Ep 276: Emily Campbell
en
January 29, 2025
TLDR: Emily Campbell, double Olympic medalist and four-time European weightlifting champion, co-hosts the Unofficial Gladiators podcast 'Contender Ready'. Ed Gamble and James Acaster host Off Menu comedy podcast.

In this episode of the Off Menu podcast, hosts Ed Gamble and James Acaster welcome Emily Campbell, the double Olympic medalist and four-time European weightlifting champion. The conversation meanders through food, weightlifting, and the challenges and triumphs of being an elite athlete.
Key Themes Discussed
1. Introduction to Emily Campbell
Emily shares her background, discussing her journey from athletics to weightlifting. She explains how she was introduced to the sport at university after being encouraged to try weightlifting as it could enhance her throwing skills.
2. Her Passion for Food
Emily expresses her love for food, particularly Caribbean cuisine, and highlights how food plays a big role in her life:
- Food as Identity: Growing up in a Caribbean household made her appreciate delicious, well-prepared meals.
- Weight Management: She mentions the challenges of maintaining her weight category while indulging in her love for food.
3. Weightlifting Life
Emily provides insights into the rigorous lifestyle of a weightlifter:
- Training and Diet: She discusses the significance of nutrition in her training routine and how she must consume a high-calorie diet at specific intervals throughout the day.
- Eating Habits: Emily humorously describes how she often does not feel hungry due to constant snacking needed to maintain her weight for competition.
4. Competitions and Experiences
Emily vividly narrates her experiences in competitions, including the pressure and adrenaline that come with lifting heavy weights:
- Olympics Experience: She reflects on her Olympic experience and the communal atmosphere of returning with fellow athletes.
- Fun Stories: Emily shares anecdotes related to the camaraderie among athletes and the humorous complexities of airport queues.
5. Secret Ingredient
In a typical Off Menu twist, Emily discusses the unappealing secret ingredient, Cream of Chicken Campbell's Soup, humorously navigating through what that could mean for the dining experience.
6. Favorite Foods
Emily describes her dream meal:
- Starter: Buttermilk chicken strips with honey and sriracha sauce.
- Main Course: A seafood boil accompanied by a bib that declares her identity.
- Side Dish: Savory baked mac and cheese—with a perfect mix of textures and flavors.
- Drink: A celebratory mango daiquiri (mocktail version), a nod to her sober lifestyle.
- Dessert: Classic New York cheesecake topped with a berry compote and ice cream, reflecting her affinity for fresh, vibrant tastes.
Takeaways for Athletes and Food Lovers
- Importance of Nutrition: Emily emphasizes the role of nutrition in training for weightlifting. Athletes must tailor their diet based on their training schedule and competition day requirements.
- Mindset in Competition: Adopting a positive yet realistic outlook on competition can help alleviate stress and improve performance.
- Love for Food: The joy of sharing and creating meals is significant in Emily's life, highlighting that food can be a source of comfort and connection for all.
- Pursuing Passion: Emily's transition into weightlifting showcases the importance of exploring new interests and the impact of dedication on achieving success.
Conclusion
Seasoned with humor and poignant reflections, Emily’s joyful narrative about her life as an athlete and a foodie enriches the conversation, making this episode a delightful listen for anyone interested in sports, nutrition, and personal journeys. The episode encapsulates the charm of mixing world-class athleticism with down-to-earth discussions about food and lifestyle, engaging listeners with each anecdote and insight shared.
Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of the life of an Olympian like Emily Campbell while relishing the exploration of food and culture in this enthusiastic podcast episode.
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Welcome to the Off-Menu podcast, taking the Weetabix of Conversations, pouring over the cold milk of chat, and sprinkling on the raisins of humour. Raisins? Ah, yes, very nice way to have your Weetabix. Ah, this morning.
This morning, I didn't have my usual supplies from my wee topics, so I went with dried mango and grapes. Hello. Not really the best combo. The grapes, actually. Well, the grapes are juicy and the dried mango is chewy. Yeah, yeah. So you've gone through a wild variety of textures. Well, I'd usually go for it. I went for what was in the kitchen. Oh, I've got those up to hand, I'll have them. But like, yes, it wasn't. I think you go one of the other one knows really. Yeah, I think so. I think it'd be grapes for me.
Yeah, well, I don't know. I'm like, yeah, anyway. That said, gamble. My name is James A. Casta. Together we own a dream restaurant. And every single week, we invite a guest in and ask them their favorite ever start and make us a side-to-shan drink, not in that order. And this week, our guest is...
Emily Campbell. If you watch the Olympics, you will know Emily Campbell. She is a medal-winning weightlifter. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Absolutely incredible. She's won medals in the last two Olympics. She is so fantastic. I've met Emily before on the show, Great British Menu.
She loves talking about food. She's great fun. I can't wait for this episode. Yeah, very excited. Is this our first Olympian? Yes, I believe it is our first Olympian, James. Very excited. Not our last. Please. If any other Olympians are listening.
We want any other, huh? Not any other. They've got to be a laugh as well. Yeah, you got to be a laugh. Very important. They're skateboarders or something. Skateboarders are cool. Yeah. No, hopefully some more Olympians to come, but so excited to have Emily on. Yeah, really excited. And look, even though we're excited as possibly two little boys can be, we will kick Emily out of the dream restaurant if she chooses a secret ingredient, an ingredient which we deem to be unacceptable. And this week, the secret ingredient is
Cream of chicken Campbell's soup. Cream of chicken Campbell's soup. Campbell's Emily Campbell, but we've already done Campbell's soup because it was Bubba Tunday, a L'Eche's secret ingredient because he was wearing the off menu Campbell's soup t-shirt. You'd think it would have been Sam Campbell's secret ingredient. It wasn't too late or you'd done it for Bubba Tunday. Yeah, but then apparently we're okay. We're using it now. Yeah.
We should have done it for Sam and then a specific flavor, yeah, and then a different specific flavor family and then everyone who's called Campbell should have always done a different flavor of Campbell soup. Yeah, which we're going to do from now on. Yeah, so watch out. Alistair. Alistair. Bruce.
There's so many Campbells, we've still got to have on. There's two. Yeah. Any others? Yeah. Who? Max Campbell went to school with him. Hey, Max Campbell. He's the ultimate Campbell. Yeah. Campbell sounds a bit like Gamble, I suppose. Yeah. Campbell and Gamble. Will you hang it out together? Yeah, yeah, we will. Max Campbell and Ed Gamble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fucking hell. That would have been funny. Many people think Gamble is actually a derivation of Campbell.
So I would not have been able to get over that. Campbell and Gamble. If I went to school with Campbell and Gamble, I never run it around. I'd also Max Campbell and Ed Gamble as well. There's something about those names. Yeah. Oh man, I would have not been able to get over it. I would have found it so funny. I think you might listen to this as well, so hello. Look, mate, it's funny. And like, if I ever have to leave the podcast, you know, let's say, maybe I'll die before Ed. Max Campbell, you've got to replace me. Yeah.
Right, should we get on with the episode now, James? Yes, yeah, yeah, enough of our nonsense. We have an Olympian to talk to. Yes. This is the off-menu menu of Emily Campbell!
Welcome Emily to the dream restaurant. Thank you very much. Welcome Emily Campbell to the dream restaurant based on you for some time. Finally, I heard the queue was long, so I'm glad you finally let me in. Yeah. Do you like queuing? Hate queues? No, it's very British thing, isn't it? Yeah. Really frustrates me, like, I was going on training camp to Tenerife and everybody's queuing just for the sake of queuing. Yeah. Then they're announcing the flight's gonna leave, so I start going through the queue. Everyone's getting really mad at me. I'm like, well, you guys can stand here. I'm gonna get on the flight that's just about to leave.
It's just, we just queue because we think we should queue. There's actually no real purpose to it. Yeah, somebody, why are you stood there? I don't actually know, because everyone else has stood there. The flights are the maddest ones as well. They try everything. Give you a group number to board. They do it by row number. No matter what they do, everyone's just standing up and queuing. It drives me up a wall. Stress does help. Also, if you've got not got much luggage, it's really great to just sit there and watch everyone and be like, look at these idiots.
