Lecker

Latest Episodes:

S9 Ep4: Flat Pack (Kitchens Revisited) Aug 25, 2025

Show notes

This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.
Prefabs – built to help counter the post war housing shortage - were actually some of the earliest examples of fitted kitchens in the UK, and came with built-in fridges at a time when this technology was unaffordable to most people. Jennie Thomas reflects on growing up in a post war prefab in Hackney, and Alice Wilson, whose academic work examines tiny houses, reflects on the movement as a reaction to the housing situation in contemporary Britain.
Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove.
Thanks to the contributors on this episode, Jennie Thomas and Alice Wilson. Find out more about the OpHouse project.
A full transcript is available on the Lecker website.
Buy the Kitchens print zine featuring original essays and illustrations!
Original music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music also by Jeremy, and by Blue Dot Sessions
Research and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.
Additional guest research by Sarah Woolley.
Cover collage by Stephanie Hartman
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

S9 Ep3: The Unsociable Kitchen (Kitchens Revisited) Aug 20, 2025

Show notes

This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.
Why are so many of our kitchens so unsociable? Lucy meets Johnny Grey, a kitchen designer who’s been fighting for decades to make kitchens a place for leisure not work, and Katie Pennick, a disability campaigner whose work has changed the face of London transport – but who still can’t cook in her own kitchen. Plus Sean Warmington-Wan reflects on the unsociable kitchen in his shared London house.
Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove.
Thanks to the contributors on this episode: Sean Warmington-Wan, Katie Pennick and Johnny Grey.
You can find a full transcript for this episode on the Lecker website.
Buy the Kitchens print zine featuring original essays and illustrations!
Original music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music also by Jeremy, and by Blue Dot Sessions
Research and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.
Cover collage by Stephanie Hartman
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

S9 Ep2: Meal Machine (Kitchens Revisited) Aug 18, 2025

Show notes

This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.
Kitchens are inextricably linked with the woman of the house. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that the fitted kitchen was literally designed as a workspace to fit around a woman’s body. But what does this mean for women - and men - now? How are traditional gender roles built up and broken down by the kitchen itself? Michael Etheridge reflects on the distribution of domestic labour in his own home, and food writer Gemma Croffie talks about the narrow definition of accepted womanhood when it comes to domestic work.
A full transcript for this episode is available on the Lecker website.
The title Meal Machine comes from the companion guide to the 2011 MoMA exhibition Counter Space: Design + The Modern Kitchen: “Meal machine, experimental laboratory, status symbol, domestic prison, or the creative and spiritual heart of the home?”
Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove.
Thanks to my contributors on this episode: Michael Etheridge and Gemma Croffie.
You can read Gemma’s piece Kitchens on the Path, which inspired this episode, in the print zine released alongside this audio series. Buy a copy now at leckerpodcast.com/kitchens.
Original music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music also by Jeremy, and by Blue Dot Sessions.
Research and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.
Cover collage by Stephanie Hartman.
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

S9 Ep1: Trophy Cabinets (Kitchens Revisited) Aug 15, 2025

Show notes

This month Lecker is re-releasing some older episodes: here’s Kitchens, a six part series from 2021 about the most important room in the home.
Aspirational kitchens are an integral part of our food media, but where did they come from? And what does it mean for those who can never attain a beautiful, cookbook-worthy kitchen? Design historian Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan explores what came before the fitted kitchen, and how the room itself has shape-shifted drastically over the 20th century. And food writer and author Ruby Tandoh considers the aspirational kitchen in food writing.
You can find a full transcript for this episode on the Lecker website.
Lecker is written and produced by Lucy Dearlove.
Thanks to the contributors on this episode, Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan and Ruby Tandoh.
There’s also a print zine featuring original essays and illustrations about kitchens released alongside this audio series. Buy a copy now at leckerpodcast.com
Original theme music was composed for the series by Jeremy Warmsley, with additional music also by Jeremy, and by Blue Dot Sessions
Research and production assistance from Nadia Mehdi.
Additional guest research by Sarah Woolley.
Cover collage by Stephanie Hartman
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

