Jack Whitehall (LIVE from The Royal Opera House), an aubergine parmigiana and an old fashioned

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.

0:40Hello and welcome to Dish from Waitrose. I'm Nick Grimshaw. And I'm Angela Hartnett. We've got a special bonus episode essentially now. Because what we're going to get into is what happened when Jack Whitehall joined us for Dish Live, which we did at the Royal Opera House. Yes. And Jack came and joined us to talk all about his new show Malice, which is in with David Duchovny and he plays like a evil evil man evil nanny which is sort of an unusual role for Jack Whitehall so he was on to talk about that and he's so natural and comfortable on the stage he was brilliant he was very very funny but I mean that's what we needed no we didn't I don't know if I was comfortable I had a nap and it messed me up oh during the day yeah it felt weird oh yeah because you didn't go home you came straight from radio and had the whole day.

1:32What time had you been up? Five o 'clock or something? Yeah. So it's a long day. It was a long day. Yeah, I really suffer for the arts. Yeah, I really do. I really do. Anyway, how was that for you? Because that was, it was a busy night for you. A busy night. The restaurant opening. The restaurant opening. We were live on stage. I didn't realise it was that big. Yes, big. It was very big. And yeah, over 2 ,000 people. Yeah. It was, I think we were both nervous. And then, but then silly things happened that made us relax and laugh. And I think we've spoken about it, haven't we? And we go, Nick and Angela to the stage.

2:03We're like, where's the stage? We didn't like the stages. But no, it was great fun. And I think, and like all those things, they go remarkably quick. Yes. You sit there and then you turn around and then it's like, it's over. Yeah. Because it was in the theatre where we were able to have a trap door, have objects lowered down like you were part of a play or a musical. Next time. I was desperate for something. Fly in. Something, something. And we got so many nice messages about the show. Elaine was there. Yeah. And messages on Instagram and say it was such a good night. Lots of laughs. Please do more like this.

2:33You are a great combo like prosciutto and melon. Oh. Sweet and sour. Yeah. Sweet and sharp. Yeah, we should do more. And Stephanie said we had the best time and I caught the apple. Thank you, Jack Whitehall. That will make more sense once you listen to this episode. Yes, yes. Mishy's mum caught something from Jack Whitehall. What do you mean she caught something from Jack Whitehall? Because he threw things into the crowd. Oh, right, yes. I think she got some ham or something. Did she? Yeah, she was thrilled. Yeah, she was good. And Madonna Perkins has been on, saying we have an opera house in Australia.

3:08Why don't you come and do the Sydney Opera House? Okay, yeah, sure. People do do podcasts from there. Alice Levine did a podcast from there. Anyway, let's get into this, shall we? Very special episode. This is what happened when me and Angela met Jack Whitehall at the Royal Opera House.

3:50Hello! Hello, hello! Hello! Hello!

3:59Let's go. Two minutes. Let's go. Hi, everybody. Hello. Welcome. This is Dish Live. Welcome. Wow. This is dry ice, by the way. Not a pig in a blanket era. Not a pig in a blanket or anything. Hi, everybody. My God, thank you so much for coming. I actually can't believe that we're here. Can you? When you first came, you thought you were the guest. Yes. All right. We've said that enough times in the three years we've been doing the podcast. I never realised we'd get to, like, the Royal Opera House. I know, it is quite incredible. Yeah. Thank you all for coming. It's amazing you've all come. Yeah, thank you, guys.

4:35Thank you, honestly. Giving up your Wednesday night, isn't it? Quite overwhelming, though. I know, but we're blessed, aren't we? We're blessed, we're blessed, we're blessed, yeah. When we got asked to do this and they said, oh, do you want to do Dish Live at the Royal Opera House? We were like, yeah, I didn't think to... You thought it was 20 people. I didn't think it was this big. This big, yes. We can't really see out there, so it'd be good if we could get the lights on and see everyone that listens to Dish. Oh, hi, everybody. There you are. Hi. Hi, everybody. And everyone's up there and all.

