Breakfast and High Tea Hairy Bikers' Best of British

You know, we believe that Britain has the best food in the world.

Not only can we boast fantastic ingredients...

Whoa, whoa! There we go. Look at them!

Outstanding food producers...

Oh, wow!

And innovative chefs...

But we also have an amazing food history.

It's safe to say that's what the Romans brought to us. The art of cooking itself.

Absolutely.

It's like a savoury summer pudding!

Now, during this series, we're going to be taking you on a journey

into our culinary past.

Everything's ready, so let's get cracking.

We'll explore its revealing stories...

BOTH: Wow!

And meet the heroes that keep our food heritage alive.

Pontefract liquorice has been my life and I've loved every minute of it.

'And, of course, be cooking up a load of dishes

'that reveal our foodie evolution.'

That's a proper British treat.

Looks good, tastes good. That's going to do you good.

-Quite simply...

-BOTH: The best of British!

MOTORBIKE ENGINES REVVING

In today's programme, we're celebrating two meals that are often overlooked

when people think of British fine dining.

Both were introduced by the Victorians and both have suffered changes in fortune over the years.

The first gets you going in the morning and the other keeps you going in the afternoon.

We're talking the great British cooked breakfast...

and that refined classic, afternoon tea.

They are the unsung heroes of our culinary heritage

and two of our favourite meals.

We're going to start, as is customary, with the first meal of the day.

One that's sadly in decline,

but in the past, each region had their own speciality when it came to a cooked breakfast.

You've got the full English, with rashers of bacon, eggs, sausage...

Or the Ulster fry, with the soda bread and puddings.

Or the Welsh speciality, laverbread, made up of cockles and seaweed.

And in Scotland, we have porridge.

For many of us, a good old fry-up is the pride of breakfast heritage.

But eating well in the morning is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Back in Georgian times,

a large breakfast was something purely for the nobility,

who ate artery-busting hams, cheeses, pies,

and washed it all down with booze.

It was the Victorians

who made the cooked breakfast a British institution.

As prosperity grew along with the Empire,

cooked meats became affordable for all.

They were the kings of cooked breakfasts,

and it wasn't just about bacon and eggs.

Smoked fish was highly rated,

and even baked beans made an appearance on the menu.

Great!

The Empire also brought back recipes

that changed the way we thought about breakfast.

Our first recipe in the Best Of British kitchen

is a tribute to that Victorian age - kedgeree.

It's a spicy rice dish of smoked haddock and eggs,

livened up with peas and parsley,

guaranteed to kick-start your day.

Two of our favourite things must be breakfast and curry.

The two combined make kedgeree,

and it must be one of the great British breakfasts of all time!

And we love it cos it's spicy and it's gorgeous. That's brilliant.

It is one of those odd Anglo-Indian dishes

that came out of the British occupation of India.

One of the tales is, it came in with the Scottish regiments

going to India. The Scots love their smoked haddock.

The Indians had a rice dish for breakfast called khichri,

and that's where the name kedgeree comes from.

And then the fish went into this.

-Breakfast in the days of the Raj.

-Whatever! It's really good.

-It certainly is.

-And this is smoked haddock.

This is the undyed smoked haddock.

I have to admit a sneaking liking for the bright-yellow stuff!

As a kid, I used to think, "It looks so much more appetising

"than that dull white stuff. Mam, can we have the yellow one?"

Never mind. This is much better for you, and super-tasty.

Yes. Painted fish is just wrong.

We're going to poach the haddock in a large frying pan

filled with exactly 500 millilitres of water.

And cook it for about eight minutes,

until it's flaky and gorgeous.

And we use that water for cooking the rice,

so all that fishy, lovely, smoky flavour goes into the rice.

And just to add a little bit more, we put a couple of bay leaves in.

Lovely!

'You know, kedgeree reminds me of being a kid.

'My dad was in the Navy, and he couldn't get enough of it.'

We used to eat kedgeree quite a lot in our house,

cos it was, like, part of a naval tradition, kedgeree,

and my dad used to love it, so there was always kedgeree on the go.

'After the fish has been poached for eight minutes,

'strain it in a colander, but don't forget to keep the water.'

That's the beautiful liquor, isn't it, that?

That's what we want to keep.

-Oh!

-It does smell lovely, doesn't it?

-It does. Fabulous.

-Use that as a holding pin.

And then we simply put the rice in here with this liquid,

and if we've done our sums right, this should be the precise amount

necessary for cooking the given quantity of rice.

'If you cook 200 grams of Basmati rice for around eight minutes

'with the lid on, and leave it to stand for another two,

'you should find that all the water's been absorbed,

'and the rice is nice and fluffy.'

'Right. Now we can get on with the rest of the ingredients.

'First we need to chop an onion and cook it in 40 grams of butter

'and a tablespoon of sunflower oil, until it's nice and soft.'

And while Dave's doing that,

I'm going to hard-boil four medium-sized eggs.

Nice thing about kedgeree, it does hold quite well.

You can put some foil on it, put it in a warm oven,

and just leave it to moulder away until everybody's down for breakfast.

And then it's just this lovely one-pot wonder.

I like kedgeree with tea. Coffee's not really right with it.

No. You can't have it with coffee. It's wrong.

Cook those onions slowly, but we do want a little bit of colour on them.

I'd flake the fish now if I were you.

Well, if I were you, so would I!

Now, this should be perfect. Yes, it is. Absolutely beautiful.

And look, it just flakes away from the skin.

