2 weeks Ago
MY LIFE IN FOOD: Stacey Dooley on why she finds supermarkets stressful and a family-favourite meat stew By TOM PARKER BOWLES FOR YOU MAGAZINE Published: 08:00 GMT, 15 March 2025 | Updated: 08:00 GMT, 15 March 2025 e-mail View comments My earliest food memory is of pork scratchings and Orangina. I was brought up in pubs and when I was young I was in charge of making sure the Oranginas were the right way round in the fridge. While I did that I’d be eating pork scratchings, which probably weren’t massively nutritious.
Growing up in Luton, my mum Di did the cooking. I can’t pretend the pair of us stood together in the kitchen, but we would always have lots of pasta, and pies from the chippy around the corner. My mum was reasonably chilled about my eating sweets and crisps.
But it’s come full circle. She has my little girl Minnie, who is two, when I’m working, and I ask her not to feed her any rubbish. ‘No, no,’ she says.
‘I won’t.’ Then Minnie always grasses my mum up! ‘She gave me half a KitKat.’ It’s hilarious.
School food was potato smiley faces and Turkey Twizzlers – until Jamie Oliver put a stop to that – and cake with custard. At high school we would all get a pie on our first break. Later, when I was filming in prisons, I realised the food was not dissimilar to school dinners.
As a kid I wasn’t massively into cooking, and it’s something I’m trying to rectify as an adult. In fact, Kev [Clifton, her partner] and I are both pretty useless. But I did buy him some cookery lessons.
The problem is I get overwhelmed when I go to the supermarket, because I don’t know what goes with what. Even though I’m 38. Kev’s speciality is beef stew, and I can actually do a good roast dinner, which I’m told is bizarre as it’s big on timings.
But I’ve somehow nailed that, and not much else. The strangest food I’ve ever been offered is whale on a whaling boat in the Faroe Islands. The population there is in great health and it’s probably more ethical to eat whale than tuna.
I said no because I felt wobbly on the boat and hadn’t found my sea legs. Stacey said no to whale meat in the Faroe Islands I’ll eat most things, and when I travel I love eating the local food. I think it’s a little lame when Brits travel the world and ask for egg and chips.
I can’t eat chilli con carne. I had a dodgy one at my uncle’s pub when I was little. When I travel, I take Yorkshire tea bags with me.
Americans can’t make tea. It doesn’t matter how many times I say, ‘Please can you make sure the water is boiling’ – making a decent cup of tea is not something they’ve mastered. My comfort food is a pan of scouse [meat stew with carrots and potatoes].
My mum and nan are from Liverpool, so it feels nostalgic. I had it a lot growing up, always with red cabbage. And my little girl has it now.
Roast chicken and Kettle Chips get the thumbs up I don’t drink alcohol any more. But when I was underage I drank all the time. My hangover food was pretty predictable: dirty burgers and grease.
I always have fresh anchovies in the fridge, and capers, too. I’ve got a real salty tooth. My daughter is into mango, so we have a bit of that, and watermelon.
My tastes are mainly savoury. My go-to snack is anchovies on toast or Balsamic Vinegar Kettle Chips. The fancy ones.
My last supper would be a chicken roast dinner. The gravy should have an Oxo cube in it. Then some form of fruity crumble with custard.
As I’m going to die after eating, I would try to draw it out. Stacey’s book Dear Minnie is published by Ebury, £22. To order a copy for £18.
70 until 30 March, go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.
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