James Martin builds remote control jet planes | Spooning with Mark Wogan

Welcome to Spooning With Mark Wogan.

In this episode Mark is joined by chef and presenter James Martin to talk about the foods that he thinks he loves and the foods that he thinks he hates with dishes served by Jamie Shears at the Mount Street Restaurant in Mayfair.

Plus, James opens up about his rise to being the face of Saturday morning TV, his new hobby of building remote control jet planes, his weird sandwich combination when he was at school and Mark finds out if James knows the difference in taste between cheese and chicken when he is blindfolded.

You can see James on tour by visiting Jamesmartinchef.co.uk

New episodes every Thursday!
Producer: Johnny Seifert
Filming and Editing: Rory Edwards and Chris Jacobs
YouTube: Search Spooning With Mark Wogan to watch the full episode with bonus content
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This is a News Broadcasting Production

hello and welcome to spooning with me Mark wogan each week I’m joined here at the mount Street restaurant by a very special guest where chef Jamie shears will be cooking up a couple of spoons for them to try blindfolded this week taking on the spoons is the Undisputed king of Saturday morning TV he loves butter he loves cars and he loves cooking please will you welcome James Martin thank you very much good morning sir how are you very good it’s lovely to have you here yes and we have an array of food for you it’s a pleasure to be here on my second ever one of these I’ve ever done so second ever podcast well we are honored sir pleasure we are honored that you chose us so let’s start at the beginning because we’re going to go on a little bit of a food Journey with you right so how many people know this and they don’t ask me that question what they never talk to you about food really because I don’t really get interviewed a lot that’s about Stu that’s what strikes me so there’s this thing right so you’re on TV a lot you’ve been on TV for 30 odd years is years yeah yeah and what is it 29 books now 36 books 36 books Johnny you miscount it I’d like to say I do my research myself but I don’t so 36 books yeah I’ve been doing it a long time yeah and but but the interesting thing is you kind of dictate those don’t you cuz it’s like you’re like me you read Reading Writing is not not your Forte yeah and I think a lot of the time a lot of you know what publishing is like you get told what to do I’ve never they now I’m at a position they go what would you like to do and so when everybody brought a thing about health food cookbooks about five years ago I brought a book out on butter yeah and doing it you have an enduring love of butter I I’m a farmer kid I like pure food I I like simple food I’m a I’m a Farmers lad and I just love great ingredients and if you know that I I like simple cooking Simplicity but also the bringing out the flavor of the ingredients is more than anything else so whether that’s fish or whether it’s meat or vegetables whatever it is but fat is Flavor which a lot of people don’t understand yeah we get this message that fat is bad but it’s also flavor if you put margarine outside or put butter outside the animals will eat the margarine eat the butter they won’t touch the margarine well because tou it it is it is margarine quite frankly is Satan’s Loom no but it’s just interesting that you know nature you know the animals and the birds and stuff like that they they must they know more than us really when it comes to what to eat and I just think we’ve just kind of wrecked food over the years and and I think it’s the Simplicity of food is what I what I like and and whether it be Dairy whatever it is but but I think that I mean as we have now passed a certain both of us a certain Milestone age you get a little bit more kind of like well what do I want out of this what do I want out of what what I eat how do how do I want to feel but you you love your food as well it’s the enjoyment is the the eating side of it isn’t it that’s the great thing about the the we get there’s so little enjoyment you can get for that amount of money that is just it’s just ace yeah you know but there is no I don’t think there’s any quarter and I agree with you wholeheartedly in cheap butter just by good butter yeah I mean I I I tasted I tasted 62 tapes of butter for that book all right what’s your favorite nether end really yeah they’re based just outside of gler um and they’re on the gler Welsh border husband and wife team fantastic and is that salted or unsalted they do both they do both and they actually do a ghee as well now as well so they do really good gee U not one that’s been fermented which a lot of them one is but really really good because one of the things that regular listen listeners to the podcast will know is I always say It’s Not Butter if you can’t see your teeth in teeth marks in it true You’ got you’ve got to you got to got to have some depth well if you there’s one other person that uses more B than me and that that’s that’s John Williams of the rich even I look at him when he comes on the show going how much he’s just throw it in but nobody makes sauces like John Williams or the rich simple as that he’s the man I mean I remember early on and we were talking about it before my first job was working with janaro canalo at the Neil Street restaurant in card and he used to do this dish so he have all these strange cow figures coming in in the morning bringing in the wild mushrooms you know there all these wild mushroom collectors who are who are a strange breed yeah you know and he would just cut seps like that thick chop up a load of onion and then throw about eight packs of butter in a roasting tray and just cook it really slowly in the oven and you just pull