Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - Sara Cox

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

We have podcaster, author, and voice of Radio 2 drivetime joining us this week, the delightful Sara Cox! Mum’s just home from her Greek holidays, so we have a full Grecian menu for lunch - Psari Plaki with potatoes & Feta, followed by home made strawberry ice cream. Sara told us about making a podcast with her best friend Clare, growing up on a farm (and her dad’s foot injury from a bull called Ferrari), becoming an early riser to write her next book, the traditional Lancashire food she had growing up, and we hear about her Bake Off stint and how she won the show with her amazing showstopper! Sara you must come round again, and next time we’ll make you 'tatty ash' and black peas! Sara & Clare's podcast The Teen Commandments is out now on all podcast platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm here looking at a glowing, Lenny. Calimera. Calimera. How was your holiday, Mum? It was lovely. It's my beautiful place. It's where I feel happiest. Met three people who liked the podcast. Oh, fabulous. That was in Athens. Oh, international.

International now. Greeks? No. Okay. When I learn Greek, I think we'll put it out in Greek, don. Greeks? No. Okay. When I learn Greek I think we'll put it out in Greek don't we? I think that's a bit of a way off. Okay. So did you eat well? Ate brilliantly well. I had the best prawn orzo and we had wonderful sardines, jeans, um, biftec-y, stuffed with ham and cheese. Yum. Very nice. But you don't eat ham because you're observing June.

Eight on Limonari beach. That was also delicious. Meatballs with mint and yogurt. Yum. Yep. The weather was not the best. Oh dear. I think end of May is always a bit dodgy.

Suddenly it was June and everything went hot. Well, I, I feel like Portugal took all the good weather. I took my kids to Portugal and we stumbled across, I feel like maybe everyone's gonna message in and be like, yeah, where have you been? But we just got really lucky with an Airbnb that we booked. Me and my best mate, Sarah. And we went to this place in Portugal called Bergau.

Never heard of it and I love Portugal and it was the most gorgeous place. We had the best food. It was so relaxing and glorious and I love Portugal. We have today... Oh I'm so excited. You've wanted Sarah Cox for so long. So long. Your cousin Emma says, she's my best person if I'd have known I'd have come down. Oh my God. Which she loves her so much.

Sarah Cox, the presenter who has been on our screens and in our ears for decades. She's just so warm and lovely. It's the Lancashire in her that makes her warm and lovely. Sarah Cox and I had to introduce our husbands to each other at Glastonbury once because a mutual friend of ours had told us that they looked the same. And in fact, Ben, Sarah Cox's husband, very handsome, looks very much like my very handsome Sam. So you could swap if you needed to.

Oh God, Mum. Oh God, there's a new TV series in it, me and Sessions. Swap your husbands if they look like. Oh god, no thank, I'm fine with mine and I think she's fine with her. But Sarah Cox is coming on to talk about her new podcast, which is called The Teen Commandments. And she presents it with her best mate, Clare Hamilton. I think from what I gather from listening to podcasts,

they were both models in the 90s and they've remained best friends. I don't know if they Claire's Northern she's from Whitefield where our family's from. I might know her. I wonder if she knows Auntie Susan. Maybe. Anyway and they do it about their teen children and it's brilliant so it can go from anything from prom dresses I did not realize prom dresses are about a grand. I borrowed your cocktail dress from the 80s for my prom. You did me dirty. Oh bollocks, I didn't even know about proms.

It just wasn't a thing, was it, with us? But anyway. No, I think it wasn't. So they'll talk. We never had a prom. They'll talk about that, they'll talk about holidays. And it's so funny, having just been on holiday, very luckily with my gorgeous kids and how much they need you still and need you to entertain them and supervise them and how she's gone on holiday with one of her teenagers with their best friend and how well they site are you coming for

breakfast and they're like they stay in bed all day and then they get up about four just to catch it yeah you used to stay in bed till about one or two have lunch and then have a few rays and then you'd start to come out to eat and then you go back to get ready to go out clubbing because you never went out clubbing till about 10 30 11. Well that's only in Greece yeah. Yeah. You're cooking today thank you very much what have you made? Well I'm just back from Greece with lovely Greek olive oil from my friends Rosie and James. So I've made plasipaki, plasipaki or plaki-plaki. So we actually very luckily work with the most beautiful Greek person.

Sophia is luckily here today. Can you please pronounce what mum's cooked today? So Leni has cooked psare plaki. Yes, that's what I've cooked. Not plasi plaki. I'm doing it with potatoes baked in lemon, olive oil, a lot of oregano with feta on top. Yum.

And then just a plain Greek salad. Then I've made fresh strawberry ice cream, which I made yesterday, and you roast the strawberries in a little sugar first and then you mush them all up and you just mix it all together. It's a no-churn. So go like that with your eye, which is the big wink, to make sure I get it out at the right time. Okay.

So that sounds all delicious. Sarah Cox coming up on Table Mothers. Can't wait. I love your podcast. Oh, I really love it. Teen Commandments, it's with your best friend Claire. Yeah. Who, did you meet each other through modeling?

Or, because there was talk about when her daughter was going to Thailand as an 18 year old adult. Yeah. And you, you're all tracking, she was tracking her and being on Thai time, it was brilliant. How do you track them? Well, I want to know what app you use for tracking. No, I just do the usual Apple one.

What, Find My Friends? Yeah, and you can see, yeah, you can just see where the kids are. Claire's got Apple one. What, find my friends? Yeah and you can see, yeah you can just see where the kids are. Claire's got another one and you can see at one point she was looking at the app thinking that she was being like she was in a van being driven through the jungle yeah in the rainforest because she could see her moving really quick but she was she was on a zip wire. she was she was on a zip wire. She's not she's not sewed an airpod into her trousers or anything. Oh, a little air tag. Air tag. Yeah, that's that's the thing to yeah, to try and I mean, look,

we never got tracked, did we? No. Thank God. My mum would have been like, why sir, on the way to Blackpool? She's not supposed to be going to Blackpool. Did you go clubbing in Blackpool, Manchester? Both. Yeah. But I went to Blackpool when I really wasn't supposed to be.

Like I'd get a lift just from random lads in their XR2s. I can so imagine it, Sarah. In their Scooby-Doo's XR2s. It's so bad. Sarah Cox, you're here. Yeah. And we're really thrilled to have you.

Mum has been vying for Sarah Cox to be on this podcast. Oh, really? For a very long time. Love you. Our cousin that lives in Wales, who is a vet and probably has called in to Radio 2, said she would have traveled down from North Wales to be here with you.

She's a vet? Yeah, she's a vet. Oh, wow, she's an equine vet. She look after horses. Yeah, she's got all of them. She's nice. Three horses. Oh, what's got all of them. Nice. She's got three horses. Oh, what's she called? Emma. Emma.

Lovely Emma. Because you like horse riding. I've got my horse, but actually this is why I've just, I'm a bit stressed today because- You've been mucking out? No, she's a little bit colicky, she's not well. They're such big creatures and they're so delicate. When one little thing goes wrong with them.

So I'm a bit worried about my little baby. What's her name? She's called Nellie. She's gorgeous, she's 17, she's beautiful. When did you get her? I got her in 2020, that fabulous year. When other people were taking up sourdough, you were taking up acquiring horses.

Were you allowed to ride horses? Oh, you were, instead of walking, you were allowed to exercise your horse. Yeah well it was such an outdoor, obviously you do most of it outdoor. I take my granddaughter, Jessie's daughter, horse riding. Oh lovely. A lot of resistance from her parents. I tell you why, it's just, it's expensive and it's a schlep and she went mum can we get a horse? And I said we're not getting one in New Cross are you mad? How old is she? She's eight. Oh god I mean it's prime, prime time for the ponies. She's gone pescatarian this week. Why? But

didn't want to have a fish finger bowel bun last night so I'm like well I don't know, she went well I'll have a chicken one and I said well no that's not being pescatarian darling. I don't know, she just has got, you know it's the like, don't know, which went well, I'll have a chicken one. And so I said, well, no, that's not being pescatarian, darling. I don't know. She just has got, you know, it's the love. Don't you remember when we all love pigs? And it's about eight or nine, isn't it? And then you go, I'm not eating another sausage. Yeah. So I just lied to her and say, yeah, they're not pork.

They're chicken sausages. Yeah, I was vegetarian for, I mean, actually, as an adult, I've been veggie and I've been flexy and I've been pesky and I've been a little bit, you know, all over the place in my eating really. But when I was younger and living on my dad's farm, I was vegetarian for about 10 minutes. What did he farm? He's still farming now. I've just spoke to him actually on the way over here. He, well, he farms cattle. He's got Hereford's.

Has he? So brown and white ones. They're beautiful. They're beautiful, they're lovely. Sorry, is that a cow? Very kind of cows. Darling, they're gorgeous, they've got the best faces. They've got like a creamy white curly face. Oh yes, lovely.

And then sort of like a Conker, a Conker ready brown sort of coat. And do they taste good? They do, Hereford beef's very good. Is that a thing? Hereford beef's very good. Is that a thing? Hereford beef is very good, British beef, of course, very good. Why are you doing that, Faye?

What do you prefer, do you like an Angus? Because I'm thinking, no, I love anything, but I don't know if I could slaughter someone I got to know. It's really hard, isn't it? I know, I don't think I could, to be honest, even though it's the business my dad is in. But I will say that his cows have a great life. They're really high, you know, high welfare.

He really is always, that's always been really important to him. But my brother, because my dad's mobility isn't great, is long story short, he had a bull called Ferrari that stepped on his foot a few years ago when he was- Good God, where was he? He was loading the bull that he'd just sold onto- Ferrari? Yeah, he was loading, bull that he just sold onto. Ferrari.

Yeah, he was loading, so basically he got his foot injured by a Ferrari, I like to say. A bull called Ferrari. No, I know. Oh, sorry, darling. Yeah. I know. I mean, this dynamic is so amazing as well.

I just want to sit here and watch you two chat. Don't worry. It so reminds me of me and my mom, it's so good. Yeah. And so he didn't want to show that the bull had stood on his foot, he tried to style it out a little bit because he just sold this bull. So he was loading it up onto the lorry

and didn't want to be like, oh, you're a bugger. But I think he was like, Jesus. And then that, because he's a farmer, he didn't go and get it looked at and sorted, obviously. He just hobbled around. Yeah, he's like just his foot's buggered. Fast forward 20 years, he's still hobbling around but his foot's getting worse and so my brother goes up who lives local to him and bless my brother, he goes up and does so much. He's always going on screwing some unblocking some fixing something. What does he do when he's not unlocking and fixing? Well, he's actually retired, but he's an artist as well.

He paints, he does like sort of pop culture sort of these sort of great pictures of like Amy Winehouse and like Freddie Mercury and Oasis ones. Yeah, he sells them. And he does these beautiful poppy designs as well. So sort of it's quite the contrast from like Freddie Mercury to poppy design. But my brother calls my dad the doorstep farmer

because my dad stands on the doorstep of the farm. He's going, will you fix that though? Bring that round here. And he's the doorstep farmer. That's brilliant. So who was around the dinner table when you were growing up and what were you eating? So it would have been when we were still at the farm,

my parents split up when I was like seven-ish and we moved not that far away definitely walking distance for an eight-year-old to go popping up there by myself. How old's your youngest? My youngest is 15. Right okay. 15! Yeah I know. Crikey. 15, 17 and 20. 20? You can't have one of 20. Yeah it nearly twenty-one babe. What the hell? How did that happen? It just flies, doesn't it? Well, you're only twenty-two yourself. I know. It's a medical miracle. It's a miracle. So, you'd walk to your dad's...

