You can find more information, photos and advice sheets on all the plants and recipes that we talk about in this podcast by heading to the links in the show notes or on our website at sarahavin.com.

Welcome to Groker Eat Arrange, the podcast of me, Sarah Raven, and usually Arthur Parkinson.

But because I have a chef with me today, Claire Thompson, Arthur's taken the week off.

And I just want to explain a little bit about Claire because she's one of the first people that I've

had on the podcast who I haven't previously met.

And that is sort of quite unusual in a way because normally I have a connection.

But I do have a connection with Claire, which is a mutual, absolute, obsessive passion for tomatoes.

And that's why I wanted to chat to Claire today, because it obviously

is peak tomato moment. And a friend of mine came for the weekend about two months ago and

bought me Claire's new book, which is called Tomato. Surprise, surprise, and it has 60 recipes,

all tomatoes, you know, about two thirds fresh and then

about a third, a tinned or stored tomatoes. And as they're one of my absolute passions in life,

they're probably number three, tulips, dahlias and tomatoes are my three passions in life. So it

seemed pretty apt that I got Claire on.

Welcome, Claire. It's lovely to have you and talking everything tomato. Thanks for having me on.

My three passions would be tomatoes, lemons and olive oil, but that's our difference.

Very good. I can't quite grow lemons very well here and I have tried growing olives but I haven't

succeeded. But one day I will have an olive grove in Crete. That's my fantasy.

Anyway, Claire, will you tell us a little bit about your background? So we sort of get

up to speed of how you've got to where you are as a chef working in Bristol. Of course.

Well, I am a chef by trade. So I went to university and studied journalism and then ditched

university at the end and went off travelling and discovered cooking in professional restaurants around the world.

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