France Hairy Bikers' Bakeation Cutdowns

By now, you've probably realised that there are two things

-that we love in this world.

-Biking and baking.

So we've decided to combine them...

..in an epic 5,000-mile Bake-ation.

We're arriving in France,

regarded by many as the home of baking...

..fine gastronomy and, of course, the famous baguette.

C'est magnifique!

So get set!

Because it's time for our spectacular...

BOTH: ..Bake-ation!

Lucky for us our first day in France is like summer...

..back home!

We're starting our trip in Lyon.

And if France has the best food in the world...

..Lyon has the best food in France.

Lyon sits at the crossroads between Marseilles and Paris,

not far from Switzerland and Italy.

Its cuisine combines the best ingredients

from both northern and southern France.

And it's said that the old town has more restaurants per square metre

than anywhere else on earth.

Kingy, just being here makes me peckish.

Me too, let's have a proper French breakfast and plan our route.

Do you know, Kingy, looking at those maps,

it keeps me the heebie-jeebies.

I mean France, it's so big. It's so regional.

It's hard to know where to start.

-But, dude, we don't have to, do we?

-No, we do not!

This is a director that we have worked with for many years.

He's French and his name is Francois Gandolfi.

With Francois, we've cooked in all sorts of places.

And being together in France is really special.

It will be a good trip.

And he is going to be showing us around his 'hood

and the places that he knows and loves.

As we're in Lyon,

Francois said we should check out some of the regional delicacies.

Like tarte a la praline and the saucisson brioche.

And then, Lyon's here, we're going to be travelling further south

where we're going to be cooking with Francois' mam and dad.

Yes, we're going to do an apricot tarte tatin.

Who could resist such a dish?

Then, we could head towards Carcassonne -

we could track down the legendary Academy of Cassoulet.

More important than that, dude,

we need to unravel the personal mystery

that has been for us, the baguette.

It's not just white bread in a stick, it's much more.

There's a mystery to be unfolded.

Oh, it's raining again! Come on.

Get these maps in.

THUNDER ROLLS

'First, though, we'd better go shopping

'or we won't be able to do any baking tomorrow.'

'Of course, mate, tomorrow's the 14th of July, a national holiday.

'The shops will be closed.'

'Cor! And can we try before we buy?'

-Bonjour, Madame.

-Bonjour, Messieurs.

'Was breakfast not enough, like?'

Madame, je cherche le saucisson Lyonaisse a fabrique une grande saucisson brioche.

-Yes. Alors. Here.

-Oui.

Now, fluent. See that? What he's just said is,

"Good morning, missus, have you got sausages full of brioche?"

-Cinq saucissons, s'il vous plait.

-Yes. All right.

-Three with truffle.

-Oh!

-The best one.

-And this is the oldest charcuterie in...?

Yes. You see it's since 1850.

'Mate, they've got over 20 different sorts of regional sausages!'

'I've never seen anything quite like this place.

'I hardly know where to start.'

-'Oh, yeah. Let's have a taste, man.'

-'We're here to shop, remember!'

Ah, Madame!

'Come on, just a tiny one.'

Merci beaucoup.

'La tete roule with ox and pork tongue.'

Real savoury meat.

-A real old-fashioned taste, isn't it?

-Mmm.

'And the chicken and pork pie.'

This tastes of France, doesn't it?

Merci, Madame. C'est le produit magnifique.

-Thank you very much.

-Oh!

And that means, "Thanks very much, missus. Your produce is fabulous."

Ooh, la la! Get you with your schoolboy French.

-Here's your bag.

-Merci beaucoup.

-You're welcome.

-Oh, truffle saucisson Lyonnaise!

-Et voila. Et voila.

'Right. That's the shopping done

for the sausage brioche we're cooking tomorrow.'

'Cool. Now we should check out something for my sweet tooth.'

-Oooh!

-Ooh, look at that.

-That's the tarte aux pralines.

-It's a Lyon speciality, isn't it?

Yeah. I mean it's everywhere from back street bakers, to Paul Bocuse.

You can't get away from it.

Dude, we've got to find out how you make this.

-Oh, let's dive in.

-Shall we?

-To a praline pond.

-Ooh!

-Hey!

Paul Bocuse is Lyon's world-renowned three-starred Michelin chef.

He practically invented nouvelle cuisine, you know.

Oh, yes! He's the big cheese round here.

-Le grand fromage.

-All right, dude, we've got it.

But did you know that his favourite boulangerie is Maison Jocteur,

with their great tarte a la praline.

Well, it doesn't get much better than this.

If we want the mysteries of the tarte aux pralines explaining,

here we are at Maison Jocteur.

