Explore every episode of the podcast The Full English

Ben Highmore joins me to discuss the lifestyle revolution that Britain’s middle classes went through in the 1960s - the one that gave us the ubiquitous rustic Italian food we have in England today.

Ben’s book is available from Manchester University Press.

“What is this fantasy of hardship and labour endemic to those parts of the city catering to the rise of affluence, the empire of the flat-whites, draining neighbourhoods of colour, and leaving in their wake a mild-mannered army dressed in Breton stripes and vintage labouring apparel? What is this love of the workshop, the jailhouse, the farm, and the forces, which has caused a swathe of the population to tether their identities to the gates of histories and industries that they will never enter? I give to you, the superlative product of middle-class cognitive dissonance, the double-tracker.”

So writes Rosanna McLaughlin in her brilliant little book ‘Double Tracking’. In this episode we discuss what this idea is, and how it plays out in our food culture.

Rosanna’s other work includes the essay ‘Against Morality’ and a novel ‘Sinkhole: Three Crimes’.

Craft matters for our sense of self. And studies show that taking part in craft production can be a balm for the kinds of anxieties produced in our world of screens.

Lewis speaks to historian, writer and broadcaster James Fox about his book ‘Craftland’ which uncovers the extent to which our country was once a deeply crafty place, and it champions the artisans still at work in Britain today.

If you know one thing about English food culture it’s probably that it’s riven by class. But what is class? Is class a matter of taste or a matter of wealth, or both? And how do different classes affect contemporary politics?

Lewis speaks to sociologist Dan Evans about his book ‘A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie’.

And we’re back. After almost two years the Full English podcast is back!

I've been busy writing a book: The Full English: The Ways We Eat and Why is out now with Verso.

We’re kicking off this new season of the podcast with a truly exceptional guest. Fuchsia Dunlop is ‘The English person with a Chinese stomach’; she is a one woman gateway to the infinities of Chinese cuisine and it’s deep traditions of culinary culture.

Her new book Five Tastes: The Magic of Flavour in a Chinese Kitchen is out now with Penguin.

It's the final episode of the Full English and we're talking about Rick Stein and Keith Floyd, two of the most popular cooks on TV in Britain.

Lewis is speaking to the editor and writer John Merrick. Find his essay on Stein here.

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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Follow Lewis on Instagram here. And Forest DLG here.

Thanks for everyone who listened and supported this show. Watch this space...

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Fergus Henderson! The man who thirty years ago opened St John and ever since has implored us to eat from "nose to tail".

Lewis Bassett talks to Zoe Williams, columnist at the Guardian newspaper, and Amber Husain, author of Meat Love: An Ideology of The Flesh.

Read Lewis' article on St John here.

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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The only person who has sold more books in Britain than Jamie Oliver is J. K. Rowling.

Jamie has been watched and read by millions. His enthusiasm for food is often infectious. His cooking and his campaigning have changed the way we eat.

I'm speaking about Jamie with Rachel Roddy, author of a regular column on Italian food for the Guardian.

We focus mainly on how Jamie, and others, have viewed food in Italy and I ask whether this helps explain why Jamie is often seen by some people as blaming poorer individuals for what he says are bad eating habits.

In this episode we mention Alberto Grandi, Carla Tomasi and Massimo Montanari.

Rachel is the author of An A-Z of Pasta, among other books on food.

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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Alexis Soyer cooked for the rich and poor alike. He transformed elite restaurant kitchens in London with new technologies such as gas stoves and he provided nourishment to the starving in Ireland and the battered and the bloody during the Crimean war.

Soyer's fierce desire to feed people went against the grain of Victorian common sense and he helped change how we think about who is responsible for public nutrition today.

Joining Lewis Bassett is Pen Vogler and Miranda Carter.

Pen discusses Soyer in her book Stuffed: A Political History of What We Eat and Why it Matters and some of Soyer's recipes also appear in her book Dinner with Dickens.

Soyer is a central character in Miranda's novel The Devil's Feast.

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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The most influential cook that you've probably never heard of, according to food historian Neil Buttery.

Elizabeth Raffald captured the distinctly modern English food of the 18th century. The Heston Blumental of her time, inspiring cooks like Fergus Henderson today.

Neil Buttery is the author of "Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England's Most Influential Housekeeper". He's also got two new books coming out, Knead to Know: A History of Baking and The Philosophy of Puddings.

Find Neil's blog and his brilliant podcast here.

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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Obviously we were going to do an episode about Madhur Jaffrey, and so here it is.

Madhur Jaffrey: the actress who taught British and American audiences how to cook Indian food.

Lewis Bassett speaks about Madur with Mayuk Sen, author of Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America. We talk about Madur's life, some of the barriers to her success as an actress and her move into being a celebrity chef where she made huge waves, plus a lot more. Find out more about Mayuk Sen here and read his article on Madur here (paywalled).

