Alasdair Gill on Addiction, Recovery and the Kitchens That Saved Him

The Good Food podcast

Please note: this episode contains frank discussion of drug and alcohol addiction as well as some explicit language

Chef and writer Alasdair Gill joins Samuel Goldsmith to talk about his raw new book, Knives and Spoons — a memoir-with-recipes charting his rise from kitchen porter to head chef, and his journey through addiction to recovery. Alasdair opens up about why kitchens took him in when nowhere else would, growing up as the son of the late restaurant critic A.A. Gill, and how food became the thing that kept his life on track. He also shares the chaos of catering a castle wedding with two waiters, why he’d rather have a baguette and a pickle than fine dining and his surprisingly poor crisp flavour ideas.

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