The Pool Party Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch

Hi, this is my life.

I love cooking.

They smell amazing.

My dad's a chef.

But I think I'm already better than him.

My name's Matilda Ramsay,

but people usually call me Tilly.

Meet my embarassing family.

Mum - she wears the trousers

and is the only one Dad's afraid of.

I'm loving the hair.

Big sister Megan.

She's all grown-up now

and crazy to get on with life.

Jack - he's so good at sport,

he's going to be playing for Britain soon.

This is Holly,

she is determined to be the greatest

fashion designer of her generation.

Dad - even though he's hard on the outside

he's soft and mushy on the inside.

and he's quite a good cook, too.

Eh, excuse me. How about very?

Matilda.

Matilda!

When you're the youngest you have to fight to get noticed,

so that's why I love to cook up a storm.

This is my world.

MUM: You're having a laugh!

OK, Ramsays, let's go.

This summer we've come to Los Angeles and I'm doing a food blog

about some of my cooking and what me and my crazy family get up to.

When you travel around Los Angeles you see pools everywhere,

and, because it's so sunny and hot here, you always want to dive in.

Two of my favourite things in the world are swimming

and throwing parties for my friends.

And for my pool party today

I'm serving up sea lollies,

rock pool salad

and my best ever fish finger sandwiches.

So my big question is...

My big sister Megan and my brother Jack are both brilliant swimmers

and today they're going to do some serious training, LA style.

But not everyone in our family is into water.

Holly and mum don't really like swimming

because they get their hair dirty after they wash it.

-Hi, Mum.

-But I am very good at it.

Yeah. Mum is so good at swimming.

Whoops!

What will keep you cool without getting your hair wet

are my black and red sea lollies.

My sea lollies are brilliant.

They're even better than the real sea, plus they're a bit tastier.

First, I'm going to start by cutting up the strawberries.

If, like me, you're going to take over the kitchen, don't forget is

that your grown-ups like you to ask them first.

I really like strawberries.

You want to cut them in half and then half again

so they're quite small.

Here I've got two juices.

This is strawberry and this is blackcurrant.

To make them colourful I'm pouring in blackcurrant juice

in the bottom half and dropping in slices of strawberry.

Now you're going to leave them in the freezer to set

until they're hard.

By freezing the blackcurrant juice first,

you can create cool two-tone lollies.

Jack and Megan are in swimming teams back home

and both are really competitive, so they're always

train, train, training.

I can't wait.

They love it in LA because they take swimming really seriously

over here and there are 43,000 outdoor pools.

You know, this coach used to be an Olympic swimmer.

-I'm Matt.

-I'm Jack.

-Nice to meet you.

-I'm Megan.

Megan, nice to meet you guys.

Their coach today is US Masters champion Matt Harrigan.

How often are you going to practise?

I do swim training two or three times a week.

Really get some power in that first stroke.

Come up and then start going.

They're pretty good swimmers,

they've worked at it enough to become somewhat competitive.

But there's one big difference between us Brits

and the Americans in the pool.

They're swimming on the same side of the lane as they

would drive on in the UK.

Back to my black and red sea lollies.

The blackcurrant juice is frozen, so pop in lolly sticks

and pour in the strawberry juice to make the Red Sea.

There are two very distinctive colours resembling the ocean.

I don't do it just to make them look fancy, they're just

more enjoyable when you have something that looks

colourful and bright.

I'm cutting mint to look like seaweed.

Strawberry and mint go very well together.

These are so much fun for my pool party.

I can't wait for everyone to dig in.

Over at the pool, Jack and Megan's

swim training is getting competitive.

Take your mark...

Hup!

-Megan, she did that very well.

-Did you hear that, Jack?

Everyone in my family loves to win,

so Jack and Megan are always racing each other.

There's nothing wrong with

a little sibling rivalry.

Hup!

The world record for 50m freestyle is 20.5 seconds.

I wonder if they'll get anywhere close.

Great, 26.

Dad's really into his fitness too.

He turns everything into a competition

and I love taking him on in the kitchen.

Right, what are you doing next?

Erm, my rock pool salad.

Rock pool salad.

So, carrots - you're all healthy.

You've gone a little bit LA.

-What's the dressing?

-You'll have to wait and see.

-Oh, come on. Give me a little bit more than that.

-Nope.

Please leave my kitchen now.

HE LAUGHS

-Do you need me at all?

-Nope.

-Advice?

-Nope.

-Support?

-Nope.

-Hugs?

-Yeah.

You can have that, I suppose.

One, two, three, boom!

Don't burn anything, please.

He can be annoying, but I'm sure he'll love

my brilliant rock pool salad.

This rock pool salad is going to be brilliant

for my pool party.

I'm using salads that look like seaweed to make my edible rock pool.

Start by making the carrots into ribbon shapes.

You want them to be about this thick.

Salads are very good for pool parties

because they are very light and very delicious as well.

This is how I'm making the carrot fish.

As you can see, it's not a perfect fish

but it still looks good enough to go on a rock pool.

