Griff Rhys Jones A Taste of My Life

Hello and welcome the show that dishes up famous lives on a plate.

Like DNA, the food of one's life can paint a revealing picture of who we really are.

By tasting and smelling the foods of our past, a world of memories can come flooding back

which is why I'm going to be taking today's guest

on a culinary trip down memory lane.

Now, he first beamed into our living rooms as an alternative

to watching the 9 O'Clock News, winning audiences of 18 million.

He then went on to become half of one of the most popular comedy duos in television history.

Course, the way to make money nowadays is to get into property.

Yeah, I know, yeah, but I haven't got the temperament for it.

-How do you mean?

-Well, I couldn't be a burglar, you know...

More recently, however, he's opted for the more civilised job

of preserving the country's architectural heritage.

You can make a difference by voting for your favourite building.

And you can vote as often as you can and do.

Yes, today's guest is actor, comedian, all round entertainer and businessman, Griff Rhys Jones.

And coming up in today's show - Griff's mum tells us what a naughty boy he was over bangers and mash.

Oh, yes, of three children he would be in more trouble

than the other two.

I've said I'm a mummy's boy and she said, "Yes, and what trouble he was."

His daughter challenges us both to make sushi which proves to be much trickier than either of us thought.

Darling, you would want something annoyingly fiddly, wouldn't you?

And college friend Clive Anderson makes a few pots of marmalade even though Griff doesn't eat it.

I've a funny feeling he doesn't like marmalade!

That figures!

-Griff Rhys Jones, welcome to A Taste Of My Life.

-Thank you.

-Now, you were born in Cardiff.

-Yes.

Tell me a little bit about your childhood.

What do you think of when you think of being at home?

My first memories being brought up

in the grounds of the Edward VII Sanatorium.

My father was a doctor. He was a hospital doctor.

So as hospital doctors do, they're a bit like being in the RAF,

they get new appointments.

Now, you've described your childhood, I think, as one scurrilous outrage after another.

Scurrilous to my mum and dad.

I don't have enough skeletons in my cupboard.

I always think it would be better if I spent a little spell in clinic.

What was the sort of food that Mum would have cooked at home?

She took great pride in her cookery

but I wasn't a great fan of the experimental food.

I didn't like casseroles. I preferred the sort of more standard.

-Chops and peas?

-Yeah, chops were a great thing.

-Chops.

-Fantastic.

-Chops with a little bit of Lea & Perrins.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

A good lamb chop is all about choosing the right cut of meat.

So here's a few ground rules.

The smaller the chop, the younger the lamb.

The younger the lamb, the milder flavour.

Thus the more tender the meat will be.

Whilst I'm grilling these,

you can marinate them with mint, oil or garlic.

Griff, was there any particular dish

that you have a very sort of soft spot for?

We ate quite a lot of shepherd's pie and rissoles and I love those things.

Shepherd's pie - although it might have aficionados dashing for

the nearest exit, a splash of red wine will add some richness

to what is simply a recipe for leftovers.

Essentially they're a recycling process, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-You had a lamb.

I've never been so enormously fond of an ordinary roast lamb dinner

but lamb minced, cold lamb minced and then reused is the most delicious.

It's the basics, isn't it, of kebabs and things like that?

It's the basis of rissoles. It's the basis of a good shepherd's pie.

Good sort of lamb shepherd's pie.

And whilst convention says to top your shepherd's pie with

mashed potato, you could make a parsnip or celeriac mash.

Of course, when I was six, I think shepherd's pie was probably my ideal.

That and rissoles.

My mother used make rissoles which I assume were made with already cooked lamb.

Yeah, cooked lamb. Faggots are made with raw meat.

And the rissole is made with yesterday's roast lamb.

And there are simply 101 ways to make rissoles.

For these I'm using parsley, rosemary and garlic.

Let the egg bind them together.

For a healthier option you could try using turkey mince.

And for vegetarians, try using Swiss chard and oat flakes.

I suppose I just rather liked rissoles because they were a

bit like sort of Mum's hamburgers, I suppose, or the equivalent of them.

Like savoury rock cakes.

Yes, delicious.

Rissoles in French means to brown by frying and essentially these are glorified meatballs.

So, Griff, can I offer you some shepherd's pie or a chop or some rissoles or...

Is it "or" or am I allowed to try a little bit?

I'd love to try the shepherd's pie and I'd love to try the rissoles because, you know...

-Well, I mean, I'd love to try the chops as well.

-Picturing your family

at home eating round the table, it would be this sort of food...

