Singer-Songwriter Niall Horan is this weeks guest on the UKs #1 award-winning food podcast, Dish from Waitrose. Subscribe HERE.
Niall chats about meeting Nick Grimshaw, returning after time away and taking a break, and the differences between working solo and being part of a group, as well as how he got into singing. He shares his dislike of avocado, the vegetables he hates, and his thoughts on fruit in savoury dishes – despite loving pomegranate – along with a story about his beef Wellington disaster, his interest in cooking and gardening, and his biggest fear. He also discusses his new single and album, his fans, and performing at the White House for Joe Biden, before revealing what name hed choose in witness protection and the excuse hed use to avoid a dinner party.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, with full filmed episodes available on YouTube and Spotify.
Already hailed as the UKs most successful and influential food podcast and one of the countrys biggest chat shows, Dish from Waitrose has become an essential watch and listen for audiences across the UK, a place where exceptional food, humour and famous company meet with effortless ease. Across the year, listeners can look forward to a star-studded guest list spanning film, television, comedy, music and culture. Upcoming diners include Harriet Kemsley, Gemma Arterton, Dave Grohl, Nicola Coughlan, Rosamund Pike, Kevin McCloud, Paapa Esseidu, Jodie Whittaker, Marcus Mumford and Olivia Cooke.
This year will also feature special on-location episodes, taking Dish from Waitrose beyond its familiar studio and into extraordinary settings, giving listeners an unprecedented level of access rarely afforded to the public.
Since its launch in 2022, Dish from Waitrose has evolved into a genuine cultural phenomenon. A regular Top 10 UK podcast and a defining presence in the Apple and Spotify chart, the series has racked up almost a billion organic views across social and video platforms. 1 in 4 UK adults have watched Dish on YouTube. Its enduring appeal lies in a rare and carefully judged balance: Angelas culinary authority and instinctive generosity at the table, paired with Nicks curiosity, warmth and disarming intellect together creating conversations that bring you closer than ever before to your favourite stars, all underpinned by the finest Waitrose ingredients and recipes.
Beloved by an exceptional roll call of guests including Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Helena Bonham Carter, Dua Lipa, Martin Freeman, Florence Pugh, Shania Twain, Tom Holland and Gordon Ramsay, Dish from Waitrose has redefined what branded audio can be. The series has received widespread industry acclaim, including Best Hosts at the British Podcast Awards 2025, Best Branded Podcast at the AdWeek Audio Awards, Gold at the Lovie Awards, and the Chairs Award at the Drum Content Awards, alongside multiple nominations from Marketing Week and International Content Marketing Awards.
With its move to a permanent weekly schedule, Dish from Waitrose enters its most ambitious chapter to date, cementing its position at the forefront of premium audio and visual content, cultural conversation and food storytelling in the UK.
NIALL ON HIS ENCOUNTERS WITH NICK GRIMSHAW
We were drunk at an Adele concert. Yeah, yeah. He’s got, he’s got a bit of a mad cousin. Have you met cousin Liv? Niece.
Yeah. So we had a few beers. No, it was in Hyde Park. She did the British Summertime thing. We had a few beers that night. But yeah, good. I always love seeing you. We always seem to be this is the first time we’ve done it sober in a while, to be fair.
Glastonbury. Yeah, yeah, maybe [I saved Nick]. [With] Like a lozenge. They’re called Vocalzone. They’re basically medical level. Lozenges. They’re not your average Strepsil. For singers.
NIALL ON RETURNING FROM TIME AWAY
It is a bit mad because I finished the tour at the end of ’24. Disappeared for like, literally did nothing for 5 or 6 months and then just started writing this album. Um, and it’s funny when you get back to you like you’re, it’s like being first day at school again, even though I’ve done this kind of like promotional getting yourself back out there. And into the conversation again and stuff. For the last 15 years.
No one’s going around going, “I love it [promotional stuff].”
But no, it is funny. It’s like you’re getting back on the horse again. But it’s great. Like, I, when you’re away from it for a bit, you’re actually excited to get back into the mix. Especially when you’ve got something that you really like. Like, You know what I mean? When you’ve got music that you like and you want to tell people about. So that’s the main reason we do it, probably. And then, yeah, no, it’s just good to be back at it again. It’s been a while.
NIALL ON HAVING TIME OFF
I used to just like not do much at all, but now I’m in a relationship, have a house, have a dog. Things are a little bit different. Like, I long to be at home. A lot more than I used to. Like, growing up in the industry, like, wherever it didn’t matter where I was. Like, I was just living out of a suitcase for 15 years, so it didn’t really matter where I was. So, I never really had that, like, I had a place in London always, but it never like really felt like a home. So this is the first time that I’ve had like a home and someone to go home to. And all that kind of lovely loved-up stuff. So I like, I literally like going home, walking around the village. Drinking copious amounts of coffee and walking the dog too much, you know.
NIALL ON WORKING SOLO VS IN A GROUP
Yeah, I think you just get used to seeing the way it can be done on side A and then doing it a little bit differently on side B. Like it at that time also, a lot younger, full of energy. You know, and just learning how it works. Takes time to like have the right team around you to write. Touring crew. When to tour, when not to tour. When to make an album. I like the idea of going to work Being pop star Niall. Yeah [laughs] and then come home and not be pop star Niall. I’m knackered. Look at the bags.
NIALL ON GETTING INTO SINGING
Yeah, I think it [Oliver] was [the first time I was on stage]. I did like little like carol services. Things at school. I had this teacher called Miss Caulfield, and she figured out that I could sing. I must have been doing it quite loudly. And then she put me in like these little- I was singing like the first verse of Away in a Manger. A banger. And then, yeah, they were making, I was about 10 maybe, and they were doing a little school production of Oliver Twist, and I got cast as Oliver, and I just, yeah, and I think that’s where I fell in love with it. Like I was like, yeah. Yeah, and that’s just being up there and getting all the attention.
Yeah, no, it’s a bit of both. Like, I was probably an overconfident 10-year-old. And wanted to be up there and then got up there and bricked myself. All of a sudden, not so confident. But no, I loved all that stuff. I loved going to watch shows. I loved being in them. My aunt was like my biggest fan. She lived in New York and she would actually make me sing. You know, one of them people that were like, do an accent or be funny. So, I had to do all the singing stuff when I was a kid, so I couldn’t get away from it really. But yeah, I think it was just an overconfident 10-year-old. Just run around the place. Now I’m an annoying 33-year-old. Some things never change.
NIALL ON HATING AVOCADO
Hate avocado…You know what, I don’t mind guacamole funnily enough. I think it’s a textural thing. I don’t like, you know, when you have like avocado, sliced avocado toast or something like that.
NIALL ON VEGETABLES HE HATES
Yeah, they’re [peas are] a bit too earthy for me. They get in the way of some great meals.
Like a lot of those, like, like a lot of those things that I’ve mentioned. Cucumber. Coriander is a disaster.
You know, when you, when you don’t like something and it’s the last the meal has been made. As you know, you work in the kitchens and you just…the little bit at the end.
NIALL ON FRUIT IN SAVOURY MEALS
Yeah, I wanna caveat that because the first one, when Id seen it written down, I filled in a form for this, by the way. There was a survey done for Dish [laughs]. Enter a competition to be and I won and I’m here. Thanks for having me. It was the first thing that came to mind was American breakfasts. You know when you stay somewhere or you go somewhere and they do eggs, bacon, and then just like on the same plate, a load of strawberries and blueberries and you’re like, come on, are you trying to tell me that that’s your way of justifying health on this? You know what I mean? You got big fat streaky bacon dripping and then you just like have strawberries. I just don’t really get it.
NIALL ON LOVING POMEGRANATE
They’re my favourite. Do you know what I mean? Just get a little spoon. Just have them on the move, you know?
I’m posh now, by the way. Yeah, yeah. We all are, aren’t we?
NIALL ON HIS BEEF WELLINGTON DISASTER
[laughs] I once made a Wellington. And ruined a whole New Year’s party. Because it just burst and there was pastry everywhere. We basically just had a nice fillet steak. Bit of mushroom [beside]. It was my first. I was watching a Gordon. I was watching Gordon. [Gordon Ramsey impression] “So, here we have the”. Feels like his is the only recipe of all time as well now everyone knows as well. [laughs] All the chefs are like, “I make an unbelievable Wellington.” I can’t do it.
NIALL ON COOKING
Yeah, I know, to be fair I do. And I think during COVID I got mad into it. You just try on every website and everything, anything you haven’t made before, you give a crack. When I’m home, I try and do a little bit, nothing overly complicated. Because I, you know, when you think I want to be patient. And then you get halfway through it, you’re like, oh, this is a pain.
I’ll tell you a funny one. My manager, Harry, I went around to his house one day and he was making spaghetti bolognese and it looked like he was going to some mad effort and I was in the corner just drinking wine. And um, I was like this is really nice, he was like mate I’ve got the best recipe for spaghetti bolognese ever. I was like when we leave just text me. So I was at home that night, I get a text like 11 or 12 o’clock and it just had HYPERLINK “http://www.jamieoliver.com”www.jamieoliver.com. And he thought he’d broken, broken the earth here with this, like, out of this world best spaghetti bolognese recipe. But to be fair, it is phenomenal. And yeah, it’s a slow cooker one, you know. One of those like leave it in for a couple of hours and it actually is really lovely.
Love making a roast. And my partner makes the meanest roast, so I just kind of leave her to it. But I love a good roast potato and a good bit of pork or something like that. Simple stuff, like nothing that if people are coming around, you don’t want to embarrass yourself, do you?
Yeah, there’s nothing worse than having to be like all over the oven when you’re trying to have pour drinks for people and stuff.
I’ve attempted it [pastry] before, but it always seems to split. You’re obviously telling me that it’s not that bad when it comes to pies. But there are certain dishes that”
NIALL ON GETTING INTO GARDENING
But, I think as, as I’m getting older, I find things that I used to find boring- like I’m into gardening now…I know the names of about 5 or 6 flowers now that I never knew before. [laughs].
You know, as you know, I spend so much time in the hotels and travel in the world, and I feel like the last few years I’ve just been able to just I’m in the settle down, settling down period. It’s been nice to just be at home and do stuff like that that people watching this would go, I do that every day.
NIALL ON HIS BIGGEST FEAR
Do you know what my biggest fear, and I noticed that I did it at the start and I had to stop myself, just the noises that you make when you eat good food. I was sitting there going, mm, mm. Imagine listening to that. It’s an ASMR, isn’t it?
NIALL ON HIS NEW SINGLE AND ALBUM
Well, the second one, yeah, I was doing the second album thing where it’s very difficult and you I’d had a couple of songs that were big off the first album. So, I was like, all right, well, I need to do that again. And then the second album, I was probably pushing a little bit too much and COVID happened and it never really I felt like it never really got its day in the sun. Because it got released the day we got put into lockdown. So it wasn’t great. [laughs] There’s been better marketing plans. [laughs] And then I wrote, basically during lockdown, I wrote my third album. And then there was just like a real hunger from the fans, I think from everyone to just, you know, they’re not going to say no to anything now. They just want to get out, watch shows. You know, go and see, like we all did. We all went to more gigs. And more drinking and more meals and everything.
The 2024, the show live on tour that I did was very unexpected and huge for me. I learned a lot from the tour. Like you’re standing on stage every night looking out at the crowd you get I was more I was looking at it more than I ever did. I’d done a lot of shows and looked at a lot of crowds, but I was like really watching what songs were connecting with the crowd and why. And my albums have always been a bit of a mix of like a folkier side and acoustic side and then something that they can get up and have a dance to. So I figured that like I was going to make this album a little bit rockier because I’m making it for this live audience that I’ve got. And just went into the studio and really enjoyed the process. We literally just on day one, me and my two producers, John and Julian, we just set up a band setup and I had a mic exactly like this, a Shure SM7, and we listen, it’s not just crimping I know about. And we just, um, we just like jammed. I just sung a lot, um, of like melodies and things like that. And I really enjoyed that process because it reminded me of like, oh, this is how it should be made. This was the most enjoyable and then I think the most cohesive work that I’ve done from song 1 to 12, I think. Um, yeah, hopefully people like it, but it’s definitely been my favourite one to make.
I’ve made some great friends over the years from, you know, doing what I’ve done. The producers that I worked with did all the 1D stuff, so I’m really close with them. I’ve always worked with the same, the same crowd, and we’ve added in a couple of different people, but they have to be of the right character, if you know what I mean…And you don’t have to think. We all, we’re just all on the same page. We know that. You bounce off each other, you know each other. When you work with people that you know and love, it’s a lot easier to do.
Well, I met my girlfriend at, um, a dinner party. Mainly a house party. [laughs] [Weve been together] 6 years. And, um, yeah, and we just, we met and I decided I was going to, obviously I was going to write songs about her and stuff like that, but every album needs a song to create like a jumping off point. So that song is about the song Dinner Party is about like that evening and how we met. Like when you start making an album, you need somewhere to go from to write other songs. Everything that happened, all the little small moments that happen after that to make up a relationship. Was the makings. But I needed to write that song because I wrote a lot of crap before that. Um, but you do need to swim through the muddy waters to get to the clearer stuff sometimes.
NIALL ON HIS FANS
The fans, like As you know, Nick, you were there from, from day one of all the madness. You know, outside radio stations and hotels and gigs and all this all over the world. It’s just mad to think that, like, I can still play an arena 15 years out, 16 years later. It’s just madness to me. The dedication is…Crowd’s getting older now. We’re all growing up. It used to be…But they’ve grown up with us you know. And I say us because, the same with the other boys. Like, it’s great, the dedication that they put into just it’s more than just, “oh, I like them tunes” or “I like that artist”. There’s a full commitment and a full loyalty to it that you know, you hope not, but you can’t see it going away because they’re just it’s those kinds of people, you know?
NIALL ON PERFORMING AT THE WHITE HOUSE FOR JOE BIDEN
St. Patrick’s Day. Huge in America. He’s half Irish, I think. Um, and about 2 weeks before it I was, uh, just got this [laughs] email from the something, someone at whitehouse.com. John. And, uh, I was I thought it was a joke. I thought like my manager was winding me up or whatever, but they were like, would you ‘Um, the president would like to invite you to perform at the White House for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations that we’re having.’ Um, I was like, ‘This is so surreal. Cancel all plans, we’re going.’ We flew in for like 24 hours because I had somewhere else to be, but flew in, had my green suit on and a hat and a rainbow following me. The most surreal thing of all time. Like, you walk in, big security. Like, you could, we did, we went in or out a couple of times because we had sound check. We were like, big security every time, obviously. We get brought in, uh, I’m then to do- they wanted me to do like a social media video with the president himself, but it was just in a room with me and him. So they were like, open the door, the president’s there. And I walk in, it’s just like, oh my God the president of America.
Um, it was really shocking, and he was just so lovely. Really nice man. Clearly very Irish in his ways. Like kind of an amazing storyteller. And like, you know, you know, those Irish people that, like, you shake their hand and they don’t let go. He’s kinda like…Stare you down and connect. Like, he was really…It was a really good moment that I was scared about and that he just kind of relieved me straight away. Relieved me? Waitrose do a great Negroni, don’t they? Maybe not. But he relaxed me straight away. [Bleep] hell. All of a sudden, this sweater got very heavy. And he just relaxed me straight away. And then when I went to perform, then I found it a lot easier.
[Performed in] The East Room, which has since been knocked down. I performed in the East Wing of it. And they just had this tiny little stage, and I played a couple of my own songs, and I played a couple of like Irish kind of emigration songs. Like Irish people moved to America. And he was just like closer than you and I are right now to me. So I was looking at my hands on the guitar frets. I just if I raised my eyes just the tiniest bit, he was just right there. That’s definitely the president of America. There’s no doubt. And it was just an amazing day. Yeah, I just because I’m like very obviously very proudly Irish. And like I’m the little fellow waving the flag everywhere I go. So to be, to go to the White House of all places was pretty cool.
NIALL ON WHAT NAME HE WOULD CHOOSE IN WITNESS PROTECTION
I’ve had some good, like, aliases over the years. I can’t, obviously can’t be…Not right now. Oh, [bleep] I was gonna use this on the next one. Hugh Mungus. That was gonna be for my next. Hugh Mungus. M-U-N-G-U-S. Hugh Mungus…Maybe Hugh Mungus wouldn’t go down very well. Do you reckon they’ll get to the bottom of that? We’re gonna change it to Corrie.
NIALL ON HIS EXCUSE HED USE TO AVOID A DINNER PARTY
Well, anyone that knows me would know I just wouldn’t text them back.
By the way, the dog’s a good one. The dog’s a good one.
