Ep 265: Rick Astley

Summary

Podcast Summary: Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster
Episode: Ep 265 - Rick Astley
Release Date: October 2, 2024

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Introduction

In Episode 265 of Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster, legendary singer Rick Astley joins hosts Ed Gamble and James Acaster in their whimsical Dream Restaurant. The format involves guests selecting their favorite starter, main course, side dish, dessert, and drink, offering listeners a glimpse into their culinary preferences intertwined with personal stories and insights.

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Rick Astley's Journey in Music and Beyond

Rick Astley opens up about his musical career, struggles with fame, and his latest endeavor—an autobiography titled "Never."

Rick Astley (04:30):
"My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big roas man. My friends still laugh at me to this day."

Rick reflects on the enduring impact of his hit single "Never Gonna Give You Up" and how it has overshadowed other aspects of his life and career. He discusses the challenges of navigating fame, especially in the pre-internet era, and how recent events, like his performances at Glastonbury, have rekindled his passion for performing.

Rick Astley (10:01):
"Having a break, and it was a very long break, I kind of... never thought I'd do anything again in music."

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Insights on the Music Industry and Personal Growth

Rick delves into his disillusionment with the music business, highlighting the relentless nature of touring and promotional activities. He shares anecdotes about his experiences, including food poisoning during a gig in Australia, which led to his one and only canceled performance.

Rick Astley (24:50):
"And I've had food poisoning a few times. The wildest food poisoning ever."

Despite the pressures, Rick emphasizes the importance of taking breaks and reconnecting with what genuinely brings joy, leading to his rediscovery of performing through covers and enjoying music without the commercial pressures.

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Culinary Conversations: Italian Cuisine and Personal Preferences

Shifting gears to the culinary aspect of the podcast, Rick expresses his deep appreciation for Italian cuisine, particularly dishes enjoyed during his family holidays in Italy. He describes his dream restaurant setting on an Italian beach, emphasizing authenticity and quality.

Rick Astley (07:51):
"When I think about holidays, we went to Sardinia a lot for 10 years straight kind of thing. There's something about Italy and being on a beach in Italy and eating that really makes me happy."

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Favorite Dishes and Culinary Experiences

Starter: Swordfish Carpaccio

Rick opts for swordfish carpaccio as his dream starter, insisting on thinly sliced pieces complemented by quality olive oil.

Rick Astley (32:12):
"My dream starter is swordfish carpaccio, done really thin. It’s got to have good olive oil."

Main Course: Spaghetti al Vongole with Bataga

He chooses a traditional Spaghetti al Vongole with Bataga, appreciating the balance of flavors and the freshness of seafood.

Rick Astley (39:04):
"Spaghetti al Vongole with Bataga is just amazing. It just feels like you're one with the sea."

Side Dish: Rocket and Parmesan

A simple yet flavorful combination of rocket (arugula) and Parmesan serves as his ideal side dish, showcasing his preference for quality ingredients.

Rick Astley (46:37):
"Rocket and Parmesan is perfect. The peppery rocket and the rich Parmesan just elevate the meal."

Dessert: Tiramisu

Rick’s dessert choice is tiramisu, a nod to his Italian roots and cherished holiday memories.

Rick Astley (63:26):
"A good tiramisu is incredibly satisfying. It’s one of the first desserts I fell in love with in Italian restaurants."

Drink: Antinori Chardonnay

He selects an Antinori Chardonnay as his dream drink, highlighting his appreciation for quality wine without the necessity of exorbitant prices.

Rick Astley (50:03):
"Antinori Chardonnay is phenomenal. It’s not super expensive but delivers incredible taste."

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Wine Preferences and Experiences

Rick shares his journey into wine appreciation, contrasting it with his earlier days when wine wasn't a part of his culinary repertoire. He discusses the nuances of Chardonnay and his disdain for overpriced wines, advocating for accessibility without compromising quality.

Rick Astley (57:58):
"Wine doesn't have to be super expensive and upscale. You can find great quality without breaking the bank."

He recounts experiences where the authenticity and quality of the wine enhanced his dining experiences, emphasizing that proper wine pairing elevates the overall meal.

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Culinary Philosophy and Sustainability

The conversation shifts to broader thoughts on food sustainability, the globalization of cuisine, and the importance of savoring local flavors responsibly.

Rick Astley (28:22):
"Sometimes I wonder about where it's led us, eating anything whenever we want. We've got used to it, but maybe we need to address it."

He touches upon the ethical considerations of food consumption and the delicate balance between enjoying diverse cuisines and maintaining sustainable practices.

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Conclusion

Rick Astley’s appearance on Off Menu intertwines his rich musical legacy with a profound appreciation for culinary arts. Through his selections and stories, he offers listeners an intimate look into his personal tastes, philosophies, and the meaningful experiences that shape his life beyond the stage.

Notable Quotes:

• Rick Astley (05:10):
  "We're never going to give you seven up, Rick."

• Rick Astley (44:53):
  "Having a big block of Parmesan and a glass of red wine is the perfect end to a meal."

• Rick Astley (58:01):
  "If you've got a bit of money, you can buy nice wine that's not super expensive."

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Final Thoughts

This episode not only showcases Rick Astley’s multifaceted personality but also emphasizes the interconnectedness of passion—whether in music or food. His candid discussions offer valuable insights into balancing fame with personal fulfillment and the simple joys that bring genuine happiness.

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Related Information:

• Book Promotion: Rick Astley’s autobiography "Never" is available from October 10th, accompanied by a book tour.

• Upcoming Events: James Acaster promotes his upcoming show in London, while Ed Gamble highlights his favorite tiramisu experiences, encouraging listeners to support local restaurants.

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For more episodes and content, visit Acast Privacy.

Transcript

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[Rick Astley]

My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big roas man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day.

[Mom Speaker]

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[Rick Astley]

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[Mom Speaker]

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[Rick Astley]

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[Mom Speaker]

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[James Acaster]

Welcome to the Off Menu podcast. Taking the lasagna sheets of conversation, the Bolognese of humor.

[Ed Gamble]

You've done this one, surely?

[James Acaster]

All right, just that then. Yeah, see, I've not done that, have I? Not. I've not done lasagna without any of the bechamel or cheese.

[Ed Gamble]

No, you've not, to be fair.

[James Acaster]

So. So, haha. Just lasagna sheets and Bolognese. And the lasagna sheets are raw, so enjoy that.

[Ed Gamble]

Enjoy that. That's a gamble. My name is James Acaster. Together we own a dream restaurant. And every single week we invite the guests and ask them their favorite ever start a main course, dessert side dish and drink, not in that order. And this week our guest is Rick Astley.

[James Acaster]

Rick Astley. Of course it is.

[Ed Gamble]

Legendary singer. Yes. Musical artiste.

[James Acaster]

Yes. Absolutely.

[Ed Gamble]

Everyone knows Rick Astley. I mean, obviously he's a massive hit. Never Going To Give youe Up.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

But also a recent, like lovely, like collective memory of all the people who went to Glastonbury, went to see Rick and Blossoms do a set where they covered smithsongs.

[James Acaster]

Yes. He is well loved across the nation, James.

[Ed Gamble]

Extremely well loved.

[James Acaster]

He's also got one toe dipped in the world of food and drink as well, which might come up.

[Ed Gamble]

So.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Is that so?

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Rick's book Never is out on the 10th of October that is published by Macmillan and is, as it describes James, the autobiography of Rick Astley.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes. Covers struggles with fame and everything in between.

[James Acaster]

Absolutely. Looking forward to reading that. Looking forward to meeting Rick. But we will kick him out of the restaurant if he picks a secret ingredient that we have previously agreed upon. He will not be allowed to Rickroll our podcast.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes, true.

[James Acaster]

And the secret ingredient this week is 7 up. Because we never going to give him 7 up.

[Ed Gamble]

We're never going to give you 7 up, Rick.

[James Acaster]

Is that good?

[Ed Gamble]

I think that's great. I think it's one of the best ones you've come up with ever.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Because if he says seven up.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And we go Never going to give you seven Up.

[James Acaster]

He'll go, right, and then we'll go, no, get out.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. No, really, we're not ever going to.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, we're never going to.

[Ed Gamble]

We pre disgusted.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, you're out. I think that would be funny.

[James Acaster]

I Personally don't mind 7Up or Sprite, you know, I don't have a preference between the two.

[Ed Gamble]

7 up.

[James Acaster]

7 up.

[Ed Gamble]

I think it's softer. I think Sprite is more aggressive with the bubbles. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And you've got a soft mouth.

[Ed Gamble]

I've got a soft mouth. And you ought to treat it softly.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, you got a baby your mouth, haven't you?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, absolutely.

[James Acaster]

Little baby mouth.

[Ed Gamble]

Findo Dido.

[James Acaster]

Looking forward to meeting Rick. This is the off menu menu of Rick Astley. Welcome, Rick, to the Dream Restaurant.

[Rick Astley]

Thank you. It's nice to be here.

[Ed Gamble]

Welcome, Rick Astley, to the Dream Restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time sometime.

[Rick Astley]

Okay, yeah, now's the right time. Let's.

[James Acaster]

Let's do it now. It's always the right time when it happens. Right, exactly. Sorry to get philosophical so quickly off the top.

[Ed Gamble]

I like seeing this deeper side of you.

[James Acaster]

Thank you very much.

[Ed Gamble]

This is why you put a philosophical mind. It's always right, the right time when it happens.

[Rick Astley]

Indeed. I'll go with that. I'll go with that. Sounds like the title of an album, doesn't it?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, we. We could do an album together.

[Rick Astley]

We could. You play drums, don't you?

[Ed Gamble]

I play drums, yes.

[Rick Astley]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

I've just grade two bassoon. So if you.

[Rick Astley]

Okay.

[James Acaster]

If you want that on there. Do you think you could ever use a bassoon in your album?

[Rick Astley]

Soon. It's the long. It's like the. The one, but it's got the.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Very thin mouthpiece.

[James Acaster]

It's got the thin mouthpiece. It's like a massive oboe, basically.

[Rick Astley]

Massive oboe, wow.

[Ed Gamble]

Quite massive oboe.

[James Acaster]

That's another album, more experimental. Rick Astley's Massive Oboe.

[Ed Gamble]

You're in the dream restaurant. Yes. What does it look like to your dream restaurant?

[Rick Astley]

Well, it's actually on a beach. My family and I have spent quite a bit of time in Italy on holidays over the years. And I love, you know, anywhere to go on holiday. To be honest, I'm just happy to be on holiday. But when I think about holidays, we went to Sardinia a lot for 10 years straight kind of thing. My wife and I have been to Puglia quite a few times now and I just. There's something about Italy and being on a beach in Italy and eating that really makes me happy. Nice, I think, because also, I know it's a well trodden thing to say that you can eat well anywhere in Italy, but there is some truth to it. I've eaten badly in Italy as well, by the way, over the years. But generally speaking, you can go in a petrol station on the motorway and eat well in Italy. So, yeah, it's on a beach and we're looking at. Could be the Adriatic, could be the Med. I don't mind. I'll go either way. And, yeah, I think that gives me a real sense of lovely comfort and kind of like relaxation. Yeah, is a good way of putting it as well.

[James Acaster]

So is it. Is it like a sort of restaurant set up on the beach or are you talking about.

[Rick Astley]

No, it is a restaurant. Yeah, it's definitely a restaurant with tables and chairs and the whole thing and. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[James Acaster]

You're not sitting on the sand.

[Rick Astley]

No, it could even be in a little harbor, actually. There's a little place that we've been to a couple of times down in Puglia, and the food's just amazing. And even though it's like this little tiny bit touristy, but not, you know, most of the time it is Italians in there. And again, that's the dream, isn't it? You want to go where, you know.

[James Acaster]

You want to feel like you found the spot kind of.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. And it's totally pretentious, but the food's amazing. And, yeah, I kind of feel that's my comfort zone, I think, you know.

[Ed Gamble]

When you're on holiday on the beach, reclining, you might want to read a book.

[Rick Astley]

Indeed you might.

[James Acaster]

Absolutely incredible, James.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, pretty good.

[James Acaster]

You know, we're only, what, 12 series in, and I think you're getting the hang of this interviewing stuff.

[Ed Gamble]

Finally started to understand segues and how.

[James Acaster]

Promo works and the need to actually promote the thing that the person's here to promote often.

[Ed Gamble]

Vic, you have no idea how many times we'll be like, I start going, so, still a sparkling water. And then Ben has to go, excuse me, sorry. Remember, James, we have to.

[Rick Astley]

I get it. I do get it. But it is also a weird thing, I think, because the world of podcasts has changed things so much, you know, that you go. And, you know, we're having a chat right now, and obviously there's a focus to it because of the food side of it and everything, but it's also very often, I think I've kind of like meandered through podcasts a few times. We think, what, what was that? For. And why are we. Do you know what I mean?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

You're one stage removed from having a pint in the pub.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[Rick Astley]

And chatting to people. And once in a blue moon, you actually know the people as well. You know, you mentioned Rob bribing before and I've met Rob a bunch of times and stuff and I did his podcast and it was kind of a bit like we should have just done it in a bar and do you know what I mean?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. So that would be weird if you're having a drink with your friend in a bar and he just pulled your book out and went, so let's talk some more about this.

[Rick Astley]

True. But I think. But it has. I think it's kind of taken some of the. Kind of. Like just the thing about when you do interviews for stuff and you're basically selling something, you can dress it up any way you like, whether you've got a new record or you've done an autobiography. And it's like, I'm here to sell it. And it's like. It is a bit weird that.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

You know, on a human level, that is a bit weird. And I think that podcasts have sort of taking the edge off that a tiny bit because you're talking about a lot of stuff and you meander and you get, you know. But I am here to sell a book. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

I remember as a kid getting disillusioned, just suddenly realizing that everyone on Parkinson happened to be on there when they're about to sell something. I was like, hold on a second. So, like the person last week started talking about their new album as well. Exactly. What is this? I thought we just wanted to hear about them. They're interesting people.

[Rick Astley]

It is weird. But then again, like I say, you, you. It's a process. I think it's like you've made a record, you want people to hear it. You know, I don't think anybody's ever walked out of a studio going, great. I hope no one hears that. I mean, it's just not what. You know. And the only way of doing that is letting the wider world know.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[Ed Gamble]

And vice versa. If you're going on a chat show, you need something to talk about.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You just rock up. How you been? Not doing much. Just knocking them out the house. Yeah. So never is the Autobot.

[Rick Astley]

Yes, it is. Yeah. And I think the publishing world loves an autobiography with a one word title. There it is. And obviously because of never going to give you up, which is my biggest song, my first song, my blah, blah, blah, and it's sort of. It's got this place in my life that just totally dwarfs everything else, really. It's a weird thing to not even admit that because I can admit it easily. But it's just, I guess to own it that you've got this song that's a bit of a kind of a. I don't know, I don't want to be negative about it because it's been amazing to me, that song, but it's kind of like it's just overshadowed everything. So I kind of. And it was my idea to call it Never. And I just kind of thought, you know, I say it's my idea. It could have been my wife's idea, actually. Is that our idea? Let's say.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And again, it's come up quite a few times about, do you want to do a book? And I've kind of said, nope. And for years I've said no. And I think.

[James Acaster]

So the title isn't what you used to respond to people.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, yeah. Never. No. But I have sort of shied away from it really, for a lot of reasons. I'm 58 now and I have lived a bit. I've got a 32 year old daughter who just got married and stuff. And I kind of feel that it's not just I was in pop music for a few years. Here's a book. I feel there's a bit more of a life to tell kind of thing. I think a lot of it was partly doing like some of the things that happened last year when we played Glastonbury and stuff like that, that I kind of just walked away and thought, wow, that was an amazing moment for me personally. But also I think in the space of a career and sort of go, you're 58 and then now letting you play Glastonbury, that's a weird. I wouldn't say it's a bookend because I'm not finished just yet, hopefully. But it's a weird. There's just a lot of weird things going on in the last few years, I think, that have made me think, wow. But people might actually have an interest to read my side of that rather than just see it in the Daily Mail or whatever, you know.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, like a couple of things there. Like for one, like the song. I don't want to hear someone who's just released that song do a book about what it was like to have a hit single like that.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

But you must have had such a change in relationship to it totally over those decades, that I do want to hear about that because I think that's a way more interesting thing to like. Yeah. To be told about and to learn.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. I think. I think, obviously, that song came out in 1987. If we just think there wasn't even the Internet at that point.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And ironically, it's had another life on the Internet. It's just made me think sometimes to own being grateful and also. And this might seem a bit pompous, I don't know, but to just sort of, like, try and enjoy life a bit more. Because I think when it was happening when I was young, 21, and what I've been up the first couple of records and stuff, you do. I don't take it for granted, but you do take it a bit more in your stride because you've got nothing to judge against. You just everything's normal, even though it's completely abnormal, because you don't know anything else. But once you get some distance away from it, you can kind of go, my God, how lucky you were and how amazing that certain people you met and certain situations you found yourself in. And where I am right now, being 58, I'm pretty happy, to be honest. I have my moments, obviously, like everyone does. I'm only human, but I'm kind of happy. I have to be grateful for that. I think, you know, there's something to.

[James Acaster]

Be said, though, I think, for that attitude when it's all based on this one big hit single that happened so early in your career.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I think there's. That's happened to a lot of other people who've really resisted that.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And have sort of almost thrown their toys out the pram a little bit and gone, no, please stop. Please stop talking about that. Whereas you've taken it all in your stride and you have this.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

But I think also partly because I had quite a long gap away from it all, and so I kind of packed it all in in my late 20s. Our daughter had just been born and I don't know, I kind of. I'd say I hated the music business. It's a bit strong, but I kind of hated the music business, really, because it's a fricking business, you know, And I hadn't really started, perhaps in the way that I really truly wanted to.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. You can get disillusioned when maybe not want to be around it. Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And I just think the business itself, talking about selling stuff. Jesus Christ. I mean, I used to go to do a TV show in whatever Country. And it would usually be a different country every day for months on end on the one end. That sounds exciting. But you guys have been around stuff like that. It isn't. And you can fool yourself and pretend it is.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And you can smile in a Smash Hits photograph for so long before you just want to kill someone. And I don't want that to come across as ungrateful, because I'm not. I'm extremely grateful. But I also think, just on a human level, you know, some people are more cut out. I'm a miserable northerner. Do you know what I mean? It's really hard to pretend that I was happy. Do you know what I mean? And I've seen other people, you know, and around that time as well, just manage it really, really well. And I don't know whether they're just really good at pretending or they just love it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And they like being famous and they like all that sort of side of it. But I think having a break, and it was a very long break, I kind of. I never thought I'd do anything again in music, to be honest. Like, I'm done. I think that really, really helped. And it's helped me appreciate even those times a lot more. I remember them fondly rather than, you know, being miserable about it.

[James Acaster]

So was it. Was it the second life that the song got on the Internet that almost sort of brought you back to stuff?

