Andi Oliver: "I've always done exactly what I wanted"

The cooking time for a traditional Caribbean pepper shaker is usually several hours. "People ask me if there's a shortcut," Andi Oliver says, "and I'm like, just do something else!" She reclines on the sofa at her home in Snaresbrook, east London, in a pink kaftan and fluffy slippers. There aren't many cooking utensils on display in her kitchen, but her house is full of people, and The Real Housewives of Potomac is on a TV break. "There's something beautiful about a pot you've spent so much time over," she says wistfully: corned beef, pigtails, ham hock and stout, smoked with cinnamon and allspice , and thrown into a cauldron for hours.
“First, never shop the same day as a great cook. Its very important. If you come back and unpack and start cooking at 3pm, of course you'll be upset, of course you'll hate cooking. If you cook on Saturday, shop on Thursday. So put it away on Friday. She bursts out laughing.
And what does Oliver do while his pot is simmering? “I walk around the kitchen a bit. I'm thinking of doing my onions. I might even have an audio book on. Cooking is a meditative, calming and beautiful thing. When people say it stresses them out, I think, wow, what's wrong?"
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The benefit of becoming famous in your 50s, she says, it's that it doesn't drive you crazy: you can appreciate the work, but you see it for what it is: "If this had happened to me when I was younger, I would have already died. Oliver is perhaps the biggest star on food TV these days, presenting Great British Menu for a third series. She speaks fast, is deeply informed, engaged, at ease and down to earth, with a refreshing curiosity. She asks so many questions, wondering how to keep mayonnaise from separating in a cheese toast, on the Channel 4 show Food Unwrapped.
Food & Recipes Apr 17, 2023 0 124 Add to Reading List

The cooking time for a traditional Caribbean pepper shaker is usually several hours. "People ask me if there's a shortcut," Andi Oliver says, "and I'm like, just do something else!" She reclines on the sofa at her home in Snaresbrook, east London, in a pink kaftan and fluffy slippers. There aren't many cooking utensils on display in her kitchen, but her house is full of people, and The Real Housewives of Potomac is on a TV break. "There's something beautiful about a pot you've spent so much time over," she says wistfully: corned beef, pigtails, ham hock and stout, smoked with cinnamon and allspice , and thrown into a cauldron for hours.

“First, never shop the same day as a great cook. Its very important. If you come back and unpack and start cooking at 3pm, of course you'll be upset, of course you'll hate cooking. If you cook on Saturday, shop on Thursday. So put it away on Friday. She bursts out laughing.

And what does Oliver do while his pot is simmering? “I walk around the kitchen a bit. I'm thinking of doing my onions. I might even have an audio book on. Cooking is a meditative, calming and beautiful thing. When people say it stresses them out, I think, wow, what's wrong?"

-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-a2pvoh" > Andi Oliver

The benefit of becoming famous in your 50s, she says, it's that it doesn't drive you crazy: you can appreciate the work, but you see it for what it is: "If this had happened to me when I was younger, I would have already died. Oliver is perhaps the biggest star on food TV these days, presenting Great British Menu for a third series. She speaks fast, is deeply informed, engaged, at ease and down to earth, with a refreshing curiosity. She asks so many questions, wondering how to keep mayonnaise from separating in a cheese toast, on the Channel 4 show Food Unwrapped.