Day at the Races Royal Recipes

'The royal family are steeped in tradition and throughout history

'the royal tables have showcased culinary excellence.

'In celebration of royal food...'

We know it's the Queen's recipe

because we've got it in our own hand.

'..from the present and the past...'

That is proper regal.

'..we recreate old family favourites.'

Now, the Queen Mother had this really wicked trick with these.

What a mess.

'We sample royal eating alfresco...'

-Oh, wow!

-That is what you want.

'..and revisit the most extravagant times...'

Pheasant, stag, turkey, salmon, oysters

-and turbot dressed in a lobster champagne sauce.

-Unbelievable.

This is Royal Recipes.

Hello. I'm Michael Buerk and welcome to Royal Recipes.

This is Audley End,

a magnificent stately home built in the style of a royal palace

and a former home of King Charles II.

In the splendour of the gardens,

halls and kitchen of this grandest of country houses,

we'll be recreating the food served at the highest royal tables.

And it all starts here with this gem -

a royal kitchen maid's cookbook.

The only surviving recipe book of its kind in the Royal Archive.

This is an exact copy of

the original which is kept at Windsor Castle.

Inside, the recipes of Mildred Nicholls

who worked at Buckingham Palace in the early 1900s.

And for the first time in over 100 years

we will be bringing these recipes back to life.

This time we're off to the races with the royal family.

The passion for racing dates back generations

and racing days at Epsom and Ascot are amongst

the Queen's favourite events,

and a time to entertain friends and family.

Today in the royal kitchens,

chef Anna Haugh prepares Mutton Pies a la Windsor,

from a 1930s Royal Ascot lunch.

Even if you don't have any winners on the racecourse,

you've got a winner on the plate.

Historian Dr Annie Gray reveals how Edward VII

liked to combine two of his great passions - racing and eating.

There was a whole rash of dishes named for racing.

A la Jockey Club.

A la Race Winner.

And former royal chef Darren McGrady

gets cooking for the royals at Epsom.

Looks gorgeous on the plate.

Perfect for the royal table and a day at the races.

In the historic kitchen of this grand stately home,

we're returned to the reign of the Queen's father, King George VI,

and a dish from his first Royal Ascot.

Hello. And here we are in the grand kitchen

with top London chef Anna Haugh.

The royals seem always to have loved racing. In fact, King Charles II

actually bought this wonderful house

because it's close to Newmarket races,

and he wanted the most impressive house close to

the racecourse for entertaining.

What do you think of racing? You're Irish, after all.

I am Irish. I'm very fond of racing. Of course I am.

-Perhaps not as much as the royals, though.

-Perhaps not.

-So what are you cooking?

-I'm going to make mutton pie.

That sounds a bit ordinary.

No, this is no ordinary mutton pie.

This is Mutton Pie a la Windsor.

-That's got a ring to it, hasn't it?

-Yes.

And this one I think was actually served at Royal Ascot in 1937,

which is the first Royal Ascot that King George VI, the Queen's father,

went to as king.

So it sounds posh.

-Really posh.

-The royals, when they went to the races,

probably still do when they go to the races,

they don't just have a snack, packet of crisps, and, you know, something like that.

-No.

-They have the works.

And you'll see as I make this pie

that there is the works going on here.

-So it sounds posh.

-OK. Let's get cracking.

So here I have some onions, slowly cooking in some butter.

And I'm going to add the chopped up mutton.

Now this is a perfect dish for leftovers.

So in goes the chopped mutton

and I'm going to add to that my lamb stock.

Now you need to reduce this down,

so you need to cook it for quite a while, maybe about an hour or so

until it looks like this...

Oh, gosh! That really does look rich.

I know. You just want to eat that with a spoon right now.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-But you can't, Michael, you can't.

Don't be too sure.

This is our filling ready to go.

-Yep.

-And here I have blind baked four tartlet shells.

So I've placed a sheet of grease-proof paper

on top of the pastry

and then, inside that, I've added raw rice.

This just holds down the grease-proof paper...

-Stopping it rising.

-Exactly. And you can re-use it.

-That's sneaky, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's quite clever.

-Yeah.

So I'm going to fill these moulds now.

This mix looks perfect.

I think this dish is originally a Victorian dish, isn't it?

One of Queen Victoria's royal chefs, Francatelli, his name was...

-That's right.

-..came up with it.

They're individual pies, so it's, you know, one pie per person.

And well filled, aren't they? And deeply filled.

That's it. OK, so once they're filled you just want to seal them.

So I'm going to make a kind of lamb jelly.

That's two sheets of gelatine

in with about 200ml of your lamb stock.

And once that's just dissolved in, which you can see...

-Oh, just goes like that.

-Just like that.