Oh! Let's have a bit.

Look at that! That is good fish.

-Absolutely gorgeous.

-Lovely, isn't it?

-Yeah.

'If there's one herb that works well with fish, it's parsley.

'We're using roughly three tablespoons

'of flat-leaf parsley, but curly-leaf works just as well.'

-What's your favourite breakfast, Si?

-Anything with poached eggs, really.

I must say, I really do like kedgeree,

and I eat it at every available opportunity.

So often when we've been in hotels,

you order kedgeree, and it's rubbish.

I don't know how you can make a mess of it.

Kedgeree's a dish on its own. It's not a receptacle for leftover fish

and stale bits and bobs. A lot of hotels see it like that,

-and it's wrong.

-What's yours?

I do love good scrambled eggs, but I've given up with that with hotels.

I hate the breakfast ethos of the buffet.

It should be shot. How can you keep scrambled eggs under a heat lamp?

-You can't.

-It's a brick.

Scrambled eggs should be soft and unctuous,

and it's so wrong.

And the bacon sits there, poaching in its own misery.

-That's not breakfast.

-No, it's not.

But there's such a good culture for breakfast in our country.

You know, Kingy, the English breakfast

is one of the great treasures. Even Somerset Maugham said,

"To eat well in England, you need to eat breakfast three times a day,"

and by God, he's right! We've got it right.

Rant over, better get on with some cooking.

Cut that rice off, and just leave that to steam in its own heat.

We need to give the kedgeree that spicy kick.

This is ordinary curry powder,

just simple, plain, medium-strength curry powder.

And we've got about... oh, a tablespoon of this, heaped.

Those Indian and British flavours combined

give kedgeree a truly comforting taste.

That's the great thing about where we live, in the UK.

You can eat your way around the world.

'Peel the hardboiled eggs and slice them into quarters.'

Today we don't eat dishes like this for brekkie very often,

but in the Victorian age,

people really went to town on their morning meal.

As the Victorians used to say, "You breakfast like a king,

you lunch like a queen. Tea like a prince,

-and supper like a pauper."

-Perfect.

Try telling ourselves that next time it's half past ten and we want a kebab.

-THEY LAUGH

-Right! Let's build the kedgeree!

The rice goes in. It's lovely and fluffy,

and this rice is going to colour up beautifully

when we stir through the curry powder.

I'm trying to break the rice up as little as possible,

because I don't want it to turn to porridge or become a risotto.

So I'm kind of folding it in.

Now, next is this beautiful, beautiful smoked haddock.

-It's like mother-of-pearl, isn't it?

-It is absolutely beautiful.

Beautiful fish. Now, try and maintain the flakes,

and just fold them into that beautiful rice.

-Oh, look at that, man.

-We can put the peas in now.

Yeah, absolutely. Look at that, man. The colours!

That'll wake you up, whatever!

But whatever the breakfast, you've got to have eggs, haven't you?

-It'd be wrong not to.

-So just fold in the eggs.

If the yolks separate from the bits of white, don't worry.

In my opinion, there's a fundamental flaw with eggs.

There's too much white -

for eating purposes. Maybe not for producing chickens.

-There we are.

-Oh, lovely!

Add the juice of half a lemon, lots of black pepper...

When you've got eggs, you've got to have pepper.

And then add the parsley.

Fold that over again.

-Shall we try for seasoning?

-Yes.

There's loads of salt in the smoked haddock,

so take care with the salt.

Wow! I don't think that needs anything. Do you?

-No.

-It's perfect.

-I think that's really good.

I remember what my dad used to do. He'd dot the top with butter,

and it was just epic!

Right.

A few little nubbins of butter.

This is where it's like a biryani in a pan.

Yeah. Love it.

In the Navy, that'd sit in the officers' mess

under a covered... under a covered platter,

and the butter would melt. It'd go down into your kedgeree,

and heaven on a plate would be served.

For the final flourish of the dish,

we'll add about three tablespoons of double cream.

It'll just release all those lovely curry flavours off the rice.

-Nice and gently.

-Nice and easy.

You're beginning to look beautiful.

Now, that, to me, is brekkers.

That is, isn't it? Yeah.

Curry, nourishment, best of British. Have you got a spoon?

I've got... Yes! I think that, from henceforth,

should be known as The Kedgeree Spoon.

Oh...

Oh, man!

Just try and get a little eggy on the top.

-Look at that!

-Oh!

Oh, yes.

Oh, lovely.

That is brill! Dead spicy.

-Oh...

-It ain't half hot, Mum.

# Why do you whisper, green grass?

# Why tell the trees what they say? #

I love those winter mornings on a weekend,

and when you get up, it's freezing but it's crisp,

and the sky's light.

And then this. Sat down - oh! - at your breakfast table.

Oh, I love it!

Good old-fashioned breakfasts were quite perky,

quite spicy, and this again, it wakes your palate up.

And it's got that effect of... You can't stop eating it, can you?

-Help me!

-HE LAUGHS

Great...British...breakfast.

Aye!

Since the early 1900s,

the cooked breakfast had been the standard morning meal in Britain.

But, in the post-war era, this was challenged by an innovation

from across the Atlantic - breakfast cereal.

Cornflakes were an invention of our American cousins

that had come from the dietary reformist movement

in the late 1800s, led by people like John Kellogg.

The idea of healthy and unhealthy food,

rather than taste, was right at the heart of this new type of breakfast.

