Margie Nomura is a professional chef, food writer and creator and host of the chart-topping podcast, Desert Island Dishes.
Margie trained at Ireland’s world-renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School after graduating from Oxford University. Since then, Margie has cooked for guests as esteemed as the Queen of England. She’s also worked with some of the biggest names in fashion from Temperley London, to Tory Burch and De Beers.
We sat down with Margie to find out a little more about her impressive culinary career, her success with Desert Island Dishes and what she has planned in the future.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, including where you are today, professionally, and what got you here?
I’m a freelance private chef and host of the Desert Island Dishes podcast where I interview a different guest each week and uncover their seven seminal dishes and how they’ve shaped their lives. It’s a podcast about food of course, but more than that it’s about the people behind the food and the story of their life as told through their most memorable dishes. I’ve had guests from all walks of life such as Stanley Tucci, Dolly Alderton and Liz Earle.
However, the start of my career was leading me down a very different path. I went to Oxford and felt a lot of pressure to have a ‘traditional’ job either in law or finance or accounting, and so I studied law. But I soon realised that the reality didn’t match up to what I thought it would be. Having always loved cooking my whole life, I’d never considered trying to turn my biggest passion into my career which seems strange to think now. But I was in my early twenties and young enough that I could always pivot if it didn’t work out and I felt like I would regret not trying to see what I could do in the world of food.
I trained at Ballymaloe cookery school which was an incredible experience and I loved every second of it. I then went to South Africa for three months teaching women in Kwa Zulu Natal how to cook which is one of the highlights of my time in the food industry.
After this I worked in various restaurants and catering companies where I’ve cooked for the likes of the royal family at Windsor Castle, Hollywood A-listers – all sorts of people. I then took the plunge to set up on my own as a private chef.
All in all I’ve worked in the food industry for over a decade now. There are so many different ways to work in food and social media and the world of podcasting didn’t exist when I first started so I could never have pictured where I’ve ended up but I really love what I do.
What or who inspired you to become a chef?
I was really lucky to grow up in a family that loved food. My mum was always cooking and encouraging me to help in the kitchen. She has these amazing scrapbooks of recipes she’s collected over the years and is the kind of organised person I aspire to be where she sits down and goes through her recipes and decides what she’s going to cook for the week ahead.
I loved doing that with her from a young age. But I never thought about cooking professionally until after I left university. I’d always wanted to work for myself and had always dreamt about starting my own business and the world of food felt an exciting place to do that.
What sparked the idea for Desert Island Dishes?
My family loves food and meal times have always played an important part in my life. As a family we are always planning our next meal whilst still eating and sitting round the table. So the questions in the podcast such as ‘what would your last meal on earth be?’ has always been something I’ve asked people.
The desert island format is slightly less morbid as you’re only going to a desert island! I’m very passionate about food but I’ve also always been interested in people, and the stories behind the food people love.
I got the idea for Desert Island Dishes one day in the car six years ago. It was bizarre – like a true lightbulb moment where the name and the seven questions suddenly came to me. I pulled over into a layby and Googled to see if the name was taken, which it wasn’t, so I immediately trademarked it and then recorded the first episode two weeks later.
Do you have any dream guests?
So many! Nigella, Nigel Slater, Joanna Lumley and Ina Garten would be some of my top ones.
But I also really like the idea of using the podcast as a platform to talk to lesser known people doing brilliant things. The questions I ask aren’t only interesting if you’re famous, everyone has their own answers and that’s what makes it interesting. I dont think it’s possible to listen and not think about how you would answer the questions.
What is one of your favourite episodes of Desert Island Dishes?
Interviewing Stanley Tucci was definitely a pinch me moment. I recorded with him before his career pivoted into food and at that point he was most well known for his incredible Hollywood career.
He said it was the first time anyone in an interview has asked him about his favourite sandwich and his answer did not disappoint. We recreated it to share on socials and it’s been viewed over 5 million times.
Which is your favourite Desert Island Dish that a guest has described?
This is a really difficult question to answer. I think for me the best answers are when the dish itself not only sounds amazing but when it also marks an important occasion in the guests life.
We’ve been told about proposal stories, holidays of a lifetime, time with loved ones. Sometimes the dish might be fish and chips but it’s the story behind it that makes it one of their best ever meals and those are the stories I love the most.
Food is important but it’s the way food brings people together and is a character in the story of someone’s life that I think people like listening to.
Who has been your biggest influence to get you to where you are today?
I think I was really lucky that my parents encouraged me to explore working in food. I think in hindsight they must have been a bit disappointed that I walked away from a career in law and all that that would have brought with it, but they never let me know if that was how they felt.
My granny did though – she would tell me every couple of months I’d made a huge mistake – she was very concerned about how I would meet a husband!
What’s your signature dish?
I’m not sure about a signature dish but the thing I probably make the most often are my triple chocolate brownies. They became a bit of a signature of mine when I was working as a private chef, I could never take them off the menu as people always wanted them. And now whenever I go to see friends or family I know without being asked I have to bring a tray of brownies.
How would you describe your cooking style?
These days I’m all about maximum results with minimal effort! I love dishes I can pull together quickly and I want to do as little washing up as possible.
We are all short on time so I love creating recipes that require less time, only a handful of ingredients but still deliver on flavour and make you look forward to mealtimes!
Do you have a favourite time of year or set of ingredients that you look forward to working with?
I get excited every time the seasons change as it brings in a whole new set of produce and ingredients to work with. I love this time of year with asparagus and jersey royals in particular.
Using ingredients at their peak is such an easy way to make your food a million times better without any effort on your part.
What is your favourite ingredient to cook with?
We use a lot of beans and pulses. They are so versatile, quick to cook with and a great source of protein. The Bold Bean Co beans are the best I’ve found and I love serving them in a quick tomato stew with crusty bread.
We also go through a lot of hummus in our house and it’s much easier to make than people think. Serve with some roasted chickpeas and quick pickled red onions on the top for a delicious dinner party starter.
What is your favourite dish to cook at home?
My daughters absolutely love spaghetti bolognese and I love cooking big batches of it and knowing we have lots tucked away in the freezer. It bubbles away for a couple of hours on the hob doing its thing and recently I like to add a little splash of milk to it. Not Italian or authentic by any means but it adds a very delicious creaminess to it which I’ve been loving.
What do you cook for your children?
My children are 2 and 1 years old and they love food! They are quite adventurous with what they eat, much more so than I was at their age. My husband is half Japanese so we’ve been introducing them to lots of Japanese food and teaching them how to use chopsticks. Whilst we do like to give them new things to try, they eat a lot of pesto pasta and they absolutely love fish fingers – obviously!
What is your favourite piece of kitchen equipment?
Oooh that’s a tricky one. A good set of knives is essential and a knife sharpener as chopping with a blunt knife is no fun. I use my microplane grater multiple times every day, for parmesan, lemons, garlic – it’s in constant use.
When you’re not in the kitchen where can you be found?
Doing the podcast means I’m often out and about meeting people and recording – sometimes we do this at the guest’s house and sometimes in our studio.
Getting to meet so many brilliant people is amazing and aside from this I’m constantly flitting between cooking jobs, cooking recipes for our social media and website and picking various babies up from nursery etc. By the end of the day you are most likely to find me lying on the sofa!
What’s your favourite takeaway or comfort food?
I think I would have to say fish and chips. We have a really great one near to us and unwrapping those paper packages of salty chips with the smell of vinegar is instantly comforting. I always have to get mushy peas and a gherkin too.
Where is your favourite place to dine?
Daphne’s is one of my all time favourites but only for very special occasions. Chet’s in Shepherds Bush is a new favourite. Gold Mine chinese in Bayswater is amazing – the marmite chicken is incredible. I also love Jackson Boxer’s Orosay off Portobello.
What do you think is the most over-hyped food trend?
I don’t know if this counts as a food trend but I don’t love the trend of not being able to book a table somewhere. I love booking somewhere and looking forward to going – the idea of just turning up and seeing a huge queue is so disappointing.
What differences do you find working with local produce as opposed to non-local produce in terms of what you can create and flavour?
I look forward every year to the Isle of Wight tomatoes. When they are in season, they really only need the smallest amount of sea salt, a tiny drizzle of olive oil and they’re the best tomatoes you’ll taste. Working with the best quality ingredients you can afford means you have to do less to them to get them tasting amazing.
What’s your favourite flavour combination?
I think the best thing I learnt from working in restaurants is the idea of salt, fat, acid and heat. This has been made famous by Samin Nosrat and it’s the notion that these four elements are the key to cooking.
Salt enhances the flavour, fat gives you amazing flavour but also texture, acid is key for balancing the dish and heat determines the texture. Keep these things in mind and your food is going to be delicious.
What do your future plans entail?
The fact that the podcast is now one of the top food podcasts in the UK has honestly been the biggest but amazing surprise. I never started it as anything other than a little side project which I thought would be fun to do. The fact it has grown in the way it has is amazing and so exciting.
We’ve got big plans for the podcast in terms of guests, we are launching a new mini episode to go alongside the main show each week and our online community is growing which is really exciting. We want Desert Island Dishes to be a real community of people who love food, are interested in the stories behind the food and we want to be a useful and entertaining resource. Watch this space!