It's like you paid for that seat, that is yours. No one else has taken it. I can stand there for like an hour. And I'm like, yeah, I think it's a very British thing, definitely. I think you should just walk on the plane. If you're one of those people, doesn't kick. I just sit down. And when the person arrives, be like, I'll beat you here. You should be in favor of the kid. Sorry. Sorry that you're in the window seat. Yeah. Spyro now.
I reckon you can pull that off, Emily. Yeah. You can just show your bronze medal and just be like, look, I win. Yeah, sorry. That's what I said. Yes. Do you put that in your carry on or in the, or in your, do you check it in your luggage? Great question. Because I would think like that's going to affect the way, either way, that's a hefty medal. Yeah, no, definitely not. There's a problem for you. You're a weight lift. But, you know, what, what are you putting in?
Yeah, no, definitely carry on because obviously, you know, you've seen how they throw them suitcases in the bottom. It's just like a little, you know, fling and, you know, you get about 10,000 dents by the time you get your suitcase back, don't you? So keep it, keep it where you are. There's like a trend where a lot of the athletes like put it on underneath them and then go through the scanner and obviously it goes off and then they go, oh, sorry.
and then pull it out. It's quite funny to be fair. I've never done it myself personally, but I've seen it on the, seen it on the grab. Have you ever tried to get an upgrade by wearing the medal at check-in? No, I did, I did on the way back from Tokyo, which was pretty cool, but that was, was because like, they already knew, but I do have the rings tattooed on the inside of my arm. So sometimes, you know, it's just a quick fix of the hair, it's all fitted up. I mean, so they're not too obvious. And then they're like, oh, what do you do? And I'm like, well, it's funny you ask.
Yeah, but I could do that. Yeah, you get tattoos all the time. Yeah, just get one and then see if it works. That's it. Yeah. No one will ever know. Yeah, but then if they say what sport do you do, then I have to make something up. You do. And I don't know what... Let's get your story straight now, then. Yeah, so what sport do you think I could say and potentially get away with it with a... I think you could say a question. Yeah. Okay, the two postures ones. All right.
I was at King's Cross St. Pancras, or just St. Pancras, actually, when, you know, they're two rival brothers. I was in St. Pancras. They're rivals, man. But yeah, they're rivals. Have you been there? It's nuts, like the side story.
As I said, I said, when everyone came back from the Olympics this year, and everyone was wearing their medals, and I didn't know it was going to happen. I wasn't there to, like, greet all the athletes or nothing. I'd say goodbye to my friend and send him off to Ketman. He wasn't even wearing a medal. And then turn round and all these people with Team GBT shirts. And I thought, oh, that's cool. People have got the merch. And then I realized they're also wearing medals. It was all, all of you have come back on the Eurostar.
Yeah, I think that might have been, I might have been in that queue. I didn't say that. I know what another queue. Yeah, yeah, because another queue for us all to get out. What a lot. Yeah, they make a big thing of it and make you, we had like a homecoming Eurostar and it was all, it was all going on. I mean, carriage one was not the most exciting though. We was all so tired. All of us just fell asleep and this guy came up with his guitar and Team UB was like, I don't think you want to go in there. Because if they beat you up, I can't help you.
So he just stood at the door and went, OK, and we just literally was all caught up. But partly down the rest of the train, they had a great time. He was partying. We saw footage and we was like, wow, I can't believe that was the same train.
What was the craziest carriage? Which athletes throw down hard? I think it was actually the Roas, you know, the Roas were really going for it. Roas and the hockey that were in there as well. Yeah. But they was having the right party. Yeah, it was all going down. And yeah, I just saw it on social media and I was like, wow, I didn't know that was the same trade. But the Roas, they never get to see people's faces after time.
So it must be nice just to be like in a carriage and partying with everyone rather than just looking at the back of someone's head and sitting down. It's a pretty boring job. It's a fair point to be fair. And they all came back as well because they was finished. So a lot of people came back for the closing ceremony, which honestly I want to bother.
It was interesting. But yeah, a lot of people came back, so he was a little bit more of a united front, because a lot of people got home because they'd finished like a week ago or whatever, so they'd gone home. And obviously, because it was only Paris, people just popped back on the Eurostar and came back, so it was a bit of a bigger crew to go. So yeah, we had quite a homecoming train, which was pretty cool. So yeah, you probably got to see a little snippet of that. Yeah, I was very excited. I felt like I was watching proper history, yeah, from coming back. I saw one of the rowers actually having a selfie with someone, but she didn't look happy about it.
to be fair to her. I'd also say that being interviewed on TV and being like, this is, this is bullshit. She was like, she liked winning the gold medal, but she was like, this, this press stuff afterwards. Absolutely go efforts. Yeah. It's true. Everyone doesn't remind you of what comes with when you get a medal. Like you get really excited about the medal and then you realize, well, actually comes with it and it's like kind of obliterating. You're like, like, I mean, you can't press out and say, you know what, don't want to do press. I don't want to do it. But then you just like a dick though, don't you? Yeah. You don't speak to anybody.
You can't win, I've awakened, you've got to be miserable and get through it. We haven't had many athletes on the podcast, so we haven't really got to talk about the diet of an athlete. When you're a weight lifter, what's it look like? When you're eating and you're getting ready for a competition, does it change? No, it's pretty much the same to be fair, but it's just a lot of food all the time. I have this real love-hate relationship with food because I'm Caribbean,
So food is like everything. Like, you know, every time we have a party food has to be immaculate else, you know, it's just not a good party and things like that. So I've grown up like eating really great food and love food, but then I'll see when I became an athlete, I'm super heavyweight. So I have to keep my body weight up to a certain like level and just eating is a chore. Like it's just when you finish eating and you still fall, it's like eat again. Like it's, I can't remember last time I felt hungry.
It's you guess the point where you're like, I'm not actually sure what hunger feels like, because you literally still fall from the snack that you've just eaten and then it's lunchtime. And then you've got another snack before training. And then after training, probably the first time that you feel hungry, because you've done obviously a workout for like two hours. And then you eat that and then it's 45 minutes later, it's dinner time. And then it's pre bed snack. And it's just yeah, it just doesn't stop.
I mean, I've fantastic nutritionist, like she is excellent, like she's so good. And she's so good at trying to vary things and keep exciting because she knows we have to eat a lot. But yeah, sometimes it's just get it down your that pre bed one would kill me the most, I think the pre beds, the pre bed, pre. Oh, yeah, it's got to be 30 minutes, essentially before you fall asleep. So then it's working overnight.
Basically. What's the pressure there though and falling asleep? Cause I, if I know I've got to get to sleep at a certain time, I can't, I just lay there awake. But if I'm like, right, I've had my pre-bed snack in that 30 minutes, I've got to be asleep. Yeah, I can't relate. Sorry. I was like fall asleep, like, anywhere kind of person at any time. Like, I have a real skill for sleeping. I don't know if it's a skill or if I should get it checked out. I'm not sure I'm out on the border of it, but I can literally be chilling, like having a conversation with someone and next when I'm fast asleep.
Well, we'll see what happens later on in this episode. So, just start boring me, guys. Sorry. I don't think God won that characteristic if I was a weight lifter. Yeah. If I was halfway through a competition, if I got the weights above my head and I doze off, I'm in trouble. Yeah, that's why you take a lot of caffeine, don't worry about that. We do that to kind of write that happening.
Yeah, but sometimes it's nice having that before as well, because we weigh in two hours before, and then you've just got this horrible time where you just sat there waiting. There's nothing ready to do. You can't warm up too early, or you can't do anything, so it's just like eat a little bit of something, and then sometimes I think, oh, you know what, get a quick 20 minutes in, power nap, wake up, and then ready to go.
So, pre-nap, snap, snap? Pre-nap, snap, yeah. So that'll probably be like, so on competition date is a little bit different in terms of like, depending on when you compete, show like, basically, collate me like a table and tell me exactly what time to eat everything. So that's normally like, it's not really exciting to be fair because she pulls you off fire, but she pulls you off spice and everything that like stops you from absorbing carbs properly.
