1960s Hairy Bikers' Best of British

We believe that 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.

'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 them enjoy 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!

The 1960s were all about flower power, free love and being cool.

As the saying goes, if you remember the '60s,

you probably weren't there!

Wow, man. I must have had a far-out decade, dude.

-I can't remember a thing.

-You were only three!

But alongside the cultural revolution there was

the first flames and embers of a pretty far-out foodie revolution.

Wow! The optimism of the decade overflowed on to our plates.

You know, with improved incomes, migration and the rise of

the supermarket opening up a whole new world of taste and flavours.

It was a fab, exciting time for food lovers,

and this show is a celebration of all of it. Oh, groovy!

-People actually didn't say that in the '60s.

-Did they not?

-Well, they didn't in Barrow and Furness!

Yes, pop pickers, the 1960s was far out when it came to fashion,

music, and having a bit of brass in your pocket.

But at the beginning of the decade

what we ate was more Coronation Street than Carnaby Street!

'But thanks to some gastronauts from overseas...'

Oh, look at that!

'And closer to home...'

Everything in life is so easy when you know the way.

'We entered a brave new world.'

# Fire! Do-do, you're gonna burn! #

'As they fired up our appetites for new and exciting food.'

London Town was at the heart of the swinging '60s scene

and that's where we're heading to first.

In the UK, we are blessed with some of the finest Italian restaurants to be found anywhere in the world!

-Well, other than Italy, you know.

-Well, of course other than Italy!

But of course nowadays we're familiar with authentic

Italian ingredients, like Parmesan cheese, olive oil and risotto rice.

But it hasn't always been like that!

The swinging '60s saw the rise of the Italian restaurant,

and the beginning of our love affair with great Italian food.

But it wasn't just the food on the plate that captured our imagination.

It was the atmosphere of these lively,

relaxed restaurants that ushered in a new approach to eating out.

And we're here to meet the man who was at the start of it all!

Post-war dining out was an austere affair of minding your "Ps and Qs" and dressing like a penguin.

But the freedom of the '60s saw the rise of the trattoria,

relaxed restaurants with beautifully cooked Italian food -

like-a Mamma used to make!

And leading this revolution against our dinnertime doldrums was

the restaurateur Alvaro Maccioni.

Alvaro, you know when you first arrived in England and in London...

-Yeah.

-What was the food scene like then?

The food was like coming in another planet. As far as food is concerned.

I could not afford, obviously, to go to the Savoy or whatever,

so there was nothing for me to eat.

But then, obviously, there was the idea

of introducing the trattoria.

In those days, it was very difficult to run an Italian restaurant.

Because most of the material was not available.

First thing I asked, where do I buy olive oil? "Oh, olive oil?"

"Let me think. Yes, the chemist." The chemist. Yeah. All right.

Go into the chemist. "Excuse me, madam, could I have a bottle of olive oil?

"Certainly." She disappears,

she comes back with a little bottle like this, that big.

I said, "No, I want a litre, big one."

"A litre? What do you want to do?"

"I'll cook." "No, this is not for cooking. Olive oil is a laxative."

Before long, Alvaro's reputation exploded like a culinary Vesuvius,

and he found himself running an empire of 18 restaurants

brimming with actors, royalty, rock stars...

and even James Bond!

It didn't take long for the public, and indeed some of the biggest

-stars in the world, to discover your restaurant, did it?

-Absolutely not.

I mean, when I opened my first restaurant, after a week

-Sammy Davis Jr, Princess Margaret were in my restaurant.

-After a week?

-After one single week.

I went home and literally I was crying.

But it hasn't all been plain sailing.

As you see, the way I speak... I never smoked in my life,

yet I discovered I had cancer of the throat.

They removed my voice box completely.

But when they tried to do the operation,

they told me that there was no chance for me to stay alive.

And I said to them, "Never mind."

The doctor looked at me and said, "What do you mean, never mind?"

"I've had the most wonderful life you can imagine."

Alvaro now runs La Famiglia, in World's End, Chelsea,

where he still serves some of the same dishes that

he introduced to our shores nearly 50 years ago.

He's going to show us one of the most popular,

pollo sorpresi - chicken Kiev, Italian-style.

So, Alvaro, would you say that this is the signature dish of the '60s?

This was absolutely the signature,

every restaurant in the '60s had to do this. They had it on the menu.

I cooked for about 300 people a day,

-we would sell about 100-150.

-Wow!

This was the most popular dish you could have.

For this amazing chicken Kiev, a supreme is flattened.

Garlic and herb butter is then added to the centre of the breast

and the mini fillet used to seal and create a chicken torpedo.

The whole thing is then rolled in flour,

then egg and finally breadcrumbs.

There it is. There you are.

-How long would you cook that for?

-Seven minutes.

You lift it up and wait for one minute.

Then you dip it in for another six minutes.

Lift it up, wait one minute and serve it.

Perfection, perfection!

-And there's your surprise!

-Look at that!

Yes.