And it was aimed squarely at eliminating the fry-up

from our tables.

Because it didn't need cooking, cereal was a lot more convenient,

and as more women joined the workplace,

the American invader started to take over.

But there was one part of the British breakfast

that wasn't going to give up without a fight.

Eggs had been heavily rationed during the Second World War,

but in the 1950s, they started to make a comeback.

-What sort of things do you cook?

-Well, eggs and bacon.

-Do you ever cook meals?

-Yes. Bacon and eggs.

Oh! Eggs and bacon and bacon and eggs.

I've got just the thing for you.

I'm going to show you how to make a super American breakfast dish

-called eggs with top hats.

-Top hats?

-Yes, top hats.

And they're jolly good for camping too, boys.

It sounds terrific. Can I help you?

In 1955, just a year after rationing ended,

this cookery show enticed youngsters into the cool American way

to have an egg for breakfast.

This does look funny. Is it all right?

But even creative ways to cut up your toast

weren't enough to hold back the tidal wave of breakfast cereal.

-It's going to be lovely, isn't it?

-I hope so!

In the 1960s, a war began between egg producers

and the cereal industry

for the rumbling breakfast tummies of Britain.

-So I shall just have to...

-BOTH: Go to work on an egg!

-Yes.

HE LAUGHS

While the egg men threw big names into the fight,

cereal companies struck back with free toys...

..giveaway guitars,

and huge competitions that just got bigger and bigger,

and slicker marketing won the day.

Slowly but surely the cooked breakfast,

which had defined the morning meal for so long,

was replaced by cereal. As a much quicker choice for busy families,

there was just no stopping it.

What a goal!

But despite the convenience of cereal,

breakfast itself was becoming less popular.

With less and less time on their hands,

three-quarters of all adults regularly missed breakfast

by the millennium. And you know what? You're missing out.

So, in order to encourage you to have a cooked breakfast,

and leave the cereal packet in the cupboard where it belongs,

we're going to show you how to make a cracking egg dish.

Because if you're only going to have a cooked breakfast every now and again,

it might as well be a good 'un.

Now, there have been many American imports onto these fair shores -

some good, some bad. But this is a belter, isn't it?

Aye. Eggs Benedict! The core of the idea came from America,

but I believe in my heart of hearts

that we English make the best eggs Benedict.

We have the best ham. We also have English muffins.

Our eggs Benedict is an extravagant combination

of muffins with a thick slice of ham, topped by a poached egg

and smothered in hollandaise sauce.

We're also going to knock up the posh version, eggs royale,

which replaces the ham with smoked salmon.

-It's Marilyn Monroe on a plate!

-Oh, it is.

It is. It's fantastic. I'm going to do the poached eggs.

I'm going to show you how to make poached eggs

the way that works, and Kingy will show you how to make hollandaise

without the aid of a parachute, without lumps

-or any kind of stress whatsoever.

-Yes, I will.

'And I'm going to poach the eggs in a high-sided frying pan

'to make sure they're going to be ready at the same time

'as everything else.'

You kind of pre-cook them, so you can do a dozen poached eggs

and just bring them to heat at the table,

so if you have six people coming round for breakfast,

there's no reason they can't all have poached eggs at the same time.

Now, while Dave's waiting for his water to boil,

a key element in hollandaise sauce is the vinegar.

We're going to take some white wine vinegar

and half a shallot.

Chop it nice and fine,

and we're going to put that in a pan

with four tablespoons of white wine vinegar,

ten peppercorns and a bay leaf.

'The story goes that eggs Benedict originated in New York,

'but there are two different versions of the tale.'

The first one is that eggs Benedict were created

by a Mr Lemuel "Lemmy" Benedict,

in 1894 at the Waldorf Astoria.

One day, suffering from a hangover, he wandered in.

He asked for toast, two poached eggs, some bacon

and a jug of hollandaise sauce to pour on the top.

Now, the other story is, at a deli called Delmonico's,

there was Mr and Mrs LeGrand Benedict,

and they went in there and invented the dish.

One thing that is true - in America,

every April the 16th is National Eggs Benedict day!

And that's great about the Americans, because, any available opportunity,

they'll celebrate and get flags out.

Ladies and gentlemen, the top tip of all tips

when making poached eggs - to ensure that your poached eggs

never go to ectoplasm or look like a Doctor Who monster,

you put the egg in its shell in the water

for precisely 20 seconds.

This kind of just sets them a teeny, teeny bit.

-And it's true. It works.

-The other trick with poached eggs is,

whenever you can, use really fresh eggs.

While we're waiting for those 20 seconds,

what happens is, the shallots, the bay leaf and the ten peppercorns

goes into that four tablespoons of vinegar.

We reduce it by half. Now, just keep an eye on this,

because it'll reduce quicker than you think.

Now, see that water? There's a gentle bubble.

Add to this a little drop of white wine vinegar.

White wine vinegar helps the eggs stay together,

but sometimes the chef in your hotel or your B&B,

he'll slap in loads of malt vinegar.

You don't know whether you're having a poached egg or fish and chips!

'To help pour the eggs into the water,

'break them into a bowl first.'

Create a whirlpool, gently, and float the egg in.

Keep the whirlpool going, and those strands all wrap around the egg.

They need about two minutes to cook. And when they're done,

plunge them straight into some ice-cold water.

This stops the cooking process.

We'll drain these on kitchen roll so they dry,

and they'll hold for two or three hours.