one of these out and just lob it on a piece of toast and it was one of the best things you could ever eat I mean arguably not very good for you but as long as you’re not eating it all day every day it’s yeah I remember I remember had the one of the first dishes that I learned in London was a garlic terine where I had to peel because now you can buy peel garlic now I had to peel it was about 450 cloves per terine and poach them in milk and then decant it and poach them in milk and decant it uh and yeah it was horrific when when you taste it but it looked really cool on the plate might idea well no I mean we were all scarred by those early things so working there the first I used I was in charge of spinach Fritter so that would involve every morning coming in and looking at eight boxes of spinach that I would have to pick we both that was a busy restaurant cuz I was at one greens skate the same thing we have to do we we did the the gore which was the busy brazzerie upstairs yeah that was a great restaurant that was probably 7 800 covers a day and then downstairs you had the restaurant T Association in Great Britain so ryak and all that and then you used to go I remember Princess D used to go and ate there as well when she was uh caught in yeah but yes that was that was cage cage that was amazing amazing tires for a long long time ago yeah yeah now obviously you being in the position that you’re in people write a lot of stuff about what you eat and there’s lots of speculation and and what’s don’t eat Farm fish twice a day don’t listen to that but eat once a day don’t eat it at all but there is is that funny thing isn’t it cuz what strikes me about you and we’ve met various times over the years and what strikes me about you is you know you’re on stage with your tour soon which we’ll talk a bit about you like performing with guitar you’re on TV every weekend but you’re also very private and kind of almost would it would it be rude to say a little bit shy almost yeah so there’s all this stuff written about you in various aspects of your life which you know part of being in the public eye and sometimes it’s fun sometimes it’s a pain in the ass but does it annoy you when people touch on when people write James Martin eats this this pisses me off no I don’t this pisses me off and you can write well I don’t care what anybody writes about it doesn’t bother me it it it bothers other people so I get I get more upset that my mother got doorsteps the other week and she’s in her late 70s and that’s unacceptable when they’re outside her house and it’s unacceptable they’re outside my father’s house and he’s 86 that’s unacceptable do that do that mother I’ll set the dog on it but but you that’s unacceptable because it’s your gig not theirs no but it’s not you know I didn’t sign up for this we I didn’t sign up for this I enjoy it don’t get me wrong but I I didn’t sign up for that but and I remember he was actually talking to your dad as well and and Cliff Richard once and he said the private life is your separate that’s the only domain you’ve got where you can just be just that’s your domain and and he said You’ got to have the two and you have to put the difference in there and so when I got my house it they said build big Gates not IR own Gates you can see through wooden gates so when you go back home and you get that bang behind I feel like that’s my space yes we filmed the Saturday sure there but that’s in a separate part and that’s a separate garage but your your your space is your space and I think because I don’t talk about because keep that separate then they just ride wherever they want but you can’t stop all that what can you do L it well I mean I think you know you’re right it is it is about maintaining some sense of self in all the madness that is being in the public eye yeah and and yeah I know with my dad he just didn’t read it well I don’t read it I don’t read it and and I don’t read it at all until weird thing is I I did the tour as well you it’s the only thing I do in my life where the restaurant is different because when you do a dinner it sells out 10 seconds and it’s thousands on the W well it does if it’s you yeah but if I did it nobody what I’m saying is you only get to realize what you do until you go out on the road until you walk out you know I didn’t think I used to walk past the bladium and I never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be there on a Sunday night headlining the entire gig on my own and not just once four times and you go on there and you walk out and the place is ramed full I know and you and that’s a great feeling and you no but you’re you’re nervous because I’m I’m shy I’m just and the weird thing is I am just I you know you’ve known me a long time I’m if you if there’s a lot of people in a restaurant I’m I’ll be the guy in the corner The Quiet One in the corner and everyone’s expecting you to be James Martin but you know the guy in the corner the guy in the cor so looking at what has been written we’ve tried to create a whole sort array of foods here and you know what I want to do is either be proved that certain things you do do and certain things you like no I’ve never eaten that in my life what are you talking about so first up is what has been written about you as your choice of breakfast which I’ve got down here which is a red now that’s bang on but it’s too small you need to get a bigger can oh you like the I’ve had a big can already this morning yeah yeah it’s but that is you’re in that stuff why are you drinking it’s ying and yang it’s just I I like the F1 team and youve got to pay for the stepping somewhere around the line I feel like I’m doing my part giving a giving a little back for all the entertainment I I know it’s really bad I know it’s really bad you got VI I don’t