Chris Lesner
Simon, it's so great to be with you again. Thanks for being here.

Simon Majumdar
It is always great, great to see you as I can see you now, but just always great to hear your voice.

Chris Lesner
would love for you to explain to our audience, because I think a lot of people might know you from television, but explain to me a little bit of your career path and how you became a celebrity chef.

Simon Majumdar
Well, it's a very difficult one to try and explain to people because when I was at school, know, high school or whatever you call it here in the US, I was going to be an Anglican priest, Episcopalian. That was my first thing and I wanted to do that more than anything else in the world. And so, you know, I went to a seminary, in King's College London. was a very well -known Episcopalian.
place as it were and it started as Episcopalian now it covers everything it does medicine it does everything but then and so I went there and about halfway through the Dean and the the priests who were there who you know were teaching us they came to me and they said we love having you here in fact I was the president of the college of the of that seminary
but they came to me and they said, we don't think you're going to be a priest, it's just not going to work for you. Which I obviously found a little bit odd, because I've worked my whole life to do this. But they said, and I remember the Dean saying to me, he said, you're going to have your ministry will be somewhere else. And so I had to sit down and think about what I was going to do next. And so I managed to get a job in publishing then. I worked for Penguin Books.
And this is also, I know, very odd to people who think I went straight into cooking. And so I went to publishing. I worked for Penguin Books, is, know, brought up, know, born in England and it was a fantastic place to go and work because it's, know, it's one of the most famous publishers, if not the most famous publisher in the world. And I went to work there for 10 years, which was great. And then I went to work for Orion, which was another famous publisher.
and then I went to work for this other company called MQP, which is a tiny little boutique publisher. And then what happened at the end of that, I just got tired. I'm sure you've felt that way. It wasn't that I didn't love this job, but I was just tired. And so about, gosh, nearly 17 years ago now, I just said, I want to go around the world and go and eat everything, which was something I've always been kind of...

Simon Majumdar
wanted to do and eating has always been my passion. I did everything else, eating was always my second thing. I said it was always, always there. And so I said, I want to go around the world, which I haven't really done. I'm big time. Frankfurt for the book fair and stuff. And so I quit my job and I, you know, when people say, oh, well, you must have raised a lot of money. Yeah, I put a little bit away every day that I was.
working every day. I put 50 quid or 100 quid away and I kept it in this place. So when it came to this I decided to use that money and go around the world. And so that's where my first book came and in fact it came because I got an email from Tony Bourdain, Anthony Bourdain and he was great and he said, oh I'll give you a quote
which he did, which I probably won't quote on here, but I've got it on my book over there, which was, you know, he was a little Anthony Bourdain -like, but he sent me this quote, which was fantastic, and he said, I think you should put it on a book. And I thought, well, I never even thought of writing a book, but I put that on the front of my proposal, and everyone from there wanted to read it, all my agents or all the people I sent it to wanted to read it.
And so that was how I began in cooking. So I started being a food writer and that's how I describe myself now. I'm not a cook. When I go and meet these amazing people like Alton Brown, I went out with Geoffrey Zuccaria and Brooke and all these people, Antonia last week in fact, and they all went down here. And I'm not like them. They're fantastic cooks. I'm not. I'm a great cook, but I'm not like them.
and that was it. So I started Eat My Globe and then I did another one called Eat It For Britain which doesn't get released over here and then I did my last one which I was really proud of which is called Fed White and Blue which is something that I wanted to do because it was all about me becoming an American citizen but through food which I really loved. I really loved doing that because I went to

