From Broke Roofer to Jamie Oliver TV Shows and a Cookbook… HOW?? | The Skint Cook: Ian Bursnall

Today we speak to the super humble and down to earth Ian Bursnall about his inspirational journey from skint yet passionate home cook to appearing on a Jamie Oliver TV show and publishing his cook book.

Check out Ian here:
https://www.instagram.com/theskintcook
The Skint Cook Book: https://shorturl.at/BmrsS

Final chance for tickets to SORTED LIVE: WASHED UP: https://rb.gy/gg84aa
Find out more: www.sortedfood.com/live

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] cheers o ol o [Applause] correct good what a weekend [Music] this year is the first year you haven’t had an alotment no second year second year last year happened as well I did it are you planting anything this year in your uh on your window seals Tomatoes tomatoes on your window seals herbs lettuce this is good chat keep naming Li isn’t it well we’re warming up for you all right hello everyone and welcome to another episode of under the CL we’re in our fictional Pub the bell’s end cheers we’ve been here a while you finished yours yeah I’m I’m almost the Guinness down you only got you were the only one that got a real size glass yeah very true you’ve got little tiddlers um speaking of Guinness I went to the uh the Devon Shire the pub in London which is currently trending for the best pint of Guinness yeah it’s all H you go in it’s absolutely rammed and because pouring a pint of Guinness takes a while so there is a backlog everyone’s in there and I went in thinking there’s no way that this Guinness tastes any better than a normal pint of Guinness in London and it did it tasted so much legit or is it just the hype your mind and your Placebo is already there right it could be Placebo but then I went in anti the placebo and still left going oh my goodness this is actually really delicious so there’s things like they’ve brought the the lines and everything over from Dublin they’ve come from the from the factory so actually it’s not just that there a pub that serves Guinness it is a Guinness I sound like a fanboy I’ve been I’m I’m going back tonight why is the pop not called the I’m actually going back yeah I’m actually going back tonight it is that good I’d recommend it and the food is supposed to be unbelievable as well but I haven’t managed to get a table well yeah cuz it’s cuz it’s rammed with people buying pints of Guinness I know what’s really funny was last time I went I posted uh on Instagram saying I’m here and Slater messaged me ex sorted chef we’ve we’ve we’ve not spoken to him since he left but he just messaged me and went I hate how top jaw have made this place so popular I loved it and now they’ve made it such a hype wagon I can’t get a drink it’s really good it’s really good e um have you eaten anything um spectacular this week any restaurants cuz you’re always out you’re living the life that we used to live yeah just kind of we didn’t we never live that life what good how much Fried Chicken have you had this week ever cuz that’s what Mike’s really wanted you to say yeah go roow was good Panino no fish Ro the new the new restaurant by the fellow boys oh yeah yeah we’ve got to find somebody else to hop on about I know cuz we talk about those guys too much yeah it’s cuz there’s a little love love triangle going on there should we move into guest chat you mentioned you mentioned Slater you could segue rofer Slater is that what you mean that’s really clever it great we’re speaking of Slaters we’ve got roof up today haven’t we on the surface a random guest to have on a food podcast but not because it’s the skint cook who has a cookbook out and who’s had an amazing journey so I’m excited to to listen to your chat with him yeah I I can’t wait again going from being a roofer to being perceived in the outside world as a chef quite a he does like that a home cook ask him about it he doesn’t like it all right B are you a chef no I should the wrong person to ask no I’m definitely not he’s not a chef he’s a cook but yeah making that transition from the world of building and construction and that whole what i is probably a stereotype but that I have around the alpha male side of that world into being a cook and with a published cook book and working with with Jamie Oliver and all of that kind of stuff that’s an amazing journey yeah really interesting to hear Arc back 14 odd years I feel like like we were inspired by I was inspired by Jamie Oliver and the cookbooks growing up and like that start so the fact that he’s kind of come on a similar Journal arguably one of the most normal normals out there apparently he’s watched our show since like day dark as well and he still said yes to coming on the podc know so this is going to be a really interesting conversation a roofer turned into a cook working with Jamie Oliver make sure you listen to it all this is us lifting the CL on Ian burel and welcome to under the CL are you prepared for this yeah definitely bring it on glad yeah yeah yeah so the the first thing we um we ask all of our guests is it’s a slightly weird one we call it your perfect food gasm it’s a great way to introduce Our Guest isn’t it it really is so you have to go with um so picture where are you what have you been doing and what’s the food that gives you the ultimate food gasm well I’ll be at home okay very exotic that isn’t it but uh ameg and chips or gam egg and chips pineapple I mean I’m not going to go for some like lobs with Thermador cuz we have to remortgage for that one a Hamburg and chips with a pineapple how many chips oh Hamburg and chips with a pineapple and then what have you been doing to lead up to this moment cooking it yeah amaz can we go back a bit further so like what what have you what this is a release this is this is thank I needed this hammock and chips in my life what has led to this moment in time I’ve been dreaming about it all week I mean I was going to plan doing the chili con car but then no hameg and chips see I think hameg and chips is one of those it’s my dad’s favorite it doesn’t matter which restaurant we go to which Pub we could be anywhere in the world all he wants is hamg and chips it’s a proper Home Comfort meal it’s one of those things well like trying to explain it to anybody else outside of the UK it’s it’s not exotic it’s not complicated it’s handm and chips do the simple things in life right you’re halfway there a you and if you you can you can titivate it a bit so to speak you put a glaze on the on the gam or the ham whatever it will be you can make a pineapple s you know it can’t not just come you can ump it up a bit you know what I mean my lad’s favorite and mine so but you can’t get gash pubs where they take it too far where it’s no longer Hamm and chips complicated it exactly simple things done right well it feels like it leads us quite nicely into you and your background cuz yeah I’ve been doing a little bit of reading on uh you so your your name that you’ve kind of come up with is the skint cook or the skint roofer yeah it was the SK roofer but we well how it come about was I started Instagram in 20 8 I think one of his sisters says you know you’re cooking all the time that’s your passion just put it out there and I thought okay then then there’s two names I come up with and you’ll laugh when you hear them one was this is my Instagram name one was Ultimate passion and passion within they sound like por no don’t anyway I went passion within and I had that name for a couple of years and I thought no you know wonder why I kept getting these like friend requests from like you know ladies with all blond and air and all Latin lipti and uh so no I was a roofer I was skin so I call myself the skin roof for cooks and then that got me onto the Jamie Oliver show a couple of years back and then after that we had a sort of like talk with the my publisher saying we’ll go with the skin cut cuz it’s a bit more of a broader okay you know audience so there so I’m glad I’m not the ultimate passion or passion within anymore yeah yeah yeah it was wrong should have been on the top shelf shouldn’t it some only going back to like the term roofer like we’re very familiar in the UK but again outside of the UK talking about Roofing and the the trade that you’re in can you describe it to people well yeah obviously we fix roofs with you know if someone’s got a leaky roof we’ll go along and fix it or give them you know if it’s if it needs a r roof there it’s a total re roof where the old one comes off and you put a new one on uh yeah so basically just was fixing roofs it’s about how’ you get into that uh when I was about 16 my dad got me a job with one of his customers that work for a roofing contract in Leicester so basically from there I sort of got you know got into the roofing have have you have you ever worked on a building site before I I I’d love to say that I helped to build my house like we yeah we uh project manager no I left that part to someone else I I took a coup days off work so that I could go and do to help out and I ended up knocking down the garage that knocking down as the fun bit knocking down as a fun bit and but I think uh it was trying to build a relationship with the guys that were actually doing the real work was the fun part but also the bit that I found really difficult because I didn’t come from their back world and I think trying to trying to build a bridge between our two worlds was quite difficult when I was like they like are you back tomorrow I was like no no no we’re going to go film um uh some recipes actually I’ve got to dress up as a dog and we’re doing a an ultimate hot dog battle and they’re like what yeah I know it’s it’s a completely different world the thing is the manual labor trade it’s like it’s hard graft but it is a skilled job and it’s like the Assumption sometimes is it’s a builder it’s easy work it is not no back breaking and it’s it’s you you need to know what you’re doing I mean I work for myself I mean I’ve cut back on the roofing now because of of uh my health sort of thing so but when I was Roofing I mean I used to do seven days a week all year round you know if even even on I’ve had people me up on Boxing Day or Christmas Day saying you’re going to come and repair a leak and I’ve been out on boxing day and done it cuz you know it’s but a bit like like weird comparison but a bit like cooking is until you do it it looks impossible yeah so like again I recently have my house done up and knock it down was the fun bit but building it back up again suddenly every step of the way I’m looking going I haven’t got a clue where I’d start suddenly these Wizards walk in and start building things yeah but and to me it’s magical but a bit like when you’re watching a chef do their thing the courses isn’t it I would know how to you know I was a roof I would know out to plaster I could give it a go but it look crap it be on the floor yeah you know everyone’s you know say any anything in life if it’s new toer practice makes perfect basically doesn’t it yeah we’re not perfect I disagree with being perfect nobody’s perfect but practice makes you better yeah so you know don’t look at things like oh I could never do that if you was doing it a couple of years you would be doing it wouldn’t you so I I reckon from a from a food perspective like from The Outsider looking into