This episode of Table Talk is sponsored by J-Food-O, dedicated to sharing the best Japan has to offer.

Over the next few months, J-Food-O and a selection of London restaurants will create seafood and sake pairings for spectator listeners to help develop your knowledge and enjoyment of the drink.

The pairing will focus on the concept of umami, which in Japanese means the essence of deliciousness.

Hello and welcome to Table Talk, the Spectators' Food and Drink podcast. I'm Olivia Potts.

And I'm Naroprendegas.

And today we're delighted to be joined by Ed Smith.

Ed is an award-winning food writer, and after a career in law, he retrained the chef and began his acclaimed blog, Rocket and Squash.

He's been shortlisted for numerous awards and won the Fortnham and Mason Best Online Restaurant Writer in 2015. He published his first cookbook on the side in 2017 and the borough market

cookbook followed shortly afterwards. His latest book, Crave, recipes arranged by flavour to suit

your mood and appetite, will be published at the end of May. Ed, welcome to the podcast.

Hi there, thanks for having me.

Ed, as listeners to know, we always start this podcast in the same place with a question,

what are your earliest memories of food? My earliest memories. I would say it's not quite a

sitting on non-as-kneed podding peas moment, but it is to do with helping mum.

This has probably been said many times, cook a Sunday roast.

I'm from Worcestershire, we had a big garden with an orchard and a vegetable patch,

although that was generally overgrowing and the apples were falling,

but Sunday lunch was always something we did.

And I learnt that if I helped mum make the gravy or help make the pudding, then I basically

got out of washing up, which my brothers had to do.

And what were meal times like in your family?

So I've got three brothers and we're all pretty closely grouped in age,

...