really drink that much I I two units a month I don’t really smoke uh I cigar once a month if that um that you got to have a vice in life oh no I me I’m all about I used to be M and then they changed the chocolate yeah so I’ve gone back to Twix and they made them smaller but Twix is a small but then you eat the top bit of the caramel and then you eat the biscuit bit and then then caramel fold it up and then then it no it’s a process you know it’s not just you don’t just bite into it and eat it there’s a whole process to eating a Twix yeah this is go knock yourself out there we go second one of the day so and then obviously if you were that was true that that one’s true all right so obviously if you were eating breakfast like properly this is this is you on the go busy just making sure you don’t pass out through lack of lack of nourishment right but over here I’ve got your primary choice of breakfast this is this is what we’re talking about so bacon actually done it properly as well bacon bacon buty right there we go that’s all yours this is done this is done properly as well yeah well it’s Mayfair baby yeah look at this this is done this is done properly it’s white sliced bread yeah yep you can’t have souro with it no you know and all that all the chest that do with souro and then toast no you’re going this is this is how it should be wh sliced bread buttered my granny used to make the best baked sues ever and she used to butter the bread so much the butter used to go to the other side of the bread yeah you put in your mouth at dissolve she used to have an old gas enamel grill that you used to put in the the best can I eat this yeah of course you can it’s got no sauce on it don’t sauces on it what have you got against sauce cuz you see I like I like a little bit of I like a little bit of ketchup in ketchup’s on a certain thing but not this is this needs to taste the bacon and it’s like you know Sunday Lun and it back bacon rather than streaky I’m I’m yeah I’m not fosted oh I I thought you’d be particular that it would have to be back bacon it being a proper that’s proper yeah but it has to be white bread white bread it can’t be S or there is a way to you can you can Elevate this even more you take the white sliced bread and before you cut it into triangles like you can tell you’re in May fa look at the triangle should have been just in half should have been just left as it is with a butter dripping out the other end then you WP it up with the remaining B but if you take this and you mix together full fat milk cream yeah and eggs yeah and dip the entire sandwich with the bacon in it and then fry it in half a pack of butter that is epic well you see you’ve almost touched upon what is a Sunday evening ritual in our house which is the Monte Cristo sandwich so for those who don’t know and you would know the Monty Cristo sandwich is mayonnaise on the inside with the butter yeah right grated mature cheddar chopped up pickle girkins and onions right then ham Hawk over the top and then you take the whole sandwich and you dredge it in seasoned seasoned beaten eggs and then fry it in the pan in butter you fry it or air fry it I fry it in butter fry it in butter and then you finish it with a drizzle of honey that I mean that’s that’s we had that in fact at home on on Sunday this is this is really good this this beats the Twix this so look you grew up in Castle Howard MH on the farm there mhm who was the cook cook in the house at home um all my family were Cooks not none of my in the whole history of my family there’s nobody that was a chef um but my my my mom was a as a great C my granny was phenomenal my aune was amazing so my auntie did the baking my granny was a great cook my mom would always make stuff so she would never really make stuff out packets apart from when you had a fancy dinner party really come around that required something in that requir that required going to a going to a certain shop in malt and Little Deli and getting a PR cocktail and some salmon moose and that kind of stuff um and then hid the packets but my I made that myself yes yeah and I still run running with the packets but um I yeah I mean my upbringing was always about just food just just everybody would sat around the table typical Farmhouse kitchen Sunday you’d all sit around the family together my granny would bring the cakes my auntie would bring the the the short bread and bits pieces of the cakes that she’ made so there was no real one Chef in our house it was all everybody was yeah and I used to be just from the age of five years old my mom said before that I used to be stood down a little stool stiring stuff and then I was actually making Sunday lunch on my own one I was like six or seven I just loved it I just I fell in love with it via that cuz for me it was mom mom mom is still to this day at 87 a great cook and we never ate the same thing twice very inventive always experimenting that kind of thing dad on the other hand could couldn’t even boil an egg well my Dad tried and and you know he would make I think it was spag ball and you’d end up with enough spag ball for 40 people there’s only four it was yeah um yeah but do you find when you I mean look I don’t I don’t have to do it for a living anymore so the kind of Joy of Cooking and the Peace of Cook cing has has returned for me yeah do I mean do you do you ever sort of cook outside of having to do it for a living yeah I still love the weird thing is I said said to all my mates if I didn’t love it I would stop tomorrow nobody believes me but I would genuinely stop tomorrow but I enjoy it more now than I ever have I’m the same but I do it for a living still and it’s really weird I I get such a buzz out of I was in the restaurant yeah two days ago and and the the customer go what are you doing