Rob Rinder makes no secret of his love of Jewish food. I’ve often heard him waxing lyrical about cholent, chopped liver and chicken soup.
The barrister turned writer and broadcaster has appeared on some of our favourite food-related podcasts to share some of his top treats. On Table Manners (hosted by pop star Jessie Ware and her mother Lennie) he noshed up Lennie’s chopped herring before falling upon her homemade chicken soup and kneidlach.
And last week, on Comfort Eating with Grace Dent, Rinder confessed he’d easily demolish a family-sized pot of chopped liver on his own when stress eating. (A feat I suspect I’d have no trouble with.)
So, it came as a surprise when our favourite TV judge disclosed to Dent that his ultimate comfort food wasn’t an Ashkenazi staple. Far from it. Instead of a turning to a thick slice of toasted challah or bowl of golden chicken soup, Rinder shared that his pick-me-up would be the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish.
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Rinder deliverered a Maccy D’s breaded fish sandwich to writer and restaurant reviewer Dent’s house. Unveiling it, he told her: “This is my food obsession. I’m like a dog in that I could just carry on eating. I could eat ten of these”.
She was all praise, proclaiming it ‘the king of the McDonalds menu’. “It goes so well with Scotch” Rinder added between mouthfuls as he demolished his. “They used to claim it was cod, but now on the menu, of course, it’s pollock, or ‘hitherto unknown’ – you have to guess the fish.”
He’s such a superfan that he pays an extra £2 on his delivery app to ensure his fishy favourite arrives hot and fresh from the fryer. “From my house… it can be delivered in ten minutes. It’s like magic. I always order two and I sometimes dip it in barbecue sauce.”
Rinder went on to explain why, when he’s such a lover of Jewish fare, the fast food had trounced a heimish dish. It was for fear of causing a family broiges.
“My initial impulse was to talk about chicken soup, but that would have caused such a family nuclear conflict as to who made the best. We’re Jewish and [chicken soup] is not just soul food — it’s the entire tapestry of my childhood, which is undoubtedly a comfort food, especially when you’re not well.”
The problem lay in sourcing the soup: “I’d have come here with the chicken soup and would have chosen someone in my family to made it. Someone else would have listened to this and said, ‘hang on — you picked her chicken soup and not mine!’”
His long love affair with the Filet may have mirrored many of ours: “My family are quite religious and because we were Jewish, I would only eat kosher [meat]. When McDonalds opened in Southgate next to the police station … because I couldn’t eat the meat Filet-O-Fish was the only thing on the menu.”
Rinder also picked it on Table Manners when Jessie asked him for his desert island dish. Sadly, I’m not sure even Deliveroo goes that far.
