Life with Nat - EP39: Poppy Cooks - Potato Queen!

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Nat chats to potato queen, Poppy O’Toole, about following her dreams, calling out the haters, and the perfect roast potato. Poppy's website - https://www.poppycooks.com/ Poppy's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/poppy_cooks Poppy's NEW youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@poppycooks Preorder Poppy's new Slowcooker Recipe Book - https://m.cmpgn.page/Ksl9Q3 Please subscribe, follow, and leave a review. xxx You can find us in all places here; https://podfollow.com/lifewithnat/view INSTA: @natcass1 We're also on Facebook now too: https://www.facebook.com/lifewithnatpod A 'Keep It Light Media' Production Sales, advertising, and general enquiries: [e-mail] SHOW INFO: Life with Nat - it’s me! Natalie Cassidy and I’ll be chatting away to family, friends and most importantly YOU. I want to pick people's brains on the subjects that I care about- whether that’s where all the odd socks go, weight and food or kids on phones. Each week I will be letting you into my life as i chat about my week, share my thoughts on the mundane happenings as well as the serious. I have grown up in the public eye and have never changed because of it. Life with Nat is the podcast for proper people. Come join the community. ♥️ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to Life with Nat. Very, very special episode today. I am going to be joined by Poppy O'Toole. Now this lady has been crowned potato queen. She started off in lockdown after losing her job. She's a Michelin star trained chef and she started fiddling about on TikTok when her siblings taught her how to do it and she became an overnight phenomenon and she has been on Cooking with the Stars recently which is on ITVV, being a chef on there. And she's a lovely, lovely girl. I met her actually at an M&S sort of do ages ago, and she sent me her book, her first book. She's now onto her third book, which I believe is out on the 12th of September, but you can pre-order it. But we're going to have a chat today because I think she's really

interesting because she's not only really talented, but on Instagram and stuff, she calls out the haters when people are rude to her about her body image or her job or what she does. She whacks them up on there and says, thanks very much. So I want to talk to her about all of those things. And if you don't follow her, she's at Poppy Cooks and she's really, really lovely. So let's take a listen poppy hello hello hello so lovely to see you thank you and you love you to see you i love your little setup with all your curtains and things that you've got thank you very much it just softens the sound when you're working

on podcasts a lot this is good isn't it this is good technique well it saves me going out oh yeah that's nice yeah actually yeah it's nice to be at home it's nice to be at home not that i don't go out i'm not a hermit but you know talking of going out the last time i saw you the only time i've seen you do you remember it was at an M&S Christmas do? Yes. And you were lovely. And we had a little chat then. We had a little chat then.

And we were eating canapes and drinking whatever they were serving as like their M&S kind of fancy cocktail for the Christmas season. It was lovely, that was. It was really nice, wasn't it? Really nice, yeah. I'm hoping for an invite this year, to be quite honest. I know. I haven't been back since. So I don't know what I did to embarrass myself or something, but here we are. But I'm working with them this year, so I suppose I should be.

Exactly. How is it going? So Poppy, for everyone who is listening, you'll know Poppy because she's doing Cooking with the Stars on ITV at the moment. How's it going? Yes. Amazing. So wild to be able to go on that sort of show and be like it's when the introduction right so I was like I got to see the first episode before everyone else we got to go into um Leicester Square in London and do the whole like premiere thing yeah brilliant and it was like the world's greatest chefs and it was just like I'm like yeah I make potatoes online but I'm here I was like what the hell is going on this is absolutely ridiculous but yeah it has been so much fun to do the celebs are incredible the chefs are incredible and just being able to just create random food and try and

get Lin for Christy through it uh has much fun. Oh, it's so brilliant. Honestly, it's such a good show. And I know what you're saying about being on a show like that and kind of it's a bit of a pinch me moment because I get those all the time. But you're doing amazingly well, Poppy. It's incredible, your story. And that's why I thought of you to come on. Obviously, you're out at the

moment and on the telly and what have you but since you've you sent me your first book all those years ago yeah like you've you've got your third book out soon yeah I mean look that's also why I've got your first book oh amazing this is your first book oh oh I haven't even got one to hand I've not even got anything I've got both Emma's got both

and I'm really looking forward to the slow cooker for Christmas yeah it's gonna be great I'm really looking forward to get like slow cooker because I actually

was using it like yesterday I had some friends over and so got my slow cooker out and did some like pulled beef and I was like yeah it's from the book guys you can get a copy but I'm not telling you the recipe just yet no no no brilliant brilliant

no no no pre-order the book we can pre-order it now and it's out on the 12th is that right yes that's it yeah yeah absolutely oh thanks thanks for that oh ready for Christmas don't be silly ready for the warm season oh for the cold nights and you know dark nights drawing in chuck on the slow cooker in the morning when you go out I'll fish it out the back of the cupboard

I'll get some inspiration again yeah absolutely they always end up in the back of the cupboard collecting dust and you get them out and it's got a spider in it

in a cobweb a cobweb? cobweb yeah and then you have to clean it all out you know oh I don't think I want to use this

but there is some incredible recipes in there and desserts and stuff like this and the cookie dough, which is like one of the best things I've ever made in my whole life. To make in the slow cooker? Yes. Yeah, yeah. So you mix it obviously in a bowl.