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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Ken Hom taught the British how to cook Chinese food, but Chinese takeaways showed us what it was in the first place.

Lewis Bassett talks to journalist Angela Hui about Ken's impact and about her book Takeaway: Stories From a Childhood Behind the Counter.

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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Part two on Elizabeth David is all about the impact of her work, with Jeremy Lee and Ruth Rogers.

Jeremy Lee's award winning cookery book is called "Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many".

The River Cafe have a number of brilliant cookbooks and, in recent news, have also opened a cafe (a River Cafe Cafe) next door to their main restaurant in West London.

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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Elizabeth David led a life whose story is as compelling as her impact on the way we eat. In part one of two episodes, Lewis speaks to Artemis Cooper, author of Writing at the Kitchen Table: The Authorized Biography of Elizabeth David. Part two featuring Ruth Rogers and Jeremy Lee will appear soon.

The Full English is produced by Lewis Bassett. Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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Marco Pierre White, once the "enfant terrible" of the UK restaurant scene today the face of Knor stock cubes. Who is Marco, what impact has he had on how we eat and just why is he so weird?

Answering the questions for a change is The Full English's Lewis Bassett. Taking over is Ida Février and her show No Man Land.

Join us for this special crossover episode, part of our season on cooks that have changed the way we eat.

Find No Man Land's Instagram here.

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Episode two in our series on cooks that have changed the way we eat.

Lewis Bassett speaks to Luke Barr, author of 'Ritz and Escoffier: The Hotelier, The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure Class' about the French chef Auguste Escoffier, who rose to fame in London at the Savoy in the 1890s.

Mixing and sound design from Forest DLG.

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Delia Smith: friend of the royals, a national treasure who taught us how to boil and egg and an advocate for radical spiritualism.

In this episode Lewis Bassett, Felicity Cloak and Zoe Williams unpick who Delia is and what her impact has been on how we eat in Britain.

This is the first episode of our new series on cooks who've change the way we eat. Subscribe to hear future episodes on everyone from Madhur Jaffrey to Jamie Oliver.

Mixing and sound design from Forest DLG.

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Who or what are ultra elite restaurants for? Welcome to a pervert's guide to fine dining.

Produced and presented by Lewis Bassett, featuring Andy Hayler, Erin McDonnell and Robin Burrow.

Mixing and sound design from Forest DLG.

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Clips from:

• The Bear, FX
• Grant Achatz on Chef's Table, Netflix
• Dan Barber on Chef's Table, Netflix
• Artisans of Craft: Thomas Keller, Peter Millar
• Masterchef The Professionals with Rasmus Munk, BBC
• The Menu, Searchlight Pictures
• 'World's best restaurant will close', Euronews
• Boiling Point, ITV
• Marco, BBC

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Join us, join us, join us for a Full English Christmas special! Get the turkey in the oven and warm some wine as we answer all your questions on why we eat and drink in the ways we do at Christmas. And hear us rate the best and worse mince pies from high street coffee shops.

Lewis Bassett is joined by the man of music Forest DLG, master baker Rebecca Spaven, the talented Jemma Greenwood and the food historian Neil Buttery.

Hohoho and sponsor our show: https://www.patreon.com/fullenglish

Find more about Neil, including links to his wonderful books and his podcast here.

Have a good one!

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What did the ancient Romans do for us? Well, according to Thom Ntinas from The Delicious Legacy podcast, they were the first to give Britain the burger.

Find out more about the lasting culinary legacies of ancient Roman Britain in this special cross over episode.

Presented by Thom Ntinas and Lewis Bassett. Produced and edited by Thom Ntinas. Music from Pavlos Kapralos.

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Costa is the nation's most popular coffee shop. There are 1000 more Costa than Starbucks and 500 more than Greggs. And that's before we take into account Costa's express machines and retail products.

How did Costa get so big and why do we love it?

Lewis Bassett is joined by co-host Jemma Greenwood, comments from the coffee historian Jonathan Morris and a Costa taste testing with three time UK barista champion Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood. Forest DLG provides the music and sound design.

Find Jonathan's excellent podcast on the history of coffee here.

Maxwell has written three books on coffee and you can find his boutique coffee shops in Bath and London. Find more info on him here.

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Few people are aware that in the first half of the 20th century the British government helped establish a huge number of popular canteens, serving food to everyone who wanted it during war time and afterwards. These British Restaurants, as they became known during World War II, were, at their hight, more numerous than today's McDonalds and Wetherspoons combined.

Lewis Bassett speaks to Bryce Evans, a Professor of History at Liverpool Hope University, about British restaurants and their relevance for food bank Britain today.

