I’ve rarely been more embarrassed.
I went on Saturday Kitchen and spoke to the celebrity guest (Image: BBC/Steffan Rhys)
Saturday Kitchen has been a regular part of the weekend for millions of people over the years. In the days before I had children, I enjoyed nothing more than starting off the weekend slowly with some relaxing, wholesome TV over brunch and a cup of coffee.
I adored not only the live studio cooking fronted first by the legendary James Martin then the equally watchable Matt Tebbutt, but also the segments from the likes of Rick Stein, Mary Berry or the great Keith Floyd slurping his wine while cooking up his rustic, no-nonsense meals somewhere in the south of France.
In fact, I loved it so much that I actually appeared on the show. Remember those days when two random members of the public would be studio guests and would sit at the table off to the side of the set while the guest chefs and celebrities wondered who they were and what they were doing there? Yep, I was one of those.
This was obviously quite a while ago — Saturday Kitchen stopped having members of the public as guests back in 2012, with James Martin saying afterwards: “That wasn’t my decision. I liked having the studio guests. It was the BBC’s decision. Budget cuts — and don’t look at me, I didn’t get a pay rise.”
James wasn’t the only one who was disappointed, with viewers taking to forums to ask why the show had got rid of its non-celebrity guests. One said: “Every Saturday without fail I watched Saturday Kitchen. Now it is just another cookery programme with, nine times out of ten, a boring guest. Bring back the viewer guests, get rid of the celeb.”
Not everyone agreed, though, with one saying: “Er, the viewer guests did nothing, they were hardly ever interviewed, they added little to the programme. So how can that be a loss?”
Viewers also speculated whether their sudden absence was down to the cost to the BBC of paying the guests’ hotel and transport costs. However, having been a Saturday Kitchen guest, I can confirm that the BBC didn’t pay for either of these things. Rightly so, of course.
This is how it worked. There were always two guests, usually a couple (or two friends if someone’s other half was too embarrassed to go on with them). You had to submit an application, including a picture, and then hope for the best.
Not long after we submitted our application, my partner and I got a phone call from a show producer telling us they would like us to be guests on the show. She said something like “As soon as we saw your picture we knew we had to have you on the show.” Which, if you had seen the picture, or any picture of me really, you would find hard to believe. Still, the flattery worked and we were booked on.
The only instruction I can remember being given about our appearance was not to wear black. I forgot this instruction and wore a black shirt, meaning I had to scrabble around on the day to find something to wear over it — which ended up being a beige-coloured tank top. Lovely.
Next we had to get ourselves to the Saturday Kitchen studio, which at that time was in the Kennington area of London, not far from the Oval cricket ground. We were asked to arrive at a stupidly early time in the morning (the show starts at 10am) and were shown into the green room to wait. We were even there before James Martin because I remember him arriving in the car park outside in what my partner described as “one of his funny little sports cars”.
We got to watch from the wings as James and the guest chefs practised their dishes and then it came time for the live show to start. I don’t remember being told not to speak unless spoken to but I didn’t say a word during the entire live broadcast. My partner was interviewed, though, and described having recently cooked a lobster when we’d been guests in a Michelin-starred kitchen.
Her description had the celebrity guest, Eve Myles, laughing out loud and James abruptly moved the conversation on! I still remember the warm way Eve laughed, she seemed genuinely tickled.
But after the show came a moment I still cringe about. I happened to leave the studio at the same time as Eve, who has just starred in one of the best TV crime dramas I’ve seen in a long time. As we both lived in roughly the same area of the UK at the time, I offered her a lift for the 150-mile journey home. Obviously, as any sensible person (let alone a well-known TV star) would, she politely declined this offer of a long lift home to Wales in a battered old Fiesta from a stranger. A less kind celebrity may well have been more blunt in her refusal. But Eve did her best to be polite despite my idiocy, which I’ve always remembered.
Incredibly, this wasn’t my only cringeworthy moment from that day. I’ve also worried ever since that I offended the hugely successful TV chef Jason Atherton, when I asked him at the chef’s table during a break in live filming why he didn’t have a recipe book out. He replied: “I do.” This was way back in 2008 but I’ve still not fully got over the embarrassment.
So, if Eve or Jason happen to read this, please accept my very late apologies. Thankfully, I don’t think I embarrassed myself in front of James Martin or the show’s other guest chef, Bryn Williams (they must have had a Welsh theme that day) and I’ll always remember being on the show. It’s a shame no one gets to any longer. Bring back the guests, BBC!
