Episode 18 Country Show Cook Off

The nation's best-loved chefs are hitting the road...

This is not Italy.

..to compete in some traditional country shows.

I'm hoping to win a rosette.

On the way, they'll meet some of Britain's best local food producers...

Why would you ever eat a cupcake when you have parkin.

..before competing head to head with each other...

-It's only a competition.

-It's only a show.

..and the great British public.

I thought the competition was big enough.

Our chefs are at the mercy of the harshest food critics in the land,

the beady-eyed country show judges.

We don't like odd ones.

It's a competition and I'm taking it very seriously.

Hold onto your aprons, it's Country Show Cook Off.

Today, top chefs Aldo Zilli and Silvena Rowe

are back in their trusty van, on their country show road trip

from Pembrokeshire to the Yorkshire Dales.

Make sure you're on the right side of the road, Aldo, please, you're too much... Aldo!

-This way, this way, this way.

-No, I'm fine, honestly.

So far, Aldo caught a first for his mackerel dish.

Gold for Italy!

Then he scored zilch for his tofu cheesecake

and as we award points for every Country Show prize,

he's lagging with three.

Silvena hasn't done too badly either.

Her lamb nabbed her two points.

Then her cheesecake won her first prize

and best in category, scoring her four points.

So she's leading with six.

I'm very pleased.

So it's oven gloves on as the temperature goes up to regulo 9,

when our couple leave Trawden...

..and head up the A65 the 40 miles or so

to Kirkby Lonsdale to compete at the Lunesdale Agricultural Show.

Why are you nervous? Are you worried about the competition?

I'm always nervous about this competition!

The picturesque village of Kirkby Lonsdale is on the River Lune

and the view was painted by landscape artist Turner.

The same view was described by critic John Ruskin as

"a place naturally divine".

The current Lunesdale Agricultural Show was first formed in 1839.

But the town of Kirkby Lonsdale has celebrated its agricultural heritage with a fair

for almost 800 years.

The show, then as now, attracts exhibitors from all over the county.

There's livestock, crafts, and of course, lots of foodies.

Our recipe rivals will risk their reputation

as they take on each other and local cooks too.

About ten years now I've been entering, yes,

and all the children have grown up through it.

I just thought I'd enter last year and it was so much fun I thought I'd do it again this year.

Our experts have entered the quirky category of "dessert in a wine glass" -

a retro pudding that could lead our chefs to a sticky end.

It's a very stiff competition,

there's a lot of very good bakers in Lune Valley.

Yeah, I quite often do well with my sponge cake and my Swiss roll.

At another show, I've won the trophy for the most points three years on the trot.

Competitors have carte blanche for their recipes, which makes the competition more demanding,

but, as the name of the category suggests,

there's only one rule Judge Margaret Hodson insists they adhere to.

The class is a sweet in a wine glass,

so, we look to see that they are wine glasses.

Er, that's not a wine glass.

This is certainly NOT going to be a pushover for our city slicker chefs.

Silvena Rowe was born in Bulgaria

but has lived in the UK for more than two decades.

Her temple to taste-bud tingling is in London's upper-crust Mayfair.

Silvena is a big fan of a taste test.

Italian born Aldo Zilli has owned a chain of restaurants,

cafes and bars.

Aldo loves to cook anything Italian.

Mamma mia!

Our competing chefs arrive in Kirkby Lonsdale

and park in the grounds of St Mary's Church on the beautiful River Lune.

And straight away our competitive couple start talking tactics.

I've chosen one of these elegant, rather large wine glasses.

I hope it doesn't go against me.

As long as it's not a fish bowl, like for a red wine, then it's...

-It is for a red wine, yes.

-It is for a red wine?

-Mm-hm.

What are you cooking? That's what I want to know, what are you making?

I'm doing the favourite ingredient of this neighbourhood - rhubarb.

I'm cooking rhubarb.

-What? Rhubarb is the favourite dessert, is it?

