Mark Ronson, roast chicken with fennel, shallot & white bean stew and a dirty vodka martini

0:28Looking for a snack that hits all the right notes? Dish from Wake Trails is a Cold Glass production. This podcast may contain some strong language and adult themes. Welcome. I'm good, you okay? Oh, hello. Hi. Hi, Mark. How are you? Good to see you. How are you? I'm great, thank you for just having me. I just had my mind blown back. Why? Because I didn't know about Marmite cashews. Oh, yeah, they're good. They're really good. Now your life has got even better. Even better. I didn't know this was going to be the best day of my life. Growing up here, obviously I moved to the States when I was eight, but Marmite was something that I loved.

1:04And Monster Munch, which you obviously have read about or something. It's fine dining. Yeah. I don't think I've had one of these since I was nine, but is this the roast beef? Happy? We didn't know which one you would like most. We wanted to find one. Man, this still holds up. That's not the same. Oh my god.

1:28Hello, welcome to Dish from Waitrose. I'm Nick Grimshaw. And I'm Angela Hartnett. How are you, Ange? I'm very well, thanks. How are you? You've got what my mum used to say. He's got the devil in him. I guess, I sort of, yeah. Yeah, why, why, why? Do you know, just a few things going on. It's just, the only way to get through it is to just laugh and realise, you know, life is a bit like this at the moment. You know what? Just what the, you know. Yeah. I feel you. I'm not dead. You know, there's worse things. I like that feeling. I like this energy in here. And we have Mark Ronson with us today on Dish.

2:01Very good friend of yours now. Yeah, I love Mark. I've known Mark a very, very long time. I've not seen him for ages. He lives in New York though. He does live in New York and I don't. So that would probably be why. I think the last time... Do you speak though? Do you chat? We sometimes text, yeah. Text, yeah. But I think the last time I saw him maybe was with you. At your party? In my garden. Yes, I think so. I think that was probably the last time. Was it a Christmas party? No, it was my birthday. It was like 2022. That was the first time I went to your house. It's like three years ago. Oh, right.

2:35Okay. That's the only time I've met him. So I feel like, yes, I feel like maybe I saw him five months ago, but in when I actually thought about it on the way, it's been three and a bit years. Yes. So am I friends with him? It sounds like no. yeah yeah we're friends we're mates every half decade but like this if you went to new york you'd look him up and go for dinner no yeah that's a friendship yeah yeah but he's great mark he's great and he's wrote this brilliant book which i read and obviously mark's worked with incredible people in his music producing career but this is all about um how he started out and and his sort of night his role as a night person in 90s new york yeah that's right Because he moved there really young, didn't he, with his family?

3:18Yeah, very young. Yeah, yeah. And then all about him learning to be a DJ and sort of realising that that's what he was going to do. I think New York would have been an incredible place to have learned that. In the 90s as well. You'd think that would have just been brilliant. I mean, some of the people he's worked with, Adele, Lily Allen, Lady Gaga, Rufus Wainwright, Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars, Naz, Queens of the Stone Age, Paul McCartney. I know, that's incredible. Like, ridiculous. I didn't even say Amy Winehouse. You didn't say Amy Winehouse. Heard of her. Yeah. So there's so much to talk about.

3:49But before we get Mark Ronson in, this is what happened the other day. Me and Ange won a award, Best Hosts at the British Podcast Awards 2025. Woo! Quite the moment. Here's the award. So yeah, I went to this the other day, to the British Podcast Awards. it was at the O2 in London and it was in it was on at the same time the O2 was Lady Gaga fans because Lady Gaga was playing there and also the British Podcast Awards so coming off the tube it was quite a meeting of people literally wore the meat dress and people like painted their faces white and their hair dyed red and then you had the Lady Gaga fans and then you had all the people that was me and Tom and then you had everyone go to the podcast awards.

4:46So congratulations, Ange. Did you make a speech? Speeches were not allowed. Oh. No. But there were like 500 awards. There was 31. They had to get through it. You'd still be there now if people were making speeches. Yeah, if everyone was still doing it. Well, team effort, everyone. Yeah, team effort. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Well done. So, should I get a little celebration? A little sip song? Yeah, let's have a little celebration. A little sip song. Shall we have a cheers? Cheers. Thank you to the British Podcast Awards. Thank you. Cheers, everybody. Thank you all. Thank you, Voted. Thank you so much.

5:14Thank you all the crew. Amazing crew. Yes, thank you. Cheers. Cheers, Ange. I guess we should get Mark Ronson here. I think we should. Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah. God, we have so many award winners on the table. Do you worry that this is going to go to your head? No.