Well, when we were at the farm, that's when my mum was in charge and she'd be cooking and there was five of us. So, I was the youngest of five, two brothers, two sisters, my little mum there, all four foot, 10 and a half of her. She is little though, she's Diddy and my dad is. But you're not Diddy. No, but dad's quite tall. Right. So when he's not getting stamped on by bulls,

I think that shrunk him a bit. So yeah, we were all quite lanky really, the cox is as a breed and we would. The cox is a lanky. Yeah, quite a lanky lot and we'd all just sit around and mum was good at, mum never like, we were never allowed to have sort of all the classic late 70s, early 80s convenience food. You know, I was desperate for a chicken crispy pancakes. Yeah, Findus crispy pancake. We never had stuff like that. Was she a good cook? She was a great cook. She still is a good cook. Occasionally she'd use

packet stuff and I'd never know, not until I was much older, because I'd be like I'm ready mom, pass down the recipe of this chilli con carne that I've eaten all my life. That's amazing. And she's like, it's a Coleman's packet. It's like a powder. So she'd made it, but she'd put in all the spices in. From what we know of you, you love food and you've got kind of your rituals. You do your Friday night dinner kind of when you can and you love roast chicken on a Friday night.

Can you make chicken soup? I don't do chicken soup properly, no. Is that because your mother-in-law doesn't allow you to? She doesn't make it that often, to be honest. No, she's, I mean, one of my best mates will do occasionally. I'm a bit of a cheat, you won't like this. I'll do a pressure cooker chicken soup. That's all right.

Which is just with bone-in thighs and all the veg. That's exactly what I do. Just pressure cooker chicken soup. That's all right. Which is just with bone in thighs and all the veg. And just do it. That's acceptable. Just do it super quick. Matsubals? No, I've never made a matzah ball. I tried to make matzah balls this week. Is it hard?

They all exploded. Did I have too much baking powder in? Probably. I can't. It's been very sad. It's taken me 60 bloody years to make a matchable What is the secret of a matchable? I have no idea but they suddenly weren't

It's just time isn't it? I just think it's knowing the consistency Mine were too sloppy Yeah, you can't have too much What did you say? They exploded? Yeah, they exploded so I put them in like the boiling water You need to make them quite firm There was nothing firm about it

Yeah, they were crap so I had to throw them in the bin Yeah So I made chicken soup this week for a friend. He's not very well and um, and I have to say mom, it rivaled yours Finally. Wow. I've never been able to get it and I didn't use the Telma or Ozem. What did you use? Stop had it. I used Nor. I know. Stop Q. Oh I like the Ozem and the Telma. Yeah, and I thought that was the only way it was. Do you live in Northland? Yeah. Senior Panzers. Yeah, Panzers is lovely.

And Daniels. Do you go to Daniels for the bread? For bagels, yeah. Yeah, for bagels and hollow, yeah, delicious. So if we were coming round to yours, what would you be cooking for us, Sarah? Well, let me think. I mean, it'd have to be a weekend because I get back so late after doing the radio. This is the problem.

Are you just on Farmer Jay every day now? Well. I love a Farmer Jay. It's delicious isn't it? What Farmer Jay? Oh my god mum. It's delicious and it's really close to Radio 2. What is it?

It's really yum. It's. So you queue up, it's basically high end takeaway. It's quite spendy. It's quite salty I find. They're doing black cards. That's what makes it delicious. Really?

What we can just get. Do you see what I'm doing here? I mean like Namdaemun. Oh yes. Yeah, but they do like really good sides and like a really good bit of salmon or chicken. It's good. Yeah, like the broccoli side.

And there's like. Yeah, delish. And that's the steak and that chimula. Yeah, chimchurri. Chimichurri. Chimichurri, but there's also a chimula chicken, isn't there? Oh, a chimula, there is a chimula, that's really good. Who cooks in, so when do you eat?

So I will- You do your show from four till seven. Four till seven, so I'll get home about quarter to eight, and I will then, either my husband's knocked somewhat up for the kids, but they do complain because his specialty is a chicken salad, and that's all his specialty is a chicken salad. And that's all he does is a chicken salad. What's so special about his chicken salad? Well, no, as in specialty as it's the only thing

they can really do. Oh, right, okay. So it's not an incredible chicken salad. I mean, it's nice. Chicken, avocado. Okay. Right. He says it's croutons.

It's not, it's ripped up toast. It's not fried or anything. It's toast. That's quite a clever idea, actually. But far, yeah. And it's nice once a week, but if they have to have it more than a couple of times, he does a good egg as well, so he might do like an egg and potato waffle stack, that kind of thing for the kids. If I'm cooking I would get back, but it is a bit about convenience for me.

My son is working, he's in the gym years, which we talk about on the pod actually, he's 17. So he's beefing up. I mean, my son's got an incredible bod. It's just so weird because when I was like, you know, in 1990, when I was like 16, the boys weren't working out. They were pigeon chested, skinny little things with curtain hairdos. They didn't think about how they looked. You know, they cared about what they wore, but they definitely didn't seem to be working out or eating healthily. He's super healthy.

Do you think, yeah, so like, isn't there a whole generation that just don't drink really? Then like, does, I mean, he's really not bothered. Yeah. and they care about their protein yeah and it's all they count protein it's really odd and grams of protein yeah much to get gains yeah yeah and then they drink it don't they if they've not had enough yeah I mean it just wasn't a thing just wasn't a thing it's so mad and I'm like Africa was about as much effort as they made. Yeah he's that's not what it would be. Yeah, he's doing his A levels, so. Are you in that at the moment? No, he's in his first year of A level. Next year is gonna be when my daughter's doing GCSEs

and my son is doing A levels at the same time. How does that work out with holidays? Oh, we're not going anywhere. We're not going. No. And our next holiday, our last holiday before the exams can kick off is probably October half term, I reckon. And then that'll be it. Then we can't go anywhere at Christmas.