Sometimes if you're like a gut that doesn't agree with it or whatever, or you're not used to it, yeah, sometimes it can interfere with the way that you like to absorb stuff. So yes, she pulls you off that says normally it's like a chicken sandwich with mayo, but you know, sometimes the staples do the job. You know, you can't go wrong. It's just as long as the chicken's not dry, because there is nothing worse in life than dry chicken.
completely agree. Like, that poor chicken did not deserve to die for it to be dry and unseasoned. Do you know what I mean? Like, that's the stuff that kind of thinks we think, you know, I'll go vegetarian because like, how are you going to destroy the chicken like that for it not to be even just treated with a little bit of care? Like, do you know what I mean? Absolutely. That's my opinion. Yeah, I think that poor dry chicken probably make a lot of people go veggie. We all start with still a sparkling water.
Still water. If you drink sparkling water, you're a psychopath. Yeah. Standard. It's not nice. You can't convince anybody that it's nice. It's just not. We have a lot of guests on this that absolutely love sparkling water. Bless them. Are they all psychopaths? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Oh, they're just doing it to please their friends or something. It's not nice.
But also, I think any time we do have like people who are like sports people or whatever on, they choose still water because they're not drinking sparkling and then going to exercise. Yeah, because you've got to drink a lot of water as well. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm not going to front like water in general is just not the nicest really. Like I'm one of those like, I'm a squash person. Yeah. I've got those little like travel ones and, you know, I'd rather drink squash and drink water. What's just boring, isn't it? Well, it's just there for hydration. Well, let you have squash as you walk, of course, if you want.
Yeah, would you? Yeah. Oh, that's great. Yeah. I'd love to like an orange and pineapple or a tropical or something along those lines. Yes, solid. Oh, that's good. Well, I just got better, didn't it already? Do you want one of those squeezy little pouches? Is that what you're talking about? They're just convenient, aren't they? But, you know, any squash works, you want to go double strength really because you don't want it to be like weak. Crazy the double strength.
It is, you have to be really careful with that, you know. If you get a bit too, it can get a bit too much. It goes to space. It's crazy. Yeah. I have my really sweet as well, apparently, because I remember once we was catching a flight, and I was with a couple of the lads that we was going to an international. And I said, oh, come on, finish this, because I can't finish it all. And they were like...
Emily, what the hell is that? How much juice is in there? And I was like, wait, are these white leftes as well? These big boys. Probably big boys. Yeah, because I travel with all the heavyweights. So all the heavyweights boys, I was like, just finish that. And they were like, that is awful Emily. They was like, have you got half a bottle of squash in there? And I was like, no. Like, do you even think it was that sweet? I've been drinking it my whole life. You're hardcore. Yeah. You get strong like the squash. Yeah. That's what you got to tell them. Wow. You got to go tell those boys. This squash stronger than you guys. Yeah, I'm going to go put that in my hinge profile.
Are you ever got one of those little pouches and thought about shot in it? Yeah. Oh, no, that is pretty. Wow, you went to a dark place for that, didn't you? Someone's done it. Someone must have done it. Someone's got it. What does that squirt in the mouth? You see some weightlifters, they just like smelling something. You could do it instead of that. You could just get a shot, shot it, and then go for a one rep max.
Maybe we've been getting it wrong the whole time, baby. Squash has been the one. Did you not know about the smelling soap? No, it smelled the salt. Is that if you pass out? Well, yeah, that's used because waiters just do pass out a lot, especially in the cleaning jerks. Sometimes if you have a heavy clean, you can get like, and then obviously the bars here.
So then if you don't like, sometimes if you have to look down to like try and release your earways a little bit, but yeah, just in general, it just kind of wakes you up and just gets you like a little bit a little bit or whatever. So yeah, and then I'll see on the market now, these stupid strong ones, like they're getting crazy with making them. Cause obviously once we've made something, we have to make it like 10 times worse, don't we? So yeah, there's like some really, really like strong ones, but yeah, most weightlessness, you'll see use sniffing salts. I don't tend to use them on the snatch, but I'll use them on the cleaning jokes. It looks like it's the most stressful sport to watch.
I'm just like, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna crumble. I can really see the stress in your eyes as well. You look really worried about that. Every time, every time you lift it, I'm like, are you fucking kidding me?
You're going to fall over, it's going to trap you. Especially when you put it on the front. When it's on the back, it's bad enough. But when it's on the front, and your wrists are bending backwards, and it's basically going to cut your head off. I'm like, what are they doing? But you know they train, so it's not going to trap them, right? They're going to fall over. But they're pushing themselves. You've got a PB. I'm like, you haven't done that before.
What are you doing? But I mean, if you're going to get a paybait out of the Olympics. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I would love to disagree with everything you're saying, but you've actually got some really strong points. Yeah. On the floor at the end. Yeah, that's the fun bit though. That's a fun bit. That's good about someone hit someone in the face one day. Yeah, if it's too light, but if it's heavy enough, it'll grant.
Yeah, well as long as you keep your feet inside the bar and obviously the bars like that much off the floor so the bar will never hit your feet even like if you fall back with it as well as long as you keep your head on the floor the bar will just roll straight over your head because of the height is off the floor.
So you were right with that. But yeah, I mean, yeah, there's been some, there's been some accidents and there's been some people, especially people on the internet that see, I think, oh, that's really cool. And I'm going to give that try. And then they end up like you said, folding the self like a deck chair. And yeah, it's really, it's really interesting. And we're like, people are laughing at it, but yeah, I had to wear like, oh my God.
That's the worst. Yeah, that is so bad. They are going to be literally killing and they've got people that have dropped out on legs and quads and stuff and ended up like tearing stuff and got like big bruises all the way up. Yeah. It's rough. I mean, when you get to our level, you learn how to bail out of stuff, but yeah, in the beginning, you do. Yeah. I mean, you hit yourself with a bar. We do it. We do a, we do a lift called a muscle snatch and it's just basically where you bring the bar through without rebending your legs underneath. Sometimes you bring your head to and smack the bar. So we've got people have duck eggs in the middle of the red and it's
It won't be the first and last time you do it. It's one of those, you know, to cut up at any time, like. So, yeah, it's not for the faint heart of that sport. No, I'll definitely give you that. It's, you've got to be so awful smashing yourself in the head with the bar and your first thought is, I'll probably do that again. Yeah. Yeah. Awful. And you've got the rest of your session as well, because normally muscles are just like the beginning of the session as well. So it's like, well, get over it because you've got to get the rest of the session done. Yeah. You've got your post session nap in a minute. Yeah. Exactly. And it's a duck egg annoying. Yeah.
You do the thing as well. You lift it over your head and then you're like, you're smiling at everything. You're like, ha, ha, like it's the best for you ever. That's it. I'm like, you're not stressed out. No. I don't have it over my head. I'll be like, stop and get this fucking thing off. I think Sam and Victoria are going to think about that. It's fucking thing off me. Yeah. The next big competition, you say the worlds are in December, right? Yes. I want you to do a snatch and scream, get this fucking thing off me.
And the people who've heard this will know what it's in reference to. Yeah, definitely. I'll probably have to lift the swear in that, though, because we're told off a swear. Yeah. They're probably like prunes about that stuff. Yeah. If you swear or whatever, like, if you're like coaching from the side as well, and you swear out your athlete or whatever, they're like, shy, you're officials. It's because the problem is in our sport, right? The officials are made to feel dead special. They get their own little walker and everyone claps for them and everyone. They get to go their name and they say, oh, behave. Like, behave.
You're here to do a job. Everybody knows you. You're great at your job. Thank you very much. Just go and sit in your seats and get it done. But yeah, they get this like, they line us up, announce all of us, and then they line all the officials up. We're trying to get rid of it for ages. He's dead boring. Like nobody cares. Like it's literally to full time. And it is the deadest space of full time you've ever seen in your life. So yeah, so they all feel like they're dead in porn because they get that little wave and announcement at the beginning. So yeah, they get a little bit of enemies. Good amount of power now. Yeah, this is it. This is it. You give people an inch, take a mile, don't you?
Yeah, I mean, none was meeting them off the Eurostar. Well, well shit.
Pop noms or bread, pop noms or bread in the Campbell, pop noms or bread. Oh, bread. Pop noms are like, you know what I mean? They're strong, but I feel like they have to go with the full Indian meal. I think on their own, they're a little bit random, aren't they? But bread, all different types of bread. I mean, people do the whole bread and olive oil thing, which is a bit weird to me. Like I've noticed it before and I'm like, oh, you're just dipping that in oil. That's like really strange. Like I'm more of a black bread and butter kind of girl.