You mix all the ingredients and do all your bits. And then you leave it. You cook it inside the slow cooker, just like raw dog straight into the slow cooker. And then you eat it out of the slow cooker with the caramel sauce oh my daughter's gonna love that yeah it's delicious that sounds like a sleepover yeah when eliza has her mates over she's gonna absolutely love that so poppy going back if you don't mind can we go back because there'll be a lot of listeners that know you and a lot of people that don't yeah let's just go back to you losing your job yeah in a restaurant lockdown happening and you having fun with your siblings um just fiddling about with tiktok tell us what

happened that is it that's all you need to know no so i i was a chef for about 10 years um working in different kitchens around like Birmingham and lived in London as well and at the time of Covid and the pandemic happening we were living in East London so I really thought I was cool I thought I am cool I work in Mayfair and live in East London this is like the best 20s that you can do yeah so I'd worked my way up to be a junior sous chef and was kind of like loving it. But because of the pandemic and everything, obviously everything hospitality closed

for those first few weeks. I remember everything was shut down. Unfortunately, lost my job, was very lucky to be put on furlough after a little while. But then about a month or two later again, they actually really let go of me and they'd let go of everyone who was like on a salary sort of thing which is like okay fine um so in that time uh me and my partner tom i had

called up my mom and been like can you go and pick us up from london because boris is about to shut down the like the motorway so can you please come and pick us up so i was very lucky they did come and pick us up in the middle of the night like it was like a secret mission SIS style like lights off as you come around the corner so they picked us up and because we had two dogs at the time and we didn't have a garden and we're in a small flat in London so it's like it'd be nice to if we're going to get locked indoors yeah bubble up be with the bubble up they've got garden we can kind of like yeah relax a little bit so we went back home to my parents for we were there for probably about six weeks or so and in that time my little brother they've got a garden we can kind of like yeah relax a little bit so we went back home to my parents for we were there for probably about six weeks or so and in that time my little brother

and sister at the time were 10 and 12 they were quite young um now because they're like proper teenagers I'm like what what happened in those two years but they were just scrolling on their phones I was like what is this I had done a couple of TikTok dances before in the kitchens but it went when it's musically a different like name for the app so I'm kind of like oh this is fun like watching it kind of got a bit addicted and then a cooking video came up and this young woman was doing a cooking video and I was like oh so okay it's not just like like this music dancing you can actually do some work. But yeah, exactly. I was like, I would love to do it with you, Trixie, but I ain't dancing, so I've got left feet.

It's not working. So yeah, so I was like, okay, well, let's do something. And I just kind of wanted to have a bit of their attention. I wanted to do something fun. I was bored. And also I was cooking dinner a lot of the time at home because I wanted to. My family have never been able to eat any of my cooking

because I've always been at work. And when you're at work, in the kitchen working like 70 hours a week and the last thing you want to do on a Sunday if you get Sunday off is to go home and cook for your family like you just want to go to bed you just want to get as much sleep as you can so I took it as an excuse to start cooking and and letting my family have a bit of you know what have I been doing for the past 10 years oh did they love that poppy did they really enjoy that yeah absolutely although my mom is a bit of a control freak but not she she loves cooking as well so and I'm a bit I to be fair I am a bit messy in a professional kitchen I am not messy I'm very very strict but at home I am like a Tasmanian

devil like you know going around the house and it just, there's mess everywhere. She's a bit like, oh, should we do something a little bit with less pans? And I'm like, no, you need about 12 pans on to make this a la carte meal that I'm doing. So yeah, so I started just doing videos of the dinners that I was going to make, you know, it was a tomato sauce, I believe was one of the first things I did, which was just a recipe that I've been doing in the kitchens. And it was kind of, it wasn't like a massive load of traction to begin with but it was something to do and my little sister was getting involved and you

know we were able to kind of bond over stuff and make churros and just make the days kind of a bit more interesting so I gotta say I did feel completely like lost because I have only ever done chefing and when it's completely gone so I don't I don't know how to help at any point there's so many people in a horrible dangerous situation I don't know how I can help yeah and so when we started doing videos I started getting comments of there was one comment from a key worker at the beginning saying like oh I'm a I'm a key worker and I was able to get home this week and and see my family. And I cooked them this pasta sauce or this tomato sauce.

And they absolutely loved it. And it was easy. And it really brought us all together. And I just thought, oh, okay, there's a way of kind of helping in my own way, which is kind of teaching or showing people some accessible, easy sort of recipes that I like doing. Or just even if it's giving them a break from having to sit through what was quite a dark time. Absolutely. With my stupid humour and silly expressions, like if it's anything that I could do. So that was how it came about.

And then when did it really blow up then? What was kind of, because obviously, for people that don't know, Poppy is the potato queen. So I'd like to dig, I want to dig deep into potatoes, which I know you get a lot of, but I don't care. I've got you for a half hour and I need to ask you because I'm very excited. But was it a potato TikTok that blew up? Is that the reason why you're called that name?

