Today we’re at the Michelin-accredited Mambow, home of the brilliant Abby Lee, a chef with more grit, talent and sheer force of will than most people manage in a lifetime.

We start at the beginning: Abby arriving in Lewisham at 14, completely alone, trying to find her feet, her voice, and a sense of belonging in a new country. Then comes the proper immersion: Singapore, then Italy, where the romantic fantasy of the trattoria quickly gets replaced by the brutal reality of kitchen life. When Abby talks about Italy, she doesn’t romanticise it for a second. She tells the truth about the kitchens, from the intensity and long nights to the darker, uglier realities, including male chefs forcing her to watch porn while she was just trying to do her job. It’s shocking, infuriating, and vital to hear, especially when set against the myth of the idyllic European food pilgrimage.

Back in London, Mambow is born, and it’s a wild ride: early hype, big reviews, and then the kind of nightmare you wouldn’t wish on anyone, including a genuinely traumatic incident where customers are held at knifepoint in a shared market space. And just as the restaurant begins to soar, Abby is hit with a breast cancer diagnosis. She speaks with huge honesty about chemo, losing her taste, the psychological shock of being taken out of the kitchen, and the slow, ongoing work of rebuilding a new relationship with food, her body and her life. It’s one of the most powerful conversations we’ve ever had!

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