#81, Tim McKirdy, managing editor, VinePair, recovering chef, host of the Cocktail College podcast

The Philip Duff Show

Myself and Tim have been threatening each other with a podcast taping for over a year, and we finally found time to sit down, beverages to hand, and make it happen!
(This is a satisfyingly lengthy episode, clocking in at over 2.5 hours, and we'll do more of such chat fests in the future, too).
We talk about Tim's path into the industry as a cook and chef in some very high-profile restaurants in his native UK and then in Argentina, moving into drinks writing, the rise of spirits designed to be mixed, the delusions we must all buy in to that make hospitality pleasant, changing tides of kitchen culture, why we don't have (but probably need) reviews of bars and spirits that are critical where deserved, the sparkling repartee that legendary restaurant AA Gill exchanged with Gordon Ramsay one evening in a restaurant where Tim worked, the anonymity dilemma of modern bars, our respective roles spreading COVID in early 2020 and our shared experience of the deli-counter / conveyor-belt marriages at Manhattan City Hall.
Enjoy!
(Oh, and the place Tim couldn't remember the name of, when I asked him for a place outside the US that had impressed him recently?
It's Radici in Italy: https://www.instagram.com/____radici____?igsh=eW45YnpteTNsaDAy )
Tim on IG: https://www.instagram.com/timmckirdy/?hl=en
Tim on X/Twitter: https://x.com/timmckirdy?s=11&t=kTsTPMPK0kgHLvK8ldrFXQ
Cocktail College on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5MLIRt8RnvTdfp1vFtVtI7
VinePair on IG: https://www.instagram.com/vinepair/?hl=en

Get in touch with Duff!
Podcast business enquiries: [e-mail]
(PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk about OTHER things than their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is, for a few hours.
They need to be able to hang.
Oh, plus we don't edit, and we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, or listener or “reach” stats, either.)
Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, brand creation and repositioning: [e-mail]
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