30-05-2025
EXCLUSIVE I invented pulled pork - this is how you should really do it
The celebrity chef who 'invented pulled pork' has revealed how it should really be cooked.
Simon Rimmer, who is appearing at this weekend's Pub In The Park food and music festival, has insisted he came up with slow-cooked meat creation.
The TV host, 62, who is from Wallasey, confirmed to MailOnline: 'Yes I invented pulled pork!
'Although it might be a joke we made on Sunday Brunch that caught fire. It never ceases to amaze me that people don't get it! So yes, it was me.'
The expert, who has seen his recipe downloaded thousands of times, said the key to perfecting the dish is to keep it 'low and slow'.
He advised: 'Low and slow, plenty of seasoning, plenty of moisture. And cook it until it will fall apart with a spoon.'
Speaking previously to Kate Thornton on an episode of White Wine Question Time, he said he cooked the dish once on Sunday brunch, and his co-host Tim Lovejoy went 'crazy for it'.
He explained: 'I think it was just one of those moments in time that at all the ducks are in a row. I think at the time it became the most downloaded recipe on Channel 4 including Jamie Oliver Gordon Ramsay...
'It was just one of the things that everybody wanted to cook it and then about six months later that whole low and slow thing just really took off.
'So we just started saying 'my invention' and it's great because whenever it's mentioned it always gets people really, really angry! So it's been around for years.'
Earlier this month, Simon was reduced to tears when telling his daughter, Flo, the impact his father's death had on his life.
The father and daughter were speaking on the latest episode of the Mail's 'The Apple & The Tree' podcast, which pits parents against their adult children to ask intimate questions about their shared family history.
TV Chef, Simon, 61, recalled how turning sixty had created an angst within him, which he only managed to come to terms with after his father passed away two months later.
Simon is best known for his work with Mail podcast host Tim Lovejoy, presenting 'Something for The Weekend' between 2006 and 2012.
'Sixty was the only birthday I ever had that I was bothered about', Simon said.
'Thirty, forty, fifty – they never bothered me. I wasn't happy: it felt like a lot of the sides of my life were almost teetering. It was as though if things went the wrong way, the whole house of cards could come tumbling down.
'I knew my dad was fading. I knew we were on borrowed time with him. He died two months after that, and it really brought me back into focus.'
Flo Rimmer, 27, who works in sales, admitted she was worried about her father's behaviour on the advent of his sixtieth birthday.
'You were quite emotional and sad', she commented.
'You were regretful about certain things that had gone a different way, or where your life was.
'That made me quite sad because you've done amazing things. I remember saying to you that night, you need to take a step back and actually look at where you are and what you've become.
'Maybe yeah, you haven't hit certain milestones – but that doesn't mean you haven't been successful.'
Simon juggled a successful presenting career with the managing of multiple restaurants across Manchester.
He is also an author of cookbooks and has appeared as a contestant on shows Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Mastermind.
In tears, Simon described the death of his father and how remembering some advice he had given him as a child cured him of his gloom at aging.
Struggling to speak, he said: 'When he died, we were all there together at his hospital bed. We got to say goodbye.
'All of my drive, all of my ambition, started when I was 9 and my dad said to me, if I had my time again: I would never work for anybody else.
'He told me he'd only do what he wanted to do – and I have never had a proper job.
'My dad was my hero. He taught me everything about being a human being.
'I will never get over it – I never want to. That's something I have learned about grief; you never want to get over it.'