Obviously can't go anywhere. February can't go anywhere. Obviously Easter can't. And do you love a holiday? I mean, don't be all that way. I do, but I've got three dogs. So I like a UK holiday as well. I like a Canberra Sands out of season on the beach there.

You know, that kind of go up. We went to Peak District with 24 of the Cox clan last October. It was incredible. Was it? It was quite funny because the place where we stayed was lovely, but it needed a bit of TLC. It wasn't posh because I was like, this is pretty cheap. And and it was like an old converted farm. But some of the couple of the buildings were a bit rough looking. And we'd bundled my dad into like my brother's car

to drive him over there. My dad had left his own slightly tumbled down farm. It was like looking for a little holiday. He was like, bloody hell he brought me to another tumbled down farm. Okay, good. But yeah. Whereabouts was it near Buxton?

You know, I'm not sure. You know what it's like? No, it's terrible. You just follow the sat nav, don't you? And like, you don't know where you are. When I was at school, because I come from Manchester. Yeah, do you?

What bit of Manchester? Presswich. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Clare's from Whitefield. I know, my cousin lives there. My best friend from Manchester lives out. She lives Worsley now.

She's got a little salon in Worsley. Worsley. Worsley. In Monton. We used salon in Worsley. Worsley. But we used to go to the Peak District on school trips and go down the well dressing because they do dress well there. Did you ever see that? No. So they do well dressing.

There's a case there as well in the Peak District. I can't imagine you on any of these things, Mum. What are we going to do? We've only done sun lounges. I know. Well, that's why. You know when you get on the coach and you've eaten your sandwiches before you leave. Oh I was always that girl. You have your sandwiches because you get a pat lunch yeah you have your sandwiches before you've even left the car park yeah that was me. I used to

love it. I used to always have egg as well so everyone. Egg sandwiches. I love egg sandwiches. Oh I love an egg mayonnaise. Me too. I think that's probably the best thing I can make food wise. I'm so proud of my egg butters. I'm starving. I would love some food. What's so special about Sarah Cox egg butter? Well, it's got a little bit of white pepper.

I'm a big fan of white pepper. It's got a tiny bit of salad cream. My husband hates salad cream, but it's tough. Like I'm not making an egg mayonnaise. He's such a mayo boy. It's so basic the mayo boy. I do think northern thing salad cream like people that we've had on yeah that have talked about salad cream I think the majority are northern. I think it might be I just put a tiny squidge. Delicious and sweet. Yeah it's a sweet

with sugar there's that tang to it as well. And then anything else? And so with a bit of salad cream, a bit of mayonnaise, a little bit of salt, I think that's it. And then white or brown bread? Well ideally white with the crust cut off is nice or brown with the crust cut off for a tea party is lovely. So yum. Are you a big baker? No. Can't be a fast.

No, it's never really, but I won bake-off. Oh, shit. Well, hang on. Hang on. How does that work, then? I absolutely like bossed it and it was hilarious. Cause you know, in all the talky bits, if you'd done it, you must've done it.

No, I won't do it. You should, you know, it is lovely. I would be too scared because I'm so bad at baking. And it would be entertainment. It would be definitely entertaining. I do bread, but that's it. I do one loaf and that's it. What do you do?

A sourdough loaf. Actually, I'm doing a focaccia tonight, but you know. Oh, I've tried a focaccia. That's a little bit easier, isn't it, than a lot of the others? And actually, if, oh my God, everyone's gonna be like, shut up about your starter. But if the starter's good, then you're alright.

Yeah, what? But tell me what was your- I've never done it, I've never tried the sourdough thing. It's really, I don't know whether, because like you're quite outdoorsy and like you have a bloody, I mean, you were with your horse this morning, were you? No, I wasn't sadly, I was writing this morning, I got up at four, I'm trying to finish this next bloody book. Oh, can you talk about it? Yeah, but it's just doing my head in. I mean, I love writing, but it's just...

It's a lot. And now I've broken my body clock. I, like, woke up naturally at 4.40. Did you start writing at that? Your brain is so fresh at five. Oh! It's so good at five. So if you've got anything creative, whether you're writing, you know, whether you're making music

the brain's amazing at five and then... And then it all goes to shit. I'm hoping that... what I do sometimes, I've parked up around the corner from Radio 2 and had a little nap in the car. But like, I can do like a 15-20 minute meditation, like with headspace or something just in my ears and it will just reset my brain and totally refresh it like like I've taken out my brain and just give it a once over with a wet wipe and so I've sometimes do that part talk around the back like the babies I always think people are gonna be like you alright love I'm just reclined in my little electric car

So how long have you been meditating? Well I don't know if it counts as meditation. It's with a little app and it's a 20 minute, just do some breathing. Box breathing. I feel like box breathing's good. So what, the in for five or? In for four and then hold for four, out for four.

Yeah, because when I start to do that, it starts to feel annoying, doesn't it? Like it's not relaxed. But if I hear something that's really science backed, that in itself really helps to soothe my busy brain at night. So I've been, I've done the in for four and out for four and I've been like, oh, this is annoying. I don't think it's gonna work.

I'm gonna pass. And then I'm out. And then I wake up in the morning, I'm like, oh my God. And I've cut out, even though I'm sipping a coffee now, I've cut out caffeine after midday and it's changed my life. Really? I've stopped having tea. I'm having, I'm like, oh my God. And I've cut out, even though I'm sipping a coffee now, I've cut out caffeine after midday and it's changed my life. Really? I've stopped having tea. I'm having, I'm-

It'd be so nice to have a little brew when you're doing the drive time show now. I do, but Co-op do an incredible- Decaf. Decaf. Oh. And I like Co-op, cause I just quite like their ethos. Yeah. It's quite cool. Okay, this is good to know.

