Show Notes
For this episode of 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast, Claire travels to Bristol to cook with England rugby prop Sarah Bern - just a stone’s throw from Ashton Gate Stadium, where Sarah hopes to be battling it out in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals this September. With her own flat mid-renovation, Sarah borrows a friend’s beautiful (and admittedly “too swanky to be mine”) kitchen for the occasion.
Between whisking eggs and grating Pecorino for Sarah’s pre-match favourite, spaghetti carbonara (no cream allowed - “straight to hell” if you do, so they say), the pair dive into Sarah’s remarkable rugby journey. From earning her first England cap at 18, to playing in two previous World Cups, to preparing for the gruelling demands of the next, Sarah reveals the technical finesse of life as a tighthead prop - part maximum squat, part chess match. Sarah’s instagram @sarahbern3 is a paean to what it takes to be an athlete on the international stage, determination, ambition and a true love of the sport to which you are so utterly devoted to.
Carbonara doesn't take long to cook, and yet Sarah and Claire manage to fit an awful lot of chat into the time it takes to cook (and record) this classic Italian pasta dish, they discuss the reality of women’s rugby, the joy and rivalry of playing alongside (and sometimes against) her partner Mackenzie Carson, the sacrifices elite sport demands, and Sarah’s big ambitions beyond rugby - namely, swapping the scrum for the cockpit as a pilot. All the while, the guanciale sizzles, the pepper flows freely, and Sarah proves she’s as strong in the kitchen as she is on the pitch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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For this final episode of season 4 of 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with her 19-year-old daughter Grace, the catalyst for Dear Grace the cookbook. As many who follow Claire on instagram @5oclockapron will know, Grace left home for University last September and is very much missed by all of her family. Home for the summer holidays, and Grace’s suggestion, Grace wanted to cook with her mum for this podcast recording. This is a lovely listen, less Grace teaching Claire, more mother and daughter cooking together, talking about the year that’s passed and what Grace has learnt, about cookery and also life, since leaving home.
Lemn Sissay is a lifeforce. A poet, three times Sunday Times bestselling author, memoirist playwright curator and broadcaster. Lemn also has some of his poems embedded as landmarks in the physical architecture of Manchester, London and the British Council Offices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Brought up in care homes Makerfield, at 17 he lived alone and worked as a gutter cleaner, personalising his gutter cleaning leaflets with his poetry. Sometime later, his ladder stolen, Lemn moved to Manchester and worked for a publishing house as an Asian & Afro-Caribbean writers development worker. The 1990s saw the city of Manchester, and Lemn Sissay, gain a global celebrity, with both the Manchester scene and Lemn’s poetry reaping widespread acclaim.
Gerald Stratford is a gardener and a gentleman. Claire drove to the Cotswolds for this episode of 5 O Clock Apron Podcast. Knocking on Gerald’s front door, Claire is quickly whisked through the house, past Elizabeth, Gerald’s wife, and their dog, Bilbobaggins both sitting in the living room, on through the kitchen and out into Gerald’s garden. And what a garden it is! Gerald’s garden is immaculate and stuffed full to bursting with untold fruit and vegetables, the garden is a maze of walkways and paths, shooting off in all different directions to various raised beds, and to what Gerald’s refers to as his giant growing cages, all shapes and sizes, because there are so many of these homemade structures. Marigolds dot the flowerbeds and pathways, “to keep the pests at bay, we are at one with nature you see Claire, we are part of it, we can’t fight it, but the pests hate the smell of the marigolds, so it does help a bit!”
Miriam Gonzaléz Durantéz is a force, and Claire loved cooking with her for this episode of 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast. Worth noting here that Claire is keen to get the elephant in the room over with as soon as Claire and Miriam start cooking in Miriam’s immaculate London kitchen with Claire quizzing Miriam on her title of Lady Clegg.
In this episode of 5 O’Clock Apron Podcast, Claire drives to Oxford to cook with the Professor of Computer Science and Head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, Michael Wooldridge. Michael’s field of work has been in Artificial Intelligence (AI) since 1989, a landscape which has seen wide-reaching change. Michael’s Wikipedia page, and in particular, the awards and honours section is extensive and hugely impressive. He has written over 350 scientific papers and contributed to many academic books, and his most charming, for the layperson, is the bite-sized Ladybird Expert Book on Artificial Intelligence first published by Penguin Random House in 2018.