As the UK’s best-known food critic, writing columns for The Times newspaper and many other outlets as well as presenting TV programmes like BBC2’s ‘Amazing Hotels’, Giles Coren has travelled to over 100 countries. He is, in his own words – an icon of foodie ponceyness so don’t ask me how we get on to McDonalds, Nandos and frozen fish blocks in Billericay. A highly entertaining episode in which we discuss the world’s best restaurants, plastic boobs in Nice, roast guinea pig in Ecuador and so much more. 

On this episode we cover:

Aspirational urban middle class holidays of the 1970s

Ibiza/Ibeefa, Corfu, Benidorm and Torremolinos, the Algarve

Smoking fabs and drinking cocktails by a pool

Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party and were they or were they not swingers

Plastic boobs in the South of France

Interraling age 17 with his mate Alex

McDonalds in Nice, Amsterdam and other European Cities

The usefulness of McDonalds abroad

Being an icon of foodie ponceyness in McDonalds in Rome

Being the poshest elf in the grotto in Harrods

Not being up for elf work in Debenhams

Working in Ralph Lauren in Paris

His ‘Amazing Hotels’ series for Channel 5

Being fully immersed in the culture in Paris

Bogus wall-building in Africa

Not having a ‘gap yar’

Having a fixer to lead him to the best volcano in Chile

Roasted parrots

Cultural appropriation

Roast guinea pig in Ecuador

Privileged student white bonus

Monica Galetti cooking a whole roast guinea pig

Diving in sharks in Polynesian

Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Kenya

Game lodges in Namibia

His kids being blown away giant moths and caterpillars in Africa

Samburu warriors

How the best restaurants in the world are in London

El Bulli in Spain, the French Laundry in California, Noma in Copenhagen, tapas crawls in San Sebastian Nandos in Kentish Town…

How New York food doesn’t beat London food

Getting bored of Australian cooked oysters

How the UK have embraced the whole foodie culture

The renaissance of fish and chips

Charles Dickens and mutton pies

Hipster burgers, hot dogs and dogs

His new book Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery – a guide to ethical eating in the UK

The US edition by Alice Waters

Increased awareness of sustainability

Crap food in Billericay

Interesting types of potato

How it’s easier to open a Hawaiian sushi house in Warrington or Stoke

Devon and Cornwall and their eye on sustainability

Restaurant Involvement in the community

Highlights in Manchester and Scotland

How travel narrows the mind and makes boring people think they’re interesting
His column in GQ magazine

Refusing to leave boarding school for a year in America

And therefore not losing his virginity

How Caitlin Moran encouraged him to be on twitter

Hating hearing about other people’s holidays

Having plenty of platforms to rant on

Donald Trump’s wig

The pros and cons of twitter

Hidden gems in the restaurant world

The Pamflete Estate in Mothercombe Beach in Devon

How social media is reducing ‘hidden gems’

Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands – the most photographed pool in the world

The Brando Hotel in Tetiaroa off Tahiti

Terrifying tiny Cesna planes Samburu, Kenya

The only time he’s ever been relaxed (in Cliveden)

The Profumo Affair

Swimming with randy male whales in Tahiti

Being ‘not much of a traveller’ who’s been to over 100 hundred countries

How his heart and mind are always so strongly at home

Travelling around Turkey on a bus, smoking on the overnight bus, reading David Copperfield and listening to Simon and Garfunkel

Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery: A Guide to the Truly Good Restaurants and Food Experiences of the UK edited by Giles Coren, in association with the Sustainable Restaurant Association, is published by Thames & Hudson and out now.