Kent A Taste of Britain

He's Brian Turner.

And she's Janet Street-Porter.

I'm passionate about walking.

These feet have taken me the length and breadth of Great Britain.

I've been privileged to cook all round the world,

but it's Britain that I love. Fabulous produce,

great ingredients right here on the doorstop.

We're joining forces to explore Britain's rich heritage.

And the landscape that's given us such wonderful produce.

He's in charge of the food.

And guess what, she's in charge of everything else!

This is...

A Taste Of Britain.

Today we've come to the glorious county of Kent.

It's in the south-east corner of Britain

and is a region I know well, having lived here for a number of years.

It offers the very best of countryside and coastline,

and I can't wait for Janet to show me around.

'We'll be getting into the swing of things with a traditional

'Kentish pub game.'

Robbed, robbed!

And learning all about life in the slow lane.

-Am I going to be brave and eat a whole snail?

-Yeah go on, go on.

-Delicious.

-'For the cherry on the top.

'I'll be making a celebratory dish that sums up a real taste of Kent.'

So there you are, Duchess, my Brogdale cherry slice.

APPLAUSE

Brian, I've brought you this week to my neck of the woods.

It's a part of Kent I know really well.

We're standing just outside Faversham,

-which is where that church spire is over there.

-Yeah.

We're on the junction of Oare Marshes, Faversham Creek,

and here's the Thames Estuary.

It's a great bird sanctuary around here.

They've recorded 130 species this year.

And that's the Isle of Sheppey

and if you fancied a trip across there, there used to be

a very lovely old ferry, the Harty Ferry, which sadly is no more.

Of course, Kent is considered by many to be "The Garden of England",

fabulous fruit, fabulous vegetables. I'm looking forward to seeing

some of your favourite haunts, and we're in the world's best orchards

and the fruits have just come into season.

-Shall we start with Faversham?

-Please.

Kent's atmospheric coastline is dotted with numerous fishing ports,

many of which date back hundreds of years.

Top of my list has to be the historic market town of Faversham,

originally built around an ancient seaport on the Faversham Creek.

I've heard the port's home to one of Britain's oldest pubs.

Trust you to know that fact, Brian!

But before you get any ideas,

I'm taking you for a stroll around the streets of Faversham,

and it's best to start up high to get our bearings.

Brian, we're here right on top of the Guildhall,

and if you look around Faversham, it's a perfect Medieval town,

and that's because in the 1960s the council,

I think, very ahead for their time,

decreed that there would be no redevelopment

in the town centre, and that's why you can still see

so many of these medieval wood-framed houses.

It's really unique, I think, in this part of England.

The other thing about Faversham is it was the centre of the wool trade,

and they used to export wool down the creek.

But it was also the centre of the gunpowder industry,

the explosives industry, which was really important in the Industrial Revolution,

but it all came to an unfortunate end in 1916,

when there was a massive explosion and 109 people died.

Oh, dear.

What I like about these streets is that the houses

come from different centuries, but they all blend together,

because they've been very sympathetically restored.

-Yeah.

-Ancient bell pulls, I don't know what date that is, but look how

low the doorways are, because the street itself, 300 years ago,

would have been lower, but the houses also have cellars,

and I think a lot of them were merchants' houses

because they back onto the creek.

-Yeah.

-And they would have stored stuff in the cellars.

So, Brian, here we are at the creek, and it's a shame really,

this is all that's left of what must have been a really bustling port.

-They've still got some of the old boats here.

-Yeah.

But they are in the process of restoring it.

And talking about restoration, I need some restoration,

I'm desperate for something to eat.

-Are you hungry?

-I could do with a snack.

-OK, let's eat.

Kent's fertile soil means there's a host of local producers,

large and small, farming a rich mix of ingredients.

There's one thing no food grower likes to see amongst their crop...

..the common garden snail.

But in Littlebourne, near Canterbury,

there's a woman who loves having them in her garden.

So much so, she farms them.

Helen Hudson is Britain's biggest supplier of live snails

to restaurants countrywide.

I must say that your plot looks

completely different to everybody else's.

Yes, it does, doesn't it?

The pens look as if they're designed to keep the snails in,

but they're actually designed to keep everything else out.

-How many snails are in here?

-About 840.

