Royal Visits Royal Recipes

Hello, I'm Michael Buerk.

Welcome to a brand-new series of Royal Recipes.

This time, we're at Westonbirt House, formerly a grand country

house, now a boarding school,

which has played host to royal visitors for over 100 years.

In this series, we're delving even further back in time to reveal over

600 years of royal food heritage.

You play Anne Boleyn...

and I will play Henry VIII.

And we've been busy unlocking the secrets of Britain's great food

archives, discovering rare and unseen recipes that have been royal

favourites through the ages...

..from the earliest royal cookbook in 1390...

It's so precious, so special, that I'm not allowed to touch it.

..to Tudor treats from the court of Henry VIII.

I can't wait for this. One, two, three.

We'll be exploring the great culinary traditions enjoyed by

the royal family. From the grand to the ground-breaking,

as well as the surprisingly simple...

I did think that was going to be a disaster.

..as we hear from a host of royal chefs...

Prince Philip would walk past or pop his head in and say,

"What's for dinner, what we having?"

Oh, yeah. It's not just a normal kitchen!

..and meet the people who provide for the royal table.

If it's OK for the Queen, it's OK for everyone.

Welcome to Royal Recipes.

In today's programme,

we're going to be looking at the food that's served up when a royal

personage pays a call,

whether that's a British royal

dropping in, or a full-blown state visit from foreign royalty.

This time, on Royal Recipes...

..chef Paul Ainsworth has aspirations for his souffle.

Middle shelf will be fine, Michael.

They're going to rise that high, and I don't want them to touch the top.

We'll be riding the rails in royal style...

This is just incredible.

It's fabulous, isn't it?

..and putting a modern spin on a banquet

thrown for a Persian potentate.

-Ready?

-Yep.

-Wahey!

-Yeah.

I'm here in the Royal Recipes kitchen with Michelin-starred chef

Paul Ainsworth. What are you cooking now?

A very luxurious dish today, Michael -

lobster souffle.

-Oh!

-Yes!

-Now that is a really right royal dish, isn't it?

And it's one cooked by Prince William, you know,

three months after they were married,

their first royal tour together,

they went to Canada, and in Quebec they went to a cookery school,

-and he had to do this dish, high-risk dish...

-Yeah.

-..and he

-pulled it off, which was quite a shock.

-Did he pull it off?

-He did.

-Good on him. The pressure's on me today!

-Well, it's a risky dish, no?

It's about the flavour of it. Sometimes you can get all hung up on

the rise and the height. As long as it tastes nice,

that's the most important thing.

-What...?

-And what we've got in here is butter, and now we're going to

add in our flour. And we just basically want to bring that

together. So just gently, don't let it catch, and then just the butter

and the flour basically work together, like so.

-Here, we have our lobster bisque.

-Mm-hm.

-We're just going to add

a little bit at a time, so you're just basically working it in.

Don't just, don't just add it all in at once.

-You've got quite a paste there, really.

-And that what it's going

to be. This is basically, like, the body of our souffle.

It is such a lovely rich colour, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Right, OK.

-Do you do souffles a lot in your restaurant?

No, we don't. I wouldn't say it's something that I'm a massive fan of,

but I appreciate why people love them. It's the theatre, isn't it?

-Mmm. It is. Yeah.

-OK.

So now, we have our veloute, OK?

Very thick. We're just going to add to that some Parmesan.

-So that's going to give it a real flavour, isn't it?

-Real, real kick.

Now, Michael, if I could ask you, please, can you whisk up

-those egg whites there? Right next to...

-These here?

-Yes, please.

-OK.

-Thank you.

-Here we go.

-Just soft peaks, all right?

-Yeah.

They'll whisk up real quickly.

-I appreciate your trust in me, Paul.

-Yes, no, course!

PAUL LAUGHS

-Misplaced, possibly.

-Misplaced, yeah?

-How you getting on?

-All right.

-Fantastic. Well, brilliant.

-It's going to take off in a minute!

-Yeah!

Keep going. Yeah. So you're just kind of getting like a froth peak.

That's it.

-Fabulous. OK, turn it off.

-Turn it off?

-Yeah.

Brilliant. Off, all the way.

-That's it, give it a little... That's it.

-Hang on.

-Was I brilliant?

-You were absolutely phenomenal.

-Can I have a job?

-Er...

-I'll be looking for one after this.

Any day of the week.

-And now this is the important bit, OK?

-Yeah.

Just be really gentle, cos you

don't want to knock the air out, so I'm just gently...

-..what we call a folding technique.

-Yeah.

-That's what's going to help

-the mix rise.

-The bloke who really made souffle

the, you know, the glamorous luxury dish

was a guy called Marie-Antoine Careme, who was

chef to Prince Regent...

-Yes.

-..the Prince Regent, later George IV, yeah.

So while I'm just doing this, Michael, over there are my moulds,

-OK?

-Yeah.

-Now what I've done is I've buttered them once.

-Yeah.

-Put them in the fridge, let the butter set.

-Yeah.

-Then take them

out, butter them again and put them in the fridge again.

-Why do you do that?

-You're basically creating like a double skin on

the side, so the souffle will be absolutely, kind of...

when it's in there, it'll just slide nicely up as it's rising.

