Nicholas Parsons 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...'

Today is a memory day for you.

'..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...'

-Mmm.

Oh, my gosh!

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

It's time for something to eat.

Brilliant.

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

Which way would you like to go?

Er... This way.

'I'll recreate a nostalgic family favourite...'

Mmm, you can't beat a crumble.

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

This is an absolute delight.

'Today, national treasure Nicholas Parsons

'returns to north London, where he grew up.'

This is nostalgia.

'There were early clues to the long career that lay ahead...'

The only way I could survive was I could make my chums laugh.

'..heart-wrenching times during the war...'

The firefighters were still there, the ambulance people,

and we helped taking cups of coffee round and things.

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

This is a classic dish.

'..to take him straight back to childhood...'

How did it compare to your mum's?

Whatever she had in the kitchen, she'd throw in.

'..in a mouthful.'

Oooh, exciting!

This is the London that the Parsons family moved to, in the early 1930s,

just a few years before the outbreak of World War II.

It was pre the National Health Service,

and Nicholas's father was a GP who had bought a practice here.

We've brought Nicholas back to Hampstead Heath

to help jog his memories of life as a child growing up in north London,

as I start to build up ideas for a nostalgic recipe

inspired by his childhood and home life,

and a special dish I want to create that pays tribute to Nicholas.

He had been born in Grantham, so it was a big move for a small boy.

So, what happened about schooling, then?

-You came down at eight years of age...

-Yes.

If you could afford it in those days,

parents would send their boys to boarding prep schools.

-Right.

-And I and my older brother went to one in Hendon,

and we were caned all the time, or slippered.

-Oh, no!

-Oh, yes.

I have memories of bending over and getting six of the best.

Of course, I found I was so utterly, utterly miserable there

that the only way I could survive was I could make my chums laugh

and of course regularly, and I would take off the masters.

-And of course that was fatal.

-Did you get caught?

-Oh, yes!

-Oh, no!

-There was one famous occasion

when I was taking off one of the masters, and he came in!

And I was going like a bomb, getting wonderful laughter from my mates.

I couldn't understand why they suddenly went quiet.

Then I realised they were looking at the door and there was Mr Stovitsky.

His classroom capers were the building blocks

for an incredibly long and successful career,

culminating in Radio 4's Just A Minute,

which he still hosts, after nearly 50 years.

He excelled in comedy and character roles in theatre and film,

but became a household name thanks to The Arthur Haynes Show,

The Benny Hill Show,

and the one that sticks out in my mind,

Sale Of The Century.

But there were mountains to climb before all that.

A lot of people don't realise that at the beginning of the war,

everything stopped.

My parents said, "Well, what are you going to do?",

and I said, "There's only one thing I ever wanted to do.

"I want to be an actor."

They weren't exactly horrified, they just thought it was ridiculous.

-Mortified?

-No, no. It was the attitude then.

People didn't go into this "show business".

We didn't call it show business then, it was theatre.

My father's attitude was quite succinct.

He said, "That's not a proper job."

With that, his parents sent him in a completely different direction,

engineering, and packed him off to Glasgow,

to do an apprenticeship in the shipyards of Clydebank.

I remember the first day. I was a complete oddball to them.

There I was with my public school accent saying, "Hello, chaps!

"What are we going to do today?"

But somehow I survived.

Although Nicholas was called up for National Service

at 17 and a half years of age,

his engineering work was classed as a "reserved occupation"

so he was exempt.

However, he was one of the first people to join up

to the local Home Guard on Clydebank.

-I did actually finish my apprenticeship.

-You did?

I'm a qualified marine mechanical engineer.

I've got my lines to prove it.

I could put a pump together and break it apart...

So you must have quite vivid memories of the war?

When I was working on Clydebank, you got ten days' holiday a year.

Nobody could go away for the holidays

because all the beaches were covered with barbed wire

and everything like that, so everybody just went to their homes.

-And my home was in London.

-Right.

And so I went and had a holiday in the Blitz.

-ARCHIVE:

-'The world's greatest city writes in flames

'an epic of courage that stirs the hearts of free men everywhere.'

But there is one famous day concerned with Hampstead Heath,

and I happened to peek out the curtain,

because it was now about nine o'clock at night.

I said to my father, "It's very strange,

"it's lighter now than it was when the blackout started."

And he said, "Something's going on.

"Let's walk up to Hampstead Heath and see."

We got to the Whitestone Pond,

and, from the Whitestone Pond, you can see right out

across to the centre of London.

And it was the night of the great famous fire bombing.

The whole of London seemed to be engulfed in flames.

It was very emotional.

You couldn't believe it.

There in the centre, you could see St Paul's illuminated

as if by searchlights with these fires everywhere.

And it seemed as if the whole of the city of London

was about to be destroyed by fire.

It was very disturbing,

and as we slowly walked back I said to my father,

"It's very frightening, isn't it, Dad?"

The next morning, we got in the car and we drove up to the centre,

and they were still there - it was quite emotional -

the firefighters were still there,

the ambulance people,

the first-aid workers, everyone.

And we helped taking cups of coffee around and things.

The devastation was incredible.

It was a sight which is fixed in my mind

and I will never forget.

Mr WS Morrison is here to explain.

The best way you can help is by rationing yourselves.

I'm sure that all of you will buy your fair share and no more.

So, at the beginning of the war, rationing came in.

It was worked out what was a basic necessity for everybody

in order to remain healthy.

So it was one egg a week,

two ounces of meat, two ounces of butter,

two ounces of sugar and two ounces of tea,

and as many potatoes and as much bread as you wanted.

People were encouraged to grow their own vegetables

so we did have vegetables,

but there were never any fat people.

-No.

-Obesity... I mean, the word I don't think even had been coined!

And we were very healthy as a nation.

Well, look, I've got something here

that might provoke a couple of memories of that era.

You need to open it up.

October 10th, 1939!

That was my birthday just after the war started.

I can assure you it's freshly made. It's not from 1939!

-No butter.

-No butter.

And that is Spam, isn't it?

It is the original Spam.

Very nice.

-Oh, good man! That's what I like.

-Takes me back.

Takes me back.

But it was quite a luxury in those days, wasn't it?

It was invented purely and simply

-because they needed something that tasted better.

-Yeah.

Do you think most people ate Spam in those days?

-I think they ate anything they could get their hands on.

-Right.

Anything meaty that you could manage to scrounge or get.

I mean, outside of your ration.

Spam wasn't on the ration, so if you got a Spam sandwich, that was great.

Spam wasn't the only treat that escaped wartime rationing.

Churchill referred to fish and chips as "the good companions",

and consequently it became upwardly mobile,

changing from working-class food to a national weekly staple.

'Once upon a time it was roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

'Now, it's fish and chips, Britain's new national dish.'

It might be a British classic,

but one of its latest proponents in the capital is Italian!

Andreas Sturniolo and his girlfriend Kasia

set up business a couple of years ago.

People are very surprised when Italians cook fish and chips.

My answer, to put a stop to the question,

is, if Jamie Oliver cooks Italian, I can do fish and chips!

I can cook fish and chips.

Madam, one for you?

Thank you.

They've won Street Vendor of the Year,

and Andreas strives to make the best-quality fish and chips he can.

London's food scene has changed incredibly in the past 20 years.

Nowadays, I find better ingredients than I actually find in Italy.

There is a better variety,

there is an incredible quality as well, of the ingredients

that you can find in London,

and so, yes, for a food-passionate person,

for a person with these passions,

London is the place to be, definitely.

In his pursuit of perfection,

Andreas goes straight to the UK's largest inland fish market,

Billingsgate.

And that requires a ridiculously early start.

His alarm goes off at 3am!

If you are looking for anything fish-related in London,

Billingsgate is definitely the place.

It helps us a lot because it cuts a middleman,

which means we can keep our prices lower at the market.

-That one there?

-That's very nice.

-Yeah.

And Mark Morris has got plenty of fish to fry.

Lovely, thank you very much, see you again.

We are seeing a big upturn in the fish and chip trade.

In the last couple of years, it's become a very trendy item.

We've seen more and more people now going back

to traditional good-quality British fish and chips,

and that's what Andreas is buying,

certainly what he'll be doing with the quantity he's buying from me.

We like to source and choose our own fish for ourselves,

rather than get it delivered.

We know that the fish we choose is right for us on the day.

For me, the secret to great fish and chips is in the batter.

I am mixing some plain flour with cornflour,

a little bit of baking powder,

and a touch of turmeric and salt,

mixing them all with water.

Turmeric hasn't really got any taste function in the batter.

I use it for colour.

I like the colour of the turmeric.

One more spoon of flour.

I'm looking for a particular consistency here.

It's more or less the one of double cream.

It's very important how you treat the batter.

I wouldn't use this batter to fry right away,

I will need to proof it first.

It needs to rest in the fridge, a minimum of four or five hours.

Six is better.

Looks good to me, it looks ready to go into the fridge

and to start proofing.

All this prep means super-fast food at their market stall.

See all those beautiful flakes forming once I put the cod in it?

That's our style, that's where we're aiming.

It gives a beautiful to look at fillet of fish,

but also an added light crunch and an added texture to it.

That's what we want to achieve.

For generations, fish and chips have fed millions of memories -

that's what good food does.

For Nicholas, his earliest food memories come from the family home,

so I've brought him back to a very noisy north London street

to reminisce about his mother's cooking, and life in this house.

And this was my home for many years.

-Right.

-And it has great associations, great affections,

but it is terribly sad to come here now,

because we are standing in what was the front garden.

They've taken it back - across there was shops.

We had a greengrocer, a fishmonger, a butcher, everything.

It's all disappeared. It's all now utterly impersonal.

Well, I'm going to cook something for you now

which I hope will be nostalgic,

but you are going to go inside

and let's hope you find some happy memories in there.

This building used to be one big family home,

where Nicholas's father had his GP surgery.

Now, it's split into flats.

Well, this is a very strange experience,

because what has happened to the family home

is the whole of the thing has been pulled inside out,

and they've built flats inside it.

So, naturally, I don't recognise anything.

I mean, this is a lovely flat,

but the main entrance was down at the street.

And on the ground floor, on one side, was the hall,

which was also my father's waiting room for his patients.

The other side was his surgery.

Beyond was the dining room and the kitchen.

We always had to wait until the last patient had been seen

before we could have dinner,

and I was getting famished sometimes,

because the last patient may not go until eight o'clock.

And then this lovely garden - small but very attractive.

It was landscaped and my father looked after it beautifully.

It's all gone now.

There is a huge building going up there.

And it is sad to come back and see something which was a very

attractive place changed beyond all recognition.

Family life revolved round his father's surgery.

Nicholas lived here from age ten and it was his base until he reached 25.

I was asked before I did the programme did we eat out much.

No, we didn't.

In those days there wasn't a culture of going out to restaurants.

You always ate at home but we always had a roast on a Sunday and I have

very happy memories of sitting round that dining-room table.

It's amazing to think that chicken wasn't really thought of then.

It was a delicacy.

I mean, I am not a "foodie"

so I don't have memories of great dishes and things.

My mother was a good cook

and my father loved his soups,

and she made the most wonderful soups.

My favourite dish,

from what my mother used to cook, was the Irish stew.

And that's exactly what I'm going to make first for Nicholas,

as a bit of nostalgia on a plate.

I'm making MY version of this classic,

so fingers crossed it matches up to memories of his mother's dish.

We've got some mutton chops here, not lamb chops, mutton chops.

You've got bags of flavour and all we've done with these is

we've put them into a bit of cold water, been up to the boil,

then rinse them off so they look like this.

You need a really good casserole pot, good, heavy pot.

I've got one on here.

I'm going to put some heat in here, that's it.

And really there are only three ingredients,

there's the meat, there's the onions and potatoes.

So we are going to chop these potatoes up, nice and thin

because we want them to mash up into the sauce

and make a really tasty sauce to go with this dish.

And the nice thing about this is it will help to thicken the sauce.

Plenty of them. So in they go.

I'm going to put just a bit of stock in there to start with.

Probably in the old days they used to use just water,

but I'm using chicken stock

because I think it gives a nicer, bigger, stronger flavour.

So then we put the mutton chops in.

Spread them across there.

We are going to give them the long, slow cooking

that Irish stew really deserves.

This is a classic dish

and I really hope that Nicholas is going to enjoy this.

So bags of meat in there

and now some onions.

So once again, just take the root off, just shred them up...

..so we now scatter the onions over the top

and now I'm going to put some more stock in it.

That's looking good.

Bit of salt and pepper.

And finally we make what we call a bouquet garni -

it's herbs that give it a lovely flavour, so I'm going to take

a stick of celery,

just cut that in half, works fine.

Then I've got some parsley stalks here, we stick those in there.

A bay leaf.

There's some thyme over here.

It's looking lovely. That...

Oh, that smells brilliant.

And just a bit of rosemary.

On it goes and we stick this on top,

just to hold the whole thing together, and then a bit of string.

But the idea here is that we give bags of flavour to the Irish stew

but when we want to take it out, the herbs are not all over

the place, we just pull out them all together.

That goes in the pot, in there.

A bit more stock.

So there it is.

The lid goes on, we bring it up to the boil and simmer it

for about an hour and a half to two hours

till the meat is tasty and tender.

I just hope Nicholas loves it.

He's found a part of the building that seems to have escaped

the developers.

I'm on the little balcony, which is exactly the same as when I was here.

In fact I don't think it's been painted since then -

they need to preserve it.

But if you look down, there was the canopy above the front door

and you came up the steps to the front door.

To the left there was a forecourt, beyond that was the garage

and of course the front garden stretched out

to the middle of the road almost.

And looking down there,

this is indicative of the biggest change in my lifetime.

65 years ago there was single-lane traffic here.

Now everybody has a car.

And all the buses, there are many more buses.

So this is nostalgia.

This balcony existed - it was all part of the house.

I remember coming out here and looking out.

Probably that buddleia was there originally.

This brings a smile.

My Irish stew is almost ready.

I've sliced potatoes and onions, and added semi-cooked mutton chops with

chicken stock and a bouquet garni,

and simmered for an hour and a half.

So what I've done here, look,

I've got this wonderful stew cooking away here.

Boiling away like that.

We've used a bouquet garni to give it flavour.

I don't need that any more so that can come out

and then what I'm going to do...

These are mutton chops, er,

and it was a dish of the populus, was Irish stew, so there was

sometimes a lot more bone in Irish stew than there was actually meat.

So I'm just going to take a potato masher and just mash this up

a little bit so that it starts to thicken up the sauce.

The main difference is I would never be eating this out of doors.

Well, quite frankly I wouldn't often be cooking it out of doors

but because it is such a lovely day

and we're just around the corner from your old house...

-That's right.

-That's why we're cooking it here.

-That's right. OK.

-I hope you are going to like this.

Just a drop more salt in there - a drop more pepper.

You can put as much pepper as you like...

-Are you a pepper merchant?

-I'm a bit of a pepper freak!

Good, OK.

So what I've got here, look, I've got some potatoes,

cooked in the jacket, and I've got, er, some onions, baby onions.

And then we put all our bits and pieces...

You've just taken those out.

Yeah, I took them out so that I could mash up the potato.

You see, even though I'm a cook, there is

sense to some of the things that I do.

I hope you are going to take this and eat it and enjoy it.

I will. I can't wait.

Good man.

We took a bit of parsley and a bit of the really sweet

centre of celery and we used that for the colour.

Normally, in households,

it would be help yourself or someone dishes them out.

What I'm going to do,

I'm going to find three really nice chops for you.

With a bit of meat to them. Oh, that looks lovely, that one there.

So that's one, two... That looks a nice chop, doesn't it?

I'm glad I didn't have any breakfast!

Good man. That's what I like to hear.

We've got a couple of onions on there.

So we've got that there

and then I'm just going to take a bit of the sauce, pile it on top.

Just put that little bit of colour on there and that celery

and there you have it, sir, that's an Irish stew.

-That's a traditional Irish stew.

-That's how I see it.

Irish stew is one of those traditional dishes

that can be interpreted in a hundred ways.

This is MY version especially for Nicholas.

Gorgeous.

How did it compare to your mum's?

Well, the only thing about me mum's is...

This is no criticism,

because you've done the traditional Irish stew,

-but she put everything in.

-Right.

We had celery, carrots, sometimes leeks...

Whatever she had in the kitchen she'd throw in,

and so you had this wonderful mixture.

I can't digest butter and cream

and every chef nowadays seems to put cream...

There's none at all in here, sir.

I know there isn't, Brian, because you knew I didn't like it.

You're quite right!

Nicholas likes simple food -

stews and soups with plenty of black pepper.

I reckon I'll need some fresh veg for my tribute dish,

and nowadays, there's plenty to choose from.

The wartime Dig For Victory campaign inspired ingenuity in the

community, resulting in bountiful crops from the smallest of plots.

-ARCHIVE:

-This Dig For Victory leaflet number one,

issued by the Ministry of Agriculture,

tells you how to plan your spring planting campaign.

In north-east London, an innovative urban farm is using ingenious

methods to grow fresh produce in tight spaces, supplying

its own cafe, and I'm on the hunt for ideas for my final dish.

-Are you Jay?

-I'm Jay, pleased to meet you.

Pleased to meet you. Hi, Andy.

'The key to Andy and Jay's system is fish!'

This is an urban farm

so it's all about sustainable growing within a small space

and we are using an aquaponic farming system to grow crops.

Fantastic.

It's a circular system using water.

The waste from these tilapia fish is converted into nutrients.

The nutrients are absorbed by the plants, which cleanses the water.

The clean water is then pumped back into the fish tanks.

So these are just floating on water here and we've...

We pump oxygen in here and there's LED lights under here to provide

the full spectrum of light they need to grow.

-So it's energy saving...

-Yep.

-..it's cost effective...

-Yep.

..and it is...

-It uses less water too than normal agriculture.

-Oh, really?

And it's a natural system - it's the way the ecosystem works.

-Yep. Exactly.

-But what kind of things grow well in this system?

We've got lettuce over there, herbs grow amazingly well, erm,

tomatoes can grow quite well as well.

Erm, but we've got chives here, we've got basil.

We've got some parsley and some heritage sage as well.

So this sage, even though it looks quite broad leaf and big,

if you get into the really small ones, you can really smell the sage.

Oh, yes, so you can, yeah.

But we've got, interestingly enough, we are trying out a few new

things and we are trying out some ginger and lemon grass.

We want to try and see what, where we

can push the boundaries of what we can grow here.

Good things to grow are crops that normally are flown in from

another country, like lemon grass and ginger and basil,

so if you can grow them here, local, it's...

-People are very into cutting down on food miles.

-Sure.

And also it's going to be fresher and tastier.

Well, there's no doubt, that principle, if it's fresh,

if it's just been picked round the corner just before you use it,

-that's got to be the better flavour.

-Yep. Exactly.

So, in effect, you're providing indoors, in a small space,

in Dalston, what happens outside in major fields

and pastures everywhere.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, apart from we can guarantee

sunlight for 12 hours a day.

Outside, the farm feels a bit more conventional.

Oh, crikey.

So we are just feeding them lettuce from the system in the front.

So it's quite a big space, is this. It strikes me that

people would say in the middle of London you can't keep chickens

but in fact you can prove that you can.

Yeah, you've got four lovely hens here,

these are Sussex hens and, you know, they are really healthy

and they've got a lovely space to roam.

-We let them out every now and then as well.

-Do you really?

Yep, and they have a run around in the polytunnel.

And I take it these are layers, are they?

Yeah, they lay. In the summer, each day, they lay one each.

So that is how many eggs a year?

Duh, duh, duh - that's over a thousand eggs!

Yeah, I mean, in a good year it's about 1,200 eggs.

Oh, fantastic, yeah. And...is that in here?

-Well, let's have a look.

-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We have... So they have laid.

So they all lay in the same nest, do they?

They all lay in the same nest.

One after the other - they don't fight each other?

No, they just queue up!

It's quite amazing. Oh, that's fantastic, isn't it?

Oh, look at that, you see fresh eggs and no little mark on them.

No date stamp. We know how fresh they are.

Wonderful! Let's just go in... Mind those chickens don't escape.

You stay there, you!

Next stop - veg growing in a polytunnel.

This is our traditional growing system where we grow...

-It's just like anybody's greenhouse.

-Basically.

We've got some tomato plants here.

We've got some courgettes over there, which is flowering.

-We've got some red cabbage over here.

-I love red cabbage.

Yeah, absolutely, and that's coming on really nicely.

Then we've got some aubergine.

So the beauty of this here is that anybody who has some spare space

-can produce a polytunnel.

-Yep.

They're going to have fresh vegetables and herbs

so any time they want they just walk out the back door and...

-And get what they want.

-Pick 'em, cook 'em and nothing can be fresher.

-There's nothing better.

-And you're going to cook something for us.

-We're going to cook something in the kitchen.

-Let's have a look.

So what are we going to do?

Right, so we are going to basically make

a really nice, very fresh salad.

We've got some eggs from outside as well.

So the first thing I'm going to do is prepare our tomatoes.

-We're going to fry these tomatoes.

-Yeah.

So we've kept them green.

In the meantime, would you mind making a dressing for me?

Yes. I'd be very happy to. What do you want me to do?

So we've got some of those lovely herbs.

I've picked loads of herbs. Pick what you like.

-A selection of each.

-Yeah.

We're going to use that as our herbs,

-so we're going to make it like a chimichurri dressing...

-OK...

So, we've got some garlic. I'm just going to...

take that off for you there. I'll leave that for you.

And then we've got some chilli in.

-We've grown our own chillies and dried them out...

-Oh, perfect.

-You carry on...

-I'll carry on with the tomatoes here.

'The beauty of a chimichurri dressing

'is that it can be made from any combination of herbs,

'with chilli, garlic, oil and red wine vinegar.'

-Now, this smells delicious. Is that what you want?

-That's great.

-And there's a bit of seasoning there...

-OK.

-..a bit of salt

and a bit of pepper as well.

'Jay's coating the tomatoes in milk and flour.'

OK, so the...

That oil's nice and ready. I've put some tomatoes in there.

We'll get them in.

We only want a couple of minutes either side, Brian.

-Yeah, you don't want to melt, do you?

-No.

You want to keep some of the structure of that tomato.

-While that's happening...

-Yeah.

..we've got these lovely little courgettes

and we're going to just give these a cut down the middle.

'The courgettes are pan-fried with the tomatoes

'until both have a rich, golden colour.'

-And then I've got some mustard greens.

-Yeah.

And some of the lettuce. Little bed of that here.

I'm salivating just looking,

just the whole thought of how fresh these are

is really, just thinks... this is going to be great.

And just going to put a little bit of seasoning

just on the tomatoes and a bit of pepper as well.

There we go.

It's looking great.

-Just so fresh.

-Make it look a bit nice.

And the flowers as well, don't forget the flowers.

So, we're going to get a little bit of this dressing, just...

..adding a little egg here.

-Oh, nice.

-Straight in the middle.

Soft-boiled egg yolk. Look at the colour of that egg yolk.

Beautiful, isn't it?

And then, final finishing touch,

-we're going to get some flowers.

-So we should. Oh, lovely, huh?

It will make it look really nice

and then we've got a bit of...caraway leaf.

Fresh farm shop salad, picked...about an hour ago.

Perfect.

'Who'd have thought you could get food harvested

'this fresh in a London cafe?'

That's lovely.

The eating tells you

if you can get anything anywhere near as fresh as that...

-magic.

-That's it.

-Jay, thank you very much. Well done.

-Thank you.

This theme of simple, freshly-picked produce

has been the mainstay of the diet

Nicholas has enjoyed throughout his life,

much of which has been spent in the Hampstead area of north London.

Perhaps it IS the answer to a long and healthy life.

Nicholas raised his own family

in the same part of London he grew up in.

'We're taking him back to the house he moved to in the early 1960s.'

This feels like real seclusion.

-We're just on the edge of Hampstead Heath.

-That's right.

The very first house I ever bought,

erm, with my first wife, was just round the corner.

And then this property came on the market.

We decided it was prettier, and more secluded, so I bought this.

And this was our first real home.

This is where my two children started and grew up,

and coming back here is not only very nostalgic,

it's very delightful, because when you took me to my childhood home...

Right.

..it was a bit of a shock

and I was distressed to see what had happened to it.

This one is obviously still being cared for and loved the same way.

The only thing that's exactly the same is,

well, the door's the same. Same knocker and everything.

Well, I had grass there.

That rose tree is exactly the same!

But you can see it's grown over the years.

And your two children were born into this house?

Yes, born here and of course, at that time,

-you were so much more safe and secure.

-Sure.

They could run out onto the heath here

and they'd practise on their bicycles here, and, erm,

I think for small children it was a marvellous opportunity for them.

-A little bit of paradise.

-We were very blessed.

-So, do we want to go in the house?

-I think you should.

You don't know what they've done inside. You're about to find out.

-Enjoy.

-Enjoy, right. Mm.

And while Nicholas steps back in time once more,

I'm off to nearby Golders Hill Park,

where we've set up our outdoor kitchen.

I'm taking everything I've learnt about his story

to cook my tribute dish for Nicholas,

which represents his life...on a plate.

Now, Nicholas says he loves a really good soup

and an interesting soup and his favourite is minestrone.

So, I'm going to see if my minestrone matches up

to his minestrone.

I've got a pan on, nice and hot. A bit of olive oil here.

He doesn't take butter, he doesn't take cream, so we're OK here.

Olive oil goes in.

Try and get that warmed up.

And I'm going to put some fresh thyme in there.

And as minestrone is normally Italian soup,

we're going to put some garlic in there.

And the trick here is just to get the flavours out,

but not to colour them.

So, in that goes, in there.

My first impressions are

how wonderfully they have redesigned it.

It really is most, most attractive.

I wish we'd stayed here and done what they've done.

-HE LAUGHS

-Oh! Yes, of course.

What is amazing is it was two little cottages.

There were two fireplaces here

and we kept one and we used the fire,

but it's gone now and there were... I don't know how they propped it up,

because there was a chimney breast here,

which I thought was supporting this floor here.

And that was where the door was.

Came in, had a tiny office in the corner.

And this was a sort of hallway dining area.

That was the living room in there.

The kitchen was certainly through here

and they have redesigned it beautifully.

And they've got a lovely, lovely kitchen here.

It's a very happy feeling coming back

and seeing something that you loved

being also protected and loved again.

It really is.

The great thing about minestrone

is you can put whatever vegetables you want in there.

It doesn't really matter - whatever you've got.

Nice bit of chopped...

..onion.

Bags of colour, bags of flavour,

bags of fresh vegetables, that's what it's all about.

'I'm cooking the vegetables for five minutes,

'but I don't want them to colour,

'then adding chicken stock and simmering.'

So...oh.

This is fascinating.

And a beautiful pussycat as well.

This...

was our main bedroom

and then we put the extension above.

I and my wife moved up there and this became

one of my children's bedrooms. But you see, oh...

Oh, the door's still there onto the roof garden.

That's still there, but they've done it so...creatively.

And of course you look onto the heath,

which is now, you're looking onto shrubberies.

It does make you feel good

when something that you've really enjoyed and loved

and have happy memories about,

you see it being looked after and loved in the same way.

Oh.

The surprise is the transformation

from what I remember.

This was...our main bedroom,

but the staircase came up there

and we went straight in here, the door was.

Then you have this wonderful view onto Hampstead Heath.

Because I'm quite emotional, sentimental about homes

and the fact that my own children have happy memories,

that makes one feel very happy.

So, I've got a very good feeling being here.

So, now that the stock's coming back up to simmering,

I'm going to put in some macaroni.

That's REAL minestrone.

And then, a bit of potato.

A touch of salt.

And for Nicholas, some pepper.

And we'll just leave that now to simmer

for about 15 minutes, maximum.

Back at the house,

Nicholas is bursting with compliments for the current owners,

Cindy and Bob.

You have transformed it into something very special.

We loved it here and I quite enjoyed the design,

but you've redesigned it brilliantly.

It's an amazing area to live.

-It is.

-I mean, you know, we are privileged to live here

and this house is so much about looking out.

-Absolutely.

-It's what you see every day...

-Absolutely.

-..and the heath...

-Having seen what you've done,

we should never have moved, we should've stayed here

-and expanded.

-You're still remembered here, very fondly.

-You're very kind.

-And the children.

You're remembered as a very fine gardener.

-Well, I was successful, yes.

-Mm.

-I am a keen gardener.

You never rest, do you?

The thing is, people say, "Well, at your age,

"surely you've thought about retiring?" But...

the answer is very simple.

I'm in a profession that retires you.

Once they think I can no longer do it,

or the employers think I can no longer hack it

or the public stop coming, I'm out, finished, I'm on the scrapheap.

I don't think there's any chance of that happening. Do you?

'My minestrone is almost ready.

'I've added chopped onion, carrot, celery and fennel to olive oil,

'flavoured with thyme and crushed garlic,

'and cooked for five minutes.

'Then I added chicken stock

'and, after ten minutes of simmering, macaroni.

'Finally, a diced medium-sized potato joined the mix.'

Overall it's been one of those intriguing days? Rewarding at times?

Relaxing, fascinating, interesting,

unusual, but finishing up in the house where I,

with my small young family, were very happy,

it is very satisfying and very rewarding.

I just want to tell you what I've done.

I'm making a kind of minestrone.

-The difference with this...

-Mm.

..for me, is that because I remember that you told me

how chicken was such a delicacy...

NICHOLAS LAUGHS ..and a rarity once upon a time...

-so, I've roasted a couple of chicken legs...

-Yeah.

-..I've used chicken stock to make this minestrone...

-Mm-hm.

..and I'm going to put the chicken into there.

'I'm adding a diced courgette and de-seeded tomatoes

'and taking the chicken off the bone to dice.'

Give it a stir and whilst that's just coming up to the boil,

-could you pass me the bowl, please?

-Yes, right.

All I'm going to do now is put this bit of roast chicken leg

that you so desired when you were a young person.

It's got everything that minestrone's got,

plus a little something extra.

And of course the Italians

would finish it with a little bit of Parmesan.

-Oh, yes. I like my Parmesan.

-You grab a spoon there.

-Stand next to me, Nicholas...

-Right.

..so that the wind doesn't blow the cheese all over the place.

-I see what's happening, yes. It does get blown way, yes.

-Does a bit.

And there we are.

My tribute to the man who loves soups, Nicholas Parsons.

Minestrone with roast chicken.

-There you are. Have a go at that, chef.

-Ooh! Exciting.

NICHOLAS LAUGHS

Oh, that's...

Mmm.

I like that.

That's gorgeous. Gorgeous.

-Magic.

-You are kind.

No...

I've always enjoyed soups

and you've produced a magic potion there.

Thank you, sir. So, how has the day been? Have you enjoyed it?

Oh, it's been a wonderful day.

Nostalgic, fascinating,

evoking memories which, erm, were fading away.

Well, it's been a privilege to be on this little voyage with you

and I'm really glad that it's ended up well.

It's been a pleasure, particularly the soup.

-Good man.

-I'm a soup man and he's a great soup maker.

-Super.

-Super!

-NICHOLAS LAUGHS