The actor and presenter’s first recipe book chronicles everything from his dad’s sudden death 30 years ago to juggling family life with a brood of five. Katie Wright find out more
t’s not often a cookbook can bring you to tears (unless you’re talking about the onion chopping-induced variety).
But reading Joe Swash’s ode to his father Ricky, who passed away suddenly when the London-born actor and presenter was 11 years old, is incredibly moving.
“He was a London taxi driver but he would do a lot of half marathons, he would run three or four times a week,” Swash recalls with pride, speaking to me from the home in Essex he shares with wife Stacey Solomon and their children Rex, three, and one-year-old Rose, as well as Zac, 14, and Leighton, 10 (from Solomon’s previous relationships) and Harry, 15 (from Swash’s previous relationship with Emma Sophocleous).
“He really ate healthy. Like he would cut the fat off his bacon – I love the fat on my bacon! The doctor said it was a thing called sudden death syndrome,” Swash explains.
“It was an undetected default in his heart that could have happened [at any time]. He could have died when he was eight, he could have died when he was 80. It was just a matter of time.”
Now 40, the former EastEnders star, who has just released his first recipe book, says he had difficulty coming to terms with his grief as a child.
“My mum and my sisters were crying – I sort of couldn’t ever open up and do that myself. I’d only ever cry or show any emotions if I was by myself,” he recalls.
“It was a really sad, sad time in my life. I sort of detached myself from it a little bit. It almost feels like I’m talking about another little boy, not really me.”
Swash – who got his big break in 2003 when he was cast as Mickey Miller in the iconic BBC soap – says he still felt the impact of his dad’s death as an adult.
“It’s something that’s always been with me, something that I feel changed me quite a lot. I always wonder what I’d be like if my dad was still with me, you know. Some of the bad decisions I’ve made in life, would they have happened?”
While he’s never had counselling, Swash says he’s always found cooking therapeutic, which is why he’s the main chef in his household: “I really get a buzz from it. Although Stacey thinks it’s amazing that I do it, I sort of secretly do it for myself, it’s really good for me.”