Perfect Day with Jessica Knappett - EP 46: George Egg

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

The Snack Hacker himself, comedian, cook, podcaster and author George Egg is here to share his perfect day this week. Grab your tissues as we take a trip down memory lane and hear some fantastic stories about George’s passion for food, comedy, his family and barbecuing - much to his neighbour’s dismay.  Like and subscribe for brand-new episodes every Thursday. Follow us on Instagram @perfectdaycast. And, why not get in touch? Email us at [e-mail] A Keep It Light Media ProductionSales and general enquiries: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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All right then. There's another thing on the to-do list, gotta go and move Jessica Knappett's bog. Hello Perfect Dayers, I'm Jessica Knappett and you are carrying that book around even though you know you're not going to read it. Joining me this week is the snack hacker himself. He's a comedian, he's a cook and while content creator really doesn't seem like the right name, he also makes lovely artistic, interesting and delicious videos for social media. It's George Egg. We kickstart things with a tea party on Dad Island. We hear about

some obsessive barbecuing and some less than pleased neighbours, George tells us about his creative process for his videos and about his brand new book The Snack Hacker coming out next week. Get some tissues ready listeners because George reaches into some beautiful memories for this perfect day and on a few occasions we both get a bit teary-eyed. Everyone, link arms, we're going for a trip down memory lane. This is George Egg's perfect day. I am really genuinely sorry for my lockdown induced amount of intemperate barbecuing. All right then. George, you have Post-it notes all over your wall, which those Post-it notes feature in

your book. And I think that might be your book outline. That literally is my book up there. Yeah, which is still up there. Were you not tempted when you finished the book to be like, let's get rid of this? I go through a post-it note phase with my writing. And then when I finished the script, I'm so happy to tear all the post-its down. But do you keep them?

I do. And then actually what happened was yesterday I got notes on my script and I was like, I don't know why I took the post-its down, but your book has been published, so it's over now. But there's loads of things that didn't end up in the book that are on the post-its. So they're kind of, I'm sort of thinking, well, that's for the next book. Second book. You know. Books two through nine. Are you really working on a second book already?

No. No. I mean, in my head, I mean, well, I mean, I've thought all the stuff that didn't end up in this one has the potential to be part of another one, you know. I can't believe there's, I mean, I can believe because it's infinite. Well, like food. The power to, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh no, totally. Well, no, that's why, yeah, I feel like it's one of those things I've sort of stumbled upon that there's no end to it. So. For those that don't know, George Egg is the snack hacker. He describes himself as a comedian who cooks. Is that fair? Yeah, totally.

Or a cook who makes people laugh. I think a comedian who cooks because I'm not a trained chef at all. I've done one job in my life where it was actually cooking. It was the first and only kind of job job that I've ever done. And then I started doing stand-up when I was 19. So I am 52 now. So it's all been comedy until 2015 when I went to Edinburgh and did a cooking show. And then it became cooking and comedy. And then after lockdown, it became a bit more cooking than comedy really, although I still do stand-up and my live shows. But like a lot of stand-ups, I think what is clear is that you've spent a lot of time, a lot more time driving around and sleeping in hotel rooms than you have probably being on stage

performing comedy. Oh yeah, oh totally. Well that's it's maddening. I mean it's something that's been covered I suppose but that whole thing of, yeah, when people go, well, you know, you only work for 20, 30 minutes a night. And it's like, yeah, but it's a whole day of driving and thinking about it and worrying about it and then chewing over it afterwards. And yeah. Literally in your case. And you have turned that kind of like post show hotel snacking. I mean, there's a lot more to it, but that side of things, you've turned that into an art form essentially, haven't you? Art form feels like far too much of a pedestal to put it on. But I mean, well, I've turned it into an entertaining bit of theatre, I suppose. You know, it's definitely a game. That's what I like about it. The snack hacker, George Egg, what he'll do is, what you'll do is you'll take an existing

snack that we all know and quite like, you know, some packet noodles or a rolo yogurt or a Boots prawn sandwich. Yeah, that's a good one. And then you'll elevate it. Yeah, exactly that. Even more delicious. I mean, yeah, taking things that people who don't necessarily think of themselves as cooked, sort of things that just anyone would eat and kind of going, look, you can do very little to it to make it something more interesting. So yeah, it's a kind of...

Like a bit of sea salt, molten sea salt crystals on a rollo yogurt, for example. Yeah, smoked salt actually specifically works particularly well. I mean, but plain salt works just as nicely. But yeah, so really, really small things like that, or more ambitious ones like taking a steak bacon, turning it into a beef stroganoff. So adding, you know, sour cream, cornichons, dill, mustard, smoked paprika, put those in, massage it all together. So nibble the edge off, open it up like a little purse in the ingredients, go mush it together, eat that. And it's just, should I tell you how they all started? How it all- Tell me how it all started. We've gone straight in.

We have, haven't we? Because there wasn't any like, are we starting? No intro. No, no, no, no, no, no, we don't do that. We don't mess around because, well, also because you messaged me saying that your perfect day was 72 hours long. So the thing is, I mean, I've got loads of, I've got notes, of course I've got notes. Good. I love it. I'm worried about that.

I'm worried about it. I might get a bit emotional because, you know, but then other guests do things. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we get emotional. There's so much ground to cover. That's the thing. And if we want to get emotional, we can, we laugh, we cry. I mean, I might have sort of by saying I'm going to get emotional might be that the best way to kill it. Because when I was writing my notes, I was getting a bit dewy eyed in places. And then when I was describing like to Nikki, my wife going, oh, this thing could be this and then that. And I was like, oh, I'm getting a bit choked. But so I probably won't now.