5:31Time to welcome our guest, Angela. Yes. Yes, we've won a podcast award. And now we welcome a man that's only won an Oscar, nine Grammys and a Golden Globe. It's Mark Ronson, everybody. Yay. Hi. Hi. Welcome. Hi. How are you? Good. It's so nice to be here. It smells so good. Yes. That'll be the monster month. Yeah. Congratulations on your award. Thank you so much for a beautiful award. Yeah. Thank you. I wonder how long you can keep it there. Do they not give you two? No. No. You have to do like nights and weekends. Yeah. We'll have to share it like the gerbil. You'll lose it. We were just saying before you came on when Andrew was like, you you know, Mark, do you see him?

6:11I was like, yeah, all the time. And then I was like, wait, maybe I've not seen you for three and a bit years since maybe the time you guys met. Your house, yeah. Yeah, I came to your house party. It was housewarming. No, my birthday. Don't worry, Angela was Christmas. So, Angela, Christmas, you went housewarming. It was my birthday. Maybe you went a different time. But you had just moved in, maybe. No, no, no. I remember having... I know why you think that, because you had to walk a plank to get in. Yes. Yeah, there was like that really thing where everybody nearly broke their neck trying to get through the front.

6:46The front garden was just being repaved. No, Mark's right. It had only just been finished, the garden. So there was a celebration of the garden was made. Garden warming. It was the garden warming. You did have to walk up a plank, so maybe the housewarming. I actually remember the ring footage of everybody leaving, and you in particular, is unbelievable, because the front garden was just like, you know, gravel and the builder was like, no one can walk on this. So I'm going to put a plank up there. Have you got people coming this weekend? I was like, yeah, like 40 people. So everyone had to walk up a plank like a pirate.

7:22You didn't last. Straight off it. So it's been a little while, so it's really nice to see you. And I feel like a lot has happened since then. There's been... You won an award. We obviously went crazy successful. You did some indie films like Barbie. Right, yeah, yeah. There's been like Barbie and babies since the last time I saw you. Barbie, two babies, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, so it's a lot. How's baby life? How's dad life? It's the best. Whenever anyone asks me, I just wish I had something better than like the cliche, but it is the best. I just love it. Obviously, I had kids quite late. I was 47 when I had my first.

8:04And, you know, I wanted to be a dad for so long, but I'm also so glad and grateful that it's happened now when it is, when I have like, when I'm not messing up out of my mind, no. Just like, I just, you know, I was so busy like working and so career-oriented for so long. And this is just like, I just, there's no song that's more important than being home for bath time, you know. And you see, working in terms of, because we're going to talk about your book, Night People, which I loved so much, by the way. Thank you. How is your time as a night person adapting to parenthood? Well, I was definitely reformed probably by the time I met my wife, Grace, and stuff.

8:43But the funny thing is, as a result of this book, I've started DJing back out in clubs again. Because I kind of reconnected, obviously, writing this book made me feel like, I want to be back out in the clubs and playing. So my wife is like, you know, we met during lockdown. I wasn't a DJ or anything. So now I'm like crawling to bed at like three in the morning. My wife rolls up and she's like, oh, I can't believe I married a DJ. like to her it's like this other part of their life that felt like that book was kind of long sealed I mean obviously back then I would have stayed out till 7 in the morning at least I'm coming home after the gig now but yeah it's I would say I'm a reform night person I mean the thing about having kids is like it's just the lack of sleep and all the kind of thing it's the same it's just for a different purpose but I love it it's 24-7 there is no sort of nap time for dad it could work for you though it could be like feeding time as you walk in and then it's just hand you the baby, you just carry on for another hour or so.

9:40Definitely. And if I do come back from the club at three or whatever it is, like, I'm kind of so excited to be out with them at six or 6.30 anyway, it's not, yeah. I think it's a good training going out a lot in your 20s for parenthood. Because you're like, well, yeah, I've lived. And your 30s and your 40s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, well, I'm tired anyway. You might as well have a baby. I think, yes, and I think I remember a friend of mine had this before. I had my kids because, of course, you're freaking out. What's it going to be like? And he's like, don't worry. He's like, the human body is always so surprising.