[Rick Astley]

It was weird because the timing was a weird thing. I actually. I met a guy in a pub. It was actually the Half Moon in Putney. Where. It's a band venue, really. Yeah. Gig venue. Yeah. And I went there because some friends of mine had started a record label and the first artist that they signed was Natasha Bedingfield. She was doing, like a showcase or what have you for, you know, so there's a few different people. And this guy is a massive promoter. And he got talking to me and we got chatting and he kind of basically said, why don't you go out and sing anymore? And I said, well, I just don't want to do it, really. I'm done with that. And I think it's done with me. And, you know, he said, no, no, no, you should go out and sing. You know, you should just. I said, anyway, he not convinced me, but kind of laid it out for me. He said, look, don't sing anything you want. It doesn't have to be your old songs. If you don't want, you can sing anything you want. We don't have to make money. We don't have to do anything, just go and sing and if you don't like it, we'll shake hands and forget it. And if you do, we'll talk about it. So that's a well trodden path. But I ended up singing a lot of like Frank Sinatra songs because that's what my dad used to sing around the house. And I knew them all and I kind of have always loved them. And I just went and did it sort of under the radar in tiny little venues. And I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And I loved being on stage again because there was no record to promote and I didn't do any interviews and I didn't do anything for it. I just went out and sang with a girl. Great band. I did sing. Never going to give you up at the end because I get lynched if I didn't. But it was like. But I didn't. It wasn't about that. And then I did a couple of other things. I had an offer to go to Japan and sing my old songs kind of thing and my wife and daughter made me do it because they wanted to go to Japan. And we stayed in like an amazing hotel and we looked after and, you know, we had a week's holiday there afterwards and everything. So after doing that as well, I just kind of thought, this isn't painful, it's actually quite enjoyable because no one sort of knows I'm doing it other than the people who came to the gigs. And it's like it's. I wasn't being a pop star.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Do you know what I mean? I wasn't doing anything really.

[James Acaster]

You're just remembering what you actually liked about it in the first place?

[Rick Astley]

Kind of. Yeah. It was just. It was just different. It was just very, very different. And there wasn't any connection to, well, like I say, like selling something. I didn't feel like, you know, I've said it loads of times actually, that I could have been selling paint in the 80s. I could have been selling anything. I just felt like I was going around going, buy this.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

It didn't feel that attached to music even, because most of the time they didn't want you to sing live either. So you're going miming in Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, what have you. And America eventually, and Australia and all the rest of it. It's going miming on a TV show. My brother could have done it. I mean, it's like there's no relevance to anything that I ever started to do as a teenager to what I'm actually Doing.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

They would have been a better promo stunt to send your brother.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And just have him walk out every time and have them all go, hold on a second.

[Rick Astley]

That's a different guy than it turned out, isn't he?

[Ed Gamble]

Turns out he's your brother.

[James Acaster]

Hang on, it does sound like him.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And also, it's down to me if I want to play a cover of something. That's what we're doing.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

If you want to go to the bathroom, off you go.

[Ed Gamble]

But you must have it that people quite like, because, you know, you did two sets at Glastonbury last year, and one of them was Ewan Blossoms doing the Smiths covers.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. Which is.

[Ed Gamble]

And that was a huge hit as well. I mean, it's quite rare that someone has the kind of Glastonbury you had last year, where they have two sets that everyone was talking about all the time.

[Rick Astley]

It was 100% bonkers.

[Ed Gamble]

And. Yeah. I mean, for. Yeah, first half the festival, everyone was the same, did you see Rick Astley? It was amazing. And then the second half, everyone saying, did you see recasting? So, like, it was a. And so. But people must surely also be quite up for hearing covers from you now as well, because you kind of.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, I guess. I mean, well, it's weird because I just really like doing it. And, like, when we rehearse. My band are amazing, by the way, and they can play everything without even thinking about it. They're all super annoying in that respect. I just throw them a song and they go, yeah, whatever, and play it. I'm like, okay, right. But what's amazing about that also is that I have no fear about. So sometimes we'll just sit there and jam through songs for, like, 40 minutes, and then I'll suddenly realize we've gone a bit far. Slipknot. We've gone a bit far.

[James Acaster]

So please do that.

[Ed Gamble]

It's Ed's favorite band, Literally, Ed's favorite band.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, is it?

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

He would love it if he did Slip Knot.

[Rick Astley]

Okay.

[Ed Gamble]

Rick.

[James Acaster]

I'd lose my mind.

[Rick Astley]

It's hard to play.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. So you'd need nine people.

[Rick Astley]

Really? You need nine people and you need.

[James Acaster]

Some, like, oil drums and you need all that.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, all of that. What's the one that push my fingers into my. Yeah, that is just.

[James Acaster]

I'd watch you sing an acoustic version.

[Rick Astley]

That is that. Well, yeah, could do.

[Ed Gamble]

I think what was. And I know we should get on with the menu. Bonito. I know we should go with it. I think what was nice what was particularly nice about that Glastromy one is that there's a lot of us who really enjoy those Smith songs and grow up with them. And then Morrissey became the man he is now, and we would never want to go and see him live. But this was a way of seeing those songs live and enjoyed it and be able to sing along to him again. It was like the Beyond Meat Burger, to use a reference that Morrissey would probably appreciate, actually. It was like, oh, this tastes just like it. But without any of the inhumane stuff. I don't agree with. Yeah, that was what was nice about it. I felt. I felt it was a lot of people going, I've really wanted to see these songs live and sing along with a feel for the people. But I made my peace with the fact that's never going to happen.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And then it was a way of doing it. You don't have to comment on it, Rick. No, no, what I just said. We always start with still or sparkling water.

[Rick Astley]

Yes, yes. It's got to be still for me. I don't mind sparkling, but I just. If it's sparkling, I'd rather it was something else. If it's fizzy, I don't want water. Do you know what I'm saying?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Rick Astley]

So, yeah, And I'm easy. I'll go tap. Not in every country in the world, but I'll go tap.

[Ed Gamble]

Not in every also, I'd imagine. So you're from Lancashire, right?

[Rick Astley]

I am indeed.

[Ed Gamble]

So the tap water there is very good.

[Rick Astley]

I mean, Mr. Steve Coogan, my God, has he got a bee in his bonnet about northern water? I mean, come on.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes. Yeah, but it's good water.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. I'm not. I'm not denying that. Yeah. But I mean, no, you don't have local pride for.

[James Acaster]

For your water.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, probably do, but I mean, I'm not gonna. I'm aware of being a professional northerner at times. Sure. And I haven't lived up there for like 30 odd years. My wife's Danish, you know. I've spent more time in Copenhagen than I have, you know, in the town that I'm from. Do you know what I mean? So it's kind of like. So I'm always still, to be honest, as well, It. There's something about the carbonation of water, if you like, that is a bit. I don't think that helps with food.

[James Acaster]

To me, because it fills you up or it.

[Rick Astley]

It's just something about it. And some of them are quite. They've got a taste to them, I think a very definite sort of something. And I don't want that when I'm eating the waters. To perhaps cleanse your palate a bit, but also just to keep you hydrated with.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

The lovely wine we're about to drink.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah. Little sneak preview. So the tap water wouldn't be from anywhere in particular, then? Because sometimes it's fun if the. I mean, what's Copenhagen tap water, like, if you've been.

[Rick Astley]

I mean, yeah, you can drink tap water there. 100. I wouldn't think twice about it in most places, I think, to be honest. It's to do with. It's when you're working, especially, you're like, I'm very sensitive to not eating shellfish and stuff when I'm working and getting. I've only canceled one gig in my life and it was in Australia. I had the wildest. And I've had food poisoning a few times. The wildest food poisoning ever.

[James Acaster]

And talk us through it, indeed.

[Rick Astley]

Well, I was. I was. I started. We did sound check and we all ate chicken salad, right. And then I did not feel very well. And the room was, like, moving and everything was going really kind of like it was going into a very strange place. And I went outside and found a metal lamp post and was hugging it. And I thought, there's something very wrong with me right now. And then I just started throwing up like there was no tomorrow. Like, really bad. And if. If I could have sensed this was about to happen, I would have done something about it. But I thought, I'll be fine. I'm going to throw up a few times and I'll get through it. Might have a couple of vodkas and I'll be fine. Right. And then I really wasn't. And I was beginning to get worried. And then the audience was already in by this point and they made a bit of an announcement and said, I don't. Like, is there a doctor in the house? Or whatever, but somebody quietly, you know, found a nurse and she came out to see me and she said, I think he should go to hospital. And at that point, I started to get. Because I was off my tits at this point. I was like, I hadn't been drinking anything. I was just hallucinating and I was full on, you know, I really wasn't very well. And they call for an ambulance. And in the end, the ambulance said, look, we just. We can't do it. We're not going to come for someone who's got food poisoning. They were. And then they weren't then they weren't. They weren't. So they got a doctor, private doctor, and he injected me in the bum region with something, sent me to the hotel and immediately went to sleep for like 12 hours, you know, So I don't know what it was he gave me or what have you, but I was really, really ill and that's the only gig I've ever canceled.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And so. And obviously it was chicken salad, so what can you do? You know what I mean? You can't avoid. Chicken salad is quite a regular thing. But I think ever since that day. Because that's pretty good going. Only canceling one gig in my life.

[Ed Gamble]

Absolutely.

[Rick Astley]

And I've been really ill doing gigs, by the way, like, really ill. But that was something else that was like. That was on the edge, that one, you know?

[James Acaster]

I know. I know what you mean about, like, suddenly getting paranoid about food. If you've got a show that night as well.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Like, if there's like an oyster kicking around or something. I'm not doing that.

[Ed Gamble]

No.

[Rick Astley]

As we're going to get into. I like seafood of any description and pretty much any description. And I always, you know, I do love oysters and I love lots of things, but if you gig and it's just like, you know, I will say.

[James Acaster]

It'S rare that I'm doing a gig and there's an oyster kicking around.

[Ed Gamble]

Come on, you had Campbell.

[Rick Astley]

Well, that also sounds really dodgy. Just an oyster around.

