Claire Richards on Tour Riders & the Fish Pie That Nearly Ended Her

Recorded live at the Good Food Show, Samuel Goldsmith sits down with pop star and Steps member Claire Richards.

Claire reveals the origin of her legendary Pasta a la Claire — born on a 1990s Steps VHS and originally made with packet ham and a tin of tomato soup — and how she's since given it a grown-up makeover. She talks growing up on her mum's "mince-based" cooking outside London, teaching herself Thai curry after her honeymoon, and the four-hour ragù she perfected after a trip to Bologna.

There's life on the road too: dodgy service-station sandwiches and Ribena in the 90s, why she now asks for Whispering Angel on her rider, the one day every tour she takes over the kitchen to cook for the whole crew, and the strict no-spice rule before a show.

Plus: eating caviar off her hand at the British Fashion Awards, crunching prawn shells in Japan, her M&S ambassador role and the new strawberry sparkling wine, the Celebrity MasterChef fish pie disaster involving very runny mash, and which Steps member she'd pick as her sous chef.

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