Yes, basically. So I kind of did, I did like loads of recipes. I was doing what a chef eats at days unemployed and doing like breakfast, lunches and dinners. And they were doing really well. And I think I'd got to about 100,000 followers, which still for me, I was like, this is huge. And actually I was like, maybe I could make a career out of this. Maybe I carry on still looking for jobs or this sort of stuff. And then i had

cooked tom a dinner and it was steak and some crispy cute potatoes and he went have you videoed this and i was like nah i went no i literally said i don't think anyone wants to see bloody potatoes we did a whole of tiktok we were desperate for it exactly damn he was right as well um i don't like being wrong so when he gets things right I'm like oh you cheeky bugger well it's good he was right this time oh yeah absolutely so he's like please make them again record it because those are delicious I was like I can't be arsed to do the steak and he's like no no just do the potatoes because they're so good um and then that video got a million views and I was like oh okay that's huge like that is massive like all my other videos

were probably about 10,000 20,000 views you know yeah still huge for me but then seeing that go to a million I was like okay well what is it about that recipe video so then about a week later I did another potato recipe video and that got almost a million views I was like ah there seems to be a correlation here where potatoes are really, really popular. And I'm really lucky because I have always kind of looking back at working in kitchens. I ended up always being the potato. I'll get, yeah, Poppy can make the dauphinoise. Let her do the fondant.

She can do the roasties, the chips. I was subconsciously always cooking potatoes um so I just went back through the recipe books and all my writings and scribblings and whatever I'd written down about potato recipes I'd done and because we went back into a lockdown in November of 2020 uh kind of like a scheming marketing uh person like advertising I was like I've got 25 days where people are not going out like there's no more help to eat no we are staying in and I can kind of I can get people's attention so I said I'm going to do 25 days of potatoes like every single day we're going to do 25 days of just potato recipes and that is what kind of really rocketed what is now like the most amazing crazy career and title anyone could ever have so you

know I did about two weeks and it was all it was very good I've kind of gained about 100,000 followers and then I did a little compilation video so put all the little recipe videos in the background and I decided to I was quite proud this was one take of me just talking in a posh accent and she went hello and welcome to potato tiktok and it's just me talking over that's it there's nothing there's nothing to it there's no recipe in there there's nothing it's just pictures of potatoes and me talking over it and it got a million followers overnight like followers so my tiktok went from like 200 000 followers to like 1.2 million overnight, which was terrifying. So I woke up and I was like, what has happened?

What is this? That is amazing. But you know what? Terrifying. But I have to say this because you get a lot of people, right? And they'll go, oh, what does, you know, she's only, which we can again talk about because you call them out. And I love you for it. I love you calling out the hate that you get.

I love it so much. It's absolutely brilliant. It's what we should all do. But when people say, oh, she only does this, you know, she only does that, she only does, you really thought about that. Do you know what I mean? Like you say, in an advertising mind, it's really, really clever what you did. Really, really clever.

It feels quite manipulative, but I'll take it as smart as well. It's smart. People were in and you wanted to do something. something exactly I kind of wanted to show off you know I'd gone through some of the things that I could make um and then I remember as well I was like oh god I've still got about a week left or a few days I was like what on earth am I gonna now cook and so the first thing I went to do was duchess potatoes which no one likes no one likes duchess it's just piped mash uh but I was panicking so yeah so then I had to try to up my game and get really good recipes for the last few and then we finished on what is now what I think probably one of the most

viral potato recipes which is a 15-hour potato which is a recipe I've made in restaurants and I just called it the 15 hour potato because there was the hundred hour brownie that was going kind of wild at the time and so I called it 15 hour potato and that was it people just it was everywhere everywhere and I was like what have I done from that did you then get your first book deal no I had already weirdly I'd already got the book deal right and that's when I had a moment I was like oh okay I can probably maybe I can make a career out of this or that I can stick to doing social media and I don't have to go back into kitchens so I'd already got the book deal so then when I had done the proposal I was writing it up and then because potato

gate happened I then had to put a potato segment in recipe into each one. So the first book also got potato in. So I changed it. I was like, I need to put potato recipe. So that was like, this needs to happen. But it's wild though that I'm still, I've got what?

The first book, an air fry book, a slow cook book. It's amazing. Where's the potato book? Where's the potato book? Well, it is true. I do feel we need a potato book. We're like Bloomsbury. Come on, let's get potato book? Well, it is true. I do feel we need a potato book. We're like Bloomsbury. Come on, let's get potato book on the go.

With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. You're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. With potatoes, I genuinely think potatoes are one of my favorite things. I could live on crisps.

So crisps for me, I love. So there we go. Massive potato person. I don't mind mash, but I prefer it rolled in breadcrumbs as a croquette. Yeah, that's a really good shout. As in like, I love a mash, but if you can then get a crispy exterior on it, why would you not? Why would you not do that? Why would you not do that?

I do love a croquette. Do you like a ham and cheese? Are we doing like a little? No, I was just going plain. Just a salty ranch. Just a plain. I don't mind a cheddar croquette. I don't make my own.

I just buy them. Just go into M&S and buy them. However... Here we go, M&S, yeah. Get us that Christmas party love. I know, I know. It's true. I do bloody shop there.