here I said well what do you mean when I doing it and even the chefs are going Chef what shouldn’t you be in the office or want at I said no I’m stood there with I’m stood there with the guys and I’m just I’m in there working I love it I still love it to this day I remember hearing you on the radio talking to Chris Evans during lockdown and that whole thing that you did about cooking for the community and just just getting in the kitchen every but just in the kitchen every day because like that’s what kept me sane that’s what kept me Sayan I remember lockdown there’s a lot of stuff you couldn’t you couldn’t buy pasta you couldn’t buy eggs you couldn’t do this but you could commercially still so I said well I’ll buy a load of eggs so I’ll get the pasta machine out the restaurant and I I made I made 3,800 kilos of pasta but you were just giving it away yeah I gave it yeah I put it out at the front of the gate I gave it away there’s a little Facebook thing in the in the village and people came came and they they took the bag of pasta and they went home and when it was clear I brought it back in again and then till somebody came and nicked the tray the table the lot took all I had 40 bags of Pastor took the whole lot put it in the C and drove off so then I psted a thing going this there’s power of social media is it I said I’ve got your registration number I’ve got a great picture of your own security camera I said I’m going to give you 15 minutes to bring it back and with that it was brought back that was fine but I wonderful people in the village were were were along this wonderful Old Gentleman um and lived on his own and and came along with four sticks of rhubarb and put it he tied it up with a little bit of twine with a little message on it going thank you do said Thank you so he put the rubar on the tray and took the pasta until the following day or that night I’d made something out the rubar I put it back in a jar and gave it back to you rubar comp and being a yorkman you’re you are a big rubar fan oh yeah yeah yeah old roid rubab yeah from from the rubar triangle yeah but going back a little bit again so you know like I I suspect like me school didn’t have an enormous Allure for you hated it hated it i’ be brutal I hated every side of it I failed all my exams at school I didn’t enjoy it um I love the cooking side of it but I couldn’t do it academically because hand in hand you had to pass these things for exams they’re taking the joy out and I would never passed an exam in my life well then until well then um I left college with I left school with no qualifications not proud of it but I I used to hate Wednesdays Wednesday spelling test and I’d have to I’d be in tears on a Wednesday night I’d have 20,000 words to write because I knew that I would get every single one of them wrong um massively dyslexic um never read a book in my life apart from I think Peter and Jane level B2 was probably the last one I read when I was at primary school but I I just longed to be cooking and so in hand in hand with been at school I was working on every weekend I was working on a night I was in the summer ho day where everybody just chill out I used to go to France and I was working in two star Michigan places and shadows and places like that when all I ever wanted to be was to be a chef from AE age of eight years old so but I just needed that spark when at school you had quite a unique approach to lunch and I have it down here if it is to be believed James called white bread again yes so there’s the apple juice which was the drink of choice yeah and the Superman lunchbox this is it yeah now have I got the contents of the Superman lunchbox now does it invol it involves crisp bananas and the flake there we go you got it and it’s got to be wrapped in cing film now I’m I I may have left out the crisps which does that ruin it if I’ve let out no it’s fine I mean just just just just for health reasons in the other we’ve got the Satsuma that my mom used to put that in used to used to Pat exchange it for Twix on the way back in the this is this is this is it looking at this diet it’s just a wonder why I’m still alive is it really after this but this was it you used to you used to press it see nobody would swap with me at College well I mean this is smell that hold on I’m going to eat the other half so what we’ve got here for those people listening and not watching is we have white bread yeah the inside of which is caked in butter properly and then we’ve got mashed up banana and a crushed up Cab’s flake can I just say please tell me the chefs and Maya have done this from downstairs no I did this you did this this was this was made at home as morning cuz as I understood it it had to be in the cling film for a certain amount of time you have to see the butter you see and it usually C film usually on a warm bus yeah for a generation of about half an hour ride and then you’d been all the better in the summer yeah better than winter okay here we go that’s good but yeah look really that is good see you can keep eating that because I’m it’s a it people look at this guy that’s just weird it’s just not right but this I can I can confirm that is good you know he obviously from an early age knew what he was doing with flavor combinations but you had that that Spirit of the cook in you from a really early age it you that was it for you from from the off really everything I wanted to do in life I’m going have another mouth for yeah it is really good that um everything I wanted to do in my life involved around food and it was either working on the Family Farm which was never going to be because my father taught me as a young age when told to me doing that um I learned the value of lots of things at school at when I was a young young kid which then made me