-Yep.

Cos I was going to cook rhubarb.

Only because when you heard I was going to cook rhubarb.

-No, no.

-You were going to do a glorified tiramisu, dear,

-because you're Italian.

-I'm not glorified anything.

What I'm doing is totally nothing to do with tiramisu.

But Aldo, you ARE making tiramisu - with a twist.

So our chefs have a plan and some ingredients,

but there's another ingredient that's very special to this part of the world.

Kirkby Lonsdale is near the border of Cumbria and the Yorkshire Dales.

This lush agricultural setting is home to an amazing landscape - heather moorland.

These moors are as rare as rainforest

and home to the red grouse.

These famous foul only become available from the 12th August.

Our chefs head to the Four Stones Moor

to meet game keeper Richard "Wolfie" Wolfenden who can enlighten them

about these sought-after poultry.

This is a pair of red grouse.

This is an old bird, and this is a young bird.

-That's you.

-No, that's you, darling, you're the old bird

and I'm the young bird, clearly.

I'm the tender, succulent young bird and you're the tough old one.

Don't rise to the bait, Aldo!

How do you know, which is young and old?

If you look at the primary feathers, so these are the primary feathers,

if you look at the third primary, it's a lot shorter.

Oh, I see what you mean, wow, see this is massive.

Red grouse are found only in Great Britain and Ireland.

Their main diet is heather.

-Heather is a very British thing, isn't it?

-Yeah.

I have a lot of heather in my garden, but I have no grouse.

Grouse can be hung for a gamey flavour,

but these are the first grouse of the season,

they're a delicacy eaten fresh.

These birds are so prized, Wolfie takes a back seat

and lets our experts prepare him a dish.

Well, my version, I'm going to take these little breasts off.

So Wolfie, tell me then, why is there a season,

a designated season for grouse,

why do we have the existence of the glorious 12th?

All different game has different seasons. The grouse is the first.

Restaurants in London pay undisclosed amounts of money

to have the grouse flown on the glorious 12th August.

-This is a beautiful piece of meat.

-It is amazing.

It doesn't need much cooking.

I feel so privileged to have this in my hands.

We're going to reduce some shallots, Marsala wine, some stock

and so there's your shallots, your butter,

if you don't mind, in a little bit of olive oil, here.

This is kind of a sweetish sort of sauce

with a little bit of chilli in it.

So I'm going to take the seeds out of this chilli.

OK, so that sauce now is going to have a little bit of this chilli, not too much.

Now, back to my bird here.

I'm going to wrap these beautiful little breasts.

The breasts are wrapped in pancetta and sage leaves.

What am I doing? Do you want to add something to it now?

Some Marsala wine, which is a Sicilian sweet wine. OK?

-OK?

-Oh, what a delicious smell!

Then Wolfie suggests another ingredient that is locally produced.

Rowanberry jelly.

Rowan's just one of the few trees that can grow out on these moorlands

and it grows these orange berries and that's what it's made out of.

-Rowanberries.

-Will this work?

-Mmm.

-How much will I add?

Ooh, it's yummy! Just a teaspoon.

OK, so in a small pan, needs to be very hot, with olive oil and butter,

and the big pan, garlic, chilli and kale.

Very seasonal vegetable.

Little bit of stock, gently, cook the vegetables. Done.

That needs to swap round now, so now we're going to cook these babies.

OK, these three lovely dishes here are now just cooking together.

This comes off the heat now.

-Perfect.

-It's just about to turn, the sauce.

Aw, Mamma mia, this is singing! I have to say,

-Silvena's done a great job boiling that sauce up.

-Thank you, thank you.

Wolfie, come to your usual place.

-Yes, Miss.

-Talk about taking over! Wolfie, come here!

Somebody has to, you know how it is.

Then what we'll do is we'll just...

open it up on there.

It's very delicate this way, I think.

Ooh, look at these, Mamma mia! Ooh!