So decaf tea or rubios or redbush. Roybosh, yeah. Roybosh. I don't know, anyway. Okay, so you're really into your health. Yeah, this has been like two or three weeks I've done this, I'm like, you know what? I'm boshing a coffee at four so that I'm up for the show.

Don't really need to. It's all psychologically like, oh, I need that caffeine. And I was waking up at 3 a.m., like, wide awake, like I had jet lag, and I was just like, oh, it's my hormones, it's this, what am I gonna do? So stressed, I was in the spare room so much because my husband's a little bit snuffly, so I was just like, sleep became everything.

And then, stupid ass. I was like, why don't I try not having a strong coffee at four and no caffeine after 12? But I am a bit like that. Once I get into something, yeah, I get quite obsessive with things. So at the moment, it's kind of health. And I think that's a good thing. I think that's always rumbling along the health thing.

But then, you know, it doesn't count when you're on the motorway. When I'm driving up north, it all goes out the window. And I'm like, you know, I'm boshing a filet-o-fish and a cheese and bean toast from Costa or whatever. Delicious.

Cheese and bean toast. They've started a cheese and bean, I know. I was walking the dogs. You know what the service is, do you see the people walking their dogs? Oh what, when they need to have a win? They need to have a wee, because there's that little patch of grass

near the lorry park, and it must be the most amazing smelling patch of grass for the dogs. A thousand pissies happening on it per hour. So I'm walking in pissy grass and Osman rings me and he's like these are your options and he was like cheese and bean toast yeah I'm like yes. Yes was it delicious? That's like something I would have made when I was 14. That does sound actually quite delicious. It was yum. Yes. So can we talk about, well, thanks mum.

This looks great. Delicious. Oh, lovely. Mum's just been in Greece. So nice. So I presume you probably, and it's absolutely fine, you don't need to drink, but would you like a glass of wine? Oh no, thank you, because I'm driving in radio wind.

Have you ever been drunk on the radio? Yes. Have you? But not for many radio? Yes. Have you? But not for many, many years. Yeah, obviously. It was when- Radio one years? Radio one years, how did you guess, babe?

It would have been radio one years when, no, I'm not going to ask spuds, but only because I will just immediately fall asleep. Okay, no worries. Before radio and stuff. Are they amazing? Okay, I'll have some. If you had a quickie, I was like, yeah, okay. I can't see your face. I can see your willpower is fantastic, Sarah. This is the problem in the 90s and with the drinking on air.

Okay, I'm going to give you one, but that's going to be really sad. Yeah, lovely. You know I'm going to go in for more. Yeah, but good for trying. I'm talking. Good for you for trying. Absolute bollocks. This looks great, Mum.

It looks amazing. Put a bit of salad on it. So only when it was like a beater and it was like you'd have, you know, you'd have a vodka, a vodka, lime and soda whilst doing the breakfast show. Are they nice? They're really delish. You're going to have more. Well the potatoes, yeah I'm going to have more for sure.

Really delish. So, but no nothing fills me with fear more than the thought of being on air and having had a drink. In fact, I was doing a no drink thing, this six pack revolution thing. I was doing it with Claire actually, who I do the pod with. And we went for a little meeting and we went into this sort of cafe bar place and I ordered a Virgin Mary. This was a couple of hours before the radio. And I didn't taste anything in it, but within 10 minutes, I started to feel a bit weird.

And at this point, I wasn't drinking for 10 weeks. I've got about eight weeks through. Bear in mind, we'd launched the pod. We'd been on the Wands Show. We'd been on Lorraine. We'd had a lot to celebrate. We would have been the perfect time to have champagne, but we were like, no, we're not drinking.

10 minutes after having this alleged virgin uh Mary start to feel funny and I'm like I'm either having a funny turn or there's booze in there so there's bloody booze in it I was fuming. So annoying. Quite dangerous if you had an allergy as well. Well yeah. They probably could guess I wasn't pregnant. That is that is rude and it must have been quite strong. Yeah and then I was like I'm Yeah, and then I was like, I'm on air. I mean, I was fine, but I was nice. You are so loved on radio too. And it's such a lovely show that you've got.

Even though it- I love that, that potato's amazing. It is good. Oh, they're so lovely. I'm definitely going in for more. Is it, is it, I mean, cause does it kind of work with being a working parent that time for you? Or does it kind of, is it still kind of, it's you? Or does kind of is it still kind of it's it's hard.

It's tough. Yeah. I think for a working parent, the dream time is probably well, I mean, lunch, the lunchtime one, but that's Jeremy Vine and his current affairs. I mean, can you imagine me interviewing Angela Rayner? I wanted to talk about I mean, you've been doing this for a long time, and you've been on our screens and in our ears, and you are a national treasure, like people adore you. But like, and you think about the 90s or the early noughties, were you having lots of fun

or was it quite overwhelmingly kind of mad? No, I was definitely having a lot of fun. And I definitely found it fun at the time, but only because I was in my twenties. So I was essentially rudderless and wasn't wildly ambitious to like get, you know, I wasn't focused on like, what's my next move? But you got your A levels. Got my A levels, didn't go to uni. Why didn't you want to go? get you know I wasn't focused on like what's my next move but I was just got

my A levels didn't go to uni. Why didn't you want to go? I didn't really know what I wanted to do I sort of had vague idea of maybe journalism or something. And were you modeling by that point? So I was wondering what to do with myself I finished my A levels and that's when I went to Paris and visited my sister who was part of her degree which was law with French She was working in Paris for like the electricity company or whatever. And then I got scouted in a shop, which was like literally some man going, you have a very look, you're very strong look at the moment. And I was like, did you have your fringe at that point? No, I was just this dark blonde, straight long hair and just, you know, I never would

have thought for a minute I got scoted for modelling. Who were you with? Oh, I was with that Manchester modelling agency, I mean it wasn't well known. But then… There was a lovely woman called Mavis who used to go, Girls you mustn't sleep with more than one pillow, It's bad for your neck. The Teen Commandments is brilliant. It's relatively, when did you launch? When did you launch it?

