0:02

Hi, I'm Margie Nomura and welcome

0:04

to another episode of our side dish,

0:07

the dream dinner party. This is

0:09

the mini episode where we invite a guest

0:11

to tell us all about their dream dinner party.

0:14

This is a game I know a lot of people have played,

0:16

perhaps on a long car journey, maybe even

0:19

a first date and definitely around

0:21

the dinner table. So it's really

0:23

fun to sit down with a different guest every

0:25

week and hear who they would invite and what

0:27

they would serve. Today's guest is Donal

0:30

Skehan, who is so much fun

0:32

and who has actually been on Desert Island Dishes

0:35

before a few years ago now, but

0:37

definitely worth having a listen to his main episode

0:39

if you haven't heard it yet as it's a goodie.

0:42

That was right in the early days when

0:44

I turned up with a little dictaphone

0:46

recorder and essentially hoped

0:49

for the best. Donal has a new book

0:51

out called The Home Kitchen and honestly,

0:53

Donal's books are really great. I don't

0:56

know how he does it. I tried to get

0:58

him to give me all of his secrets, but instead

1:00

I did this weight in to tell us all about

1:02

his dream dinner party and this is a

1:04

very fun one. I'm going to be posting

1:06

Donal's little black book on Instagram,

1:09

which is a new feature we're trying out

1:11

and I thought it might be quite fun. So

1:13

keep an eye out for that and show it some love

1:16

if you like it. Really hope you enjoy today's

1:18

episode.

1:21

I am a big proponent of

1:23

the dinner party and I always have been. My mum

1:25

was a great host of dinner parties, but

1:28

I have inherited her level

1:31

of anxiety that comes with dinner parties.

1:34

So as much as I love them and I love the pomp and ceremony

1:36

and I love, you know, the planning of a meal and the menu

1:38

and everything and all the little details of laying

1:40

the table, I also have inherited

1:42

her flapping around the house

1:45

in the hour or so before guests arrive

1:48

and I have that innate desire to have

1:50

everything perfect and

1:51

want it to be right. So over the years

1:53

I've become much better at hosting

1:56

them because I have got better at trying

1:58

to make my dinner parties.

1:59

plans unflappable and ensure

2:03

that they go smoothly and without

2:05

major fails. The art of a good dinner party

2:07

is something that is long forgotten and something that we should

2:09

be aiming and striving to bring back.

2:11

I think they are making a bit of a comeback,

2:13

which I'm very excited about. But do you get

2:16

to throw them very often because you're so busy with

2:18

so many different things? I do, and I suppose

2:20

my cooking and

2:22

the job that I do between writing books

2:24

and doing TV and stuff like that, the job that

2:26

I do does, funny enough, take

2:30

me away from actually cooking for my family and cooking

2:32

for friends and makes my life busy. But

2:34

when I do get the most enjoyment out of,

2:36

are those moments where we actually sit down and

2:38

eat together as a family or as a family with friends

2:41

or extended family? So having

2:43

that time is very special. And I think

2:46

even when I look back at why

2:48

I cook, it is that convivial nature

2:50

of sitting down and sharing conversation,

2:53

and it might not even be about the food. It's about

2:55

being able to kind of connect on a sweeter

2:58

level. And I really enjoy that

3:00

aspect of it because for me, you know, I'm not

3:02

particularly religious. I'm not particularly spiritual,

3:05

but I do have that sense of finding

3:08

a grounding nature in cooking something

3:11

I love for the people I love. And I have always found

3:13

that.

3:13

Yeah. Oh, that's a lovely way of putting it.

3:16

So, Donal, welcome to your dream

3:18

dinner party. Who are you going to invite?

3:20

This is probably the hardest

3:22

question I've had to think about. But

3:24

this week for my dinner party, I'm

3:27

going to go with the

3:29

incredible director, Wes Anderson, who

3:32

I am a massive fan. He can do no wrong

3:34

in my eyes. I was only having dinner last night

3:36

with friends who are also Wes Anderson fans,

3:39

but a little more critical of his work. And

3:41

they were criticizing his last film,

3:43

Asteroid City. And I stood there

3:46

as a staunch proponent

3:48

of his work. He just

3:50

creates these landscapes,

3:53

these dreamscapes of life

3:55

and also manages to tell beautiful stories

3:58

within them. I think I was born.

6:00

What was he was not on the dance floor

6:02

the entire time. So it was phenomenal.