What do you mean "about", you must have been up early counting them. How can you count them?

They don't run very fast. You just count them, don't you?

I counted them as I put them in.

When they're tiny they live at home with me,

and then I bring them here when they're about six weeks old.

-So what age are these we're looking at?

-About two months.

About two months old, and these are...what are these,

-what's this food in here, these plants?

-It's perpetual spinach.

-Oh, right.

-So if they chew one leaf, it grows some more.

-Oh, yeah.

-Well, these to me are my enemy

because if I see any on my vegetable patch, I'm afraid...

-Put into salt water or...

-No, I flick them over the fence for the birds to eat them.

-They just come back again.

-To the garden, to the neighbours.

-How far can snails travel?

Well, certainly from next door's garden. They have a homing instinct.

Helen supplies an incredible 50,000 of these gastropods to gastro-pubs

and restaurants every year.

How would you describe the taste, as a snail connoisseur?

I'd describe them as being like mushrooms to people

who haven't tasted them before, and if they're cooked properly,

long and slow, then you get a texture like mushrooms, too.

And how old are they when they go to their slaughter?

-It's about six months old.

-Six months?

-Yeah.

-Well, they've had quite a good life in their pens.

-They have.

It's like free-range chickens.

Yeah, free-range snails, sloping about, eating this spinach.

You say they taste like mushrooms, but if you give them different feed,

do they actually taste different?

Well, certainly the chefs like it if I feed them on fruit.

I think it certainly affects the texture.

-Shall I show you one that's finished growing?

-Yeah.

One that's due for the plate.

How do you know that that's finished growing?

If you look at the edge of the shell, you can see it's turned

up like the brim of a hat.

-Oh, yeah, this bit here?

-Yeah.

-It's curled back.

Yes, it means it's stopped growing.

-And that's only about six months old?

-Yes. Yeah.

I'm really getting tempted by all this. The snails look fantastic,

so we must try and put it together now and come up with a dish.

I've sampled some unusual ingredients in my time,

but I've yet to be tempted by these local delicacies.

I think Brian's going to have to do something pretty special

with Helen's snails to win me over.

What I've done, I've got some pre-cooked new potatoes here,

a bit of rapeseed oil, like we Brits do these days.

I've got some garlic here, and I'm going to incorporate the snails,

some local bacon, some fresh peas and some of the local eggs.

I'm going to make like a frittata, like an omelette.

But one that you can really make bigger and everybody can share.

How do the snails get cooked?

Very slowly in a cider, with a bit of stock and a few vegetables

and herbs. They are so tender.

-Cooked for about two hours.

-I won't look at it.

-That's it, close your eyes, you're fine.

So, I've got the garlic in there, I don't need to colour it,

-just want to...

-They taste really good.

-They're good, aren't they, eh?

And I want to chop them up a little bit.

You're chopping them up,

which I think is good news for people like me

who are a little bit squeamish about seeing the whole thing.

What I thought, we'd chop some of them up

and then put whole ones in as well.

So all I'm going to do is just quickly put those in here.

I think that garlic smells wonderful.

We'll put all this into a bowl.

Some fresh peas, we'll put all of those in.

Fresh local bacon which is wonderful.

I like just to chop a bit of parsley,

just gives it that little bit of extra colour.

So you can see, there's no real recipe to this and you can put

as much or as little as you want in there to make it work for you.

Lovely eggs.

Because frittata's quite nice lukewarm, isn't it?

It's not one of those things you eat hot?

Absolutely, you just turn it out.

I'm going to put a little salad at the side of it. Salt and pepper in there.

-And don't forget, now, we can put in as many...

-Not too many.

-How many? Oh, that'll do.

-Oh, no!

Oh, no!

Look at that, that's filled that pan up nice and large.

Do you think it's better to have it thicker than thin?

I think for this kind of dish it's nice to have it nice and thick.

Remember, everything else is cooked in here, so it only just

needs to be hot, and cook the eggs through that's holding it together.

Brian, you're doing something that I never thought of,

-which is you're moving your fork around in it...

-Yeah.

..to make sure the egg cooks.

Well, that's it, so you can see the cooked bits. And the trick,

of course, is to realise if you take it out too quickly...

-It slurps.

-..it goes all over the place, you're quite right.

I don't want to keep turning it too much,

cos I want the eggs to set together and bind the whole thing together.

Now, the next trick is to make sure

we get a lovely golden brown colour on the top,

so when you show it, people say, "That's wonderful."

Take that fork, have a quick look round the edge.

The edge is solid.

-It's starting to set that lovely golden colour.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to sort of do it the idiot's way.

-Which is?

I'm going to turn it onto there,

-but I've got to get back in a bit.

-You're going to slide it?

I think that's dangerous. So I'm going to then turn that one again.

-You're just showing off.

-No, I'm not.

-You're just doing two flips?

I am, yes. OK, so now what we do is we put the plate here.

And we go like that.

-Say those magic words...

-Hey presto.

-..I love Janet Street-Porter.

-Hey presto. I've got it, I've got it.

-Yeah, lovely.

Oh, I love that!

-Now, are you ready?

-Yeah.

-One, two, three, go.

-Yes!

Easy peasy.

In fact it hardly needs any more cooking.

It's got that lovely colour, so I'm going to turn that off

and just leave it on the heat to set now, OK.

Just want to make a little bit of dressing quickly.

I'm just going to take a bit of shallot.

And shred it.

We just want something to serve with it, it's sort of a bit...

nude by itself. So those go in there.

And a spoon of mustard.

A squeeze of lemon juice.

A bit of rapeseed oil.

Salt and pepper.

And I see some dill there, just like...

You be strong, just go like that and just do it!

You're being very macho today, Brian.

HE LAUGHS

Two plates this time.

Oh, am I getting half?

No, no, what I'm going to do, look, I'm going to turn it over.

I'm happy with that, in fact, I'm going to serve it that side up.

-That looks good.

-That looks excellent, does that.

And here's a little top tip that I think works extremely well.

Just take a little bit of oil... look at that shine.

-Oh, yeah, that looks good.

-That little bit of attractiveness.

There you've got it, that's a frittata with snails, huh?

-Brian, it looks amazing.

-Lots of lovely colours, don't you think?

-Right, I need to taste it.

-OK, let me give you a nice slice.

There we go!

Right.

-Try and get a bit of snail, dear, a bit of snail, there, look.

-Hm.

Very good frittata.

Am I going to be brave and eat a whole snail?

Yeah, go on, go on, go on.

-It works.

-You are quite brave, you know, I have to say.

It works!

-Helen's got to taste...

-Absolutely right.

-Are you ready for this?

-Definitely. That looks lovely.

A little bit of salad.

Cos I love making frittatas and I just thought, "Snail, hmm."

-But it's worked.

-Fantastic.

Very good. I shall definitely do that at home.

What about your snail, it had a good life, didn't it?

-It did, yes.

-Ended up in a good home?

-In a frittata.

-HELEN LAUGHS

Well done, Brian.

We need to be on the lookout for tasty ingredients

to use in our celebratory cook.

And seeing as you know this area so well, Janet,

perhaps you've got some ideas?

Well, Brian, when it comes to my own cooking, somewhere that never fails

to inspire me is The Goods Shed in the heart of Canterbury.

Originally opened in 2002 as a farmers' market,

it's evolved into an amazing food hall,

packed to the rafters with the very best in fresh local produce.

So, what do you think, Brian?

Wow, wow, just look at it, this is great.

It's amazing, well, this was a disused building,

it had been used for storing coal and then for engines that

went up and down the little line between Whitstable and Canterbury.

And I've been coming here for about ten years.

It's such a great place, because it's got food from local producers

and you can get everything in this one small space,

plus it's got a really good restaurant up the top.

Fantastic choice of meat. They have a lot of game.

-Mutton.

-Sausages, hang on, whoa, let's have a look.

You can always judge a butcher by good-looking sausages.

Every time I come in here I want to cook something different.

This is my favourite vegetable stall,

and what they do is tell you what stuff's been sprayed,

where the stuff comes from, even what farms.

And look, there's some cherries.

From Amery Court, wherever that is, you know Amery Court?

Yeah, just down the road, but that's what I like,

cos you know that everything's just come from around here.

We've got spinach, you get mustard, curly parsley -

-your favourite - sorrel...

-It is! Organic sorrel there.

-And...

-Ah-ha!

-..the Kentish cheese stall.

Look at the awards they've won, fantastic.