the roofing trade or any kind of building trade I can picture in my mind what a typical days food and drink intake looks like what is it I I personally have CED for Builders okay that wasn’t what I signed up for but basically of my um uh really close family friend Kev he asked me to come do some work experience for the day on the building site I like Wicked Man what am I doing we’ll get you um brick laying we’ll get you Plastering and we’ll get you doing bit of roofing fantastic you get there first job of the day B we’re going to um we’re going to start start over there with the plasterers great what can I do first tell you what go get a cup of tea come back with six teas Steve what you having four te’s six sugars got for the day that’s what the no well it started tea boy but by the end of the day I was making bacon bats oh I was getting sausage rolls and Gregs what site were you on that’s a promotion that is we had well I my background is flat Roofing not so much pitch Roofing and and we were called tar babies back in the day cuz we used to use a hot TI and my little trick was I’d get a jacket well get a potato I’d wrap it in loads of foil put it in the bit in po I’ve seen this honestly it works best baked potato you ever have think about 25 30 minutes out what guitar was you get it out no butter that sounds perfectly hygienic but it was ideal because that was when I was living I just met my partner and we just had my daughter Olivia and we skin SK skin now so that was ideal but it was it was a great dinner especially in the winter yeah well you’re not paying to you’re not paying to cook it then are you I don’t know what the health and safety of people and the food standard would say about it but best baked potato you ever love so what what does a a day food look like on a on a site cuz in my mind it is exactly what you said baz it’s Cups of Tea yeah loads of sugar bacon sandwiches maybe a full a full English breakfast and then a few pints of beer at the end of the day I say end of the day 3:00 onward would treat yourself on a Friday all the lads would and I just just hang around if was going to me some chips because we’ have fish and chips all fry up on Friday cuz it we call it dirty Friday and then we’ll go to the pub we knock off early I can’t say tell me boss that was a long time ago SED off somewhere on a yacht but uh yeah so we definitely go to the pub that’s how I met my partner we used to go to this there was a pub near is called uh the Empire and we’d all but depending on where we were working around last this year but this this particular time we we went to the Empire which was near me my partner had bought an house next to me and she used to see me coming about every Friday struggling to get m key in the door and she called me CU used to play loud music I mean them days it was loud I mean I think one it was crazy loud and we in terce houses so she got the um so she calleded me getting in the taxi and she says turn your music down I she really ranting and raving at me I said I’m sorry a bit sheepish and the taxi bloke said to me he says you better apologize when you get about apologize apologize for you know better anyway I did 27 years later I’m with her Still Still apologize yeah still apologize that’s how we met it was all through taxi driver and now music um that’s a lovely story yeah and we’ve got two lovely children Olia and Toby And then we’ve got we just well my got granddaughter now s she just turned one and that is my that’s our life now you I mean really brilliant really chilled with it you know there’re everything but that’s how we met through loud music and taxi driver so so going back to like the the link between what you were doing as a job and then your how your love of food how did the where did the food side come from why did it make why you start caring about it my mom still is a great home cook as I class myself as a home CL I’ve been on places where people called me chef and I says I’m not a chef I’m a home cook selftaught don’t call me a chef Chef’s been to culinary school and whatnot we this is where we can we’re only the EXA call me Chef I’m not a chef yeah we don’t want to be classer chefs we don’t don’t need that stigma attached to us enough crap of our own deal with exactly we we always say that today we we still have like impostor syndrome yeah can you find yourself like in rooms with like at Food events some of the greatest chefs around and we’re in there going we do not belong at all you do everyone’s got everyone belongs everywhere don’t it’s just noeds think they’re above you don’t they but um yes so my mom was still is so there was seven in the family there was me my sister my two brothers and my mom and dad My Three Brothers should I say I’m forgetting one that he’s in Australia um and she you know she used to do big home cookie for like C RS that’s the wrong word that’s a posh word stews um you know tow in the old big Classics but she made them stretch for seven of us me D were out grafting 60 70 hours a week so anyway I got that sort of that probably rubbed off on me then I moved out from the family home about the age of 17 18 to the terce St down new fan pool which is in leester my mom gave me a load of pots and pans still got them uh and she scribbled like load of recipes down on you know with pen and paper cuz there no like Facebooks or text I don’t even think I had a mobile phone now no I didn’t so it was either learn to cook or eat it’s a long still learning now everyone’s still learning aren’t they but anyway I used to do this dish called turbo pork and the lads had come around on a Friday I love this it was pork dish yeah but this it had this there was this this side I think the Bandit now it was called turbo it was like paint stripper there W an apple inside but it went in yeah along I think I went down the butches I remember him we had the worst syrup ever like one them Lego men with a like a you put the you when you put the Lego air on it’s stuck there his syrup like that it was like jet black it was about 70 and uh sounds like I don’t know what cut of pork I had I just say give me some pork yeah so that went in with the turbo side and probably a few carrot I don’t know yeah yeah but we we’d do it we’d have it and the lads around and they loved it because we were all and all that but they loved it so they’ve got a pat on the back and it gives you a buzz don’t it yeah so yeah so every Friday Lads would come around I cook them some scran and then I just fell in love with it um and I’ve been cooking ever since so did any of your mates feel the need to go you know what I need to do this at home myself or they relying on you purely for the delicious food only on a Friday then you could get a freeway couldn’t right okay that’s what it’s about yes yeah yeah I mean I got paid Friday I was skimp Monday that their sorry C that out as a swear word uh yeah but anyway I’ve kept you know I mean I get passionate about boiling an egg and Def as it sounds I do I think that’s the thing some of the um the recipes you do on like Tik Tok or social media um you do some like relatively complex dishes but a lot of really really basic stuff with just a few little kind of like skinned hints tips just pimp it up a little bit you can if you got if your store cup is stocked up you can take anything to a different level can’t you just with spices alone okay then what’s your your store cup at home what are your most used condiments I do a lot of you know obviously you got your garlic P obviously use fresh garlic but you know when I’m doing L I’m a big passionate about barbecue so if I’m doing a barbecue be like onion powder garlic powder smoked paprika you know all the all the Staples you know if you’re doing a curry like a a curry sort of like chicken or something you got all you know you got your all your cumin and everything in there coriander everything’s in there I probably got about three of each i’ got sort it out but people say all your spices go off if you use them enough they don’t go off so stop your store coming up and you can you know a basic F you can take it to the next level the B I don’t get that that’s not that’s not cheap like getting a decent store covers the outlay is quite a big outlay but what you you do a bits at a time you know every every every other week you buy a couple of powders what powders or spices or if your birthday’s coming up or Christmas get your friends and your family say get me a couple of spices I’ll be up with that pointment you know instead of getting me a soggy cake or something get me some spice you know it’s help you’re going to use them is you if you’re passionate yeah so how did it go from cooking for your mates on a Friday night to being a contestant on a cooking show with Jamie Oliver which then led to a published cookbook because that’s a that’s a hell of a journey to go on and I like we’ve we’ve had similar experiences and as soon as you talk to anyone about it it it doesn’t it doesn’t feel like real life it’s crazy I’m pinching myself still now looking at that as my book I’m basically I’m I’m an author I’ve been called worse but I’m an author a I um and abut I just don’t look at myself like that but um yeah so what it was I was on Instagram with the name the skim roer at the time not passing within and this production company text me on messaged me on Instagram said um we’re doing a a new TV show blah blah blah and it involves a a cookbook didn’t mention Jamie ol’s name or anything at that sort of time and uh thought is this you know I I looked at it I just lost me one of my best friends for uh Co so they contacted me I looked at it and said do you mind sending a video in explain how your C you know how you would like it to be I can’t be doing that is is it a scammer is it this that the other and uh anyway I thought I woke up one day and I sent this video in and it was ropey as I look I look like death warmed up and you know anyway the lights it I thought oh yeah oh yeah we’ll see some it and then you probably know the process you go through so many emails live chats had to do some cooking demos live from the kitchen to the producer and that then halfway through says yeah this that the other and then they mentioned Jamie Al’s name then I thought you know he’s he’s he’s big is it yeah and uh I thought oh this is this is serious then anyway long story short got to this the show went on the first one thought just want to get past the first round I didn’t think no way I’m going to get you I just want to do my best get past be yourself what you say is what you get what you get is what you see try up is someone else he’s just going to fail so I beat myself uh and I got through the first round I thought you you know then got through the next round then the next round next round then end up in the final this is this is unreal um got to the Fone didn’t win it I came joint second with a nice lb called Rex he’s he’s a nice lb they’re all nice people Dominic W she’s a nice girl but then looking back I’m glad I didn’t win it reason being I got to where I wanted I thought kept saying to myself get further get further and the more exposure you get that’s priceless isn’t it so I got to the final um and didn’t win it as you know uh anyway I was in undated after that with book offers this that the other um and then Lisa Lisa from Harper