0:00:23 > 0:00:26My name is Andrew Hussey.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30I was born and bought up in Liverpool, but I live now in France.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34One of the reasons I live here is the culture.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37And a big part of the culture is the food.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42Wine, cheese, charcuterie...
0:00:42 > 0:00:44the best French food is celebrated because it's got
0:00:44 > 0:00:47what the French call terroir.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52This is a word which is almost impossible to translate,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56but what it means is how land, weather and people come together
0:00:56 > 0:00:59to make a food that tastes uniquely of a region.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02The French have got a term, "le gout de terroir" -
0:01:02 > 0:01:03the taste of the territory.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11I'm back in my own territory now,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14in the Northwest of England, and I've bought that idea back with me.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Oh, come on! Just try a corner.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21I want to apply the idea of terroir to some of the everyday food of the North.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25It's food that you might not realise has a strong Northern history.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29You rhubarb growers, you're like medieval alchemists.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32I'm a cultural historian and not a foodie,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35so I'll be relying on locals to help me out.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37Go with the crispy one first.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Let's give it a go.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44Most importantly, what I really want to do is to find out what terroir
0:01:44 > 0:01:49tells us about politics, class and history.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59SHIP'S HORN BLOWS
0:01:59 > 0:02:02MUSIC: HARMONICA PLAYS "Dirty Old Town"
0:02:06 > 0:02:10I'm going to begin my exploration of northern food and local culture
0:02:10 > 0:02:12here in my old hometown.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17This is Liverpool, a very special and separate place,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21which is not quite England and not quite the North.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24It's been famously described as a kind of frontier zone,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28a collision between the Irish, who were trying to get in,
0:02:28 > 0:02:30and the English, who were trying to get out.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36Liverpool is famous for lots of things, and rightly so.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Music, football, humour, politics -
0:02:39 > 0:02:41all of this is part of the terroir here.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44But we're not normally known for our food.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Having said that, what I remember is that the Liverpudlian working class
0:02:48 > 0:02:51used to cook and eat very well.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54I can still remember my grandma's house in Toxteth.
0:02:54 > 0:02:55The smells, the noise...
0:02:55 > 0:02:57She was a brilliant cook.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Regularly, she'd make home-made fishcakes, butter bean lentil soup,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05pea and ham soup, hock of ham, it was all superb.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08One of my grandad's favourites, and he used love this on
0:03:08 > 0:03:11a Sunday morning, was to wolf down a plate of salted fish.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13The Spanish and the Portuguese called it bacalhau,
0:03:13 > 0:03:16and he used to do this reading yesterday's Liverpool Echo.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19This brings me back to the notion of terroir,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22because if Liverpool has really got a terroir, it's this -
0:03:22 > 0:03:24the sea.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37From the 17th century onwards, Liverpool grew to become
0:03:37 > 0:03:41the second most important port in the British Empire.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46In its heyday, a seventh of world trade went through its docks.
0:03:46 > 0:03:52# I heard a siren from the docks
0:03:54 > 0:04:00# Saw a train set the night on fire... #
0:04:01 > 0:04:07Coffee and tea and spice, meat from the Antipodes and fruit from the Indies.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12# Dirty old town
0:04:14 > 0:04:16# Dirty old town... #
0:04:16 > 0:04:22For hundreds of years, this city has been a portal for trade, people and cultures.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28You can get almost any kind of food you want in Liverpool,
0:04:28 > 0:04:33but I'm after a dish that came in from the sea about 300 ago.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36That's the noble and delicious lobscouse.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Lobscouse is basically a meat and potato stew.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49It's made with lots of potatoes, carrots, onions and either beef or lamb.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53In our house, my mum was the chief scousista
0:04:53 > 0:04:57and she used lamb to make a sloppy, soupy scouse.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01This cafe makes theirs with beef, and as the sailors used to say,
0:05:01 > 0:05:03it's firm enough for a mouse to trot over it.
0:05:08 > 0:05:14Lobscouse is so associated with Liverpudlians, it's given us our nickname, Scousers.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18Maggie May's Cafe here in Hope Street is famous for it.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25- Do you do scouse?- Yeah, yeah.
0:05:25 > 0:05:26I'll have a plate of scouse, ta.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29OK. Would you like any beetroots or red cabbage?
0:05:29 > 0:05:31- I'll have red cabbage, ta.- Yeah.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34'Where the word scouse came from and what it means is lost
0:05:34 > 0:05:36'in the sea mists of time,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39'but I think it's an old Norse word for stew.'
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Scouse has been eaten by Scousers and sailors for over 300 years.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48That's a food with a long and serious history.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51It's all to do with the Baltic shipping trade,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53so this would be Scandinavia, Germany and Holland.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57All of these countries have got a version of the dish which they call labskaus.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02# Das ist Labskaus Das ist Labskaus... #
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Lobscouse was originally a sailor's dish.
0:06:05 > 0:06:11A sea-cooked hotpot in which they could use up all root vegetables and slightly dodgy meat.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Every country makes it differently.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15The Norwegians use salt meat or pork,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19and the Germans like it with eggs and herring.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31The traditional accompaniment to scouse is either beetroot or red cabbage.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34I like red cabbage and I'll tell you for why - it's got a tang,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37a kind of Eastern European flavour, and that suggests to me
0:06:37 > 0:06:41that the real origins of scouse are definitely Germanic.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44John Lee used to be a cook on the cruise ships.
0:06:44 > 0:06:50He puts scouse on the menu because he believes in carrying on with traditional foods.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52There's your scouse there.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55- With the red cabbage and all. - Do you want a bit of beetroot?
0:06:55 > 0:06:56No, I'm OK with that, ta.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58- All right.- Take a seat?
0:07:00 > 0:07:01This looks good, actually.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04There's different ways of doing it, isn't there?
0:07:04 > 0:07:06Everyone makes it different.
0:07:06 > 0:07:11When I went away to sea, one of the best pans of scouse I had
0:07:11 > 0:07:14was in a bar called the Scouse House in Belfast.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16- The Scouse House in Belfast?- Yes.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18They done a lovely pan of scouse there.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22I was on the Belfast boat for 15 years.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24So it was a regular call for us, you know?
0:07:26 > 0:07:30That's the real thing. That's how I remember it, lovely.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Where did you get the recipe for this?
0:07:32 > 0:07:34It's my mum's recipe.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37But as I kid, I didn't like it, to tell you the truth.
