0:00:02 > 0:00:05The last decade has seen an explosion of interest
0:00:05 > 0:00:08in English food.
0:00:08 > 0:00:13It's become world-class. It's cheeky. It's even sexy.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15But it's also steeped in history.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19If we are to find out about who we are and what we were
0:00:19 > 0:00:23and where our food comes from, then we really need to look at past,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26because the past, actually, is our biggest human resource.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30'I'm heading off on an adventure into the past, to try and discover
0:00:30 > 0:00:34'what I consider to be the cradle of contemporary English cuisine.'
0:00:34 > 0:00:37It's an extraordinary range of flavours.
0:00:37 > 0:00:38'It's an Epicurean epic...'
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Have a little chew. '..that begins in Roman Britain.'
0:00:41 > 0:00:42Ha-ha-ha!
0:00:42 > 0:00:44They're all right!
0:00:44 > 0:00:45Hey, fantastic!
0:00:45 > 0:00:47Yeah, believe it or not, they are!
0:00:47 > 0:00:53'I'm going to recreate 300-year-old recipes in a 21st century kitchen.'
0:00:53 > 0:00:55I've got my drill out!
0:00:55 > 0:00:58I think if I'd lived in the 18th century, this would be all I would have eaten.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02'From the page to the palate, it's a story that brings to life
0:01:02 > 0:01:06'the smells, the tastes and the sights of the past.'
0:01:06 > 0:01:09It's very thick, very rich, and absolutely delicious.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14'It's the period where, like any good recipe, the ingredients combine
0:01:14 > 0:01:17'to form something that's much, much greater
0:01:17 > 0:01:18'than the sum of their parts.'
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Perhaps we're in a bit of a rut when it comes to flavours.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Coffee and sedition, salad and first editions,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28this is the golden age of English food.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40There is no nice way to say this.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43For 150 years, British food was less of a national cuisine
0:01:43 > 0:01:45and more of a national disaster.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49The French president Jacques Chirac said that
0:01:49 > 0:01:52British food was the second worst in the world, behind only Finland's.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Ha-ha.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58But the trouble is, the insult hurt, because until pretty recently,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01it was true. Our food was blooming awful, and I should know.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06I grew up in the '70s, and I am largely built of frozen
0:02:06 > 0:02:08economy burgers, oven chips and margarine.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13I've always been fascinated by a forgotten hundred-year period
0:02:13 > 0:02:17hidden deep in our history, when English food, our produce,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21our cooks and our writers, were as good as any in the world.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24It was a wildly exciting time, when food defined
0:02:24 > 0:02:28and shaped England, and a rich national cuisine developed.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31But then, somewhere along the way, we lost it all.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34Over the last ten years,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37there's been a huge culinary renaissance,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40but what is extraordinary is how much the Renaissance owes to
0:02:40 > 0:02:42that forgotten golden age of food.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Now, you might not give the history of your food a second thought,
0:02:58 > 0:03:02but the truth is that every time you go to the supermarket,
0:03:02 > 0:03:04you're buying a little bit of the past.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14All of these ingredients have their roots in the period
0:03:14 > 0:03:18that I'm fascinated by. It's 1650 to 1750.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21But the tastes and flavours that we think make up English food
0:03:21 > 0:03:23actually go way, way back.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26I think that one of the quintessentially English flavours
0:03:26 > 0:03:29that we think of now as modern and unsophisticated
0:03:29 > 0:03:32actually has its roots thousands of years ago.
0:03:32 > 0:03:33It's this stuff.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Brown sauce.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41This national culinary treasure, a simple, everyday condiment,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45owes its existence to invaders 2,000 years ago.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49The Romans brought together what we now know as England under
0:03:49 > 0:03:51one rule for the very first time.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56So at the end of the last ice age, the ice retreats,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59leaving Britain as an island, but it's not until this gets
0:03:59 > 0:04:03built that we get the first interesting phase in British food.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08This is Hadrian's Wall. So, off to the North, savages.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Everything to the south of here, the Roman Empire, and it's the Romans
0:04:12 > 0:04:18who really kick-started the first exciting phase in British food.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27Vindolanda, a Roman fort established around 92 AD.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32Archaeological excavations here have revealed how ancient Roman trade
0:04:32 > 0:04:36and Empire changed our culinary habits.
0:04:38 > 0:04:44So, the Romans arrived with their power and their love of food
0:04:44 > 0:04:47and the wealth to be able to supply that.
0:04:47 > 0:04:48That's right.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51What do they change to the relatively primitive
0:04:51 > 0:04:53food landscape of Britain?
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Oh, they bring so much, because, of course,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59they're networked into a vast empire, so the first thing you'll
0:04:59 > 0:05:02notice are the wonderful spices and flavours, and then just variety.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05So it is a real sort of explosion in the food culture here,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08- as well as just having the foods themselves?- It is.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11- People begin to cook on a different level.- They do.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14- Flavours change. - They do, and the real key to this,
0:05:14 > 0:05:18the thing that gives the game up, in pre-Roman Britain,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21you don't get these, or you don't get them very often,
0:05:21 > 0:05:23which are the mixing bowls, the mortaria,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25where you're mixing your spices.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27It's where you're grinding things around.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30Exactly. Pretty quickly, pretty much every household that you excavate
0:05:30 > 0:05:33or you look at in Roman Britain has one.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35- Yeah.- It's a legacy of Roman Britain, this.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39So is it a simplification to say that flavours didn't really exist
0:05:39 > 0:05:43before, it was more about nutrition, and about getting enough energy?
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Nutrition was the key, it was the absolute key.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48You'd have the odd feast day, where you'd broaden the table
0:05:48 > 0:05:52the little bit, but daily food was a fairly mundane experience.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54But suddenly, you're networked into a much bigger thing,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58where flavour starts to play a much more important role.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01This is the first development of a recognisable food culture
0:06:01 > 0:06:05in Britain, that has imports of food on a grand scale,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08and we're beginning to use elements from around the world
0:06:08 > 0:06:11and incorporating them into the British diet.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14It's the first, I think, great age of British food,
0:06:14 > 0:06:19when everything's available to make whatever you want, basically.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Whatever you want from, effectively, the known world.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29'The Romans left behind the Vindolanda tablets,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33'the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.'
0:06:33 > 0:06:36'Like wooden postcards from another age, they tell us
0:06:36 > 0:06:39'what people were interested in, and what they were eating.'
0:06:42 > 0:06:45'But if our understanding of flavour really did begin then,
0:06:45 > 0:06:50'what will I find when I put an ancient recipe to the test?'
0:06:50 > 0:06:51I'm going to recreate a recipe
0:06:51 > 0:06:53from one of the oldest-known Roman cookbooks.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57"De re coquinaria" - On The Subject Of Cooking.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Recipes compiled in the fourth century AD.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08The trouble with history is that it's very difficult to evoke
0:07:08 > 0:07:10the sensations and the emotions that people would have had,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13but when it comes to food history, it's a bit different.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16If you want to experience what a Roman soldier experienced,
0:07:16 > 0:07:18nip down the shops...