That is beautiful.

Salute! Mmm! Mamma mia!

Aldo, as delicious as this is, we'd better crack on,

-we have a show to attend tomorrow.

-I wanted to sleep here tonight,

but apparently she wants to take me away. Come on, then.

Thank you, Wolfie!

OK, skip back to the van and get cooking -

first up, it's Silvena's rhubarb and custard with almond crumble.

I have some butter here, the butter has to be fridge cold.

I'm adding some flour to it.

I'm adding some sugar in there.

Normally, those are the classic ingredients for a crumble,

but on my crumble I'll have almonds, so, using your fingers,

you have to work quite quickly, you need to create chunky bread crumbs.

On a normal crumble, you arrange the fruit, you put the crumble

on the top and you bake it. This I'm actually going to describe to you

as a deconstructed crumble dish.

Basically it's going to be sugar glazed rhubarb with vanilla custard

and crumbled biscuit on the top.

So what I'm going to do now, is actually arrange them on my tray.

I want them to be good-looking, I don't want them to be

just tiny little breadcrumbs, I want them quite chunky.

The crumble clusters are baked at 180 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

What I'll do next, is actually cook my rhubarb.

I want to stew some rhubarb, I don't need too much,

I just need to create some delicious, lush, silky sauce.

Basically, I'm going to use some of my simple syrup,

which is some water with some sugar.

We're stewing it, basically.

We want to create something like a rhubarb soup.

Stewed rhubarb on its own won't wow the judges.

Our pro has another cunning plan.

All I want to do is just, very carefully,

cut pieces about 1cm long

and arrange them.

You'll see what I'm doing, you'll think she's gone mad, what is she doing?

It's the simplest, the gentlest way of having somewhat cooked,

but still very crunchy rhubarb.

Here I have some caster sugar.

Very carefully, I want each stub covered.

What the sugar will do now

is caramelise so beautifully the rhubarb,

so it will become lovely, golden and crispy on the outside,

and still a little bit soft on the inside.

To make her dessert stand out, there's one last twist.

I'm going to choose the most beautiful-looking pieces I have here.

Using a potato peeler,

I'm going to strip some of this rhubarb.

We need only a few.

Sugar syrup.

She glazes both sides with syrup and bakes slowly.

You can't have rhubarb and custard without custard.

I need to boil my milk and the cream.

All going in here.

The aim is not to cook it too much, but to heat it, really.

What I want to do is use the yolks as we always do for custard.

Add the sugar, look at this!

This is going to make the most fluorescent yellow, orange custard.

I will then pour my hot milk and cream onto there,

put it on the top of a stove, which is very daring,

cos eggs are very fine, very gentle, very temperamental creatures.

To ensure her custard sets, she adds some cornflour paste.

Ooh, hello? This is great.

You have to work quite quickly because this begins

to cook the egg immediately, this is extremely risky process

and if I curdle it, my God, the whole nation's going to laugh at me.

I'm adding my cornflour. And I'm not leaving this,

you cannot leave custard, you have to watch it.

I'm very tempted to whack the heat to make it quicker.

The gentler the heat, the longer the time,

the more smooth your consistency.

Add the seeds of one vanilla pod.

I'm already running out of patience, so, look at me

putting the temperature up of the heat, I do this all the time.

This is ready now, so what do we do, because the pan is so hot,

we need to immediately pour it into a cool object to stop it cooking.

And you see, the egg has begun to curdle on the bottom.

Let's see what we think about it.

Ooh, that is so good!

This is fabulous, this is a good colour.

Basically, what we've done is the most beautiful, crispy almond biscuit granules.

This is so good.

Perfection!

They're good.

See how soft it is, without being gooey and mushy

like the other preparation we did?

Here are the glazed rhubarb strips.

OK, yeah, leave a few for the dessert.

Really delicious!