Yeah, yeah. And bread forms part of your pre-competition diet as well. You say you have chicken mayo sandwich. Yes, definitely. Yeah, bread is a good staple. You know, they're having breakfast, have it for meals as well. But yeah, just don't think you can go wrong. When the bread's warm as well, it's gotta be warm. Warm, put the butter on straight away, melts, chops are good.
in Paris, did you have many like warm fresh baguettes on the bakery? We had a call to be fair, yeah. We stayed in Saint-Germain on name for prep camp, which was pretty busy to be fair. It was really nice and there was a bakery across the road, which was lovely. And you could smell it every morning as well, which is, I mean, there's nothing better than this smell of fresh bread in the morning. So yeah, that was really good. But when you run away to training, you know, you can't have the bread quite yet till later.
It's not the ideal, but yeah, no, it was really good. And then they had a bakery in the village as well, which was pretty cool. And yeah, the bread, they did not like it in Paris, as you can imagine, they're bread skills. And it was really funny actually watching people, because they literally just buy baguettes, break it off and eat it, like walking through the street, like it's normal. And I'm like, that's really weird, because obviously we just don't see that, do we? But this is such a normal thing in France. Because it's so good, you can just have a little nibble of it on the way home. Yeah, but the top off.
When you're away with the other weightlifters and you can buy bread and you're having to eat all this food, do the other athletes from other sports get really jealous of you? Is there like climbers sat there going, oh, fuck, you know, I want to baggy. They're not sat. Well, it's funny, actually, because obviously the other weightlifters, they're all in weight classes. So they have to cut weight. So a lot of them by the time we get to competition are very reduced food. So they're very hungry.
So they're the opposite I'm moaning because I've got too much to eat and they're moaning because they want some of what I'm eating So you've got like the the contrast between but then yeah, do you know what most I was really surprised actually, you know the sports where you think all they probably don't eat that much or whatever But like like your marathon runners your long distance runners all them they have to get so many colors in because
as they run so far, that actually you see a plate of food and you think, go on, you didn't think they'd be able to put that kind of food away, do you know what I mean? Like, it was really impressive how they eat and, you know, triathletes, you know, to keep themselves fueled in that. So really, to be fair, there's not many sports that you will see, like, really restricting. It's just your weight category sports. As they get close to competition, they've got to cut down because they've got to make weight. So your Taekwondo, your judo, weightlifting, et cetera. Yeah, they've all got to make weight. So the guys that were going up the wall fast.
Honestly, it's like 100 meters sprint vertical. Oh, it's mad at that. Bonkers. Crazy. It's so impressive. So impressive. Yeah, I was watching it and I was just like, well, and apparently that they know that course and they know what they're going to do. They know like where they're going to put their hands. It's just essentially like how fast can they do it? Yeah. So each time they've just got to nail it as fast as possible. But yeah, surely they can't be in loads of bread. No, certainly not immediately before. No. Put some bread at the top of the wall. Yeah. No, you're talking. No, you're fast. Yeah.
It doesn't turn up for the medal ceremony, because you've got your prize. Yeah, I've got your ice cream. I've got my cone around my neck.
I'm a chap, pick a specific type of bread off you actually. Oh. I know you want warm bread with butter. Yeah, I can't go wrong with a good cheer butter to be fair. Yeah. You're like a focaccia. I can give you a bite from a little basket. Yeah. Little Italian bread basket. That's it. Yeah. Do a little pick and mix.
So your dream starter. So I would probably have to say either some like buttermilk breaded chicken strips or chicken wings, one of the two. I'm not, I'm not, not forced, but it's got to be in like a honey and sriracha like sauce. So like when it's like it's fried seasoned well and then tossed in the sauce. So it's like nice and hot. Then with like a garlic dip of some kind. Yeah. I feel like yeah, that's a great starter.
This is solid and this is, I mean, we know this chicken is going to be nice and moist. Yes. Absolutely. That is number one. Moist is such a weird word in it. It is a weird word. It's like a couple of awkward words. Yeah. I mean, I'm absolutely fine with it, but it's just, it does just sound sounds. I don't know what it sounds like, but it just doesn't.
Weirdly, I think if you're saying I want the chicken to be moist, that was fine to me initially. But now you've pointed out that moist is weird. When I just said, I want the chicken to be moist, that made me feel odd. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah, I just made something out of nothing, didn't I? Yeah, you've ruined chicken. You know, other people have done that. You're only thinking it because other people have said it to you. Yeah. It's a long chain of the people saying it's weird. Yeah. Because one person said it was. Whoever that person was in the world that said it to me ruined it for everyone.
Yeah, yeah. What else do you say? Juicy? So you're looking to be juicy? That's... That also sounds weird. Yeah. Something works. Wow. Wow. End of the podcast. That's kind of been real. That's it, Matt. That's it, so far. Where do we go from here? Sorry. Is there a place where you've had chicken strips of chicken wings, which you'd be like, I want it from there?
I went to a wing place in America where I think they were mango habanero. They were really good. They were really hot, but their sweetness just made you forget about how much it was like burning your mouth. But they were really good. But actually, something I'd really like to make at home. Something I make at home all the time. So I ever make the
Yeah, make the strips all make the wings and then just like better butter, like sriracha buffalo sauce and honey, and then bubble it down on the stove and then flip them in. And just when they're nice and hot, it's really good. Yeah, we can have your own ones. Yeah. You have your homemade strips, homemade wings. Yeah. I think both, you know. Yeah.
Yeah, again, like, just do mix and match. You see the thing is, right, because I'm Caribbean, like, we have about a thousand things on a plate. Like, every time we have dinner, it's about how many items can you fit on there? You go to a party and I've, like, jerky, king rice and peas, planting, dumplings, coleslaw, like, steam cabbage. There's about 10,000 things on a plate, so we don't know how to just be like, okay, protein, carbs, veg. Does it make sense to us? We're like, why don't we have 100 carbs, 100 proteins, and 100 veg?
Because, yeah, I think it's just the way we are, so I'm just greedy. You want a bit of everything, I understand that. If it's all on offer. Yeah, and like you said, it's dream, isn't it? So do what you want. Yeah, I think start having both of them. It's great with the dip as well. Because it's your dream, we'll make sure it's the exact right amount of dip as well. You're not running out or having those left over. You're having to get your weight lifted buddies to finish it for you.
This is it, story of my life. But yeah, no, I always feel like, you know, when you've got loads of dip left over, it's such a waste, isn't it? You know, you don't get loads of mayo packets and you screw it up more like, and then you've got like loads left, you're like, I've just wasted all that mayo for no reason. Now, I'm just imagining you carrying around those little squash sachets and mayo packets. You've just got so many sachets on you at all times.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You should see where they go to internationals or take that season out with me and everything like that. Yeah. How do you get into like white lifted in the first place as well? Like you said about growing up, it just made me think about how like, how do you like skip with that? That's my sport.
Yeah, so I was actually 21 when I started weightlifting. So I was at uni. I went to Leeds Beckett and I did athletics. So I threw hammer, shot, discus. And I was all right. Like I enjoyed it. Like to be fair, I just loved more of the social side of it and going to competitions. And I was like, oh, you know, if I push myself a little bit harder, like how, you know, how well could I be at it?
And then everyone was like, you should try weightlifting because weightlifting will help you throw the shot further because you'll get stronger and it's good for transfer power, et cetera, et cetera. So there was a coach at the time and I just asked him, I said, oh, you teach me this weightlifting stuff. Like everyone said, it will help me throw the shot further. So yeah, he started teaching me the technique of it, started doing it and just really fell in love with it. Like I just fell in love with the complexity of it. One day I went and it was going really well and I was thinking, I'm getting good at this. And then next day I looked like I'd never done it in my life.
And it was so frustrating. I just wanted to keep going back and like make trying to get better and better. And then yeah, at one point, I started, I started it probably when I went back to uni. So I was in my final year in 2015 and started it. And then the coach said to me, well, we're going to have like a what we call max out. So it's basically you go as heavy as you can until you fail.
