Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 24 delivered one of the most energetic studios of the year, as host Matt Tebbutt welcomed Gavin And Stacey star Joanna Page for her first ever appearance, alongside award-winning chefs Adam Byatt and Max Halley. The morning promised a culinary journey through Italy, America and Jordan, with a proud Welsh detour built around the special guest. Adam arrived fresh from being crowned Restaurateur of the Year at the National Restaurant Awards, Max came armed with his self-styled crown as the King of Sandwiches, and wine expert Helen McGinn lined up bottles she cheekily described as worthy of a royal warrant.
What unfolded was part masterclass, part comedy hour. Joanna had landed in London at 10pm the night before after filming in Glasgow, then stayed up until 1am watching her Taskmaster final with her children. She arrived starving, talkative and completely candid, declaring early that she just wanted the wine and the food. That hunger set the tone for a fast, funny show where simple cooking met big personality.
This edition of Saturday Kitchen 2026 also carried a celebratory thread. International Falafel Day gave Ayesha Kalaji from Queen of Cups in Glastonbury a reason to demonstrate the secrets of a perfect homemade falafel, while archive treasures from Rick Stein, Nigel Slater, Marcus Wareing and Nigella Lawson rounded out a packed running order. The viewers held the real power, voting on whether Joanna would face food heaven or food hell.
Adam Byatt opened the cooking with two dishes drawn from Rosina, the newest restaurant in his growing empire and one named after his daughter. His message was clear from the first minute: great Italian food is about restraint, not complication. He set out to prove that a handful of ingredients, handled well, can outshine anything fussier.
His tiramisu broke from tradition by leaving out alcohol entirely. Instead, the strength came from a super-strong double espresso folded through a mascarpone, cream, egg and sugar base, layered with delicate Italian biscuits he had specially brought over rather than the usual long sponge fingers. The coffee, he insisted, does all the heavy lifting, and nobody at the table missed the booze. Joanna dug straight in and called it absolutely beautiful, marvelling that it had been made moments earlier.
The cavatelli cacio e pepe was even leaner. Adam made fresh pasta from just 00 flour and boiling water, explaining that boiling water draws out the gluten quickly and binds the dough without resting. A pinch of salt, he noted, opens the palate and makes everything taste like more than the sum of its parts. The sauce was nothing more than heavily salted pasta water and pecorino, emulsified into a glossy coating, with toasted black pepper for warmth. Five ingredients, no butter, and a dish that genuinely belongs in a restaurant.
Behind the cooking sat a real story. Adam and his team had driven the length of Italy, from Milan down to Calabria, stopping at twenty-five producers and cooking with chefs along the way to immerse themselves before opening Rosina. The tiramisu recipe came from a banquet cooked by his head chef’s mother. Matt praised Adam as exceptional yet understated, recalling a post-lockdown lunch at his flagship restaurant Trinity that ran from midday until evening.
Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 24
Max Halley Reinvents Fast Food With Le Pig Max and the Case for the British Sausage
Max Halley arrived determined to do something serious with an ingredient Britain treats as a joke. His mission for Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 24 was to take the humble sausage and elevate it into genuine gastronomy, and his vehicle was Le Pig Max, a burger inspired by a New Orleans sandwich he had eaten on his travels.
The build was a lesson in texture and balance. Max squeezed the meat from quality sausages, arguing that a sausage is simply pre-minced, seasoned meat waiting to be set free from its skin. He shaped patties, melted smoked scamorza cheese over them using a blast of steam, and stacked everything on a soft bun. The supporting cast mattered just as much: crunchy lettuce, plenty of pickles, and raw onion for a sharp acidic bite that cuts through all the richness.
Two pickles did the work. A slow, cold pickle and a quick, hot version both relied on cucumbers, vinegar, sugar and a touch of water, but the secret weapon was turmeric. It barely changes the flavour, Max explained, yet after a night in the liquor it lends that unmistakable bright yellow fast-food glow. The burger sauce, which he described as ranch meeting classic burger sauce with paprika and mustard, drew teasing from Matt about being too mean with it during rehearsal.
Throughout, Max made the broader argument running through his cookbook. Cooked well and made from good ingredients, he believes a sausage delivers all the joy of a steak. He and Adam even discovered they make toad in the hole the same way, using a giant Cumberland sausage, prompting a warm exchange between two chefs who clearly admire each other’s craft. The finished Pig Max, sliced into quarters, disappeared fast.
