A Farewell to France Floyd on France

# Gloria, gloria

# Gloria, gloria

# In excelsis... #

'Dear God, I know you're up there. I want to thank you for the best BBC mini-break ever.

'And I promise to be really kind to Clive from now on.'

We're very frugal on this programme.

Rather like a good French cook, we don't waste anything.

Many producers shoot so much film it just rots,

and it's only fit to use as manure in the BBC garden.

We, on the other hand, recycle it direct on to the screen,

so that's why you see this plate of cakes again

and also in a moment, the shot of the choucroute

I know you enjoyed a few weeks previously.

It doesn't matter because we are going to give you a wonderful musical break,

a brilliant piece of music written especially for me by my mates the Stranglers.

Take it away, boys.

KEYBOARD AND DRUMS PLAY

If you were lucky enough to live on this fat, slow river

here in the Pays Basque, you could while away the evenings

in the late dusk gliding along in a little row boat

fishing for elvers and communing with nature.

Or on second thoughts, you could pop into Pablo's

and pay about £6 a shot for a dish of hot ones boiled in oil and chillies.

And after a busy evening, it's on to bed - I mean, it's on to Burgundy,

home of some of the world's finest wines, Nuits-St-Georges, Chambertin et al,

and of course, the birthplace of my famous board game, Vinopoly.

You remember. You throw a six and get a glass.

And here on the corner of this wonderful little village,

Morey St-Denis, another superb wine producing area,

we have a little sequence from Last of the Summer Wine,

in which Nora Batty entreats Compo and Clegg to stop drinking and come home.

Ah, fermez la bouche!

And then there's Brittany, a place where they've really got their act together.

I hope you're enjoying this little culinary cameo of France.

There'll be a cooking sketch coming up in a minute, but look at this brilliant soupe de poissons

and this delight of delights, a superb fruits de mer.

Now Clive's last desperate attempt to gain the recognition he so richly deserves for his supreme photography.

I love the Dordogne, and the gentle art of aqua picnicking,

so cruelly wrecked by pastis-crazed aquanauts - get it? -

who did everything they could to trawl up my bottle of inspiration.

The perch were good too, stuffed with fresh herbs and grilled on a wood fire - what a breakfast that was!

But one of the best moments was these geese, trooping the colour.

Just after Christmas,

the ritual of preserving geese takes place for the classic confit d'oie.

Teams of chefs with razor-sharp knives dissect the carcases -

the wings, the breasts, the legs.

Every piece is used and cooked gently in its own fat, allowed to cool

and covered with goose grease to be eaten and enjoyed throughout the year.

Nothing is wasted.

With surgeon-like precision, every morsel is stripped from the bones,

which in turn are used to make stock for soups and sauces.

But the vital bit is the liver, where the money

and one of the great delicacies of France for the gourmet lie.

But also the subject of bitter controversy amongst those

who say the feeding process is barbaric and cruel.

The whole joints of confit are best

but the little pieces are fine in soups and vegetable dishes.

The fat, too, is used for cooking almost everything

but it's the liver pate that reigns supreme.

If you don't worry where it comes from, of course.

I love England, I love France,

but my heart is really nailed to the pavement outside a Provence bar.

Provence with her azure skies and heady aroma of herbs.

With her pagan hedonism which first inspired me to cook.

Cooking is the essence of Provence. A chicken roasted with garlic.

A bass flamed over fennel,

flavours that excite your tummy and thrill your heart,

especially with lifelong friends and chilled rose.

Enough of me, let me introduce you to the dish you've known for all these years.

We needed to find some simple and old-fashioned Provencal food

and that's hard to find with all the fast food around.

We asked around and someone said we needed to see Andre.

He's passionate about the Provencal fashion of life and food.

So we rolled up and said, "Any chance of filming what you cook?"

He said, "I'm busy but come back in a few days and I'll do something."

We came back and it's amazing. It's an incredible display of food.

The mayor's here, the town band is here, journalists are here,

all because they love food.

I don't speak Provencal and I know these dishes are hard to explain.

Il faut que je demande ce qu'il y a ici. Ca, c'est quoi?

Alors, c'est plusieurs de mollettes avec la tapenade,

la brandade...

Alors, tapenade, brandade, persil et la tomate.

That's a five-layered omelette.

Each omelette's flavoured with salt cod, olives, tomatoes or parsley, which are important to the region.

As you saw, layered as a cake.

Here we have tapenade. That I DO know.

