Olivia Potts | The Spectator columnists & writers

What it means to be a black African in London

What it means to be a black African in London

What it means to be a black African in London

Since 2011, black Africans have been the dominant black group in the UK. Many of them are the descendants of those travellers who came to London in the 1950s from Nigeria, Ghana and Somalia and other African countries, seeking education and prosperity, and found a new home. They now not only hold prominent positions in British culture – from Bafta and Emmy award-winning Michaela Coel to the rap artist and publishing imprint founder Stormzy – but have reached those heights by using their experiences and heritage to explore what it means to be black British. Settlers is the first book of Jimi Famuwera, a British-Nigerian journalist and broadcaster. In it he seeks to ‘carve out a distinct space for the African experience amid a black Britishness that can often default to a Windrush-adjacent West Indian story’.

What it means to be a black African in London

With Capri Cafaro

With Capri Cafaro

With Capri Cafaro

Capri Cafaro was a member of the Ohio Senate for 10 years before becoming a political commentator. She can often be found on American television news channels and also hosts her own food podcast, Eat Your Heartland Out. On the podcast she talks to Lara and Olivia about memories of cooking Italian-American classics with her Grandma, how she got into politics and why she doesn't have a sweet tooth.

With Capri Cafaro

With Ayesha Hazarika

With Ayesha Hazarika

With Ayesha Hazarika

Ayesha Hazarika is a journalist, broadcaster, stand-up comic and former advisor to three Labour leaders. On the podcast, she discusses memories of her mother's chicken curry, navigating bacon sandwich-gate with Ed Miliband and why all cooked orange coloured food is 'minging'.

With Ayesha Hazarika

With Andy Burnham

With Andy Burnham

With Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. Before this he held prominent positions in Gordon Brown's cabinet, including health secretary and culture secretary.On the podcast he recalls Friday night 'chippy teas' as a child, the oddity of having food items named after him and discusses his work tackling food insecurity in Greater Manchester.

With Andy Burnham

With Andy Burnham

With Andy Burnham

With Andy Burnham

With Andy Burnham

With Oliver Woodhead

With Oliver Woodhead

With Oliver Woodhead

Oliver Woodhead is founder of L'Entente, the British brasserie in Paris. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about what the French think about a traditional English breakfast, explains how he was inspired by London's St. John restaurant, and asks what our hosts' favourite ingredient is.

With Oliver Woodhead

With Al and Kitty Tait

With Al and Kitty Tait

With Al and Kitty Tait

Al and Kitty Tait run the Orange Bakery in Watlington, and are the authors of Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives. On the podcast, the father-and-daughter pair explain how cooking changed their relationship, why baking helped Kitty out of depression, and why Watlingtons make such great customers.

With Al and Kitty Tait

The politics of butter

The politics of butter

The politics of butter

Butter was not a major part of my childhood. In fact, I don’t remember it ever being in our fridge. My parents were subject to the saturated fat scaremongering of the 1980s, and consequently believed that butter was the enemy. Instead, we had spread: margarine, rebranded as a cholesterol-busting alternative to heart-clogging butter. But spread wasn’t so bad. It lubricated my sandwiches and melted on my toast. Spread was everyday. Butter was for high days and holidays. Otherwise, we were all certain to die young. Butter has always been a bellwether of the British psyche. We want luxury, but only every so often, and only so much – and we don’t want to pay too much for it. As such, butter’s popularity here has waxed and waned; it has been both aspirational and looked down upon.

The politics of butter

With Paul Feig

Paul Feig is an actor, comedian and acclaimed filmmaker. He has directed films such as Bridesmaids, The Heat and the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters as well as episodes of Parks and Recreation and The Office. On the podcast, Paul talks to Lara and Olivia about growing up thinking food was bland, the secrets of on set catering and how to make the perfect Martini.