10:16Like, it's resilience and what you can rise to when you have to do it. I always remember when our Jane, my sister, had Liv and everyone was talking about, like, you know, the pain of giving birth and everything. She said, I've had worse Angovus. I was like, that's good. She's like, I've had worse Angovus. Resilience. We've prayed resilience amongst us. and we're gonna start with a dirty martini okay which is your favorite it this is my favorite cocktail this is not something that you know as a 20 year old kid and i was remembering that all this while i was writing this book i was like the amount of times like i just drink like you thought vodka and cranberry and not even like a good cranberry but like the kind thing that comes out the spray thing in the club like that's like that's thinking all all that sugary crap and then And I don't know, I discovered this drink like way later in life.

11:04But I mean, essentially, it's just vodka, isn't it? Yeah. In a glass. Yeah. It's just vodka. Nicely chilled. But, you know, I do like it. Yeah. Well, cheers and welcome. Cheers. Welcome. Thanks for coming. Cheers. Cheers, Ange. I always think the martinis are quite dangerous. Yeah. They are. Start the day. Yeah. You think about like the 50s and you watch these shows like Mad Men. You're like, how do they go and have two of these lunches and then go back to work? Oh, yeah. Who's doing that with like Stanley Tucci? You know, like Stanley's always posting, like making his cocktail on Instagram. I'm like f***ed up if I'm like, the next day I can't do anything.

11:38And he's doing it on a nightly. Yeah, well, you see him make it. Is he drinking it? That's it. Somebody said that they went to the US Open and I can't remember who it was. And they were in like one of those fancy suite to Stanley Tucci. And they were like, yeah, when I saw him on his third martini by 5pm, I was like, how does that guy do that? How's he managing it? Well, I think from an early age, when he came on here, he was talking about his dad made a big thing. he likes that sort of ceremony of cocktail cabinet, which I think is really great. I think it's cool. So I think he's just, I reckon it's a little fun, you know, having his sips on from the end bit of his dad's cocktail making.

12:10Yeah, yeah, maybe. Obitualised. Resilience. My dad gave me like a cognac or brandy or something like really strong when I was like five. And he just like, I even remember looking on his face. He kind of like passed it to me like in his friend, like what's about to happen? And that shit's like drinking firewood. It's like gasoline. It's like 50%. But I still weirdly loved that taster. Thanks, Dad. Yeah, thanks for that. What did you leave me? Misha Witt tells a good story of when his mum caught him smoking when he was a teenager. And his mum was like, oh, I think you're a big man. Well, if you're going to smoke, you're going to smoke in front of me and you're going to smoke the whole packet.

12:50And he just did. And then you know what his mum did? What? She was like, maybe I'll smoke. And then they started smoking together. And they started smoking together. When he was at 15, his mum and his dad was like, are you f***ing joking? And they'd just be outside smoking. That's incredible. That story always ends. And then he smoked 20 cigarettes and he never smoked again for at least 15 years. And now they're still smoking together. Yeah, now they still smoke together. It's a beautiful family story. We're going to talk about your food likes and dislikes. This is always how we like to start Dish.

13:23and we always Angie's brother lives in New York so we love hearing about New York food and New Yorkers food and I think they do it obviously very well and like nowhere else so we're going to start in New York iconic dishes from you egg and cheese breakfast sandwich bagel cream cheese smoked salmon talk to me about the bagel experience in New York and truly because I know it's good in New York but I will eat it anywhere else Our friend Amy, who we talk about on Dish, is from New York. And she is furious about bagel quality outside of New York City. Are you as passionate about bagels as Amy? No.

14:03I think you can get a pretty good bagel kind of anywhere. But, you know, people say about New York, it's the kind of water and it's what's in it. It's the fluoride and, you know, the people who make... It's the water. They say that. The pizza crust as well. It's like a very New York-y thing. And these are things that, of course, you can get everywhere now. But when I think of iconic New York breakfast, I do think of the egg and cheese deli sandwich. I don't know. It sounds so boring. I don't know when I answer that question for you to hear you read it off. I just sound like the most basic idiot ever.

14:34Here are your favorite New York things. You like a bagel. You like spaghetti. Aglio, olio, peperoncino. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we love it. I don't know if that's especially New York. That's just a dish. That's just a dish. Massable soup. Yeah. You also like some British classics. Sunday Lunch, Roast Chicken, one of Angela's favorites. That's what we're going to have on the menu today. A Chicken Kebab. Yes. Yes, and Monster Munch. Yes. There was not really any dislike. I wonder if I was like drunk or something when I put these lists together. Because it all sort of adds up, but it's not maybe the go-to I would go on an esteemed podcast.