0:07:37 > 0:07:38Why didn't you like it?
0:07:38 > 0:07:42It was just the old cuts of meat and that, the beetroot, the fat.
0:07:42 > 0:07:43Yes. Big chunks of it.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48If my dad's there, you know, like, you had to eat it, you know.
0:07:48 > 0:07:50Your dad made you eat the scouse?
0:07:50 > 0:07:54Yes. If you said you didn't like anything, it was a mortal sin.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Funnily enough, we had a neighbour,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Winnie and Arthur Crombie, and they lived next door to us.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06When they done scouse, they made it with mince.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10I used to wait for theirs. It was really, you could eat it and get
0:08:10 > 0:08:14stuck in without these lumps of fat or gristle and that.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18- But in this one, we use Welsh black beef.- OK.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21You don't use lamb?
0:08:21 > 0:08:24No. Now and again, we'll have lamb scouse.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27- Sometimes we do it with mince and that.- Mince is nice, yes.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32There really are a lot of ways of making lobscouse.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35So does it have a claim to be seen as a product of terroir?
0:08:35 > 0:08:38I think the answer is yes.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44You can trace its roots back to our seafaring history.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46And it's our eponymous dish.
0:08:46 > 0:08:47Long live scouse!
0:08:47 > 0:08:50However you choose to make it.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55Time to leave my city and go inland,
0:08:55 > 0:08:58to the deep, true North of England.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00'Where's north from here?'
0:09:07 > 0:09:10I'm heading to a mill and mining town in Lancashire to find out
0:09:10 > 0:09:14about another food with a historic link to a particular place and time.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17But to get there, we need a bit of history.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30the people and terrain of Lancashire were dominated,
0:09:30 > 0:09:31as was so much of the North,
0:09:31 > 0:09:33by the Industrial Revolution.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Coal, cotton and canals shaped the land
0:09:37 > 0:09:40and the lives of those who lived here.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43The traces of that era still colour the landscape today.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51And all three come together here.
0:09:55 > 0:10:01I'm in Wigan, a town that's part of the real, deep North of the English imagination.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06This is the land of slag heaps, flat caps and even flatter vowels.
0:10:06 > 0:10:12The writer George Orwell came here in the 1930s and he was so profoundly shocked by the poverty
0:10:12 > 0:10:18he encountered here, that he wrote a book which has forever defined working-class wretchedness.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25The Road To Wigan Pier describes working people sleeping ten to a room,
0:10:25 > 0:10:31families living in dirt and stagnation and widespread misery and ill health.
0:10:34 > 0:10:40In short, the book exposes the corrupting effect of 200 years of mechanisation.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51The Industrial Revolution marked the high point of the British Empire in commercial terms.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55But in the words of Morrissey, the greatest poet that these parts
0:10:55 > 0:10:58have ever produced, for ordinary folk, them was rotten days.
0:10:58 > 0:11:03People were driven off the land and forced to work in mills, mines and factories.
0:11:03 > 0:11:09In terms of food and in terms of terroir, it meant that they were separated from the land and
0:11:09 > 0:11:13people were unable to cook and farm in the way that they'd been used to.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17For people like my companion here, this was a new way of life.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33Women working a 14-hour day in a cotton mill had little energy left for cooking.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38And few homes had proper cooking facilities anyway.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43So cook shops opened up, selling cheap hot food to workers.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47And one of the most useful meals was a meat and potato pie.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Hiya, you all right?
0:11:53 > 0:11:56- Can I have a butter pie, love, please?- Yes.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00Like scouse, the pie began as a poor man's food -
0:12:00 > 0:12:02lots of cheap potato flavoured with a bit of meat,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05only this time, wrapped up in pastry.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10Pie was economical, filling, and you didn't need to own a plate to eat one.
0:12:13 > 0:12:18Meat and potato pies are still made in Wigan, and they're just as popular today.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20- Hiya.- What pies have you got here?
0:12:20 > 0:12:23We've got new ones. We've got chicken and leek, chicken balti,
0:12:23 > 0:12:29we've got meat and potato, meat pies, patty pies and steak and kidney.
0:12:29 > 0:12:30Meat and potato, please.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33'Working mums were part of the reason pies became linked to
0:12:33 > 0:12:36'this town, but there is another chapter in the story,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39'about pies and working men.'
0:12:41 > 0:12:46The people of Wigan are called the pie-eaters, and that sounds like a daft and cute name,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50but the reality behind that name is a lot more serious.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52It's all to do with the terroir of Wigan.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00The other key industry in Wigan was coal.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06There's been mining in the town for over 600 years.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13Britain's first college of coal mining and technology was established here.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17To be a miner from Wigan was always something to boast about.
0:13:21 > 0:13:29Then, in 1926, Wigan miners joined with other collieries in a national strike.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34They held out for six months with no pay.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39But eventually, they were forced to return under worse conditions than before.
0:13:41 > 0:13:47When the Wigan men went back, miners from nearby towns reckoned they'd been forced to eat "humble pie".
0:13:53 > 0:13:56I like the story, but whatever the truth of the legend,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59the people round here call themselves pie-eaters,
0:13:59 > 0:14:00and they're proud of it.
0:14:02 > 0:14:03So proud, that for 18 years,
0:14:03 > 0:14:08the town has held the World Pie Eating Championships.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12'The secret of eating a pie as quick as you can is no secret.'
0:14:12 > 0:14:16Just eating a pie...
0:14:16 > 0:14:17as quick as you can.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19WHISTLE BLOWS
0:14:19 > 0:14:22The winner of last year's Championship took the lead today
0:14:22 > 0:14:24right from what they call the "pie-off"
0:14:24 > 0:14:27at what they call "pie noon".
0:14:27 > 0:14:30I've invited Fred, the winner of the 2008 competition,
0:14:30 > 0:14:35to come down to Wigan Market to meet me...
0:14:35 > 0:14:40and some members of the town's motorbike club, the Pie Eaters MCC.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43What is it about Wiganers and pies? What's going on?
0:14:43 > 0:14:46It started off in the miners' strike.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Wiganers had to go back to work, so they were known as eating humble pie,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51so that's where Wigan Pie Eaters comes from.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55We've kind of been known for it over the years, and it's more like
0:14:55 > 0:14:58a popular term now instead of a derogatory one.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02Yes. You've reclaimed the term and you're proud of it?
0:15:02 > 0:15:06Wiganers and pies - what about bikers and pies? How does that work?
