Tom Davis falls in love with our steak pie

0:28Looking for a snack that hits all the right notes? Dish from Waitrose is a Cold Glass production. This podcast may contain some strong language and adult themes.

0:42Hello, welcome to Dish from Waitrose. I'm Nick Grimshaw. And I'm Angela Hartnett. And we are here for another episode of Dish. Hi Ange. Hi Nick. What's wrong? Nothing, nothing. Why are you giggling? Just giggling, just giggling. Got a funny guest on, another comedian. Oh yes. Exciting. The wonderful Tom Davis is going to be with us today on Dish, which we'll get into in a second. Before we do, though, we wanted to go into the Ange archive. Oh, crikey. We've rewound 20 years to 2006. Yeah. Do you remember what you were doing? I was 20 years ago. I was still at the Connacht. Yeah, I was still at the Connacht.

1:20So we were serving people like who came to that. We had amazing guests at the Connacht. Liza Minnelli came. Shut up. I did David Beckham's OBE party. We did his lunch party then. Who else did we have? Paul McCartney came, Michael Caine came. What was Liza? Liza was amazing. She was really gorgeous, lovely, polite, much smaller than you think. Who was she with? So she was the partner at the time, David Guest. Yes. Who was an interesting character, shall we say. I mean, I will never forget the story of them shopping. Do you remember that video of them in shops together? Do you remember that? No, I don't remember that.

1:57I can't remember what it was for. Was it like Ruby Wax? Was it with Ruby Wax maybe? No, maybe because she was doing all her interviews. And I think it was. And it was like Ruby, I think it was Ruby, following Liza Minnelli and David Guest and they went to like a department store. Oh God. And they were like shopping and he's like, do you want it, baby? And she was like, I want it. And he was like buying her like diamond necklace. It was some of the best telly ever. It's amazing. I'm going to have to look that up. It's really incredible. Please, everybody look it up. She's a star. Yeah. She's an absolute star.

2:25Liza. Liza. Liza. So I was in the Connaught then, yeah. Oh, Angela. It's faster. Well, also in 2006, 20 years ago, you competed in the first series of Great British Men. Ah, yes, indeed. God, that was 20 years ago. God. It was hosted by Jenny Bond. That's right, yeah. Off of the royal family. I know, because it was for the Queen's birthday. Oh. Or the Queen's Jubilee. Right, right. Well, she loved Sally. Yeah, she loved it. Great British movie. She was always watching it. Loved it, yeah. She was addicted after that. Loved the telly, yeah. How was that? That was great fun. I mean, that is nuts that that was 20 years ago.

3:05That was Pat Llewellyn who came up with that idea. And Pat was from Wales. Unfortunately, she's no longer with us. And she rang me. She said, Angela, I need you to do this for me. I said, Pat, I was never born in Wales. I don't sound Welsh. She said, yes, but you've got a connection because your mother grew up there. So come on. I said, all right, I'll do it for you. And I love Pat. She was like a dear friend. So it was great fun, actually. It was me, Marcus, Richard Corrigan, Bryn Williams. And yeah. Strong line-up. Strong line-up. It was good fun. Great telly. And today we have another star of great television.

3:36Oh. Tom Davis. I know. Gonna be with us. You'll know him as an actor, a comedian, a writer, South Londoner. Yeah. Been in lots of stuff. Loads of great stuff. Yeah. Lover of bread and potatoes. Yes, good. And he's also best friends with Ramesh. I know. Yeah. I wonder if they've called it and said, by the way, what are you doing this week? Are you going on it? Are you going on it? I'm going on it. They have their very own podcast, Wolf and Al. I know, they're busy boys. Tommy's here to talk about his new tour. He's going to be with us in a second. But before Tom, I would love to talk about cabbages.

4:07I know, you've always thought that. I would love to talk about cabbages. Beautiful cabbages. It's cabbage season. It is cabbage season. How are you celebrating? I've had a cabbage party. I've invited you and me, Shrek, a few others. We're just going to have cabbage. So your pointy cabbage, or hispy, we always seem to call it in the restaurant world, and then your savoy cabbage. Both delicious. I like them just cut, steamed, a little bit of butter, black pepper. But also these ones, you can wrap things in and steam them. So a lot of things, like Italians, we'll fill this with a little bit of sausage meat with some thyme and garlic.