That is a mash of olives, anchovies and olive oil.

You eat that with bits of celery or you put it on bits of bread.

And to your left a bit, camera, we have the salt cod.

Salt cod which has been soaked and boiled until it's cooked,

taken off the bone, whisked up with olive oil to become this mixture.

Something they eat in Provence.

They eat this for Christmas Eve supper.

For religious reasons and because it's not fattening.

-Here, amazing, you'll be pleased to see, is caiettes.

-Caiettes, oui.

-Ca c'est fait comment?

-La caiette est a base de foie de porc,

de la poitrine, de la gorge et puis la salade de frise,

avec la crepinette et la sauge et l'huile d'olive.

Those are the Provencal faggots.

The intestines of the pig, the liver, the heart, wrapped in the caul,

and baked in the oven with olive oil and sage.

But this I've never seen.

-C'est quoi?

-C'est la jambonnette.

THEY CONVERSE IN FRENCH

Yes, this is a boned out leg of pork,

the meat's been taken out of it,

minced, stuffed back in and cooked and that's fabulous.

I'm tempted to have a taste of that.

And it's like a remarkable sausage but made from the whole leg.

Mmm. C'est tres bon. Excellent.

Now here's the thing to confuse me.

Sunday Times readers will think this is a ratatouille. But it's not.

Ca c'est quoi exactement?

C'est les aubergines frites et dedans c'est une bohemienne.

C'est different de la ratatouille.

It's a bohemienne and it's different from a ratatouille

because it's cooked for longer and it's seized up and more caramelised.

It's fabulous.

Now all you need is something else for which France is famous,

the wine of popes - Chateauneuf du Pape.

We should have a drink of this, which I shall pour.

-Absolutely amazing stuff. Merci beaucoup.

-Alors.

You can't come to Provence without taking a slurp of the local wine.

Ventoux, Rhone, Vacqueyras. It's great, it's fruity and strong.

Unlike Burgundy, it's cheap. Let's try some.

I'm surrounded by amazing people.

The most experts on wine you'll ever get around one barrel.

The important thing is not for me to tell you what I think about wine,

ask those who know - like Monsieur Escoffier.

He's responsible for the Cotes du Ventoux.

We'll all taste a little drop.

He'll tell us what is special about Ventoux.

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

..It's very fruity wine...

Tres bien. It's a light, fresh, fruity wine,

should be drunk any time you want, and drink it within a year or two.

It's a very good little wine.

You won't find people giggling and wandering legless hysterically around at this kind of tasting.

This is very serious indeed.

The only people grinning will be the film crew when we all get a glass!

They swill it around their mouths.

They won't spit it on the floor, it's too precious to throw away.

Now we move on to the... on to the Gigondas.

This is a more important wine... THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

Here's another one, straight from the horse's mouth.

Monsieur Amadeus is known in the UK, every restaurateur knows him.

When he says his 1985 Gigondas will be superb in ten years' time,

it's worth buying it now while it's still inexpensive,

and having a really good party in when? 1895.

-Bon.

-FILM CREW MEMBER: 1895?!

LAUGHTER

We started off seriously in this wine-tasting

and each one of these - see this lovely mousse -

this barrel is over 100 years old. There are over 4,000 bottles in that.

That's enough to keep me going, with the help of my director, two weeks.

What I'm saying is, in 1995, the Gigondas of Monsieur Amadeus

will be absolutely superb.

Superb!

It's not that we've been drinking a lot this morning,

but we've been here three weeks and it's built up a bit!

This river, the river Dordogne, has, like a soup kettle, been simmering since the dawn of man.

With the rich melange of language, culture and food.

From the Neolithic caves to the kitchen of fine restaurants,

France's reputation of culinary excellence has been lovingly tended.

The Dordogne - birthplace of man and culture. What a great commentary!

OK, Stuart?

We'll edit out the fluffs and mistakes later on but apart from that, it was brilliant.

Thank you. Isn't that good?

They really work me to death on these programmes.

They are so conscious of the licence fee payers' money,

that they get me to do little extra things.

While you're in the dubbing studio,

just do something that makes you feel at home as if you were in France.

A simple snack in a dubbing theatre is not easy to do.

You could do it at home quite easily.

All I've done is diced a few bits of smoked bacon,

fried them in olive oil for few moments

and then I add some blanched, fresh broad beans from my mother's garden.

Come in, Clive, very close, just so they can see what it is.

The little golden crispy bits of bacon, the lovely bacon fat

and the broad beans, they are absolutely superb.

That's what France and French cooking is all about - simplicity.

Like a little olive or a glass of rose. Note the cut crystal.

Anyway, I must get on with my commentary, because it's very important.

It's like decorating a flat, like putting the furniture in place. OK, Stuart, are you ready?

Yes, stand by Keith and don't rustle your script.

Script? I don't need a script. Look at these pictures here now.

There you have a farmyard, the essence of French provincial life.

They retired. They were in BAC, space missiles and stuff.

They bought this beautiful little farm, chickens clucking around...

VOICES FADES OUT

It's so relaxed and pleasant around here.

To come into a hot kitchen and cook is an imposition on my time.

It IS supposed to be a mini-break!

Because I have to involve you, I'll cook you a three-course meal,

using Perigord ingredients - from the humblest to the most expensive.

Clive, with no further ado, as we say, let's see what we have going.

I'm making a soup out of haricot blanc. We have fresh ones from here.

If you use dried ones, soak them in water overnight for 12 hours.

Also we're using the potato, tomato, some rosemary,

some speck - that's fat bacon, you can get it in delicatessens.

Lots of carrots, some garlic, some parsley,

some thyme and a bay leaf and lots of water.

That's all we need for that, except - and come up to me, Clive - this.

This is an hachis. And no meal in the Perigord is complete without it.

It's finely chopped parsley, garlic and the fat bacon.

And that will go into the soup to enrich it and flavour it.

It's similar to pistou in Provence, where they have a similar thing

made from basil, garlic and olive oil to thicken their soups.

Over here to our dessert.

The Perigord is famous for its walnuts, hence walnut oil.

It's famous for wine vinegar, lettuce and goat's cheese.

We'll toast these goats' cheeses until they're golden brown and serve them with a walnut oil and salad.

But - now the extravagant bit, the bit that makes the BBC cringe!

I'll cook sweetbreads - that's the pancreas of veal,

with truffles and foie gras and it's delicious.

Clive, back down to the business. Are you starting on the sweetbreads?

I've poached those in hot water with salt,

I've had them pressed under weights until they're flat like that,

and I've taken away all the nasty membrane.

Then, this cost nearly £4.

Those pieces of truffle.

This cost £10. It's fresh goose liver and it's brilliant.

Our other ingredients over here - some butter and chicken stock.

That's enough chat. Clive, over to the stove.

Our very first thing is into this pan of butter...

which we've got slightly melted here, is to put our sweetbreads.

We'll saute those gently for a few moments.

I'll turn them over so they're well coated.

While they're gathering frying speed, here's the soup we're talking about.

All those ingredients have simmered away in water and salt for 1.5 hours.

I'll stir it around so you can see.

You see the pieces of potato, beans, the tomato.

That's wonderful. Now I'll put in the soup thickener.

And that simmers now for another 30 minutes before it's ready to eat.

And you get all the flavours out of the garlic, the parsley,

and those lovely pieces of fat bacon.

Here we're back into business.

These are simmering away nicely. I'll turn the gas up.

We've borrowed a kitchen, I've not been here before,

so I'll fiddle with what's right and wrong. I'll turn these over.

OK.

They saute away gently cos they're slightly golden brown on a low gas.

Keep on those, Clive, because while that's happening,

so this meal can end up at the right time, I'll grill my goats' cheeses.

I've remembered to light the oven, this one has a grill under here.

They go in and cook away happily.

Right, now these are the expensive pieces of truffle.

We'll put them in

to flavour the butter in which the sweetbreads are cooking.

OK, now cooking live, although it's on film, this is in real-time,

I sometimes need some help.

So if someone could push a bit closer to me my foie gras - thanks.

Right, are you still with me? This is the foie gras.

We'll put it there for the time being.

We'll turn these over again.

Now, you see, they're virtually cooked.

Absolutely beautiful. Take out the truffles.

And put those on the top of that.

'Sorry this sequence is going on a bit

'but it's essential to choose a few renowned wines, taking care not to pay for them yourself.

'Once you've done that, finish the sauce. Toss in a glass of white wine,

'add the chicken stock into the pan, bubble for two minutes,

whisk in a knob of butter and strain the sauce over the sweetbreads.

And although I say it myself, and I often do say such things,

I'm not one for false modesty, but that's a dish you'd pay £30 for

in any British restaurant.

For you cheapskates too mean to buy the book, this is the replay -

I've done it about eight times for the director -

of the walnut oil salad with crispy lettuce and frisee or endive.

That is how glistening it is.

It has been turned in this lovely walnut oil.

Walnuts on the top there.

Stay there, Clive.

For the third time - you don't see any of these at home,

how many times I have to do this for his benefit, behind the camera,

for the third time, out with the toasted goats' cheeses.

You can buy these in supermarkets around the country

or if you are one of these people who have holidays in France, bring them back with you.

-Get those bits off.

-Thank you.

-I hope that's going to be OK for you.

Looking absolutely marvellous!

Thank you. Thank you.

-And me!

-Bon appetit, again!

-Yes!

-That's better, isn't it?

-Shall we?

-Yes, why not.

Don't you regret giving up this phenomenally amazing life you had,

jet-setting round the world, managing director, chauffeur-driven cars, gold Express cards...

No, don't exaggerate.

These things don't exist unless you have a very top job.

I had a responsible job, it was very interesting,

but whenever you earn money, you must do something for it.

And it can be too much stress.

This modern life is so demanding on people.

I mean here we have... I have my bee hives and my honey.

We've got vines, we make our own wine.

Dorothy cooks lovely dishes. We receive people.

-We make jam, we conserve fruits...

-We pick mushrooms.

Yes, it's such a varied life.

One thing I'd like to know cos it's my programme. How's the food?

-It's very good.

-It's pretty marvellous.

-We've eaten in all sorts of places but I think this dish is...

-Yeah.

What I don't understand is how can you cook dishes

from different parts of the world and do it so good?

I mean this is top.

If you're a very good Perigord cook,

how do you get on with cooking in other parts of the world?

I love cooking. It's like painting, music, motorcar driving, racing.

You just get totally immersed in it.

That's what I live for, cooking.

It's so sad we're coming to the end of our gastronomic mini-break. I've enjoyed it so much.

I was lucky to meet a great artist, a brilliant Breton chef, in Morlaix.

He gets his inspiration from the sea.

He even cooks on stones that come from the beach.

Although he's a creative cook,

he doesn't torture the pan or our credibility to titillate our palates.

I don't have the ability of a UN translator

but I'll do my best to explain what's going on. Bear with me.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

"It's simple, we have some raw salmon dipped in oil.

"And I put it onto a stone from the beach

"which I cut in those places where they make headstones for funerals.

"It's been in the oven for a long time, I whack the fish onto it.

"We can enjoy putting other things on there, like scallops."

Alors.

"Pop it onto a little pancake.

"A bit of algae, a bit of sea salt,

"a bit of pepper."

'That was a funny bit.

'I asked him a leading question which he refused.

'He said, "I'm not answering that for the camera. Get on with things."

'Look, I'm going to drop the translation for a moment

'because he's talking rapidly about his roots, why he's at Morlaix.

'He loves the sea, the wind, the shore.

'His dish of just scallops, albeit wrapped in filo pastry,

'for him reflect the textures of his native region.

'Those little bits on the side are leeks, leeks his gran grew.

'The apprentices that work for him

'would jump through hoops to take advantage of his innovative cuisine.

'Back to the translation now.'

"But despite this fine food I cook, my roots are simple bits of potato

"fried with bacon fat.

"When I go home I love to smell the seaweed,

"I love to watch the flowers, I love to understand that my countryside

"gives me this ability which I must exploit to cook fine things."

'Doesn't matter to him whether it's simple or complicated.

'He just wants to please, to demonstrate where his gut really is.

'His passion is not false.

'The salt is HIS sea salt, the crayfish is from HIS sea.

'These leeks come from HIS land.

'He says, "This leek I respect. It was loved by the man who grew it.

'"I must respect him and it. It is my duty."

'"It's my land, that's why I'm here.

'"I watch the flowers, the violets, I watch everything. I love it all.

'"It is my duty."'

-OK?

-Yep.

-Right.

Thank goodness. That's the end of seven weeks' hard work.

It looked brilliant to you hacking around France

but it has been the best BBC mini-break I've ever had.

But seriously, in those seven weeks,

we've been to the high places, the low places.

We have seen that despite the advance of pizza bars and hamburgers,

French provincial, French country cooking, is alive and well.

The simple fact of picking a radish from the ground with unsalted butter

or a simple meal of liver, people still take delight in those meals.

It's a really good thing.

I hope these programmes have shown you

that simplicity, shopping, good ingredients is where it's all at.

That's where MY cooking is at and that's why we made these programmes.

Stay with the simple. Bon appetit.