Michael Buerk My Life on a Plate

For everyone, there's a taste of food,

or a smell of cooking that zooms you right back to childhood.

It's just like my mum's cake!

I'm Brian Turner...

It reminds me of someone I used to know at school.

..and I'm going to stir up the food memories

of some much loved celebrities...

Oh! Look at that!

..going back to their early years, before they were famous.

Oh, my gosh.

'With recollections of Sunday roasts and school dinners...'

-It's time for something to eat.

-Brilliant.

'..and celebrating food their home regions are proud of.'

HE CHUCKLES

-Which way would you like to go?

-Er, this way.

'I'll re-create a nostalgic family favourite...'

Mmm. You can't beat a crumble.

..and a tribute dish that puts my guest's life on a plate!'

Magic. Magic.

'Today, TV newsman Michael Buerk is back in Hereford.

'There are memories of courting his wife...'

I remember standing out here for the photographs

and feeling very, very happy, you know?

'..good times discovering food he'd never heard of...'

I did not know you could get pasta other than in a tin,

and I didn't know you could eat it other than on toast.

'..and dishes that I'll be creating, inspired by local ingredients...'

-Eh! Oh!

-It bites, doesn't it?

'..to take him straight back to his youth in a mouthful.'

My word!

Mm! Just talk amongst yourself for a while.

COWS MOO

'For Michael, the city of Hereford holds a very special

'place in his heart. He first got to know it as a young man of 20,

'and it's where, in many ways, his life really began.'

'It was a world away from Birmingham's well-to-do

'suburb of Solihull, where he was raised in his grandparents' home.'

'We've brought Michael back to Hereford to tap into his

'memories of life in those early years, and his experiences of food.'

We are in the shadow, literally in the shadow,

of the wonderful Hereford Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Marches,

right in the centre of the town of Hereford, which, damn near

50 years ago, is the place where my life took off, really.

I was a very young reporter on a little weekly newspaper,

and I met my wife, who came from Hereford,

and my life completely took off.

It took off, obviously because, you know,

I met the love of my life, which is great, and it took off in all

sorts of other ways, because I discovered food.

'Michael's mother had married a Canadian,

'but they split when Michael was three,

'and he and his mother moved in with her parents in Solihull.'

'He was an only child, and by the age of ten his mother became ill.'

'She died when he was 16, leaving his grandparents with sole

'responsibility for raising their grandson.'

I was effectively an orphan for a lot of my childhood.

Lived with my grandparents, and my grandmother, bless her,

had a lot of qualities, but she was probably the world's worst cook.

Certainly... Certainly of her own generation, possibly of all time.

You know the kind of thing, you know - didn't know

what a fresh vegetable was, except for sprouts,

that she'd start to cook in September to make sure

they were probably cooked by Christmas.

But apart from that, you know, all vegetables

and things came out of a tin.

You know, I was astonished when I saw a green pea,

because I thought they were grey.

I did not know you could get pasta other than in a Heinz tin,

and I didn't know you could eat it other than on toast.

I just didn't know any of these things.

You know, I didn't, I never had these experiences

until I came to Hereford, until I met Christine,

and met Christine's mum, who was possibly the world's BEST cook.

You know, she was a butcher's wife. They had a butchers business here,

so the meat was absolutely wonderful.

The vegetables from around here were, you know, beautiful

and green and gorgeous.

Wonderful potatoes, proper cream.

I'd never seen cream before.

You know, I thought cream was what we would now call,

and probably did then, evaporated milk.

-Right, yes, yes.

-In a tin, of course.

-In a tin.

Everything comes in a tin.

I mean, I was in love, of course, with Christine,

but very soon with her mother, and there was a moment

when I really did think, you know, that I fancied her mother more

than her for no other reason but the fact that she was a marvellous cook.

Did you ever tell Christine that?

I did unwisely mention it once, actually,

-and I haven't heard the last of it.

-Never to be said again.

THEY LAUGH

So, what kind of things did your mum-in-law to be do

that really impressed you?

I remember the very first Sunday lunch, when I got my feet under

the table, round the corner from here, behind the butcher's shop,

was this wonderful joint of pork with the most marvellous

crackling on it and a whole beautiful chicken, perfectly cooked.

-Two joints on the table?

-The two, the two.

-Oh, paradise!

Absolutely! And this rich, wonderful gravy over the whole thing.

Ah! I died and went to heaven.