4:42After you've blanched them, and then wrap the cabbage around that filling and then steam them, and you can serve them with a little bit of sauce. and I think they're both delicious. Very good for you nutritionally as well. Love cabbage. And we're going to serve some with Tom. So we're making Tom a lovely pie. Oh, we're making a nice ironed cabbage. And we're going to have some cabbage on the side. How are you going to do it for Tom? So for Tom, I'm just going to slice it, put it in a tiny touch of water, lots of butter and black pepper. It's funny because as a kid, I'd always hate cabbage. I always hate the sound of it.

5:10I mean, no disrespect to Eileen. I think it's probably because she overcooked it. Yeah, definitely. Or just boiled it. Yeah, boiled it so much. Yeah. I mean, you can, I like, my mum always used it. She'd cut it, wash it, and then in that water that was sort of left on it, that's how she'd cook it. So a little bit of water and then steam it. And then it worked brilliantly. And this as well, this one, you can roast and do it with things like harissa paste, lovely pestos, and really like nice spices, I think, as well. Oh, so you'd roast it. Would you char-grill it first? You can char-grill it and roast it with like a little harissa butter.

5:41How long are you roasting like a hispy? Until it's soft. When you put the knife in until it's soft, about 10 minutes. Oh, really? Very versatile, our cabbages. Easy, yum. Easy, easy. Okay, time to get Tom Davison. My grandfather used to have bread with everything. Ange, do you want some bread? Oh, it's on the table. No, it's fine, put it on the table. How are you doing plates? Well... Making a right palaver of this, it's a bit of bread and butter. Well, no smaller plate. You're going to have to have a, do you want a plate? No, I'm fine, I'm fine. Don't you worry. Is that the salty bit of the butter?

6:12There's actually no... There are two ones. Oh, I don't know which ones. No cookie bar. It's the one nearest to you. if that makes sense. Yeah, that's the salted one. All right, get us that plate off. Okay, should we do our intro? I get very embarrassed in the intros. Yeah, me too. I always want to be like, we were expecting a bigger guest. Yeah, we were expecting... No, please, Tom. We have an actor, comedian, writer, but I have here, which I love. You can judge the mood he's in by the glasses he's wearing. Oh. Yeah. So what are these ones saying about you? Hopefully that's a good choice, please.

6:42A round of applause for Tom Davies. Thank you. Thank you. Woo! Hi Tom That was a nice intro That was a nice intro Is that a true story? A bit of glasses Yeah yeah These are like I'm an open book today Yeah These are happy glasses Yeah they are happy glasses Excellent If I'm wearing too small ones It means I'm closing off Yeah I associate more of a thicker Rinse glasses Yeah That's when I'm I'm in showbiz mode Right okay By the way I think I You know like you do those Sort of interviews Where someone asks You had to I don't know It was in a paper I had to write a load of those and I try to make things funny or just say something.

7:19And I said that in this interview, I said that, and I also said that I can't dream. I said I've got an inability to dream, like physically, like when I go to sleep, I've never had a dream. And I said it was a stupid thing. And then I was on the one show and they had picked up on it. And we were having a jokey sort of conversation about a show and then all of a sudden it got very serious. Now we've heard about this situation where you can't dream. and i went like you know so you sleep but you can't dream you've never had a dream and i went oh no i was like in a mick it was just yeah like it was sort of like yeah like yeah sort of bridge over travel i love a gear change on the one show it's beautiful uh well welcome and we've made you this we've made you like a alcohol free cocktail essentially delicious potivo and elderflower cordial some tonic a bit of time and a bit of lemon mocktails have come on so much didn't they oh yeah you want what no mocktails like really it's not just the equivalent of a mojito that's yeah anymore yeah yeah no that's good like that no it's like you need that that bitter yeah you can only really get from like a negroni whenever i have one i always just think yeah it's the times I miss drinking yeah that's the danger of an alcohol free yeah I still taste a non-alcohol free beer and I'm like let's get on yeah hey before we go any further and talk about your tour I want to talk about your time as a chef yes because we don't know if this was true or not that you you were a chef yeah yeah how long were you cooking for so like a bit of content I started working very young I was working on building sites I was a sort of I mean when I first did TV and I sort of I remember being on Sunday brunch and said I was a scaffold and one of the guys I work with you're never a scaffolder you're a labourer mate you're a labourer you're a labourer they're not going to know they're not checking it but I've done that for like a lot I've done that for like 10, 15 years and I sort of got to a point where I was like I need to do something else I was sort of just a bit disillusioned with picking stuff up and carrying it what age did you start doing that?

9:30so this would be about 25 and I sort of got I wasn't just labouring scaffolding. Labourers carry bricks, plaster balls. If you need to, I carry it out. They carry everything. I carry it out. And I always enjoyed cooking. My nan was incredible in the kitchen. Food has always been a big part of my life. And I went to Carl Shorn College. And I was doing that in the evenings. And then weirdly got a job going in, doing work experience and did a little bit of commie chef in the lowest of the low at the corner. Oh, wow. And then Michelle Bourdain. And enjoyed it. but also it was like a shock to the system.

