Sir Lenny Henry loves our seared scallop & tomato tagliatelle

2026-06-24

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Comic Relief! Meeting Prince! Seasoned food! Sir Lenny Henry is a hugely celebrated comedian, actor, writer and broadcaster. He first appeared on our screens in 1975 when, at the age of 16, he made his debut on the talent show New Faces. Over fifty years later, he joins us to talk through some of the choice moments of his career, providing a fantastic taster of his current show, Still At Large. We have some cookery crossover, too, with Lenny famously playing Michelin starred Gareth Blackstock in the ‘90s si...

Comic Relief! Meeting Prince! Seasoned food!

Sir Lenny Henry is a hugely celebrated comedian, actor, writer and broadcaster. He first appeared on our screens in 1975 when, at the age of 16, he made his debut on the talent show New Faces. Over fifty years later, he joins us to talk through some of the choice moments of his career, providing a fantastic taster of his current show, Still At Large.

We have some cookery crossover, too, with Lenny famously playing Michelin starred Gareth Blackstock in the ‘90s sitcom, Chef! The part came with hours of training and prep work, cutting parsley and gutting rabbits which, as he explains, helped sharpen his skills as a stand-up. There’s lots of love for Lenny’s mum, a fantastic cook with a natural flair for great home-cooked meals, but less fondness for any food with antennae.

From his very first outing as a comic and impressionist to taking on Othello at the age of 50, Lenny relives a number of pivotal milestones in his career over a delicious bowl of seared scallop & tomato tagliatelle. This is accompanied by a glass of Paolo Leo Fiano del Salento, and a couple of great stories about encountering Prince... and then working with him.

Still At Large is on tour across the UK until November 3 and you can buy tickets at fane.co.uk/lenny-henry.

You can watch full episodes of Dish on YouTube and on Spotify.

All recipes from this podcast can be found at waitrose.com/dishrecipes

The recipe for seared scallop & tomato tagliatelle was created for Waitrose by Silvana Franco.

A transcript for this episode can be found at waitrose.com/dish

If you want to get in touch with us about anything at all, contact dish@waitrose.co.uk

Dish from Waitrose is made by Cold Glass Productions

00:00 Coming up on Dish...
00:13 Welcome!
01:03 It’s scallop season
02:34 Sir Lenny Henry is here
03:51 Lenny’s return to stage
06:23 First time performing
09:43 Food likes
10:28 KFC lunatic
11:52 Butter Chicken
12:36 Nothing with antennas
13:42 Dash it in!
15:44 Lenny’s cooking credentials
16:54 Food is served!
20:10 Wine pairing
23:48 From comedy to Shakespeare
28:50 Comic Relief
32:55 Meeting Prince!
38:31 Fast food quiz
40:42 End of the show question