College I nearly missed it CU I get getting his unders and hundreds of text the days you can imagine just off the back of a series and I couldn’t keep up with them then I looking through them about 3 weeks later and this Lisa’s text come up she was uh one of the top Publishers at har Collins you know one of the Gaffers so you know are you willing to chat in blah blah blah thought dead right I am so I got in touch with her and she says I want to offer your a book deal it’s a little funny story cuz she watching the show with her children and all the lad all the children apparently wanted me to win that show but she didn’t want me to win it cuz she wanted to publish me cuz the prize was you’d go through Jamie Oliver’s publisher instead yeah was his penguin oh right okay so she was hoping that I didn’t win because she wanted you know what I mean quite a good story um it’s a bit like One Direction go on I One Direction get anywhere they R circles One Direction One Direction didn’t win The X Factor did they they came they came second what that means is it opens them up to get lots of different opportunities CU they didn’t get yeah I think he still did but you know like it’s it’s that whole thing of actually sometimes not winning is a is the better route was that was that was that your role at school in Sports no that’s right get noticed with that process of the the TV program being filmed and knowing that it does have like a six-month window until it actually comes out how many people did you tell that you were going through that process because like compared to your sort of your previous Life as a roofer and stuff suddenly being whisked off to go and film with Jamie Oliver and be a part of this big TV production like that’s a massive yeah you to keep your difference yeah how how do you keep your head hard you know I mean people know you’re on the show and they know you got through to the next one they always saying how far did you get how far and you’re like just I can’t do it I can’t say anything yeah cuz I’ll slip but I don’t say I’m quite strong minded but you know I think I think they did say if you let things slip you you I don’t know what they’re going to do they can’t they can’t cut you out if you’re in the fin I don’t know probably sewers I I feel like as a uh product at the skin cook as a as a brand it does follow the same sort of path as as Jam Oliver did in terms of when you talk to people overseas about Jam Oliver their um assumption is they they felt in love with him because he broke the mold especially in America of the very straight La chefs and suddenly you’ve got the Naked Chef kind of doing what he wants and he’s he’s he’s the the normal man yeah the normal man now is has evolved massively over time and suddenly now there’s so many different versions of normal I think you got you as the skin cook what you represent there’s nobody as a in the cheffy cookie world doing what you do doing like approaching recipes from the way you do as well yeah it’s this sort of stuff I’ve cook day in day out week in week out month in year in year out for friends and family I can do more complex stuff but the whole idea of the book is to get people before in love with cooking if they’ve never done it before no matter what age or whatever and I I say going back with to the pat on the backat if they can do something out of there and it’s just pimped up slightly just by I think it’s a recipe and just by putting some uh lemons lemon zest in the oven for 10 minutes to get and make a dust out of it with salt and pepper and whatever and put on some chicken it’s not hard is it but it takes it just just that little Notch up and your friend or your partner or whever I was going to say that was bang on you get a buzz same thing if you doing the pling or the roofing if you’re an apprentice and you’ve done one of these things for the first time and and your GA says well done not put you down he says well done you going to do it again you’re going to G 100% is you yeah it’s exactly what I found with cooking like over the years learning more and more about food the biggest changes when you serve something up to someone and they go wow I said bz the biggest changes are the the simplest ones and you go oh yeah I just squeeze some lemons to that or we use some fresh herbs on that or I used miso instead of it’s really really simple things but they’re the ones that make the biggest difference when people are eating it and it’s uh that’s been the biggest Revelation to me because like you say that buzz that you get when you Ser I always find if i’ if I’ve spent like a long time cooking something I don’t know if you’re the same if I’ve spent a long time cooking something I put a load of effort into it I put it down on the table I don’t want to eat it I I I feel like I’ve already been eat maybe I have been eating as it’s been cooking I kind of get to that bit where I that feels like a finished piece to me I’m so happy to serve it to other people that I I don’t enjoy the eating part as much I sometimes don’t enjoy I I don’t get enough satisfaction from watching other people eat my food but I’ll go I’ll spend a lot of time making food for somebody and I’m almost gutted when they scoff it down so I’m going no time that bloing lamb shank took to M and it goes it thinks theg taste the I know it’s the biggest compliment you get scoffed out and really that was the last time I did that was for my Builder mate and his family and they’re not really Foodies I think he survives mostly on chicken and chips but when I served in this wonderful Moroccan tajine perfectly spiced he went a that’s that’s decent and he polished it off I was like great thanks but I was kind of hoping for some more how do you do into it this this was supposed to be a lifechanging moment for you you just sced it feedback you want some uh positive feedback don’t you yeah but then I think he he like in that situation I should have him the best ham and chips he’s ever had and that would been an easier way talking about that forever exactly well it’s either that or he’s going to go it’s not it’s not real H chips so is it fancy version is it yeah your Posh version so we’ve we worked with Jam um a little bit throughout the years as well we helped him launch his YouTube channel when it first came around 10 years ago something like that um and we had a lot of fun with him on like on set like when we were filming when the cameras wer yeah let’s do this story let yeah he’s different he’s a s he’s a bit he’s better off camera isn’t he he is he is yeah he’s um on on on camera like he’s the family man he’s so polished he’s beautifully spoken and every now and then you might get a pck nowadays you don’t get a pucker cuz he hates that word but you might get a few oo and O but when the camera’s turned off suddenly his lips losing he did did I read somewhere that he burnt your toast yeah on one of the shows it was um a section called Chop and chat it was meant to be like rigged up to like say you’re on this morning doing a 15 minute demo live and I would doing that and like anything put some toast in for me and all that and he literally burnt the toast and says 25 years in the game and you burnt me cuz I I still think he’s actually soon as the camera stopped rolling he’s more he’s more normal like he’s just been on in front of the camera for so long now he’s so pished well the thing it felt it felt to because we were doing YouTube it felt like he’d been I don’t know he’s so polished on TV it felt like doing YouTube he was actually let off the leash a little bit there weren’t all the restrictions and he was able to play a bit more and there were quite a bit there was there were quite a few bits that we got on camera where we were recording and it was only afterwards um his mate uh Rich that worked with him just came up to us like you you know you can’t use like half of that and I’m like which bits it’s like you know exactly which bits you can’t use um we’ll have to slip this into the edit somewhere but can we play the um can we play the clip of why he likes Ben so much I would really enjoy if we could play that clip why does he like you so much so he likes so there’s a wonderful yeah there’s a there’s a wonderful clip where we are um we’re like so tell us about what you think of Ben he goes I like Ben he’s the kind of boy you’d want your daughter to marry cuz you know that they’d never have sex I think it’s wonderful and also he’s not allowed near play playgrounds it was yeah the whole after coming off the back of the show all the all Jam’s HQ and and cuz it was a joint production I think it was Jamie’s Oliver’s production with I think it may have been Plum pictures I think but anyway the Aftercare was brilliant it’s still is I’m you know it’s brilliant that’s really nice to know cuz I think a lot of time particular when it comes to like reality yeah shows there’s there’s always that kind of stigma that actually there’s a lot of stuff done on camera and then the camera’s turn off see you later far from it they were brilliant you know even I could ring them up now about some emails you know no absolutely brilliant so now you’re an authored cook that a word authored yeah it is isn’t it sorry I don’t know don’t give me a complex I’m not confident in these things I’m going say Yes um we’ll just nod along yeah sure sure um so like you are now in amongst many other cooks and chefs with cookbooks how do you think you would fare if you were to walk into into a kitchen and ask to produce a dish for a restaurant now cuz we we have sleepless nights about that exactly that’s really comforting to know would what what what would you if you had that chance what would you make you know what I’m going to say don’t you L with Thermador no I don’t know see what they got what they got you know what they got in in stock and that and just think about it for a few hours before well it is is Da in it you know I’m a home cook I’m not a a chef blah blah you going somewhere it’s say when you’re cooking at home and and stuff and mind you I did the show which was a bit daunting but you know it is daunting for their own cook isn’t it to go in a restaurant and I’ll come up with some it but I think that’s what the whole for me that’s been like the amazing thing about social media it’s democratized that world of you know chefs have always been on this pedestal up here and it’s always been you know a TV program has always been a chef telling you this is how you cook lobster thermador there is only one way to do it and it was what inspired Us in the early days of going well we’ve got a mate who’s a chef yeah that’s great let’s let’s bring him down a pck or two how did you feel about black pudding it’s only recent in the last few years I’ve actually started liking it believe it or not yeah probably the last five years why why didn’t like it beforehand um I think it’s the old what the everyone says it’s made out of blood but aren’t we all yeah we all I think that did put me off you know for well for but now I absolutely love it absolutely love it all right so we’ve we’re in our Pub and so we we thought it’d be really nice to have some Pub Pub snacks so what we’ve uh what we’ve got is I don’t know what kind of Pub this is turning into but we’ve got some black pudding Bon bonss this is a we’re a little bit we’re um we’re home