The Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 26 brought together a heatwave-defying line-up that paired Hollywood comedy royalty with three chefs cooking across continents, as Matt Tebbutt welcomed Jesse Tyler Ferguson into the studio on one of the hottest mornings of the year. Best known as Mitchell Pritchett across 11 seasons of Modern Family and now performing as King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium, Ferguson arrived as both special guest and self-confessed obsessive foodie.
This Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 26 served chicken and bread inspired by Spain, a sweet and sour macaroni dhal rooted in Gujarat, and a smoky South African braai pie, with wine expert Olly Smith pouring bargain bottles and archive films from Rick Stein, Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater and Marcus Wareing threaded between the live cooking.
Ferguson set the tone early, admitting he thrives on chaos and would have trained as a chef had acting not intervened. His food podcast, Dinner’s On Me, has now recorded almost 150 episodes. The studio chefs were Ben Lippett, Ravinder Bhogal and Nokx Majozi, the South African “Queen of Pies” making her Saturday Kitchen debut. The viewer vote, as ever, decided Ferguson’s fate at the close: a spicy oxtail chile rellenos for food heaven, or harissa-braised squid for food hell.
What gave this Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 26 its energy was the collision of comfort and adventure on every plate. Lippett kept things rustic and Spanish, Bhogal made a case for dhal as one of the great affordable dishes, and Majozi grilled puff pastry over open coals. Around them, Ferguson talked candidly about Broadway nerves, British audiences and why he still loses his words trying to pronounce “rellenos.”
Lippett returned from Spain having eaten, by his own account, heaps of bread and tomato, and he translated that obsession into crispy chicken thighs with white beans and roasted olives. The dish leaned on pan con tomate, the Catalan staple he called one of the best things you can do with a tomato. His method was deliberately simple: grated tomatoes loosened with salt, sherry vinegar and olive oil, treated as little more than an ingredient plus seasoning.
The chicken thigh went into a hot pan skin-side down with nothing but salt, then weighted from above to force maximum contact with the pan. Lippett promised skin as crisp as glass, achieved over a medium heat for eight to ten minutes of slow rendering. On the flesh side he added dried oregano, a strip of lemon zest and more salt, a small deviation from strict Spanish tradition that he was happy to own.
Once the fat had rendered, slices of bread went into the pan to drink up the chicken fat and oil, joined by garlic and green olives before the whole thing finished in the oven. He warmed the beans gently in their own jar liquor, treating it as a protein-rich bean stock rather than rinsing it away. The hot olives, he insisted, turned chewy and intensely savoury, releasing flavour he had fallen for during rehearsal.
Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 26
A Chef Who Swapped Stoves for Sheep in the Tamar Valley
Rick Stein’s archive film took viewers to a Cornish farm in the shelter of the Tamar Valley, where London chef Dan Cox traded a Michelin-starred kitchen at Claridge’s for life rearing sheep. Cox’s booming call across the fields became the film’s signature, but his philosophy ran deeper than showmanship. He argued that good meat comes from the root up, with lambs born and raised entirely on pasture, suckling and grazing grass almost immediately.
Cox’s regenerative thinking inverted conventional farming. Rather than removing Cornwall’s lush flush of grass as hay or silage, he mulched it back down onto the pasture to feed the soil and, in turn, the animals. Cornwall’s mizzle and moisture made it possible, creating the conditions for grass to thrive. The aim, he explained, was animals, grass and plants all working in harmony, a system rather than a sequence of extractions.
He also challenged a habit British cooks rarely question. Where the country tends to prize young spring lamb, Cox believes we should eat sheep up to four years old, because age builds fat and deepens flavour. Stein used the gifted shoulder for a French navarin, browning the meat, building a stew from root vegetables, then straining it to spotlight fresh spring potatoes, turnips, peas and beans. He finished with mint rather than parsley, a nod to Britain’s enduring love of mint with lamb.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson on King Herod, Scaffolding Sets and Earning a Standing Ovation
For all his eight minutes of stage time per show, Ferguson spoke about Jesus Christ Superstar with the reverence of a lifelong fan. Andrew Lloyd Webber, he said, was his Beatles growing up, a childhood spent on Sondheim and Lloyd Webber rather than pop music. Playing King Herod at the Palladium, arriving at a tense midpoint in the second act as a flash of levity, represented a huge personal moment, even if it takes the entire first act to apply his elaborate make-up.
