And so the story begins... I (being Tim) was planning a little 'treat' for Mrs Smoker's (Gill's) birthday; we are keeping an eye on our finances at the moment as we are still building our barn, soon to house our smokehouse, a deli & cafe!
Goose barn, as it is now known, sits on the site of the former goose and duck run in Gill's family home in Falkenham on the Deben Estuary. Anyway, I digress, so looking for a treat I got an email to my phone saying that BBC Radio 4 The Kitchen Cabinet with Jay Rayner, was visiting Snape Maltings in her birthday week and I could apply for tickets. I strongly advise signing up to the BBC’s ticket service, there’s loads happening across the UK and its mostly free!
The stage set up for The Kitchen Cabinet's host & panel
I was fortunate to be successful and tickets were duly emailed through. I was surprised when I got a call from the production company, but thought that’s excellent service calling just a few days before to check our attendance...
But the call was actually to ask Gill and I to appear on the show itself, so that’s how we spent last Wednesday!
The Recital room at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh
We arrived at Snape Malting's Concert Hall, just outside Aldeburgh in Suffolk, and were ushered through to a back room where we met the panel and discussed the format of the programme.
The panel consisted of Rachel McCormack (one of the UK's leading Spanish food and culture experts), Itamar Srulovich (author and London restauranteur - Honey & Co.), Professor Barry Smith and Tim Hayward (food writer and broadcaster), who coincidentally also interviewed me for BBC Radio 4 The Food Program, back in 2011! Jay Rayner (writer, journalist, restaurant critic and broadcaster) was hosting the programme, although we didn't get to meet him until recording started!
Tim all waiting and ready to go... excuse the lack of photos of the panel
during the live programme, but we had to turn off our phones
due to interference with the recording!
We took a selection of our smoked food for the panel and the audience to taste. We included our Smoked Olives which was a very popular bite, especially with Itamar, our award-winning Smoked Beef Carpaccio with Smoked Stilton Pate, our award-winning Smoked Duck Breast, as well as our Smoked Mushrooms which we served in a creamy risotto with truffle oil!
The questions we were asked by Jay were based around the wide selection of smoked vegetarian foods, how we got into smoking and some of the more interesting ingredients that can and can't be smoked.
All in all, a very interesting and unexpected way to spend a Wednesday evening!
If you would like to listen to the programme then please click here....