So I have gone for the largest possible wine glass,

I doubt that any of the other entrants will have such a big glass

but this is technically a wine glass, there's no two ways about it.

Very gently, a blob of this on the bottom, I want it to look beautiful,

I want it to look stunning, but I'm not filling up this glass

because if I filled this glass with the deliciousness

that I'm preparing, somebody's going to be really overdoing it too much.

Yeah, that's fine.

I'm happy with that.

I do not want any custard on the walls of the glass.

Not too much more, though.

My custard is beautiful...yeah.

Just looks like a glass of goodness already.

She's done as much as she can today,

she'll finish her dessert in the morning.

So, out of the kitchen, it's time to let Aldo rustle up his dessert -

summer strawberry tiramisu.

Six egg yolks in there, now I'm going to put some sugar -

three tablespoons of sugar -

and then I'm just going to give them

a little bit of a beating on this bain-marie.

Just be carefully the bain-marie is not too hot,

otherwise you'll end up with scrambled eggs.

So then cool them down in another bowl,

I've got some sugar,

we're going to melt that sugar with some orange peel.

That pan needs to get extremely hot now, OK,

because I'm going to just give it a little flame

with some Grand Marnier, so now I can just start hearing

the sizzling of the sugar here,

there you go, see, it starts melting underneath the peel.

Now all I need to do is squeeze some oranges.

It's the same method as if you were doing a crepe Suzette,

the old French dessert.

I used to love them.

There you go.

Look at that flame, eh?

Beautiful! And then, add the juice.

This, basically, will do the job that normally coffee would do for me in a tiramisu.

If you were making tiramisu, you'd have a very nice strong coffee

to go with it, but in this case, it's caffeine free.

That's risky - replacing coffee for orange in a tiramisu.

So we've got some egg whites here and some double cream here,

so I've got to whisk both of them so, bear with me now.

With the show looming, how does our chef feel about the competition?

I'm really looking forward to this one actually

just to see what flavour, what kind of taste the people up here have.

Once you start seeing that,

you're making patterns with your whisk, then you can stop.

Now, I'm going to go in the cream here, this will take a few seconds.

Look at that.

That's done, now we're going to start folding everything in

and everything's going to come together, we've got

the mascarpone cheese here, the main ingredient for this.

That goes into the cream.

So that looks curdled and not very nice at the moment,

it looks like, is it going to work?

Is it going to be all right? Are things going to be OK?

Then the egg goes in, like, oh, no, that's going to be even worse.

And then you start bringing the whole thing together.

So now, what I'm doing is I'm getting rid of all the lumps, yeah?

We're going to add a little bit of this wonderful vanilla,

let's try and fold some of this.

Look at that, wow! Beautiful!

Beautiful, it's like snow!

Now we're folding it in with this cream.

Let me just have a little peek.

That's singing, singing, dancing, that's going to be a song in a glass for me.

O sole mio's going to sing tomorrow morning.

I'm going to put some chocolate onto this other bain-marie here,

a little touch of butter, that's 70 percent cocoa,

just added a little touch of cream to that chocolate,

this is lovely chocolate.

I apologise in advance, but I have to taste it.

Mamma mia!

I'm going to cut some strawberries.

OK, so what we're going to do is put the strawberries in there,

and this is only a decoration anyway.

So, now all I've got to do is building this glass.

Savoiardi biscuits soaked in the orange liqueur form the next layer.

Make sure your fingers are clean.

I get my strawberries, and I will put them as another layer.

Really crucial that you see all these layers.

The opposition arrives to, er, help.

What's going on here? Tell me about those?

Those are little strawberries dipped in very heavy chocolate.

It's a bit heavy.

You know, it has to be pure chocolate melted,

-you didn't put any cream in there, did you?

-No.

Liar!

-Looks like there's cream in there.

-Yeah, I did put cream in.

This is never going to set if you put cream in there.

They will definitely set, they're almost set now.

Good, well, I'll let you finish because if something occurs here,

-it's going to be my fault, but it's beautiful!

-Ciao.

They're not set, are they?

The summer strawberry tiramisu is left to set.

But there's still a lot to do before the competition commences.

Tomorrow, the puds will be primped, preened and presented

to our ever-critical judges.

It's going to be a tense day. And I can't wait.

The Lunesdale Agricultural Fair is a great family day out.

There's everything here, from horse shows to horse power in vintage motors.

Prize vegetables to vegetable creatures.

One of the most popular attractions is the baking competition tent.

The judge that all our cooks - amateur or professional -

have to impress is Margaret Hodson.

She knows her onions as she's no newbie to judging at the Lunesdale Show.

I've been judging about 15 years,

I think it's very important that people know how to produce

home cooking and baking, it's much nicer that your bought baking.

Judging's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Yes, you don't feel like lunch when you've finished, no.

Ooh, love the wellies!

Aldo and Silvena arrive at the agricultural show

complete with desserts in glasses and a huge array of decorations.

But they soon realise there's no disguising the stiff competition.

Oh, my good God, look at this beauty there!

-Good, man.

-Look at this beauty there already!

-You see.

Uh-oh, Aldo, somebody's done a similar little number to yours here.

Well, so far so bad, that looks better than mine.

That looks better than mine and my glass looks like a fish bowl.

Uh, uh, uh, don't touch my glass with your rough Italian hands!

Ha-ha-ha! It's decorating time!

But our duo still keep a beady eye on the opposition,

looking for any advantage.

Yes, delicious trifle.

That is not a wine glass, for sure.

That's not a wine glass.

Ssh, I said it quietly, I said it! Can't you whisper things?

-Yeah, but it's not a...

-Whisper, "That's not a wine glass."

Melissa Bowring has entered that dessert,

but she knows what she's doing,

she's been placing entries for ten years

and she could be the one to watch.

I've done sweet in a cup, this time, or in a wine glass,

so that's meant to be a trifle.

Well, there's quite a stiff competition actually,

there's quite a few, and it's a good class to do

because you don't need to have too many ingredients.

Melissa, I wish you'd told OUR chefs that!

That's your sauce.

-Why is it that people just come here and put it down and we have to do the...

-We assemble! We assemble.

We're so worried, we have to do last-minute assembly.

-What is this?

-I'm not using this.

-What is this?

-Nothing.

Oh, come on, let's see it.

It's those chocolate strawberries, isn't it?

-If it cannot be used, it cannot be good.

-Ugh!

I'm arranging my rhubarb around the rim here.

It's all in the appearance, you see.

Ah, more is better! As further decoration is stacked up,

all I can say is, bring it on, Silvena!

Oh, Aldo, getting better, but please, Aldo, be careful,

this is not a working surface, this is a display surface.

No more, please! What are you doing?

You'll spoil it, please, believe me.

-This looks beautiful, looks different from the rest of them.

-Shut up!

-Aye-aye-aye-aye!

-I've got something in here

that's going to make all the difference in my life.

Less is more for competitor Christine Hudson.

She's a dab hand at Lunesdale and she's been competing here since she was a child.

This is a strawberry and Cointreau crush.

You crush the strawberries together, then whip cream with Cointreau,

then you sir them all up together and it's just got a lovely flavour,

the Cointreau gives it a really nice flavour.

It's the first time I've entered this recipe here,

so we'll see what happens.

Our duo are feeling the pressure as Christine drops off her dessert.

Oh, no, don't come!

No, no! I thought the competition was big enough!

So this is a wine glass, yeah?

That's a big wine glass, I'm glad people are using big wine glasses.

The heat's too much for our pros, so they pack up their boxes of tricks

and beat a hasty retreat - but the competition doesn't let up.

Teaching assistant Eileen Mason is a one-woman baking machine,

entering as many as eight categories.

I've got fruit cake, lemon cheese,

um...rum butter,

dessert in a wine glass, ginger bread,

egg custard and shortbread.