15:12Award-winning. Award-winning podcast. but yes Monster Munch as I've just been eating these things since we sat down I realized I haven't really had them since I was eight years old but it was a very it's a very fond memory from childhood growing up here they still taste f***ing incredible and what about cooking yourself do you like to do you like to cook do you have time to cook I am really good at following directions to a T like so I can go on the side and make dinner and especially now that we have like young kids and my wife's putting the kids down and then it's, I'm cooking. My wife, like Grace, she just has this thing where she can sort of like fully improvise, pull the salmon out of the fridge.

15:54It's like, da, da, da, da, da. Like I have to be like a quarter teaspoon of paprika, an eighth of a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Like I'm like, even when I'm making like, now I make breakfast with the kids. That's my main meal. So like, even when I'm making like the French toast, I'm like a third of a cup of milk, You know, in the egg. Because I'm a Virgo maybe. I like to follow directions. But I'm not gifted and I'm not a natural cook at all, but I do love it and enjoy it. And I also like to follow directions. I mean, to bring it to music, I remember the first time I met Amy Winehouse and I was like, what do you want your music to sound like?

16:37And she was like, well, I like this girl group stuff and the Shangri-Las and she played it for me. I was like, I had never made anything like that. But I love the idea of like then listening to that and then seeing how we could like bring that to her music. So I don't know. I like, I'm a good rule follower. Angie's doing a roast chicken today. Yeah. Do you like to do a roast chicken? Do you have Sunday roast ever? I can do a roast chicken. You can't really **** with roast chicken. No. I mean, there's levels to it, surely. Yeah, you can't. You just shove some **** in the hole and it's good to go.

17:07It's good. It's good to go. I think so. So they teach at culinary school. That's what we say. That's what I say to every young chef. Just shove it in. Off we go. And I'm not just saying this because I'm on a cooking show, but it was a book about cooking that actually inspired this book that I wrote. Oh, really? Really? What was the book? It was Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Because he writes about being a chef and not a famous chef, just like a gigging chef in New York and with nighttime and the lunacy and all of that comes with it. And listen, I don't know anything about knives or cooking.

17:45And chapter two is suddenly all about knives. And now it's like, holy shit, now I care about knives. It made me think about while I was writing this book, if I can give that level of detail and love and passion to things about DJing, like slip mats and cartridges, you can write about it in a way that can make people care about it, even if they didn't. But the pace and the New York and the feel of... Listen, Anthony Bourdain is one of the greatest writers of all time. I'm not just saying like, and I'm not just trying to blatantly copy him, but it was the inspiration. I was like, I wonder if there can be a book like that about DJing.

18:19Yeah. Well, I think it's someone who's an expert. You know, I love seeing Angela work because she's an expert at what she does. I love hearing when you talk about working and producing records or DJing because you're an expert at what you're doing. I guess that's why Anthony's book, it's like someone who just, they live and breathe whatever they're doing. Like they're doing the thing they should do. and Anthony was sort of helped you get a break really like you and your mate when you were DJing right? Oh, Anthony Boydain was at this time in the early 90s or mid 90s when I was going out in New York was the head chef at this place called the Supper Club which was this sort of like throwback Oh he hadn't moved to Hell's Kitchen his place then?

18:56Okay, alright Yeah, so it was this place where like it was a bit of a throwback with like kind of you know fancy people to go guzzle martinis and watch, I don't know, some kind of ballroom dancing or some shit. But then the club would always close at 11 p.m. So he was a fan of this party that my friends threw downtown called Soul Kitchen, which played all this great old 60s and 70s, like James Brown and all this obscure stuff. So he convinced the owner of the supper club where he worked, like, yo, you should give these guys this space after we close at 11. So they moved their party from this, like, you know, little space downtown into this incredible ballroom at the supper club, basically, because Anthony Boyd Ayn gave him the break.

19:38I didn't know them at the time. At the time, I was just like a kid fan punter who would go hang out, but I found out this like a little bit later. I think chefs and that sort of nightlife, there's lots of similarities. There's a lot of similarities. And he wrote about all of that, to me. That's where he was quite incredible. Breast or leg, gentlemen? Whatever chef says. Yeah, whatever chef says. I'll give you a bit of both. I'll go leg. You'll go leg. Okay, all righty. Ange, what have we got? So we have roast chicken with a fennel, shallot, and white bean stew. And it's a recipe by Rob Allison.

20:10Oh, yes. Thank you. This is my favorite sort of thing. So talk us through this, Ange. How did you make this roast chicken with fennel, shallot, and white bean stew? So basically, you've got your fennel, shallots, and some garlic, just all roughly chopped. You know, it doesn't have to be a fine, fine dice. In a big pan, cook those down with some olive oil and butter for about 10, 15 minutes till they start to soften. maybe get a little bit of colour. Then season your chicken up. Shove some shit in the hole. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shove some salt in the hole. And then into the fennel-shalot mixture, add your beans, then add your chicken stock, and then place your seasoned chicken on top and then in the oven.

