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Hello and welcome to TableTor, Spectator's Food and Drink Podcast. I'm Laura Prendergast and today I'm delighted to be

joined by Joel Golby. Joel is a very well-renowned journalist who's written for amongst other

places Vice and The Guardian where he has a regular column, The Watcher, where he reviews television.

He has since translated his skill for wry observations and self-reflection into his new book, Four Stars, A Life Reviewed,

which brilliantly grapples with our fascination with opinions on everything from pints to the meaning of life.

Joel, welcome to Table Talk.

Thank you.

That was a really, really good intro.

I'm very happy with that.

I've had some clangers recently, so I do appreciate that. I'm very happy with that. Yeah. I've had some clangers recently,

so I do appreciate that. I try not to do that. As regular listeners know, we always start

at the same point, which is to ask, what are your earliest memories of food?

I, the one that always sticks in my mind was baking with my mum,

which is quite a weird one because my mum was, she was a very good cook,

but she went in real fits and spurts.

And I always think when people remember baking with their mother

in a little, like, a little tiny apron and standing on a stool, I very vividly remember the stool I had to stand on.

It had been painted orange and then lost all of the orange paint on the top.

So it was just orange legs and a load of crap paint on the top of it.

...