AS the son of a broadcast legend, Mark Wogan knows the risk that comes with following in his father’s footsteps.
The 53-year-old clocked from a young age that being related to an “institution” like Sir Terry Wogan would mean taking a different path to avoid constant comparison.
However, after decades in the hospitality industry, the restaurateur has today launched a brand new culinary-inspired podcast, Spooning With Mark Wogan.
A love of food is in Mark and his siblings Alan and Katherine’s DNA, having been encouraged to cook by his parents, Terry and Helen, from childhood.
They were discouraged from entering the world of showbiz and instead all three children ended up in hospitality after Mark’s brief go at a television career in the 90s.
He’s now combining his passion for cooking with a filmed podcast produced by News Broadcasting, seven years after his father’s death from cancer aged 77.
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“I’d like to think dad would find the podcast amusing and fun,” Mark told The Sun.
“And it’s definitely on a subject that he enjoyed, which was food.
“Somebody said to me, ‘aren’t you worried about being compared to your dad?’ And I went well, no, not really.
“Then they said, ‘but what if people say he was better than you’, and it’s like, well, he was, you know…
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“He was incredible at what he did.”
“As a slightly older person, you’re not caught up in that whole sort of father/son dynamic,” Mark continues.
“I think all sons want to, at some level, supersede their fathers.
“In the mid-nineties I had a little bit of a go at it with TV and stuff and it just wasn’t right at that time.
“There was too much comparison and I suppose people just naturally assuming there was a whole heap of nepotism at work, but I can assure you he didn’t want any of his children to follow what he was doing.
“It’s a difficult business and it’s hard to make a living out of it. I think if you are making a living out of it, you’re an incredibly lucky person.
“And when you’re related to a national institution, you think ‘I’m going to have to take a slightly different path here… Strangely, we’ve all ended up in the hospitality industry because I think there was such an ingrained love of food within the family. Food seemed like a natural avenue for all of us.”
Mark owns Homeslice, a chain of pizza restaurants with his older brother Alan, while their sister, Katherine, runs gastropubs with her husband.
Spooning With Mark Wogan promises a unique culinary adventure with celebrity guests being spoon-fed a bespoke menu – showcasing the best of British ingredients and cuisine, custom-made to fulfil their foodie fantasies – but also to challenge them with what they think they hate.
The catch – they’ll be blindfolded and not know which they’re trying.
“When you remove sight from the equation, you remove a whole heap of preconception,” says Mark.
“The minute the blind fold is on people feel very vulnerable.
“It’s been quite interesting, particularly with some of the professional chefs chewing away…
“Matt Tebbutt couldn’t recognise a potato. He loves his duck, fat potato so we made him that with a little bit of pickled chilli on it and some fresh anchovy.
“He got all the other flavours, but he couldn’t get the texture of what the main body of it was, which was a duck fat potato.”
As well as being served something they love, Mark delivers one ingredient they insist they’d never eat again on pain of death.
Claudia WInkleman lets out a scream after realising she’s just described slow-cooked rabbit as “delicious” – despite vowing never to touch it because she owns one.
Other upcoming guests on the podcast include Jimmy Carr, Ben Miller, Tom Kerridge, Matt Tebbutt, Helen Skelton, Alfie Boe, The Hairy Bikers, Angela Hartnett, Gaby Roslin, David Gandy, Jim White, and Joe Wicks from two of the UK’s most coveted foodie hotspots – at The Groucho Club in Soho and The Mount Street Restaurant in Mayfair.
Mark adds: “When I have watched the podcast episodes back, and I see a little inflection, I think ‘oh god, that’s a bit of dad there’.
“So it’s kind of like… am I carrying on a bit of his legacy?
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“No, that would be too arrogant to say that, but at the same time I’m proud of being a Wogan. I’m proud of being Irish.”
- Spooning with Mark Wogan is available on the Virgin Radio app and podcast-hosting platforms. You can also watch it on YouTube
