05/11/2017 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. We've got a whole host of chefs

cooking up delectable dishes on today's show.

From a traditional Italian dish to a modern take on Japanese food,

we've got it all.

So, pull up a chair, make yourself comfy and enjoy another slice of

Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

Now, over the next 90 minutes we'll be bringing you

some of the best moments from Saturday Kitchen's history.

Coming up, James Martin gets a helping hand from Nick Frost

as he makes crab balls with rice noodles and a Thai dressing.

Theo Randall is serving up a Tuscan sausage pasta.

He pan-fries sausage meat with pancetta, onions and garlic,

before adding cream and wilted Swiss chard, served over penne pasta.

Jason Atherton is here with a Japanese-inspired mackerel dish.

He marinades the mackerel in lime juice, coriander seeds

and sugar and then serves alongside barbecued cucumber,

marinated beetroot, mooli, and a cucumber oil.

It's another heavyweight battle as Paul Rankin

takes on Lawrence Keogh in the omelette challenge,

and then French chef Daniel Galmiche is here

with a chicken and cucumber en papillote.

He cooks the chicken on a bed of cucumber

and serves with a paprika cream sauce and toasted almonds.

And, finally, West End star Elaine Paige faces her food heaven

or her food hell.

Will she get her food heaven,

grilled salmon with tempura prawns,

or her food hell, confit duck leg with a flageolet ragout

and celeriac mash?

You're going to have to keep watching until the end of the show

to find out.

But, first, it's Italian chef Eleonora Galasso

making her Saturday Kitchen debut.

-Eleonora!

-Eleonora's cooking next.

Eleonora, what are you cooking for us?

-So, now you're in Rome...

-Yes.

-..so you will follow my lead.

-OK.

Right, so what do you want me to do?

So, we're starting off with the vignarola,

-which is this wonderful vegetable stew...

-OK.

..that we have either in Autumn or in Springtime.

Now, I'd like you to start off by chopping these spring onions for me.

Spring onions, OK.

I'll get on to the sacred grail of all Italian,

-well, Roman ingredients, really...

-Right, OK.

..which is the artichoke.

Now, the first thing I'll do before cleaning it is actually

sticking my finger into a lemon

so that I can keep my manicure nice.

OK, and also...

It's still nice to be a woman in the kitchen, you know?

It just turns your fingers brown, doesn't it?

Yes, that's exactly.... When you don't, actually.

So, to me, the artichoke is just like a flower.

I know a few people might be a bit scared of it

but, to me, it's a flower with petals waiting be played with.

You know, he loves me, he loves me not.

Or, you know, just...

We're deflowering the flower.

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

I have no idea what I'm talking about, you know that.

However, if the people at home can find a fresh artichoke...

-This is not exactly the Roman-style artichoke.

-OK.

The Roman-style artichoke has a smaller head but a bigger heart

and a huge amount of it, actually.

Well, you can still find canned in water artichokes.

Tinned ones? Yeah, OK.

The tinned ones, which are absolutely fine

because we're going to mix them with butter, the mint, the pecorino,

so, really, it's quite fantastic.

It will taste just as good.

And then we have fava beans, we have peas,

we have butter, obviously.

-We've got the pancetta, which you've chucked in already.

-OK.

And basically with the artichoke you just want to cut the head off.

Cut the head off, yeah.

Cut part of the stem off

and then go to the very core of it.

Now, this is a bit of a capricious stem, really.

-Do you want me to have a little bash?

-What do you think?

-You don't need me.

-Really?!

So, basically, this is the heart.

This is exactly what you would want to get.

-So you peel all that round and then you get that.

-Absolutely.

And it's nice to make with friends.

It's a typical Saturday dish you would want to make with friends.

OK, if you give me this, I'll slice those.

-You get on with the veal for me.

-Yes, absolutely.

So, now, the veal - I love this sort of meat because it's very...

You know, it's very sweet, very thinly layered

but to make it even more thinly layered...