I'm bringing it back to the book just temporarily because a bit of your book that stayed with me, which I shared with you, was such a, it was just a brief moment in the book where you describe what your daughter calls an envelope. Do you want to just briefly tell the envelope story? Yes. So where's that whole thing of, of children getting words wrong. And it's, it's a recipe, a very simple recipe where you can just elevate malt loaf by microwaving it with lots of butter and then putting ice cream on it. And it almost goes like a sticky toffee pudding. It's really absolutely heavenly. It's just a little story. My daughter once, when she was about three or four, just said, can I have some envelope? I was like, what are you talking about? She went envelope like that. And then she opened the drawer and got the

soiree and malt loaf out. And I went, oh, malt loaf. And she was like, yes. Yeah, envelope. It's so sweet. And that stayed with me. And it was just such a small detail, but I think it's because I'm in that stage of mothering where my children are calling things weird names. Like vanilla ice cream is ganilla. And so just a lot of shouting at the freezer, which is called the Fridja. Can I have ganilla from the Fridja? The Fridja is lovely. Canilla too. When we used to give them a vitamin C supplement occasionally, and they'd call that, they'd say, can I have a vitamin seed? Can I have another vitamin seed? It's like, no, you only have one. The Snack Hacker book is lots of lovely stories from your life. It's sort of part memoir,

part recipe. There are hacks, but then there are also meals in and of themselves. But it's so jam-packed, full of joy and playfulness and creativity. Oh, thank you. Funny stories. So I really recommend everyone go out and check it out and also check out George on Instagram, because there's some wonderful videos. That's where all the great videos are. Oh, thank you. You've obviously had such an interesting life.

I think that's what's so lovely about the book is that we delve into moments of like how you got started in standup was that you started as a street performer. you got started in stand-up was that you started as a street performer. And there I loved the bit about you living on a co-op in Brighton. Yeah. Yeah. You've lived many lives, George Egg, and I feel like some of those lives are going to appear in your perfect day. I hope so.

They might not. I don't know. I can't remember now. Okay. No pressure. Make us cry now. What's your perfect morning? So my perfect morning, I'm a cat guy. We've got two cats. We've always had two cats. If one has died, we've bought another. We've always, you know, filled the gap immediately. Yeah. And I love it when they sleep on the bed and they really,

you know, what cats are like, they've totally got their own minds and for years they just wouldn't. And anyway, one of them has just suddenly started, it's just like, it's suddenly Robert has just suddenly decided, right, I'm sleeping on the bed. Robert's actually right at the back of the book. There's a, there's a nice big picture of him. So the day starts, I wake up and both cats are on the bed. So that's really nice. That's really comforting. That's important. Yeah. Just a nice gentle purr. Yeah, exactly. And kind of, you know, so Robert is enormous. Robert is, we've weighed him. The only way you can weigh a cat,

you know, is weighing yourself with and without the cat. Oh, look, there's the book. I've got the book here. I'm going, I need a visual for Robert. Oh, here we go. Robert, I'm going to hold it up to the camera in case we use the kit. Wow. He's a beast. He is an absolute beast. He's one of those sort of bluish gray cats. They've probably got a name. When we bought him, we thought he was a Russian blue. And then we took him to a vet and they said, no, he's not. He's a British short hair, something like that. He's massive. He looks like he's had quite a lot of hacked boots, prawn. He does look like that, but he's incredibly fussy. He is a I am's only. We've given him

like, you know, really nice, you know, chicken and bits of ham and anyway. On the photograph, there's a cast iron pan with some kind of... That's the meat balls, the veggie meatballs with tomato sauce. We'll go and touch by Robert Lucas, his I Am's Only. It was so much fun. That was the photo shoot days for the book was so much fun. It was just crazy. We say my friend Matt photographed it and he came down to Brighton and stayed for a week. And my wife went away and stayed with his wife up in Bath. And it was just Matt and me and my son, Gem, who designed and illustrated the book stayed up till like, you know, one in the morning doing photos and then getting

up really early. So there's a photo, we wanted a picture of my van going through the McDonald's drive through at dawn. So we went down to the marina at dawn and took photos of the car, the van coming through the drive through. And yeah, it was the same. The photos are lovely and the design is gorgeous. I didn't realize that was your son.

Wow. Yeah. So the whole, the whole snack hacker thing is a kind of me and him thing. So it all started in lockdown because we didn't, you know, we didn't have anything else to do. And so we started making the videos and, and it all snowballed from there. But yeah, he's a, he's an illustrator and he's done all my show posters and everything. And yeah, so it's a real, so it's a real father son. And then also, you know, there's all the stories about my dad in there too. And yeah, so it's all very, and then my son has now got a son as well. So I've got a grandson.

So you're on back to your perfect. Sorry. Yes. What happens and it's my job to steer us back and I must remember that. So we're on the bed with Robert. So Robert is on the bed and Matthew as well, both cats. And then so when out, so our kids are all grown up now, they will move to London and do their own thing. But in this perfect day there, of course they're small again. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, well, they're small in the first thing in the morning so we used to have this thing where we'd say let's have tea on Dad Island which was our bed. Oh stop. So we'd make a tray of tea and then the kids would all come and then all sit on the bed and

we'd all have tea. So yeah my perfect day would have to be tea on Dad Island with the kids being small. Are we actually sitting on Dad Island? Like, are they so small they're sort of crawling around? Yeah, yeah, they're kind of, I guess, between sort of two and five. There's three of them. And yeah, so they're all sat on the bed as are the cats. At the time, did you love being a dad to children that age or did you find it exhausting and it really tested your patience? Did it just love every minute? I mean, it's a long time ago. So there, my youngest is 24 now, 25 this year, and my oldest is nearly 29. And so, yeah, so I was, I was only just 23 when my son was born.

Yeah, you started young. Yeah, yeah. Especially for a man. Well, my wife's older than me. She's nearly five years older than me. So, and we were both still, you know, in our, in our twenties. So yeah. So, so my memory of it is that it was all really lovely. And I mean, there was stresses as well. I don't know. It's weird, doesn't it? You look back and you go, well, I don't know, you don't look back too far because yours are young, aren't they? But yeah, mine is still young, but I guess because I'm 40, that does make a big

difference because your energy levels are lower than they are. The energy thing is, I'd have had kids in my twenties, it probably wouldn't have been so exhausting. Yeah. No, I'm sure that, well, I know I have more energy then because, well, one of the things that's coming up is doing some DIY. And I used to say, we moved into this place when my youngest was three. And we spent about 10 years kind of doing it up. I'd get up and do stuff with the kids all day and then they'd go to bed. And then I'd carry on doing like building work till one in the morning. That's the energy of being young,200 pounds.