20:48And that's it for about one hour and 30 minutes. Done. This is incredible. And then you finish the beans with parsley, lemon juice, a little bit of parmesan, a handful of spinach, and then the fennel tops and some chives. there you go cheers so we have a wine pairing which is a vignet which is floral and fruity I'm quite like myself pairing perfectly with the chicken and the fennel if you want to try this recipe or get the wine or any of the ingredients waitrose.com forward slash dish recipes all the recipes are on there this is exactly what I want to eat every day this sort of thing let's do it let's do it please come round please come round please do it so how did you two meet?

21:28was it when you were on Radio 1? I don't know. Do you remember that formative meeting? It wasn't over in the groany. And there's some amazing pictures, like when I came to your last show at Radio 1, I remember just like even looking through the internet, pictures of us like back from 2006, 2007, I mean, looking like raved out of our faces. We look so good. We look like we were auditioning to be Klaxon's groupies or something. Yes, and we were. In many ways we were. But we just always got on. I mean, I was just so funny and we had a lovely time together. But yeah, probably 2007. Okay. Yeah, I can't remember.

22:10You were a kid. Yeah, I moved to London like 2006. I was 21. Yeah. Yeah. I remember spending a lot of time at that house. How did you live with like eight people? Oh, yeah, in Holloway? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I can't remember where we met. Yeah. But I always liked seeing Mark on a night out because I always thought you were nice, calm. Right. Right, right, right. Yeah, amongst, you know. The chaos. The chaos. That just shows how crazy everybody else was. Yeah, exactly. Then he looked at me and was like, there's my shelter in the sky. I'm having dipped into the bookmark. I can't believe there was this calm part.

22:44Drug riddled Mark Ronson. No, no, no. But at least it was like, we were going nuts. There was a lot of times at, what was the place in Camden, the pub that we all went to? There was a lot of the Holy Arms. Yeah. There was a lot of, maybe there was some dolphin. There was a lot of dolphin. There was a lot of back to Amy Winehouse's house. Remember the sunbed? She used to have a sunbed downstairs. In the Camden house, she had a sunbed. And sometimes we'd sit on the floor and have a drink and a fag, and then we'd just tan our faces. Really? Like that. That's amazing. That would be quite good. And they'd be like, oh, someone's coming, let's tan.

23:21Yeah. And we'd put our faces in like that. Can you imagine? And then they'd be like, they're here. And then people would be like, you guys look great. And we'd be like, yeah. I actually remember, I've got a really funny video of us going to, when Amy lived in like Bow, in East London, of us going there with Adele when Adele was like really young. I remember, I remember. And we stopped at a service station or a petrol station. We went to Jazz After Dark or whatever that place is in Soho because I think it might have been Amy's birthday and she was supposed to come. She didn't come And then Adele was just starting out And obviously Adele was a big fan of Amy And I was like We're going to go back to Amy's house You want to come with And she was being like You know because she was like I don't know if I want to meet her Like is she going to be cool with me Like coming So we brought her there And Amy was kind of amazing Because she was so warm And she was such like a den mother But she was also like She called herself lioness for a reason She was like the f***ing boss This is an outfit you know And she's kind of like Walking around her place And there's all these people in the house And she just and Adele's like been so quiet because she probably doesn't want, she's shy, Amy's like a hero.

24:32Probably like 19. Yeah. And Amy kind of just like walks her and she looks at her and she goes, I know who you are, you're all right. And it was just like this sweet moment and Adele kind of like lit up and it was just this thing of just saying like, because Amy kind of, she wasn't a hater, but she's had what she liked and she was, a lot of the new music was kind of rubbish, but she really with Adele and it was sweet to see that little moment. Yeah, I remember that night. Well, I don't actually, but I remember the pictures that I've seen from that night. I think Adele was maybe in a tutu. Was that the time she was in a tutu?

25:08Yeah, it was some ruffled neck. That's quite a look. Yeah, I've got really good pictures of us. I should send you them. Really good pictures of us all playing pool in Amy's kitchen. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, and they're really good. They're very funny. I'll send you them. So we can't remember, Ange. That's all right. We had a nice time. But you're still friends, so whatever happened, you've worked through it. Yeah, we had a nice time. Because Amy always, like, you're right, she was very motherly. I always thought she was, it's so funny because she was a year older than me, like a year and a month. She was like 14th September and 14th August.