And you can eat the leftover bits as you go.

They can be pointy or curvy.

I wonder if there's a fish

called carrot fish.

Roughly tear up these lettuce leaves

to make it look more like seaweed.

To make it really tasty I'm dressing my salad with a pinch of salt,

pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.

I really like lemony dressings, especially when it's summer

because it's more summery and zingy.

I do get everything everywhere.

Just get your hands under and toss it over so it's nice and coated.

Adults really like it when we eat salad because they say it's

very good for you and you've got to have loads of greens.

But forget them, this salad really rocks.

I'm now just going to add in some tomatoes,

all different colours.

This looks more like the rocks in the ocean.

Now I have the rocks in, it's time to add some fish.

Tilly!

-Hello, how was your lesson?

-It was really fun.

-It was awesome.

-What are you making for us?

-Rock pool salad.

It's a carrot fish.

We're about to go home.

Can you get me loads of inflatables for the pool party, please?

-OK, awesome, we'll do that for you.

-See you guys later.

-Bye.

It's good to get them working.

I love making sure my pool parties so with a real splash,

so Jack and Megan are helping out, picking up some cool inflatables.

-This is massive.

-I can't wait.

-A parrot.

-Yes.

-An octopus?

Shotgun, you and I should have those.

Water guns.

Those two are off their trolleys.

-That was definitely a good shop.

-Definitely a good shop.

I think Jack and Megan will be pretty happy

when they see the next dish too.

Fish finger sandwiches were one of Dad's favourite things to eat

when he was growing up.

He can't have changed much because they still are now.

But I think the ones I make rule.

These are my best ever fish finger sandwiches.

This is a brilliant way to make proper fish fingers.

For the coating you'll need flour,

breadcrumbs,

beaten eggs

and my secret ingredient - cornflakes.

This is what gives them a special taste because it's more crunchy.

Dad never uses cornflakes on his fish.

This is tastier than Dad's.

It's messy but really easy to make my fish fingers.

First, you need to dip it in your plain flour and then into your egg.

Then you just dip it in your cornflakes

and then into your breadcrumbs.

Messy is really fun, it's more enjoyable to cook.

It's kind of going everywhere. See? It's all messy.

Remember, when you handle raw fish

it's important to keep washing your hands so they're very clean.

They're going to go into the oven for...

It depends on the thickness of your fish.

When you're having a pool party youwant your decorations

to be just as good as your food.

The theme is the ocean so there's a palm tree, some jellyfish,

an octopus...

These are really nice, the decorations are really good.

On decoration duty today is my middle sister, Holly,

and here best friend from home, Elspeth.

-Elspeth, are you excited to be in LA?

-Very excited.

Never been, so it's exciting.

I'll see you guys later.

It's time to get the fish fingers out.

They look so good.

To make the perfect fish finger sandwich

you definitely need the right bread.

I'm using white, but go with what you like best.

Here we've got the sea foam sauce and the shark bite sauce.

This is really tartare sauce with a bit of dill in it.

Thisis the shark bite sauce.

It's just ketchup with a bit of chilli sauce in it.

That gives it that bite.

I always get hungry after swimming

so I'm pretty sure Jack is going to want this sandwich.

It tastes so nice with all this cornflake mix on it.

It's so delicious.

I'm sure everyone's going to love them.

They do look really amazing.

Come on, everyone, let's go sit down.

My food's ready and all the gang are here.

Time to get this pool party started.

Who do you guys think is the best swimmer sitting at the table?

-HE WHISPERS:

-It's me. It's me!

This is fish finger sandwiches with shark bite sauce...

-Shark bite sauce?

-..and sea foam sauce.

So have you guys ever had fish finger sandwiches before?

I've never really tasted fish like that, but it tastes really good.

Here's your rock pool salad.

-I'm loving the carrot fish.

-It's really awesome.

I would probably give Tilly ten out of ten.

Who's ready for some dessert?

I am!

My ice lollies are ready now.

This bowl makes them look like fish in a fish tank.

Doesn't it look good?

I'm very happy with these ice lollies,

I'm sure everyone is going to love them.

All my friends are going to be jealous

that I'm having to cool myself down.

They look delicious.

Elspeth, you get this one.

-Thank you.

-Would you like one?

There we go.

-Tilly, these are so good.

-I think it tastes like strawberry jam.

These are really, really good.

-OK?

-It's really good.

Come on, everyone, it's time to hit the pool!

All: Whoop!

Pool parties are the best!

My pool party was a great success

and after cooking I love sharing my pictures, especially with Dad.

Even when he's working,

we always try to have a serious foodie catch-up.

BLEEPING

-Hi, Tills.

-Hi, Dad.

I'm so sorry but I'm stuck in traffic

and the queues on the 405 are horrendous.

As soon as I get out of this traffic,

-hopefully, I should see you. Bye, darling.

-Bye.

-DAD AND MUM:

-Goodnight, everyone.

ALL: Goodnight!

After swimming all day, the thing I can't wait to dive into is my bed.