Chefs Special 12 Again

Coming up - some of the country's best-known TV chefs become 12 again.

It was the most extraordinary thing I'd seen.

Gizzi for Robbie forever, for sure.

# Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon. #

No, it's terrible!

And I used to dance.

Hungry for more?

Well...ever wondered what it would have been like to be best mates

with your favourite celebs when they were your age?

What did they get up to? What were their favourite songs?

And which TV shows did they watch?

Despite the exciting lifestyles they now lead,

once, they were a kid with a dream, just like you.

So let's rewind and find out what they were like when they were 12.

He's the gastronaut who loves nothing better

than cooking up incredible edibles.

-Deep-fried locust, anyone?

-I'm a food adventurer!

But back in 1980,

Stefan Gates had his sights set higher than just cooking.

When I was 12, I wanted to rule the world.

Eradicate poverty, stop war, everyone love each other,

and the place will be great with me at the head.

She has a reputation as one of the most stylish cooks in the country.

Oh, fantastic!

But back in 1991,

style and looks weren't on the menu for Gizzi Erskine.

My dad said, "It's OK, Gizzi, you'll be like the ugly duckling.

"You'll grow into a beautiful swan."

I'd be, like, "I know you're trying to be nice,

"but that doesn't feel very good."

These days, Hairy Bikers Si and Dave are the nation's favourite foodies.

THEY LAUGH

But when they were 12 in the 1970s,

their food wasn't exactly fine dining.

It was dreadful - tinned food, instant potato, tinned peas.

It was pretty dreadful.

She's the queen of Indian cuisine

who likes nothing more than to spice things up in the kitchen.

It's food that's tasty, yet light and healthy too.

But when she was 12 in 1983,

Anjum Anand was getting stuck on another pastime altogether.

We'd collect stickers, trade them, we were very excited about them.

I bought scratch-and-sniff stickers, they were weird.

Charcoal - who wants to smell charcoal?

All are massive stars of the food scene today.

But when they were 12, they had no idea what they were going to become.

So let's find out who they were back then.

When I was 12, I was totally geeky.

I was a total dweeb.

I was a tomboy.

I liked climbing trees, I didn't like girl things.

I was quite loud and outgoing when I was 12.

But kind of quite shy, as well, so it was a bit of a confusing time.

When I was 12, I thought normal was a terrible thing to be.

And I wanted to be different, I just didn't know how to do it.

When I was 12, I was quite confident.

But in a bigger crowd, I wouldn't put myself forward.

I'd let myself go into the background.

I was a worried chap. When I was 12, I always used to worry.

My main hobby was drawing and painting.

So if I had paper and pencils, I was the happiest person.

That's what our groovy gourmands were like,

but what did they look like?

I was a sort of a punk.

I had one manky jumper which sort of made me feel like I was different.

And I had very ripped jeans. Ha!

Every bit of my legs was falling out of them.

There was very little material.

When I was 12, I was really quite fat and quite short.

I don't think I had a stylish haircut either.

I don't think I looked very good.

Fashionwise, I think my mother had dressed me up in dresses

my whole childhood, so when I could, I stopped all of that.

I wore no pink.

It was just jeans and darker colours

and...more of a tomboyish edge.

When I was 12, I had alopecia, where you lose all your hair.

I was 12 years old, and I didn't have any hair or eyebrows or eyelashes.

There's nothing else wrong with you, you just lose your hair.

It's easier now because loads of people have shaven heads.

In those days, everybody was hairy, and I was the only one with no hair.

You've always been a trendsetter.

-I've been ahead of my time.

-He has.

-I have.

-No pun intended.

I was little, round-faced, had glasses.

I wouldn't say I was fashionable. I was very into big jumpers.

If it wasn't a jumper, it would probably be a giant jumpsuit.

I probably looked a bit like a Teletubby.

So that's what our 12-year-old bon viveurs looked like.

How far down the road to becoming mealtime maestros were they?