When you say seal it, what do you mean by that?

It means that this gelatine will set on top of that delicious,

succulent mixture and it will set on top of it and hold it in together

because these pies are actually served cold.

-Cold!

-Like a pork pie.

-Oh, right. Of course, they would have been

prepared in Windsor Castle and then taken to Ascot...

-Exactly.

-..in hampers and so on.

Perfect for the races, but also perfect for a picnic,

-and you know the royals love to picnic.

-Absolutely.

And now, for our final stage,

we've puff pastry to go on top of this one.

-This is a la Windsor.

-A la Windsor.

So you need three cutters for this.

I've already cut out four of the large ones,

so now I'm going to cut out four of the medium-sized cutter.

And straightaway after that

I'm going to cut out the centre of these

because right in the centre

is where we're going to pour our little jellied jewels.

Gosh! This is a lot of trouble, isn't it?

I know. All for the royals, all for the royals.

Now, so, little bit of egg wash.

-What's that for?

-This kind of holds all of them together,

but also it gives it a lovely shine, so it's dual purpose.

-Yep. Now you've put that one... Ah, right.

-On top.

-Yep.

-On top.

Try to get it as centred as...

-This is elaborate, isn't it?

-It is. And what's so lovely is that

when it sits on top and we fill

the centre of this with the jellied jewel,

that's what I think really makes it quite unique.

OK. Just another little bit of egg wash.

-Yep.

-So you bake this in the oven, 160 degrees,

25 minutes or so until its golden brown.

And essentially they should look like these...

-Oh, wow!

-Aren't they pretty?

-Yes, they certainly are.

And they're going to get much prettier now in a minute.

So you place them on top of your pie.

Yep, put the lid on.

And then, in a pan, I have a little bit of beef jelly.

What is beef jelly?

You cook down your beef stock, your beef bones and your vegetables,

and then, just at the end, we add one or two leaves of gelatine

so that it would set up.

So just pour that on top.

Yep.

It's so lovely. I get a lot of pleasure out of this.

-You like this bit, don't you?

-Yes, I do. I really, really do.

It's a mutton pie. You and your jewels.

Oh, that's rather nifty. How do you keep the lid on?

Well, that's what the lamb jelly does.

Once it sets cold, it holds everything together.

You need to set these in the fridge, probably for about an hour.

And when you take them out of the fridge they should look like this...

I say.

HE CHUCKLES

-Sweet, huh?

-With the shiny jewels on the top.

METAL RATTLES That rattle is the cutlery.

I think these are so special and I'm hoping, fingers crossed,

-at the centre...

-I thought it was going to shatter.

-I love that sound.

-Ooh, yeah.

Now, nearly there.

-Look. Look at that. Look at that.

-Oh-oh-oh-oh!

I didn't think it had set so beautifully.

Almost like a pork pie.

And perfectly cooked puff pastry.

-Lovely layers in there, if I do say so myself.

-I expected nothing less.

I expected nothing less. Right, after you.

OK.

Gosh, there's a lot of meat in here, isn't there?

Can I have...?

Oh! Oh, yes, the consistency's great.

I love the puff pastry on the top.

-So different, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Oh! That's really good.

Well, I mean, even if you don't have any winners on the racecourse,

you've got a winner on the plate.

Mini mutton pies, just one of 11 courses served at

King George VI's first Ascot meeting.

Racing is of course the sport of kings,

and that tradition goes back centuries.

One English town lies at the heart of it all.

Newmarket in Suffolk is the home of British horse racing

and the Jockey Club has long-standing links

with the royal family.

One of its most colourful and enthusiastic royal visitors

was Edward VII, also known as Bertie.

Food historian Dr Annie Grey discovers what went on

when Bertie was in town.

Edward VII was a man known for grand passions -

women, food and horse racing.

Once a year he would hold an enormous Derby day banquet

to celebrate and bring together two of those loves, at least.

And it was held for members of an exclusive racing club -

the Jockey Club.

I've come here to Newmarket, the spiritual home of racing,

to find out more about how Edward VII combined his love of food

with his love of the turf.

The Jockey Club is where owners and breeders have been meeting for over

250 years and where the official governing body for horse racing in

Britain was set up.

Annie is meeting horse-racing historian Chris Garibaldi for a tour

of the different rooms.

Edward VII was a regular visitor and indulged in the pastime of

coffee drinking in the clubroom, which dates back to the 1700s.

-So, Chris, tell me about this room.

-Well, this is the coffee room,

and so, in a sense, this is the sort of centre of the club where it

originally started on this site in the 1750s.

The one thing you've got to remember is the Jockey Club is not a club for

jockeys. The word jockey was associated with people who ran

horses, the aristocratic owners.

And, of course, the aristocratic owners actually rode themselves,

certainly in the 16th and 17th centuries.

-It's quite a room, isn't it?

-It is, and what's lovely,

you've got the survival of the booths which gives a real impression

of what it would have been like.

It's sort of people coming to exchange gossip,

to settle their wagers,

really an assembly space before people moved up to the racecourse.

You do get a real sense of place.

All of these booths crammed with people, gambling in one corner.

I just get the feeling it would have stunk of kind of horse

and bad coffee and leather and just...man.

Edward VII employed his own coffee maker, an Egyptian,

called Emln Abraham.

And the best thing, when you're reading about him in the archives,

is that it specifies that he always wore an Eastern fez.

It was the absolute sort of pinnacle of social intercourse,

to be taking coffee in the late 17th century.

Although the royal family hasn't stayed at the Jockey Club since

the days of George V, they're certainly very present here.

-These are fantastic.

-There are royal portraits,

paintings and artefacts along every corridor.

Presumably, this grand room is the dining room.

It is indeed, yeah. The main dining room of the club.

It's got some fantastic paintings, showing Derby winners.

What about the connection between Edward VII and the Jockey Club?

From about 1861 he trains his own racehorses in Newmarket.

And with the Prince of Wales,

a whole sort of new set come in to Newmarket.

And he stayed here, didn't he?

He had a set of apartments built, and a staircase built for him?

Yes, there was a separate entrance.

The main entrance for club members is from Newmarket High Street

but the king's entrance was from the other side of the site from

the avenue, to allow him to come and go pretty well as he pleased.

So he was able, really, here, to live almost as a private individual?

As normal as it was possible to be.

It was around this time that Edward VII brought back

the tradition of spectacular banquets

thrown the day after the Derby,

known as the Derby dinners.

The Derby dinner gave him an excuse to entertain on this kind of

palatial scale. His taste was for very elaborate 18-course...

dinners. Incredibly rich sauces.

Everything supplemented with truffles

and foie gras and

very much that sort of high-end Escoffier-inspired French cuisine.

And those things would have been reported in the newspapers?

-Absolutely.

-So I'm assuming that this is really something that is

putting Bertie, Prince of Wales, on the map.

Bertie's rejuvenated Derby day dinners really did catch the spirit

of the age. There was a whole rash of dishes named for racing -

a la Jockey Club, a la race winner -

and you find in 19th-century cookbooks, time and time again,

illustrations of culinary kitsch,

something unidentifiable covered with lurid green colouring with

little jockey caps all the way round.

And there was a real vogue for tiny little copper horseshoe moulds.

What was in them might well be veal mousse or something in aspic.

It didn't really matter. In your own aspirational way,

you were embracing Bertie the Prince of Wales, and his own lavish

dinners but, there, on your own dining table.

As well as the Derby dinners,

Edward VII would enjoy some equally rich indulgent and long lunches

at Ascot.

Edward VII wasn't only famous for his Jockey Club dinners but for his

absolutely prodigious lunches

at Ascot races. 14 courses - for lunch!

14 courses!

That lunch must have raced into dinner.

When did they actually get to see the races?

I can imagine they didn't have any time for the races.

That was probably Edward's favourite day, lunch running into dinner.

Now, you're going to do a dish

-from Edward's luncheon party at Ascot races in 1908.

-Yup.

From the famous royal chef, Gabriel Tschumi.

-That's right.

-What is it?

-Well,

this is one of the 14 courses that he would have served,

and it's crab mousse with sauce remoulade.

-Love crab.

-So, I'm going to make the crab mousse first.

And for the crab mousse, I need to dissolve some gelatine in some fish stock. So, I'm just going to...

You always dissolve your gelatine in a little bit of cold water.

-Now, that's leaf gelatine?

-That's right, leaf gelatine.

All you want to do is just dissolve that, you do not want to boil it.

If you boil it, you kill the gelatine.

-It stops working.

-Right.

So, it doesn't take much heat, and then it's already just dissolved.

-It's disappeared already.

-That's it, it's disappeared.

Now, you need that to be fully chilled down before you would actually use

it in your mousse because you've things like whipped cream or

mayonnaise that goes in this, and if you put hot liquid into them,

it's game over.

So, the first thing that I'm going to add in

-is going to be the mayonnaise.

-Mm-hmm.

So, in with the brown and white crab

I'm going to put a bit of paprika

and also now we're going to put in our chilled fish stock,

which has the gelatine. You can see it starting to set there.

Yes, it's thickening at this stage, isn't it?

Is this a kind of modern dish or is it a dish very much of its time?

Is it the sort of thing you'd do or not?

No. I mean, yes and no.

So, there's lots of dishes that I would do now that were inspired by

recipes like this but perhaps now we mightn't have the mayonnaise in it.

I think we like a slightly lighter type of cuisine.

And I think that the mayonnaise, although it has a lot of flavour,

it's not really necessary any more.

-But you mix it all together.

-I've mixed all that together

and then the last thing I'm going to do is actually fold through my cream.

-So, we're just going to add that in.

-Oh, goodness.

So, this is a folding technique.

So, we don't want to over...

Sometimes I use the folding technique to keep air in something

but also when you're adding cream,

you don't want to overwhip the cream

because then it gets very buttery.

So, we're just going to fold this in.

At this particular luncheon, there were 80 guests.

They must have been cooking all night!

Incredible. For 80 guests, 14 courses.

And everything was cooked in the royal kitchens, put into hampers,

taken to the racecourse. Now, what are you doing here?

So, I'm just going to fill these up to about maybe two-thirds full.

Are they going to expand?

No, no. I'm going to set them in the fridge, then,

for about an hour or two.

And then I've left a little bit of space because I'm actually going to

-top up...

-Oh, you haven't finished them.

Just a little bit of the...

gelatine and the fish stock, just to kind of seal

the freshness in on top of it.

So, I'm just going to smooth these down.

Mm-hmm.

And then I'm going to need you to pop them into the fridge for me.

They need to be refrigerated for an hour.

-Right, to set?

-To set.

But when you go there, you'll find that I've already got some

-in there waiting for you.

-Oh, there's a relief.

Thank you, chef.

-There you go, Anna.

-Thanks for that, Michael.

-Just pop it down there, thanks.

-Lovely and cold.

Now I'm going to make a sauce remoulade.

-What's remoulade?

-So, remoulade is, essentially, fancy mayonnaise.

Is it a bit odd, mayonnaise, with this?

It's a bit old-school.

You know, when you look at some of the recipes from

50 to 100 years ago,

you will see an awful lot of mayonnaise in things

where I think now we do like food a little bit lighter.

So, we do use mayonnaise but perhaps not as much.

-So, you've got your mayonnaise here.

-Yeah.

And I only need a small kind of...

about a teaspoon amount of mustard.

Just to give it a bit of bite?

Yeah, a bit of bite and lovely acidity as well that you get out of

Dijon mustard. Then I'm going to add the herbs, so,

your chives and your tarragon.

-I love tarragon.

-Perfectly chopped by myself.

Actually, you did do it incredibly finely.

-It takes years, doesn't it?

-It does, it takes years.

Dedication, hard work, training...

-Lemon zest.

-And a bit of lemon zest on top,

and it just brings it all to life.

-Yeah.

-Give it a nice stir.

So, it's not really complicated.

It's not complicated, no, no-no.

And you're just going to add a spoon of that into your dish.

And you're going to serve it on the side.

-Or I'M going to serve it on the side.

-Yeah.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

-So, that's our sauce remoulade.

-Yeah.

I'm now just going to put the last stage of

the jelly on top of the crab.

-Right. Top it off.

-Top it off.

So, these are lovely and chilled.

And I'll just pour this on.

-Yeah.

-So, this is the fish stock with the gelatine that we used

earlier that also went inside the crab mousse.

And that's going to set pretty quickly, I would think,

with that freezing mousse underneath.

Yeah. But it turns out that, although this will set quickly,

I've already made one finished.

How useful!

-Oh, it does look neat, doesn't it?

-So, here we are.

So, we're just going to add our sauce remoulade here,

and then our melba toasts.

Is this the time we taste?

This is the time that we taste.

I love crab. There you go.

-OK, thank you.

-Righto, you first.

OK. I think I'll go for a bit of the crab and the Melba toast first.

I can hear the thundering of the racehorse hoofs but I'm more

interested in the crab.

There we go.

Mm, I love just smearing it.

But I'm not so sure about the mayonnaise.

-Let's try it with it.

-You're right, I'm going to try that next.

Yeah, I think it's...doubly rich.

A bit rich.

I don't know, old-school but not old hat.

SHE CHUCKLES

Crab mousse, as enjoyed by Edward VII at Ascot in 1908.

Let's hope his horse came in as well.

Nowadays, it's traditional for the Queen to serve tea at Ascot.

The only lunches served in the Royal Enclosure are at Epsom for

the Derby. One royal chef who's prepared many racing lunches is

Darren McGrady.

As a Buckingham Palace chef, Darren would also work at Windsor Castle,

where all the Royal lunches were prepared for Derby day at Epsom.

The Queen always serves a cold buffet, and, in the 1980s,

Darren recalls preparing some favourite fish dishes.

I'm making a Gleneagles pate, which is layers of smoked salmon,

smoked trout, and smoked mackerel.

It was one of the dishes I prepared for the Royal Family at Balmoral,

Sandringham, Windsor, especially Balmoral Castle,

where they had all of the fish, all of the salmon,

coming in from the River Dee.

I'm going to start off with a loaf tin.

We line the loaf tin with plastic wrap.

And then I start taking the salmon

and we're actually going to line the outside of the mould

with that salmon.

So, something like this dish

would be made using the salmon from Balmoral.

Once the tin is lined, the next step is preparing the fresh trout,

which will make up the first layer of the pate.

So, we're going to start off with the trout, and then, in there,

we're going to put in some butter. See how easy this is?

We're also going to take some lemon and squeeze it straight in.

Add some salt and pepper...

..and then a little fresh dill in there.

Balmoral Gardens are incredible,

just to go and actually pick all your own herbs.

They go into the blender.

The Balmoral Gardens are absolutely amazing.

They used to grow everything.

It was almost self-sufficient for the eight weeks that the Queen

was at Balmoral Castle.

Look at that for a beautiful pate... Oh...

Oh, my gosh, that smells so good.

Now, take this, and put this into the bottom of my mould.

So, spend a little time just making that nice and flat so that when you

cut into it, you'll see those beautiful layers.

And the way to do that is to chill each layer as you go along.

So this will go into the fridge for a little while,

ready for the next layer.

As the trout pate cools in the fridge,

Darren prepares the next layer by repeating the process,

this time using mackerel.

He removes the skin and then blends the fish with butter, lemon,

salt and pepper.

This one's had about an hour in the refrigerator and that's firmed up.

And then we can take this gorgeous smoked mackerel

and make that our next layer.

We always do it in that order because we want to keep a layer of

pink, a layer of white, and a layer of pink.

I've seen before at Buckingham Palace one of the chefs

actually make this dish and he puts the salmon and the trout

and then finishes with the mackerel. Pink, more pink and white.

It doesn't go. Start again.

So, try and make sure that that mackerel goes into the centre.

The mackerel is a much denser fish,

so we don't need to go back to the refrigerator with this one.

We can go straight on to that next level of adding the smoked salmon.

And this is a straightforward salmon, again some more butter in

there, some black pepper, a little lemon juice, and, finally...

..this time, we're just going to put some chives in there as well.

And then this next layer can go over the top.

And this is our last layer.

And we can take our salmon and roll that over the top.

So, fold that over, press it down slightly, and then,

with the plastic wrap that we have here...

..that can now go into the refrigerator

to set up the complete dish.

Once the completed pate has set in the fridge,

it's ready to be sliced and served.

Once your pate's been in the refrigerator

chilling for a few hours,

it should look like this one here.

Nice and firm, and it's going to be perfect for cutting.

Now, if we were sending this to Epsom for the Derby

for the Queen's lunch, we'd leave it wrapped, we'd pack it in ice,

and it would go to the races just like this.

And, once we'd got there, then we'd finish it with all the garnish.

Slicing it onto a beautiful bed of lettuce.

But I'm going to finish this one as if we're sending it right into

the royal dining room. Trim off that first piece

and, already, it's looking gorgeous.

Doesn't that look amazing?

The smoked trout, and the layers of smoked mackerel.

It looks gorgeous.

Gleneagles pate. Beautiful layers, smoked salmon, smoked trout,

smoked mackerel.

Looks absolutely stunning, looks gorgeous on the plate.

Perfect for the royal table, and a day at the races.

A dish served in the Royal Box in the 1980s.

The tradition of the cold buffet at Epsom remains,

but the food served nowadays is much lighter.

I'm here in the library of the house with Ingrid Seward

of Majesty Magazine, royal commentator and biographer.

So, how do the royals eat at the races these days?

Well, it is a less grand affair these days,

because it's just tea,

but when I say less grand, it's still served by a footman,

it's still beautifully presented sandwiches,

tiny with all the crusts cut off.

Cucumber?

Cucumber, certainly, and minced chicken and egg,

and you're served Pimm's or champagne and iced coffee.

Almost anything you want.

And tea is served after the fourth race at the back of the box.

The box is quite large, the new box this is, the new Royal Box.

And there's room to seat 50 people.

And it's not a placement,

but the Queen obviously chooses who she wants to sit next to.

But this is only part of a wider entertainment

over Ascot week, for instance.

Well, Ascot week is a chance for the Queen to entertain

all kinds of people, mostly her horsey friends,

which, of course, she loves.

And then foreign dignitaries,

and some of Prince Philip's foreign relations.

So they're all put in as a hotchpotch.

But this happens at Windsor Castle?

This happens at Windsor Castle.

So, what happens there?

Well, it's very formal.

People get invited by letter,

and then they're told exactly what to do, what to bring, what to wear.

And, in the old days, it was the four days.

Nowadays, it's called "dine and sleep", and they usually

just stay one night.

And ladies are asked if they'd like to keep their hats on for lunch

or take their hats off.

Lunch is quite a quick affair,

because then the royal party gets into their royal Daimlers

and goes and into Windsor Park and then they change into the carriages,

and go on the procession, the famous Royal Procession, down the course.

Ascot races have also produced some famous romances.

Princess Diana invited Sarah Ferguson to lunch at Ascot,

and she was sat next to Andrew,

and he fed her profiteroles.

And the rest is history.

So, in the very unlikely event that I was invited,

what would the experience be like?

Well, in the very unlikely event that you were invited,

you probably wouldn't be in the royal procession,

and you to meet the royal party actually at the races

in the Royal Box.

And you'd probably be introduced to the Queen,

you'd be given a wonderfully strong drink.

And you'd have the best view of the racing you could possibly have,

and meet some very interesting people.

Are all the royals equally enthusiastic about the races?

No, they're not.

Obviously, everybody knows it's the Queen's big passion,

and it was the Queen Mother's, and Sophie Wessex and Prince Edward.

Even Prince Charles likes racing.

But Prince Philip does not.

And everybody knows that.

So, when he arrives at the races,

he goes into his own office at the back,

and he watches the cricket and does paperwork.

He's there on sufferance, is he?

He's very much there because he knows it's his duty,

and he's always done it,

but he's very much there under sufferance.

Great, thanks very much.

Every year, Royal Ascot attracts 300,000 racegoers.

They get through a lot of champagne, a lot of lobster,

and a staggering 50,000 macarons.

There's no other sweet quite as eye-catching as

the highly-fashionable macaron.

Reshmi Bennett is a classically trained chef,

who specialises in these luxurious delicacies.

My preferred method of making macarons is

the French meringue method.

You start off by making a French meringue,

which is whipping up egg whites with granulated sugar in a mixer.

Once it's whipped up to a meringue, you add ground almonds to it,

icing sugar and then you have to fold it all in together.

Very controlled movements,

the technique is what we call macaronage.

And then you pipe it.

So, they're not that many steps.

I've made it sound a lot easier than it is,

but that is, literally, what it is.

It seems likely that the macaron originated in Italy,

where they'd been produced by Venetian monasteries since

the eighth century.

But the first written recipe appeared in France in the 1600s,

and it was French confectioners who popularised these sweet treats.

The Italian meringue method came into France, I believe,

when Catherine de Medici of Italian aristocracy was betrothed

to the ruling King of France, Henry.

And her condition

of marrying him was so that she could bring her Italian chefs

with her to France, because they knew the art of the macaronage

and how to make Italian meringue macarons.

That was her condition.

He accepted, gratefully,

and she had these banquets and it was all very, very opulent.

They have the tower structure of macarons,

giving an illusion of elegance.

Rumour also has it that Catherine de Medici

was a bit partial to pistachio macarons,

because of how luxurious they were,

coming all the way from Iran, these pistachio nuts.

So, I would have thought pistachio macarons were fit for a queen.

You give a tap -

that's to get rid of any trapped air bubbles -

and then they go into the oven.

Macarons have become very popular in the UK since a French patissier

set up on one of London's most exclusive stores in 2006.

As a result, the treat that was once the preserve of the elite

has become far more accessible.

However, these macarons still enjoy royal patronage.

We did have people that worked at the Palace near our shop come over

and purchase big amounts of macarons,

and whether it was for their own consumption,

whether it was for the royal family -

I don't know, one can only hope -

but we did supply the Royal Foundation

for one of their events as a charitable donation.

There's much debate about the correct pronunciation

of these dainty delicacies

Often referred to as a macarOON, but, strictly speaking,

that's a coconut-covered meringue dipped in chocolate -

quite different from the macarONS being prepared here.

One thing is certain, baking them is a labour of love.

A lot of people that have tried it, failed it a few times,

they give up and I would say, "Don't give up."

Maybe you didn't get it the first time around.

Try it the second time, try it the third time.

It's worth a try, and even if they don't look great,

they'll still taste great.

All good things come to those who try and try again.

Anything you get right the first time round,

you don't really treat it with as much respect.

And having mastered the art of macaronage,

Reshmi has found new ways for pastry-lovers to enjoy

this ultimate indulgence.

We started off doing just macarons,

and then we expanded by just playing around with cake.

And we found that when we added all our macarons to the cake,

people just went nuts for it.

It's kind of like the ultimate indulgence.

You've got a slice of cake,

and you've got these really naughty, yet luxurious, macarons.

And they look so nice.

We eat with our eyes first, after all.

Aesthetically, macarons, I do think,

are a superior confectionery.

Macaron, macaroon,

tom-a-to, tom-ay-to,

pot-a-to, pot-ay-to. SHE LAUGHS

Macaron sounds posh. Macaroon sounds better somehow.

More English.

At those race meetings, Edward VII loved entertaining guests.

80 or more at a time would often have served Eton mess as a dessert.

And in the royal kitchens at that time was a kitchen maid called

Mildred Nicholls, and she kept the recipes in this book here,

and she actually has got a recipe for Eton mess.

But, Anna, you're going to do something with a bit of a twist.

This is strawberries - the classic Eton mess.

You're going to do something a little bit different.

Yeah. I think everybody is used to strawberry Eton mess,

which is delicious, but today we're going to do a tropical twist,

with a bit of papaya, some mango, and some passion fruit.

And it's super easy,

it's as easy as using strawberries, but maybe a little bit more special.

So, the first thing we're going to start with will be the meringue,

because that's what's going to take the longest.

And you just need to add, I think it's like half a teaspoon,

of salt to your egg whites.

And a tablespoon, or a teaspoon maybe, of vinegar.

Salt and vinegar sounds a bit...

It's a pudding, isn't it?

Yes, but it actually strengthens the egg whites,

-so that you can get these lovely, soft, strong peaks.

-Right.

So, we're going to whisk it up till its forming peaks before we add

the sugar, because it needs to have as much air as possible in it

to give it that lovely, crispy meringue feel.

That's coming up really well.

Yeah, it's looking pretty good now.

I'm going to start to slowly add my sugar soon.

So, I'm going to add this fairly slowly at a time,

not all in one go.

Is it caster sugar?

It is caster sugar, yeah.

So, when you add sugar to eggs, you strengthen them,

so it means that the air will stay in them for longer.

But if you add it in too soon,

you'll actually knock out the air of the eggs,

which is the opposite of what you want.

-So you've got to get a balance?

-You've got to get a balance to it.

But, erm, they're looking pretty good. I don't know if you can see

-that they're getting nice and glossy now.

-Yeah, yeah.

Can you see a change in them? They're lovely.

I love that it's called Eton mess.

-There's lots of stories about it, aren't there?

-There is, yeah.

There's that funny story where the headmistress, erm,

the cake was placed, or the dessert was placed, on her chair

and then she sat on it.

You could imagine the schoolgirls loved that, yeah.

There's another story about how the Eton boys were carrying a Pavlova,

I think it was, and dropped it,

and didn't dare admit to whoever they were carrying it to...

Brilliant! I'd never heard that!

Didn't dare admit they'd done it, so they scraped it up off the floor

and put it in, and, you know, a famous dish was born.

I didn't know that.

Now, there's the last of our sugar going in.

Ah, beautiful. But I think it has been quite traditional, hasn't it,

at the Eton-Harrow cricket matches?

You know, those two top public schools, when they have

an annual cricket match, I think Eton mess is traditional.

-Ooh, I say, it's really sticky.

-Pretty much done.

OK, now we're going to...

..spoon this onto our tray.

It's essentially a summer dish, obviously, using summer fruit.

Well, I think it can be any time of year, really,

especially since we're doing tropical fruit.

But, yeah, I think you could have it in the summer,

if it strawberries and raspberries.

You could have a roasted apple one, as well,

which would be quite delicious. Maybe put a bit of cinnamon

in your cream, which would be quite nice.

So, we're going to do two kind of...

Whopping meringues.

Two large meringues, yeah, so then we can break them up afterwards.

Just going to smooth it out to give it a nice, kind of, round shape.

It's still a favourite of the royal family, isn't it?

Yes, so I hear, yeah.

But I think it's a favourite in everybody's household.

But I think particularly for them,

because I think they grow quite a lot of soft fruit,

strawberries especially, up at Balmoral.

When they go there for the late summer, I think that's the time

when they have it.

We always had fruit bushes out in my back garden when I was a kid and

I can remember stealing the berries before it was time to pick.

Yeah, and getting in quite a lot of trouble about it, but...

I bet, I bet.

Did you have Eton mess?

Yes, of course, but we had them with blackberries.

So, into the oven at 100 degrees for about an hour and 20 minutes or so,

until it's lovely and crispy.

OK, ma'am.

So, now I'm going to chop my fruit to go inside the mix.

I already have some papaya chopped,

and I'm going to go through some mango now.

And then cut open the passion fruit.

So, there's a large stone inside your mango,

which you want to be careful to cut around.

-Are you finished yet?

-I'm not.

Do you want to give me a hand, since I've got quite a bit to do?

Why don't you cut open some passion fruit for me?

-I wish I'd shut... OK.

-Let that be a lesson, Michael, hm?

"Hurry up, Anna," huh?

This could be dangerous.

-Do I just...?

-It's not as dangerous as not helping me.

Just straight down the centre.

Yeah.

How do I slice this?

Oh, a masterclass in fruit cutting. Come on.

OK, OK.

Straight down the centre.

OK. That was a bit tough, wasn't it?

There, you can do that.

-Oh, my God, look at that. Isn't that beautiful?

-Mmm.

-Then scoop it out?

-It's so beautiful.

Like, you can get a lovely floral,

beautiful, perfumed smell off it. It's not just about the acidity.

But how do you do mango as well?

I've always wanted to know how a proper professional

dealt with a mango.

Just watch and learn, Michael. Watch and learn.

What do you want me to do with these? Scrape the middle out?

Scoop them out with a spoon. I'll give you a spoon here.

Just scoop them out and in with the papaya there.

I was about to say, "Where do I put it?", but that was inviting a...

THEY BOTH LAUGH

..a wicked Irish response.

Oh, like I'm so tough on you! Come on now!

Oh, the juice. You are a tough, chef.

Oh, sensitive Michael.

OK, so you want roughly the same amount of papaya and mango, really,

to go through this, but if you don't like tropical fruit,

you could nearly do this recipe with any fruit at all,

because what makes it so delicious is a bit of acidity...

-The sharpness.

-Yeah, the sharpness.

The sweetness.

Yeah, and then the lovely crunch off the meringue,

and then the creaminess of your whipped cream.

So, it all kind of goes together nicely.

I think I did that brilliantly.

You did. Like a professional.

Shall I do it again?

Yes, why not?

Maybe stick the tip of it in the centre.

All right.

So, I'm going to just add my mango. Now we want my papaya.

Actually, that works much better, doesn't it?

-There we go.

-Now, in there.

In we go.

So, I'm just going to start to break up the meringues.

You need them to be nice and crispy when they come out of the oven.

I don't know if you can hear that. That's quite nice.

-You were tapping it and it rattled.

-Yeah.

So, we're just going to break it now into the bowl.

-How big are the pieces?

-Quite large.

You want to feel that texture of the crispiness of your meringue.

And then we're going to fold through

with a couple of spoons of your cream.

Just go behind you there.

Looks like frogspawn, this stuff, doesn't it?

It does, actually!

-But it smells...

-Amazing, isn't it?

..absolutely divine.

-So floral.

-Really, really nice.

-It's really, really beautiful.

OK, so just gently fold your meringue through the cream.

You don't want to break it up any more.

-You don't want to really shatter it, do you?

-No, no.

And then we're just going to put a spoon of each

in whatever serving dish you're going to be using.

Mm-hm.

Oh, I can just feel the anticipation of wanting to eat this,

because I can hear the kind of gentle crisp of the meringue

being mixed with the cream.

-It feels lovely.

-It's the ultimate temptation.

Yeah, and it reminds me of being a kid, and this was the part

that you were always allowed help with, nothing else.

And scraping round the bowl and all that kind of stuff.

Now look at this. The colour of this is so beautiful.

-That's brilliant.

-Yeah.

OK.

And it doesn't take much effort.

Just a spoon of this, now, to go on top.

The beautiful orange and yellows.

A little...

-And you're just putting it on the top?

-Just on the top.

Now, of course, you could mix it through...

Is that because you haven't time? Would you mix it through?

You could mix it through if you want, but I think that by putting

it just on top, you get this glorious colour and, straightaway,

you get this lovely perfume smell off it.

And I suppose if the trick for the dish is to have the contrast

between the textures and the tastes,

-then having them different would be different.

-Yeah, yeah.

Exactly. So, here's your tropical Eton mess.

Right.

Yeah. And I'm just putting a little squeeze of lime on top.

That just gives it like an extra zing and brings it to life.

That's your first taste sensation, isn't it?

Amazing, yeah. Yeah.

OK. There we have it.

I think you might need a spoon.

I think I might.

-Go on, go on. You get stuck in first.

-No, come on, ladies first.

-OK, OK, OK. You don't have to tell me twice!

-No, no, quite.

-Oh, you can just hear the crunch of the meringue...

-You can.

..and that's what I love so much.

You can make a real mess with it. Oh, mess!

Oh!

Mm!

It's so delicious.

Mm!

-A difference in texture.

-Mm.

And you've got the sharpness of the passion fruit and the lime

-and the sweetness, and then that sticky, lovely stuff.

-Mm.

You could just imagine King Edward VII at Ascot, can't you?

-Mm.

-Celebrating his winners with Eton mess and champagne.

Oh, you're like a poet.

Oh...

How right you are.

Perfect end to this programme.

See you next time.