'I'm soaking up these anecdotes, and will combine them

'with inspiration from the food that's produced

'in this part of Britain to create a special dish later on

'that pays tribute to Michael.'

'His career began in local newspapers, then radio,

'where he is still at home,

'having presented Radio 4's The Moral Maze for the last 25 years.'

'But it's as a TV news reporter and presenter that he's best known.'

'His stint as the BBC's Southern Africa correspondent

'landed him in the news.'

-FEMALE NEWSREADER:

-Michael Buerk of BBC Television News

has been refused a new work permit.

'But it was his moving account of the Ethiopian famine in 1984

'that really shook the world.'

-MICHAEL BUERK:

-Dawn, and as the sun breaks through

the piercing chill of night on the plain outside Korem,

it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the 20th century.

'And those of us who saw it will never forget it.'

'Practically his whole career has played out with his beloved

'wife Christine at his side.

'It was she who brought him to Hereford,

'and who introduced him to this Italian cafe 50 years ago.'

Morning.

Good morning, sir. Ah, there's a gent. Wonderful, thank you.

And I've managed to pick up an old menu from the 1960s.

It looks like a '60s menu.

Similar to the one that you would have looked at a long time ago.

But I didn't need glasses last time.

-There we are.

-Do you still do spaghetti on toast?

-Sometimes.

-Can you do it now?

We can. Are you going to charge one and six?

One and... One and sixpence.

I think it works out at...

Sixpence. Six new pence.

THEY LAUGH

-A bargain.

-That's a deal.

-That's a deal. 16 pence.

-We'll have one.

-OK. Thank you.

Look at that, though, one and sixpence for spaghetti on toast.

But look at this. Well, actually, I suppose it's true today,

the light meals, everything "with chips", "with chips", "with chips",

"with chips, "with chips", "with chips", "with chips", "with chips",

"peas and chips", "peas and chips", paying five and six for that.

Fancy. What's that?

Five and six must be about, what, 26 pence?

Well, it's a quarter of a pound.

You could have the entire menu for a pound.

It is fantastic.

-I'm just gobsmacked that they've still got one.

-Yeah.

-And in good condition.

-I mean, 1960s. 40, 50 years ago.

-Yeah.

-There we are, two spaghetti on toast.

-Oh!

-Oh!

Look at that!

My word. Talk about taking you back.

Look at the way it slithers down between the toast.

-Fantastic.

-We had four children at home, and I sort of remember

trying to find out who could suck up the longest one.

-HE LAUGHS

-Yes.

THEY CHUCKLE

Now, I want to get that taste.

Mm.

-Mm. Al dente, it isn't!

-No.

THEY CHUCKLE

And the one thing we're not going to do is something

I remember my brothers trying to do, was to make a spaghetti sandwich.

So, you put the two pieces of toast and then you ate it,

and it sort of shoots out...

I was going to say, as soon as you do it, brrrrrrmmm!

-Just an impossible task!

-Exactly.

-So, if you close your eyes...

-I'm 18 again.

BRIAN LAUGHS

But when I look in the mirror...

You're 25.

-HE LAUGHS

-Yeah! The eyesight's failing as well.

THEY LAUGH

Herefordshire is a bountiful county.

Probably its best known agricultural assets

are the famous Hereford cattle.

COW MOOS IN DISTANCE

These gorgeous creatures thrive on the county's

succulent, green pastures...

..and they have inspired a team of locals to step up to the grill.

FUNKY HIP HOP MUSIC

Meet the Beefy Boys.

They're cool, smart and award-winning,

and they're working wonders with the local meat.

Look at those butchery skills.

They run a pop-up restaurant specialising in barbecue classics.

I've got a butter knife inside, if you'd rather use that. A spoon?

One of their dishes is beef brisket.

This is from the local butcher and it's a brilliant piece of meat.

And Murph is their spokesman.

Brisket's, like, it's quite a cheap cut, and it's one from the front

of the animal, so it's kind of the breast kind of area on

top of the ribs, so it's a really hardworking muscle, and because

of that, it's got loads of connective tissue

and it's quite fatty. That's a good thing, because you want that fat,

cos that fat's what brings all the flavour when you...

Cos as you cook it low and slow, all that fat's going to break down

and melt into the meat and it's going to be beautiful, tender

and fall apart.

Because long slow cooking is the secret to perfect brisket,

they start it off well in advance.

