Andi Oliver talks to Paterson Joseph

Chef and broadcaster Andi Oliver talks about the part food plays in her life and about her long-anticipated first cookery book, The Pepperpot Diaries, in the first of a new annual conversation at the invitation of actor, writer and Oxford Brookes University Chancellor Paterson Joseph.

Oliver is best known for appearances as a judge and presenter on the BBC programme Great British Menu in which top chefs compete for the chance to cook one course of a four-course banquet. She was also a singer in the 1980s band Rip, Rig and Panic. She has run successful restaurants including The Moveable Feast and the award-winning Andi’s in Stoke Newington. In The Pepperpot Diaries, she returns to her family’s Antiguan roots to showcase new and traditional recipes from across the Caribbean. Oliver looks at the cultural influences and history that have shaped Caribbean cuisine and explores who we are and where we’re going through the food we eat and the people we meet.

‘Not just a cookbook – it’s an exploration of heritage and identity, in which mouthwatering recipes for fried dumplings, shrimp fritters, chocolate goat curry and ackee, callaloo and saltfish are interspersed with essays and diary entries from Andi’s extended stay in her ancestral home of Antigua.’ Waitrose Weekend

Here Oliver talks to the Chancellor of Brookes University actor and writer Paterson Joseph. Joseph has starred in recent television series including Vigil, Noughts and Crosses and Boat Story and in the 2023 film Wonka. His recent debut historical novel, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho, was based on the true story of the man born on a slave ship who went on to be a writer, leading abolitionist and the first Black Briton known to have voted in an election.