The latest series of the Lunchbox Envy podcast has recently been recorded, co-host Rosie MacKean has told PodcastingToday.
From the creative team behind the BBC 2 cult favourite QI and the successful podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, Lunchbox Envy is hosted by QI Elves Jack Chambers and Manu Henriot along with acclaimed chef and food writer Rosie MacKean.
Speaking exclusively to PodcastingToday, Rosie told us: “There are seven more episodes, including wine, potatoes, olives, pizza, and chocolate. There’s something in each that I promise you didn’t know!”
The podcast is known for bringing together humour, history and gastronomy in a playful exploration of everyday ingredients.
“The idea was that each episode focuses on a single ingredient,” explained Rosie. “We each bring a lunchbox, and inside is something that represents our take on the theme – it could be a dish, an item, even a cuddly toy!”
As for the “envy” part, Rosie added: “It comes from that childhood feeling of looking around at everyone else’s lunchboxes at school and thinking theirs looked better. It’s a playful nod to that sense of curiosity and jealousy about what someone else is eating.”
It’s about taking a light-hearted approach to the science and culture of food, often uncovering surprising facts along the way.
“What we try and do is to take everyday ingredients and find out things or discover things that are unknown, bizarre facts about them. For example, whatever is supposed to be a fruit or a berry, turns out it’s not – it’s a nut,” she joked. “There’s a lot of busting of food myths and a real focus on the cultural and historical background of each item.”
Rosie brings the culinary perspective to each episode of Lunchbox Envy, offering listeners practical insight into how to better understand and cook with the featured ingredient.
“My angle is always the cuisine,” she explains. “For example, in our recent episode on onions, I shared that most people cut them the wrong way. There’s actually a method that helps reduce the release of those sulphuric compounds that make your eyes water, and it also helps them cook more evenly.”
Rosie regularly shares recipes to accompany each episode, drawing inspiration from chefs and food cultures around the world. “They’re not always my own recipes,” she says, “but they’re chosen to help people get the most out of the ingredient we’re exploring.” All recipes are made available on the podcast’s website.
Her goal each week is simple: “If I can help someone understand an ingredient better, then hopefully they’ll be able to cook it better and enjoy it more!”
There are questions about food you never knew you wanted to ask, but Lunchbox Envy has the answers for you.
As John Lloyd, Founder and Executive Producer of QI said: “Lunching with the Elves is a unique experience because they’re as interested in talking about their food as eating it.
“Finding out that the tip of asparagus is called a ‘squib’, or that scientists have patented a new type of seaweed that tastes like bacon, is what makes Manu, Jack and Rosie the perfect bread-fellows (the literal translation of the word ‘companions’).”
You can find episodes of Lunchbox Envy on Audioboom.