Bryce's book is called Feeding the People in Wartime Britain. A cheaper paperback edition will be available in November. He has written widely on the subject, including here.

Mixing and sound design from Forest DLG.

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Vines in a Cold Climate is a new book by Henry Jeffreys charting the sparkling rise of English wine and the people behind it. Lewis Bassett and Jemma Greenwood speak to Henry over a couple of bottles of vins anglais about Henry's book, the story of English wine and attitudes towards wine drinking in England.

Mixing and sound design is as ever from Forest DLG.

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What is a caff when it's not a cafe? Where did the caff come from and who will mourn the greasy spoon if, as we hear, they're disappearing?

Joining Lewis Bassett is the author and Guardian columnist Felicity Cloake and Isaac Rangaswami, writer and the man behind the Instagram page Caffs Not Cafes.

Felicity's book is Red Sauce Brown Sauce. Her writing for the Guardian can be found here. Isaac has written about caffs for the Guardian and Vittles.

Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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There exists a distinctly middle class culture in Britain that has taught us to love our meat, especially if we feel guilty about eating it. But what if rather than caring for the animals we eat, we thought about animals as an exploited class who deserve justice, not a cuddle before they are slaughtered? So argues Amber Husain in Meat Love, a powerful little book that is out now.

Lewis Bassett speaks to Amber Husain about the book, whether capitalism really is a barrier to changing our food system and whether it's wrong to love your meat.

Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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By creating a network of pubs that are accessible to anyone with 89p for a coffee, JD Wetherspoon has become something of a public service. But should Britain's most popular pub chain really be owned by Tim Martin and a small group of shareholders? Is it time to nationalise Wetherspoons?

In this episode, Lewis Bassett is joined by Jemma Greenwood to discuss the origins and meanings of Spoons, and by James Meadway to discuss pubs and public ownership.

Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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British people are fatter and sicker than people in most other rich nations. That's down to our food system, argues Henry Dimbleby in his new book Ravenous, co-authored with Jemima Lewis. In this episode, Lewis Bassett speaks to Henry about his book, covering everything from why exercise won't help you lose weight to how what we eat is a leading cause of climate change to why food companies are helpless to create the kind of food system we all need to stay alive.

Henry Dimbleby is the co-founder of the restaurant chain LEON and author of the government initiated National Food Strategy. He is also a co-founder of Chefs in Schools.

Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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The British realise their food is bland and that's a good thing, according to world renowned economist Ha-Joon Chang.

In this interview, Lewis Bassett speaks to Ha-Joon about some of the key themes in his latest book 'Edible Economics'; from how the field of economics has become something of a monoculture, to why its hypocritical of rich nations to encourage poorer ones to accept free trade.

Ha-Joon Chang is a professor of economics at SOAS university London. 'Edible Economics' is out now.

Mixing and sound design is from Forest DLG.

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From around the 1500s to the early 19th century, when the price of food went up poor people were likely to riot. Today we've seen the highest food price rises in a generation, but does anyone feel angry?

Lewis Bassett speaks to economist James Meadway on the causes of rising prices, to historians Steve Poole and Joe Stanley on the history of food riots in England as well as to regular shoppers in Rotherham. We find out whether people are angry about the cost of living crisis today and whether we feel there's anything to be done about it.

Mixing and sound design is as ever from Forest DLG.

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Lewis Bassett talks all things curry with the writer Sejal Sukhadwala. Find Sejal's book, The Philosophy of Curry, here.

You can also find Sejal's work in the Guardian, the FT, Atlas Obscurer, The Fence and elsewhere.

Find out more about the course on Food, Politics and City which I mention in the show in this YouTube video or at the Birkbeck website here.

Mixing and sound design is as ever from Forest DLG.

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Fishing was often at the heart of the Brexit debate. But three years on, what are the results? Lewis speaks to Jerry Percy, a retired commercial fisherman and director of the chair of New Under Ten Fishermen's Association. If anyone has a grasp of what Brexit has, and could, mean for commercial fishing its Jerry.

Mixing and sound design from Forest DLG.

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Greggs is one of the biggest food to go retailers in the UK, selling 3 million sausage rolls each week. It has its own line in branded sportswear and a huge fan base. But how did Greggs get so big and what does it all mean?

Lewis Bassett speaks to Jake Grover (aka Pasty), Ed Cumming, Sam White, Kate Magee and Sabine Benoit.

Pasty can be found on Instagram here.

Check out Ed Cumming's article on Greggs in The Guardian here.

Sam White is the Editor of Bakery Business Magazine. Kate Magee is the editor of Management Today. And Sabine Benoit teaches at the University of Surrey, and you can find her here.

I also mention this article in the Guardian about the rise of the packaged sandwich.

Mixing and sound design is as always from the brilliant Forest DLG.