The guys are going to put the rub that we've just made all over

the meat right now, and we want a real kind of thick coating.

It's a huge slab of meat, so we want to get as much

flavour into it as we can before it goes into the smoker.

Their secret recipe for the beef coating contains a mouth-tingling

mix of flavours including coffee, molasses and cumin.

The brisket will be smoked for up to 16 hours.

Well, this mesquite. Mesquite's a really, really strong flavour,

and really gets that smoky flavour into it quick.

So we use a mixture of mesquite and hickory.

Hickory's got, like, the classic barbecue smoky flavour,

and then mesquite really hits it with a real savoury kind of

musky kind of smoke.

Their mission to produce the ultimate British barbecue

began four years ago.

We kind of learnt all this through a mixture of trial

and error, really. It was, like, years ago,

we saw on TV people talking about brisket and pulled pork,

and back then you just couldn't get it in the UK.

It's everywhere now and there's lots of barbecue joints.

So the only way that we could do it was by, yeah, jumping online,

looking at videos, reading articles and stuff, and, yeah,

it was through trial and error that we thought,

"Oh, we'll give it a go ourselves." And it's something that you keep

learning, really. It's not really a science,

it's more like kind of an art.

It's lunchtime, and brisket's on the menu alongside the boys'

homemade local-beef burgers, and they're ready for the rush.

OK, so, working today, you can see we've got Christian.

He's on the grill. We've got Dan, who's on front, putting

the burgers together,

and obviously we've got Lee, who's taking the orders.

As you can see, we've got an honorary Beefy Boy for the day.

We've got Tegan working on the Royal Patties,

and we've got Al, who's working on the fries.

So, yeah, it's a good, slick, oiled machine.

Every ingredient that goes into their burgers

has been carefully sourced.

The secret of a good burger is getting all the little

details right, and the start of that is getting a really good bun.

We get these specially made.

It's a sourdough starter and a semi-brioche bun, so it's

ever so slightly sweet, but the most important thing is, it holds

together and doesn't break up as you're eating the burger.

So, you can see as Christian's cooking here,

we've got 21-day aged Herefordshire beef,

which has been freshly ground today, and then alongside it

we have the brisket that we put in the smoker yesterday.

Christian's going to put that meat on top of there,

and then we're going to put barbecue sauce on it

and then we are going to top it with American cheese and Swiss cheese.

They've developed a range with quirky names.

So, this is our American Boy, and that's American Boy double,

that's almost two-thirds of a pound of meat in that one.

So, this here, that is our Butty Back Burger, which is 21-day aged

Herefordshire beef patty topped with our 16-hour smoked brisket,

butty back barbecue sauce, Swiss cheese, American cheese

and red cabbage slaw, and that's served with our brisket fries.

After winning a couple of UK food awards,

the Beefy Boys were invited to take on the big boys across the pond.

So, this is a little taste of Hereford that we took

all the way to Las Vegas, and it's the one which helped us

win second best burger in the world, so, yeah, we're very proud of it.

Back in the '60s,

Michael was warmly welcomed into his girlfriend's family.

Her father ran a butcher's shop in Hereford,

and we brought Michael back to try and find it.

Now, Michael, I'm slightly confused.

We're outside a beauty salon.

Well, I thought, Brian, it was time.

THEY LAUGH

I didn't want to break it to you too much.

No, but this used to be a butcher's shop,

and it used to be my wife's parents' butcher's shop.

This is where my wife was born and brought up, you know,

above the shop here.

But I can remember my little sports car being - it was a Sunday -

being the only car, practically, in High Town, Hereford,

with me very, erm - how can I put this? - athletic and handsome.

The young man of the day.

Yes, cross-legged on an Austin-Healey Sprite,

parked exactly here outside the butcher's shop.

Lovely memories, but there must be other memories round here,

-so why don't you just have a troll round?

-It's a trip into the past.

Exactly. See what you can find, and I'm going to go up there.

-You know what's up there, don't you?

-I do. The courtyard

where my father-in-law had a sausage house

where he made sausages with meat in them, which was a change.

So, I'm going to cook a nostalgic dish up there,

and just to tell you, it's not sausage and mash.

-Off you go, enjoy the moment.

-OK.

-Cheers.

I'm formulating my plan for a tribute dish to cook later on.

But first, a bit of nostalgia on a plate, using ingredients

that I hope Michael will recognise.