-You don't want it to catch on the sides.

-No.

-Right, here you go.

-Yeah.

-We're almost here, OK?

Right, so if we just bring...

-This one over?

-..our souffles closer, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Gosh, that's really smooth, isn't it?

-Go in with our mix, like so.

-And a lovely, lovely colour.

-Now, before you go all the way...

-we're just going to tap.

-Yeah.

And the reason's so there's no air pockets in the middle -

it would result in it collapsing.

-Yeah.

-OK? So, again.

Another little tap like that, or on the bottom, OK?

Have you ever had this really fail, not rise, collapse?

-Generally...

-All the time.

-Really?

Generally on, when you do it on telly.

THEY LAUGH

-So, with our mix we're going to do here, Michael, ready?

-Yeah.

-We're going to...

-Skim off the top?

-Skim off the top, like so.

-OK?

-You have to tidy up the sides.

Tidy up the sides, and then we've got one...

-Don't waste it, don't waste it.

-..last little tip with souffle.

-OK.

-Right.

-See how you've got the mix on the side there?

-Yeah.

-OK?

Just with your thumb, go all the way around, like so.

-Why are you doing that, now?

-I'll show you right now.

-Now, you see how the mix has come off the side?

-Yeah.

And when it rises, you'll have a lovely little lip going right

the way along the side.

-So that's another way of...

-Absolutely.

-..making sure it doesn't catch.

-Doesn't catch, yeah. One last tap...

-Yeah.

-..like that, OK?

-Now those, in the oven, 200 - so a nice hot oven.

-Hot oven. Yeah.

-OK?

For about 12 minutes.

-12 minutes.

-OK?

-OK, here it goes.

Middle shelf'll be fine, Michael. They're going to rise that high,

I don't want them to touch the top.

BOTH LAUGH

He says, he says!

THEY LAUGH

-Right.

-So, what next?

-Next we've got our lobsters.

-Claws, the knuckles, and the tail.

-Yeah.

-I've cooked the tail for two minutes in boiling water.

-Yeah.

The claws, three minutes, and then we just take the meat, OK?

So we're just going to take some lobster, Michael, like so,

-and we're just going to cut it into small pieces.

-Ooh!

-All right?

-Like that.

-Thank you.

-Absolutely.

-You're a gent.

-Absolutely delicious.

Ooh!

-Just so tender, isn't it?

-Mmm!

-We're going to take a little bit of

knuckle, like so...

-OK?

-Mmm-hmm.

-And a lovely bit of that tail, as well.

And then what will happen, Michael,

is the sauce that we cook it in is just going to then warm it back

through and make it even more tender.

So, in here, we're going to take

-some of that lovely lobster bisque sauce.

-Yeah.

-OK?

-Like so.

-Then, you're straining it? Yeah.

Straining it. And that is the shells, the tomatoes, everything in

there - even the head, everything in it is what's giving, it's what's

-thickening it, OK?

-I mean...

-OK?

-..can you actually see

Prince William doing all this?

-I can't.

-Or maybe he got a bit of help.

-Yeah.

-OK, so what happens now?

Right. We're going to get some chives

and we're going to get some butter.

We're just going to bring that up to a simmer.

I'm just going to chop our chives.

-Lobster, chive, like, onion.

-Combination made in heaven, no?

Oh, fantastic. Like so.

-Righto.

-Going to add in a little bit of our butter now, into our sauce.

It'll give it a bit more body and a real luxuriousness.

And while we're waiting we're just going to grab a lemon.

-Like so.

-Butter and lemon in everything, almost, isn't it?

Yes! Always!

Always trying to get that acidity coming from somewhere.

So the butter, Michael, is just emulsifying in there beautifully.

Little tip, as well - just make sure the butter's cold when you're

-whisking it into a sauce.

-Why?

-Dice it up. Emulsifies it much nicer.

You don't get that greasy film.

-Right, so we're just going to have a taste.

-Beautiful.

And you can smell the lobster.

-Right, just have a taste of that now.

-I will, I will, I will.

-OK? All right?

-Give me a spoon.

-OK.

-Here we go.

-Mmm!

-All right? OK?

Watch this. Just how you can change something with a squeeze of lemon

juice and a pinch of salt.

-OK?

-Yeah.

-Lemon in.

-Now, have another taste.

-Do I get another try?

-Go have another taste.

Mmm! Mmm!

-Bang!

-Brought it to life, hasn't it?

-Yeah.

-Lobster in there.

-Yeah.

-It just looks great, doesn't it?

-It does, doesn't it? OK?

-And, in we go, lovely fresh chives.

-Yeah.

And that is ready now.

That looks absolutely splendid on its own, never mind the souffle!

Yeah, let's go for that.

-Go for it, go on.

-OK.

-Go and have a look.

-How are they looking?

-You did your best.

-Oh, man.

-You did your best.

Oh, man!

Look at those!

THEY LAUGH

-Yeah! Right.

-What you...

-And what we're going to do...

-Yeah.

We're just going to... Oh, look at that.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

-Ready?

-Oh, it's worked well, come on, Paul.

I shouldn't have doubted you, I really should not have doubted you.

Oh, my...

I've fallen in love with souffle again.

-Look at that.

-Look at that!

-Cor, yes!

-Here.

-You first.

-No, come on, it's your...

-No, no, no,

-you first, you first.

-Sure.

Let's not argue about it, let's eat it. I'm going to have that bit of...

Mmm!

Mmm.

-It's beautifully light.

-Mmm.

And you've got all the richness...

-with the lobster.

-And you get the Parmesan.

It's a complete souffle triumph.

You have to wonder how Prince William's version of this classic

French dish turned out.

As well as souffles, the French are well known for their cheese,

but in Britain, we produce more different kinds even than the

French, over 700 named varieties,

and many of them are royal favourites.

Royal warrant holders Charles Martel And Sons have been making cheese

from their own Old Gloucester cattle for 45 years.

Despite having no formal training in cheese-making, today,

Charles supplies his varieties to six continents,

32 countries, and one member of the royal family.

He began making a cheese called Stinking Bishop in 1994, and has

supplied Prince Charles at Highgrove for around 15 years.

It started, I received a phone call, would I make the cheese? Well...

..of course, I didn't say no, did I?

And, er, "Oh, it's wonderful."

So we've been making it ever since.

We received the royal warrant ten years ago, this year.

In fact, in recognition of that,

we decided, "We're going to make a royal delivery by horse and cart,"

in this vehicle.

It's a little celebration for us, really. It's purely self-indulgent,

but I hope it puts a smile on people's faces as we've passed

through the town.

The Prince of Wales was so taken with the cheese that

he had Charles and his team make a new version

with milk from the Highgrove herd.

His Royal Highness wanted to enter it in the British Cheese Awards.

Well, we'd already entered.

Can't have two cheeses the same name, the same competition.

To get around the rules, Prince Charles named his

cheese Starveall Royal.

And what do you know? He was victorious!

He won the prize, and I, from memory,

I think I got a congratulation off him, and I,

and my response was, "Well, sir,

"I wouldn't have expected to do anything less for you, otherwise I

"might lose my head!"

Charles started the company not because of a love of cheese,

but out of concern that the Old Gloucester cows were an endangered

breed and needed help to survive.

So at that time, there were just 68 of these cattle left in the world,

and I managed to get hold of three, and a bull, very important!

And I milked them and, of course, made cheese, because that's what

you do with them. They're not just to look at.

If you keep them as pets, you're going to lose them, basically.

And you need to give them a job of work so other people can milk them

and there are. There are now six of us making single Gloucester cheese

from their milk and that's a protected product, it can only be

made in Gloucestershire on farms that have Gloucester cows.

As a local to the area,

Charles' passion for conservation didn't stop at saving the cows.

He wanted to help the pear trees, too.

Perry made from the pears coats the cheese,

and it's this that bestows its distinctive smell and taste.

I started replanting the perry pears I was so concerned about in 1977,

and that's been fun.

But to link it to the cheese, it's sort of, everything comes

together, eventually.

The cheese's name comes from the variety of perry pear called

Stinking Bishop.

It's a full-fat, pasteurised, cow's milk cheese,

made with vegetarian rennet.

As with any cheese, the first step is to separate the curds and whey.

See how slowly it goes, you can see the whey appearing.

And the more they cut,

the more whey escapes.

I would say 90% of this milk, by weight...

..is whey, and goes to feed pigs.

10% is what we actually make in to cheese.

The curds are then pressed into cheese moulds and left to set in a

cool room for four hours, before being washed with perry.

HE HUMS

Just dip it in.

And that's all we do.

And that will cause special bacteria to grow,

which is very smelly, and then we'll put...

..a piece of wood round.

The reason for that is, the cheese becomes very soft,

and it will travel a great distance!

So putting the wood on just holds it up together

and stops it collapsing, basically.

The cheese is then left for 6-8 weeks to mature

in a room that has a consistent temperature and humidity.

This is the, hopefully, the finished product.

You can see it's nice and sort of pinky brown.

That's the bacteria that gives the flavour, and, also,

the tremendous smell.

I'm just going to check this cheese is up to standard.

Let's take a...

..a core out.

It's quite elastic, bit shiny.

Basically, I can see it's exactly as we want it.

And the flavour is...

Yep, that's good, that is good.

Wow, yes, I like that.

And, of course, the characteristic smell -

it has that, whether we like it or not.

Some like it, some hate it.

Reputedly, the...Prince Charles is tolerant to the smell.

So that's good for us!

You can almost smell the cheese from here, can't you?

What are you up to, Paul?

So, we are doing a wonderful roasted lamb rump, smoked in hay,

with creamed cucumber.

Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! Now, this is your take, a version...

-Yes. A version of...

-..of a very special dish that was served to

-Mozafa Al-Din, the Shah of Persia...

-Yeah.

..when he was Edward VII's guest

on the royal yacht in Portsmouth Harbour, in the early 1900s.

-Right! OK.

-Your take on it.

-My take on it, yeah.

-Now, what cut of meat have you got there?

-This is the rump.

-OK?

-Mmm.

-So, right near the...

-Juicy.

-Juicy, right near the back end, obviously.

-Mmm-hmm.

-And what we're

-doing, we're just seasoning it, OK?

-Mm-hm.

-We've rubbed some oil on it.

-We've then scored it, OK?

-Yeah.

-Lets the seasoning in,

-lets the flavouring in, and especially the smoke in.

-Mmm.

I've got some hay. This is feeding hay, not...

MICHAEL LAUGHS I thought your salad was a bit dry!

Yeah, I know, I tell you what,

I don't know what's happened to this rocket, Michael!

So we've got feeding hay here, not bedding hay.

Make sure you get the feeding hay.

-The bedding's very dusty.

-Yeah.

-OK, so this has been washed, all right?

-Yeah.

-Rumps, straight on.

-Now, I've only put a little bit of...

-Fat side down?

Fat side down straight away, because

-what we want to do is start rendering that fat, all right?

-Yeah.

What that means is, is basically the heat's going to come up

and just melt the fat. All right?

Ooh, and the flames have started leaping up already, look!

-Absolutely.

-Actually, it's rather a...a bit of a Levantine dish,

-isn't it?

-Yeah.

-The Shah's coming from Persia, now Iran, of course.

-But this is the sort of thing that they eat there, isn't it?

-Yeah.

That combination of lamb and cucumber.

So we're just going to let those roast off, OK?

And get a nice caramelisation happening on there.

Now, over here, we're going to move to our creamed cucumber.

So we've got some white onion which we've just sliced.

-Take our cucumber, like so.

-There we go.

-All right?

Just some nice thin slices.

I never tire of watching a good chef, or you, do this.

Brilliant, yeah.

Let me tell you about the Shah, because he made a... Keep laughing!

He made quite an impression when he arrived in Portsmouth,

went through the streets,

-because he had this socking great diamond in his hat...

-Yeah.

..the largest pink diamond in the world, 183 carats.

-And it made a terrific impression on the crowds...

-Yeah.

..who had turned out to see him going for his lamb.

-Right.

-Do you know, they've lost it?

-Yeah?

Biggest diamond in the world, nobody knows where it is.

-OK, what next?

-Right, OK. Sugar.

-Mmm-hmm, all right. Sugar?!

-Yeah. Nice pinch of salt.

-Mmm-hmm.

What we're doing here, we're just trying to get as much of that

-moisture out of the cucumber and out of the onion, OK?

-Mmm-hmm.

So we intensify the flavour, but we also just kind of break them down

just slightly. So just fold that round, like so,

-OK, and put that to one side.

-Yeah.

-OK? So we're just going to leave

that for one hour and what we'll find is all the water will go to

-the bottom and we're going to pour that off.

-Yeah.

-In the meantime, we're going to come back to our hay.

-Yeah.

-All right?

-So our lamb has been beautifully roasting. Yeah.

-OK?

-You going to turn that?

-So we've got that nice roasted lamb like that.

Look at that nice bar marking of the lamb.

So now we get our hay. So we've soaked that hay, and

the reason we soak it is so that it doesn't ignite.

-It's not just dry hay.

-It would go up in flames. It'd go whoosh!

-OK.

-Put that over those coals.

-Yeah.

Now, what that's going to do, it's going to start smouldering.

-And you'll see, can you see us starting to get the smoke?

-Yeah.

-All right?

-Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! Yeah.

-OK.

-I see what you mean.

Put that in there, like so.

Does it really make much difference to the taste?

Wait till you see. Now we're going to let that smoke,

-OK, and let that cook.

-OK.

So we just, basically, squeeze out as much of that liquid as we can.

Now, if you just, see how soft they've gone? Yeah. And that's just

from the salt and sugar, but they've still got a nice little bit of

crunch to them. So, over here, sour cream. All right?

Nice dollop of sour cream.

Of course the Shah, in his country, would have had yoghurt rather than

-sour cream.

-Yeah. Definitely, absolutely. So over here, I'm just

going to add some mint.

So we'll just literally, Michael, take a nice sharp knife.

Always mint with lamb, eh?

But the flavours really work.

Now, we're just going to let it back with a little touch,

just a little touch of vinegar.

-OK?

-Yeah.

-So you've got the vinegar, the sugar, salt,

the lovely sour cream all working together,

-and now you can see where that comes from - creamed cucumber.

-Yeah.

You'd think the Shah would have been really pleased with all this,

but apparently he left the dinner in a real huff.

-Why's that?

-Well, he had wanted, and thought he was going to get,

the Order of the Garter.

-Right.

-But apparently King Edward decided he shouldn't have it,

because it shouldn't be given to somebody who wasn't a Christian.

So instead King Edward gave him a jewelled picture of himself.

-How's that?

-Right. OK. Yeah.

-That's, you know, I thought only celebrity

chefs were that conceited. THEY LAUGH

Oh, we're far more needy.

-Come on, what's...

-Right, ready?

-Yep.

Wahey!

-So now you can see that wonderful smokiness happening.

-God!

-Just come over...

-Like something out of Doctor Who, this, isn't it?

It is, isn't it? So that, over like so.

-OK?

-Oh, you can smell the hay.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Right, next...

And how long do you think you need to cook that?

For me, nice... Cos that's...

The temperature's come down. You're smoking gently, 20-25 minutes, OK?

-OK.

-Until you get to this.

-Oh!

-All right?

-Oh!

-Now, if you turn those over...

-Mm-hmm.

-..all this cooking juice

-is beautiful.

-Mmm-hmm.

-Just touch like that, OK?

-What are you looking

for when you poke it, then, with your finger?

Just kind of, like, just so it just, it gives. It's not, you're

not, kind of, it's not soft.

-No.

-It's got that little bit of give, and then it comes back up to

-you, all right?

-Yeah.

-So we'll take our lamb rump like that.

OK? First of all, we get our lovely cucumber...

..nice, in the middle like that.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Like so. Over here, I've got some beautiful salsa verde.

The reason it goes so well with lamb is because you've got mint, parsley,

basil, all go well with lamb.

-Capers, shallot, gherkins and some chopped anchovy.

-Oh!

-OK, we're going to carve our lamb, straight in.

-Now, how thick a cut

-are you doing? Oh, I say.

-Just like that.

-Look at that.

Now that is what you're looking for.

-You see how you've got that pinkness?

-Yeah.

Now we're just going to turn it over, put that onto the plate.

-Wow.

-Now, remember, we need to get the seasoning on this.

See, all the time, thinking about seasoning,

going through the plate like so.

-Mmm-hmm.

-Another slice, and then you've got that lovely oil.

And it's just...

-Have a smell. All right?

-Gosh, it's really powerful, isn't it?

-It is.

-OK?

-Sharp and powerful.

-Then just a little bit on top of the lamb,

-like that.

-Yeah.

-That looks good.

-And there you have hay-smoked lamb rump,

creamed cucumber and salsa verde.

Do you know, I'd rather have that than the Order of the Garter?

Thank you.

-Come on, let's have a go at it.

-Right, ready?

-Yeah.

-Here we are. Knife and fork.

-Get stuck in, Michael.

No, you first, you first.

You did it.

I'm going to have a bit of this bit.

Just...

..it has everything.

Wait till you... That lamb just melts.

-I'm interested to see...

-And that...

..whether the hay really comes across.

I honestly think you are going to love this.

-Mmm!

-Isn't it?

It just all goes together. You've got smokiness of the hay,

that freshness of the cucumber, cos the lamb's quite rich, with the fat.

The Shah was in a huff, but I'm in heaven.

PAUL LAUGHS

He wouldn't have been in a huff if I was there.

A succulent, smoky dish, sure

to impress even the grumpiest of guests.

The Shah eventually got his Garter,

an honour originally bestowed to knights returning from the Crusades.

Military ceremony is a big part of royal life,

and Princes William and Harry have both served in the Armed Forces.

Sandhurst chef Rob Kennedy knows what it's like

to cater for a royal visitor.

Rob is no stranger to having to create impressive meals for

high-profile visitors, including crowned heads of Britain

and other nations.

And when one of the officer cadets is grandson of the Queen,

even a more modest occasion can turn into a royal banquet.

For 15 years I've been at Sandhurst,

and to be an exec chef here you have to be passionate,

you have to be loyal,

and I've had the opportunity to cook for the royal family five times

whilst being here at Sandhurst.

In November 2005,

Rob cooked a lavish dinner for Prince Harry and his fellow cadets

at the halfway stage of their officer training course.

We're in New College dining room at the moment, where we feed the inters

and the senior cadets, and actually, on the dinner night,

Prince Harry would have sat here with Charles and Camilla.

So this is where it would all have happened.

Harry went on to graduate from the Royal Military Academy in April 2006

as Second Lieutenant,

and two years later was promoted to First Lieutenant.

So, I'm going to be cooking Prince Harry's guest dinner, and it's going

to be Suffolk chicken stuffed with wild mushrooms.

The first stage is to make a mousse from a pre-prepared chicken breast.

And we're now going to make it creamy

just by adding a little splash of cream.

The chicken mousse is then popped in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes

before Rob can add the mushrooms.

Prince Charles and Camilla attended...

..Prince Harry's dinner,

and here I have the actual accompanied dinner night from that event,

and if you actually open the menu you can see there, "Supreme of

"chicken, Parisian potatoes." Makes it sound even posher.

It's opportunity for the officer cadets, you know, to invite their

family members and have a fantastic evening together.

To prepare the mushrooms, we're just going to take...

..just a small handful.

So we've got the lovely girolles...

and some portobellos, and on this fab tray of ingredients

just some curly parsley.

And this is just to add a little bit of colour so it's not too beige.

It's got some lovely green colours going through it as well.

We're actually going to add some butter to this to make

it really rich as well.

Some cep powder onto the mushrooms and parsley.

It brings the whole dish together.

Give that a fold in.

The mushrooms are cooled before being added to the mousse mix.

It can then be piped into a chicken breast.

This little bit of skin here

just kind of tucks itself over

and that's ready now to pop into a frying pan.

The pan is seasoned with garlic and thyme

before the chicken breast is sealed.

Just a little bit more oil.

Getting that nice colour on the chicken is what you want.

Now it's ready to go in the oven for 12 minutes at 180 degrees.

Timings have to be exact,

and Rob understands the pressures of cooking for the royals.

Everything from start to finish has to be correct and to perfection.

You realise what an honour it is to have, you know, food in front of you

that you love to cook, but, more importantly,

who are you serving for? You know,

it's great for any chef's journey

and it's definitely been great for me.

So we've got some carrots and some parsnips just roasted natural,

again some fresh thyme from the academy grounds, a little,

tiny bit of garlic.

It is not even cooked yet but it looks delicious to eat.

So we need to give that, again, in the oven,

around about 15 minutes.

We need something else that's sticky.

That's our marble potatoes.

Now, this is a favourite

across the whole of the military since I've been

in the business, and they're little balls of potatoes that I roast in

toasted sesame oil and then finish with sticky Marmite glaze.

They do say you love it or hate it,

but with this one you definitely love it.

And for each dish we usually do about ten potatoes.

It's not me that has to do this particular job for 300 people.

That's known as pulling rank.

Now we've got here some toasted sesame oil.

You just pop a little bit into the pan and then you pop your potatoes

straight in. Let's add some butter

and a nice spoonful of our yeast extract.

If you look at that, absolutely delicious.

We'll pop these into an oven just for ten minutes.

Just enough time to cook the gravy before it's ready to serve.

When I cook I like to cook from the heart.

I'm a very passionate person.

And, you know, it's a great honour to cook for all the royals.

What do you think it's like for a professional chef cooking for

the royal family?

Something like that, it's going to be hugely intimidating.

You're going to want to get it right.

I mean, our job is quite high pressured as it is.

Sometimes the royals live like the rest of us,

go out to dinner in the way we would.

-Yeah.

-I think in 2016 the Queen and Prince Philip dropped in at a very

old pub in Edinburgh called the Sheep Heid in the...

-The Sheep Heid!

-The Sheep Heid!

In Duddingston.

I mean, the interesting thing is, that particular pub,

the Sheep Heid, Mary Queen of Scots was supposed to go there

-occasionally...

-Yeah.

-..in the 16th century, so, extraordinary that

400 years later the reigning monarch and her husband should go.

-Yeah.

-The way they travel around's changed quite a bit, though,

-hasn't it? I mean, the Royal Yacht Britannia...

-Yeah.

-..that was

decommissioned in 1997

and now some of the royals go on commercial airlines rather than

-the Royal flight.

-Right.

Do they have to wait for their luggage at the carousel like we do?

Somehow I don't think so.

One thing that hasn't changed is the Royal Train,

which is still in use after more than 150 years,

since Queen Victoria became the first monarch

to travel by train in 1842.

Dr Annie Gray went to York to find out more.

On the 13th of June 1842,

history was made when the young Queen Victoria

climbed aboard a train and set off in style.

The locomotive was called Phlegethon,

the driver Daniel Gooch

and the engineer was none other than Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself.

The Queen had been persuaded to try train travel by her husband,

Prince Albert, a champion of new technology and a man who was well

used to travelling by train.

That first journey was from Slough to London Paddington and it took 25

minutes, but it proved to be the first of many

because the Queen was bitten by the train travelling bug and thereafter

they went all over the place from Osborne to Balmoral and everywhere

in between.

The National Railway Museum in York is home to six royal carriages

including Victoria's.

We've been given privileged access to them and it's all aboard with

curator Anthony Coulls.

This is just incredible.

It's fabulous, isn't it?

-This...

-SHE LAUGHS

I'm almost speechless. Tell me, where are we, exactly?

We are standing in the day saloon of Queen Victoria's carriage,

built for her by the London and North Western Railway

in the late 1860s.

This deep, beautiful blue and the gold and the royal crests on there.

-You get a real sense of a Queen at home here?

-Mm. Mm.

There's nowhere to eat on here.

I know when she travelled on the Continent she did eat on board

the train, on dining cars, but it was a bit different in England,

-wasn't it?

-She chose not to dine on the railway, on the move,

unless there were really exceptional circumstances.

-But she did stop, didn't she, at the station hotel...

-She did, yeah.

-..several times.

-Yeah. And to make sure the way was clear,

they actually sent another locomotive in front called the pilot

engine, which had a special code of lamps on the front of the engine

that said to the signalman and the station people

the next train through is the Royal Train,

and all the trains around it are halted.

The museum is also home to a coach built for Edward VII.

Victoria's heir was renowned for his infidelities, gambling,

partying and eating to excess.

He loved his food so much he was nicknamed Tum-Tum.

This is completely different, isn't it?

It's lighter, it's airier, it's wider.

-Feels much more masculine as well with the smoking room.

-It does.

That's very much so, with the dark wood in there.

You can imagine the train parked up for the night somewhere and...

-Smoke everywhere and people kind of...

-That's it, yes.

-..coming out of it going, "Goodness me."

-Port and cards.

By this point in time, dining cars had come in, hadn't they?

They had dining cars for the royal party, then it had kitchen cars.

And what kind of thing did they eat? I mean, I know they ate quail

because there's an incident where one of them ends up in

-Queen Alexandra's hair.

-Yes.

-THEY LAUGH

Yes, it's one of those career-limiting actions,

-really, isn't it?

-Yeah.

But apart from the quail,

what kind of things did they eat?

You're looking at anything from a cold collation

to a full roast dinner. And when you consider that it's being created at

60, 70mph in something not

much bigger than a couple of phone boxes glued together

and it's on the move, swaying all over the place,

it's nothing short of a miracle that each meal made it to the plate and

not to the lap.

Edward's carriage was used by the royals

all the way up until the 1930s.

But in 1939, with the outbreak of World War II,

it was time to ditch wooden carriages

in favour of something safer.

In 1941, George VI's new train

came with the latest in homeland security.

This is completely different.

It is so different to what went before.

It's armour-plated, the body panels are twin-skinned.

It's got sealed windows, it's got air conditioning.

And George was a man who, like so many monarchs actually,

had a reputation for quite liking plain food.

-Yes, yes.

-He's reputed to have picked up a taste for marmalade,

-isn't he, from the train?

-Then asked for it thereafter.

-Yeah.

-Not for, like, forever but...

-No. Thin-cut marmalade.

-Thin-cut marmalade.

-Can't think of anything worse!

-Why would you want thin-cut marmalade?

-Very insipid, but

there we are, if it's good enough for the King.

I feel really privileged to have been able to come inside these

coaches and see them. I've been here many times and peered through

the windows looking inside, but you really do get a sense of

the personality of the monarchs behind them when you're standing

-in them.

-You do, yes.

-And knowing that George VI was involved here

with the decor and you really feel the personalities of the monarchs

themselves are stamped on the coaches. And I do think it's just...

There's something really rather magical about it.

It's where they stood, it's where they ate,

it's where they lived, where they slept,

and you are walking in history.

You can almost taste the toast, can't you?

-With the marmalade.

-Yes.

Before trains,

it must have taken such a long time to get around.

Paul, the dish you're going to do is a dish that one of our kings found

when he was travelling round the country in a coach drawn by horses.

-What was it?

-Portland pudding.

Named after the Portland Arms in Dorset.

-Right, OK.

-And King George III was a regular visitor and every time he

-went to this particular pub, hotel, inn, whatever...

-Yeah.

..he'd have this pudding.

What it is is a steamed sponge pudding loaded with orange.

-So straightaway we're going to go into the pan here, Michael...

-Yep.

..and we're going to make a caramel.

Rather a nice story about Portland pudding and George III.

George III was the one they called Mad King George...

-Yeah.

-..because from 1788 he had bouts of what they thought was

-madness...

-Right.

-..but we now think is a disorder called porphyria.

-Right.

-But anyway, they thought saltwater would be good for him

and they sent him down to Weymouth.

There's a note in a wonderful old magazine called The

Penny Magazine written after George had died, in fact, saying,

"George III during his visits to Weymouth had several times made

"a tour of the Isle of Portland and on those occasions he made

"the Portland Arms his headquarters and he used to finish his day

"by dining at the house.

"The then landlady had a recipe for making a certain famous Portland

"pudding and the King never failed to order the pudding in honour

"of the island." What do you think about?

-Aw, fantastic.

-Yeah.

-Isn't that brilliant?

Now, we keep moving it, OK, because that is very, very hot.

-Yeah.

-At the moment, that's about 150 degrees.

-Wow.

-OK? And it will carry on cooking,

-so pull it off the heat.

-Yeah.

-OK, and now we add in our butter.

-A bit in at a time.

-Yep.

And what we're making here, Michael, we want to go away from the heat.

-It's butterscotch.

-Yeah, butterscotch, exactly.

-Yeah.

OK. So we keep adding in our butter.

This is rich stuff, isn't it?

Very, very rich.

Back on the heat. So you see now our butter's just basically emulsified

all the way into this sauce.

-Already smells incredible.

-Mm. Mm. Mm.

Next, orange juice.

-Yeah.

-Turn our heat back up.

-Yeah.

-Here we go.

In with our orange juice.

It really sizzled in there, didn't it?

-Gosh, that's hot.

-Now, again, off.

-Don't you wave that thing at me.

-OK?

THEY LAUGH

-What's that?

-Now we're going to cool it down with our cream.

-There you go.

-So now we go back on the heat.

-Yeah.

-OK? And now we're

going to get some lovely flavour in there, OK...

-Yeah.

-..from these beautiful oranges.

By zesting, we're releasing the oils of the orange right on the outside,

absolutely tonnes of flavour in these skins

and we just want the outside. We don't want to go right down.

-Yeah, you don't want to go through to the pith.

-Very bitter.

So we just pull off the heat. You can smell the butter and the orange

-and the sugar.

-Mm! Yep, yep.

-OK.

Like that, we're going to pour in our Grand Marnier.

Just like that. So we're just burning the alcohol off like so.

MICHAEL CHUCKLES Shame, but there you go.

Is this Suzette?

-As in Crepes Suzette.

-Exactly.

Crepes Suzette was invented by accident for Edward VII.

Actually, he was Prince of Wales then and, you know, well,

he liked a lot gambling and all the rest of it and he's in

-the Cafe de Paris in Monte Carlo...

-Yes. Yeah.

-..with a group of

friends and they're having this wonderful dessert.

A chef called Charpentier, who was a pupil of Escoffier, comes in with

the orange sauce and accidentally the whole thing goes up in flames.

-Right.

-And everybody's completely shocked,

but then when they taste it,

they think, "Oh, well, that's really rather nice."

That's actually quite nice.

And Edward was asked, "What should its name be?"

And actually one of his guests at the table was a little girl who was

-eight years old who was called Suzette.

-Right.

-And he said,

-"We'll call it Crepes Suzette."

-And that's where the name came from.

-And that's what it's been ever since.

-Yeah.

And that's what we're having. Not the crepe,

but sort of sauce Suzette.

-Now, what are you doing here?

-Right. So what I've got in this bowl

is butter and sugar, which I'm just creaming together like so.

-Yeah.

-I'm just going to add a pinch of salt, all right? Plain flour.

Now we're just going to add a little splash of milk.

It just loosens the mix so we can start to make the batter.

-Yeah.

-I mean, there's something nice about doing it by hand.

-Four eggs in.

-Yeah.

-OK?

And now we continue to fold this in.

So, before we add in our last final ingredients to our lovely cake

batter, we're just going to get this saucepan on,

which has just got some water in the bottom and a plate and that's going

to steam our pudding.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-Citrus candied peel.

-Can I try some?

-Yeah, go for it.

-Almost like little boiled sweets.

-Mm, it's nice.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, but, mm,

no, it's got more concentrated flavour than that.

More zest, so there's just that lovely orange all the way through.

-Right...

-Oh, you've got... Ah.

-Now we're going to go back to our sauce

and what we're going to do, so almost a bit like a creme caramel.

Now, this is the bowl that you've lined with butter.

-Literally just buttered it round the outside, that's all.

-Yeah.

-Now we take our cake batter.

-Mm-hm.

-Move our bowl over to here.

And like so, just gently, don't splash the mix up, OK?

-So you're rolling it out...

-Rolling it out.

-..over the sauce.

Absolutely, over the sauce. And what will happen as well,

it'll come up the sides and just be absolutely delicious all over.

Lovely and glazed, OK? Get all of that lovely cake batter in there.

-You're not going to waste any, are you?

-No.

If you could give me a hand here?

-Yeah.

-I've got tinfoil, parchment, butter,

cos that sponge is going to rise right up.

-OK.

-OK?

-You're going to put that on the top.

Over the top and then right the way around,

because we want to hold that heat in, but also as well,

can you see we've got a pleat in the middle?

-Oh, yeah, you've got a fold-over.

-It's an old, old technique

-and the reason you do that is because as that pudding rises...

-Mm.

-..it won't tear.

-It's got a bit of expansion.

-Expansion, exactly.

-Yep. Yep.

So if you get our string, like so.

-Nice and tight. If you could just give me a hand...

-Yeah, what can

-I do?

-..with holding it. Like so. Just holding it.

-There we go.

-That's it.

-Absolutely.

-Thank you very much.

-No problem.

-And then we just...

I'm indispensable, really.

I don't know how you manage in that restaurant kitchen

-without me.

-Without you?

-THEY CHUCKLE

Yeah.

-There we go.

-Right, so now we've got our steaming water.

-Yeah.

-OK?

-Just be very, very careful.

-OK.

-And then very gently...

-Oh, mind your hands.

-..lowering your... Yeah, watch your hands on

the side of the pan. Lower it in.

-OK. Lid back on...

-Yeah.

-..and steam for an hour and a half.

Luckily, we don't need to wait an hour and a half.

-Thank goodness for that.

-Thank goodness.

Yeah, absolutely. We have got one we've done earlier.

-Take our string off from the outside.

-Mm-hm.

Like this.

It's exciting, this bit, isn't it?

-Look at that.

-Oh, yeah.

Now, just with a knife, just go round the edge

just so nothing's caught.

-OK? Plate on, OK?

-Yeah. MICHAEL CHUCKLES

-One, two, three, over...

-Woo!

-..like so.

-Down on the table.

-Yep.

-All right.

Now, again, just a little kind of belt and braces, all right,

just round the top.

And abracadabra.

Abra... Yeah. Do you know what, yes, abracadabra as well, all right?

And hopefully...

You had me worried for a minute then.

THEY LAUGH Oh, very, very nice.

-Very, very nice.

-Now with some of that lovely, beautiful sauce.

-Are you going to put it over the top or round the side?

-Absolutely.

No, no, we're going to go straight over the top. And don't be shy.

-Lots of it.

-Do not be shy.

Lots of it, OK, cos it'll just soak into that sponge.

-I can smell the orange.

-Like so.

Oh, it's fabulous.

Mm. You can just imagine George III sitting in the Portland Arms

with his Portland Pudding that he'd probably been looking forward

-to for weeks.

-I just hope I did him proud.

-Are you going to just tuck into it?

-Go for it, straight in. No plates.

Aw, look at the way...

I'll just get some of the sauce.

-Gorgeous how moist that is.

-Yeah.

-Ooh, yeah.

-And you see how that sauce glaze is, like, baked in all

to the side and caramelised it.

-All that different kind of orange...

-Mm.

-..hitting at the same time.

And that sponge is just incredible.

Aw, it's brilliant. I can see what he liked about it.

You know,

they called him Mad King George but, I tell you what,

he knew a thing or two about puddings.

-He certainly did.

-MICHAEL LAUGHS

-Yeah.

-Join us next time for more royal recipes.