Comedian also talks about his work ethic – and many failed pilots

Romesh Ranganathan has told he nearly died after developing an addiction to eating chilli oil straight from the jar as a late-night treat.

In a wide-ranging podcast interview – which covered his perfectionism, quitting drinking, and the chain of 22 bakeries which he co-owns – the comic told how he got into the habit of guzzling Lao Gan Ma crispy chilli oil after his performances of Woman In Mind.

’As a little treat for myself, I’d have a tablespoon of the chilli oil,’ he tells the Dish from Waitrose podcast today. ‘It’s like, "Well done, Romesh. You did well in the play today. Have some chilli oil."’

The situation escalated when Ranganathan began eating the oil alone, rather than using it as a condiment. ‘It got to the point where I would happily eat it on its own,’ he said. ‘I’d open the jar when everyone’s asleep and shovel it in because I want to minimise being caught doing this. It’s beyond ick.’

Disaster struck when some went down his windpipe. He first spluttered some of it up and sprays ‘every cupboard. Every cupboard is just, completely pebble dashed with chilli oil. Then I start really choking and I start panicking,’ Ranganathan recounted. ‘I thought, "I am gonna die today." For some reason, I started doing circuits of the kitchen trying to walk it off.’

His primary concern was what his wife might make of it. ‘I just thought, "What is Leesa gonna walk into?" The next morning, my body on the floor, the jar with the spoon there. Cupboards completely pebble-dashed with chilli oil. What a horrible way for your husband to die.’

Elsewhere in the interview with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, he talked about his work ethnic and how he hasn’t yet performed what he considers the perfect stand-up show.

‘Stand-up is the thing that I’m most passionate about,’ he said. ‘It’s the reason I do anything, because it started from stand-up. That’s what I wanted to be when I moved into comedy.’

‘Whenever I do a tour show, whatever anybody thinks about it, I have worked my backside off to make this show, polishing it and getting it to the point.’  Yet even when shows receive positive responses, he finds himself unsatisfied. ‘I have this feeling of going, "That is the show. That is a show that when I retire or I’m cancelled, that will be the show that people go to, that’s Romesh’s show." And if I was to stop now, I haven’t done the show yet. In my opinion, I haven’t done the show yet.

 ‘I want the audience to be exhausted from laughing,’ he said, citing Richard Pryor as his greatest influence. ‘I used to watch his shows and I’d feel I’d want him to stop talking because [you reach a point where you need relief.’

Ranganatan admins that early  in his career, he was would desperately say anything for a laugh, however cheap. ‘You’re so desperate to make people laugh, you will say anything. You’d be waggling your glasses and saying, "And what did that guy say?" just because you’re desperate to make laugh,’ he recalls.

This hunger for laughs is natural for beginners, but Ranganathan says he has evolved. ‘As you get more experience, you go, "Well, making people laugh is not easy, but it becomes easier." So then you go, "Now I’d like it to be something where I’m standing by the substance of what I’m talking about."’ 

Not that he wants to present himself as an authority figure. ‘I’m not smart enough to give anybody a lecture about anything… But when you watch stand-ups that are really funny, they’re letting you into their world and they’re showing you the way they think about things. And there’s something you take away from it. Do you know what I mean?’

Ranganathan says comedy was drilled into him early, being brought up in a household where humour was a primary language. ‘The love language in my house growing up was just roasting each other,’ he explains. ‘My mum would wheel me out and go, "Do the impression of me, darling, do it when I’m trying to find the coffee."’ It was a loving, joyful form of communication.’

And he told that the teasing event came at inopportune moments, such as soon after the death of his father…

 His dad ran a pub and was a heavy drinker – ‘a charming liability,’ as Ranganathan describes him. While his father was often great fun, his mother paid the price for his addiction. ‘My mum had a hell of a time,’ he notes.

This family history shaped Ranganathan’s decision to quit drinking about eight years ago as he tried to conquer his addictive persona.

He reflects on past incidents, including getting heavily intoxicated on camera during an episode of Rob and Romesh Versus with Rob Beckett.

‘We did Rob and Romesh versus Heavy Metal and we drank with Queens of the Stone Age. I got, obliterated, on camera … I’ve just got vague sort of recollections of running around backstage. Rob and I, like, snogged on the side of stage and obviously production found it. It was great TV, really funny TV . 

‘Then I went to bed. I woke up the next morning. [And]  I just got the fear. The horror. 

‘So, I immediately put on the production WhatsApp. I just said, "I’m really sorry for my behaviour, if I was out of order last night, I was really all over the place."

‘It was half an hour before anybody responded.  That was the worst half hour of my life. People need to think about what that effect that’s having on people! You need to respond to people when they say that to you, get in quick and go, "You were fine", or "there’s a police investigation". You just want to know. Either way.’

In the interview, Ranganathan also spoke of some of the pilots he made that didn’t go anywhere: 

And he talked about co-owning Coughlan’s Bakeries in South-East England… and a bizarre encounter he had with a fan there:

• Dish from Waitrose is available on all podcast providers.

Published: 11 Feb 2026