All we have to do when we're ready to serve them,

be it with bacon or an eggs Benedict then,

is to plunge them into boiling water for one minute,

and you have the most perfectly cooked, reliable poached eggs.

You can have a dozen at once in the pan,

so six people have two eggs each, bang-bang-bang, done.

That's how a restaurant should do it.

Ours are going to wait until the hollandaise sauce is done.

For the hollandaise sauce, we're going to gently melt

225 grams of butter in a pan.

'By now the vinegar should have reduced, so strain it into a bowl.'

All of that shallot flavour, the onion flavour,

the peppercorns and the bay leaf will have gone into that.

To start making the sauce,

we're going to whisk three egg yolks in a bain-marie.

Place a bowl over a saucepan of hot water so it's heated by the steam.

OK, so there's a little bit of heat but not too much,

and the water's hot, but it's not simmering or boiling.

You've got to watch out you don't scramble the eggs

before the magic's happened.

Be careful not to let the water touch the bowl directly.

And just a little bit of salt, and then we start to whisk.

You'll see the eggs change colour, to a really light...

-It's going already, mate.

-It is, isn't it?

And they'll thicken slightly as you whisk, these egg yolks. Look.

There we go. I mean, it's a little bit labour-intensive,

but it's worth it.

Little pinch of sugar, and then our spiced vinegar.

Now, keep whisking...

..as you drop it in.

Now, again give it a good whisk.

'Now slowly add the melted butter to the egg yolks,

'whisking all the time, so that they emulsify,

'and the sauce doesn't separate.'

It is going nice and mayonnaisey, isn't it?

Yeah. Lovely and creamy and buttery.

That's beautiful. I think the time has come

-for me to get my muffins on, Mr K.

-I think you're right, dude.

I love that consistency. That's going to cling

like Chris Bonington to the Matterhorn.

There we go. One lovely hollandaise sauce.

-Ohhh! May I?

-You may.

-Lush, isn't it?

-It's like...

if food was a velvet blanket that caressed your naked form,

it would be hollandaise sauce. Do you know what I mean?

It's like... Ahhhh!

Right. Muffins.

It's nearly ready!

We just need to slap a generous amount of butter onto the muffins,

and reheat the eggs in hot water for a minute.

Pop that back... Now, look at that poached egg.

A perfect poacher.

Next up, you have to make the hard choice between toppings.

Is it going to be traditional ham, or royale, the smoked salmon?

Take your pick, really, but that's good British boiled ham,

fresh eggs, smoked salmon -

who does it better than the Scots? - and the English muffin.

So, whether it was Lemuel Benedict

or Mr and Mrs LeGrand Benedict,

we've taken eggs Benedict and made them British over the years.

It's ours, and I think it's one of the best.

That hollandaise is immaculate, Kingy.

Just a few chives, and don't worry about them scattering on the plate.

Just a little sprinkling of black pepper,

and just an odd, teensy sea salt.

It's got to be one of the most perfect breakfasts.

You know the Americans. I mean, they're overpaid,

they're over here, but as long as they bring their eggs Benedict with them, they can stop.

-Oh, aye.

-Are you salmon or ham?

Well, I'll go ham, cos I know you're quite partial to salmon.

I'm quite democratic when it comes to these. I'll eat the lot.

HE LAUGHS Go on, man. You can have first dibs.

Whoa!

Look at that.

You see? Look at that egg. It's perfect.

Mmm!

Oh, now...

Oh, yes. Look at that!

And do you know what, Si? The chives give a lot to this, don't they?

The chives go so well with the hollandaise.

They just give it a little bit of savoury undertone.

Mmm!

That's the perfect eggs Benedict,

perfect muffins,

perfect kind of ham,

perfect salmon.

-Hollandaise is just right.

-Very, very good.

Thank you, America!

Well, thanks for the idea, but we do it better.

While the once-ubiquitous cooked breakfast has fallen out of fashion and become a treat...

Outrageous!

..our other unsung hero and unashamed indulgence is making a welcome comeback.

Aye, with the likes of Victoria Beckham, Madonna

and Lady Gaga endorsing it,

afternoon tea has never been so hip.

Darling, it's the new lunch!

And in our bustling capital city, everyone's at it!

Top London chef Paul Bates is in charge of afternoon teas

at this upmarket hotel on Park Lane.

It's almost like a celebration.

A nice, delicate meal midway through the afternoon.

It's nice, petite things. Lovely flavours, different textures

and different sensations, you know.

It's a sort of diluted dinner, for want of a better description.

It should be all contrasting ingredients.

Paul's elegant menu will be sampled by two of Britain's

most dedicated afternoon tea enthusiasts.

Keith Newton is a connoisseur who runs a website devoted to

reviving the popularity of this unique national pastime.

Afternoon tea offers a little bit of decadence and indulgence.

A little bit of luxury. It's an affordable luxury, I think.

It's something that anybody can do.

For a couple of hours, a five-star hotel can be yours

for the price of a cup of tea, though a bit more expensive.

His dining companion is poet Elizabeth Darcy Jones,

who dedicates her writing to the charms of British tea.

It's an event where people can come together and be inspired,

sustained and,

I think, there's an intimacy.

It's said that wherever she is in the world,

the Queen always stops for tea.

-REPORTER:

-Inside, to soothe any strains,

there was a leisurely tea-sampling with musical backing.

Tea in Britain is so much more than a mere drink.

It's a way of life, Dave. The lifeblood of our nation,

almost a religion.