With Paul Feig

With Aidan Hartley

With Aidan Hartley

With Aidan Hartley

Aidan Hartley is a writer and entrepreneur. Born in Kenya, he grew up in Africa and England and has worked as a reporter for Reuters all over the world. Aidan has also written The Spectator’s Wild life column for the past 21 years. On the podcast, Aidan talks about spending his younger years on safaris in the wilderness, where mealtimes consisted of handfuls of rice cooked from metal tins on an open fire.As a reporter, he talked about reporting on famine in Somalia and why that led him to where he is now – living on a remote family farm, as a disciple of John Seymour’s guide to self-sufficiency.

With Aidan Hartley

With Thom Elliott

With Thom Elliott

With Thom Elliott

Thom Elliott is the co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims. On the podcast, Thom tells Lara and Liv about growing up above a pub, learning to make pizza while touring Italy with his brother, and starting Pizza Pilgrims on his lunch break.

With Thom Elliott

With Lily Dunn

Lily Dunn is a writer, teacher and lecturer in creative writing and narrative non-fiction at Bath Spa University. And her latest book Sins of my father: a daughter, a cult, a wild unravelling is out now. On the podcast, Lily talks about her first memories of picking blackberries in Cornwall, her love for all kinds of toast and her culinary experiences in Italy.

With Lily Dunn

With Olia Hercules on #CookForUkraine

With Olia Hercules on #CookForUkraine

With Olia Hercules on #CookForUkraine

On a slightly different episode of Table Talk, chef and food writer, Olia Hercules joins Olivia Potts for a second time on the podcast to talk about #CookForUkraine. Created with Russian friend and food writer Alissa Timoshkina, #CookForUkraine encourages people to post and share Ukrainian recipes and celebrate the comfort of food during this difficult time. On the podcast, Olia tells Olivia about the personal cost of the war on her and her family, how she grappled with guilt when cooking at the start of the war, and the ways we can offer support to the besieged cities in Ukraine.For more information about Olia, visit her Patreon account here.

With Olia Hercules on #CookForUkraine

Five tips for a sumptuous summer barbecue

Five tips for a sumptuous summer barbecue

Five tips for a sumptuous summer barbecue

The sun is set to shine again this weekend, and those lucky enough to have access to a garden are turning their minds to al-fresco dining. So we’ve gathered together our top five tips to help you pull off your weekend barbecue – everything from how to get the best out of your meat, to barbecue-friendly puddings.1. Marinating Marinating meat (and veg!) is a no-brainer when it comes to injecting flavour quickly and easily: using punchy spices, herbs, sugars and salts and letting them get to know the raw meat is minimal work for maximum reward. Ideally, you marinate quite far in advance, 12-24 hours depending on the marinade (that, for me, is part of its appeal; less frantic work just before I cook), but even if you forget and end up doing it half an hour before you grill while your barbecue is pre-heating, it’s still going to give bags more flavour than you would get without it.

Five tips for a sumptuous summer barbecue

With Nell Hudson

With Nell Hudson

With Nell Hudson

Nell Hudson has starred in Outlander, Victoria and the latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. Her debut novel, Just for Today, is out now: it’s about a group of twenty-somethings in London, having 'heady, reckless fun'. Nell speaks to Lara and Olivia about how she’s enjoying veganism and the one meat she misses, growing up on a farm, a peculiar childhood diet and the lonely eating habits of an actor.

With Nell Hudson

With Nuno Mendes

With Nuno Mendes

With Nuno Mendes

Born in Lisbon, Portugal. Nuno Mendes grew up on a farm which inspired a passion and understanding for food. He attended the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco but after over a decade in North America, he decided he wanted to return to Europe. Moving to London, Nuno founded the cult domestic pop-up known as The Loft Project and later went on to take over the restaurant at the Chiltern Firehouse, and his latest venture Lisboeta has already made the Estrella Damm awards shortlist. On the podcast, Nuno talks about his Portuguese roots, his love of Japanese cooking and how he could see London's gastronomic revolution coming.

