The Go To Food Podcast

Dylan Jones has spent more than four decades at the heart of British culture, from i-D and The Face to GQ, the Evening Standard and some of London’s most legendary dining rooms.
In this episode, Dylan joins us to talk about the wild years of 80s, 90s and noughties London, from The Groucho Club, The Ivy and Le Caprice to David Bowie, Robbie Williams, Boris Johnson and the extraordinary overlap between restaurants, fashion, music, media and drugs.
We also get into the characters who made London dining what it was, the rise of the power restaurant, Jeremy King and Richard Caring, the changing face of Soho and Mayfair, and whether that era could ever exist again.
A brilliant, outrageous and incredibly entertaining journey through a very different London.
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Today we're joined by one of the most important figures in modern Italian cooking in Britain, Jacob Kenedy, chef and co-founder of the legendary Bocca di Lupo and Gelupo. Jacob's journey is anything but conventional. Before becoming a chef he studied science, was a glassblower and a DJ, before a stint at Moro changed the course of his life and eventually led him to create the restaurant he simply wanted to exist in London.

Jacob takes us inside the extraordinary story of Bocca di Lupo, from opening in the middle of the financial crisis to becoming one of London's most celebrated restaurants. He reveals the brutal workload behind its early success, including the moment he became so exhausted he knelt down beside a customer's table and physically couldn't stand back up. We also get into the economics of restaurants today and why Jacob believes there is something about the industry that can actually “favour the worst”.

Plus, we talk pasta. Jacob reveals the biggest mistakes British home cooks make, why you should take pasta out of the water while it's still almost raw, the secret to seasoning properly, and the thinking behind his new book Pasta Tricolore. Over mezcal, tacos and a few strong opinions at Decimo at The Standard Hotel London, this is a brilliant conversation about food, creativity, restaurants and nearly two decades at the top of London's dining scene.
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Between Robert Reid and Jean-Christophe “JC” Slowik, you have nearly 80 years of extraordinary restaurant history. From Roger Vergé and Raymond Blanc to Marco Pierre White, Harvey’s, The Oak Room and some of the defining restaurants of their generation, the pair have witnessed first-hand the madness, brilliance and brutality of elite restaurants. They join us to share incredible stories from those years, including life inside Marco’s legendary kitchens, the intensity of three-Michelin-star cooking and how London’s restaurant world has transformed since the 1980s.

Then, in their mid-50s, they decided to start again. During Covid, a phone call between two old friends became Les 2 Garçons, the tiny French bistro they built largely themselves, initially cooking with IKEA induction hobs, a £150 Argos oven and no dishwasher. What followed was extraordinary: huge demand, national acclaim and the creation of one of Britain’s most celebrated neighbourhood restaurants, built around simple French cooking, great wine and the belief that a restaurant should above all be somewhere people actually want to spend their time.

This is also a brilliantly funny and candid conversation about everything they have learned along the way. Robert and JC discuss why fine dining became too complicated, why chefs are returning to simplicity, whether Michelin stars still matter, what restaurants get wrong about wine, the importance of value for money and why getting older completely changes the way you think about cooking. After decades spent chasing perfection at the highest level, their conclusion is refreshingly simple: forget most of what you learned, keep the best bits, cook things people want to eat and enjoy the good summers you have left.
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🔥 Two of the most exciting names in London restaurants join us this week as David Carter and Sertaç Dirik reveal the story behind KID, their hugely anticipated new Turkish restaurant in Soho. David has built an extraordinary run of restaurants including Smokestak, Manteca, OMA and AGORA, while Sertaç transformed his family restaurant Mangal II into one of London’s most acclaimed dining rooms. Now, after nearly three years of planning, travelling and eating their way around Turkey, they’ve finally joined forces.
We hear how a casual two-hour coffee after Sertaç left Mangal II eventually turned into a partnership, why they waited patiently for the right “unicorn” site, and how trips to Turkey shaped everything from the food to the design. Sertaç tells us about cooking with his dad, meeting legendary Turkish chef Musa Dağdeviren and being handed a collection of historic Turkish cookbooks, while the pair explain how KID tries to respect Turkish tradition without simply recreating what already exists.
Plus, David reveals the surprisingly emotional philosophy behind the economics of his restaurants, including why he often prices dishes according to what feels right rather than meticulously costing every plate, and why he believes the bill itself is part of the emotional experience of eating out. We also get into the explosion of Turkish food in London, the changing perception of the cuisine, Instagram restaurants, restaurant design, and what it really takes to build places people actually want to return to.
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In his first interview since his shock departure from MasterChef, John Torode joins us for an exclusive and deeply personal conversation about the end of his extraordinary 20-year run on the show. He reveals whether he was surprised by how it all came to an end, reflects on what MasterChef meant to him and the thousands of people involved in making it, and explains why, despite everything, he is determined to hold on to his “professional pride” and look towards whatever comes next.
We also go back to the very beginning. John opens up about losing his mother as a young child, finding comfort in the kitchen alongside his grandmother in rural Australia, and the remarkable journey that eventually brought him to London. From working with Terence Conran at Le Pont de la Tour to the madness of opening Quaglino’s and Mezzo during the restaurant explosion of the 1990s, John takes us inside the kitchens, characters and extraordinary moments that shaped both his cooking and his career.
Plus, John talks candidly about his 20-year working relationship with Gregg Wallace, the extraordinary impact MasterChef had on British food culture, his life with Lisa Faulkner, his years as a restaurateur and why he never wanted a Michelin star. Funny, reflective and at times incredibly moving, this is the story of John Torode’s life and career, told at a moment when one huge chapter has closed and he is figuring out what comes next.
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