Also, we need to use more veal.

Obviously, it's a by-product from the dairy cows.

You should definitely use more of it.

That's rose veal, isn't it? You can see it's quite pink.

So it's had that extra time.

And you want to give it a good bash!

And also, it's an alternative from beef

-and it's also an alternative from pork.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And also, if you'd like to get some very nice veal...

-Sorry...

..my son-in-law works in Smithfield Market,

I'll give you his number after the show, all right?

I'll take that straight off you.

So I'm relieving the stresses of my week away, as you can clearly see.

You've had a stressful week, then?

Well, actually, it's Saturday, you know,

I think we all come to a certain point in the week.

So what I will do is I will flour it slightly

and then I will top it up with a little mixture of...

I just had some pear dices cooking in butter,

sage and a little bit of sugar and...

-Are they just peeled, diced and then sauteed down?

-Exactly.

That's it. It just takes five minutes to make.

In fact, this dish takes three or four minutes to make.

I mean, you just get the veal and in the flour

with the sage, with the pear,

with the prosciutto on top, and that's it, you cook it

and you have it.

I call it a midnight muncher, actually.

Midnight muncher.

Because it's something I would want to make after a big night out

when, you know, maybe I drank a few too many glasses

and not enough food in my belly.

OK, let's get that in the pan, then.

You could use chicken or pork.

-If you couldn't get veal, for example...

-Absolutely.

..chicken or pork would be a good one, wouldn't it?

You could use any other meat alternative,

-this is just an example.

-So a bit of chicken, a bit of pork...

I am never prescriptive in the dishes that I make, actually,

because it's all about home cooking, really.

And, again, it's about choosing what you like as well.

-It's, like, trying different things.

-Absolutely.

A nice chicken breast would go fantastic.

-Also, it's quite economical. Easy to get hold of.

-It is very.

And, you know, you can go for prosciutto,

-you can go for mortadella, you can go for bacon.

-Yeah.

What I like about the fact that we use pancetta

is that pancetta is something that is very present

in the Roman kitchen,

especially because traditionally people would be waiting

ravenously outside the Vatican walls

in order to get the leftovers from the Vatican banquets

so that they could concoct some sort of, you know, edible dish.

And pancetta, or guanciale, which is actually the cheek of the pork,

would be on the list. Yeah.

-Guanciale's delicious.

-Absolutely.

-I love it.

-Absolutely.

So this is something we actually chuck in every stew or every dish -

every pasta dish, every meat dish.

I'm just putting these on the side.

You've got some anchovies, you've got some sage.

-Do you want me to make a little bit of a batter?

-Absolutely.

So, we're doing the fried sage, yes.

-So I've got the veal on now.

-Yes.

-I've got the stew on.

-Absolutely.

And I'm going to dip these.

Give that stew a little check for me. I've just put your lettuce in.

-I've got some chopped lettuce for you here as well.

-Yeah.

So we...

We are adding a bit of stock into the vegetable stew

so that it's all nice and sweet and it's not too thick, basically.

-Eleonora, it's your first time on Saturday Kitchen.

-Yes, it is.

Which I'm absolutely thrilled to take you on the first time...

-Thank you so much.

-..because you've been fantastic fun,

in rehearsals as well, and I believe all of the viewers at home

-are absolutely loving you as well.

-Well, well.

-What about that, eh?

Well, well, well, I just like to bring a little

bit of Rome into everyone's home, really.

A bit of improvisation, you know, a bit of making do with what you have.

And also, the people at home as well...

-This is in your new book, I believe?

-Yes, it is.

My new book is called As The Romans Do

and it's basically...

It takes you from Rome at breakfast time

to after-dinner time, what we call the Ammazzacaffe time,

-the coffee killer's time...

-The coffee killer's time.

..when you have those beautiful frothy lemon sorbets.

But that would be a typical...

That would be a typical family lunch, sort of,

easy to make recipe.

-I like easy, actually.