And it would be noisy.

Who would be making the most noise, I wonder?

-Everybody.

-I wasn't allowed to speak at the table, I'm jealous.

I was absolutely standard for us.

Not only speak, shriek, because obviously because everybody was talking at once and eating,

and you couldn't hear quite what everybody was saying,

so there'd be a constant barrage of instruction.

Did you get on well with the rest of the family?

We were relatively close family but I don't think of ourselves as being

one of those New Age families who sort of talk to each other

and have things to say.

My brother and I will grunt at each other perhaps, if we see each other.

-Yeah, but you know what you mean?

-Exactly.

-Now, you describe yourself as being a mummy's boy.

-Hmm.

What exactly did you mean by that?

Are we talking knitting and things?

I don't have any of the sort of masculine hobbies or virtues.

Putting up shelves.

I don't play golf. I don't go to pubs and drink.

I collect textiles, things like that,

and I'm really interested in home furnishings.

Mum was a stay-at-home mum, she was a housewife, quite a rarity these days,

so, you know, we spent a lot of time being ferried about,

looked after and pampered by my mother.

Well, I've got a very special message for you.

-Right.

-Right now.

-You have.

-I have.

Sausage and mash. Bangers and mash.

Which is obviously a family favourite, rather than I didn't think it was Griff's favourite,

but he's changed and I shouldn't think

he'd know a sausage now if he had one but...

Oh, yes, I suppose of the three children

he would be more in trouble than the other two, yeah.

Well, I'm astounded.

But we did have bangers and mash and peas.

Griff didn't like cabbage and he wouldn't eat sprouts

because he said they were little cabbages on sticks.

Looking quite good, aren't they? Nice fat sausages.

Even as a child he worked hard and played hard.

Always with his head in a book, he read a lot.

Always scribbling of some sort, drawing. He also could be trouble.

Got lost on a beach down in Sussex, when we were in Sussex.

When he says he's a mummy's boy, I always feel that we're fairly close

but of course now his life is so very different from mine.

Very different. Different from us as a family, really.

So, you know, he's moved on.

I think he's still very family-orientated really.

You see, she said you were naughty.

Yes, she did. All the time, on and on about how much trouble I'd be and I couldn't believe it.

What sort of betrayal is that when I've said I'm a mummy's boy

she said, "Yes, and what trouble he was"?

At 18 years of age, Griff left home to go to Cambridge University

where he first discovered the joys of performing in the Cambridge Footlights.

I threw myself at the place. It was great.

Suddenly I was free of family and so I had a rather good time.

Tell me a little bit about the Cambridge Footlights.

I was in the Footlights as a sort of spare time activity really.

I wanted to be a director. I wanted to be Cecil B. DeGriff!

So I used to sort of do a turn which involved fooling around a lot.

And so your mates there...

-were who?

-I spent a lot of time with Jimmy Mulville who runs Hat Trick.

Rory McGrath, Clive Anderson.

Well, I've got another little surprise you.

Oh, my goodness.

PINK PANTHER THEME

GRIFF CHUCKLES

I'm making marmalade.

I've inherited, as I have, a lot of things from my father.

Every year, he would make marmalade and I find myself doing it.

I know I'm cooking for Griff, I have a funny feeling he doesn't like marmalade.

That absolutely figures that he would make something that I don't like.

He used to eat masses of food. He used to have everything.

Cook food, go out to restaurants, lashings of seafood, meat, cream, cakes. Everything.

Then, over the years, he's pretty well abolished everything

except decaffeinated water. I could learn to like this.

This is what it must be like being Nigella Lawson.

I'm not sure how these work, but I'm fairly certain.

So, here goes...

Oh dear!

No, don't stick a spoon in it, Clive!

I'll go for broke on this and put a heavier weight of orange down there.

-See if that works.

-Don't put your hand in it!

What I've got is a good marmalade mix at the bottom and, basically...

whole oranges at the top. Try and put a bit of water in it.

Ah.

Whoever screamed out from home, "Put some water in it, you idiot!" was right.

I can see why they and their money doing cookery shows.

I know what you're like in television.

All these ones that are successful you won't be showing.

You'll be showing the couple that were tricky at the beginning.

It is quite satisfying. The whole room, the whole kitchen,

smells of orange and also all the floor is now sticky cos there's bits...

The kitchen table has got dribbles of marmalade juice.

When you're making marmalade for Griff, always use a long spoon.

That's a puddle of marmalade cooling off. It is like paint drying really, isn't it?