This is one of my favourite spots.

Just round the corner from Christine's dad's butcher's shop,

right in the centre of Hereford. This is the Castle Pull.

There used to be a castle here - the castle's gone now -

but this presumably used to be the moat of the old castle.

Really tranquil place right in the centre of Hereford,

absolutely beautiful, and the house at the end...

Isn't that house absolutely beautiful?

I said to Christine when we were courting, nearly 50 years ago now,

I said, "One day, we're going to live in that house."

And do you know?

We haven't!

I'm going to use some belly of pork. They used to use it in the sausages,

but of course he loved roast pork, did Michael,

because he didn't really get it at home.

Skin off, so there's no crackling in this,

and most of the fat off, but keep some of the fat on there.

It looks lovely, and if you can get your butcher

to get you that nice square piece that fits in a roasting tray,

so much the better.

And then we've got some wonderful fresh vegetables here

and I've also got a bit of cabbage.

This we're going to keep green and creamy.

So firstly, let's just chop these vegetables up.

And this is a slow-cooking job. It takes bags of time,

but it will give us lots and lots of flavour.

There's no real recipe for this bit, it's what you've got.

If you've got bags of it, so much the better, because it will be worthwhile

and the gravy you get from this is just delicious.

I'm not sure that Michael's mother-in-law

would have put garlic in there, but nevertheless.

We put all these vegetables in two bits.

Let's put a bit of oil in this pan here.

I'm going to put half the veg into there.

And add some fresh thyme.

And the rest of it goes into this roasting tray.

When I grew up in the '50s, I didn't know that you could get cheese

other than in those little silver packets. Rather like plasticine.

I didn't know you could get proper cheese until I came to Hereford

and Christine's mother, who had these great wonderful blocks

of really tangy Cheddar and Stilton and cheeses like that.

And now look what you can get in Hereford.

I mean, a lot of local cheese.

Hereford Sage, Little Hereford. Mmm... Mmm!

-Little Hereford.

-Good, isn't it?

-Little Hereford is great.

Unpasteurised. Lovely cheese.

Does that mean I'm going to be ill?

No, you won't be ill. You haven't eaten enough.

Oh, all right. Thanks very much.

-Thank you, bye-bye.

-Bye.

So now we need to get all these wonderful flavours

into our stock, our juice, just to cook the pork in.

Some stock.

Some red wine,

soy sauce...

..some Worcester sauce, because it comes from nearby...

..and a touch of local honey.

So now, we're going to put the pork,

the pork belly...

..skin side up...

..on here. And we're going to put our stock.

Now, the thing about the stock is, when we cook it,

it might all evaporate,

so have a bit of stock ready, just in case you need to top it up.

That smells delicious.

Just take the veg off a little bit to the side there.

It'll all give it bags of flavour.

And slowly cook the pork

and then it'll colour the fat on top there.

We're going to put this in the slow oven

for about two and half to three hours

and let it really cook really through and the stock evaporates

and all the flavour gets together. It's going to be delicious.

This was where you had a sophisticated night out

in the end of the 1960s.

The Old Imperial. It was a steak bar.

You'd go there, you'd have a schooner of sherry,

you'd have a prawn cocktail,

you'd have a rump steak and then black forest gateau.

Perfect meal. Oh, and an Irish coffee at the end of it.

High living in the '60s.

For my pork belly dish, I've placed the trimmed meat

on top of mixed raw veg - onion, celery, carrot, leek and tomatoes.

I've cooked the rest in stock, red wine,

Worcester and soy sauces, and a drop of honey.

The mix goes in with the pork to slow-cook in the oven

for around three hours.

I prepared another one last night,

and removed the veg to reduce into a flavoursome liquor.

What a change.

This is the sausage house courtyard.

-It is indeed.

-And you've turned it into Le Tour D'Argent.

Now there's a great restaurant.

So what we've done, I've tried to come up with a dish

that will make you think back to your youth and your childhood.

So you'll see we've got some wonderful green cabbage there,

that is green and it will be green when we serve it to you.

And I'm not going "Eugh!"

-Yet.

-Yet. No.

-And under here, what I did was I took some pork belly.

-Ah!

And I cooked it for about three hours, pressed it here.

It's been in the fridge overnight, has this.

I think this looks delicious.

Oh, gosh.

-May I smell?

-You may certainly.

Any other place and I'd push your nose in it.