February we launched. Well, it feels like longer because we'd stopped with having a bit of a practice and a bit of a play around. Because Claire's a hairdresser. She's never done broadcasting before. She's brilliant. She's brilliant, isn't she? And you two together are so lovely to listen to.

I mean, it's a sort of dynamic that you just can't fake. Like you can't- Yeah, I think that's true. You know, she's my absolute ride or die bestest, you know, bestest mate and bridesmaid twice, don't sometimes say. And I knew she'd be fantastic and a bit of me thinks, I wish I'd done this years ago but maybe, maybe the time was right now, maybe it is better now. Well I think it's a really, I mean I don't have teenagers and now I'm terrified.

But it did make me laugh when you're talking about being on holiday and about how you're like in this thing where you're texting your children, you're texting your daughter to see whether she's going to join you for breakfast. And whether you're getting a table for three or one. And politely she replies, but I'm like, so in not not in that stage. I've got eight, six and three. Yeah. So at the moment you're like, they're everything. They want you all the time. Yeah, and listening to you talk about how actually

that stops happening, and they need you in different ways. Like when you were talking about the late night chats, I mean, my daughter started doing that now. I think it's mainly to delay going to bed. But also I cherish those, when I'm allowed to be her confidant. And she would, but I'm trying to cherish how much they need me now,

even though I would quite like to hide in the bathroom and watch Housewives, do you know what I mean? I know, that's the tricky thing because when they, you know, to be like, what's the nanny McPhee thing, you know, when you, when they need you so much, you kind of need a bit of space sometimes. And then suddenly the tables are turned and they don't want you there so much.

And they don't, they kind of want you there in the background, but not interfering. And as Claire says, to just, you know, provide the money or the lift that they need. But it's interesting that you like it. It makes you cherish your little ones because a lot of our listeners have got little kids and they're saying it's really making me, it's making me brace a bit for teenagers but also it's making me cherish these moments where they want

me so much. And then we have a lot of listeners who get in touch who have got older kids and they are through the teenage years and they're enjoying the nostalgia because we talk about our own teenage years as well, me and Claire and what we got up to. And did you know each other when you were teenagers then? Yeah, so we were, we were 17 when we met. So that's when we met, when we were, when we were modelling. But I mean, then we've got people listening who don't have kids. But you're like, that can be aunts. Well, no, no, no. Do you give advice back?

No, we don't. Do not come to Teen Commandments for advice. OK. Let's make that clear. You just discuss what everyone's going through. Definitely come for empathy but come for a laugh as well. I mean, it does really well in the comedy charts and it's not, you know, we just did it to just be ourselves and have a laugh. But actually

it's funny and it's welcoming and warm. But we're definitely not giving out advice at all. We're just talking about the way that our kids' brains work, the way they behave. And then contrast to how we were when we were teenagers. And there's lots of parenting pods out there that give great advice. And for younger kids, there's a lot of parenting pods. This is more like when you are in you know when you are nipple deep in teens and and their dramas. Are you

enjoying this era though? Yeah I love it. Because it's quite fascinating and you can kind of have frank conversations. I find it easier you know with obviously now with your phone it's always throwing up videos from years ago and my kids like you forget like when they're so squeaky and when they're there doing their dances together and one's got a nappy on and the other one's charging up and down and they just don't have any of that, they're just not self-conscious at all and all of that's beautiful but it's quite repetitive and quite exhausting and as you know you're in the right depths of it now. You know, the bath time, the stories.

I just, I was just constantly falling asleep reading the stories, like, just nodding off because I was just done in. It's a lot. I'm getting in my pajamas when they're getting in their pajamas. And I'm like, I'm ready for bed. Please be ready for bed.

But please let me go to- Yes, you are awful about going to bed early. What are you talking about? You go to bed at you're so boring I go away on holiday with them. What time do you go to bed? Nine o'clock. If I could. I love an early night. Early, earlier than that and so sometimes we've had dinner at six because Jessie likes to eat early. The kids like to eat at six. I know but we've had dinner at six and you've gone to bed by eight and I'm sat there trying to find someone to have a drink with. Well, you always do find someone, don't you?

Yeah, do you? Are you a good one for making friends? Yes. I mean, I'm not as bad as my mum. God, we couldn't have taken my mum on holiday because she always liked evening entertainment. Oh, yeah. A show. Can we ask you, your last supper, you've got a starter, a main, a dessert and a drink of choice. For starter I really struggle with this. I love food so much and love different types of

food but I do really like actually a wonton soup with the sort of Chinese leaf. I like the cabbage, I'm a big cabbage fan. Oh I love cabbage. Love cabbage. It's the best thing on earth. Just eat a massive bowl of cabbage. Me too. A bit of salty butter. Salty butter and pepper. This is why we get it, aren't we, cabbage sisters? Black pepper. Yeah, a little bit of black pepper. A little bit of salt.

Caraway seeds or not? No. Okay, two chance to eat gladnesses. But would you ever have boiled ham with that? Like Irish? No, I mean, I just want the cabbage. Okay. Whatever's like. So are we going with,

so like one side of the cabbage. A wonton soup with a side of the cabbage. Lovely. No, you get the cabbage in. It's that sort of Chinese leaf cabbage, it's a bit different, but it's sort of like steamed in the soup. It just feels good for you, it's not particularly oily, but you get the little broth, the little pork dumplings, and they're super silky and soft. Is there somewhere you go for this in North London? We do go to Singapore Garden quite a bit.