-Oui.

-And we have Sylvain.

This tarte aux pralines is different cos it's like on a biscuit base.

You've got the two elements, you've got the praline.

For the tarte, you've got icing sugar,

you've got eggs, butter and flour, all mixed together.

This pink praline, the praline rose,

it's different to the praline we know.

We get the box of Belgian chocolates.

-Yes.

-And it's a box of pralines.

'Pink praline has nothing to do with chocolate.

'It's whole almonds,

'covered with caramelised pink sugar and broken up.'

We can see a very nice colour because the whole element of it shows.

We don't need to add anything else during the cooking.

So they're very good to work with.

'Sylvain has already made the sable dough

'by mixing icing sugar, eggs, butter and plain flour.'

'It needs to rest in the fridge before being handled.'

-Merci.

-I can't believe...

I'm in one of Lyon's most famous boulangeries, having a go.

'Sable comes from the French word for sand,

'because of its delicate, crumbly texture.'

'A good tip to make sure that your sable stays flat

'is to cook it on a wire rack.'

'That way, the steam won't make it bubble up.'

So the sable, the biscuit, is in the oven.

-So that's just cream and the praline.

-Exactly.

-And how long does this cook now?

-It's not important.

The most important thing is the mix should be like almost 121 degrees.

'121 degrees is pretty specific, but it's really important.'

'Not cooked enough and it will be runny.

'Too much, and it will be burnt.'

'You can get pink praline online

'but it's not cheap, at around £40 a kilo.'

-Yes.

-If it's good enough for Paul Bocuse...

-It's good enough for us.

-It's beautiful.

It's not bruised, it's perfect

Oh, that's perfect, mate.

'If you can't get pralines,

'the sable would be lovely with some melted chocolate on top.'

'Just let it cool for a couple of minutes, and it's ready.'

Merci beaucoup, monsieur.

-Now, not a crisp top, a crisp bottom.

-Mm-hm.

It's very sophisticated, isn't it?

It's almondey, you've got caramel and a fantastic biscuit.

-The biscuit's buttery, short.

-Mm.

-Crisp.

And then you've got, like, kind of soft almonds. Then...oh!

-Sylvain, it's fantastic.

-Sure?

-I didn't do anything.

-C'est magnifique.

Can we take some of the praline with us?

We're going to do a saucisson brioche,

but if we've got some dough, it would be great

to make a praline brioche so we've got the savoury and the pudding.

-With pleasure, you can have some.

-Merci beaucoup. You're a gentleman.

Kingy, that's so simple and yet so delicious.

I can't wait to get baking tomorrow.

And let's pray the weather cheers up a bit. I'm soaked!

At last, the sun is shining.

And it's Bastille Day, so called because...

..on the 14th of July 1789,

the starving Parisians stormed the Bastille Prison,

thinking that the king was hiding bread flour in it.

-FRENCH ACCENT:

-Dude, nobody messes with a Frenchman's bread.

The shops are closed, and everyone's out having fun.

Including us.

The city of Lyon has given us the keys of their Roman amphitheatre.

It's where they used to feed Christians to the lions,

but we'll just be feeding ourselves.

-Our menu is definitely more appetising.

-A saucisson brioche.

And a praline brioche using the pink praline we bought yesterday.

Look at this!

Here we are in a big hole in the middle of Lyon. Where are we, Dave?

We're in the Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls.

-Three Gauls! Right.

-This is Saucisson Lyonnaise.

Oh! I love truffles.

-Look, come here you piglet.

-Oh look, look.

The saucisson de Lyonnaise. And look at that, black truffle,

15% truffle. This is a hardcore sausage.

'Made from pork, this sausage isn't cured

'and it doesn't contain any preservatives,

'so it needs cooking before we can eat it.'

Oui, bon. Allez.

J'ai mettre le saucisson Lyonnaise

dans l'eau chaud pour vingt minutes per une demi-kilo.

Voila!

He's putting the sausage in the water for about 20 minutes per kilo.

-No. Per demi-kilo.

-Per half kilo.

-Oh, this translator act's rubbish.

-Shut your face, you.

-The dough, the dough. The brioche.

-Let's go!

'Brioche dough starts with flour, salt and sugar.'

Mix!

'Then just add some eggs and the usual yeast mix.'

It's frothed up like a Quatermass explosion.

There's life in that bowl.

'Did you know, Kingy,

'that the brioche originated in Normandy in the 15th Century.'

The word brioche is a derivative of the French word, broyer,

which means to work, to work the dough.

Which would indicate that I've got quite a load of graft to do.

'Don't whinge, you're a master kneader.'

So work this dough for about ten minutes.

