Stuff
Simon Bridges welcomes Ganesh Raj to his podcast, Generally Famous.
Generally Famous is proudly brought to you by Trade Depot.
TV foodie Ganesh Raj is the guest on the latest episode of Generally Famous, Stuff’s brilliant new long-form interview podcast hosted by Simon Bridges.
The Eat Well For Less star talks candidly about his time growing up in Singapore, his “desert island” meal and how he reacted to a health scare.
Below are five key quotes from Raj’s side of the chat.The full interview is available at stuff.co.nz/generallyfamous. You can find and follow the show on any podcast app.
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‘My mum is like a hardcore gangster as a woman.’
Raj tells Bridges that his “a-hole” dad used to beat him and his mum while he was growing up in Singapore.
His mother – defying social norms of the time – kicked his father out when Raj was 5.
“She did it to protect me, I guess, but no Indian woman in 1975 kicks her husband out. She’s so hardcore.”
Abigail Dougherty/Stuff
Ganesh Raj during recording of Generally Famous.
‘We were watching … giant boy-men eating meat and potatoes three times a day …’
Raj relives a memory from his time at Raffles Institution – the oldest and most prestigious school in Singapore.
Costing just $16 a year, it was, he says, a place that didn’t “care where you came from”, providing your grades were good enough.
Those “boy-men” were a visiting Auckland Grammar rugby team – who “smashed” 14-year-old tighthead prop Raj and his teammates 147-nil!
‘To this day it’s the best moment of my life.’
Former MTV host Raj shares his memories of meeting Prince in London, when the pop star and his band were rehearsing at the studio Raj where worked.
Abigail Dougherty/Stuff
Simon Bridges chats to Ganesh Raj.
“I got to take him a heater, because it was cold and I put it next to him and I walked away,” Raj says.
But Bridges surprises Raj by having a Prince anecdote of his own!
‘I was dusty all the time.’
Raj says he quit drinking six years ago as part of efforts to get healthy following a diabetes scare.
“You could start at 4pm with a glass of wine, which led to another one as you started cooking… which led to one more when you started eating, and then you just finished (the bottle).
“I’m describing a lot of people in this country, by the way.”
‘We’re going through a period of reckoning.’
Asked how so-called cancel culture affects comedians, Raj says things have been “too loose for too long”.
Discussing the issue after telling an anecdote about the time he brushed shoulders with comedy legends at a US club, Raj says: “If you go and listen to the jokes of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, there’s so much stuff that when I grew up I thought was incredibly funny, but I never really paid attention to how offensive it would have been to the people who [they were] talking about.”
Generally Famous marks a fresh chapter in Simon Bridges’ life. Expect the unexpected as, each week, he talks to a generally famous – but always interesting guest – about life, love and what makes them tick. To listen to the full interview, go to stuff.co.nz/generallyfamous. You can follow the show at Apple, Spotify and all the other podcast apps. New episodes are available from 5am every Wednesday.
