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Hello and welcome to the Spectator's Food and Drink podcast, Table Talk. I'm Lara Prendergast.

And I'm Olivia Ponce.

And we're delighted today to be joined by Patrick Jefferson. Patrick is a consultant,

journalist, broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author who is based in Washington, D.C.

From 1988 to 1996, Patrick worked first as Princess Diana's equerry and then as her private

secretary. He is also currently a historical consultant to the award-winning

Netflix series, The Crown. Patrick, welcome to table talk. Great to be here, Lara. Thank you for

having me, and Livy. Patrick, we're going to start where we always do at the beginning and ask you,

what are your earliest memories of food? My earliest memories, I suppose, are of going on holiday to the

northwest of Scotland. Although I was born and brought up in Ireland, my mother was from

Staunaway in the Outer Hebrides. Some of my happiest memories are of going up to the

northwest coast of Scotland near the town of Malague. And for a real treat, my mother would get lemon sole, more or less, straight off the boat, and fry it for us.

And that to me was, was, it was both quite grown-up food, but it was delicious.

And I've never, I've never eaten

fish that tasted quite as good as that. And it was the freshest and it was, it was beautifully cooked.

And the fun of thing was because it links quite well to my second memory of food, which was

going to school. And the rule there was you had to eat everything. This was a Scottish boarding prep school.

And you had to eat everything you were given. You could ask for a small helping, but you had to

eat it. And the worst thing we had to eat was the school fish. And so the contrast between my

mother's wonderful lemon soul and the school fish is probably,

it's more than a memory. It's more of a trauma, I suppose. And growing, going to take you back

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