And we had a max out and I max out what you needed to qualify for the British seniors. And he was like, I know you didn't want to do a comp because obviously you just want it for athletics. But do you want to just give it a go, see what happens? And I was like, oh, why whatever. So I went to this company ended up being this, this open actually was near where I live in Nottingham was in Mansfield. And I remember saying to my dad, I was like,
Did you fancy come to this weightlifting competition with me? He said, weightlifting, he went, yeah, all right, whatever, like, he's just, my parents are just so supportive, like, literally, I told him, I was like, I can go try and weightlifting, and I said, oh, God, here we go. He said to say, oh, God, it is a crazy idea, because I'm, I'm not really that fit, scared to fail. Like, I just think, give it a whack, if it works, it works, if it don't, it don't, I'll just move on and find something else. Like, we can't be good at everything, can we?
And yeah, I talked to my dad to this comp with me, blah, blah, and then I qualified for the British seniors from that competition. And my dad got in the car and he's a man of many few words. But he talked to me and he went, yeah, you're all right, that, you know. And I was like, cheers, dad.
that kind of literally how it started really and then yeah just start going to you know national competitions and then I won my first national title as a junior and then I won my first national title as a senior and then yeah it just spiraled from there and then they said to me oh if you go to come off games and I was thinking that this is getting out of control like
I've been lifting five minutes. I know I'm all right. Yeah, I forgot why I actually came for. And then yeah, I had a crack qualifying for Gold Coast 2018, had one qualifier to do it, and I nailed it. I went six or six, not the girl at the rankings that was already currently in the rankings.
Not really. Not really. We love you. But yeah, just basically did exactly what they asked of me. And then yeah, got selected for Gold Coast. And that was when really the serious because up in that point, I was winging it. I was just out with a blast. I was thinking I'm getting to go to these countries for free and I lifted a few every weights and I didn't really have like any structure or anything. It was just like a bit of a, you know, I was still working and everything. It was just like a, you know, probably for me, really, that was really good at.
And then after Gold Coast, I was like, yeah, if this is sick, imagine what the Olympics is like. I was like, let me try and see if I can make the Olympics. I mean, at that point, if you looked at me on paper, then they said, all right, babe, dream I, yeah, no way on this planet, I would have made it. But yeah, no, I just, you know, then I started like making decisions that was kind of around training instead of like trading being around my life. And then it was just like dialing in with things like nutrition and training harder and that kind of thing. And, you know, really dialing in and went from strength to strength.
then qualify for my first Olympics in 2021. So yeah, exactly five years after I'd start the sport. Wow. Amazing. I think five years in the stand up. Oh, that's still shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I saw you. Do you know what though?
It is so much harder than like people make heart like everyone fix. Oh, yeah, I'm dead fully. I'm dead fully and then go stand in front of people be dead fully. It's a whole different ball game in it. Like, well, yeah, see, I thought you were starting to talk about white lifting. And I was like, yeah. And then when it was like stand up, no, no, no. It's not. I'm not in the white on the front of my neck.
But doing all that stuff. Do you get people like that? Have you had that with weightlifting? People going, I reckon I could do that. Oh yeah, all the time. Obviously, especially men. Bless them. Yeah. Shout out fellas. Shout out to my dogs.
But he's doing it like, yeah, yeah, it's dead easy. I remember once actually I had a party at my house and some of my friends came over and he bought a couple of his friends and he was chilling with his boys outside and one of his boys was like, yeah, it's dead easy and his friend just went, don't ever embarrass me like that again. It's not that easy. You can't do what she does. Don't embarrass me, please. But his boy was probably like, yeah, that's easy, man. I can do it. I can do it. And his friend just looked at him and just went, don't you dare.
but yeah it is funny but the thing is like it's really funny actually because like at an elite level it is probably one of the hardest sports that you can do but actually grassroots is very accessible it looks hard but if you have the right people around you and you start in the correct way and you start with the correct ways
then it is really easy and people be really surprised actually what they can achieve. So I do think in that way you can it's just when these people just think or because I've deadlifted 70 kilos and we're trying to clean it like it don't work like that. I don't translate. It's so technical. It's like it's not just the way which I think a lot of people going I could do that. Definitely couldn't even do the way. It's every single.
movement and you've got to have it completely locked in, haven't you? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's so technique. When I started, I was obviously really strong from the shot and I trained hard and I was humbled, absolutely, and weights that I was probably strength-wise capable of. I was nowhere near and weightlifting because my technique wasn't there.
And it is just about drilling and keep going over and over again. And this is why, you know, technically we like to get kids into weightlifting around eight years old because they're really good at learning the technique. And it's not about putting the weight on. You can give them a wooden pole or bar or PVC or whatever. And it's just about them drilling the movement over and over again. Because then once you've got that locked in, then getting strong is the easy bit. Whereas when you have to do it in reverse, you have to like really humble yourself because you're like, I've got to go back down to basics and get this bit right until I can actually put some weight on. So yeah.
That's why it's a lot easier just to say, oh, I could do that and then never try. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I wish I'd done that with standup. Yeah. I wish I'd been one of the, I'll be well happy now. I was a bloke in a pub to say I could have done it. Yeah. I'm funny. I'm great. I've done that. I've done that. I've done it. Listen, I've made you with Ed Gamble and Ish Kumar. I just go, oh, I'll be funnier than these pricks.
Be great. Good technique, things mad. Watching you, when you burn down and pick it up, you put your hands on the bar and then you move them to somewhere else on the bar. I remember watching it and being like, I wouldn't have thought of that.
She's not riffing it in the moment. I'll be absolutely fucked before I even baked it up. You put them on and then you move them again. I don't even know what that's about. But you seem to be imagining it as if you're in the Olympics and you've never weight-lifted before. Because you would have done some track, they would have, you'd be taught how to do it.
I don't know man. It's something you can't teach. Everyone's different to be fair. What it is is there's like what we call rings on the bar between the knurlings and it's me measuring that my hands are in the right place. So I bought a thumb and a half whips away from those where those rings are. So it's just me measuring that out so that I make sure I put my hands in the right position each time. Genius. Because again, yeah, if you if you grips off
Yeah. You know, because we have to be completely locked out. So if you've got one arm that's in and then you obviously flip right and this one goes in after, they'll do you for it. So, and honestly, I mean, Tokyo Olympics, if you wobbled your eye in the wrong way, they did you for it. There was being so savage, it was unbelievable. So you have to make sure everything's like bang on the money and perfect. It's like an official. Yeah. Honestly, I told you it's because you get that walk out. Yeah. Walk out and wave. No one cares, honestly.
And it must be annoying, especially in your spot, knowing that you could beat them up. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. There are all... Some of them are ex-weightlifters. Not sure what I could do, but yeah, that's... So they're jealous, basically. They're jealous. Probably. Never even thought by a lad like that. They are. So either give us so many red lights. Wow. A bunch of pipsqueets. You should call them pipsqueets for their face. I haven't heard that phrase in a long time. I have a strong one, haven't I? Yeah, it's good. How about that as a compromise? They're allowed their walk out, but someone has to say, please welcome the pipsqueets.
I'm going to recommend it when I go back. And they play music, but it's just one long far sound effect. Please welcome the big squeeze. You're doing main course.
So I am massive seafood fan, so a seafood boil. Like one of those you just like rip the bag open, let it all fall down, all the different seafoods, potatoes in their eggs, get a bib on, get gloves on, crack it all open.
Yeah, love it. I absolutely love it. Proper, just messy food as well. Yeah. Proper messy, but it just tastes so good. Loads of garlic butter to dip your lobster and you're crabbing that in. So there's lobster, there's crab, shrimp. Yeah, big king prawns. So you say, I do like mussels. So yeah, just I'm like any any seafood really, there's not really a sea. Yeah, we're both going to make a shit joke there when you said. Yeah, I do like mussels and then we're like,
It's just, I mean, we both looked at each other and went, yeah. Yeah, that's good muscles. Yeah. I mean, all the listeners did it at home anyway. Do you like your light, that's all? No point us.