Simon Majumdar
every kind of state in the country and I love that because people often don't go. I've met people here in LA and they go well I've never been to Arizona and they're good I mean they're really you know good people they go I've never been to Arizona I go but it's you know just down the road and so I love that and what happened with me fortunately is that my wife
First of all, she said to me she's a lawyer, a wonderful lawyer, but she quit her job so she could spend time with me, which obviously, you know, meant a big loss in money, but it also meant that she was going to be able to come with me to a lot of these places. She wasn't traveling when I did Fed White and Blue, but she was traveling before that, traveling after that rather.
So now she comes with me everywhere and so we we've that's what we do now we we as my first book went on the front go everywhere eat everything and that's how I really got into it and then Then I got this call when I in fact at the same day I proposed to her from the Food Network through
a now agent had taken on who's still my agent saying, oh, we'd love you to come in and talk about whether you want to do anything on the Food Network. And that was the beginning. And that was nearly 16 years ago. And that's it. It's a bizarre story because I didn't come into this by being a chef, but I was an expert. think that's how they describe me, whether I describe myself as that is a different matter.
But they brought me in as an expert and that's what I do. come in and my view is everywhere in the world. I've been to hundred, nearly a hundred and six countries now. And they brought me in to talk about all these things because a lot of people say, oh, well, I've caught this and they say, oh, it uses harissa and that comes from here. And I go, well, no, it doesn't. It comes from here. So that's kind of what I do.

Simon Majumdar
I'm sorry, is that a very long way of describing how I get to it?

Chris Lesner
I love that. And I love that you talked about how your wife comes with you. I've had the chance of meeting her a couple of times at some events that I've been to that you've been hosting. And that's just so cool that you guys are doing it together.

Simon Majumdar
We are, and that really means a huge amount to me because we're a team. That's what we are. In fact, Sybil at the moment is sitting in the next room where we have this kind of nice apartment here that we rent because we're not here long enough. There's a nice little apartment, but she's sitting in the bedroom working on where we're going to be next. Recently, we went to...
the Stans, I don't know if anyone, Uzbekistan, yeah, we went to all those, not to Afghanistan and Pakistan, because those were a little more difficult, but we went to Turkmenistan, all those places. And she organized it all. She organized all the events, hotels and all of that. And I just go, I think that's fantastic, because quite frankly,
I don't really have, I'm not so good at that and she really is. So we're a team, we're absolutely a team.

Chris Lesner
Thinking about your journey, obviously it's a huge jump to go from potentially being in, being in ministry, which now you might still be doing ministry, but then to go on a journey across the world. When people all over that might be listening to this have these dreams and passions and desires and big hopes, what's the first step or what do you recommend? Should everyone be jumping into this, giving up their career path?
Is it right for some people? How'd you know?

Simon Majumdar
Well, first of all, and this is the key, I think, it doesn't matter how much money you save, you save a small amount. Because you've got to have money to be able to do it. But even if it's, you know, five dollars a week, that'll get you up to some point. And then you can spend that on going to Arizona if you live in LA.
you could spend that going anywhere I went to North Dakota I went to all these places and that was just because I had some money not a massive amount but some money to be able to do it and so all these people going oh I just did it because... no you've got to be able to save but it doesn't matter how much you save but a small amount that might get you to go to New Orleans which is one of the is probably my favorite place in America it's just great and go
well I want to go there that's the place I want you to go and there's nowhere else I want to go and I want to go there so I do think the saving is absolutely vital but very you know as little as you can or as much as you can that's easy sorry yeah

Chris Lesner
No, from your standpoint, it's one of those things that's really interesting because you would have never imagined this career path, right? That turned into writing books, becoming a food writer, then becoming a celebrity chef. At each step, what were you thinking? Like when somebody asked, hey, can you be a judge on the Food Network? Can you be on Iron Chef? Can you be on Tournament of Champions? What's going through your mind as opportunities like that come up?

Simon Majumdar
Well, I genuinely believe, and this is from my point of view, that I still believe God was there. So here's the thing, I remember, and I know you've heard this from when I kind of tell my speech, and people sometimes give me a hard time because I'm they're going, you're telling the same speech, go.
because it's my speech, know, it's like, well, what am I supposed to tell? Go and tell someone else's speech. But when I started to be a minister or a priest or whatever, I remember that the Dean told me that he said, this isn't going to be your ministry. Your ministry will be something else. He goes, don't know what it is, but I do believe your ministry will be in another world, in another place.
and I never even thought of that, but I still remember when I get up on stage, you've seen these events, even though I say it myself, I'm very good at them. I hope so anyway, but I get up on stage and I come round and I'll give people a hard time about truffles or whatever, I'll give them a hard time. But that's my ministry.
because I'll talk to them about things that they may not know about. I'll mention, you know, God or other things in there if they want me to. And that is now my ministry. And so what's happened, I believe, is that all my currencies in the food area, so, you know, I came over to America the day I was going to propose and
My wife had come into New York, we live in LA, she'd come into New York to meet me. And well, she wasn't my wife at the time, but she came in to meet me. And then I got an email from the Guardian back in London. And I'd done this thing about my favorite sandwiches in the world. I'd put it down and it had a massive amount of coverage, which was bizarre, but it had a massive. And so when I got to New York,

Simon Majumdar
They said we want you to do something for the BBC World Service and you can go to a studio they have there. And so I went and did it there and Sybil came with me and they asked me to do that. But my agent now in LA was listening to it. And so was someone from the Food Network. Not listening together obviously, but different areas. And so the person at the Food Network was listening to this.
Thought oh this guy sounds interesting. Maybe we'll get him in and I was like, oh, okay And I here's the thing I didn't know food network was a thing. Yeah, we have our own shows in the UK And we're very good at them, you know, bake the baking competition or whatever. We didn't have that then but and so and then Immediately after that I had this agent get on the phone and he's so great and he's
you know, he was easy to work with and he was still my agent. So I immediately got this call from him and then I got a call from the other guy and I go, oh, okay, well, maybe you two can work together. And I'm like, because I didn't know anything about television. I'd appeared once or twice on a UK show very briefly. And that was the beginning of it. And so I went in to see the Food Network people and
you know, the people who produced Iron Chef or the next Iron Chef in LA and they're all my friends now. You know, the person who is my agent is a really good friend, the person who produces Iron Chef and owns Iron Chef, he's, I have lunch with him regularly and I have dinner with him and his wife and so by doing this, this was all for me anyway.
compounded by God, I honestly think. And that's what I did. And then each way I go, I honestly follow whichever. I don't have a... I'm not like some people who have a kind of ambition. I have no ambition at all. But each way I'm going, and I honestly believe this, and I know we'll talk about it, but I've developed a cancer. And even that...

Simon Majumdar
I start thinking, well, there must be something for that to be a reason. And so I just go along with it wherever they ask me. And at some stage, I believe, you know, I'm 60. So at some stage, I think they're going to go on for, well, you know, I think your time is like they did with Emeril, like they did with all these people who you know, they're getting, well.

Chris Lesner
Mm.

Simon Majumdar
emeralds probably over 60 now but I'm getting to the point where they go hmm buy and good but I'll go and do something else because it's you know they want the younger people and I do but I love this I love my journey it's a that's what I say about it it's a real journey and wherever I go I've got my beautiful wife with me and we'll go where it takes us you know last year
this year rather, we went for three months and we went to the stands and we're just going, I just think this is fantastic. It's really amazing.

Chris Lesner
So on this podcast we talk a ton with people about servant leadership right and as you're in these rooms with so yourself and so many people who are Established in their career very well known You would think that there's a lot of egos right and one thing that I'm sure you deal with this Yeah, well, I've always been impressed by your extreme humility. That's I would not imagine that that's normal in in your space

Simon Majumdar
Hopefully not with me.

Chris Lesner
Especially with all the competitions, the high energy, just cutthroat environment. Do you ever see servant leadership playing out in the celebrity chef world around these shows?

Simon Majumdar
It's like being in a high school. That's the truth. You go and talk to some people and they're really kind and nice and they're great people. We have people like Archie Sokera who's a great Christian and we have people who are all kinds of different religions and that's fine too because my father was a Hindu.
He came from India and he moved over to England in 1957 and was there for years and years. He was a doctor. He married a Welsh woman. It's very different kind of mix that they had there. I have a different view of this. I genuinely believe that all the religions have a purpose.
they all come to something. But I forgot what you're going to ask then.

Chris Lesner
How you see servant leadership playing out with these chefs and even with chefs running these large teams of other chefs and kitchen.

Simon Majumdar
Oh.