6:04

I would say my key proponent,

6:07

my key guest of the members of ABBA is

6:09

Benny Anderson, because he, I believe,

6:11

is the musical genius behind ABBA. And

6:14

we actually walked down the aisle to Benny

6:16

Anderson's son, Sam Denvilda.

6:19

So we are obsessed and we are definitely

6:21

like hardcore fans. So when

6:24

I think of the opportunity of who

6:26

I would sit down and talk to, there's so many

6:28

questions I have. They've done so many interviews over

6:30

the years, but I have, as you can

6:32

tell, slightly obsessive questions

6:35

that I would like to ask and kind of unveil

6:37

the sort of details of things. We went to the

6:40

ABBA Museum in Stockholm when

6:42

my son was only like six

6:45

months and we have these shots of me and my wife and

6:47

my son in the ABBA. Holding him up. I

6:49

don't know if I've completely emerged as ABBA stalker. But

6:55

yes, Benny Anderson, I think, is the

6:57

ringleader. Yeah, I think you have to be a real

6:59

party pooper not to get up and dance when you

7:01

hear ABBA at a wedding. There is an ABBA song for

7:03

every moment in life. Also,

7:05

a band like ABBA is so interesting because

7:07

they just that's never going to really happen again,

7:10

just because the world's changed so much and there are so

7:12

many famous people now and there's so much

7:14

choice, whereas back then they were mega

7:17

stars. And it's just I just that's not

7:19

going to happen

7:19

going forward. That's the thing. And I think even if

7:21

you look back at that time, you know,

7:23

the 70s, like there was the ability to have

7:25

those fabulous outfits. You know,

7:28

like when it was fandom back then. How

7:30

many wore those outfits to your wedding? I did not

7:32

wear them. I draw the line. I'm sorry.

7:37

I was actually recently I was on Saturday Kitchen

7:39

with for the Eurovision special with

7:41

Nicholas Exas, who is very respectable,

7:44

Swedish chef. They managed to convince them to wear a full

7:47

ABBA style silver suit. And I he

7:49

will never he will never let it. But

7:52

anyway, but that's the thing with ABBA. It's

7:54

fun. It's camp. It's cheesy and

7:56

it's brilliant. And while I'd imagine

7:59

as a guest, he probably. isn't all of those things,

8:01

he would be a fascinating person to speak to

8:03

and to have conversations with. Okay, this is shaping

8:06

up to be a great party. Who is going

8:08

to be joining then? Well, look, I draw

8:10

all my food inspiration and my

8:13

love of food from my grandmother. And she was

8:16

probably the ultimate dinner party

8:18

host because in the 1970s,

8:21

she was a sculptor, she was an artist. And both

8:23

myself and my granddad were artists. So

8:26

and they ran a gallery in their home. So my mum

8:28

grew up in this beautiful house, a

8:31

small kind of house, but it had a gallery

8:33

at the back. So basically

8:35

on a weekly monthly basis, she would be doing

8:38

dinner parties, she would be hosting dinner parties and

8:41

entertaining. So she has left

8:43

us with this incredible legacy of

8:45

these handwritten, osmroid pen

8:47

written notebooks and

8:49

cookbooks that she had. And there are photos

8:52

of them in the book. In the book, you can see

8:54

like there is she has written this like notebook

8:56

of all the different French terms like Florentine

8:59

and Lorraine and Leonie's. And so

9:02

the beautiful thing about this is that she

9:04

has left us with these legacy recipes

9:08

that I know that she would have written

9:10

or she would have written after or before

9:12

hosting these dinner parties in the 70s. So it's like this time

9:15

capsule into this world. And

9:17

she had I remember her her beautiful

9:19

dining room, she had kind of mid century furniture

9:22

and this beautiful dining

9:25

table that traveled with her all of all the

9:27

way to the last place they lived in before she passed

9:29

away. And I just have

9:31

these visions of what it used to be

9:33

like. And this lovely moment where they

9:36

had a little cubby hole where they'd serve the food through

9:38

to the lobby. Those

9:40

need to make a comeback. Yeah. And I

9:42

remember even as a child, she used to have because

9:45

it would always be there because she would always be cooking and

9:47

they used to have this little kind of tea set

9:49

coaster. And I don't know if you have this,

9:51

but they had like rock sugar. Have you come

9:53

across this? I like crystal crystals.

