Michel Roux Jr on Bread Great British Food Revival

-Some of the best British produce is under threat.

-It's at the mercy

of foreign invaders, market forces...

And food fashion.

Produce that has been around for centuries...

Could die out within a generation.

So, together, we're on a mission...

To save it.

We're going to be giving you the best tips how to find it, grow it and cook it...

And, crucially, how to put sensational British produce...

Back on the food map.

I'm Michel Roux and I am passionate about bread.

This is the kind of bread that I want you to be eating.

It's proper artisan bread. It has heart and soul.

Never, ever buy another loaf of that white sponge.

I strongly believe that for too long

we've been sold bread that is lacking in nutrients and flavour.

The time for change is now,

before we lose the art of good baking for ever.

So in my campaign, I want to change the way you think about bread,

from the wheat that makes your flour...

You shouldn't be allowed to call yourself a master baker

-until you've gone through every stage of the process.

-I agree with you.

..to the craft of baking an honest loaf.

This is amazing.

-This turns me on something... I tell you.

-Brilliant.

-This is you.

And I can feel that. It's great.

I'll also be in the Revival kitchen,

showing you some great ways to get involved,

including a fantastic alternative to a white sliced loaf...

Mmm. So simple to make.

..as well as some other mouth-watering recipes

which bring out the best of true artisan bread.

If anything is going to make you join our bread revival,

it should be this.

A massive nine million loaves of bread are sold in the UK every day,

but only 3% of those are baked by a traditional craft baker.

I consider myself a Frenchman,

and the smell of a boulangerie makes me feel alive.

Sadly, the art of baking in this country is under threat.

More often than not, bread in this country is seen as a fast food.

There is another way.

This beautiful white bread, it's real bread,

cooked by professionals.

I want the tables of Britain to enjoy this bread.

In Britain, 80% of all bread is made

using the Chorleywood bread-making process,

an industrialised method of baking bread

that allows factories to churn out loaves on a vast scale

and nothing like the artisan bread that I want you to be eating.

Chris, tell me... I've heard a bit about the Chorleywood Bread Process

and, as far as I can understand, it's actually cutting corners.

It's making bread very, very quickly

-and therefore reducing the price. Is that about right?

-Absolutely.

It's about, "How can we get the cheapest loaf possible

"with the basic ingredients?"

So you basically whip it full of air, pump it full of carbon dioxide

and then you bake it off. And in the process you have to add

a load of additives to make sure it goes through the machine.

So instead of adapting the machine to work with the dough,

-you adapt the dough to work with the machine.

-It's wrong, isn't it?

And then it's baked off from start to finish in something like an hour...

-That's crazy.

-..90 minutes.

-That's crazy.

Because, for me, a real loaf, it takes hours and hours of love

to make it have that taste and the flavour

and that beautiful crust that you don't get on a loaf like that one,

an industrial loaf.

Take these two things. OK, they look a bit different. But what's that?

That's bread, real bread - flour, water, yeast, salt. What's that?

What do you think has gone into that? So let's have a look.

We've got flour, water, yeast, salt... Fine, that's bread so far.

-A good start.

-OK, let's go on.

Spirit vinegar, soya flour, emulsifier,

mono and diacetyl tartaric esters of mono and diglycerides of fatty acids,

rapeseed oil - that makes it a bit softer - sunflower oil, palm oil.

So what's that, 14 things? As opposed to four.

-Is this bread?

-No.

For me, no.

Most definitely not.

Talking to Chris was fantastic because he is passionate -

as passionate as I am - about bread. I was quite surprised.

I knew there were a lot of additives in these white loaves,

industrial loaves, but I didn't realise to what extent.

'For my campaign for a revival of artisan bread to succeed,

'I'll need to convince the bread-making industry

'that there is an alternative to the Chorleywood loaf.'

Hello, yes, it's Michel here.

'I'm meeting Gordon Polson, the director of the Bakers' Federation,

'the voice of the industrial bakers of Britain.'

-Morning, Gordon.

-Morning.

-Good to meet you.

-And you.

My utopia, my dream,

is to have an artisan baker on every street corner,

like we used to have, and like we have in the rest of Europe,

in France, especially, where I come from.

And I feel that these mass bakers, by very definition,

-they are hindering that process.