Shahnaz Ahsan's British-Bangladeshi Kitchen Jul 18, 2025

Show notes

On this month's Lecker Book Club, a regular interview series with authors writing in or adjacent to food culture, The Jackfruit Chronicles by Shahnaz Ahsan.
The Jackfruit Chronicles is a recipe book and memoir hybrid which integrates food into the text in a very specific way. In the book, Shahnaz tells the story of her family’s migration - three generations across three continents - which begins with the arrival of her grandfather Habib in Manchester from Bangladesh in the 1950s.
You can still sign the open letter which Shahnaz was involved in creating and circulating, calling on Keir Starmer to take action over the Israeli government’s deliberate and systematic campaign to use starvation as a weapon of war against the Palestinian people of Gaza. Link here.
Lecker is now part of Heritage Radio Network! Find out more about this independent podcast network dedicated to food, beverages and the culinary world and discover their many fantastic shows at heritageradionetwork.org.
You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.
The Jackfruit Chronicles is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.
Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

A Personal History of the Orange with Katie Goh Jun 13, 2025

Show notes

On this month's Lecker Book Club, a regular interview series with authors writing in or adjacent to food culture, Katie Goh's Foreign Fruit.
Foreign Fruit is a memoir which explores Katie’s experience growing up and existing as a mixed heritage person in the north of Ireland, but also documents alongside this personal narrative a history of the orange; how the fruit moved from East to West, gaining and shedding symbolic meaning along the way.
You can find the previous Lecker episode about citrus, Oranges and Lemons, linked here.
Lecker is now part of Heritage Radio Network! Find out more about this independent podcast network dedicated to food, beverages and the culinary world and discover their many fantastic shows at heritageradionetwork.org.
You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.
Foreign Fruit is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.
Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Turtle Soup as Political Awakening with Heather Parry May 09, 2025

Show notes

On Book Club this month: Heather Parry's Carrion Crow, a novel about a woman in the attic which encompasses class consciousness, turtle soup and Mrs Beeton.
You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.
An A-Z of Chinese Food is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.
Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Gastro-Spirituality with Jenny Lau Apr 11, 2025

Show notes

On Book Club this month: Jenny Lau's An A-Z of Chinese Food, an 'anti-glossary' offering a unique breadth of knowledge and insight into the Chinese diaspora and its food culture.
You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.
An A-Z of Chinese Food is out now. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list. [aff link]
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.
Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Fundaments of a Crêperie with Penelope Foster Mar 28, 2025

Show notes

Down a little alley in the centre of Hastings you can find Crêperie by the Sea serving traditional French buckwheat crêpes and galettes. Owner and chef Penelope Foster explains the fundaments of a good crêperie, and what it takes to spin perfect pancakes.
Find Crêperie by the Sea on Instagram.
You can find a transcript for this episode at leckerpodcast.com.
Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.
Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

The Lost Food of Soho Mar 24, 2025

Show notes

Introducing....The Lost Food of Soho, a new audio piece commissioned and published by Vittles and written, narrated and produced by me (Lucy Dearlove).
This is just a very small taster, you can listen to the whole thing for free on Vittles itself, or on all good podcast platforms. https://www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/the-lost-food-of-soho

With big thanks to Jonathan Nunn and Adam Coghlan who I worked closely with through the production of this piece, and to the other Vittles editors who provided crucial feedback.
Cast
Hilary Armstrong – writer, worked in Andrew Edmunds
Marcus Harris – DJ/promoter
Russell Davies – creator of eggbaconchipsandbeans
Jeremy Lee – chef proprietor of Quo Vadis
Christine Yau – former owner of Y Ming
Darren Coffield – artist and author of Tales From The Colony Room: Soho’s Lost Bohemia
Iain Sinclair – author
Polly – sex work and organiser with SWARM
Megan Macedo – writer and former Sister Ray employee

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