Burger Bants – from Steak & Honour

The final episode in our female-focussed series, Charley speaks to the wonderful Megan Charnock, founder of Mini Miss Bread, and the new Mini Miss Upstairs, in Saffron Walden, about every from boarding school meals, childhood roast chicken dinners, bread sauce(!) and live pudding, to career changes, mental health, and how it became all about bread; including sourdough, brown butter buns, keeping things simple, and where the Mini Miss name came from! 

A must-listen in this series 3 of Burger Bants, Charley chats with Michelin-starred Restaurant 22 co-owner Alex Olivier, and Mel Clench, Assistant Manager. A super chatty and fun episode packed with plenty of delicious stories including Mel’s obvious passion for food, her Caribbean family background, memories of Cherry and Almond cake, and her dad’s red-cooked beef. Ribs, garlic prawns, rice and peas, trifle addictions, and citrus vs red fruits for jelly, plus Alex’s love of an apple crumble, doughnuts at the seaside, Dairymilk wholenut, and a classic lasagne. Favourite ice cream flavours are also covered in detail, and the lovely story of how Alex and Sam met, plus her time studying law in Newcastle, customer anecdotes from 22, getting their Michelin star, their favourite current dishes on the menu and of course their best burgers – phew! Grab a cuppa, settle in, and enjoy!

From growing up on a farm in Ireland, Irish grannies and the food around the table, to a strong farm-to-plate approach; Charley finds out what makes Meadows founder, Suzannah Watson tick in episode 4 of Burger Bants, including her desert island cheese choice, harissa, fennel salami, and the great bean movement – as well as her passion for making connections with people through food, and of course her ultimate burger!

Episode 3 of Series 3 of Burger Bants is here – and in this ep, Charley talks to co-owner of Provenance Kitchen, based in Whittlesford, Cambridge. Delving into Kate’s hospitality career from Airstreams to horse boxes, and finally Brix and Mortar, Charley and Kate get nostalgic over vegetable broths, while covering all things cauli-cheese, charred gem lettuce, and the best buns to snuggle a burger in!

In Episode 2 of Burger Bants Charley chats to chef, cafe owner, and cookie queen, Sian Richardson – aka Gnawty Bites! Conversation covers everything from whether a choc ice can be considered a legitimate pudding, what makes Brussels sprouts the best – veering into Christmas pud territory, and everything from fine dining to fry-ups!

IT’S CHRISTMAAAAAS! For this year's Christmas Special we get festive with food writer, broadcaster, and Fitzbillies owner Tim Hayward. In this extra episode, we chat about Tim’s role at the very beginning of Steak & Honour including being the inspiration behind our name, before we get into Christmas food, from lunch to the ultimate left-overs sandwich and everything in between! To finish we ask Tim about his best-ever burger! Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and happy New year! Join us in 2022 for more Burger Bants!

For the series finale, we are absolutely thrilled to welcome Michelin-starred chef Daniel Clifford. With 2 stars under his belt maintained since 2005 at his restaurant, Midsummer House in Cambridge, in today’s episode Daniel talks passionately about the education system, touches on his personal mental health journey, and takes us on a trip through his illustrious career. We end, as always, on his best-ever burgers!

In our penultimate episode of this series, Charley joined Calixta Killander at her farm in South Cambridgeshire, where they chatted about Calixta’s journey in agriculture and exciting future plans for her business, Flourish Produce. And of course, we find out all about her best-ever burger experience!

In episode 4, Charley catches up with young chef and entrepreneur, Henry Paul from The Oyster Lab, all about pop-ups, his love of cooking, his influences throughout his career so far, and how he launched a new business during lockdown. We also delve into the flavours, and find out why garlic, parsley and lemon are Henry’s favourite to accompany oysters, and of course his best ever burger.

In this episode, we welcome local food blogger Gracie Mills, aka Cambridge Food Blog. Gracie has been blogging about food in Cambridge and beyond for four years. Today we chat about the origins of her blog, authenticity on social media, her favourite places to eat in Cambridge and of course BURGERS!

In our second episode of this series, we managed to grab a quick chat with chef Liz Young during a busy prep morning at The Wine Rooms, Cambridge, where Liz is currently executive chef. Originally hailing from New Zealand, Liz loves to travel and has worked all over the world in professional kitchens and as a private chef for 23 years. In today’s ep, she shares some wonderful stories of her adventures as well as her best ever burger!

Welcome back! For this first episode of Burger Bants Series Two, a new Podcast from Steak & Honour, co-founder, and host, Charley, talks to chief-cheese, Perry Wakeman, of Cambridge-based award-winning cheesemonger Rennet & Rind. We chat about his childhood food memories growing up in Dagenham in the 90s and his journey into the world of cheese. Perry also gives us his expert opinion for the ultimate burger cheese before answering the question we’re all here for….BEST BURGER EVER?!

On the menu for our final episode of this series is our friend and uber-talented Michelin-starred chef, Mark Poynton. Mark tells all about his humble beginnings, his journey from Chester to Midsummer House to opening his very own restaurant MJPTheShepherds during the pandemic. We finish with his most favourite burgers of all time. 🍔

Huge thanks to our guests, Rosie, Neil, Pina, Becca, Deepa, and Mark, and to all our listeners! It’s been a blast! We will be recording series two very soon. Until then…. ✌🏼 and ❤️

For our penultimate episode, our guest is another Cambridgeshire small business owner and food blogger, Deepa Mistry. In this episode, Deepa talks to us about her childhood Gujarati food memories and chapati training – plus, plenty of shared experiences with Charley from the Northampton food scene from back in the ’90s!

This week we invited street food organiser and aficionado, Becca Chong to join us. Becca owns and runs not just one local street food collective, but TWO, starting up the Saffron Walden based Off The Beaten Truck in 2018 and taking over FoodPark from Heidi White in 2019. Becca grew up in South East Asia, where Charley’s mum also lived for three years, so expect plenty of shared experiences and fond memories of Malaysian street food this episode, before coming back to Blighty for Becca’s best burger, at a GREAT little place in Cornwall!

In this episode, we welcome local food blogger Pina Broccoli Anaia, better known as One2CulinaryStew. Blogging about food in Cambridge for 7 years Pina is hugely supportive of the local independent food scene and shares with Charley some wonderful memories of her family's deli and restaurant in her home country of Canada, and of course, plenty of chat about burgers!