Why Glamorgan Sausages Made the Perfect Tribute to a Welsh Guest
In honour of Joanna’s deep Welsh roots, Matt cooked a classic he suspected she had never tried: Glamorgan sausages. The choice felt pointed and personal, a nod to a guest who has lived in Wales since she was three months old and who joked that the whole studio seemed to be taking over with Welsh voices that morning.
The dish surprised Joanna because it contains no meat at all. Matt explained its wartime origins in the 1940s, when Glamorgan cheese, leeks and store-cupboard staples were combined into something hearty without rationed meat. His version brought together sweated leeks, plenty of cheese, thyme, wholegrain mustard, eggs and a generous quantity of breadcrumbs, rolled and deep-fried until golden and crisp.
The verdict was enthusiastic. Joanna praised the creaminess of the cheese, the crunch of the breadcrumb coating and the way the leeks carried the flavour, noting that she did not miss the absence of meat at all. The moment also opened up one of the show’s funniest threads, as she confessed her own cooking history, including a long-ago attempt at spaghetti for her future husband that involved boiled pre-made pasta topped with a drained tin of tuna and grated cheddar.
That story softened into something genuine. Joanna spoke about cooking for three children and a husband who now does most of the cooking, describing how the early joy of it can fade when family life turns the kitchen into a non-stop cafe. Her affection for Frank’s pasta, a sauce recipe given by an Italian neighbour back in Swansea, revealed a real love of food beneath the comedy.
Joanna Page Brings Taskmaster Triumph and Unfiltered Honesty to the Studio
Few guests have arrived riding a wave quite like Joanna’s. Having just won Taskmaster in a final she found deeply emotional, she described the experience as life-changing and unlike any acting job she had done. After two decades on television, she said the show still managed to shock her with its unpredictability.
Her storytelling stole the show. She recounted smuggling the trophy, Greg’s golden head, home in her suitcase and hiding it on top of her wardrobe under towels for nearly a year, refusing to tell her children whether she had won. Only after they watched the final together did she set them a Taskmaster-style challenge of their own, sending them off to find the hidden head. The image of her four-year-old asking how elephants breathe at dawn captured the chaos of her household perfectly.
Joanna also reflected on the creative freedom the format unlocked. Paired with one of her heroes for the team tasks, she discovered they were complete opposites, she impulsive and fast, he methodical and considered. She described the liberation of being told simply to do something brave, of smashing a teacup and throwing a bucket of water over herself, and of falling in love with the famous caravan that other contestants dreaded.
The honesty extended to wine. Joanna admitted she had long avoided white wine and rosé, blaming hangovers on the sweetness she craves, only for Helen to gently explain that sugar and alcohol together tend to make the morning after far worse. It was the kind of unguarded exchange that made this Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode feel less like a cooking programme and more like a conversation among friends.
Helen McGinn’s Around-the-World Wine List Proves Bargains Can Outshine Expectations
Helen McGinn turned the drinks segment into a tour of four countries, matching each studio dish with a bottle chosen as much for value as for flavour. Her selections reinforced a recurring theme of the morning: brilliant results need not be expensive, whether in the pan or in the glass.
For Adam’s alcohol-free tiramisu and cacio e pepe she poured a Falanghina, an ancient and underrated Italian white from Campania, the land of pizza and volcanoes. She praised the energy the volcanic soil gives the wine and its surprising weight, explaining that a dry white can work with a light, alcohol-free pudding even when convention says to pair sweet with sweet. Max admitted he would never have expected a dry wine to suit a dessert, yet conceded it worked brilliantly. Best of all, it was a bargain from a supermarket.
Max’s Le Pig Max called for something juicier. Helen reached for a Barossa Valley Shiraz, around nine pounds from a major supermarket, packed with blackcurrant and built to keep the spotlight on the sausage. She noted that the Barossa is to South Australia what Napa is to California, and revealed a personal connection to the world of wine, having grown up the daughter of a well-known wine journalist with a taste for both the expensive and the cheap.
The food heaven dish brought the most adventurous match of all. With the spicy garlic chicken, Helen chose an Austrian Gemischter Satz, a field blend in which many grape varieties are planted and harvested together. Grüner Veltliner brings spice, pinot blanc brings citrus and chardonnay adds weight, creating an aromatic wine that stands up to bold, spicy flavours and gets involved on the plate rather than sitting politely beside it.