You've got enough of those already. Yeah, exactly. Shells on with the muscles. Yeah. You're getting into them? Yeah, yeah. Getting into them. It's not a dainty male, is it? I mean, you may as well leave the shells and just get... That's it. It's awful like it's part of the experience, though, you know, cracking it open and digging it out and, you know, all of that. Obviously, it's fiddly workers, isn't it? You know, getting everything out and whatever. Hopefully, they've, you know, cleaned everything properly before it's been boiled. But yeah, it's... Corner of the Cobbin there as well.
Climb the car. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Got a bit of edge, aren't you? Yeah. Just a little bit. Just to say, you take the box. Yeah, yeah. Really no one actually really cares about it.
Self everything go down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good. I have the fun. I may be mopping the song about corner of the court. Yeah. My friend Tom does see for balls for delivery. And then you, it has like the instructions and you just do it all. Yeah. It's amazing. That's brilliant because that's been needed for a very long time because it is a nightmare to try and go out and get all the ingredients separately. Yeah. Yeah.
He does, he does like pop ups as well. So well worth looking out for. Decatur is the name of the company. Decatur. Yeah. What do you want on your bib? Do you want a design on it? This is your dream meal. You get your dream bib. Dream bib. Because you haven't had a bib on the pod yet. I don't think we have had a bib on the pod. I don't know. We've talked about bib on the pods. Yeah. It's not. Joe, what's that fun to say? It's bib on the pod. Bib on the pod. Yeah. Bib on the pod is quite fun to say. I think it'd have to say thick and juicy because that's what I am.
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Say that on it. 100%. A little cartoon porn on there or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Vocking up. Yeah. Why not doing some weightlifting? Yeah. Why not? Why not? You know, it's obviously it's my whole identity now. So that's to be part of everybody. Well, it's part of your brand, right? If you're wearing the second GC bit, but then it's got to have a weightlifting porn on it. It's got to have a weightlifting porn on it. Yeah. Yeah. They could have like a little like, you know, the hammer on the floor to represent your past.
Oh, yeah, just in the distance. Yeah, shopport. Yeah, why not? Let's get a story on there, guys. Would you be allowed to do two categories? You absolutely can. Yeah, you can qualify for two sports, but obviously you would have to qualify within both sports. So whatever, because every sport has their own qualification system in terms of making the Olympics. So you just have to make sure that you participate in the two of them. But yeah, I'm not sure if I'd be.
be able to be world-class at two of them. And especially the women's shot at the moment. The women's shot is like off the chain at the moment. The girls are throwing like 21 meters. So if you think about that, like how far that actually is, it's insane. It also seems to me like everyone who's at the Olympics has dedicated their entire life to that one sport. So you can't dedicate two lives to something.
Yeah, yeah. No, it takes a very special person. I mean, Mark, my good friend, Christina, she in Tokyo and Rio did cycling and athletics. And she likes to win gold in both. What? Yeah, first woman in 56 years to do it sort of in crazy like that. I mean, she is absolutely super woman, but yeah, she's the 500 meter sprint in cycling and then 400 meters on the track. But I know how tough it has been for her to be to train for the two sports, like to try and split your time between the two. You just cycle to running training.
Yeah, that's the point. I don't think you get credit. If one of them cycled, I've got to make you cycle to the office. Wow, this is it. Do you ever go up to the people who are doing shot and stuff? Because you used to do it. Be like the guy at your party. Be like, I can have done that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. See the future of real time. We all sports easy. That's how Tom Dean all the time, like, swimming's dead easy. Just getting, don't die, swim to the other side.
Get in, don't die. Yeah, he's always like, oh, you're always training. I'm like, yeah, well, we don't have to, we have to actually train for us more. I was like, you just do a couple of sessions a week. You'll be fine. I know it's actually hard, but if part of the technique is don't die, it's quite a hard sport. Yeah. I'd say if don't die, it's one of the things you've got to focus on. But that's the broad note for everything.
I mean, to be fit, yeah, you've got to play that to every sport, right? Don't die. I mean, some of those team sports are savage, they're like, smacking each other. I've seen like wheelchair rugby. Yeah. Guys are wild. Yeah. It really is something. I wouldn't even move. As soon as the whistle blew, I'd just be in my chair, but I'm not going. I'm not doing this.
Bream side dish. I'm probably saying mac and cheese. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I see baked as well. You don't want the cheese sauce too runny. You want a bit of sauce, but like in the Caribbean, like we have it like it's like like a pie, especially good breadcrumbs on the top. Nice melt, bit of parsley to finish off.
watch a video on YouTube of, I think it was five people all made their mac and cheese. I think they're all from the Caribbean as well. And then they were trying each other's ones and scoring them. They were savaging how they would score each other's mac and cheese. They were like, this is not so.
That's pretty close to starting a war. That's wild behaviour. Specifically in the Caribbean. Yeah, yeah, just the Caribbean. But yeah, can you imagine that got pretty intense? A lot of the criteria you just described as well, people are like, this is too runny. I would not serve this at a pie. And also, but big enough, they're own ones, obviously, because they were really proud of it. Every time I have a barbecue, everyone comes over, everyone loves this. People can't get enough of it, everyone asks for thirds.
true it's pressure yeah I actually remember my my friends had a party and I cooked like two real big trays of it and I was like sweating the whole time so I'm thinking like I think I'm banging at my good cheese yeah and if these people don't like it then this just basically threw everything out of the window of what I believed in myself you know
That's everything. That's quite... For an Olympian to say that, that's pretty... Everything you believed about yourself is mainly that you make good mac and cheese. Yeah, absolutely. But thankfully they all loved it, unless it was lying to me. But, you know... You've got a secret, when you make it, it's like a...
Can I reveal that? Yeah, so that's what you've got to think. That's what you've got to ask yourself. You need to get a good hot sauce. A good hot sauce that goes into the cheese sauce then. And take time with your cheese sauce as well. You know, people like to rush cheese sauces, but you've got to make, you know, you've got to make your roux properly and then it's got to be the right amount of cheese and milk and that in there. And you've got to, you've got, it's all about layering. So about layering your sauce. Do you talk to your cheese sauce as you're making it? Absolutely. Yeah.
My firm enough if the answer's yes, but I... Well, just the way Emily said, you've got to take time with the cheese sauce. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I was just... I seem like a wild question, but then the answer was yes. So I'm not quite... You know, good intuition, Ed. Yeah, but you taste it along the way and you get excited because it's starting to come together. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I had to talk in general anyway. When I'm cooking, like, honestly, I think we could make a show out of, like, people sat in another room hearing me cooking the kitchen. I'm on my own completely. You would think I'd have a conversation with someone, so...
Yeah, you just get into it. Once you get the tunes on and you get rocking and rolling and you've got 100 dishes to get on one plate, you've got to get a cracker and you've got to get in the mood. So what do you say to the cheese sauce? Are you kind to the cheese sauce or are you like, come on, you cheese sauce, bitch? I think it depends on how it's going. Yeah. If it's working with you or not. Yeah, that's it. We're all happy when things are going well, aren't we? When it's not.
All of a sudden a side comes out. We did know we had what hot sauce do you use? Actually, it's a homemade one. I can't remember the brand, but they used to come on Nottingham Christmas market every year. You don't come anymore. So if you know who you are, you need to come back, please. And he's got like this basically his own brand hot sauce on there. It's like, he's called a Caribbean hot sauce, but he's got a little bit sweet, a bit spicy.
And it's really nice. It really, really compliments the mack and cheese. Well, I think I've got like one bottle left, but yeah, I need to find out who that person is and track them down. Well, so it's not a Christmas market. It's Christmas market. We have a good Christmas market to be fair enough. Yeah, we have a good one. There's quite a few bits and bobs. I mean, lots, lots more food and stuff now. And then obviously they've done like a bar and we have the ice skating rink and all that nonsense.
But there used to be some really good stalls of, yeah, just cheeses, hot sauces, things like that. And then there was like obviously little trinkets. You know, the ones your mum loves to go and walk around and get fives and things from. And she's drinking it. Oh, look at this. Oh, look at this. And you're like, yeah, that's lovely mum. That's lovely. That's same as the one you just picked up. That's really nice. That is, you know, you get dragged around for like an hour. Everyone's done here. Everyone's been there. What is your mum? So you do it.
