Food & Spiders s01e01

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[00:00:00]

Ben: okay, well, welcome to Adventures of White. It's the podcast for the Is of White. Serving up a fresh is of white legend With each episode now, serving up is a great way to introduce my very first guest on episode one of my shiny new podcast to many. He's simply a man of fine dining and sharp wits to me.

He's a dear friend. Winner of the Isle of Wight's Best Beard Award, I think for 10 consecutive years. He's smiling. We we're doing this on Zoom. He's smiling away, and he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of spiders and hedge laying. My first guest is one-half of the Isle of Wight super food reviewers. Matthew Chatfield. Matt, welcome to Adventures of Wight.

Matt: Well, hi Ben. I'm very, very honoured to be the initial test run for your, your wonderful podcast. This is very exciting

Ben: Well, my commiseration because being podcast number one, we probably end up cutting this to about five minutes and we put something sort of semi-decent out there, hopeful.

Matt: It's probably for the best.

Ben: Yeah, well come on. That's going to be rubbish. I mean, we've [00:01:00] known each other for quite a long time, Matt. We've, we've got involved in all sorts of schemes, scams, and a few, uh, events we've organized. But Matt, I'm going to start with the icebreaker, which I'm going to ask every person that comes onto Adventures of Wight.

And the first question is, where do you live on the Isle of Wight? And the second one is, why do you live on the Isle of Wight.

Matt: Good questions and, I think, I hope everyone will have a good answer for you. I live in Ryde out on the east side of the town and it's a lovely spot. Originally lived in Sandown, that's where I grew up. But , I've ended up in Ryde and I've kind of switched my allegiances now.

Ben: Well, hold on, hold on. I seem to think of you as a, a Ryde super fan. I mean, you, you even have some special number plates for Ryde on car,

Matt: It's true.

Ben: you're, you are super into it. So

Matt: Yeah, I am. I, I've really, I've really come to Love Ryde. I think it's a great place to live, I live sort of just on the edge of town, which is fantastic because it means I. I can walk into town and enjoy all the night life in, I'm [00:02:00] going there tonight for cocktails and a dinner.

I can just walk there. I can walk to the hovercraft, I can walk to the ferry and, and I can also walk to the countryside of the beach just in a few minutes. So you got.

Ben: episode, one of Adventures White is brought to you by Ryde Town Council

Matt: Well, I'm not sure Ryde Town Council been, take credit for all of those things, but you did ask me where and to some extent that's why, cause it was a great place to live. The island as a whole has always been special place for me. I haven't always lived here.

I worked on the mainland, I worked in Cambridgeshire, I've worked in Essex, I worked in Hampshire. But as soon as I got the chance to come back here and. I did and here I am. So I've been here for over 20 years, this time round. And I guess I'll probably stay here now. I've got no plan to move away.

Ben: So Matt, you, you mentioned your, tonight you were walking to ride, you're gonna get some food and cocktails. Very jealous. I'm on a diet. So that sounds, that sounds like I really should come and join you for that. But obviously, we want to talk about food.

you've been running surely it's the number one is of white food reviewer. Of all

Matt: [00:03:00] It is by far the best because it's the only one

Ben: It's the only one. So you are, you are number one of one. But it's a huge resource to your website full of all sorts of reviews taken over years, for restaurants which have come and gone.

I mean, it must have been a really exciting thing to do. I'm gonna ask my first question. How on earth did you get into reviewing restaurants on the is of White? What was the start of that?

Matt: Well, I probably ought to give some context here , so you know I am. I'm Matthew, but I'm also Matt out of Matt and Cat, and so Matt and cat.co uk is the website. Which has been going since, 2005, I think, a very long time.

And people say to us, well, haven't you done them all yet? And the answer to that is no. It's, it's like painting the fourth bridge. You can never do them all. They open, and change far quicker than we can possibly review them all. But we've done it's over a thousand reviews now. Uh, so there's a lot on that in that archive.

And as you rightly say, some of them are [00:04:00] yeah, dating back a long way. So they're more of a, more of a historical record now than they are of use to someone looking for a good place to eat. But

Ben: Go. Then Mat, I've got to ask, what was the first review?

Matt: the very first one we ever did that, I'm pretty sure it was God's Providence house in Newport. And, but it was inspired by, I mean, to answer your question, it was inspired by we went on holiday to Rye in East Sussex and we had two or three days there, something like that.

And, we scoped out the place and there's a really nice looking fish restaurant there. And we thought on our last day we'll have dinner at this nice fish restaurant cuz it looks fancy. So we'll save that for the last day. Went to the fish re. And it was terrible.

It was really bad. And you, we went home and we were like, that was really bad. The service was bad, the food was bad. Everything was rubbish about it. It was just a really bad tourist experience. And we were like, oh, what can we do about it? And this was, so this is 2005, so cast your mind back. So there was no [00:05:00] Twitter, there was no Facebook, there was no Trip Advisor.

None of those things existed. I mean, it's hard to imagine a world where you could run a restaurant. Those things, but they didn't, I mean, even Google wasn't that

Ben: But, but I can g. Nokia thirty three ten mobile phone from that time is probably in a draw and completely functional

Matt: I've still got it somewhere. Yeah, definitely might have driven over it once or twice, but still going. But yeah, I mean at that time there was, there literally was none of that and it's, I mean, it's only a few years ago, well, to me, an old CO like me, it seems like a few years ago, but it's hard to imagine how you could run a business now without putting pictures of your food on Instagram.

But none of those things existed, so, At that time I was experimenting with blog software, just for my own interest. And I had a couple of blogs. I'd been running for a while, but I wanted to try something different. When we, when we go back to the island, we were like, there's nothing we can do about this fish restaurant.

 That's gone. But what about people coming to the aisle of white? We don't want them to have this experience. We want people to come to the of white and have some of the really great food we know is here. Cuz you know, there are a lot of great places to eat [00:06:00] on the island.

And there were then, and it still are so, We started writing a diary of places where we'd been eating and there was lots of different ones obviously. It would just literally be a couple of words to start off with. We went to this place, we had fish and chips. It was 5 99, you know, not bad.

Might go again and that kind of, the sort of thing you might scribble in the, margins of your appointment story or something like that. But of course, cause this was blog software I was using, it had the facility for comments. And before long it that attracted people in because everyone else was in exactly the same position as we had been, that they wanted to say something about food.

And there was nowhere to say it. And so we, by happy coincidence, were in the right place at the right time and loads of people became engaged in this food diary. And we'd write, maybe a hundred words and a fuzzy photograph taken through the back of a sock or something, and you'd end up with 30 people arguing in the comments about it, which.

It was great. And so it just took off from there. It became [00:07:00] something that people really engaged with and we started off doing it in a quite a secretive way, not wanting to reveal our names and faces, although we do these days, because frankly there's not, no point not doing so. But, people got really, particularly restaurateur, got really excited about, well, who are these people?

Who

Ben: I bet. I bet.

Matt: yeah, who, gives them the right to come and criticize my food or whatever. But

Ben: Well, it is, it is. I mean, it's remarkable. Isn't it? Mean, again, going back to your point, if you went back in time, not so long ago, the whole, it was not just about food reviewing, but the whole communication, but almost sort of customer feedback, has really changed and you know, it.

You had nowhere to complain about a fish restaurants that you went to and to warn other people to avoid it. Where today, you know, you have a cup of tea, which is slightly Luke warm, you can be on TripAdvisor within seconds and you can complain about something.

And that's actually something I wanted to ask you about. Well, I mean, we met what, 2008 I guess. This sounds like some, I'm pretty sure people would advise not to meet people on the [00:08:00]internet back in the day. Well, now you meet everybody on the internet. We met on Twitter, won't we? And I think it was called t w TTR at the time, rather than Twitter.

Matt: Yeah,

could tweet with texts.

Ben: you could tweet with text. That's right. Um, but for, for your food blog, you know, that you were really, were in the right place at the right time, you know. You, you're great writers. The content's good. It's entertaining, but it's on a, it's on a blog, on its own hidden away.

So how, how do people find this? And suddenly you've got this massive explosion of amplification through these networks, such as Twitter and Facebook and other things. You know, it, it must have been very exciting. I mean, it's, it's a. Product, a food review website, but suddenly you can tell everybody about it and, especially in a small community like the Isle of Wight, it must have been very exciting in those.

Matt: It really was. And food. Food products and the food offering on the island is really important because it's a huge part of. The [00:09:00] tourist industry. And so, you know, a lot of people actually depend on it more so than in, say, Rye East Sussex or lots of other places on the island. Having good, having tourists come to your food cafe in good numbers in say July and August, that's the difference between success and failure.

So it's quite a big deal and there are lots of people in that industry who've really made a, made an effort over the years. People are investing some serious money. As well. So it's, there's a lot to talk about and lots of new things do happen. More so I would say it's more concentrated on the island.

I feel there's a lot more going on in a small space.

Ben: Well actually that's one of the things I wanted to ask you about as well. I mean, this may sound, I'm, I'm probably gonna get into trouble here, but I've often felt that the Olive white's been slightly left behind. When it comes to food and coaching, I think, you mentioned that fish restaurant you went to,

And then you think of places like Cornwell, right? Cornwell are really well known for, apart from pastes, really good sea. They're right on the beach things which are coming out of the sea. You have, places like Leister, obviously if it's [00:10:00] cheese, like towns, like bra, chefs like Heston Blumenthal have made that very famous.

Does the Isle of Wight. A food identity, is there something which people will come here for? You tell me. I, I don't know enough about it,

Matt: Well, there kind of isn't because the olive white is not one place. It's a collection of places.

Ben: But is that, is, is that not remarkable when you consider we are an island or we're surrounded by the sea, you would've thought maybe this would be the best place in the country to come and eat crab and lobster

Matt: well people do think that, and they often come here expecting to get good seafood, but actually, We don't have much of a fishing industry on the is of white. We never have really, or not, other than for indigenous consumption. There's a good reason for that. It's not, cause people can't and don't fish cuz there are, there are fishermen who work on the of, but if you land your catch, If you land it on the is of white, basically you've then gotta pay to take it to the mainland.

So if you're in a boat, why would you do that? You would go to the mainland and land your catch there. And that's been the case for generations. So the majority of [00:11:00] fish that's caught by is of white fishermen and shellfish is landed on the mainland. And not here. So although there is, there certainly is some and it's worth seeking out, but actually most of it doesn't actually come ashore on the island and it never has.

So we don't have that local direct from the boat fishing tradition that they do have in the west country or in, north Yorkshire and places like that, where you've got a lot of that going on from the North Sea. It just doesn't happen here. Probably more traditional for us is, arable crops and stuff like that.

So things that people will grow in the ground, which has been, very successful. I mean, the most, the most famous one is the garlic. That's certainly made a name for itself, although, not all the garlic that's sold on the garlic farm brand that has actually grown on the is of white, but quite a lot of it.

And they've just done that so well at marketing. The fact that, garlic grows on the olive of white, which it does. Olive white tomatoes is another one. That's so successful that most people are eating them. Probably don't know they're eating them. There is the tomato store brand where you can get the olive, what?

[00:12:00] Tomatoes in the cute little boxes. And my God, they're good. But actually a lot of the just generic tomatoes you buy in the supermarket, they're all Isle of Wight tomatoes as well. It's just that they're not branded up that.

Ben: Actually you and I have a mutual friend who lives in Dubai. I saw mention on Facebook that they were shopping and came across an olive white tomato stand in a supermarket in Dubai. Absolutely. I didn't know actually how big and successful that was until recently. And I live near those greenhouses and when they're all lit up, they're sort of glow pink.

It's amazing

Matt: It is.

Ben: to see. But yeah, they, they're everywhere. I was eating in a restaurant in London recently, and the people I was eating with were absolutely raving about the fact that it was, they didn’t these people didn't know I was from the Isle of Wight and were raving about the fact that it was Isle of Wight Garlic.

On in their meals. So yeah. That's, that's cool, right? So maybe that's it. Is that our food identity? It's tomatoes and garlic

Matt: that's probably what we've done best at. Maybe a, that's a tribute to those companies, those individuals who've been promoting those particular brands. But, [00:13:00] they've really taken our strength and run with it. I probably want shout out for Isle of Wight cheese as well, because there was no Isle of Wight cheese when, I started doing this food review stuff with Cat.

There was no Isle of Wight cheese at all. , but now there's at least two brands, I think maybe three of white cheese and I, I'm a massive fan of the Isle of Wight cheese company, which is,

Ben: They, they're the guys that, they make the blue,

Matt: that's right, yeah. Olive white,

Ben: That's, that is, that's pornography. I mean, that should, that should come with a 18 certificate stamp because, If that's in your house and you haven't consumed it within five minutes, there's, there's something wrong with

Matt: It's something seriously wrong. Yeah,

Ben: it's insane, isn't it?

It's so good.

Matt: It is so good. That is, that is a world class cheese. And I'm not just saying that because it's from the is white. It really is so much better than, the other ones. And, and it's got lots of awards as well. So it's not just me saying that, one of, one of the most successful videos I ever put on my own YouTube channel [00:14:00] is of me unboxing an is of white, blue cheese, point of view looking down at the cheese and me going, mm.

Ben: Can you remember the old days where you could have scratch and sniff tv? You had a card in, I think the Sun Newspaper issued them. You need to watch your video while it's, you know, 4D tv,

Matt: That's just, yeah, that would be cruel though. Cause then you couldn't eat the cheese. Yeah. Happy day. So yeah, there, there is some good produce, definitely. But I mean, we've also got some very good eating out venues, and places that are really capitalizing on the beautiful landscape and particularly seascape we've got.

Ben: Well actually that, I mean, I'd imagine when somebody discovers that they're talking to the Matthew Chatfield, the number one food reviewer in the is. I'd imagine there's two, but there's probably three questions people ask. We've not rehearsed this, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna guess. I'm gonna guess the first question is, where should I eat?

Where's the best place to eat? I'd imagine the second question is, where shouldn't I eat ? [00:15:00]Where should I avoid? And I think the third one is with the thousands reviews on your. Do you pay for this thing yourself? Just my guess. I reckon they're the three questions you get asked.

Matt: You are bang on, sir. You are absolutely bang on. That's right. And to address the last one first, yes, we pay for every meal we review. That's something that me and Cat have always found, held very strictly to, and, we've got the receipts to prove it. Because people always question that regularly, and particularly if they don't like the review, they'll say, oh yeah, they're just in it for a free meal, blah, blah.

Well, no, we're not. We pay and we tip if it's appropriate. Because if you don't pay, then you can't criticize. Sometimes we'll get given free food. Thank you very much. If we go to the opening of a restaurant and there's food being handed out, yes, we'll definitely do that. But then we write about it as an event, not as a review, and we label it as such.

 You read a review by Matt and Cat in the either what county press or on our website and it says it's a review and there's a star rating and we make comments on it, then we would've paid for that food. and we're quite strict about that, is we are not after freebies. [00:16:00] Cause you know, we never did this to make money and we've been successful in that and that we never have made any money out it.

Ben: That's the cur, that's the curse of the small blogger. Right. To make money doing anything like this. The number of people you need, need to listen to this podcast for any sort of advertiser to make any sense, would be enormous. And I would imagine it's exactly the same for you.

Matt: Exactly. Now if you go into it to make money, then you are on a losing streak really already. If you do something, You love doing and that's the purpose of doing it then. Yeah. If money comes along so much, the better. It didn't for us, nor was it intended to. Oh. And I'm sure we could have pursued more commercial avenues with it if we'd wanted to.

We have certainly had offers to, but we never really wanted to because it was just working out fine as it is. And, and if you start taking money for reviews, then it's a different game anyway. I'm not saying that's wrong, but it's not the game we wanted to be in.

Ben: Now don't, don't answer the question about the, the best place in the worst place. Certainly don't answer the one about the worst place, cuz episode one of Adventures of Whites does not want to be sued by anybody. Um, best, best place to read. I'm gonna, I'm gonna come back to you in a moment, but I'm, [00:17:00] I'm conscious, especially in these days of austerity, you know, the cost of living is, is going up.

Inflation at some ridiculous amount at the moment. This is an expensive endeavor, right? You know, going out to eat, going to these lovely places, or just going to any places, frankly, at the moment is an expensive thing. So, Matt, what? This isn't the day job. We've identified that.

Matt: Well, yeah, I do have a job. They do pay me. I've gotta buy this food with something. I work for a company called Matrix Create. Which is a web development agency based in Newport here on the island. And I make websites for people, or I manage the team that makes websites.

I'm not much of a developer myself or I've got some idea. But yeah, that, that's what I do. It's a fairly new role for me. I've only been doing it for a few months, but I'm having a great time. I'm really enjoying it.

Ben: Excellent. And actually I alluded in, in your, introduction that actually, it's not just about websites and reviewing food. Tell me about spiders. How come you are, you have this encyclopedic knowledge of spiders? We, we are chatting on Zoom, so I can see you and I can see there [00:18:00] is a, some sort of crustacean over your left shoulder

Matt: Good bit of id. Yes, that

Ben: yeah. What Matt, what's the, what's the background? What's the.

Matt: The story to the stuff crustation is, it's a plush, uh, giant, um, marine Isopod that I ordered from Japan one night after I'd had way too many glasses of wine and, uh,

Ben: Don't you hate it when that happens? You've had too much wine. Next thing, you've got stuffed crustaceans coming from Japan. It happens to me way too many times.

Matt: a constant problem and, and I love him. So I went, I regret nothing, although it was a very expensive, indulgence. But yeah, I am, I am really interested in the little creatures, the invertebrates.

Spiders of my particular interest and they're always happened since I was a child. I not entirely sure where that came from originally, but I think. I'm a pretty shortsighted guy. My eyesight is terrible. I wear big, thick glasses and always have done even since I was little, but.

Before I had my glasses, I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees looking at stuff and the things I could see were very [00:19:00] close to my face. So I wouldn't be looking at big stuff. I'd be looking at little things and obviously I was a bit smaller in those days as well. So I think I had an interest in small stuff because that's all I could see when I was very tiny.

But I dunno, it's just something that's always appealed to me. So I'm really interested in British spiders. Finding out what they're up to and where they go and trying to tick them off on my list. Which, I'm never gonna get to the end of that list, but I've seen some great spiders.

I really have, and the island is a great, it's.

Ben: Yeah. Oh, that really is, is that the, I didn't know that. So the is, I know it's, we have all sorts of interesting, things which you wouldn't necessarily see, just walking around the British Charles.

But spiders good here.

Matt: Yeah, it's pretty good cause it's, it's warm and the spiders like, like it warm. I there are other places you can go and also see a great spider for, but the island is a good place. There aren't many, in fact, I'm not sure if there are any spiders that are unique to the is of white.

But there was one way back, although since being found elsewhere. When [00:20:00] my best friend. Who lived in sand down along with me when we were younger on his 18th birthday. He had a car and I didn't. And on his 18th birthday, he said to me, oh, we're going out tonight.

Do you wanna come? I'm driving. Which looking back on it was a terrible idea because it meant he couldn't. Um, and uh, I said, yeah, let's do that, but, uh, I really want to go and check out this, uh, this place where I've heard there's a spider to be seen. And he is like, yeah, okay. We'll do. What little did he know that this place is right down the undercliff.

And it was also raining and you had to go and see this spider in the dark cause it only came out in the dark. And so bless him on his 18th birthday. Instead of going to the pub with his mates, he drove me down onto the undercliff, where we forged around in the undergrowth. Fruitlessly looking for this spider that only lived in this particular area and only came out at

Ben: And did you find it?