10:04So who was the chef though when you were there? Boudin? Yeah, Boudin. Wow, that's really amazing. I remember trying truffles for the first time. He did the eggs with the truffle, which was amazing. But I was doing, you know, essentially pot wash and scaling. I thought I'd go in and I'd be like ratatouille.

10:24I'd bolt in without the rat under me. I thought I knew it all and I got cut down pretty quick. It was a very interesting, it was way more alpha than actually being on a building site. It was one of the old hierarchical kitchen. He'd had the same menu as well for like years and years. But it was really run in the old French way. So like they had a staff canteen at the corner where you guys would all go and eat. But then head chef Michel Baudin and his sous chefs would all go in the office and the commies would have to cook for him and then serve the food. It was really like, we're like this, you're like, you know, it was all that sort of thing.

10:59Yeah, you knew your place. and did that for a while and then from there went and worked in an Italian restaurant in Koshua called Lavaranda nice and that was more like actually getting into sort of proper cooking yeah proper cooking I just felt like I was going up to going to the corner and if I sort of wanted to be somewhere smaller like a footballer wanted to go huge kitchen yeah it's terrifying it's terrifying and you felt really I think I missed the sort of camaraderie of being around and having a laugh and a joke you want someone to sort of tap you on the shoulder and look after you and chat to you yeah and I remember Like literally all the only things I ever seemed to hear was faster.

11:33Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd be scaling fish and someone would come in and then you'd take too much off or whatever. And you just constantly felt you weren't doing anything well enough or fast enough. It was a very strange thing of like almost changing your persona and who you are. I think like I was so terrible. And this French, the chef who tracked this, Yannick, was very much like, you know, know your place kind of thing. and actually sort of as a builder or a labourer, I was an awful labourer. I was very lazy. I was like, but I had a big character and I'd take a look out of people. So people would often keep me around.

12:05I mean, to put it into perspective, yeah, I did my first Edinburgh. I was still working on a building site. And I went away for a month to do the Edinburgh Festival. And I came to the foreman. I said to him, look, I've got this thing where I can go away and do stand-up for a month. Like, if I give you half my wages, I'll take the other half. and he was like, you know, cool, yeah. And I said, hopefully it'll be all right if we're gone. And when I came back, he was like, actually, we were far better as a group. Four houses. It was like, he didn't miss you at all. You were sort of like the best of the building time.

12:40You were like, we just like the vibe that you bring. You could turn up in the cast, tell a few jokes and then go, that would be a good thing. Do you want some bread, Tom? I'm looking at the bread. Get involved on that. Tom, should we do your food likes and dislikes before we get into what we're going to eat today? So today we're going to have a pie. I'm very excited. I'm a pie fan, you're a pie fan. We're all pie fans. We're having a pie because it basically jumped out from your list of likes and dislikes. Alongside pies, you said that you love Indian food for a snack. Yeah, I love Indian food.

13:13I mean, I love it. That's the best and worst. One of the things I'm proudest of in my life is that once I did the Big Five. Have you heard of the Big Five? What's the Big Five? So you do. a McDonald's, a KFC, a pizza, Pizza Hut, Express, whatever, a curry and a Chinese and you do that in a day. Wow. Wow. I'm pretty proud of that. McDonald's, KFC, pizza, curry and a Chinese. In that order. No, no, you can do it any order. But that is, I'd say McDonald's breakfast is the way to know. That would make sense, wouldn't it? You're not going to have a Chinese, well you could have a Chinese breakfast. You're trying, I tried to go last.

13:44Chinese last. Yeah, yeah. I've probably done, I've probably done three in a day. That's pretty amazing. That's pretty impressive. Push yourself. like a bad angle yeah he's always hang over through yeah the fives fives quiet it's something and how old were you when you did this job it wasn't even that long ago it wasn't that long ago actually and I tried to sort of do it like I was trying to accomplish something and my wife was like what a heart attack yeah exactly what have we accomplished yeah have you done the big five inch no never what have you done I've probably done you've done McDonald's I've definitely done KFC, but not in the same day, no.