9:56

Yeah, but they're kind of like tiny, but we

9:58

as kids used to much never had like

9:59

like sweet something like copper grandmothers

10:02

you imagine. And she had like, so

10:04

we'd be like, rock as our treats, we

10:06

go to dinner. So,

10:07

but from that perspective, she

10:10

left us with this fabulous legacy of these wonderful

10:12

recipes. And the true success of her

10:15

as a home cook was that she had

10:17

confidence in the kitchen. And if I imbue

10:19

one thing in the cookbooks to my children,

10:22

to the people who cook

10:24

from my recipes, it's to have confidence

10:26

as a home cook. And I think over the years,

10:30

the amount of stories and the amount of experiences

10:33

she had had would

10:35

make her the most fabulous dinner party.

10:37

She sounds heavenly. When

10:40

you're going through all of those books, was there anything

10:42

that jumped out at you as quite of

10:44

the time? Like there was a lot of gelatin back then.

10:47

There was a lot of gelatin. She actually didn't

10:48

have too many kind of clangers

10:51

in the sense of like, oh God, I don't know if we could- I know

10:53

like quite strange combinations.

10:55

No, she was- Banana, cream and mint. No,

10:57

she definitely didn't go down that route. Well,

10:59

you've

10:59

only got one spot left.

11:01

Yes. Well, I tried

11:04

to think of someone who is a current

11:06

inspiration and has been kind of throughout

11:09

my career. And there is a mantra

11:11

that I jokingly bring to everything I

11:13

do when it comes to food photography. And

11:15

I shoot quite a lot of my own food

11:17

photography and I have done from day to day. And

11:21

the mantra is WWDD,

11:23

what would Dana do? And that

11:25

Dana I refer to is Dana Hay. She

11:27

is the Australian doyenne

11:30

of food photography, of cookbooks.

11:33

She has them out her ears. She is a fabulous

11:35

all-around person. I have

11:38

followed her work since I

11:40

was probably about 10 or 11. Oh really?

11:42

I am obsessed with Dana. And she, the

11:45

reason the obsession became a reality

11:47

was because my mum and my aunts used

11:49

to, whenever they would travel, they

11:51

would always bring back food magazines. And we

11:54

went to New York and they would have brought back Bon Appetit

11:56

and Savour and Food and Wine. And we

11:58

had these collections of food. magazines and I

12:00

poured over them as a child. And I don't

12:03

know how we ended up with a Donna Hay magazine, but

12:05

we ended up with a Donna Hay magazine. And if

12:08

you remember them in the like late, kind

12:10

of mid to late 90s, they were a breath

12:13

of fresh air in the photography space. And

12:15

I truly believe Donna was the, you

12:17

know, the forefront of that change

12:20

of food photography and has set a

12:22

tone that has continued to this day. You

12:24

look at those magazines back then and

12:27

they were so ahead of their time. They

12:29

were so fresh and vibrant. And it was only

12:31

after that that you kind of saw people like Jamie

12:33

coming onto the scene and adding those sort of splashes

12:36

of Mediterranean and you know, Nigella

12:38

adding that sort of homely sort of inspiring

12:42

new ingredients that were only starting to filter

12:44

in and that was kind of towards the late 90s. So Donna

12:46

was already kind of using those like Asian

12:48

influences that Australia kind of has become

12:50

known for in its in its food team. So

12:53

I would absolutely love to have

12:55

her. But I have to say that I have

12:58

weaseled my way into becoming pals with

13:00

Donna. You've gone

13:03

from fan to friend. Well, I like to think so.

13:05

I mean, I'll have to ask her if she fully can say

13:08

that we're pals. I was hosting Sounds of the Kitchen

13:11

after James Martin left and it was that kind

13:13

of a transitionary stage before mass cover took

13:16

over. And so I was on quite a lot and I

13:18

was hosting and every week they would

13:20

kind of tell us who was going to be on that week. And

13:23

my jaw nearly hit the floor when they

13:25

rang me one day and told me that Donna was going to be

13:27

the guest. Was that the first

13:29

time you met her? I was at the

13:31

first

13:31

time I met her. She had no clue who I was.

13:33

And of course, I like had

13:35

to play it very cool. I was like, I

13:38

didn't play it cool. I was just honest with her. I told her.

13:40

I love how you were about to say I told her

13:42

I loved her, but I played it very cool.

13:45

And so as she as she tumbled across the

13:48

floor of Sounds of the Kitchen, I did tell her I

13:50

was a massive fan and we had a fabulous

13:52

time and she is so much fun. I have

13:55

high regard for Donna and I think she

13:57

is probably continues to push

13:59

the boat. I was heartbroken when she stopped the magazine,

14:01

but the books continue to this day

14:03

to be pushing the envelope in terms of what

14:05

food photography can be, how you bring

14:08

together a collection of really inspiring recipes

14:10

that home cooks can tackle. And from that perspective,

14:12

it's something that I've always liked is that Donna

14:14

would be in the mix. She's great fun, she's great

14:17

fun. Okay, this is sounding like a

14:19

very excellent number. I feel like

14:21

I'm coming across like an absolute stalker

14:23

from the Abba front to Donna, Wes,

14:26

I think is probably back to age with the room at this point.

14:29

It's going to be fine. My

14:31

grandmother is like, I'm not coming, do

14:33

not raise me from the dead. She's like, I am not related

14:35

to him. So

14:36

this is going to be great. Everyone's going to have such

14:38

a good time. Set the scene for us. Where

14:40

is it happening?

14:41

We were in the States for five years

14:43

and one of the things I loved was the architecture

14:46

of the mid-century style architecture and the houses

14:48

are just

14:49

fabulous. And we had a friend who

14:51

had a house in

14:53

Palm Springs and in Palm Springs, but couldn't

14:55

have all the houses there like that. And Richard Neutra

14:58

is fantastic. He

15:00

designed the Casement house and the Elvis

15:02

honeymoon house. And so it

15:05

was the playground for the rich and famous back in the

15:07

1970s, you know? And I think

15:09

it would be the ideal location to

15:11

have the most fabulous

15:13

dinner party. Okay,

15:14

this is sounding great. So what time

15:17

do you ask people to come to your dinner parties?

15:19

I think if you spoke to me before children,

15:22

it would be eight o'clock, but I think we'd be probably

15:24

starting at about 6.30. Because

15:27

I'd be thinking of like, okay, they're going to be up at five. So

15:30

I'll probably need to start this early so we can see. So

15:32

no, okay, let's take children out of the equation.

15:35

We'll probably start at about seven. I like

15:37

a seven o'clock dinner party because that allows

15:39

for an hour of kind of mingling,

15:42

maybe having some can of peas, maybe having

15:44

that moment to kind of connect and then

15:47

probably to eat for about 8 p.m. Okay,

15:50

so you ask people for seven. Yes.

15:53

Does that mean you want them to

15:54

come at seven? I have a Scandinavian wife. So

15:56

yes, if you're not here at seven and you haven't taken off your

15:58

shoes, no, I was okay. Okay.

15:59

7 p.m. I think well

16:02

from an Irish perspective that probably means

16:04

half seven certainly with my parents

16:06

very confusing The

16:08

hour of seven to eight is gives the allowance

16:11

for any stragglers Okay Yeah,

16:13

is

16:13

there a time after which you'd be

16:15

thinking that's quite rude

16:17

if they're there for eight I would be thinking

16:19

an hour is that we're past the grace period

16:21

yeah, okay, even if it's Wes you're

16:24

gonna be even if it's was Yeah, okay, and when they arrived

16:27

What are you thinking in terms of drinks

16:30

and maybe a canopé or is that how do

16:32

you approach that? I like a cocktail station.

16:34

I have every year for the last while

16:36

I've had I do a an annual cocktail

16:39

and We have I've moved actually

16:41

haven't got one for this year yet Negroni

16:43

was last year and actually Negroni kind

16:45

of saw me through lockdown Negroni's

16:48

made a regular feature through lockdown because

16:50

it is essentially three drinks in one So

16:54

they're strong and you don't need that many of them to

16:56

find your happy place So Negroni's

16:58

tend to be a good one because they're not too much fuss there

17:01

are three shots of gin vermouth

17:03

and Campari and a slice

17:05

of lemon or a slice of orange and they're very

17:08

easy to bring together So I think a good Negroni

17:10

station is probably a good start anything

17:13

else is a little bit faffy And I'm

17:15

big proponent of anything that can be pre-mixed

17:17

and so anything that you could have and I'm

17:19

poor Again, I always go to

17:22

low fuss So anything that can be ready that

17:24

literally is horrible and the little

17:26

station is always important So you nice little

17:28

tray your oranges are slight.

17:30

You've got your lovely glass You might have a shaker, but you're

17:32

probably not going to be shaking I the previous

17:34

drink was a pisco sour that was

17:37

my LA drink and I love a pisco sour

17:39

And they're a bit more of a fast and we

17:42

are also dangerous They're also very dangerous and

17:44

at the time when we lived in LA we had in a lemon

17:47

tree So I always had like lemon juice on top.

17:49

So I was like, this is my my piaster this But

17:56

but yeah, so that that was it so pisco

17:57

sour Negroni something that is

17:59

strong and starts the conversation.

18:02

Alongside that I like little

18:05

nibbly bits and that's probably my moment again

18:07

where I would look to something that

18:09

I could buy him like something that you know

18:12

is of high quality like and since we moved back

18:14

to Ireland I love the fact that we have

18:16

these fabulous Irish producers and little

18:18

canopies that you can kind of make out of

18:20

really good very dough and like a smoked

18:23

trays patty and they're the

18:25

hottest

18:25

Irish producer

18:27

in Calcutta and

18:29

they do gorgeous this beautiful

18:31

trout roe and I'm what I regularly

18:33

my canopie is like smoked trout

18:37

and then the little roe on top on nice sourdough

18:39

bread and simple easy you can have it ready

18:41

prepped on a nice platter that can be served around

18:43

I always try and keep it as simple as possible something

18:46

that's made ahead and I'm not faffing with it on the on

18:48

the night. Yeah okay

18:49

this is sounding very delicious.

18:51

Oh sorry I have to add to that. Yeah I

18:53

have another one okay and this is like if this

18:55

is more friends and family but we have this like really

18:58

um it's kind of it's not

19:00

very respectable but it's a bit retro and

19:02

it fits with the Palm Springs vibe yeah but

19:04

it's a thing I picked up in the states where it's good

19:07

quality salted potato chips you

19:09

lay them out on a platter and you dollop it with

19:11

Greek yogurt you dollop it with dill

19:13

black pepper and that trout

19:16

roe over the top it looks phenomenal

19:18

it tastes so good and it

19:20

is minimal average. So good also

19:23

you get the best potato crisps

19:25

in Ireland that's so good. We have all the potatoes

19:28

in Ireland. No but not just because of the

19:30

potatoes but the crisps I don't know what they do

19:32

to them why are they so delicious?

19:33

I can't tell you that I don't know. Okay okay

19:38

so it's now time to sit down what are you

19:41

thinking about the starter?

19:42

My first port of call in fabulous

19:44

organic farm which is now going to

19:46

be transported to Palm Springs in North County Dublin

19:49

called McNally's they are the best

19:52

spot to get really gorgeous ingredients

19:55

and they do they grow padron peppers

19:57

and I love my favorite thing to do is sizzle them on

19:59

up

19:59

pan. And so what I'm trying to come around

20:02

to here is there is no set starter. OK.

20:04

There is more of sharing platters.

20:06

Yeah. And we bring to the table a whole host

20:08

of different dishes. People can help themselves

20:11

onto a plate. So pajama pepper is sizzled

20:13

in the pan with a little bit of sesame oil and sesame

20:15

seeds sizzled until they're like

20:17

charred and a little bit smoky. There

20:20

is lovely salad leaves. They McNally's

20:23

do they grow these gorgeous collections

20:25

of, you know, like mustard leaf and so

20:27

simple, simply dressed salad leave. charcuterie

20:29

little elements of meat on the table.

20:32

I just love those little elements.

20:35

Tomato salad. If it's the summer, gorgeous

20:37

tomato salad with fennel

20:40

seeds roughly crushed and sizzled

20:43

in oil and then spooned over the top. Phenomenal.

20:47

There's those sorts of things that I get excited about.

20:49

And like and everyone talks about those dishes.

20:51

They don't. If you do one starter, probably

20:54

possibly mess it up. No, everyone's

20:56

going to remember that. If you do loads of little plates

20:58

and it's generous and it's exciting and you've tickled

21:00

their taste buds with fennel seeds and,

21:03

you know, and padron peppers and things like that, all

21:05

of a sudden people will have lots to think of and

21:07

and there's a generosity in the way you serve.

21:09

So I think that's the way forward. And that's probably

21:12

how I would approach my

21:13

dreams in a party. OK, oh, my goodness.

21:15

Yes. Can I can I join this? Absolutely.

21:17

I thought that was the whole way you why you

21:19

do this. Weasel my way in

21:21

there. And what are you drinking at this point?

21:23

I'm not great on my wine, but I

21:25

normally I normally reverse

21:28

to someone who is. So I get

21:30

advice on the wine and I will tell I normally

21:32

go to a friend that is very good on wine or

21:35

there used to be a fabulous little spot

21:37

in in house where I'm from

21:39

called Marga and Jeff, who

21:41

looks after their wine in the restaurant. Melo

21:43

is someone who never does

21:46

me wrong in terms of wine. So oftentimes

21:48

when I use that restaurant, I literally don't take

21:50

it away. Here's what we're eating. Tell

21:53

me what to drink. And so Marga, unfortunately,

21:55

is no longer there. But I would always go in

21:57

there, ask them and get advice

21:59

on wine.

21:59

I'm cooking. I like an organic wine.

22:02

I like something that has a bit of character

22:04

and something that matches and

22:07

attempts to match with what we're eating for

22:09

our main. Okay,

22:09

that's very sensible. It is

22:11

now time for the main course. What are you thinking?

22:14

So when I moved back to Ireland, when

22:16

we had been in LA for five years, one of the biggest

22:18

things that I had missed was the

22:21

proximity to like understanding where our

22:23

food was coming from. I think LA is as

22:25

beautiful as it is and as diverse as

22:28

it is from a food perspective, I always felt there

22:30

was a slight disconnect with the food we were eating

22:32

because you just have no idea where I was coming from.

22:34

And when we came back to Sutton

22:38

in Dublin,

22:40

I was three doors down from a fantastic

22:42

butcher called Higgins and Rick

22:44

there has an amazing butcher

22:46

counter and he

22:48

has fantastic pork. And

22:51

I love good pork shoulder and slowly

22:53

roasted good pork shoulder with crackling is one of

22:56

those finest things in life. So

22:58

a roast pork shoulder with

23:00

garlic scapes from Drummond House. We have them

23:03

at our at our wedding. We have a fantastic

23:05

friend Jenny who used to run an Eastern Seaboard

23:07

and Brownhound bakery. She is like my food

23:10

muse whenever I am at like my

23:12

wit bend of like what to think of next

23:14

for a cookbook. So I have them served

23:16

under the pork shoulder with crispy potatoes,

23:19

the pork fat potatoes, really

23:21

good greens, just simply cooked

23:23

pan fried, tend to stem broccoli and garlic.

23:26

And my favourite thing with any

23:28

brassica is to kind of roast it or pan fry

23:30

it and then kind of put it into nice sharp vinaigrette,

23:33

which was inspired by a fabulous restaurant

23:35

called Jelena in Los Angeles. So

23:37

it all kind of ties together in

23:40

a roundabout way. But at the core of

23:42

it, it has its Irish roots and

23:44

strong memories that are,

23:47

I suppose more than anything, these are the recipes that

23:49

have sustained us over the years. And you know, I think

23:51

back to the things that I really want to

23:54

sit down and eat with my friends and family and those are

23:56

the things I come back to.

23:57

Yeah, that is another island

23:59

dish isn't it?

23:59

That sounds absolutely

24:01

amazing. Well, onto pudding. What are you thinking?

24:04

This is a hard one. Do you always serve a pudding?

24:06

Absolutely. I have a huge

24:08

sweet tooth and it's something I

24:10

love. I love, I love, I love. Again,

24:13

make a head. And my aunt

24:15

Erica provided me with a recipe for

24:17

a pavlova that I have been making

24:20

for many years. Now, I would say that we

24:22

would make pavlova. I know, but you've got donnehé.

24:25

Donnehé is like the queen of pavlova. Yeah, that

24:27

would be intimidating. That would be intimidating, which

24:30

is why we're not going pavlova, but we're using

24:32

my aunt's pavlova recipe. So it's one

24:34

of the easiest ones you can make. So it's the meringue

24:36

mixture. It's basically icing sugar and egg

24:38

whites, which means that there's no graininess. You can't

24:40

get it wrong. You dump everything into

24:43

the mixer for a mix on high for 10 minutes,

24:45

then you add your corn flour, you might want vinegar. Then

24:47

do that like gorgeous marshmallow mixture. And

24:50

what I like to do is mix it up. So it's not going to

24:52

be pavlova. We will not do that to Donna. We will not put

24:54

her in the position of being judging. Because

24:56

actually one of the funny stories on the side of the kitchen was

24:59

I watched someone else sliced Donna Hayes

25:01

cake, and it was the most terrifying.

25:04

I was like holding my breath as the person like put

25:06

it in slightly off angle and like Donna

25:08

just does everything like with perfection. So

25:10

I held my breath and left this all unfold

25:13

as the host. It was the end of the show. So I knew we could

25:15

just cut out of it. This wasn't a time you cut your

25:17

finger. This was not the time I cut my finger. That's another

25:19

story. Oh my god. But

25:22

yes, back to our meringue. We've made the perfect pavlova

25:25

meringue mixture. What I like to do is literally

25:27

take one of those big kind of spin steel

25:30

spoons, take dollops of it and literally

25:33

splat it onto a baking

25:35

sheet with parchment paper and make these

25:37

really glorious fairy

25:39

tale peak style meringues that

25:41

get stacked up into this massive height.

25:44

You pour over ice cream, you

25:46

pour over this really ridiculous chocolate sauce,

25:48

nuts, and it's something that everyone dives

25:51

into. It is my go-to. I do it in various

25:53

versions of it. I do eat mess of it in

25:55

the summer. I do chocolate and chopped

25:57

hazelnuts in the wintertime. I do

25:59

like a tiramisu version of it with coffee

26:02

and ice cream. There's so many versions

26:04

of it. So it dependent on where we

26:07

are, what the celebration is. That is my

26:09

go-to and the reason I do it is

26:11

because it is make ahead. And

26:14

I do have to say I am absolutely

26:16

a stickler for whipped cream to be

26:18

the right way. Any food stylist who works with

26:20

me quakes in their boots about the

26:23

whipped cream situation. If it goes

26:25

grainy, we have to start again. And

26:28

it is one thing. There's a fine line. There's

26:30

a fine line. And I have

26:32

to say it's one of the moments

26:34

where I don't let anyone into the kitchen. I do the whipped cream.

26:36

The whipped cream goes over the meringues and then you talk

26:39

with everything else. And people love it because you dive in

26:41

and everyone has an opportunity to serve it

26:43

out. And I think more than anything, with

26:45

my dream dinner party, it's the idea that I'm

26:48

not just hosting. Everyone is receiving

26:50

the food to the table and everyone is involved in serving

26:52

and passing around. And that in itself is

26:54

a conversation starter. You had me at

26:56

tiramisu. What's

26:59

the name of this pudding? What

27:01

will we call it? It's

27:03

like, it's a skiing mess.

27:07

And after your dinner party

27:09

has ended, what do you like to do? Do

27:11

you tend to play games? Are there more drinks?

27:14

Do you go dancing? What does that look

27:16

like? I tend

27:17

to kind of stay at the table. We cleared

27:19

the table. I, my

27:21

wife, last to this, but I recently

27:24

got a guitar. And I-

27:26

You were in a band. I was in a band. Actually,

27:28

when I met my wife first, I convinced her that I, she

27:30

had never heard Snow Patrol's chasing cars.

27:33

And I managed to be able to play it on the guitar and convinced

27:35

her. I had written chasing cars. Oh my God,

27:37

incredible. She must've been about to

27:39

ring a record label. And be like, we're onto something. Oh

27:42

my God, he's a genius. But then

27:44

she heard it on the radio and she was like, what

27:46

did you tell me? They stole my song.

27:49

I don't know why it happened. But anyway, so I

27:51

did used to play a guitar and I was in a band, but

27:53

I was never, I'm not a musician per

27:55

se. I think there is something lovely about

27:58

evenings that just come.

27:59

kind of evolved. So the food has been

28:02

the starting point. You know, you see the tone,

28:04

you see the mood, but whether it's music

28:06

or whether it's chat or the song, whether

28:08

it's, you know, stories that are told, I do

28:11

believe there is the success of a

28:13

good dinner party is that it has set the stage

28:15

for what happens after the dinner and

28:17

after the food has been served. Yeah. So you don't

28:20

want people just eat and run. I don't

28:22

want people eating. My worst moment is

28:24

when someone looks at their phone and goes, Oh,

28:27

actually, we probably should go. And I hate

28:29

that moment. I want those nights where they just unfold

28:32

where, you know, I'm actually sorry with our

28:34

friends, it does tend to end up in a thing.

28:36

So yeah,

28:37

those are always unfortunate because you

28:39

haven't had that conversation beforehand about who's

28:42

up for like, you know, really

28:43

having a lovely and then who

28:45

just has to rush off and then it is so

28:47

disappointing

28:47

when they and then you've got the effort. And

28:49

then it's like a domino effect and someone else is like,

28:51

Oh, okay, maybe we should go.

28:53

Yeah. And I think, you know, it's funny because like, as

28:55

a child, I remember like those dinner

28:58

parties, and possibly because we were sent to bed,

29:00

but like remembering those noises of day

29:03

to day, like people having a blast. And that

29:05

is something like, I think is really important. And I think

29:08

those sorts of noises and those sorts of

29:10

experiences are what make a house a home.

29:12

It is something that's really important. You know

29:14

what I would like? I would like to go to a dinner

29:16

party where someone gets out their guitar

29:18

afterwards, and they're terrible.

29:20

Well, you can go

29:22

to mine and we can sort that out for you.

29:25

You only ever do that if you are quite

29:27

good and you have a lovely voice. But I would

29:29

I would very much appreciate a host

29:31

who had a terrible voice

29:33

but just loved it. Well, I will give you a

29:35

laugh because we went on holidays with the family and

29:38

I can sing to a point but I was probably

29:40

more the one of the like intake

29:42

that I wouldn't have been Robbie and I would have been Gary

29:45

and I probably wouldn't have been Mark either. I'm probably

29:47

Howard in Texas. Sorry Howard. I can

29:49

hold. Sorry Howard. But what I would

29:51

say is that I can hold a tune. And so my

29:54

thing is that when I when I get the opportunity,

29:56

I get up and sing. I can't really

29:58

like it can do it. And we got off.

29:59

And at

30:02

a family holiday, I got up to sing and

30:05

sang Van Morrison's Brown Eyed

30:07

Girl with a group of Thai

30:09

men who were playing.

30:11

And I couldn't sing it, I didn't

30:13

know the words, but I could keep the show

30:16

on the road and my brother was standing there

30:18

with his head and going, so embarrassed.

30:21

When I sat down, this girl from

30:23

Australia behind us who looked like Megan

30:25

Fox, they're like, this is beautiful girl,

30:27

came in and was like, well done you, you did fantastic,

30:30

I love it. And my brother was like, oh

30:32

my God, you can literally do anything

30:35

you want. So yes,

30:37

I like that.

30:38

That's the thing about singing, isn't it? Very

30:40

attractive. You've got to sell it for yourself. At

30:43

your dream dinner party, what time do you

30:44

ideally like people to leave? Well,

30:47

I mean, I think that's the essence of if it's a good dinner

30:49

party. So you probably want people to

30:52

be past the 12 o'clock mark. Okay,

30:54

yeah, well an Irish dinner party, I don't know what

30:56

goes on over here, but an Irish dinner party, you've

30:59

eaten to 10. Probably want people

31:01

to be still going like through 11, 12 and

31:04

festivities have gone on. But yeah, I think

31:06

in my world, the sign of a good dinner

31:09

party is that it

31:10

goes on to late. Okay, and

31:12

apart from your grandmother, and

31:14

I guess it's not a fair question because you're also friends

31:16

with Donna, but who would you be

31:19

most likely to keep in touch with out of

31:21

all those guests?

31:22

Oh, okay, well without those two, part of it. City

31:26

really, between? I

31:29

don't know, I think Benny probably doesn't have

31:31

the time to make new friends.

31:33

So Wes, I'll go for Wes.

31:35

Well Wes seems like a man with a lot of time on

31:37

his side. Yeah,

31:37

maybe I could consult on some food

31:39

and the new movies. Maybe like he always

31:42

has had these quintessential food moments within

31:44

his movies, like the beautiful

31:46

pastry in

31:49

Grand Budapest Hotel. Yeah, I love

31:51

that. Yeah, very

31:52

nice. That was your dream dinner party. Thank

31:54

you so much. Come next time, okay? Thank

31:57

you, Donna.

31:59

have it. The donal's dream dinner party

32:02

is over, the food has been eaten, the

32:04

guests have gone home. I do hope

32:06

you enjoyed today's episode and make sure you're

32:08

subscribed to catch all episodes of

32:10

the dream dinner party and desert island dishes.

32:13

Thank you so much for listening. Bye!