-So, isn't this place terrific?

-It's wonderful.

When people tell you that shopping in places like this

is expensive, there's the proof on the wall that it isn't.

Look at that, purple broccoli - £3 here, £8.75 and £9.50 elsewhere,

-that's scandalous!

-Now, don't get in a lather.

No, serious, it is nonsense, it shouldn't be allowed.

There's a really good chef over there, I think you should go

-and meet him.

-All right, I will...

-I'm off to mingle with the wildlife.

-I'll go and see him.

SEAGULLS CRY

As a keen walker, nothing beats a stroll along the shoreline

for a breath of fresh sea air.

And one of my favourite spots in Kent for a seaside amble

is the South Swale Nature Reserve near Faversham.

Covering 850 acres of salt marsh,

the reserve is not only home to a dazzling array of plants

and wild flowers, but is also a haven for birdlife.

Joining me on my walk today is warden Kevin Duvall.

Kevin, you're the area warden for the Kent Wildlife Trust,

and I've walked along here so many times,

what makes it so special?

It's just a beautiful part of Kent, isn't it?

Wherever you look you get wonderful vistas.

Got the mudflats here, so important for feeding birds,

we've got various habitats inland here with the reed beds,

dykes, fresh water grazing marsh, open areas of water.

It's all attractive to birds.

After they've fed on the mudflats they'll very often come back

onto the reserve to roost and rest, and they're safe there.

So it's where you've got Faversham at the Creek there,

and the Isle of Sheppey over here, and then the Thames Estuary

out there, this is a very sheltered mooring, isn't it?

It is, yes, this channel divides the north Kent coast from Sheppey,

it is very important, there's a vast amount of food out there

for birds and all sorts of other animals as well.

In fact, we have common seals out on the sands at low tide very often.

I've swum and seen a seal.

Yeah, I thought it was an old rubber tyre

-and then I realised it was a seal!

-Yeah, it's a fantastic sight.

-Yeah.

How many species have been recorded this year?

Well, so far this year about 135, but most years,

throughout the year, we get about 170 to 180.

It varies from year to year, but it's

a particularly good area for wading birds,

especially on migration in the autumn,

all sorts of things turn up here.

When I walk along this section along here from the power station

opposite Sheppey, I always imagine Charles Dickens, cos he walked

a lot on Sheppey, and around here, that it's not changed that much.

No, I'm sure it inspired him, yes.

So we're approaching the sea wall hide now,

this is on the extreme end of the eastern end of the reserve

where Faversham Creek meets the Swale.

-It's a particularly good hide for watching seabirds.

-Right.

Right, so if we take a seat here.

And see what sort of view we've got in front of us.

Wow.

The tide's quite low at the moment, so there's quite a bit of

inter-tidal mudflat exposed,

and we can see quite a few birds are feeding out there,

and oystercatchers to our left and a few gulls in front of us too.

Now, Kevin, what qualities do you need to be a bird-watcher?

Enthusiasm, patience and a willingness to learn really,

cos there's an awful lot to learn,

birds can look different at different times of the year.

-Probably an ability to keep quiet.

-Yes, that will certainly help.

HE CHUCKLES

Not a lot of qualities I've got.

I don't think Brian will believe how peaceful and quiet I've been, Kevin.

You've had a very calming influence on me. Unlike him.

As they say, Janet, silence is golden,

and long may it last.

When putting a menu together,

a chef couldn't be better placed for ingredients than Rafael Lopez,

whose restaurant sits right inside The Good Shed food market.

-Hi, Chef, nice to meet you.

-Brian.

'He's Spanish, but has chosen to make his home here

'and is preparing us a dish that showcases

'some of the very best of Kent's local flavours.'

OK, Chef, what are you going to cook for us?

-Today we've got spring lamb.

-Yeah.

And so we're going to do the bacon, the braised belly

and the lamb cutlets, and we're going to add the bacon for flavour.

It's interesting, in modern cooking,

-lots of restaurants do a trio of something.

-Yeah.

Three of something, it's nice, isn't it, nice contrast?

It's a nice contrast and it's a good way of utilising

the whole part of the animal instead of just going for the prime cut.

-Yeah, yeah.

-We have got the belly.

I trimmed a little bit of the back

and we salted that like if it was bacon.

-How long is that cured for?