Tea arrived in Britain in 1659.

So tea in the early days is a luxury item.

It's come from an exotic place.

It's come from China. The Chinese have a monopoly on tea.

Britain puts a complete blockade on Chinese tea

and starts to grow tea in India.

And because India is ruled by the British, it becomes a British thing

and people think of tea as a British commodity,

grown by the British, for the British.

It's not until the end of the 18th century

that the masses start to be able to afford it.

So the poor people, as well as the rich people, can start to enjoy tea.

Despite tea being a fashionable drink in the 18th century,

afternoon tea didn't exist

until around 1840.

It was invented by Queen Victoria's lady-in-waiting,

the 7th Duchess of Bedford, who complained of a sinking feeling

in the afternoon, otherwise known as hunger.

In those days, there was a long gap

between what was a light luncheon and dinner at eight,

-so people would get a bit peckish.

-I know how they feel!

Hence the Duchess took an afternoon cup of tea,

served with a light snack, in her boudoir.

The Duchess of Bedford starts to take afternoon tea

and invites friends along. She's a friend of Queen Victoria

and once afternoon tea gets the endorsement of Queen Victoria,

it takes off. All of society wants to take afternoon tea

and people start to have not just intimate tea parties,

they start to have big tea parties, like 200 people.

But at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century,

tea shops take off in a big, big way.

And for the first time, women can go out without a male escort.

They can go out and they can meet lady friends.

There's something about taking afternoon tea,

when it's us girls all together, that there's a sort of freedom.

I'm sure there's just a hint of that coming through history, you feel.

"Yes, we can go and have tea together. We can go out

"and talk about things that actually we wouldn't talk about elsewhere."

Tea may have an illustrious history,

but Paul hopes to bring a bit of 21st century flair to the table.

Freshly creamed horseradish,

and then we have our rarely cooked roast beef, English beef,

and that's finished off with a little bit of celery cress.

You can twist it so far,

but at the end of the day there's an expectation about afternoon tea.

People don't want to have curry-flavoured chicken, for example.

You have to stick with the classics.

There's nothing more British or classic than afternoon tea.

Smoked salmon. Same supplier as the cream.

Here, what's that he's got there?

That's cucumber linguine, Si. Ooh! Proper posh, innit?

They expect luxury ingredients, so we have the ultimate here, caviar.

Caviar on top.

We have cocktail prawns, then we have lobster.

Scottish lobster, nice tail.

This goes on top of the prawns, like so.

You can see it's not two bits of bread slapped together, you know.

It does take some time to do.

It will please the traditionalists and also please the people

that are looking for something a little bit more adventurous.

I'm not suggesting their faces light up and it changes their world,

but I think it just lifts people a little bit.

D'ya think it'll be too modern for our afternoon tea connoisseurs?

Yeah, Elizabeth does strike me as a traditionalist.

I really hope we're going to keep one or two of the classic things.

Looking at the menu, it looks as if we are, which is a great delight.

It can be modern. There's a venue in London that has a DJ

during afternoon tea.

SHE GROANS

-I've been there myself.

-Does it work?

It does, because the music is...

It's slightly louder than background music,

but not so loud that you can't talk.

It's a young crowd who are going for afternoon tea

before perhaps going out in the evening.

So there's definitely a place for a modern afternoon tea.

While Keith and Elizabeth ponder the menu,

let's take a look at some etiquette do's and don'ts.

Firstly, milk goes in after the tea.

That's how the Queen takes her cuppa.

Ooh, it's a bit of a controversial one, Dave. Much debate over it.

Well, raising a pinkie is definitely a big no-no.

It's considered a pretence to good manners,

-indicating the owner doesn't have any.

-Call the tea police!

The correct order when eating afternoon tea

is to eat savouries first, sco-o-ones next and sweets last.

It's scones, man!

You say scones, I say sco-o-ones!.

Yeah, yeah, whatever!

As it's traditional for the gent to do the pouring,

Keith, you can be mother.

Oh, goodness.

In a way, I know the food is taking centre stage,

but the tea is also taking its place.

It looks the part and the first hurdle is to make sure

that it looks the part. It certainly looks the part.

It certainly lives up to expectations from reading the menu.

I'm impressed.

I love the detail on the top,

the little flourish of white chocolate and raspberry,

so I think there's something for everybody in there.

Definitely a feast for the eye

and I know what I want to taste already.

There's something underneath here. I think it's horseradish.

All my favourites.

Mm, delicious.

There's a nod here to tradition, egg and cress.

-It's a cut above your average afternoon tea.

-That goes together really, really well.

-I'm extremely pleased with it.

-Quintessentially English.

Let's be proud of it.

-Good afternoon. How did we do?

-Paul's escaped the kitchen to hear the verdict.

-I did enjoy it very, very much indeed.

-Absolutely exquisite, it has exceeded my expectations.

-So you'll come back then?

-I think so, I think so!

After nearly two centuries, the afternoon tea is evolving and winning new fans.

And it still, as always, epitomises elegance.

But no afternoon tea would be complete without, well, tea!

It's the nation's favourite hot beverage.

During the first World War, it was considered

so essential that the government took over tea importation,

conscious that it was vital to the nation's morale.

Today, the UK is the largest market for exported tea in the world.

We're on our way to Andover in Hampshire, and we're gasping for a cuppa!

Luckily for us, we've been invited to a tea tasting by the master blenders at Twinings.

I hope they've got the kettle on!

Fewer things have a richer history than tea.

