This episode is a deep dive into the wild reality of being Toby Inskip aka Eating With Tod, where eating a burger can spark headlines and a Christmas market can become a national talking point. He unpacks the moments that blew up online, the backlash that followed, and why being relentlessly positive in public somehow makes people angrier than outright criticism.

We get into the controversies properly. Working with brands like McDonald’s and the reaction that always follows. Why fast food is treated like a moral failing online. The Daily Mail pile-on over pricing and “value”, and how quickly outrage ignores the jobs created, traders supported, and businesses kept alive. Tod is candid about the UK’s obsession with tearing people down once they succeed and how jealousy, rage-bait, and bad faith criticism fuel the algorithm.

There are big stories too. A last-minute call from F1 that derails a holiday and drops him into celebrity chaos. Filming with drivers, speed laps after far too much food, and casually bumping into Gordon Ramsay who already knows exactly who he is. Plus the moments that never make camera. Restaurants that nearly closed before a video changed everything. Others he quietly chose not to post because one bad review could sink a family business.

It also gets self-reflective. The power food creators now hold compared to traditional critics. Whether social media prioritises spectacle over taste. Why he refuses to chase negativity even though it drives clicks. How he built the account while working full-time in construction, posting every single day for years, and why most of his videos are still just him, an iPhone, and a stranger holding the camera. If you want to understand the pressure, privilege, and responsibility of modern food influence, this one goes there.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

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This week on The Go-To Food Podcast, we travel to Guernsey to sit down with Nathan Davies at his restaurant Vraic. After walking away from the world’s most intense kitchens, Nathan chose the island to build something entirely his own. What he has created is confident, generous and already one of the most talked about new dining rooms in Britain.

A huge part of Nathan’s story is his formative years working alongside Gareth Ward at Ynyshir. He speaks candidly about the brutality and brilliance of that period, the pressure, the creativity, and the uncompromising standards that shaped him as a chef. It is a rare, honest look inside one of the most influential kitchens of the last decade, and what it really takes to survive and grow in an environment like that.

At Vraic, those lessons are everywhere, but filtered through Nathan’s own voice. The menu blends Welsh roots, Japanese influence, live fire cooking and Guernsey produce into something deeply personal. He talks about why flavour always comes before ego, why generosity matters more than luxury signalling, and how he has taken the best parts of his past without trying to replicate them.

This episode is about ambition without arrogance, discipline without fear, and building a restaurant on your own terms after working at the sharpest end of fine dining. If you want to understand how chefs carry their mentors with them while forging something new, this conversation is essential listening. Recorded at Vraic in Guernsey and powered by Blinq.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

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Set deep in the Suffolk countryside, the Greyhound Inn is the kind of place that immediately feels special. Over 400 years old and restored with quiet confidence, it balances the warmth of a proper English pub with the ambition of a serious food destination. The welcome is generous, the bar stacked with thoughtful bottles, and the room hums with the sense that hospitality comes first. This is not a place chasing trends, but one grounded in time, community and craft.

At the heart of it all is chef Adam Spicer, whose cooking is rooted in hyper-seasonality, nose-to-tail thinking and an obsessive respect for produce. Menus change weekly, sometimes daily, depending on what local farmers, gamekeepers and fishermen bring to the door. One night might feature wild halibut, venison shot by a family member, or rabbit offal cooked with confidence and restraint. When ingredients are this good, Spicer’s philosophy is simple: do as little as possible and do it well.

Spicer’s journey here has been anything but conventional. Largely self-taught, he honed his fundamentals while cooking at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, before testing himself on MasterChef: The Professionals in 2019. The experience sharpened his focus rather than defining him. What sets his food apart now is not showmanship but depth, from long-reduced bone sauces to perfectly judged offal dishes that feel both generous and precise.

Underpinning it all is a shared belief in hospitality over margin. Wine is priced to be enjoyed, not hoarded, with a list leaning towards small, organic producers. Regulars mix easily with visitors from London, including the occasional appearance from local fan Ed Sheeran. With its roaring fires, serious cooking and unpretentious charm, the Greyhound Inn feels like a pub that knows exactly what it is and why it matters. It is a reminder that some of the most exciting food in Britain is happening far from the capital, quietly and confidently.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

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He cooked at El Bulli at its absolute peak, worked side by side with Albert Adrià, and lived through a kitchen so intense you had to physically fight just to plate food. In this episode, Rob Roy Cameron strips away the mythology of the world’s most famous restaurant and tells the unfiltered truth about what service was really like behind closed doors.

From running an illegal bakery as a child in southern Africa to becoming one of Spain’s most in-demand chefs, Rob Roy’s career is anything but conventional. He opens up about brutal mentors, impossible standards, creative obsession, and the moment he realised molecular gastronomy had lost its magic. There are war stories, near-meltdowns, and a nightmare service with Spain’s greatest chefs watching every move.

Now head chef of Alta in Soho, Rob Roy reflects on walking away from the El Bulli universe, cycling solo through conflict zones, and why today’s diners crave simplicity over spectacle. This is a rare, honest conversation about ambition, burnout, creativity, and what really matters once the hype fades.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From corporate law burnout to one of London’s most influential independent restaurants, this episode dives into the extraordinary journey of Mandy Yin, founder of Sambal Shiok. Broadcasting from her Holloway Road laksa bar, Mandy tells the story of how a chicken satay burger at a street food market sparked a complete career pivot, and how Malaysian food became her vehicle for creativity, survival and cultural expression in the UK.

At the heart of the conversation is laksa. Not as a trend, but as a mission. Mandy breaks down the obsessive detail behind Sambal Shiok’s signature curry laksa, made entirely in house from paste to broth, including a vegan version designed with the same depth and care as the original. She also lifts the lid on the brutal economics of hospitality, explaining why a £22 bowl of noodles is not excess but the bare minimum required to keep a restaurant alive.

This episode captures Mandy at her most candid. She talks about the physical grind of street food, the transition to bricks and mortar, the impact of Covid, and the moment she went viral explaining how VAT quietly cripples independent restaurants. There is frustration, but also clarity, particularly around kindness, sustainability and the widening gap between what diners expect and what restaurants can realistically deliver.

Come for the laksa, stay for the honesty. From nasi lemak and sambal Brussels sprouts to pandan cake and salted banana caramel, this is a conversation about flavour, resilience and refusing to compromise. It is an essential listen for anyone who loves eating out and wants to understand what it really takes to keep the doors open in modern hospitality.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, The Go-To Food Podcast closes out the year inside one of London’s most talked-about dining rooms. Recorded at Café Cecilia on the canals of Hackney, the episode finds hosts Ben and Fred sitting down with chef owner Max Rocha at the height of Christmas service. It is warm, chaotic, funny and deeply human, the sound of a restaurant in motion as one of Britain’s most influential young chefs reflects on how he got here.

Rocha speaks with striking honesty about his journey through Spring, River Cafe and St. John, and the mentors who shaped him, particularly the late Skye Gyngell. He unpacks how Café Cecilia exploded from a modest, family-run opening into one of the hardest tables to secure in the country, without PR, without hype chasing, and without compromising on food that is rooted in simplicity, seasonality and care. This is a masterclass in building something quietly exceptional, one plate at a time.

The conversation goes far beyond the pass. Rocha opens up about burnout, addiction and the pressure of sudden success, describing how sobriety and exercise quite literally saved his life and his restaurant. He talks about rewriting kitchen culture, setting boundaries, banning hangovers, and creating an environment where young chefs can learn properly, from butchery to bread, rather than just survive service. It is one of the most candid discussions of mental health in hospitality you will hear this year.

Along the way, there is food, a lot of it. Guinness bread and butter, fritti with anchovy and sage, deep fried bread and butter pudding, big steaks, Dublin restaurants worth travelling for, and the dish Rocha would put in the Go-To Hall of Fame. Thoughtful, generous and quietly profound, this episode is a fitting end to the year and essential listening for anyone who cares about cooking, creativity and staying human in a brutal industry.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 2 of our conversation with the legendary Mark Hix is here and it is absolutely packed. This episode dives deep into the roaring early days of the Ivy, the madcap menu development, the cult dishes, the shepherd's pie that became a national obsession, and the wild creativity that defined a generation of London dining. If you care about how modern British cooking was shaped, this chapter with Mark is essential listening.

We pick up right where the chaos and brilliance left off. Mark takes us inside the culinary revolution that lifted Britain out of its prawn cocktail fog, the rise of the gastropub, his unlikely journey into food writing, and the unfiltered truth behind working with giants like Corbin and King. There are stories here that have never been told quite like this, from scooter dashes between dining rooms to the menu decisions that still echo across the industry.

And of course, Mark opens up about striking out on his own and building a restaurant empire at full tilt. The risks, the rush, the mistakes, the insane highs, the legendary parties, the kitchen tales that feel almost mythic. He talks candidly about advice for young restaurateurs, about what British food has become, and even about the infamous final lunch of Keith Floyd which led to one of the most talked about menu tributes in London.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Hix’s Part 1 is basically a greatest hits album of British restaurant stories, told by the bloke who lived them. From boozy late nights at the Groucho with Richard Corrigan, to being Tonksed at 3 a.m, the episode opens in full chaos mode. From there, you get deep into the London years. Hix walks us through the Ivy, the Caprice, Scott’s and J Sheekey, the creation of dishes like the crispy duck and watercress salad that started life as pork, and a black ink risotto that made Jonathan Meades sit up and take notice. He tells the story of Challenge Hix in the Tram Shed kitchen library, where head chefs cooked against him under a 30 minute clock, and the rules were simple: no more than three main ingredients on the plate and a menu line that actually tells you how a dish is cooked. His disgust at the modern “ingredient, comma, ingredient, comma, ingredient” menu gets a full, glorious rant.

The episode is packed with the kind of stuff chefs whisper about. Mark remembers the days when critics like A. A. Gill, Faye Maschler and Jonathan Meades could make or break a restaurant, from rave reviews to absolute shockers. He talks about Gill slagging off the Tram Shed, texting him mid review over oyster details, and the surreal moment he opened a Sunday paper to see his cookbook recipes lined up against Gordon Ramsay’s pub dishes in a double page spread. There are tales of the Rivington Grill as a near empty bar that had to “rent a crowd” of Shoreditch artists, his art-for-food deals, and the moment he texted Damien Hirst for a sculpture and ended up with a giant cow and chicken in formaldehyde at the heart of Tram Shed.

Underneath the mischief there is a harder story too. Hix talks about growing up in Bridport, watching his grandfather run the local pub and paint business, getting steered into catering college by a family friend, and grinding through the Hilton staff canteen, the Grosvenor House and the Dorchester before landing at the Caprice. He also begins to lift the lid on the brutal side of restaurant ownership, from insane London rents to the moment his business partners put his restaurants into administration two days before lockdown, leaving him to stand in Tram Shed and tell 130 staff they no longer had jobs. It is funny, furious, nostalgic and very human. Part 1 feels like sitting at the bar with Mark Hix while he finally tells you how it all really happened.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we sit down with Carl McCluskey, the quietly obsessive mastermind behind Crisp, the cult London pizzeria that has gone from a backstreet Hammersmith pub to one of the most sought after tables in the city. Carl walks us through the whirlwind first three weeks of his new Marlborough site and the sheer graft behind bringing a tiny pop up operation into a polished, high pressure restaurant setting. From staff struggles and stretching stations held together with rope to finally stepping into a dream kitchen, it is a rare look at the leap from local hero to full scale powerhouse.

Carl breaks down the craft behind his pizzas, including the infamous Vecna, born by accident during a chaotic Halloween party when he grabbed hot honey and burrata as a last minute experiment. He shares the Reddit conspiracies about his secret hydration levels, the ongoing myth that his dough sits in trays, and why he refuses to reveal the tiny tweaks that make Crisp different. He explains how his cousin Pedro became the best oven man in the world, how the team makes up to forty litres of hot honey a week, and why scaling too fast would destroy the magic.

The conversation turns to the business side, where Carl opens up about the heartbreak of leaving the original Hammersmith pub after impossible lease demands from Stonegate. He tells the wild stories that came with success, from seven hour queues to customers offering a thousand pounds in cash for a table. He recalls the day Dave Portnoy’s 8.1 review changed everything, the surreal moment an American number rang asking for margaritas, and the sudden global spike in calls from fans desperate to try his pizza. There is also the now legendary saga of the toilet graffiti that became a t-shirt, a Wi-Fi code, and a small legal dispute.

Carl’s life story threads through the episode, from his days as a semi pro footballer playing alongside the Wealdstone Raider to being raised in his nan’s old school London pub. He reveals the New York and LA inspirations behind his food, why an all day John and Vinnie's style concept could be his next move, and the places he eats on his own perfect food weekend. Honest, funny, and completely unguarded, this is Carl McCluskey at his best.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few journeys in British food are as dramatic as that of Nathaniel Mortley, better known as Natty Can Cook. In this episode Natty takes us from being a naughty kid in Peckham to becoming one of the most exciting young chefs in the country. He opens up about the night he was stabbed at just sixteen, the trauma and anger that followed, and how those years pushed him toward the streets, knives and choices that spiralled far from the kitchen he once loved.

Natty speaks candidly about losing his passion for cooking, getting arrested outside a rave in Vauxhall and receiving a five year prison sentence that could easily have ended his story. Instead, it became the turning point. He takes us inside Belmarsh and Brixton for a brutally honest look at prison life: the violence, the bullying, the humiliating controlled feeds, the strange economy of mackerel currency and the wild creativity of microwave cheffing and the legendary jail cake. His memories of the wing are gripping, raw and impossible to forget.

But this episode is also about redemption through food. Inside Brixton’s Clink restaurant, Natty rebuilt his confidence, his discipline and his love of cooking while teaching men who had never set foot in a kitchen. He describes the emotional shock of returning to the same prison years later to cook a four course tasting menu for 80 diners and a team of inmates who had no idea he once slept in those cells. It is a full circle moment that hits with incredible force.

Today Natty is on the Michelin radar, self funded, uncompromising and creating some of the most exciting Caribbean food in the country. From the chaos of his 200 cover soft launch to the rise of his viral Luxe Roast Challenge, from his pimento duck to his strict dress code and the unbelievable customer stories, this episode is a front row seat to a chef who fought his way back from the edge and is now aiming for history. It is powerful, emotional and completely unmissable.

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Please leave us a great rating and a comment and share it with your friends - it really helps us grow as a show.If you're in the industry and are looking for the greatest POS system in the world than look no further -as Blinq are tearing up the rulebook—no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and no per-device charges.

Just £69 a month for unlimited devices and 24/7 UK-based support that’s always there, in person when you need it.Built for hospitality, by hospitality, blinq is the fastest, easiest POS system on the market—so intuitive, anyone can use it. And while others take weeks to get you up and running, with blinq, you’re live in just 2 hours.Join the hospitality revolution today & use the code GOTOBLINQ to get your first month free - https://blinqme.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.