Yeah, it's quite a good market to be fair. We try making efforts go down each year and have a look and see, see what they've got on store. But yeah, definitely taking more of like the food stands are taking over a little bit more now than the actual stores. But yeah, I like to buy from small businesses, small businesses.
people that are different and are trying things like that. I like a lot of black owned art as well, so I try and find artwork from my house, from black artists and things like that, so yeah, that's something that's quite close to me, so anything like that, I'm pretty sold.
What's the, uh, what's got pride of place amongst the art that you got in your house? What's your, what's your favorite piece that you show off to people? I've got canvas in my room. That's a pretty cool one that I actually had for a shoot. Um, I had to have an imaginary bedroom for a shoot and they gave it to me after, which is really cool. So that's now in my bedroom, but it's like, um, I have a woman and it's got, um, like flowers peated behind her and it's got like really powerful words, like all over, all over her body.
Ed's actually in my house as well. What? It's a photo from when we were on the Great British Menu. Yeah. Yeah. Ed's in my living room. Yeah. You know, it's a good photo. We look good. Yeah. Cool. I've got that cool school shirt on or whatever it was. Yeah. I'm a cool guy. Yeah. We look good. I can't tell you. I'm a cool guy. I can't tell you. I'm a cool guy. It's the opposite of black-owned ass. The whitest thing you could put in your house.
I'd go have a long, great British menu. Yeah, kidding me? What was he eating a souffle? Yeah, I think he ate his fish here. But yeah, no. But no, I'm definitely on the hunt for some more. I need some more for my stairs and London. Everyone's just send Emily as much art as you can. Try and get on that stairs and London. Also, the British comedians, if Ed Gamble can get on the wall.
Yeah. We've all got to try and get it on the stairs. You've got to get on the stairs. I've got to get on those stairs, but that's it. Well, we're going to have a photo after this. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. Sounds good. When you're talking about hot sauce there, I just remember the hot sauce that I love, but I haven't had for ages, which is Caribbean hot sauce. Aunt Mays. Have you had Aunt Mays before? Oh, Aunt Mays is a good one. And it comes in like the, it looks like a lemonade, but yes. So good.
Yes, that is a good one. I can't remember where I tried that. I think that was like a family friend's house or something and I was like, oh, this is really good. Like, I think it's like from Barbados. Yeah, I think it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've never heard of it. You've got to get some Aunt May's. I'll get some Aunt May's in your life, change your life. And then you get on the snares. Finally. Picture of me on the stairs. I get in a bottle of Aunt May's. That's it. I mean, that's black owned, isn't it? Yeah, there you go.
Your drink, drink. So I'm kind of like, I don't really drink alcohol, like I have to be like really, really special occasion and I'm just not a massive drinker anywhere, I'd rather not drink. So for me, I like mocktails, so like anything like really fruity, like tropical. So I'd say probably like something with like pineapple juice, maybe a bit of grenadine in it. Mango, mango daiquiris, mango daiquiris are strong ones, drinking that in Jamaica quite a lot.
But yeah, anything mocktail style, basically just a load of fruit juices banged together with something fizzy. Posh squash. Sold, pos squash. Yeah. But we'll save the squishy squash for the water. Sure. Yeah, we won't get that involved. As a mocktail drinker, do you get annoyed when they stick virgin on the front of a normal cocktail? Because I hate asking for that. Because I'm like, have a virgin mejito. I don't have to. Every five of me is trying to say to them, I've had sex.
Yeah. I'm not a virgin. I just want the drink that have alcohol at it. But you know, they're not thinking that. They are thinking that. It's an impossible to say to someone who can have a virgin daiquiri and they're like this boy. Never had sexual intercourse.
Do you know what I mean? I thought that might be your vibe rather than the dream. I was about to say, I can't say that I've ever felt that way. But yeah, I guess when you carry yourself the way that I do, you do have to feel like everyone thinks I'm a virgin. And I have to explain it all the time to people that I swear down on that. Do you not think explaining it's making it worse, though? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. They seem to believe me. I have had sex. Yeah. But when people are like, no, you haven't. No, I really have. Yeah. I swear. Yeah. I've had it and it was great.
Two thumbs up. Yeah. Yeah. Kitty used to sit next to me in school and he would just, you know, everyone else was pretending they'd had sex at that age. They'd be like, you know, get back from summer holidays. They'd been like, yeah, yeah, I totally did it with someone. And she goes to another school and she lives in another country, whatever, where she would like say to me, he was like, I've never had sex with you. I'm a virgin. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. It was like, man, it's going to feel so good.
I can't wait till we get to have sex with people one day. Can you imagine? They'd even sit next to me in our e-class. Can you imagine how good it's going to be? I can't wait to do it. I'd be like, yeah, but it'd be good. You're like, no, it will be amazing. I can't wait. All I want to do is do it. I would have sex so badly.
Wow. I really hope his first time was everything. It was all cracked up to be. There's a lot of pressure to put on it. It's too much pressure. Yeah. Yeah. So bless him. I actually, I don't, I mean, we can not talk about this if you want. This is just, I didn't plan, but I had to write something once, a scripted thing about the Olympic village and do research into it. No virgins there. Yeah. Yeah. That place is bananas.
It's a bit. We don't have to talk about it. No, no, absolutely. I mean, everybody wants to know, don't they? Everyone always asks the question. But yeah, obviously you just got to imagine it's like lots of very good looking people all in one place that have been disciplined for four years. And now you're not disciplined anymore because the one thing that your whole life has been dedicated to four years is now over.
So you can do whatever you want for the next, you know, how many days and it you're not going to see these people. You might never see these people again. They might not see them until another four years. So yeah, people just get a bit, you know, that's pretty reasonable, actually.
Yeah, it's really mean you put it like that. That's the hear a reasonable take on it. Yeah. I mean, some people, I don't think wait until their events done. But that's their business. What do you do? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, we're not actually at the event, but, you know, in the downtime. But yeah, I think it's. Is that me? Sorry. Yeah, it's perfect. That's perfect for me. That's good. Deliberately misunderstanding something. Yeah. He loves it. Yeah. Yeah.
The swimmers apparently there, though. Yeah, they're pretty well. I mean, they are wild. Like, I'm not sure about the sexual activities, but they're in the trunks. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. That's what I mean. But they are. Yeah, they're absolutely wild. They when they, when they party after they finish, they, yeah, they really part because they finish it. They finish.
Always finishing the first week. So yeah, they love to party when everyone else is still trying to compete. I mean, I missed them this time because I was the last day of the game. So I'd actually didn't get into the village until the swimmer's door left. But yeah, I heard there was party in hard again. I mean, in Tokyo, yeah, there was like swimming. There was like these fountains and apparently they were swimming in the fountains and all sorts.
Yeah, they was having a real good time. They just love it. You know what I mean? It's just them. It's their identity, you know. What motto are we going for specifically? I know we didn't really know it done. It was a bit wishy-washy. As you said, Mango daiquiri. Mango daiquiri is a strong one. Brilliant.
Your dream dessert, we arrive at the dessert, my favourite course. So, I very controversy don't really like chocolate. If I do, it has to be white, white chocolate, but I think my dessert would be a cheesecake. So, pain and simple, New York cheesecake with fresh fruit or a fresh compote. I do like strawberries, raspberries, that kind of vibe, I think, with a compote, and then some form of ice cream on the side.
Can't beat a bit of cheesecake. Yeah, I mean, tell me just when. You hear that? It's been mumbling every now and again for the whole episode. Yeah, it's been, I'm hungry. I didn't have breakfast and then we started talking about seafood boils. Yeah, yeah. As soon as I talk about the seafood boil, that's when I heard it the first time. It's really tipped you. Yeah, it's gone. Why don't you like chocolate?
I don't know. I think it's very overrated. James is really worried when he said, controversially, I don't like, he thought you were going to say desserts. So he was all ready to get really angry with you. I can't, I can't get angry with you. Keep the fucking shit up. I can't fight, so it's all right. Come on, I'm a virgin, mate.
That's true. I'm not going to get angry at you. Yes. But I would have been sad if you didn't choose a dessert. No, I've definitely got a sweet tooth, like a lot of desserts or whatever, just not chocolate base desserts. Like if I was to give it like a chocolate pudding or cake or briny or anything, that's like my worst nightmare. So yeah. Your worst nightmare. Yeah.