-Erm, just a few hours, maybe a day.

-OK.

We're going to start by tidying this up.

-OK, so you just roll it up like a Swiss roll...

-Yeah.

-..nice and tight.

-Yeah.

-How long will you cook it for?

Erm, a piece that size, 40 minutes, maybe an hour.

Nice and gently.

Then we're going to sear the end slightly.

And then we're just going to brown off,

basically just to render some of the fat away.

-Your belly's a lovely colour.

-The belly is a lovely colour,

what we're going to do is just pop it in the oven and...

like, pot roast it really.

Next job, I'm going to start prepping a rack of lamb.

Spring lamb, not a lot of fat,

plenty of flavour, and the most important thing,

it'll be really, really tender.

I'm going to just score the skin

-and make sure we've got a nice kind of crunchy finish.

-Yeah.

We've got a hot pan in there.

Considering all the good lamb,

I think this could be one of the best in the world.

We're just going to finish it off,

we put the skin side down for the time being,

and then in about five minutes we're going to flip it over.

-OK.

-Back in there.

-The gentler you are with it, the better it cooks.

-Yeah.

So I'm going to...

cut a little bit of this lamb bacon.

This is the part of the belly that doesn't really get used.

It's a bit of a shame, because it's dark meat.

And normally dark meat is a little bit sweeter.

So there is a lot of flavour.

Oh, right, so you're dicing it up?

We're just going to do it like if it was like lardons for bacon.

Perfect, OK, right, yeah.

We got this courgette, aubergine...

we're going to start by grilling some of this veg, the lamb bacon.

Right, now we've got this lamb bacon

starting to get a little bit of colour,

going to turn the heat right down.

We're going to put the new potatoes.

-So all the flavour from the lamb there...

-Exactly.

..is going into the potatoes.

And we got those mangetout, garden peas,

we've got a little bit of that roasted garlic,

we're going to put some of these green beans.

Those were just blanched and then cut in lengths?

Yeah. We kind of just want the flavours to marry together.

So that pan now has lots of textures, lots of flavours

-and wonderful colours.

-Exactly.

And we got a little bit of the lamb fat in there,

which is going to help to flavour them up.

-Some of those as well.

-Everything in there.

-Yeah, yeah.

Now we're going to finish it with a little bit of the herbs.

And do you notice? The heat is not even there,

it's just with the residual heat.

And then we're just going to finish a little bit with some butter

just to give it that kind of creaminess.

-We like butter.

-Yeah, we do like butter.

So now, I suppose, you've not got a lot left to do

-but just to plate up?

-You're right.

Just going to cut a little bit of the edge.

Just give it a little bit of colour.

-Now, that's a lovely plate.

-Right, that is my favourite plate.

We can put some of the bigger veg at the bottom.

It is quite amazing what you've actually done.

There's no two ways in my mind, you've used all British,

-very local products...

-Yeah.

-..but you've now made it look Spanish.

-Like it's Spanish, well...

Tremendous.

-For the nice tender pieces of belly...

-Lovely.

-We're going to take that lamb out now.

-Yeah.

It's normally a little bit paler, but it'll be so tender.

And a little bit of vinegar, just going to add...

..a tiny element that is going to want you ask for more.

I found the best accompaniment for these vegetables is this

local Kentish honey, will go just like a dream with this dish.

So tell us what you call that dish?

I'm going to call it the best of lamb.

It looks fantastic.

-Let's take it and see what our lady thinks of it.

-Let's have a look.

With his clever combination of some

of Janet's favourite local ingredients,

I'm confident Rafael's dish will leave her wanting seconds.

So, erm, this is your best of lamb, I hope you enjoy it.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much. Cheers.

What he's got, he's got lamb cutlets,

which obviously you can see, and underneath there

-there's rolled breast of lamb...

-I love that.

..braised, and then these little lardons, I call them lambons.

He's cured it like bacon and then pan-fried it.

Right, what shall I start?

Well, I'd start with the bit you like best.

I can't speak, I'm so happy.

If that was the answer to shutting you up...

Breast of lamb is the answer to shutting me up.

It's fantastic. It's really tasty.

If you were going to visit this part of England, to my mind, this is

what you want to eat, cos this is all the local ingredients.

Put together in a really interesting way.