0:07:19 > 0:07:21..and get yourself some of these.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25Because oysters are, in many ways, the classic ancient food,
0:07:25 > 0:07:30and there are huge mounds of oysters found at lots of Roman sites.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33And right here at Vindolanda, there is one of the written records
0:07:33 > 0:07:35that one of the fragments they've got
0:07:35 > 0:07:40refers to a gift of 50 oysters that somebody received.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48To really get a sense of the flavours that the Romans used
0:07:48 > 0:07:50to add to the natural foods,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53because these were just growing in the estuaries, I guess,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55this is a sauce that features a lot of the flavours
0:07:55 > 0:07:58that they used to have.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01A pinch of pepper, and then they would add a little bit of celery seed
0:08:01 > 0:08:04that's been crushed up, which is similar to lovage,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06which was very popular as well.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08A couple of egg yolks.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10And then acetum was very important.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13It was a vinegar that used to be added to water,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16and was watered down for marching soldiers.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21And then they used to have a substance that was called liquamen.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26It was basically made from fermented rotted fish. Very, very pungent.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29We get the same sort of sensation from either nam pla,
0:08:29 > 0:08:33which is Thai fish sauce, or from Worcester sauce.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Little bit of olive oil. Italian olive oil, obviously.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41And then honey.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45It's an extraordinary range of flavours,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49from sweet to deeply sour to that fishiness, as well.
0:08:49 > 0:08:50So there we go.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52A Roman supper.
0:08:52 > 0:08:53Might have a little try.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56I think I should be first, seeing as I made it.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02And now for this oyster with Apicius's oyster sauce.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Mm-hmm!
0:09:08 > 0:09:10That's extraordinary.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14It's like having an oyster with brown sauce.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Let's see what everyone else thinks.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23So, it's an oyster, fresh oyster, uncooked,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27with a sauce straight from a Roman cookery book.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Try it, and tell me what you think.
0:09:29 > 0:09:30What do you think?
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Different!
0:09:32 > 0:09:33Ha-ha!
0:09:35 > 0:09:38Have a little chew.
0:09:40 > 0:09:41They're all right!
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Yeah, fantastic.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Believe it or not, they are.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50As well as aqueducts and roads, the Romans brought with them
0:09:50 > 0:09:52the first great age of flavour.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54I'd say that when they left in the fifth century,
0:09:54 > 0:09:58England was plunged into a culinary dark age.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12Of course, people don't just stop eating when the Romans leave,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15but our food culture does go into decline.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17Then, from the mediaeval period onwards,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20we rediscover old ingredients, and we discover new ones,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22but it's often through invasion.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24William the Conqueror invades,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27bringing tastes from the continent, and we invade the East
0:10:27 > 0:10:30during the Crusades, bringing back tastes and flavours from there.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33But this isn't a national cuisine.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37It's a European cuisine, and was mainly eaten by the nobility.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40It doesn't really filter down to the lower classes.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries
0:10:43 > 0:10:47and the split from Rome is a seismic shift in society and class,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50but it takes time for that to affect the way we eat.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55Now, yes, 1,300 years after the Romans leave is full of interesting
0:10:55 > 0:10:59food, but it's after that that things get really exciting.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09he sold off the ecclesiastical lands to raise funds for the Crown.
0:11:10 > 0:11:15Suddenly, the emerging merchant class had a chance to rise up
0:11:15 > 0:11:20the social ladder, and the English country house entered a new era.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26Before this, our food habits were closely intertwined with
0:11:26 > 0:11:29religion, but now the table was set for a whole new
0:11:29 > 0:11:32relationship between the English and their food.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Can you paint a picture of the state that Britain's been
0:11:37 > 0:11:40left in by the Tudors by around 1650?
0:11:40 > 0:11:41I think the most fundamental change
0:11:41 > 0:11:45was that more people had more wealth.
0:11:45 > 0:11:50Suddenly, we found, through trade, through the East India Companies,
0:11:50 > 0:11:55whether it was the English or the Dutch, it was generating wealth.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00And that wealth filtered its way right down to the lower levels.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07The big country houses were powerhouses.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09They were generating wealth throughout a big
0:12:09 > 0:12:11proportion of society.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14So is there a fundamental social shift?
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Absolutely.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18And there's wealth that filters down,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21and a lot of that comes from trade, because of relative peace,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25you get the prosperity, and that's reflected and defined,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29I guess, by food, because a lot of that trade is in food.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33And also the objects needed it to consume the food.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37Because the dining table was the most important part
0:12:37 > 0:12:43of a country house establishment, and also in the farmhouse, as well.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46So the fashion starts right at the top with the upper levels
0:12:46 > 0:12:48playing around with new ideas, something new has come in,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51it's a novelty, and it slowly starts to filter down,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54so it does have a tangible effect on society as a whole?
0:12:54 > 0:12:56Very much so.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Food had become aspirational, a way to display new wealth.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05It was generating trade, and with it, a city.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08London, 1649.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10We've just cut the head off our King,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and so begins the most radical period of English history.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17There are seven years of bloody Civil War,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19where families are wrecked apart, brother fights brother,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22and society is thrown into chaos.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33When the dust settles, it is clear
0:13:33 > 0:13:36that nothing will ever be the same again.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39We've killed our King, we have a new political landscape,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42and there's a chance to remake society
0:13:42 > 0:13:43in entirely unthought-of ways.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48New ideas are not only introduced, but they're spread.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Over the next 50 years or so, we fight a series of successful wars,
0:13:58 > 0:14:00and we begin building our empire.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03The spread of trade and commerce is unstoppable.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08In 1660, we restore our King to throne in the shape of Charles II,
0:14:08 > 0:14:12but the changes brought by the revolution are here to stay.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20In 1660, London is the third largest city in the world,
0:14:20 > 0:14:24but over the next hundred years, it becomes the largest.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27In many ways, the world comes to London,
0:14:27 > 0:14:32and with it, the world's produce. Whether it's power, prostitution
0:14:32 > 0:14:35or dinner you're after, London is where it's at.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42This is the beginning of a national identity, and with it,
0:14:42 > 0:14:43a national cuisine.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47Now that might seem like a tenuous link, but the reality is that
0:14:47 > 0:14:50food, politics and Englishness are inextricably linked.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Nowhere was this interplay more apparent than in the emerging
0:14:54 > 0:14:56coffee house scene.
0:14:56 > 0:14:591652 sees the first coffee house open in London,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03and within decades, there are over 500 in the capital,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06and many more in every town across the land.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09'Food and drink can change the world,
0:15:09 > 0:15:11'brewing political change in a cup.'
0:15:12 > 0:15:14Why did coffee become important?
0:15:14 > 0:15:16At the start of 1650, were people drinking much tea,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18coffee and chocolate?