[James Acaster]

Oyster. Just on the road.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

So I'm never worried about that. Normally, like, if I'm. If I'm not working. No, I'm like, yeah, I'm sure it's absolutely fine, but just. I just know one day it's gonna. It's gonna happen.

[Rick Astley]

Absolutely. Bite you on the ass, pops.

[Ed Gamble]

Or bread.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, my God. I still can't get used to that. There is no need for a papadom in what we're about to. You know. And like most people say on this thing, yes, I like papadoms and I like them when I'm going to have an Indian or a takeaway or whatever. But no, we're going to have bread. And also because we're going pretty full on Italian in this place. Because remember, we're on an Italian beach somewhere overlooking one of the seas. Whichever one you want. So if we're going to have bread at all, it's going to be something Italian, something nice. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Which particular Italian bread are you thinking?

[Rick Astley]

I don't really mind, really. Italy's weird, as we know. It's Got lots of different kinds of bread. Some of it's awful and unedible, and I don't know why they even put it out in a restaurant. It makes no sense whatsoever. It's just. Yeah, it's awful.

[Ed Gamble]

Awful.

[Rick Astley]

I think a lot of it's in the north, actually. It's just white bread with no anything in it.

[James Acaster]

It's just.

[Rick Astley]

It's just awful. And they do that in English. Italian restaurants or Italian. English, you know, whatever. And it's like. Yeah, yeah, but we don't want that. That's not the Italy we want.

[James Acaster]

We don't want, like, proper, rustic Italian bread.

[Rick Astley]

No, we're not the rustic. We want the rustic. That is a certain part of Italy's rustic. Yes. We don't want that. White bread with nothing in it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

It doesn't mean anything to us. I'd rather have the sticks in the plastic paper that. You know what I mean?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The breadsticks.

[Rick Astley]

Well, yeah.

[James Acaster]

So you're more thinking maybe a nice focaccia.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Something like that.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Possibly with even a herb in it. You know what I mean? It's got to have good olive oil.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

That's the thing. If you've got even reasonable bread. Good old olive oil, you know, so it's one of the things that I actually. Oh, it's gonna sound like a right snob now, but my wife and I do this all the time where when they pour you some olive oil and we just look at it and we go, that's disappointing, isn't it? You know what I mean? Because it doesn't look rich enough and strong enough, and you know what I mean? And then you taste it and you go, yeah, I knew that was going to be disappointing.

[James Acaster]

Earlier at the top of the episode, Rick, you described yourself as a miserable northerner. Ye. And just the idea of you looking at olive oil being poured out, go. That's disappointing.

[Rick Astley]

No, but come on, that's. I mean, we've all kind of stepped up our game with food, I think. And obviously some of your listeners perhaps are of an age where they've never known any other time, where you couldn't just get everything all the fricking time and just sat on the couch and sort of gone, I want Thai. Well, I want this. Well, I want Korean, but obviously I want North Korean.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

I don't want none of you. You know what I mean?

[James Acaster]

I think even, you know, I live in a good area for Deliveroo. I'd struggle to get North Korean cuisine.

[Rick Astley]

Think I don't know you're on the wrong delivery page that, love, but you know what I mean, you could. You can. And obviously I'm 58, and I grew up in a small town in the north, and it was like. It was not exotic. It really wasn't. And I think it's not even mean spoil. I sometimes feel it spoil. I do. I don't worry about it. I don't lose sleep over it. But I do sometimes wonder about where it's led us, that you can eat anything whenever you want. You know, you can have blueberries from Chile and. You know what I mean? And you're like, hang on a minute. How did they get here? What is that? Does that make any sense? No, it doesn't, but we've got used to it, and I think at some point we're gonna have to address that a little bit, you know?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, for sure.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I think so. But let's enjoy it while we enjoy.

[Rick Astley]

It, while we can think about it. Let's just enjoy it.

[Ed Gamble]

Let's just ignore all of it.

[Rick Astley]

But I think the olive oil thing, maybe it's an age thing as well. I don't know. But it's like, just get into it, don't you? At some point, you guys must be into olive oil.

[James Acaster]

So what. Yeah. What are you looking for when the olive oil's poured out? What. What would make you and your wife go lovely dark?

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, like some kind of, you know, unlike a bit like, you know, like. Like oily look. Like a proper, you know, I'll say oil in the center of something you put in your car. Viscosity, if that's the right word. So you can really see. It's like, oh, hang on a minute, hold the phone. And then when you actually taste it, you want that kind of kick in it, really. Kind of almost a bite in it. And I just hate it when it's just nothing. It's just like, well, that's just. There's no point in putting my bread in that, you know?

[Ed Gamble]

And what do you think? I mean, you're spending a lot of time.

[James Acaster]

Imagine you saying that to a waiter. There's no point putting a bread in that.

[Rick Astley]

Just not even doing it.

[Ed Gamble]

You spend a lot of time in Copenhagen. I believe that's the origin of the plate. That's the first place they started putting olive oil directly onto ice cream and drizzling it.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, really? Is that in one of the, like, the Nomasque restaurants up there and all that?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, kind of like everywhere now. I went last year for A couple of days.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And every ice cream place would offer sea salt and olive oil on the top if you want.

[James Acaster]

I don't know if that started in Copenhagen though.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay.

[James Acaster]

I think that might be an Italian thing, but it's very. It's very in.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

You must know obviously that. That Copenhagen is in the last 10 years or whatever more has just become this revolutionary food. Because obviously I had the best restaurant in the world, number of years running all the rest of it. And so many people who've gone through that restaurant obviously have started other places and. Da, da, da. And it is. Our daughter lives there and we go there a lot, obviously. I know my wife's there right now. And it is pretty amazing for food. It's pretty amazing for everything, to be honest. You guys won't know this, but we have a couple of bars in London that were involved with from one of the places called Miquella. I don't know that I know you're involved in this. Okay. So anyway, so that's like the whole. Everything with food and just drinking and everything has really changed, I think. I mean, I like the old school Danish food as well, to be honest. Like open faced sandwiches. This is still a big thing with me and stuff. And the herrings and all of that. We always have a Christmas. We always have a Christmas. Well, we have a styling around the food that's all very, very Danish. Like, you know, they're big in pork. I'm not so big in pork, to be honest. So Lena, my wife, normally kind of makes me something else, but anyway, but. And the crackling that's on it and everything.

[James Acaster]

The Christmas potatoes we've heard about on this podcast before.

[Rick Astley]

Well, did they call them brunke toffel, which is like Christmas potatoes?

[James Acaster]

Is this like with the sweet, really sweet sugar? Yeah, yeah, with sugar around them.

[Rick Astley]

It's basically sugar.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

It's like white boiled potatoes, tiny ones, like little new potatoes almost. And you literally. I mean, it's obscene when you see it. You look at it and you just think, that's a health problem right there. It's just a pan full of sugar and you just melt that down, put the potatoes in and they just become brown potatoes then. And it is amazing.

[James Acaster]

That does sound amazing.

[Ed Gamble]

Your dream starter.

[Rick Astley]

My dream starter is swordfish, but done. Oh, for God's sake. When you just slice it really thin is what I'm after. Yeah. And again, I think. I wouldn't, I wouldn't say I would have that on every restaurant I've been to, but I think if you go to a nice one and you get the feeling, well, the olive oil was really good, so I might actually.

[James Acaster]

Is it like a test testing thing? Like when.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

But you go with the olive. If the olive oil's good, you're ordering the swordfish.

[Rick Astley]

Kind of. Yeah. And I would feel better about ordering the seafood as well and the. Everything. It's a marker. They've set a marker of like, this is. We're a good place and we know what we're doing, you know, and that it doesn't have to be swanky and posh.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

It's just. No, we really care about the food in here and this is what we're doing, you know.

[James Acaster]

Is it our first swordfish on. On the podcast? Good question. It must be one of the few.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, we haven't had it come up much.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, well, they have. They put it in pasta a lot in Italy, or certain parts of Italy anyway. They did in Sardinia a lot. Linguini de la Spada, I think it's called. And it's just. It's got a very fish taste, but not to the point where it's. Because fish and pasta for me is a bit of a weird one, you know, like salmon and spaghetti. I'm not saying I've never eaten it and I wouldn't eat. I would eat it tonight. If someone's made it and I've gone around theirs, I'm gonna eat that and I'm fine with it. There's a bit of me going, are you sure?

[James Acaster]

No, no, I see what you mean. It doesn't feel like a match made in heaven, doesn't it? Salmon.

[Rick Astley]

Odd. To me, that seems like a someone else's version of what should be going on. Spaghetti?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Prawns. Sure, yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Prawns.

[James Acaster]

Clams.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, we're gonna. You've hit the nail on the end there. But I mean, salmon and spaghetti, I've.

[Ed Gamble]

Definitely had it before and it was nice, but I think it really comes down to what sauce they have with it.

[Rick Astley]

It's very creamy normally, isn't it?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah. And then it's delicious. And they've got that right there. But, like. Yeah, I know what you mean. I feel like she made something during lockdown. That was a salmon pasta. Yeah. I mean, and it's obviously flakes up quite nicely when you're stirring it.

[Rick Astley]

But, yeah, on paper, like I say, if I saw it on a menu in the UK especially, or possibly in Italy, I don't know, but it wouldn't be what I'd go to, but seeing the swordfish thing in a pasta and also I think perhaps I was thinking I've never seen this before, I've probably seen it since, but I hadn't seen it perhaps the first time we used to, because we used to have it a lot in the same restaurant in Sardinia. I kind of thought, oh, we're getting a bit of an insight to local. Do you know what I mean?

[Ed Gamble]

But is this in a pasta? This is an inner pasta. This is just. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

What goes over the top of it, is there?

[Rick Astley]

Well, it's olive oil.

