Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware

Zooming in from New York, this week we welcome American fashion designer Zac Posen to Table Manners. He’s dressed the likes of Naomi Campbell, Rihanna and Princess Eugenie to name but a few, and now he’s here chatting to us about his favourite type of lettuce and where to get the best oysters. We discuss his love of British culture, Notting Hill hedonism, baking birthday cakes with his mum, dressing Miss Piggy for the Oscars & being the emperor of ice cream. Zac wins the award for most decisive guest when it comes to choosing his last meal, even adding table accessories for each course! We loved chatting to him. Zac’s cook book ‘Cooking With Zac’ is out now. X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we invite over the 2* Michelin chef Andrew Wong to Lennie’s. He kindly brings over the main, his cod head dish (which mum was incredibly nervous about) and showers ma with gifts! We chat about leaving Oxford uni, instant noodles and growing up working in his family’s restaurant (where he met his wife). He also talks about his Mum’s sugar sandwiches and how his kids hate his food. We loved having you Andrew, especially when we watched you eat a fish eye. You can listen to his podcast XO Soused now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To celebrate my new book, Omelette coming out tomorrow, we thought it only right to invite the original Friday Night Dinner guests at the Ware Household, musician Jack Peñate and his mum Clare Penate. We celebrate 25 years of friendship and meals together, our ‘silver anniversary’ and memories of 90s dinner parties, what Jack and I dined on whilst touring America back when I was his backing singer and I discover what Fray Bentos is! This is a special episode, with a special family and I hope you enjoy listening to it. Omelette is out tomorrow! Yikes! X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we welcome the ex leader of the opposition, labour MP Ed Miliband. We talk about his refugee parents and his Polish mothers food, his love for Chinese food and his new passion, cold water swimming!He is candid about his times as leader of the Labour Party the challenges and some regrets. We chat about his book Go Big, he has seconds of Mum’s main and chuckles at her pudding, an Eton mess. Although Ed was such fun (and we could have talked for hours!), Mum lost all sense of her Table Manners and sadly Ed was allocated a strict 2 hour slot at Chez Ware…. Lennie had the United Europa final to watch!! He was a good sport about it, even when she booted him out onto the street at 8pm on the dot!!!An absolute pleasure to have you Ed, have a listen to his excellent podcast Reasons To Be Cheerful and go and get inspired by Go Big, out tomorrow! X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We recorded this beaut of an episode with the one and only Michelle Visage, who came over to mums for a ‘Thai Pie’. Michelle talks about growing up in New Jersey, being adopted by a Jewish family and moving to NYC to be taken into the House of Magnifique where she became a part of a voguing troupe and later best friends with Ru Paul. She chats about her 90s girl group, working with Ru and the story behind her iconic name.We talk everything from her collaboration with Steps with their song 'Heartbreak in the City', to her love of the West End and Broadway! We love you Michelle, you are so so fabulous and it was heaven spending the afternoon with you. X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We welcome the phenomenal St Vincent to Table Manners. Talking to Annie in her LA studio over zoom, we chat about going blonde, growing up in Dallas with her family and eating - by her own admission - some questionable canned food and meat. Mum manages to coax her into agreeing that nobody really likes kale and we hear about her step dad's 'Schloop', working in a Mexican restaurant and being a gal who doesn't like her salad dressed.Annie ain't a cook and pulled in the help of Taylor Swift to teach her some culinary skills and she may be the most rock n' roll guest we've had, saying she would have a martini as her main for her last supper. I'm still seething that she didn't make the pop vocal choir at school and if you need any DIY tips, she's just done her mum's place up during lockdown all whilst making a cracking new record, Daddy's Home!Have a listen. Annie we love you X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you behave when you have a music icon on your podcast? Well, you have a massive fight in front of him of course!Aside from a small bout of bickering, we had lunch with Sir Paul and Mary McCartney and talked about 30 years of Linda McCartney's legacy in the vegetarian food market. We hear about Mary’s adventurous childhood on tour with Wings, Paul talks about life after The Beatles and they share memories of becoming vegetarian with Linda cooking a macaroni turkey so Paul could carve something at Christmas. Lennie crowns them ‘the Vegeneers’, Paul talks about his famous margarita cocktail ‘Maccarita’ and explains the real way to eat Yorkshire puddings. He also offers us a step by step brief on how to make the perfect bagel, gives us a quick eye yoga lesson and reveals how the song Let It Be came about. We could have gone on forever!!It was an honour and absolute pleasure to have Paul and Mary on the podcast. Linda McCartney’s family kitchen cookbook out June 24th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we welcome Manchester mensch Guy Garvey over for lunch. We chat to Guy over Ottolenghi lamb and pistachio patties about being dragged to black pudding stalls in Bury market growing up, his original worker bee tattoo and the importance of eating pies up north. He tells us how he met his wife Rachel at a wedding over cigarettes, having dinner with Joan Collins and his secret ingredient - instant coffee - in his spag bol sauce. This week, Elbow are celebrating 20 years of their first album ‘Asleep In The Back’ and we find out the band's favourite karaoke spots on tour. We love Guy even more as he brought over two bottles of wine and a second pud from Soho's finest, Cafe de Nata . Enjoy! X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We were delighted to have our most requested guest, Sir Tom Jones, over to Lennie’s for lamb shanks, a lemon curd roulade and a chat about his new album ‘Surrounded By Time’. We go way back and talk about Tom growing up in the 50’s, playing marbles, falling in love and getting married at 16. We also hear about his beloved mother’s corned beef pie. He reminisces about meals shared with Elvis Presley, Las Vegas bourbons with Frank Sinatra & Tom’s son / manager Mark even makes an appearance, telling us how his Dad isn’t a very good cook..!! We loved having you Sir Tom, thank you! Enjoy! X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we invite Laura Mvula over for lunch. Laura is about to bring out her third record on July 2, Pink Noise, so to celebrate Lennie made a sumptuous chicken, spiced potatoes, salad and Nigella's salted chocolate chunks!We talk about the ‘changing landscape’ in the music industry, her musically gifted siblings and her podcast series ’So You Wanna Be A Musician’ she launched with her sister. We go from growing up in Birmingham in a Christian household to a first kiss in Jamaica, supporting Prince on tour to Single Ladies being her karaoke song. It's all in there! Love this girl and it's a joy to have her back with such wonderful music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.