0:15:18 > 0:15:22From about 1650, you start to get what is almost an explosion
0:15:22 > 0:15:24in all three beverages, and that's really driven by coffee houses.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27And, famously, Pepys talks about coffee houses.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29Yes. He goes from coffee house to coffee house to go and celeb spot.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32And he's a political mover and shaker, isn't he?
0:15:32 > 0:15:33Yes, very much so.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36And so why does coffee become associated with politics?
0:15:36 > 0:15:37What's the connection?
0:15:37 > 0:15:39I think because they're called coffee houses,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41apart from anything else.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43They serve tea, they serve coffee, they serve beer,
0:15:43 > 0:15:46but they're known as coffee houses, and coffee is one of those things
0:15:46 > 0:15:50which almost revolutionises the whole political landscape.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53For once, we're able to do our business dealings not over beer
0:15:53 > 0:15:55or brandy or wine, we do it over coffee.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57And that turns the coffee house into a sort of arena,
0:15:57 > 0:15:59or forum for thought, politics.
0:15:59 > 0:16:00For everything.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02They're known as the penny universities,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04because you pay an entrance fee,
0:16:04 > 0:16:06or perhaps you just pay for your cup of coffee,
0:16:06 > 0:16:07depending on the house,
0:16:07 > 0:16:09you go in, you have access to the newspapers,
0:16:09 > 0:16:11you have access to the foremost thinkers of the day,
0:16:11 > 0:16:13and each coffee house gains its own character,
0:16:13 > 0:16:17so there'll be a coffee house where literary gents hang out, there'll be
0:16:17 > 0:16:20a coffee house where the political movers and shakers hang out.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23There's a coffee house for the early financial industry,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27and it's out of the coffee houses that a lot of financial institutions
0:16:27 > 0:16:29such as Lloyd's Shipping List grow.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32They are so interesting and so potentially seditious
0:16:32 > 0:16:34that Charles II tries to close them in the 1670s.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36So they're a genuine force?
0:16:36 > 0:16:38They are a real force.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40Charles sees this as a real threat to the court,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42because he is trying to concentrate power back into the court,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45having just been restored, and it fails.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48The bill goes into Parliament, but it's never enacted, because
0:16:48 > 0:16:52the power of the coffee houses is such, and these are male-dominated.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55It's extraordinary, because it's a drink. It's a powder.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58But it changes the world, and it changes England a lot,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01because of the way our political landscape works in the 17th century.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04They really do become an alternative forum to the court,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06and that's very, very important going forward,
0:17:06 > 0:17:08because that's part of 18th-century development,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11that we are not completely focused on the monarchy, that we
0:17:11 > 0:17:14have this alternative forum, and that's where an awful lot
0:17:14 > 0:17:17of national development comes out, the national cuisine starts
0:17:17 > 0:17:21coming out, and that feeds back into the greatness of the 18th century.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23So this is the tea,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26but this isn't tea as in the sort of common tea that we drink now.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28It's back to green tea.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Yes, green tea was very, very popular.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34In fact, green tea, when you look at 17th-century depictions of tea,
0:17:34 > 0:17:35it's always green tea.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39Black tea triumphs in about 1720,
0:17:39 > 0:17:41and black tea tends to be drunk with milk.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Green tea, without, or possibly with.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48But it's very much a delicate drink, very quickly associated with women,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51partly because it has this proliferation of stuff with it,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54which means that women can show their gentility, their taste,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58their ability to hold and use delicate porcelain objects.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01So it's about the kit involved as much as the drink?
0:18:01 > 0:18:02Yes.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04- Feminism through tea? - Mmm.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06That's brilliant.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09- I drink my tea, I salute feminism throughout history.- Excellent.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15Chocolate. Sinful pleasure!
0:18:17 > 0:18:20- Is this how they would have drunk it, with a bit of milk?- Yes.
0:18:20 > 0:18:21Basically hot chocolate.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Er, yeah. It was initially drunk with water.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26In South America, it was drunk with water, sometimes thickened with
0:18:26 > 0:18:30maize and usually sweetened with honey, if it was sweetened at all.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32But over here, we very quickly started drinking it with milk,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36and Madame de Sevigne, over in France, records drinking it
0:18:36 > 0:18:39with little milk bottles, specially designed for it,
0:18:39 > 0:18:41by the 1670s, and at the time,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45we are using effectively cocoa mass, so 100% cocoa.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48Hearty, sort of, spicy affair, isn't it?
0:18:48 > 0:18:51It's very thick, very rich and absolutely delicious.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59There's a wonderful pamphlet by Dr Duncan called The Wholesome Advice
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Against The Abuse Of Hot Liquors.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04And hot liquors meaning tea and coffee, rather than spirits.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Tea, coffee and chocolate, but mainly coffee.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08With tea, it's a slightly different argument.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11There, it will feminise us, so you have rants against the fact that we
0:19:11 > 0:19:15are turning from a war-like nation into a nation of effeminate sippers.
0:19:15 > 0:19:21And with chocolate, again, just as you say that nothing is new,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24with chocolate, these days we associate it with sex and luxury,
0:19:24 > 0:19:25and advertisers tell us that
0:19:25 > 0:19:29if you drink chocolate or eat chocolate, that it's an aphrodisiac.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Well, then, there were an awful lot of pamphlets in circulation that
0:19:32 > 0:19:34suggested that if you ate chocolate, you would become randy
0:19:34 > 0:19:36and a nymphomaniac.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38And did they think that was a good thing or a bad thing?
0:19:38 > 0:19:41I think most of them thought it was quite a good thing.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45There's a very, very long poem all about the wonderful effects
0:19:45 > 0:19:48of chocolate, and there's a line in it that says...
0:19:57 > 0:20:00The glint in your eye when you say this is quite scary.
0:20:03 > 0:20:08In The Due Praise Of Divine Chocolate was published in 1652.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11The written word holding a mirror up to the interests of society
0:20:11 > 0:20:15in the 17th century, just as it does today.
0:20:20 > 0:20:21Over the last ten years or so,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24there's been an explosion in British food writing.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Our fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time was recently
0:20:27 > 0:20:31published, and it was a cookbook, although bizarrely, not one of mine.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33But for me,
0:20:33 > 0:20:38the first truly exciting age of food writing was during the restoration.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46The Brotherton Library holds one of the nation's most important
0:20:46 > 0:20:48collections of historic cookbooks.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52They're a culinary conduit into the past.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58There's some really exciting books right here in front of us.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Can you tell me about the development of the cookery book?
0:21:02 > 0:21:07The first cookery book is published is by Bartolomeo Scappi,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09or Platina, as he's sometimes called.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11The fact that this has been translated into Italian
0:21:11 > 0:21:14out of Latin shows, actually,
0:21:14 > 0:21:19more and more people are wanting to appreciate and to try these recipes.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23The same process occurs in England during the 16th and 17th centuries.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26More and more becoming available in your own language,
0:21:26 > 0:21:28and that's a very important step.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30Is that a function of the Enlightenment,
0:21:30 > 0:21:35or is it just cookery, people needed to be told how to cook things?
0:21:35 > 0:21:37It's part of the Renaissance.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Renaissance people always see it as something that's going back
0:21:40 > 0:21:43to the ancient Greeks, Greek and Latin language, but actually,
0:21:43 > 0:21:44it's also a new emphasis on,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47"Well, my language is actually just as good."
0:21:47 > 0:21:48It's a revelation.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51It is, and, "I can make it into a learned language."
0:21:55 > 0:22:00We have an example here of Hannah Woolley's The Queen-like Closet,
0:22:00 > 0:22:03or Rich Cabinet, and this is by a woman,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07one of the very first cookery books we have published by a woman.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Hannah Woolley has almost a little industry.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12She's an early Beeton, in a way.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16She compiles all of these recipes, and it's actually not
0:22:16 > 0:22:19aimed at Kings and Queens, it's actually about giving you
0:22:19 > 0:22:22a little insight into what you can do to make your household better.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Yes. And food has always reflected what somebody has to say
0:22:25 > 0:22:29about themselves, and food is a marker of cultural identity,
0:22:29 > 0:22:32and I think people are more aware of that in the 17th century, perhaps,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35and are more likely to write about it and publish it, maybe.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42And they like all the things that we would expect.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45We don't need forks in our cookery books,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48but we would like measurements. These tend not to have that.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52Some of these authors here will expect you to actually go out
0:22:52 > 0:22:55and milk your own cow, or they will expect you to have gone to
0:22:55 > 0:22:58the butcher, or indeed, even to have done the butchery yourself.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00Yeah.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03As you get more urban society, more people living in the city,
0:23:03 > 0:23:08they do actually forget that knowledge of how to milk a cow,
0:23:08 > 0:23:10and they may or may not have their own oven,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14- and that process of educating through cookery books starts.- Yeah.
0:23:14 > 0:23:15We're still with that, and we now do...
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Delia Smith had to explain how to boil an egg.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24'I'm intrigued by the ingredients
0:23:24 > 0:23:27'and flavours these books might have brought into an English household,
0:23:27 > 0:23:31'so I'm going to try cooking a recipe from one of them at home.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33'How will golden age cookery writing
0:23:33 > 0:23:36'translate to a 21st century kitchen?'
0:23:39 > 0:23:41I'm going to cook an amazing recipe,
0:23:41 > 0:23:46which really represents the absolute peak of Restoration era food.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51It's quite challenging, it's called "A calf's head surprise".
0:23:51 > 0:23:54And here is a calf's head,
0:23:54 > 0:23:59and this ought to be an absolutely era-defining dish,
0:23:59 > 0:24:04but I've got a hunch that it's also going to be, oddly, quite modern.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08"You must bone it".
0:24:08 > 0:24:14So this means I need to take away the skin from the head itself.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21As you follow the bone against the skin,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24you can then begin to peel it back a little bit.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28'It's hard to know how common this exact dish was,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31'though calf's heads were hugely popular,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35'but only the rich had ovens, and as I'm rapidly realising,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39'it's neither an easy nor a quick dish to cook.'
0:24:39 > 0:24:45And there is the empty calf's head.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51This dish is a real spectacle dish, really.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53You need quite a lot of skill,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56a lot more skill than I've got, to be able to do it really well,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59and so it would be something done in one of the big houses where you
0:24:59 > 0:25:04had the staff that can really pull it off, and let's flip it over.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07I'm chopping through the base of the tongue now.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13These look pretty gruesome, but tongue was a very,
0:25:13 > 0:25:15very popular piece of meat.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18I mean, this whole thing is not the sort of throwaway bit
0:25:18 > 0:25:20of an animal that it is today.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22These were the expensive bits.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27The reason why this is going to be an era-defining dish is that, first
0:25:27 > 0:25:31of all, this is beef, and British beef was absolutely fantastic.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34We were renowned for it. We ate a phenomenal amount of it.
0:25:34 > 0:25:35It crops up so often.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39But also, this is something that takes a lot of skill.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44Oh!
0:25:44 > 0:25:45Went straight through.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54I've done a lot of strange and wonderful dishes in the past,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57but it's quite a brutal affair handling
0:25:57 > 0:26:02and dealing with something quite as graphic as this.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07But I guess, in the Restoration, they were simply less squeamish.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10This was food, and this was a refined food.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13It takes quite a lot to get into that mindset, I have to say.
0:26:16 > 0:26:22So, really strong umami flavours, those fifth taste flavours,
0:26:22 > 0:26:26which, again, are so common these days.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Now I'm going to try and sew the whole thing up.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32This is going to be the tricky bit.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36Ha-ha!
0:26:36 > 0:26:39This is unbelievably difficult to do!
0:26:39 > 0:26:43The skin is so tough
0:26:43 > 0:26:47that I just simply can't get my needle through it.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50But it's fine.
0:26:50 > 0:26:51I've got my drill out!
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Using a bit of new technology. Even that is quite tricky.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03And it just shows the extraordinary level of skill that they must
0:27:03 > 0:27:06have had to be able to pull something like this off. Oh!
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Just like I've pulled it off!
0:27:13 > 0:27:18I do think it's amazing that you can just pick up a cookery book
0:27:18 > 0:27:22from hundreds of years ago and experience some real,
0:27:22 > 0:27:26visceral experiences that a Restoration cook
0:27:26 > 0:27:29and a Restoration eater would have had.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Going to get a bit more structure to him that way,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36and I'm a bit worried he might just sink, but that's not bad going,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40for somebody who doesn't really know what he's up to.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44That is the head, stuffed and ready to go.
0:27:49 > 0:27:55'If you're thinking of trying this at home, set aside the entire day.'
0:28:01 > 0:28:02Oh!
0:28:02 > 0:28:06Move it along a little bit... to there.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17Doesn't fit.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19Rethink.
0:28:19 > 0:28:20And...
0:28:22 > 0:28:24There we go.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45It's sort of like a massive chicken nugget.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55Better have a little try of this and see what the flavours are,
0:28:55 > 0:28:56what the experience is.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08Wow!
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Look at that. Oh, my gosh!
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Never seen anything like it in my life.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19Roast.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22It's like a tour of beef cookery.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26What makes this so amazing is the inventiveness and the skill,
0:29:26 > 0:29:28the playfulness of it.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33It just shows a level of skill, but a set of flavours which is
0:29:33 > 0:29:34so modern.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38All of those deep, deep umami flavours that are in the meat,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41that's everything that modern chefs are always talking about.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44The use of nose to tail eating is an enormously important
0:29:44 > 0:29:46force in restaurant culture in Britain now,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48and there's the whole idea of using the head.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51I haven't seen any calves' heads on menus yet,
0:29:51 > 0:29:55but pigs' heads and entrails and spleen, they're all over the place
0:29:55 > 0:29:57at the very top level of restaurant eating.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01I've had some strange dishes in the past.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04I've had rotten walrus, I've had radioactive soup,
0:30:04 > 0:30:08I've tried some of the strangest foods on the planet,
0:30:08 > 0:30:13but nothing is quite as stunning, as an overall experience, as this.