Comforts but we are a little bit pretentious expecting some salt and salt pit saled peanuts and I was looking for cheese and onion cob yeah scampy fries same film no date on it yes just trust good old days well help yourself with some um some bon bons bons jeez very nice beautiful you know what be nice than that little cows egg I got B in it B so we just talked about us being a little bit too pretentious in a pub and you want to add a quail’s egg into the middle would that be nice no would you ever turn down a scotch egg oh no of course actually my recipe for Scotch egg in now has got black pudding in it another one of them they’re nice but again the black pudding is just one of those ingredients that it’s so it’s so cheap cuz it is it’s it’s it’s pigs blood oats and delicious seasoning it’s such a it’s a great money saving but meat to use it’s versatile as well I mean it can especially goes well with pork doesn’t it and stuff but yeah they’re beautiful they are so can we play uh a little game I ain’t playing twister naked put the baby oil away we’re not doing that one today theard we can play that one later Tom I tell you I’m I’m not as supp as I used to be put your clothes back on yeah okay well supper or not don’t this one should matter um let’s throw back and forth skint hints and tips okay skint versus sorted okay and if we get bored we’ve always got Twisted to fall back on exactly throw these balls across to each of yeah yeah okay who else go first I’ll first okay always look for the yellow sticker the V sticker smart end of aisle make your own compound Butters that’s quite a posh one that’s a posh one that is saving money redu reducing reducing like like don’t waste your herbs make them last longer using lir pack jeez we can use utterly butterly if you want to yeah L pack you need that’s that’s that’s okay fine you go flavor bombs easy one get a a pot of miso or a pot of gotu Jung something like that that can just add an absolute wow to your dish yeah uh if there’s loads of uh reduced veg you know carrots all that sort of stuff uh broccoli and all that you can blanch it refresh it in cold water freeze it and you can use it in the next three or four months so you can buy load of that so that’s you know good for anything soups stocks uh just roast it up what Sun roast and all stuff like that B can you redem yourself when you get quailed eggs batch cooking rather than cooking just for one or two or four cook for 20 freeze it next lovely are you coming to me now yeah yeah yeah we’re okay perfect competitive now buying reduced uh bananas that are going out and then freeze them and then you can get uh peel them first and then you can make uh just blend them up you can make like a banana ice cream very free one I saw that in a comment you you’ve stolen that from a comment I have stolen that from a comment but I’m bringing it to a larger audience I know 10 vegetables last forever but if they have got any coming to the end of the day cuz everyone’s got 10 vegetables at the back of the cupboard a there you can do the same you can blanch them up and refresh them and freeze them as well oh this is what I did the other day not I’m not proud of myself but um you know rather than um making yourself one day babies on toast and then a sausage sandwich the next day what you can do is you can buy the um the hindes um bacon and sausage um tins you picked sausages out then you got a sandwich as a as as one two dis dishes sandwich and then you got beans on toast all like you got two meals in one yeah what are you on yeah I I did I did that the other day I was get the the the sausage and bean tin and I went you know what I’m really found a sausage sandwich I could do this so I made a sausage sandwich by picking out the sausages from a tin of beans yeah and that for breakfast and then I had bees on toast with the rest of it for tea that’s that’s genius yes thank you thank you are you getting less beans because your half full of sauses a a tin a tin of beans is too much for one person but a tin of beans and sausages you take sausages out as one portion beans for second portion I don’t think you should do these tips anymore I don’t I know I’m I’m I’m the I’ve been named the potential just prints for per reason any more any more golden gold again when you saying batch cook if you got the barbecue on bit more batch cooking then you can put that in the fridge and then you can have cold cuts all week take some you know take some I don’t know barbecue chicken sandwich to work it beats a soggy cheese and amand he done it a floppy one so he makes it work and be like Oh said well yeah cooked it the weekend let’s uh let’s talk about your love of barbecue so what what kind of barbecue you into oh here we go did you a barbecue yeah so you go eat your qu’s eggs and uh hind sausage sandwiches over there we’ll talk about barbecue yeah a simple you know I do I do a chicken chair Sue that’s in I don’t know you pronounce it cho cho I don’t know how you pronounce it but that’s I like how you pronounce it that’s that’s so that’s in there done the T up but all stuff again using your spices out the you know out the cupboard and that and the fars of different you know some sauces and whatever to you know not not sh when I say the Char food’s got like uh soy sauce and stuff in not you know and um hoing sauce stuff like that b b I mean I’ve been fortunate last year company called Pit Boss sent me three barbecues and like real decent bits of Kit I’ve never been able to F them one on one of them you can smoke meat in it m so I’m I’m doing I’m up in me smoke meat game in them a bit but um you know feed a family you know in the crowd and that like