[James Acaster]

Olive oil, yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And sometimes not disappointing. Sometimes there might even be possibly a tiny bit of onion or maybe even a tiny bit of garlic and stuff. But I think if it's nice enough, I think you can just eat it the way it is, you know?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Super light starter just to get it ready.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. And again, the thing with capaccio for me is that you've really got to be as thin as you can be. Like you almost see through it kind of thing.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And then it's sort of. It just takes on another level of loveliness, I think, when it's fat carpaccio. Who wants a fat carpaccio? Do you know what I mean? That's just wrong.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

That's just sashimi at that point, isn't it?

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, it's just weird.

[Mom Speaker]

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[Rick Astley]

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[Ed Gamble]

It's perfect.

[Rick Astley]

Did we just score the greatest gifts of all time. Yeah.

[Mom Speaker]

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[Rick Astley]

My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big roas man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day.

[Mom Speaker]

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[Rick Astley]

You'Ll be able to reach people who do.

[Mom Speaker]

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[Rick Astley]

Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn the place to be.

[James Acaster]

To be.

[Ed Gamble]

Ryan Reynolds here for I guess my 100th mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, don't, no, don't, no. I mean honestly when I started this I thought I only like four of these.

[Mom Speaker]

I mean it's unlimited to Premium Wireless.

[Rick Astley]

For $15 a month. How are there still people paying two.

[Ed Gamble]

Or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming.

[Mom Speaker]

Here, give it a [e-mail] switch whenever you're ready. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month.

[Rick Astley]

New customers on first three month plan.

[Mom Speaker]

Only taxes and fees, extra Speed slower above 40 gigabytes.

[Rick Astley]

C.

[Ed Gamble]

So your dream main course isn't too far from that?

[Rick Astley]

No, no, because I've gone full Italian to be honest. We have a lot of memories being together in Italy and I kind of think. And I love Spain as well by the way. I think the food in Spain is just incredible. I think we did definitely have more holidays. We used to go on holiday with one particular family and we went to the same place 10 years running kind of thing and our kids kind of were on this little beach where even if we weren't there, I know it sounds a bit weird now but even if we weren't there, we felt they were safe. It was that it wasn't a big sort of. You know what I mean? It was just like it's okay. I think there was always one of us there. Thinking about it, I think we'd have left but it had that feel of it almost like you're in a any blighting book. Do you know what I mean?

[Ed Gamble]

It's like, I mean those kids were always in the downright. Those kids were always having to face down criminals. Rick, that's an awful.

[James Acaster]

It's a bad example.

[Ed Gamble]

Those kids were in a lot of danger.

[James Acaster]

They should have had supervision at all times. Yeah, they probably did.

[Ed Gamble]

They probably did they're investigating crimes left, right and center.

[James Acaster]

I thought you meant the Indian Blyton kids had supervision. They didn't.

[Ed Gamble]

They never did.

[Rick Astley]

But you mean.

[James Acaster]

You meant your kids.

[Ed Gamble]

They were left with a dog.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Just very weird, all of that. Very weird. So, yeah, for a main. I've gone for spaghetti vongly.

[James Acaster]

Nice.

[Rick Astley]

But with bataga on top. Are you aware of Bataga?

[Ed Gamble]

No, I'm not.

[James Acaster]

No, I'm aware of the name. I don't think I know what it is, Rick.

[Rick Astley]

Well, I'm going to embarrass myself by not knowing what it is either, but I think what it is is it's eggs from a fish that somehow gets, I think, compacted and then they shave it.

[Ed Gamble]

Wow.

[Rick Astley]

I'm just going to Google.

[James Acaster]

No, I think.

[Rick Astley]

Has anyone ever googled on the actual light?

[James Acaster]

Yes. Normally we might bend it.

[Ed Gamble]

Normally we might bend it. But I think have you do it.

[Rick Astley]

I've always got a couple.

[James Acaster]

I think you might be right.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. Pataga is salted cured fish roe. It is. Yeah. I was pretty certain it was, by the way. But then when you just. When you. Because when you just telling a friend about it's one thing, but when you're on.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Podcast with two gentlemen like yourselves, you think. Is that right? Yeah. And I've never really ever seen it other than in either an Italian restaurant that has a Sardinian owner or chef or connection. There's lots of people in Italy who don't eat it, I don't think.

[Ed Gamble]

Right.

[Rick Astley]

And we just kept seeing it. I just thought I'm having. So tried it. And I just went, oh, my God.

[James Acaster]

So what does it taste like? What does it do?

[Rick Astley]

It's very fishy.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

But. But again, you know, this thing with fish and pasta and mixing the two things. So Spaghetti Vanguard, which is a very traditional and if a good one of those, I think is just amazing. I just love it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

It's perfect on the water. It just feel you're one with the sea and the whole, you know. But throwing the bataga on top just adds this other dimension to it and it just again, I think it's fond memories. I think it's happy memories of being on holidays with your kids when they're young and all the rest of it.

[James Acaster]

How do you feel about. Because we've talked about Vonglev a couple of times and chose it. Harry Hill chose.

[Rick Astley]

All right.

[James Acaster]

How do you feel about the admin?

[Rick Astley]

What do you mean?

[James Acaster]

The shell admin.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, I think that's part of the joy.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Well, you like? Because I struggle with it. I don't know if you could tell, because when I get a meal.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. I'm ready to just want to eat it.

[James Acaster]

I'm going. I'm going straight in.

[Rick Astley]

Well, I do know what you mean. And there are certain things. I'll try and think of one. There are certain things I think I just can't be bothered, can't be asked. Messing. I just want to eat the bloody thing. But with that, I don't mind. It's a bit like when you have.

[James Acaster]

That was red clicking a clam.

[Rick Astley]

It's a bit like when you have mussels, Mo. And do you do that thing where you. You use one of the shells to pluck out.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

The meat of the.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't do that.

[Rick Astley]

Do you not do that?

[Ed Gamble]

No. I mean, I barely get it and every time I do get it, I get portrait with the admin and I splash myself with the. With the juice at some point because I'm so just trying to get it over and done with.

[James Acaster]

But, yeah, the tongue using one of the shells.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

As the tongs to get the other one out.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I mean, it's quite cruel, really, because this guy.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

But there are.

[James Acaster]

You can see his mate ripping his tummy out.

[Rick Astley]

Well, they're dead, don't they?

[James Acaster]

Depends where you go.

[Rick Astley]

So that just reminds me of something. While we're on a food conversation here for the podcast.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[Rick Astley]

Have you guys been to Japan?

[Ed Gamble]

Yes, I've just got back.

[James Acaster]

James is going next.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, amazing. Fantastic. Well, I'm sure you're going to love it. You must have loved it, I'm sure.

[James Acaster]

Incredible.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. So I've been a few times and back in the day, in the 80s and stuff. And I remember the second time we went. First time was just promo and stuff. Second time we went for gigs and the promoter took us to this amazing restaurant in a town, I think called Nagoya. So, you know, still a massive city, but one of the smaller cities, as it were. We went to this restaurant and I basically think he was just taking the piss because we were given these bowls, like a soup, like a clear soup, but something was still alive swimming around in it.

[James Acaster]

Wow.

[Rick Astley]

But didn't have the whole of its body to do so. Yeah, like tentacles have been cut away and things. And that was like a bit of a shock. So I didn't. And Again, I was 22, 23, do you know what I mean? I wasn't. I traveled a bit by then and I'd eaten in a lot of places and Stuff. But it was still nothing surprising for.

[James Acaster]

That, though, does it?

[Rick Astley]

That's.

[Ed Gamble]

That's.

[Rick Astley]

That's nothing compared to what happened next. So they brought out these huge fish that were skewered. So they were in like a curve, an arc, you know, tail up and head up. And the meat of the fish had been cut away from its body. Why it was alive and placed back on the fish. So you were meant to eat it while it looked at you.

[James Acaster]

Oh, my God. I mean, look, I am not squeamish, but I think that would put me off.

[Ed Gamble]

I couldn't do that.

[James Acaster]

I mean, like your theory about if the olive oil is good, you know, the rest of the meal is going to be nice. When they brought you the little thing swimming around in the bowl.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

That alone when you have to make eye contact with the thing you're eating. Get out.

[James Acaster]

Bloody Marquis de Sade's restaurant now.

[Rick Astley]

I don't know whether that might even be a thing anymore and whether the legally allowed to do it. You know, I'm going back 35 years, you know, so it's a while ago, more even, you know, But I remember just thinking, this is ridiculous.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And I was kind of looking at all the other Japanese people thinking, are you gonna eat this or is this.

[Ed Gamble]

Crazy prank on the.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. And I've seen prawns cooked on the. On like a teppanyaki, you know.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Where they're still alive.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

They just put them on the thing in front of you, you know, And I know lobsters go in the thing when you're not looking, and they just put them in there, you know, I don't like all that. Listen, don't get me wrong, I love eating food. I'm not vegetarian. I think about it sometimes and I do think there's an issue, like I said, with us, the way we are living at the moment can't really be sustained and all the rest of it. And. But yeah, it's a. It's a.

[James Acaster]

There's a step. There's a step too far, isn't there?

[Rick Astley]

A little bit, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. I think we definitely have to at least stop making eye contact with the fish while we're eating it alive.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, kind of.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, yeah, let's at least take that step.

[Rick Astley]

Having said that, this is. As a species, this just reminded me of something else. And please, this is. This is not. This is not about right. Here we go. So, yeah. One of my passions in life has been skiing over the years. And so I was on holiday skiing with some friends and it was a bit of an occasion and we needed to celebrate something. So we went to this restaurant, which, again, I don't think is open anymore. Not because of what I'm about to describe. I just think it's not open anymore. And it was called my father's farm to mon. Pair, whatever. And massive reputation, you know, Michelin stars, all the rest of it. So we went. It's like a 15 course, blah, dead whatever. But you, you. The building is a farm. And animals. I'm not saying those animals necessarily, but in other words, pigs, ducks, you know, geese, cows are on the other side of glass beneath you and on the side of you as you walk into the restaurant. So it's basically like saying. But there's. But I don't think on the one end, there's nothing wrong with actually explaining, especially to kids, because if kids just think that a slab of meat in a. Is just something.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

You know, they don't connect it to being an animal. That's a whole other issue again. So. But that was pretty. That was a bit, you know, I mean, they weren't dragging animals out and butchering them and, you know. Sure, but it was still very. At some point, you've just ordered this and that's one of those over there behind that glass. It was a bit weird.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. It's quite confronting, isn't it?

[Ed Gamble]

It's good. I mean, yeah, I'm all for it, but I. I think I wouldn't be able to hack it at the same time. And maybe I should reflect on that.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, well, I'm. I'm not. I don't cook a lot. My wife's an amazing cook, an incredible cook, and it's. It's one of the main ways that she relaxes. And I don't really love it.

[James Acaster]

Does it stress you out?

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, if it's for anybody else, yes. You know, I'm not averse to making an omelet or making something for myself, cobbling something together, but I was. The reason I was mentioning this is that if someone said, right, there's a joint, there's an actual big piece of an animal, make it. Or even a chicken. Getting a chicken out of its packaging from the supermarket and putting it in the oven is a bit like, wow, do you know what I mean? Whereas when it's cooked and it's on your plate, it's just very different.

[James Acaster]

It is, yeah. And don't get those mixed up, Rick, otherwise you're gonna have another one of those incidents. You're gonna be canceling More gigs?

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Your dream side dish.

[Rick Astley]

Sorry. Yeah, well, I'm going really traditional again. All the things I've chosen, I think are pretty traditional in a beachside Italian restaurant. So I'm going Rocket and parmesan, which, you know, the thing with Rocket as well, or Rugler as the Americans say, is when it's good, it's amazing. Somewhat breathtaking is again, it's back to that thing of the very peppery sort of thing about olive oil sometimes where you go, oh, and it literally goes to the back of your throat and goes, oh my God. You know, and you kind of forget sometimes just how amazing it is. Like, you know, we've all been having that as a salad for years now. But I remember as a kid, say as a kid, a young man in an Italian restaurant and me thinking, oh, well, that's just some kind of leaf salad thing and eating it and going, jesus, you know, it is a shock.

[James Acaster]

The first time you have rocket. Yeah, it's mind blowing.

[Rick Astley]

And also Parmesan's a big thing in our house.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, yeah. My wife doesn't really eat dessert. She doesn't eat sweet things particularly.

[Ed Gamble]

You should leave her.

[Rick Astley]

But at the end of dinner in restaurants, she very often will say, can I have a. Just. I don't want a cheese board, I don't want a whole selection, or what. Just give me a big block of Parmesan and a nice glass of red wine.

[James Acaster]

Well, that is. I mean, that is one of the ballsiest moves I've ever heard of being in a restaurant. Give me a big chunk of Parmesan.

[Rick Astley]

She is a ballsy woman, believe me. Yeah, she is.

[James Acaster]

That's a real curveball, isn't it, for.

[Rick Astley]

The people working there, maybe, but I think there's a. There's an element of. It depends, doesn't it? It depends what kind of a restaurant you're in sometimes. And even some of the ones which do have like a Michelin star and they're like, ruin most of it sometimes I think they are more accommodating than people would think they are. Sometimes. Not always. Sometimes it's like, that's what we make.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Off. If you don't want it that way and dunna. But. But sometimes they kind of get it that people go, you know what? I just. Is there any, you know, any chance.

[James Acaster]

I don't know, did she go through the like rigmarole of like looking at the dessert menu go, actually, I just have a big block of palm.

[Rick Astley]

She'll kind of have a scan of It. And she. She will have a spoonful of mine or someone's, but she's not really. It's just not where she's at at all. There's pretty much nothing in the world of dessert that she's interested in.

[Ed Gamble]

Wow.

[Rick Astley]

It just doesn't do it for her.

[Ed Gamble]

My mind boggling.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I'm gonna try that.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, I'm sure you will, because I would.

[James Acaster]

I love a. Just a big block of Parmesan too.

[Rick Astley]

Right. Glass of red wine with it especially. It's just like.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, this is what we've learned today. And I don't know what order these episodes are going to go out in that we've recorded today. It's gonna be Rick first. Well, then this is a. This is a flash forward.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

A guest earlier said that. And if the listeners can figure out which guest this was, make sure you tweet the podcast and Benito will send you a signed chopping board. Said that Christopher Walken said to always start a meal with Parmesan and red wine.

[James Acaster]

Christopher Walken wasn't our guest, by the way.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, okay.

[Ed Gamble]

That wasn't a guest.

[James Acaster]

Our last guest said that Christopher Walken said in an interview to always start a meal with just a block of Parmesan and red wine.

[Ed Gamble]

I mean, that's never come up in the podcast before.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You're literally our next guest and you've said Parmesan and red wine's great. Weird.

[Rick Astley]

That is very strange.

[James Acaster]

And I have Parmesan in the fridge at home and God knows I've got some red wine. God knows I'm gonna do that tonight.

[Rick Astley]

Do it.

[James Acaster]

I went to a restaurant once called Beast. I don't know if it's still there, but the starter was literally. It was quite early on in the life of this restaurant, and there was only one starter. And they brought you, like, a huge chunk of Parmesan that you could absolutely never finish and a knife and you just hacked off bits of Parmesan.

[Rick Astley]

It's like here in London.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Right, okay.

[James Acaster]

It's run by the, you know. Do you know Goodman Steak Houses? I think it's one of their places.

[Rick Astley]

It rings a bell, that name, but I can't. I can't remember whether I think it's.

[James Acaster]

Changed a bit now, but it was like Parmesan and then steak and like, I think lobster. But it was like very ridiculously over the top restaurant. But, yeah, I loved it.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, your dream drink then. So we got that. That nice salad.

[Rick Astley]

It's a Chardonnay. It's An Italian Chardonnay. It's Antinori, basically. And the reason I'm sort of like stumbling over saying that and everything is because of how expensive it is. It's ludicrously expensive and it wouldn't be an everyday, you know, but I'm in my favorite restaurant. Dream restaurant.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

You know, all the rest of it.

[James Acaster]

Why not?

[Rick Astley]

Again, you don't see it everywhere, but when you see it. And I had a very weird experience in Italy recently and that was that. It's a long story, but I was picking. I don't fly that often, so I drive everywhere. Like, you know, I've driven to Budapest a few times and. And Southern Portugal, outer Northern Norway and everywhere. I've driven across America a few times and around Australia because I don't like flying that much. Yeah, I do do it, obviously, but I'm saying I cut it down and I like doing the drive as well. And also I think I've done an awful lot of traveling, especially when I was younger, where I was on planes all the freaking time. And you arrive somewhere and you go, oh, okay, I'm in the back of a car and I saw this and I saw that. And then I've been to Rome, but I've got no freaking clue about Italy or what it's like or anything. And driving there, you get a sense of it because you just stay in places and do stuff. Anyway, on with the story. So I'm gonna pick my wife and a friend up in the airport in Rome. So the night before, I just stayed outside of Rome, on the coast, actually, funnily enough, in a little place, not a fancy place at all. It was just me. And very often I'll just think, I'm not going to spend a fortune. I'm only going to be there to sleep. So. And I go downstairs and I went into the little restaurant they had and it was. It was like there was nothing. It was lovely, but there's nothing amazing about this place. Not what you're expecting. I'm looking on the wine list and I see this wine. I sort of think, no, no, no, hang on a second. And it has got a younger brother, by the way.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Which is about half the price.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

I kept reading it going. I think what they've done is here, they've. It's the younger brother, but they've written it like it's the big brother.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, right.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

So I said, can I have a look at that wine? And he said, yeah. So over he goes, Or I think maybe I went to their wine cabinet and I'd look at it, they had like a glass, you know, I thought, no, that's pretty much. That's, you know. And it was literally the big brother. It was stupid, the price of it. It was like so much so that when I told my wife and her friend the day after, they said, well, perhaps we should just go back and buy everything they've got.

[Ed Gamble]

It was too cheap.

[Rick Astley]

No. And I felt guilty about it, actually. I kept thinking, no, no, I should have told them. Should have told them. And anyway, whatever. It's been a dilemma ever since, but it is phenomenal, this wine. And my favorite wine, anyway, is Chardonnay. And Chardonnay's got a bit of a bad rep, I think, over the last 15 years. I was, oh, shouting, I don't want to drink that. Footballers call her kids Chardonnay. I don't want to drink that nonsense, which is absolute bollocks, because the finest white Burgundy you can possibly have is Chardonnay. People just don't call it that necessarily up front because it's sort of frightened everyone into thinking it's like, you know. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Well, there was that ABC thing for a long time. Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And it sort of got a bit of a bad rep and it sort of annoys me when I go into a restaurant and they don't have a Chardonnay by the glass. It really annoys me because I'm like, you're reacting to that. You're not reacting to whether it's good or not. And. And we've traveled a lot in America and got a lot of American friends, and some of their Chardonnays are just unbelievable. My daughter and quite a few of her friends and family friends have this thing about me liking buttery Chardonnay.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

So much so that it's almost become ridiculous so that, like, if we're having a glass of wine, like in Copenhagen and stuff, they're all looking at me, waiting for me to go, now that's buttery.

[James Acaster]

Is it?

[Rick Astley]

Buttery Rick, is what?

[Ed Gamble]

You know what I mean?

[Rick Astley]

It's become like this sort of thing.

[James Acaster]

But anyway, that is such a classic dad bullying thing to make up on, isn't it?

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You find the thing. You find the one bit of happiness your dad has and then destroy it, and then you make it a thing of mockery as buttery. Is it?

[Rick Astley]

No, but. But also, to be fair, I think. I think she and some of the friends have been grateful. The fact that, you know, I Bring nice bottles of wine to drink and stuff.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And I pushed them in certain directions and stuff. And I think over the years. I love red wine, by the way, I really do. But obviously with the things I've chosen, I wanted a white, and this is just phenomenal. It's just absolutely gorgeous.

[James Acaster]

And I thought beer might come up. I thought we might be in for a beer for sure.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah, I do love beer, but I think. I think for me, beer is something I drink in a bar or a pub or at home, but if I'm in a restaurant, I. I think the connection of food, depending on what it is. If you're having a burger or you're having something that's a bit more. Yeah, I get it. But if you're gonna eat like swordfish and pasta and, you know, I'm going wine every day. You know what I mean?

[James Acaster]

So that wine sounds absolutely delicious.

[Rick Astley]

It is amazing. I almost toyed with the idea of bringing one and then I thought, you motherfucker. Yeah, I know, but you see, why are you dying?

[Ed Gamble]

You didn't bring us through the expensive wine.

[James Acaster]

Damn it, Rick Astley.

[Rick Astley]

I know, but I did think about it and then I thought. I thought, no, you're gonna want to do.

[Ed Gamble]

Because what the extremely nice wine. Are you out of your tree?

[Rick Astley]

Okay, all right, well, next time, also.

[James Acaster]

The next thought was probably, no, I just save that for myself and my family.

[Ed Gamble]

No, no, but they can have the little burger.

[Rick Astley]

But one of the things about wine and also the thing you mentioned, the beer thing, because of the. The Mikkela guys and everything, is that when I grew up as a kid, wine was not really a thing. Nobody I knew had wine at dinner. You know, I'm from a small northern town and blah, blah, and all the rest of it. You know, where we eat coal and all that. It's just. It just wasn't on the. You know. Yeah, And I think I've loved the fact that I've been introduced to that from being about 21, really. Because the weird thing was when I had that first record out and everything, it was. It was a really big hit at the time. You know, it's had its life and everything, but so I got taken to restaurants that were just off the scale as a 21 year old and probably didn't really appreciate it. And also because we were kind of doing it a lot, because I think I came to realize that somebody at the record company think, great, he's at number one, so I can take him to this restaurant or whatever, and we were going there because they wanted to, not because I wanted to. I would have much rather gone out and had a burger and a few beers and hung out with. With younger people at the record label. But obviously the CEO and the God knows what will be taking you out, because they're like, well, we can go to, you know, whatever. The one upside of that, I think, was. And I wasn't a wine drinker at all, and it took me quite a while, I think, to actually get into it. And also, I would say, and this is a real knobby thing to say, but it's just the goddamn truth. If you've got a bit of money, you can take that further and you can buy nice wine that's not that super expensive. And we, you know, drink wine at home on a more regular basis that isn't super expensive for lots of reasons. And that is. I think, one of the main ones is that if you find something that you like, it's. Again, it's a slightly different thing. I mean, I've got friends who drink certain kinds of wine. I'm like, I'm not drinking any of that muck. I'd rather have a cup of tea. I am not drinking that again.

[James Acaster]

I'm imagining all this happening in your actual life where you go to a friend's house and they're all drinking wine. You're like, put the kettle on.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, fuck it.

[James Acaster]

Well, I'm not drinking that shit. And if you think I'm dipping my bread in that, you're sorely mistaken.

[Rick Astley]

No, but wine is a really weird thing because you become accustomed, and it doesn't have to be super expensive and upscale and the rest of it, you just sort of get a taste for what you like. It's a bit like when you're on holiday and something locally tastes great and you bring it home and it doesn't.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And it's like.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

I think your taste buds are informed by other stuff. It's not just, you know. And there's a Chardonnay we drink at home all the time. It's about. I think it used to be about a 10 or it's probably 12 quid now from one of the big wine distributors that we all know, and we drink gallons of this stuff because it's just like. It's got this. It is French, it's a Chardonnay, blah, blah, blah. But it's not produced in Burgundy. It's. It's a long story. How boring is this?

[James Acaster]

No, I love it.

[Rick Astley]

Okay, whatever. Anyway, so it's. It Was an experiment. I read about it. It's an experiment. I think it's Louis Latour. I'm pretty certain it is. And he had an experiment. I don't think he exists as a person anymore. I think it's long gone. He had an experience. I'm going to produce it somewhere else. I'm gonna, you know, produce a Chardonnay, but not in this region. And equivalent wise, in other words, what I'm trying to say is for 12 quid, you're probably drinking £30 worth of wine.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Because it's slightly, slightly different.

[Rick Astley]

They can't call it. Not from.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And so it's like. It's a bit. A bit like the champagne thing. Right. If you like your bubbly whatevers, you don't have to drink champagne to drink a nice one anymore. I mean, England's making really good sparkling wine and everything. I was going to call it champagne there. You're not allowed to. You're not allowed to. Fuck off. You're not allowed to. Do you know what I mean? God, it bugs the ass off me that. Anyway, there you go.

[Ed Gamble]

I definitely want to make like a documentary about you at a dinner party.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Come on off.

[James Acaster]

No, but it's quite often, if you can buy wines produced near to some of the massive vineyards that are literally next door, 100. Literally all that separates them is a fence. The terroir is exactly the same. The weather's obviously exactly the same. It's going to taste as good. And it's like. Well, of course, for the cost.

[Rick Astley]

I. I would agree with that wholeheartedly. But I've had one or two experiences that have literally melted my mind. Right. And this is. We have a couple of friends who we didn't know that well at the time because I'm going back quite some years. I'm going back 15, 16, maybe more years around it. There's for dinner and Peter, his name is. I can say Peter, I'm not gonna tell you his last name, but Peter, seriously into wine and. My God, you know, and I've been so embarrassed bringing over bottles to their house, going like, oh, Jesus, I should have, you know, pushed the bar out a bit more.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

But he's not like that at all. He just wants people to taste it. And he's been like collecting wine all his life kind of thing almost, if you like, and investing in it and all this. It's again, not mega wealthy. Not like, sort of like just loves wine. Just loves wine. And would rather drive a car that's older but Drink this wine. Do you know what I mean? Or whatever it is. And my wife and I have been at theirs for dinner, and this other friend who's been around, right, and they have brought bottles of wine from Burgundy, white Burgundy. And I think. I would imagine that's harder to do than red wine, to be honest. They've brought them, and the other person has told them the year, the vintage, and what exactly it is. And we're talking about the fields that when you go on one of those wine tours or one of those wine trips, as you say, well, it's that field over there that produces, and the field over there produces that. And they are different, and they do all of it. And those mothers have actually told the other one what they've served, and I've just gone, what are you doing? How have you done this? Yeah. How do you do that? And they say you have to drink an awful lot of wine, take a.

[Ed Gamble]

Sip and go, it's this year, it's.

[James Acaster]

From that field here. Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And literally the field it came from, because they've said, this is a Mercer. But it's a little. And you've gone, have you done what?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And then it sort of dawned on me eventually, because I've been to Bone, for instance, in that area, and we're all, you know, loads of times, actually, not just for wine. It's halfway to skiing.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

So, you know, I mean, halfway to the south of France. And I drive everywhere, so. And when you are in one of those areas and you're thinking, okay, well, I guess if this is what you drink a lot of, especially when you're pushing the boat out a bit, there's still quite a lot. But you could get used to it, you know? I mean, you could sort of. Sort of go, no, I kind of know what this is. It's not like you said, oh, well, actually, I brought you some Chilean Chardonnay. They'd probably have no clue whatsoever. He's probably not on their radar as much. Well, I'm saying that he knows about some of them as well. He bought me a real nice bottle of chili and Chardonnay once as well.

[Ed Gamble]

I was like, oh, my God, I can do it with Ben and Jerry's.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. James can do it with Ben and Jerry's.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, really? Tell you what flavor.

[Rick Astley]

Like a sweet.

[Ed Gamble]

And who made it, Ben or Jerry? Every time.

[Rick Astley]

Are you. Is that your thing, then? Dessert. And, like, sweet, love dessert.

[James Acaster]

That's why this is a big moment coming up now.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, when you get to your dream Dessert now. And I swear to God, if you skip this like your goddamn wife.

[Rick Astley]

No, no, I would never skip dessert. And even if I'm not really in the mood for one, I'm definitely the person at the table and everyone's got going. No, no, I don't really want a dessert. I'm like, fucks, and I order something for the table.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, so we've got to order at.

[Rick Astley]

Least one or two.

[Mom Speaker]

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[Rick Astley]

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[Ed Gamble]

So what's your. What's your choice?

[Rick Astley]

I've gone for tiramisu, and I know I can feel people at home going, mmm, how novel. But I. I kind of think it's like a good tiramisu. Do you like dessert?

[James Acaster]

I do. I really like dessert. I'm more of a starters guy.

[Rick Astley]

Okay.

[James Acaster]

I'm more of a savory guy. But I will, you know, if I'm out with this guy, I'm having dessert.

[Rick Astley]

Dessert.

[James Acaster]

Because we're all having dessert.

[Rick Astley]

A good tiramisu is a pretty amazing, wonderful thing. And again, that. That's probably one of the first desserts that I would have eaten. I don't think I had it as a kid. I don't think we. I don't think I went to many Italian restaurants before I was 21. I might have done in London once or twice. Do you know what I mean? So tiramisu was a bit of a sort of like. Like, what is that?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And then I think it's just become a good one. Is amazing. It really is amazing.

[Ed Gamble]

I had the best one of my life recently.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, really?

[James Acaster]

So did I.