We only ever had lamb, overcooked lamb. Pork is so rich and lovely.

But it is nice, is this kind of pork,

when it is not overcooked, when it's well cooked.

-Yeah, look at that.

-Wonderful stuff.

(Oh, look at that.)

-Just look at that.

-Oh, wow!

I tell you what, I've given in already. You can have that bit.

Great, thank you very much.

Over here... Let me get these eggs ready.

This is a very old style of dish.

Not a Weight Watchers special?

Not at all, no. But you don't have it every day, so... There we go.

Right, so, seasoned flour, salt and pepper in flour.

The flour is there to help the egg stick

and the egg is there to help the breadcrumbs stick.

You know, so it's not an expensive meal at all, is this.

We make sure it's covered up nicely.

But we'll actually pat that down to make sure they all stick together.

Got a pan on here.

We're going to put a little bit of rapeseed oil in.

Why do you use rapeseed oil?

I love the smell.

It's cheaper.

It's good for you - Omega 3.

Having said all of that, I still put a bit of butter in there.

So we put that in there.

Now, remember, this is cooked thoroughly

for three and a half hours, so in effect all we're doing

is going to get a really nice colour on it and make sure it's hot.

Let's have a look. Yeah, that's OK.

Just the right golden brown, eh?

Yeah, they're coming on nicely those. Looks lovely.

Now this bit of cabbage, I think it's very underrated

and I think it is because -

exactly the same reason that you have trouble with cabbage -

because people have treated it like Brussels sprouts,

-they just treated it badly.

-Boiled it and boiled it.

-Just take out the stalk there.

-It takes trouble, though.

It does... Well, yes, and you are worth it, Mr Buerk.

HE LAUGHS So we're just going to shred it

so it's nice and thin, but just look at it.

See the colour of it? It is too nice a colour to destroy.

-It's fresh green, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

OK, so I've got some boiling salted water on here

and I'm going to plunge this into boiling salted water.

And then take it out and put it into iced water to shock it

and that keeps the colour.

-OK, so we've put double cream into here.

-Oh, oh!

Not a lot.

I want that just to reduce a bit, to thicken up.

I'm going to put a bit of butter in there, just a little bit.

Listen, you want to like cabbage, don't you?

You're going to like this.

Look at the colour of that cabbage.

But it was only in for seconds.

But exactly, that's the whole secret.

As you well know, people cook it for too long. So we put that in there.

Bit of salt, bit of pepper...

And that's ready to go.

Just give it a little bit of a stir.

So now, we just want that lovely bit of wonderful green cabbage

in the middle of the plate there.

And let me show you here, look, this is the stock that was left...

So that's stock and it's got the Worcestershire sauce

-and the rest of it...

-Everything.

All those flavours in there and I've just put that to reduce.

-See how it's changed consistency?

-Yeah, it's really quite thick.

Grab a teaspoon. Have a taste.

Because I know you were impressed with the gravy before.

Oh, it's sensational.

Going to put a bit of parsley in there.

And you put it round the outside.

You don't dollop it over the top like I would.

Absolutely not.

Right, right, right.

Well, that's very nice, Brian. What are YOU having?

I'm going to watch you eat that.

My twice-cooked pork belly served with fresh creamy cabbage

draws on the food experiences of Michael's early life,

and the transformation of his world once he came to Hereford.

It isn't what you had when you were a child,

but I hope that some of the things,

some of these just come flooding back to you.

I'd be completely different if I'd had this as a child.

I'd be YOUR size, apart from anything else.

How sweet of you(!)

-Grab a knife and fork and let's have a taste.

-I will.

It's not only fresh and green...

..but it's still got an elemental crispness about it.

Beautiful, beautiful.

No, I'm a convert.

And what about the pork?

Mmm, lovely.

Lovely.

That could actually be cooked

in the same way for another hour, could that.

So it's the slow cooking.

No, absolutely right for that particular joint,

for the belly of pork.

Well, I'm hoping that the pork will really remind you of life

when you came to Hereford,

but the cabbage, it should bring back memories of Solihull and...

Well, the great thing about it is, Brian,

it's not bringing memories of what it was like in Solihull!

Michael has vivid memories of falling in love with Herefordshire,

as well as with his wife, of course.

Its fantastic range of produce provides great inspiration

for a chef like me.

In my tribute dish for Michael,

I want to make sure that Herefordshire

is screaming from the plate.