The reason that you're working it for ten minutes is,

you want it to be ultra, ultra smooth.

'The last ingredient is butter, and lots of it.'

Now, butter is probably the most important part of the brioche.

-Oh, and the kneading is important too.

-Oh, of course.

But make sure you use the best butter you possibly can.

-Should I do the sausage one, so I can have a whiff of truffle?

-Yes.

-I will do the roast praline one.

-You have a little technique, don't you?

-I do.

-It's like Chelsea bun meets brioche.

'That's what we love about our Bake-ation,

'the chance to give a Bikers' twist to the local recipes.'

Pistachio nuts and truffles!

'But patience is required.

'The brioche needs to rest for a good 45 minutes.'

You may find truffled saucisson Lyonnaise quite hard to get at home.

It doesn't need to be, like, a really fancy sausage.

I mean, Cumberland sausage would be great in there.

And now the little roast praline - lovely!

It's like food potpourri!

'To get the Chelsea bun effect,

'sprinkle the chunks of praline on the dough

'before rolling and slicing it.'

It's a lovely idea, isn't it?

'Mine is ready.

'Just a quick eggy wash and into the oven.'

'Mine it needs to rise for about half an hour

'and then it'll go into the oven too.'

-What shall we do while we're waiting for that to do?

-Don't know.

-Could have a fight?

-We could live the dream. Dshhh!

BOTH: The one who is about to die salutes you.

Fight!

THEY GROWL

THEY ROAR

MUSIC: "Je T'aime...Moi Non Plus" By Serge Gainsbourg

It's not fair, you're bigger than me!

Sorry, dude, it's thumbs down for you.

'All this fighting's given me an appetite.'

-Should I?

-Oh, you should, mate, for sure.

-KNIFE SLICING THROUGH CRUST

-Listen to that brioche.

Sing to me, my sweet!

BOTH: Ahhh!

-It's still hot, look.

-Oh!

Le truffe!

The brioche is light, airy, buttery.

It's very, very luxurious, isn't it?

Mmm, nice balance between the sweetness and the savoury. Ah!

-I've never had a sausage roll like this.

-No!

Fancy a little dessert?

Absolutely, mate. It's that time, isn't it?

Now...

Oh, look at the underneath!

-All the syrup.

-Oh, wow!

'If you can't get hold of pink praline,

'Smarties, M&Ms or chocolate buttons will do the trick.

'It's worth having a go.'

You know, I think the way we've done it,

it definitely is like a tear and share.

It just comes off in, like, big sticky bun roundels or rondells.

-Oh, yes!

-Ho-ho!

Look at the colour!

That, kind of, buttery yellow brioche

and the wonderful, wonderful roast praline.

-That's mega!

-Oh, yeah!

Well, if that's a Lyon speciality, it's unbelievably good. Oh!

'Kingy, after eating two entire brioches,

'I need a nap before we go out tonight.

SNORING

'Kingy?! Kingy?'

'We're off to sample more of the culinary delights

'of this extraordinary city.'

'Anabelle's an old friend,

'and she knows some of the best places to eat.'

-Bonjour, Anabelle!

-Bonjour! Ca va?

-Yeah, tres bien, merci!

-Oui?

Oui, ca va bien!

I booked a table at a typical restaurant from Lyon.

-It's called the Bouchon, isn't it?

-Yes, yes.

It's really typical from Lyon with a lot of meat.

'Bouchons are unique to Lyon

'and they are known for their pork specialities and healthy portions.'

-'Good thing I'm hungry, then!

-'But did you know that, in Lyon,

'it's women chefs who are the cornerstone of local gastronomy?'

'Yes, dude, you're not the only one capable of reading a book!

'They are known as Le Mere Lyonnaise.'

Oh!

You know, Si, like everywhere around the world,

when it comes to food, even in Lyon, mums know best!

Yes, they do! Hey-hey!

'Kingy, do you think we ate too much?'

'No, it's Bastille Day after all!'

# I am very full! I am very full! #

'Full but ready for one last treat.'

Oh, guys, what a perfect way to end the perfect day in Lyon.

Fantastic food, fantastic people.

Lyon has been so good to us and you, Anabelle. Thank you.

And I'm so happy to have seen you.

We're heading out of Lyon across the Rhone Valley

-along what the locals call La Route de Soleil.

-That sounds promising!

We're travelling south towards Provence and the Mediterranean.

'We're having lunch

'with the parents of our director, Francois.'

'It would be rude not to bring anything to the table.'

'So we volunteered to make dessert,

'and we're baking one of our favourites.'

'A tarte tatin, normally made with apple,

'but we're doing ours with apricot.'