0:15:06 > 0:15:09That's a perfect mix as well, in't it?!
0:15:09 > 0:15:14We meet up in our local pub, the Crooke Hall, we'll have a pint,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18- pie and a pint.- What's the difference between them all?
0:15:18 > 0:15:20Is there a standard pie?
0:15:20 > 0:15:24- This lady used to make 'em, didn't she?- Donna used to make pies.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29You've got the shops who make them by hand and you've got the shops who make them by machines.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31They're probably the difference.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35They've all got the same content, they've all got potato and meat in.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39I've gathered Fred and the bikers here today to hold our own pie competition.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42And may the best pie-eater win.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16These pies are all from local bakeries.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21They are all the same weight and size,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23and they've been allowed to cool.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30I want a good, clean fight, no grappling, 3, 2, 1...go!
0:16:34 > 0:16:40The speed-eating record for a Wigan pie is just under 36 seconds.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43I don't think these guys are going to beat that.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Having said that, Fred seems on form.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02Nearly!
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Fred, you are the Zinedine Zidane of pie-eating!
0:17:08 > 0:17:10You idiot!
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Well done, Fred.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14Actually, it's not over yet.
0:17:14 > 0:17:15That was only Round One.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18The real winner is going to be the person who
0:17:18 > 0:17:20comes up with the best story of what pies mean to them.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24It's the big, Existential Pie Eating Champion that we are looking for.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27A good old bit of tasty Wigan heritage.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32I've been eating pies since before I can remember and I'll be eating them till I die.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Just reminds me of going to watch Everton Football Club when I was a kid.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40A fabulous figure!
0:17:40 > 0:17:41Sorry!
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Pies to me, really, mean school dinners.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47They remind me of sitting at me grandma's, eating her home-made meat
0:17:47 > 0:17:51and potato pies, and her going sick at me cos I got it all over the table!
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Pies to me mean the cracking fun we have in the Wigan Pie Eaters motorbike rallies.
0:17:55 > 0:18:01The best part, though, is Sunday afternoon tea, home-made plate meat and potato pie - fantastic.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Sat'day night in bar with a nice cold pint of Tetley bitter,
0:18:05 > 0:18:10then eating them gorgeous pies and winning the World Championship.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13OK, I'm pleased to say that what we've found out is
0:18:13 > 0:18:18pie-eating in Wigan is not just a tradition, it's also a palimpsest,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21which means it's the past, and the present, and the future.
0:18:21 > 0:18:28But I'm pleased to say that the all-round World Champion Existential Pie Eater of Wigan...
0:18:31 > 0:18:34..is the future generation, and that's Elliott!
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Do Wigan pies have terroir?
0:18:50 > 0:18:51I think they must have.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59The root of the word terroir
0:18:59 > 0:19:03is from the Latin word terra, meaning land or earth,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07and it's back to the land I'm going now - to Ormskirk.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22This part of Lancashire is potato territory.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26The conditions are perfect for growing the pommes de terre.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29But it's also got to do with the Industrial Revolution,
0:19:29 > 0:19:30which happened all around here.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Because if the fuel of the Industrial Revolution was coal,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37the fuel of the people who made the revolution was this -
0:19:37 > 0:19:39the noble spud.
0:19:41 > 0:19:48Potatoes first arrived in England in the 16th century, an immigrant from South America.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52Like all aliens, they were regarded at first with suspicion.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57Protestants refused to grow them because they weren't mentioned in the Bible.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00In fact for many years, potatoes were grown mainly
0:20:00 > 0:20:02as a botanical curiosity.
0:20:03 > 0:20:08It was the Irish peasantry who first embraced them as a food crop.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11And history suggests it was in Lancashire's rich and sandy loam
0:20:11 > 0:20:14that they were first grown for food in England,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16around the end of the 17th century.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25The Cropper family have been farming this land for about 300 years.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29That means they've been here from around the time that the first potatoes were grown.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34- Hi, Robin.- Hello, Andrew.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Lovely tractor you've got there, very impressive.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41And the soil round here, the black gold of Ormskirk, can you show me?
0:20:41 > 0:20:43Yeah, I'd be happy to.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51You can see that, it's really a good quality loam.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54There is some moisture left, although we haven't had any rain for a long time.
0:20:54 > 0:21:01And we rely on natural irrigation, the big irrigator in the sky, we get very high rainfall here.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04And combined with the soil type, and the natural fertility of the soil,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06it does produce very good potatoes.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10- Is it cos you're near the sea, as well?- Yeah, a lot of the land here was reclaimed.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15- Your family's been here a long time? - I believe the family's found in the area for 300 years.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18So that takes us back to the time of the Industrial Revolution.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20And before that, yeah. Not far from here,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23one of the farms we have, there was coal mines under that.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26I'm told that the farm-workers could hear the miners.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31So there's a close link in this area between the Industrial Revolution and production of food.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35So Lancashire in some ways is very Catholic territory.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39There was the Irish migrations of the 19th century.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42What's the role of the spud in feeding that population?
0:21:42 > 0:21:48The reason there was a big migration from Ireland was because of the potato itself, they had between
0:21:48 > 0:21:531 and 1.5 million people dying through famine and disease through the Irish potato famine.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57That caused a huge influx of people into Liverpool, which affected the culture.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Didn't the people of Liverpool fertilise this in the most literal sense?
0:22:01 > 0:22:05It's actually true, the night soil was brought from Liverpool,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08which was the emptying of the latrines,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11and it was brought into farmland and spread on the land, yeah.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13And what was the evidence of that?
0:22:13 > 0:22:16Sometimes when you walk through fields, you find broken pottery,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20belt buckles, that was often brought out with the actual manure.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22So Scouser sewage makes good spuds.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Well, that's a long time ago!
0:22:27 > 0:22:33These spuds are Maris Pipers - a great all-round variety, but not a local one.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36In fact, they were bred in the 1960s at a Cambridge research station
0:22:36 > 0:22:40to resist eelworm.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44Otherwise, I think these potatoes have terroir.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50And I'll tell you why - terroir involves a strict set of criteria
0:22:50 > 0:22:55that include weather conditions, geography and farming know-how.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58The Croppers' potatoes tick all of these boxes.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01They're planted by tenth-generation farmers.
