S10, Ep10: Mary Portas, broadcaster

Comfort Eating with Grace Dent

The Guardian

Arts, Food

4.5 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, broadcaster, businesswoman and retail consultant, Mary Portas OBE pulls up a chair at Grace’s dining table. Mary initially set her sights on acting and was awarded a place at Rada, but then had to give it up after both her parents died. She was left homeless and she had to look after her younger brother, but she went on to blaze a trail through the world of retail and earn the moniker Queen of the High Street

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:07.6	I'm Grace Dent and this is comfort eating from The Guardian.
0:13.6	A podcast where we pay homage to the lesser celebrated foods in life.
0:19.5	Because even as a restaurant critic,
0:21.8	I believe the food that matters most
0:24.1	is often that snack you cobbled together
0:26.8	when you're curled upon the sofa.
0:29.3	Each week, I ask my guest to lift the lid
0:32.6	on what comfort foods have seen them through their lives.
0:36.0	Because you can tell a lot about a person
0:38.8	from what they eat behind closed doors.
0:45.1	Hello, friends. You find me pacing my garden. I'm just waiting for my next fabulous guest to
0:51.9	arrive. If I'm honest, I'm actually also mulling on my job prospects in an increasingly AI world.
1:02.1	An AI generated funnier avatar of me with prettier cheekbones delivering their restaurant reviews instantly,
1:10.4	and who most importantly does not require paying.
1:13.7	Scared, I'm not scared. I'm not scared. I'm a bit scared, if I'm honest.
1:18.2	Not one of us should go down without a heavy tussle.
1:22.4	Keep fighting the good fight out there.
1:25.0	I mean, if I'm honest, we're going to have to find those servers
1:27.3	and poor
1:28.5	angel delight in them or something. Anyway, another unreplicable expert who surely isn't going
1:34.6	down without a fight is my next guest. It's Mary Portus. Mary Portus, OBE, is a broadcaster. She's a businesswoman.
	...

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