ready for the life in the kitchen fundamentally the value of hard work and I think you know Chef say it’s hard work now not now no not not ever 45 hours a week ever no I remember working in some very very famous restaurants back in the ‘ 80s not a patch on working on a farm not a patch you want to know and and that’s not a patch on there are other people with tremendously hardworking jobs but you’re in a warm environment you get nice food to eat come on yes but I mean all of them are whether it’s farming or or or cooking for a living you know Hospitality it’s vocational it is but I I think I think from me I learned the value of hard work but I learned the value about respect and this is where I see my job was slight slightly different to the others cuz I was I used to produce the food that and now I cook the food but you learn to if you if you want to really understand about food you’ve got to understand about how difficult this to produce and until you understand that it’s not going to make you a great cook because you know the value of understanding how difficult is to produce the ingredients that we’ve got for our plate because people take it for granted it’s really difficult and if you just have a veg Garden or people with a lot will wake up one day and all your carrots have been eaten think of that on a massive scale think of what’s happening at the moment with all the farmers with the the floods and everything else you you you know it it’s um it was an invaluable lesson in my life in terms of respect but it’s also in terms of work ethic and I’ve always had that always had that in my in my head no I mean you’ve but you’ve always worked hard cuz you know and and you achieve stuff as a result slightly earlier the most cuz when we first met all those years ago you were the head chef at the hotel D in Winchester 21 years old yeah yeah but even then I remember going into the kitchen and even then up on the wall in the kitchen I remember it really clearly is a picture of you being a lunatic in a car yeah this but this is how crazy you the the element of that you’ve got Chef’s the craziness there’s a fine line between you know chefs are all crazy don’t say they’re not they’re all they’re all people so I I always say I used to be a chef but I’m fine now yes I I remember my car I didn’t have enough money to buy a car so it was it was basically three cars welded together it was a Vox on overa and then I started to get a little bit of TV while I was doing the the hotel de and rather than go out and buy a car which you know for Fiesta or something normal I went out and bought a Lotus katrum yes and that was my one picture that you had that was my one and only car and I drove it everywhere with no roof I drove it to the big breakfast where I’m at Chris Evans uh with all my food in the back and I’d ared at the big breakfast with half the food missing because it had gone um it was completely insane how did the TV stuff start it was actually thanks to several people but it was because of the nature that you you remember that time that the hotel out it just opened Robin Hudson is the genius hotelier probably the UK’s greatest Fant Amazing Ideas man you had jro Bas the master Sate and then you had this young kid which was me I had a young handsome kid no I had a point to prove I just because everybody you know when you’re 21 years old you doubt it but how how that worked was because of the nature of the hotel we fully booked for 10 months you couldn’t get in uh we used to get a lot of people come turning up saying oh we book to table no you and one of those groups of people were were Lloyd grman Rick Stein and uh Keith Floyd and they came in with a lady called Mary Ramsey who was a producer at the time uh TV producer and came in didn’t have a table so we sat at the bar Robin and jro work there that night so I remember I mean you’re not going to turn those those those four away are you then you could have because there was everybody there was a queue there was there was everybody turning up yeah I remember there was Shirley bassi turn there was everybody man it doesn’t matter who you were there were just and I said look we haven’t got a table you can sit at the bar if you want so I sat at the bar anyway at the end of the night I came through from the kitchen of the bar with this bandana and long hair we all remember that though dark eyes which because I haven’t seen daylight for for months and um this lady gave me a c she said I’m Mary Ramsey I’m producing this new idea of this new cookie format show have you done on television have we got an agent like I can’t even I I can’t afford a house I used to sleep on the sofa of the hotel That’s how little I had no money nothing well you kept spending it on cars well no this was before cars but this is I had I I lived on the sofa for 6 months and then I lived above a Chinese an Indian restaurant just down the road on Southgate Street for for two years um 30 quid a week rent um and uh she gave me a card I remember this car arriving it was my first ever time in a show for driven car straight to London I said look I’ve got to be back for service so I worked through till 3:00 in the morning to get prepped ready for lunch car picked me up at such seven I turn up at somewhere in London wesworth area I think there’s a lot of people pointing cameras at me like yeah then they just said cook something and I just cooked something and somebody was chatting to me and I did this thing ler and then she went I got in the car and drove back and I remember going back and the guy saying how was it I it was fun but I got no idea and then all of a sudden she Ram me but she ran me in the middle of service it was like 9:00 at night on a Friday night she rang and the phone got poed through the kitchen and I slammed the