Quote · Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe
S12 EP49: I love the buffet
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The Breakfast Buffet Debate: Josh's Austere Holiday Food
At 17:57 · chapter starts 14:00
What begins as a casual question about breakfast quickly becomes an extended, almost anthropological investigation into how Josh Widdicombe eats on holiday [1] — Josh Widdicombe "Josh Widdicombe's ultimate holiday treat breakfast is untoasted bread, butter, thin sliced Gouda, cherry tomatoes, and a few capers. Rob Be…" 16:16 . Rob walks Josh through every meal of the day. Breakfast: bread (no toasting), butter, Gouda, cherry tomato, optional capers. No hot food whatsoever — no eggs, beans, sausage, omelette. Lunch: pasta with tomato sauce, waiting endlessly with restless children. Dinner: whatever the restaurant is serving, no going off menu. Rob likens the breakfast to wartime rationing; Josh insists it is a treat, pointing out that after three days he allows himself to have it every morning. The white chocolate mousse interlude provides brief contrast — Josh had it once, got completely wired on sugar, then crashed hard. Rob pivots to the hotel vs villa question, and Josh admits the holiday had a fragmented, stressful energy: kids wanted the pool, adults wanted the beach, and the pool was overcrowded with sun loungers and too deep for independent swimming.
Josh found his Greek hotel holiday stressful because the pool was too deep for independent swimming, too crowded with sun loungers, and every meal required managing restless children at a table. Rob made the case that hotels are great when kids are little but villas win once they get older — though Josh admitted he'd still miss the breakfast buffet.
Josh Widdicombe's Greek hotel offered white chocolate mousse at the breakfast buffet, which he ate once purely to prove a point, causing a subsequent sugar crash.
Josh Widdicombe's ultimate holiday treat breakfast is untoasted bread, butter, thin sliced Gouda, cherry tomatoes, and a few capers. Rob Beckett's verdict: 'That's some sort of Dutch evacuee.' Josh defended it as a genuine indulgence, pointing out he'd also eaten white chocolate mousse one morning, which gave him a massive sugar crash.