0:23:01 > 0:23:07They're watered and nurtured by the mild maritime climate of the Irish Sea.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10They grow in the sandy loam of the Lancastrian coastal plains,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15flavoured perhaps with a hint of coal and a soupcon of 19th century Liverpool night soil.
0:23:16 > 0:23:22Surely these potatoes would taste different to those grown in Cornwall. Or your allotment.
0:23:25 > 0:23:32What's more, nearly all these sacks of Maris Pipers are destined for purely local use.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43All of these potatoes are going to be consumed within a 30-mile radius of this farm.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48It could be scouse in Liverpool over there, it could be pies in Wigan over there,
0:23:48 > 0:23:55or if they're really lucky, to be called to the supreme destiny that every Lancashire potato dreams of -
0:23:55 > 0:23:58to become a Blackpool chip.
0:24:18 > 0:24:24For most of the 20th century, when Lancashire people dreamt of heaven, this is what they saw.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28In the words of the great Les Dawson, the lovely vulgar mistress
0:24:28 > 0:24:32that is Blackpool, always beckoning with a saucy finger
0:24:32 > 0:24:37to the thrills that only she can offer.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40Beckoning with a greasy, salty finger, probably.
0:24:42 > 0:24:48Because Blackpool lives on chips in the same way that New York lives on hot dogs and Tokyo lives on sushi.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54But to find the ones that the locals eat,
0:24:54 > 0:24:58you have to leave the tourist hotspots and go inland.
0:24:58 > 0:25:03# Chippy tea, chippy tea I want a chippy tea
0:25:03 > 0:25:07# But you keep givin' me posh nosh It don't agree wi' me
0:25:07 > 0:25:11# I don't want lobster thermidor with a raspberry coulis
0:25:11 > 0:25:16# I'm a working man from Lancashire and I want a chippy tea
0:25:16 > 0:25:19# Pack us one of them 2p forks as well, will you love? #
0:25:21 > 0:25:24The chip shop was invented in the 19th century.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28In many ways, it's one of the supreme culinary achievements of that era.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34Historians think Lancashire was probably the birthplace of the chip shop.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39And this county still has more chippies per capita than anywhere else in the UK.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54But there are now thousands of chippies in Britain, selling millions of bags of chips.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58And that begs the question - can anything as common as a chip
0:25:58 > 0:26:02lay claim to anything as specific as terroir?
0:26:02 > 0:26:05I don't know. But I do know a man who does.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09# And in the Lancashire Kitchen, Bernard's brought back
0:26:09 > 0:26:12# Two mini fish and chips, a sausage in batter, a Mars bar in batter
0:26:12 > 0:26:14# And a pie in batter, wey-hey! #
0:26:14 > 0:26:17'John Walton is a Lancastrian and a fellow cultural historian,
0:26:17 > 0:26:22'and he's studied in depth the history of the fish-and-chip trade.'
0:26:22 > 0:26:28So what makes a Blackpool chip different to a Yorkshire chip or a Cornish chip?
0:26:28 > 0:26:34It would be terroir in the very literal sense of being usually from South Lancashire.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39Most of South Lancashire's potato crop went to feed Lancashire chippies.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44And above all, it's really strongly associated with the old cotton towns.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49The first fish and chips in Lancashire was probably fried in cottonseed oil anyway.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54But there is a Lancashire variant, if you like, on a dish that became
0:26:54 > 0:27:01very prevalent in industrial and metropolitan Britain, but with different forms in different places.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04Is there a link between terroir and chippy technology?
0:27:04 > 0:27:07I'm thinking of deep-fat friers and ranges and that kind of thing.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09The crucial thing is the ranges,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12because ranges were a spin-off from
0:27:12 > 0:27:16the Lancashire and West Riding textile engineering industry.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21And every cotton town in particular had its own range-making firm.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24These, of course, were really quite spectacular things
0:27:24 > 0:27:25with tiles and pictures.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27In the '20s and '30s,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29you'd get streamlined ones and Art-Deco versions.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33Fascinating. The people who were opening these chippies,
0:27:33 > 0:27:35they were people retiring from the mills.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38The people who opened the chippies, to a large extent,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42were probably in their 40s and 50s.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45And they'd be men who'd been doing engineering jobs,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49so fettling up a fish-and-chip range would come naturally to them.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52Or they might have been working as spinners in the cotton mills.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54You almost had to take early retirement in
0:27:54 > 0:27:59the '40s and '50s from that kind of job, as your eyesight began to fail and you got less quick.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02And so they'd save to set themselves up in businesses.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06One of the things you might do would be to set yourself up with a
0:28:06 > 0:28:07chip shop in Blackpool.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13The working man particularly would very much enjoy,
0:28:13 > 0:28:18I think, trying to get the best out of his fish-and-chip range.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21The big problem, actually, is what you fry it all in.
0:28:21 > 0:28:27People who came to Blackpool would come from a variety of fish-and-chip traditions.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32If they were coming from the West Riding of Yorkshire, they want Leeds-type fish and chips
0:28:32 > 0:28:35fried in beef dripping, and preferably jumbo haddock.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39If they're coming from not quite so far in, from Lancashire, it's more likely to be vegetable oil
0:28:39 > 0:28:45that they're accustomed to, and it might well be cod rather haddock that they expect.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49There's a trade paper, of course - there's the Fish Friers Review and
0:28:49 > 0:28:51that's full of helpful DIY hints
0:28:51 > 0:28:54on how to be the most effective and profitable kind of fish frier.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57So this is really terroir, isn't it?
0:28:57 > 0:29:00People, land, technology, coming together.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02I think that's absolutely right.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07I think it applies to a wider area of, particularly Lancashire, but of Northern England.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12It all gets distilled into Blackpool, because Blackpool is the pleasure capital of that region.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39'30 miles inland from Blackpool,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42'as the gull flies, lies the town of Bolton.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45'That's the next stop on my Northern food trail.'
0:29:53 > 0:29:55'Bolton was built on cotton money
0:29:55 > 0:29:58'and through the 19th century it was one of the most productive
0:29:58 > 0:30:02'and innovative textile towns in the world.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04'Most of this stuff comes from Asia now.'
0:30:09 > 0:30:14'You can often tell a lot about a town by its market, and Bolton's is a gem.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20'It's a confident place with an impressive array of produce.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22'I could almost be back in France.'