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Groceries that over-deliver. This is really good because I feel like we're getting little bits of insight into your life as well as hearing about your day. And you said that you started stand-up when you were 19. Yeah. Yeah, I did my first paid 20 minutes up the creek at 19 with long hair and a flat stomach. minutes up the creek at 19 with long hair and a flat stomach. And then four years later, you had kids. Were you working as a stand-up with these kids in your twenties? Now, to me, that sounds quite unusual. All the comedians I know are definitely delaying having kids in and taking it off entirely. How did that work? So I started doing street entertaining when I was like 16, 17, then started doing the

standup gigs from about 19. And for a number of years I was doing both and they really didn't marry very well because a street show is all about, you know, sort of delaying what you're going to do for ages and then doing a bottling speech. And then, you know, so it was a really sort of drawn out thing. And then obviously stand-ups much more about getting on and being gag, gag, gag straight away. And I found it really tricky doing both. And I got to a point where I was doing street entertaining gigs and my agent was saying, oh, they, you know, they don't want to put you because it's too not adult and there's nothing like, you know, rude in there particularly, but it was, they just sort of said

it didn't suit the street entertaining kind of scene. And then I've got up the creek, but apart from there, a lot of other places were saying, oh, you're too much of a street entertainer. So I went to move to Brighton when I was 19 went to university, and was doing the street entertaining still and like traveling up and down to London to do that and earning quite well from that. And yeah, I don't really I mean, I think we just, yeah, we finished university, I met my wife

at university. And then we just thought, let's, let's have kids. And I was earning enough from the street entertaining that I think at times were different. I mean, you know, upset any young listeners here. But you know, I managed to get a mortgage on a flat when I was an art student doing street entertaining at the weekends, because I know because prices. So, so depressing. So I think that's, I think that's the main, it is so depressing. And I've worried so much, you know, for my kids because of, you know,

But also just the idea that you could make enough of a living. I mean, maybe that, no, I'm sure that is still the case. You must have just been really good at it. I'm just thinking like making a living from doing street entertaining and- I mean, the street entertaining was, you know, I was getting a lot of contracted, you know, like going, doing festivals abroad and all sorts of things. So it was like, you know, paid. It wasn't like just busking. It was like paid, street entertaining work. Right. Oh, right. Okay. And here we are. So you are on, we've got Dad Island. So we're on Dad Island. Oh my God.

Let's keep going. Let's keep going. Okay. So we're on Dad Island and then we get up and we go downstairs and I guess magically as we go downstairs, everyone grows up and now they're their normal age and we've had a nice little burst of nostalgic youngness. It's a warm day. So it's a day like the spring of lockdown because that was mad, wasn't it? Just absolutely beautiful. And so I go in the garden and I cook breakfast in the garden. During lockdown, we built a kind of outdoor kitchen in the back garden. I got these two barbecues from Lidl, Commando Barbecues,

which are like the big green egg kind of ones, but mini versions. Oh, fancy, wow, okay. Yeah, and they did these bargain barbecues. And so I built this platform where they were sunken in and you had two of these mini barbecues. So it was like having a hob in the garden and you could have one going fierce and one going low. And because they were sunken, they were like on a worktop and you could put a pan on them

and cook normally. And it was just lovely. And we did so much. So much so in fact that I got, so I was getting obsessed and obviously wasn't going out and working at all. And so it's just having this glorious spring. And I know obviously, for millions of people, it was a terrible time. Obviously, for some people, it was like, actually, this is, it's suddenly been awarded this, this break. And I was cooking every day in the garden on the barbecue. And I got a letter from the council saying that a neighborhood complained about excessive

bonfires. Because I was literally doing breakfast, lunch and dinner. So I wrote a reply. Can I read the reply? Yes, please. I'm channeling my inner Joe Lysett here. So here we go. Dear Mr. Hicks, thank you for your letter. I'm hugely embarrassed, but I can guess what caused it. It wasn't a bonfire. I think it was a spate of what others would call excessive barbecuing and what I would call something like obsessive and excited lockdown cooking with new toy. Near the beginning of the crisis we're all dealing with my cousin's husband alerted me to a pending bargain going on sale in Lidl in the middle isles. It was a barbecue bargain that coincided with that spell of unusually hot

weather. A perfect storm if you will. You may have heard of a company called the Big Green Egg. They manufacture Kamado cookers, the ancient Japanese ceramic barbecue method which has in recent years become extremely popular in the West. It's a type of outdoor cooking that has fascinated me for a long time but the cookers themselves have been prohibitively expensive, a modest size version setting one back a cool £900 or there about. But Lidl were to be selling mini versions for £79. The Big Green Egg Maker Miniature version that's almost identical and that costs £595. That means that Ersatz Big Green Egg Mini Cooker being sold by Lidl was going on sale for just 13.3% of the cost of what you would expect to pay for such

a cooker normally. To put that in perspective, it would be like a 500,000 pound house being on sale for merely £66,386. To put it another way, for the cost of one big green egg mini barbecue, you would buy seven and a half little ones. I think the first analogy seems more impressive, but nonetheless, put that in your pipe and smoke it. How could I resist? I love cooking, I love cooking outdoors, I love a bargain so that Thursday I hurried to little to make the purchase. I went first thing in the morning and lucky as I did because they went like that and I put snaps fingers between two asterisks. The barbecue is a revelation for outdoor cooking enthusiasts. We're just over halfway don't worry. Its thick ceramic chamber

is extremely insulated meaning you can get it lava hot for fast searing with direct heat, but equally using the vents at the bottom and on the top, you can get it to cook low and slow, maintaining a cool cooking temperature for long periods. We're talking whole joints of meat, chickens, or even big vegetables like celeriac or squashes. Anyway, it goes on and on and on like that.

And then at the end I say, Mr. Hicks and neighbor, whoever you are, I am really genuinely sorry for my lockdown induced bout of intemperate barbecuing as with any obsessions they're short-lived and quickly replaced a week or so of almost constant filling the neighbourhood with smells of caramelised sausages and slow-cooked beef brisket passed as one would expect I'm still barbecuing occasionally but no more than any normal neighbour does

instead dedicating my time to my new hobby of teaching myself how to play the trumpet. Absolutely priceless. What a wonderful tactic to just overwhelm the guy with detail. I thought so and I hope they enjoyed it but that's evident of how much time you had on your hands. Yeah, of what lockdown was. And they've received that letter and gone, you know what, we take it all back. The man's and well, let's give him his space. We'll just close the windows.

But so anyway, so yes, so I'm in the garden and I'm making breakfast in the garden and it's all lovely and we'll have breakfast. Okay. And the whole family are there, but it's not, it's not that it is lockdown. It's just got the feeling of lockdown. Yeah. It's just that lovely spring. Do you find this every spring since I will say, do you remember how hot it was in 2020? It was a sort of ridiculous heat wave, wasn't it? Some years before, I remember, so my birthday's in March and me and Mrs.

Egg went to Pizza Express and we had to sit outside and now every, every birthday of mine I go. Every March, do you remember? Look, it's cold. I've got the heatings on, but do you remember the- Do you remember the alfresco lorraine, Mrs. Egg? Those were the days. One thing that I've just noticed in my notes, which is very important, and this covers the whole day, phones don't exist.

Oh yeah. I love this one. We have had it. It does come up a lot. And the fact that it comes up a lot means we should probably all get rid of our phones. Oh no, I really do entertain that. And I think the problem is that, so since doing the snack hack of videos on Instagram

and that kind of blowing up, I fiddle with my phone so much more and comparing myself to other, I hate the term, content creators. I thought you were going to say influencers. I hate the term influencers even more. Social media content creator. Which one is more preferable? They're both awful, aren't they? Also, it's not fair because people like you make social media really fun and playful and creative. And that does exist too. And I'm not joking when I say I do really think it's art. I know you've been very humble about it, but what

you do, it is art. And it's a shame that it gets so trivialized by social media. And it's a shame that it sits alongside makeup tutorials, but media and it's a shame that it sits alongside makeup tutorials, but there's nothing we can do about it. No, I mean, I think it's probably an age and this sounds all very sort of patronizing to younger people doing stuff online, but I think it is in my case, an age and experience thing that because I've done a lot of live performing and other things. Therefore when I come to make a video for Instagram, I am thinking about a lot of other aspects of it and similarly with the book. So the book, when I started it, it was going

to be just the cookbook and the publishers that commissioned it have been so open to it evolving. And I ended up turning it into, I mean, it is like an Edinburgh show, the book is, because it's in two acts, it's got an interval. I set things up at the start. So it begins with me at my dad's, and this is a bit of a spoiler, but I'm taking a load of frozen meals for him because he was widowed a year before and he wasn't very good at looking after himself. And he was towards the end of his life and I took all these frozen meals and then it transpires at the end of the book that actually that was the last time I ever saw him. There we go.

But, but, but yes. And so I wanted to make it like a, like a show. So I set up all the frozen meals that I've got actually refer to snack hacks that I do throughout the book. And then it all comes around and then you realise at the end. And there's clues throughout and so it sort of resolves and it's got this story arc. And I think that perhaps this is terrible, this is tiring everyone with the same brush, but I think that a lot of the cooking videos you see online are just shot from above or someone just cooking something and telling you how

much protein is in it, you know, whereas I feel like trying to make something more of an entertaining bit of performance or film. Yeah. And there's depth and meaning and storytelling. And that's pretty obvious. What's your process then? How do you go about it? Because you can tell a lot of thought and time and care has gone into your videos. How much preparation do you put into this stuff? I think it's a bit like with any kind of creative process, it is that sort of thing where you feel like you're not putting much preparation into it, but actually you're procrastinating an awful lot. So a lot of the videos have been like, oh, I should do one about Beckbiendale, for example, and then thinking about it loads and not. And actually, but then the filming of it is all quite

fast and quite, you know, and in Britain, it's not scripted. It's all, I mean, there's ideas and I'll have like an idea for a, for a joke or whatever, you know, inverted commas, which I'll put in. But we think about the filming and trying to get, you know, funny angles and just like really far away shots and stuff. And just looking at films we like and just trying to make it more of a cinematic thing and choosing good music. Who films them then? Is it your son? My son has filmed most of them, but now he lives in London, it's trickier. The more recent

ones I've self-filmed, but all the ones that went viral and that elevated my position on Instagram to something where people would go, oh, I know who you are. Some people would. They're all filmed by him. Yeah. Which are the ones that you're most proud of or the ones that went viral that kind of like... I mean, some of the ones where a number of them have had guests, a lot from the world of food, most from the world of comedy. And the way that's worked is the guest has filmed themselves having like one side of a conversation and sometimes improvising

reactions and things. Then I've looked at the footage they've sent and written around it and then filmed my half and edited it so it looks like a Zoom conversation. Some of the guests made so much effort. So Mackenzie Crook did one and his one went really, really flu. He filmed himself in of shed office in the garden. So he used to have a Robin who would go and visit him that he would feed. And the Robin was called Winter George. That's nice. And the Robin featured, or a CGI version of the Robin featured in Wurzel Gummage.

So there's a Robin called Winter George in Wurzel Gummage and that is a real Robin anyway. And he filmed himself in his studio talking about a sandwich that he used to make when he was a student, which I then recreate in my van. The effort he went to, he drew in the style of the artist who does the Great British Bake Off. He drew the sandwich and he had a drawing of it, which he held up. Anyway, then halfway through his conversation to the camera, the Robin just flies in in the background, takes some food and he's distracted and looks around and it's gone. And so many people commented going, the Robin, the Robin, do you see the Robin? Was that real? And it's like, yeah. So yeah, little moments. So that's, that's one of my favorites. And then we wanted to, so with

that one, we thought, well, we've got to make the video a bit of a homage to the style of filming of the Detectorists. So there's some shots of sort a bit of a homage to the style of filming of the Detecturists. So there's some shots of sort of Jew on a branch with the van Verde and the blood in the background. And so yeah, that sort of thing we had loads of fun with. That's probably my favorite. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes.

Get almost almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. See app for details. I'm worried that we're veering off. We have, but that's what happens. So we'll take it back. We are finished experts in the garden.

And there's no phones. That's the main thing. Yes. And also here's the other thing that I really want with this day. And it is, you must empathize with this as a self-employed, creative-y, performery kind of person. Every day I feel like I'm not doing enough. Oh God.

Yeah. But I also feel like I'm completely overwhelmed by stuff all the time. Oh my God. It's so nice to hear you say that. And so I want a day when I really feel like I'm having a day off. And I think that the phone's not existing thing would really help with that. But what is a day off? The only time I ever really feel like it's a day off is at Christmas time. Because I know that no one's going to get in touch with me and I know that I'm not missing anything and I know that I don't have to work. But we're recording this for instance, just after a bank holiday weekend. Bank holiday weekends are a nightmare

for me. But they don't exist, do they? I mean, I suppose if you've got small children then that somehow kind of marks out those things in school. It forces it, but it doesn't mean... I haven't finished the script just because it's bank holiday weekend. Oh no, completely. Or just any weekend. I mean, I just... Or holidays. I'm still going, I've got this long to-do list and I should start ticking off some more things. So it's never like, well, I'm not working today. Or I'm stopping because it's six o'clock. There's none of that. It's too much. So I want a day where none of that is in my head. I don't know how some kind of cosmic.

So we've taken the pressures of the world away. There are no phones. And is it lunchtime? No, we've only just had breakfast. Not quite yet. Right. Come on, let's crack on. So I tell you what else I'm doing, and this is an absolute perfect, I'm going to the dump. I love going. So in my perfect day, the car is full of stuff that we have in the last few days gone. We should, you know, we'll have a clear out of that.

Let's go through that. Should we take this to the charity shop? Blah, blah, blah. Shall we put this on eBay? You know, I can't be bothered. Let's just do it in the clothing bank at the dump, whatever. And the car's full of stuff. And so, now this sounds terrible.

It sounds like I'm sort of getting everyone else to do the washing up. But while all that is going on, I get in the car and I go to the dump and it's that real weight off your back feeling. The purge. I've had a nice purge. And then you get back and while you're at the dump, all the washing up has been done and the barbecues have been closed. The maids been.

Because they have lids. Two lids. Spick and span. And so, yeah. It's a wonderful feeling. The dump. It really is, isn't it? Love the dump. Do you like DIY? Because I was going to do a little bit of DIY. Yes. I know you love DIY because it's a big part of your sort of shtick, can we say? Georgia DIY chef. It was a whole show. So tell me about your passion for DIY.

I think it's a form of control freakishness of just kind of wanting to adapt my environment. And I think that's fed into all my live shows because every live cooking show is about, and all the snack hackers is basically about going, yeah, this is how this is, but I'm going to make it my way. Yeah. Let's make this. You know what I mean? It's like everything. So yeah. So my house is like, I don't want the bathroom there. I want it there. So I'm going to,

even though it's a massive job to actually move a bathroom and cut a slice of bedroom off and put a window in and move a toilet. I moved a toilet about 60 centimeters and it was such a massive job, but you can't move toilets. Well, you can, but it's a big, so you have to move all the pipes and everything. And it's a nightmare. And the wall. And yeah, I've been told, no, I've just been told, no. Well, send them around or I'll come around. And you round.

Moonlighters. Then there's another thing on the to-do list. Got to go and move. Go move. There's another thing on the to-do list. Got to go and move Jessica Napit's bog. Get it down. Imagine that on a to-do list, like at a meeting. Really? It's the top of the to-do list.

No, sorry. I'm unavailable for the Zoom today. I've got to move Jessica Napit's bog. My friend Dan used to say it's like a mental illness because I was forever, I was always doing DIY. I think when I was doing the house up and I was saying, this is, this is like therapy, this whole podcast, you know, because it is making me like, look at how I behave.

And so when I was doing the house up, I wasn't doing anything creative with my shower tool. I was just doing the same 20 minute to 30 minutes standup set night after night. And it worked and it serviced itself and it paid the bills. Right. So I wasn't doing it. I wasn't writing any material or anything, but I was totally into doing building the house. And then when I got to the end, when I kind of went, okay, it's, well, I say got to the end, there's still skirting boards that need to go on. You know what it's like. Yeah. And it was at that point when my kids were kind of more into, you know,

when they were in their teens, they were kind of didn't need me or us in the same way. That's when I went to Edinburgh and did my first show. So it's so it just totally, yeah. So do you think it was a creative outlet? Like you had this sort of, you had your safe set, and that was a way of- Like being creative. set. And that was a way of feeling creatively free within the confines of your home. Yes. And I suppose also doing something creative and productive that I felt was benefiting the family. I mean, doing a show obviously as far as then you can earn money from it does, but it's a more selfish, creative pursuit.

Did it benefit the household? How did Mrs. Egg feel about the constant DIY? Oh, the constant DIY. Unbelievably understanding. I mean, never. Yeah. I mean, just like so tolerant. I mean, we'd have like chop saws on the floor and Stanley knives and babies crawling around and it was just ridiculous. I remember my parents coming around and being like, this is not safe. Yeah, I grew up in a house like that and just, but it was incredibly stressful because it was not done. And it was like falling down.

It was sort of constantly being done up and it still is being done up. And it wasn't- This is your parents' house. It was my parents' house. My childhood was a DIY house. My dad insists on doing everything, but it isn't tolerated in the same way. Possibly because he also got a massively stressful job as someone who runs an intensive care

unit at the same time. Oh crikey. Wow. So I would say don't take it on when you've got young children. The reason why I'm projecting that on you is because that's what my experience was. But I can imagine if you've got like a, you're going off to do your stand up in the night and you're doing the DIY in the day and the kids are running around. This is a, this is paradise. Yeah.

I mean, it did. Yeah. I've no memories of it being stressful. I've memories of it being messy and chaotic. But in a fun way. Yeah. So should we move on to your afternoon? We in African territory? messy and chaotic. But in a fun way. Yeah. So should we move on to your afternoon?

Yes, but just before the afternoon starts. So I find these days that I'm forever going, how is it 5.30? How is it seven o'clock? This is insane. You know, I've only ticked three things off the list. What have you been doing, George? I don't know. Procrastinating.

So my point is though, is that whereas where it's a day when you go, how is it seven o'clock already, this is one of those days when I get back from the dump and blah, blah, blah, everything else. And I've done a bit of DIY and then I've gone, it's only 11.50. Yes. And all this has happened. Yes. So that's one of those days. So tell me what's happening. We've had a lovely morning.

So we get in the van and we go, we head to the ferry because we're going to have the afternoon in France because I, I so when we were kids, we mostly holidayed in the UK. And the only place that we would go outside of the UK was France and we'd always go on the ferry because my mum didn't like to fly. My mum didn't like to travel anywhere really. But that was the only thing that she would kind of tolerate the ferry going to France on the boat. And it's such a childhood, lovely memory of mine of rumbling onto a ferry. And that's like fear and excitement of going over the rail thinking the smell of the ferry. Yeah. And the shudder. That's the thing I really

remember that real like, you know, when it's breaking or pulling out or whatever. So we all will go to France for the afternoon. And we or whatever. So we all go to France for the afternoon and we do my favourite thing when I go to France. So I hate shopping, but I do like shopping in the supermarket. And my highlight of going to France is shopping in a French supermarket. The supermarches, the supermarches. So the first bit of the afternoon is I go to the supermarket and I've got one of those enormous trolleys and I'm just let loose in the supermarket.

They just know how to do it there, don't they? What do you think it is? I think what it is is they're into their food in a way that a lot of people in the UK aren't and so their fruit and veg is great because if the lemons that we get over here were in the French supermarket, everyone would be going, well, I'm not going to buy them because they're not, you know, disgusting, too small and rubbish and yeah. And the tomatoes and so on like that. So I think, yeah, they're into their food. That's why. What are you getting? What are you going straight for? I'm going straight for one of those lovely buttery lettuces. Well, I'll see you in a minute because we have our own trolleys because I'm going to the Crisps Isle. Crisps in France? Have you seen the variety of flavors of Bretz in a French supermarket?

Bretz is a brand. No. Oh, they do like camembert flavor. So yeah, all the fresh stuff is lovely and the lovely fruit and the bread and the meats and everything else. But for me, what I'm much more excited about in France or any trip abroad is finding the kind of junk food, I suppose, and kind of, you know, and seeing what different flavour Pringles they've got. And what you're going to crush it up and sprinkle it on. Yeah, exactly. Or going to McDonald's and seeing what different items they've got in McDonald's. So there'll be a McDonald's probably in the car park at the supermarket. And after having a absolute wild in the aisles time and filling my trolley with sweets and crisps and healthy things too.

And where abouts in Fransaui or does it not matter? Well, I think we're on the coast because I want to go for a dip afterwards. So I guess, I mean, I live in Brighton and what I love about Brighton is we're 20 minutes from New Haven and then the ferry from New Haven to Dieppe takes a long time. So I guess we're, but we're that close to getting on a ferry and then you go on, you know, as soon as you're on the ferry, you're on holiday, aren't you? So, So I think it's near Dieppe and it's near the beach in Dieppe. What I love as well is even so like with France. So over here, I don't want a plastic tablecloth on my kitchen table, but in France, there's something about the kitsch sort of naffness that you get. Yeah, but it's France. So yeah, all that sort of

thing and the Tupperwares and yeah, all those aisles as well. Love it. I know exactly what you mean because it's just holiday, isn't it? It's like Coca-Cola in a bottle Yeah. All that sort of thing. And the Tupperwares and yeah, all those aisles as well. Love it. I know exactly what you mean. Cause it's just holiday, isn't it? It's like Coca-Cola in a bottle and some crisps and an ashtray, even though I don't want to smoke. I want the ashtray to be there on the table. Loads of ashtrays. So what happens next? Are we going for a dip? So what happens next? Are we going for a dip? Yes, I'm going for a dip and my brother is there because I've just got such a fond memory of going to France when we were kids and that thing when the sea is choppy but not too choppy

and you're doing that thing where you're jumping over the waves. Yes. Jumping up and down and then back on the beach and have maybe a bit of something that we've got, maybe some of the crisps. Oh yeah. And a bottle of Orangina or something like that. Crisps and Orangina on the beach near Dieppe. I think we're in Dieppe actually now aren't we?

Yes, lovely. Do you know what Dieppe beach is like? Is it pebbly? I don't know. I don't know. I have been to, I've definitely gone on some New Haven Dieppe ferries myself, childhood holidays. We just used to keep driving down to Spain. We sort of did a whole- I love that. I've done that once. ... little picnic spots and have some laughing cow cheeses on ravi. But that's the thing. It's like all the gourmet stuff is great, but it's actually, it is those

things, isn't it? All those tiny little cubes of cheese that you peel the foil around and then, you know- Oh, yeah.... similar kind of, yeah, I don't know, the apple cube or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And calipos, that's an hiding memory. And hey, you know, if you're one of the, one of my videos, a calipo and a bottle of Prosecco, a mini bottle of Prosecco and a calipo, and you put the two into a NutriBullet and whiz it up. It's called a scrilapino or something like that. In Italian, it's actually normally just like a lemon sorbet whizzed up with, make a slush puppy out of lemon sorbet and Prosecco. But if you do it with a Colippo and it's just

heavenly. The man's a genius. So this is lovely. So we're in France. So we're on the beach. So then what we're doing is we're going for a picnic, but we're somehow magically, because obviously it's a four hour, we haven't got time to four hours go back. It doesn't matter. So somehow we, and then we're at a picnic at a place called Hayes Common, which is sort of heading south out of London. And it's where my parents used to take me and my brother for picnics when we were kids. And it's a big family picnic and magic. It's all my family and my brother's family and cousins and everyone. And my

one year old grandson. And this is a bit where it's a little bit emotional. But my parents who both died in 2019 and 2020, when I started then started doing snack hacker and it's that's what it's all about my dad really, but they are back for the picnic and they get to meet their grandson. So yeah. I'm sorry they didn't get to meet him. Oh, George.

It's good content, isn't it? Great content. It's not going to be the clip. Oh dear, maybe. Tell me, because your dad's obviously such an important figure in your life, obviously and your mum. So did you, sorry, did you lose your dad in lockdown? Yeah.

Yeah. So my mum died in 2019 at the beginning and then yeah, and then lockdown happened to my dad. So he didn't die of COVID, but he just, he had a stroke in October. So I just started making the videos. I'd made like three videos before he died. So I started to say me and mostly with my son, because he was living at home, we started clearing the family house and it gave us the time to make the videos.

And it was, it was only through writing. So I really didn't realize until last year when I started writing the book, how many of the videos that we did actually related to memories that I'd found in the house and memories of growing up and him doing all the cooking. Well, most of the cooking when we were kids, he was really into it. And so I've got a lot of my passion for cooking, I think comes from him. Was he a snack hacker? Well, no, I mean, yes, towards the end of his life. So that's, there's this bit in the book where I talk about him not getting a microwave. So he was obsessed with his microwave

and I just didn't want one. There was that whole parental thing of like, you really should get a microwave and me kind of going, well, I'm fine without one. And then sort of towards the end of his life, he was, he was using the microwave, well, obviously, because it was a lot easier, but also being quite snack-hackery and just melting cheese in the microwave and then pouring it on toast, but then putting enough kind of other flavoured things on top. So actually it was really, you know, it was nice. But yes, and then after he died, using the microwave a lot while we would, I'd say neutralising the house. So their house was incredibly, they were both quite hordy and they liked to decorate. I mean, my mum's room, sort of work room, she did

lots of textile stuff, but her room was purple and gold. The walls were like a tomb. So it was, yeah, an awful lot of plain white paint. But yeah, and so creating all the videos kind of happened, the bulk of them and then what kind of took off all happened around them. Because you were sifting through memories essentially. That's why it's so profound. That's why it's art. Because there's something, there's depth to it. It's beyond social media. You can tell and that's what it is. I hope so. There's something more to it in there. Yeah. And so you were going through all of this stuff and you were remembering all of these recipes and little hacks.

Yeah. Yeah. And like finding my mum's old recipe book with handwritten recipes. Oh wow. Yeah. And so many things like, yeah, there's a lemonade recipe that I did a video of and that's in the book that my dad used to do and memories of that. So what are your parents bringing to the picnic on your perfect day? My dad's bringing a roast chicken wrapped in foil. So whenever we went for picnics when we were kids, he'd always roast the chicken. We had an eye level grill on this old cannon cooker with a spit that fitted on the grill. And he'd spit roast the chicken and then wrap it in foil

with some thyme. The smell of thyme is just like, for me. And he'd have this little woody thyme bush that always looked like it was dying in the front garden. But he'd tear off some of that and wrap it in the foil. And yeah, so we'd have that. And we'd have, he did this paella, this veggie paella. It's an otolenghi recipe from Plenty. And I remember he did it the first time he did it, he called for dry sherry and he only had cream sherry, so he used that. But it really worked, there's something about the kind of sticky sweetness of it when it was cold.

So we'd have some of that, and probably some of the crisps as well, we've got some of those crisps from France. And a few more Oranginas. Love them. Yeah, and we'd play some games. Me and my brother would play table tennis. So when we were kids, we'd go out and we'd go, you've got so much energy when you're kids.

That's what I'd like, like some extra energy in the day. Although I think I'd have to have something because of the amount of stuff that's happening. But in our back garden, we had this little round, this little circular garden table, and we'd make a net out of a broom resting on a couple of bricks and then we'd play table tennis and even though the table was only like a metre and a half diameter we'd be able to get a really fast rally going and we'd play until it was so dark we couldn't see the ball so wow so we'd be doing that as well until it got dark and that's the afternoon shall we wrap things up with your perfect night, George? So the perfect night. So I'm going up to Edinburgh and I'm always, I feel so conscious of listeners who don't know what the Edinburgh Fringe is. I think they do by now if they've been listening.

The Edinburgh Fringe is an arts festival in Edinburgh every year in August with a strong emphasis on comedy performance. It's like a big school holiday really, isn't it? For all the comedians. It's the school play for a month. So as I say, I didn't, despite being a performer for many years, it wasn't until 2015 that I did a solo show and took a show to Edinburgh. And it was my first show and it's called Anarchist Cook, total DIY thing. So I had no producer or director or anything at all. And I just got in touch with the Guild of Bloon

and said, look, I've got this show that I'd done in Brighton the year before, just like a couple of nights, and then rewritten over the year. And managed to get a room there for the whole thing. And I didn't even have any posters. I just had flyers, which I went and handed out myself. So no team behind me at all. And it sold out the entire run and I got the laurels and it was like, this is just,

and I absolutely loved it. Was that when you won Spirit of the Flee. Yeah. Yeah. So whenever I've done Edinburgh, I stayed every year I've done it. I've stayed with John Robbins and it was just, and it was like being a student again. Yeah. So whenever I've done Edinburgh, I stayed every year I've done it. I've stayed with John Robbins and it was just, and it was like being a student again. Yeah, I just loved it. And all I'd heard before is all the stresses of it. And again, it's almost like the lockdown thing of going, I know loads of other people have had a rubbish time, but for me, I just absolutely adored it. And the last show, I just, I felt so moved because I thought, I don't know if I'm going to do the show again. I did the last one and it was a full house. So yeah, I felt so moved because I thought, I don't know if I'm going to do

the show again. I did the last one and it was a full house. So yeah, I'd like to do that again. What do you think it was about that particular show that people responded to? I think it was different. So in the show, for listeners who won't know, it was based around, so when I'd been doing my normal stand-up comedy club gigs, I'd occasionally cook in my hotel room for fun, to be mischievous and actually to have something to eat. And it was basically a show about how to cook in a hotel room.