You hear a lot about superfruits these days.

Well, in Herefordshire, they grow plenty of a particular fruit

that's up there with the most super superfruits -

blackcurrants.

I'm meeting third-generation grower and independent cordial producer,

Edward Thompson, who is passionate about his little black gems.

So these are ready. What would one look for?

Well, they're only just ready.

If we lift up this branch you will see...

Crikey, look at all those.

You can actually measure the force required to remove that berry.

OK, so what you are saying is that when they're perfectly ripe...

-They should come off more easily.

-Just...easily come off, OK, right.

But you try it. It'll be quite good.

I was anticipating more tartness to it.

It's not sweet, but it is certainly not as tart

as I thought it was going to be.

There's that little hint, but that is lovely, that is.

-It's lovely, A - because it's ripe...

-Right.

And B - because this variety has a lower acidity than some.

It's not our lowest acidity,

but it's got a nice balance of sugar and acid and colour.

Now, that one's just come off nice and easy, so I'm hoping...

-That's even sweeter.

-Yeah.

Well, these were all mixed to make a very good juice -

not from concentrate.

It would be a crime to turn this into concentrate.

I see where you're coming from.

HE CHUCKLES

Blackcurrants took off during the Second World War

when oranges became scarce.

Blackcurrant cordial was distributed to children

to make sure they got their vitamin C.

Harvesting crops like this by hand, with a large seasonal workforce,

would have been laborious and time-consuming.

How long have you been using mechanical harvesting?

Oh, since the early 1970s.

-OK. Oh, that's a fair while.

-There's a shaking mechanism in there

that shakes the bush without damaging it.

That gets the berries off.

Today, they're working in big old bushes, 16 years old,

but tomorrow they may be working in a bush

that's only two or three years old, but it will do both jobs.

And what's the capacity of harvesting with these machines

as apposed to mere mortals like myself.

This will go up to five tonne an hour.

Five tonne an hour?!

So at that point it is probably replacing

500 people picking by hand.

-It's not something anybody would do now.

-Good Lord above!

We are actually no longer limited by harvesting.

We are limited by the speed at which we can process.

The beauty of having all the stages of production on site

is that there are no food miles incurred between field and factory.

Inside the processing plant,

health and safety are king, of course, where food is concerned,

so you do have to wear a very attractive hairnet.

We're going to mash it up and we roll it between rollers.

We don't technically mill it.

-OK.

-That can be damaging to it.

It can break up the structure too much.

And then we give it a mash holding time.

Then we put it in the press.

This is the press behind me here.

-And she weighs 24 tonnes.

-24 tonnes.

Yeah. I've got a large lump of concrete underneath it

to hold it up.

It's a massive machine. And how long does it stay in there for?

To do a cycle, it takes about two and half hours.

-That includes emptying it...

-OK.

-..of blackcurrants.

And in that two and half hours, it might do 15 or 18 tonnes.

So after it's gone through the presser, what happens to it next?

-We're going to filter it and then we're going to pack it.

-OK.

But what I want to do is show you a miniature version of this.

Our little mini-press.

We do all our development work on that.

This saves me thousands of pounds.

All our juice products are first of all developed here.

We call this the mini-press.

Oh, right, it's going to go through that muslin bag.

Yeah, and actually that's what our press does.

-Now, you should get the feel of this now.

-OK, right.

You're doing well. Well, that is exactly what happens.

Oh, look at that. Look at that coming out there.

And how tight does it need to go?

Tight as you can comfortably go and then we'll call it a day.

That was about ten minutes ago.

It looks a fantastic colour.

The question now is, what are you going to do with it?

-I want to taste it.

-Bang on.

There you go. Right.

Now, don't give me too much. That looks...very strong.

It is strong.

Put hairs on your chest, that will.

Swill it round your mouth.

-Ehhh! Oh!

-It bites, doesn't it? Yeah.

-That is tarter than I thought. Oh!

-Yes.

I can see how you can use that with other components

to give the flavouring, but that initial shock got me right here.

-That really did.

-You're not used to blackcurrant juice.

I'm not at all. That is quite...

That is the real thing. That's what we start with.

Edward mixes in a sweet ingredient

such as apple juice or banana to make his drinks more palatable.

Now, this is cordial.

It's diluted with fresh water and it's ready to drink.

It's ready to drink and it's about 12% fruit.

Fantastic.