Griff, my old mucker, I hope you enjoy this marmalade

and you think of me every time you eat it or at least look at it and say, "I don't like marmalade.

"Why has Clive given me marmalade? I can't stand it".

It's fascinating to see Clive doing that.

-I've got some of Clive's marmalade.

-Yes, cos that's real bloke cooking, isn't it?

There's something about men and marmalade.

It looks a good consistency, doesn't it?

It looks perfect.

It's marmalade! It's great! It tastes like marmalade. It's got marmalade flavour.

Still to come on A Taste of my Life, Griff is simply horrified

as best mate Bob trashes Griff's prize boat making breakfast.

-Get that out the way.

-We're both thrown in at the deep end with a very fishy challenge. I think...

-Should you say, "I think"?

-Well...

-Have you done this yourself?

-No.

And Griff talks about his long-lasting partnership with Mel Smith.

I found increasingly that I would take on the feminine role.

I would have to be the one who did the cooking.

Not long after graduating, Griff joined Mel Smith,

Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson in Not The 9 O'clock News.

It was a runaway hit.

It was massively successful.

It had about 18 million viewers.

Yes. For some of the repeats, yes. It was terrific. A great big phenomenon.

How do you make that leap from university into something as successful as that?

It was just a form of what I had been doing really,

which was doing sketch comedy from the age of 18, and here I was at the age of 26 still doing it.

You don't acknowledge a change,

you just sit back slightly and go,

"Those people on the other side of the road are all pointing at us. "Ooh, that's a bit funny!"

I've spoken to people who say that there was one particular thing they ate that they suddenly sort of

connected it with success and with their life working out or going in the direction they wanted it.

-Cos you're very fond of Eggs Arnold Bennett, aren't you?

-I am, yes.

Not my sort of dish because I'm not fond of eggs.

I do like the taste of eggs and fish together.

I think they're a fantastic combination and is quite a complicated dish

to get right, so if I eat out and I see it on the menu, I'll eat it.

Eponymously named after the novelist,

Eggs Arnold Bennett is essentially a flat but fluffy open-faced omelette made with smoked haddock.

Firstly, you need to cook the fish and create the sauce that will eventually join the egg whites.

I'm poaching my haddock in milk.

The difficulty with egg

obviously is...the problem with eggs is getting it absolutely right when it comes to the table.

Because it's very easy for egg to turn into a sort of jelly.

With the milk, I then make the bechamel sauce but you could use creme fraiche.

But make sure you watch the amount of salt in your seasoning.

Don't forget the haddock is already salted.

The knack is getting enough air into your egg whites to ensure the lightest of omelette finishes.

It's actually very complicated to cook properly and so I love Egg Arnold Bennett if it's done well.

Is almost like a test of the restaurant.

It's a test of the restaurant and also a test of the waiter.

I remember being a waiter at the Savoy and people used to come in for a pre-theatre supper

and you had to rush it from the kitchen and put it in front of the customer very quickly

so that it didn't congeal or set and that it was served at that perfect texture and perfect consistency.

People get very fussy about that quivery egg thing.

You're looking for a perfectly browned and mottled underbelly before popping under the grill.

And, oh yes, if you're not rushing to get this in front of your guests, you're sure to fail.

There's no specific set recipe.

-Oh, I think there probably is, it's just that people like to stray from recipes.

-Right.

Tell me, I'm intrigued to know about...

I mean, you went on to work with Mel,

and very famously in Smith and Jones.

Do you miss not working with Mel?

Well, it was...

No, is the honest truth. The reason is not because...

-Because we did it for so long.

-Dr Jekyll!

Dr Jekyll, are you all right in there? Dr Jekyll?

Did you ever argue?

No, not specifically. But Mel is very fascinating because although there's a sort of...

almost Tony Soprano element about Mel - he's a big bloke

and you don't argue with him - he doesn't like quarrels.

And me, I'm somebody who comes from - as I explained - a family

who liked to shout and scream and generally let it all hang out.

That should have been a recipe for disaster, but on the contrary.

Who the hell are you?

-What are you doing in my surgery?

-Jekyll, I'm very worried about the prescription you've been giving me.

When we went away to write a film together, I found increasingly that I would take on the feminine role.

I would have to be the one who did the cooking and the clearing up and Mel...

I think the only time we got close to splitting up was when they stuck us in a caravan together.

Ah yes, but that...

That was a mistake because gradually Mel's stuff was sort of spread out everywhere.

I was sitting there thinking,

"Well, this isn't going... Whose caravan is this?

"I thought it was both our caravans".