-Everybody likes it, yeah.

I mean, cooking's great but if it's made easier

and it turns out absolutely delicious,

then you're onto a winner, aren't you?

I mean, how difficult is it to find just Roman lettuce, artichokes,

fava beans, fresh peas, either bacon or pancetta?

-It's all there, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Right, OK, so...

-Spring onions.

-How long have we got for that?

-Is that nearly ready?

-Everything green goes well in it.

It's quite light, isn't it, as well? It's not heavy, stodgy...

It's coming away from pizzas, it's coming away from pasta.

Well, actually, there is so much more than pizza

-and pasta to Italian cooking.

-Yeah.

Of course, pizza and pasta is something

we have on a regular basis but, you know,

Glynn, we have 20 regions and 110 provinces.

Each province resonates with a different style of cooking.

-Exactly.

-It actually screams it out loud, you know?

-Yeah.

So, basically, if you were to visit Milan

and then go straight to Sicily,

you would think you were visiting two different countries altogether.

Yeah, two different countries.

-So, do you want to put a little bit of wine in with that now?

-Yes.

-Ready?

-Absolutely. This is the time.

A little bit of wine there.

-Now, this is my favourite moment when I make this dish.

-Yeah?

The fragrance is just so intoxicating

and you can get the wine...

The wine will make a beautiful sauce that we will actually dip...

-Yeah, we need to do that.

-We will dip some bread in.

-You need to show me how to do that.

-Absolutely.

-Right, OK...

It's important.

The pleasure you take in making a dish, it's so important.

OK, right. Let's look at trying to maybe serve up now.

-So I've got...

-That's a beautiful sauce. Mm.

-Mm.

That's even better than rehearsal, that is.

It's better than rehearsal.

Right, OK. So I've done the little crispy sage, crispy sandwiches.

We've got our bread there. Our bread there. We need the pecorino cheese.

Absolutely. Pecorino's a central ingredient in Roman cooking as well.

-Let me put some sauce...

-Put some of that juice on there.

That's what my grandmother would be like. "Would you like some more?

"Would you like some more?" "Yes."

And then she would just chuck the whole thing on.

-Do you want to do this or shall I?

-Yes, absolutely.

-You do that.

I'll grate the cheese then, yeah?

I already burn a finger this morning, so that's all right,

there's nothing worse that can happen.

OK. That would be it.

We will be quite generous. Then this is the fried sage leaf.

It is two sandwiched sage leaves with anchovies in the middle.

-And pecorino over the top.

-Pecorino on top. This is the British way.

-And this is the Italian way.

-OK.

So you basically want to have pecorino...

LAUGHTER DROWNS SPEECH

I think it was the footwork that made the difference on that dish.

Maybe I need to learn the Italian footwork. Right.

-And now...

-Now, what are we going to do now?

-No, no, no. You know how is this called?

-Yes.

-The scarpetta.

-Scarpetta.

Get some scarpetta on there.

So basically you just roughly want to take this in order to devour the

dish and really get into it.

-Do we twist our arms as well?

-Absolutely. Why not?

LAUGHTER

-Wow.

-Tell us what that dish is again.

SHE LAUGHS

Roman-style saltimbocca with dried sage leaves and the vignarola.

Brilliant.

-OK, follow me.

-Absolutely.

-Suggs, you're in for a treat here, my friend.

-Bravo.

-Absolutely fantastic.

-Wow!

And I'll tell you, what you were saying there, because I've spent

-a lot of time in the south, in Puglia.

-I am originally from there.

-There we go.

-Very dodgy people, the Pugliese. You've got to count your fingers!

-Count your fingers!

-You've got to be able to deal with them.

You were saying about the regional thing about food, how it changes,

and the further north obviously it's more meat,

-and the further south, more fish.

-Yes.

-Tuck in.

-Yeah, yeah, go on, mate.

Because you wouldn't have meat in the coast ever.

You would only consume it there.