With Nuno Mendes

With Tommy Banks

With Tommy Banks

With Tommy Banks

Tommy Banks is the youngest ever UK Michelin-starred chef, awarded in 2013 when he was aged 24, and is the owner of the restaurant The Black Swan which Tripadvisor named the best restaurant in the world.On the podcast, Tommy talks to Lara and Liv about how he turned to food after his dreams of being a professional cricketer were dashed, his struggles with imposter syndrome, and his new canned wine business Banks Brothers.For more recipes and recommendations, sign up to The Spectator’s free monthly food and drink email, The Take Away, at www.spectator.co.uk/oliviapotts

With Tommy Banks

With Ameer Kotecha

With Ameer Kotecha

With Ameer Kotecha

Ameer Kotecha is a British diplomat, pop-up chef and food writer. His first cookbook the Platinum Jubilee Cookbook, in which he chronicles 70 recipes related to the Royals, Diplomacy and the Commonwealth comes out on April 28th. He has also launched alongside Fortnum & Mason's the Platinum Pudding competition, which hopes to discover the next best British dessert. On the podcast, Ameer talks to Lara and Liv about how his childhood was the perfect blend of British food with Indian influences, how he ran a school-wide campaign for seconds and how in all of his years as a diplomat, he has never been offered a Ferrero Rocher. For more recipes and recommendations, sign up to The Spectator’s free monthly food and drink email, The Take Away, at www.

With Ameer Kotecha

With Michael Heath

With Michael Heath

With Michael Heath

Michael Heath is a British strip cartoonist and illustrator and has been working nonstop since the 1950s. He has been cartoon editor of The Spectator since 1991. On the podcast, he talks to Lara and Liv about carrying German bombs into the local pub like milk bottles during the second world war, being given chewing gum by American soldiers, and how during the heyday of Soho, the focus was a lot more on the drinking than the eating.

With Michael Heath

Spectator Out Loud

Christopher Howse, Richard Florida and Olivia Potts

Christopher Howse, Richard Florida and Olivia Potts

Spectator Out Loud

Christopher Howse, Richard Florida and Olivia Potts

On this week's episode, we'll hear from Christopher Howse on the destruction of Ukrainian churches. (00:50)Next, Richard Florida on how Covid has changed London for the better. (13:52)And finally, Olivia Potts on her love of the crisp sandwich. (23:56)Produced and presented by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher.

Christopher Howse, Richard Florida and Olivia Potts

Crunch time: how to make the perfect crisp sandwich

Crunch time: how to make the perfect crisp sandwich

Crunch time: how to make the perfect crisp sandwich

A crisp sandwich is a private and personal endeavour. In my experience (and I have considerable experience in this particular area) it is usually eaten alone in the kitchen, often over the sink. It is deliberately unsophisticated, the ultimate fast food: simple, salty, satisfying. It is a snack that speaks of the person you are, rather than the person you want to be. I firmly believe that no food should be a guilty pleasure, but I’ll concede that crisps sandwiched between two heavily buttered slices of bread does not scream nutritional balance. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, a recent poll (admittedly commissioned by Walkers, which probably has some potato skin in the game) found that the average UK adult eats 35 crisp sandwiches a year – implying a collective total of over two billion, which makes me oddly proud of my country.

Crunch time: how to make the perfect crisp sandwich

With Lance Forman

With Lance Forman

With Lance Forman

Lance Forman is the owner of H. Forman & Son, Britain's leading salmon smokers and author of Forman's Games. He was elected a Brexit Party MEP for London in the 2019 European election but quit the party to endorse the Conservatives.On the podcast, Lance reflects on his childhood in a traditional Jewish upbringing, eating smoked salmon sandwiches every day for his packed lunch. Lance brings in some of the foods made by his gourmet food delivery company, Forman & Field. This included smoked salmon blinis with cream cheese and their latest creation, a Victoria sponge ahead of the Queen's Jubilee. Come to the East End to learn all about curing and smoking salmon with Lance Forman of H. Forman & Son, suppliers of our celebrated Spectator Winemaker Lunches.

