Simon Weston 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.

He 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.'

-ALL:

-Ohhh.

Look at that!

'Going back to their early days 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 food their home regions are proud of.

HE CHUCKLES

-Which way would you like to go?

-Eh...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.

Magic. Magic.

Today, Simon Weston OBE, Falklands veteran and a charity campaigner,

is returning to the county where he was born, Caerphilly in south Wales.

He'll be exploring the places where he grew up.

It wasn't just a house, it was my home.

And he'll be going back to the scene of some juvenile delinquency.

Makes me smile to think I'm still allowed back.

HE LAUGHS

And I'll be creating brand-new dishes for him that will be

a reminder of the tastes of childhood.

-What's everybody else having?

-Good question.

This is the village of Nelson,

ten miles north of the Welsh capital Cardiff.

It was the childhood home of a man who just happens to be

a real hero of mine.

-Thank you.

-Charity campaigner Simon Weston.

Simon was awarded the OBE in 1992, just ten years after

he suffered terrible injuries in the Falklands Conflict.

His amazing recovery and tireless work for others

have since made him a national hero.

I've come to meet him at a pub he knows well.

-Simon, good morning.

-Good morning.

-It looks like I'm just in time.

-Yeah.

-Do you take milk?

-I do.

-Good man. Oh, look at that.

Perfect.

Now, this isn't just any old Welsh pub, is it?

This is The Rowan Tree pub in Nelson,

-used to be called The Colliers.

-OK.

And The Colliers in that day was where a lot of us youngsters

started to enjoy our first tipple, shall we put it that way?

The whole area actually has a lot of history for me,

because just up that way is Portlock's farm.

-Right.

-Or was Portlock's farm, I don't know who owns it now,

but we used to hay bale in the summer there.

Down the back there, where I fell off my first horse.

BRIAN LAUGHS

There's a lot around this area that I enjoyed when I was a kid.

Simon was born in 1961, and has an older sister, Helen.

In Simon's early years, the Weston family moved several times,

as his parents were in the RAF.

When Simon was 16, he signed up himself and joined the Welsh Guards.

Four years later, he was in the Falklands,

and on board the Sir Galahad when it was bombed.

He was just 20 years old.

After Simon returned to the UK, Nelson became a sanctuary.

A lot of who I am is because of this village,

-and certainly who I developed into being after being injured.

-Sure.

-Because the people of this village really did...

-Look after you.

They looked after me tremendously, they looked after the family.

It's a very special place, Nelson, big place in my heart,

even though I don't live here any more.

-You know, everything moves on and evolves.

-Sure.

But it's got a huge amount of memories,

and good memories, really good memories, for me.

Every village in the Welsh valleys grew up around a colliery.

When Simon was a lad, most men worked down the pit,

and there was a real sense of community.

On a Saturday evening, Simon would go round the pubs selling

the Football Echo, a newspaper with the final scores in it.

So we'd sell the Echos here...

-Yeah.

-..and then we'd go off and spend the proceeds,

we'd go off and buy ourselves some faggots from John Pedro's.

Faggots, now, tell me about faggots.

A faggot is something very... It was a part of the staple diet, almost,

when I was a kid.

You'd go to the rugby clubs and the rugby club would always

put on faggots and peas for whoever the visiting team were.

Cos it's tradition that every club feeds the away team,

so you'd have faggots and peas, and if you were lucky enough,

in the rugby club the bucket would come round,

and as kids, you'd pinch a glass that was empty

and dip it into the bucket and grab a beer as well.

Faggots are a speciality in south Wales,

made from offal like pork liver and heart...

which is minced, mixed with breadcrumbs and shaped into balls.

They're then cooked in thick gravy,

and it's making me hungry just thinking about 'em.

-Do you do faggots?

-Yes, we do.

-Can we have two portions, please?

-Faggots, peas and chips?

-Spoil me, why don't you?

-Sounds wonderful.

-No problem.

-Thank you.

Shall we go and sit outside and wait?

-I know there's a lovely view out there.

-Lovely.

-You'll remember where it is, I suppose.

-I do.

I want to find out more about the part food played

in Simon's early life.

And I use those memories as the inspiration for

two very special dishes that I'm going to cook just for him.

So whilst we wait for the faggots,

I'm anxious to hear about your grandma,

cos she sort of brought you up or cooked for you, did she not?

Well, she brought me up, she didn't necessarily always cook for me.

My grandfather always cooked the things we enjoyed most.

BRIAN LAUGHS

My grandmother was not the greatest of cooks.

In fact, she was atrocious.

But, yeah, it was strange, we used to have big stews and things,

we didn't have much money as a family, and the nuclear family

-was quite large, so the meat would come to us kids.

-Yep.

And they would just have veg, the adults.

So we were spoilt, we were always loved, but we just...

Whatever food came off my grandmother wasn't

always of the greatest taste.

But on the other hand, your mum did cook nicely and you loved her food.

Yeah, my mother was a very good cook, part of that

-was because she was trained in the RAF to be a chef.

-Ah, right.

What kind of dishes spring to your mind from that period?

I always loved ham and parsley sauce,

that was always a big treat of mine,

and we used to have chicken always on a Sunday,

but the problem was with my mother, she didn't understand moderation,

she cooked like she was cooking for a regiment.

-Well, she'd been trained to cook for them all!

-So she'd have...

-I think it took her a long time to work out portions.

-Right.

But, yeah, my mother's a particularly good cook,

it's always been very good home-cooked food.

I can smell those faggots, they're almost ready.

I love the little story, that when you were in hospital

after your horrendous injuries,

they put you on a high-protein diet...

-Yeah.

-..and said, "You can eat whatever you like",

and what did you choose?

I chose faggots, peas and chips. And they said, "Why faggots?"

I said, "Because I'm not used to posh food."

-And my mother could have killed me.

-I know!

As if by magic, here they come. They look delicious.

HE SNIFFS

Lovely job, look at this.

Margaret, thank you. Look at that, extra gravy and all, huh?

Oh, fabulous.

-Ta. Look at that.

-All right, enjoy.

-Thank you very much.

-They're quite good, these, aren't they?

-Great.

-Got a lovely texture.

That's excellent.

'Now, in my mind, there's nothing better than a great pub lunch.'

But in the mining villages of south Wales,

there's always been an exotic alternative to the pub.

The Italian cafe.

In the early 20th century,

every mining village had a cafe run by Italians.

They were nicknamed "Bracchis" after the family who opened

the first one in 1890.

They sold sweets and tobacco as well as food and drink.

You could get a meat pie for your dinner or just

pop in for a coffee until late in the evening.

In the village of Treorchy in the Rhondda Valley, Gianmarco Carpanini

still runs his family's cafe and the fish and chip shop next door.

I was born here, born in this cafe,

and worked...from when I could see over the counter, really.

Had to serve, had to clean up in the nights and...do whatever I could.

That's the way I think a lot of the families did, there was work to do,

so it had to be done.

Marco's family were originally from the village of Bardi

in northern Italy.

Bardi was in a poor farming region,

and when the young men of the area heard about the black gold

being dug up in Wales, they decided to leave to make their fortunes.

Many of them walked all the way across Europe to get to Wales,

only to discover that the black gold was actually coal,

and that life down the pits was tough, dirty and dangerous.

Instead, they set up cafes catering to the needs of the miners,

and soon it was said that for every mine, there was an Italian cafe.

Romeo Basini's family ran the cafe in the next village up the valley.

You could meet your boyfriend there, your girlfriend there,

your lover, your husband - whoever it was.

And you'd have a lot of fun as well. My sister and I used to take bets.

If you came in with a girl this week,

and you bought her a glass of Vimto.

And she drank her own glass, you drank your own glass.

I would bet sixpence that you'll be with her again next week,

cos she liked the fact you paid for her drink, right?

If you came in and shared a drink,

no-one would take any bets on you, you're not going to be

with the same girl next week, cos you're too tight.

At the heart of the cafes were the coffee machines.

Steaming milk for the lattes wasn't the only thing they were good for.

The steam nozzle came in handy for cooking

a speciality of the Italian cafes - steamed pies.

I suppose someone thought of the idea of steaming a pie,

and it was successful, and it sort of took off from there.

Every Italian cafe did it.

You can imagine, when you're steaming all day,

from here to the ceiling would be covered in steam.

We'd have the fan going in the corner there to get the steam

out as much as we could, but the windows would be steamed up.

We'd sell dozens and dozens of them.

Especially at weekends. The miners enjoyed them, I suppose.

It was a sort of staple food for them, something substantial to eat.

Nowadays pies are still on the menu,

alongside Italian favourites like lasagne and ice cream.

But where there were once dozens of Italian cafes, now just a few remain.

There were 54 - if I remember the figures right - deep pit mines,

this is just Rhondda, and 52 Italian cafes.

So they sort of followed each other.

As the mines closed, the cafes have gone down to...

There's about ten left, I think.

But if in 10 or 20 years' time you come to Rhondda

and look for an old-style Italian cafe, I don't think you'll find one.

Back in Nelson, I've brought Simon to the streets where

he played as a kid, and the location of his childhood home.

So, this is the actual house you lived in for quite a few years then.

Eh, probably about eight when I came here, maybe a bit more,

bit less, I'm not sure.

But I left here when I was 16 and went to the Army then,

and I didn't come back until I was just short of my 21st birthday,

but I was injured then.

-Right.

-I was brought back

and went into the small bedroom in the middle,

which was my bedroom before I left,

and then I moved into this front bedroom here because it was bigger.

And that's where I stayed, for nearly two years, and then I left

from here and went round the world, and I never really came back home.

From the years when you were eight to 16 while you lived here,

were they happy times?

Were there lots of other people, kids playing round?

All my friends lived on this estate.

My oldest friend, Carl Dicks, he lived up on the top estate,

and one Friday I'd stay in my house with him,

and then the following Friday I'd stay at his mother's.

So it was like that every weekend, for years.

But this is where I came back to, this is where I recuperated,

where I got to understand who I am.

I'm off to start cooking a nostalgic dish for Simon,

while he's looking around his old house for the first time in decades.

This is surreal.

I remember coming in, having been injured, and this is your first view

and it's one of the first things you soak in and it stays with you.

Banisters exactly the same, it's all the same.

It's my house, but somebody else is living here.

Wow, this is lovely. They've done the kitchen nice.

We used to have an island here that came out

and they used to have a big cracked tile there

where my mother got so mad with my father

she threw a frozen leg of lamb

and she was such a terrible shot she hit the tiles and broke the tiles.

And the mealtimes were all on the table here,

so we had a Christmas lunch and everything else.

This was my home.

You know, it wasn't just a house, it was my home.

I think some people would be upset at going to their home

and seeing someone else's things there.

But I think these people have done it really nice

and they've looked after it really well.

You know, which is a good feeling because it holds a huge amount

of fantastic memories, some not so fantastic.

You know, my dad passed away here.

Where I came back with all my...

all my problems from conflict.

You know, so there's a lot.

But there's a lot more happy memories here,

it's a very happy place, a very happy home for me.

I've taken inspiration from one of Simon's childhood memories

for my nostalgic dish.

When the family had a stew, the kids used to get all the meat.

So I'm going to use Welsh lamb to make Simon a very special stew,

topped with dumplings made with local Caerphilly cheese.

So, first we take the lamb.

I cut it into nice, big pieces, so there we go.

These are neck end fillet.

It'll make a really great stew, this will.

We've got bags of vegetables.

So it should have bags of flavour when it's finished.

'I'm going to seal the pieces of meat in a little rapeseed oil,

'which will also give them colour and flavour.'

And the trick is not to touch it too much and let it get a lovely colour.

Then just turn it over to colour it on both sides.

'Carrot, celery and onion are a classic base for a sauce

'and will add depth and sweetness.

'They don't need to be neatly chopped because I'll be passing them

'through a sieve to make the sauce super-smooth.'

Let it sit there for a minute.

Over here, I've got the innards of tomatoes, all the seeds.

So these go in.

'I'll be adding the tomato flesh later.'

Look at all those colours in there, just bags of flavour,

all waiting to get together to make this lovely sauce.

So, to make the sauce, I'm going to put some red wine in there.

Don't use a cheap red wine, but don't use an expensive one either.

Just a nice red wine, plenty of it there.

Some chicken stock.

And we bring that up to the boil

and the last thing I'm going to put in there now is some fresh thyme.

It smells delicious.

Put that in there.

I remember these stairs.

Travelled down there on a tray

and a hardback book many a time enjoying myself.

This is my mother's room, or was my mother's room.

There's a little shelf there, runs along, and on there

I used to have three vintage cars

that my sister decided to steal on me.

She used to do things like that to me.

It was really hard to forgive her when we were kids.

But now I love her to bits.

But then, we were always at war.

As you are with your siblings.

And she's older than me and she was a bully.

She used to beat me up.

This is the middle bedroom that I pretty much grew up in as a child.

When I used to listen to my music - Fleetwood Mac, Albatross.

I'd have my feet up against the windowsill here and I'd be

lying with my back on the floor on a hot sunny day before I went out.

And my bed was laid across that wall there.

Where my mother ordered that the spear that I bought

at Longleat Safari Park be chained to the wall

because she was worried that I might try and assault my sister with it.

And, yeah, so this was my bedroom.

God, I feel so big in something so small now.

'The next stage of my lamb stew

'is turning all the vegetables into a sauce.'

I've taken all the meat out and put it to one side

and I've passed the sauce through it. It's a laborious job, is this.

What you do is you get all that goodness and flavour

through into the final sauce, but it also helps to thicken it up

because if you look now, see, watch this.

Look, underneath, that's all part of the vegetable,

and that all helps to make the flavour and give it a nice thickness.

'I've already used tomato pulp and seeds in the sauce.

'Now, the flesh is going to add even more colour and flavour.'

So, roughly chopped tomatoes go in there.

I give it a good stir there and then very carefully

I'm going to put the meat back into here.

Just to slowly cook together.

So, the meat's in there now.

Just let it sit in there.

I'm going to put it back on the heat, bring it up to the boil

because I'm going to make my dumplings and cook them in there.

This is the room that I spent a lot of time in.

This was my room after I got injured.

I mean, there's so much familiarity looking out of the window

onto other people's properties

and remembering the different neighbours that I had.

But where other things have a reverence, I don't know,

perhaps I'm looking at this differently because this is

where I spent some of the most angst-filled times.

So I don't really want to spend too much time dwelling on that.

Things have moved on so much in the last 33 years.

But this is somebody else's memories to be made,

somebody else's fun and happy times.

But, yes, I remember my bed being in here.

But there's nothing of me here any more.

'I'm making Simon a nostalgic lamb stew.

'I've added lots of vegetables for flavour and colour

'and a generous glug of red wine.

'When the lamb was cooked, I sieved the vegetables to make the sauce

'and put the meat back on the heat.

'All that's left to make are some special dumplings,

'with local Caerphilly cheese and chives.'

Hi, Simon, come on in, mate.

-I'm just about ready for you here.

-Oh, OK.

I've just got this lovely mix, I hope you'll like these

because I've never made these before, but they do look good, I have to say.

-Caerphilly cheese dumplings.

-OK, that's a new one on me.

There you go, that's good, so you can't tell what they should be like.

-No.

-They should be like this.

I've just put some cayenne pepper in there and some salt in there.

I've got suet in there, breadcrumbs,

self-raising flour

and I'm going to put some cheese in there.

And of course you can guess which cheese it is, can't you?

-Yes.

-Caerphilly cheese.

And all this is to go with this wonderful Welsh lamb stew

that I've got cooking over here. I'm going to take the lid off this.

It's boiling there nicely. Let's give it a bit of a stir.

This stew is looking good. That looks great.

All I'm going to do is put these...

..dumplings on top.

And let them sort of just cook, half in the liquor

and half in a bit of steam.

I love dumplings anyway. These are just so different.

Yeah. Keep them separate so they don't get stuck together.

We'll put that on top. So, how was your trip down memory lane?

It was good, it was very interesting.

Everywhere I went, even though

I knew the rooms and knew where they were, everything was different.

It was somebody else and they'd put their own mark on it

and their own stamp, and quite rightly so.

But, you know, they've done it lovely.

And I couldn't feel happier, really, than going in and seeing it.

'The dumplings take just 20 minutes to steam through.

'And I've also cooked some green beans and button onions.'

Some lovely fresh green beans.

I'm going to serve you up a lovely portion whilst it's nice and hot.

I'm going to put the beans on the bottom.

And the meat, just look at that,

so you've got nice, big chunks of wonderful Welsh lamb.

It should be cooked to a T.

'My nostalgia dish is Welsh lamb stew,

'served with green beans and button onions,

'topped with some experimental Caerphilly and chive dumplings.'

-So, you just try that, my friend.

-All right.

-That lamb is to die for.

-It's good lamb, isn't it?

-It is.

-It's absolutely to die for.

-This is what I'm interested in.

Considering you've never made them, they've come out really well.

-They're all right, those, aren't they?

-Very tasty.

-Good.

-Very tasty.

SHEEP BLEAT

I've travelled just over an hour up the road from Nelson,

to a farm where a couple grow a very unusual food crop.

Not wheat or barley, but lavender.

I can hear sheep, I can hear birds. That's all I can hear.

And the view is magnificent. Where are we?

We're right in the middle of Powys,

we're at 1,100 feet on a piece of land called the Epynt.

It spreads for miles in that direction.

And we are in heaven.

'Back in 1984, Canadian journalist Nancy Durham moved here

'to be with her husband Bill, an academic.

'Their high-powered career saw them both travel the world,

'but 12 years ago, Nancy had a conversation

'that would change her life for ever.'

2003, we were sitting on the deck over there having a glass of wine

with our farmer neighbour and his wife

and I mentioned I wanted to plant some lavender. And I meant a hedge.

Because we'd had one in Oxford in this glorious place where we lived.

-Right.

-And I thought that would be a great idea.

But the farmer was fascinated with the idea of planting lavender

and he told me the government's trying to get farmers to diversify,

and there's money, and the farmers aren't taking the money

and I bet you could get a grant to plant a field, and I did.

This upper field was an experiment.

I embraced the call to diversify and it was just for fun.

But getting that grant made me very focused and very responsible.

I did a lot of research and I discovered that the number one thing

for lavender is that its roots mustn't sit in water.

And on our steep hill farm, that could probably be satisfied,

that one requirement.

Then I discovered there are dozens of varieties

and I might have luck up here, so I've been very lucky.

'At first, Nancy just sold the lavender in bunches.

'But then found she could use it in other ways.'

What products are food based?

We do have a Welsh lavender chocolate bar made for us

in Wales, in Pembrokeshire.

And we sell culinary lavender and we give recipes away with it.

'Nancy's promised to share one of her favourite recipes with me later.

'But I've got to help with the harvest first.'

This looks like a good one.

This involves getting down on our knees.

-Getting down is not a problem, getting up...

-Getting up!

We can help each other.

So, we're going to cut these with sickles. Here's one for you.

That looks lethal.

It does, and it is sharp and you can get nicked, but it's serrated,

so it's not as frightening as a really sharp, clean blade.

-To me anyway.

-If you say so.

-If I say so.

Now, I'm just going to show you.

-I'm going to grab a handful of this lavender.

-Right.

So, it does take a bit of force.

-You can't be sort of...

-I'll have a try.

-Yeah.

So, OK, you get a bunch together in your right hand.

-Is that about right, bunch-wise?

-Yeah.

-Hold it in your left hand.

-Yeah, with my left.

-And then it's underneath.

Hook it around and go down short.

-With all your might.

-One, two, three...

-Crikey!

-And do it again.

-There you go.

-Crikey, that is quite strong.

I think it's... But good, look, that's a lovely bunch, and smell it.

I'm going to put that over here. That's my bunch.

I'm going to send you home with this.

Yeah...yeah, with conviction.

-Absolutely right, yeah.

-Bravo.

Go on.

-I know, it's...

-There is a technique.

Do you know, the muscles in my bottom are struggling already.

It's just the power through there.

You're doing no end of good to your bottom and other parts of the body.

'It would take Nancy and her helpers over a month to harvest this field.

'And I can see why, when each stem is cut by hand.

'I'm interested in finding out how Nancy uses

'lavender flowers in her cooking.'

-What a lovely, open kitchen this is.

-Thank you.

-Bright and airy, isn't it?

-It is.

Do you experiment with lots of things in here?

My husband is the chief experimenter.

But I do like playing with lavender in here.

What other kinds of things do you do?

I'll sprinkle flowers over a lovely dish of potatoes

that I'm going to slow roast with garlic and olive oil.

Sprinkle the flowers over it, not too many,

-and you get a lovely sort of honey sweetness flavour.

-That sounds nice.

I've also seen it in ice creams, and tasted it.

We do the ice cream and I think it's fantastic.

What happens here? What have you done already?

-OK, so this is a lavender lemon shortbread.

-Right.

Butter, sugar, little bit of lavender

and some lemon juice and lemon zest.

And I just chop it up.

Not too small, not too big.

-Oh, right.

-Any old size, really.

-Do you flatten them?

No, I just put them out like this and they come out like...

-So they're like little sweets?

-Little balls or something, yeah.

And people usually can't keep their hands off them.

-Let me pass you the tray.

-Thank you very much.

-OK.

-Thank you.

So then I just go like that.

-They don't run very far.

-OK.

What about if we took some sugar, a bit of lavender

-and sprinkle it on top?

-You're putting me to shame

because that little extra mile is a really good idea.

-I'm being a bit lazy.

-So let's just...

-Oh, this is lovely. This is vanilla sugar.

-It is.

-Even better.

-Yes, you do it.

-So I just thought, if we just did something like that.

-A little design on top.

-Not caramelised, but it might just melt.

-And what temperature do you cook those?

-180.

-For how long?

I always say eight minutes, but I often take them out at six.

-OK.

-Especially these little guys.

-Right, bung 'em in.

-OK.

In they go.

'I didn't know six minutes could last so long!'

Those look so good.

I can't resist.

Neither can I, so...

-Mm.

-They are delicious.

There's no doubt that shortbread is a lovely biscuit.

But that little added extra of lavender just adds that...

-just little different taste.

-Thank you.

And I like your little flourish.

That little sugary thing on top is well worth it.

10 years ago, would you have thought then

where you would be in the lavender business?

-I think you know the answer is no!

-Yeah.

-Well, all I can say is - here's to the future.

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

Mm!

Back down the valley, Simon has brought me

to a place near his hometown which holds very special memories for him.

-This is Llancaiach Fawr.

-Say that again, I love that.

-Llancaiach Fawr.

Wonderful.

-And this is between sort of Nelson and Trelewis.

-OK.

But Llancaiach was the school I went to when I was a kid.

But this is where the Lord of the Manor used to live.

Sort of Cromwellian times and all of that.

Known in our times as "the big house".

-The big house.

-"Where's he gone?" "He's up the big house."

This manor house is now open to the public

and is restored to how it would have looked in Tudor times.

But when Simon was a lad, it had fallen into disrepair

and it wasn't history that attracted him and his friends here.

We used to scurry over the wall and scrump the apples.

And, er...as children did back then.

-Indeed, quite right.

-It was seen as scrumping, not stealing.

We'd come up and scrump the apples and scoff them all the way home.

And while we were here, if we came in the half-light,

we'd swear we'd see things, ghostly apparitions,

-at the windows in this because it's so old.

-It's a haunted house?

-Well, that's what they claim.

-Right.

That's what they claim. But we used to see them as children.

It was great and we used to go back home

and we'd fight everything on the way back home.

I'd slay dragons and tigers and lions all the way home.

And pirates...

-Did you ever get caught here?

-Got chased a couple of times.

-OK.

-Never got caught.

Well, don't turn around now,

but I think I've just seen someone at that window.

I think we should go.

I've got cooking to do.

So Simon is going to revisit the scene of his crimes on his own.

This is where we used to come as kids

and it wasn't as nice and laid out as this.

But it's all been done up so beautifully now.

They've spent a lot of money looking after this, and quite rightly so.

But we used to come here at the time for scrumping apples,

the autumn, and we'd come out armed with nothing more than

a bottle of squash, lemon or orange squash,

and a packet of jam sandwiches and we'd have had a great day out.

And you'd go home and no-one would have worried, no-one would worry

about you because you'd be home in time for bed and it was wonderful.

I'm not sure if this is where we used to scramble over,

but it lends itself, the way the stone alters,

that that was possibly where the break in the wall was.

But, you know, a lot of years have gone past since then.

My goodness.

Great days though. Great days.

'This is a very stately spot to set up my kitchen.

'So it's fitting I'm going to make a feast for Simon

'to round off our day together, inspired by his mum's roast chicken.'

But Simon also said that he loved

ham and parsley sauce and new potatoes.

So I'm going to make the parsley sauce, I've got the new potatoes,

I'm just going to use the chicken instead of the ham.

'First, I'm going to mix some butter and parsley

'to put under the skin of the chicken breast.'

It starts to make a lovely flavour, that nice bit of colour.

Right, so, having got that, I've got a big pot over here

and I'm going to put some chicken stock into the pot.

You need plenty of it, put a bit of water in if you like.

Lovely. And then we just put the chicken straight in.

'To make my chicken especially tasty,

'I'm going to add some extra vegetables to the stock.'

Cut them into quarters.

Just look at all that flavour going in.

The liquor to this will be delicious.

Lid back on.

What you need to do now is bring it up to the boil

and then let it simmer.

It'll take an hour, an hour and 15 minutes,

you don't want to overcook the chicken, but you want to make sure

that when the juices run, they're nice and clear.

'Simon's bumped into an old school friend, Susan.'

-It's lovely to see you.

-How are you, darling?

Oh, it's so nice to see you!

The last time I saw you, I think it was in the Nelson Inn.

-Cor blimey, really?

-It's a long time ago.

-It is a long time ago.

-So I can't have changed much, can I?

No, obviously.

The years just peeled back as soon as I saw you, that's what it was.

Anyway, lovely to see you. I know you're filming, so I'm going to go.

-All right, see you later.

-Bye.

-Take care, Sue. Bye.

We went to school together, we went to junior school together.

We grew up in the same village together,

I used to work on her dad's farm. Well, in the summer just hay-baling.

Nothing too dramatic, just heavy lifting and get a few pennies

and some food and maybe a glass of cider every now and again.

'My tribute dish for Simon, the parsley poached chicken,

'is bubbling away nicely.

'But I've still got the veg to cook.'

What I'm going to do, I've got some more muslin cloth here

and I'm just going to wrap them up

so that I can drop them in the liquor and cook them in the same liquor,

so we lose no flavour, all the flavour goes into the stock.

So, just...

Or a J Cloth, a tea towel will do.

Just a nice, clean cloth.

'This is a perfect way to cook all different types of vegetables.

'As well as keeping all their flavour in the dish,

'it saves on the washing-up.

'Now the chicken is ready to get out of its poaching liquor.'

And just keep that somewhere warm.

Not cold, not hot.

Now, the vegetables are going to go into this wonderful liquor

that's poached the chicken and it's got all the vegetables in there

which are overcooked now, but they've got all the flavour there.

So we put the carrots in.

The beauty of this system is it keeps its colour,

but it also makes it easier to take them out

and if they cook in a different time,

ie, the potatoes take longer than the carrots,

we just leave them in a bit longer.

Put the lid on. It takes about 15 minutes.

Check them after 10, 15 minutes, I'm sure they'll be ready.

I was very, very happy as a child.

And I had a wonderful, wonderful time.

This just happened to be a part of my playground.

It makes me feel very proud that it's in Wales

and it's in my home area.

You know, yeah, nostalgia and a certain amount of pride

and reverence as well.

Very lucky.

It's all that that childhood encompasses,

that's what that tells me.

I mean, the house is just symbolic of a time.

My parents, my grandparents, we didn't have much.

But we had huge amounts of love, there was so much love to share.

We never went to bed feeling insecure,

we never went to bed with fear or terror,

we always went to bed knowing that our parents, our grandparents,

would take care of any issue or problem we had.

What a wonderful place.

It makes me smile to think that I'm still allowed back.

'I'm making Simon a tribute feast to round off our day together.

'I've stuffed a chicken with parsley butter

'and poached it in a stock that's packed full of flavour.

'I'm also cooking vegetables in their own muslin parcels.

'The chicken is now resting and the vegetables are done to a turn.'

-Aye-aye!

-Wotcha, mate, are you all right?

-Yeah, I'm good.

I'm glad you've got here now. I just want to tell you what I've done.

Let me take these out.

I've done a poached chicken for you because I know you like chicken.

-I do.

-I'm going to make parsley sauce.

-I've never had parsley sauce and chicken before.

-That's good.

-But parsley sauce and ham, you used to love.

-I do, I still do.

-Good man.

-I still do.

-How was the trip round there?

Fantastic, it was sort of a trip down Felony Lane, really.

Looking at where we used to go scrumping apples.

We weren't supposed be in the garden.

-So, as eight-year-olds, it was fun.

-They haven't given you a bill

-for the apples?

-No, I don't think they've caught up with me yet.

I don't know whether any of the family are around.

We'll try and get a move on with this here.

'The parsley sauce is simply a ladleful of stock

'reduced with some double cream

'and then a knob of butter

'and a handful of chopped parsley whisked in.'

I've let this sit for five minutes so that I don't actually burn myself.

So, there you've got a nice leg.

Drumstick and thigh.

There we go. So, thigh goes on there.

It's a nice bird, is this.

Nice thighs.

Look at that, see how that parsley has just coloured it

and flavoured it. It'll be lovely.

We had butter in there, so it just moistens it up.

Then we put the vegetables on.

Just look at that.

Just one finishing bit.

That's your parsley sauce.

Right, here we go.

Simon Weston...

-Oh, wow!

-..that's your life.

My life on a plate.

Fair play. My Lord!

What's everybody else having?

Good question.

'My tribute dish for Simon is poached chicken.

'Inspired by his mum's roast chicken, served with vegetables

'I've cooked in the poaching liquor

'and that all-important parsley sauce.'

-There you go, sir.

-Marvellous.

-Attack that.

-It's fabulous.

-Oh, good lad.

It's fabulous, it's so rich, it's lovely.

It's the parsley for me is the key ingredient to just sort of...

-It's of that time.

-Bring it alive.

-Yeah.

As I've said before, I had such a happy childhood.

And I suppose anything that brings back memories of being happy

-is always going to taste that much better.

-Absolutely right.

-It's always going to taste that much better.

-Finish that off.

-Yeah.

Mm! It's fantastic.

It really is. Absolutely.

It's been wonderful.