Words Ellie Hughes

“Fergus is fun,” says Margot, “he still loves being social.” Cooking and eating out at restaurants remains a big part of their lives - coping mechanisms as well as great loves. “We’ve always gone for an expensive meal in a restaurant when things were hard and we needed a treat. We solved our problems a lot through eating.”

Home is a place to bring the party back to. “I love a jolly, lovely lunch that might turn into a bit of dancing. You really make friends when you sit down and have a meal together.” But, equally, home is a functional, soothing space with room for yoga, gardening and lots of hanging out. “It’s a good place to sit and think about our busy lives, the different components whizzing around.”

In the podcast, Margot talks Matt through her childhood in Wellington, New Zealand, “in a lovely warm home surrounded by trees, where we ate at a big friendly table. It was full of art and music.” Margot started cooking as a child - birthday party food for her three siblings, as her mother wouldn’t use sugar. She describes how she was obsessed with punk rock, The Face and London, getting a job in Wimbledon Pizza Express in 1984.

Margot adored London from the start, living under what was then the Post Office Tower, but it took a little while before she really decided - via a New Year’s Eve resolution - to push herself into a career in cooking. The rest - cooking her way through the most fashionable restaurants of the time, meeting Fergus at The Eagle and going on to open The French House with him as a couple a month later - is culinary history. “It was intense and so exciting, we were madly in love.”

Fergus rocked the food world with his ‘nose-to-tail’ eating philosophy - and Margot was with him all the way. All the YBAs hung out at The Eagle, London’s first proper gastropub, and in the exclusive tour of their home (available for members via Patreon, priced £6 per month), Margot talks Matt through the incredible pieces made by them that fill their living room, including Sarah Lucus photographs and a Rebecca Warren nude sculpture.

For such lovers of central London - the family lived in a beautiful flat in Covent Garden for many years - it was a big move coming down south, to Stockwell. “It was strange at first, no tourists or noise, so serene, calm and gentle.” A big part of that comes from Margot’s beloved garden and gardening – the white wisteria, elderflower, foxgloves, alliums and rose. “Foliage brings in gentleness,” she says. “The house is a real pleasure and we’ve loved living here, we probably ruined the neighbours' lives with way too many parties. Home is a sanctuary.”

Forthcoming episodes of Homing feature Anna Jones, Sophie Hicks, Sean Anthony Pritchard, Erdem Moralioglu and Phin Harper. Subscribe to Homing or become a member of Patreon and as always, happy listening.