He was generous about the production around him. The scaffolding backdrop, initially mistaken by audiences for an unfinished set, transforms once the lighting reveals its design, lending the show the feel of a rock concert. Audience members stand on the stage of the Palladium itself, watching from inches away with what Ferguson cheerfully described as the best, sweatiest seats in the house. He praised co-star Sam Ryder, the TikTok-to-West-End singer, as a genuinely gifted actor growing with every performance, while ribbing himself as a five-time Emmy loser.
British audiences clearly moved him. He found their standing ovations, often arriving mid-show, startling precisely because reserve makes them feel earned. He recalled Bryan Cranston, a former Modern Family director and podcast guest, making the same observation: when British crowds look appreciative, they mean it. For Ferguson, who has felt obligatory ovations on Broadway, that authenticity mattered more than reflexive applause.
Tebbutt’s Char-Grilled Venison Makes the Case for Summer Game
Tebbutt used the season’s best cherries to reframe venison as a summer barbecue dish rather than a wintry braise. Venison, he noted, is available year-round, free-range, lean and genuinely good for you, which made char-grilling it feel less like heresy and more like common sense. He paired the grilled meat with a glossy cherry sauce and a knob of flavoured butter, keeping the whole thing bright and direct.
The sauce cooked cherries down with red wine, port, Madeira and chicken stock until syrupy, then balanced with balsamic and red wine vinegar for a sweet-sharp edge. Lacking a cherry stoner, Tebbutt simply cut the cheeks from the fruit, a practical shortcut for home cooks. As the venison rested, he melted a compound butter scented with juniper berries, rosemary and a sliver of garlic over the top, reserving every drop of resting juice to finish the plate.
The result was deliberately colourful, the deep red of the cherries against the dark meat. Tebbutt reassured Ferguson that the alcohol in the sauce was for flavour alone, cooked off entirely, a small but telling courtesy given his guest’s pre-show sobriety. It was a dish built for the weather: rich without heaviness, festive without effort.
Ravinder Bhogal Reinvents Dhal as Affordable, Crave-Worthy Comfort
Bhogal arrived backing herself hard, claiming her sweet and sour macaroni dhal as one of the most brilliant manifestations of a humble, economical dish. She built it in two stages, first pressure-cooking split pigeon peas with green chilli, peanuts and turmeric, deliberately withholding salt so the lentils could cook evenly until they collapsed. Pressure cookers, she argued, halve the cooking time and deserve far less fear than they get.
The heart of the dish was the tempering, what she called the breath of the dhal, the step that gives it life. Sequence mattered enormously. Brown mustard seeds went into hot coconut oil first and had to pop before anything else followed, chased by curry leaves, a pinch of pungent asafoetida, dried chilli and cinnamon. Only then did the ginger, garlic and chilli trio go in. She explained the logic: each spice carries its own oil, and layering them in order builds a densely flavoured base rather than a muddle.
Bhogal tied the recipe to her wider mission of accessible, nourishing food. Her dish draws on a traditional Gujarati recipe that swaps fiddly diamond-shaped doaky pasta for everyday macaroni, finished with tamarind for sourness and jaggery for sweetness. At her V&A East residency in Stratford she sells a daily-changing version for around seven or eight pounds, food she describes as filling, nutritious and crave-worthy without being junk. A third restaurant, opening in November, will explore the South Asian vegetarian cooking of her grandparents, built around health and longevity.