Mexican style street corn and stuff just easy stuff but taste there yeah I absolutely you’re talking my language now like since we we went to uh the U we’ve been to the us a few times to do sort of the barbecue low and slow kind of stuff and I just fell in love with it it’s beautiful and people think I fell in love with it because it’s the meat side of things actually I fall in love with it because it’s so easy and people don’t realize that it’s the simplest food to cook it just requires time and that’s all it is and even doing it in I did a a pork shoulder in the slow cooker and I just diced anion and some garlic and squeezed Ane into theow cooker put a pork shoulder in there and left it for hourss is it more cost effective as well cuz you’re like cooking a massive lump of meat for a big crowd pork should is one of the best cost value for m is it although that’s gone up a lot I know that um I got a big loin of pork and I cut cut them up into individual chops you can you can do whatever size or thickness you want and then you can freeze them and then you you that’s cheaper to buy the whole loin and cut them you’re not paying someone to cut them up for you got you so we do that so then he can govern what SI if you’re AG greedy porker like me you can you know have a good you going to the supermarket you don’t get a chop any thicker than half an inch de steaks is you know you want well probably an Ines as a tip in itself is go to The Butchers buy a big chunk of meat and then yeah chop it into different sizes depend what you using you know again the chicken if you learn how to uh you know chop a chicken up but a chicken it’s cheaper than buying buying individual Cuts yeah we we do that all the time now yeah I I do it a lot um I quite enjoy it cuz he I’d you know I’d like to do a Butchery course to be fair cuz I’m quite interested in that but obviously I’m learning off YouTube and that but I’m quite good at that just buttering a chicken now and I enjoy it and I know I’m getting more value for money so the thing is this you’ve only been the skink cook for a couple of years now as a career change yeah it’s not it’s been a very short care career so far but there’s so much ahead of you what what what’s in my next what are you working towards do you think I’d love it if if I got another book deal depending on if that does well or not I do not know that that would be nice if I could just make a living out of doing what I’m doing it’s if I can make a living out of my hobby it’s a no brainer if you can pay the mortgage in the bills I’m happy anything more is is is a bonus I think that’s amazing because we I find even in what we’re doing we’re always pushing ourselves to look at what next year what could we be doing but at the same time we are so flipping lucky and doing something that we love and we’re paying the mortgage that’s that’s just out of this world dream scenario I can ask for honestly that’s that’s the truth I feel like that is the perfect way and I think there was a there’s a quote at the end of the intro to your book where you you talk about um if you don’t chase your dreams yeah they’re not going to chase you no they don’t if you sit back and dream you got to chase your dream they’re not going to come and chase you are they I’m so blessed that I’m I’m sitting here with you guys I mean if it wasn’t for that show I I won’t be doing none of this I want to have a book I want to go on an Okay magazine which is brilliant magazine hello I’ve been in the Sunday I’ve been it you know all these things you know it’s just yeah surreal and it come it comes back to saying yes as well so you know you got that text from the from the production company you weren’t in the right frame of mind to do it you you didn’t think you had a chance but you said yes you gave it Go and one thing leads to another it does one last question we go ask you is is there I think I know the answer to this but is there one dish that you feel like you would want to pass on to everybody El saying you’ve got to cook this before you die not eat but cook there’s a coup I may I’ll give you another there’s amegan chips then there’s chili con Carney me mom used to do that really really really really well then there’s a I’ve dedicate one of my there’s one of my mom’s recipes in the book it’s called bacon rolly Po and she did it when we were kids growing up it’s like SE and you got um bacon like L on in there onion it’s very basic but she’d roll it up and then she’ serve it with a mashed potato and Tin tomato soup oh okay it’s banging is that the badger it does sound like a bacon Badger I don’t know is that that bed for Badger Lester bit further north than it’s very basic but it brings about so me the memories and in the tomato soup it was tin tomato soup she just put something like oh it’s in there I think it’s their original rep best was in there I think I just added a bit more seasoning um she put a t a tablespoon or a tablespoon of milk in the soup just that was it it makes the difference so so the one dish you encourage everybody to go and make Mom’s Bon yeah Mom’s bacon rolly po love and there’s another one which is me granny de egg custard I’ve call it granny D we Weekender because Grandma Dunley she used to do as an egg custard every weekend so I’ve dedicated this the last recipe in the book actually there’s another one in there you got to try granny D’s Weekender brilliant Ian thank you so so much for coming this has been uh brilliant and I I’ve mainly loved how much we’ve taken the piss out of baz cuz it feels it’s nice to have someone else on board he’s used to it I know thank you so much B no thanks for having me guys appreciate it [Music]