Lately, chicken has become an unlikely feature of the celebrity interview circuit. YouTube’s Hot Ones sees host Sean Evans bond with stars over spicy wings, while TikTok’s Chicken Show follows a similar food-centered interview format. Then there’s Chicken Shop Date, the YouTube series in which the charmingly awkward Amelia Dimoldenberg interviews celebrities in chicken shops across the UK.
Many of these shows, though, including Chicken Shop Date, also welcome vegan guests and eagerly cater to them with plant-based nuggets and French fries (and sometimes entirely vegan locations). The fact that these interviews have produced some equally viral moments as their chicken-centered counterparts begs the question: Is chicken really the selling point?
Ultimately, these shows reflect society, and society loves chicken. In the last few years, the American appetite for fried chicken has taken root in the UK, and now, in London alone, there are a whopping 8,000 chicken shops, specializing in wings, buckets, sandwiches—you know the drill.
Amelia Dimoldenberg / YouTube
But there’s a downside to this growing appetite. As we saw in the recent Netflix documentary Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy, for example, the fast food chicken industry is exploitative (both towards the communities it targets and the animals), environmentally destructive, and dangerous for our health.
Now, one of the genre’s biggest hosts is moving on. Dimoldenberg recently announced she will be ending Chicken Shop Date and moving on to something new, though she didn’t mention the impact of the chicken industry in her statement. “I never thought I’d stop Chicken Shop Date,” she said. “I thought maybe it would be a part of me forever, and in some way it always will, but I feel like it’s now time to move on from this adventure and on to a new one.”
As Chicken Shop Date comes to an end, we’re looking back at some of our favorite learnings from the series, all of which were revealed over vegan nuggets. For anyone hoping to step into Dimoldenberg’s shoes, these interviews, with Billie Eilish, Finneas, Paul McCartney, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’s Bimini, and Elmo (of course), offer an important takeaway: the witty conversation and comforting food are the real hooks, not the chicken.
20 things we learned while sharing vegan nuggets on ‘Chicken Shop Date’
1 Billie Eilish loves to flirt
“I got you vegan chicken nuggets and chips for your lunch,” Dimoldenberg told Eilish. “Because I’m not available on the menu yet.” The singer’s response? “Damn, I was really hoping that it could be you.”
2 Her favorite laugh ‘in the world’ is her brother’s
According to Dimoldenberg, if you can make your sibling laugh, then you have “hit the jackpot.”
3Billie Eilish loves to ad-lib on her songs
Her favorite ad-libs are on “Wildflower” and “Chihiro” (from the album Hit Me Hard and Soft). “It’s all improvised; everything I use is made up on the spot,” she said.
Amelia Dimoldenberg / YouTube
4 Finneas has British eyebrows
“I get that all the time,” Finneas asked over some vegan nuggets and French fries, which Dimoldenberg assured him were also vegan. “Why do you think that is? What do you think about me being British-looking?” It’s the eyebrows, said Dimoldenberg.
5 He has synesthesia
The name Amelia looks like a “cream white bone,” apparently.
6 Finneas’ childhood was full of existential dread
“When I had my first loose tooth, I was four,” he told Dimoldenberg. “I remember my dad was like, Look at that, you’re growing up,’ and I immediately was like, ‘This is the beginning of the end.’”
Chicken Shop Date / Instagram
7Paul McCartney owns ‘too many’ guitars
“Certainly hundreds,” he told Dimoldenberg during their date in the London vegan chicken shop, Temple of Seitan.
8 Songs come to Paul McCartney in dreams
He heard “Yesterday” in his head while he was dreaming. “That was pretty amazing,” he said.
9 There aren’t many perks to a knighthood
That said, one perk is that he is allowed to take a flock of sheep through London, but he “can’t be bothered.”
10 Paul McCartney can still do a headstand
He did one “last week.”
11 His favorite Beatle is Ringo
Because “there’s only one left.”
12 But it used to be John
“We all used to look up to John,” he said, adding that he was “like the leader” of the band and “very witty.”
Chicken Shop Date / Instagram
13Shania Twain loves French fries
And chicken nuggets, but only “if they’re not chicken,” as she’s a vegetarian.
14 She’s never met a rocket scientist or Brad Pitt
“I think he’s avoiding me, honestly,” she said.
15 Shania Twain can speak to animals
“Would you rather speak every language in the world or be able to speak to animals?” asked Dimoldenberg. “I can speak to animals already, I feel,” responded Twain. And that was that.
Amelia Dimoldenberg / YouTube
16 Bimini isn’t a fan of real chicken nuggets
“Aren’t chicken nuggets just like the rubbish parts of the animal? … ears, lips, and bumholes,” said the Drag Race star. Dimoldenberg responded by saying, “Chickens don’t have bums.” (They do, by the way.)
17They always think about being the prime minister
“I would fund the NHS more,” Bimini said. “And then I would make sure that everyone looks glam at all times.”
Chicken Shop Date / Instagram
18 Elmo is an expert on hugging
“It’s got to be genuine, it’s got to be real,” he said. Oh, and patting on the back is bad technique.
19 David Beckham taught Elmo the word ‘persistent’
“I’ve been persistently trying to get him on Chicken Shop Date,” said Dimoldenberg, to which the Muppet replied: “Well, Elmo thinks you could use a word called ‘patience,’ right?”
20There are no chicken shops on Sesame Street
“We have chickens who go to shops,” said Elmo, who is a vegetarian, because he’s friends with those chickens.
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Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England's southern coast.