Ayesha Kalaji Reveals the Secrets to a Perfect Homemade Falafel
To mark International Falafel Day, Ayesha Kalaji of Queen of Cups in Glastonbury set out to rescue falafel from its reputation as a dry supermarket disappointment. Her demonstration was full of practical detail aimed squarely at home cooks who feel intimidated by the dish.
The most important rule concerned the chickpeas. Ayesha was emphatic that you must use dried chickpeas soaked overnight, never tinned, because tinned simply will not hold together or fry properly. A little baking powder was added so that, on contact with moisture, it releases carbon dioxide bubbles that make the interior fluffy while the outside turns bright and crunchy. She also warned against over-blending, which turns the mix to mulch and produces a sad, soggy result.
Colour and freshness ran through her method. She blended the herbs first to achieve a vivid green throughout, added garlic and green chilli for life, and shaped the mixture into golf-ball-sized portions before deep-frying for three to four minutes. The falafel were finished with a tahini dressing whipped with ice to emulsify the fat into the water, keeping it light, pillowy and pale rather than heavy and cloudy, then plated with lime, sumac, parsley and good olive oil.
Ayesha brought her own heritage to the table, too. Raised in Anglesey, she sometimes folds laver bread into her falafel as a homage to her Welsh upbringing, prizing its gentle salinity rather than any overpowering punch. She spoke warmly about Queen of Cups, named after a tarot card to suit Glastonbury and to embody the feminine energy that shapes her food, and shared that the restaurant had recently been named Chef of the Year at a leading gastropub awards.
Archive Gems From Rick Stein, Nigel Slater, Marcus Wareing and Nigella Lawson
The studio cooking was threaded through with some of the show’s best archive material, beginning with Rick Stein in Bangladesh as he rounded off a journey across Asia. Visiting a tea estate more than 130 years old, he learned how the country became a major tea exporter and how strong, sweet masala chai, often made with condensed milk, owes its very existence to British influence that once pushed factory and mill workers to take tea breaks. A later visit to the Khasi tribe brought a wood-smoke-filled lunch of pork with black sesame seeds and village chicken.
Nigel Slater offered a gentler kind of inspiration from an allotment, confessing to a new envy for the abundance growing there. Cooking with produce picked on the spot by a family tending their second-summer plot, he made a rich tomato and garlic dish lifted with rosemary and a controversial splash of cream. The standout moment came when a child declared they wanted that dish instead of Bolognese forever. He followed with a leek risotto, a thrifty Friday-night supper finished with homemade parmesan crisps that he summed up as voluptuous and cheap.
Marcus Wareing travelled to Provence to test his own herb mix against the local favourite, herbes de Provence. He cooked baked haddock in a one-pot lentil sauce enriched with mascarpone, smoked paprika and his signature touch of lavender. The dish won over the herb-shop owner and his wife so completely that they agreed to stock his blend, and Marcus reflected on how dried herbs reconnected him with the recipes his mother once made.
Nigella Lawson closed the archive run with a dark, sumptuous chocolate cake that happens to be vegan. Built on a liquid batter for an exceptionally tender crumb, it used cocoa, dark chocolate of at least seventy percent, instant espresso powder for depth, and a clever pairing of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to lift it without eggs. Finished with a glossy coconut-butter icing, pistachios and dried rose petals, she ranked it near the very top of her Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame.
Food Heaven Wins as Viewers Hand Joanna a Sticky Garlic Chicken Triumph
The day’s central tension always sat with the audience vote. Joanna had named her food heaven as chicken, garlic and anything spicy, with a particular love of Chinese food. Her food hell was vivid and very specific: a plate of peas, coriander she cannot abide because of its metallic taste and smell, and any fish that looks too much like a fish. Octopus and tentacled creatures, she confessed, genuinely freak her out.
That phobia produced one of the morning’s best stories. On the first night of her honeymoon she ordered king prawns, panicked at their long tentacles and jazz-hands appearance, and had her husband peel every one under a napkin like a magician. He then ordered a pig’s head, complete with snout, despite her warning that she would not kiss him if he ate it. He ate it anyway, and twenty-three years later they are still together, a marriage she jokes is now sustained by recording her podcast like couples therapy.