Whereas the fish, you find near Rome, you find beautiful fish in Ostia.

But, no, you wouldn't find it in Rome so much. Just on Fridays.

What do you think?

Absolutely amazing. I mean, I love the whole dish.

-The sage, the fried sage is fantastic.

-Lovely?

-Fantastic, yeah.

A dish fit for the Romans, and Suggs, of course.

And a top tip from Eleonora there about prepping artichokes.

Coming up, Nick Frost gets his hands dirty as he helps James

out in the kitchen, but first Rick Stein is in Cambodia learning

all about the historical French influences.

Early the next morning I went to Siem Reap market to see a baguette factory,

a culinary link with Cambodia's past,

when the French ruled here.

I was invited by Joannes Riviere, a young French chef

who has lived here for some time.

I think he was rather proud of the fact that French imperialism still lives on.

I was reminded, watching these incredibly skilful chaps do this,

Julia Child wrote a book in the '70s

called Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, in which she described

how to roll out a baguette.

I seem to remember it taking about four pages.

These guys are doing what took four pages in about four seconds.

I love watching things like that.

The dough is baked for about 20 minutes in this baker's oven.

They use lots of steam to develop the crust, just like in France.

But the difference here is that the bread is rather sweet.

It's looked upon more as a cake.

But it did seem particularly scrumptious,

as a barbecued beef sandwich, back at the temples,

with lots of sweet chilli sauce and a green papaya salad.

-Can we get one?

-Help yourself.

Thank you.

-A bit hot!

-Yeah!

So, the French are long gone.

Why do you think the baguettes remain?

The baguettes are one of the few things

that French have really left in Cambodia.

It's interesting because it's considered as a cake

but it's something you can find anywhere in the countryside.

You see a motorbike, really, in the middle of nowhere, coming through

with just stack of baguettes and people stopping

and Cambodian eat that, actually, with banana, with ice cream.

Not really with salty food.

But the technique is perfect, isn't it?

Yeah. It's really industrial, almost.

It's quite interesting to see.

I don't know half these fruit. That looks like a plum. Is it?

That's a type of mango. It's truly seasonal.

So you came at the right time for that.

-Can we try one?

-Yeah, we'll try one.

I mean... This is what's so nice about these sort of markets.

Half the things you see here, to me, I don't know what they are.

-Have a try.

-Oh, I see. Yeah. That's lovely.

You nick the skin and once you cut it and half...

Oh! Look at that! Wow!

Extremely easy to make a nice decoration on the plate.

-That's rambutan.

-Rambutan.

-What are those there, then?

-Those are longan.

-Longan?

It's a white flesh with a big stone in the middle.

It tastes almost like chemical.

-What's that?

-Those are dragon fruit.

-A dragon fruit?

-Do you want a try?

-Yeah, yeah.

HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

That looks very exotic.

And the flesh. Have a try.

-Don't eat the skin.

-No. OK.

It's not very tasty.

It's just very refreshing.

Like all cactus fruit.

Yeah, yeah. That's true.

-It's...a bit bland, I think.

-Yeah.

The dragon fruit, a triumph of style over content.

Well, I'm getting a bit addicted to these.

They are like mini mangoes.

You know, in football,

they send out talent scouts all over the world to find new young players.

I wonder if supermarkets do the same.

Whether they've got people coming out to these sort of markets

and finding things like this

and going off into the fields and bringing them back.

Because, I can tell you, if I was one of those people,

this is what I'd be bringing back to our supermarkets.

Because I know I've never seen them in England.

HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

Samuel Johnson said,

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life."

I think that could easily be applied to chefs who get bored with markets.

I know I tend to go on a bit about food in markets but I don't believe

that, looking at these pictures, you could fail to see why.

I mean, this is just so exciting.

Other people may pass a market like this by, but not me.

As a cook, I just find it so, so inspirational.

And I've just been talking to this chef

who used to cook in big hotels in Siem Reap.

