Atlantic Hairy Bikers' Best of British

We believe Britain has the best food in the world!

Our glorious country boasts some fantastic ingredients...

Start eating it, will ye?!

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.

..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 foodie evolution.

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

BOTH: Quite simply the best of British.

# Sunday, Monday, Happy Days Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days

# Thursday, Friday, Happy Days Saturday, what a day

# Rockin' all week... #

The fact that we are an island nation

has not only shaped our history

but also shaped the food that we eat, and indeed, how we eat it.

Our proximity to the world's second largest ocean, the Atlantic,

has been influencing our diet for centuries.

Not only the fish who swim beneath its silvery surface,

feeding our national obsession with seafood, it's also

the body of water that separates us from the good old US of A.

Yes, man!

And I think there's little doubt that our approach to food

and eating has been influenced by that very special relationship.

So today's show is a celebration of all things great

and good that the Atlantic has contributed to our great cuisine.

-They may call us Limeys...

-..we may call them Yankees...

..and we may have a bit of history.

But, over the years,

our relationship with the US of A

has made us allies in food and drink...

..that we invented...

..and they stuck a flag in and made their own...

..which we nicked back...

..from hearty seafood...

..or a transatlantic salad...

..to the downright devilish.

Us Brits and our friends across the pond sure love good eating. Mmm-mmm.

And there's nowt better than a good old clam chowder.

It might be seen as a classic American dish but it is believed

to have originated in Europe and was taken Stateside by settlers in the 1730s.

But we're going to give it our very own spin using glorious

home-grown cockles and soda bread.

Making it more Best of British with an American accent,

rather than the other way round.

I think cockles are one of

the tastiest seafood shellfish we have got.

Cockles, Americans would call it clams and charge you a fortune.

They would.

This is chowder in a bap, reclaimed.

The first step is to wash the cockles thoroughly in cold water.

Now, live cockles can be difficult to find these days.

But your fishmonger should be able to sort you out.

And if you can't get hold of them, well, other shellfish will do.

They should remain closed. Because that means they are alive.

Discard any that has got broken shells or that are slightly open.

Because if they open, they're dead - throw them away.

We're going to cover them...

by about two centimetres over the surface of the cockles.

On the surface of this water, porridge oats, wholemeal flour.

Anything like that.

Take a teaspoon or two,

and just float that over the top, and leave it.

Don't stir it in. Leave it.

What will happen, the water will moisten those particles of flour,

the cockles will then take it in,

and go, "What in goodness' name is that?! Pfft!"

Then spit out their grit.

Meanwhile, the base for the chowder.

And I'm chopping an onion. I spend half my life chopping onions.

-You do, mate.

-I do.

-You do it very well.

You're only just saying that because you don't like chopping onions.

This is true.

Add the perfectly chopped onions to the butter.

To that I am adding one chopped stick of celery,

and three rashers of streaky bacon.

-Si, I've got an idea.

-What's that?

-You know the celery leaves?

-Yes.

-Let's use the celery leaves as a garnish.

-Nice idea.

There's so much flavour in those.

To me, chowders are characterised by the fact they are quite creamy,

and they are thickened with potatoes.

But our old friend, Hannah Glasse, in her thingy on "currey",

she writes about chowders as being a rich soup

laced with seafood and truffles.

While Dave's doing that, I'm just going to

put 150 millilitres of water, and the juice of half a lemon,

into a saucepan, and I'm going to bring that to the boil.

That's what we will cook off our cockles in.

-What do you love about America?

-What I love about the States?

You know, I tell you, you know like when you are sitting

in restaurants and stuff?

Genuinely, I thought it was all a bit false. You know?

And all, "Oh, hi! Have a nice day." All that sort.

But actually, the Americans really do mean it.

It's just because I'm a cynical Brit.

-But I like the food too, because it's just as eclectic as ours.

-Yes.

It's fantastic.

You can eat your way around the world in most cities in the States.

-And I find that's brilliant.

-Good bakers as well.

They are good bakers.

You buy American baking books off the Internet.

Really interesting, quirky techniques.

-Which is a culture born out of settlers.

-Indeed.

Now, to this, I'm going to put some thyme, three or four sprigs,

and a bay leaf.

And just let that sweat down with the bacon, the celery,

the onion and the butter.

Wash your now grit-free cockles.

And here's how to cook them to perfection.

Once you know shellfish, it needn't be scary.

Pan, good solid pan, with a good, tight-fitting lid.

Bring the water to a boil, and then add your cockles.

As soon as you add your cockles, give them a good shake,

holding the top of the pan lid.

-They're just like clams, really, aren't they?

-Exactly the same.

We treat them exactly the same.

But really these are going to be in for three to four minutes.

And all it is, the reason you shake them in the pan

is to constantly redistribute the heat.

It's time for our soda bread.

Start by mixing 350 millimetres of whole milk with a pot of yoghurt.

Make the bread kind of rustic stylee, straight onto the board.

And there is me with my fresh weskit on.

To the board, I have got a big heap of wholemeal flour.

And a big heap of bread flour. And I'm going to make six large rolls.

Each of these rolls is going to be big enough to contain

a portion of soup.

To the mountain of flour, add two teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda.

With no yeast in this bread,

this really is fast-food baking, American style.

Two teaspoons of salt.

And two teaspoons of sugar.

And just mix this gently.

Make your flour mountain resemble a volcano

and pour a splash of yoghurt and milk into the crater.

That's fine.

Put about a fifth of that in. Start in that Irish housewife style.

Just mix and make a bigger hole until all this liquid has been used up.

What I am doing, in about 1½ to 1cm cubes,

dice a potato, quite a large one.

With this fantastic base that Dave has prepared,

we are going to add two tablespoons of flour.

And just cook that through and stir it.

At this point we are going to add the potatoes.

Add 300 millilitres of chicken stock and the same again of whole milk.

Stir it in, and simmer for 15 minutes.

-Dough.

-That will be a lovely mucker, that.

-It is.

And the flour now is beginning to take up the liquid.

Divide the dough into six, and coat an oven tray with flour.

Look at that. And that's going to make six wonderful soda bread loaves.

And each one, we are going to hollow it out

and fill it with the chowder.

I am just going to give it a brush with milk.

Just to glaze it in traditional soda bread style.

So we are going to put that in a pre-heated oven, 180 degrees,

about 30 to 35 minutes until it' risen and golden.

While they are baking,

all I am going to do is pick through the lovely cockles,

discarding any that are unopened...

-They're big ones as well, aren't they?

-They are fabulous.

These ones, this one here, look at the difference.

That's a nice clean cockle.

This one has still got a load of grit in it.

-Not good.

-This one hasn't spat. So, you are in the reject pile!

Don't add the steamed cockles to the chowder just yet.

If you do, they will overcook

and it will be like eating seafood chewing gum.

-Look at that.

-Get in.

With the rolls golden and risen, it's time for leek chopping.

Thinly sliced for the chowder.

I am just going to add some white wine.

About 100 millilitres should do the trick.

One leek, chopped finely.

-Stick that in there.

-This won't take long to cook it down.

-I will break it up a bit.

-Thank you. Just stir that in.

And then add 100 millilitres of double cream.

I am going to take this off the heat,

add the cockles...

..let them heat through gently, for a minute or so.

Season the chowder with salt and pepper,

and now it's ready to rest in its bready bowl.

You can eat the crockery.

Fill your edible receptacle with a hearty helping

and top with chopped celery leaves.

Imagine if we had baked the plate.

-There would have been no washing up!

-That's a good idea.

The cockles are wonderful. The bread is wonderful.

What a lovely combo.

And what a lovely way to serve your soup

if you've got some friends coming round for dinner.

All it takes is to use your loaf!

Well, from our friends from over the Atlantic,

to the cockles on our shores.

This is the best of British.

And this will warm the cockles of your heart.

The dark depths of the Atlantic continue to be a bountiful

source of food for peoples both side of the pond.

And whilst the Yanks have found their own unique way of preparing

some of the wonderful things you can catch in it...

..us Limeys are still discovering that the vastness of the Atlantic

is even now revealing culinary delights we have yet to tap into.

Looking like a monster out of a '60s B-movie,

these spindly-legged, lumbering, armoured orange hulks

would make the hardiest of superheroes hide behind his cape.

Yet in a turn-up for the books, these spider crabs are starting

to be landed in increasing numbers by British boats.

In Teignmouth, Devon fisherman Rob Simmonds and his wife Amanda

are looking to alert us to the delights

of this at Atlantic delicacy.

On the whole, because we catch a lot of edible crabs,

the spider crabs I don't target. Because of the price.

We don't get a good price for the spider crabs.

Even though we can sell them, we don't get a good price.

And they are a bit of a by-catch.

But there is an abundance of them

and you can catch tons and tons of them.

When I was a kid, I used to do lots of snorkelling.

I have actually seen the whole floor here carpeted with spider crabs,

and they seem to move in balls, sometimes.

There has a reported ball of these crabs in Lyme Regis.

They reckoned it was the size of a football pitch.

I have had pots come up full right to the top with them.

Absolutely jammed. And we just throw them back.

Which is a bit of a crime, when they taste so good.

And this is something they have known on the continent for a whale.

Any catch Rob does end up keeping tends to get landed in France.

They will sit down with a family

and have a very large spider crab and then divide it up into pieces

and sit there and have a family meal over the spider crab.

They have the right utensils and they'll pick it and they will get

the mouth up to it and make lots of slushy noises,

which is, you know, it might be a bit daunting for the English,

but things are changing.

And perhaps I am here to try to make that change a bit.

We have got something in there, for sure.

That there is definitely a good one. You see that?

That's a good spider crab. Whereas that one there...

I tell you what, we will put that one in the bin before he bites me.

This one here is a bit small. We'll chuck that one away.

He's no good to us. Back in the water, alive.

This one here, your common brown crab, edible crab.

This is the thing we predominantly fish for.

One reason is that it is worth more money.

Brown crabs are something that all crab fans will be used to seeing.

The question for Rob is, can we stomach the ungainly

appearance of the Atlantic spider crab?

It's a little bit daunting.

It looks like a prehistoric monster, really.

Which I think is great!

A lot of our problem is we want everything processed,

put on our plate, battered, no bones,

we don't want to get dirty, don't want to get messy,

I think it's time now we actually had a go at it.

Because the flavour of the spider crabs

is one of the best flavours that you can get, I think.

It tastes good. It's abundant.

And even better, spider crab

and crab fishing is about as ecologically sound as it gets.

If it is too small, we throw it back.

If it has got eggs, we throw it back.

If it is not good quality, we throw it back.

And it all goes back alive.

It is a great way of fishing.

Rob is convinced,

but his wife Amanda is also doing her bit to turn the tide of opinion

when it comes to the creature from the deep...

..by setting out to prove to diners at her restaurant

that looks definitely aren't everything.

But if you're taking on one of these monsters, you have got to be

kitted out with the right gear.

A couple of bibs here, because it does get a bit messy.

It might be messy to eat but it is simple to prepare.

After boiling it for a few minutes you simply pop the top off,

remove the lungs, and you're ready to go.

-That looks stunning.

-A magnificent crab.

Don't be daunted by how it looks. Because the meat is fab.

Your best meat is in the legs.

So, literally, lift the body up, rip the legs off, get your picker,

get your cracker, and pretty much get stuck in.

Look at the meat on that.

-That is superb.

-Well, of course it is an ugly beast.

But having eaten it now for the first time, the meat of that,

I think, is actually superior to your standard brown crab.

It has got that little extra sweetness and depth of flavour.

-Absolutely superb.

-The meat is wonderful.

And there's plenty of it if you know how to get it out of the crab.

We are so on the go all the time, always on the hop,

grabbing a sandwich, we're grabbing this,

we need to actually sit down and have a feast,

and do things properly, rather than everything done for us.

We may take some convincing as to the merits of this Atlantic treat...

..but there is an American culinary invention

that we now take for granted that we were once slow to embrace.

The difference between us and our friends across the pond has

never been so glaring is in the immediate post-war years.

Whilst their economy was booming and cars were flying

off the production line, in Britain it was a very different story.

We were still suffering after 14 years of rationing,

and while we were filling up on dumplings, they were feasting.

In fact, back in 1953 they had more food than they knew what to do with.

And this supposedly led to the creation of one of the most

notorious food inventions of the 20th century - the TV dinner.

'Swanson announces new three-course frozen dinners.

'The most complete frozen meal ever put in a single package.

'The first and only three-course frozen dinner.

'Look for Swanson three-course dinners at your grocer's.

'Remember, you can trust Swanson.'

The story goes that after Thanksgiving that year,

the Swanson company were left with hundreds of tons of excess turkey.

With no spare warehouse space, the meat was being transported up

and down the country by railway car to keep it chilled.

It could have all ended up in a smelly, slimy mess,

or a fuel crisis, if it hadn't been for some bright spark

who came up with the idea for the pre-packaged meal.

'Tender juicy slices of turkey.

'With tasty dressing, fluffy whipped potatoes,

'and green peas, in butter sauce.'

From that moment on, the company never looked back.

It's said they sold a record 10 million meals that first year,

securing them a place in American history.

# Radio was great but now it's out of date

# And TV is the thing this year... #

The frozen turkey dinner tapped straight into the hearts

of a nation newly in love with the television.

But it would be a while before the complete meal for one would

make an impression over here.

In fact, it wouldn't be until 1961

and it took something a whole lot more exotic.

This is the chef, the Vesta chef, who diced the beef,

sliced the onion, mixed the fruit, ground the spice, stirred the curry,

prepared the rice that went into Vesta beef curry

and it took him three hours.

This is the wife who went to the pantry, who opened the packet

and cooked and served that wonderful Vesta beef curry

and she did it all in 20 minutes.

This was our first ready meal.

And perfect for a population who didn't actually own freezers,

still preferred to eat at the table

but who were starting to develop a taste for something a bit spicy.

Curry, somehow it couldn't have been thought of anywhere else.

It was new, innovative and very British.

Over the coming decades, as more of us did get freezers,

we flirted with other forms of convenience meals.

Birds Eye roast beef dinner for one.

But it wasn't really until the arrival of that other

technological advance, the microwave,

that the TV dinner really began to appeal to us Brits.

George, I'm going to shove something in the microwave. What do you fancy?

Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Indian?

But here in the UK, it was chilled meals rather than frozen ones

that really revolutionized our eating habits.

First, perfected by Marks & Spencer,

the ready meal market was driven by the supermarkets.

It might have taken us a while, but once we got a taste for them,

there was no stopping us, we ran with it.

By 2007, over 14 million ready meals were eaten each week in Britain.

So much so, that today, we are the largest consumer

of convenience meals in Europe, only the Americans eat more than we do.

And we have the most varied range of anywhere in the world,

encompassing dishes from around the globe.

Back in 2010, it was estimated that around

a mind-boggling 12,000 options were available.

Satisfying all tastes from cheap and cheerful to gourmet,

we've got it all.

A selection that even puts the Yanks to shame.

Now, we have nothing against a ready meal, but sometimes, fresh is best.

And there's nothing better than this American classic

with our own British twist.

You see, the Waldorf salad traditionally has been cooked at the

Waldorf Astoria in New York and is a real symbol of Americana on a plate.

It is!

The Waldorf salad has been combined with many things over the years.

-It has.

-You can have a chicken Waldorf, a ham Waldorf...

You can have a nut Waldorf.

-Yeah, but if we're going to combine the Waldorf with something...

-Yeah.

-..with the Atlantic...

-What's it going to be, dude?

We think this good old British mackerel is a perfect bed mate

for the all-American Waldorf salad.

Packed full of goodies, we're going to show you to how bring

a slice of the Big Apple to your dinner table.

It's an oily fish. It sits well with the flavours of the nuts.

It's a good, good, meaty, fishy, fishy.

The Waldorf salad is a mayonnaise-based salad. Crack on.

You know what?

We're going to make our own mayonnaise because that's key.

It's a lovely, lovely thing to do. Don't be frightened of it.

It's not that hard.

The mayo is the star and I'm going to crack on with the stripes.

The celery, apple and grapes.

Making mayo takes complete concentration

and an attention to detail.

First of all...

Right, the Waldorf salad was invented by Oscar Tschirky

-in those years between 1893 and 1896...

-Smashing.

..when the Waldorf Hotel became the Waldorf Astoria.

Oscar had worked there since the beginning right

until the 1940s and he published a book called Oscar At The Waldorf.

He was maitre d' though, he wasn't a chef.

As I was saying, crack an egg...

Our recipe contains toasted walnuts, which is quite traditional

in a Waldorf salad, but did not become part of the recipe

until a revision in 1928.

-Celery is interesting.

-Shut up!

Two egg yolks. Large egg yolks, OK?

Because that is the start of your Waldorf mayonnaise.

Now I have seen some recipes for Waldorf salad that actually

has grapefruit, which would be fine with the mackerel,

but ours contains grapes.

Grapes have been around for years.

I'm using seedless grapes because you don't want pips in your salad.

That would be boring. Just half your grapes.

The red ones are nice

-because it's good colour with the green of the celery.

-Great.

Once you can get a word in edgeways, add two teaspoons of Dijon mustard,

one tablespoon of white wine vinegar and half a teaspoon of caster sugar.

Isn't it funny how grapes seem to taste the same

and yet grapes make wine

and wine tastes of really different things like peaches and apricots?

Elderflower?

Intrinsically, it's grapes. How does that work then, hey?

-It's a miracle. A miracle in the skin.

-Blitz until light and creamy.

This is the start of the emulsification process with the oil,

so you want to get this until it changes colour,

until all those egg yolks are lovely and light.

Patience is a virtue while making mayonnaise.

Keep that going, keep the blades going through it

and then we're going to add, very slowly,

you need to take your time, some sunflower oil.

Now one ingredient we've got for the Waldorf salad

that's better than the Americans, it's two eating apples.

We've got so many apples in Britain, we could eat a different

variety of apple every day of the week for five years.

Take two good British eating apples, peel them, core them,

slice them, slap them with the celery and the grapes...

That is a beautifully unctuous, thick, gorgeous mayonnaise.

We need it spoonable, so what we're going to do...

..we're going to add a tablespoon or so of water.

And then to that, some creme fraiche.

Just pulse it this time.

100ml of creme fraiche will not only help us

achieve the desired consistency for the dressing,

but gives it a slight sour note and a bit of zing.

Now, the consistency should have changed to a soft drip,

-which is exactly what we're looking for.

-Oh!

So the apples, I've peeled them, cored them, quartered them

and now I'm going to slice them.

The apple joins the grapes and the celery

and a nice big squirt of lemon juice to stop the apples going brown.

And that is kind of the stripy substance of our proper

Waldorf salad. Look at that, mate, there you go.

Perfect, man, thank you very much.

You know when we say spoonable and slightly drippy,

that is what we mean. It's that.

Now the eagle-eyed amongst you might have noticed there is no

leaf in our salad.

Well, that's about to change.

I'm just going to chop up some celery leaves and put them into the salad.

It really works.

You don't need much because they're quite a powerful flavour.

Add the chopped celery leaves to the grapes, apple and celery stalk mix

and start toasting 65 grams of walnut halves in a dry pan.

When it comes to facts, the walnuts beat everything else.

Did you know that walnuts are very, very good for you?

Although they're high in calories, walnuts can reduce cholesterol.

It used to be said, that you could immobilise a witch

by putting a walnut in her lap.

And do you know that in most parts of the world, the walnut is

known as the English walnut?

Because English Marines used to transport walnuts around the world.

-What for?

-Well, they like walnuts.

As fascinating as that all is, mate, will you get on with the mackerel?

I will, Si, and it could not be simpler.

So in the oven tray, we've got olive oil, lemon juice, salt,

pepper and parsley.

I'm just going to put the mackerel fillets in there

before I grill them to make sure they're evenly coated.

The mackerel has always been a bit of a dandy of a fish.

You know, in Georgian England,

-the Dandies were known as the maquereau.

-Were they?

Yes, because they were all kind of shiny and flashy like mackerels.

They are beautiful fish. I really enjoy mackerel.

That looks good, mate.

Just fold them... It's a delicate fish.

It actually is quite soft flesh.

You can't be too rough and robust with it.

Grill these for a couple of minutes, skin side up.

They're not going to take long at all.

We've toasted our walnuts.

While Dave has got the mackerel under the grill,

I'm just going to finish the salad off.

Spoon all the mayonnaise.

-It is a wonderful, robust salad, isn't it?

-It's fabulous.

There's no delicacy apologies behind it. It just delivers.

-I think this mackerel's done, Kingy.

-Let's have a look, mate.

Ah, yes, lush.

Put the Waldorf onto the plate.

Oh, lovely. There's a lot of fruit in there. A lot of good stuff.

The bulk of it really is apples, celery.

That's a really, simple, clean, straightforward dish.

-In fact, it's a fusion dish, without the confusion.

-Exactly.

But it looks appetising to eat and actually, you could do

a really healthy version of that using low-calorie creme fraiche.

-You could.

-You could make a skinny version.

That would be lovely.

Do you know, I reckon mackerel, from this day on,

-will always go with a Waldorf salad.

-It should do.

-Perfect, isn't it?

Absolutely is perfect. What a lovely flavour.

-Great combinations.

-And so easy to cook, as well.

You can get the fishmonger to fillet the mackerel for you.

How long did that take? Four minutes - a dowsing, salads and assembly.

-Best of British Atlantic. Come on.

-Mmm!

Tell you what, Kingy, I'm loving this Waldorf salad.

Well, American and British hotels are synonymous with great

inventions and not just food.

For over 70 years, the Savoy Hotel has been considered

THE place to come for a classic cocktail.

We're here to meet historian, Jared Brown, to discover more

about the rich and often surprising history of this transatlantic tipple.

It's a tough job, you know, but somebody's got to do it,

-haven't they?

-Yah.

Former bartender, Jared, has written many books about making

the perfect alcoholic concoction

and there isn't anything he doesn't know about this mix marvel.

He's even co-founder of the Museum Of The American Cocktail.

Jared, what is it about the cocktail that lights your candle?

Why are you so passionate about it?

The alchemy of a cocktail happens here, now in front of us.

The alchemy of a good wine happened ten years ago in France.

All you can do is pull the cork and pour it.

This is magic that you experience and enjoy.

This taller version of Tom Cruise is world champion cocktail maker,

Eric Lorincz, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge

of how to get you tipsy with all manner of options.

American writer in the 1930s, HL Mencken,

brought a mathematician into a bar

and had him calculate the number of possible combinations

and he came up with a figure of 17 million something.

It's up to people like Eric to ferret out which of those are good.

-Eric, in essence, you're a liquid chef, aren't you?

-Pretty much.

I'm always saying that chefs combine the flavours with a flame,

we are combining the flavours with ice.

The Savoy became a haven for American bartenders jumping

the pond in search of work after the introduction of Prohibition.

Soon the flamboyance of cocktails blended with it's prestigious

clientele, lifted the image of alcohol and the bartenders

who served it into a new level.

London had become one of the forerunners of the roaring

Twenties, where having a tipple or two was legal, giving free reign

for creative bartenders to concoct an array of mixed drinks.

But where did the cocktail actually come from?

Up until recently, the world thought the beginning was 1806

in the United States, where the definition of cocktail

was first printed and they said it was a mixture of spirits

of any kind, sugar, water and bitters.

Then my wife and I found it used in a British newspaper in 1798.

The truth was, a lot of the drinks that became American drinks were

born in Europe from European bartenders.

American tourists sitting in a bar, would jot down the great drink

the bartender made, go back home,

teach that to his local bartender, a few years later,

hit the newspapers and come back over here as a great American drink.

The first British cocktail book was published in 1869,

William Terrington's Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks,

and it gathered together many recipes with a European flavour.

-First drink in it was a gin or brandy cocktail.

-Right.

-Shall we make it today?

-We should definitely make it today.

Yeah, that would be fantastic.

I'm starting off with a few drops of aromatic bitters,

followed by orange liqueur.

Little bit of ginger syrup.

A bit of brandy.

This technique that Eric is going to use,

is how virtually all drinks were mixed from the 1790s

into the early 1900s.

He makes it look so effortless but it's really difficult to do,

-isn't it?

-Oh, it is.

You end up with a wet floor

when you're starting out learning this technique.

Once you get a white jacket, once you have a white jacket,

you don't want to mess it up.

This is the brandy version of the first cocktail that was

ever in print in England. 1869.

This is, what we are just about to taste, a little bit of history here.

-This refers back to the drink from 1798.

-Right.

Oh, Eric, it's fantastic.

What I don't understand is, if we were so instrumental in the creation

of the world of the cocktail, how come America's got all the credit?

America has always done a great job of promoting and marketing America.

There is no question.

But if you read the papers from the times, the Americans shouted

every creation from the mountain tops, but over here, by 1905,

the whole concept of the American bar had fallen out of fashion.

A lot of places weren't really making a go of it

and dropped the whole American bar, but The Savoy was one spot

where they were not going to let go of a great tradition.

And so they hired in an American bartender.

A young man named Harry Craddock.

Harry left the US in 1920 and went on to become one of the most

famous bartenders in the world.

He popularised the dry Martini and invented a number of classic

cocktails, which take pride of place in his Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930.

-My goodness.

-Look at the style though.

-It's beautiful, isn't it?

And Eric is going to let us try Harry's famous Corpse Reviver No. 2.

Orange liqueur, a dash of absinthe, lemon juice, aperitif wine

and a slug of gin.

This is a Corpse Reviver No.2.

Oh, man, that smells like it would wake the dead.

Welcome back to the 1920s.

-That is fabulous.

-Is it?

-Yes.

Oh, Eric, you've made Harry Craddock proud.

It's funny. Everyone thinks Harry Craddock was an American

and certainly he was touted in the press as an American

and he never came out and said anything different about that.

-Harry Craddock was originally from Stroud.

-Really?

So it's fair to say that Harry Craddock

-was, in fact, best of British?

-He was.

Well, there's a turn up for the books.

You know what, Kingy, I think we should show these guys how we do it.

-I'm leaving the bar.

-Oh, crumbs!

No pressure then, we've only got a world champion bartender

and the mastermind of the cocktail world to impress.

Gentleman, I thought for your delectation,

I would go very traditional and do a dry Martini.

That is my favourite.

-Oh, good.

-What about you?

-Oh, I love the Martini.

-Here we are.

Lucky old you.

Ah, you can't beat a classic.

Dave, however, has gone a bit more freestyle.

What is this called?

Erm...

It's called a Brain Scrambler.

I'm confident that Jared and Eric will know class when he tastes it,

unlike my Geordie chum.

Definitely more than the sum of its ingredients.

-Flavours coming one by one.

-That's nice.

It tastes like one of those melted-down rainbow lollies, with gin.

Dave's drink was great.

It was wonderful, it's an amazing drink,

but it is hard to impeach the classic.

Dry Martini.

There is no denying it,

-the traditional Martini is an absolute winner.

-Love it, love it.

-I can sense we're going to have a couple.

-Yes.

-So that's the bikes out the window.

-Yes.

-Shall we get a room?

-I haven't brought my wallet.

-Oh, quelle surprise.

So the great American cocktail is actually British.

What else have those pesky kids laid claim too?

The farmers' market, that's what!

No, man! You're joking!

I know it's hard to believe, but they're actually a relatively

new phenomenon in the UK.

They didn't spring up in an idyllic village somewhere in Somerset,

but in Los Angeles!

What?!

This was the original farmers' market.

It was started in the 1930s by a group of farmers who decided

to cut out the middle man and sell direct to customers.

-AMERICAN MAN:

-New ideas have a way of popping up in Los Angeles.

Like this unique farmers' market, which daily attracts

thousands of shoppers

and tourists who wander through long aisles of booths,

where farmers display products grown on their own land nearby.

And by the '50s, it was huge.

Man, look at those strawberries!

Picked at the crack of dawn.

Over the years, the idea slowly spread,

but suddenly, in the 1990s, the concept would take America by storm.

John Craven was flown all the way to LA to investigate this

incredible innovation of people buying food from market stalls.

Farmers' markets are a retailing phenomena in the States.

20 years ago, there were only four of them in California,

now there are 300.

Hang on, hang on. "It's a market!" I hear you yell.

What's new about that?

We Brits have had them for over 10,000 years -

ever since we had farmers, we've had markets.

They needed to sell their produce to someone, didn't they?

Ah, but with industrialisation,

more and more people moved away from the country and into the towns and

we began to buy our food from market traders and shopkeepers instead.

I don't want six or five, not even four pounds.

Sadly, we grew apart from our old friend, the farmer.

Those enterprising Yanks saw a gap in the market and brought us

together again.

We do all the work ourselves and we usually reap the benefits ourselves.

And we've become friends with a lot of our customers.

-It's a lot of fun.

-These farmers' markets were indeed ground-breaking.

Those clever Americans had managed to reinvent the wheel.

Or at least put a clever spin on it.

And in the 1990s, it was a case of the right place at the right time.

And throughout the country,

20,000 farmers are selling direct to the public at their local market.

The growth of the slow and organic food movements

meant they were exactly what people were looking for.

Every Wednesday we buy fresh fruits, fresh vegetables,

good for our health.

The freshest fruits and vegetables you can find in the city.

And it's all locally grown and most of it is organic.

It wasn't long before they found their way over here.

The first one opened in Bath in 1997.

For a generation brought up with the supermarket, farmers' markets

reconnect us face-to-face with the people who produce our food.

Well, I just really enjoy coming out and bringing the things that

I've just picked the day before out,

and selling it to the people and having a communication, just

learning what my customers want of me.

You get a lot of feedback, talking directly to the customers.

It's a mutually beneficial arrangement

that not only helped reignite our passion for British produce

and ingredients, but perhaps also tapped into the deep-seated need

for us to know where our food comes from.

There might be over 3,000 miles of water between us

and the States...

But it's not stopped a relatively steady flow

of American goodies continuing to roll up on our shores.

Cupcakes are one of the latest trends to have braved the crossing

and set up home here.

To many, they're simply a beefed-up version of our own dainty,

frugal fairy cakes.

But to Tarek Malouf, owner and founder of a chain

of US-inspired bakeries,

which he's set up in our glorious capital London,

cupcakes have an identity that comes straight out

of the heart of American culture.

Well, I think in general American baking, to me,

represents indulgence, an abundance of ingredients,

but there's also creativity to American baking

and cupcakes definitely lend themselves well to that,

because they can be decorated in a million different ways.

But at its heart is a simple cake mix,

once known as a "1-2-3-4 cake" after the one cup of butter,

two cups of sugar,

three cups of flour and four eggs that would go into making it.

Its creative metamorphosis into the cupcake we know today

comes more from its excessively indulgent deployment

of its signature buttercream frosting.

American buttercream is simply a combination of butter

and icing sugar -

a flavouring of your choice and usually a bit of milk or cream,

and that's pretty much it.

It's by no means unique to baking in the good old US of A,

but, like with most things in life, they don't half lay it on thick!

We just use our palette knife to create a cone in the top of it.

And twist the palette knife round

and we get the Hummingbird swirl, which is what we're famous for.

It's actually not a very good one!

# You'll always be my sugar candy

# You'll always be my sweet, sweet dandy

# You'll always be my sugar candy

# I'll be true to you, to you... #

When we first opened, people didn't really know how to take them.

Initially, people walking through the door did see them

as something purely for children.

But that did soon change, and within the first month we started

having regulars coming in on a daily basis for their cupcake fix.

It's just something a little bit... cheeky.

Good comfort food.

Well, I have just bought a cupcake because who doesn't love cupcakes?

We'll get another cake now. It was lovely.

Whilst most of the nation seemed to have succumbed to the might

of the full-fat Lady Gaga of the cake world...

To British food historian Annie Grey, these American invaders are nothing

more than a gaudy copycat version of our own dainty fairy cakes.

I think I'm rather ambivalent towards the cupcake.

That's the kind of ambivalence that verges on the cupcake

as abomination, really.

I'm all in favour of the real cupcake, the kind of early version

which is like what I would call a fairy cake - something small,

delicate, well-balanced, spongy,

very limited decoration, if any at all.

Something that's just a little flippety-jibbet,

you put in your mouth and it floats away.

What I hate is what I would think of as the Americanisation

of something which is quintessentially English.

Ah, but will our UK resident California "cupkate" be able

to convince Annie the merits of this sugary sweet show-stopper?

While fairy cakes do have heritage

and they're quite cute to look at, the frosting...

Eh... I always find fairy cakes to be a little bit of a let down.

-Do you want to tuck into that one?

-Yep.

-And then we can all just...

-Brilliant.

-..watch the delight that's going to take over your face.

-Wow, that's sweet.

-Mm-hm.

-Very sweet.

But nice.

That's not a cake for a country that's been through rationing, is it?

Greedy, greedy, American-sized cakes and I am a greedy American,

so I'm totally OK with that.

This is all about instant gratification and about wanting

to eat it now and, therefore, when I think of cooking cakes,

especially small cakes, I think of, especially as a food historian,

of making nice little fancy things which I've spent

loads of time on, which are probably for afternoon tea.

I think in its own way, the cupcake has its own sort of heritage,

and even though it's become very popular and very trendy,

you can't blame the actual good cupcake, because it is delicious.

I'd probably rather have a bacon sandwich.

Well, Annie might still not be sold on them, but it's clear

the British public have taken them to their hearts.

So these brash newcomers look set to be around for some time to come.

-Just like that other important American beauty...

-The brownie!

Beloved by children, pensioners, rich and poor alike,

everybody loves a brownie.

And we're using white chocolate as well as dark chocolate.

-If we'd used all white chocolate, it would in fact be a whitey.

-It would.

It would be a whitey.

Now, what we're going to do is melt some butter in a pan.

Because, as you well know, brownies are rather calorific.

And it's a bit of a treat for us, seeing as we've lost a few pounds.

Shed a bit of the timber.

-I've got four eggs in a bowl.

-Oh, you haven't!

-I'm going to whip 'em!

-You're not.

I'm gon' whip these eggs until they're nice! Did you know...

Oh, God.

..that it's thought that the brownie

was first made at the Chicago Palmer Hotel,

and it was the proprietor's wife, a Mrs Bertha Palmer...

-Not Bertha!

-And she created the brownie for a Columbian exposition.

-Really?

-Because it was full of Columbian ladies,

and she wanted Chef to make something that wasn't as big as a cake,

that was more delicate, could be eaten in the hand or indeed

packed in a Colombian exhibition lady's lunchbox.

So they say the brownie was born then,

and actually the Chicago Palmer Hotel exists to this day,

and one of their favourite things to serve is a version of the brownie.

But these days it's got more chocolate

and it's covered in apricot jam.

I have a baking tray here, or a brownie tin.

A brownie tin is like a baking tray with high sides.

-Now we're going to liberally butter this.

-Oh, butter it, butter it.

You don't want your brownie to get stuck.

And there is nothing worse, ladies and gentlemen, than a stuck brownie.

Once the brick of butter has melted, add 175 grams of brown sugar

and then the same of white caster sugar.

-There's no way you're going to get a low-fat brownie that tastes good, are you?

-No.

It's a sweet little number, this.

Oh, aye - chocolate, you know, it's an aphrodisiac.

-Does it put zip in your pip, chocolate?

-Yes.

Of course it does, cos it releases endorphins. Yes.

Endorphins are the things that make you happy.

But, you know, after Bertha Palmer invented the brownie in 1893...

..their popularity spread massively due to the GIs in World War II,

spreading brownies all over the world.

Well, they would, wouldn't they? They were...

There was a great saying about GIs, wasn't there?

-Overpaid.

-Oversexed.

-And over here.

-My mother went out with a GI at one point.

-Broke her heart, didn't he?

He did.

-Nasty man.

-Nasty.

'But there's nothing nasty about this sweet treat.

'Once cool, add the sugar and butter mix to the eggs.'

And just make sure that you're stirring all the time,

to make sure that it's well combined.

Look, you can see what's happening now is,

it's kind of like a toffee consistency.

Kind of really melty and lovely.

These are brilliant to do with kids, aren't they?

Apart from the pleasure they get out of eating them,

they're good fun to make.

You see, while our kids were making rock buns,

-the American kids were making brownies.

-Kingy.

-Yeah?

Do you remember in Memphis we went to Piggy Wiggly's,

-the world's first supermarket.

-Oh, yes.

And it's amazing, the kind of choice and also the fella at Piggy Wiggly's

invented the kadoozle.

The kadoozle was a thing where, like, little boxes where you wanted

a sandwich - you put your money in and got it, it was called kadoozle.

-It was American. That spread over here as well.

-It did.

-It didn't work very well because they kept breaking down.

-They did.

There's nothing worse than a broken down kadoozle.

That was a famous record by George Formby.

# There's - hey-hey! - nothing worse than a broken kadoozle! #

POSH VOICE: We need to sieve the flour and the cocoa.

I had a posh girlfriend once who used to say "cou-cou". It's "co-co"!

-It is.

-Look at that. It's quite pretty, isn't it?

-It is.

Terrific, isn't it?

The only lumps in this brownie are going to be pecan nuts,

-chocolate and sour cherries.

-Oh, don't you just?

And remember, use cocoa, not drinking chocolate.

Lots of people make that mistake,

they try to make a chocolate cake with drinking chocolate.

And it shouldn't, it should be cocoa. Hey!

-Roy Rogers!

-Trigger!

Hi-ho Silver, away!

That was something we got big time when we were kids,

from America, wasn't it? Cowboy films.

Oh, I loved them. Loved them.

DAVE HUMS WESTERN TUNE

Chocolate.

Now, these chocolate brownies, they are full of chunky chocolate chips

and it's a mixture of white chocolate and dark chocolate.

And, basically, we want to roughly hew them into chunks,

so you want proper chunks, you want a treat. And random chunks, lovely.

And while Dave's chunking his chocolate,

I'm just going to cut through...

some nice pecans, just chopping through.

So your pecan nuts go into the batter.

-We're not shy on chocolate in these, are we?

-I know.

It's important that that is cold

cos you don't want the chocolate to melt.

You want to keep its integrity, don't you?

You want to have those lovely bites and bits of chocolate.

And there's that much fat in this that they will stay fresh

for about three days, but get real.

-Ain't no way they're going to last for three days.

-Not a chance!

You're going to have a frenzy on.

'Add the chocolate chunks to join the pecan nuts and stir in.'

'Now add 70 grams of chopped sour cherries.'

-Kingy, sour cherries are a very interesting ingredient.

-How are they?

Yes, they are.

They've been around since the Romans introduced them in the

1st century AD, and they were popularised during the time of Henry VIII.

By the time 1640 came,

there were more than 22 registered growers of sour cherries in Kent.

So much so, the American colonists in Massachusetts,

the first sour cherry that they planted was called the Kentish Red.

-You don't say!

-So, we're giving, we're giving all the time.

-We are.

'And the giving continues.

'To your greased brownie tin, add the mix. And don't worry, Si -

'I'll take care of the washing up.'

What we're going to do

is just make sure that the batter... Dave Myers!

Stop that. ..is pushed right into the corners.

And pop your tray into a preheated oven,

170 degrees Celsius for a fan oven

for between 30 and 35 minutes, and they will be risen up and gorgeous.

Yes!

THEY WHISTLE AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM

Well, Kingy, let's have a state-off!

-Texas.

-Utah.

-New York State.

-Kansas.

Tennessee.

Massachusetts.

Mississippi.

-Louisiana.

-Washington.

-Michigan.

-Oregon.

-Ohio.

-Alaska.

Yeah, good one. New Mexico.

-California.

-Nevada.

-Hawaii.

-Florida.

Maine.

-Nebraska.

-South Dakota.

-North Dakota.

-Tennessee.

Kentucky.

Minnesota.

'And once you've reached all 50 of them, it's time

'for a state-of-the-art brownie.'

-Oooh.

-It's risen.

-Ho-ho, look at that!

-Get in.

-Phwoar!

-That's it. It's changed colour, hasn't it?

-It has, mate.

The thing is, it's bound to be liquid

because all the chocolate that's in it will be molten.

Oh, yeah.

'20 minutes of self-control letting this slab of brownie to cool,

'and your reward will be this.'

-Oh, it's a good cutter.

-Oh, it's a lovely cutter!

-Ooh, the chocolate is still moist, still melting.

-Gorgeous.

It'll be a great one to keep in the fridge, this,

and that chocolate is going to be crispy.

There was a lot of chocolate, a lot of stuff in there,

but there's a lot of slices.

-You're not going to be able to eat many. Shall we?

-Oh, aye.

It's sticky, it's unctuous.

They're still a bit warm, which has pleasure in itself.

The pecan nuts, the cherries, the chocolate.

This is definitely a Hairy Bikers' homage to that special relationship

between the UK and the US of A.

Yep!

They're the best chocolate brownies in the world.

-Two nations united by that bountiful ocean, the Atlantic.

-We Brits...

And those flaming Americans...

Are comfortable bedfellows

when it comes to our mutual love for cooking and eating.

So, may we continue to share and share alike.

If you want to make a splash with our Atlantic recipes, then dive into:

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