phone down cuz the P sh slammed the phone down first then somebody else slamed the phone out and anyway this message came through the end of the just so people know never ring a kitchen during Sur this C this goes yeah it was carded so the the the this little note came through the hot pass please ring this number mayor Ramsey so I phoned her up after service and she slammed the phone down on it that was was and ever since then we’ve just had this yeah you’re still doing that to this day no no but it’s just it and that I think we finished at like 12:00 at night so I you know you just think CU everybody works the same hours as you reality is not that’s how it all started and and yeah I thought I would go into it I thought it would last and I remember my turned around to me and said well do it for a week it may not last turned out all right then well it turned out a right decision but it’s um it’d be interest it’s interesting all my mates now question the fact that what would have happened if I exactly not g into TV where would TV where would I be in that restaurant guys got to taste this it’s a it’s a g they can have the here look it’s a everybody yeah everybody on camera is always hanging out for food in F show let me portion it up for portion it up for while you ask you you’ve had your sandwich cut up by James Martin well that’s your bit but You’ got CHR Chris Chris Chris and Rory are now going to try this no you’re going to taste this is a this is a game changer go on there we go pass it over so Chris is going in first oh Chris try that what do you think oh wow thank you say go on Rory Rory Rory you film Rory eating it now so here we go I know I know it just sounds weird but trust me get on with it Rory we’re we’re running to time here he’s not oh look at him he’s so it’s the taste must watch what are we feeling come on some words there Rory we need words here it’s a podcast it’s quite bizarre bizarre excellent there we go we’ll go we’ll go with bizarre so we’ve got to that time in proceedings right where you are going to hold on where have I got it you’re going to Dawn the blindfold we got your I did look at this this is like is this some game that you play yeah Other M is this yeah but I’m going to try and involve you in it now right right so if you wouldn’t mind donning the I thought leopard skin now why blindfold I’m going just say this looks looks like something completely different to it yeah it looks like a small bra yeah yeah there we go right there we go pop pop that on right if it’s that Bloody plate again no it’s not know where you live no I promise you I’m not going to be feeding you steak tartar with horseradish but we are going to go to your first spoon my God which is this okay what is this supposed to be anyway is this supposed to be a pleasant experience or is this supposed to be that’s for you to decide well I’ve got I’ve got like a miniature BR on my head so well we’ve started well then right so here it comes open wide oh God bit wider there we go tell me the flavors the textures that you’re getting there you got it what part of that isn’t delicious yeah love Thermidor yeah lovely butter sauce L whip whip whip the blindfold off so yeah that’s beautiful lots of butter and a lobster like about that well that’s fine until somebody puts horseradish on it yeah but we haven’t done that that’s so CU you talked about obviously when PE before people come on they fill out the questionnaire and it was literally just it’s really fish and butter for you nowadays isn’t it well it is I think you get to a certain age and go it actually comes to the fact that I I used to race cars and still try and race a few cars and I actually struggle to get out of them now getting in them you sort of fall in them yeah but then you got to get out of them and it just with people watching it doesn’t look great very good so then I’ve decided that I maybe need to stay clear clear away from these yeah and stuff like that and maybe eat fish and and it’s worked but you eat a lot of fish now probably 80% what but you see I find and like yourself um yeah it’s all yours delicious right like yourself I’m a man of a certain age and I given my my frame if I walk past a potato I will put on about a kilo and says says the blog that’s got uh like 10 foot 10 m pictures of himself in train station yeah I didn’t put those up look on the back how much you paid for that month nothing I I I do that out of my own Goodwill so uh yeah there is a big picture of me in Liverpool Street Station with no clothes on yeah there is yeah but it’s not easy to maintain is it if you love all right we’re going to put you on a regime we’re gonna get James Martin with a six I don’t go to the gym I’ve got no I all I do is I I come down to the fact of Lov me food but it comes down to the fact of basically getting me ass in and out of a car H and and the older you get I don’t know I I want miles anyway in the restaurant you’re on the feet all the time what’s your average Step count a day I do about 10 miles a day when I’m in the restaurant so I don’t really have steps I don’t what that is don’t know what it means but lot of running around no but I mean you know having watched you and listened to you there’s almost an aversion to the sort of for you the traditional way of getting fit you know don’t like gyms you don’t like any form of what would be described as structured exercise I don’t mind it I don’t mind it but it’s just not not for me really is it it’s just I I’ve always like my work and I just think and there’s people who do that and it’s great um um got a bike cycle cycle about where I live um but that’s not your only mode of Transport isn’t it let I mean you have got what one would describe as quite an extensive car collection what yeah I mean as as do I and I am