Like many young people today,

I was a young carer because my mother had multiple sclerosis.

So myself and my dad started cooking.

By the time I was 12, I was cooking for the family.

I would go to the supermarket, and I started to buy fresh food.

I think that's where the core of my love of food came.

And I found an old cookbook, and I started to cook.

My father died when I was eight, so what my mam did was

the time that we spent together was baking and that sort of stuff.

That was the way me and Mam had our leisure time together.

I was born in London, but at four we moved to Geneva.

So we lived in Switzerland,

and we were put in this international school.

So my best friends were American, from New Zealand...

There was a Japanese girl who I was friends with for a while.

It was a great place to be foodwise, because I got to taste

everyone's food in their homes, in their lunchboxes.

And it was just a really great way to spark my interest in food.

My mum and dad were separated, they were divorced.

And my mum was very time-pushed,

so we'd always have a job to do in the kitchen.

My mum was obviously this real powerhouse in the kitchen

and was constantly experimenting.

I don't think we ate many things twice.

Especially on the weekend, she'd want to try something new.

She had dinner parties that were so opulent.

I remember going to my dad's house and it being completely different.

He couldn't cook, it was a whole different game.

Anything that could be boiled in the bag or microwaved.

But I always found it a bit space age.

I used to think it was cool and my dad was cutting edge.

And some of my dirty secrets when it comes down to food

still come back to those days.

When I was growing up, food was awful.

Awful, awful, terrible, rubbish.

Meals were kind of sort of... strict and boring and formal.

Not a barrel of laughs until, when I was 12,

we got tickets to go to Japan.

Now, this was an alien nation. It was like being on the moon.

When we arrived, got off the plane, went straight to a restaurant.

And they brought out raw meat and raw fish,

and then you eat it, just like that.

I put this in my mouth,

and food suddenly became the most exciting, naughty, shocking,

playful, interesting thing I'd ever come across in my life.

And it was like a lightning bolt when everything changed,

and I realised this was the most fascinating thing in the world

and I wanted to be part of it.

So, all the ingredients for a fine future in food were in the bag,

but what music was whetting their appetites?

Thin Lizzy's Dancing In The Moonlight.

# When you passed me in the doorway

# Well, you took me with a glance... #

Dancing In The Moonlight by Thin Lizzy is a great love story

which still gets Si going to this day.

Dancing In The Moonlight is about this lad that's dating this girl.

He gets trouble from his mam and dad

because he's always out late with her

and he should've been home by ten but he never is.

# But I'm dancing in the moonlight... #

Whilst 12-year-old Si was dancing in the moonlight,

12-year-old Anjum was getting a little bit of culture.

# Desert loving in your eyes all the way... #

One of my favourite groups was Culture Club.

# If I listened to your lies would you say... #

Culture Club's leader singer, Boy George, was a colourful character,

known for a look that turned people's heads.

He was a really flamboyant character.

He wore makeup and he had colourful clothes.

He had fingerless gloves he wore often.

He was fun and was upbeat, and he was vibrant.

# You come and go...

# Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon... #

No, it's terrible!

# You come and go

# You come and go... #

Boy George was fantastic.

Whilst 12-year-old Anjum was happy bopping along to Boy George,

for 12-year-old Stefan, there was some music he couldn't stomach,

like the song that ended up being the bestselling record of 1979.

There was some terrible, awful,

dirgey, droning - uh! - gruesome music back then.

And the classic, which was Art Garfunkel, Bright Eyes.

# Bright eyes

# Burning like fire... #

It's about a rabbit.

It's about a rabbit!

# Bright eyes

# How can you close and fail? #

Bright Eyes was the theme tune

for the 1978 blockbuster Watership Down.

The animated film followed rabbits

struggling to find a home where they could be happy.

# Bright eyes... #

The song was number one for six weeks

and was about how a rabbit called Fiver feels

when he discovers his brother's been injured by a farmer.

-HE SOBS

-I'm sorry!

This is pop and rock music -

it should be about love, passion, changing the world!

This was about a rabbit!

Why should that be number one?! Get off!

You don't understand! His brother was injured by a farmer!

Anyway, when Gizzi was 12,

music was pulling her in two different directions.

I had music that I would listen to at school

and the music I'd listen to at home.

So my school music were bands like Take That.

Gizzi for Robbie forever, for sure.

Without a doubt, I was going to marry Robbie Williams.

# All I do each night is pray... #

They may be a man band today, but when Gizzi was 12,

Take That were the leaders of the global boyband scene.

Could It Be Magic was in the charts when I was 12,

and it was the song Robbie Williams got to sing on,

so it made it extra special for me.

# Spirits move me

# Every time I'm near you

# Whirling like a cyclone in my mind... #

But there was another side to Gizzi's musical tastes at 12

that was less pop and more rock.

At home, it would be the stuff my sister listened to.

So I got into Guns N' Roses in a big way.

# Welcome to the jungle We got fun and games... #

Guns N' Roses were fronted by Axl Rose and guitarist Slash.

He's the creepy hairy guy in the hat.

# If you got no money, honey, we got your disease.. .#

The band were a global phenomenon

known for their glam-metal image, and they rocked!

# Kn-kn-knees, knees

# Down in the jungle Welcome to the jungle... #

For Gizzi, their most memorable hit was in 1992.

# Feels like I'm knocking on heaven's door... #

Knocking On Heaven's Door was in the charts when I was 12.

# Knock, knock knocking on heaven's door... #

That has to be one of my favourite songs of all-time.

It's still one of those songs everyone knows and loves.

What's not to love? He dances about in his pants!

But despite those awesome moves, Robbie and the boys in Take That

will always have a special place in Gizzi's heart.

# Everything changes but you... #

I did actually go and see Take That recently and I did go wild.

I bet you did, Gizzi.

Let's rewind two decades, and Hairy Biker Dave was going wild, too.

But to a very different beat.

When I was around about 12, the band that caught my imagination was T-Rex.

# Ride it on out like a bird in the sky ways... #

The first big hit they had was called Ride A White Swan.

# Ride a white swan like the people of the Beltane

# Wear your hair long, babe, you can't go wrong... #

HE HUMS A TUNE

Stop there, stop there.

Seriously, stop it right now or you're out.

T-Rex was fronted by a man called Marc Bolan.

He was like this kind of rock elf.

He had corkscrew curls, he had glitter on his face,

he wore loads of make-up and very glittery clothes.

# Friends say it's fine

# Friends say it's good

# Everybody says it just like Robin Hood... #

Dave was pretty eager to get the look,

even resorting to picking up a needle and thread.

We didn't have any money for me to have the look,

so I made clothes on my mother's sewing machine out of old stuff.

I made my own loon pants.

Loon pants were like bell-bottom trousers with 28-inch bottoms.

I got a pair of my old school pants and some of my jeans

and I put bits in at the side and made my own.

I looked a complete disaster.

I'm sure you looked lovely(!) Hmm.

T-Rex ruled the airways with top-ten hit after top-ten hit,

which included this favourite of Dave's, Jeepster.

# Girl, I'm just a Jeepster for your love

# I'm just a vampire for your love... #

DAVE IMITATES DRUMS

And I used to dance. SI LAUGHS

Right, you've had your warning.

A little podgy fat kid with no hair.

Get out!

Still to come, we find out what TV

our gourmands were glued to when they were 12.

He was always very cool, and he looked cool.

That was terrific.

There was a crazy woman on there with curly blonde hair

and she was really bubbly.

I loved all that crazy, loud drama.

But first, let's see what news stories were having

an impact on our 12-year-old celebrities.

A big news story when I was 12 was the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

Indira Gandhi, ruler of the world's largest democracy, died today,

shot down by two of her own bodyguards.

On 31st October 1984,

the news broke that India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi,

had been shot and killed

whilst walking in the garden of her New Delhi home.

"Indira Gandhi was take to hospital after she'd been shot.

"The crowds prayed for the life of the woman

"who'd led them for more than 16 years."

The news shocked the whole world.

And in Switzerland, it had a great impact

on Anjum and her Indian family.

Indira Gandhi was from India, a country I never lived in,

but still very much felt I belonged to.

She was the first female prime minister of India.

She was a strong woman who had to take some tough decisions

which people weren't all happy with at the time.

Indira Gandhi was a controversial figure.

She was praised for her battle against famine in rural areas,

but she will also be remembered for taking

a hard line against Sikh extremists, who would ultimately take her life.

When she was assassinated,

it was the conflict between Sikhs and Hindus in India,

and it really opened me up into the real world

of how there is conflict between people of the same country.

So it got me thinking about bigger issues in many different ways.

So it was quite momentous.

In April 1980, one of the biggest news stories of the decade

was unfolding in London.

The thing that really sticks in my mind from when I was 12

was this very dramatic hostage siege which happened in central London.

It was the Iranian Embassy siege.

A political group who were Iranian themselves

wanted to bring about change in their homelands.

Their methods were brutal.

They took 26 people hostage at the embassy

and threatened to kill them unless their demands were met.

For six days,

Britain was gripped by the live television coverage of the siege.

The crunch came after one of the hostages was murdered.

The Government sent in the Army's secret special forces,

known as the SAS.

Very, very dramatically, the SAS stormed the building.

And what you saw is them entering through this balcony first of all.

They threw in stun grenades.

And they took over the building. It was very dramatic.

It all happened in broad daylight and in front of millions

of live television viewers, including Stefan.

You were desperate to know what was going on inside.

And I think that was the defining emotion of watching it,

which was excitement and fear.

And this amazing sense of, "Am I really watching this live?"

The operation took just 17 minutes.

Unfortunately, one of the hostages died during the rescue.

The rest were freed.

Five of the gunmen were killed, and one was arrested

and later sentenced to life imprisonment.

It was the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen.

In the year Gizzi was 12, one of the nation's most important

historic buildings was hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

One of the big news stories was when Windsor Castle was set alight.

"The Six O'Clock News from the BBC."

Fire has swept through Windsor Castle and caused enormous damage.

It's still burning, and this is the scene from Windsor tonight.

Windsor Castle is the oldest

and largest inhabited castle in the world.

The fire threatened not only the building itself,

but the major art collection it housed.

I remember waking up on the morning

and finding out it had happened and being totally, like, devastated.

100 rooms were damaged in the fire,

which is thought to have been started

by a spotlight shining on a curtain.

It took 250 firefighters 15 hours

and 1.5 million gallons of water to put the blaze out.

Luckily, no-one was hurt.

It was a shocking thing to happen to the Royal Family, because

you always put them on a pedestal that nothing could happen to them.

I just remember being very sad about it.

I remember seeing the Queen genuinely looking very sad about it,

and being quite bleak, actually.

It just made me really humanise them

and realise that they aren't any different to us.

Windsor Castle was eventually restored to its former glory,

but it didn't come cheap.

The repair bill came to a whopping £40 million

and took five years to complete.

Obviously, it got rebuilt and it's looking great,

but I remember at the time finding it so shocking.

Still to come, we ask the all-important question,

what advice would our food aficionados

offer their 12-year-old selves?

Enjoy being 12 for as long as you can.

Stop being obsessed with yourself.

And if you don't, then that's also fine.

Don't worry about growing up too fast.

But first, let's find out what our 12-year-old future foodies

were watching on the old telly box.

The big thing for me was The Old Grey Whistle Test.

The Old Grey Whistle Test ran for 16 years on BBC Two from 1971.

As a 12-year-old in the '70s and '80s,

it was one of the very few places you could see your favourite bands.

All the big international stars were on it, and it was just fantastic.

All of my kind of heroes gravitated to The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Si's not wrong, there were some massive names on the bill.