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Why is our food so expensive now? James Meadway explains. We also discuss the link between inflation and trade unions, and the current wave of strikes in the UK right now.

James has held senior roles at the New Economics Foundation and the Progressive Economy Forum. He hosts the weekly economics podcast Macrodose.

This interview forms a part of an upcoming episode on whether high food prices (still) make us angry. Be sure to check that out in the New Year!

Mixing and music from Forest DLG.

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Lewis Bassett speaks to Diane Purkiss about her new book 'English Food: A People's History'.

We talk about what English food is, how and when English food became bland, why Elizabeth David is a food snob, why we fear GMOs and how what we eat in England is so deeply interwoven with our social class.

Diane Purkiss is a professor of English Literature at Oxford University. Her book 'English Food' is out now.

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Did former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher help invent Mr Whippy Ice Cream? And what can Mr Whippy tell us about the Conservative Party today?

With guests:

Zoe Philipson, award winning ice cream retailer from Tyne Valley Ices

Jon Agar, author of Science in the 20th Century and Beyond

Ian Lavery, Labour MP for Wansbeck

Will Davies, author of Nervous States

Created by Lewis Bassett. Additional editing and sound design from Forest DLG.

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In this final episode of season one, Lewis Bassett and Forest DLG make a fish finger bhorta with the journalist and commentator Ash Sarkar. Does the fish finger bhorta count as English food? We hear from the academic Jason Edwards on what national cuisine actually is. Lewis eats Ghanian food in London with the cook and author Riaz Phillips. The chef Andrew Wong and the academic Catherine Hall question the boundaries of national cuisines. And journalist Adam Ramsay, Sunder Katwala from the think tank British Future and the academic Mike Kenny examine why so few people discuss English identity today.

This show was produced by Lewis Bassett with music from Forest DLG

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How did the English go from eating cans of baked beans to dribbling olive oil over a fresh rocket and sundried tomato salad? In this episode, we’ll look at how a movement of cooks and cookery writers helped to challenge the status of elite, classical French cuisine as the gold standard of food in England with provincial French and Mediterranean cooking. It’s also the story of the rise of a new middle class movement whose European tastes not only assumed a central place at our dinner tables but lent politics and culture in England a repertoire of feelings and sentiments that have been mobilised in debates around the EU and inequality in Britain.

Featuring: Shaun Hill, Fay Maschler, Rowley Leigh, Jonathan Meades, Dan Lepard, Margot Henderson, Anna Tobias, Jeremy Lee, Ben Highmore, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver.

This show was produced by Lewis Bassett with music from Forest DLG.

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Is regenerative agriculture the answer to the problems caused by factory farms, or might modern forms of food production have an important role to play in the future of food in England? In this episode, Lewis Bassett speaks to: Matt Chatfield, sheep farmer and advocate of alternative farming techniques; the nutritionist Lucy Williamson; the historian David Edgerton; the farmer and director of the Soil Association Liz Bowles, Oxford based climate scientist Michael Clark; author and journalist Aaron Bastani; and Elena Walden from the Good Food Institute. Tess Kelly, a spokesperson for Quorn, tells us about their ambitions to see the world eat less meat. And the author Pen Vogler and celebrity chef Tom Kerridge explain how factory food and class intersect in England.

This show was produced by Lewis Bassett with music from Forest DLG.

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What could be more innocent than a nice cup of cha? In this episode we hear from Seren Charington-Hollins, Markman Ellis, Mathew Mauger and Mukta Das on how England's love of tea is deeply intwined with the British Empire, including how Britain once forced the trade of opium for tea in China. The historians Catherine Hall and Padraic Scanlan also tell us about England's taste for sugar and its origins in slavery.

This show was produced by Lewis Bassett. Music comes from Forest DLG.

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Why did the English stop eating mutton? And what can sheep farming tell us about the birth of capitalism in England? In this episode, Lewis Bassett visits Smithfield's meat market with Pen Vogler, the author of 'Scoff'. He speaks to Maia Pal and George Comninel about the what, where, when and why of capitalism. We hear from Susan Rose on how wool made England rich. Ben Rogers explains how the English cooked their meat with the help of dogs. We visit Matt Chatfield's farm in Cornwall. Hear how Jeremy Chan, head chef at Ikoyi, cooks mutton and chef Rezaul Haque tells us about the status of mutton in Bengali cuisine today.

This show was produced by Lewis Bassett, with music from Forest DLG.

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What is English food? And what is England? Looking at the English breakfast can tell us something about the character of England and how the country acquired a bad reputation when it comes to food.

Featuring: David Edgerton, Kaori O'Connor, Ben Rogers, Paul Freedman and Rowley Leigh

Music by Forest DLG. Hosted and produced by Lewis Bassett. Sign up on Patreon for extra content and to support the show.

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