Dorchester Terry and Mason's Great Food Trip

-Ah, Mr Wogan, nice to see you again. Your usual table, sir?

-Yes, indeed.

I remember I tipped you handsomely last Michaelmas,

so the usual table.

You haven't changed, Mr Wogan.

It has taken 50 years in broadcasting,

but I have finally cracked it -

a chance to meander around the country, see the sights,

meet the people

and - oh, yes - eat and drink.

Is melt in the mouth a suitable phrase?

I've hailed a cab with one of London's finest cabbies -

Mason McQueen - to steer me around Britain's highways and byways.

I'm looking forward to a decent meal, are you?

Oh, I'm starving here and I can't wait.

Our route has been mapped out by an adventurous gourmand -

Samuel Chamberlain -

in his book, British Bouquet.

Almost 60 years later, we're following in his footsteps...

I'll do all the work!

..to seek out weird and wonderful, original British cuisine

and discover how our tastes have changed over the years.

Do it right, son.

Whoo! Oh-oh-oh!

Looks a bit dark. That is the black garlic glaze that we have.

-Oh, is that it?

-Yeah.

-I thought you had overcooked it, to be honest.

On this beautiful morning, our '60s tour guide is taking us

down the winding lanes of darkest Dorset.

It is a cracking little county this, Terry.

Dorset, according to Chamberlin, who of course has covered all

the counties of England, and more if he could find any,

"Dorset, we've decided, is one of the subtler English counties,

"one that appeals more to the perceptive

"and experienced traveller than the casual tripper."

And that is you and me out immediately.

We haven't got the intellectual depth for this county.

And I am looking at you now.

Not wanting to spend too long in the rural backwaters,

we are heading straight to the county town - Dorchester.

Historically, the town has always been an important commercial centre

for the county, so they should know how to make a decent meal.

We are on the mean streets of Dorchester now.

Chamberlain found it a trim place.

And I suppose, in his day, it was a lot trimmer than it is now.

You know, things have changed from the British Bouquet, Terry.

Things have moved on.

Modern Dorchester is a museum magnet.

I counted six from the taxi window.

Celebrating everything from dinosaurs to Tutankhamen.

But we didn't come to feed our minds, we came to feed our faces.

Local produce. I reckon they'll know their stuff.

-It strikes a responsive chord with me. Give it a go?

-Yeah.

-Over 100 cheeses.

-Lovely.

-We'll try them all.

A local deli - perfect place to fill the belly.

-Look at this, it's packed out!

-Fantastic shop, look at it.

Stuffed with Dorset delicacies, it doesn't take Mason

and I too long to get stuck in.

Dorset cheeses, on the top here, are all Dorset, local cheeses,

so it ranges from two smoked ones - Dorset Red...

But it is literally all from the wonderful county of Dorset.

-The Blue Vinny is the most famous. There's a wonderful...

-It is.

There is a whole one there. That is basically how they come in to us.

-Can I try a piece?

-Yeah, do, tuck in.

It is made with unpasteurised skimmed milk,

-so it is actually lower in fat.

-The produce in here is incredible.

Are the people of Dorchester very passionate about their food

-and their local produce?

-They are.

Dorset people are very loyal to Dorset products

and like to see small, independent businesses.

When in Dorset, there is something you must try, which is

a triple-baked Dorset knob.

If you grab hold of the knob, Sir Terry,

and I shall take the knife away.

Do you know, I wish I had a penny for every time anybody said

-that to me.

-HE LAUGHS

-Oh!

-That is great, mate.

-Mm!

This is an interesting place, isn't it? Look.

Oh, there is a job available.

For a waitress/kitchen assistant.

You could do kitchen assistant, couldn't you?

-I could have a go.

-You'd be all right, looking like a nippy.

Nippy was the name given to the attentive staff

at the Lyons Tea House

and were a regular sight in the first half of the 20th century.

I thought they had all disappeared. But here in Dorchester,

we seem to have stumbled across the nippy's last stand.

-Hello there, good morning.

-See? It's a nippy!

-Ah.

-Morning.

-Morning.

So do they get you to dress up like this all the time?

Every day, all day. It is a tradition of the Oak Room.

-Nippy means quick, smart.

-Yes, it does, yeah.

To get in and around the tables as quick as you can.

Let's see you moving.

-SHE LAUGHS

-What?

A tea and a coffee.

A tea and a coffee. How quick can I get it?

-See?

-Some empty cups.

-There's nippiness!

-That is nippy.