Nice life, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything with the brownies, your worst nightmare. How does this grab you? I've got a slice of cheesecake in my fridge at the moment. If you think this has gone too far, apparently it's protein cheesecake.
Oh, honestly, they want to make everything protease these days, isn't it? It's mad. Just give it up. It's got a cartoon of a barbell on the side. Is it actually? What, you're looking at me? Just, does it taste all right? I've not had it yet. It's an individual slice. I don't know what I don't know why I'm going to have to be honest. It's probably made out of like quark or something, isn't it? Yeah. Something weird like that.
Honestly, this is a big gripe of mine, this whole protein thing. We don't need to make everything protein. They've even tried to make water protein now. It's actually getting out of control. There's foods that have protein in them. They're just fine. They're lovely. The foods that haven't, just leave them without. We don't need to keep doing it all the time. We keep making these protein yogurts.
Yoga has protein in it. Like already, why are we putting more protein into something that already has protein? Just doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah, it's just this whole new like fad and whatever. And it's people that haven't know clearly what they're doing, bless them, going out and buying. And really I said, like, unless you can like, unless as a female, you can squat over like 60, 70 kilos and there's a man over 120, stop buying protein products. They're not going to help you. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I saw a lead. I'm fine.
I saw a really tough looking guy. One, two, five. Tough looking guy. One, three. Tough looking guy. Come out of Tesco eating a crunch corner. That was funny.
You see someone really, really tough. He had to put it on top of a bin to open it up and then he didn't tip it actually. He had his shades on and he was acting like we're too cool to tip it. He talked to his friend walking along and his friend was much shorter than him.
And they're just, well, he's got a crunch corner in his hand and they're talking about what they're going to get up to. Like, the day is young. Come on, let's go out and get it. Like, you've got a crunch corner, man. And the one with the little, the little, like, cocoa balls. Yeah. Yeah. That one as well. Like, so he didn't tip it. So he was like, I don't know, you know, he didn't tip it when it, when I was watching. He didn't witness the tip. I didn't, when it's the tip. Maybe his small friend had the little balls. Yeah. Tore it off of him. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, good buddy. Hey, good buddy. I'll have the yogurt protein. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
protein yogurt. Oh, man, I didn't know all this about protein. I know protein water. Yeah. And they're like protein, pancakes, protein. There's literally like a whole range now of everything that's a slight protein. And sometimes it's even a rip off. Like I eat a lot of cottage cheese. I've got like one of the most elite snacks to get sweet chili rice crackers and cottage cheese and like eat them together after training. So good.
and there was like all protein cottage cheese. So I picked up and I looked at the back of it and it probably has 0.2 or three more grams of protein in than the normal cottage cheese. So it's like, they're charging you probably another one, two pound more for something that actually really don't have much difference than the normal cottage cheese. It's just a lot of marketing, isn't it? I think they're hoping that if someone sees protein or something like, I'm going to eat that and I'm going to get such big muscles. Yeah, I'm going to be hench and you are absolutely not.
Yeah. So I still bought the cheesecake. Do it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's got a video. I'm a sucker. I'm putting that head for the list. I mean, you've got to let us know how that cheesecake tastes now. Yeah, it will. Absolutely. You've got to have it on another episode and you can tell us how nice that is. I bet it's not. I bet it's not good. And it's only like 12 grams of protein or something. 7 egg. I'll give you a menu back to you now. See anything about it.
You would like orange and pineapple squash, double strength, your water. You want warm spatter and focaccia, bread basket with butter, starter, you would like buttermilk, breaded chicken strips and wings with honey and sriracha sauce made by yourself. Main course, the seafood boil with your own bib, custom made bib, side dish, baked mac and cheese also made by yourself, drink, you would like a mango, daiquiri, mocktail, dessert, New York Dune. Show some god damn respect.
ourselves. Can't wait. It's going to feel so good. It's going to feel so great. I can't wait to do it. I can't wait all the time. We know when you order a mojito that you've done it. Mojito put it back to the same place. Hold the version. That's how things start.
To that, a New York cheesecake with berry compote and ice cream. Yes. Good menu. I'm pretty happy with that. I feel like that is good. Yeah. That sounds really good. Quite a lot of your own cooking on there as well. Yeah. Which is great. Taking me wrong, I love eating out, but I think that's a lot of what I do is I eat out and I think, oh, how can I recreate that at home? Yeah. Then I go home and try and make my own version of it.
But yeah, no, I just love cooking. I love cooking. I think it's something you definitely do on your own. You don't do with others. Really? You can do it with others. Yeah, people in my kitchen stresses me out. What do you do with people coming in your kitchen? Get out. Thank you. It's really nice to see you. But if you're going to stay there, can you stand over there, please? Yeah. And coming back to what we started talking about at the start of the episode, if you wait all of that, if it happens to your meal, how soon after that would you have to eat again?
To be fair, that's like incorporating snacks, I think, and everything. That's a pretty big meal, so I probably could get away with probably not eating for probably about four hours, and then I'd probably have to eat again. And then pre-beds now, and the cottage cheese comes up. Yeah, yeah. Beef jerky is coming, and then that's it. We're ready to go again. I'm aware we've been talking for over an hour now, so you probably need to eat something.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. They're probably responsible for you going down a place at the next competition. Yeah, probably, yeah. Because mid-morning snack is now delayed. Oh, well, okay. Well, thank you very much for coming on the podcast, definitely. Please go and have a snack. Thank you, Emily. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much to the brilliant Emily Campbell for coming on the podcast, James. And Anna, what a great episode. I learnt so much. Yeah, she's so much fun. Yeah, I mean, I literally just know nothing about that world. So what an education. Yeah, I mean, me neither, even though I try and do weightlifting sometimes, James. It's pathetic.
Yeah. I've neither mastered the technique nor the strength. Well, I think all the listeners would love it if you posted videos, because that's what people do when they want to get better at something nowadays. They video themselves, they put it on their social media to hold themselves accountable so they'll keep doing it. So then loads of people comment below going, you've got to shit form me. No, no, no, the comments will be night set.
So you've got to start doing that. You've got to start filming yourself doing your weights on your Instagram. It's not really my style. It's not my style to do that, really. Switch up your style. People love it when people switch up their style. When the Beatles did it, that would be huge. So you see this as like a Beatles shift. It's just like your Sergeant Pepper. Yeah. Is that the phase I'm in at the moment, pre-sargent Pepper?
Yeah, you're in your revolver. So you're just moving over it. Yeah. Yeah. People can see it's coming. And the next step up is me posting weightlifting pictures for videos on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. The people will be excited. Guys, this guy now, you know, and Emily's got a brand new podcast, James.
That's what it's called. It's an unofficial gladiators podcast that Emily is co-hosting with another former guest of the off-menu podcast, Jess Foster Queue, and it is out now, wherever you listen to your podcasts. And for the listener, because we've got some, yeah, we've got listeners all over the globe. So some of them are thinking, oh, wow, they've got a podcast about gladiator to the Paul Mescale film. No, that's great. Everyone's been watching that in the cinema. It's not that.
It's a TV show called Gladiator's. Yes, that's what it's about. Great TV show and I can't wait to hear the podcast. Yeah, but I would also like Jess and Emily to do a podcast about the Gladiator film franchise. Yes, as well. I would like to hear that. I think that would be good. Yes, Benito, sort it out. Make it. Make it so.
Oh, Emily as well. Thank you so much for not saying cream of chicken Campbell's soup or whatever. Yeah. Thank you for that, Emily. Thank you so much. Yes. Um, other Campbell's Benito's let us know that we could have on the football, the soul soul and Naomi Campbell, who you know, so I know. Yeah. We did Jonathan lost together. So next to me enough about Naomi Campbell. Thank you to the brilliant Emily Campbell for coming on the podcast. Yes. Thank you so much. And, um, Ed, Ed, do you want to say anything else before we, uh,
Let the listeners get on with their day? No. No, not really, I guess. Well, listen, we don't often say this to you guys, but thanks for listening. We say it every week, I think. That's your stomach going now. Yeah. It sounded like a little dinosaur. Yeah. Yeah. Like a little baby dinosaur. We've got to go eat. We've got to go eat, guys. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.
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