All the desserts in a wine glass are ready and on parade.

The tent is closed - let the judging commence.

And while the judges get to work, Aldo and Silvena have found

something else to get competitive about.

Oh, yeah, his foot is over the line, cheating!

Back in the tent, home-baking judge Margaret Hudson is working her way,

scrutinising entries, till she arrives at our fated category.

Take a deep breath, everybody.

Appearance first.

If it looks appetising, you want to eat it, don't you?

And of course skill and taste. The class is a sweet in a wine glass

so then you look to see that they are wine glasses.

And that's a sundae glass.

Melissa Bowring's controversial trifle container could go against her.

No, it's not, it's a wine glass, no, it's quite right.

I thought that that had its own dish at the bottom,

but it isn't, if you see, it's in a dish.

Phew! That was close! Time for the taste test.

Substantial. I think that's meant to be a trifle.

Maybe a little but runny on the custard.

Hmm, really, it could have been a bit firmer.

The ball is in Eileen Mason's court now,

as our judge evaluates her raspberry port jelly.

Absolutely delicious!

Christine Hudson's dessert is next.

Will her strawberry Cointreau crush pound the competition into cream?

That's a soft texture, very nice though.

Judge Margaret's not giving anything away.

All the prizes are still up for grabs as she reaches for Silvena's rhubarb and custard.

Maybe a little more in there would have been...

But it's a big glass, but if it had come up maybe to about there,

but it's very cleverly done, the top has been all arranged very nicely,

and there's rhubarb.

It's a little tart, but a lot of people like tart sweets.

It's nice after you've had a rich main course, it's very nice.

It's Aldo's turn to tease Margaret with his twist on tiramisu.

I like tiramisu, but I've never had a strawberry one before.

You've never had one with no coffee either!

It could have had a little bit more coffee.

Margaret's right to expect coffee in tiramisu, but there isn't any.

There could have been a little bit more coffee in it.

Not enough to overpower the strawberries,

but it is... it's different, it's nice.

Ah, we've reached the point of no return.

Margaret has made her mind up and the judge's decision is final.

So I think that one's number one, Doreen.

The tension builds as the tent re-opens.

Has the hard work of our chefs paid off?

Will they be wallowing in awards?

-Oh, no, you've won again!

-Oh, shut up, I have won nothing!

Mine hasn't got anything at all.

-Well, we've won nothing, dear, neither you nor me.

-Oh, no!

Aw, that's a shame, I put so much work in there, you know.

They haven't gone...you know.

Look, they haven't even gone down to your rhubarb.

Well, it has been tasted, but they've just tasted the custard.

You know what, I'm going to try this.

You're not meant to do that, Silvena!

Ugh!

I think someone's being a bit bitter there.

What are you doing?

You're really not supposed to tuck into the dishes like that!

I can't fault it.

You've got to try mine.

Well, it's delicious. Absolutely delicious.

We're not first, but we are, really.

Our professional chefs have been pipped to the post of first place

by Eileen Mason's raspberry port jelly.

Gracious in defeat, Aldo showers praise on the victor.

Do you win every year?

-I have won in the past

-You have won in the past?

-Yeah.

Nobody told us you were the one to watch.

And just to prove it, Eileen's got a trophy for winning the most points in the produce section!

Whoo! I got a trophy as well!

Oh, well, onwards and upwards.

Next show. We don't talk about it.

They're still smarting - but can our two food fighters bounce back?

I'm not as depressed, to be honest, today.

-Only because I lost as well?

-That could be the reason.

Our chefs can pick up points across the week,

but sadly they both get big zeros for this stage of their road trip.

The scores remain the same -

Aldo trails with three points

and Silvena leads with six points.

Next time on Country Show Cook Off, our chefs head to Brough in Cumbria

where they're on a bit of a roll!

-Fabulous-looking sausage rolls!

-Oh, no!

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