Fantastic!

-That is perfectly cooked.

-It's lovely.

Were there any particularly famous guests that loved this dish?

-Frank Sinatra came in.

-Frank Sinatra?

-80. Ordered 80 of this.

-No!

-80!

-80?

-80. We were absolutely up here!

Mamma mia! What a treat-o!

Alvaro's food is so good that his customers from the '60s are still eating here.

Like Jimmy Tarbuck and legendary photographer Terry O'Neil.

When you first came to Alvaro's, was the food very new, very fresh?

Oh, yeah, I was used to eating steak and chips and fish and chips

and all that type of stuff.

Mozzarella and Parma ham, I mean, I thought was fantastic.

It was just fabulous food.

Go back to '62, '63, when this guy has opened.

It was an adventure to try this food.

You know when you were a kid and your mother would put food...

and you'd go, "I don't like that." You'd never tasted it.

Down here, you tasted it and went, "Dear God,

"what is that?" It was like an explosion and it was wonderful.

Everyone was really friendly to you

and they'd bring you all this food which I'd never even eaten,

so I was eating all this food and falling in love with it.

There are now over 5,000 Italian restaurants in Britain,

but what's next for the man that started it all?

Lots of people ask me, when are you going to retire?

But I told them, you cannot retire from your hobby. This is my hobby.

This is my life. If you ask me to do anything else but this, I am lost.

So next time you're tucking in to a quattro stagioni...

Or a spaghetti carbonara, you know who to thank.

Before the Italians started to make their mark on the English restaurant scene in the '60s...

We Brits had already fallen head over heels in love with Continental food.

But it was far more of a French affair.

And there was one dish that graced the tables of all the poshest restaurants.

Steak Diane oooh, je t'aime.

Succulent British steak cooked with a delicious creamy sauce.

There is nothing that reflects the glamour

and raciness of the 1960s other than the Steak Diane.

What a way to set aside the austerity of World War Two,

to eat food you could have only dreamed about while on rations.

It's true, it's true.

And you know, all the hip '60s restaurants loved this,

setting fire to stuff, flambeing.

We start off, and there is a Franco-English vibe going on,

even with the accompaniments - taters and garlic.

-I'll get on with the saute, you get to rub the meat.

-Thanks!

Terrifico-co!

Slice the fillet steak to create four generous portions.

You don't want to scrimp on a Steak Diane.

Grind two tablespoons of whole black peppercorns.

Their fresh heat is going to be at the heart of the Steak Diane sauce.

And add a little salt.

For the potatoes, you'll need to cube around 650 grams.

Use Maris Pipers if you can.

They'll need to boil for 5 minutes or so,

just until they start to soften.

The war is over, Merry Christmas! Let's party!

This is the time of David Hemmings and Blow Up! David Bailey, Jean Shrimpton!

It's groovy, baby! It's mad-for-it man food! Whoa!

-Do you not think he's liking this a bit too much?

-I was there, man!

Man, I was, man! I caught the tail end of it, but I was there!

-How old were you in 1968?

-3!

-Lying toad.

-All right. I was 11.

-Were you?

-I was there, yeah. I used to have a "vi-nile" top.

-Vinyl, man, vinyl.

It was "vi-nile" in Barrow.

And it had a TV 21 sticker on it from the comic.

-I remember decimalisation, me.

-Do you?

I had me converter and everything, two little wheels.

Those were heady days. I remember the first man on t'moon.

I remember England winning the World Cup!

I think we might have to wait until you can go to Mars

on a mini-break before any of us get to experience that pleasure again.

Scruff your taters!

Look, they're just slightly scruffed up,

and a scruffed-up spud is a crispy spud!

Put 50g of butter and two tablespoons of sunflower oil into a hot pan.

And when it's melted, add the potatoes

and season with lashings of salt and pepper.

You'll want to cook them until they begin to go golden.

They're colouring up a treat!

-They're nice, them, dude, aren't they?

-Time for the garlic!

That would be new in the '60s.

A new and revolutionary, freaky thing called garlic!

Funny how times have changed and how our palettes have changed.

Because there's far more food available now with varying

flavours and tastes than there ever was then.

The '60s had a certain culinary style,

but it could be said in some ways to be a bit of a gastronomic desert.

-But we were less than a decade out of rationing!

-Exactly!

-So people's psyches were different.

-Absolutely.

After 10 minutes add the cloves of one small bulb, keep them in their

skin so when they're cooked they'll provide bursts of yummy garlicness.

And add a teaspoon of finely chopped thyme leaves.

OK, we're going to start cooking these lovely steaks.

With the salt and pepper mix we made before.

Now, you could use sirloin or rump for this, or indeed rib-eye.

The Diane refers to the sauce, not the actual piece of beast.

So just liberally season them on both sides. Quite a large knob of butter.

-And a little bit of oil.

-Whoa!

-Here we go. Now.

Oh, and that seasoning is going to form a wonderful crust, isn't it?

-It's beautiful.

-Some people say you shouldn't salt steak before you cook it,

as it draws the moisture out, but it's worth it for that crust!

We kind of want it rare, medium-rare,

so it's about three minutes on each side.

Obviously, that depends on how thick your steak is,

so the rule by thumb though, with a steak of that thickness,

three minutes each side, you'll get it medium-rare.

You know when you're cooking this on telly

and you look around and the crew are like on starting blocks with forks in their back pockets,

-it's a fearsome sight!

-It is!

But they'll have to wait whilst the steaks are cooking.

Finely slice two shallots, ready for the sauce.

When the steaks are ready, take them out to rest...

..which is essential for the meat

to release lots of their lovely juices,

which we're going to need later on.

Look at that!

Butter, fat, meat juices, pepper and salt.

To that, we add the shallots, and we give them

about three minutes - I've turned that right down.

'Now comes the fun bit - you'll need three tablespoons of brandy!'

-Are we ready?

-We certainly are.

-Right, this is the bit I love.

And the brandy... Take care. If you burn your kitchen down,

it's over to you - don't blame us, OK?

Oh! Zut alors, my crepe suzette!

Ooh, fire! Duh-duh...!

# Take you to burn

# Fire...! #

Flambeing the sauce will cause

all the bitter alcohol from the brandy to evaporate.

Look at that!

Oh! I feel the spirit of Arthur Brown is upon me!

Now, to that, a teaspoon of mustard -

French!

Some Worcestershire sauce - undoubtedly English.

This is very much an entente cordiale, isn't it, this?

Now, some stock - beef, not too strong.

If you make this with a cube, just use a third of a cube for 200ml.

-LAUGHING:

-Now, the cream!

Three tablespoons of double cream.

You have the cooking juices -

put those back into the pan.

Oh!

That's cooking gold.

It is the most delicious sauce, isn't it?

Oh, it's beautiful. It's classic,

it's just all of those classical French techniques

-just there - fabulous.

-I wish you could put your head in this pan,

because that garlic, and the crispy potatoes,

is beginning to give off such an aroma, it's heaven.

'And for the finishing touch to the sauce,

'add a tablespoon of finely chopped tarragon leaves.'

And now, look at those!

Without the aid of an oven, that really is a treat.

And now, the sauce.

Look at that!

It may be an old trick, but it's a good 'un!

It's funny, when we're cooking, you know there's ones

that you're going to take home and do at the weekend.

-And I can certainly feel this one coming home!

-Without a doubt!

Without a doubt! It's nice to revisit recipes like this.

-I love it - really, really good.

-And there we have it.

Just wait, just look at it.

Great!

Mmm!

Classic flavours.

-Mmm, it is gorgeous.

-It IS gorgeous, isn't it?!

You wonder why this dish has fallen off the scale on modern-day menus.

I don't know why, because it's fantastic.

If that's what was going on in the '60s, I'm really sorry I missed it.

This was the dinner that won the World Cup.

This was the dinner that put man on the moon!

Eating out might have been increasing in popularity

in the 1960s, but for a lot of Brits

it was still a relatively unusual undertaking.

In fact, back then, more and more of us were actually

spending more time at home than ever before.

-And it was all down to this...

-BOTH:

-Television!

At the beginning of the decade,

around three-quarters of households owned a telly.

But by the end of it nearly every home in the country had one.

And it was a powerful force, not just on our social habits

but on our eating ones, too.

You see, night after night, an ever-growing array

of enticing new products were beamed into our sitting rooms,

courtesy of the commercial break.

# Birds Eye peas Sweet as the moment

# Sweet as the moment when the pod went pop! #

The arrival of ITV in 1955

had introduced us to television adverts for the first time.

Golden Wonder peanuts - jungle fresh!

But the '60s was when the industry really came of age.

Tickling our taste buds, with an increasingly affluent population,

with a mind-boggling array of exciting products.

What's this, Mummy?

Heinz tomato soup, darling!

Oh, whopper!

With more choice on offer, it was important for brands

to stand out, so they turned to the masters of this new science.

'Last year, nearly £600 million was spent on advertising,

'and this is where the advertising agency steps in.'

'Snack makes a dream of a break...'

'I think the second dream sequence is first-class - the wedding.

'Technically, it's very good...'

'Advertising agencies are glossy places,

'and the client is made to feel

'that there's a well-staffed, high- powered organisation at his disposal,

'and the job of the agency'

is to make the products that they are responsible for

into something people want.

Advertising was a new, glamorous industry...

..where Britain's top young creatives had to grapple

with some of life's most important questions.

'What do people think about when they buy butter?

'What sort of qualities do they like their butter to have?

'Why do they prefer one brand to another?

'What does butter mean to people?'

It was a tough job, but someone had to do it.

'A former boss of mine used to say

'that good writers dream their way into the product.'

Throughout the '60s, advertising executives honed the technique

that made a product stand out.

There was the jingle...

Friendly characters...

-Grrreat!

-Cap'n Birds Eye's the name!

..and regular, normal families we could all identify with.

Philip is trying to read his paper,

but he can smell the Oxo potatoes I'm cooking.

A good, rich smell is half the secret of cooking, isn't it?

Philip, supper's ready!

Birds Eye peas are sweet as the moment when the pod went...

# Ooh...! #

The '60s provided the grounding for all television advertising to come.

# Smarties...! #

You never bought a cake mix like this before.

It's new, it's fresh, from Viota.

In this age of affluence, and amidst the growth of the supermarket,

brand power became all-conquering.

-# Real good flavour New, from Fry's!

-#

And our diet changed beyond all recognition,

as we all rushed to sample the latest thing.

You see? The advertisement's right...

But back in the '60s,

it wasn't just advertising that was altering the way we looked at food.

The magic of television was broadening our culinary horizons

in other ways, too.

It was the era where the TV chef came of age.

And the queen of them all changed the way we cooked for ever.

There it is. You can have those bits, too - now go away.

Fanny Cradock might have been proper terrifying,

but her cooking series helped kick-start

the culinary revolution in Britain,

bringing international cuisine to the masses.

Now, I've chosen to share with you a dish called...

Well, it's an Italian dish, and it's cozze gratinate.

-Just a dish of baked mussels to us in English.

-Pour that over...

Despite being quite formidable, Fanny made cooking exciting,

challenging... SHE COUGHS

..and, dare we say it, glamorous.

This is called an assiette des fruits de mer - fruits of the sea.

Seafoods, which make a most lovely presentation dish on a buffet

when you're going a bit grand.

There is the sole...

The audience loved her,

and her affordable but extravagant dishes!

Take hold of the skin

and pull and pull and...pull.

She was the unrivalled doyenne of British cuisine,

but by the '70s her screen persona had become a bit of a caricature.

Well, I always think...

and I think you'll probably agree with me, that...

somehow or other, mincemeat... is the Cinderella...

of, erm, Christmas cooking.

Even today, Fanny's unique appeal is still drawing in the crowds.

I'm Fanny, and he's Johnnie...

Touring restaurants in Bristol, this play tells the story

of the life of Fanny and her sidekick husband Johnnie.

Fanny Cradock is terribly alluring,

absolutely fascinating and totally compulsive.

I watch her with my jaw on my chest.

You can't believe that she's real, really.

Everything in life is so easy when you know the way.

It's just a question of the pleasure that I get, selfishly,

out of sharing the ways of the things I've happened to discover.

She could have been written by Mike Leigh or Alan Ayckbourn or somebody.

It's, erm, an absolutely fascinating character.

Let's turn back and see how he's getting on,

and whether or not his custard is thick. Hold that spoon

a little lower, dear, and take up another spoonful for us,

will you...? It's absolutely right.

You see? It flops idly off the spoon

and coats the batter very thickly indeed.

She turned food into theatre, I think,

although some people say it's not so much food theatre as food pantomime.

But she did, she was a show woman, I think, she was a performer.

And she wore costumes. Those ballgowns were costumes.

And the play isn't just a celebration of Mrs Craddock

but of arguably her most enduring invention - the prawn cocktail.

Either six ounces of chopped prawns, shelled of course,

or six ounces of shrimps,

to which I then add a generous dollop of real mayonnaise.

This was THE dinner party starter for more than 20 years

and is still the second most popular at Christmas dinner.

I think maybe Fanny would have been surprised

about the global success of the prawn cocktail.

I don't think that she would have envisaged

that it would have been so iconic.

Chef Peter Taylor is in charge of making prawn cocktails

for the performance, and he's going to give it his own twist.

I think the dish itself lends itself to all sorts of interpretations

given that the ingredients are so simple - the prawns,

the leaves, the dressing.

So we'll use Japanese spices and yuzu, which is Japanese grapefruit,

to put our own particular flavour profile,

if you like, on the classic prawn cocktail.

-Ooh, I don't think Fanny would like that, would she?

-You wouldn't dare!

The last ingredient I'm going to add, for a final Japanese twist,

is sesame toast. So there we are. That's it finished.

Well, that's one down, Peter, only another 69 to go.

Prawn cocktail for you lot, and no long faces

because this is my original recipe.

Endlessly imitated, never as good.

APPLAUSE

It's been a very good show, we're thoroughly enjoying it.

And particularly, the, you know, the prawn cocktail,

which was not quite as she described it,

but, you know, it was good. It was good.

Yes, I do remember Fanny Craddock.

Very loud, lots of make-up and very old.

I can remember Fanny Craddock.

We all used to sit in front of the television,

all excitedly waiting for Fanny to come on.

Really excited, we were,

and it brings back memories to watch her tonight.

I think that people watched Fanny Craddock cook

to see how they should live,

what the posh people do,

what the quality people do, what does she eat?

And I think you learned stuff,

so it was much bigger than just the recipes.

You actually got confidence that,

after the war,

things were off-ration,

there were extraordinary foods you could buy, there were new things,

and Fanny showed you how to live.

I'm going over it again, what I've been doing.

For our lemon baskets, well, supposing you've got clean hands,

and you care to manicure them, you don't want them covered in little

messy bits of lemon. These look pretty. And then, you see,

you can take them and you can squeeze your juice over your portion

and put it back again - it still looks pleasant,

and your hands are unmarked.

She knew her stuff, you know.

Whether you like the stuff she knew or not is another matter,

but she really did spend a lifetime with food.

Fanny's career came to an abrupt end in 1976

when the audiences and the BBC finally had enough of her rude ways.

She died in 1994

but lives on in the recipes she made famous.

Lovely being back with you. Thank you so much for watching.

Fanny provided the inspiration for many a dinner party

back in the '60s and, if there was one dish

guaranteed to impress the Joneses next door, it was this.

A meal worthy of the grande dame of cookery herself.

Duck a l'orange. Ooh la-la!

CHEESY '60S TV SHOW MUSIC

Before the 1960s, French food used to be the preserve of the rich and the stuffy.

It was all starched collars and gentlemen's clubs.

But dishes like duck a l'orange brought French food

to maybe the not-so-aristocratic Brits.

And, to us, it symbolises the culinary colour,

adventure and spirit of the 1960s.

Ah, far out, man!

Come on, man, let's get it on with t'duck!

Now, what we're going to do, beautiful,

beautiful Great British duck.

We used to eat more duck, originally, than hen.

Yes, there was more duck consumed in Britain than chicken

and it was the two world wars that decimated the duck population.

Anyway, I've got an orange here,

I'm going to get a big strip of orange peel

from which I'm going to make juliennes for the sauce later on.

Juliennes are little thin strips of flavour.

Use a vegetable peeler to remove half the skin of an orange.

Then slice the peel into fine julienne strips.

Prick the duck all over with a skewer.

But be careful not to prick it too deeply.

This will allow the fat to escape when it cooks.

Then, place half the orange into the duck,

pushing it towards the neck end to support the breast.

And add half an onion cut into chunks.

And two bay leaves.

Then season it with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

And place it on a rack, set inside a sturdy roasting tin.

So, quite simply, pop that into a preheated oven

at 190 Celsius, quite a hot oven, for between 35-45 minutes.

Thank you.

Which gives us time, man, to get our heads back in the '60s.

Mine's never left.

I know, I've seen your wardrobe.

After 45 minutes, take it out.

-Oh, yes, perfect.

-Ooh, look.

And the orange has started to erupt.

But fruit and meat, I mean, we've been doing it for ever, haven't we?

-We have.

-It's thought that it first started in the Middle East,

but now we have goose with cherries, lemon with fish, duck a l'orange.

Duck fat. Just the thing for your potatoes.

Once you drain the fat, pop the bird back into the oven

for another 45 minutes.

Phwoarr! Nothing quite beats the smell of roasting duck and orange.

Right. We're ready, oooh! Oh, yes.

Oh, you little lovely. Beautiful, eh?

And this is just going to rest.

Yes, more roast potato potential.

Leave about a tablespoon of the duck fat in the dish. Beautiful.

Right, look at all those lovely cooking juices as well.

And this is the other half of the onion we used earlier.

I'll just slice that very thinly, and this is the orange sauce.

Ours is quite light, and it's, kind of, surprise surprise,

got real oranges in it.

But, some people have started making the orange sauce

with fizzy orange juice. The old pop.

Wrong, Dave, it's wrong.

And you fry off the onion in the duck fat.

But we're doing it in the roasting tin,

because we don't want to waste any flavours at all.

Once the onions have softened, add a nice glug of red wine

and four tablespoons of orange liqueur.

You'll want to burn off the alcohol for a bit.

Then add the juice of one and a half oranges.

Just 150ml of water.

And we need to strain it.

The fly! Wargh!

SI MIMICS FLY-SPRAY

Then, we need to strain that sauce.

There isn't a scrap of flavour left on that tin, is there, mate?

No, there's not.

Now, into that pan put the julienne of orange peel.

And now the marmalade.

Three tablespoons of marmalade.

Two.

And the marmalade will thicken and give the sauce a lovely sheen.

But you want a sumptuous, thick sauce, so add a mixture

of one tablespoon of water and two tablespoons of cornflour.

Now, our beautiful duck has rested

and a great way of making sure that the duck's cooked properly

is just give the legs a little wiggle

and if they move freely, job's a good 'un, they're cooked.

In the words of that song, "just wiggle it, just a little bit".

Look at this, it looks like Fanny Cradock's kitchen, doesn't it?

Without the psychedelia.

-I wonder if Fanny Cradock was a psychedelic girl.

-No, she wasn't.

-No.

-I think gin and tonic was more her cup of tea, really.

-Yes.

Now, that is beautiful.

We're serving it with all the best British veg.

Red cabbage, these are all those great traditional things

that go with duck a l'orange.

-Now...

-Oh, yeah.

-It is thick, but I think it should be thick.

-So do I.

Do you imagine in the '60s, that was new food.

That was the shape of the future.

There was prosperity there that they hadn't had for years.

You know, all of a sudden, it started to filter through.

But do try our duck a l'orange.

It's been a long time and it hasn't been forgotten.

No, that on the menu, come on, folks, it's brilliant.

I think, as my mother would say, I've got eyes in me belly now.

Absolutely. Let's give it a go.

-They complement each other so well.

-Yeah.

I think that particular orange sauce is perfect.

You know, it's got the richness from the liqueur, fresh orange juice

to give it freshness and a zest, as well. It's not a dead sauce.

It's heaven.

At the time when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon,

they would have been enjoying this in Surbiton.

Back in the '60s, it wasn't just the culinary landscape that was changing.

The countryside changed beyond all recognition, too,

thanks to the advent of a truly monumental undertaking.

-REPORTER:

-This is the beginning of something new.

This first stretch of the London to Yorkshire motorway

up to Birmingham is the start of a network of brand-new highways.

Eventually, that network will cover the whole country.

The motorways were designed to make travelling from A to B easier.

But with no speed limits, and little traffic,

these new highways became a destination in their own right.

# Keep on running

# Keep on hiding... #

People rushed to give the new experience a go.

But man could not live by speed alone.

This is something entirely new in this country.

You will notice that there are two identical stations

opposite to each other on the motorway, which is here.

The first motorway service station, Watford Gap,

started off by selling sandwiches from a hut,

but they rapidly became more than somewhere to simply refuel.

Because the operators had other ideas.

Companies alike Mecca and Granada had

made their name in the leisure industry with dance halls,

bowling alleys and bingo clubs and they knew how to entertain.

# Come on, baby

# Let's do the twist... #

The venues captured the spirit of the age perfectly.

They were exciting, new and stylish.

With swanky restaurants complete with a motorway view.

At Trowel services on the M1,

you could eat in a Robin Hood themed dining room!

And '60s design guru Terence Conran was even called in to style

The Captain's Table, a fish restaurant at Leicester Forest East.

Yes, it seems unbelievable today

but in the '60s service stations offered the kind of restaurant

that would only have been found in the West End of London before.

THEY brought exclusive top-class cuisine to the masses,

complete with uniformed hostesses and silver service.

London might have been swinging but, for the average Brit,

nothing said glamour like a motorway service station on the M1.

Potted palms, jungle plants, decorational gewgaws,

a marble wall, fitted carpets,

everything you'd expect to find in one of the great restaurants of Europe.

But, alas, this heyday wasn't to last.

As the decade went on, and the motorway became less of an adventure

and more of a chore,

the novelty of the service station started to wear off.

Over the years, the menu has become more and more simple

and still nobody is coming to it.

They go on grumbling about the food on the motorway

but when it's offered to them, they don't apparently want it.

I've got to the end of the wall and they've got to the end of the road.

It isn't going to be The Captain's Table any more,

it isn't even going to be The Potted Shrimp.

All we really want is yet another greasy spoon.

Yeah, it quickly changed to chips with everything

and prepacked sarnies.

The service station fare that we know and loathe today.

The youth of the '60s enjoyed a freedom never experienced by their predecessors.

Ideas of open defiance, protest, revolution

and breaking with the past were order of the day.

And food was no exception.

Many rejected the standard British meat and two veg

and instead embraced vegetarianism.

It wasn't a '60s invention, but the decade came to define it.

They protest against plastic foods,

the slaying of animals to eat, all the pressures

and conformist attitudes in a world that condones violence.

One Edinburgh restaurant, Henderson's,

was there from the very start.

Opened in 1962 by Janet Henderson,

the restaurant's meat-free cooking revolutionised attitudes

to vegetarian food in the city.

Janet was a farmer and the restaurant developed

out of her desire to sell healthy veg to her customers.

And 50 years on, it's still run by the same family.

Janet's daughter Catherine has been working at the restaurant

since the very beginning.

Back in the '60s my mother opened up what they called the farm shop

because it was selling the goods from the farm

and then about a year later she decided that

instead of selling the cabbage for a shilling,

that she would chop it up and serve it,

you know, make a coleslaw and sell it for a pound.

In the beginning it was very small. It grew organically.

To celebrate their 50th anniversary Catherine and head chef Barry Baker

are going to cook up some favourite dishes from the past and present.

Catherine is making a time-honoured recipe for leek and potato soup.

In the restaurant there were always two soups on the menu,

there was usually a vegetable soup and then there was another.

They still do two soups every day, even now.

It's something that's always on the menu.

It's simple but effective and it's this sort of dish

that first got people hooked in the '60s,

as it's packed with flavoursome and nutritious veg.

You know, my mother was very aware of diet

and I feel that she was ahead of her time in those days.

She became interested in vegetarianism

when she went to stay with her aunt in Austria in the early '30s.

She, at that early age, became very aware about diet

and, I think, that's what, you know, she did with us.

She was trying to make us aware about diet

and the better the food, the better the fuel you put into your body,

the better you are as an individual.

Back in the '60s, this was pioneering stuff.

Vegetarian food wasn't something people really understood.

She never made a big thing about it being vegetarian

because she thought that might put people off.

She called it Henderson's Salad Table.

The thing was, she wanted to educate people that you could eat

a good diet, a healthy diet, with just vegetables and fruit.

Having prepared the veggies for the soup,

Catherine moves on to making fruit salad with sour cream and ginger.

It's a restaurant favourite that's been on the menu

since the very beginning.

This one is a constant and has been a constant for 50 years.

I particularly remember my mother making this one.

It's got very fond memories for me.

This is about the right consistency and it does, yes,

it very much reminds me of my mother.

Yeah, that's it, that looks good. It looks good to me!

Vegetarian food has come a long way since the '60s.

It's grown from something associated with beardy-weirdies

to a mainstream food choice today.

And the range on offer has transformed, too.

Head chef Barry has overseen the transition from simple,

veggie fare to cuisine with an international scope.

I've been at Henderson's since 1984

and when I first started here the produce that we used

was very much local produce

and produce that people would have in their own homes and that.

Over the years, it's gone worldwide.

The food that you can get is very much global.

That's just increased what we can do on the menu on a day-to-day basis.

This dish that we're doing has got some of the old

and some of the new in it and some of the things that we do now

we certainly wouldn't have seen in 1960.

Barry is cooking up an adventurous dish of baked aubergine with

a spicy stuffing, plum sauce and Dauphinoise potatoes.

It's well acceptable for vegetarians

and also it's a little bit of meaty flavour from the tamari,

protein from the nuts.

Yeah, it's quite a good all-round dish.

There's a whole host of goodies in there

from onions and carrots to oatmeal, grated nuts and tamari spice.

That's all the components of the dish ready.

It's just a matter of putting it together and plating it up.

It's one of my favourite dishes and it seems to be one of the most

popular dishes with the customers that come in in the evening.

With the guests arriving,

Catherine puts the finishing touches to her soup.

I'm looking forward to this evening.

Hopefully, we've got about six or eight people

who used to come in in the '60s,

so it'll be fun to see them.

Then we also have a younger group.

It's a combination of the old and the new.

I think it'll be great fun and I'm looking forward to it very much.

It'll be a nice celebration.

There we go, leek and potato soup.

The food is going down a treat, and for the original Henderson's generation

it brings back a few memories.

Cuisine in Scotland was relatively primitive.

Our access to a wide range of interesting,

fresh vegetables was limited.

One came to Henderson's not only for the excellent company,

because it seemed a very cosmopolitan place to come in those days,

but also for the quality of food and the diversity of food.

It's much easier to be vegetarian nowadays, of course.

In those days it was omelettes or pasta, really, that was about it.

I can't even remember if we had pizzas, then, did we? I suppose we did.

It grabbed people's imagination because it was the place to come

and it was very exciting.

Although it was very popular, it was your special secret and it was wonderful.

But the younger generations are enjoying it all too.

It's definitely one of my favourite places.

I come here all the time, it's really good.

I've only been coming here for the six years I've been in Edinburgh but you constantly see people

and they've been coming here for a really long time. It really is part of the community of Edinburgh.

The only reason I came here was to get their ginger, soured cream

and figs pudding. It was a winner.

Nobody else in Scotland does it and it is really wonderful.

They're still doing it after 50 years.

I love it as much as ever.

I could eat the same again. It's quite special.

From pioneering vegetarian food of the '60s

with a passion for wholesome nutrition...

To an Edinburgh landmark with the best that veggie cooking has to offer.

Here's to another 50 years.

# Sweets for my sweet

# Sugar for my honey... #

The '60s was a decade where it was finally OK to indulge your sweet tooth.

And our final recipe is as decadent as it is delicious.

Like so many of our groovy '60s dishes,

profiteroles were originally a French dish

but now they seem as British as pie and chips.

They do, mate, they do. And, you know, our love affair with the profiterole,

that beautifully choux pastry filled with the most fantastic

Chantilly cream, started really in the 1960s, didn't it?

-Yeah, I mean, they were light, fun and naughty...

-Yeah!

-..and we loved them.

They were a million miles away from jam roly-poly and spotted Dick!

Come on! You're loving it, aren't you? You are!

So let's shoop-shoop away and make choux pastry.

Begin by melting 50 grams of butter in water and bring it to a simmer.

Next, sieve 75 grams of plain flour into a bowl.

To that, add a teaspoon of caster sugar.

Give that a mix around.

With a wooden spoon, beat the flour and sugar into the fat and water.

-Now, it's important that the fat and water has to be boiling.

-Yeah.

-It has to be on the bubble.

-Erm, beat it, dum-de-dum.

Take it off the heat.

Now we beat this for a couple of minutes

until it starts to form as one and cool down a bit.

Look, it comes away from the pan.

It just starts to almost take a different form.

# Shaking all over... #

After two or three minutes,

the mixture will have cooled enough to add two beaten eggs.

# Shaking all over... #

Whisk it well and slowly add the egg, bit by bit.

# Well, you make me shake it

# And I like it, baby... #

And that is your choux pastry.

But, you know, Kingy, nobody really knows where profiteroles

came from but choux pastry is very interesting.

Actually, it was first invented by the Parisian patissier Jean Avice

when he made what we know as choux pastry kind of balls

and he called them "choux" because choux is French for cabbage,

they looked like little tiny cabbages. Thus, choux pastry was born.

-Cabbage pastry(?)

-No.

It just looked like one.

Next, take two spoons and dunk them in water

so the pastry mixture doesn't stick.

Start dividing the mix into small blobs,

about the size of walnuts, onto a baking tray lined with parchment.

You should get about 18 profiteroles out of this mixture.

Pop these into a preheated oven,

180 degrees Celsius for 25 to 30 minutes

until you have choux pastry explosions that will become profiteroles.

While they're cooking in the oven,

what we're going to do is... I've got two bain-maries here.

What we're going to do, we're going to start to make the chocolate sauce.

One bain-marie is for dark chocolate,

-the other one for the white chocolate.

-Brilliant!

Basically a bain-marie is a pan of water that's heated over the hob.

The steam will heat the bowl to melt the chocolate without burning it.

We have 75 grams of dark chocolate,

100 grams of white chocolate.

To the chocolate, we're going to add 125 millilitres of cream.

We melt those, slowly.

While the chocolate's melting Dave's going to get on with

the vanilla cream that's going to be at the heart of these profiteroles.

Take 350 millilitres of double cream.

Add one tablespoon of caster sugar

and then a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Whip it up until it's thick.

I can feel my cream is thickening already.

Pop it in the fridge until later.

-Kingy.

-What?

-Do you know the biggest profiterole ever crafted in the world...

-No.

..was 57.15 kilograms, 126 lb, and it was crafted in Wisconsin

by Dave Schmidt at the Wisconsin Bakers' Association.

Can you imagine that? Over a hundredweight of profiterole.

-It was a whopper!

-That's a house. It's a car.

-That's a lot of Chantilly.

-Can you imagine piping that?

-They'd have to do it with a hosepipe.

-Trust the Americans.

They always have to do it bigger, don't they?

They always have to do it bigger and better

but you don't, because bigger isn't better.

They're profiteroles,

they're supposed to be delicate little mouths.

You don't want to drive a car into it!

Right, rant over, when the chocolate's melted, give it a stir.

The white chocolate might initially go yellow but don't worry,

it'll go back to white again when it cools down.

The choux pastry has been in the oven for 25 minutes now

so it's best to have a look.

Look. Those little balls of pastry have puffed up. Amazing.

It never ceases to amaze me when I see those little dollops,

I always think it's never going to work but it always does.

Now, with a clean, dry tea towel,

you take them off the rack, turn them upside-down and all we do,

gently, is just make a little hole in the bottom.

But, this is the top tip.

What you need to do is turn them upside-down

so that the hole faces up to allow the steam to escape.

We need a pretty decent sized hole

because I've got to get the nozzle in.

# Sweets for my sweet

# Sugar for my honey... #

Once the scrumptious pastry balls have cooled for 4-5 minutes,

you can begin piping the cream in.

# I'll never ever let you go... #

While Dave's getting on with that, I'm going

to add three tablespoons of just boiled water to the dark chocolate

and cream mixture to create a lovely hot sauce.

So there we go. Nice, warm, flowing, look at that.

Oh, man. He-he!

So...

Now, this is the good bit.

You can have some fun with this now.

Dribbling like Denis Law.

Look at that.

Dribbling like Georgie Best in his prime.

Gorgeous.

But how many times have you been to a restaurant and it comes to the

pudding and profiteroles are on the menu and you kind of think,

let's have the profiteroles, because you know you're all right there.

Now we use the cool...

And it's funny that white chocolate sauce...it doesn't set, does it?

No, it doesn't.

Whereas the dark chocolate one without the hot water would set.

Oh, man.

-It is of its time, though, isn't it?

-It certainly is.

I could just sit back, eat those and watch Steptoe And Son.

Or Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in.

-Do you remember that? You don't, do you?

-No, I don't.

-It's brilliant.

-Oh...

It's an Anglo-French best-of-British marriage.

-This certainly is a roll that you're going to profit from.

-It is.

Oh, groovy.

I told you they didn't really say that in the '60s.

The '60s really was the era

where eating in the UK got its post-war Mojo back.

Food, like fashion and music, was groundbreaking, decadent

and put a spring into your swinging step.

It might be 50 years ago but the 1960s will always be a decade

that changed the world for ever and food for the better.

And if you want to get hip, for some of the recipes in today's show,

then log onto...

-Groovy!

-Oh, shurrup!

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