14:24I had a McDonald's and probably had another meal, but probably not another takeaway or anything, I'll be honest. I've never heard of that. You've done one? Just one, sorry. I wish I'd filmed it, that's the only thing, but it was before social media was as big as it is. Maybe I'll have to do it again. We'll come along, let's try it, let's do it. I think that's genuinely impressive. Yeah, very. That's brilliant. It's like Everest. Yeah. And how much are you eating? By the way, it's frowned upon in the community if you're if you're having like if you're having a cheeseburger it's got to be a McDonald's meal it's got to be a whole pizza so you have chips and chips yeah pizza a proper pizza not a slice not a slice your pizza's almost the easiest one I think yeah I think so you can scoff back a pizza that I may have done is pizza during the day in like Indian or Chinese might have done that and then all you've got to do is add the McDonald's for your breakfast and then you're on three yeah but the only trouble is Chinese later on always plays havoc yeah Yeah, you're in bits.

15:22Yeah, you are. I'm impressed you did that not drinking, though. No, I think I was drinking better. Oh, I was so. I have to be paralytic. Yeah, yeah. Doing it sober, yeah. With a gut full of beer as well. Yeah, yeah. Plus beer. A gut full of Stella. I feel genuinely impressed. Oh, thank you. I feel a bit astral. As well as that, you said you love lasagna. I love lasagna. You love haggis, neeps and potatoes? Do you have that a lot? Not enough. If I'm in Scotland, I might now and again just sort of... I love haggis. But my wife doesn't like it. She's not having it. Oh, I love it. I love it. We love this answer because this is very much the same as me and Andrew.

16:10We ask if there's anything you don't like and your answer was not really. No. Not really. I'm really open. I love food. Yeah, me too. I think it's my happy place. Yeah, perfect. That thing I enjoy. Now, my daughter, you know, she's four, and it's a really important thing for me to be like, you know. Socialising, that's what it is. Yeah, and also just a sort of number of different places. Like for me and my wife, the thing that we do to, if we're going out, it's all about the food now. It's all about, right, we'll go out. You know, she's going out, a friend, she'll have a few drinks. But yeah, it's always picking somewhere where it's a bit different.

16:42Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that making that the night. And when you travel in, I always think it's the country, as much as the food I want to eat in that country. We went to Vienna for Christmas, my daughter's birthday. And it was just the cakes, the shudels, the meat out of it. It was incredible. But I think what you've just said is one of the most important things about food. It's not actually what goes on the plate. It's that socialisation and that community. And I think that's one of the saddest things is when you don't sit down as a family or sit down, to sit and share a meal. That's what it's about, breaking bread, as we literally are, you see.

17:18You're mad. Cut it beautifully, by the way. Thank you. Do you know as well, I don't think anything bonds people as much as bad food. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think a bad meal is the best thing in all. Sometimes if you go out and it's awful, like it's not the expectation. The laughs and jokes you can have about that and you'll talk about it for years. Yeah. I'm very scathing on TripAdvisor. Oh, are you? I'm quite addicted. I'm going to go and check this steak pie now. Oh, yeah. Come on, Hans. Hopefully we remember this for the right reasons. Do you get on TripAdvisor? I went through a phase. I've got a very obsessive, addictive personality.

17:51And yeah, it will come down to the minutiae of commenting on something. If I've had a bad meal, or a good meal. But my praise is ever so thirsty. You could read it and go, no food's this good. This guy is completely insane. He's lost it. And did you always do that? I like the idea of you guys wanting to sit around the table and have dinner. Did you have that as a kid? because that's something that you would always do, yeah. Yeah, just my immediate family, my wider family, it was always a very important thing of like when I think back of like Sunday lunches and with my gran and granddad, a very like important thing of like, and my dad's dad, he was one of the first people of his sort of around the area I was from who tried garlic.

18:30He was... Oh, wow. He didn't try black. It was an insane day. I remember when pizza up came to Sutton and my dad, one of the girls at my school Paul's dad worked there. And my dad said, man, he went, he was showing off down the pub and he went, yeah, we're off to the pizza route this weekend. Tom's going to school with the maitre d's daughter. He'd heard that in Fools and Horses, the maitre d. Maitre d, yeah. Walking in like he's in Goodfellas. 20 quid in his top pocket. There we go, mate. Here's a nice booth in the corner. I remember, yeah, the thought of pizza. Wow. I wanted to talk to you as well about Nando's because key to your life, because you had your first date there with you.

19:18No, no, no. I met my wife. You met her there? Yeah. How do you meet someone in Nando's? It's called the meet you. It's the meet you. But it's quite an in and out experience, isn't it? It's not like a lounge. It is when you're Tom Davis. I've been sitting in Nando's since it opened that day. I was living with an actor called Neil Maskell at the time. and Martin I don't know Martin Compton he was living with us he was living on our sofa at this time so the three of us had popped into Nando's to get something to eat and we were sitting and having our food I was sort of king chief in a Nando's I knew everything I was young and the table next to us my wife was there with some friends and I was giving it to the big guy swearing about Nando's refilling yeah mixing my fizzy pops no shit's given yeah come on come on Have you seen the geese over there?

20:09He's got 7-Up and Pepsi together. He doesn't care. He's a maverick. What's he look like? He's like a big Nelson Muntz.

20:20And she had ordered a vegetarian burger and she was saying how disgusting it was. And I sort of made like a sort of cocky, that's what you're good if you order a vegetarian burger and a chicken joint sort of thing.

20:34What a mate's like. I literally just got this follow on Twitter. I followed her back and DM'd her and she DM'd me and Pess Nando's me. Oh, wow, look at this. This is incredible. Oh, wow, that does amazing. This is incredible. We've got a pie here, Ang. We've got a steak pie. Tell us about this recipe because you've also, by the way, thank you, you've done two pies. Gluten-free pie for me. Extra gluten for you guys. I'm actually not far away from making quite orgasmic sounds about this. I'm not going to lie. Mate, it's incredible. Carry on, Sean. I'm going to say, as a 46-year-old man, this is...

21:13Maybe before, yeah, before I go to bed on a sort of date night, I'm going to have a little slice of pie. You're lively tonight. Add a pie. So what have we got here, Ange? So we've got a steak pie by Diana Henry, who we love. She writes a lot for Waitrose. And it's a roasted braising steak. Roasted off in a pan. Remove that from the pan. Then you add your carrot, your onion. Celeriac she puts in, rather than celery. Roast that off, nice dice of that. A little bit of tomato puree and then everything back in the pan with some bay leaf thyme and some beef stock. So you cook all your pie filling until it's nice and lovely thick and unctuous and delicious.

21:50Are we boiling? No, simmering, simmering, low simmer. Can't be a simmer. And then she's got this little tip, which we made gluten-free actually, which was, she then mixes a little bit of flour and butter while it's just at the finishing up to thicken it and you put that back in like a little roux. Yeah. You know, just to thicken up the pie filling and the sauce. And then it's short crust pastry underneath, which is flour, butter and salt. And that's pre-cooked. And then add your pie filling and then finish that with puff pastry on top and cook it for 30 minutes in the oven. This has inspired me to know, next time my dad comes around, I'm going to cook you my proper pie.

22:26Because you might take this one. And then what sort of steak? It's just braising steak. So either chuck steak you can ask for or shin or, you know, not rump steak. And just ask for braising steak, that's what they get. And it's just a slow-cooked and it will just, you know, over time, that's where all the flavour comes through. Tell me about this cabbage because this is absolutely delicious. How do you do this? Literally in a tiny little bit of water, really quickly boiled, and then just butter and a bit of pepper. That's it. That's it. Cabbage-wise. Cabbage-wise. Go on, I feel there's a question here.

22:56No, I love a drop of cabbage. Yeah. But, like, we had... I used to go to school with a boy whose house always smote a cabbage. Oh. I had a friend of onions. You go around their house. Yeah, it's not good. I go, oh, we're having cabbage for tea. She goes, no. What makes you smell? What was that smell? It always smelled of... What was that smell? I don't think people opened the windows years ago, did they? No. Yeah. The heat didn't seem much. I don't think they did. No fresh air. I'm obsessed with opening a window. If it's freezing, raining, the windows are opening. I don't think we open the windows.

23:28When I go to my mum's, the windows are locked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. she's under attack I'm like why is every window locked she's like what do you mean I'm like can we open a window please and then these mashed potatoes taste you know what it is butter butter I was going to say they taste so good tell me it's not just butter boil your potatoes evenly cut salted water drain them well and then butter in when you mash them but make sure they're really mashed to the consistency you want before you add your milk because once you add your milk you can't do anything that's it it's gone and there's also a wine pairing if you wanted to do a wine with this, if you want to make this pie at home, there's a Malbec that pairs with it.

24:05And Malbec, good because, you know, this is quite a hearty... Firm tannins, bold flavours. Wintry, heavy wine with a nice heavy pie. Yeah, would go well. If you want the wine or the recipe or the ingredients, waitrose.com forward slash dish recipes, they are all on there. When you're talking about Waitrose, by the way, this is a... We moved to a place where my wife's from, Stanford, in Lincolnshire. A lot of my friendship group from when I lived there became the people who worked in Waitrose. It's so tragic. I didn't know anyone and it was around pre-Covid, going into Covid, at the end of Covid.