Lecker

The writer and cook Melissa Thompson talks about her book Motherland; a very personal history of Jamaica.

Melissa weaves the history of the country so elegantly with her own story in a way that makes it impossible to ignore that the violent history of colonialism in Jamaica is to do with all of us in Britain. As you’ll hear us talk about, she uses the physical walls of the Drax Estate in Dorset, where she grew up, to demonstrate how ingrained Britain’s colonial legacy is in the very fabric of our life here - and it’s mostly been buried.

I also asked Melissa how she approaches translating recipes which are very personal to her into a format which can be comprehensible and replicable by anyone who buys her book. Is anything lost or compromised in this process of translation?



Motherland is out now, published by Bloomsbury.

This is the third of three episodes this month about contemporary personal food writing and memoir. The first can be found here and the second here.

Ben McDonald creates original illustrations for Lecker - find them on the Lecker Twitter and Instagram.

If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast. This month's exclusive episode will include more from this conversation with Melissa!

You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Full transcript on the Lecker website.

The writer and editor Thea Lenarduzzi talks about her book Dandelions; a family history of migration, cooking, living.

So much of personal writing in food focuses on heritage and family - and rightly so! But - down, no doubt to the very white, middle class status quo - there can be a tendency towards simplification - of dishes, or even a narrative, a family’s history. What Dandelions does so well is capture how much of people’s lives rests in the spaces between, resisting categorisation and definition, and even slipping between fact and fiction, but in a way that remains always true and always significant, even in the so-called mundanity of everyday life.

Dandelions is out now, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

This is the second of three episodes this month about contemporary personal food writing and memoir. The first can be found here.

Ben McDonald creates original illustrations for Lecker - find them on the Lecker Twitter and Instagram.

If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast. This month's exclusive episode will include more from this conversation with Thea!

You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Full transcript on the Lecker website.

A conversation between Angela Hui and Rebecca May Johnson, recorded just after their respective debut non-fiction books had been published. An exploration of the importance of valuing and demonstrating labour within cooking, of novelty versus repetition, and of the idea of rejecting food writing as a category.

You can find Takeaway by Angela Hui and Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson at all good bookshops now.

Mentions:
Cathy Park Hong's part poetry part memoir (Angela)
Audre Lorde - Zami (Rebecca)
Luce Giard and Michel de Certeau -The Practice of Everyday Life (Rebecca)
Ocean Vuong - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Angela)
Nuar Alsadir on how to be your own freaky clown (Rebecca)

You can listen back to Rebecca on a very early episode of Lecker here...

This is the first of three episodes this month about contemporary personal food writing and memoir - stay tuned for more!


Ben McDonald creates original illustrations for Lecker - find them on the Lecker Twitter and Instagram.

If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast. This month's exclusive episode will include more from this conversation between Angela and Rebecca!

You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Full transcript on the Lecker website.

What's the secret of a successful cooking school? Jeremy Pang, founder of School of Wok, lets us in on it.

This episode was hosted by Adrienne Katz Kennedy and produced by Lucy Dearlove.

You can find out more about Jeremy Pang at jeremypang.co.uk and his new book, Jeremy Pang’s School of Wok is out now, wok clock illustrations and all.

Ben McDonald creates original illustrations for Lecker - find them on the Lecker Twitter and Instagram.

If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast.

You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Full transcript on the Lecker website.

A love letter to the beating heart of Ugandan food, Matooke. With Katasi E. Kironde and Nakigudde Elizabeth Kibalama.

Katasi is the founder of Elevate 256, an organisation that creates and curates inspiration content and events centred around Uganda. She was also a co-host on Unsavoury Ethnic Types podcast, who did a great episode about Ugandan food. She also guest-curated a recent issue of Fare magazine all about Kampala. We talked a bit more about a couple of pieces in the magazine, and those bits of the interview are going to be available on the Patreon bonus podcast episode. You can get access to those by signing up for £3 at patreon.com/leckerpodcast

Ben McDonald creates original illustrations for Lecker - find them on the Lecker Twitter and Instagram.
If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast.
You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Full transcript on the Lecker website.

Helen Graves talks about illegal rooftop barbecues, the joy of cooking and eating together outdoors, and why tenderstem broccoli is the thing everyone needs to grill.

Helen's new book Live Fire is published by Hardie Grant.

Helen Graves is a food and recipe writer and editor and she used to write a much loved blog called Food Stories.

The Guardian podcast I mentioned in this episode is called Let's Eat!


Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove

Lecker is on Twitter, Instagram and now TikTok.

If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast.
You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

You can access the transcript for this episode via Audioboom, or at leckerpodcast.com.

An audio exploration of our love of citrus, with chef Selin Kiazim and writer Nina Mingya Powles.

Three: Acid, Texture, Contrast by Selim Kiazim and Small Bodies of Water by Nina Mingya Powles are both out now!

Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove

You can find a full bibliography for this episode on the Lecker website.

Ben McDonald creates original illustrations for every episode of Lecker.

Lecker is on Twitter, Instagram and now TikTok.

If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast.
You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

You can access the transcript for this episode via Audioboom, or at leckerpodcast.com. 

There's one detail that everyone's picked up on in Claire Kohda's debut novel: the fact that the main character, Lydia, is a vampire. But it's actually much more about food than it is about vampires.

Claire explores how the book relates to ethnic identity and colonialism, and the othering of Asian cultures which happens so frequently, and explains how food came to be such a central part of a story whose main character physically can't eat it.

Woman, Eating is published by Virago.

Claire Kohda is a writer and musician; she reviews books for the TLS and her writing was also recently included in the anthology East Side Voices.


Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove

Ben MacDonald creates original illustrations for every episode of Lecker.

Lecker is on Twitter, Instagram and now TikTok.

If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast.
You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

You can access the transcript for this episode via Audioboom, or at leckerpodcast.com.

You’ve eaten hot pot at a restaurant, or at the very least seen it offered at restaurants near you. But did you know that thanks to the minimal prep required, it’s actually the perfect dinner party meal to have with friends at home? 

Melanie Xu, a lifelong fan and staunch advocate of Chongqing Ma La hot pot, makes the case.

Thank you to Mel and Andrew for their hot pot hospitality!

Lecker is on Twitter, Instagram and now TikTok.

If you’re in a position to, please considering supporting Lecker. Buy merch here and become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast.
You can find out more about how to support Lecker (including one-off donations) at leckerpodcast.com/support.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

A look back at the 2017 episode recorded at Granville Community Kitchen with Leslie Barson and Dee Woods. While Leslie and Dee prepared a community meal of Peruvian inspired pork stew, beans, rice and salad they shared how their work addresses fundamental and system issues of oppression, poverty, land use, farmers' rights and the environment. And there's an update from Leslie on the Granville's plans for 2022 and beyond.

Read more about The Granville and get involved at granvillecommunitykitchen.org.uk

Follow Lecker on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok

Become a Patron at patreon.com/leckerpodcast

See more photos from this episode and view full transcript at leckerpodcast.com/episodes/granvillerevisited