In the end, the viewers were kind. Seventy-six percent voted for food heaven, sparing Joanna the dreaded coriander-laden sea bream and delivering the sticky garlic and chilli Chinese chicken she craved. Matt prepared it using the velveting technique Ken Hom once demonstrated on the show, coating the chicken in egg white and cornflour to seal in moisture before searing, then finishing it in a glaze of honey, soy, Shaoxing wine, vinegar, garlic, ginger and birds eye chilli, served with egg fried rice.
Joanna declared it tasted just like a takeaway, with the chicken beautifully soft and the honey lending real sweetness. The closing minutes celebrated her wider moment, from her thrift-and-upcycling series and her chart of fifty things to do before fifty to the news that Margot Robbie is a Gavin And Stacey super-fan. As Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 24 wrapped, Matt looked ahead to a Scottish-flavoured edition with chefs Julie Lin and Peter McKenna and guest Sir Lenny Henry, sending viewers off with the same warmth and momentum that had defined the whole show.
FAQ Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 24
Q: Who were the guests on Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 24?
A: Host Matt Tebbutt welcomed chefs Adam Byatt, recently crowned Restaurateur of the Year, and Max Halley, the self-styled King of Sandwiches. Gavin And Stacey star Joanna Page joined as the special guest in her first ever appearance, while wine expert Helen McGinn paired drinks with every studio dish.
Q: How do you make tiramisu without alcohol?
A: Adam Byatt skipped the booze entirely and let super-strong double espresso carry the flavour. He whisked two whole eggs and four yolks with sugar, mascarpone and cream, then layered the mixture with delicate Italian biscuits and dusted it with cocoa. The strong coffee means nobody misses the alcohol.
Q: Why do you use boiling water to make fresh pasta?
A: Boiling water draws the gluten out of 00 flour quickly, helping the dough bind without resting in the fridge. Adam Byatt used just flour, boiling water and a pinch of salt to make cavatelli, calling it the quickest, simplest pasta he knows.
Q: What is cacio e pepe made of?
A: Authentic cacio e pepe uses only pasta, heavily salted pasta water, pecorino cheese and toasted black pepper. There is no butter. Adam Byatt emulsified the starchy water and pecorino into a glossy sauce, proving five ingredients can deliver restaurant-quality results.
Q: What is Le Pig Max and how is it made?
A: Le Pig Max is Max Halley’s sausage burger, inspired by a New Orleans sandwich. He squeezed quality sausage meat from its skin, shaped patties, then melted smoked scamorza over them using steam. Stacked with pickles, lettuce, raw onion and a paprika-mustard burger sauce, it reinvents fast food as gastronomy.
Q: What gives fast-food pickles their bright yellow colour?
A: Turmeric does the work. Max Halley explained that turmeric barely changes the flavour of a cucumber pickle, but after a night in vinegar, sugar and water, it lends that unmistakable bright yellow fast-food glow. He uses both slow cold pickles and quick hot ones.
Q: What are Glamorgan sausages and do they contain meat?
A: Glamorgan sausages contain no meat at all. The Welsh classic dates from 1940s wartime rationing and combines cheese, sweated leeks, wholegrain mustard, thyme, eggs and breadcrumbs. Matt Tebbutt rolled them in breadcrumbs and deep-fried them until golden, creating a crisp, creamy tribute to guest Joanna Page’s Welsh roots.
Q: How does the velveting technique keep stir-fry chicken soft?
A: Velveting coats the chicken in egg white and cornflour before cooking, sealing in moisture so it stays soft and juicy. Matt Tebbutt seared the coated chicken, then finished it in a sticky glaze of honey, soy, Shaoxing wine, vinegar, garlic, ginger and birds eye chilli, served with egg fried rice.
Q: Why must you use dried chickpeas for falafel instead of tinned?
A: Ayesha Kalaji insisted that tinned chickpeas simply will not hold together or fry properly. Dried chickpeas soaked overnight are essential, with a little baking powder added so it releases carbon dioxide bubbles on contact with moisture. The result is fluffy inside and bright, crunchy outside.
Q: Did Joanna Page get food heaven or food hell?
A: Joanna Page won food heaven after 76% of viewers voted for it. She received sticky garlic and chilli Chinese chicken with egg fried rice, sparing her the food hell of a coriander-laden whole sea bream. She described the chicken as tasting just like a takeaway, soft and sweet.
