Heathman caught up with Giles Coren this week to hear all about the Kentish Town food critic’s run-in with Canada’s most infamous man, Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

Last month, followers of Mr Coren will have been intrigued to find pictures on Twitter of the food critic beside the larger-than-life Canadian politician, who sparked a media frenzy with the admission he smoked crack cocaine.

Mr Coren has been shooting a new television series for US and Canadian networks and managed to secure an exclusive interview with Mr Ford about “food truck legislation” while in Toronto on March 19.

Reluctant to probe the drugs saga, Mr Coren said he instead found common ground while discussing London’s mayor.

“I had a little joke with him about Boris Johnson,” he said. “I said, ‘I know you have all your travails here but we have got a mayor with a big personality in London.’

“He was well aware of Boris, he models himself on Boris.”

The Times columnist told Heathman he was later lambasted by Canadian journalists for not questioning the mayor on his drug use.

“They were furious with me for not talking to him about the crack,” he said. “When I went to meet him he was the biggest story in the whole north American continent.”