The food TV perfection of Big Zuu's Big Eats

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There are a lot of shows about food — shows about how to make it or bake it, countless travel food programs, a whole universe of competitive cooking shows, and, seemingly every day, another home chef with a dedicated Youtube channel. Hidden within that avalanche of content is Big Zuu’s Big Eats, a less well-known series hosted by British grime artist and self-taught chef, Big Zuu. (Grime is a popular genre born out of the UK garage music scene in the early 2000s with fast beats — typically 140-beats-per-minute — elements of dancehall, hip hop, and reggae.)

Zuu and his two friends from "the ends" — British slang for the not-great-part-of-town — Tubsey and Hyder, cook up three-course meals in a food truck for guests who consist mostly of British comedians who are on tour in different parts of the UK. (Season two expands the guest roster to include other types of celebrities.)

Zuu, a Muslim foodie from West London, developed a love of food around when he was 9. In a recent podcast appearance he talks about how he learned timing and heat control by “abusing” his mom’s fridge. “I had to burn a million eggs, I had to ruin a million beans,” he says.

This experimentation gave him a love of cooking, and most importantly it led him to discover his love of cooking for other people. The genuine joy on his face when a guest bites into one of his creations is infectious. When comedian James Acaster takes his first bite of the dessert Zuu made him, he looks to the camera, salted caramel dripping from his mouth, and says, “use this shot for my obituary.” Upon hearing this, Zuu erupts into giddy laughter. For him, there is clearly no greater compliment.

When the first season of Big Zuu’s Big Eats premiered on UK TV channel Dave in May 2020 the format was simple, perhaps best summed up in Zuu’s rap that serves as the show’s theme song: “It’s just comedy and music, coming together on a plate/ So, if you’re gonna question the reasoning, wait til you see the seasoning/ The best in the game? I’m feeding them and it’s only good vibes I’m leaving them.” Zuu invites guests onto his show, asks them what foods they grew up loving or currently crave, and cooks up a three-course-meal inspired by their answers. Later, he and his guest sit down to eat together and talk in an informal chat show set-up.

For instance, comedian Rosie Jones, host of the travel series Mission: Accessible, tells Zuu that she loves pickle juice and sausage rolls. Interspersed with footage from one of Jones’s comedy shows in Portsmouth, we follow Zuu as he taps into his Lebanese heritage to put his own spin on Rosie's dish. This divergence is necessary for two reasons: One, Zuu likes to maximize creativity when he cooks, and two, as a Muslim, he doesn’t eat pork.

After going to a local halal butcher to get lamb mince, Zuu gets to work crafting Lebanese “sausage” rolls seasoned with an Arab spice mix called ras el hanout (which consists of rose petals and cumin). Zuu also subs tahini for the usual ketchup. Rosie mentions she likes fish and chips, so Zuu makes a Spanish version as a nod to her Spanish grandmother — vodka-battered cod with patatas bravas. Upon eating them, Rosie remarks they're actually better than her nan's. "Don't worry we won't tell her, and she'll probably be dead soon," she says with a laugh.

The charm of Zuu’s process is the way he translates his guests' wishes into unexpected dishes. In seeking to keep the cooking fun for himself and because of his own personal faith-related restraints, Zuu ends up cooking meals that are more interesting than guests expect. He works to find analogues to guest favorites, and over three courses, he expands his guests' palettes and introduces viewers to new spices, cultures, and combinations of flavor.

Big Zuu’s Big Eats’ mission to redefine food doubles as a mission to redefine Britishness. Zuu occupying the host role already offers a welcome change to the unbearable whiteness of British television and food media. Certainly, it defies the ruling sentiment that Britishness and whiteness are synonymous. On the show, there are the usual quips about seasoning food properly (unlike the Brits), but there’s also the intentional work Zuu does to highlight the diversity of the UK population. In his British kitchen, the ingredients are sourced from local ethnic grocers instead of chains, the meals take into account the faith-based constraints of the second largest religion in the UK in the face of rising anti-Muslim sentiment, and tradition is meant to be broken.

This mission is especially noticeable when Zuu is paired with guests of color. Their exchanges are freer and more knowing than they would be on other British talk shows and food shows. When Zuu meets up with actor and fellow Muslim, Guz Khan, the two swap horror stories from their youth about the difficulties of British school lunches when the menus were haram. “I’m not about to lick down Peppa Pig and all her cousins,” Khan jokes. Khan shares that this meant he ended up eating lots of sugar as a kid, because the lunch ladies couldn’t accommodate his halal diet. It’s a perspective British viewers likely hadn’t considered.

Later, Zuu cooks up his Sierra Leonean mother’s fufu recipe for Khan who is trying to adapt a more plant-based diet while maintaining his love of spice and bold flavor. In the truck, Zuu walks viewers through the cooking process with assists from Hyder and Tubsey. “I can’t believe I’ve got an Iraqi man making fufu,” he says as Tubs mashes and stirs the pot. When the dish is served to Khan, both agree to eat the fufu traditionally with their hands. Khan mentions that he and Zuu are from different cultures, African and Pakistani, but they share a custom that demonstrates an appreciation of the food being served. Khan visibly appreciates Zuu’s choice to make a dish from his culture, and he makes a pointed address to "brexit Britain” that the “two minorities eating with their fingers like savages” are unfazed by their hate.

In model/host Maya Jama’s episode, Zuu meets up with her in her hometown of Bristol which Zuu reminds us "is a multicultural mecca,” full of “bare Abdis, Mohammeds, and a one Fatima.” He surprises her with dishes that combine her Swedish and Somali ancestry and her favorite Bristol fast food staples — elevated chicken nuggets with caviar dipping sauce (“10/10 meal,” she says appreciatively,) and Swedish cinna-mandem-buns (“I’d take this over a standard one I think,” she says in front of her Swedish mother.) With every enthusiastic reaction from a satisfied celebrity guest — Game of Thrones’ Jacob Anderson did a giddy lap in London’s O2 arena when Zuu showed him a fried chicken and bacon club sandwich with macaroni cheese bread — Zuu proves his efforts to spice up the food show format are a success.

More importantly, to him at least, the show — which is available to viewers in the UK and Ireland on Dave and everyone else via VPN — is a vehicle for the kind of change he wants to see in his home country. “People are finally understanding our impact on the world and how representation is important and that people need to see where the change is going to come from,” he said in an interview with Euphoria magazine. Big Eats was first commissioned almost three years ago, but it feels like a well-timed response to the current moment. “I’m really proud that they [UKTV] took a chance and it paid off,” Zuu continues, “and now that Black Lives Matter has happened more and more people are getting it and understanding it.”

Episodes is published three times per week and edited by Emily VanDerWerff. Mondays feature her thoughts on assorted topics. Wednesdays offer pop culture thoughts from freelance writers. Fridays are TV recaps written by Emily. The Wednesday and Friday editions are only available to subscribers. Suggest topics for future installments via email or on Twitter. Read more of Emily's work at Vox.