In fact, tea is the history of Britain in a cup.

Us Brits drink 60.2 billion cups of tea every year.

And here, tea tasters get through 600 cups of tea a day!

It may not look it, but tea tasting is a very exact science.

SLURPING

-What's your favourite tea?

-Well, tea.

-What do I do now?

-Wait six minutes precisely for it to infuse.

-Does anybody talk?

-No, it's serious.

ALARM RINGS

Twinings Chief Development Taster, Mike Wright, has kindly

stepped in to guide us through the highly skilled art of tea tasting.

OK, what we've got here is a whole load of different teas

that we're going to get you to taste.

They're all of different origins, different flavours,

different styles of tea.

This is just a brief summary of the different tastes you can get.

There's some I recognise, but others I don't.

I think the whole convention and traditions of this is fantastic, I haven't seen that before.

They have to get the tea exactly right, it has to be made in exactly the right way.

The water has to be fresh, it has to be oxygenated,

it has to be brewed exactly at the right time,

so just as it boils you have to pour it.

If you boil for too long, the tea becomes dull and flat.

So you guys, really, as a team, are like the sommeliers of tea.

We are trained for five years at least, and to be honest,

I've been working at Twinings for 24 years and you never stop learning.

Every tea, when it's made, will taste different

according to the weather conditions, according to when the monsoon arrives,

how much sun they've had and whether it's been dry.

So you can never rely on one tea to be exactly the same,

day in, day out. It will change constantly,

so we have to ensure that the customer gets exactly the same every time,

and that's what the blending skills are about.

That's like an artist's palette!

It's only when you see tea like that you realise how different the colours are.

Every time we make a blend of tea we have to make a hand blend first of all,

so we use the actual teas that go into the manufactured blend.

-And every single one of these tins...

-Good grief!

-Holds a blend.

-So everything is traceable.

-Can I open one?

-Yes, please do.

And that's the secret recipe, so it will have all the estates that went into it.

-Everything is traceable.

-D'you know what? I'm dying for a cup of tea.

-Yeah.

-Do you have your very own tasting spoon?

-We have our own tasting spoon.

-Nobody would ever breathe on it!

-What a privilege!

-You are now an official slurper.

-Excellent.

This first one is a white tea.

So this is probably the least most manufactured tea.

-Huge leaves.

-Huge leaves, because it's made of the bud, and the top two leaves are

the most tender part of the plant.

They make this tea by, normally, sun drying.

So it has a very gentle oxidation, so it has a very light,

delicate flavour.

Presumably it's very expensive if it's that labour intensive.

It's incredibly expensive, the best teas are made in Zhejiang in China, or maybe Fujian.

It's got this gorgeous, delicate tea.

SLURPING

-Some people say it has a sort of a peachy flavour.

-Right.

So then we've got gunpowder.

They thought the tea looked rather like gunpowder, so it's very shotty, quite well rolled.

-Yeah. Gunpowder. Same spoon, do you have to...?

-Yeah, just carry on.

SLURPING

Both black and green tea come from the same plant,

and it's about the processing of the tea that changes the flavour.

So fresh on your mouth, though. I don't drink enough China tea.

People seem to be a little apprehensive, and maybe

the name puts them off or they think, "Oh, that's that posh tea."

But actually, it's just another type of tea,

and people should just try different types of tea, you know, be brave.

-Britain loves tea, and thank God for that.

-Absolutely!

Let's try the jasmine.

Now it's time for us to have a go ourselves.

Can we Hairy Bikers turn our culinary hand to tea blending?

SLURPING

-Two parts.

-Hmm.

-Samosa Oolong, times two.

-Oooh!

The sapphire is going to bring it to life,

give it a distinctive character never before seen in the tea world.

But then a touch of Yunan for class.

At the moment, it looks like something Alan Titchmarsh would grow!

-What a wonderful, wonderful thing to do.

-Make your own tea.

Just maybe, this is the missing link in the tea world.

-Exactly, you never know.

-This is the new Earl Grey.

-I tell you what, if it is, you'll have to buy it from us.

-You want the rights.

I know it's your tea, and we're here as a guest, but, yeah!

-OK, OK, we can do that.

-Are you excited?

-Yeah!

-What's your favourite tea?

-Darjeeling.

-Darjeeling.

I've got Darjeeling first flush as my base tea.

The only slight, off the wall kind of thing that I had in MY head

was the Lady Grey, because I quite like a blossomy flavour.

-I think you're showing your feminine side here.

-Really?

-Mm-hmm.

-Well...

-He was having pink macaroons down in the shop!

-They were nice!

What's your speciality?

At the moment, I'm working on product development.

So, any new blends around the world... Including these,

-you know, this could be it.

-Paradise in a cup!

Did you see what he did there? He giggled under his breath!

That's just happiness at being with you. Shall we get our spoons?

Shall I get our spoons? 'And it's Dave's tea up first.'

SLURPING

-You can certainly get the smokiness of the Lapsang in.

-Yeah.

The colour is very pleasant, it's sort of an amber colour, very clear.

Yeah! There's nothing wrong with that, is there?

-That's all right, that, Dave.

-It shouldn't work, but it has.

-The Lapsang gives it that sort of robustness.

-It's nicely balanced.

That's what I thought, just a hint of Lapsang,

-because Lapsang on its own can be quite a kick in the cojones.

-It's a strong tea.

You get lots of citrus on that, don't you?

Actually, the Assam gives it a little bit of body. I mean, that works well.