5:05I know, right on the top. Sometimes now, when we're doing the podcast, there's like 17 people. And Angela, you'll be like, do we have to have 17 people watching us? Now there's two and a half thousand. I know where the trap door is. That's all I'm saying. If I disappear suddenly. So we're shy. But we're going to do it. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. But we're kind of going to do it just like a regular dish, but with some extra brilliant things. We've got our dish kitchen. We have our dish table. We have me. We have Angela. We have some wonderful additions, of course. Give it up for our band tonight, the sous chefs, everybody.

5:42Our house band. Yeah. Let's start a theme tune.

5:57I love them. Yeah! Thank you. Thank you, sous chefs. We've got the language thing. Oh, yes, we do. So if you see up there, there's like a strip across. It's obviously the opera house. It used to be the Italian opera house. And now if I say something in Italian like, piano come in nuovo, it will translate up the top. Oh, I love that. What did you just say? I just said to be full like an egg. Oh. Oh, to be full like an egg. You're always saying that as well. I'm always saying that to you. And if I say another one, essere come il prezzemolo. Oh, oh. Being like parsley. Classic phrases we need. Full like an egg, be like parsley.

6:43And our final little one is, buono come il pane. You'll like this one. What's this one? This one is good as bread. Good as bread? Good as bread. What's the one about? Love it. So we've got the Italian translation up there. We've also got a northern translation for me. Yeah. So if I were to say something like, do you want out from shop? That would be, would you like anything from a local... Waitrose. Waitrose. There you go. Yeah, yeah. So we've got the kitchen. Some of it is real. Some of it's not real. The fridge is real. Real fridge, real fridge. A woofer of the real fridge, please. Stocked, real oven.

7:25I can't believe that made it. I hate this. Oh, God. This is Nick all over. Every time we're on the set set, you always criticise something. Well, it looks rubbish. Well, I'll show you what you can do with that. You've got something down here. Get it in the trap. Oh, my God. Be careful, actually. You can't actually see the entrance. You can't see down the trap. Don't fall down the trap. Oh, my God. Oh, I love the smell of that. Yeah. Love the smell of that. Don't you like the smell? No? I love the smell of dry ice. Thank you. Thank you, Trapdoor. Oh, I hate that plant. That's one of my main grievances at Dish.

8:00So we've got loads of stuff. That shit plant. So that's what we've got. Trapdoor, lights, real-life oven, the sous chefs, Angela Hartnett, me and a table. We have a guest. We have Jack Whitehall here tonight. Yeah. We've wanted Jack on for ages, haven't we? Yeah, brilliant. And now the stars have aligned tonight. So Jack's going to be here. Yeah, and he's here to promote his new series on Amazon. Yeah, we watched it last night called Malice. Yeah, and he's done so much. Oh, my God. He's a bit like you, I think, Jack. You know, you think you're older than you are. I mean this in a great compliment.

8:30Right. Take it well. Take it well. Right, right. Because you've both been in the biz, so to speak, from a young age. Yeah, we started at six. Exactly. You know, so I think because you were so familiar to seeing Jack do so many things, like the Brits and presenting loads of other stuff, you feel like he's been around for ages. But he's a very young man, like you get yourself. Looking great. Yeah, nice save. Did anyone hear the episode when Jack's mum and dad came on? Yeah. We had Hilary and Michael Whitehall on. It was kind of like early days of Dishmitty. Yeah, they were. They're here. In the director's box.

9:07Yes. Hilary looks thrilled. Hilary hasn't even waved us. Hilary's got us to kiss. Come on, Michael. Oh, Michael. Hey, Hilary's hair's good. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We always ask guests when they come on to tell us what they want to eat. You know, we want them to be happy. We want them to be having a dead nice time. And some people will write like, oh, whatever, a burger or something. And I remember Hillary's letter was brilliant. Oh, she wrote an actual letter. You could have published it. Do you remember it? Yeah. And they referred to lobster as lobby, which I loved. Bit lobby. But not only are we doing this tonight, Angela, how many restaurants do you have?

9:45Six, five, four? Six, six. Six. Six, six restaurants. Angela is opening a brand new restaurant in here, in the Royal Opera House tonight. We're launching tonight. Launching tonight. The party, yeah. And then when will it open? When can everyone go? We'll open at the end of next week. End of next week. Yeah, yeah. So you've had to prepare for this, run the other restaurants, and then also open tonight. So when we finish here, Angela has to go and open a restaurant upstairs. So you've had quite that hell of a week. Yeah, a busy week. I mean, people who know me in the audience will go, that just sounds like me, disorganised, didn't check a diary, said yes to something.

10:21No, it was just bad timing. Not bad timing, I don't mean it like that. It was great timing that we're doing this. No offence, everyone. No offence, everyone has turned up. Well, I imagine it's like... It's a lot of pressure. A lot of pressure. But it's okay. We thrive on it. You should have a drink to cheers you. Cheer me up, that sounds terrible. No, to cheers you, not cheers you up. Cheers, cheers, cheers on the new restaurant. What was it like then this week? Because we were doing our Zoom to prep for this and we'd catch up every week. you know, Ange was being brought food by people, you were testing stuff, you had your chef whites on.

10:50What's your favourite thing on the menu? Oh, crikey. You know, I really hate that question when people ask that. All right, then. No, it's just because you're basically implying other stuff isn't as good. No, no, okay, so what do you think I'd like on the menu? Oh, well... Bird's eye potato waffles. Yes, I think you like the fish fingers, yeah.

11:11And your mum's cabbage, you know. No, I think you would like the veal chop. Nice little chilli, garlic, butter on top. Loads of herbs on that. Serve with some... And then I think you'd love this lovely braised beans and tomato salad. I think you would like that. So when you're in next, we'll cook that for you. Maybe I'll come after this. Cheers and congratulations. Thank you very much. Angela Hartner, everybody. Come on. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers. That is amazing. Thank you. Should we get our guest in? I think so. Yeah, I think we should. I think we should do this. Get ready, everybody, to welcome our wonderful guest to Dish.

11:46We welcome a comedian, a writer, actor, presenter. He knows all about, you know, comedy timing and razor-sharp roasts of celebrities. Tonight, though, he's going to be talking more about roast aubergine. The most noise possible, please, for the one and only Mr Jack Whitehall.

12:15Look at us! Here we are! We bloody made it, didn't we? Look at us! The Royal Opera House! Can you believe it? This is, there's dry ice. Dry ice, there's a band. There's a band, there's a trap door. I didn't get to come through, which I'm very upset. You can go out of it. I can exit. Yes. Trap door, exit. I really want to do it. Your mum and dad are here. What? Yeah, they're up there. Are they? Yeah. Oh, there he is. Hilary and Michael, there they are. Oh, no. The Phantom of the Opera. Oh, God, he's heckling. Jack, can you hear me? Yes. What are you doing on this show? It's a cuckery show. I couldn't boil an egg.

12:53Okay, hecklers will be chucked out. Can you please sit down? Please, Michael. And someone take that microphone away from him. Sit down before it turns into a rally. Yeah, please. Guys, you take a seat and I'll get you a drink. Also, don't put the spotlight on Michael. That's very dangerous. Yeah, no spotlight on Michael. He gets confused by that. He might think it's the end. Don't move towards the light. So, Jack, when we asked, you know, our guests what they want to eat, you said, there's not an alcoholic drink I won't drink. Yeah, I think that's true. I genuinely think I've never met a drink I didn't like.

13:25Yeah, white wine, red wine, beer. You've never had that spirit moment that, you know, I've got with tequila, that you were so ill that you can never go near it again. Yeah, definitely had those moments where I've been so ill and still thought, no, I'll come back for seconds. I've never been put off a drink yeah and I've had yeah I mean like Smirnoff Ice that used to be my drink when I was at university yeah oh I love I did something called a Turbo Shandy which was half beer half Smirnoff Ice yeah in a pint glass oh my god one fan of the Turbo Shandy that is the first time a Turbo Shandy has ever been cheered in the Royal Opera House it's going down in history you see that we've done you an old fashioned thank you so much This looks great.