'We spend so much time together with Francois on the road...'

'..that it's a pleasure to get to know each other's families.'

-Very happy to meet you.

-And you.

-Lovely to meet you.

Thank you for your welcome.

And I prepare for you a special Corsica barbecue.

-Wow.

-Oh, yes!

You know the special sausage? Sau-sayge? Sausage?

Friga...

-Figatelli.

-Figatelli!

Francois, your son, he brought us some once from Corsica.

They're superb.

We're going to cook a very traditional tatin.

But an apricot tatin, cos the fruit's great.

-It's time to start the fire.

-OK.

-For the cook.

-OK.

-OK?

See you soon.

DAVE SIGHS

Oh, man.

-How lovely...?

-This is your French ideal, isn't it?

-Yes.

It's beautiful, the scent of lavender in the air,

and look at that.

These apricots. These, to me, sum up Provence.

Now, Dave,

how did a tarte tatin rear its existence?

In 1898, it was invented at the Hotel Tatin by the Tatin sisters,

Stephanie and Caroline.

Stephanie Tatin was the one who did most of the cookery.

One day, she was making a conventional apple pie,

she left the apples there in caramel, and it burnt.

So what she did was, in a panic, "Whoooo!",

she put some puff pastry on the top and baked it,

turned it out on the top, served it to the guest, they loved it.

And the tarte tatin, by Stephanie Tatin, was born.

Right, to start the apricot tarte tatin,

we make a very simple caramel, which involves melting sugar.

Now, a good trick when making a tarte tatin

is to use one of those frying pans, the type you can put into the oven.

It just saves messing about.

The appliance of fire.

We put the sugar in.

Now, you leave this to melt.

You don't use a spoon, just leave it to melt,

until we have caramel.

'Today, for our tarte tatin, we're using local apricots,

'but as well as apples, you can use peach, you can use prune, pear,

'and even pineapple, to make your own tarte tatin.'

Look in the pan. That's what you call caramel coloured.

And you want it, till it's all melted, and keep it moving,

just wash it round the pan,

so just till it's that golden caramel colour.

A bit like a finely-honed labrador.

So to this, we put some butter.

This is just going to make it rich and just nice and soft.

Now watch this, cos it can spit a bit.

And this is very hot.

And it will burn you.

So please take care, and don't let the kids near this one.

-Righto, Si.

-Thanks, mate.

Just put that on the board, now...

Now, you want about seven apricots.

'We're using ready-rolled puff pastry to create the top.'

'You mean the base?'

'The top.

'Er...the base. Well, you know what I mean!'

'To create a nice finish,

'tuck the puff pastry under the apricots

'around the edge of the pan.'

That's just to let the steam out.

'Just pop the lot into a hot oven for 25 minutes.'

We should go and help Monsieur and Madame Gandolfi.

Oui, allez!

Oh! Madame Gandolfi, shall I help you?

Oh, yes.

'Mr Gandolfi is grilling three sorts of sausages,

'including the wonderful Corsican figatelli.'

Everything that the pig has eaten, you can taste it.

So you can taste the acorn, you can taste the earth that it's walked on,

and that's a very special thing about figatelli.

'To accompany the barbecue,

'Mrs Gandolfi has baked her lovely anchovy and olive flatbread,

'as well as some spicy pickled vegetables.'

'And for dessert, our own apricot tarte tatin.'

Voila!

ALL: Oooohh...

Very nice!

-THEY APPLAUD

-Merci.

-Ooh-hoo.

-OK.

Tarte tatin.

# Tarte-ta-ta-tin-ta-ta-tin-ta-ta- tin-tin-tin-ta-ta-tin. #

Whoa, that's lovely.

It's beautiful, because, er...

How you call, the apricot...?

-Yeah.

-..are nice in it.

-Yeah.

-Very good.

Puff pastry draws the caramel into the layers, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-It's really nice. Really nice, good.

And with four ingredients - the butter, the sugar, the fruit

and a packet of puff pastry - you can create a French classic.

It's very good with fresh apricot.

-Good, eh?

-Yeah.

FRANCOIS: It was peach, Mum.

C'est des peches.

-No!

-No, no!

THEY LAUGH

I am not stupid!

THEY LAUGH

'You should know better, Francois. Mums know best, remember.'

COCKEREL CROWS

# Whoa! I feel good

# I knew that I would, now... #

'Another day, another great ride, but a long one.'

'Yes, we have a rendezvous to bake a baguette.

'I've been waiting for this all week.'

# So good So good

# I got you... #

'We're travelling east, leaving Provence behind,

'and heading for the Languedoc.'

'To the medieval city of Carcassonne,

'a UNESCO world heritage site.'