0:30:22 > 0:30:25Lovely lamb chops here at a fiver a tray.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28You can have eight chunky pork chops for a fiver today.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32- 'Almost.' - Ten lamb chops, three quid.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34Lamb, three quid. It's a steal, it's a deal.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36The sale of the century.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44'The food on offer here reflects the relative wealth of working people today,
0:30:44 > 0:30:48'but if you look harder you can see echoes of old Bolton.'
0:30:53 > 0:30:58Food in the North of England isn't just about heavy industry and class divide.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00It's also about religion.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03There's always been a massive Catholic presence in Lancashire,
0:31:03 > 0:31:08and along with that, a very Catholic lack of squeamishness about eating a whole animal.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17'The theological rationale for this is obscure,
0:31:17 > 0:31:22'but I suspect it has a lot to do with poverty and peasant society.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26'Whatever the reasons, Catholics influenced the eating habits of Lancashire
0:31:26 > 0:31:29'through such delights as...
0:31:29 > 0:31:32'Poached pig's head and trotters.'
0:31:33 > 0:31:35'Pressed cow's udder.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37'Sheep's head broth.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40'Cow heel stew.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44'Black pudding was another popular Lancastrian dish,
0:31:44 > 0:31:50'a classic peasant way of using up pig's blood and intestines.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54'The word offal shares its roots with the Germanic word Abfall,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58'which means rubbish - something useless to throw away.
0:31:58 > 0:32:04'But these by-products from the trough of luxury were all the meat most families were able to afford.'
0:32:10 > 0:32:13'I'm in Bolton to find out about a kind of offal
0:32:13 > 0:32:19'that's still hugely respected in the cuisines of Catholic countries like Poland, France and Mexico,
0:32:19 > 0:32:23'but that's generally considered to be rubbish in modern Lancashire.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26'Tripe.'
0:32:26 > 0:32:30I eat tripe at least twice a week and this is the way I eat it here.
0:32:30 > 0:32:32This is my favourite. I call it black tripe.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34It's called, in fact, leaf tripe.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37- It's quite beautiful. - What is tripe, Stuart?
0:32:37 > 0:32:40It's the inside of a cow's stomach. Quite simple.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44- Does it all come from inside the stomach?- Yes, it all does.
0:32:44 > 0:32:50'A cow's stomach has four chambers, and different tripes are made from all of them.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54'This is thick-seam tripe, also known as blanket tripe,
0:32:54 > 0:32:59'from the first part of the cow's stomach, the rumen.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02'And this is honeycomb tripe from the reticulum,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04'the second part of the stomach.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06'These little pockets hold a sauce well.'
0:33:08 > 0:33:12'Butcher's tripe like this has already been cooked and was often eaten cold.'
0:33:15 > 0:33:20'Tripe is rendered edible only by hours of work by skilled tripe-dressers.
0:33:20 > 0:33:25'First, they wash the stomachs, and then they boil them for hours.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29'The smell of boiling tripe has been described as a cross between
0:33:29 > 0:33:32'hot cow-pat, petrol and earwax.'
0:33:33 > 0:33:38'Once they're cooked, the stomachs have to be scraped and scrubbed.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41'And finally, to get rid of the browny-green staining
0:33:41 > 0:33:46'from the cow's diet of grass, the tripe is bleached.
0:33:46 > 0:33:47'I hope I haven't put you off.'
0:33:49 > 0:33:51And lo and behold, out of that,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54for the expenditure of a miserly few pence,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57you get an exotic dish like that.
0:33:57 > 0:33:58Now, what is wrong with that?
0:33:58 > 0:34:01Does that, Sue, tempt your sophisticated palate?
0:34:01 > 0:34:05Well, it looks nice but I'm glad it's about 200 or 300 miles away from me, Stuart.
0:34:05 > 0:34:10- Are you going to taste it? - 'You'd never know she was from the Black Country, would you?
0:34:10 > 0:34:13'To find out more about this once-popular food,
0:34:13 > 0:34:19'I've arranged a rendezvous with Marjory Houlihan, who has researched the Lancashire tripe trade.'
0:34:19 > 0:34:23Can you tell us something about the scale of the tripe trade round here?
0:34:23 > 0:34:28How many tripe dressers there were, how much was sold, and all that kind of thing.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31Around 100 years ago, for example,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35the directory of 1911 for Bolton,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39there were well over 70 tripe shops
0:34:39 > 0:34:44and quite a few actual tripe-dressers
0:34:44 > 0:34:47- who supplied all those shops. - Who was buying it?
0:34:47 > 0:34:53Probably mostly the working population, especially the mill workers.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55It was easy, they didn't have to cook it,
0:34:55 > 0:34:59they just bought it on the way home.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01It was there, ready to eat,
0:35:01 > 0:35:05and it was cool, slipped down the throat easily.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09- It was a way of getting the taste of the mills out of your throat? - Exactly.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13And giving some moisture to your throat as well.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17- They really appreciated it, you know. - Do you like tripe yourself?
0:35:17 > 0:35:23Well, I've eaten it, but I wouldn't say that I particularly like it, no!
0:35:23 > 0:35:27- But my mother used to love it. - Did she?- My mother loved it.
0:35:28 > 0:35:34'Tripe was so popular that a local abattoir emporium called United Cattle Products, UCP,
0:35:34 > 0:35:40'ran a string of elegant restaurants and tripe was their signature dish.'
0:35:40 > 0:35:44There was a really good tripe restaurant, and it was really posh.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51It was quite posh.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54They were beautifully set out tables,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57pure white tablecloths, silver cutlery.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01So, I love the idea of the posh restaurant, the big pots of tea,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04and this is a tripe restaurant and it's a hot date, you know?
0:36:04 > 0:36:08- But it was! It was the thing. - Very romantic.- Yeah!
0:36:10 > 0:36:17You felt as though you were really dining in some style when you went there,
0:36:17 > 0:36:22especially because Bolton Wanderers was just down the road at Burnden Park.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25After the match, that was another thing.
0:36:25 > 0:36:30They would come walking up from Burnden Park,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33all along to the UCP restaurant.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38I love the idea of Bolton Wanderers in the 1950s - they were a big team at that time -
0:36:38 > 0:36:43and all the Wanderers fans wandering out of Burnden Park after the match to get a load of tripe.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46The Cockneys must have been deeply shocked at these images of the North, you know?
0:36:46 > 0:36:49It must have confirmed every image they dreamt about the North.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52'The UCP restaurants closed in the 1970s... #
0:36:52 > 0:36:54£1.23.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58'...and today it's only a handful of older folk who seek out tripe and eat it.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01'And now I've got a confession to make.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04'I've never eaten tripe,
0:37:04 > 0:37:07'and to be honest, I was quite happy to leave it that way.'
0:37:07 > 0:37:12- We're going to go for a bit of a trial by tripe. - Marjory, what would you recommend?
0:37:12 > 0:37:16I'd say honeycomb, myself.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18I think that's easiest.
0:37:18 > 0:37:24- You can eat it like that. - Just a little tiny bit.- A taster. - A little taster, yeah.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28'To me this looks like something from an early Salvador Dali painting.'
0:37:28 > 0:37:33It's a bit big, that. Could you not cut it a bit smaller?
0:37:33 > 0:37:36- Would you like a bit of vinegar? - Have you got some?
0:37:36 > 0:37:38Oh, brill.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42- Vinegar, now. - I won't put too much on.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49There.
0:37:49 > 0:37:50Right, here goes.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56You seem to know what you're doing, anyway.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01I can eat it, but I wouldn't say I like it particularly,
0:38:01 > 0:38:06but I can imagine how it would feel to somebody coming straight out of the mills.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09Cleaning their mouth, and all that kind of stuff.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11I can understand that, yeah.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14Your turn.
0:38:14 > 0:38:20Do you know what? I'm resisting this with every fibre of my being.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23I feel like I'm betraying my Northern class roots,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26but tripe's defeated me, I'm sorry.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31- You come from a tougher generation than mine.- Well...
0:38:32 > 0:38:35- Could be the Irish in me. - Could be the Irish in you.
0:38:38 > 0:38:43'I can't let tripe defeat me. I've got to find my inner Northern soul.
0:38:43 > 0:38:48'The answer is to go somewhere that can make tripe tempting to my 21st-century palate.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52'How about Salford, just outside Manchester?'
0:39:03 > 0:39:07'You wouldn't know it now, but this used to be the land of tripe.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10'There were tripe shops and tripe dressers all around here.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13'And a UCP tripe restaurant,
0:39:13 > 0:39:15'now gone the way of all flesh.'
0:39:19 > 0:39:22'But this area has a talent for reinvention.
0:39:22 > 0:39:27'They've turned their old mills into trendy apartments and cleaned up the canal.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30'Now it's a leisure destination.'
0:39:32 > 0:39:35'And on the banks of the canal is a gastro-pub
0:39:35 > 0:39:39'whose chef is re-inventing tripe for modern tastes.'
0:39:51 > 0:39:54Can you plate that tripe, please?
0:39:54 > 0:39:59'Rob Owen Brown wants to reconnect young Northerners with the traditional food of their past.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03'He's fighting the cause of cuisine de terroir.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05'He is in fact a terroir-iste.'
0:40:09 > 0:40:14So what happened? Why did tripe become so unpopular with the working classes in the 1970s?
0:40:14 > 0:40:20My feeling is that it's got everything to do with the wretched paraphernalia of Northern poverty,
0:40:20 > 0:40:25along with flat caps, flat vowels, slag heaps and outside toilets.
0:40:25 > 0:40:30The cartoonist Bill Tidy took the mickey out of tripe every day in his comic strip in the Daily Mirror,
0:40:30 > 0:40:34whose main character Fosdyke was a tripe baron.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37'Tripe was all part of the Northern stereotype.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40'Not surprisingly, Northerners decided to move on.'
0:40:46 > 0:40:49'Rob reckons he can get me to eat tripe today.
0:40:49 > 0:40:54'I'm not really looking forward to this - perhaps some things are best forgotten.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57'I mean, he hasn't installed outside toilets, has he?'
0:41:00 > 0:41:05- How are you doing? - This is a scary moment for me.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09- Trust me, you'll be fine.- Having said that, it does look almost like food.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14- It's a bit better than food. - So what's going on here?
0:41:14 > 0:41:17You've got crispy tripe, fiery English mustard.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20You've got tripe with Madeira on toast and caramelised onions in there as well.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24And then my favourite, the pickled tripe with capers, gherkins, parsley.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27Are you a fella who's on a mission about English food?
0:41:27 > 0:41:32Without a shadow of a doubt. If we were in France or Italy now you wouldn't be asking me about that.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36I believe passionately in local produce and using the best that we can from around us,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39and taking a bit of our food history as well
0:41:39 > 0:41:42and trying to bring it up to date and get people eating the stuff.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46What do you think I should have a crack at first? I'm deeply anguished about this.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49Start with the crispy one, that's almost like fast food tripe.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53It's beginner's tripe, fast food tripe. I'll have a crack at this.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56I feel as if I'm taking my life in my hands anyway. Let's give it ago.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02- It's all right!- It's good!- Like octopus, or something like that.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07It's a really similar texture, especially when you get on to the pickled one.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10That would pass as octopus any day of the week.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13I'll give that a go in a second. What's this? This is calamari,
0:42:13 > 0:42:15I've eaten this in Seville and Barcelona.
0:42:15 > 0:42:17Yeah, it's very nice. And it's good for you.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Let's have a crack at the pickled one. This looks like the kind of thing the French would do.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24- Yeah.- South-West France. - It's traditional Northern, isn't it?
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Malt vinegar on your tripe, get it inside you.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31Do you know what? I'm a convert.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35- You only had one plate. - Not that much of a convert.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39I think it's working. Can I ask you, how does this go down with your customers?
0:42:39 > 0:42:42- I know you said before you're on a mission.- It's going all right.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45It's not selling as well as the things like the bull's testicles
0:42:45 > 0:42:48and the bone marrow and everything else, but it is going.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52It's about getting people to taste it and getting people to give it a fair crack of the whip.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55Why do you think it's not doing as well as the other stuff?
0:42:55 > 0:42:58People have this image of tripe, don't they, you know?
0:42:58 > 0:43:04It's taken a long time for people to start looking at the older dishes and the offals and everything else.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08Everyone had got that wrapped up in having prime cut meat all the time.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12- Give this one at try, before it goes cold.- How does this one work?
0:43:12 > 0:43:17You've got Madeira, beef stock, tripe, onions, salt and pepper, that's it.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21I don't know why I'm so cautious - it works.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25It's nice, it's got a real richness to it. I'm glad you're enjoying that.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27- The Madeira's coming through now. - Right.
0:43:29 > 0:43:30I'm going to have another bit.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34- Good.- In a way we're going back to pre-industrial revolution food
0:43:34 > 0:43:37by doing this true North of England food?
0:43:37 > 0:43:42If you're going to kill something to eat, then have the decency to use every single bit of it,
0:43:42 > 0:43:47and not just the 24 fillets you're going to get out of a cow, or the 30 sirloins.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49You've got to get the very, very best use out of it.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53- This is the anti Chicken McNuggets culture, isn't it? - Without a shadow of a doubt.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57Maybe with the exception of that one, maybe I'm doing tripe McNuggets, I'm not sure.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01Tripe, can we talk about this with the rules of terroir?
0:44:01 > 0:44:03OK, go on.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06Terroir comes from land, it comes from people,
0:44:06 > 0:44:09and it comes from agricultural produce, but tripe, is it local?
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Is it stuff that belongs here and nowhere else?
0:44:12 > 0:44:16No. Tripe is a universal product. The Spanish use it. Every nation.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20The Chinese are superb exponents of using every single bit of an animal.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27Tripe was heavily used in Lancashire in the North of England,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30because it was cheap and there was plenty of it knocking around.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33You can get an awful lot of tripe out of one big cow.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35And there was a health thing as well.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38It was good at getting all that cotton dust out of your throat.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40So it was a local thing in a way?
0:44:40 > 0:44:42I mean, the people of Madrid love their tripe,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45the working class people of Madrid love their tripe.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47In Lancashire it's a class thing as well.
0:44:47 > 0:44:52- It cleans your throat, nutritious, cheap, easily available.- Yeah. - So it does really belong here.
0:44:52 > 0:44:57I think it belongs here as it does in any working-class area anywhere in the world but...
0:44:59 > 0:45:03..it's a difficult call. I don't think we can say it's ours.
0:45:03 > 0:45:04- Yeah?- It's everybody's.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07- Well it's everybody's but you've made it your own.- Well, we try.
0:45:09 > 0:45:15It seems strange that it's taken so long for me to eat a food that I should have grown up with.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17But then again, I grew up in the 70s,
0:45:17 > 0:45:22a very strange decade when localness became obsolete.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33In fact, I remember when my nan stopped cooking the old way
0:45:33 > 0:45:36and began a love affair with convenience food.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42It wasn't that me nan and women like her became lazy,
0:45:42 > 0:45:48but with the rise of the supermarket there were suddenly all kinds of new ready-made foods available.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55Instead of making their husbands ham hock and salted fish,
0:45:55 > 0:46:00women gave them fish fingers and Fray Bentos pies.
0:46:04 > 0:46:05And our local food.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08The food that tasted of where it was from and meant something
0:46:08 > 0:46:13to the people who ate it, it just disappeared.
0:46:13 > 0:46:19But no-one missed it because supermarkets were bringing us sexy exotica,
0:46:19 > 0:46:20like yogurt,
0:46:20 > 0:46:21noodles,
0:46:21 > 0:46:23and pizza!
0:46:23 > 0:46:27I was 18 the first time I saw pizza.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29I didn't know whether to boil it or fry it.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31That's handy, Harry.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33Stick it in the oven.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38One pizza, senor, especially for you!
0:46:38 > 0:46:41Light dough piled with tomato, cheese,
0:46:41 > 0:46:45- ham and mushroom, sweetcorn and courgette.- Delicious.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49You should try our tomato, cheese and onion pizza, or our special.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55And pizza wasn't the only foreign food to get a foothold.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10From the Norwegian sailors in Liverpool
0:47:10 > 0:47:13to the Asian textile workers in Lancashire and Yorkshire,
0:47:13 > 0:47:18the North of England has always been a place where other people and cultures came to trade.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41Each wave of immigrants brings a new food with them.
0:47:43 > 0:47:50In this market in Bradford alongside oranges and baked beans are an intriguing array of ingredients.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55Asafoetida, moong dal, fenugreek...
0:47:57 > 0:48:00And a whole lot of things, that I don't know what they are.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22The Kashmir restaurant was one of the first to open in Bradford.
0:48:22 > 0:48:28It catered for homesick Kashmiris, who strangely enough didn't care for baked beans or Yorkshire pudding.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39And few native Yorkshire men would have come in through these doors
0:48:39 > 0:48:44in the 1950s to sample anything as foreign as rogan josh or korma.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48Today, however, they have a huge local following.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02For my generation there is no more typically Northern night out than an evening in a curry house.
0:49:02 > 0:49:09And believe me, curries in the North are world class and far superior to anything you can get in the South.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15I'm out for a curry with Prett, a local woman who teaches Indian cookery.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22When you're teaching do you get a mix of races?
0:49:22 > 0:49:24No. Predominantly English.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27That's interesting.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30In a way it's a cultural education for the English, isn't it?
0:49:30 > 0:49:33Yes, that's right. We put across how it's done at home.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36How we would cook it compared to restaurants, yeah.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41- Because it's at home as well. - That's what it is. Showing them it's not as hard as they think.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43This is the big million-dollar question.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45You might want to phone a friend.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48Where it is the best place in Bradford to eat a curry?
0:49:48 > 0:49:51It's got to be, it's got to be my mum's.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55Your love of curry is really about your love of home.
0:49:55 > 0:50:00It is. Yeah. It's just sharing that with other people.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05Although we do share a love of curry, it's still a relatively recent arrival.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08It still feels like it belongs to a different culture.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13My next food was another immigrant from abroad,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16but has been here for so long and rooted so firmly into Yorkshire soil
0:50:16 > 0:50:19that most people think it's a local.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24From the 1830's rhubarb has been grown
0:50:24 > 0:50:26in the mysteriously-named
0:50:26 > 0:50:27Rhubarb Triangle.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34West Yorkshire farmers found the plant thrived in local conditions.
0:50:36 > 0:50:42And over the next century, subsequent growers perfected the dark art of forcing.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52In the winter, the farmers take the rhubarb roots out of the fields
0:50:52 > 0:50:54and they put them into warm, windowless sheds.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02The heat tricks the plant into thinking it is summer.
0:51:02 > 0:51:03So it begins to grow.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07Without sunlight, the rhubarb sprouts very fast,
0:51:07 > 0:51:10producing stalks that are pink and sweet and tender.
