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Something that\u2019s been on my mind a great deal of late, is where beer intersects with other cultures, particularly those also within food and beverage. You may commonly hear me bring up topics like natural wine, low-intervention cider, speciality coffee and more when talking about craft beer. And this is with good reason. For me, the most exciting things happening within beer are often happening at the points where these industries converge. Take our Uppers & Downers festival, for example. When I see a coffee enthusiast\u2019s eyes light up because they\u2019ve just tried a 3% Kvass that expresses flavours in beer they previously thought mightn\u2019t have been possible, that gets me excited about the potential that lies within beer\u2019s future. At the moment I am particularly interested in the point at which beer meets food and restaurant culture. This is partly due to my own increased interest in food and wine of late, and finding myself in a good restaurant more often than previously. Naturally, being a beer writer, while in these spaces my mind turns to beer when I occupy them. Why isn\u2019t beer treated the same way on a wine list as the wine itself? How do we help this industry gain a greater understanding of how beer has evolved over the past decade and in turn, implement this evolution into this space? When it comes to talking about beer in restaurants, let\u2019s just say there\u2019s plenty to munch on. And this all brings me to today\u2019s guest\u2014Chef Tim Anderson\u2014proprietor of a Japanese-inspired restaurant in Brixton, South London called Nanban. Anderson originally hails from Wisconsin and lived in both California and Japan before eventually settling down here in the U.K. He was a originally a home cook, but in 2011 he won that years Masterchef\u2014a prime time cookery competition and TV show\u2014which propelled him into the limelight. What\u2019s particularly interesting about Anderson however, is that before he was a chef, he was and still is a passionate beer fan. Even while filming Masterchef he was making ends meet pulling pints in London craft beer spot, The Euston Tap. After winning he went on to brew collabs with Pressure Drop, The Wild Beer Co and BrewDog\u2014he even designed a menu at one of the latters bars for a time, as we\u2019ll learn in this episode. This all came to a head when Anderson eventually opened a restaurant of his own, called Nanban, here in London. At Nanban, Anderson specializes in what he calls \u201cJapanese Soul Food.\u201d You can expect steaming bowls of ramen, crunchy karaage fried chicken and even a burger which, somehow, fuses the Japanese-influenced house style with his Wisconsinite roots. What\u2019s not so normal for a British restaurant though, is the beer selection. Here, along with an impressive list of Sake and Shochu, beer takes center stage\u2014and in doing so, successfully demonstrates how beer can comfortably take its place at the dinner table\u2014where other establishments have either not made a similar effort, or are simply unaware of how food-friendly beer has grown to become. A quick note about this episode. We recorded in between lunch and dinner service at Nanban itself, so you can expect a little background noise. I\u2019m also joined by GBH\u2019s Claire Bullen\u2014who in addition to being one of the authors of our NAGBW award-winning food column, Provisions, is also a prolific cook herself, and has her first cookbook launching next spring. Keep a look out for that.