And it shut you up. Yes!

Rafael's delicious lamb and vegetable dish

has certainly captured a flavour of Kent.

Time to work off our meal with a unique Kentish pastime, and Brian,

you're going to be pleased to know it entails a visit to the local pub.

-Right, Brian.

-Yes, why are we here?

We're here because I play tennis down the end of the road,

but I've heard there's a local game called bat and trap.

-Yeah, yeah.

-We're going to play it here.

Bat and trap is a traditional Kent pub game played between

two teams of up to eight members using a special wooden trap box.

It's an ancestor of cricket,

and the local league have been playing here since 1921.

Team member Sue Potts has invited us to join them for a game.

SPECTATORS: Yay!

-Hello there.

-Hello there.

-Hi, Sue.

-Welcome to the Market Inn.

Right, I want to know the history of bat and trap.

It's mainly a Kentish game.

-It's been going for over 100 years.

-How many teams in the league?

-In the men's there's four divisions.

-Four divisions?!

And there's two divisions in the ladies, yeah.

So that's more popular than cricket round here.

BRIAN LAUGHS

It is a very popular summer game, yeah.

And is it always played in pubs?

There are some social clubs that have it,

-but it's mainly a pub game, yeah.

-How long does the game last?

Er, well it depends how drunk you get really.

Some games here, they start at eight o'clock,

we're playing at midnight.

How are we going to pick teams?

Let's have men versus women, cos I can sense the women are very good.

You are so competitive, do you know that?

-I will do...

-You're desperate to show that you're equal.

-But anyway, moving on.

-Brian, we're not equal, we're superior.

-Equality would be a backward step.

-Well, exactly, right, let's do this.

To play the game, a batter strikes a lever

to propel a ball into the air and hits it towards two high posts

at the other end of the pitch.

A fielder then returns the ball, attempting to bowl the batsman out

by knocking over a small square at the front of the trap.

I'm going to go first, right, just one second.

-Right.

-Team talk, team talk...

THEY TALK IN HUSHED TONES

Get on with it!

Ah! Useless.

Oh, that's looking good,

that's looking good... Oh!

-So, do we get a run?

-Yeah, that's one run.

I think we should stop now.

..me other leg.

Oh, it's a good shot, is that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

Oh!

Robbed, robbed!

LAUGHTER

Out, out, out, out!

-Ohhhh....

-Yes, yes, yes!

-Right.

-Change ends.

-Change ends.

So, we got 24 points, yeah?

JANET SCOFFS

Agh!

Oh, that was rubbish, absolute rubbish.

No.

Oh, no! Oh, that is so sad(!)

'With the score at level pegging,

'it's all down to the final throw from the men's team.'

Yes, that's the man, well done, that man.

-Well played, team, huh?

-That's it.

I didn't understand the scoring, but I thought we had a moral victory.

LAUGHTER

But well done, girls, sorry about that,

-can we buy you a drink, please?

-Don't patronise me.

-Would you like...?

-You might have won,

but it wasn't much of a victory.

-I missed that, what did you say?

-Threadbare.

-What did you say? Ladies, can we buy you a drink, please?

-Yes, certainly.

Let's go in the pub, we'll follow you, you know

-where it is. Let's go then, come on, guys.

-I'm not happy.

Milk the audience, milk the audience, milk the audience.

-I'm not happy, you were rubbish, Brian.

-Thank you very much.

Well, well done, team, thanks very much. Good game, good game.

-Congratulations.

-Cheers, Janet.

You're still rubbish.

I still have to decide what to cook for my celebratory taste of Kent.

The climate and rich soil here has helped the county have

a long heritage of producing top-quality cherries.

So we've come to Brogdale Farm in Faversham.

Its home to the National Fruits Collection,

the largest collection of fruit trees in the world.

And guide Mike Austin is going to show us around.

Mike, how many varieties of fruit have you got here altogether?

On the whole collection, there's over 4,000 varieties.

-My goodness, so what about cherries?

-Cherries, about 320 varieties.

We don't see that many varieties of cherries in the shops.

-No, you certainly don't.

-So it's a bit like a living museum?

It is, yeah, we try to conserve the varieties

and stop them from dying out. We have two of each variety.

And that's really a bit of a safety valve

in case one gets a bit sick, we can propagate another one.

