12/02/2017 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning!

There's a seriously tasty menu lined up for you on today's show,

so there's only one thing you need to do,

and that's sit back and enjoy another serving

of Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We have top chefs cooking fabulous food and celebrity guests galore -

trust me, you won't want to miss any of it.

Coming up on today's show...

James Martin serves up a deliciously fresh tuna salad nicoise

for Alesha Dixon...

The famous author Adriana Trigiani,

who also happens to be a pretty good cook,

makes her Saturday Kitchen debut.

She cooks up braciole in tomato sauce with green salad

and oranges with cracked pepper -

plus another of our favourite Italians, Francesco Mazzei,

is delivering a dish that is sure to get your mouth watering.

He serves up wild boar marinaded in liquorice,

bergamot and spices with turnip tops and a tasty liquorice sauce.

Battling it out for omelette challenge glory,

we have Theo Randall taking on Silvena Rowe -

with only two seconds between them, it's all to play for.

That's from the days before he made the Guinness Book Of Records.

Anyway, then it's over to Alyn Williams,

who's here with his classy version of an all-American feast -

southern fried chicken.

The chicken is marinaded in buttermilk

before being coated in spices and deep-fried,

and it's served up with a grilled baby gem, sourdough croutons

and a creamy ranch dressing.

Absolutely yum.

And finally, Sue Perkins faces her food heaven or her food hell.

Did she get her food heaven, hazelnut and chocolate gateau?

Or did she end up facing her food hell,

goat's cheese on brioche with redcurrant dressing?

They both sound delicious.

You can find out what she got at the end of the show.

But first it's over to Ben Tish, who's serving up his take

on a classic Spanish combination - hake, chorizo and clams.

It's Mr Ben Tish. Great to have you on the show, Ben.

-Thanks, James.

-Thank you for coming on.

Pleasure to be here.

Now, you're influenced heavily - we mentioned the Italian,

-but the Spanish theme, particularly this dish.

-Yeah.

Absolutely, yeah.

-So, it's hake with clams...

-Yeah.

..spicy chorizo and Arbequina olive oil mash.

-Sounds good to me.

-Yeah, so it's a take on a Spanish dish -

it's refined a little bit with the addition of the mash.

Right, so tell us about this hake, then.

You want to get that on to start off with, I know you do.

Yeah, absolutely. So, hake, used loads in Spain and France...

as we spoke to Daniel about earlier.

-Yeah, super fish.

-Yeah, really good.

-Really good.

Cooking it on the bone,

it's a really good way to cook hake, or any fish, for that matter.

-Yeah.

-Love cooking fish on the bone.

Particularly with hake - it's quite delicate, innit, really?

-It's quite delicate...

-Can fall apart if you overcook it.

Exactly - but the bone kind of helps that,

helps keep it all together.

But does add that flavour in there, as well.

So, I've got a nice hot pan, and olive oil in there,

and just added the hake into there.

This is a cut of meat that you normally find on salmon,

-it's called a darne, this one...

-Absolutely.

..cut straight through the centre of the fish.

Yeah, a darne or a steak,

as probably a lot of people would know that.

So, just, like, going in there - thanks, James.

And just going to get my clams in there now, as well.

-There we go.

-Yeah.

Cooking away in there.

Get rid of that, wash the hands.

In there you've just got a little bit of olive oil. Just a touch.

Just a little bit of olive oil in there, that's it.

Just want to get that going -

want a nice kind of caramelisation on that.

Now, we've mentioned that the French like it, as well,

but was one of the first dishes I learnt to cook in France,

the hake with the beurre blanc sauce.

-Yeah, that's correct.

-Yeah.

-And when we went to France, you and I,

some massive ones on the market in Brittany.

-Fabulous fish.

-Again, inexpensive. There you go.

-Very tasty...

I mean, in Italy they kind of use it a lot, as well -

we have an Italian influence at our restaurants, as well,

-so, it's used quite a lot in Italy, as well.

-Mm.

It just seems, in the UK,

that we just kind of don't get it...

-So...

-It's the name, you see the name in the UK,

people don't like the name or the look of the fish, they won't eat it.

-It's always the cod and the haddock that I think you see...

-Yeah.

Crazy, innit, really, when you think -

there's so many great other fish out there.

-Particularly this one.

-Absolutely.

So, James, you're peeling some chorizo for me.

We've got some cooking chorizo here, and this is spicy cooking chorizo.

It's different to the cured chorizo - it needs to be cooked.

-Yeah.

-It's great when you're cooking -

when you cook it down, it releases its paprika oil.

Well, the word "picante" is what you look for in...

-Picante, exactly.

-Which is the spice one, innit?

You get dulce, which is the sweet one,

-and picante, which is the spicy one.

-Yeah.

So... Got the clams, they're going nicely, there.

Turn the hake again, and I'll grab some of that chorizo,

-James, if I may.

-Now, the difference, like I said,

the cooking one, you can easily tell the difference.

-Yeah, it's a lot softer.

-One's like a sausage, and soft...

-Yeah.

-..the other one's firm.

-Yeah, exactly that.

-I mean, you CAN cook with the fully cured one...

-Yeah.

..and it also releases a bit of oil, but this is much better.

-Kind of what it's about.

-Yeah.

So, I just want to get that sweating away, there,

and it'll start to release all its oil on there.

-That's really good.

-Now, I mentioned the fact that you're a big fish fan

-with your sea bass. Hake?

-Yes.

-Tried that?

You know, I'm just trying to think,

what family of fish is hake from? Or, what - give me some...

I would've thought it's probably cod or haddock.

-Yeah, it's a kind of...

-It's called colin in French, and...

-It's in the cod family, yeah.

-Cod, cod...

OK, cool. So, if you could peel that potato for me, James,

-and we're going to get that on.

-Right.

Just going to turn that again.

We've got a nice colour on that now. So that's good.

And then, here, I've got some white wine

that I'm just going to add into there...

Now, tell us about these restaurants, then.

-..and some sherry.

-You first of all came to London when?

-I came to London, ooh, about 14, 15 years ago.

-Right.

Started working - um, first job was at the Ritz.

-Yeah.

-Classic place, did that for a year,

and then ended up working with Jason Atherton

at various restaurants.

Um - sorry, James, just to interrupt, there.

-So, I'm just steaming that away, there...

-Yeah.

..and that's going to finish cooking the fish through.

-Yeah.

-Get the potatoes on, there.

So, yeah, and then worked at an Italian restaurant called Al Duca,

which was where I kind of got more into, like,

the rustic style of things.

-I'll do that.

-OK, cool.

-You do that one.

-OK, thanks.

And then, yeah, I had a little detour into Scotland,

where I worked at a country house hotel up there,

and I got really in touch with produce and things like that,

-and moved back to London...

-Big mix and match, then, really.

Mix and match, exactly.

And then started at Salt Yard, and it's just gone from there.

Really got into Spanish cooking.

These are kind of... Talking about Spanish cooking,

these are modern tapas restaurants, but they're all different, are they?

Or they're all roughly different.

No, there's a theme running through them,

you know, we specialise in charcuterie cheese,

-Spain and Italy, as well, not just Spanish.

-Mm.

And, yeah - kind of tapas,

but with a modern twist on them.

Particularly the iberico, innit, that's what you use quite a bit?

At Opera Tavern restaurant in Covent Garden,

which we opened a year ago,

we've kind of we've kind of become famous for fresh iberico meat, so...

-Yeah.

-Everybody probably knows the ham

that's carved in Spanish restaurants, the jamon iberico...

-Pata negra, they call it.

-Pata negra, yeah -

but the fresh meat is delicious, as well,

and it can be cooked rather like beef.

You can cook it medium rare.

So, we do things like tartares and carpaccios,

-we do a burger.

-It's quite unusual with pork, like that.

When you talk about pork and medium rare, people are always a bit...

Yeah, they're a bit funny -

and, you know, because of the breeding, because of the diet...

-And the welfare.

-..and the welfare, exactly that.

It's actually the cousin of the one in the Pyrenees, the French -

Noir de Bigorre, it's the cousin of...

Yeah, exactly that.

So, and they're wild, you know, there's nothing bad about them.

You go and you take on - in the forest, in the mountain.

-Yeah.

-They have a diet of acorns, mainly, don't they?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, that's exactly what it is -

and so the meat kind of reflects that.

-Fabulous.

-It's fatty - it's a little bit like Wagyu beef,

I don't know if anyone's tried that,

but it's kind of got that richness going on.

-Right.

-So, just chopping in a bit of parsley, so, thanks for that, James.

So, what do you want in this mash?

OK, so, if you just put me that cream in there, please.

-Yep.

-Thank you.

Probably about a third of that butter.

Salt and pepper in there. I've got the cream and butter,

and then I'm going to add into the mash some Arbequina olive oil,

which is a delicious spicy olive oil from Spain.

Now, talking about olive oil,

you walk about the supermarkets now...

-Yeah.

-Oh, my God!

-It used to be Italian, that was it.

But now you've got stuff from South Africa...

It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming.

But you should treat it like wine - they're all very different.

They're all different, and, in fact,

this Arbequina olive oil that I'm using

we use at our restaurants as the table olive oil, the bread -

and it's the new season olive oil that's come through now,

so it's a lot stronger than...

it's a lot stronger than the old season, it's more in-your-face.

So, it can vary by season,

as well as by olive oil to olive oil.

But the Arbequina, of course, is a type of olive itself.

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

-And we sell the olives, as well, which are delicious...

-OK.

..as a table olive.

OK, so that's going nicely, there.

I'm just going to turn the hake over.

All right - and this will take quite quickly to cook,

cos you're cooking this with a lid on, as well.

Exactly, so, you've got the steam going on there.

I'm just going to add some parsley into there.

That's good. I mean, you're doing a brasserie dish later,

but this is kind of like the brasserie dishes in France...

-Yeah, it would be.

-Yeah.

That sort of classic beurre blanc sauce.

You can even say it's home cooking,

because it's kind of a relation, eh?

You want some lemon in there as well?

Yes, please, just a squeeze of lemon to sharpen it up.

And I think...

-You're about there.

-..we're nearly there. Lovely.

OK, that looks good, James.

If you can put me a spoon of that in the middle, that'd be good.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

Thanks, James. Very nice.

Just get my...

..fish slice.

So, there's the hake.

Lovely.

-Nicely cooked through.

-Do you serve that dish in your restaurant?

-Er, yeah, we serve...

-Probably not as big as that.

No, not as big as this!

All the dishes that we serve are tapas dishes.

-That's a Yorkshire tapas, that.

-Yeah!

I did it as a nod to you, James.

I thought I'd give you...

-Trust you to say that.

-..a Yorkshire portion.

But there we go.

So, you can see all those lovely paprika juices

have come out of there.

And you've put the sherry and white wine in this.

-Sherry and white wine in there, yeah.

-That was dry sherry in there?

Dry sherry, yeah,

just gives the sauce a nice kind of bite.

That's really good.

This is really popular at the restaurant.

And sherry's on the up, as well, actually.

Sherry's well on the up - we sell loads of sherry now.

OK, so, there you go.

So, that is roasted hake on the bone with Arbequina olive oil mash,

clams and chorizo with a sherry sauce.

-Thank you very much.

-Lovely.

By a guy with his first time on Saturday Kitchen.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

THEY CLAP SOFTLY

That was pathetic, over there. LAUGHTER

-We didn't know...

-Just trying...

-Yeah, yeah.

They just want something to eat - there we go.

There we go. Dive in.

-This looks amazing. Wow.

-Mm!

-Look at that.

-Try that for breakfast.

-Yeah, get that down you.

It is, it is delicious.

And that's what you say,

you can use the different types of chorizo,

but the idea is to use the soft one, really, when you're cooking.

Yes, most definitely, yeah.

And then you just get... All the flavour comes out, and, yeah.

-Yeah?

-Fantastic.

-You like that? Good.

I'm usually a bit funny about surf and turf, but...

-Surf and turf?!

-Yeah.

Beef and lobster?

It's got a little bit of chorizo in the sauce...

It's delicious.

But that does really well - I mean, white fish, particularly,

with cod, and they do it with all manner of different combinations...

-Yes.

-..over in Spain.

-Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Happy with that?

Very happy.

Amazing to think that was Ben's first time on the show -

he is a natural.

Coming up, James serves up tuna salad nicoise for Alesha Dixon -

but first it's over to Rock Stein

in a clip from his first ever TV series,

and he's keeping it simple with scallops and mullet.

People that like food that I respect more than anybody

are those that understand about simplicity in cooking -

and nothing sums up simplicity,

pure, delicious simplicity, better than just a dish of grilled queens.

Queens are just a type of small scallop,

and all you have to do is brush them with plenty of butter

and season them liberally with ground black pepper and salt.

Then you put them under a hot grill -

and notice the wonderful smell that actually comes from the shells,

as well as the scallop meat.

It's like hot beaches -

and hot beaches is what it is,

because all beaches are is bust-up shells.

These are now well and truly cooked...

and the next thing I'm going to do is to add some seaweed,

to put some seaweed on the plate.

In addition to that lovely smell of the shells,

I want the lovely smell of seaweed.

That beautiful ozone smell which I'm going to enhance

just by heating the seaweed up for a few seconds only

in some boiling water.

Because when this comes out,

you get that, oh, indefinable sort of wonderful smell of seaweed,

which people love.

Put the...queens on top of that.

And having done that,

I go for the final piece, which is, to me, by far the most important -

the butter itself.

I'm very pedantic about beurre noisette.

I don't use a frying pan,

I use a saucepan, because a frying pan's black

and you can't see what's going on in the bottom of the pan.

With a saucepan, you can,

particularly if it's got a steel lining, like this one,

and I need to be able to judge visually

exactly when the right point to stop the cooking is -

because if you take it too far,

you've got burnt butter rather than beurre noisette.

"Beurre noisette" means "nutty" in French,

and that's what I'm after - a sort of nutty flavour.

Another pedantic point of mine is...

Not quite there, but nearly.

..is I put the lemon juice, which always goes with noisette,

actually on the scallops, not in the butter.

Now, that...is plumb right.

Lovely, lovely flavour.

Quite dark, but not burnt.

And, finally, a little finely chopped parsley...

..to complete the dish.

That is delicious.

I think I might just pop one into the old mouth there.

Mm.

This is one of the first seafood dishes I ever had in Brittany.

Never forgotten it.

Really understood about simplicity and things then.

You can't beat just a properly made, simple butter sauce like that.

This is perfection.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world -

I wouldn't want to be in Australia or Tahiti or Barbados, or anywhere.

It's such a perfect evening,

so still it's like a timeless image, to me,

of everybody's best memories of Cornwall -

but actually it IS timeless,

because Brian and his family have been fishing here

for mullet and bass for generations.

I don't know anything else.

That's my problem.

I've done it since I was eight years old,

brought up in a river, fishing with nets.

I've been a fisherman since I left school, so...

I don't know nothing else -

I couldn't go and work in an office or something like that.

Just have one - I think we've got one fish just jumped over the net.

I think it possibly could be a mullet.

Do you see it splashing there?

Yeah, going like crazy, isn't it?

'Grey mullet are normally rather muddy estuary fish,

'but these bay mullet - well!'

They're a nice size, aren't they?

This is a typical bay mullet, this is.

-Nice and big.

-Yeah.

-Clean.

-Clean, yeah. Exactly.

-CHILD:

-And they've got another one!

Grey mullet is a wonderful fish -

it's so firm, it's so nice to feel,

like all fresh fish, it's nice to feel.

Stale fish feels soft, feels soggy -

fresh fish feels like a piece of elastic.

Feel like just going like that.

Anyway, let's get on with the dish.

A simple Tuscan sauce

with some green olive oil, some garlic, some red chillies,

some lemon juice and some sea salt.

So, first of all, the garlic.

Now, I'm using this Japanese mandolin,

which you've got to be extremely careful with -

every chef that uses it cuts themselves once,

but you never do it again.

It says in Japanese on one side and English on the other,

"Watch your fingers."

So, that's exactly what I'm doing.

The most sensible thing to do is not actually to...

-Ow,

-BLEEP!

So, I'm chopping the garlic with a sensible thin bladed knife.

Next to the chilli.

I take the seeds out and also put the chilli

into a tiny bit of vinegar,

just to slightly decrease the heat,

because otherwise the sauce will be too hot.

I just want a suggestion of chilli here -

not a sort of massive blast of it.

If you can hear some noise in the background at the moment,

it's just the sound of a Japanese mandolin

being thrown into the rubbish skip just outside the back door.

So, first, assembling the sauce, this wonderful, wonderful olive oil.

It's... Oh, gosh.

It's great, actually.

It's almost nicer to sniff than to taste, but only just.

Then the garlic...

and finally this chilli.

Just a little bit of the chilli, which I've soaked in vinegar.

That's all there is to the sauce.

"Call that a sauce?" I hear you say -

but the simple things in life are often the best.

So, now, to cook the fish,

it's a good idea to put some oil on the bars first of all,

as a sort of belt and braces measure,

to make sure the fish doesn't stick.

I've also greased the fish with olive oil

and a little bit of thyme and some salt.

I can use the charcoal grill just to warm this olive oil sauce through,

because I don't want to heat it right up,

because it will drive off all those beautiful, volatile flavours

in this Tuscan olive oil.

Now, that fish is done on that side, now.

Look at how that's getting so white and firm now.

Bit more of a baste with some of this thyme and olive oil mix,

and some salt,

and flip it over - and it's so quick, this,

it's a beautiful hot charcoal grill, this.

There we are. The sauce, I'm sure, will be just about...

ready to take off. Yes, it's nicely warmed through. Great.

And if you're wondering why we're using blue plasters in the kitchen,

it's so you can see them in the food.

On to the assembly.

Just lift that up gently,

cos once it's cooked it's very, very delicate.

Take some of this delicious sauce.

Just a little bit - don't want too much,

don't want to fill everybody up with olive oil calories.

Some of this sea salt for crunchiness.

Nice crunch against that softness - and now the taste.

Now, that is seriously good.

That is the sort of dish

that I like to give to people who don't like fish -

lots of Cornish people don't eat fish.

Give them something like this, they would be converted immediately.

It's amazing to think that Rick's first ever TV series was that.

What a star.

Funnily enough, the very first time I cooked on television,

I did a classic fish dish, too -

much like Rick, it's very simple - but without the Japanese mandolin.

I remember, I cooked something for the Bee Gees, would you believe?

-And now I'm going to cook it for you.

-Cool!

-I'm privileged.

-It's a salad nicoise -

or a classic tuna nicoise, and it's really so simple to make.

As I say, classic - but the word nicoise comes from Nice,

but it can vary.

You can use broad beans in it, it can vary

-so much with what ingredients actually goes in the nicoise.

-Yeah.

But fundamentally, you've got potatoes, which I've got over there,

tomatoes, beans, olives, eggs, a little bit of lettuce in mine,

I've obviously got some tuna, but it can vary -

you can put anchovies, sardines, white fish -

-anything, whatever's caught along the coast of Nice.

-Mm-hm.

We've got some anchovies, here, for our dressing, egg yolk,

bit of mustard, lemon and garlic.

So, the first thing I'm going to do, fire off straight away,

is then just take our tuna

and just cut this into a nice-sized portion, really.

Going to use these trimmings, here, which are a little bit sinewy -

-I use these for fishcakes, really, these ones.

-Oh!

Season it up with some salt and pepper...

That's a lot of salt.

Little bit less salt...

LAUGHTER

Little bit less pepper.

Olive oil.

The Bee Gees didn't complain, back then!

They just got what they were given.

Right, there we go. There's...

Move that to one side.

No wonder mine tastes bland.

Is that what you told your dad?

Cos your dad was a bit of a keen cook - and he still is.

-My dad's an amazing cook.

-A bit of a keen cook, yeah.

Like he never really cooked,

because obviously his partner cooked for him...

I'm not surprised, with you telling him what to put in it!

He was staying... My dad lives in Thailand,

but he was staying with me before he went there,

and I literally had him, you know, summoned to the kitchen -

and he's fantastic at cooking Jamaican food,

obviously, cos that's where he's from,

but he cooks amazing Thai food, as well.

You say summoned to the kitchen -

because that's what your new partner wants to be,

is that what you were saying?

You want to go out with a chef, is that right?

Well, it would be good... I don't have to go out with a chef,

-but it would be good if he could cook.

-Right, OK.

-It's quite important.

-It's quite important. There you go.

-Mm.

-Just don't put enough salt...

-Yeah, don't put too much...

-Less salt next time.

-Lots of pepper.

What kind of food did he used to cook you? Jamaican food, or...?

My dad - like I said, my dad's a great cook,

but he didn't really cook a lot.

-My nan's the better cook - my dad's mum...

-Yeah.

..and, you know, we grew up eating things like curried goat and...

-Curried GOAT?

-Curried goat, pig's tail...

-Pig's tail soup, jerk chicken...

-Pig's tail?

-Ackee and saltfish...

What on earth do you do with pig's tail?

Well, you put it in a soup -

what the English would call stew, Jamaicans would call soup.

So, you could have lamb soup -

-traditionally you use, like, neck of lamb...

-Yeah.

..chicken, pig's tail... Pig's tail's great!

-Pig's tail's great?

-Yeah!

-I'm sure it is.

It's lovely, it's really tasty.

Ackee and saltfish, which is, like, the Jamaican national dish...

-Right.

-..which is really lovely...

and lots of, you know, yams and...

-dumplings...

-I mean, you've travelled all over the world -

so, you've mentioned all these sort of things

-that you were brought up on...

-Yeah.

-Mm.

-You must have tried some...

-Yeah.

-..weird stuff on your travels.

What's the most weirdest thing you've ever tried?

I think the weirdest thing I ever tried was when I was with Mis-Teeq

-and we were out in Norway...

-Yeah.

..recording our album. They used to have a chef come in to the studio -

to save time, you didn't waste any time when you were recording -

and they'd cook these lovely meals for us every day,

but then, one day, I was eating this meat, and it was gorgeous,

and I was like, "Oh, can I have seconds?

"This is so nice,"

and then Su-Elise said to me, "You know you're eating reindeer?"

I said, "No!" I thought it was a joke -

and then we got back to the hotel,

she said, "Alesha, you really was eating reindeer,"

and I was really disturbed by it,

cos I was like, "Oh, my God, I've just ate Bambi!"

It was like...

No, that's a deer - that's not reindeer.

Oh!

-OK, same thing.

-You've eaten Rudolph, instead - not Bambi.

But either way, it was just like...

It was beautiful meat,

but I'm quite particular about the meat that I eat.

I don't like to eat veal and rabbit and all those kind of things,

but my favourite food, I think, outside of, you know,

English food, Jamaican food, is probably Japanese.

-Really?

-Yeah.

But you mentioned your band, as well -

how did it all start for you?

Because obviously we mentioned at the top,

you're quite an accomplished athlete, and a dancer -

how did the singing start?

Well, I left college when I was about 18, and then I...

I mean, I'm from Welwyn Garden City, which is quite a small town,

and I was really interested in doing street dancing,

but there wasn't really anything in my area,

so I kind of went up to Bond Street and did a street dancing class

on a Sunday, just to keep fit and, you know, for enjoyment,

and I was approached by a lady called Louise Porter,

who asked me if I sang - and I said,

"Well, I love to sing,

"but I've never considered it as a career," because, obviously,

you know, I'd planned on being a teacher -

when you're, you know, 18 and you're from a small town,

you don't know how to get into the music industry.

-It's like trying to get to Mars.

-Yeah.

It's a completely different world,

and she had a production company, started developing songs with me,

I met Sabrina and Su-Elise at a rehearsal studio down in Fulham,

and we, you know, we practised and rehearsed and was developing

as a band for a good four years before we signed our first deal...

-Yeah.

-..and I suppose it was kind of fate, really,

that one of our songs was overheard by Tin Tin Out, a song called Why...

-Yeah.

-..and Inferno Records, at the time, fell in love with it,

and they signed us, just on hearing the song, and...

-The rest is history.

-Yeah, the rest is history.

And, of course, famous for Strictly Come Dancing, now.

-Yes, we have that in common!

-I know a little bit about that.

What else have you been doing?

Well, I've just back from Japan, cos my album,

that never got released in the UK, is being released there

on the 20th of Feb, so I've been out there promoting -

and eating a lot of beef.

Oh, my God, I think I ate sukiyaki every night.

-It's good stuff over there.

-It's amazing.

So, I was in food heaven there, and most of this month, and March,

I was in the studio recording a new record,

which I would like to be out by the summer.

-There you go.

-Yeah.

And because you've talked over the entire one of my recipes,

people will have to go onto the internet now

to find out what the hell I was cooking!

You was asking me the questions!

Just recap - I've made a dressing with...

I've made a dressing with egg yolks, little bit of mustard...

-Have you washed your hands?

-Yes!

LAUGHTER

I'm joking!

That does look good, though.

Yeah, that's all right.

SHE LAUGHS There's...

-Sorry, you can kick me off the show if you want.

-No, no, it's fine.

Keep going. Right, we've got some...

Can I just come here every Saturday?

Look, we've just made a dressing, all right?

We've made a dressing...

-Yeah.

-..with egg yolks...

-Just eat it. Right.

-OK.

It's the only time I get a word in edgeways.

It's the only time I'm quiet!

Egg yolks, mustard, anchovy, olive oil, salt and pepper -

and then try that, with a little pink bit of tuna.

Pink bit of tuna. I do love egg.

-You like egg?

-Mm!

Don't put as much salt on it as I did, next time.

What do you reckon?

You should be a chef.

You never tire of hearing Alesha's laugh - it's so infectious.

Today, we're taking a look back at some of the tastiest recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen archives -

and there's still loads of inspiring dishes to come.

Up next, author and cook Adriana Trigiani.

Now this was her first appearance on the show -

but trust me, you'd never know.

Not only has she written seven bestselling novels,

but she's about to direct her first film,

and has just released a brand-new cookery book

full of classic Italian recipes from her New York childhood.

She's flown in from America especially for us,

and it's brilliant to have her on Saturday Kitchen -

-it's Adriana Trigiani. TRIGGiani?

-Tri-giani.

-Trigiani. There you go.

-OK, first thing. ..

-Lovely, what are we cooking?

-OK, first, a little safety -

I have a four-year-old, move those...

You know, don't hang your handles over...

-Don't hang your handles over the stove.

-Yeah.

-OK, fire away - what are we cooking?

-We're making braciole...

-Yeah.

..and braciole is basically a pesto infused meat roll

-that we make in a classic tomato sauce...

-Yeah.

-..and then we slice it thinly...

-Yeah.

..and then we're going to make some blood oranges in a Venetian salad

that my grandmother really served with practically every meal.

And this is in your book, as well, isn't it?

This is in my book. First thing, get that meat nice and...

What kind of meat is this?

Well, I think this is a sirloin...

-Yeah.

-..and we've been hitting it all day,

-so it's in good shape.

-OK!

-Yeah.

-We just pretend that, you know, it's somebody we don't like.

-All right, now...

-This is the filling.

I'd like you to take these...

-Yeah. This is parsley.

-This is parsley...

-Yeah.

-..and basil.

-Yeah.

-We say bay-zel, but...

-You know.

-Basil.

-Basil.

-OK.

So, go ahead - if you would chop that up really fine for me,

and put that here.

-And this is breadcrumb.

-Yep.

-If you wouldn't mind...

-Fresh breadcrumbs.

-Yeah.

-Fresh breadcrumb.

-Yeah.

-And Parmesan cheese.

-Yeah.

It's beautiful - and that goes in here, too.

-Lovely.

-You know what? I can help.

That's all right, I'll keep going. You're all right.

Really, you're not going so fast. Let me help you.

You're a little slow.

-I'm going as quick as I can.

-Well, it's not fast enough, James.

-All right, OK.

-OK, it's a show. Here we go. OK.

-You know why Italian girls can cook?

-Why's that?

Well, they want to keep their men faithful,

so they really learn how to do this -

at least we know if we can cook well,

we can keep them home one night a week, you know?

-LAUGHTER

-You know?

-Are you married, James?

-I'm not married, no.

-You're not?!

-No.

You're such a catch! Why aren't you married?

Oh, I just run.

-You just run?

-Yeah, I run very quickly.

-Well...

-In the opposite direction.

-When somebody mentions marriage, I'm off.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Well, you should change that,

because it would be nice to see if you...

-You should read some of our tabloid newspapers!

-Yeah...

Shh!

A man that can cook -

it's the greatest thing in the world.

-OK, what have you got in there? You've got the cheese.

-Yes, cheese.

-How many cloves of garlic do you want in there?

-You know what, guys,

just put olive oil in - I'm kind of liberal with it, cos I love it.

-Right.

-Then I use my hands.

OK, go ahead - you're doing great.

-Thank you very much.

-OK, now it's like you're in a kitchen.

OK, take off your wedding rings - world's tiniest handcuff -

-and then just get in here.

-LAUGHTER

See what I mean?

-I know!

-See what I mean?

OK, so, now be very... Folks at home, be very liberal with this.

I like it really stuffed well,

and I also love, as an extra, sometimes,

if you feel like it, pignoli nuts - but we did it sort of simply.

-Then roll...

-Pignoli nuts?

-Yeah. Then you roll...

..these bundles, OK?

You roll them like this, and then you take two strings...

Oh...

LAUGHTER

It's really fine. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

But if you're doing the breadcrumbs runs like that, I would do this,

-if you forget, just make it wet.

-They'll be fine like that.

They're going to be delicious. It smells great.

-So the new roll them, just like so.

-Look at that.

Now, is this a very traditional Italian or Italian New York...

You know what? This is barese.

There's all different parts of Italy and lately what's gotten hot

is the area on the Adriatic Puglia and this is, um...

This is a traditional peasant dish, but you had this on fancy holidays.

You didn't have this on... See, I'm a messy cook, you're not.

Look how neat it is here. I feel bad.

I'm going to have to stay and clean and then repaint the set.

OK, here we go. You just tie up these bundles.

-I'll look after that for you.

-OK.

Now you're going to cook them with the strings on them.

-What did you just find?

-Nothing.

-My ring?

That's a sign of my husband's love, so I need that back.

OK, now, we take this out.

This is a pork bone that we just had to thicken up the sauce, OK?

So, the sauce is what we've got here.

-You've got tomatoes or to-may-toes.

-To-may-toes or tomatoes, yeah.

Puree. Bit of water. What are the spices that you've got in here?

OK, they're Italian seasonings.

I see black pepper, I see oregano and some garlic salt.

-And, you know, when we wrote the cookbook...

-Yeah.

..you know I grew up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

We were the only Italians, they called us I-talians,

so when we were there, you couldn't get the New York Italian seasonings.

-Just place them gently.

-With your sister?

-Yeah.

-You wrote the book with her.

-My sisters and my mom.

-We use sometime the dried herbs.

-And the book's called?

-Cooking With My Sisters.

-Cooking With My Sisters, there we go.

All right, look, you have a little thing here,

this will help me a little bit.

And just bathe them in there and it cooks through

and you can do variations, OK, so if you like raisins,

the Sicilians will put raisins in this, which is delicious.

I've had it with aubergine like that once.

OK, you could. We never ate eggplant in our house,

-which you call aubergine.

-Yeah

Because it made my father sick, so we never ever had eggplant.

Cos, you know, my father was the boss of the whole house.

Obviously if we didn't eat what he didn't want to eat,

it didn't get eaten.

Now, over here...they're done, they're gorgeous.

-We can cut them up.

-Now while you're doing that, I'll prepare our salad.

-While you're doing that, I'll do that.

-OK.

-Now blood oranges...

-You understand all this?

-Yeah.

Cos we were talking earlier. Yeah, it's very simple,

the blood oranges, now this is a Venetian thing.

See, my family is from four parts of Italy.

Now the cuisine is very different in those areas obviously but

this blood orange kind of salad, my grandmother, who's Venetian,

would serve with everything and it's very simple but you never...

I've never seen it in a restaurant, you know,

we make at home all the time and it's very simple...

You peel and slice your blood oranges thin and you can use

a regular orange if you want to, and then you take a little pepper,

-I see a little grinder there. OK.

-I'll just dress some leaves for you.

Really give it a nice dose of pepper. That's important.

And then you take the best olive oil you've got,

extra virgin is always good, and then you drizzle over the top

and you serve it at room temperature. That's important too.

You know, the Italians don't like anything cold.

You know, don't refrigerate your tomatoes,

-don't refrigerate your oranges.

-I'll put that out

for you to slice your lovely delicious cooked beef.

I'll just dress my salad here. There we go. Bit of that.

And all you do...

You see how the bundles have...

They've cooked through, they're nice and moist,

they look gorgeous and then we're going to snip that string off.

I think my great aunt choked on the string once.

My sister was in charge and really messed it up.

So how long does take to cook, roughly? About 15 to 20 minutes?

That's right.

Something like that. And your sauce, cook it longer.

We cook our sauce for hours. It could be cooking four hours easily.

-We're going to snip of our...

-Give it a little snip.

-..string and two of those.

-Mm-hm.

And see that cheese and that pesto, it holds it all together.

-They smell superb, I have to say.

-You know what's so funny?

When you eat in restaurants,

you never realise really all that goes into this, right?

And you do it so well, and you're neat as a pin.

I can't understand - you're so neat - why you're not married.

-I mean, you're not the typical sloppy guy.

-Aren't I?

-No.

No, cos I'm too busy cleaning up after you got, that's what it is.

There you can see it, you can see that delicious filling there.

Adriana, that looks fantastic. So remind us what that dish is again?

OK, that's called braciole and this is the blood orange salad.

Very simple.

All the way from New York.

Lovely, lovely, lovely. APPLAUSE

A round of applause, that's a first, see? There you go.

I think they're just happy that I made it through.

-Have a seat.

-Thank you.

-I'll give you that.

-Thank you.

You're getting fed this time, aren't you?

Bet you can't wait till the end of this.

Dive in and tell us what do you think.

-The blood orange, superb. Bang in season now as well.

-Yeah.

I think with the orange and the tomato, osso buco is often finished

-with a bit of citrus, so the oranges work well with tomato.

-Yeah.

-Oh!

Is that scrumptious?

If you're a vegetarian, you just take that filling and use

a dense pasta, like the bowties or tagliatelle,

something thick and you take that and you just make your pasta.

And there's, like, secrets to making the pasta -

don't ever rinse it,

a lot of people do, that ruins it, al dente, don't cook it too long.

You sort of learn.

And you put it in the pan and you cover it with cheese first,

so the cheese adheres and then your olive oil and then put that filling

on top of it, people will go crazy.

What can I say?

What a tasty looking dish and what a lovely velvet jacket, James.

Love that one.

Now, I think it's about time we treated ourselves

to a little Keith Floyd, don't you?

Here he is.

I am driving the ultimate "dream machine" - a Corvette Stingray '7.

Seven litres under the bonnet!

I've got my pots and pans and my knives because I'm on the BBC maxi-break of a lifetime!

I'm going to take you to Louisiana, Memphis, New Orleans, Florida,

California - from shining sea to shining sea!

To try the food, the music, the blues, the rock and roll,

the awhopabaloobam of American gastronomy! Let's go for it!

MUSIC: The Star Spangled Banner

The Bayou, Louisiana, is the gastronomic heartland of the southern states,

home of crawfish and file gumbo,

and lots of other dishes immortalised in rock 'n' roll songs.

Amongst these stunted trees, destroyed coincidentally

by Hurricane Floyd, no relation of course,

you can feel the spirit of General Jackson,

who beat the living daylights out of the Brits

at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

That curious machine is a mud-bug harvester!

Mud-bugs are what the locals call crawfish - an aggressive, lobster-like crustacean

that lives in the same swamps that produce the wild rice they ultimately meet on a plate.

This symbol of Louisiana cuisine is farmed in vast quantities

here in the Mississippi Delta,

and those not eaten by these winged predators, I'm sorry I don't know

what they're called, end up in pots with Cajun spices and garlic,

spreading the gastronomic spirit of Louisiana right across the States.

As my Cajun chum explained so succinctly...

HE MUMBLES

'By the way, he was only scaring those birds, though he eats the occasional one.

'Anyway, onto cooking sketch number one, with a guy who irritated the hell out of me,

'but he cooks a great jambalaya, so he can't be all bad!'

I've got trouble on my hands here, this is Chris, he knows everything

about Cajun cooking and he's going to teach me to make a jambalaya -

the classic dish of this Louisiana swamp region.

Chris, what are all these ingredients here for a start?

Well, Floyd, before we get started with ingredients,

I wanna tell you something. One thing about a man making jambalaya

in South Louisiana - it's an important part of our diet

and I'm going to tell you something right now before you go too far.

Told you I was going to have trouble with this guy.

If you mess up, I got something to handle you! Is that fair enough?

-That's fair enough!

-If you mess up my jambalaya for the people sitting out here,

we are gonna settle the odds up.

That's all I wanted you to know.

We'll keep that back down in the background.

Let's talk about the ingredients.

Let's talk about what I put in this pot.

-Remember what I dropped in here? You thought it was lard.

-I did.

-That's alligator fat.

-Alligator fat?

That's all it was. Not much more than that but really, it was lard.

Lard has a good flavour. SIZZLING

-Can you hear that pot sizzling?

-Yeah.

-It's time to drop that sausage in.

-All of it?

-Yeah.

I'm gonna give you the spoon from here on out and you can do

all the work you wanna do. How's that? Huh?

God! I'll be eating a meal here that somebody else cooked for a change.

-How long do we cook this for?

-What we're going to do right now,

we're going to cook this down

-until we get some of the oils out of the sausage.

-Right.

That's all we're trying to do right now.

-This is hot sausage. You like hot sausage?

-I like hot sausage.

-Good, good, good.

-The flavour of this sausage is gonna carry the pot of this jambalaya.

-Right.

That's the flavour that's going to carry it.

Be careful with that. Don't break 'em all up! Just hit 'em lightly.

Don't disturb them. There you go.

Let it saute for a few minutes.

All we're looking for right now is to get some of the oils out.

By getting the oils out, it lubricates something you don't know nothing about.

While that's happening there, what's in there, then?

-You really wanna know?

-I really wanna know what's in there.

-Mississippi river water.

-Mississippi river water?

-We get a lot of good chemicals come down our river.

-Yeah.

This has very good flavour in it. That's all that is.

Now I'm telling you, look here.

Let me tell you what I really have in here.

I've got chicken stock and a little kitchen bouquet.

Kitchen bouquet, right.

-I know you're familiar with that.

-Sure. That's a bouquet garni.

-Right.

They give you a good colour and a great flavour.

We're gonna add a little trinity in here.

-You know what trinity is?

-I can see it now.

-What is it?

-It's green peppers, celery and onions.

-That's all that it is. That's exactly right.

This is a basic seasoning group we use in South Louisiana,

whether we're making a jambalaya,

whether we're making a gumbo or a Creole. This is the basic seasoning group that we use.

We're gonna add this to the pot.

I'll tell you what else you can add to this dish right now.

-You can put a little bit of chicken in.

-Already?

-Yeah, go ahead.

Drop it in. Heat it up real good.

-Does that look like chicken to you?

-Well, I don't trust you any more...

What do you mean, you don't trust me? Would I lie to you?!

-You flew in from England!

-I think you might!

-I think you might!

-This is what we had the back part of.

That was a little bit we had left in the freezer.

-That's a big chicken!

-That's a big chicken, huh?

How do you like the looks of this baby? You think you can open him up?

-I wouldn't think so.

-Go right ahead.

-Oh, my Lord!

-Floyd, I would not put alligator meat in this pot. You know why?

-Why?

-Alligator is 6.95 a pound!

-Right.

-Pretty expensive.

-We're using raccoon today.

-Raccoon!

-Don't you prefer raccoon?

-Oh, dear!

-Rocky Raccoon!

-Rocky Raccoon!

-How's that looking?

-That's looking very good.

-Fa-a-antastic! How about dropping a little garlic in there?

-Garlic...

This guy's learning how to cook. He's finally learning real food.

Real, real food, that's what he's learning now.

Hey, this stock's boiling up away here now.

-You see how the chicken base has come to the surface?

-Sure.

-Now it's time to pour it in the pot.

-This pot?

-The handles aren't hot.

And now in we go with the stock.

-Do you know a Cajun philosophy for making a jambalaya?

-No.

You have no idea.

If it walks, crawls, swims or flies

and you can catch it, you can put it in that pot! How's that, huh?

What about the rice? When does that go into the whole thing?

We've to bring this to a boil,

-but we need to add a little salt and there.

-Salt? Which is where?

-Put about two teaspoons of salt in there.

-Is that this salt?

-No.

-Leave that alone. Don't even touch that.

-This is called Joe's stuff.

-No, that's salt.

-That's salt.

-I just used Joe's bottle.

That's pretty close. I'd put a little bit more in there.

-A little bit more.

-You're cooking five cups of rice.

-Right, OK, it needs a bit more then.

-That's what I'm getting at.

We'll stir this in.

-Now, get back to the alligators.

-I'd love to get back to them.

They eat anything that gets in their way.

Female alligators that have baby alligators,

that's probably the meanest creature you ever run across in your life.

-Worse than the mother-in-law, in fact.

-Well, I don't know,

my mother-in-law... The first job I ever had was taming alligators.

You ever tried to tame an alligator?

I used to have to stand there and run my hands through the mouth

once I got it open.

You know who got me that job? My mother-in-law.

I quit that real quick. I realised what was going on.

Shall I put the rice in?

Yeah, that's boiling. What we're going to do now,

we're going to put the lid on, lower the fire, now lower it real low.

I am not looking to bring it back to a boil.

How are we coming here?

-Let's see what we've got here, Floyd.

-Very low. How about there?

Oh, there you go.

All I want is a simmer. That is perfect. I'll tell you what.

-Have you cooked before?

-No.

Well, why do they call you Floyd On Fish?

I'm just curious. That's all.

What we've to do now, Floyd, we have to time that for ten minutes.

-Can you tell the time?

-Like nine cans of that and that's ready.

No, no, one can. This is a quarter can. I need a whole can of Dixie.

How much do you have left in yours?

Oh, yeah, we can time it by that.

By the time you finish that and I finish this,

ten minutes will be up, then we're going to turn our jambalaya off.

At that point right there,

we have to let this thing sit for about 20 minutes.

-This rice will cook itself, right in the pot and that's what's nice about it.

-OK.

They call New Orleans "the Big Easy".

It's a city that likes to sleep late and party hard.

Once extremely prosperous,

the failing oil and shipping industries have left their scars

on this most European of American cities.

It reminds me of a cross between Avignon, Seville and Liverpool.

The streets rattle to streetcars

and rock with the jazz that fills the food-scented air in this humid city.

These flags flying for Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday as you know,

owe their colours to a British Victorian touring theatre group playing Lear,

dear, dear Lear, at the local theatre.

And the organisers of the first carnival borrowed their costumes

for the carnival king and queen,

so it's all down to Shakespeare really.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.

"Let the good times roll" is the motto of this naughty place,

the home of Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire,

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, etc, etc. I could go on,

but I'm more into Faulkner, another great Southern writer.

New Orleans is a superstitious city - palm readers, witches,

diviners and clairvoyants of all kinds hang out on the streets

and in dubious little studios, but with its Indian, French,

Spanish and slaving heritage, it's not surprising.

# I love you, baby, and I want you to be my girl. #

Along with fortune-telling and music,

your Big Easy native is never happier than when eating beignets,

a French style doughnut in the Cafe du Monde,

the hangout of musicians, artists,

tourists and potpourri of New Orleans' demi-monde.

Ah, I hope you like these little jewels of commentary,

they're quite important really.

Anyway, the central grocery store at the turn of the century

or thereabouts created the famous muffuletta sandwich,

presumably by Senor Muffuletta.

They are slices of salami,

ham and Swiss cheese smothered in olive oil and pickle.

Do you really like them?

# Yes, I do

# Yes, I do

# Yes, I do

# And I want you to be my gi-i-irl. #

I'm not keen on being a tourist and wild horses wouldn't drag me

on to anything called a Creole Queen.

I should tell you all about the Mississippi but this isn't

a look at life and all I know about is that it's very long,

very wide and the Americans like it very much and if it wasn't here,

there wouldn't be jazz in the world.

In the French Quarter,

you can't move two paces without being tempted to eat something,

the Creole and Cajun dishes of this place make it the mecca

of American cuisine.

Louisiana is rich in produce of all kinds,

a bit like Provence really

and its spicy, tasty, uncomplicated dishes

are a menu-weary gastronaut's dream.

Now, take, for instance, the oyster po' boy prepared by my chum,

Lia Chase. "A po' boy?", I hear you cry.

People say, "That's for a po' boy," because

he doesn't have very much money and he has to buy

something that is a lot of food and cheap and can go far

and the po' boy was a kind of cheap sandwich, you know.

That is good.

Then you want to put just a little pickle on there,

give it a little dash here.

Nobody comes to New Orleans without getting an oyster po' boy.

They'll come here to get it when they hear.

Sometimes I've had people right off the plane, right here,

"Give me my oyster po' boy,"

and when they're going back, taking the oyster po' boy with them.

When my daughter was pregnant, she's in Los Angeles,

"Send me an oyster po' boy."

It's what we call an oyster loaf, you know.

We put the whole bread, ship it to her, an oyster loaf,

and people never go home without them

and they're really typical New Orleans.

You haven't come to New Orleans unless you eat an oyster po' boy.

SIREN WAILS

Because the BBC couldn't afford a taxi,

I flagged down this passing police car and later hitched

a ride on this fire engine to visit one of New Orleans' most famous

restaurants, K-Paul's Kitchen, run by my new chum, Paul Prudhomme,

who believes passionately that cooking is not only good for

the soul but for the sanity of America.

Many of our psychiatrists in this country recommend that a family that is under stress,

where both members are working,

that have tremendous stress during the week,

should cook together on weekends because it's relaxing and enriching.

You can make your life better.

There's nothing in the world that you do more than eating.

You don't change your clothes or brush your teeth more often.

You eat more than you do anything else.

I think America is finding its... its eating sphere

and its eating enjoyment and its eating love.

We're at the head of it in Louisiana because we've been living that way

for the last hundred years,

so we have this huge amount of different dishes to offer America and the whole world.

Cajun and Creole is where it's at!

This is the time in the programme where I have to convince my hosts,

in this case Paul, that I know about cooking myself.

He told me to make him some smothered, Cajun-style okra.

So I have. I've prepared a sunshine tray of Louisiana food.

Starting from your left, Clive, we have onions, mixed bell peppers,

chopped okra, or lady's fingers, as we call them in England,

skinned, de-pipped and chopped tomatoes, chicken stock,

Louisiana sausage and butter.

Swing over to the left of the pan and you can see the first stage

of my dish going along here - onions, peppers and okra going ahead there in butter.

Into that we put some more of this magic Cajun mixture -

the pink wonder, as it's come to be known amongst our crew here.

Stir that round a little bit, so the dish absorbs the flavours.

I'd still like to put more butter in that.

Paul is watching me with an eagle, eagle eye!

With great interest!

So, into that, some tomato.

What we're going to try to do, we've got that lot starting to cook

and we're going to kind of relay it all again on top,

so that the food's going to cook in different textures and flavours,

hopefully. More onions in, more peppers in,

and now some more okra in. OK.

Some more of the Cajun magic onto that.

That's probably a bit too much, but it doesn't really matter.

Stir round. I'll have to employ some magical television stuff here,

because if I cook this on camera it will last for about 35 minutes.

Right now, can I have a quick word with my viewers?

OK. Lots and lots of minutes have gone by.

Right, back to the pot again.

Bit of sausage. This is a spicy sausage. We pop that in.

Then we're going to add a bit of this wonderful chicken stock.

How heartening. Back to me again, Clive, if you would. I was amazed at the sophistication of the cooking

when I came to America.

I didn't expect to find reduced chicken stock.

It's really good news, it's wonderful!

Back into there.

OK, that has been bubbling for not really long enough

but I want to add some more tomato,

because this is okra smothered in tomato.

Put that in. Plenty of tomato in this.

Right, now you just stay with that, Clive.

Just keep looking at that for the next 35 minutes. OK?

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Mine is the one with the wooden spoon in it,

and Paul's more mature, more reduced looking one, has the metal spoon.

All you have to do to see where I've gone wrong, where I've gone right,

is to taste it, I suppose.

-Can I try yours?

-Yes, and I'll try yours.

-OK.

You really did a wonderful job!

Matter of fact, since we're identifying them

by the spoons, we'll switch spoons there!

The taste comparison is very, very close.

There's a little more depth in the one

that's cooked a long time, but this is good.

Really, you've done a super job.

Love that man.

Simply fantastic.

As ever on Best Bites, we're looking back at some of our favourite

recipes from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's show...

The fantastic Theo Randall takes on the formidable Silvena Rowe

in the omelette challenge,

and with Theo only two seconds ahead of Silvena on the board,

it promises to be a close one.

Adam Williams is here to deliver an American favourite.

He serves up Southern fried chicken in marinated buttermilk

with sourdough croutons and creamy ranch dressing

and Sue Perkins faces her food heaven or her food hell.

Did she get food heaven, hazelnut chocolate gateaux?

Or did she end up facing her food hell,

goat's cheese on brioche with redcurrant dressing?

You can find out what she's got at the end of the show.

Now time for Francesco Mazzei,

who's loving the liquorice with his tasty take on wild boar.

-We've got boar on the menu.

-Very, very nice.

We marinate it fast.

We're going to marinate this first with these ingredients here.

We've got liquorice, smoked paprika, bergamot orange

and we're going to save these beautiful turnip tops.

In essence it's really simple, classic Italian food,

but just the marinade is the key.

The marinade is the key. If you chop all the ingredients

I can do the turnip tops in the meantime.

If people can't get boar, wild boar is often a lot darker than this,

but people if can't get it, you're looking at a good piece of pork?

Good piece of pork will do but it also works pretty well with game,

venison or something like that.

It would work very well with this beautiful marinade

you are doing now.

-Now last time we saw you you had opened the cafe.

-We opened the cafe.

Still going from strength to strength?

The cafe is getting stronger and stronger. Just at the back of L'Anima in Worship Street, EC2A.

-Can I say more?

-Yeah!

-It's doing very well.

It's a bit different than L'Anima.

We are doing a bit more informal.

Lovely pizza, great pasta, fantastic rabbit stew

and we've also got a deli next to it, which sells food, fantastic Italian ingredients.

You mentioned rabbit stew because they're classics.

Boar itself is used for a lot of classic dishes in Italy.

Of course, especially if you go to Tuscany with the beautiful pappardelle cinghiale.

One of the classics. Basically you cook the meat slowly, slowly.

A big chunk of meat and then you just flake it and toss it in pasta.

What would you use for that? Shoulder or something like that?

Definitely shoulder.

OK, so we've got all this, beautiful turnip tops which we call cime di rapa in Italy.

-Cime di rapa?

-Cime di rapa.

Then I've got some lovely liquorice here,

and some stock, and, to make James happy, some lovely butter.

That's going to go in at the end! You've got quite strong herbs.

We've got sage and rosemary, that kind of stuff.

Yeah, as I said, it's a lovely, bold piece of meat.

You can give them lots of flavour and lots of strength.

Some pepper as well.

Pepper going in there as well.

And then lots of olive oil which I'm going to get for you.

Now liquorice, the combination of that,

you mentioned it with game and I've seen it done with duck and a little bit with fish,

but it is actually quite strong so you've got to be careful with it.