Simon Majumdar
Oh yeah, we have, so I'm saying when I talk about Artis Scarea, you know, she's bright and beautiful, but she covers herself with the glory of what she's doing. And then there are other people who just aren't. There are other people who, and I'm not going to name names, but there are certain people who do very well who just aren't. And they're just, you they...
they get very drunk and we all like a drink if we go that way but these people they just they're just you know difficult to work with shall I say but I always find if I talk to them or I talk to others if I just act in the way that I'm acting they all calm down I hopefully
don't have too many people and they will be because they are in every high school as I always say it there'll be people who just don't like you and that's fine you know because what are you going to do but what I try to do is to be as hopeful and as pleasant as kind to people and that's the only leadership I can do I never sit at home and you know
get angry with people because there's no point. There is no point. And that's one of the things that I've learned with servant, if you want to call it servant leadership, that's what you'd call it. There's no point getting angry. You can get rid of someone. You can say, look, this isn't working for you. I want you to leave. I'm really sorry, but you need to go and find another ministry job, whatever you're going to do. But you need to go and find this.
We've had this fairly recently with some of the people I work with, but they're still our friends and they are, they're very good friends. So we have to just go and think about what they're doing as well. And that's one of the things that I always say, a job is a job, it's not your friendships. And that's really something I think is really interesting.

Simon Majumdar
You know, yes, you need to be tough with some people. Some people who come in to be a chef are not good chefs. They're just not. And they come in because they think this is what they want to do. And they realize that it's not what they want to do. But they come in and be a chef because they see it on television. And it's not what they want to do. You need to be able to tell them.
you need to go and do this or you need to do this but maybe there's an area in cooking that you will love so maybe you go and be a teacher maybe you go to go do the accounts for a restaurant you need to need to do that kind of thing not to be a cook because what you're doing in the cooking world is not great

Chris Lesner
Well, mean, there's tens of thousands or millions. I don't know how many people apply for these shows that you've been a part of, but so many people apply. And I wonder if a lot of them even look at you and other judges and people on TV and think, boy, they've just had it easy. they're like, life has just been easy. I mean, you just shared before, and I've been following you obviously on social, and I've been seeing some of your journey with cancer.

Simon Majumdar
Yeah.

Chris Lesner
I know things aren't easy. They haven't been throughout your career, and right now you're dealing with cancer. What's that journey been like for you?

Simon Majumdar
Oh gosh, well it hasn't been easy for the whole way, it just hasn't. When I started I was starting as a rep working for Penguin, know, somebody who goes around stores and talks to them and gets them to buy the books and all of that. That was not a well -paid job. And it was that, we're talking about 19...
85 and so I think my pay was like 3000 quid a year which is just like not a good amount even then by going back that you know but I got my little car to drive around and all of that too I loved doing it so it was never easy but there are parts of it that were great so that's the thing I always concentrated on
The fact that I had to go to maybe 10 shops in the whole week because I was right in the heart of London and I only had these 10 really good shops to go and call on. And so I got to know all the people really well, really well. And in fact, again, some of those are now friends now, 35 years on. And I go, that's fantastic. So yes, you can...
you know look at the money you can look at all of those but again you've got to look at the kindness and the friendships that you can not all of them of course but some of them you you build up and I love that I love that and so I don't always think of the easiness of it you know when I actually I'll tell you when I had my cancer it's like I said it's called olio it's a special
special type of... yes I've got the special type... no but it was because it's a rare type of cancer, brain cancer. I was actually at an event, you know, a Westfall or one of these non -profit events and I came off stage and I've done apparently very well and I was talking to all the people there and then

Simon Majumdar
I always have my little sip of a martini. You've probably seen me with my little martini, which I haven't had for two and a half years. I'm getting very angry. But anyway, I had my little sip of the martini and I just crashed. And I was chatting to a guy who works there, very good friend of mine. And no one knew what was happening. And then everyone in the place came.
to see me, everyone, know all the people who were donors, all the people who were all the AV men, of that, everyone. And I still remember that I was gone. But I still remember that all these people wanted to see how I was doing. And so that was something that I found really kind, even though I you know.
got out and had a seizure and I got taken to hospital. I, my wife was there, she came with me, but that fact that someone, all those people, wanted to know how I was, was a really interesting thing. And so, you know, I went in and I had a, gosh, a really bad time. I went in and I had two surgeries to get you.
bits around my brain and all of that. What little brain I had anyway. But then I had chemo, which was very bad because it's never good and that's not good for anybody who has cancer. I know that's just a hard thing and we just have to do it. And then I had radiation, which was like 46 days of going in every day.
to the hospital or to the care center. And they put this little mask on me and they went in with like six little, you know, whatever they call them, lasers or whatever they use. But at the same time, I was falling asleep when they were doing this oncology, not oncology, the radiation. It was doing it for 10 minutes and I fell asleep.

Simon Majumdar
thought this is great I just fell asleep and had a good time of having a rest so all of these things that just happened and so I even that was something that I understood and it it just meant something to me so you know I don't know if any of this means anything to you but it means it to me

Chris Lesner
Well, you spent a lot of your life promoting and writing about amazing food and cultural experiences and just things about your life story. Now having dealt with this cancer, I know that you're starting to promote awareness for this really rare form of cancer a little bit. Can you share with our audience a little bit about how you're going about that?

Simon Majumdar
Yeah, well first of all, I'm going to hopefully write a book about my career as it was leading up to this cancer because it sounds bad but even someone like me who's on TV, gets everyone who has cancer. It doesn't matter where you're going, it doesn't matter. So whatever you're doing, it...
you it gets you know another friend of mine in the food network Shirley who actually has a restaurant near here she has cancer as well and so you know we haven't kind of connected yet but she's very you know is dealing well with it as well but what it does say to me is that I now have a reason again to tell people
And it took me two years. I didn't do this easily. I went through everything until I found this company, Olio Nation, which is a non -profit and it's raising money. And so I'm getting help from them for me to kind of come out into the world. And so that's good because I never did that before. And I'm helping them because...
for whatever reason, I'm not famous, but I am on TV as it were, but I can help them. And they are usually into going, you have cancer, okay, do you mind if we tell everyone? I said no. And that was the biggest thing for the first time in my life or with cancer anyway. I said, no, you go ahead. And I'd not done that before, apart from to the people I worked with.
and so I really love doing that as well. So, you know, this cancer has, I know it sounds odd, but from that point of view it's been a blessing as well.

Simon Majumdar
which is a weird thing to say, know, but this has really helped me as well, which is strange, but there's an element of it anyway that has helped me.

Chris Lesner
Well, and I know that you're starting to do events with them and put on multiple events in lots of different places. So people should definitely check those out. And we'll figure out a way to link there in our description somehow.

Simon Majumdar
Well, we have one coming up fairly recently in LA and that's going to be a test, I guess. And we've got some friends from the Food Network helping out. And then after that, we'll see. if they, you know, I'm going to be inviting some of my friends who are really, you know, in some cases, wealthy people and they're going to buy a table or whatever they're going to do.
and that's how we'll see how it works and then we'll go to New York or Chicago or wherever and we can take this because it's an area of the brain that it you know it doesn't the what you've got the area of the brain that's affected isn't like some areas that kind of go to the spine or others it just it doesn't must astatisize
and so it kind of sits in your head and they took it out, I mean it was the size of a tennis ball and they took it out so now I've got a space in my head that big but I always had a space on the other side that was about that big anyway so you know.

Chris Lesner
So you've gone from ministry to writing or to Penguin, then to writing. Then you moved into all kinds of celebrity chef type stuff. You're starting to raise awareness for this rare form of cancer. And then on top of all that, because it wasn't enough, then you launched a podcast as well. Talk about the podcast with our audience.

Simon Majumdar
Well, have a podcast, actually it's been going for four years now. Oh no, it might be nearly five years. Anyway, and it's called Eat My Globe, which was the name of my first book, because I rather like that title. But Eat My Globe is, food history, which sounds very, a little dull if people are not listening to it. But what we do is half of the episode, so we do.
16 a year because it's a lot to do half of them I write so is the history of curry or the history of the food on the Titanic or the history which is really fun for me to do and to be honest that's why I started it even I thought there'd be no one listening to it we often we have a lot of people listening to it now but I thought it'd just be you know me
and I thought it would be a good thing for me to be able to write. So those have been great. But what we also have is we have some interviews. So we interview really great scholars on the shows. Paul Friedman is a fantastic interview. We have all these people. But then on the other side, we interview people from the Food Network. But this is what I always say to them.
You can't come in and just talk about a book or just talk about this because that's, I said there's plenty of opportunities for you to go and do that. What you need to do, you can mention your book and you can do all that at the end or at beginning, however, but you need to have some history. So Rocco di Spirito came in and he talked about being an Italian American. He was born here, but his parents were born in Italy and how that changed.
and how the food changed because they couldn't get all the food from Italy. So the food changed from, you know, something he was doing in, I think he was born in Sicily, but I may have got that wrong. But we started to do Italian American, which I always say is a, what do call it, is a cuisine and it's so right.

Simon Majumdar
totally separate from Italian, it's a cuisine in its own right. Or I talk to some of you know, know, Manit and I'll talk to her about Indian food and we'll say, have you tried the Indian food here or in England? In England, it's like here, British, American Italian would be the same as we have a thing in India, England called British restaurant Indian cooking.
and that's very different. So, chicken tikka masala, I always mention this because that's a good one. Chicken tikka masala was made in Britain. In fact, it was made in Scotland. And I went up to meet the guy who invented it. He's now passed away, unfortunately. But he went, I went up there to meet with him and what happened was, and it's a fantastic story. went, a cab driver came into his restaurant, he owned a restaurant.
and he'd made chicken tikka which are little bits of chicken it's just like tandoori chicken but on a skewer and someone came in and said oh this is a bit dry and he said ah let me do a sauce for it and he started from in the kitchen he had a thing of Campbell's tomato soup and he started mixing that with some spices and he had this soup because he had a stomach
problem so he had that in the side and could make and so he poured that in started mixing the spices and cream whatever and then poured that on top of the chicken and that was chicken tikka masala that's how it was invented and you're going that is so it's so fantastic to hear that because you go to every restaurant around the world apart from in India they don't have it in India
but every restaurant in the rest of the world has chicken tikka masala on the menu, every Indian restaurant, but it was created in Scotland. I thought, as you can hear, was excited I get by it. going, I love that. And no one or very few people in the world really knows it, knows that it's happening. But in Britain they do. So one of the people in 2007 or something,

Simon Majumdar
the Foreign Minister of Britain went on to the Parliament and named it as the British National Dish. Which I just think is, I mean that's just fantastic. You can hear how excited I get by it. So this is where the podcast really works because I just get so excited about food and that's to be honest why I work on the Food Network because when I'm talking about the food I'm just going...
this is fantastic or I'm one of the few people who go but this is horrible I mean this is really bad and the chefs are looking at me and I go but it is so they get a tiny bit cross with me but but I think now when I do it on Food Network some of them are quite pleased because they want me to kind of go in and give them a know biffing as it were

Chris Lesner
Even hearing that story, it makes sense why people are starting to listen and have been listening. I that's idea. I had no idea. But obviously, I know that item on the menu. I've seen it in many places. And I'm excited to hear more stories like that. So it'll be fun.

Simon Majumdar
And that's what we do. That's why we... Well, I come on and either chat to the people... We had Alton Brown, we had Alex Guadalchielli, had Jacques Pepin, we had all these people who I do on riverside like this. And that's how I talk to them. And I just... I want to go on for hours and hours and hours because they're so special, these people.
Alain Scorcelli has just got the most fantastic sense of humour. She's lovely. And I just want to sit but after about an hour they're going, actually we've got to go now. But they're so wonderful when I'm talking to them. And that's why I want to do it. I love doing these podcasts because I'm doing them for me. And I think that's one of the best ways of doing a podcast. It is.
If you don't enjoy it, and I'm talking to you as well, if you don't enjoy it, why bother?

Chris Lesner
percent.

Simon Majumdar
You've got to, if you, know, why bother? You're not going to be doing anything that's decent. You've got to go, okay, well, look, now we're talking about the servant leadership. Let's talk about it. Let's go in. Let's find out how it's good. Let's find out if it affects him. Simon, I'm not going, well, I am, but I'm not because, you know, I just follow my own path. But I love that. I really...
You can see I'm getting very excited.

Chris Lesner
Well, I want to hit you with 10 rapid fire questions. The first one being, who's the

Simon Majumdar
Don't hit me with rapid fire because I've got too much of a brain injury but you can try.

Chris Lesner
The first one, who's the first person you think of when you hear the word servant leadership?

Simon Majumdar
uh and I know this sounds uh you know too kind of easy but Jesus
I believe.

Chris Lesner
Give me five words that describe yourself.

Simon Majumdar
uh gosh uh british which is uh which yeah but british does i'm sure i got the role on next science chef because i was british uh anyway uh british hasty i'm sometimes a bit hasty which is why i need my wife um

Chris Lesner
That says a lot.

Simon Majumdar
Gosh. Ab -
little I'm tardy in some ways in some other things I'm really very British again I'm always there on time and in fact I walk around the block and go around and then I arrive so I'm always on time but I'm always a bit I think I'm a bit tardy gosh I don't know any of the others what kind of things could I passionate
that's something I always am. You can tell the way I'm talking about my books or how I was talking about my passion for Christianity or all those things. Those are something that I always, always am. I don't know what my fourth would have been. It might be something that happens when I meet God.

Chris Lesner
Hmm, that's great. Who's your favorite author or what's your favorite book?

Simon Majumdar
Ugh.
I think it would probably be a Shakespeare and it would probably be... Oh gosh. Actually it would be a sonnet or sonnets from Shakespeare. can't quote them now because I'm going a bit... but Shakespeare's sonnets would be my favorites and he has such amazing, you know, amazing use of words. You know, he created from the like...
400 phrases or words that we use in the British language now and he created them and you're going that's amazing and when you go on if you go and listen on YouTube there's a whole thing of Judy Dench and she's just reading some of these and they are so wonderful so that'll be my
It might be something different next one. what's yeah, but that would be probably right now. That will be my favorite.

Chris Lesner
favorite movie.

Simon Majumdar
Oh gosh, do you know it'd be a matter of life and death which was this film created with my favorite actor David Niven who was this wonderful, very British, you know, he led this amazing life because during the war he left Hollywood, very British guy, he left it, didn't tell anyone.
where he was going apart from a few people went to England, joined the special service, he became a captain there or even a major and fought really hard, tell anybody about this and then came back to Hollywood afterwards and didn't tell anyone but he did the show Match of Light and Death which is this very great show and it's about this man who gets killed in a
what you call it a crash, he's an air pilot and then he goes up this stairway to heaven and all the time he's been questioned about this until he gets to heaven and then when he gets to heaven he's interviewed by various people and they say oh you don't belong here yet get down and it's a very amazing movie it's a terrific movie so do go watch it for the matter of life and death

Chris Lesner
Oh, all right. Favorite food.

Simon Majumdar
I don't have a favourite. Apart from, apart from, I love northern style fish and chips with a huge piece of haddock covered in batter. The great fat chips we have in England, the really fat ones that are some salt and vinegar on the chips.
sauces so you have not ketchup that's horrible but you have you have a tartar sauce you have mushy peas which are really made out of marifat peas and this thing that we serve they're called curry sauce that you pour over the chips and you can get that here in fact there's some good places here that do that i know if it's richard blaze i'll you know follow him obviously on
Twitter and Instagram and he's a very English kind of, he loves it. I think one of his people, anyway, he loves England and he does it and it's so great. And so there's nowhere around here that I could get decent fish and chips. So when I went back to England, I got in London, they weren't as good as.
well way up north but we got those there and the master super fish and it was so beautiful I'm getting excited again

Chris Lesner
What's your favorite thing to do in your free time?

Simon Majumdar
work.

Chris Lesner
All right, one surprising fact about you.

Simon Majumdar
Oh God. Well, I think it's to people who didn't know I was going to be a priest because I think it is something they don't even think about with me because they see me on TV. They see me wearing my hats and glasses. They see me doing all that. But I don't think when people listen to anyone, anyone talking, anyone, they don't realize that that person.
has a life and when they're on Food Network all the people there have a really amazing life you know Alex Quattrocelli has this amazing life she went to France to lunch she did this her mother was one of the people who created the joy of cooking that wonderful book that we have her mother was one of the people who created that and you go through all this life
and you go the part where you only work on the food network is little, it's tiny compared to this. that's the thing. In my life, I'm sure in your life that you've got to listen to everything. I know you don't necessarily want to tell me this right now, but your life, I'm sure, has been just as varied as my life. And so I always find when I talk to anyone and it...
I anyone, their life comes out from them. I think it's because of, I don't know whether it's because I wanted to be a priest or whatever, but I always sit and chat with them when I'm sat with the AV people or I'm sitting talking to one of the donors or I'm sitting talking to one of the entertainers or I'm sitting with them. I just love hearing that. And so that's what I...
That's what I always like to say, when people talk to me they get the whole thing. Poor them!

Chris Lesner
Two quick ones that might be hard for you. First, where's the favorite place you've ever been?

Simon Majumdar
Oh gosh, well, I mean we go to 106 countries or something that we've been to. But again, I think it would be, you know where it is? It's when my mother and father were alive and we would sit at home, we'd have trays on our lap and we'd have some fish and chips. So we always brought fish and chips home with us.
We had our fish and chips and my parents, everyone, so we had four, you know, three siblings and me, and we had the two, my wife, my mother and my father, and we'd sit watching the TV and we'd be eating these fish and chips and my parents would always open a bottle of champagne. I was too young to have it. But we would have the best time and that was...
the best, not necessarily the best food, it was great food, but it was the best occasions that I ever spent, if that makes sense. It was so great. And now they're not here anymore. I still think of that all the time. And I go, I just wish I'd thought more about it. But I did think a lot about it as well.

Chris Lesner
love that.

Chris Lesner
I love it. Is there anywhere that you wanna go that you haven't been?

Simon Majumdar
Oh yeah, oh gosh yeah. Yeah, we want to go to... I want to go to Bhutan, Nepal, because I've never been there. Where my wife hasn't been, I want to go where I have been, North Africa, but we're going to South Africa, which I have been, but we're going to some other places in Africa this year. And I'm going to Uganda, which I've...

Chris Lesner
What's the top spot?

Simon Majumdar
landed in but never really stayed. So these places that we're going to around the world, we're still, still, we're as passionate as we ever were about going everywhere and eating everything. And that's the main thing. Food network is wonderful. It's lovely. I love doing it. But that pays for the rest of it. And that's
That's how we work.

Chris Lesner
Last rapid fire question is what's the best advice you've ever gotten?

Simon Majumdar
Well, I was chatting to someone, and this was fairly recently, and I was chatting to them the other day, and I said, oh, this is my phrase, go everywhere, eat everything. And they looked at me and they said, meet everyone. And I thought, that's a very good idea. And that's something that I hadn't really thought of in that way.

Chris Lesner
love that.

Simon Majumdar
But you come back to me again in a few weeks time and it'll be something different. But I remember that.

Chris Lesner
Well, Simon, thank you for taking the time. I'm excited for people to hear from you, hear your journey. Check out your podcast.

Simon Majumdar
I hope the middle of it didn't cause too much... I was like, where am I going now?

Chris Lesner (52:56.898)
No, it's a pleasure to have you on and maybe we'll have you back sometime if you're game.

Simon Majumdar (53:1.030)
Oh, I always game and Chris it's been such a pleasure to talk to you because I always see you at these events but now I'm getting to know you or you're at least getting to know me because it's me talking I'm very sorry about that.

Chris Lesner (53:21.601)
It's my pleasure excited for people to hear your story, too. Thank you

Simon Majumdar (53:26.248)
Oh, it's my great pleasure and to all the many people you have listening to you, I hope I make some sense, but it's been a real pleasure, a real pleasure.