If there's any gaps in the orchard, there'll be another one

in the nursery, so there's always two trees all the time.

There's plenty out here to try, some of the very old varieties

are very small, and as you sort of go to the Victorian era,

they get twice as big, and then to the 20th century,

they get bigger still.

-Well, let's go up in the orchard and try some.

-OK.

-So what's this one?

-This is great bigarreau.

-Great bigarreau, that's a French name, is it?

-Yeah.

Yeah, "bigarreau" tends to mean a firm cherry,

-so it's got a bit of crunch to it.

-It's got lovely flavour.

-Mmm.

-That's very nice and sweet, that.

So this is going to be more like the modern varieties,

more commercial size.

Well, I have to cook this dish, a celebration dish,

and I have to say, cherries are now figuring big in this.

This looks to me like the kind of cherry that I want to cook

a dessert, so is there any way we can pick plenty of these?

-Well, if we go to the commercial block.

-Right.

Where we've got more modern varieties, they'll be very similar

in size, maybe a little bit bigger than these

and, er, good flavour as well.

-Perfect.

-So we can try those.

-Lead on, sir.

-Right.

Come on then, girl. Go.

The cherry picking Queen.

Right.

Don't bounce them in there, I'm going to use them!

(LAUGHING) I've got half a tree here.

Did you ever do this when you were a kid for not a lot of money?

No, I picked blackberries with my mum.

I've got a history of picking, we just picked every day.

We would go out...

Was that cos of economics or just cos it was easy to do?

No, because we had no money. Brian, I can't hear you getting any.

Cos I'm doing it silently.

-Agh!

-Don't fall.

No, it's not me, it's the cherries.

If you fall, can you just throw the cherries to me?

-Right, I've got loads.

-Yeah, I've got enough, let's go.

Got enough for a cake for me anyway.

Oh, you got a lot more than me, look.

Mine look riper, by the way... Those are rubbish!

-You haven't picked ripe ones!

-I have, I have.

-I've selected dark ones.

-Come on, they'll be fine,

-I'm going to colour them up.

-Just cook mine separately.

Now Brian's found the perfect star ingredient for our

celebratory dish, it's time for him

to impress us with his taste of Kent.

I've rounded up some locals we've met on our journey

to give us their verdict.

A beautiful day here in Kent.

All these lovely people who we met on our trip,

and our cherries, Mike, that we picked very carefully.

-Look at that.

-Local honey.

-Local Kent honey.

And we've got this, this is a cherry liqueur made by our chef

over here for the last six years. This is wonderful.

Well, what are you making for us?

What I'm going to make is a very simple cherry dessert.

It's like a mille-feuille, but we call it a cream slice.

-All right, OK, so it's a posh cream slice.

-That's it.

Well, to get everyone through the waiting period

I've got Woolly Pig local cider.

I know it looks like tractor fuel.

And some, for the teetotallers, a local apple juice.

So, Brian, I'm going to be a waitress while you get your burners.

Right, you know what this is, don't you?

Seen one of these before?

I don't know. Oh, it's a cherry thing.

-That's it, it's a cherry stoner, you're quite right.

-Right, OK.

Oh, no, waitressing is not my first skill.

Cider! Right, can I hand you the bottle to pass around?

-You come over here.

-All right, OK.

-So I can show you what we're doing.

-Right.

-So we got all the stones out of the cherries.

-How did you do it?

I did it very quickly.

-You take the stalk off, the string...

-Yeah.

..and you just push it like that...

-and it comes out the bottom.

-Goodness, that's amazing.

Good, isn't it, eh?

Right, so I've got these here. Into the pan they go.

Put some of our liqueur in there, not too much.

And a little bit of local Kent honey.

That's all you need, delicious.

It'll take a little while to cool down,

so all I do is just get the juice out.

Over here, see, they're still holding nicely together.

Then I'm going to put this back in the pan.

And bring it back up to the boil.

Right, OK, I'm going to slightly thicken it with some cornflour

just so it's got that little bit of...what's the word?

-Sex appeal.

-Fantastic, so it's got that lovely moveability

about it all.

The trick is to make plenty of it, but be careful how much you use.

A bit of water in there.

And what I'm going to do now is take an orange,

just to get a little bit of that orange oil.

-You can smell it as that moves.

-Yeah.

That oil that's released, it's really delicious.

And then all you do is just very carefully tip this in.

Just bring it back to the boil, don't boil it too much

cos it'll thicken too much and it'll just be...

-Oh, tastes like glue then.

-It'll look like glue as well.

Just a little drop in there.

And it just changes consistency.

That's all you want, and all we do now, it goes in there.

Just make it that little bit of nice jammy consistency.

OK, that's looking good. What we're going to do,

we're going to mix these with a lovely bit of local double cream.

-Now...

-A bit?! A gallon of double cream!

That's not a gallon at all, dear lady.

Slightly whipped, I'm going to take a little bit of this cream out.

Cos I want to save a little bit just for going round

the sides of my little cake.

So, that, we can use over there.

And I'm going to mix these together.

Doesn't that look lovely already?

OK, so now what we're going to do,

we've baked some puff pastry here - bought puff pastry.

So we've got three pieces here now,

and the idea is we're going to make three layers.

We're going to make it square. So that's one piece there.

So we'll try and make this look now...

-about the same shape.

-Yeah.

Lots of us that love cream think,

"Oh, yeah I'm going to put bags in there,

"it really is going to be excellent."

-But if you put too much in there, it won't hold together.

-Yeah.

-On here. Why are you laughing?

-It's like building a building.

Well, you're an architect, you should know what skills

-are going into this then?

-Yeah, at the moment it's a bungalow.

-Yeah.

-All right, yeah.

-And this goes...

..goes on top.

I'm just going to take some of this cream now,

just to coat in-between there, just to fill it.

Well, you know what it's like when you're building a wall.

Right, now. Chef, can I borrow you a second?

Would you like to come and stand here?

This wind is blowing up this way, so will you come

and stand by my side here please, Chef?

-Will you come and stand over here by me?

-What am I, a human...?

Yeah, I know, we are humans. This is icing sugar.

-Yeah, you don't want it to blow.

-And I don't want it to go all over

these people over here. It's all right you people laughing, eh?

If someone knows how to stop that wind. Right, just pull in.

Are you ready? Here we go.

-Agh!

-See what I mean?

I mean, it's going to be OK, we're there, we're there.

Ladies and gentlemen, weren't they great?

Give them a round of applause,

they've done a great job. Thank you, Chef.

So, now what I'm going to do is just use this over here now...

to just gently score across there, that nice little...

bit of a pattern.

So now all we need to do is to put this cherry slice together.

-Need a doyley.

-A doyley?!

-Where's your doyley?

-When was the last time you...?

..your doyley?!

So all we do is put those, a pile of cherries on there,

so no-one has to say, "What's in that, missus?

"What's in there?"

And I'm going to just take a little bit of juice here,

if I can find some.

So there you are, duchess, you have it, my Brogdale cherry slice.

APPLAUSE

-Thank you.

-Have you got a spoon?

No, I'll just do it with my fingers.

-Oh! Just missed your shirt.

-Hm, hm.

-What do you think?

-Beautiful, delicious.

Thank you very much.

Right, may I invite all of you to come and have a slice?

Get in there. Right, there you go.

-Mike, that's your cherry...

-Thank you very much.

What I like about it is it hasn't got a load of sugar.

So you've got the hint of the honey, you've got the natural sugars

from the fruit and you got that little burned sugar taste

from the icing sugar, so all in all, it's a very lovely pudding.

A very lovely pudding. You'll make his ears burn.

Now, cherry man, what do you reckon?

Really delicious. Brings out the full flavour of the cherry.

-Yeah?

-Mixed with the cream... delicious.

So, we've had great weather and a great trip

round this part of Kent.

We started off on the estuary, the junction, Faversham Creek

and the Thames Estuary, I showed you Faversham.

What a fantastically historical town.

It's got a unique history, it's also unique that

there's a lady producing snails in this part, it's fantastic.

-And of course, here at Brogdale, the cherries.

-Yeah.

And there's nowhere else like this in the country

with this amount of fruit all grown in one spot.

The only downside...

of the whole visit was that moment with that game that

I can't even bring myself to say, will you just stop gloating?

Oh, has anyone ever told you how unattractive gloating is?

I never said a word, cos all I'd like to say is -

cherries, Brogdale, a taste of Kent.