nice? Doesn't it do something like that? Wake you up? It does do something. What do you think? I would put more in there. Oh, come on. I think you need more cider vinegar in there. Definitely, yeah. I love that. Okay. We could do more. Anyway, there's shed loads, but life's too short to go into them.

12:45But basically, it's a lot of stuff to get my blood sugar up. Well, you don't want to find yourself in a situation out of your control, I imagine, where you're like, there's no snacks, and at the p.m., on sets, a long day. I mean, you are in always a situation out of your control, because you're the illusion of control. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, having a banana now. So obviously, the coffee hasn't worked. The mother has to get in the banana now. Try a bit of a banana. Nothing's worked. We're trying. I think no point in you cooking at it. No, I've got it all. We'll just eat all the snacks. Helen's handbag, yeah.

13:21Oh, jeez, toasties. Yeah. No, we always ask our guests their likes and dislikes, of course, and I thought we could run through. Oh, yeah. Quite a magnificent list and full of things in capital letters, which I also really enjoyed as well. It spoke passion to us and no messing about, like the capital letters, I liked that. For example, under the heading of favourite ingredients, she wrote most, full stop. Most. Most. Food loves. Okay, so you've said bread. Yeah. All kinds. Yeah, the whole lot. Every bit of bread, fantastic. And then you've also said cheese, all kinds. Yeah, that's true. Love cheese toasties.

14:02Favourite cheese at the moment is Comte. Yeah. Yeah, correct. At this moment, yes. There's some in the bag, we wonder. That's my thing. All kinds of cakes to be eaten with vanilla ice cream. Yeah. I like the combo of the cold cream, ice cream with... The hot cakes. Cakes. My mum used to disembowel a soft-boiled dough and cut up bread and butter, you know, in little cubes. So egg in a glass. Did you ever do egg in a glass? Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's all mixed around. You could mix the bread with the egg. Yeah, bread with a bit of butter and the egg and the soft boiled.

14:40Pure comfort. Delicious, yeah. Really, really good. Egg in a glass. Egg in a glass. You also enjoy ice cream with hot sauce? Yep. I mean, I haven't had it for years, but I do. And you love oat cakes with soft goat's cheese? Well, that's my sort of snack. because basically I'm an actor, so I can't get too fat, frankly. So, I mean, none of us can. Yeah. So my gluten-free too, recently I have to be gluten-free. Boring. Yeah. Me too, also boring. Boring. Gluten-free, Nairns, Oat Cakes. Yeah, big time. Obviously, there's a good selection on snacks, of course, for your likes and dislikes. Perini's truffle cream cheese.

15:17That is a deli in Florence. Okay. Amazing. That is just a very specific deli from cheese. That's a bit of sex on a spoon, frankly. It's amazing. It is amazing. I've never had that. Oh, I'm going to try that next time. Yeah, there's an onion one too. That's great. Love. Love. And there's a salami with fennel. That's delicious. We need to go, Anne. And there's an amazing quince jelly. I think I'm just going to travel with you. The tastes in Florence. Yeah. Amazing. Well, you are. You like Italian stuff. Yeah, definitely. I like it. Understatement. You like Italian stuff. Yeah.

15:56I don't mind it, yeah. I'm just trying to watch her because I thought we'd get some tips. There's real-life cheese toasting. What are you doing on it? Shallots, least caramelised onions. Oh, my God, I could possibly cook this. Yeah, you could. You said that to Ange before. So, come round, I'll do this. I'll do this for you. I can make this for you. This could be done. So, do you not like to cook? I like it, but I just can't. You just can't. Well, it's not. It's a freak event. Right. You know, it's unlikely. But when I concentrate enough, it can sometimes come out edible. Okay. Yeah. That's good.

16:30I've got no know-how. Right. No. And how come? Did no one cook yours? Did your mom cook for you? Yeah, she did. She cooked tortilla and Spanish stuff. I can cook a gazpacho. Yeah.

16:44I'm just thinking about the thing. That works. I'm guessing you don't really enjoy it because you just don't really do it. I do. That is the odd thing. That's how perverse I am. Oh, wow. I love it. You should do it. I know. You like it. This is why I'm... I know, I've got to go to the couch to work out why am I not... Why would you do that? And I buy thousands of cookie books. So I'm always dreaming. It's a fantasy life. And I like the idea of putting stuff together and then seeing what comes up. And I like giving people, making people happy. Yeah. And making, you know, but it hasn't really extended to the cooking.

17:17Angela, I will say, is the best tutor, obviously. Okay. Because she really makes it look quite easy. And a lot of people who cook are quite stressed. Oh, it's got to be right. Yeah, she's calm. And you're the opposite, Ange. Yeah. You're so calm. Well, I'm having a mare with these. You see, it's having a... The thing is also... So I can turn them without all the cheese flying out. Is it stressing? Are you like... Oh, no. No, it's all right. I couldn't do two things. That's the thing. It's if people come round. I've got to either chat to them. Talk to them or cook. Or cook. You see, what you're doing is actually neurally demanding.

17:50Yeah. No, but you do it in, well, I mean, when people come round to ours, I shove them out of the kitchen because I don't want them in there. You do? Is that right? Because it is quite annoying when you're trying to do something and people are chatted. Yeah, you can't. And it's worse when they stand there going, can I help? And you're like, no. No. Just go away and go and talk to someone else. But thanks for coming. But thanks for coming. I'm excited you chose a cheese toastie because I love a cheese toastie. Cheese toastie is achievable. I love a cheese toastie. And a good one doing a pan like that.

18:16Because I always used to do, you know, like the ones in the, like the Breville cheese toastie maker. Yeah, that you can't lose. You can't, yeah. And then I go through phases of when we remember we've got it, me and my boyfriend Mish will have cheese toasties for like four days straight. And we're like, the toastie, we forgot about the toastie, and then we'll have it. And then we forget about it. But I think in a pan fried like that, that is my favourite way. I haven't actually done it fried. Should we do your dislikes? because, Helena, you said, not eat them, just discuss them. You said your dislikes were basically anything that is anatomically identifiable.

18:52Yeah, that's true. So brain, kidney, liver, trotter's tongue. Did you used to have it as a kid? I never had it. Or is it just a whole lifelong aversion? I'd say it's a lifelong aversion. Lifelong aversion, yeah. But you see it more and more and more now. People are quite happy to talk about it. Somebody tried to give me some brain on Saturday. I wasn't having it. And what did you do? Just rejected it out. I had a mouthful because I just thought it was impolite. And she had said, it's this restaurant called, it's really trendy, called Polentina. Oh, yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. And she said you won't really taste the brain.

19:24So I thought, okay. But then what's the point? But then, but I didn't like it. I will eat anything. I'm quite happy to, I love stuff like this. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tripe? Tripe, not so much. I did try it. I've tried it at a restaurant recently, a good restaurant, because I thought, oh, they'll be able to do it. And I still didn't really enjoy it. No. It's more the texture of it. Yeah, I don't like it. But brains and kidneys. I actually love kidneys and livers and things like that. Do you not like liver? Because that doesn't feel like it is. Oh, I love it. I like chicken liver pâté. That, and I don't know why, I should...

19:59It's not so livery, is it? Yeah. There's less livery and the texture's probably not there. It's the pâté texture. And this is sort of Neil's sort of... Neil loves it. Angela's husband is a chef as well, Neil. Oh, yeah. And he loves it all, doesn't he? Well, he does lots of things, like very much the St. John style of cooking, you know, nose to tail. The whole, I don't know. Yeah, exactly. But he does brains, but he does them in this lovely caper butter with loads of parsley and garlic. They're absolutely delicious. I defy you not to like them. And what is it that your partner makes that is your favourite that he does?

20:30He literally can do anything. Oh, really? He's very good at a plain pasta with a bit of lemon juice and, well, I don't know what that is. It always tastes very good. I don't know, I'll eat it. He can just, you know, look at the fridge and conjure something. He doesn't have to follow a thing. And when you do follow a thing, when you do do a recipe, because then you'd love a cookery book. Do you want to see how many cookery books? I'd love to know, please. This isn't seen. Do you have a favourite or a few favourites? I'll show you just how many. So you have all these cookery books where you never cook.

21:03So we've got these cookery books on this shelf. It's about six feet of cookery books. So we've got that, about six foot there. Shout out to Nigel Slater. There's a lot of Nigel. Yeah, a lot of Nigel. I did play his step-mom. Step-mom? Oh, in Toast, yeah. I think I did have to cook for him. But cooking acting? I put it sort of together on a plate, I think. Oh, yeah, yeah. Then I had to do pies. I was thinking of what food I've done. Sweeney Todd. Mm-hmm. Not great pies. Not great pies. Yeah.

21:36This looks beautiful, Angela. Yeah, this does. Thank you so much. And the smell. Do you want some salad as well? There's a little salad there if you like some. And the onions. Okay, so Ange, tell us how to make this perfect cheese toastie. So we've got a cheese toastie with sticky shallots. Yes. Which we've made with five types of cheese. So we've got Conte, Gouda, mozzarella and Gruyere. And then on the top, I've sprinkled a little bit of Parmesan and just put it in the oven so you have that little bit of toastedness there. So you mix all your cheeses together, grate them, add some chopped spring onions.

22:09This is gluten-free bread for you guys. Thank you. And what you do is put a bit of mozzarella, not mozzarella, mayonnaise on the outer side of the toast. So you have your mayonnaise on the outer side of the bread, put inside all your cheeses, put them together and then fry them in butter at a sort of medium heat. so it melts nicely, lovely golden brown. That's why it's really rich. It's all the butter and all the cheese. Wow. And it's the mayonnaise that has that lovely little crust around the edge, you see. Tell me about these onions because they really cut through. They're like nicely, are they shallots?

22:45The reason we made these lovely shallots is then you put them inside the sandwich. So you've got that sort of spice and that sort of acidity that cuts through all the richness of the cheese, which you need. So they've just been mixed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, clear honey. And you've got two pinches of that lovely Ossolengi Aleppo chilies, which is that lovely one of his jarred spice mixes you get. I have that in eggs. You have it in your eggs in the morning, you see. And that's the real heat there, that little spice. Mix it all together and then roast in the oven for about 20 minutes until nice and cooked through.

23:16Roast in the oven, you just do it on a pan? Oh, the onions. Oh, the shallots, yeah. I did a fry-up for my mum yesterday and she said, and I did chili on the tomatoes and on the egg, actually. and she said she felt more awake for church.