0:30:13 > 0:30:15It's no longer gruesome, it's theatre on a plate.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24The average person may not have been rustling up such a challenging
0:30:24 > 0:30:27dish every week, but my golden age is the period where the
0:30:27 > 0:30:31quintessentially English meal of roast beef is born,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34thanks to advances in animal husbandry,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36techniques and technology.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39I'm off to meet Ivan Day,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42one of the world's leading experts on historic food.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47'At Ivan's house, we can cook food not only according to
0:30:47 > 0:30:51'the original recipes, but with the authentic equipment,
0:30:51 > 0:30:53'any mod cons are strictly 18th century.'
0:30:57 > 0:30:59This is a fillet of beef,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02and we're going to roast it according to a recipe from 1660,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06which is the year of Charles' restoration to the throne.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09This is the best of British food you could ever possibly experience.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16Beef and Britain. This is a special relationship, isn't it?
0:31:16 > 0:31:17It certainly is.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21I mean, if anything, we're a nation of cattle drovers,
0:31:21 > 0:31:22but we're renowned for our beef.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25And across the world, we are the "rosbif".
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Exactly, and already in the 17th century,
0:31:28 > 0:31:30farmers were beginning to think about how
0:31:30 > 0:31:33they could improve their strains, and by the 18th century,
0:31:33 > 0:31:35we are producing the best beef in Europe,
0:31:35 > 0:31:40so we actually accelerated forward with cattle improvement.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44And this is why it's such a tragedy that we had BSE in this country,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48because it seemed to wipe out all that heritage that we'd built up,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51where British beef was just phenomenally good,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55and in a flash, the world sees British beef has something negative.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57Yeah, it was a pariah.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04So the fact that the British were interested in animal husbandry,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06is that a function of the Enlightenment, the idea that
0:32:06 > 0:32:09a little bit of science can come into pastoral matters?
0:32:09 > 0:32:10Absolutely.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12I mean, the Enlightenment really starts in the Renaissance,
0:32:12 > 0:32:16particularly in botany, where the herbalists are trying to identify,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20first of all, the plants identified by the ancient medical writers
0:32:20 > 0:32:22like Dioscorides and Pliny.
0:32:22 > 0:32:23And then...
0:32:23 > 0:32:24Bonkers.
0:32:24 > 0:32:25Totally bonkers, yeah.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29So there were people experimenting in the 16th century,
0:32:29 > 0:32:33and gradually that really hotted up in the 17th and 18th,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36so really, the scientific revolution at the end of the 17th century,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39we tend to think of people like Newton and Robert Boyle,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43but there were other people who were exploring the plant world
0:32:43 > 0:32:46and looking for new foods, or how to improve food crops,
0:32:46 > 0:32:50so, you know, it was a very important movement,
0:32:50 > 0:32:55and we had the Royal Society founded during the reign of Charles II,
0:32:55 > 0:32:57which gave impetus to this.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01So you can actually eat the Enlightenment.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03I like that idea!
0:33:06 > 0:33:10This is the experience of the Restoration kitchen.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12It's just unbelievably hot in here.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15Right. If you grab hold of pulley on the end of that.
0:33:15 > 0:33:16Yeah.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19What we're going to do is we're going to see
0:33:19 > 0:33:22if we can get that right down the middle, it's a very tender joint,
0:33:22 > 0:33:24it'll go through that little hole, and it'll come out.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26Gosh, that really is tender.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28If you go round that side.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31This goes over here?
0:33:31 > 0:33:33Put it on the second hook down, OK?
0:33:33 > 0:33:37And then we'll grab that chain and turn it into a figure of eight.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39That's it, and the hook is on the bottom of the pulley.
0:33:40 > 0:33:46OK. Now, if you just grab this handle, and put it onto here,
0:33:46 > 0:33:50and wind it towards the wall, you can turn it much more quickly
0:33:50 > 0:33:52if you like.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54RATCHETS CLINK
0:33:54 > 0:33:56Symphony going on here!
0:33:56 > 0:33:58Well, it's the sound of an 18th-century kitchen.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00Yeah.
0:34:00 > 0:34:05And just watch it so that it doesn't go up too high.
0:34:06 > 0:34:07Great, that's it.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Right, take the handle off and just hang it on the front
0:34:10 > 0:34:13of the thing, give that a little bit of a spin, that way, that's it.
0:34:13 > 0:34:14Off she goes.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16This is quite high-tech, really.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20I didn't expect to see something of this sophistication in a kitchen.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22Well, that's surprising in a way, because the very best clocks
0:34:22 > 0:34:25that were ever made in Britain were made during this period.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28So it was a very advanced technological culture going on?
0:34:28 > 0:34:31Oh, yeah. Clock making, the horologists of that period, I mean,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35think about Greenwich and making chronometers and things.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38I mean, that was much more skilful than making these things.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42This was the very lowest common denominator in terms of clockwork.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44But to find it in the kitchen is wonderful.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46It was very common.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49By the end of the 17th century, a friend of mine
0:34:49 > 0:34:53who did a survey in Bristol found that about 40% of the homes
0:34:53 > 0:34:56in Bristol had these things,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59so they weren't in just very wealthy houses.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02They were often in inns and taverns and merchants' houses.
0:35:02 > 0:35:03Yeah.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06If you look through old cookery books, you often find
0:35:06 > 0:35:11frontispieces, and if you look up here, you can actually see the jack.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13Oh, yes.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15See the woman playing with the chain?
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Yeah. In front of a ferocious fire!
0:35:18 > 0:35:21I'm surprised that Tom the cameraman isn't actually burning himself,
0:35:21 > 0:35:23because this is so hot,
0:35:23 > 0:35:25and the women would be working in this kind of heat?
0:35:25 > 0:35:28Yeah, and look what they're wearing.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32These incredibly long gowns and aprons would catch fire.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34And there were the most horrific accidents.
0:35:34 > 0:35:35Oh, my word.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37So there weren't any fire extinguishers.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44Is it just romantic nationalistic nonsense to talk
0:35:44 > 0:35:49about a British cuisine, an English food, or a golden age, or do you
0:35:49 > 0:35:53think there is a genuine national identity seen in things like this?
0:35:53 > 0:35:56In this country, in the last 20 years,
0:35:56 > 0:36:01there has been a considerable watershed in food culture.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03We've got fantastic food in our restaurants,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06we have more ingredients available.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Our restaurants are winning best restaurant in the world.
0:36:09 > 0:36:10And so they should,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14but when we look back at the '70s and the '60s and the '50s
0:36:14 > 0:36:18and the '40s, we see a graph that goes down like that,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21and we assume it goes like that all the way down to
0:36:21 > 0:36:24the Neanderthals, but actually, it's not quite as simple as that, because
0:36:24 > 0:36:28it goes down like that, and then it might just go up a bit, and then it
0:36:28 > 0:36:32might dip again, and then it might go up even higher than we are now.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35So the current renaissance, it's actually a reawakening,
0:36:35 > 0:36:37in some ways, of traditions
0:36:37 > 0:36:40and developments that were laid down hundreds of years ago?