So it had stand-up in it. So what sort of things were you cooking? How can you cook in a hotel room? You've got a kettle. You've got a kettle, you've got an iron. A trouser press. You've got a kettle. You've got a kettle. You've got an iron. Trouser press. You've got a trouser. So the iron, well, I had two irons actually cheated slightly in

the show, but yeah, the stage was set up like a hotel room. So I had a mini bar, fridge, I had a trouser press, had all the tea making facilities, all the sachets, hair dryer, over the hour while talking to the audience, you know, doing food centric stand up and talking about all the things I'd done or hadn't done and pretended I'd done or whatever, you know, theatrical in a hotel room culinary wise. I made a three course meal and then at the end of the show, the food got carried out by three members of the audience to one of the communal spaces in the Guild of Balloon, which for listeners is this venue that has lots of different rooms in it.

When you say you made a three course meal, were you sort of theatrically making it? So you were kind of pretending to make it? Oh no, I was totally making it. You were absolutely making it? All of my live shows have been cooking a three course meal. So the second show was DIY Chef. So that was all with power tools. Third show was on the move. So I had like car engine on stage and stuff like that. But with each of them, yeah. And it's real cooking. So I was always kind of, of a mind of, you know, when you watch someone like Bill Bailey, you're

going, oh, he's, he's being funny, but also, wow, he's good at the piano. And I wanted that experience for the audience of going, this is funny, but actually he's good at the piano. And I wanted that experience for the audience of going, this is funny, but actually he's chopping that garlic without cutting himself really, you know, professionally. So in the first show, the hotel one, I did like a filleted a whole fish on stage and then poach it in a travel cattle. But like really good fish filleting. And then I made a joke in the show saying, you know, I'm actually filleting a fish on stage. I said, no one else at the Fringe is doing that.

Not this year. I said next year, everyone will be doing it. They'll be doing the cats feed dogs, men are different from women and then the live fish filleting. But I'm first. So yes, I want to do that show again. I wish I could have seen this show. Is there any chance that you could film it?

Do you know what? It is on Go Fast The Stripe, the whole show. Is it? I would love to see it. Oh, that's made my day. Yeah, no, the whole thing's on there. Great. Yeah. So I do the show again. And probably as I did at the last show right at the end, and I thought I've got to thank everyone, like all the crew and the tech. And then I'll broke down on stage as well. But then it's the thing is once you have kids, do you find that like soon as I

had kids and I cry at adverts and. Oh God, no, I've always been so emotional. I always cried everything. It's just worse now. Yeah. Oh, George's been such a nice chat. I really do want to let you, let you go to the dome. I've got one, I've got one more bit. Is that all right. Oh, George, it's been such a nice chat. I really do want to let you go to the dome.

Oh, I've got one more bit, is that all right? Yeah, go for it. Sorry, sorry. So here's the thing, because I wanted to wrap up nicely. So after the show, I'm full of adrenaline and I'm wide awake. And so I go magically down to London,

back in time to 1990, and I go and see R Chaos, which is the circus that made me want to be a performer in the first place. The circus that changed your life, the crap that changed your life. Yeah, completely. And so I go there and I see the show and for anyone who doesn't know what R Chaos is, look it up, A R C H A O S. And there are some videos of them on YouTube. And it was this insane French circus with no animals. And they had, and it was like this kind of mad maxi punk kind of vibe with loads of fire and loads of vehicles that sort of broke in half and people juggling chainsaws and, and it was just nuts. And it was just just amazing and I went to see it three times.

And so I'm there with my best friend Leo and we're watching the show again and then at the end of the show. So I didn't realise until I met my wife three years later that she went to see that show too. No! Yeah, yeah. So in this perfect day, I meet her there and we're young. Stop it. More clips. Anyway, and then we travel back to Brighton through time to the present and the cats are on the bed and we go to bed. That's the end. When you found out that your wife had been to the same gig, when did you find out?

I don't know, not long after we first met, I suppose. I mean, I was talking about, I used to wear the Archaos t-shirt and I had a biker's jacket with the Archaos logo painted on the back, so I was so obsessed with it. You were wearing your Archaos. And Saoirse was like, oh, I went to see that. And then that must have been a thing that bonded you because you were so completely like, oh yeah, I get it. George, what an incredible day. Thank you so much. No, I love it. You've made me laugh.

You've made me cry. You've made me quite hungry. Thank you so much for letting us inside your brain. Thank you for allowing me to expose my brain. Oh God, it's been lovely. Go and find George on tour. You're doing some food shows as well, aren't you? I've got some food festivals that I'm doing where I'll be doing snack hacker cookery demos and then book signings. Yeah, so go and buy the book, check out George on Instagram and you can maybe go and see him live at a food festival near you. So lovely. Thank you, George. Truly such a pleasure to hear about your life and your family and your love for everything you do.

If you want more recipes and good stuff make sure to get your hands on George's book The Snack Hacker out next week on the 5th. It's a memoir, it's a cookbook, what else do you need? Also check out George's podcast Stuffed and of course if you do want to see one of his cooking demos you can find all the deets on his website. As always, Perfect Dayers, send me an email, everydayperfectday.gmail.com. They've been coming in from listeners all over the world, so thank you so much for tuning in. I really appreciate it and I love to hear from you. And I love it when you follow the podcast.

Click the follow button, it really helps if you subscribe. And follow us at perfect day cast for all your perfect day news Make sure to listen every Thursday for new episodes Amy Mason up next from Yorkshire with love I'm Jessica Rushton. I'm David O'Doherty. And we'd like to invite you to listen to our new podcast, What Did You Do Yesterday? It's a show that asks guests the big question, quite literally, what did you do yesterday? That's it. That is it. Max, I'm still not sure, where do we put the stress?

Is it what did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? You know what I mean? What did you do yesterday? I'm really downplaying it. Like, what did you do yesterday? Like, I'm just a guy just asking a question, but do you think I should go bigger?

What did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? What did you do yesterday? Every single word this time, I'm going to try and make it like it is the killer word. What did you do yesterday? That's too much, isn't it? That's over the top. What did you do yesterday? Available wherever you get your podcasts every Sunday.