We put the nippies to the test and ordered some home-made Dorset

pate, which arrives with lightning efficiency.

Oh. Ah!

-nice.

-Now you're talking.

Another nibble.

We are sharing nibbles and a cup of tea with local councillor

David Taylor, who knows of another resident who was quick to

serve in the panelled room back in the 17th century.

This is the famous Oak tea rooms where Judge Jeffreys

sentenced nearly 700 people to their death.

-The hanging judge.

-Absolutely.

He was barbaric all the way through.

They hung them and quartered them

and stuck them on spikes by the church.

We won't go into any details. I've read how that is done,

-and it is not much fun.

-No.

-Not before I eat my pate, anyway.

No.

Would this be the kind of thing that the good judge would have

tucked into before sending somebody off to the scaffold?

The reason why he was so violent

was because of the fact he suffered from liver stones,

which pertains to alcohol and rich food, i.e. - pate

and the cheese of Dorset.

So, you know, whether you went for the chop or got free

-depended on what he had had for lunch.

-Exactly.

-Yeah.

In a room where people were sent to their eternal reward, we are

now having tea and some pate.

-All done.

-It is a bit incongruous, isn't it?

Totally!

Of course, when it comes to famous figures of Dorchester,

there is one local lad you can't ignore.

-Look.

-What?

"Even Thomas Hardy

"would be delighted."

Why? Why would he be delighted?

He used to work here, I believe.

The world-famous novelist trained as an architect in this

building in the mid-19th century.

Fortunately for us, today it is a cafe.

-Shall we go in here? Shall we risk it?

-Yeah, why not?

-Be rude not to.

-OK.

If Hardy worked here now, he'd be frying chips

and waiting tables under the careful gaze of Pat Collins.

-So, Pat.

-Yes?

-The rumour is that Thomas Hardy used to work here.

Do you have a Thomas Hardy special?

Well, I suppose it is old-fashioned food we do,

because we do a home-made steak pie, liver and bacon,

home-made cottage pie.

-I suppose those meals were around at that time.

-He would have loved that.

Yes.

-I am somebody who is very, very careful about what he eats.

-OK.

Racing snake figure and all.

So could we try, in honour of Thomas...?

Would you like to try a little bit of the steak pie?

-Well...

-Dip a chip or two in the gravy?

-Well, my friend might, yes.

-I might have a spoonful.

-OK.

Pat's restaurant has no airs or graces,

just good square meals for the good people of Dorchester.

I have no doubt Hardy would approve.

Wow!

-There you go.

-Look at this.

-Now, don't eat too many chips.

I'm sure you will enjoy it, if you're going to share as well.

-Thank you, Pat.

-Yes, you're all right.

-Good chips.

-We have got to try the pie.

Look at that, it's a fluffy pie. Look at that.

Apparently, Thomas Hardy couldn't bare shortcrust pastry.

-Oh, here we go.

-Yeah?

How is that? How is that traditional Thomas Hardy fare?

-Proper Dorset grub.

-Mm!

Having eaten where Hardy worked, we are

now following Chamberlain to the great author's final resting place.

Stinsford churchyard is a place of pilgrimage for all Hardy fans,

and is certainly far from the madding crowd.

Thank heaven you parked there because that is reserved for clergy.

Don't upset the pie and liquor, eh? Whatever we do.

I would expect the clergy here to come in by horse and trap,

not by car.

-We know why we are here.

-Do we?

-Thomas Hardy's grave.

"Here lies the heart of Thomas Hardy."

His wife, when she heard that he was going to be buried in

Poets' Corner or wherever it was, in Westminster Abbey,

she had his heart removed so his heart could be buried here.

-How romantic is that? That's nice.

-Yeah.

-Well, it is slightly horrific as well.

-Yeah.

Because the fellow who took out his heart had a cat

-and the cat tried to eat the heart.

-Really?

And so he killed the cat and buried it with the heart.

-Well...

-There may be more than a heart buried in there.

That's good for us cos it relates to our food trip, right?

I think Mason may be doubting my hearty Hardy tale,

so to get some clarification on this grave matter,

I am meeting Mike Dixon from the Hardy Society.

Because it was such an unusual burial, in fact,

almost unique that the heart was here and the rest of him,

the ashes, were in Westminster Abbey, there was

a malicious rumour that seems to have grown up that a cat

ate his heart while it was left on the kitchen table.

-BIRDS CHATTER

-I have to say, categorically,

that that has never been backed up with any facts whatsoever.

-And I think the rooks agree with you.

-The rooks agree with me.

From classic Hardy fiction to another part

of the great man's legacy.

This was first brewed in 1968, but sadly,

it became so expensive to make that they couldn't...

What were they making it out of?

-Well, lots of barley.

-Diamond chippings?

I mean, this would be 12% proof.

You took a bottle of that, and it's like drinking wine.

-There is actually something in this.

-Yes, there is.

But you'd be afraid to drink it.

I would be very afraid to drink it because it lasts 25 years

and probably now, what is in there is undrinkable.

Nonetheless, we must keep it and preserve it.

-We must keep it and preserve it.

-In the name of Thomas Hardy.

Indeed, that is why I've got it. Indeed.

"Dorset," he says,

"contributes generously to England's bread basket,

"famous for rich butter, worthy cheese and herds of plump sheep."

Plump sheep?!

-We like our sheep plump.

-Oh!

-Honestly, a thin sheep is no good to anybody.

-No.

Hardy wrote a great deal about the men and women

who toiled in the rich agricultural landscape around Dorchester.

So with the engine and our stomachs rumbling as one, I think it is

high time we sought out some fresh produce from this fertile

Dorset earth.

Mason McQueen's magic wheels have brought me

to what I would regard as an obscure part of this very proud county.

And this is Mark Botwright. Guess what he grows.

-I grow garlic, Terry.

-Why should people eat garlic?

-What is good about garlic?

-Oh, it's amazing.

The health benefits that come from the garlic.

You know, it wards off colds.

Our family haven't had a cold or any illnesses for seven or eight

years now.

Would it be any good rubbing it on a gammy knee?

It might be worth a try.

It is actually supposed to be an antibacterial, antifungal as well.

So if you actually have got...

People even say to rub it on in-grown toenails

-and things like that.

-This is a miracle plant!

So, this is the drying shed, is it?

Yeah, this is where all the garlic is dried, as you can see.

-So, I mean, does it have to be dried?

-Yeah.

I mean, when we actually take it from the ground,

it comes under a category of fresh or wet garlic.

But then when it comes in here, it goes through this drying

process. As you can see, everything is all hanging up.

And that can take up to three, four months, depending on the weather.

And when it is dried like this, the intenseness of the actual bulb

comes out. Here is an absolutely huge elephant garlic.

That would feed several elephants.

That would feed several elephants.

So, when you started, did people say to you, "You're mad."

They did say I was mad, yeah, totally mad.

"What do you think you are doing growing garlic?

"People of Dorset wouldn't know what to do with it."

But now, luckily, they do.

-So you weren't as mad as people thought you were.

-No.

Chat over, it is time to get something to eat.

So we head into the farm's kitchen to see what is cooking.

-Hi, Matt, how are you doing?

-G'day, gents. How are you?

-All right.

-Nice to meet you.

-You too.

What better person to feed us than local restaurateur,

one-time MasterChef winner Matt Follas?

-This is the black garlic.

-We haven't seen a black garlic.

-Black garlic is wonderful stuff. Let me chop that for you.

-Yeah.

-It is great stuff. Look at the colour.

-Oh!

-It's beautiful.

It has been cooked for a long time at a low temperature,

just enough to cook it, to caramelise it.

So it is the slowest type of caramelising you can imagine.

It's almost like a balsamic flavour. It is a wonderful...

Mind your fingers on the knife. Try yourselves a little bit of that.

Go on.

-Wonderful, rich flavour, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Taste the difference from normal garlic.

Totally different than garlic.

I was hoping for a little more than that.

Fortunately, Matt has used his black garlic to glaze

this slow-roasted leg of lamb.

You know, for a moment there, I thought we were going to starve!

This has been in my AGA overnight.

And it is absolutely delicious. Nice and slow-cooked.

This is home cooking. This is what I cook at home.

Of course, when Chamberlain was here,

garlic was an exotic ingredient.

But today, it has found its way into a lot of our traditional

British grub, including many a Sunday roast.

-Incredible. Thanks, Matt.

-You are very welcome.

-Very nice.

Something that, modestly, you didn't mention,

-that you have a garlic-eating contest here.

-We do.

-In September every year, we hold the World Garlic Eating Competition.

-OK!

So that means you have to eat as much raw garlic as you can

-in five minutes.

-And how many lunatics do you get coming in here,

-doing that?

-Last year, I think there was about 45.

And then they all leave here

and knock people down in the street with their breath.

They certainly do!

After Matt's garlicky lamb, I'm glad there is a sheet of glass

separating Mason and I.

We are going to go to a place now where

they've tried to preserve things with a little more grace.

Prince Charles has been involved with it.

-Poundbury, have you ever been there?

-Poundbury, never heard of it.

I have been to Poundland. TERRY LAUGHS

Poundbury, on the outskirts of Dorchester,

was built using principles advocated by Prince Charles.

A mix of architectural styles, it's now home to 2,500 people.

Today, though, the streets are deserted.

Maybe everyone is out to lunch.

Well, we'd better join them.

I'm Terry. This is Mason. We are in this together.

And we are after food.

Before we sample your wares, Nick, master baker,

what sort of the place is Poundbury?

Poundbury is a very strange place.

You walk around and there is just nobody here.

But yet we are a thriving bakery business. Doing very well.

But, yeah, no street signs, no road markings, nobody walking around.

-But it is an ideal, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's great.

-Or is it fantasy?

I think it is a bit of both.

With unique Poundbury panache,

Nick serves his soup in bowls made of bread.

That is incredible. I love that idea, Nick. Eat the evidence.

Yep.

Some might call it rustic.

I think he could be saving on the washing up.

-Mm, beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, Nick, that.

-You are up at...

-five o'clock in the morning to bake?

-We are. It is a boring life.

-It's a tough life.

-It is. You make loads of dough, though!

-Ta-dah!

-Hey!

On this journey round Britain, past and present,

Poundbury is an example of how change can be sweet.

In Chamberlain's day, what would have been home to grazing

sheep is now a community which even has its own chocolate factory.

House of Dorchester was started as a family business in 1963

and they've become one of Poundbury's biggest employers

and are sending the good name of Dorchester around the world.

This is some operation.

Yeah. Chocolates. Who wouldn't like to work in chocolate?

-All this for a chocolate?

-Yep.

We still use very much hands-on operations,

just like we did 50-odd years ago.

One employee can fill an incredible 10,000 fondant centres

in a single day.

Tell me this, do you like chocolate?

No, I'm diabetic, I can't eat it.

-I don't mind it, but it makes me poorly.

-I'm sorry for your diabetes.

That is what I would call an unexpected answer.

Once the centres are moulded, they are covered in chocolate,

decorated again by hand.

Ha!

I'm going to have to give this a try, you know.

Thank you.

This is just a way of making me look like an eejit now.

Beautiful.

As you can see, I do have a contemporary touch.

Well, that is about two dozen chocolates I've ruined now,

so I will give them back to the young lady.

-You can take those ones home.

-Thank you.

I think I know just the man to sample my work.

-May I?

-I wish you would.

-They are violet creams. Do you like a violet cream?

-Love them.

-Do you?

You get all the best jobs, T.

I tell you what...

Take them home to the little woman.

You were associated not just with the town,

not with the town of Dorchester, with the famous hotel.

That I was, Terry, yeah. I used to be on the porch of the Dorch.

I believe that is a good little earner.

You know, I can't really discuss that, sir.

-It is none of your business.

-Well, exactly.

I was just thinking, I mean, who are the best tippers?

You know, because...

It certainly wasn't you, Mr Wogan, when you came in.

To learn more about the hotel

that could risk all and employ Mason McQueen as a doorman,

we are heading to Milton Abbas,

noted in Chamberlain's tome as a unique village.

Local historian Michael McAvoy has brought us

to his idyllic garden to tell us how the Dorchester Hotel got its name.

My driver, Mason McQueen,

used to work as a chucker-out at the Dorchester Hotel.

-How dare you.

-And this...

-How dare you, sir!

He worked at the Dorchester, and of course it has a significance here.

It most certainly has!

The man who built the mansion

next door was a man called Joseph Damer.

And Joseph Damer became the Earl of Dorchester.

And he commissioned John Vardy, a famous architect,

to build him a townhouse on Park Lane.

And subsequently, in 1931,

-of course it became the famous Dorchester Hotel.

-Ah.

Ah-ha!

And back in the late 1700s, the Earl who gave his name to the

Dorchester Hotel left a rather different legacy to this area.

To improve the view from his recently restored country

residence, Joseph Damer, in an act of supreme...selfishness, uprooted

a whole community to make way for a lake and a landscaped garden.

It was a town with three pubs, a grammar school,

probably somewhere around about 500 people.

And bit by bit, he buys up, demolishes all of these houses

and moves them a quarter of a mile down the road to what is

the modern-day Milton Abbas village.

The final man to hold out against him was a lawyer.

And this lawyer said, "No, no, I'm sorry, I'm not prepared to sell.

"I'm not going to move."

So what did Damer do?

Damer opened the floodgates of the lake and flooded him out.

So what a nasty piece of work he was, Michael.

Well, you are absolutely right.

Well, can I press you to a slice of cake?

-How very kind of you, Terrence.

-Made with my own fair hands, Michael.

This is almost as good as a Dorchester tea.

-Which I have enjoyed on many an occasion.

-You are a very lucky man.

-I know I am a lucky man!

-They won't let me in the door.

They certainly won't let him back.

HE LAUGHS

HORN BEEPS

Ter, I've got a lady waving at me.

An old classic. The car ain't bad either.

Don't let her out of your sight.

What better way to discover local hospitality

than following strange women in fancy cars.

-She is going left. Whatever happened hand signals?

-What do you mean?

I get them every day in London.

-But they're not like that.

-Exactly.

Our high-speed chase through Milton Abbas comes to a close

outside the beautiful house of home cook Lucy Thomson.

Oh, and look! It is almost dinner time.

We love Dorset.

Yes, it is really noisy and edgy here, isn't it?

-You know, like... It's just perfect.

-Listen to the roar of the birds.

Yeah.

This house is no stranger to weary travellers like Mason and myself.

Well, it was a hotel in the '60s and then it went bust

and it was boarded up.

And we bought it 23 years ago and we have been doing DIY ever since.

Yeah. At present, Lady Wogan changes the plugs in our house.

Since my friend's stomach is rumbling already - must be

at least ten minutes since he has eaten -

would there be any chance of the traditional Dorset...?

If it is Dorset hospitality you are wanting,

I do happen to have something in the oven.

Would you like to come in?

-I'd love to.

-In your spotless kitchen, I imagine.

In my spotless kitchen!

I have made you a traditional Dorset dish. It is called jugged steak.

Often made before people went to the fair because it can

sit in the oven for ages and wait for the revellers to come home.

-Oh. Like slow-cooking these days.

-Or for you to drop in, yeah.

Tell me, why is it called jugged?

Is it in a jug? Well, it is.

I think it is traditionally called jugged

because it is in a marinade, and that is a culinary term for it.

But actually people did often serve it in jugs, I have been told.

What are the ingredients, how is it put together?

It is Dorset beef and you put a lot of port in.

I had to raid my husband's port. But I haven't told him that.

I hope it was the vintage.

Are we going to just look at it or are you going to...?

I tell you what we're going to do. Apparently, you've got to put these

-on the top.

-Oh, have you?

-What are those?

They are sausage balls.

-Sausage balls?

-Yeah. And then helpfully...

-Then you give them a stir?

-Well, I don't know.

I think they are meant to sit on the top.

I'll give them a stir, there we are.

-Yeah.

-And then I put some in a bowl.

-Do you know, it works for me, that idea.

-And me.

-Food in a bowl.

-OK.

On such a beautiful evening, we are eating outside with Lucy's

husband and son to enjoy our final taste of Dorset.

What a wonderful feast we have here, a cornucopia of good things.

Are they Dorset knobs?

Those are Dorset knobs over there.

Yeah, they are fantastic, absolutely delicious.

-And last night I made some butter.

-Oh!

-Mad.

Old Chamberlain said this was the county of butter. Do you mind?

-Try some of this.

-Now, this is salted and more salted?

That is more salted than that one.

-Yeah, you'll like this. Do like a salted butter?

-I love salted butter.

Look, that is the right consistency.

-Mm, yeah. Will I spread it thinly for you?

-That's lovely. Good man.

The only thing missing is something to drink.

And so, in answer to my prayers, a biking vicar turns up with

a beautiful blonde and two bottles of local cider.

I feel like I am in a very modern Hardy novel.

-Lucy, don't hold back.

-There we go.

-There are hungry people here.

If you care to open this place as a hotel again,

you would have a Michelin star in no time.

That is very kind, thank you very much.

Look, we better head on. Where are we going? Do you know?

I don't know, but the hospitality here has been great. One other thing.

-This is the new vehicle we are doing it in. Come on.

-Oh, fantastic!

Wherever the road takes us...

-My Lord.

-God bless you, Mr Copperfield.

I feel like Toad of Toad Hall here.

And this is Ratty.

IMITATING RATTY: Hello!

MASON LAUGHS