0:36:40 > 0:36:42I think we have a golden age philosophy
0:36:42 > 0:36:44underlying our current interests in food.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47Let me give you some examples, like, for instance,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51the buzzwords are regional, are local,
0:36:51 > 0:36:55are organic, are seasonal.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59Now, all those words indicate that we're trying to get back to
0:36:59 > 0:37:02something we used to have, because at one time, all food was organic.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04There was no choice.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07There was no choice, so built into our current interest in food
0:37:07 > 0:37:10is a kind of golden age syndrome, if you like.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13But I think it's very important to understand that,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16because I think it's propelling our interest in food,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18and food history is only just awakening.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21I mean, there's only a few lunatics like me 20 or 30 years ago
0:37:21 > 0:37:26who had any interest in it at all, and now it's the new sex, basically.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29There are food historians popping out of every orifice,
0:37:29 > 0:37:32you know, trying to make a point,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35and if we are to find out about who we are and what we were
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and where our food comes from, then I think we really need to look at
0:37:39 > 0:37:41the past, because the past, actually,
0:37:41 > 0:37:43is our biggest human resource.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46We've got the experience, not just of everyone alive now,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49but everyone who's ever lived, in a way,
0:37:49 > 0:37:53and that comes through the food, because they're the people who
0:37:53 > 0:37:57actually invented the vast majority of what we call traditional dishes.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01And some of the inventiveness of past centuries
0:38:01 > 0:38:06is on an extraordinary level that puts today's molecular gastronomists
0:38:06 > 0:38:09not to shame, but it certainly doesn't make what
0:38:09 > 0:38:12they are doing as extraordinary and new as people would make out.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14There is absolutely nothing new.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18I mean, there was a recent craze for what I call cuckoo spit,
0:38:18 > 0:38:21you know, on your plate in a Michelin-starred restaurant.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23Cappuccinos and foams.
0:38:23 > 0:38:24Foams and things.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26You know, we've had foams, we've had syllabubs
0:38:26 > 0:38:29and lots of other frothy, light things
0:38:29 > 0:38:31which were very important at one time,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35so that's a kind of sensual experience other generations have
0:38:35 > 0:38:38enjoyed, and we've forgotten that they actually like that, you know.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42And actually, some of their foams are much better than the ones
0:38:42 > 0:38:44that are made now, to tell you the truth, and there was
0:38:44 > 0:38:47specialist equipment to serve them, too, believe it or not.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49So there isn't anything new under the sun.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01Look at that. It's a work of art.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05OK, and then if you help yourself to a little bit of cucumber ragu.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09They look extraordinary, don't they?
0:39:09 > 0:39:10Yeah.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14What we're eating here is the golden age of English food.
0:39:16 > 0:39:21That is absolutely extraordinary. It's so soft inside.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27The herbs are very gentle. It's not a huge, overpowering...
0:39:27 > 0:39:30It's not a sauce that's been developed by boiling
0:39:30 > 0:39:33lots of meats like you get in French cookery.
0:39:33 > 0:39:34Exactly. What it is, though,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37you're learning about the sensibility of these people.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39They had very good taste.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47This age of reason saw enormous advances in thought
0:39:47 > 0:39:50and technology which changed the way we ate.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53The expansion of market gardening was a key development,
0:39:53 > 0:39:58allowing a huge variety of produce to be cultivated on a huge scale.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04So what are the big changes that happened in food production
0:40:04 > 0:40:06between 1650 and 1750?
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Well, it is a century that precedes what is classically
0:40:09 > 0:40:11known as the agricultural revolution.
0:40:11 > 0:40:17There was a general increase in commercial gardening
0:40:17 > 0:40:20and private gardening for vegetables and fruit.
0:40:20 > 0:40:21So market gardens.
0:40:21 > 0:40:22Market gardens, yeah.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Land cultivated with the spade and hoe, and the rake,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28rather than with the plough.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31The techniques of producing vegetables
0:40:31 > 0:40:34got more and more sophisticated in the gardens.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38And all these developments actually changed the substance
0:40:38 > 0:40:40that's on the plates of Britain.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45They did, because it meant you could produce things out of season,
0:40:45 > 0:40:48or you could produce exotic things.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52An extreme example of producing crops which should never have
0:40:52 > 0:40:56been produced in the UK is the growing of the first pineapple.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59And that's a huge technical achievement, isn't it?
0:40:59 > 0:41:01It is, and as with all technical achievements,
0:41:01 > 0:41:03once the first one had been produced,
0:41:03 > 0:41:05everybody wanted to produce pineapples.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13In the late 17th century, the pineapple enjoyed something
0:41:13 > 0:41:17like celebrity status in the English fruit and vegetable landscape.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22By the early 18th century, pineapples were still expensive,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25but they were becoming more common, and they were available
0:41:25 > 0:41:29in the emerging fruit and vegetable markets, like Covent Garden.
0:41:32 > 0:41:33People like John Evelyn,
0:41:33 > 0:41:37who was very interested in eating vegetables and eating salads.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41In fact, this is his book on salads, Acertaria.
0:41:41 > 0:41:42Acertaria.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45Which tells you everything you wanted to know about making a salad.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47It's a beautiful book, isn't it?
0:41:47 > 0:41:49And this is sort of a first, isn't it?
0:41:49 > 0:41:51This is the first really big book which says,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54"Come on, eat salads, and here's how to do it!"
0:41:54 > 0:41:55It's way ahead of its time.
0:41:55 > 0:42:00Evelyn goes through every conceivable type of salad,
0:42:00 > 0:42:01radish, purslane.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Purslane's a really interesting one, actually, isn't it?
0:42:04 > 0:42:07There's a whole range of nutrients in it
0:42:07 > 0:42:10that it has in a huge concentration.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14Yeah, although, according to Evelyn, purslane is accused
0:42:14 > 0:42:17"For being hurtful to the teeth, if too much eaten."
0:42:17 > 0:42:21And there's a sort of extraordinary spreadsheet in it, isn't there?
0:42:21 > 0:42:25Yeah. This is a typical Evelyn invention.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29He first lists all the major vegetable crops,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32and then what's in season.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36Then he gives you combinations of these in season crops.
0:42:36 > 0:42:42Finally, what sort of salad dressing you should use
0:42:42 > 0:42:46with them, so you could put that on your kitchen table
0:42:46 > 0:42:51and instantly whip up a salad according to the best directions.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02'I'm fascinated by the idea of salad, 1699 style.'
0:43:02 > 0:43:05'So I'm off to my local greengrocers to pick up some ingredients
0:43:05 > 0:43:07'to try out Evelyn's ideas.'
0:43:17 > 0:43:20What's extraordinary is the connection that my local
0:43:20 > 0:43:25greengrocers right now makes with the past.
0:43:25 > 0:43:31These salads start with a celery castle in the middle.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34Now, celery is really interesting, because...
