Nigel Havers 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...'

Ohh, 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.'

BRIAN LAUGHS

Which way would you like to go? Er, this way.

I'll recreate a nostalgic family favourite...

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

There are bittersweet memories of school...

I came here when I was just over six years old.

A little shiver went up my spine going up the drive just now.

..good times remembered with his dad...

He'd be there with a saw and hammer and I loved doing it with him,

so it was, sort of, a bonding thing.

..and dishes that I'll be creating...

And it comes from the Suffolk coast.

..to take him straight back to childhood in a mouthful.

Just like your mum did? Yeah.

That's how it was meant to be, yeah.

Newmarket -

that busy little town on the Suffolk border,

known throughout the world as the metropolis of racing.

Our first stop is a racehorse stables in Newmarket,

because, like me, our Nigel is a bit partial to the horses.

Friendly-looking beast. He's just having a smell here of me.

It was in the 1950s, when Nigel's dad, Michael,

decided to move his young family out of London.

Michael was drawn to this area of Suffolk through his love

My first memories as a child was being in Newmarket

and going to Newmarket races, aged, sort of, five or six. Really?

I was dragged there, but I didn't know where I was going

and I just LOVE the atmosphere and I love the horses,

You could put a shilling on in those days, and I would win.

My father grew all our vegetables, which was fantastic.

Right, well, that's a good thing.

Yeah, which was a very good thing,

and also, there was a great butcher in Newmarket called Mr Musk,

he was fantastic. Right.

Oh, look at these gorgeous things. Yeah, they look wonderful.

Morning. Morning. Morning.

But they are wonderful creatures.

The line and the form of them is just...

I do ride, and my wife, who can really ride,

I said, "Yeah! Look at..."

and I made a movie in Australia where I ride all the time.

We're taking Nigel on a trip down memory lane,

as I gather ideas from his childhood and home life,

together with inspiration from this part of Britain,

to create a special dish that pays tribute to him.

I'm a big fan of Nigel's work in theatre, film and TV.

Recently, he thrilled several female cast members of Coronation Street,

playing dodgy rascal Lewis Archer.

But his reputation was built on films like Chariots Of Fire

and A Passage To India, made in the early 1980s.

And TV stardom wasn't far behind, with the sitcom Don't Wait Up.

Electricity bill, telephone bill

and a little billy-do from Harrods. LAUGHTER

Newmarket has been the home of British horse racing for 350 years.

Here, horses rule.

Newmarket doesn't have many claims to culinary fame,

but it is proud of its sausages,

and at its famous racecourse,

they're a great favourite with the punters, including Nigel.

Why are Newmarket sausages world-famous?

Obviously, the quality is the main reason.

The longevity, the association with the area.

We use whole carcass meat, so that means primal cuts, so loins...

As well as. ..as well as all the other cuts, as well as shoulder and belly.

So, it's hand-boned, as well,

so we have butchers that hand-bone the carcasses.

Secret seasoning?

The seasoning, exactly. I mean, again, that is the sort of secret,

most secret part of the recipe,

it's handed down from my great-grandfather.

Give us one clue, what we should be looking in for flavour?

Is it quite herby, is it...?

The character of the Newmarket sausage is quite spicy,

we do use pepper.

I love white pepper, too. Yeah, yeah. I bet they use white pepper.

Do we normally eat these in a bun, in a cake,

in bread, or do you eat them just as they are?

We serve these in a torpedo, soft bread torpedo.

And it is soft bread? Yes. Yeah.

There you are, sir. Thank you.

I just can't believe how delicious it is. Got the pepper?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely.

We always used to call these, in the old days, bangers,

and it is interesting to see that these aren't bangers, actually.

They haven't split. They haven't split at all.

Well, they can do, but it depends how you cook them.

The reason they were called bangers in the war years was

because they put a lot more water in and the water would explode.

I used to call them snarlers.

Well, I normally find - I come from Yorkshire -

we used to call them sausages. Really?

So, on race day, how many of these do you sell?

We'll do 900 meals.

For me, a bit of butter on there as it starts to melt

and drip down, straight on your shirt.