-That's lovely.

-Take some milk?

-Yes please.

-As we're British.

-That's green, dude!

-It is an interesting colour!

-It's not fabulous, that.

-No, it's not!

-It's not the best, that, no.

How come I get covered in it, what is that?

Nice cuppa, that one!

LAUGHTER

I think both of them are best drunk without milk.

Do you think any of them have commercial possibilities?

I think we'd have to put some serious consideration into that.

I'm going to go out and buy myself some of the white teas,

the Formosa Oolong, the big leafed kind of China teas.

-Keep it simple.

-Yeah, it's lovely,

-It'd be nice, I love that.

That white tea is fantastic. The great British tradition that is tea.

-And very proud of it we are, too.

-Absolutely.

That is a peculiar colour!

With our thirst well and truly quenched,

it's time to pay tribute to a key ingredient of the afternoon tea - the good old-fashioned sarnie!

In Britain, we consume over 11 billion sandwiches every year.

Whether it's a gourmet delight or a curled up crust

from the chiller cabinet, it's the ultimate in convenience food.

You don't even have to stop what you're doing to eat one.

Britain's most popular food, let me show you how to make the most popular snack food.

Piece of bread, a piece of cheese, another piece of bread, voila. Sandwich.

BOTH: Philistine!

Legend has it that lazy aristocrat John Montagu,

the 4th Earl of Sandwich, invented the sarnie in 1762.

Now, Montagu was a hardened gambler,

who wagered for hours at a time, refusing even to stop for meals.

It is said that he asked his valet to bring him "meat betwixt two slices of bread,"

allowing him to continue playing cards.

The sarnie had arrived.

Whether Montagu was responsible or not, the sandwich was bound to have

been dreamt up by a hungry bloke too preoccupied to feed himself properly.

Since then, it has been central to any roadside picnic.

-A buffet table mainstay.

-And the backbone of any packed lunch.

Today, I'm going to give him cottage cheese,

which I shall mix with a little hard cheese,

just to give it a little bit more of a cheesy flavour.

That's really, basically, all he has, sandwiches.

Because children like to have something to chew.

"Something to chew"? What a sorry state of affairs, when that is all that is required of a sandwich.

But everyone, and I mean everyone, loves a sarnie.

The humble sandwich is a truly egalitarian snack.

My favourite is brizola with Parmesan cheese

and a drizzle of olive oil.

Mine's prawns with Marie Rose sauce. Not as pretentious as yours, Dave, granted, but just as tasty.

A key component of the sandwich is, of course, bread, and until the early 20th century,

it was made by hand, using a technique handed down for thousands of years.

Women have made bread since primitive times,

but nowadays, this sight is a rarity.

For baking today is a man's job.

And these huge mechanised bakeries changed the way bread was

consumed for ever.

A shaft of light! The moment is here!

It's already sliced, you daft druid!

The pre-sliced loaf introduced in the 1930s made sandwich-making,

hardly a demanding task in the first place, even easier.

Make me a ham sandwich.

Right.

But then something came along to threaten the sandwich's place

as our number-one convenience food.

In 1954, the first Wimpy bar opened in London,

pedalling a new sandwich fad all the way from America.

By the '80s, Britain's High Streets

were filling up with fast-food outlets.

Chicken in a bun.

Delicious, succulent chicken wrapped in a light golden batter.

A Mother Earth-shattering idea.

From Wimpy.

The sandwich needed to adapt, and the first mass-packaged,

hermetically-sealed sarnie was introduced in 1980.

There was something to suit all tastes.

Whatever the filling, the sandwich is quite possibly the best thing

since sliced bread and a British invention we can be proud of.

But you can't have afternoon tea without something sweet to nibble on,

so we're going to prepare a classic recipe in the Best of British kitchen.

Yes, the Viennese have given us Viennese coffee,

the Viennese waltz

and given their name to that melt-in-the-mouth biscuit, the Viennese whirl.

It's something that we're both familiar with from childhood.

-It was kind of naff, wasn't it?

-It was, it was.

It was a bit naff and I have actually, I must confess,

a bit of a hang-up about Viennese whirls.

When I was little, I went to get one

-and a wasp was on it and it stung us.

-Ah!

I've never eaten a Viennese whirl since, other than the ones we make.

Start with 250g of plain flour.

Match the weight of flour

-with the weight of butter.

-Thank you.

-Just whack it all in.

-It's amazing, you know.

In the mid-19th century, the women would end up

-with like a 19-inch waist due to the corsetry.

-19 inches?!

-Completely distorted, yeah.

-Oh man, that's wrong. How uncomfortable!

-Especially when you're trying to eat a Viennese whirl.

-Yeah, exactly.

Cornflour.

Now, this is the secret that makes a whirl crumble.

Yes, because cornflour takes up any moisture. It's dry.

-Next, icing sugar.

-Look at this.

The only smoking sugar. Prr!

'So that's 50g of cornflour and 50g of icing sugar.

'Using icing sugar instead

'of caster sugar gives you that very fine melt-in-the-mouth texture.'

And then half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Tsh! Obviously, if you like vanilla, you can use more.

This is our homage to Madagascar.

And then you put it on your mixer.

What's your favourite biscuit, Kingy?

Ginger snap.

I love a ginger snap. You cannae whack it. What's yours?

-The humble digestive.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

You know, I like a chocolate digestive,

but really just a plain digestive.

Are you a dunker or a biter or a slurper?

Well, I'm a dunker and then a slurper.

I like that. You get the firm bit in the middle that it hasn't reached.

I'm a bit of both.

I don't actually buy biscuits because I can't be trusted.

It's a shame, isn't it?

Hm, that's a lovely little batter, isn't it?

Look at that. Beautiful.

Now, the thing is that the Viennese whirl

is a cake/biscuit of two halves.

We must have symmetry and the size must be the same,

or it'll look all wonky when you put them together.

So what I've done is made this little template like this, you see.

Obviously the ink's on that side. So I draw around, like so.

Then what we do is, that batter that Mr Kind has so thoughtfully made,

you pipe within the perimeters of your template.

I'm going to put this lovely batter mix

into a piping bag,

because that's where batter mix lives.

Obviously we don't want to pipe onto ink,

so turn that over and there we have it.

-Oh, thank you.

-You don't have to put it all in at once.

It's like trying to manhandle a gibbon!

I've had to do that, you know. Manhandle a gibbon.

This'll stop it slipping.

-I didn't want you to run out.

-Run out?

Let's start here, shall we?

'Start your piping by working from the outside

'in a circular motion to the centre.'

# Ah, Vienna. #

-You little Viennese whirler!

-I'm like a machine.

Like a whirling dervisher.

-Wooh!

-Oh, that's gone...

That'll be all right, you see, as it'll flatten down as it bakes.

Now don't worry if you struggle with the piping,

they'll still look brilliant once they're baked!

While Dave's doing that, I'm going to get on with the buttercream.

The buttercream consists of butter, funnily enough,

icing sugar and a little bit of vanilla extract.

Put this into a bowl.

'You need 200g of icing sugar...'

Then you put butter in, like that.

'..and 100g of soft butter.'

A little bit of vanilla extract.

And then you beat the two together like a good 'un.

Right... Where's he gone?

-Oh, yeah.

-Bzzz!

You see, that's me. You see, I have the psyche of a cart horse.

You know, if it's manual, I'll do it.

I'll go over there and do it.

28.

That will give us 14 completed whirls. Whoo!

What about that? At the minute, it's like breadcrumbs.

But believe you me, it'll go.

There we are. You see?

So we put those into a preheated oven at 170C

for 12 to 15 minutes until they're lovely and golden.

Whoo!

We Brits love a biscuit. A hot drink and a biccy

is still an unrivalled partnership.

Last year alone, over £2 billion worth of biscuits,

cookies and crackers were sold in the UK.

Wow! The name biscuit comes from the Latin panis biscoctus,

meaning bread twice cooked,

and we were making them in this country by the Middle Ages.

In the 19th century,

several new businesses including McVitie, Huntley & Palmer,

and Peek Frean, laid the foundations of the modern biscuit industry.

And chocolate-covered biscuits became big business after World War II.

But biscuits aren't the comfy treat we think they are.

Oh, no, there's definitely a dark side to the humble biscuit.

EVIL LAUGH

-Did you know that biscuits can be dangerous?

-You're joking!

There's a survey been done.

A third of all adults claim to have been scalded

fishing out the remnants of a dunked, fallen biscuit.

-Really?

-Yes.

Did you know that 28% of them

choked on crumbs?

Did YOU know that one in ten

have broken a tooth or a filling

whilst biting into a biscuit?

No.

Well, did YOU know

another 3% have poked themselves in the eye?

How very clumsy.

Did YOU know...

SI STARTS LAUGHING

..that 7% claimed to have been injured or bitten

by a pet or a wild animal whilst holding a biscuit in their hand?

It's a funny old world, the biscuit.

-I think it's time.

-Oh, yes.

-Oh, you beauties!

Ooh, look at them.

Oh, they're gorgeous, man.

Now, they need to cool on the trays for five minutes.

Then we move them to a cooling rack.

They're Viennese whirls like no other.

-There you are, my dear fellow.

-Thank you, dear heart.

As Viennese whirls go, Strauss would have loved them.

-A little knife?

-Thank you.

'After five minutes, place the whirls onto the cooling rack,

'bottom side up.'

Don't mess with them too much, because they're so crumbly.

You don't want to lose that lovely definition you have

on the other side.

'Next, spoon the buttercream mixture into a piping bag

'fitted with a large star nozzle.'

It looks like Nora Batty's tights, doesn't it?

-Ready for action, sir.

-Thank you.

Now, how does Bob Marley like his Viennese whirls?

Jam in!

MUSIC: "Jammin" by Bob Marley

# I want to jam it with you

# We're jammin

# Jammin And I...

# ..hope you like jam in, too. #

Look at that. That is a Viennese whirl.

If you're a whirl, you might as well be a whirl

that's well dressed up for the party.

Check out those whirls, man!

-Do you want to try one?

-Oh, aye.

Whether it's from Ventnor or Vienna, they're smashing.

Mm.

See if you can do it without licking your lips.

No.

Oh, lovely.

Oh, very good. They just disappear, don't they?

-Yeah.

-Mm.

And for a bit of variation, instead of buttercream and jam,

try dipping one half of each biscuit in dark chocolate.

Ooh, delish-ioso!

A cooked breakfast and afternoon tea are two classic British dishes to be applauded.

From our Eastern-inspired classics...

to a perfect-tasting cuppa...

..and sweet sensations,

they are national institutions that we should make sure we take time to enjoy.

And to find out how to cook the recipes in today's show, visit:

..to discover some amazing facts about the history of food.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd