‘Someone served sushi off a guy’s naked chest!’ How we made Come Dine With Me

‘We’re not there to humiliate or to sneer. Channel 4 insisted everyone had to be a decent cook – the threshold was that contestants had to know what coriander was’

It all started in the early 00s when I tried to throw a dinner party. I was an executive producer during the early days of reality TV – and a house-proud young mum. My posh cousin and her even posher husband came for a meal. I was rushing to get the kids to bed and tidy up, so the food was an afterthought. I’d never made couscous before but decided to serve it with chicken. It was awful. Dry chicken with congealed couscous. At one point, my cousin’s husband stuck his fork in this rock-solid lump, lifted it up and said, “What actually is this?”