Feedback: June 2026 - Tom Parker Bowles

Feedback June 2026

Tom Parker Bowles

Tom Parker Bowles has spent years moving comfortably between roast dinners, restaurant tables, and the occasional rather polished food review, always with a pen in one hand and a fork in the other.

As a writer, restaurant critic, and all-round enthusiastic eater, he moves easily from childhood nostalgia to chilli-fuelled stir fries, with a detour through proper British sweets and the odd excellent restaurant in Soho. He writes about food the way most of us actually experience it: a bit messy, a bit joyful, and always better when someone else does the washing up. Whether he is praising a perfect curry or gently taking down a disappointing pudding, he manages to sound like someone you would happily sit next to at a long Sunday lunch.

Our Feedback guest this month, Tom reflects on the dishes that shaped him, the ingredients he can’t live without, and why even the most serious eater still makes room for sherbet dips and a good helping of comfort food. It’s a reminder that behind every polished restaurant review is someone who still thinks roast chicken tastes like home - and probably always will.

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What food always reminds you of your childhood?
Roast chicken. It really is the taste of my childhood, and something we had every week. That, and proper sweet shop sweets, Candy cigarettes, Sherbet Dip Dabs, Fruit Salads, Refreshers and all the rest. I do think the British do the best sweets (and crisps) in the word.

You write about food; you write recipe books… what’s your favourite quick meal when you just want to settle down and watch tv?
Usually a fiery stir fry, using king prawns, a fierce Thai Kua Gling curry paste (I like the Mae Jum brand), bok choi, sugar snaps, spring onions, noodles and lots of lime juice and fish sauce.

How are your Pilates Reformer classes going?
Ha ha. I still do them once or twice a week. Tough, but they certainly help my ever more creaky joints.               

You launched Christopher’s Cordials last year do you have a favourite flavour?
I’m a fan of the Blackcurrant and Blueberry, as it reminds me of a grown-up Ribena. But they are all pretty good, if you ask me. Not over sweet and deeply refreshing, and make good cocktails, as well as a proper old-fashioned cordial.

Can you tell us about the philosophy of your book, Let’s Eat Meat, particularly at a time when people are being advised to eat less?
This is a reissue of a book I wrote about 10 years ago, but the philosophy is as relevant as ever. Eat less meat but better quality. And embrace the cheaper, tougher cuts too. Oh, and support your butcher. Any decent butcher will not only be proud to tell you where his meat comes from, but will give you cooking tips too. You certainly don’t get that at the supermarket   

Do you have a current favourite restaurant or type of restaurant?
Gosh, as Restaurant Critic for The Mail on Sunday, I do eat out a lot. And was deeply impressed by Impala in Soho, and well as Osteria Vibrato around the corner. When off duty, I do tend to crave proper Thai places like Thai 101 in Hammersmith, or Min Jiang on Kensington High Street, for serious dim sum

What food or ingredient could you not do without?
Chillies. I’m addicted, obsessed. Life without these beautiful fruits is all but unthinkable.

Is there a memorable meal you can remember eating?
So many. But some of my favourites lunches on earth have been at Da Adolfo and Los Scoglio just around the corner from Positano in Italy.

 Is there something particular you always keep in the fridge?
There’s always cheese of some kind in the fridge, a Montgomery’s cheddar, or some Comte. Along with San Pelligrino water, various pickles, and enough hot sauces to fill a supermarket shelf.

What would be your last supper if literally anything was available to you and where would you eat it, and who would you be with?
I think about this a lot, and change my mind every two minutes. One moment, it’s a serious Thai feast, another a proper Mexican blow out. It would definitely be eaten with my family and best friends, involve lots of serious claret and probably potted shrimps on toast, roast chicken and roast potatoes, then a Welsh rarebit for pudding.

Let’s Eat Meat by Tom Parker Bowles is out 21^st May (Pavilion), Hardback: £26.

To be in with a chance of winning a copy of Let's Eat Meat, head over to our competition page and enter the Books for Cooks competition.