Matt: no, we did not find it . We did not find it. I've found it since,

Ben: I think it's, I think it's a myth. I think it's, I think maybe his mother [00:21:00] paid you off to, to stop him from going to the pub and doing something silly, which we've all done on our

Matt: yeah. There are a world probably. But, uh, yeah, he does, he does remind me of that even to this day.

Ben: So Matt, I, I'm guessing there's no chance that you are gonna combine your two big passions of food and insects and appear on an is right version of I'm a Celebrity. Get me outta here. Uh, where you could be served up some of your, your friends, you know, as, as for breakfast. That's, I guess that's just not gonna happen.

Matt: Well, I'll never say never, Ben. I mean, you know, I, I know you're a man who likes a project, so,

Ben: I think, I think, um, bear Grills is in the ali. Right? Right. Or has some family election to the Ali. Right. Maybe

Matt: Yeah. He lives in Benbridge, or he did live in Ben.

Ben: Right. There we go. So maybe we get Bear grills. Matt Chatfield. Um, Derek Sandy has to be there because, you know, and, and probably rob the bank if we could get you guys together.

Um, well, I'm, I'm a celebrity, get me off the island, sponsored by, um, white liquor, red funnel. Obviously, um, you're never gonna escape because it's probably after 10 [00:22:00] o'clock, so the furries aren't running. Um, and you have to eat. You can eat anything you like apart from a spider, which happens to come out at nighttime on Vener Undercliff on your 18th birthday.

Matt: Yeah. Yeah,

Ben: Sound good? I'm pitching this.

Matt: Where do I sign, Ben? Where do I sign?

Ben: You've already signed up. You just don't know it. Yeah. Okay. Look, I want to ask one more question of going back to food, because, well, no, not about food, just about the in general, but I'm gonna interweave food into this as well, and, uh, it's a question I want to ask every guest that comes onto this podcast.

Now, let's pretend. You, you are organizing an imaginary day out on the island. You've got a thousand pound budget. In fact, no. Make the budget unlimited. You can do whatever you want to do on the is wide. Um, in your case, obviously it's gonna involve eating out somewhere, but what does that day look like?

Who you, what are you doing? Where are you going? Who are you seeing? What's, what are the things that only Matt knows about in the is of whites somebody would find really interesting.

Matt: That's a great question [00:23:00] and, uh, I, I really wish I could do that in real life because there's, there's so many options to do. So let's assume that it's the heart of summer and everything's open and it's a lovely day. You've got the sunlight stretching out. So I'll choose that as if I get to wave, wave Ben's magic wand, um, and make it summer. So I would start off my day. Probably by going down to my local, cafe, the Happy Chef in, Moncton Street in Ryde and have a good, full English breakfast, with a nice cup of tea.

Sit out on the roadside and watch the world go by, say hello to a few friends. maybe there'd be something I'd say, Hey, I'm gonna go out for lunch later. Do you wanna come with me? I'd take the train because I love taking the little train.

Uh, the island Train is an absolute treat. Maybe I'd take that to Shanklin. And go down to the beach there, which is a lovely beach. And, uh, there's some really good places to eat and drink and maybe we could find something there, but I think probably I'd get the bus onto Ventnor, [00:24:00] um, because, uh, I'm public transport driving

Ben: Yeah. Matt, I was going to remind you, the budget is unlimited. I mean, if you wanted to you could fly

Matt: But, I wanna, I wanna be able to have a point of beer and, uh, maybe glass of

Ben: No, you are not flying. Matt, you, somebody will fly you.

Matt: Oh my goodness.

Ben: I'm gonna go. You're on the bus. Let's stick to the

Matt: Well, it, I mean, it's, it's kinda part of the fun, you know, um, I'm, I would enjoy that, especially if I had a few friends with me. You. Uh, it, it is part of the fun. So yeah, I'd go to Vena, uh, because there is some great places to eat in Vena. There really are, and I'd probably have lunch in, oh, probably Cantina, it's a venerable restaurant. It's going for years, but I love it there. And that it's kinda mediterraneanish food, but it's, it's always something fresh and interesting on the menu.

They're lovely people. It's a nice little spot you can sit down, have a chat, in the cozy little environment. And there's always something interesting to eat and some really great cocktails. So as I'm on the bus, I'll have a cocktail for lunch because why not?

Ben: What's, what's the cocktail of?[00:25:00]

Matt: Oh, blind me. Well, I'd probably been from the IS white.

I'd have to have an espresso martini, wouldn't I? Because that was invented by someone from Be

Ben: Oh, really? I didn't know that. No, sorry. I'm, I'm, I'm saying of course you would like, I know

Matt: Yeah. Yeah.

Ben: trivia, but I.

Matt: White. It wasn't actually on the island. The guy.

Ben: Wow. Wow. Hey, that reminds me, one of the things I was doing research for interviewing you and one of the questions I asked was around, you know, the is of Whites food identity. That's a, I'm gonna add that to my trivia. I didn't know that, but I'll see if I can out tri you.

The battenberg cake or the window cake, as it's known by anybody under the age of five, um, was actually invented to honor the marriage of Princess Victoria to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884 who lived at Aborn House. Now

Matt: Wow.

Ben: isn't it? Well, I mean

Matt: did not know that.

Ben: Is Battenberg cake a big thing outside of the uk?

I've no idea. I don't think I've ever seen it in my travels, [00:26:00] but, um, I. If a town was associated with anywhere else was associated with something as amazing as that, there'd be battenberg cake shops everywhere.

Matt: And everything would be painted in battenberg cake colors. And you'd have, yeah. Little coats that dogs could wear to make 'em look like battenberg cakes and all sorts of products would be made. Yeah.

Ben: Well on those, on those two bits of trivia, Matt, that's, I think we, I think we should draw the podcast to a close. It's been an absolute delight talking to, I do have a, I have one final question, which again, I want to ask everybody. Very kindly agree to be victim number one. Whilst Ben learns how to podcast.

We both know lots of people, you know way more people than I do. So the question I'm gonna ask everybody that comes onto this is, who should I interview next and how do I get hold of them?

Matt: Oh, so you wanna mind my address book?

Ben: I do want to,

Matt: there was me thinking you just wanted my insights on where to eat out. But, uh, it's, that's, that's a really tricky one, Ben. There's so many great people on the [00:27:00] island. This is an absolute hotbed, this island of. Exciting and interesting people with a story to tell, which is why I'm really looking forward to hearing, the rest of this podcast series.

I genuinely am. Cause I know you're gonna get some real exciting people with something that, everyone wants to hear to say. I mean, we should be looking at something maybe with a bit of a contemporary news interest, something that's

Ben: Oh, I can, well, I, yeah, it's funny cause I thought maybe you would go down the food in the food direction. But I, but I guess actually you're right. , maybe what's happening on the island, something interesting. Come on. My wheels are spinning. What have you, what have you got from me?

Matt: Okay. Well, there's, the new investment in media and film on the island isn't

Ben: Oh yes. Isn't that amazing?

Matt: the news of the time. And I know somebody who works in that industry who's gonna be very, very good to talk to, actually, yes, this is, this is who you should

Ben: Okay. Okay. Well, don't give, don't give any names. You, you've got, you've got somebody for me. So, so the rules are you have to introduce and you have to get them to listen to this podcast and make sure that they're, they're aware of what it is they're signing up for, but that [00:28:00] sounds excellent. Yeah, that's so exciting, that news. But I'm gonna draw this to a close, Matt. Once again, thank you so much for appearing on the episode one of Adventures of White. It's been an absolute delight. Final plug for you. Where can people find your food reviews?

Matt: Matt and cat.co uk is the website and also in the county press every fortnight. So you don't even have to use the internet. You can actually pick up a physical paper and read them.

Ben: Physical paper. Can you remember that? Right? Thank you very much Matt. Have a great day.

Matt: My pleasure.