Oh, you've got a bit on your shirt. Have I? No. It's all right.

What a tasty bite of great British food

to make a day at the races complete.

This place is full of potent memories for Nigel,

and standing on the edge of the July course

is bringing them all tumbling back.

I stood here as a six-year-old, right there probably, watching.

And when the horses come down there,

the ground here starts to tremble,

because of the, sort of, vibrations from the horses running

and it's the most exciting thing in the world.

My brother and I used to hang around when everyone had left

and we would collect all the thrown tote tickets,

the ones people had thrown away in the bins all over

and on the ground, and we would collect as many...

My parents were so embarrassed, they used to leave.

THEY LAUGH

But we'd collect sackloads of these tickets. Really?

And then, we'd take them home and then, we'd sift through them

with all the winners, you know, marked out

and we'd always find half a dozen winning tickets.

Really?! Yeah, and we'd collect about a fiver, six quid,

in those days, that's like 100 quid now.

And that would be our betting pool.

Then, of course, we'd lose it the next day,

but then, we'd do the same thing and every single time we did it,

we won, we got money.

Was your mum a good cook? Yes.

We used to have cottage pie...

No hang on, shepherd's pie.

Shepherd's pie is with lamb, cottage pie is with beef.

All right. So we had both actually, she put lamb and beef in it.

Did she use cooked meat to do it with? Yes, cooked meat.

Yes, so from a joint? We had a mincer. Oh, yeah, I remember those.

And we'd screw them to the end of the table and you'd go like that.

Just dropped in the little hole.

And I used to like doing that, so that's how I started learning.

How often do you eat out?

Once a fortnight, maybe.

Oh, that's not too bad, then. No, my wife's a very good cook,

so it would be a shame to miss that.

What does she...

It's just you and me here, nobody else will know.

What does she cook that you really love?

She does a very good roast chicken.

I know it sounds simple, but it's very... To get it so good...

She does it in a terracotta dish and vegetables around...

Oh, it's fantastic. She does a wonderful pasta, crab pasta.

I'll give you my telephone number, cos I can come and eat that. Yeah.

So, what is it about Suffolk that you,

that you miss, that you loved?

Coming back here last night, it was just...

I just nearly burst into tears. I was... It was so beautiful.

Yes. The smell of it here.

I know people say it is very flat, which I suppose it is,

but it means you have a lot of sky, and the people are wonderful here.

I can see why Nigel finds Suffolk so captivating.

It's just knockout scenery!

And the flatness of this wonderful landscape

has made it perfect for agriculture.

Yes, a farmer's country.

Rich and generous in return for man's endeavours.

And endeavour he must.

Wheat has been grown here for centuries

and to grind it into flour,

there were once hundreds of mills, driven by wind or water.

On a good day,

the miller's wife would produce a batch of scrummy Suffolk lardy cake.

I'm about to discover how to make it

in just about the most traditional way possible,

with the help of David Eddershaw.

He's curator of this watermill in Pakenham.

Hi, Brian. David, how nice to meet you.

And it's a pleasure to meet you.

It is just a calming, idyllic place.

Isn't it wonderful? It is, it is.

But it was once a very busy place and, I mean, the whole of Suffolk

was full of windmills and watermills.

Windmills like that one.

Pakenham is said to be the only village in England

with, still, a working watermill and a windmill in the same village.

But that would have been quite common a long time ago.

And where does the water come for this watermill?

Where does it come from?

All that water is coming from underground springs

about a mile and a half away.

That's why there has been a mill here for about 1,000 years.

This building dates back to the 1780s,

though much of the machinery, and the wheel itself, are younger.

Now, this is where the whole job starts.

We can't do anything until the waterwheel is turning.

That is the waterwheel there, yes?

That's the waterwheel and it won't turn

until we let the water in by lifting that sluice.

Yeah, like that. Turn... That's right.

I can see it now, yeah, yeah.

Bit further.

Right. BRIAN CHUCKLES

Watch. You see, that's going down.

There we go.

Crikey, that is fast, that is.

And that will keep going for the rest of the day now.

This place is extraordinary with its Domesday credentials,

and every cog, wheel and pulley works a treat.