14:08The thing that I've definitely changed with my approach to drink, I think, is I've got older, I definitely have now learnt to appreciate new ways of enjoying an alcoholic beverage. Not just... Exactly, yeah. I think now the one that I appreciate as a parent is that one glass of red just to take the edge off. Oh, yeah. Like, you know, yeah, there's parents in the room. The one glass of red that you have at 6 o 'clock and then I'm ready to start the day, It's honestly an absolute game changer. Do you have that before the radio show? Yeah, straight before radio. Yeah, it really takes the edge off.

14:43Jack, we have so much that we want to talk to you about tonight. But first, we want to do food likes and dislikes, as we always like to do on Dish. So, Jack's likes and dislikes. Here's your list of likes. It's sort of in three segments. So, first up, your regulars. Yeah. Eggs. Oh, love eggs. A burger, not smashed. No. No. With all the trimmings, what sort of trimmings are we talking on the Jack Whitehall burger? I'll have everything. I love pickles. I love a little bit of raw onion to add some texture. And yeah, obviously now the thing is like smash burgers, but it's made me think, I think I really like those big, fat, juicy burgers.

15:18The smash burgers now, I think it's gone too far. Too petite. Or crushed avocado as well. I love crushing it. What's the avocado down to deserve that? I know. I don't know. Eggs, by the way, is what I love. I think they're the best. They're like my... Any which way you can. They're incredible. They are. This is the most versatile food. They're the Selena Gomez of dairy. And, you know, they're multi-hyphenates. Yes. They do it all. I think they're amazing. And I'll have any egg scrambled, omelette. I like a posh egg when they deep fry it and stick it on some asparagus. Oh, wow. Look at you. Oh, yes.

15:49Fancy pants. But I'll also, you know, slide it up with a little egg mayo sandwich. Oh, yeah. I love that. The only thing that I will draw the line at is that weird pot of egg and four spinach leaves in Pret. Oh, it's so sad. Oh my God. It's the weirdest thing ever. Why does anyone buy that? It's literally next to the ham on burr as well. What is wrong with you? Also on your list, we've never had this on our likes. Milk. Milk? Well, normally people say like a recipe. They'd be like, oh, I like smoked salmon or this type of pasta. You're like, milk. Well, I just don't think milk gets a lot of love these days.

16:27No. Do you know what I mean? Like I grew up as, you know, many of us did in the era where milk was like, oh, it's amazing, it's full of calcium, it's good for your bones, it is great. Milk's fantastic. And then like seven years ago, it suddenly got cancelled. Yeah. And all of a sudden, you couldn't drink milk. And if you drink milk, it's a discount day, you drink milk. It is the seed of Satan. You need to drink, you know, almond milk now. And I've done that. I've done all of the milks. I've tried all the milks. Yeah, I have honestly, it's been a very experimental period for me. Yeah. When it comes to milks.

16:57And I've tried them all. I tried soya milk for a while, and then I stopped because someone told me that it gives you moobs. Yes. Oestrogen production. Is this true? Yeah, we get moobs. You probably were the one that told me. Probably? Yeah. It sounds like something I'd tell you, yeah. Then it goes a bit more specialist. Kedgeri, Spam fritters, corned beef, sardines, English mustard. These are all likes. These are all likes, yeah. Yes, I like these lists. Kedgeri I like. It's just, it's great because it's curry for breakfast. Yeah. And I love it. I've had a few meetings in London with, like, Americans, and it's just so fun to order that and then sit and eat curry and eggs and fish for breakfast and watch them look on in abject horror.

17:38And I love dishes like that. And Spam, I guess, is the same as well. Yes. That's, I think, Michael's influence. He grew up eating sort of wartime food. And it's made you do it. Yeah, exactly. Do you have a wartime food fave? Oh, I don't know if I do, actually. My dad used to have a dripping butty. which would be lard in a pan, and he'd melt it down. And then he'd put the bread in it, and then he'd give us that. That was his cooking. So it'd be lard-soaked bread. Yeah. And he'd go, good war fodder, that. I was like, it's 1996, Dad. I want some pesto. Yeah. Give me a piece of broccoli. Then I want to talk to you about this.

18:17This is really interesting. This was, like, your old rider. And I need to know when this is from, was, like, Haribo Sweets, Star Mix, and Diet Coke. and now it's evolved, right? Well, yeah, because I never realized it was my rider. I would always turn up to these venues and there would be like Haribo Star Mix in there. And I'd be like, why do people just always assume that I want Haribo Star Mix? And then I realized that it's like part of your rider. So like you have a producer who does your shows and then asks in advance for Haribo. So everyone just assumed. But I chose that rider when I was like 19 because I started really early.

18:50And then it was the same for 10 years. So now I don't think I have a rider. Well, I do have a rider. When I got on tour with my dad. What's dad's? It is two bottles of Perrier Jouet champagne. Perfect. And a defibrillator. Oh, my God. I love that. That's his rider. Because I did some of them shows with you. Yes. Remember when I came along and I knew Michael and Michael would be popping that bottle pre-show. Yeah, pre-show. He'd bosh it pre-show. Oh, my God. He really did. Yeah. Yeah, and he'd just be sat there and Jack was very focused, like getting in the zone, and Michael would be like, yeah.

19:25He doesn't focus, he just does it. We also have your dislikes as well, because we always like a warning, you know, we don't want to make something that our guest hates. You have mayonnaise and beans. Oh, yes. As your dislikes. It's all right. Something I said. I'm just going to just, no, no. Oh, my God. Angie's just cancelling that mayo in there for a moment. I'm off, I'm off. Just wanted to understand why you dislike all this stuff. When you stood up, I thought you were going to like suddenly announce that you were a Hellman's ambassador. What's wrong with mayonnaise? I like both of these things.

19:58I have a complex history with mayonnaise. And I think as a kid, I really didn't like it because I had an association with sort of motorway service station sandwiches. And I just found it a bit icky. And then I've sort of managed to wean myself onto it. I like it to be jazzed up a little bit. You know, introduce a little bit of garlic or some herbs or some mustard. and then suddenly I'm down. But just raw-dogging it still does slightly disgust me. And beans? What's your issue with beans? Beans, I love beans. I just, at my age now, can't trust them. Right. Oh. Which I think is a pretty standard thing.

20:34But yeah, I have unfortunately inherited my father's guts and I don't want to lower the tone. Enough said about that. We're in upset. But yes, the flatulence issue. Okay, I love the honesty, Jack. We love the honesty. Thank you, caring and sharing. It's all right. Good to know. On top of your list, though, we found out your loves were... You do love a whiskey, hence why we're having an old-fashioned right now. And we wanted to ask you as well about foraged chicken, because we had on your list foraged chicken where you visited your gran and your uncle was there. My mum was, like, death-staring me.

21:03Don't tell this story. But we have an uncle who is rather eccentric, and he is into foraging. And, yeah, we went for Sunday lunch at my grandmother's house once, and we were tucking into this lovely chicken, at which point my grandmother announced that Jerry had found the chicken and we asked her to, you know, expand and it turned out that he had found the chicken half defrosted in a bin outside Tesco's. I know. Absolutely disgusting, the idea of eating a chicken from Tesco's. Waitrose. All day long, people. Oh, I know. Oh. Shudder at the thought. Shudder at the thought. Oh, no. Horrible. And you do like to cook, though.

21:53Yeah, I've always had a really keen interest in food. I always love it when I've been away. I always want to cook when I get in the house because I feel like, I don't know, it just grounds me. I don't know. It just makes the house feel more like a house again. I'm not someone that can multitask very well, so I'm totally focused on cooking when I am cooking and I'm not thinking about other things, and I love that. element of cooking whereby you can completely switch off. You're immersed in it. You're immersed in it, and I love that. And, Ange, what are we going to eat? So we're going to eat aubergine parmigiano.

22:25Oh, yes. Great, fantastic. So I'm going to go off and get that for you. Oh, now. Now it's time. Is it time now? I think it's time. Yeah, it's time. I think it's time. Would you like any help? No, it's all good. It's all ready. It's all done. Would you like me to clean up after Nick? No, no, I tend to end up having to do that, so I'll go and get it. I'll be back in a while. All right, Ange, in a sec. See you in a minute. Bye, Ange. Here we go. While Ange has gone to get the aubergine parmigiana, here's how she made it. Hello, Royal Opera House. Angela Hartnett here. OBE, MBE. Yes, I so love saying that.