Andi and Miquita Oliver on their new podcast Stirring It Up and dreaming big

Andi Oliver – TV presenter, renowned cook, successful restaurateur, the face of Great British Menu and, most recently, cookbook author – developed a serious eating disorder in her 20s, eventually receiving life-saving treatment when a doctor took her on at a private clinic for free.

"It was very hard for me because food had been my safety place," Andi explains. "It felt like the one thing that was unshakeable and when it got shook, when it broke, I was lost at sea. To be able to regain myself, to pull myself back up onto dry land, to reclaim one of my best friends – which is food – has been a powerful, important thing for me."

That reclamation now extends to a podcast – Stirring It Up, hosted and produced by Andi and Miquita. The concept is simple: the Olivers invite a special guest and their plus one to gather around their kitchen table and enjoy a home-prepared feast while discussing food, culture and life.

"The podcast world is fairly flooded," says Andi. "If we were going to make a show, there had to be a real raison d’être. What do we always do? Invite people to our house for dinner. We’ve been doing it forever – since Miquita was a little girl. We have always had waifs and strays at Christmas because I can’t bear the idea of people being on their own."

Miquita adds: "Me and Mum know how to throw a party and give people a good time. This is us sharing who we are. It was important to create some autonomy for ourselves."

Mother and daughter have both enjoyed long-standing careers in broadcasting, but Andi's initial accidental foray into radio came about through tragic circumstance. After losing her brother to sickle cell anaemia, she began volunteering at a hospice for people diagnosed with HIV and Aids.

"My brother had died, and I had been quite depressed," she remembers. "Working there helped me plug back into life and understand that I was lucky that I still had all this life to live, I had my health." Then, one day, one of Andi’s co-workers asked if she wanted to appear on a radio show. "I was a punk – you said ‘yes’ to what you thought was fun. So, I started doing a radio show. I learned to drive the desk on air. In my first week, I took the whole of the BBC off air for about a minute."

But Andi’s career trajectory was shaped by prejudice. "There weren’t jobs for me... I was constantly being put forward for roles and then I’d see somebody who was less able than me get the job again and again. I got fed up and walked away. I thought, 'I’m going to do something else.' Life is too short to wait for other people to give you permission to live and be your brilliant self."

Despite Miquita breaking into the industry a decade and a half after her mum, becoming the presenter of Channel 4 music show Popworld aged 16 in 2001, the landscape hadn’t changed.

"Being a mixed-race person growing up in Britain, my Black side wasn’t celebrated – by me or by television. To be on TV and to be the only Black or mixed-race person, I felt very isolated and alone. It’s taken me a long time to realise that the person on TV as a teenager, who was terrified of being Black, was doing something important for Black people – especially young mixed-race and Black girls."

"The press were awful to me," Miquita remembers. "They would bring up any little mistake I made in a way they wouldn’t have of my peers – especially, when [my best friend] Lily Allen became famous and we went out together. They found it difficult that we were successful, young and good at our jobs."

Andi interjects: "You were young women with opinions. They were like, ‘She’s gobby.’ Miquita and Lily are exceptional young women, they always have been. They have managed to traverse a world that kept telling them to sit down and shut up and get back in their box."

Andi, a woman who projects a radiant positivity, is convinced that it’s our traumas that eventually become our superpowers. During a recent appearance on Elizabeth Day’s podcast How to Fail, she recounted an incident in which her German teacher made her stand at the front of the class while her peers hurled insults at her for her corn-rowed hairstyle.

"Recently, I was filming up north and I met a young girl," Andi says. "I realised she was the only Black girl in her class. I said to her, 'I used to be the only Black girl in my class. I survived that. You will survive that. It will be your power. I am powerful – look at me – know that you can come through this. When you do, you’ll be magical.' Once you’ve had [trauma] perpetuated upon you, you know to never do that to another human being. You know to live with kindness. Pain is the gift that keeps on giving."

Miquita has had her own trials, including having to file for bankruptcy in her 20s. "I felt so embarrassed. Now, I take care of my money. I went bankrupt because I didn’t think I deserved my job or those opportunities. I didn’t feel like I was worthy of all that money. Now, I know I am."

Spending time with these women is a breath of fresh air. Andi, 60, and Miquita, 39, share an unshakeable sense of self. Having raised her daughter as a single parent in social housing, the Andi of today says: "We have this thing... If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough."

"It’s not every day that you get to have this life, with a parent and a child, who have been through so much together," adds Miquita. "Mum always made it feel like there was so much, but we didn’t have any money. We were always on the breadline. Everyone always says, 'You never stop working!'. It’s because we know what it’s like to not have anything. It’s an extraordinary life we’ve built for ourselves. We’re not going to let these moments pass."

The Radio Times magazine podcast special with Andi and Miquita Oliver is out now.

Stirring It Up with Andi and Miquita Oliver is available from all major podcast providers.

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