See, it's got a very rich colour to it.

It's still got some of those floral notes.

-It should have.

-It's lovely.

It's got a sweetness about it, but it's not overpowering at all.

It's balanced, it's balanced.

That's what it is. Just a really nice, balanced drink.

-Thank you very much for that today. Cheers.

-Cheers.

Blackcurrants are perfectly suited to the British climate,

but have a very short season,

and they can be relatively difficult to find for sale fresh.

But if you do find them, snap them up.

They'll zip up a summer pudding or a fresh fruit salad, and do you good!

Happily, they're in season, so I've got something in mind

to use these blackcurrants in my tribute dish.

We've brought Michael to the dairy where his wife Christine

used to come and collect cream for her mum's Sunday lunches.

Did you see that, Brian?

As soon as you stepped out of the car all those cows came running.

Do you have this affect on females of all descriptions?

How did I know you were going to say that?

But the answer is, yes, I do.

It's your cooking.

We seem to be still in the centre of Hereford.

We're actually at Bartonsham Farm, which is a dairy farm

almost slap bang in the centre of Hereford.

The reason why is all these lovely meadows here are flood meadows.

-The River Wye is just over there.

-Oh, right. Oh, I can see it, yeah.

Yeah, and you can't build on there. It floods all the way up here

and, you know, when it's really high,

apparently it gets halfway up this wall.

You remember I told you that when I was young,

I didn't know what cream was. You know, I thought it was that stuff

that's actually evaporated milk in a can,

and then I came and got my feet under Christine's table,

or her mum's table, and we had cream from Bartonsham Farm

and it was thick and it was yellow

and you could stick your spoon in it and it didn't wobble.

It was sensational on apple pie and apple crumble

and all that kind of stuff.

And, you know, the family still... Actually, hello, Paul!

Paul, your family has been here for over 100 years.

Yes. We got the tenancy about 1910...

-Just before the First World War.

-Yes, and in those days

there was literally dozens and dozens of dairies

all scattered round the outside of Herefordshire.

People with a few cows bringing the milk into town

on the back of a horse and cart and then serving the milk,

-unpasteurised, of course...

-From the back of the horse?

From the back of the horse and cart. People would come out,

walk down their garden paths with a jug or a bowl

and then, of course, it was a great business

because if they hadn't drunk it by the next day,

it was sour anyway, so you just had a recurring sales base

because of the fact that it wouldn't keep.

-Is that what they call built-in obsolescence?

-THEY LAUGH

Well, if I may, I'm going to nick those from you

because I am going to concoct something

that I hope you're really going to enjoy, because if you don't,

I will.

While we set up the outdoor kitchen behind the dairy,

Michael's going to church.

This is Holy Trinity Church in White Cross in Hereford.

Which is where I got married on September the 9th 1968.

Ever since I joined Christine's family, ever since I got married,

this is the church where the family does all its hatching,

matching and dispatching, you know.

This is where the children are christened,

where the marriages take place

and, of course, the sadder occasions,

funerals, when we say goodbye to family members.

So, from that point of view, it's a family church.

For a man whose work life has often been a hectic dash

from one story to another,

I'm creating a quick and easy dessert for Michael,

with a strong presence of Herefordshire,

inspired by my visit to Edward's fruit farm.

First thing I'm going to do,

I'm going to put these blackcurrants into the pan here.

Spot of water...

..and some icing sugar.

And give it a bit of a stir.

I'm making a blackcurrant Eton mess.

We all know that Eton mess has strawberries and raspberries in it,

but this has got blackcurrants

because they're local and they are delicious and good for you.

So what I'm going to do now is just quickly make a puree.

Just look at that lovely, lush, rich colour.

So what I need to do now,

I need to strain this off and get all the bits out of the way.

I don't want the pips, I don't want the skins. Push that in there.

Make sure you get every little bit out

and then just very carefully push it through.

This is just pure blackcurrant flavour and it's delicious.

What I'm going to do, I'm going to take a little bit out of here

to use for my decoration when I make the dessert up.

So I've got plenty there and this,

I'm going to bring back up to the boil.

What I'm going to do, because these are quite tart and they're just raw,

I'm going to take this liquid here,

this pureed blackcurrant and sugar,

and I'm going to just very carefully pour that over the top

and it will just part-cook them.

It just takes the edge off them

and it also stops them being quite as tart.

And look at that lovely shine on there.

