The ADHD Chef: Why Chaos Felt Normal My Entire Life

About this episode

Martyn Odell discusses his experiences with ADHD, creativity, and the impact of chaos in his life and cooking.

Chef, content creator and food waste activist Martyn Odell - better known online as Lagom Chef - joins Ben for a chaotic, funny and emotional conversation about ADHD, creativity, food, and finally understanding his brain. Diagnosed with ADHD midway through writing his first cookbook, Martyn reflects on growing up in kitchens where chaos and intensity were normalised, and why that made it difficult to recognise the difference between personality, coping and neurodivergence. They explore ADHD creativity, burnout, internet culture, the pressure of social media, and what happens when your job relies on constantly turning your brain into content. Martyn shares why “eat the food you buy” became his philosophy, how cooking can help people reconnect with themselves, and why perfection is ruining the way we think about food. This is a conversation about ADHD, identity, creativity, and learning to trust your own way of doing things. Join us at  hidden20.org/donate . Eat The Food You Buy: 15 Everyday Ingredients, Endless Delicious Meals by Martyn Odell is publishing on 16th July 2026 (Penguin Life, £25) ________ Host: Ben Branson Production Manager: Phoebe De Leiburné Video…

People in this episode

Host: Ben Branson

Guest: Martyn Odell

Topics covered

• ADHD
• creativity
• cooking
• food waste
• internet culture
• neurodivergence

Keywords

• ADHD
• creativity
• cooking
• food waste
• internet culture
• neurodivergence
• burnout

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Penguin Life

Products: Eat The Food You Buy: 15 Everyday Ingredients, Endless Delicious Meals

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