It’s time to take another trip to The Balloon Market Blog, where you can read all about our terrific team members and the exclusive behind the scenes insights directly from BM HQ! I know, it’s pretty exciting.

Today’s guest is Ryan, another hard-working member of our wonderful warehouse team! Whether it’s picking, packing or helping put away stock, Ryan is up for helping wherever and whenever he can. Here’s an extra fun fact: this interview was actually the longest chat I’ve had for this blog! Hopefully I’ve managed to keep in all the best bits. Let’s hear from Ryan!

On the Meet the Team page, you’ve listed a fun fact about yourself. Tell us more about that!

I believe the fun fact was that I once fed David Gandy, who’s a model, a fish finger sandwich! I didn’t actually ‘feed’ him, I cooked one for him. Before working here I was a chef for 11 or so years and did multiple different jobs, from entry level up to sous and even a head chef! I was working in a pub in the New Forest and David Gandy came in with his entourage and ordered a fish finger sandwich. There was another time where Nick Frost came in, but he didn’t order any food. He just had a pint of Foster’s.

What do you enjoy most about working at Balloon Market?

I enjoy always being on my feet and active; it’s a great atmosphere to work in. In comparison to what I did before, you couldn’t really stop and talk in a working kitchen. Big extractor fans, all the noise of the ovens, it’s kind of impossible to have a simple conversation. But here, you get to work opposite someone and have the chance to talk to a variety of people.

Do you have a favourite product that we stock?

I like finding all the small things I had no idea we stocked when I’m picking and packing. There’s a little dinosaur cake topper with a party hat and, like, I have no need for it really… but I bought one anyway. He lives on my shelf at home at the moment.

As someone who likes to cook, I have to ask: do you have a signature dish?

In terms of a specific signature dish, I don’t really have one! When I worked in the kitchen, it was all about seasonality. Instead of having the same menu all the time, I had to make sure any menu I wrote was made with produce that was available for that season. I think eating with the seasons is the best way to do it!

What’s the No.1 thing on your bucket list?

The main thing for me is to visit Japan. Maybe it’s to try authentic food, maybe it’s the general culture overall, I just find it to be a very eclectic place; there’s nothing else like it. I’m a ‘travel to eat’ kind of guy, so I’ll always research a list of places to eat before I go anywhere. And with Japan, there’s so many different places and varieties of food to try. One day I’ll go, I don’t know when… it’s probably going to be VERY expensive though.

What’s your favourite kind of food?

There’s a style of food called ‘small plates’, similar to tapas or mezze. I don’t necessarily like having one plate to myself, because with smaller plates there’s more of a communal atmosphere and you can try a bunch of different things. There’s a restaurant in London called Jolene, which is a small plate café place that does seasonal British food with an Italian twist. There’s also another place called Tranga which is just around the corner; that one is more of a tapas style.

What is your favourite and least favourite genre of movie?

Least favourite has to be period pieces, where it’s set in the 1930s or 40s. I cannot stand them, they all just seem the same to me. It really depends on what actors are a part of it. However, my favourite has to be horrors or thrillers. I’m a big fan of classic horror and more modern psychological thrillers too; I like a good mix!

Is there something that most people like that you don’t?

Might be controversial, but I don’t like Oasis or The Inbetweeners. Those are two things which are just incredibly overdone. Oasis is just overplayed: there may have been one or two songs I liked initially, but now they just all sound the same to me. And with The Inbetweeners, I grew up in the era where people were watching it when it came out, so all the jokes weren’t that funny because everyone was repeating them over and over!

Do you have any good movie recommendations?

Any film distributed by A24! The new horror called Pearl, which is a sequel to one of their previous ones called X, is coming out soon and it’s supposed to be really good!

Do you have a question for the readers?

‘What is your favourite film genre?’

Cheers for the chat, Ryan! Always happy when I get a film question to answer; I could talk about cinema for hours and hours. Unfortunately, there’s not enough room in this blog for in-depth cinematic discussion, so I’ll keep my thoughts brief. My favourite genre (or subgenre, in this case) has to be Comedy/Horror: the idea of taking spooky concepts and making them a bit silly is exactly my brand of humour. Here’s a couple of special recommendations just from me: Shaun of the Dead, What We Do in the Shadows and Beetlejuice.

Let us know your answers to this week’s question below! See you all next time!

James
Blogologist