[Ed Gamble]

So, yeah. Different places.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, that's weird.

[Ed Gamble]

Bristol, a place called Core Cor.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, right.

[Ed Gamble]

Did a Sicilian style tiramisu where instead of sponge fingers, they use panettone.

[Rick Astley]

Oh.

[Ed Gamble]

I've said it on the podcast before. I don't know what order it's going to come out in, but I'm going to keep saying that every time tiramisu comes up because it was like Christmas pudding tiramisu. It was incredible. And it was only on the menu for one day as a special, and I want to try and bully the restaurant into having it permanently on the menu. So the more I say on the podcast, the more people are going to go in and ask for it. And hopefully I can throw my weight around and make that happen, because it was one of the best desserts I've ever had anywhere. Definitely the best I've ever had.

[Rick Astley]

Wow.

[Ed Gamble]

It drove me crazy.

[James Acaster]

Mine was in Manchester.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, really?

[James Acaster]

New restaurant called Scoffs. Brilliant chef called Tom Barnes just opened. Insanely, like, wonderful tasting menu. And at the end, like, you're so used to all of these beautifully put together things on a tasting menu, they just serve you up, like, a big helping of this tiramisu that he used to make for his dad, like, just before his dad passed. So it's like, it means so much and he comes to the table and explains that. And it's just like, I think. Because I think the cream is infused with coffee as well. Like, so it's just got that coffee hit. Oh, my God, I can't wait. Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

One of the things I love, and I kind of touched on it a little bit, is when you go somewhere and they are incredible and they can do all the kind of like, almost chemistry stuff, but they can still relate to the fact that fish fingers are pretty good.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

So if we could invent the fish finger again.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Or, you know, like, Heston Blumenthal does mad things. Doesn't. You know, I mean, but even you can go somewhere, they go, well, it's a tiramisu, but it's got that in it. Or it's got that in it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

I mean, whichever one. Either one we talked about just that. Then it's like, it is that. And maybe there are purists who say, no, eternity should only ever be this. I get that as well. But I just think you guys sound like you go to a lot of.

[James Acaster]

High end now and again, but, you know, not all of the time, I think.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. But definitely more since doing this podcast.

[Rick Astley]

Right.

[Ed Gamble]

And. And getting into that more. But, yeah, we're not going all the time. But, like, when we do, it's.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

They're pretty much. Especially because of doing this podcast. Your brain's automatically on record.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And you're like, right, what am I eating? What do I love?

[James Acaster]

Can't wait to talk about that.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. And, yeah. You remember it even more. And I'm going to that place that Ed just said soon, so I'm very.

[Rick Astley]

The one in Manchester.

[Ed Gamble]

You mean that? Yeah. Bringing my dad with me.

[Rick Astley]

Oh, brilliant.

[Ed Gamble]

That's his favorite dessert, tiramisu. And that's. Ed says that's the best tiramisu has ever had. So I'm very much looking forward to just watching my dad while he eats that and says it's buttery.

[Rick Astley]

And he can't have the one in Bristol unless they put it back on the menu.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. So unless I successfully bully them, which I will successfully bully you. If you're listening to this, and I know you listen to this owner of Core, because you said when I went in to the restaurant that you listen to off menu. So I know that you're listening to this. Put it on the menu. I'm gonna bully the hell out of you.

[James Acaster]

But your tiramisu that you want, Classic tiramisu.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah. I think I just go. I mean, generally speaking, I may have had one bad tiramisu in Italy, but I can't even remember doing. So.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

It's something that people have done for their kids and their kids and their kids. It's just forever. And it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

Someone's gran or granddad has always been making a tiramisu somewhere in Italy.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

And it's just part of the fabric of Italian food and sort of Italian life to some degree.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Rick Astley]

A bit like an espresso. And that's one thing I was going to say, because. Do you go in. I mean, I can't finish today without having an espresso. You see.

[Ed Gamble]

Absolutely.

[Rick Astley]

That's just not.

[Ed Gamble]

I mean.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Ed Gamble]

We'll send you that.

[James Acaster]

I love. I love coffee.

[Ed Gamble]

I do love coffee at the end of a meal. Every now and again, if I've had a very special meal and we've maybe added a few little bits and bobs here and that, you know, maybe if we started. If someone has a good idea of starting with cocktails and you'll have a martini or whatever at the top, usually by the end you've done a few special things, and I think having the idea to have a coffee at the end is pretty great.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

So, yeah.

[Rick Astley]

I just Love it. I kind of think it's. There's just something about it, I think.

[James Acaster]

Rounds it off, puts a full stop on it.

[Rick Astley]

It does. And again, I think anyone who likes coffee is, you know, we've all gone past that thing of crap coffee kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? It does infuriate me a tiny bit sometimes how expensive a coffee can be. And again, I don't know whether. Again, whether they still do this, but in Italy, it always used to be you couldn't pay more than a euro for one.

[James Acaster]

Right.

[Rick Astley]

If you stood at the bar and order an espresso, they weren't legally allowed to charge you more than a euro, which I thought was pretty amazing, really.

[James Acaster]

You do have to, like, neck it and leave, right?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, that's true. Is that like when people say people have to accept stamps as legal tender? Is that a real thing? No, it wasn't charging more than it.

[Rick Astley]

Was a real thing. So even if you went into. Even if you went into like, you know, a five star hotel or whatever in Rome or wherever and went into the bar area and said, can I have an espresso? And stood there, I don't think they were allowed to charge you more than a euro for it.

[Ed Gamble]

I think we won't charge you anything for this espresso. It's the dream. Or we'll charge you €1 if it makes you feel better.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

I'm gonna read your menu back to you now, see what you feel about it. You would like still tap water. You would like Italian bread with olive oil.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Starter? The swordfish cup. Swordfish carpaccio. That's a tricky one. That's the one I struggled with, is the word swordfish. Main course, spaghetti al vongole with Bataga.

[Rick Astley]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Side dish of rocket and parmesan. Your drink, you'd like an antinori Chardonnay and dessert, a tiramisu followed by an espresso. And of course, I will send over a block of parmesan for your wife.

[Rick Astley]

Thank you. She'd appreciate that, big time.

[James Acaster]

Thank you so much for coming to the dream recipe.

[Rick Astley]

It's a pleasure. Thank you.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you, Rick.

[Rick Astley]

I've enjoyed it. Thank you.

[James Acaster]

Well, there we are, James, the lovely Rick Astley.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you so much, Rick, for coming in.

[James Acaster]

Thank you.

[Ed Gamble]

Pleasure. What a lovely menu as well.

[James Acaster]

Lovely menu. And that's what I. I meant when I said he dipped his toe into the world of food and drink.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

He has bars.

[Ed Gamble]

He has bars.

[James Acaster]

They have nice bars as well, actually. Yeah, yeah, very nice.

[Ed Gamble]

Get Yourself along there.

[James Acaster]

Good beers.

[Ed Gamble]

Have a crisp Pinterest.

[James Acaster]

Have a crisp pint. Yes, please.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes, yes. And I would say, never walk past one of those bars. Always go in. Just. And that reminds me of the book, Never.

[James Acaster]

Yes, very good.

[Ed Gamble]

The Autobiography of Rick Astor.

[James Acaster]

That was less good than in the actual interview. That was less of a good link than it was in the actual interview.

[Ed Gamble]

I got my confidence up.

[James Acaster]

That's when you're at your worst, when your confidence is up.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes. Never is out on the 10th of October. And he's doing a book tour as well. So people can go in here, Rick, read the book, talk about the book, maybe there'll be a Q and A. Who's to say I'm not in charge.

[James Acaster]

And all details of that are on Rick's social media.

[Ed Gamble]

Get on it, people. Exciting stuff.

[James Acaster]

And of course, Rick did not say seven up.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you for not saying never gonna.

[James Acaster]

Give him seven up.

[Ed Gamble]

We were never gonna give you seven up.

[James Acaster]

I'm back on tour, doing my show, Hot Diggity Dog. Going to lots of different places. Edgamble.co.uk for tickets, doing another big London show in November. If you've not seen the show so far, come and see me at the London Palladium in November.

[Ed Gamble]

That's my boy. My. It's my favorite show of Ed's.

[James Acaster]

Thank you, James.

[Ed Gamble]

You loved it. And I've consistently laughed my head off every time I see Ed Gamble. So that is saying something. Bless you, Ghostbusters. Frozen Empire is available on to stream on demand.

[James Acaster]

But remember, if you are watching it online, don't cross the streams.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, good. Slimer's still advertising it. I'm still seeing slimer on billboards, posters. That guy is. He's at the grindstone.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, he really is. He's like Rick Astley after you release his first single, the rest of us.

[Ed Gamble]

Have moved on from it ages ago. Slimer is absolutely.

[James Acaster]

But what other projects has he got going on?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, to be fair to him, you know, I gotta send him a little something.

[James Acaster]

What's he gonna do? Yeah, keep sliming people.

[Ed Gamble]

So I thought I better promote it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Imagine Slimer in a different film.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, he goes for auditions, apparently.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Never gets it.

[James Acaster]

They always end in slime.

[Ed Gamble]

Always end in slime.

[James Acaster]

See you next week.

[Ed Gamble]

See you next week. So good. So good.

[Mom Speaker]

So good. Just in and so good. Thousands of winter deals are in Nordstrom Rack stores now. And that means thousands of fresh reasons to rack.

[Rick Astley]

Because we get the latest trends for way less.

[Mom Speaker]

Because I've been looking for these cause the best deals go fast, save big with up to 60% off Sam Edelman, Sorrel Free People, Cole Haan and more. Cold weather fines. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack.

[Rick Astley]

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[Ed Gamble]

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[Rick Astley]

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[Ed Gamble]

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[Rick Astley]

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[Mom Speaker]

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