With Lance Forman

With Mitch Tonks

With Mitch Tonks

With Mitch Tonks

Mitch Tonks is an award-winning restauranteur and chef. He runs the Rockfish restaurant group in Devon and Dorset, and the Seahorse restaurant in Dartmouth. He has written six cookbooks. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about playing cards after dinner, enjoying his school’s ‘bright green custard with chocolate pudding’, and inventing his own fish curries.

With Mitch Tonks

With Beata Heuman

With Beata Heuman

With Beata Heuman

Interior designer, Beata Heuman is known for her work based on playful, original designs characterised by Scandinavian attention to detail and longevity. Living in London, Beata published her own book last year Every Room Should Sing and believes that the same principle applies to her cooking. On the podcast, Beata talks about her life as a young child who grew up foraging on her family farm. Her professional work has been inspired by various culinary themes, from living in Florence to the rising phenomenon of the pot filler in her kitchen designs.

With Beata Heuman

With Rory Stewart

With Rory Stewart

With Rory Stewart

Former Tory MP, Rory Stewart, has played many roles throughout his life. An academic, a diplomat, and a soldier. Rory is currently a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.On the podcast, he talks about eating sandwiches on a homemade raft as a boy in Malaysia, his university days spent talking to girls in Pizza Express and his revelation that he doesn't really like pudding.

With Rory Stewart

With Russell Norman

With Russell Norman

With Russell Norman

Russell Norman is an award-winning restauranteur, writer and broadcaster, and the founder of the Polpo restaurant group. Last year he launched Trattoria Brutto. On the podcast, he tells Lara and Liv about enjoying Spam fritters, blagging his way onto the Orient Express, and how he changed careers from teaching to cooking.

With Russell Norman

The women who changed American cuisine forever

The women who changed American cuisine forever

The women who changed American cuisine forever

What is ‘immigrant food’? In America, the answer can be just about anything — from burritos to bibimbap to burgers. In a country shaped by immigrants, there is little else but immigrant food. But while some food cultures are firmly embedded in the American mainstream, well-mixed into the fabled ‘melting pot’, others are not. This is ever-changing: a few decades ago the ubiquity of sushi, for example, would have been unthink-able. Is this a good thing? It depends who you ask. Assimilation can bring belonging, but also compromise. Greater knowledge and appreciation of different food cultures doesn’t just happen. People make it happen. Mayukh Sen’s Taste Makers examines the lives of seven immigrant women, all from different backgrounds, who contributed to the way America cooks and eats: Chao Yang Buwei from China, Elena Zelayeta from Mexico, Madeleine Kamman from France, Marcella Hazan from Italy, Julie Sahni from India, Najmieh Batmanglij from Iran and Norma Shirley from Jamaica.

The women who changed American cuisine forever

With Ed Smith

Ed Smith is a food writer and chef who started his acclaimed blog Rocket and Squash while he was working as a solicitor. On today’s podcast, he tells Liv and Lara about how his passion for good food started, why he left the world of law, the changing nature of the London food scene, and the ingredients for the perfect restaurant review. Since 2017, he has authored On the Side and The Borough Market Cookbook, and his latest book, Crave: Recipes Arranged by Flavour, to Suit Your Mood and Appetite, was published last May.

With Ed Smith

With Poppy Cooks

With Poppy Cooks

With Poppy Cooks

Poppy O'Toole runs Poppy Cooks on TikTok, where she shares cooking videos with her two million followers. She trained as a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant, and lost her job in March 2020 because of Covid. She started Poppy Cooks to pass the time during lockdown. Her potato series, which got millions of views, made her a viral sensation. This led to her publishing her first cookbook, Poppy Cooks: The Food You Need. On the podcast, Poppy talks to Lara and Liv about how her grandmother taught her to cook, what makes the perfect TikTok video, and the pressures of cooking in a bank.

With Poppy Cooks