Hey, this is it! At last!

The secrets of the baguette unleashed!

We get to bake it, dude, we get to make it.

We get to make it, we get to bake it, and we get to eat it.

'We've arranged to meet artisan bakers,

'father and son combo Dominique and Francois Noez.'

Can we go and have a look and see what you do?

-Come in.

-Perfect. Thank you.

'The French take their food so seriously,

'that they have laws about it for wine, cheese and even bread.

'A real French baguette must be made with wheat flour, water,

'salt and yeast, and that's it.

'No preservatives or additives. It's the law.'

'As a result, it doesn't last well.

'So that's why the French bake it and buy it fresh every day.'

DOMINIQUE SPEAKS FRENCH

-Wa-hey!

-Oh, look at this.

-It's so elastic.

Yeah, yeah.

It's the gluten.

It's interesting what we've ready in books many times.

The dough is ready when you pull it and it goes like a window.

But that's the first time I've really seen it properly!

Oui.

So once it's at this stage and it's kneaded,

-it rests for did you say 24 hours in the fridge?

-24 hours.

'To see the next stage, we're now using the dough

'made by Dominique yesterday.'

'Once rested, the dough is divided into small pieces.

'Each will become a single loaf.'

-C'est bon?

-Tres bien.

'Then we just need to shape the baguette.'

'It seems easy, but the shaping is important.

'It helps create the crust we know and love.'

And, you know, this will be left for another 24 hours

to kind of rest again.

So there's kind of like two day's work in a baguette, a proper one.

But that's why it tastes so good. You can't rush perfection.

'We are now baking the next batch, which was started two days ago.'

'Using a razor blade, each baguette is finely sliced on the top.

'That way, while baking,

'the crust will form into the shape we know so well.'

'The baguette is baked in a steam oven.

'At home, just put a tray of water in your oven.

'It should do the trick.'

'The steam caramelises the starch on the surface of the baguette,

'giving it a golden crust and a nutty flavour.'

These baguettes, we make about 1,000 per day.

Wow! And French people like to eat and buy their bread fresh?

Yes. It's a tradition.

With over 27 million baguettes sold in France every day,

that's more than a tradition - it's love.

'And, after 25 minutes, at last we can taste it.'

CRACKLING

Ah! Can you hear that?

DOMINIQUE SPEAKS FRENCH

-Oui.

-Oui.

'My French is improving. I can understand Dominique.'

'Ah, you've just read the subtitles.'

It's such a lovely colour and texture, isn't it?

Fantastic, mate. Absolutely fantastic.

Like good wine, it needs time for the fermentation to develop,

to develop the flavour.

And it's even got the flavours of caramel and nuts.

-Yeah, we have. That's indeed those flavours.

-Yes.

Thank you so much for introducing us to Carcassonne's daily bread.

And unravelling the mysteries, gentlemen, of the baguette.

-It's brilliant.

-C'est magnifique!

-Wahey!

Ha-hey! Well, I do believe

we've truly unravelled the secret of the baguette.

Now all we need to do, is to find something to eat with the baguette.

-And what's famous here, mate?

-Cassoulet.

But not just any cassoulet.

We've been invited by the Academie du Cassoulet

to take part in this evening's activities.

Mate, cassoulet and fresh baguettes - the perfect combo.

The Academie takes cassoulet very seriously,

even dressing up for the occasion.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

Wow!

THEY SING IN FRENCH

'Mate, what are they singing about? I can't understand a word any more.'

'Si, it's in old French.

'It's a song praising the wonder of the cassoulet.

'It's the ballad of the bean.'

-Kingy?

-Yeah?

-Good cassoulet needs good bread.

Well, let's break bread at the table, dude.

Oh, what a lovely thing to do.

You take a piece of duck, put it on the bread.

'And - mmm! Perfection.'

'Si, are they asking us to pay?'

'No dude, it's time to embrace the cassoulet.'

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

CHEERING

Oh, merci beaucoup!

Now Simon.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

'Kingy, I can't believe it. Not only did they feed us,

'but they're giving us a diploma for eating the food.'

'I know, mate. I love France.'

Vive la Cassoulet!

THEY HUM

# It's the ballad of the bean and it makes you very happy!

# Da-dee! #

-What a journey.

-What a trip.

Over 500 miles across our director Francois's hood.

-Where we baked.

-And fought.

-And ate.

I've never had a sausage roll like this.

-'Home of the baguette.'

-C'est magnifique!

-Wa-hey!

'And a certain je ne sais quoi.'

It's that joie de vivre.

-It is.

-The joy of life.

-Fantastic.

It made me smile.

Vive la France.