Radio 4 foodies serve up fun for live audience

FOR the first time since the late Seventies, the Kenton Theatre in Henley invited an audience along to take part in a live radio recording on Monday.

Presented by foodie, chef and broadcaster Jay Rayner, BBC Radio 4’s long-running series The Kitchen Cabinet features a panel of culinary experts who are invited to look at elements of cooking, food flavours and eating rituals around the world — and to have a little fun while they do it.

On this occasion, Jay was joined by resident materials expert Zoe Laughlin, cook, food writer and author of Africana Lerato Umah-Shaylor, chef, protégée of Yotam Ottolenghi and author of Mezcla Ixta Belfrage and Marlow’s Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge.

The audience was asked to submit questions in advance and the topics were pub food and hot sauce. The questioners sat up front and local producer John Maillard, alias Johnny HoT Stuff, discussed his range of bestselling chilli- and jalapeño-based condiments, that he produces at Oaken Grove Vineyard (in keeping with the BBC’s protocols, Jay pointed out that “other hot sauces are available”). The special guests had brought along little titbits of food to share and they enjoyed these along with some of John’s sauces.

Ixta had prepared Brazilian bolinho de bacalhau (salt cod fritters), leading Tom to say that salt cod Scotch egg was on the menu when he was awarded his Michelin stars.

Lerato talked about Nigerian beer parlours as their version of a drinking den, saying that the beers were always accompanied by very hot, peppery soups.

There were lots of funny moments. Chef Tom was ribbed for the fact that he’d used galvanised-steel buckets, pieces of wood and slate and other more outrageous novelty presentation devices to serve his food over the years, a debate provoked by the website www.wewantplates.com

Meanwhile, Zoe pointed out the hazards of cooking with chillies as they contain capsaicin, which creates a burning sensation on the tongue, causing pain as well as heat, at different levels as measured on the Scoville scale.

She explained that when washing your hands after preparing chillies, it’s always best to really scrub and not just use water, as they can leave a greasy residue which can still sting afterwards.

Jay asked Tom if he’d ever had chilli-related mishaps and Tom affirmed he’d had plenty, for example, wiping his forehead after a busy shift.

Then Jay commented that people should always be careful what they touched after cooking with chillies, for example, when going to the bathroom, “particularly you chaps, but that’s not going in the broadcast”.

The programme will be broadcast on Saturday, July 29 and repeated the next day.

Natalie Aldred