-I don't think we're hindering it at all.

I think all we're doing is responding to the consumer demand

and the consumer need.

And why have the British got this infatuation

-with this spongy white cotton-wool bread?

-Well...

I mean, I don't think we should criticise the consumer.

The British consumer is the British consumer

and it gets the product, value product, that it requires.

For good or bad, bread in the UK is the cheapest in Europe.

It's meeting the consumer needs and the consumer demand.

At times, I felt I was hitting a brick wall with Gordon,

but I do agree on one thing with him,

and that is the only people that can change this are you,

by demanding an artisan bread

or even cooking bread yourselves at home.

So the first step on the road to revival is showing you

how easy bread-making can be.

For my first recipe, I'm going to prove to you how simple it is

to make just an ordinary white loaf.

First, put the milk onto a gentle heat.

Then slowly melt some butter,

before adding a tablespoonful of golden syrup.

The golden syrup is in there to give it just a touch of sweetness,

but also it helps to give that lovely moist crumb.

So whilst this is melting...

..we put our fresh yeast in our bowl.

Every bread needs some form of leavening

and this yeast is the leaven.

It's the life.

Pour the warm milk onto the yeast and stir until it is dissolved.

We buy more white bread in Britain than any other variety.

I want to prove to you that it is possible to make a really delicious white loaf.

That's why I'm using white flour.

Then add two pinches of salt to complete the dough.

Then we're going to leave it for a while

so that all the moisture is absorbed in the flour. And that's it.

After just five minutes resting in a warm place,

you can start to knead the dough.

I'm just keeping it in the bowl

and I'm not really working it very hard,

I'm just stretching, stretching the gluten in there.

And if it does stick to your hands a bit,

you can just put a little bit of flour...

..and rub that on your fingers and your fingers come clean.

There are no shortcuts to making a great loaf of bread.

So after the dough has been kneaded for around ten minutes,

leave it to rise for half an hour to give the yeast time to do its work.

And, again, as soon you take the clingfilm off,

you can smell those yeasts working. It has a lovely aroma.

Beautiful aroma. And it's smooth and it's glistening.

Quite beautiful.

So I then turn this out onto the board.

I remember these smells, these aromas, as a child,

of waking up to freshly baked bread.

I want every house in Britain to be baking,

or at least supporting your local baker.

Form the dough into two balls, place them in a baking tin

and allow to rise for a second time.

A bread that's only risen once

and has been pushed through the whole process

is bland and it hasn't had a life.

A further 30 minutes in a warm place is all it should need.

Wow. That looks beautiful.

It's got that lovely shape, beautiful sheen,

and it's ready to go in the oven.

First off, we need to slash the bread.

So we take a very sharp knife and just go over there like that.

That will help the bread develop and open up.

And into the oven.

Now, the oven is at 200 degrees.

We do that for about ten minutes.

That helps to really push and make the bread develop

and then we turn it down to about 180

and it should take 30 minutes to cook.

30 minutes to wait for heaven.

Here we go. That looks beautiful.

And the smell is great.

This is what I love about cooking bread.

You never know exactly how a loaf will turn out.

This is beautiful.

It's white bread but it actually has got a crust

so it's crunchy on the outside

and it's got that lovely delicate texture on the inside.

It's got the perfect crumb.

And you can smell all the ingredients in there.

That golden syrup gives it just a hint of sweetness

but it is also helping the yeast to grow

and to give that lovely texture.

Good...bread needs butter.

Mmm. Mmm.

So simple to make,

but the pleasure you get out of that is indescribable. Mmm.

Just as bread baking has become industrialised,

so has the farming of its chief ingredient, wheat.

Our heritage wheat that may be higher in nutrients and protein

has been sacrificed for high-yielding modern wheat.

But I'm a perfectionist

and I only use the finest ingredients in my kitchen.

So my revival journey continues in South Leigh in Oxfordshire,

where I'm going to be getting back to the roots of wheat.

-Hi, John.

-Hello, Michel.

-Great to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

John, what are the fundamental differences between the wheat that is grown,

the bulk wheat that's grown in this country, and your heritage wheat?

Well, I'd say modern wheat varieties are kind of drug-addicted,

cosseted little plants that need fungicides and herbicides

and pesticides in order to produce these monstrous yields,

but it doesn't necessarily produce good-quality flour.

Whereas my heritage wheats, they have very low input,

you don't have to put any sprays,

they outcompete weeds and produce really good-quality flour.

The most striking thing you'd first see is height.

Modern wheat plans are, you know, down to there -

a foot and a half, two foot tall, if that.

Unless you have good weed control, they get swamped out by tall weeds.

Whereas my heritage wheats, they can grow six foot tall.

They blow in the wind, they're very beautiful and coloured,

they look completely different from a modern wheat field.

I'm going to have to come back in the summer to see that.

So I suppose growing it really is just the first step

and then we have to process it. This is your old machine here?

This is the old threshing machine, that's right.

So before all these machines, it was literally done by hand?

You would bash it to get the grains out.

-Very hard labour.

-Very, very laborious.

So you would bring it in from the field, fill up the barn,

and then bring it out as and when you needed it.

So the grain was always nice and fresh.

Because it's kept like this, it will keep for a long time.

-It's in its own little capsule there and it's protected.

-Absolutely.

And there are actually antifungal compounds in the husks around those grains.

This is part of the reason why bread, for me,

has such a great history and a value.

Yeah, it's incredibly important because you can store it. It really is the stuff of life.

You can store vast quantities to feed people.

Right, I want a go at this.

Whoa!

Michel, I think that you shouldn't be allowed

to call yourself a master baker

until you've gone through every stage of the process.

I agree with you, yeah!

'The wheat is fed into the top of the thresher

'and produces straw for thatching and grain for John's artisan bread.'

I'm really, really loving this. This is what it's all about.

Back to nature.

'I never imagined threshing wheat would be so exhausting,

'but I can't wait to taste the end product.

'And what will the thatchers think of John's heritage wheat loaves?'

Right, guys, this is it. Moment of truth.

-All your hard work and that is the result. Fantastic.

-That's all right.

-It looks great.

-Yeah. It smells nice.

So this is with the wheat that you have grown,

you guys have worked hard to put through that ancient machine.

Fantastic. Let's hope it's worthwhile, eh?

It's great to see the final product after a year of growing in the field.

It tastes as if it's good for you.

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

There's something nice and rural and rustic about it.

Being a thatcher, it's kind of sitting there with a loaf of bread

and a lump of cheese and you're kind of, like, a happy man. You know?

I can relate to that. Good bread, good cheese, you know, I'm happy.

All I need now is a glass of wine.

As much as I love John's bread, it's not suitable for my next recipe.

In fact, I need the bread that I made earlier,

and the recipe I'm going to cook is a duck pie.

But instead of using pastry I'm going to be using bread,

just to show how versatile bread can be.

This recipe, I think, is ideal.

It can be made hours in advance

and it can sit there in a warm oven

and you just have to bring it to the table,

and I guarantee people will be ecstatic.

It's one of these recipes that is a Roux household favourite.

It is, in fact, one of my Christmas specials.

Cut thick slices of bread and then trim off the crusts.

These rectangular slabs will form the case of the pie

and need to be thick to help it maintain its shape.

This is a really wholesome dish

and a vital component is the sauce

that will bind the flavours of the pie's filling.

Start by sweating some shallots in duck fat.

To which we add our port.

Then add veal stock and let that reduce

before turning your attention to the main ingredient.

Now, I make it with confit duck -

duck that's been cooked very, very slowly

and for a long time in duck fat.

I need to take the duck legs and the gizzards out of the fat.

Then I need the basin,

to which I shred the duck into.

Shred it into little bite-sized pieces.

So we then chop up these gizzards.

Chop these up.

So the gizzard is so tender and flavoursome.

You get a real, real kick of duck.

There we go.

Wild mushrooms are a great complement for duck

so I'm going to fry some in some duck fat

with garlic and fresh parsley.

Whilst they're cooking, I can start dipping the bread.

So basically just in and out of the duck fat.

Not drenched, cos otherwise it will be too oily.

We're lining the whole of this pudding basin

with these little soldiers of bread.

There's a fair bit of duck fat in there and the bread, but,

as I said, I normally do this at Christmas time and....

..it's Christmas.

With the pudding case ready,

mix together the duck, mushrooms and reduced sauce

to create the sumptuous filling.

That goes into there.

All of these flavours will melt beautifully into the bread base.

Pack that in really tight.

And what's left is to cover the top

with the little bits of bread that are left over.

So we dunk them again.

There we go.

Cover the pie in foil and put in a medium oven for 45 minutes.

Right, the pie must be cooked now.

Wow. That smells lovely.

Oh.

Moment of truth.

Ha-ha! That is beautiful.

I mean, this is just heavenly.

It just goes to show how versatile, how great, bread is.

I like to put a little bit of sauce on the top,

just the sauce we had earlier.

Right. I can't wait any longer.

Oh, gosh, look at that.

Now, you need to get a bit of the bread and the duck.

Mmm.

HE CHUCKLES

The flavours are just so intense.

The bread has soaked up all that fat

and all the lovely duck and mushroom juices

and become one.

It's a little bit crispy on the outside, yet soft on the inside.

It's fantastic.

So here you have it - the duck bread pie, made with...

my bread.

In the 1950s, there were close to 30,000 local bakeries

on our high streets.

Today, there are fewer than 4,000.

I'm on my way to Hackney to meet a guy

who is as passionate as I am about bread.

He is bringing baking to the community.

And if we are going to win this campaign

that is what we need to do.

'Ben Mackinnon has only been making bread for sale for just over a year

'but already his bakery under a railway arch in Hackney,

'East London, has become a thriving business.

'I'm hoping that he will inspire you to support your local baker.'

-Right, Ben, I'm here for a reason and that is to make bread. So let's do it.

-OK.

First thing, in the fridge here, we've got the sourdough starter.

'The starter is the lifeblood of any good sourdough.

'It gives the bread texture and flavour.

'As a living leaven, if looked after properly,

'it can give life to bread across generations.'

This sourdough starter has got a bit of a story behind it, actually.

Somebody came in to visit somebody in the kitchen.

They said, "Oh, we use this culture which we were given from Lapland.

"It's over 200 years old." And she brought some in for me.

-That is unbelievable. From Lapland to Hackney.

-Yeah.

-And 200 years old.

-It's been constantly fed.

To keep a sourdough starter going,

you have to feed it sort of about one week at least,

just with flour and water, and kept in a cool place, like the fridge.

For me, this is what baking is all about.

I mean, this is a million miles away from Chorleywood. It's great.

Well, enough talk, now's the time to go and make some.

-So come on, let's go.

-OK, let's do it.

-Do you think that making bread is an art form?

-I think it is.

I think the whole process... I think...

One thing that I've really found with making bread,

one of the reasons I think it's so good for other people to do it,

is it kind of generates more creativity.

'You've certainly got time to be creative,

'as this dough will not be ready for the oven for another ten hours.

'So is it possible to marry art and business and still make a profit?'

So how much do you sell your bread for?

So this bread I sell for £3.50 a loaf,

which is about 800 grams when it's cooked.

Obviously, you're not doing this for a charity.

-You have to see a return on that.

-Yeah, well, I've kind of jumped in.

I'm just giving it as much of a go as I can. So far, so good.

As far as I can see, I'm not losing money.

'Ben's sourdough might be three times more expensive than a mass-produced loaf,

'but considering the time and effort involved

'I think it's worth every penny.

'The dough is placed in floured bannetons to mould the loaves,

'ready for the oven.'

-Come on, darling.

-You have to tease it out.

-Tease it out.

Here she comes.

'This is where the skill of the master baker is evident.

'Each loaf is crafted with care and attention.'

-You sell out of this stuff, don't you?

-Oh, every day, we sell out.

You obviously can't make enough of it,

so there's a definite market for it.

Yeah, well, people want to eat good food

and they want to eat food that has been prepared without chemicals.

I mean, there's only four ingredients in this. Three, really.

There's salt, flour and water,

and the wild yeasts and bacteria that are in there.

'Like works of art, each loaf is given its own signature

'before going into the oven, where it bakes for just half an hour.

'Ben's 200-year-old starter has done its job

'and combined the ingredients to create something quite special.'

-Isn't that beautiful?

-MICHEL CHUCKLES

Oh, I tell you, this is amazing.

-This turns me on something... I tell you.

-Brilliant. I'm really happy to hear that.

The smell and this signature, your lovely signature here,

it's personal, it's you, you know, it's not a machine.

This is you, and I can feel that. It is great.

'If Ben's story has touched you, why not take a course in bread-making?

'Like this one in Nottinghamshire.'

It gives me a lot of satisfaction to come on the course

because we learn everything about bread production,

from it growing in the field right through to it being baked

and then sold on, so we're learning the whole journey of bread

and being artisan bread producers in this country.

The students here have come from all walks of life.

They've found the experience life-changing.

Bread does need a revival in this country.

Anyone can learn to make bread. It's not difficult.

So long as you have the fundamental building blocks to begin with,

you can do anything.

For my final recipe,

I'm going to be using some of Ben's Hackney Wild bread

and my bread as well.

It's a diplomat pudding.

It's very, very close to my heart. It's a special recipe.

It's the very first recipe that I learnt as a pastry apprentice in 1976.

This is a French version of a bread and butter pudding

but with a difference.

What's great is you can actually use bread that isn't the freshest,

bread that's stale, that would otherwise end up in the bin.

So to start off we need to remove the crust.

There we go.

You can use almost any combination of breads,

as they'll all add flavour and texture.

Slice them into cubes and scatter them on a baking tray.

So here we are with our bread.

We need to dust it a little bit with icing sugar.

So here we go.

And this is just to give it a lovely coating, a crunchy coating,

that will caramelise in the oven.

We're making sweet croutons, in effect.

While the croutons are crisping up,

start to make the custard filling, with egg, sugar and single cream.

I'd rather use single cream than double.

Double cream tends to be a little bit too heavy, a bit too rich.

I remember as a young apprentice, 16 years old,

being shown how to make this,

and I remember the very first day

that I walked past the pastry shop after work

and I saw my puddings good enough to be sold in the pastry shop

and that filled me with pride.

The secret ingredient for this dish is vanilla.

Vanilla is very expensive, but it's very worthwhile.

I think you get so much flavour out of it, so much satisfaction.

And I love the idea of putting a very expensive ingredient like vanilla

with such a humble and cheap ingredient as bread.

Put a handful of raisins and sultanas in a pan.

Cover them in water and put them onto a gentle heat to rehydrate.

They'll plump up and become succulent.

Then drain them and cover them in dark rum.

These little packets of sweetness will be the bridging texture

between the custard and the bread.

Run and raisin and vanilla. I mean, is there a better combination?

I don't think so.

And there they are. Lightly toasted.

That smells gorgeous.

Smell the yeast, the wild yeast, in there,

and an almost brioche-like smell from my bread. It's beautiful.

Then it's time to put the ingredients together.

Into some buttered ramekins layer the croutons and the raisins.

It's as simple as that. It really is very simple.

We ladle them into here.

You can make them individual like this, in individual ramekins,

or you could put it in a tureen and then take slices off it.

I think these little individual moulds look really cute.

Unlike a classic British bread and butter pudding,

don't put these straight in the oven.

Instead, steam them in a bain-marie.

Cover them with buttered foil and they're ready for the oven.

On a medium heat, they'll take half an hour.

Right, I think these puddings must be ready by now.

You can't take them out of the mould whilst they're still piping hot.

You need to leave them to rest, just for five or ten minutes.

Because if you were to take them out of the mould now, they would crack.

It wouldn't look nice.

While they cool, make an apricot glaze for the top of the puddings.

Melt a large spoonful of jam in a dash of water

until it turns into a sticky liquid.

The jam's nearly melted.

At last it's time to reveal the diplomat puddings.

Wow.

All it needs now is just a little brush of the apricot jam on top.

I find that these are at their best when they're just warm,

not cold, definitely not fridge cold.

Diplomat pudding.

Made with the best artisan bread you can find.

Oh, this looks beautiful.

Mmm.

It's totally, totally delicious.

You can taste the bread, you can taste the egg and the rum,

the vanilla. It's beautiful.

I've been on incredible journey and I've met some passionate people,

people who are as passionate about bread

as I am passionate about food, and that, to me, is heart-warming.

That, to me, means if we all join together on this crusade,

we can definitely change bread in Britain.

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