0:51:12 > 0:51:14This is an extraordinary sight.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18At first it looks like a subterranean army ready to march.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21There is also a strange atmosphere here.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24A weird atmosphere of a psychedelic nightmare.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27Sigmund Freud or the French Surrealists
0:51:27 > 0:51:30would have had a field day with these tender pink erect stalks.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32Straining to reach the light.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38This is forced rhubarb. It is not grown in soil,
0:51:38 > 0:51:42but from energy supplies stored up in its own massive roots.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48A clever trick played by man upon nature.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55There's also a pathos and the poignancy here.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59Everything in this shed is dying and you can smell it in the air.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04It gives the place the feeling of a medieval chapel in southern Spain or southern Italy.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06The French mystic Georges Bataille
0:52:06 > 0:52:08would have loved it here.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10Sex, religion and death.
0:52:12 > 0:52:17This final growth of pink stems is this lucrative crop's swansong.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20By the end of spring, the last stalks are picked,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23the roots are exhausted and the plants die.
0:52:23 > 0:52:30In 2010, Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb was awarded a Protected Designation of Origin.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34That means the terroir and farming practices of the Yorkshire Triangle
0:52:34 > 0:52:37have been legally-recognised by the EU as unique.
0:52:39 > 0:52:46Janet Oldroyd-Hulme's family have been growing rhubarb here since the 1930s.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50- Hello, Janet, I've managed to find you in a sea of rhubarb.- Hi Andrew.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52Did you like the forcing sheds?
0:52:52 > 0:52:55It was well surreal, very psychedelic.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58But the story of rhubarb is fantastic.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00This is a very Northern British food, isn't it?
0:53:00 > 0:53:05It is. But rhubarb originally was a native of Siberia.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09It likes cold and it was found on the banks of the River Volga
0:53:09 > 0:53:12so it likes moisture.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15Our soils are water-retaining soils.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19We're in a frost pocket so everything comes together
0:53:19 > 0:53:24to make a perfect root with perfect conditions to release energy.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26That's here in the Rhubarb Triangle.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28I think that's a great story.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32It starts on the River Volga and ends up farming on the urban fringes of Leeds.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35There's more to rhubarb than meets the eye.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37There is certainly,
0:53:37 > 0:53:40but I'm biased, I grow it!
0:53:41 > 0:53:43So far, so terroir.
0:53:43 > 0:53:51What fascinates me is how much this modern success story owes to West Yorkshire's industrial past.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54Janet, what's this stuff and what's it got to do with rhubarb?
0:53:54 > 0:53:55This is shoddy.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58Shoddy comes from the woollen industry,
0:53:58 > 0:54:01that once dominated this area.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03We still use it today as you can see.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07But it mostly came as the fleeces went into the factories
0:54:07 > 0:54:10- and all the debris was taken out. - Shoddy goods?
0:54:10 > 0:54:15Shoddy goods rubbish. But it's not rubbish to a rhubarb grower.
0:54:15 > 0:54:21Because it's packed with nitrogen and as the wool breaks down it releases that nitrogen.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23That plant takes it up hungrily.
0:54:23 > 0:54:24It loves nitrogen.
0:54:24 > 0:54:30We have to get a lot of energy into the roots so it can tap into it when it goes into the forcing sheds.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35As you saw, it's not planted, its growing from its own energy reserves.
0:54:35 > 0:54:41So rhubarb is the perfect marriage between Yorkshire and the Industrial Revolution?
0:54:41 > 0:54:44Yes. The coal was very important
0:54:44 > 0:54:48because we have to heat the sheds in the depth of winter
0:54:48 > 0:54:51to get to warm summer temperatures.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55There you can see the remains of one of Yorkshire's pits,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57which has now been grassed over.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59So this was a mining pit?
0:54:59 > 0:55:01That's how close the pits were.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05So, the growers utilised that
0:55:05 > 0:55:10and took out low-grade coal and coke to heat the sheds.
0:55:10 > 0:55:15It's complicated stuff, rhubarb, isn't it, it's like medieval alchemy.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18I used to love rhubarb as a kid but people used to laugh at it.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20But now it's gone mega bling, hasn't it?
0:55:20 > 0:55:24During the war it was part of the staple diet and it was extremely popular.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28After the war when refrigerated transport came in
0:55:28 > 0:55:31everybody moved on to something else.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34So growers went bankrupt or they got out of their industry.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38Today we're down to the last 12 producers.
0:55:38 > 0:55:43Luckily, in time, just in time, this resurgence has come
0:55:43 > 0:55:46so rhubarb is becoming very popular again.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Not just because it tastes nice but because of the health benefits.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53You've got rhubarb Bellinis, you've got the French eating it,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56the Portuguese are making liqueurs out of it.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02- Rhubarb and custard. - Rhubarb and custard, yes indeed.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04I don't like it at all. I hate custard.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06Do you, I hate rhubarb.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10I've got 350 grams of rhubarb which is about six or seven stalks.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14We all know what rhubarb crumble should taste like
0:56:14 > 0:56:19and therefore the little nuances of what you do with your rhubarb crumble are so important.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21They're just going to be tipped.
0:56:23 > 0:56:28Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb is only the 41st British food to get a protected name.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31France has got 175.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33We are only just beginning to celebrate and protect
0:56:33 > 0:56:38our traditional foods in the way the French have always done.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41And how fitting that we should end on pudding.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44That lovely smell, butter and cooked flour.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47A slightly sour smell of the rhubarb.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50It's the stuff of Sunday lunches, really.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53Look at that, mmm.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57Bubbling.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00Wow.
0:57:02 > 0:57:08I came here from Paris to the North of England to test out this notion of terroir.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12I've met the rhubarb lady, I've met the professor of fish and chips,
0:57:12 > 0:57:17I've had encounters with Scousers and I've been terrorised by tripe.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22And what I have found is that even if the food of the North isn't always good food,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26it's always food of the people made by the people.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30But one thing did surprise me, that's the emotions.
0:57:30 > 0:57:32Food here is all about emotions.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34It's about identity,
0:57:34 > 0:57:37it's about feeling, it's about family,
0:57:37 > 0:57:39above all it's about belonging.
0:57:39 > 0:57:45What we eat and why we eat it is rooted in our particular corner of history.
0:57:45 > 0:57:50No-one else shares our tastes and memories, because no-one else has our exact terroir.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56That's what I'm taking away with me when I go back to Paris.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59A sense the food of the North is really about belonging.
0:57:59 > 0:58:01It's about coming from a place.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04You cannot have at all a better definition of terroir.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08The true taste of the territory is the true taste of home.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:27 > 0:58:30Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk