To explain the success of Lunch with the FT, you have to go back to the Middle Ages. Bear with me.

Medieval kings did not get much time alone. They would eat their meals in large halls or castles, in front of many of their subjects — a bit like a college dining room operates today, says Andrew Spencer, an academic at the University of Cambridge. Eating in public perhaps helped these monarchs show that they were alive and in control.

Our modern-day equivalents of kings and queens are different. They eat in private rooms that most of us rarely step into. When they appear in public, they are often giving speeches or interviews that have been carefully choreographed. At receptions, they nurse an iced water. These appearances communicate a message, but rarely communicate a human being.