0:43:34 > 0:43:35Oh, it's a bit mucky.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38It really sort of started as a flavouring,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42and it was only in the 1600s, really, that celery became
0:43:42 > 0:43:46something that you could actually have as an ingredient on its own.
0:43:46 > 0:43:51So this should, with all of these flavourings and ingredients,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55be pretty spectacular in sensual terms, in the taste and flavour.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01'Evelyn calls for a panache of celery as a centrepiece.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04'He is unusual in just using vegetables.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08'Other authors suggest mounds of meat or pastry architecture.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10'Well, in the spirit of inventiveness
0:44:10 > 0:44:12'which permeates the period,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15'for my salad, I'm going to construct a celery castle.'
0:44:17 > 0:44:21I haven't a clue how I'm going to do this. It's so complicated!
0:44:23 > 0:44:27What I need is John Evelyn here, now, in my kitchen.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Which, actually, I've sort of got, because you can download a lot of
0:44:31 > 0:44:33these beautiful old cookbooks on the Internet,
0:44:33 > 0:44:38so I've got a copy of John Evelyn's Acertaria here.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44All these recipes are wonderfully, and in a modern way,
0:44:44 > 0:44:46they are relatively vague.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49They sort of say, "If you've got this, you can use it.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51"If you've got that, you can use it."
0:44:51 > 0:44:54Trouble is, they sort of assume some level of expertise.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57A level of expertise that I don't have.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Hmmm.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Less of a castle, more of a folly.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14Quite a lot of effort for small returns.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17You wouldn't do that for a kid's birthday party.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20Bit weird, but there's my centrepiece.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29Now it's a question of doing concentric rings of different
0:45:29 > 0:45:32vegetables and salads, and this is all stuff that I've picked
0:45:32 > 0:45:35up from my local grocers, which is pretty cool, I have to say,
0:45:35 > 0:45:37but there's some extraordinary things.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40This is purslane, and purslane crops up
0:45:40 > 0:45:44so often in recipes of the period, and I was wondering why,
0:45:44 > 0:45:46and they may well not have known this at the time,
0:45:46 > 0:45:50but purslane has more Omega-3 fatty acids in than almost
0:45:50 > 0:45:52any other leafy vegetable,
0:45:52 > 0:45:55so it was incredibly good for you in some ways,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58and it tastes, it's like a very, very succulent, lettucey,
0:45:58 > 0:46:04slightly garlicky herb, and it's almost slimy on the tongue,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07but in a really lovely way.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20Evelyn also talks about things that you shouldn't put in your salads,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24and he specifically says that varieties of spinach
0:46:24 > 0:46:25may lead to the runs.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29So we'll keep those aside. We'll use some chard instead.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40Dried peas were the food of the poor, they were a staple food,
0:46:40 > 0:46:44but around this period you get a mania for garden peas,
0:46:44 > 0:46:48and people lose fortunes by spending so much money on peas,
0:46:48 > 0:46:50because they love them so much.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00I think that looks pretty spectacular.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02I'm going to do one final thing,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04just to make it even more ridiculously ornate.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09Have some little palm trees going all the way around the outside.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11I think Evelyn would have approved.
0:47:11 > 0:47:16The amazing thing about John Evelyn is he wasn't just a salad writer,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19he was a famous diarist, he was a contemporary of Pepys,
0:47:19 > 0:47:23and obviously Pepys wrote a huge amount about food,
0:47:23 > 0:47:25and there's the famous story about him
0:47:25 > 0:47:28burying his palms under his garden around the Great Fire of London,
0:47:28 > 0:47:31but also he talked about things like the first time
0:47:31 > 0:47:35he drank orange juice, and these contemporary accounts
0:47:35 > 0:47:38of somebody being fascinated by something they're drinking
0:47:38 > 0:47:41that we find so ordinary, I find absolutely wonderful.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46'I've tried these recipes in the comfort of my own kitchen,
0:47:46 > 0:47:49'but how do they transfer to the modern palate?
0:47:49 > 0:47:52'I've borrowed a restaurant in York for the afternoon
0:47:52 > 0:47:55'for my most audacious experiment yet.'
0:47:55 > 0:47:58It's all very well discussing events that happened 300 years ago,
0:47:58 > 0:48:00the comings and goings of monarchy and Empire,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04but if you're really going to evoke a golden age of food,
0:48:04 > 0:48:06I think you've got to taste it.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14'Food historian Dr Annie Gray and I
0:48:14 > 0:48:16'have put together a golden age menu.'
0:48:19 > 0:48:23'We've assembled a team of helpers to prepare a selection of recipes
0:48:23 > 0:48:25'from 17th and 18th century cookbooks.'
0:48:27 > 0:48:30'From porcupine of beef to Parmesan ice cream,
0:48:30 > 0:48:34'these recipes sound surprisingly modern.'
0:48:35 > 0:48:38'Although some of the ingredients
0:48:38 > 0:48:40'have fallen out of mainstream cookery.'
0:48:40 > 0:48:44- You've got to look at this. This is just the most extraordinary stuff. - It's gorgeous.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48It's so funny. It's as thick as Clingfilm, but it's got this beauty to it.
0:48:48 > 0:48:49It's very strong.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53These days it's a throwaway bit of old beef,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56but this would have been quite expensive, a kind of rarefied cut.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59It's something that is used an awful lot.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05Neater than that!
0:49:05 > 0:49:07- We are in a hurry! - Sloppy!
0:49:07 > 0:49:10Snip that off! OK, we'd better get moving,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13because everybody's going to arrive any minute now. Where do we put these?
0:49:21 > 0:49:24'We've chosen each recipe to reflect a specific aspect
0:49:24 > 0:49:27'of this golden age, such as the introduction of new vegetables,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30'the rise of the English identification with roast beef,
0:49:30 > 0:49:33'or the lost flavour combinations.'
0:49:38 > 0:49:40So, everyone's here.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44It's a mixture of food-heads and historians and people who I hope
0:49:44 > 0:49:48will be able to put some words to the experience they're having.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51And they're quite hungry, so I'd better get started.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54I am intrigued to find out what's going to happen, what they're
0:49:54 > 0:49:57going to experience, because this is such a modern setting.
0:49:57 > 0:49:59This is 21st century York we're in,
0:49:59 > 0:50:03and we're going to bring out dishes from 300-odd years ago.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07I've no idea whether they'll get a sense of the fact that it's
0:50:07 > 0:50:10steeped in history or not.
0:50:10 > 0:50:11Better get started.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18'If we were being sticklers for historical accuracy,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21'we'd serve these dishes all at the same time.'
0:50:33 > 0:50:34Oh, wow.
0:50:35 > 0:50:41That is extraordinary. It's a very sort of clean, pure flavour.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43What's amazing about this soup is that
0:50:43 > 0:50:45we don't really cook cucumbers any more.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48We don't really cook lettuces, and if you get cucumber soup,
0:50:48 > 0:50:50it's usually gazpacho.
0:50:50 > 0:50:51It's basically raw.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55So this is an old technique that is pretty much forgotten.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01As you'd expect, it's a really delicate, delicate flavour,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03but absolutely fantastic.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07Ever so slightly aniseedy, I guess, which I wasn't really expecting.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18I don't know what it looks like!
0:51:20 > 0:51:22Quite a good discussion going.
0:51:22 > 0:51:23Mmm.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29Er, it's, hmmm. OK.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31OK.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34It's like a fried breadcrumb.
0:51:34 > 0:51:40So, what you've got here is lumber pie, and it's a fat-based affair,
0:51:40 > 0:51:43but it's a combination of sweetness and meat.
0:51:43 > 0:51:48And inside there's grapes, there's little, basically faggots,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50again, wrapped in fat.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53Covered in a pastry where you can see inside,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55you can see what's going on.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58There's a little sneak preview before you get started. So, enjoy.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01This does actually work quite well.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04Sausage and grape, you wouldn't normally think, "Mmm!"
0:52:06 > 0:52:08I'm enjoying this.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12I think it's extraordinary that it is sweet
0:52:12 > 0:52:16and meat in one mouthful, but quite a lot of spice,
0:52:16 > 0:52:20quite delicate, but highly spiced at the same time.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24By modern tastes, it's a very unusual set of sensations.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26There is a whiff of Cornish pasty, definitely.
0:52:26 > 0:52:27Yes. Sausage and gooseberry?
0:52:27 > 0:52:29Sausage and gooseberry.
0:52:29 > 0:52:30Very fragrant.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34It goes right up your nose and opens up your nasal passages. Really good.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43I think that if I'd lived in the 18th century,
0:52:43 > 0:52:45this would be all I would have eaten.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54That one was considerably nicer than that one,
0:52:54 > 0:52:58because this one is sweet and tastes like a dessert.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00- This one just tastes like feet. - Yeah.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08So, what was your experience of Restoration era food?
0:53:08 > 0:53:11It's more like a chaos of flavours, rather than a blend of flavours.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14There's nothing in there that nobody has ever eaten before.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17There's nothing in there that was incredibly unusual.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19It was just things that we don't have in that combination.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22The fact that is surprising is potentially slightly worrying,
0:53:22 > 0:53:23that it shouldn't be.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26We should be trying different things together and having a palate that
0:53:26 > 0:53:28can anticipate and deal with different combinations.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32Perhaps our palates are trained in some particular way,
0:53:32 > 0:53:34so then we look at this and say, "It doesn't work."
0:53:34 > 0:53:38But perhaps we're just in a bit of a rut when it comes to flavours.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40I think we've lost a lot.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44I think our expectations are lower, and I think we don't delight
0:53:44 > 0:53:48in complex flavours, or even a succession of flavours on the palate,
0:53:48 > 0:53:50as they obviously did then.
0:53:54 > 0:53:55'Over a glass of wine,
0:53:55 > 0:53:59'there's time to reflect on our Restoration restaurant experiment.'
0:54:01 > 0:54:06Well, what an amazing range of reactions to the food!
0:54:06 > 0:54:11It's extraordinary. When you say to people, "OK, this isn't my supper.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13"We are creating something from the past,"
0:54:13 > 0:54:16the gloves are off, and some people absolutely loved it
0:54:16 > 0:54:19and were fascinated by it and inspired by it,
0:54:19 > 0:54:22and some people just went, "Urgh, it smells of socks!"
0:54:22 > 0:54:25Which is fair enough, if it smells of socks.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28There's nothing wrong with that, but, yeah,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30interesting that they could feel able to...
0:54:30 > 0:54:33- Yeah. - We did set out to provoke reactions.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36Every single dish was chosen to represent a facet of this era,
0:54:36 > 0:54:39and, you know, we didn't tell people what the facets were,
0:54:39 > 0:54:44but we were seeking to get something from people, and it's much better
0:54:44 > 0:54:47that we created, in some cases, quite a polarised set of opinions.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49I mean, I think the Parmesan ice cream was really,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52really interesting, because it was a proper Marmite dish.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54There were people virtually vomiting across the table,
0:54:54 > 0:54:59and yet I know, later on, one of the people that was at the dinner,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03one of the ladies was desperate to put it on the menu at her own cafe.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06Do you know, that's exactly what I like from meals.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09I don't want people to sit there going, "Mmm."
0:55:09 > 0:55:12Eating it away. I'd quite like people to say, "Do you know what?
0:55:12 > 0:55:14"I loved that. I really hated that."
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Well, the interaction with the food is very much part of this period,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20the idea of playfulness that was apparent in some of the dishes,
0:55:20 > 0:55:21like the lumber pie.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24That's something where food is something that's exciting,
0:55:24 > 0:55:25it needs to be talked about.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28This isn't the Victorian era, where you cannot comment on your meals,
0:55:28 > 0:55:34so I think, in many ways, what we created was quite a good thing.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38I do find it remarkable that this era is neglected,
0:55:38 > 0:55:40pretty much, in popular history.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42We know about the Tudors, we know about the Romans,
0:55:42 > 0:55:44we know about mediaeval feasts,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47but this era people don't really talk about.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49I think this period is one that has been neglected.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52People have heard of Victoria, they've heard of Henry VIII,
0:55:52 > 0:55:54they've heard of Queen Elizabeth.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57They tend not to have heard of William III or Queen Anne,
0:55:57 > 0:56:00and it's a real shame, because under these monarchs,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03in this period of history, everything happens.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06All the foundations that we know and love like the Stock Exchange,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09the Bank of England and the National Lottery come into being,
0:56:09 > 0:56:11and that also applies to our cuisine.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14I don't know what I really expected from it,
0:56:14 > 0:56:19but it was brilliant to recreate these dishes that I'd only really
0:56:19 > 0:56:23seen in books, and to get people to give their honest reactions.
0:56:23 > 0:56:24I was really impressed.
0:56:24 > 0:56:25- Yeah.- Well done.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27- Here's to it! - Pulled it off!
0:56:32 > 0:56:35'I think the seeds of contemporary English cuisine
0:56:35 > 0:56:38'were unquestionably sewn in this golden age.'
0:56:41 > 0:56:44Now, it is true that between then and now English food did
0:56:44 > 0:56:48lose its way, but I wonder if that's part of the current renaissance.
0:56:48 > 0:56:50We had to have these wilderness years,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53when we begged, borrowed and stole from other food cultures,
0:56:53 > 0:56:57because we'd simply lost our own, and now, when we're
0:56:57 > 0:57:00rediscovering these wonderful dishes, we're not tied to the past,
0:57:00 > 0:57:04we don't get criticised for being moribund, which French cuisine sometimes is.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08But the most important thing for me is this -
0:57:08 > 0:57:11if generations of kids grow up in a country that's reconnected
0:57:11 > 0:57:13to its food history,
0:57:13 > 0:57:17that truly loves and understands everything that's good and
0:57:17 > 0:57:22decent to eat, then the future for English food is incredibly exciting.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media