They're really just saying "Eat me, eat me, eat me."

This is the font, of course.

The scene of what you might call my first failure as a father.

We've got identical twins and they were christened here.

The real problem was...

I wasn't there.

It's one of the things about being a television reporter,

that the day before the christening, I was on duty in London

when the great Flixborough disaster happened.

It was a chemical plant up in the north of England that exploded,

killing a lot of people. Big, big disaster

and I was the BBC reporter covering it, when I should have been here.

Christine's great line is she was jilted at the font.

Now I need to start with the cream.

And just look at this wonderful embarrassment of cream here.

OK, so this is just ordinary double cream, but it gets better.

And I'm going to give this a whisk...

Start to thicken it up.

But the trick here is not to let it get too thick to start with.

That's looking good now.

So I'm going to add some extra-thick double cream.

Look at that! Is that luscious or what?

This is the real McCoy.

Give it another whisk.

You can now see how it's just starting to get

that little bit thicker. Oh!

Salivating just thinking about it! It's...

Oh, look at that. It's going to be delicious. Right...

clotted cream. Made on the premises.

Fantastic stuff. Wonderful.

So whisk that in there, see how it's starting to stiffen that all up.

And just to make it that little bit not quite so sweet,

I've got some creme fraiche,

which has just got a little bit of tartness to it.

I'm going to town with the cream because it's here on our doorstep

and I love it.

But you could use whipping cream and yoghurt just as effectively.

Now I need to taste that now.

Seriously, I need to taste that.

(I could eat that on its own. It's delicious.)

In the churchyard,

Michael's memories of his wedding day are flooding back.

I remember standing out here for the photographs

and feeling very, very happy, you know.

And being surrounded by Christine's family

and what was left of my family

and then all going off to the Booth Hall Hotel

in the middle of Hereford

for one of those kind of typical wedding buffet lunches.

Centrepiece - a huge salmon from the River Wye,

the river that runs through Hereford,

and me standing there in the penguin suit, so keen to get at the buffet

that I'd got the knife and fork in my top pocket here,

and looking a complete prat in some of the photographs, I have to say.

And in those days you didn't stay. You didn't make a whole day of it.

There wasn't another party in the evening.

We were on the six o'clock train out of Hereford to go off to London

and then on our honeymoon to Mallorca - very, very exotic.

We didn't go on foreign holidays that much then.

The train driver obviously got to the mood of the whole thing

because it went "Toot, toot, toot!"

And that was the beginning of married life. 47 years ago.

For my special Eton mess for Michael,

I cooked half of my blackcurrants with water and icing sugar

and sieved to make a sauce.

I've whisked together a glorious mix of creams from the local dairy

and I've bought meringues to keep things simple.

Now it's an assembly job.

Just going to put a few of those in the bottom.

This is really good for you, it's vitamin C.

It's pure vitamin C, I promise you.

THEY LAUGH

Now look, I'm going to put...

-just a little bit of these in there.

-That's radical!

Well, there you go, so just to get that little bit of a...

-Swirl to it.

-Exactly, yes, just to make it...

And then, of course, Eton mess is all about cream, fruit and meringue.

Just going to put... a bit of meringue in there.

So let's get this right - this is sugar and cream, basically.

No, there's fruit there as well!

Is it one of my five-a-day?

It is. Well, this is probably three of your five-a-day.

It's got to be good for you

because it's fresh fruit, for goodness' sake.

I can't see what you're going on about.

Look at that.

You've done this before, haven't you?

Too right, I've tried to make money out of it, mate, I tell you.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

For my tribute dish,

I've put Michael's Herefordshire on a plate -

cream from the dairy his wife's family used

and fruit from the local fields,

in a lavish, extravagant blackcurrant Eton mess.

A special treat for figure-conscious Michael.

I want him to let his hair down!

Get on. Have a taste, lad.

Mmm, well, I couldn't possibly have a second mouthful.

Mmm. Just talk amongst yourselves for a while. My word!

-Michael, I hope you've enjoyed today.

-I have.

It's been a wonderful trip down memory lane,

down nostalgia alley, it...

You know, coming back to Herford and touching base with,

you know, the life we lived and remembering the people and so on.

Well, it's been a pleasure to have you here.

-Finish off your dessert.

-Ah...

OK.

Hang on.

-MOUTH FULL:

-I've got to do something with the belt.

THEY LAUGH