The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

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

And I'm Olivia Potts. And today we're delighted to be joined by Poppy O'Toole.

Poppy is a professional chef who has worked in a number of Mission Starred restaurants.

Since her COVID-related redundancy, she has used TikTok and Instagram to help teach others how to cook,

amassing over 1.7 million followers, where she is known by the handle Poppy Cooks. Her new book, Poppy Cooks,

The Food You Need, is available now. Poppy, welcome to Table Talk. Hello, thank you for having me.

Poppy, we're going to start where we always do at the very beginning and ask you, what are your

earliest memories of food? Oh, well, I am a fiend for food quite terribly.

I really enjoy it.

So earliest memories, I used to, I was obsessed with pussons when I was younger

and made my grandmother get pussons for everybody in the family

so I could do little mini roast chicken dinners. And then, so she was like my main kind of like foodie but then she wow

Sorry depressing but she passed away so my granddad was left on his own right so I went and had a sleep over there

And um my mom came to pick me up and she came in to myself and my granddad eating Spanish onions like an

apple with cheddar cheese because he did it. He never had to cook before so we were just there like

eating these onions and then with this cheese it was hilarious but those are my two kind of like

they really stick with me memories of food because they're quite bizarre.

And how old would you have been when you were cooking with your granny?

So I was, I mean from birth really, so as soon as I could like handle a knife, she had me in there peeling and everything.

So about five I suppose as soon as

I could get in there and I was just obsessed obsessed with cooking shows obsessed with butchers that was a

...