So, we go up one floor, now.

We are up on the first floor up.

It's called the stone floor,

because this is where the millstones are. Right.

And the wheat goes in there

and the flour comes out around the edge of the stone

and it goes down a chute, down to the floor below into the sacks.

But it's in the kitchen where I belong,

so I've washed my hands and I'm ready to bake.

Now, this is the old back kitchen of the miller's house.

It probably dates from about 1730.

At the end of a day's baking,

the miller's wife would, for a treat,

take the last bit of dough and turn it into lardy cake.

Suffolk lardy cake is the best you can get.

Well, it's almost as good as Yorkshire lardy cake.

Almost, almost. But I know what you mean, aye. THEY LAUGH

I have to admit, I've never made lardy cake the Suffolk way before,

so David's going to talk me through it,

starting with a large dollop of bread dough.

Now, we want that rolled out to a rectangle.

Right.

The next thing is to take the lard,

and lard it.

In other words, spread it fairly thick on there.

Now, there's 8oz of lard there, isn't there? In old money.

Yes, but don't put all of it on.

We are going to have two or three layers.

So, am I doing all of it?

Yes, yes, you can either spread it or dot it on.

That's right. Just like that.

Now, sprinkle sugar all over there.

All of this?

No, because we are going to do several layers

and anyway, there's probably... That's right. Right.

And then the final touch is the raisins.

Lovely raisins. They were quite a luxury in the old days, raisins.

Not all the versions of lardy cake have raisins in.

Don't some of them have chopped mixed fruit?

Yes, yes, yes. I've seen that.

Right, OK. So...next job?

Now, then, you fold it over and then roll it again

and you are going to do another layer. Like that? That's right.

That's right.

I didn't say it would be healthy!

You add another lot of lard, sugar and raisins, and then fold again.

Then, fold it over. One more time.

You add the ingredients and fold and roll out once more,

so you'll get that lovely layered effect when it's finished.

Judging by the eye, that looks about all right.

And then, into the oven.

That's right, that's fine.

Close the oven door. That's right.

Keep the heat in.

For about half an hour.

Job well done, sir.

When I was a kid, my dad ran a transport cafe in Yorkshire

and lardy cake's just the sort of old favourite

he would have loved making.

So, when it's ready,

and with a nod to my dad,

I want to add a bit of Yorkshire.

Right, here comes the treat.

So, what I'm going to do,

I thought I'd just...

I didn't put too much lard in

and so there's not a lot there,

but I thought if you just take a little bit out... Good idea.

Just brush it on top, just give that a little bit of a shine,

because my dad, when he made anything like this,

he'd like it to shine and then he'd also put...

Just to make sure. Just a sprinkle of sugar on it.

Well, it just changes the colour.

Looks good.

And by crikey... BOTH: It IS good.

but I'm not sure if Nigel would have eaten it at his first school,

now redeveloped as a retirement village.

We've brought Nigel back to see what he remembers

and what's changed.

It must have been a huge wrench to be sent off to boarding school

at such a young age.

This was my prep school, my first proper school

and I came here when I was just six, just over six years old.

Little shiver went up my spine going up the drive just now.

And I remember that drive being really scary and erm...

But, no, six is quite young.

Was your brother here when you got here?

He was, but I didn't see him.

Oh, right. He was in a different... I'm getting all emotional.

Oh, no, don't! He was in a different building to me,

so I hardly ever crossed, you know, crossed over with him.

Nigel's brother Philip is 18 months older

and later followed their father into law.

And when you came up the drive to come here,

did your father bring you in the car? Yes.

He shook my hand and said, "Now, be a man," or something.

"Be a man." No, no tears.

Was your mother there? Yep.

Was she in tears? No, I... She... I didn't see that.

And then, they drove away and that was that.

Didn't see them for three months.

I know it's a bit odd. It sounds really...

Victorian. Victorian, and it was,

but it was the norm then, so I'm not complaining about that at all.

But I have some very happy memories as well.

What subjects did you excel at here and what was your...

What did you hate?

Actually, I didn't mind any of the subjects really.

What about food memories at that time?

The dish I remember most of all was called Ganges mud.

It was chocolate cake with chocolate custard in it.

Oh, that doesn't sound too bad! No, no, it was great.

Thought it was something horrific! We were like, "Yeah, Ganges mud!"

The roasts and things were fine and I don't remember...

Now, that's something to remember.

No tinned pilchards or sardines in anything I make for Nigel!

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

But first, I'm off to my open-air kitchen

in the grounds of this magnificent building,

to make something nostalgic,

a Havers family classic,

while Nigel has a look round his old school.

So, here we are.

This entrance has stayed the same

and the headmaster's study...

..(was here, through here.)

(I'm just going to go in.)

This, this, this is the door I used to have to go...

HE KNOCKS "Come in."

Ah, it's reception! Hello, good afternoon.

Sorry to bother you. I'm just going round here.

This was the headmaster's study.

This was the headmaster's study.

This was where I was beaten.

Were you? HE LAUGHS

Many times?

Quite a few actually, but that wasn't uncommon...

In those days! ..in those days. We were all beaten.

I've heard all the stories. We get some old boys here.

Do you? Yeah, yeah, all the time. From all over.

America, Australia, New Zealand. Really? Yep.

Now, this hall here hasn't changed at all.

Winners of the art prize, pictures were hung on the walls here

and, believe it or not, I won the art prize one year.

So, my painting was hung somewhere about there.

You can still see the holes in the wood

where they would hang the pictures.

And my painting was of the Fire of London.

Beautiful painting, obviously, and I don't know where it is now.

Probably like the Fire of London, it's just gone up in smoke.

While Nigel continues stirring up schoolboy memories,

I'm cracking on with a dish that I hope will whisk him back

to school holidays and cherished times at home with his parents.

Good hot pan is what you need.

Bit of rapeseed oil and then, we put this mincemeat in there.

You need to put good heat on that, as hot as you can.

I'm going to do this in two different pans.

You can do it in the same pan, but that's if you've got

really good heat, so I'm going to sweat off the vegetables.

In Nigel's day,

most of these vegetables would come from his dad's garden.

Add a diced leek to one onion and one carrot,

and sweat the veg for five minutes without letting them catch.

Wow! This is the dining room.

I used to think it was so big!

But in fact it's...

..quite small.

Anyway, when I became head boy... Are you ready for this?

I was actually head boy at this school when I finished up here.

I was supposedly the worst head boy they ever had,

because I let anybody do anything they wanted to do.

That was my new beginning of a hippy period.

And the headmaster, he sat at the top table here

and that's where the headmaster would do this.

On my first week in school,

he went... GLASS CLINKS

"Mr Havers, Mr so-and-so, Mr Jones, come to my study."

So I thought, "Right!"

And that's when I went and got a beating,

not knowing what I had done wrong, but I got beaten.

Now, follow me.

Up the stairs there,

where it says "exit",

there was the tuck room.

And on Wednesdays after lunch, and Saturdays after lunch,

we were allowed... We had to queue up.

We were allowed to spend sixpence on the sweet shop

and so in there was the sweet shop.

Big decision time, you know, what to have.

Er, er... "Shall I have a Bounty this week, or a small Mars bar?"

I didn't like Mars bars. I went for a Bounty.

Oh! It would have been a Mars bar for me!

I'm just adding the final ingredients to the mix.

We've taken the skin off, we're going to take the seeds out.

This wonderful mixture of meat and vegetables.

One thing that Nigel's mum probably didn't use -

I don't know that, because my mum certainly didn't use -

was a bit of garlic.

See how the meat's starting to get a bit browner there?

And then, I'm going to put my vegetables in there...

..and, I think, a good slug of mustard works well there.

Then, we need some Worcester sauce

and pepper.

Give it a good old stir, and then put in the chicken stock

and we're going to leave that to cook for about 30 minutes.

Don't put too much in,

you can always add a bit more if you need to do.

And just smell those smells!

And now's a good time to get some peeled potatoes on the boil

to make the mash,

while Nigel revisits old haunts in his school grounds.

Now, this is where we...

first week in July, July 8th probably,

we would put on...

The headmaster put on a Shakespeare play, and this is,

this raised bit was the stage, here,

and they built a set behind

and then, over here would be a great big marquee

where all the audience would sit.

And this is where I gave my first theatrical performance.

Mamillius.

And I would have stood right here.

And that's why I've never been frightened of Shakespeare,

because I was taught it very young and understood the language,

and it was second nature to me to speak Shakespearean.

"Come let us sit upon the ground,

"and tell sad stories of the death of kings."

Things like that.

Wonderful.

This was a very happy memory, being on here.

I've got to the finishing stages of my nostalgia dish for Nigel.

As you can see from what I've assembled here, cottage pie.

This is the fun bit of it.

You've got mashed potatoes with a bit of...

Mashed potato with just a tiny touch of butter in there

and all you do is just, very carefully...

Ahh, that's so professional.

So they go opposite ways.

So that it goes opposite ways, yeah. Oh, that's so smart!

But the trick is, and here, one has to be careful what one says,

is to make sure that you don't have much potato left.

But likewise, you have enough to cover the whole thing.

Because I just chuck it on and smear it round with a fork.

Well, my dad used to do exactly the same at the transport cafe

and, listen, it doesn't taste any different like this.

But if you're going to put it on the table

and just want it to have that little ta-da, wow effect...

Yeah, yeah. That just looks amazing.

Let me turn it round for you. What a nice man you are!

So you are now a commis chef. Yeah, I like the sound of that.

What a team, I can see all this.

See, I'm now stretching it a little because I'm now just getting...

just to the end. You're just going to do it perfectly.

I'm just going to...

Oh, you've done it. Yes! Yes, brilliant.

nice and hot, let it set the top of that,

so let me just stick that in for a second.

While we're waiting for the pie to cook,

there's one more thing Nigel wants to find in the grounds.

I'm now going to introduce you to an old friend of mine.

This is a tree

and we were encouraged, actually, to carve our initials in this tree.

And it goes all the way round, obviously,

but I'm going to show you where I think I carved mine, er...

There's the N...

..and there's the H there.

That's me.

And I did that probably in...

Let's think about this, it's 1960...

Ooh, that ages me.

I must have been on someone's shoulders,

because I was only up to there then, but there I am.

Fantastic.

My cottage pie is almost ready.

I've cooked minced beef in rapeseed oil

and, separately, sweated onion, carrot and leek...

..adding chopped tomatoes and garlic.

To the whole mix,

I added mustard, black pepper,

Worcestershire sauce and chicken stock, and simmered.

Meanwhile, I mashed potatoes

and assembled the whole lot with seasoning,

then baked for ten minutes.

I've drizzled on melted butter, then 30 more minutes in the oven.

So, we talked a lot about meat, of course, er, here,

the sausages and that,

and we did mention that you do like a bit of fish every now and then.

because I'm going to do another dish for you, which is a tribute dish.

Hopefully it'll remind you of certain things of your...

Certain stages in your childhood.

Did you go fishing? Yes. We fished here.

There's a great big lake at the bottom here

and we were allowed to go fishing. What did you catch in there?

Roach and... Carp.

Carp, little ones. Right.

A little float, you know.

Mmm. I think fish is the way to go with my tribute dish,

especially as we're in Suffolk.

But right now, my cottage pie is ready.

Even in this little oven here, it does look...

Oh, look at that! It's perfect.

probably harking back to childhood for many of us - cottage pie.

There's nowt beats a good old-fashioned dish like this!

There you go, sir. Oh, that looks good.

Just like your mum did? Yeah.

That's how it was meant to be, yeah.

Very simple, but absolutely delicious.

You don't need anything else with this.

I'm beginning to get a good idea of what makes Nigel tick,

with his fascinating memories of childhood,

what he likes to eat these days

and the wonderful food to be found locally in Suffolk.

Of course, with its miles of stunning coastline,

it's always been a great place for fish - fresh and smoked -

so I think I'll use both in my tribute dish for Nigel.

In the heyday of Britain's commercial fishing industry,

much of East Anglia's coast was a fantastically busy place.

As load after load of the glistening cargo is brought ashore,

they pounce on them like hunters on their prey.

Herring was landed in huge catches

and either left whole, as bloaters,

or split in half to be smoked as kippers.

Heavily salted and smoked straight from the sea,

this was the traditional way of preserving fish.

These days, the local herring industry has shrunk,

but one Suffolk family is keeping

the East Anglian fish-smoking tradition alive in Orford.

We smoke all, all kinds of fish - salmon, trout, mackerel,

eels, cod roe, kippers, bloaters, sardines.

Man and boy, Bill Pinney has lived and breathed fish.

Running a smokehouse is demanding because it is seven days a week.

The smoker's going 24 hours a day,

so it needs constant care and attention.

Other people worry about feeding their dogs.

My main concern is keeping the smoke boxes topped up

and keeping the smoker running.

It was Bill's dad who started this family's business.

My father came here just after the war

and I suppose, in about the mid '50s or something like that,

started experimenting with fish.

He taught me how to fillet salmon, chop the wood,

keep the smoke house going - all the basics really.

Producing perfectly smoked fish is a delicate operation

with a few key stages - salting, gutting and then smoking.

The only ingredients are salt and oak smoke, nothing else.

Smoking is a relatively simple process,

but it is something that you have to know.

It's an art rather than a process

and getting it right does require quite a depth of knowledge, really.

While the logs of oak get smoking, the fish are prepared.

We cut the herring along the back and split it open.

And then, you've got the roe and the guts which you take out.

That's your split herring and the, um,

the next stage is we are going to just wash the fish

and then put them in brine and hang them up in the smoker overnight.

All the fish are cold-smoked, which dries and flavours them.

These are the kippers going in, they are going into the cold-smoking end.

They're now in their raw state,

but they are going to be left in there for about 12 hours

and, hopefully, by tomorrow morning they'll be nice and golden

and ready to come out.

And this is what the kippers look like

at the end of the cold-smoking process.

You see it's gone this lovely golden colour.

These, actually, these are not cooked in the smoker.

These you buy cold-smoked

and then, you are going to take them home

and put them underneath the grill or in a frying pan and finish them off.

Other fish like sea trout have a final hot-smoking stage.

Bill has to be careful not to let them get too hot

or the whole lot will be ruined.

You can see that we are now cooking these fish over an open fire,

giving them a nice barbecued flavour from the fire.

But we're actually cooking these so that when they come out of here, they'll be ready to eat.

Locally-produced ingredients like these are helping to inspire

my tribute dish to Nigel, which I'm going to make at his childhood home.

We're taking Nigel back to the Suffolk village house

his parents bought in the '50s to bring up their two boys.

To start with, it was a wreck,

with no running water or electricity.

This is the house I was brought up in.

It's called White Shutters

and my father bought it for ?200 in 1957, I think.

So, what age were you? I was about five or six.

OK, so this was before you went to school? Yep.

So, how long did you actually live here?

I then lived here for, right, most of my... Until 20.

I'd been going to London for a bit but this was home.

Right. Yeah.

So, did you have loads of mates in the village?

I had mates in the village and in the next village,

and then came the '60s and everyone had to be in a band,

so we were in a band.

We had a band in... Not the White Shutter Band?

No, we were called January and I have no idea why.

And there's a barn over there and we used to rehearse in that barn.

Must have driven the neighbours crazy.

What did you do? Were you a singer?

I was bass guitar and singing, vocals, yeah.

There was a tiny little sort of outbuilding there

and I remember, with my brother, I was sort of lighting matches, as...

Why kids want to do that, I don't know.

But I was, and I dropped it onto the straw and it burnt down.

Oh, no! The little building burnt down and the fire brigade arrived,

and they said, "Who, um, who set this on fire?"

My brother said, "He did," pointing at me.

And I didn't know that it was sort of a 17th-century listed building.

What did your father say?

He said, "You're a very naughty boy."

So, how long did your parents own this for?

Oh, 30-odd years.

Oh, right. And they loved it.

I know my dad loved it because he was a keen gardener

and he was an odd-jobman.

I used to help him, you know, with building projects and things.

I don't think he was very good,

but he'd be there with a saw and a hammer, and I loved doing it with him,

so it was, sort of, kind of a bonding thing.

And he loved growing tomatoes and vegetables

and he had these, sort of, polytunnels. Oh, right.

Yeah, and it was quite, you know...

It was quite new, that idea of polytunnels,

but in a big storm,

all the polytunnels ended up in another field.

It didn't worry him though. He picked them up, put them back. THEY CHUCKLE

So, when was the last time you actually visited here?

I think it must be 40 years. Good Lord. And have you driven past?

I have driven past,

because I was asked to do something in the village hall.

Oh, right!

Well, I'm going to go and cook a dish

which sorts of represents your life on a plate in many ways,

represents the area, the people,

and something that I think you'll enjoy eating.

Feeling inspired,

I'm off to the outdoor kitchen we've set up in his childhood garden.

So, if I've learnt anything about Nigel Havers

it's that he likes simplicity.

Freshness, no complications,

so the dish I'm going to cook represents a lot of that.

I have got some wonderful fish over here, a lovely piece of skate,

very fresh.

I'm going to serve it with lettuce,

but I'm going to cook the lettuce

and then, some brown shrimps,

and he's a touch of class is Mr Havers,

so I've got some smoked salmon

to make it really just that bit special.

And while I cook, Nigel's going back into the house

he hasn't set foot in since his 20s.

Well, this is the kitchen.

Always was the kitchen,

but they've, um, they've really made it smart

and indeed, this was where the sink was.

So here would be my mum, cooking away.

If she got exotic, spaghetti bolognese,

and boiled eggs on toast and all that sort of thing.

And here we are in the dining room.

It is exactly the same as it was in, in the...

Except we had it painted green, I seem to remember.

And a strange carpet was here, and a dresser there.

Table in the middle like this

and our glasses were kept in the same way, there,

and in here was the wine cellar, or I should really say wine cupboard.

Let's have a look.

Yes! And I can remember one night, when my parents were away,

my brother and I, we thought we'd have a bottle of wine

and we opened a bottle of wine, and after we finished it,

we realised it was a really, really expensive bottle of wine,

so we lobbed the empty bottle.

Couldn't put it in the bin because Dad might have seen it.

We lobbed the bottle over the road into a field over there,

and a week later, the farmer came over the road,

and said, "I found this bottle of wine!"

So our secret was blown.

I'm glad he likes his wine,

cos there's going to be a drop or two in this.

I'm making a light dish, starting with summer veg.

First thing we need to do, we're just going to take off the,

just the little bit of root there, so it's not colouring,

then, I cut the lettuce in half - those look lovely.

Salt.

Pepper.

Quite a bit of pepper.

And some fresh local rapeseed oil,

and that simply goes in the oven for about 15 minutes to roast.

Very nice, very tasty.

In that goes.

About 180 degrees, take about 10-15 minutes.

Now, bring the pan down here.

Cut these lovely bits of skate

so it fits nicely...in our pan.

Just going to give that skate that bit of extra flavour.

We do that by cooking it in a nice liquor with bags of flavour in.

Some sliced onion, goes over the top there, some pepper corns.

All very simple. Very classic.

Bay leaf, a dry white wine over the top.

Some water to make sure it's covered...

..so it will cook nice and evenly,

and I'm just going to put a little squeeze of lemon juice in there.

could put it in the oven, if you like.

Bit of salt in there before we forget.

And just bring it up to the boil and then, turn it down

so it simmers for about 15 minutes.

So, let's go upstairs.

Now... Oh, boy!

HE LAUGHS

They never used to shut when I lived here.

LAUGHING: Ha! This is fantastic!

See these beams, they are all exactly the same

and I slept in the bed here.

This was my bed and my brother slept there.

Wow, this is memory lane time.

You know it always looked as though the roof was, sort of,

sort of coming down, because it kind of bends,

but this is what cottages in Suffolk do and all these beams.

It's beautiful.

Happy Days!

I've pulled together all the aspects of Nigel's past

that we've heard about today,

with a dish I really hope he's going to love,

made with ingredients you can find fresh in Suffolk.

So far, I've put halved gem lettuces in the oven to roast

and I'm poaching skate wings in a liquor of onion, bay leaf,

white wine, peppercorns and just enough water to cover.

You've arrived at the right time,

because I think this skate is just about there,

but we can get everything else ready.

You like a roasted lettuce, don't you? I don't mind at all.

I think it is one of those things where you...

Be very careful, this is hot.

But it just gives it a different appearance and a different taste.

I just think it looks really nice.

Did you just turn that over with your fingers? Do you have asbestos fingers?

Sadly I do, it's one of those things that we learn.

I'm not going to do that.

No, quite! Let's take a bit of smoked salmon here.

Are you a smoked salmon fan?

I would get the impression that you are. I am.

So, what we'll do is we'll just put this together...

..and just cut it into a small dice.

just cos, "Oh, I love that! I think I'll put stacks of it on there."

Sometimes that's as big a mistake

as it is of not putting enough on there.

Leave them wanting more, as you'll be...

Where has that knife come from? Is that one of yours?

This is one of mine. This is a 50-year-old knife,

I got this at college. Er, it's a great knife, had it...

It's sharp, then?

It does its job right and ready, it does.

Right, I'm going to take a little bit of this parsley here.

Just wait till we actually start to chop it up a little bit,

and I think you should chop it at the last minute.

There's certain things you can get done in advance.

The smoked salmon you can get done in plenty of time in advance.

Now you can smell it.

Oh, I love that. Such a difference, isn't it, eh?

OK, right, I'm going to put the pan on here

and whilst that's happening, I think I'm going to take this skate off.

It's not a good idea to overcook these fishes,

they do tend to fall apart if you're not careful.

It's delicious, isn't it?

And it comes from the Suffolk coast.

Yeah, I think the village of Orford, they actually bring it in.

See, that's really, just nicely cooked and just drain it off, there.

OK, right, so just want this butter on the go,

so whilst that's on the go, let's put a few shrimps in there.

I do love these shrimps. Yeah, they're great.

So you can see that all the shrimps are starting to cook in there,

just starting to change colour.

I much prefer it that colour than too dark

and then, the smoked salmon.

Smells delicious.

And the plate, make sure it's warm

and we'll just very carefully...

It's just perfectly cooked, is that.

It's just starting to fall, which is just what I wanted.

That is lovely, is that.

So lemon juice goes in here now

and what I'm going to do,

which I hadn't planned on doing,

I'm just going to liven that skate up.

With a bit of pepper.

With a bit of pepper because I know that's good for you.

Like painting a picture.

Well, good presentation. Don't waste too much time on it, so you get to..

I just want to get the colours...

There's your bit of lettuce.

And there we are.

My tribute dish for Nigel Havers.

Wing of skate with roast gem lettuce

and a dressing of rapeseed oil,

lemon, brown shrimps

and smoked salmon.

I really hope, Nigel Havers, that that represents you.

You have good fresh fish, it's simple,

it represents the area...

Absolutely. It brings back memories of childhood.

Yes, it does, because Dad would've grown those in the garden.

We loved all of this.

Would've got that from the fishmonger in Newmarket,

what we would've done. What a man. Get a knife and fork.

Yes. Right.

Look at that. Looks fantastic.

Great thing about skate, of course, there's two bits.

There's one bit on one side...

and then a bit on the other side.

Tuck in, sir. Shall I dig in? Please!

Make sure you get some of the garnish.

Yeah, I'm going to get all this, don't worry.

Going to make a pig of myself. That looks just too good.

Mmm!

That is fantastic.

So sweet, isn't it?

It is a good concoction, I have to say. It is.

It does work well together.

Try it with a bit of...

This is your recipe, isn't it?

This is one of your creations, especially for me.

Are you liking it? I'm loving it.

Then, it's definitely one of mine.

It's just magnificent.

Mmm, that makes it.

That's quite nice, it's not...

With the crunch, the flavour, and it is different.

I must say, it is nice chucking loads of butter on, isn't it?

Thank you so much, Brian. I've had a great day.

It's been such a pleasure

and I've, erm, gone down memory lane in a big way,

and I've eaten loads of food.

Fantastic.

Thank you very much.

Nigel, thank you.

Can I take that home? Please.