Francophile Hairy Bikers' Best of British

We believe Britain has the best food in the world.

Our glorious country boasts fantastic ingredients.

Start eating it, will you?

'It's home to amazing producers...'

-My goodness gracious, that is epic.

-Isn't it?

'..and innovative chefs.'

But our islands also have a fascinating food history.

The fish and chip shops of South Wales are running out of chips.

BOTH: Yes!

And in this series, we're uncovering revealing stories

of our rich culinary past.

Now, there is food history on a plate.

MOOING

As well as meeting our nation's food heroes

who are keeping this heritage alive.

Let's have them enjoying themselves.

It's a short life, let's make it a happy one

like they always have had.

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

that reveal our foody evolution.

Spring, summer, autumn or winter, it's brilliant.

BOTH: Quite simply, the best of British.

MOTORBIKE ENGINE REVS

DAVE WHISTLES FRENCH NATIONAL ANTHEM

Us Brits, you see, we're a bit in awe of our foody French neighbours.

-MOCK FRENCH ACCENT:

-With their wines so fine,

their cheeses so suurrrft,

their meals so civilised and their farmers so passionate.

Many of us dreamed of moving there

and growing old in a gastronomic wonderland.

-Zut alors!

-Sacrebleu, mangetout!

MUSIC: "Oxygene IV" by Jean Michel Jarre

But these days, there's no need to leave.

The gastronomic wonderland is here.

After you've eaten this, you'll not be snogging for a good while.

And while it's true to say

that the French would rather choke on a truffle than bestow us

with any cooking credibility...

FRENCH ACCENT: I have no understand exactly what it is.

..the sheer variety and quality of British ingredients means

they're now having to swallow more than just their words.

Oh, that beef is amazing.

-DAVE LAUGHS

-'But combining our quality produce

'with their tried-and-tested culinary intuition...'

It's fantastic, isn't it?

'..is perhaps as good a way as any

'to start celebrating our French connection.'

We take the best of France

and pair it with the best of what we've got.

And of course it's a great way of reminding them

that despite their misgivings about our cooking,

we're now pretty good at it ourselves.

The neighbours that we love to hate, we salute you.

BELL RINGS

But alas, here is documentary evidence that not so long ago,

British cooking wasn't much to shout about.

# Somewhere beyond the sea... #

In the mid-'60s, Man Alive visited a town in Kent to see

how they were going to try and cash in on French appetites.

This summer, British seaside towns will be exposed

to the day tripper as never before.

Thanks to new cross-channel hovercraft services,

one town hoping for a rush of francs to the bank is Ramsgate.

We may not be able to do anything about the weather,

but what about food?

Ramsgate's publicity officer John Hackett has been studying

the visitors and their complaints.

We feel that if a foreigner is visiting England

and staying in Ramsgate, it gives them a change

if they try to adapt their ways to ours.

-In other words, they've got to accept what you offer?

-Yes.

So what can a day tripper from Calais reasonably expect?

This morning, we have on ham sandwiches,

pressed chicken sandwiches, cheese sandwiches,

biscuits, sweets, chocolates, ice cream and tea and coffee.

-Real coffee or instant coffee?

-Um...

it has been our general practice to use instant coffee.

Ramsgate wasn't alone.

It would've been a similar picture across the country,

as restaurant critic, Egon Ronay, was well aware.

I would say it would be highly dangerous to just drift

into any old place in this country to eat.

All sorts of terrible things can happen.

You see, in the 20th century, British cuisine suffered a crisis.

Years of industrialisation, two world wars and rationing

meant that, out of necessity,

taste really couldn't be a priority when it came to our diet.

It's no surprise, then, that for a few decades our food became

more about convenience than passion.

A fact not lost on our French critics

and no more clearly expressed than in this clip

which proves things hadn't improved much by 1974.

Every year, a million foreign tourists come ashore at Dover

hungry for their first glimpse of the white cliffs

and their first taste of traditional English cooking.

John, John? We want some more steaks.

Have you gone to any special lengths

to keep the continental customers happy?

I wouldn't say special lengths, no.

You haven't laid on any special dishes for them?

No, I've always cooked in the manner that I'd like to see food.

Inside, £400 worth of rock hard fillet, rump and sirloin steaks.

An ex-insurance salesman, fruit canner and British Rail cashier,

he prepares every dish himself.

FROZEN MEAT BANGS ON TABLE

Oooh, that's not the sound of a happy steak!

Ah, nothing that five-day-old fat wouldn't sort out!

-FRENCH ACCENT:

-What is different here,

it's with cooking with butter.

Perhaps...next time, I prefer grilled.

-Did you like the vegetables?

-It's, er...it's English.

It's no wonder that British food suffered a bit of an image problem

amongst Gallic gourmets.

Thank heavens that, for the most part,

those days of indifference and complacency are well behind us.

MUSIC: "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" by Edith Piaf

# Non, rien de rien... #

These days, some French dishes have become incredibly well-suited

to our tastes and produce.

# Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait... #

Take beef bourguignon. It's become a British staple.

This is one of the dishes that reignited our love affair

-with food in the UK.

-Yep.

Because we kind of thought, "Do you know, we can do this

"and actually, with the produce that we have in the UK,

"we can do it better than our lovely French cousins."

Right, first off, I'm going to make "lardon".

-No, I'm not, I'm going to make "bacon pieces".

-Yeah, he is.

Now, look at this beautiful piece of chuck or braising steak

depending on what you fancy calling it. It's a lovely thing.

I'm going to cut these into cubes and we're going to season them

with salt and pepper.

Of course, we were eating beef while the French were still

kind of slaughtering and surviving on leftover dairy cows.

Historically as well,

during the French Revolution lots of the fantastic chefs that were

cooking in the palaces came to the UK

with some fantastic, fantastic dishes.

Kind of led by Alexis Soyer who came to cook at the Reform Club

and he brought with him some dishes from the country,

from Burgundy like the bourguignon and the coq au vin.

This was followed by kind of Escoffier who came to

work at The Savoy and actually the first recipe for boeuf bourguignon

was published by Escoffier in 1903 in his Cuisine Culinaire.

'Season your beef with lots of salt and pepper.'

'And whilst I've a spare pair of hands,

'I'll chop up a big onion for later.'

It's amazing on the food front now, I mean...

our whiskies going over to France, our cheeses going over to France,

our chefs are going over to France and now, our beef is being

exported to France which, 10 years ago, would've been unthinkable.

It certainly would, absolutely.

We're going to fry the beef off in batches.

It'll take a little time because we want it brown.

-Do you know what I'll do?

-What's that, mucker?

We want some peeled baby onions for later.

I'm going to blanche some onions

and set about the process of peeling them.

'We're using around 24 baby onions which are a swine to peel

'but if you soak them in water for five minutes,

'it makes it a lot easier.'

Right, I'm going to drain these onions off,

cold water and start to peel them.

Start peeling them at the top end and go towards the root

and keep the root intact because then when you cut the onion,

it's not going to fall apart.

I'll be here for some time, but it's worth it.

These onions are more than just an addition.

'Once your beef is browned, pop in your bacon bits.'

And just fry them till they let out all that fantastic,

fantastic fat and they go a little bit crispy.

Do you know, there are many French chefs now in Britain

who are plying their wares to great success in the steps of Escoffier.

Raymond Blanc, for instance.

He brings over the best of France and, you know, we love him.

-Yeah, and the Roux brothers.

-The Roux brothers, yeah.

'Once the bacon's nice and crispy, we can add it to the casserole dish

'before sauteing that big onion Dave chopped up earlier.'

# C'est bon! #

# I want you to get together... #

-Oh, you do some onions, let me do some cooking?

-I'll swap you.

DAVE SIGHS IN RELIEF

Now, to the onions, crush a couple of cloves of garlic.

BOTH CHEER

-Go on, Dave, ring the changes.

-Garlic, eh?

Now, that's a symbol of France.

-'But we're using world-class British garlic.

-Whoo-hoo!'

Right, onions and garlic go in on top of there. Now, the wine.

A bottle of red wine goes into this.

And I always remember old Floyd used to say,

"Don't cook with wine that you're not prepared to drink,"

and he's right.

Now, deglaze this plan with the red

cos there are some flavour monsters in there.

Pain in a neck these onions, aren't they?

Yes, but the thing is when they're stewed up with the mushrooms,

they're as much a part of the boeuf bourguignon as the beef.

Now, put that back on the heat, pour in the wine.

Bon.

'Top it up with 150 ml of water before popping it on the heat.'

Some tomato puree, couple of tablespoons.

And a boeuf stock cube.

THEY CHUCKLE

It's ironic, that boeuf bourguignon was originally a peasant dish

from the Bourgogne, from the Burgundy district in France

and it rapidly found its way into kind of a haute cuisine dish.

And it's a stew that's got rich and wonderful heritage

and we thank the French for this one. Now we can add the herbage.

Two fat bay leaves. Some thyme.

Two or three sprigs, I would just put them in,

you can always pick them out.

'Mix in these herbs and when we start to simmer,

'it's time for the oven.'

Right, I want a good ripple on there.

Put that into a preheated oven, 150 degrees Celsius for a fan oven

for about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half

or until Mr Bully Beef is tender in his bath of French wine.

# Boom bang-a-bang Boom bang-a-bang... #

Wahey!

'Plenty of time to finish peeling these bleeding onions!'

'But before that beef comes out,

'I need to chop up 300 grams of chestnut mushrooms.

'And the baby onions need sauteing in olive oil and butter.'

Put a little bit of colour on them.

Season them a little bit, job's a good 'un.

ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS

-Shall we look at it and see how the beef's doing?

-Yeah.

It should be tender but don't worry if it's not

-because it's got another three quarters of an hour to cook.

-Ooh!

-It's dark.

-Oooh, look at that. Beautiful.

Right, let's put those onions in.

To me, this is the best part of a boeuf bourguignon,

the little baby onion.

What we're looking for is some nice golden colour

on the skins of those baby onions.

Just so the natural sugars come out of them a little bit

and start to caramelise. Lovely.

'You'll need to thicken your sauce with two tablespoons of cornflour

'mixed with two tablespoons of water.'

We want this quite thick because there's going to be quite

a lot of water comes out the mushrooms.

-That's thickened up a treat.

-Right, mate, they're getting there

-so I can put my mushrooms in now.

-Yep.

-I have a confession.

-What?

It's a bit of a cross-cultural thing but I love my boeuf bourguignon

-with Yorkshire pudding.

-Oh, superb.

-Yeah.

Just bury those wonderful sauteed mushrooms and baby onions

in that red wine and beef. Ooh, doesn't get much better, does it?

-Look at that, Si.

-Fabulous.

That needs to go back into the oven, same temperature,

150 degrees for another 45 minutes.

FRENCH NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS

Let us experience a l'entente cordiale on a plate.

-Oh, mais oui, mes amis!

-Oh, it's heavy.

-Oh, yes.

-Aw, hey, man!

-Shall we check the seasoning before we commit?

-Oui!

I think that's perfect.

That's more perfect than having a night out

with Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau

when they were both in their prime, it's that good.

-Je t'aime.

-Oh, oui.

A little bit of potatoes Lyonnaise, another favourite.

A symphony of potatoes and onions and stock. Oh!

-Purple sprouting broccoli?

-Oh, go on, purple sprout.

-Oh, man, Dave, man, hinny, man, pet, man, love, man, love!

-I know.

-Great British produce in a great French dish.

-Mmm.

The smashing heritage.

-But look at the lustre that that red wine gravy's got on.

-Beautiful.

-Oh, that beef is amazing.

-Absolutely.

If you want to do a good boeuf bourguignon,

that's a really good recipe to follow and the thing is,

make a big panful.

It will freeze but that will taste even better tomorrow.

The neighbours that we love to hate, we salute you.

'In addition to exchanging recipes like this,

'we've also, over the years, had a healthy exchange

'of cooking talent across the Channel.'

'But some of the greatest French chefs who worked in the UK

'came here not out of pity,

'but out of respect for what we could achieve in the kitchen.'

'For Ivan Day, there's one cook who exemplifies this relationship

'more than any other.'

For me, one of the most extraordinary stories

about a French chef coming to England

happened in 1870 when an extraordinary man

called Felix Urbain-Dubois who was chef de cuisine

-to the Emperor of Prussia...

-Pfff!

-..he came to England

but he specialised in a particular type of cuisine which was

real haute cuisine, the highest type of cuisine you could imagine.

-These are the sort of dishes...

-Wow!

-..that he's preparing

and it was technically very, very, very challenging.

OPERATIC SINGING

Whilst Urbain lived in the UK,

he wrote at least three cookery books in English, for the English.

But books and dishes like this

weren't aimed at your average chef at home.

You'd only ever have attempted concoctions like this

if you worked in well-equipped and highly-skilled kitchens

of the British nobility.

This is the most grandiose food probably ever consumed

-in the history of Europe.

-What an amazing book.

Some of the illustrations are absolutely fantastic.

So basically, you can see this is a dish of pheasant but these stands

that they're sitting are not what you think, this isn't silverware,

or ceramics. They're made out of lard.

-What?

-They're sculpted out of lard.

I was just thinking, can you imagine the lord and master,

he's bought that book and he's gone down to see Cook and say,

"Guess what I've got?" And can you imagine what Cook thought?

Did Cook think, "Hmm, professional challenge," or "Oh, heck!"

The interesting thing is,

despite the fact that this cook worked

for the crowned heads of Europe,

he had some very good things to say about England and English food.

For instance, here he says,

"It is a fact worthy of notice that in England,

"culinary art is more cultivated than in any other country,"

so this man is holding English cuisine in very high regard.

He's not being patronising.

Do you think it was do with the Industrial Revolution?

We had money then, didn't we?

We also had amazingly skilful manufactories

and one of the other things that gets said by other French chefs

was how good English cooking equipment was.

Extraordinary saucepans, kettles, moulds.

That's a lovely bit of kit, isn't it? And that's a pastry mould?

-It's a pastry mould and, in fact, it's like a corset.

-Yeah.

This bit goes in here like that so the heat can

get in to the centre because it hasn't got very far to go.

That's why a lot of these pies are that shape.

That's the sort of thing that these people are referring to,

so it was a good place to work.

The thing about his type of cookery is it's extinct.

It's completely extinct.

Nobody cooks like this any more because you really need

a brigade of about 20 people just making the pastry.

We've not got anything like the resources

that Dubois had to hand.

But between the three of us, I'm sure we can knock something up.

So, if we go to the sort of Janet and John book number one page...

-THEY CHUCKLE

-Hot entrees.

And we've got this hot entrees here, but one that appealed to me,

because it's possible for us to make it,

was this one here which is called a pate chaud de mariniere

which is basically a fish dish, if you like.

Fortunately, Ivan's already one step ahead of the game

and using his fine British mould, has already made the pastry.

And would that be eaten, Ivan?

He actually says in his text for the recipe that this case

isn't normally eaten so it's more for display than anything

so what we're going to do is we're going to make this

Urbain-Dubois pate chaud and the first thing we need to do is

to make some quenelle and in his books, he tells us

how to do this. A very popular way of making quenelle

was with two identical spoons. Have you done this with spoons?

-He's good at quenelles.

-He's a master?

-Yeah.

-Well, here we go then.

'A quenelle's basically a posh dumpling.

'Breadcrumbs, fish, egg, butter, seasoning AND bechamel sauce

'all go into these before they're poached in a rich, meaty stock.'

That's lovely. Good lad, perfect. Urbain-Dubois would be proud of you.

'Meanwhile, I've got some crayfish to shell for the decoration.'

'And there's loads more to go in the filling.'

'But the real flavour of this dish comes from the sauce.'

This sauce is a Norman sauce, sauce normande,

and I'd like you to taste it because it's actually meat-based

and then it's had a truffle poached in it which is very unusual.

-Goodness, that's amazing.

-Oh!

-Oh, wow.

'We add this to the mushroom and crayfish to complete the filling.'

'But remember, we're not just recreating the flavours here,

'we're recreating the look.'

We fill up the croustade with a layer of those.

And then when we get about halfway up, we put in some of these.

What we're doing here is we're building up our layers.

We've got to build it up in a pyramid.

'Once the filling's in, Ivan tops the dish

'with a specially made quenelle embedded with truffles,

'before adding our finishing touches.'

It's fantastic, isn't it?

-Mad.

-It's staggering, isn't it?

-It is staggering and it's fantastic.

What a great glimpse into the past.

-But what does it taste like, Ivan?

-Well, I think...

-Are we really going to destroy that?

-Yes.

'Thanks to cooks like Urbain-Dubois, our aristocracy would have been

'more than familiar with elaborate dishes like this.'

MUSIC: The Can-Can

'But this starter is only the tip of the iceberg

'of a bygone culinary tradition and skillset

'that was as relevant here as it was over there, in France.'

-Mmm, it's punchy.

-Beautiful.

Quite apart from looking fab, it's a great, great plate of food.

-Fits with the empty plate, doesn't it?

-Vive la France.

-Vive la dif-France.

-IVAN CHUCKLES

It might only be 21 miles away but,

unless you were a really good swimmer...

..it wasn't really until the introduction

of the drive-on/drive-off ferry in 1953 and the hovercraft in 1959

that getting to France became a really affordable option.

After that, there was no stopping us.

Come the '60s, more and more of us were braving the seas on a day trip.

# We are sailing

# We are sailing... #

For many, it would be our first experience of foreign ways.

'French food might be a bit different from ours.

'If they do eat things like snails' legs, I don't really mind.

'It's up to them.'

-What did you expect, then?

-All French foods.

What sort of things?

Like spaghetti bologneses and frogs' legs and snails and all that.

-What did you have for lunch?

-Egg and chips.

-Did you try any French wine?

-Yes, it was very sickly.

-Would you try it again?

-No!

But no doubt, over future years,

she'd grow to develop a taste for it.

And it would be then that the French day trip

would really come into its own.

# I've got a ticket on a ferry ride... #

The phenomena that would come to be termed "the booze cruise"

was born in the '70s but by the '90s, business was exploding.

And it was a campaign that was undertaken with military precision.

It's Operation Alarm Call - destination: Calais,

mission: to bring home the bacon... and booze and cheese

and anything else that takes your fancy.

I have all the beer on a trolley and all the wine in the bag.

I'm hoping to have a very good day.

And an even better afterwards when I get the stuff back!

The French hypermarkets offered the English shoppers

a novel and exciting experience.

But they weren't called "booze cruises" for nothing.

Well, for me personally, I came to get the cheap drink.

The money you save on the cost of the trip, it just pays for itself.

# Down at the Ferryboat Inn

# Everybody's making merry... #

'Inside the hypermarket, Paul has already made a start loading up

'with beer which works out at about 25 pence a pint.

'Last week, an overloaded coach had to take off 7,500 bottles of beer

'and leave them in a barn.'

# Down at the Ferryboat Inn... #

In 1993, the Chamber of Commerce in Calais estimated that

some 500 million litres of alcohol was sold.

That's enough to fill 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

And most of that was beer, over 700 million pints.

That's 11 pints for every Briton.

Yes, we certainly know a bargain when we see it.

But it's not just cheap alcohol

we should be thanking our French chums for.

If there's one thing they're inexorably linked with,

it's the quality of their wine.

Medoc, Pomerol, Minervois and Champagne

are just some of the localities in France

where the geography, geology and climate...

..or as the French might say, "le terroir",

have combined to produce excellent wines

highly regarded the world over.

But, if you can grow the grapes,

British terroir can pop the cork of many a discerning wine drinker.

It's not easy to grow grapes here, it's really hard work

but the reason to bother is to get that something different,

to make something distinctive,

unique that people who can say "Yes, OK, that comes from there."

Down in the south-west of the country,

Bob Lindo and son Sam are two plucky Brits bottling

the essence of Cornwall in an award-winning

British sparkling wine.

There aren't many places in Britain suitable for growing vines, really,

and you need a combination of factors. You need to be low down,

in a nice, warm sheltered place, you need to face south,

you need to not be too windy or rainy. Even then, it's difficult.

You're not going to do it every year but on a site like this,

we do it most years and it's pretty good, I think.

Growing grapes is one thing but terroir,

as the French will tell you,

has as much to do with the wine maker as anything else.

Although a virgin in the wine-making game, it appeared Bob

was well in tune with what his landscape had to offer.

It took maybe three or four years to get the first two small vineyards

established and then we made some wine and we were very lucky.

The first vintage that I made, I fluked a medal

in the Wine Of The Year competition. It was a fluke in those days

and that gave us a lot of enthusiasm

so we planted more vines, more vines, made more wine

and we realised early on that there were some nice aromas

and flavours and things that could be got from grapes from Cornwall

and England that can't be got from grapes anywhere else in the world.

But it's not like we didn't have a wine-making history

of our own to build on.

Growing vines in Britain has actually been

an intermittent indulgence of ours since Roman times.

By the time Henry VIII ascended the throne,

it's said there were over 100 vineyards in England AND Wales.

However, a multitude of environmental and social changes

had, by 1918,

seen a complete end to commercial wine production in the UK.

LOUD, BRASH ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

And it wasn't until the '60s and '70s that a new wave of pioneers

struck out to put British wine back on the map.

The pioneers couldn't make wine, I don't think.

They had a very poor reputation for the actual wine.

And then the wine-making improvements

have been the next big wave, which I think we've been part of.

We've taken wine-making really seriously

with really modern equipment and knowing what we're doing.

But we wouldn't be where we were

without those pioneers, we owe them a lot.

What's certain is that whilst the English landscape might have

always offered the possibility of making good wine,

it's only recently we've regained the expertise

to make the most of it.

Now, of course, British wine makers are playing to their strengths.

You've got to make the right wine for your climate.

It's no good us trying to make something you make in Bordeaux,

and it's no good them trying to make the style of wine that we make.

For us, it's about preserving the fruit's characters

that we get in the grapes that are unique

to growing grapes in this climate.

What's unique is the grapes grow really slowly

and we find they take on similar characters to other fruits

that grow really well in this climate.

Everyone knows English strawberries

have got more strawberry flavour than Spanish ones,

English apples are more apple-y than French ones,

gooseberries, elderflowers, pears, raspberries...

They're all fruits that, when they grow slowly,

they have more of these delicate characters

and we find with the grapes,

they grow slowly every year so we always find

these characters are in the grapes

and they really are unique to growing grapes in England.

Our climate, the acquired knowledge of what grapes need to grow

and how to best process them,

has seen English vines at last producing some classic wine!

And the big "bottle shock" is what we're best at is fizz!

I think we make the best sparkling wine in the world.

I really do think that

and I think the reason is we have a fruitiness in it

that people really like that gets concealed

in warmer climates and I think it's unbeatable.

I mean, to think we're world champions

at rose sparkling wine in Italy,

in Verona, for two years in a row is unbelievable.

I still can't get over it. I cannot believe it.

I get the trophy out and have a look at it now and again,

just to make sure it's actually true, and that is true, I do do that.

Believe it, Bob! You're not the only one!

English sparkling wine producers

have been cleaning up all sorts of international awards.

Yep. Nyetimber, Ridgeview and Gusbourne

are just some of the wine producers making waves overseas.

In fact we've become so successful that some commentators

are even talking about us

in the same vein as, dare I say it, champagne!

I think one important thing that champagne has led the world in

is the most fantastic story.

Half the time, people don't even need to taste it,

they just need to know they're holding a glass of champagne

and that's what we have to be up against

but I don't see it as competing

and we're not trying to make champagne either.

It's a different place. It's a lovely place.

I love Champagne but I love Cornwall

and I like the fact we've got some special aromas here

that we can get in our wines that you can't get in champagne.

And I don't think the French would disagree.

Terroir is about place.

Encapsulating the best of what's local to you

through the medium of wine-making.

And although it might grate them to have to admit it,

as luck should turn out it seems that what this corner of England

has to offer is more than worthy of comparison.

It's very clean flavours. Yeah. Very nice.

Very, very drinkable and I think compares very, very favourably

with anything we've managed to drink in France.

For us it's really important to make something that's English.

So it's nice in its own right, so people want to carry on

drinking the English sparkling wine and not go back to champagne.

-We don't want to become a tribute band, do we?

-No!

Our sparkling wine might be compared to the likes of champagne...

But when cooking one of French patisserie's all time classics

the mille-feuille, please feel free to call it a custard slice.

Crumbs, my mother enjoyed a custard slice. It is a classic, isn't it?

It is lush.

But when it's cooked properly like we are, with a proper confectioner's custard, creme patissiere...

-Creme patissiere.

-And home-made strawberry jam.

And there is a little kind of fanciness on the top.

-It looks the business!

-It looks great.

So I'll get jammin'. Chicka-chicka-cha.

And I'm going to get creme patissiere-ere-ere-ing.

Confectioner's custard.

For the jam we're going to need 400 grams of fresh English strawberries,

hulled and finely sliced.

You can just use jam out of a pot

but we're making our own strawberry jam

and it's quicker and easier than you would ever think.

-Of course, the name mille-feuille...

-Oh, he's off.

..in French means 1,000 leaves and actually,

strictly speaking, that is an underestimate,

because a classic puff pastry comes in at around 729 leaves per sheet of puff,

and your mille-feuille is between two and five layers

so actually, it should be the deux mille mille-feuille

or the trois mille mille-feuille.

-Will you get on and make the jam?

-Yep.

-How does Bob Marley like his mille-feuille?

-Don't know.

With jammin'!

# I hope you like jamming... #

Strawberries in the pan.

# I want to jam it with you. #

About a tablespoon of lemon juice.

No need to be too pedantic about this.

Heat the strawberries and lemon juice for two minutes.

And add some jam sugar.

That's sugar that has added pectin

and it's the pectin that enables the jam to set.

We'll need 400 grams of this.

For the creme patisserie you'll need four egg yolks.

And we're going to add 75 grams of caster sugar.

And then we are going to whisk it, until it goes light and fluffy.

You see now, after a couple of minutes, that sugar has dissolved.

So I'm turning this heat up and I want to boil it quite hard

for about four minutes and if you've done it right, that should be jam.

See how the colour's changed? Look.

Now, to the sugar and egg yolks,

we're going to add 10 grams of cornflour

and 10 grams of plain flour.

And then you whisk that in.

Do you know, Kingy, I think the creme patissiere is the best bit.

-It's gorgeous.

-If I could just have that with bananas, I'd be happy.

-Maybe with a blob of jam in.

-It's true! It's good.

Now, that's the consistency and the colour that you're looking for

and colour and consistency is key.

Now, we're going to take 250 millilitres of semi-skimmed milk,

put that into the pan with the seeds of one fresh vanilla pod.

I've taken the seeds out of our vanilla pod.

But I'm going to infuse it even more by putting the vanilla pod in,

bringing it to a nice, steady simmer and simmer it.

Make sure it doesn't boil over but simmer it for four to five minutes.

I need to see if I have, in fact, created jam.

So take some of the syrup, put it on a plate and swish it round.

If after a few moments,

you put your finger across and get kind of a wrinkly skin,

-then we know that...

-Oh!

Yeah, look. We have made jam.

Then pour your jam into a heat-proof jar and let it cool.

There's too much here for the mille-feuille, probably double,

but what that means is we've got some lovely jam left over

to have jam sandwiches with.

When our milk's infused with the vanilla, remove it from the heat

and let it cool before adding to the egg mixture.

But you need to whisk it all the time as you are adding the milk

and as soon as it's mixed evenly, I am going to put it

back into the pan and, stirring constantly, thicken over a low heat.

Just keep putting it on and off the heat, make sure it doesn't boil.

Now place a block of ready-made puff pastry in the middle of some

baking parchment to make rolling it out a doddle.

And as you're rolling the pastry out, you turn the parchment rather than the pastry

and it all happens for you. It's easy!

Take a baking tray. Now, don't worry if this overlaps.

We're not bothered because we are going to cut off any bits we don't want.

Now I'm going to prick this because we want it quite flat.

We want it so that we can actually cut layers out of it.

So take your pastry. Put another sheet of paper on top, like so.

Then put another baking tray on it to stop it rising too much.

We pop that into a preheated oven at 190 degrees Celsius

for a fan oven and we bake this for 25 minutes or so, until it has cooked through.

Now this, you can see now how thick it's going.

We're going to spin this into a dish and set it aside to cool.

Now that's the sort of consistency we are looking for.

To stop a skin forming on top,

just push a little bit of clingfilm on the top of it.

It's all about preparation, this cake.

At the end it's just one big build.

I have a sheet of pastry.

Cut your pastry into three identical rectangles.

It is going to end up that size.

And place that very, very gently to cool. Sheet number one.

# Baby ain't tell you no lie

# I want some of your custard pie... #

Now for the last stage of our creme patissiere.

I'm going to whip 150 millilitres of double cream

and you want to whip it until it's quite thick

because what we are going to do is fold it into our creme patissiere.

Now we all know a vanilla slice has that wonderful top

that's like a sheet of ivory and then you've got, like,

these kind of wicked chocolate stripes through it,

a bit like a Bakewell tart.

I'm going to show you how to do that.

So I'm going to make two icings, one kind of lemony and one chocolate.

For the lemon icing take 200 grams of icing sugar,

a tablespoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of water

and whip till smooth.

And that's how you want it. Just so it runs off the fork.

For the chocolate icing mix 25 grams of icing sugar

with 5 grams of cocoa powder and two tablespoons of water.

Don't put too much water in

or you'll end up with sweet chocolate syrup.

-How is it going, mate?

-Not bad.

-HE LAUGHS

It's firm! But that is the sort of consistency you're after

because what's going to happen is that as soon as you start

to push the cream through it and fold it in,

the cream's going to let it down a little bit.

-It's come right, hasn't it?

-It's lush.

-I thought for one minute you'd lost it then.

That's the creme patissiere ready to rock and roll.

Chocolate icing.

Now we're going to build a vanilla slice

or a mille-feuille that will send a pensioner into ecstasies. Jam.

-Should we?

-We shall.

A steady but even spreadage.

Don't take it quite to the edge.

Only put the jam on two of your pastry slices.

You need to leave one spare for your icing.

I think we are there wit' jam. Over to you.

Take half of the creme patissiere.

Spread your creme patissiere evenly over two jammed slices.

Nicely done!

Now for the topping.

Spread your lemon icing over the remaining slice.

Once your icing's settled nice and flat,

I can set our resident icing artiste to work.

Now, we just need a thin stream of chocolate.

Man's a genius.

You can do as many stripes or squiggles as you like

but I'm keeping it to five.

Now's the time for what I would call the Mr Kipling chic.

You just drag that across there.

'Ee is very good, isn't 'ee?

I like your work, Mr Kipling.

-There you go.

-Look at that! That's a belter, dude.

And that's us.

-I will just support this in the middle.

-Thank you.

-Put that on there.

-I don't think that needs squashed, either.

-No.

-It looks belters.

-It does, doesn't it? I think we are all right with this one, man.

And this one is the topping.

Look at that!

Now that is what you call a mille-feuille.

That's it.

Mm!

That's not bad at all. It looks fab.

-Let's have a go.

-Get in!

-Oh, look at that!

That's what you want, isn't it? A squash.

How are you supposed to be delicate with this?

-It's not possible, is it?

-No.

-Beautiful.

With proper creme patissiere, with home-made strawberry jam.

-It's an absolute delight.

-It is. It's gorgeous.

And another example of the best of British entente cordiale.

But Dave, however fancy you make it,

it's always going to be a custard slice to me!

Here, Kingy, I think reclaiming some of their patisserie might be

the start of things to come.

Aye, but what will really get Pierre quaking in his beret

is when he finds out that way up in Nairn in Scotland, we've become

incredibly proficient in the art of growing

that most odorous aphrodisiac, allium sativum.

Ladies and gents, meet Gilly and Glenn Allingham,

the enterprising couple who've brought world class garlic to the Scottish Highlands.

The Scottish garlic is grown in this beautiful clear atmosphere

and this produces a bulb to die for.

It's fresh, it's sweet, it's got large cloves.

You won't see anything like that in the UK

and you probably won't see anything like that in France.

Sacrebleu!

But whilst records indicate that we were probably growing garlic

as far back as the 16th century,

it's unlikely it would have been happening this far north.

But the Scots have always been noted for their bravery,

so as enterprising farmers with a love of cooking,

Gilly and Glenn took on the challenge.

It's not a traditional crop but wild garlic grows everywhere.

So Glenn and I thought, if it grows wild, why can't we cultivate it

and grow it commercially?

So they started to look for a commercial variety

that could handle all Scotland could throw at it!

We came across the garlic in Canada.

This particularly variety called Music which grows really well

over there and their climate is very similar to ours

so we trialled it over here and decided it would grow

and it's so different to what we are used to

out of the supermarket that we really felt it was worth giving it a shot.

Perhaps this didn't turn out to be as big a gamble as they might have initially thought.

Over time garlic plants have proved surprisingly adaptable.

The unusual thing about this garlic is that it's really, really old.

This garlic has the same make-up as garlic would have had

back in the Egyptian times, when they used it as a way of paying people.

This garlic here has evolved.

It's been used to growing in the desert, now it is growing here

and it likes a cold winter.

It needs a cold winter to make it bulb,

this is where this garlic is different from your normal garlic.

The harsh Scottish winters might suit the bulbs perfectly

but it's the summers when the growing happens.

And the fact that Nairn is so far north gives Glenn many

advantages over his French counterparts!

One of the main reasons is the long day length and the mild sun.

The more sun the garlic gets, the stronger the favour

so we've got quite a long duration of sun during the day,

when it's out, but it's a mild,

low heat sun and we've got something here that the terroir

of which gives you very large cloves,

only four or five to the bulb,

it has a flavour that is quite sweet and nutty without being overpowering.

Some garlics, especially when it's old or a more commercial garlic,

it has a real rankness to it.

This garlic, you don't get that.

You've got a lovely flavour from it.

You don't get bad breath,

it gives you all the benefits of not having garlic but having garlic.

But whilst we're now embracing garlic in all sorts of dishes,

we do have a history of being a little sniffy

about this Gallic staple.

Garlic was mistrusted by the Brits way back in the 16th

and 17th century, mainly because of the smell that it created.

Really, the perception was that it was very lower class

to smell of garlic or onions or anything that was foreign,

so people actually stopped eating garlic at that time.

In the Victorian times, later on, it was really scorned on

and the upper classes wouldn't dream of eating garlic.

By the 1960s, cookery writers like Elizabeth David

were beginning to soften our attitudes towards French food,

sewing the first seeds of our evolution from garlic haters to garlic lovers.

I think that it's been the popularity of foreign holidays,

people going off to France or Spain on holiday

and tasting wonderful Mediterranean food

and when they come home, wanting to recreate it.

But we can't give the French all of the credit!

Whether it's a curry, Chinese food, Thai, Mexican,

garlic is used and always has been used, in all of those cuisines

and now it's more popular than it's ever been.

But a simple roast garlic soup

is the perfect showcase for our Gaelic garlic.

And as well as tasting good,

we shouldn't forget its health advantages.

Garlic's got antibiotic properties, it promotes well-being of the heart

and immune systems and helps maintain healthy blood circulation!

Given all this, it's a wonder why vampires have such a problem with it!

I don't think we're afraid to use it any more

and use heaps of it, you know.

Six bulbs in a pot of soup

and I'm not worried about smelling of garlic.

I think the idea would be to get everybody to eat garlic.

We'd all be really healthy and nobody would be worried about being antisocial.

-Are you hungry?

-Oh, yes please!

Of ALL the things our nearest neighbours have helped introduce to our diets,

you can't help but wonder in the fact that the one thing

we used to ridicule them for the most fervently

has now become one of our favourite and most versatile ingredients.

Vive la France!

But most importantly, vive la British garlic!

ALL: Bon appetit.

It's big, it's bold, it's tasty.

It's exactly what you want to put in the dish.

And it's exactly what we're putting in our next dish.

It's so mild and sweet that we're going to use around 40 cloves

of it in our Gaelic Gallic garlic chicken.

After you've eaten this, you'll not be snogging for a good while

unless somebody has eaten it with you.

I'm going to start with the chicken.

I'm going to season it with salt and pepper both inside and out.

It's interesting what he said about garlic and your loved ones.

Horace the Roman poet described garlic as being worse than hemlock.

He said that lovers would slap you across the face

and sleep on the edge of the bed.

I've got to admit, though.

We've all been on those holidays and you have a garlicky snog, don't you?

-It's lush!

-So, half a lemon.

And then half the half...

And stick it in the cavity.

I'm going to strip some thyme off because we are going to rub thyme all over the chicken.

It's a proper aromatic chicken, this.

-It is gorgeous.

-Stick two bay leaf in there as well.

And then we're ready for Dave's thyme.

-A healthy tablespoon.

-Perfect.

So we take that and just throw a few in the cavity as well.

Yes, there's a lot of garlic in this dish

but we're also throwing in 250 grams of baby onions too.

This series, I seem to have peeled a lot of onions.

Well, you are good at it.

Add some butter in a casserole dish.

Let it bubble and then we're going to brown that chicken off

so we'll brown the breast off first and then each side.

It's going to be lovely.

The skin always looks desperately anaemic unless you can brown it off.

-It's proper kind of French country kitchen this, isn't it?

-It's superb.

It's also the one that you could imagine

somebody in a Joanna Trollope would be cooking on their Aga.

Now 40 cloves of garlic, and we cook these with the skin on.

I think when the recipe was written,

they may have had little frugal cloves

but we're garlic-aholics

so we are going to use massive cloves.

And I'm just trimming off all the kind of rough leaves,

just to leave one nice layer of skin.

See, we've got a little bit of colour here.

And without doubt, with this casserole,

you get one of the best gravies going.

Just scatter half the baby onions or shallots,

..half the garlic...

-Such a lovely recipe, this.

-I love it!

Then another layer of onions and on top of that, the remaining garlic.

-Look at that!

-Gorgeous.

-And your house is going to smell fantastic!

The liquid, chicken stock and with all those robust flavours,

wine isn't enough, really, so I want 150ml of Vermouth.

150ml coming up.

So bring it to a simmer,

put the top on and then it goes into a pre-heated oven

of 180 degrees Celsius

for about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.

-Right, mate. That's it.

-Yeah.

With our Gaelic Gallic garlic chicken in the oven

it's only fair we reinforce our novel Celtic connection

with the classic Irish dish, colcannon.

Not your traditional French fare, it's like bubble and squeak with a few tweaks.

We'll boil up a few spuds for the mash and then fry up

four rashers of chopped-up streaky bacon in a dry pan.

That's cos we want a bit of colour on the bacon.

We don't want the bacon stewing. Colcannon, it's epic.

I mean, the French would probably go bonkers at having their famous

country dish paired with colcannon but that's what we British do,

we take the best of France and pair it with the best of what we've got

and colcannon is just the thing to offset that rich chicken.

Once the bacon's crispy, add 25 grams of butter

and two good handfuls of kale.

So cook the kale off for about four or five minutes with the bacon, with the butter.

All those lovely flavours are going to start to marry.

To the bacon and kale we'll add six chopped up spring onions.

Now for Dave's mashed potato and as part of the colcannon,

we've got some cream and some butter.

-Melt that together.

-It's a bit of a kind of calorific side dish, this.

The butter and cream have melted.

Put them onto the potatoes and whip them up.

Season it with salt and pepper.

Mashed potato with salt, pepper, butter and cream.

It's so good.

You know, it is bad for you but once in a while... Anyway.

Put that in there.

# I simply remember my favourite things

# And this is one of them. #

Just a bit.

There's a great folk tradition for colcannon in Ireland.

At Halloween they would make a big pot of it

and it would contain a gold ring, a sixpence,

a thimble and a button and when you were eating it,

if you got the gold ring it meant you were going to get married,

if you got the sixpence, you were going to be wealthy.

If you got the button, you were going to be a bachelor

and if you got the thimble, the poor lass was going to be a spinster.

You know, the smell, to me, of roast chicken and garlic

and mashed potato, it's the smell of home.

The smell of Britain. Look at that!

Just fish out those wonderful onions and garlic

and dress it around the chicken. The garlic is there to be eaten.

I think Elizabeth David is up there looking down at us thinking,

-"Not bad, lads."

-"Yes. Good lads." Thank you.

And the French aren't shy about the calorie count either.

So we'll make a sauce from the juices in the casserole

by adding 100ml of double cream.

Stick in two tablespoons of chopped fresh tarragon

and bring to a simmer.

Top tip. You know when you're spooning sauce into a jug,

you know it's dribbling off your ladle and going everywhere?

Go like this. Dip it once and it doesn't pour.

You don't make a mess on your jug.

Finally to soak up the delicious juices

and make the most of those roasted cloves of garlic, some fresh bread.

-Just falling apart, isn't it?

-Absolutely beautiful.

-What a smell.

Yes.

Just a few of those little onions.

-It does make you giggle, doesn't it?

-It does. It does.

-A little sauce.

-It is an aromatic delight, isn't it?

-Right.

Some say this is the best bit.

Get the clove of garlic, pop it onto the bread like that.

That's been roasted in the chicken juices.

-Ah.

-Wonderful.

It's classic French cooking and when you combine that

with our wonderful ingredients, we have got something really special.

And I think by combining that with colcannon, that works so well.

Bit of British, bit of Ireland, bit of French.

And a lot of garlic.

I'm glad I'm not sleeping with me tonight.

Yeah. So am I.

The close proximity of France to British shores hasn't always

given rise to a seamless exchange of culinary ideas.

But in putting our pride and prejudice to one side

and embracing a host of French ingredients and dishes...

If you want to do a good boeuf bourguignon, that's a really good recipe to follow.

We've not only inspired ourselves to start making better use of our own resources...

It is an aromatic delight, isn't it?

But believe our food to be the best in the world

and we want to say merci beaucoup to our Gallic neighbours

for their role in our foodie evolution.

The best of British entente cordiale.

If you fancy cooking any of the dishes seen today,

log onto bbc.co.uk/food and follow the links.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd