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Hi,

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I'm Margie Nomura and welcome to

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another episode of our side dish,

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the Dream Dinner Party. This is the

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mini episode where we invite a guest to tell

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us all about their dream dinner party. We

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find out everything from their dream guest

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list to what they'd serve as the menu

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and importantly where it would be held.

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This week we welcome Poppy O'Toole to tell

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us all about her dream dinner party and

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her choice of guests and the venue are

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guaranteed to make this a very fun dinner

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party. There is no right or

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wrong way to host a dinner party whether

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it's a dream one or not. A

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casual takeaway with your very closest

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friends or a full-on affair

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where you try to impress people that

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you've never met before. The term dinner

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party can be a bit loaded but in

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my mind it encompasses every

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occasion and every way of doing it.

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So without further ado here

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is Poppy's dream dinner party.

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What

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are your general feelings on a dinner party?

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I like throwing them but

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I'd like to be better at them. I

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wimp out at the last minute and like I want to

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do all the flowers and the nice table setting

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and I go oh nah it's fine which

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is everything in my life. I just go it's fine.

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So I would love to be that that girl

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that did the whole like table spread but

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I'll never be that girl. That's not me. I'm more of

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like a shove

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it on the table and get drinking. Yeah

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well you're providing delicious food so yeah

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so Poppy this is your dream dinner party.

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Let's start by talking about the guest list. Who

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are you going to invite to your dream dinner party? So

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like I said a big fan of Beyonce.

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I think if I've got an opportunity to meet

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her and cook for her yeah she's

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in. Love her. I would like

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to invite Marilyn Monroe because

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I feel like she'd have a lot of stories to tell

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and would keep the conversation going

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and we would learn so much about her and

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she's an icon. And imagine the duet between

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Beyonce and Marilyn. I'd get that all

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over socials.

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That would skyrocket

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you from four million to 24 million. Mine's

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all going to be women, I think, which is good. We'd

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have our Nige there as well, then, because she

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is my icon. So we'd have Nigella there.

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I think this is quite a good parting.

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The last one's hard as well, because

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you need it. There's only one spot left. There's only one spot

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left, and you need them to be able to bring the

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energy that everyone else is going to be bringing. Oh,

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yeah. OK. Daisy May Cooper. Ooh.

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I love her. I love

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her. There's a very strange

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mix of people, but it's really good. I

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want Daisy May Cooper and Beyoncé

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to sit next to each other. I

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think they'd get on really, really well. But

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then Adele would be really good as well. No, Daisy

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May Cooper. We've got superstar Beyoncé. Yeah,

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Adele and Beyoncé are probably really good friends. Yeah.

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Yeah, we want someone else. Yeah, Daisy May Cooper. They

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probably have girls dinner all the time.

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Yeah. And Nigella's probably invited

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along to that one. Yeah. But this is your dinner

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party. So where are you going

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to host it? Set the scene for us. Why is it happening?

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OK, I love dancing and I'd Beyoncé

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there. I can learn a thing or two. So

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I would quite like to be. Can we go

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like past places that aren't real anymore?

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Is it real? Studio 54? Hmm.

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I would love to be transported back to that era and

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just see what it was like in

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there. It's a bit dark for a dinner party, but we've

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got the lights on. We've got the music going.

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We've got bar service. I

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think it'd be quite impressive to be there.

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I should really learn a bit more about it because I love all the music

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from that time as well. I think it would be really good fun. And

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we do all have to dress up of

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that era as well. OK. So we'd

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all have to be in like not fancy

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dress, but like respecting that time.

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OK, I love the sound of this. So

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when you're doing dinner parties, what time do you ask

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people to arrive? Depends if I want to

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go to bed that night or not. So if

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I'm tired, I'll be like get here at four. But

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I think this would be a late session. So

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I would. be like, yeah, get here around eight. Okay,

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and do you mean that? Or do you mean? Whenever

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you want, lately. Because I'm the late person

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most of the time, so I'm happy when people are late. Okay,

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but how late are too late? I don't know,

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I don't mind. As long as you bring that energy

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when you get here, I don't care what time you arrive.

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Okay. Because if you get there and you're boring,

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there was no point in you being here. If you get

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there two hours late and you've

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got nothing to show for it, I

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want a good story, why were you two hours late? Oh

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yeah, Liddy Ella bumped into so-and-so

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and then I had to go and fly over here, bring

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the story, bring the energy, and fly. I always think

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if you've got a really good excuse, all

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things are forgiven. So the guests

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have arrived. What are you gonna serve them to drink

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to start with? We'll start off with

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a champagne, just to look classy. Like

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to give that false facade that we're being classy

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here. And then I'd go straight into like a bubblegum daiquiri.

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Okay, okay. Because I love bubblegum, I love

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bubblegum flavour things. So bubblegum daiquiri

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with like popping candy and

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like candy floss. Just to really

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get that palate cleansed, you know, really. It's

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really subtle. Are you gonna serve a can up

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here at this point? Yeah, like a little amuse-bouche.

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We'll go for a little potato amuse-bouche,

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just to, you know, mellow out the

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setting. We'll go for like, maybe like

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a little bit of caviar on there. You know,

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we're in quite a classy, cool place. Very

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classy women. So a little bit of caviar,

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a bit of gold leaf.

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Again, all of the facade. Because then as we

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get into the actual food, it's just gonna be dirty and

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delicious. This is sounding great. Okay,

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so it's time to sit down. What are you

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serving for a starter? We've got to think,

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there's vocalists. So we need to think about,

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throat. We've got then

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food legend.

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So you think about flavour. And we know that

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Nigella isn't fussy actually. She's very,

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very much flavour over everything.

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Okay, we're gonna go, because it's

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another dish that

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I designed when I was working in restaurants,

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which

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a lot of people were like, whoa, you did this. This is really

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good.

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prize by it and I don't know if many people would like

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it but I'm gonna try and flex my little chef on.

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So I'd go for a venison carpaccio

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which has been coated in toasted

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herbs and spices with like

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cumin, coriander, like proper flavor

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really thin obviously carpaccio thin thin

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thin and then just with some

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bacon jam a little bit sweetness a little

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bit of caramelized and pickled onion on there as

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well and some very

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buttery kind of burnt butter

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dressing just a just a not burnt butter

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like a Bernouzzette kind of

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like that little bit of creaminess sourness sweetness

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on this bed of carpaccio maybe a bit of rocket on

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there for authenticity and

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that would be again a bit like a few little plates

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around the table and you just kind of grab

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and go when you want to with some bread with some

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little that's

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like just a chill almost like a can

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of pay still because you

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know we want to get the drinks in we don't want to be eating

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constantly okay that sounds delicious

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and now for main course what do you think

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I don't think you can be crispy

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delicious fried chicken on

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a lot of things I think a lot of people would

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be like oh no it's too much mess

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to eat but I think the girls on with would get

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down with it I think they'd be very much involved

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in some crispy chicken situation and

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so I love Marilyn's there as well she'd

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love it yeah absolutely okay cool so

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we're gonna go with some like

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Korean fried chicken hmm there

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that got your jang that would blow Marilyn's mind

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she's never had this sort of food before she

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might have actually never know and that

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might not have had an avocado

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we could

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put a little slice avocado Marilyn on

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there as well oh she's gone before her time and so

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this is why I shouldn't

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talk too much so

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stupid things so yes

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some Korean fried chicken with like

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the pickles

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I love pickle, anything pick pickle radishes, oh

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no, no, no, pickle daikon in there.

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And some like top

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tier skin on fries that I'd make,

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but like then coated in like

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chicken skin salt or something like,

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delicious. Again, blowing people's minds.

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At this point, what is everyone drinking? We

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are on martinis, but

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I saw the martinis, you know, and they put the blue

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cheese in the olive. I don't know what they're called. No.

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You put a little bit of blue cheese in your olive and

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it's meant to be really good or an anchovy. I'm

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into that. What is a dirty

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martini? Is that got gin in as

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well? Is it when you do gin and vodka? I

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get really, really confused. I think it's something

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like, is it the olives, Brian?

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Is it the olives, yeah. I've recently had a Vesper

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martini. What was that? Can't remember,

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but it's really nice. I'm

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very impressed because a martini is too hardcore for

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me. I mean, it's

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just like a big giant shot. It's got to be the coldest

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thing. I'll make it in nitrogen. I don't get, like,

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it needs to be so cold that you can't taste

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anything and then you get drunk. They're ferocious,

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aren't they? But I feel like Marilyn would love that.

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I feel like Nijana would definitely get

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behind that. Beyonce, maybe

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it might be a bit too strong on a vocal cord

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because she's got a lot of singing to do. Have you

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seen any of the stuff from Renee's? It's incredible.

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Yeah, so good. Absolutely. She sings

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nonstop for two hours. It's unbelievable. She

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can

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have a mocktail if she would rather.

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I don't mind. They can do whatever she wants. And

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then I think Dezime Kupu is definitely

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into a martini. Yeah.

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I think she's in. Okay. It's

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time for pudding. What are you going to say? Mr.

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Wick. Oh, my God,

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you could. You could have a van pull up.

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Oh, my God, we could. No, I think the

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girlies would like something a little bit more than that.

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Oh, in my head, they were all genuine friends now,

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my little troupe of ladies. Let's

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think of a delicate, nice, delicious

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dish. We've got two Americans.

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Maybe we show them like an eat and mess. I find that's a really

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nice dish for people because I think

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the flavors of it are very simple,

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but delicious. And you can do, you could

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do like a lemon curd, eat and mess. You could

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do berries. We could change it up. I think I might

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go for like,

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we could go a bit posh and go like blood orange. The

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blood orange curd, a little bit of marmalade,

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some nice fresh fruit, nice

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handmade. Cause a lot of the time I ended up just buying

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the baskets, but we'd actually make them for my

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girls. Maybe even a little ice cream on there

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as well. Just to

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egg it up a little bit further. And then

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we'd have a special martini. Ooh. Good.

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To keep the night going. Yeah. So after the food

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has been eaten at your dinner parties,

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what happens? Do you tend to play games?

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Is that always dancing? Like obviously

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you're in Studio 54. Yeah. There's

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going to be dancing. But what typically

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happens? We're there going, oops, that's sad.

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Yeah. Everyone's on the floor dancing.

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Yeah. I think a lot of the time I love

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a board game. I love a drinking game. So

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every board game turns into a drinking game.

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We once did a really good version of Uno

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and I'll never remember how we played it, but

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we were so drunk by the end of it and it

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was so good. But maybe like a little

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Uno dare drinking game could be easy.

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It's one pack of cards. Everyone kind of gets

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Uno. I

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can't believe I couldn't sit there. I'm

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just married on my own. I'm plate-oo. They

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probably really enjoy it. I think

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it's just normal. It's just like, oh, no one is people.

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They're just people. Very, very incredible

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famous people. At your normal

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dinner party, are you the

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type of person that would tidy up before you go to

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bed? Or you're leaving it till the next

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day? I'm there for a good time, not a tidy time.

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Okay. No. That's a

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motto. That's how I live my life.

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It all gets you shoved into the side, even if the

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plate's going to bin. I don't care. Like it's just

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I'm not gonna spend my time washing

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up whilst everyone else is having fun No,

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yeah, everything gets left and then normally what I do

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is I end up the next morning going around eating the last It's

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like you know, it's been dry. It's been left

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out It's aired nothing ever goes into

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the fridge and then like I'm sure flies

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come on here But I'm eating it like I'm hungover.

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I'm gonna eat this old bit The

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worst thing was I had a Christmas party

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and I loved my friends and I love that they're great

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And we left all did like a buffet spread

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and everything and my friends who stayed bless

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Katie the next day tied it all up

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and put it all in the bed and I was like I

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can eat that it was all I like I don't

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care

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Turkey and

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old nachos. I was like really afford

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to have been dreaming about it That

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is disappointing. I mean I heard of the Christmas

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sandwich Of

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all the people that you've got it your dream

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dinner party Who do you think you'd be most likely to

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keep in touch with genuinely? probably

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Daisy Mae Cooper and I see

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that because the When she

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did was it the Brits? She was

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incredible hosting on the Brits and I thought

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you like I wish I was you She's it. She's

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the funniest person I've ever seen and I

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think that we could have quite a few Martini

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nights, maybe Yes, which would

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be really good fun and I feel like she would be down

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to eat Stay all through the next

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day with me. She might be like absolutely

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not you're disgusting What why are

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you dragging me down with you? But I feel like

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you give us those but no I think she's yeah, I

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think she's here for a good time not tidy time. Mmm.

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Yeah, you could get t-shirts

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Happy that was your dream dinner party.

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Thank you so much I

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want this to happen So

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there we have it Poppy's dream dinner party

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is over the food has been eaten

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the guests have gone home I do

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hope you enjoyed today's episode and make sure

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you're subscribed to catch all episodes

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of the dream dinner party and as I'm

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in dishes. Thank you so much for listening.

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Bye!