Ed Gamble spends most of his professional life talking about food – and I get the impression he spends most of his time thinking about it, too. The comedian, star of shows like Great British Menu and Taskmaster, and co-host of the immensely popular podcast Off Menu, has firm opinions about Yorkshire puddings and a constantly evolving hierarchy of favourite carbs (current top: noodles). He can read a cookbook the way you and I might read a novel – ‘That’s all I want to read!’ he insists – and spends late nights watching street-food hacks on YouTube.You know when your foodie friends go to some Michelin joint and proceed to describe every single course they had on the tasting menu? Gamble actually finds it fun listening to that. ‘I’ll be looking at the menu as they’re talking about it,’ he enthuses. ‘I’m still just as obsessed by this stuff as I’ve ever been.’My point is, at 40, Ed Gamble seems very much like a man in the right career. He gets to do two things he really loves – talking and eating – for money. Quite a lot of money, you’d think: Off Menu, in which Gamble and co-host James Acaster grill guests on their favourite dishes at the ‘Dream Restaurant’, has consistently been among the top British podcasts across more than 380 episodes. It has featured guests as various as Jamie Oliver, Florence Pugh, Robert De Niro, Yotam Ottolenghi and (everyone’s favourite) Bob Mortimer, regularly drawing in more than 100,000 listens per episode, and making Gamble one of the most influential people in the food industry. ‘When we started, I don’t think we had any idea how popular a podcast could become – or how much it could define one’s career. And still does. The majority of people who come up and say hello mention Off Menu. To the extent that if they mention something else, I think, “Oh my god, a real fan.”’ T-shirt, Moss. Watch and ring, Ed’s ownProvided some disaster doesn’t befall him (his ‘absolute worst nightmare’ is late-onset lactose intolerance), Gamble looks set to continue his path to national ubiquity. Later this year he’ll be returning to hosting duties on the Celebrity Traitors spin-off Uncloaked; his brand-new panel show Unacceptable, with Richard Ayoade and Joanne McNally, begins on TLC next month; and he will be touring his new stand-up show, Fresh Hell, in 2027.We are talking in a sunny suburban garden in northeast London, not too far from the house he shares with his wife, Charlie, and their Siberian cat, Pig. Gamble is on excellent form: friendly, professional, fun to banter with, though a little harder to get to open up – contractually so, when it comes to The Celebrity Traitors. ‘I’ve just come back from filming the companion podcast in Inverness,’ he will say. ‘People wouldn’t believe the absolute scale of that thing. It’s about what a Hollywood movie is like. It’s so slick.’ He can’t, alas, reveal a thing more about it – batting away my questions as to where all the contestants go post-filming (other than to say they’re not allowed any contact with each other). ‘There’s so much secrecy behind the working of the show. But that’s great. We need more mystery in our lives. I don’t think anyone needs to know where they go after filming.’He’s now in the process of writing Fresh Hell and it has reignited his love of stand-up comedy. Once a show is settled, things can get a bit samey: ‘Audiences can tell when you’re dead behind the eyes and just going through it.’ He’s at the road-testing stage where things are coming together; the exciting bit. ‘There’s nothing better than writing something down during the day and getting a laugh from it that night.’The new show will apparently cover ‘ageing and dignity’ and perhaps technology, too. How does he feel about ChatGPT? I imagine it’s quite handy for writing jokes. ‘I actually don’t use it. I’ve never needed it.’ Is that the new brag? ‘ChatGPT? Don’t need it, mate.’ Ed on stage in 2011He laughs. ‘I know some comedians who will use it to unpack a topic and suggest angles, but that would take so much joy out of comedy for me. The joy comes from finding things yourself.’Still, I wonder if Gamble finds it harder to discover new topics simply because, well, he seems so content. During a recent episode of Off Menu, he made a revealing aside to the effect that the happier you are, the harder comedy becomes. Is he worried about running out of material? ‘I am very happy and fairly well-adjusted – certainly compared to a lot of comedians,’ he reflects. ‘You probably need some sort of anger towards something – even if it’s mild frustration that you can dial up into something bigger. That’s what I enjoy doing: taking something mildly frustrating and venting about it.’ As for revelation, trauma and confession, ‘It isn’t really me. I’ll keep that stuff to myself, thank you very much!’Gamble’s goofball confidence certainly makes him an excellent host. Still, some critics have found his routines a little superficial: a bunch of nicely constructed picky bits as opposed to a full meal. ‘Is he hiding something, one wonders, by being, well, a bit generic – or was he born this way?’ wondered one reviewer. Even when we get on to his forthcoming panel show Unacceptable – in which comedians share their most ‘unacceptable’ opinion and then try to persuade the audience – it’s hard to goad him into anything remotely controversial. Gamble’s least acceptable opinion is that Yorkshire puddings are overrated.‘People genuinely get upset when I say that!’ he insists. ‘They’re bland, they take up too much space on the plate and most people’s defence is that you can put things inside them, which isn’t a good argument for food!’ Fair enough, but it’s not exactly, ‘Actually, Trump is great,’ is it? Nor, to his credit, will he be drawn on whether there are any disadvantages to being straight, white and posh. (Gamble’s father was a solicitor and his mother worked as a nurse and NHS health visitor; he grew up in leafy southwest London suburbs and attended the fee-paying King’s College School in Wimbledon.) ‘I mean we’re very much the default, aren’t we? It is famously much easier.’ Shirt and trousers, Wax London. T-shirt, Sunspel. Shot on location at Forno, London E11Still, Gamble does have a hinterland – as he explored in his 2023 memoir, Glutton: The Multi-Course Life Of A Very Greedy Boy. It is hard to credit, given his current jawline, but there was a time when Gamble was a ‘fat, goth teenager’ – 19 stone, living at his mum’s house, and comfort-eating all day. Indeed, his relationship with food has always been complicated. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 13 – the Big D, he calls it in his book – which required daily insulin injections and glucose monitoring. The condition was genetic bad luck rather than the result of his diet, though it inevitably affected his relationship with food. ‘I definitely have a tendency to put on weight easily, but I also combined that with eating as much as I possibly could because I loved food,’ he says. ‘It wasn’t because of trauma or unhappiness,’ he stresses.His parents separated and he grew up with his mum and half-siblings – but this is not something he has ever presented as a hardship. ‘I just genuinely loved eating.’ Instead, he has said, he settled into a ‘funny fat guy’ persona.The worst (or perhaps, best) period was at university in Durham, when he suddenly had free rein. ‘I’d walk down the high street and buy lunch from four different places. A huge sandwich from the Italian deli, pastries from Greggs, biscuits from the corner shop. Basically, I’d have a week’s shopping for lunch. Then there would be fast food late at night: kebabs after drinking, chicken and chips.’It was at Durham that Gamble met fellow comedians Nish Kumar and Nick Mohammed, who remain close friends. He was also a member of the university’s famous sketch group, the Durham Revue. It was only when he landed his first TV gig in 2010 that he decided to lose weight for ‘aesthetic’ reasons. Ed and Charlie on their wedding day in 2021‘It was like my body just went, “Oh my god, thanks!” and started chucking weight off. I didn’t go on a crash diet or anything. I just started eating like a human being instead of a hippo. And I realised I actually enjoyed exercise. I became one of those people I’d roll my eyes at when they said it made them feel good.’What does remain is the diabetes, which he describes as like having a 24-hour job. ‘You’ve got to be across your blood-sugar levels and how much insulin you need. It’s a lot. Some days you can deal with it and it behaves itself. But then at other times – like on really hot days – it just goes wild.’There have been moments when he has crashed live on stage. One of the ways he manages the condition is by eating the precise same pre-show meal: Nando’s chicken with broccoli. ‘I’m sure Nando’s won’t love me saying this, but wherever you go in the country, you can guarantee it’s seven out of ten. If I’m about to do a show, I don’t want to be taking a risk.’He is grateful that the technology has improved: he now manages the condition via a continuous glucose monitor that communicates with his phone. ‘It is a total pain and obviously I wish I didn’t have it – but it has made me a lot more aware, health-wise. What I’m not advocating for is non-diabetic continuous glucose monitors. That gets on my nerves. That’s cultural appropriation!’He is referring to apps like Zoe that encourage the ‘worried well’ to use similar technology. ‘If you’ve got a pancreas that produces insulin, your blood sugar might spike – but it will come back down again. It’s an over-focus on health. I think at some point you’ve got to trust that your body’s working, otherwise you never get anything done.’He is similarly animated when I bring up GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro. ‘This again is medication designed for diabetics!’ But actually, as someone who himself has constant ‘food noise’ in his brain, he is sympathetic. ‘I’m happy for people to use whatever works for them. I just hope people are exploring the full options before they start paying out for medication that they definitely can’t stay on for the rest of their lives.’ SIMPLY ED What’s the bougiest thing in your store cupboard?Pomegranate molasses. Is that bougie?Your signature ingredient?We use Tajín a lot in our house. And Lao Gan Ma crispy chilli oil. I’ll eat that out of the jar like a big yogurt.Your go-to Deliveroo order?I love Turkish food: lamb Adana kebab, bulgur wheat, halloumi, sucuk – all of that stuff. Incredible.Favourite kitchen utensil?I’ve just bought one of those rolling knife sharpeners – I love sharpening my knives to heavy metal. And my Microplane grater.Three things always in your fridge?Proper butter with sea-salt crystals in it. Smoked salmon – my wife is currently on a cut [training] for wrestling and salmon is really good for that. And soft drinks.Favourite food countryJapan. It’s so good. You need to recalibrate how you read Google reviews because they’re so exacting.Favourite UK restaurants?For special occasions: L’Enclume in Cumbria, Skof in Manchester and The Ledbury in London. But you’re not going there more than once in your life. Then the more regular places: Quality Chop House and Mountain in London – it’s a food-hipster restaurant but I love it.What’s your ten-minute meal that always delivers?We’ve got an old-school toasted sandwich machine. When I break that out, it’s party time.You can only eat one type of potato for the rest of your life – what is it?Mash done the Joël Robuchon way: basically half butter, half potato. Oh and Quality Chop House also does a confit potato that’s unbelievable. And thin, crispy fries.Poppadoms or bread?Bread! We move on to non-food topics – I’m intrigued by how collegiate his generation of comedians seems to be. They’re constantly appearing on each other’s podcasts and panel shows. Do you secretly all detest one another behind the scenes? Apparently not.‘If you speak to people like Richard Herring from the previous generation, they talk about how competitive it used to be,’ Gamble says. ‘Now there are so many comedians that people have realised collaboration makes things easier and more fun. Audiences also enjoy seeing comedians who genuinely know and like one another.’Gamble’s own wedding was a case in point. It had to be postponed three times due to Covid, but when it finally happened in 2021, it became a massive comedian’s reunion. Nish Kumar delivered a 40-minute best man’s speech. James Acaster invented a position for himself: Master of the Cakes.But it is his wife, Charlie, who sounds like the biggest laugh. She is a producer (they met ‘through TV’) but also plays bass and guitar in two bands, works in British independent wrestling, organising live shows for the professionals and occasionally wrestling herself for fun. Gamble is full of admiration. ‘It’s hugely physical and very demanding. I did it for Clash Of The Comics and wrestled Phil Wang – it was a buzz unlike any I’ve ever had! You can get the audience riled up in a way you never could as a comedian. There’s so much adrenaline.’ Do he and Charlie practise moves on each other? ‘Sometimes she’ll come back all hyped up from training and she’ll say, “Let me try out this move on you!” I’ll say, “No. What are you talking about? This is a hardwood floor! I have historic back problems. Leave me alone!”’It is, perhaps, just as well that she shares an interest in going to nice restaurants – though it’s also perhaps just as well that Gamble has other outlets for his food noise. ‘I’m very much one for becoming obsessed with something and going on internet deep dives.’ He describes spending late nights watching Americans in the Deep South going around liquor stores on YouTube. ‘Real brain-rot stuff.’ Still, the key thing, he reflects, was reframing that relationship. Away from, say, three pizzas a night and towards the more respectable business of tasting menus, organic meats and ranking all the carbs, which he really does insist he could do all day. ‘I love it. I love ranking things. I love listening to people’s dream menus. It’s the best.’For tickets to Ed Gamble’s tour Fresh Hell, visit edgamble.co.uk; Unacceptable airs on Sundays from 5 July at 9pm on TLC and Discovery+Styling: Gareth Scourfield at One Represents. Grooming: Melanie Kyle. Picture director: Ester Malloy.Location @forno.cl.london. @edgamblecomedy/instagram, channel 4/dave