From Weymouth Scallops to a Provençal Ploughman’s: The Best of the Food Archive
Nigel Slater’s film carried the show to Weymouth, where fisherman Ian Taylor demonstrated his prized hand-caught scallops, cooked simply with chorizo on the back of the boat. Taylor’s case was a study in restraint and respect for the catch: leave as much in the shell as possible, keep the coral that some chefs wrongly discard, and flash-fry the scallops for just a couple of minutes. He cooked the chorizo until crisp for contrast, then finished with a controversial drizzle of honey that Slater initially wanted to stop and then conceded was perfect. Spicy, sweet and smoky, it became, in Slater’s words, extreme surf and turf.
Marcus Wareing’s segment relocated a British pub classic to Provence, reimagining the ploughman’s for French dinner guests. He marinated chicken thighs in herbes de Provence, smoked paprika, honey and garlic, then barbecued them slowly, searing first before moving to gentler heat. He grilled lettuce and white figs for charred sweetness and served everything with his own fig chutney, hard cheese and goat’s cheese. His guests, initially sceptical, declared it a hit, half-joking that they preferred it to a real English pub version because it carried their own terroir.
Nigella Lawson, meanwhile, offered the episode’s most personal dish: a rose and pepper pavlova inspired by her grandfather Felix, who always ate strawberries with a grinding of black pepper. She folded ground black pepper and rosewater into the meringue base, lending it what she called the huskiest hint of Turkish delight, then topped it with strawberries macerated in passion fruit juice and sugar. The juice turned the fruit slick and scarlet, the colour pooling into gleaming coral rivulets down the marshmallowy sides.
Nokx Majozi Grills Puff Pastry to Make South Africa’s Smoky Braai Pie
Majozi brought the episode’s most surprising technique, building a peri peri chicken pie and then cooking the puff pastry over open coals in a braai basket. She began with the marinade, a peri peri of chilli, lemon juice and peppers that doubled as a sauce so the finished pie would never be dry. South Africa’s deep Portuguese influence, she explained, is exactly why peri peri became part of the country’s culinary fabric.
The construction was straightforward enough to translate to any home kitchen. Cooked peri peri chicken, spinach and mushrooms were layered and topped with puff pastry, with Majozi noting that anyone without a braai basket could simply build it in a pie dish. The basket, however, delivered the dish’s signature: smokiness. Toasting the assembled pie over low, slow coals on both sides until evenly charred gave a depth that grilling alone could not, before a finish in the oven at 200 degrees for around 25 minutes.
The conversation revealed the warmth behind the recipe. Majozi grew up in Durban, an hour from the township where she was born, in a city shaped by a large Indian community. She credited Callum Franklin and The Pie Room with sparking her love of pies, and now works as chef in residence at Roe alongside the Fallow team of Jack and Will. Her South African cookbook, she said, embodies the country through dishes like Durban’s bunny chow and biltong salads, food rooted in family, joy and memory.
Olly Smith’s Bargain Bottles and the Vote That Crowned Food Heaven
Smith matched each dish with characteristic flair, opening with M&S Found Dimyat at just eight pounds, a Bulgarian white he framed as the future of refreshing, textured, affordable wine. He traced the Dimyat grape’s journey from the Nile Valley through Greece to Bulgaria’s Thracian plains, where ancient peoples once worshipped the god of wine. Honeysuckle, frosted lemon peel and a zippy freshness made it, in his telling, the whole package for the price of a sandwich.
For Bhogal’s dhal he poured Gemtree Luna Crescente Fiano from McLaren Vale, a fifteen-pound Waitrose bottle he described as a peach wearing a grapefruit helmet, praising the producer’s organic and biodynamic credentials. Majozi’s braai pie met Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc, a bright Stellenbosch white grown on decomposed granite and built for easy summer drinking. Throughout, Smith kept Ferguson’s sobriety in mind, eventually serving him Mother Root ginger topped with soda, an intense non-alcoholic zing the actor wanted to rub on his forehead in the heat.
The Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 26 closed with the public vote, and the studio applause confirmed the result. Viewers sent Ferguson to food heaven: the spicy oxtail chile rellenos, peppers stuffed with slow-braised oxtail and mozzarella, shallow-fried in a whipped egg batter and served with a simple tomato sauce. Ferguson, who confessed he had never made the dish and only loved eating it, declared it light and genuinely delicious, insisting he was no liar when it came to food.
The episode ended as it began, on heat, humour and appetite, with Ferguson too full to be sure his Herod costume would still fit. Tebbutt signed off promising more Best Bites the next morning and a fresh live line-up the following Saturday featuring Andrew Wong, Seema Pankhania, Jess Shadbolt and Ricky Wilson. Across its run, this Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 26 proved that a heatwave is no obstacle to ambition, layering Spanish bread, Gujarati dhal, Cornish lamb and a charred South African pie into one of the warmest, most flavour-packed mornings of the season.
FAQ Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 26
Q: Who was the special guest on Saturday Kitchen 2026 episode 26?
A: Jesse Tyler Ferguson, best known as Mitchell Pritchett across 11 seasons of Modern Family, joined Matt Tebbutt. He is currently performing as King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium and hosts the food podcast Dinner’s On Me, which has recorded almost 150 episodes.
Q: Which chefs cooked on this Saturday Kitchen episode?
A: Three chefs cooked live in the studio. Ben Lippett made Spanish-inspired crispy chicken thighs with white beans, Ravinder Bhogal prepared a sweet and sour macaroni dhal, and Nokx Majozi, the “Queen of Pies,” made her Saturday Kitchen debut with a smoky South African braai pie.
Q: Did Jesse Tyler Ferguson get food heaven or food hell?
A: Viewers voted him food heaven. Matt Tebbutt cooked spicy oxtail chile rellenos: peppers stuffed with slow-braised Mexican oxtail and mozzarella, shallow-fried in a whipped egg batter and served with a simple tomato sauce. Ferguson, who had never made the dish before, called it light and genuinely delicious.
Q: How does Ben Lippett get crispy chicken skin like glass?
A: He places the thigh skin-side down in a hot pan with only salt, then weights it from above to maximise contact. Cooking over medium heat for eight to ten minutes slowly renders the fat. Slices of bread later soak up the chicken fat, echoing Spanish pan con tomate.
Q: Why does the order of spices matter in Ravinder Bhogal’s dhal?
A: Each spice carries its own oil, so adding them in sequence builds layered flavour rather than a muddle. Brown mustard seeds go into hot oil first and must pop before curry leaves, asafoetida, chilli and cinnamon follow. Only then does the ginger, garlic and chilli trio join the densely flavoured base.
Q: What makes Nokx Majozi’s braai pie different from a normal pie?
A: The puff pastry is toasted over open coals in a braai basket before finishing in the oven. This adds smokiness that ordinary baking cannot deliver. Filled with peri peri chicken, spinach and mushrooms, the pie reflects South Africa’s strong Portuguese influence. Home cooks without a basket can simply build it in a pie dish.
Q: Can you cook venison as a summer barbecue dish?
A: Yes. Matt Tebbutt char-grilled venison rather than braising it, pointing out the meat is available year-round, free-range, lean and good for you. He paired it with a glossy cherry sauce reduced with red wine, port, Madeira and stock, then finished it with a juniper, rosemary and garlic butter.
Q: Why does Dan Cox believe older sheep taste better?
A: The Cornish farmer argues sheep up to four years old develop more fat as they age, which makes the meat richer and more flavourful. He raises lambs entirely on pasture and mulches grass back into the soil, a regenerative approach Rick Stein used for a French navarin of lamb.
Q: What wines did Olly Smith recommend on Saturday Kitchen?
A: Smith poured M&S Found Dimyat, a Bulgarian white at around eight pounds, Gemtree Luna Crescente Fiano from McLaren Vale, and Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc from Stellenbosch. For Ferguson, who avoids alcohol before performing, he served Mother Root ginger topped with soda as a refreshing non-alcoholic option.
Q: How do you cook hand-caught scallops with chorizo?
A: In Nigel Slater’s film, fisherman Ian Taylor flash-fried scallops for just two to three minutes, keeping the prized coral that some chefs discard. He cooked the chorizo until crisp for contrast, then finished the dish with a drizzle of runny honey. Spicy, sweet and smoky, he called it extreme surf and turf.