But everything was great. The sex was good...

You cook for yourself but do you ever cook for your kids?

-For my kids?

-Yeah.

I'm trying to think if I ever have very much.

Not really, No. No, that's terrible, isn't it?

-I've got a little surprise for you.

-Right.

Dad, you introduced me to sushi and seeing as you haven't eaten carbs for the last five years,

I think it would be worth you handling some rice and making some sushi for me.

-Oh really?!

-There's a challenge.

Are you up for it?

Yes, I can have a go at making sushi but it's hardly...

I mean, I wouldn't say that...

-it was a great test of my culinary skills apart from using a knife properly, isn't it?

-We'll see.

Oh really.

Don't tell Griff but this is my first attempt at making sushi.

So this is Katherine's challenge for you to make some sushi for her.

-Right.

-Have you meet sushi before?

-No, I haven't actually.

-Well, I think we should have a go even though...

-Of course.

-I don't know how authentic clingfilm is but we're going to use it.

-Right.

We are making a roll here. What are they called?

-Maki rolls.

-Maki rolls.

It's a gorgeous thing.

Isn't it beautiful? Your toasted seaweed.

This is this very sticky sushi rice. It has sat in a bit of rice vinegar.

-Now, I think...

-Should you say, "I think"? Have you done this yourself?

No. Do you want to spread that rice over your...

-Right.

-There's always an orange bit down the middle, isn't there?

-Ye-es.

So we need to cut very slender pieces of fish

which we then lay into a sort of sandwich effect.

No, I think we just need one.

It's just a little orange thing in the middle.

Yeah, like a sort of spiral.

But we need to make sure that it goes all the way along.

No, because I think the orange bit is always in the middle, isn't it?

Think about the last sushi you ate.

-Didn't it have a core of stuff in the middle?

-Yes.

I'll take your word for it. I can't work it out now.

Where's that going?

-In the middle too, I think.

-OK. Is it like a sort of roulade?

-It's like a roulade.

-In, in, along? Like this? Anywhere in particular?

-Just in the middle?

-I guess so.

-Oh, you're going that way?

-I thought we were going that way!

-You changed your mat round.

No, I haven't. I probably have.

I have to say, anybody watching at home wouldn't have followed at all,

this cookery demonstration. They'll be thinking - what have they done?

-You take the whole mat.

-Oh, do you? Oh, I see.

-I think so.

Hang on, it's going round that way. It can be done.

-I hope nobody Japanese is watching this.

-I know.

And all for the benefit of my daughter. You would want something fiddly, wouldn't you?

-You don't want the bit of cloth?

-You're not not using your mat.

-I'm not using it, no.

-I've ended up with a huge roulade.

An enormous one with rather too much rice, actually. Ooh.

Ooh?

Come on. That's fantastic.

Oh good. Here we go. Where is your conveyor belt?

-The real skill is in knowing when your fish is ultra fresh.

-It's got be absolutely spanking fresh.

-Because, a bit manky, and you wouldn't want it.

-You'd be dead.

-A bit of sushi.

-Yes, thank you very much.

Mm. Jolly good.

Now, we'll see.

Um... I've dropped it.

Sort of nearly.

It is sushi. Recognisably sushi.

-First attempt.

-Mm.

There's definitely more of a kick of salmon in that.

Whereas I think in the one we've made, we've slightly ended up with a bigger, more mass of rice.

That looks more like a maki roll, I have to admit.

-You didn't roulade yours.

-I didn't really, did I?

-No, you managed to stuff it with enough stuff.

-Too much rice. I think that might be budget sushi.

-Yes!

-Your dad was a great sailor, wasn't he?

-He was.

-Have you followed in his footsteps? Is it something you've taken up?

-Very much so.

-Are proud of your boat?

-Very.

-Do you polish it?

Very. Very. I try to get other people to do it for me.

But I am absolutely obsessive.

Well, I've got a little surprise for you

which I hope you'll enjoy.

Oh gosh, so do I!

Yep, his travel companion is about to trash Griff's beloved boat.

No, no, no!

-I can't bear to see him.

-We'll have a lot of delicacies, a lot of interesting bits of food.

No plan to a menu whatsoever. Minimal cooking.

And make do with what you've got. Throw that out the way.

It's basically a breakfast I'll be making in here.

One of Bob's breakfasts. Get a bowl out. Start the olives.

Thank you.

And take some more of those out. The best Roquefort you can get, as you know, Griff.

Saucisson de Toulouse. Very good. I'll find the name of that later when I remember.