But there were also some smaller bands

whose acts weren't quite as polished.

See what I mean?

And others with some pretty far-out names.

Music from Little Feat, a song from the Dixie Chicken album,

-that was Fat Man In The Bathtub.

-There's a fat man in my what?

It was brilliant, I loved it.

The presenter was Whispering Bob Harris.

Welcome to Whistle Test and the programme tonight

which, for the most part, revolves around John Lennon.

He was always very cool, and he looked cool.

Come on in to another 40 minutes of Whistle's wax to watch.

Are you sure? Maybe "cool" meant something a bit different back then.

So there we are...

It was brilliant, loved it, Old Grey Whistle Test, rock on.

That was terrific!

When Gizzi was 12,

she was already watching all the food shows on TV she could,

including one with a presenter with a style all of her own.

There was a show called Food And Drink which I watched religiously.

Whilst Food And Drink has made a comeback recently,

it first appeared on our screens in 1982 and ran for two whole decades.

It wasn't just the gourmet treats on offer that kept audiences glued.

The unique style of one of the presenters

had viewers like Gizzi captivated.

There was a crazy woman called Jilly Goolden, who was the wine expert,

with this big curly blonde hair, and she was really bubbly.

Jilly was best known for some of her more flamboyant wine-tastings.

-She did not hold back.

-If I say to you seaweed...

Terrific dollop of oak!

That sort of rotting cabbage smell.

It's quite like the juice left after you've eaten a clam.

It has a smell of a just revving up, smouldering compost heap.

Hang on a second! Rotting cabbage? Stinking compost heap?

That's not wine, that's my dad's back garden!

When Anjum was 12, films from far away

were keeping her glued to the telly.

When I was 12, we didn't watch masses of television.

But my parents brought a lot of Bollywood movies into the house.

Bollywood films are made in Mumbai, India.

Bollywood gets its name from a mix of Mumbai's old name, Bombay,

and the centre of America's film industry, Hollywood.

Bollywood! You get it?

There was one movie I remember which was called Sholay.

It kind of had all the typical Indian Bollywood

elements of a movie, so it had the dancing...

-..and the singing...

-THEY SING

..the relationships which played into the plot.

Bollywood films are distinctive,

because they stick to a formula of boy meets girl...

..they fall in love, and they struggle for family approval.

Romance is big, but there's no snogging.

I loved all that crazy, loud drama.

I think it really added a little bit of India

into my very civilised lifestyle.

So those were the TV memories of our gourmet gurus.

But what do they remember most about being 12?

The big thing about when I was 12,

I'd just begun to be aware of girls.

And I'd remember being in love with every girl in my school.

They were all great!

The best thing about being 12 was having the optimism.

I began to be proud about my bald head.

So rather than hide in a corner, I quite liked being different.

I quite liked being stuck out like a sore thumb.

It's much better being noticed than ignored.

I think 12 was that point in my life where I was still very innocent,

everything was still very lovely,

and I do remember it as being a really nice time.

What I'd like to say to my 12-year-old self is

stop being obsessed with yourself!

HE LAUGHS

Stop worrying what people think about you.

Consume everything, learn everything, play, keep playing.

If you follow the things you're fascinated by,

that's where the most exciting things in your life will come from.

I would just say go out and live and enjoy being 12

and don't worry about growing up too fast.

Just relax, chill out a bit.

Find out what you want to do.

And if you don't, then that's also fine.

The one thing I would say,

if I could give myself a good talking-to,

is don't worry about it so much.

You know, because it's going to be all right

because all those years on, I'm still here.

I'm not worrying so much now, and I've wasted a lot of time.

Enjoy being 12 because when you end up being a grown-up,

it's not that much fun.

Being a kid's way more fun.

So what lessons have we learnt, then?

Don't invite this guy round your house for karaoke.

There are easier ways to hitch a ride into town.

And don't expect to get any sense out of this woman.

It has the smell of a revving up, smouldering compost heap.

No, it doesn't.