enormously uh I’m in admiration and envy of what you have in your garage it is extraordinary some of the cars you have I mean it’s not just like oh these are the few cars I bought you know it’s a it’s a properly curated thing eclectic mix of bits and pieces yeah um I and at the end of the day you’ve got to got to have a hobby outside of the the work really and and cars are one thing I’ve got I’ve got I’ve just I’ve actually got because I’ve not been very well recently so I’ve had a I’ve had a new hobby while I’ve been recovering from because I knew it’s was going to be a six-month process of of getting better and going in and getting better and getting in and out and so I’ve um I’ve got into building remote control planes yeah but it’s I build remote control jet planes have you flown any of them yet no for all my mates keep sending me videos it takes you a year and a half to build these damn things and about big is this eight seconds to crash it um they’re 50 kilos 4 M long so from here to the end of the bar so basically you’re building a plane yeah you are about to well you’ve just gone on sale yeah which is a is it 30-day live tour yeah 40 so it starts was it next February yeah and goes you’re March yes it’s fully on on the road you get like two days off in between but um this is the first time I’m touring in a tour bus I’m super excited I usually drive myself um but now I think you got to reach a certain pedestal you can actually you actually have your owns your own tour and you can Speck out your bedroom and you spec Speck out your the bar and stuff like that sounds like that’s the most enjoyable part I can’t wait I’ve just did it last week and the guys the bus is on hold but you need to spe where do you want do you want a motor bike in the garage or do you want a car do you want do on this can’t wait so what can people expect from a live James Martin Show no idea people have asked people have asked me this for the last four tours and um I’ve got no idea it’s people it’s it’s fastpac it’s food I’ve got a brilliant people who work with me on it so there’s a guy called Rich kwin he does all the strictly tours um so they put all the Mad ideas that I’ve got all on all onto a stage show so um we talking cars the last the last tour that I did I wanted to I wanted to St the show all the content different each time but I wanted to start the show differently so I thought well how better to start the first part of the show the very first bit as you come on stage rather than go on stage all this how better to start it than um I’m going to do a little Montage of France so I I’ve got Keith Floyd’s 2cv yeah so Keith Floyd had it in France for 16 years I bought it it’s completely dense and everything else on it um but I’ve had a replica made Fifth Scale so like a kid’s battery electric and I’ve had it wrapped so I took it to a guy who usually wraps like footballers cars in Manchester who wrapped it into the same thing as Keith ly’s car and I drove it on to um JM music as I was wearing Keith Floyd’s hat and a glass of wine in the bottle and I drove it on stage and ped it up and when you take the hat off and you see 5 th000 people at the Apollo or the plaum then you got it yeah and then you’re off cuz you you kind of expect you you sort of it’s the cooking is quite on a larger scale if you think it’s a Saturday Morning Show on stage you deluded it’s that on steroids it’s just CU in the past you’ve done the biggest bacon butty yeah I did the B yeah that was 32 32 calories of in in one portion yeah bloody 32,000 calories sorry in one portion but I did the whole thing on last time about Bernie in do you remember when you ber steak and strawberries 5.99 Bernie in mega so so I did a whole piece on Bernie Inns about Steak Diane and they did this thing and and with the Mattis Rosé bottle and the Blue Nun and then you go off and do a thing on solar streams so soda streams you back then now soda streams are really sort of they they’ve been refined should we say yes well soda streams back when I was a kid nearly took your bloody head off yeah get busy with the fizzy yeah where you press the button like that and they make this sound like a fart and you open it up and then you got and the thing used to top used to fly off it used to then take your eye out it was a very dangerous pie of I went on eBay and I bought most of the original soda streams in the UK and I took them on tour a moras every night it tried to kill me and what’s the other thing with people’s tattoos oh yeah I’ve got an obsession with tattoos yeah that not I’ve always wanted a tattoo but I don’t feel I not quite brave enough so can we B so I you want tattoos there we go yeah so there’s a couple of food ones we got all the cookery symbols down there remember that tattoo fixes I was obsessed with that tatto yeah so Jake was on that I said I’ll come and do your tattoo whenever you want so I I’ve been thinking about it thinking about it um but then I thought what better way to do this than than pull people out of the audience but then I went and did research and you go on line to get some dodgy tattoos there’s there’s a Pinocchio one that looks that’s surreal I think you’ve seen that one yeah but then there’s a cat one yeah no I mean there’s a cat’s ass one that looks like in the that that that links in with Bernie in but you’ve got to see the show to understand what it’s all about and then then I pull people from the audience and the whole idea is they get to win a prize and I think this yeah last year we last year we did it and we gave away vouchers to my favorite restaurant so I gave away a voucher every night to the water side in the Gareth Wards for dinner so it was it was how the audience the best tattoos from the people that come down from the audience and oh my God he get some surreal things yeah has anyone has anyone got a tattoo of you on them I did one lady came down but the best one was a lady came down and she we got on stage and I said where is this tattoo because you got to ask first usually in the places where you don’t want to announce in front of 4,000 people so this lady decided to without drink apparently took her entire top off and had this bra and and this was a substantial bra yes and uh this tattoo wasn’t the front it was at the back but she had a whole lion’s head on the back of on her back but the bra looked like it was blindfold it it was a blindf it was just it was wicked but we’ve had so many yeah there was a there’s a lady with Jack and the beant stalk on her leg I sh tell you where Jack where was Jack handing up he was going all the way up and yeah so if we could just we could see Jack’s feet come back Jack all forgiv so that’s B can’t really do that on a Saturday morning no no no no I I can see how you taking a bit of a departure if you were going to have a tattoo what would it be have you decided what the tattoo would be uh people say I’ll block a button up yeah no um polar bear polar bear yeah we call the bear when I was a young kid so no you’re not a big fan of Fox’s glassy no might do see I got Pig down here really yeah we got a whole pig down there and that came about because um we went to San Sebastian and I wanted to Mark the trip because it had taken us 12 years to get there yeah I wanted to Mark the trip with a tattoo and my wife hates all my tattoo right so I said uh is that a good idea well I said I said I said look I found a tattoo artist they’ve got slot free tomorrow do you mind if I have it and she went only if I choose it and at that moment a pler hamon went down in front of as she went you’re having a pig thinking I would say no I now have a pig on me as a result there you go we’ll get you tattoo we’re going to get youe maybe you kind of this I don’t know I I don’t know I just always always no I get close but then no one day one day so it’s time for your second spoon is it okay so we’re just going to move this one out the way can’t believe I’m wearing this thing you look very good in it thanks trust me it’s it’s most becoming hold up strap it on they [Laughter] say right right so time for your second and final spoon okay open wide here it comes there we go talk to me about textures flavors what are you getting you enjoying that oh we got there James come on give us something here is it cheesy it’s not Cheesy Pete what up take the blindfold off take the blindfolder what is it chicken yes it’s chicken yeah B it’s been that that’s not chicken that’s been brind and that’s been yeah but butter and oh well well to be fair it was following one of your recipes yeah that’s the Lost chicken and Morel beautiful that out of James Martin’s Spanish Spanish Adventure it’s beautiful that she tried that from sasan yeah it’s lovely nice recipe though it is a nice re tastes in like cheese but you know but that’s the thing isn’t it when you when you remove site weird is it it it throws throws things out and I mean as you know we’ve had we’ve had Tom Carriage we’ve had some other BL who does something on what’s his name Tibet something of that we’ve had him on as well and Michelle Rue right and you know they they all kind of the minute the sight’s out it sort of throws people a little bit it’s really weird and it it sensors are amazing things and I remember doing some stuff of the NHS about stuff and and it’s it’s an amazing yeah how all you s is react but it’s that is a great book by the way thank you very much I should be asking you to sign that for me before you leave problem I can do that to eBay not a problem yeah exactly or we just have one of the rare unsigned ones yeah that’ll be much more RAR yeah well look James it’s been an absolute pleasure having you on it’s a pleasure I wish you every success with the tour when we’re we’re in London we’re at the Apollo so you must come down yeah no definitely definitely will CU then you’ll understand what it is cuz I don’t know at the moment well I mean we between now and then I’ll tell you but it’s starts what is it 15th of febr is the first dat February so it’s yeah February runs runs through March as well we start in Leicester and we end in London and we’re everywhere in between Scotland Wales and some iconic places and they get to see a different sort of James Martin will you be getting the guitars out the guitars will be out um yeah I’m just I’m I’m actually practicing a couple of tracks at the moment um you say practicing you’re actually quite good it aren’t you no I’m not a musician yet but I’m practicing but it’s it’s like anything if you want to be decent at something you got to keep plugging away at it but um yeah I’m thinking about doing 1980s for end of part two and I think that 1980s anthems Final Countdown well where they’ve allowed me to have pyrro this this time you see so now I can have pyrro I can probably have a uh you know like a a rain screen the shower screen out of pyro do you think you’ll be donning a kind of Joey Tempest wig for that one see you got of course back to the bandana see could be doing that I don’t quite sure yet but well if you want to see James the tickets are available from ticketmaster.co.uk and thank you again James it’s a pleasure seeing you as well it’s been lovely to see you again after all these years that is it for spooning this week thank you to of course Jamie shears and the team here for cooking up these fantastic spoons I’ll be joined next week by someone very special who will be blindfolded and fed in the same way that James just has been as well you can find us wherever you get your podcast and of course it is available on YouTube as well until next week stay beautiful people