A typical breakfast. I've got some eggs. Several eggs, in fact.

Quail eggs here. I love them.

I'm afraid they're going in the egg collection.

The 100 year-old pidan. Pidan.

Take a little bit of olive oil.

Thrust it here.

-Chuck that!

-Aargh!

No!

I can't bear to see this.

I haven't seen one that colour before.

You're being a very naughty egg!

There you are.

Buried in the ground for 100 years.

We'll put that down there.

Then we just put it... Oops!

No, not really, no.

No problem.

And there we have it.

One of Bob's breakfast.

Basically as you can see, sausage, bacon and egg.

I can't believe that you let him loose without me being there.

The meal that Bob cooks there is representative, yes.

Everything on one plate.

Everything he can lay his hands on. A lot of capers.

So, let's reflect on Griff Rhys Jones's life

in the best way possible over his final feast.

Griff, your final feast...

I didn't know I'd ordered quite so much.

That's the story of my life. My eyes have always been bigger than my stomach.

-Tell me about this lovely shoulder of lamb?

-OK, this comes from a recipe which my wife cooks.

It's absolutely delicious.

Dry roast, slow roast lamb.

-One of those which almost falls apart?

-Yeah.

And if I'm serving it,

because I play the manly role, and dish it out, it falls to pieces.

It's fantastic and delicious. People absolutely adore it.

Pumpkin soup?

Well, I have lived on this pumpkin soup for the last two years.

It's a terrific thing.

Apart from being a terrific colour, they look like a sort of a curling.

-Something you use in a Scottish ice rink.

-Oh, yes, one of those...

-Robust, sort of.

-I'm glad you call it "robust".

I like to use words like "robust".

That's what it is. As you can see, it's quite

a strong sort of... It's not a soft option.

Look at that!

This is the sign of a good pumpkin,

when its flesh is really, really firm,

it's not watery, it's not woolly.

That's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

-Smoked eel?

-Smoked eel, I still think it is the food of the gods.

We're surrounded by the food of the gods. It's just godly food.

Griff, we are surrounded by Brussels sprouts.

Yes. We all know the secret of Brussels sprouts which is not to

cook them for too long, so they're still reasonably crisp.

But you could have any vegetable!

But what vegetables are better than Brussels sprouts?

-Well, most of them.

-No, no, I don't think so.

Are you very fussy about your bread and butter pudding? Do you have to have a certain type of bread in it?

No. And what I like about bread and butter pudding is it's improved a great deal.

It has changed because it's always be dish of using up leftovers.

And now, people have realised that it's so gorgeous if you make it

with bread or Italian panettone or French brioche, whatever you like.

And make a proper egg custard, quite a rich one.

The currants retain the heat and when the rest of the bread and butter pudding is cooled down,

you spoon it in and think this is the ideal temperature until

you find you've burnt your tongue on an over-hot sultana.

It's an experience we've all had.

-Would you squeeze a little lemon over there?

-Yes.

-I'll look to see if the lamb is done.

-Right.

Look at that!

Griff Rhys Jones's final feast, including succulent lamb,

simply prepared crab, and bread and butter pudding.

You've done comedy, serious acting, and you've been hugely successful as a businessman.

And yet, I've read you describe yourself as a bit of an opportunist.

I have to be careful what I say

because people always say I'm always trying to run myself down.

All I meant by that... If you have a great talent for something,

and that's what you do and it's really brilliant,

you're top at that, then you do that.

I've not really been top at any of these things I've done.

You see, we're sitting here, and you tell me I'm not greedy, even by

comparison with other people you've had on the programme. But I think I am.

I'm greedy for virtually everything that comes along.

Have you any regrets?

At the moment I've got a regret this is my last meal for some reasons.

Obviously, I've done something... I've done something terrible!

And I do have numerous numerous regrets.

But I've also got a very understanding wife who's sensible and tells me

there's no point in brooding on that or worrying about that.

So I'm more likely to be regretting things which I think are going to go wrong in the near future

than I am about things that went wrong in the distant past.

-I tend to forget about those.

-This is the worrier.

Yes. The great thing is it's my last meal, so I don't have to worry about it any more.

-Have you had a good day?

-I've had an excellent day, actually,

because we've combined two things which I like a great deal -

smoked eel food, a big choice of food, and talking about myself.

-Griff Rhys Jones, thank you so much for the my guest on A Taste Of My Life.

-Thank you for having me.

We've got a lot of eating to do.

Cheers. Look at us, the two of us with our shared glass of water.

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