Okay, where's that? That is in Swiss Cottage. And it's nice. It's a lot of people like my in-laws basically. Lots of sort of older Jewish couples go there. Singapore Garden? Yeah, and they've been going for donkey years. Probably eating the Port Wantons as well.

Probably have. And so, okay, so that's the starter. Yeah. Maine? Maine, this was another tricky one, but maybe it's to do with, maybe I have to go back and have my mum's chili con carne because I just used to love it with boiled rice. I love anything with beans.

I love black beans, kidney beans. I love- Can you still get Coleman's packets? Probably, you know what? Yeah. But what I do know instead of getting packets, because you know old Chris Van Tullekin, the Ultra Process People book. My son loves him. Yeah, the Operation Arch

guys. Yeah, that book which, you know, just... The Ultra Process one. Yeah, the whole like, it's the ingredients. And it's like if there's something in the ingredients, it's not in your kitchen cupboard, then it's pretty, it's not great for you. It's just chemicals. So I'll sometimes look on the packet of summer and think, oh, it's cumin, it's a bit of that, I'm just trying to make it up. But maybe I'd add my mom's chilli

because she just used to do it. And when my mom would make curry as well, she'd do the sort of like chopped white onion with just some mint sauce in it mixed up you know all those flavors from when mum was being experimental in the 80s. You mean like that chutney that you get at the end? Yeah but not... No it's not, it's like mint jelly with the onions in it or even mint sauce you can do it and it's just that extra oniony thing.

Sounds delicious, it's like salad. Yeah it's kind of delicious. We've put old school mint sauce. Which curry would you have? Chicken or prawn? Or beef? If it was my mum's one that she used to do, probably chicken. Yeah.

And then drink of choice? Well, none of this food is going together. No, it's fine. So I might need a break in between each one. I really love margarita. Oh, I love margarita. Kind of like a spicy margarita. It's delicious. Oh you like spicy. I quite like the spicy one, the picante one that's just got a little bit of chili in it.

Oh my god what did you put in then? We're a Soho House members obviously. What did you put in then? A picante. It's like a chili. Is it jalapeno? Yeah I think so. I don't think I'd be doing with that. No you wouldn't. I had that when we were on the stage with silver and I ate the jalapeno. No, that was a really good martini from Rita. I do love a martini. Do you like a martini? No. I like a dirty martini with a bit of the olive water in there. No, I don't like that. And then for Pud, where are we going?

I've not really got much of a sweet tooth. But you won Bake Off. This is just, this makes no sense to me. It's so weird. What was your showstopper? My showstopper, you had to make a cake that was a tribute to a friend. Now, I nearly did a cake that was Annie Mac's face, because then I thought I could use chocolate to do all her curls.

But instead, I did Jeremy Vine riding his penny farthing. Oh, my God. But it wasn't a stood up. So did you do two circles? Yeah, so I did Jeremy Vine riding his Penny Farthing. Oh my God! But it wasn't a stood up, it was like a down. So did you do two circles? Yeah, so I did, yeah. Well I sort of cut it out and then I used lots of that lovely icing that's a bit like plasticine that you roll out. Fondant.

Fondant. Fondant. And I did quite, and because I loved art school and stuff, I did like. Did you make him like, what a synchronic kind of... It was flat as you looked down at it but funny enough it did look a bit like Proulith because of his specs. Proulith was there but the sponge cake was my

sister-in-law Sarah Jane's recipe that has got loads of biscoff in it. That lovely biscoff. Delicious. So you put dollops of that into your cake mix and it was incredible. And what was really good was that Prue took some home for her husband and people were like, if Prue takes them home, then that's really good.

And everyone dived in when I was born. But when I got the sponge out of the oven, Mr. Hollywood was walking past, because we're both North and he looked over and he just gave me a little wink. A little like that's looking alright. Oh great! Were you susceptible to those blue eyes?

I was a little bit. I didn't think I would. No, I can't show them. Twinkling. How is it? He must put something in them that makes them look like Disney prints. Like the twinkles. Pull on out the Disney prints. Okay, so pudding. Oh, pudding. Can you try a bit of my strawberry ice cream? Just a little bit.

I would love to, yeah, I'd love to. I like a bit of, I quite like panna cotta. I just like soft things that I can squish around in my mouth, like baby food. That sounds weird, doesn't it? Sounds, yeah. I used to have a friend who used to always squish food through her teeth.

That's disgusting. I know, but it was like, I think that's the consistency. Are you still friends? That's the texture that I like. We're not actually, no. How old was she when she was doing this? When we were like 12. Time to give that up.

Weird. I mean, she didn't fire it out. She just had quite gappy teeth. A bit like we played her, but your kids have got it where you plunge down the thing. It's just spread out. Thank God we haven't had Play- for ages they're out of that. You have the play dough years. Have you got the things that you have to iron and they melt together?

Oh what the Heber things? Yes! No weirdly. And it's quite arts and crafts. We did a session on tie-dye the other day and I thought it was going to be really wholesome. It was like so they have like core memories of not doing arts and crafts. Yeah of course. They'll not remember any of this. And I just said get the fuck out everyone's gonna leave us together and it was me and the nanny doing all the side time at the end just don't make it too much for us yeah the annoying thing is they won't remember anything they won't remember all this hard work I'm hoping it builds it's building a foundation in there though, that makes them into the adults they're gonna be.