It's not a joke. There's something I want to make of yours, which is in your book, which I haven't done yet, which is the bacon and garlicky. Is it mash or is it a dauphinoise? It's like a – I'll just call it bacon-y, garlicky, potato-based. Like it's just – it's everything. Is it like smashed potato?

No, it's slices like a dauphinoise, but it's in a bechamel it's in a cheesy sauce rather than a like cream like a dough for this in a it's in a bechamel it's in that um or mornay i suppose because it's got cheese in it it's got loads of garlic and it's got loads of bacon and it's absolutely divine it is it is really good it's definitely um it's after you know when you feed people and they go i need to go to sleep that's the kind of dish that is like i'll put people to sleep that one will food coma yeah an absolute food coma but it's the best kind of what it's the best one it's so good delicious and so poppy at the moment then your career is your book writing you're now on the telly as a

chef what would you like to do next because you you're only are you 29 just 30 this year 30 this year oh 30 this year right so you're still very very young to be doing achieving everything that you're achieving what would you love to do in the future because you're obviously a doer and you're you know this is why i've really lovely listeners to have someone on like this because i always say to you about positive. When I have listeners and they text in or whatever, and they might be a bit low or they're not sure what they're up to or they're at a crossroads. You know, you went through something that was really bad and you turn it into a positive. So I'd love to hear your, you know, your ambitions.

What do you want to do next? I think the next steps, I'm doing youtube at the minute that's my kind of that's my that's what i'm hyper focusing on because i right tv is incredible and amazing but like you would imagine it can take ages to get the ball rolling on anything it's very unpredictable and i'll be honest with you cooking shows are kind of declining quite uh rapidly and which i'm so sad about poppy i know let's talk about that for a minute i know why are there not more cookie shows i love cooking shows i mean i love cooking shows i could watch them it's just my go-to thing to sit and relax to it's my comfort show what is your favorite i know that you say because you lost john and when you were 10 but

she was a huge influence to you and she always had Keith Lloyd on and cookbooks around you you know and all of that lovely kind of nostalgic stuff but growing up what do you think apart from Keith Lloyd say have been your your other kind of go-to cooking shows it's like the the five titans is like jamie nigella gordon was one of my favorite my nan wasn't so keen because the swearing and stuff but i loved it uh rick stein and um delia they were like the the big five in the house and keith ford as well but like apart from him yeah they were kind of the ones that we that we were kind of all obsessed with um and it's just it's like jamie obviously still has a couple shows that come out a few years you know jenna always has hers like towards christmas time didn't you with the book and everything and i love

that that's like comfort i'm like i'm ready to sit down and i'd say a cup of tea but i think it's more like a hot toddy really with nigeria i think so or a glass of bailey's or a little glass of bailey's yeah it's gonna be something from the micro wave i watch jamie oliver's uh christmas eve special every year on christmas eve it's kind of a go-to you know it's you know carol's at king's then it's jamie's christmas eve getting ready yeah absolutely when you watch jamie do his roast potatoes, the famous ones, which he does whole, he does them whole, he peels them whole, he boils them. Am I right? He parboils them, chucks them in the oven. And then fluffs them all up.

He does it with a potato masher, doesn't he? Fluffs them all. I need to know the best way to do a roast potato. Well, I'm a bit of a traditionalist with a with a roast potato i yeah i just love like a to be fair i think there's a way to elevate a roast potato and you can make like a seasoning to go on them i think that's a really good way of like bringing as much flavor as you want but my basic steps or tips are, and I've got to say, whenever someone uses my roast potato recipe, they then do use it forever, which I'm like, yes, I take this.

I've got a pen. This is amazing. I've got a pen on my desk. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. It's essential to get the right potato. That is one of the biggest mistakes in potato cooking is not getting the right potato. Are we going Maris Piper or King Edward?

Maris Piper. Yes. So I do that right? Yes. King Edwards work and they're good, but Maris Piper is the best. And I honestly think if I ever have a child, I'm going to have to call her Maris Piper

because the amount I get through, like it's horrific how many Maris Pipers that I get through a week. Maris is a great name. Yeah. Little Maris Piper. Little Maris Piper O get through a week. Maris is a great name. Yeah, little Maris Piper. Little Maris Piper O'Toole. I like it.

Maybe a duck. Right, what are we doing? What are we doing? We're peeling. So peel. Yeah. And then you're going to get them into cold water in your pan. Yeah.

And it needs to be heavily, heavily salted. So I say it needs to taste like the sea because there's a whole process called osmosis and it keeps nutrients in if the water has the same level of like nutrients in or minerals which is the salt then you actually keep more minerals in the potato there's not there's not a transfer of minerals it all stays in okay and that's the same with most vegetables that you're boiling as well you want it to be quite heavily salted otherwise you end up actually losing the nutrients that you're trying to keep in by that's amazing i've always salted my veg but not heavily so i will get on the saxa don't worry and also a lot of food is better when it's been seasoned whilst it's been cooking rather than

at the end because then you just taste salt whereas when you season it whilst it's cooking you're tasting the flavors of the food anyway i could talk about salt a lot i should be the salt queen as well after this because i love that's fine there's a salt book coming obviously yeah so yes absolutely quarter them yep now i've got like i like to use quite large potatoes so i get nice large quarters or if they're smaller just in half so you've got you know plenty of potato to get your chaps around we're doing well so far we're doing apart from the heavily salting you're there these steps are good then you're going to boil them and i like to boil them a little bit longer because i know also i'm not

about i'm not sure about jamie's timing so i know delia's only seven minutes of boiling there's nothing's happened seven minutes i can't so once it's boiling i do about 10 to 15 and really get them kind of falling not falling apart but the outside needs to be crumbling already because that's where you're going to get that super crispy deliciousness so then once they're parboiled get them into the colander put the colander back over the pan that you've just used yes put a tea towel over and then put that back on the hob that you just used but don but keep it off but that residual heat from being on the hob gets any little bit of water that's dripping down and turns it into steam i'm so excited about this you don't understand this is really good honestly i

think the way that you actually write this down is killing me we're gonna struggle to keep her on the app for the rest she's gonna be i swear to god i wish ellia was here right now that's my niece who comes on here. But all we do is talk about how you're doing your potatoes, what you're doing with your potatoes. I mean, we're obsessed with potatoes. Oh, this is incredible. Okay, so you leave them for about another five to ten minutes.

Right. And then you get your oven on and you get it up to 220 degrees Celsius fan. So this is hot, super, super hot. Yeah. Loads of oil in the pan. I just use a vegetable like a neutral oil a vegetable oil um sunflower oil or if you wanted to you could do a um neutral olive oil because actually they go up to a lot higher heat than you expect them to go to so if you want to use an olive oil but just a neutral one yeah again this is a point if you wanted to probably could use some seasoning on your potato once Once it's steam dried a little bit, you could do a little bit with onion granules or garlic granules.

I'm happy with a normal bun though. I've got to be honest. Yeah. If I'm doing a roast beef, you know, like a proper roast dinner, I don't really want to load on it. Yeah. Sometimes I could chuck in a bit of rosemary, but I always cooked for my dad, Poppy. And he lived with me for a long time and he hated garlic. Oh, okay.

To the point where if I was chopping up garlic, it was like a vampire. He'd come in and say, get that rubbish out. He really hated it. So whenever I've seen Jamie chuck in a clove of garlic or whatever, I've just been brought up not doing that. So it's what you're used to. But I do like a few cloves in and a bit of rosemary or whatever and lots of salt. But let's carry on.

Right, we're keeping them neutral. Neutral into the oven. How long is this? 220? How long is this in for, this pan? Okay, so about five, ten minutes you steam in those potatoes in the pan. So then you've got the tray of oil in the oven. So that's going to be until it gets nice and hot.

So that's about five, ten minutes. So you can do that a bit earlier, but I'm just going through steps in probably the wrong sort of fashion poppy with the oil sorry because this is very important in terms of a measurement in my large baking tray is it a centimeter of oil is it an inch of oil how much oil am I putting in there I like to completely cover the base of the tray and it's probably about half a centimeter each um i for like a to be fair it depends how big your tray as well for like a basic oven tray it's it's probably around 100 to 150 mil of oil anyway that's getting hot uh then check your

potatoes and you should see that on the outside they get kind of white and that is the starch molecules which have dried up which means the dry whenever you want to make anything crispy the drier it is the crispier it will get so that's if it's chicken skin that's if i'm going to talk to you about pork crackling in a minute but let's carry on with the potatoes my a kiddies heel is pork oh my god i hate it i love it but i hate it it just takes age anyway that's a whole different thing um so anyway so once your oil's hot and you have your potatoes if they feel if you're like you need a little fluff up you give them a little shake in the colander a lot of the time if you steam dry them for long enough they don't really need it

tip them straight in give them a little toss get them in and that's about 20 minutes to 30 minutes at 220 super hot and then take them out turn the oven down to 180 degrees was it 200 degrees i can't remember the top of my head it's 200 or 180 degrees fan okay and then that's another half an hour 20 minutes and it's just that one turn in in the middle that's going to help you know you kind of want contact and surface area contact with that pan and the oil the whole time to get you those crispy edges and then that is that is as simple as it is don't really touch them 50 minutes 50 minutes but you've got them super hot for 20 minutes okay yeah i'm gonna do these soon give it a go yeah i'm certainly going to thank you so much obviously as well i do have

to always preface everything because i do get worried things don't work is that if you've got different ovens if you've got of course no you're absolutely right different size baking tray i get it of course i do work so i want everything to work for everybody all the time and i know sometimes you just can't you can't be in control of all of the things that happen but yeah it's it's my it's my go-to or or I do put sometimes a little bit of extra stuff on the potatoes before they go into the oven. Poppy when I pour them in the tray I'm going to get off potatoes in a minute because you're going to actually leave this zoom in a minute and say you're so boring but when I pour the potatoes into the tray from the colander am i right in saying that they should all be on the tray none should be piled up on top of each

other single file single um layer of potatoes so you need to find the you know if you're doing for loads of people you need a bigger tray and all that stuff yeah when i've got my family around puppy and there's 14 of us sometimes on a sund, I have to do two loads, two massive trays. Oh, my God. That is ridiculous. Two big trays. That's usually seven and a half kilos of Maris Pipers I do. Do you do like one potato per person or is it like?

Oh, no, I don't even. One and a half? You know. Because six rotatos is enough on it. Eight rotatos per person. Yeah, you're right. You're're right but then there's some leftover you have later cold what i do and i'm really bad for it again because i'm a chef and i should put food away but i don't after a roast dinner i can't be arsed i am drunk full and tired so i'm not putting food away so like i will leave out like the scraps and those potatoes that are left when they've gone

like cold and sticky and tacky and they're like not crispy anymore but you dip them into salt just straight into like oh that's my favorite bit when you dip them into the beef fat from the tray yes oh it makes me so excited i'm so excited it's a bit warm. Am I going to have to put an explicit warning on this? Will everyone come? I don't know, I'm getting a bit excited. I'm getting flutters.

I'm running, oh yeah, give me a potential. Oh, shh. That is why, Poppy, you're so popular because people do get excited about food and that is also something that is so refreshing because you're a beautiful young woman and you are talking about cooking and food and i just that's so lovely you know a lot of people stereotype kind of chefs we see a lot of men we also see kind of older people, if you like, your Delias or your Prue Leaves

or do you know what I mean? Mary Berries. But to see a gorgeous hot lady talking about roast potatoes. Carry on. No, but it's true. It's very, very good. It's very healthy.

It's brilliant for the children growing up, you know, teens. I just think it's lovely. You're not, you know, we see enough people parading around on beaches or whatever in Dubai that's fine you know it's whatever you want to do but it is really lovely to see you so passionate about food in the kitchen and loving food as well and I just love that I think as always that has always been something that I

didn't mean to do but also had it subconsciously. I know there's always subconsciously been there, like, you know, I've got like a younger sister who's chronically online, like we all are. And I just think there are going to be times where teenagers, young girls are going to look at themselves and go, oh, can I eat that? Can I eat that as well? Can I eat potatoes? Are they not scary foods? Are they, you know, something like that, which I have subconsciously definitely tried to make sure that it's never, that's never been part of, part of the Poppy Cooks brand.

It's never, it wouldn't be true anyway. It's not authentic of me to be like that, to like care. So it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be something that would ever happen, but. And also it's everything in moderation, isn't it? It's everything in moderation. Absolutely. Do you know what I mean? You should always be able to enjoy your food always always so moving on if you don't mind as we are talking about social media and kind of images and different things like that I often sort of obviously I follow you on Instagram I'm

not a TikToker can you believe it so you're hugely famous on TikTok but I can't do it Poppy I'm 41 I think I missed a boat I just can? So you're hugely famous on TikTok, but I can't do it, Poppy. I'm 41. I think I missed a boat. I just can't. Honestly, I go on there and it just gives me a headache. So I follow you on Insta. And I see that you call people out for being so rude to you.

One of my favorite things to do. It is fucking fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do you ever get responses from the arseholes? Occasionally. There's been one or two where we'll kind of carry on the argument on DMs, on direct messaging. But it's, no, not really.

They normally end up hiding, deleting, getting angry. I was like, oh, well, if you're being an arsehole and you don't want to know about it don't do it absolutely and when it first started happening Poppy how did it make you feel or were you were you always quite thick-skinned about it because I know in the past I've been it's just my personality the way I am you know brought up working-class family you sort of get on with it and it's never really bothered me as such someone said to me on x the other day something about oh I don't know she's no oil painting or whatever and I put back thanks very much but I'm sorry I'm not

a model I don't know what you're talking about I've never I've never said I was a model exactly you idiot but then a lot of people say don't call them out because they're getting what they want. Do you get comments like that? A lot of people say, oh, don't do it. You know, block them, delete them. But it's not about whether or not those people are getting what they want. It's actually about the fact for me, I think if, like you a little bit, I am very comfortable, confident in what I am. I'm not trying to, you know, I don't care if you think I'm fat. I don't care. I don't care if

a stranger thinks that I'm fat. It's actually ridiculous though. It's ridiculous, yeah. But what I do care about is if they say that to the wrong person and it's not someone who's in a public eye and it's just someone who they decide that they want to start abusing online, who is just, maybe it could be someone my age at home, maybe someone your age at home, maybe someone younger who isn't in a situation where they're comfortable or confident or it might actually get to them, then they should be called out for it. And I feel like I want to do it so that hopefully the next time they go to do it, somebody else, they might think twice about if they should do it. I completely agree. I completely agree.

Come at me, sweet. I actually get more offended if people don't like the food and they talk about the food. I don't mind. Don't mind me. I honestly, when I first started, I was trying to be a bit viral and did like a watermelon steak because, you know, it's a click-baity. What was it?

Tell me. A watermelon steak. Like it's, you know, it's not. Right. It's like, oh, here's how to do a vegan steak. And it is a bit click-baity, but I was like, I'll do it anyway. It's fine because it is delicious.

I quite like watermelon in salads and so whatever, I'll do it. And then people destroyed me for the food. And I was like, I can't take this. The food is like the one thing that I think I get right. So please don't come for the food. So I had to actually start therapy because I was like, this is too much. But the stuff with the face, the hair, the you're no chef.

I'm like, well, I've got all the receipts to prove it. So you can say what you like. There's nothing that you can take from me just don't insult me food it's only jealousy it is only jealousy most of those kind of articles and comments that you get underneath a Daily Mail article or whatever I just think you know it's very odd it's very strange behavior I don't know what it is i have never that i can remember even before being known online been online and like just decided to give a nasty opinion about anything neither have i i didn't i didn't even used to leave like nice comments like i didn't

leave comments i didn't have a i don't know i don't know obviously it's lovely for people to leave nice comments and i really do appreciate that. It's not about that, but I never really spoke to anybody online anyway. I just used it to look at things and not really do anything. I've never had the want to go onto a Daily Mail article and say what I really think because I don't care that much about strangers online or whatever. Yeah, I think there's just a lot of kind of bitter angry sad people around

which is a bit of a shame yeah it is a bit of a shame i think it's just it's a mix of that and also just it is attention seeking which is sometimes a bit sad to think about that maybe these people just want just want some kind of communication and the only thing the only way they think they can get it is by being quite abusive but really yeah if you were just nice then you could probably you'd probably have more more luck with more people outside of the screen yeah so I completely agree but I think what you do is fantastic honestly I really really do and yeah I just think you are brilliant I really really do thank you I but I also really appreciate I I love being able to be funny and mean at the same time because I'm I am secretly a little bit mean

like people don't see it but I am but like I love calling people bellends online it's great and it's an excuse if you're coming to me and being horrible to me I have an excuse to call you a bellend it's lovely well everybody you heard it here first if you'd coming to me and being horrible to me, I have an excuse to call you a bellend. It's lovely. Well, everybody, you heard it here first. If you'd like to be called a bellend, head over to... No, I'm joking. If you ask nicely, she'll call you it twice. Yeah. You have to pay for it from me.

You can get it for free. Don't you worry. So in your house at the moment then, you and Tom, are you, do you have a lot of people around? Because obviously now you're not in the kitchens for 70 hours a week.

Do you do a lot of entertaining at home? Do you have a lot of people over and stuff? We do. It's weird. I've gone from being in a kitchen for 70 hours a week to just being not at home 70 hours a week still. But I don't know what I'm doing. There's just so many things going on but I never know what I'm actually doing so as soon as we get a chance we always have some people over yeah so yeah so last night I had my

our best friends uh Lucy and Haz over and our other best friend couple as well uh Martha and Jack and Lucy and Haz have got a little boy called Hunter who's our little godson so So we were having just kind of, I don't have a barbecue in a minute. So it's barbecue food, but not really barbecue food. It was a generalized M&S sweepstake of what can I get done now quickly. Perfect. Before they all turn up. Because I've been this weekend been doing food festivals and stuff, which has been amazing. So it was just kind of like, whenever we get that opportunity,

we have people over. Yeah, I love it. Absolutely love it. That's lovely. Do you enjoy going around town and, you know, around the country doing festivals and talking about food? Do you sort of do Q&As about food or are you doing kind of live food prep, you know, stuff?

Live demos, yeah. Live demos. It's been so good. So I did Big Feastival, which is in the cotswolds which was so much fun so much fun that's the blur bloke isn't it feast yeah that's alex james yeah yeah yeah what's he like i never got to get to meet him oh did you know i would love to because i do love the cheese blue moon blue monday cheese very good yeah yeah yeah he's did well didn't he very good so i did want to try and snag some like

cheesy freebies but unfortunately no to no avail fair enough did rock oyster also uh recently earlier this year which is in padstow well near padstow um so i am getting into this food festival scene i really enjoy it and also it gives me an excuse to just act like an idiot on stage. I did drama as a GCSE, so I love being the centre of attention. Brilliant. So I get to cook, do the centre of attention thing, get people involved, ask everyone what their favourite roast potato flavor is or whatever it is, and then go off and fanny around at festivals and watch music.

It's a really good fun. It sounds brilliant. Funnily enough, I did my first ever Q&A at a festival last weekend. Oh, really? I was at Carfest, Chris Evans' festival. I almost did that. Oh. I'll put a sine there.

I just couldn't make it work. Damn. Next time. Yeah, next time for sure. But I really loved that kind of being on stage, doing a Q&A, and then, like you say, enjoying the day of festival. Loved it. It's so good.

It's so much fun. Really, really good. What was your Q&A all about? It was just a career and kind of turning 40. It was really lovely, just a Q&A really about, you know, EastEnders and podcasting and, you know, lots of different stuff. It was only a little hour. It was only 10.45 in the morning, early doors, early morning.

You know, get me on early i'm not big enough to do anything late and then one o'clock that's not that's such a lie but you do get to then the excuse to walk around and watch music and and do little bits and eat food who's a car fest is it car it was lovely it was ollie murs and like you say lots of q a's tim peak was there which was amazing. And yeah, it was really, really sort of varied because you have kind of star stuff, you have food stuff, you have the cars, obviously. I highly recommend it. Really nice. Really good. I'd like to do it again next year. Really good. So what's your next, are you filming still? You still filming

the show at the moment or are you finished? Yes, so yeah we're still in there which is good really exciting you're still filming so that's really busy that's really really good and then christmas time do you get to do loads of kind of lovely festive cooks yes i do all my festive cooks so i actually like a tv production company and like a supermarket I have to try and get my Christmas stuff done in like September October time um get ahead get it recorded get it made because otherwise it just gets so hectic because I've been I've been really lucky I've been able to kind of expand my team so now it's actually having to be organized it used to just be me in a kitchen at home recording videos and I could just do them on the day and get it done but now it's like you have to be organized so I have to try and get all my uh recipe content kind of done

for October so that we can actually have time off and you know celebrate Christmas without it being Christmas Eve and still they go what what's the 24th day of Christmas potatoes what are we going to do yeah so we're going to start recording some potato content for Christmas soon which I'm really looking forward to oh that's brilliant I don't know how many other ideas because every year I do 12 days of Christmas potatoes that's like the thing that's one of the things that people literally comment like I can't wait for the Christmas potatoes which is hilarious it's become a staple in the poppy cooks world I feel like you could do the kind of croquette with a kind of bacon and sage. That's the thing.

Every single thing I do for Christmas, it's got bacon, sage and brie. So I need to think of something also outside that realm. But croquettes are really good. I haven't actually done that yet. Chestnuts? Yeah, chestnuts. We love a chestnut. Chestnuts and cranberries, breaded.

Yeah. You can have it. You can have it. You can have it. If I see that online and I know that you're making a croquette because of me, my life's made. It'll be, that's it. It could be Natalie Cassidy's croquette. Just say Nat's croquette.

Nat's chestnut croquettes. Perfect. Sounds a bit naughty, that, doesn't it? It does a little bit, yeah. A little bit camp, but don't we love it just can't help it um poppy i cannot wait to read your new book i cannot wait to get the slow cooker book i cannot wait to see what you do next you are absolutely brilliant you're beautiful you're talented don't let anyone say any different about you and i hope at some point in the future we can have a festive drink who knows we should meet up in town when

you're in london and have a little drink we should we definitely should i'll bring some croquettes yeah perfect potato crawl around all the restaurants potato crawl potato uh dish in every yeah that is no i only want to try hers I'm not bothered about everyone else's yeah you know what you need to come over

and I'll do you some roast we'll do a roast dinner oh that'll be lovely me and Michael no garlic no garlic oh bless you Poppy thank you so much

for being a guest on Life With Nat no thank you so much for having me it's been amazing lovely to chat. And also for people listening, I feel really bad because I did miss the,

I was meant to do this earlier today. I wasn't going to mention it, Poppy. Now you've mentioned it. Let me tell you something, listeners. I love this lady so much that we were meant to be recording this at 10.30am. And by 11 o'clock, 11.08, I get a little message on Instagram saying, oh, I'm so sorry.

I'd forget my head if it weren't screwed on. And I said, it's all right, Poppy. Can we reconvene? Can we do it later? And you, my listener, you know what I think about lateness and you know what i think about this organization however it's poppy hotel and i don't mind i'm terrible i'm so sorry you know what i'll be honest with you obviously we had friends over last night yeah and then where they stayed and they had the baby here and i just was distracted and a little bit hungover. I'll be honest with you. Food coma? Yeah.

A little bit of a hangover. Listen, don't worry. I didn't mind. I was around and I would have changed it for anything because I want my fans to listen to you and I want people to follow you. So there you go. All of Poppy's handles will be in the info underneath this episode. Please follow. Please watch her cooking. She's brilliant. And she isn't just a potato queen. Her recipes are amazing. Desserts, everything, main dishes, fancy as fuck. All of it is there.

Let me know what you think of this episode. And Poppy, happy cooking. Oh yeah, happy cooking. And I'll speak to you soon. Yeah, we'll see you soon. Thank you. Thank you so, so much. Oh my God. Honestly, i am poppy super fan

i cannot wait to make those roast potatoes emma oh i was so surprised you didn't just check out a zoom and go and just get on it just get the maris pipers out so much i haven't got any potatoes i'm very excited i'm so excited honestly, what a lovely girl she is. Just such a lovely girl. Real, down to earth, normal, a little bit of me. I hope you've really enjoyed this episode, everybody. Please let me know your thoughts. 07788 201919. If you make the roast potatoes as well, we could all send pictures of them and then I'll send them on to Poppy and I'm sure she'd love that. So please do. And remember all of her handles

and her book and everything. The info will be at the bottom of this podcast. Thank you so much for listening today. Have a lovely weekend and I'll speak to you soon. See ya. Hi, this is Chris McCausland. And this is Diane Boswell.

And we've got a new podcast, haven't we, Di? We do. What's it called? Winning. Isn't. Everything. Every week, me and Diane, we're going to be having a little catch up on the back of Strictly, aren't we, Di? We are. I've missed you, Chris.

I've missed you, too. We're going to talk some nonsense, so why not tune in? Available everywhere you get your podcasts.