But you know, it's- Have you read the Long Island Compromise? But also, just sorry, talking about you telling the kids to get out at Christmas. Do you have a tree here? Do you have a Christmas tree? Yeah, we do it all. One set of in-laws just have one barbel up,

the other does a big barbel. So my husband loves the tree and all that sort of thing. The kids obviously love it. And when they're about that high and you let them decorate the tree and they just do it in one patch. Like the bottom and then there's just such a control freak had sort of ruined it

but they wouldn't notice but I'd be like, okay, no, I'll put this one here. But as soon as it goes to bed, fixing it on. Something that you said on the podcast, it was about how you and Claire kind of, not parent differently, but you've had different experiences of being parents. Yeah, that's what's quite nice,

because Claire's been a single mom since her youngest, who is now 18, was maybe like a few months old. Like she had, she's a really tough, I mean, the most badass people I know are my single mum friends. And I guess we should say single parents, because obviously it happens to men too, but the vast majority I think are women. And my single mum friends, I've just got so much respect for them because it's so tough. Because you don't have that sounding board like, I'm going mad here, you know, you've just, it's just you with them. You talked about like the fact that when you get home,

you've worked and then maybe you get home a bit later and how your experiences are very different, but like, would you change anything, Sarah? Because I mean, it's like, it's your job, isn't it? I think this is me asking for being allowed to be a working mother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But do you feel like you would change anything or not?

No, what with career and with kids? Yeah, it's tough, isn't it? It's tough because, but I wouldn't change anything. Look, I was brought up with my mum working bloody hard behind the bar and I'd get home from school and she wasn't there. There was a series of post-it notes there telling me to wipe up the dishes to do, which I'll obviously ignore.

But I kind of, even then, I thought I kind of admired her for working hard and appreciated that she was working hard so that we could afford the odd holiday or whatever. I do say to my kids, I'm like, are you gonna have loads of therapy when you're older? Because like, I'm not there and I'm busy. And they're like, no, you work hard, you've got a good job, they kind of.

But I'm like, oh God, do they know yet? Maybe it is, they don't know that it's bad for them that I'm not there. It's really hard because I love my job and I love working and it's a massive part of who I am. And it's in me as well because I grew up, I'm just like, my work ethic completely comes from being brought up working class and seeing my mum work.

And like your kids seem to have a work ethic, like hopefully that's because they- Well your kids seem to have a work ethic. Like, and hopefully that's- Well, they don't have a work ethic. They don't bugger off, but I love them. They're a great company. They're hilarious. Good crack, there you go. My kids, I was washing my face last night.

You did nothing. What are you fucking talking about? When I was working, what did you do in the house? I mean, none of us did anything. I earned my own money and like- Oh, I always had jobs. Did you have jobs? I had jobs.

Yeah, I was babysitting from like 13. And then I was like waitressing or I was working at the perfume counter. Like I always wanted a little bit. Yeah, I was always working. I didn't do much work here. I didn't- No, around the house?

No, no. None of us did. No. I used to do my nails and my mum had come back from working her ass off and I'd be like, I'm a model and my nails have got to dry so I can to do me nails and my mum had come back from working her ass off and I'd be like I'm a model and my nails have got to dry so I can't do anything She just be like Jesus, I don't wonder she signed me up to just head off to South Korea Not knowing where it was actually going. She's like bye. Good luck. Where do I sign?

This is delicious. So have you made this? Have you got an ice cream maker or you just put it in the freezer? No, a friend made it while I was away. This is delish. And you roast the strawberries. No way. My god, your grandkids are going to love this. Can I ask you, what is a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere? Okay, black peas. Oh, what? Delicious. Black peas? Black peas. They are, you'd have them on bonfire night.

Oh yeah. And they are you'd have mum bum finite and they are I think originally like pigeon food like little hard black peas right and you soak them you steep them and then you boil the buggery out of them and you'd have them in a little cup with lots of vinegar and a little bit of salt and white pepper. Is this the Lancashire thing? Which part of Lancashire are you from? Bolton. He said you like beans. Yeah black and a little bit of salt and white pepper. Is this a Lancashire thing? Which part of Lancashire are you from?

Bolton. He says you like beans. Yeah, black peas, delicious. Bolton, I've never ever heard of them. And they start to break down just a little bit and you have them, it has to be a really cold bonfire night and you're outside with a cup of really hot black peas and you eat them with a little teaspoon out of like a polystyrene cup. I've absolutely never heard of that anywhere. Have your kids ever had them? They've tried them, they don't really like

them. I try and make them eat these things and they're not really into them. I think it is just so from my childhood. Like the stuff that I make, like I make broth like my mum used to make and tatty ash and they're alright. You know like potato hash, like corn beef hash. Oh yeah. Yeah. Tty potatoes, I think it must be. Tattie potato. What's tattie potatoes? Well, I think tatty means tatters, potatoes. I'm trying to remember.

Oh, you're doing a drink? Potatoes goes to tatters, goes to tatties, I think. Oh wow, okay, got it. We've had the journey of the tattie. Yeah, I think some people call boobs tatties, or am I wrong? What, titties? No, it might go tatties, then to titty, it's up to no-

It's confusing. Sarah Fox, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thanks, it was delicious and lovely, thank you. It was delicious. Thank you for coming. That was so lovely having Sarah Crossover. It was as lovely as I imagined it would be. So people can read all her books or you can go and see the Team Commandments live. Claire and Sarah are doing the podcast live at Crosswire's podcast festival which is on Saturday the 5th of July. It is sold out so maybe if you're going go and see them it'll be brilliant. And Camp Bestival on the library stage which is

on the 2nd of August so go and check them out. Also you'll see them on Celebrity Goggles box which is coming out I think this summer. Mum the food was really delicious. Did you like it? I really didn't that's Ice cream you get at the theater the Luscombe farm one. Did you like the fish? I did I did like it Yeah, it wasn't bit cantini the Hope you mean Rochelle can't eat. Yeah. Yeah fuck off Notice she never gives me a compliment? No! I just gave you a compliment! It was fine, but you know.

It was really nice, but it's like white fish. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Well what? The flavour was nice, but it's like, anyway, don't worry. Okay. I thought it was going to be like summer's day and we wouldn't want anything heavy. It was, honestly, it was so delish. Thank you.

We'll see you next week for more Table Monies. Good.