He said he used to come down here, every day,

not to buy the vegetables,

but just to get brilliant ideas to compose his menus.

This is a village that prides itself

in making one of the prime ingredients of Cambodian food.

Something which has always been a mystery to me. The rice noodle.

David, the director, has just, rather unkindly,

suggested that if you don't want to take as long

as this to grind the rice, get yourself a machine.

Which, of course, is saying,

this is a very, very old-fashioned way

of doing something.

Of course, that went through my mind.

But what's also going through my mind is, here, we've got

a family doing something very much together,

obviously getting on with each other,

and you have to say, who's the happiest?

Somebody with a machine doing this thing in a tenth of the time,

or all this group and all the chat that's going on?

As she's just been pushing this machine,

she's been making little cooing noises to the baby here.

It's just very, very attractive.

They make it look so easy, right?

It's not.

You've got to get into the groove.

It's trying to keep it smooth, really.

That's the thing.

Can I stop now, Dave?

Thank you.

That's really good fun, actually.

What happens, then, is that the rice is pounded into a form of dough.

It reminds me of white latex rubber.

Then it's put into this cradle and boiled in water for 30 minutes or so.

Like so many things, this was a Chinese invention

developed thousands of years ago and it always surprises me

about the ingenuity of man and how he came up with such an idea.

But the whole point of this rather laborious process

is the fact that rice has no gluten content.

And, therefore, to make it elastic,

you have to first cook it and then pummel it to turn it into noodles.

Otherwise, if you think, if you just roll up a rice ball...

..and drop it into boiling water, it'll just disperse.

I'm told the Cambodians feel that nobody would be interested

in watching something like this, like tourists,

but I think they are wrong.

I just find it fascinating.

The fact that this has been going on since the 12th century,

cooking and producing rice like this

and still it's happening in this way, I think is incredible.

The dough is now put into a wooden tube and under enormous pressure

is forced down through a series of holes, a bit like a mincer, really.

I couldn't stop myself thinking about the Flintstones

while watching this.

The noodles are then cooked for a few seconds only to set them

and then scooped out and left to dry.

Before this, I've only eaten them in their dry state

but fresh from the cauldron, they are brilliant in a soup,

made with aromatic herbs, chillies and, perhaps, a few prawns.

The rice noodle is the bread and potatoes of Cambodia, in my book.

What an incredible process that was.

Luckily, we're able to buy rice noodles very easily

here in the UK and they make a great store cupboard ingredient.

I'm going to show you what to do with them, with a wonderful

little salad, with palm sugar, we've got some mint and coriander.

I know that you love coriander as well.

A lovely dressing to go with these noodles

that you can serve with chicken, or a variety of fish, whatever.

Or just serve them as they are.

But I'm going to serve them with some little crab balls, really.

Crab cakes, really, for this one.

So, we've got white and dark crab meat.

What I'm going to get you to do, Nick.

I know you are into your food and your cooking.

So, what we're going to do is to pick off the mint leaves, like that.

We don't want the stalks. I want you to grind them down

with a pestle and mortar with some coriander.

-If you can chop me...

-Yeah.

..basically, all that. Including the stalks as well.

-You want just the leaves...

-Just the leaves and the mint. That's it.

-Is that enough?

-No, we want about a good half a bunch of mint.

-Something like that.

-All right.

-A fair amount, really.

-Stop shouting.

-Sorry!

LAUGHTER

-Stop shouting at me.

-You should be used to this.

-You cut your teeth in a restaurant, didn't you?

-I did, yeah.

I was, like, I started on the big griddle. On the big grill.

-On a Saturday night.

-He's got the chopping down a fine art.

-Check that out!

-I just said that!

-Fair play, mate.

-Yeah, well, what was life like on the grill, then?

-I liked it a lot.

I like that kind of pressure

where there are people screaming at you and you've got, kind of,

50 different bits of meat on and you're having to ascertain,

by touch alone, at what point, you know, where they are in the cooking.

It's a good kind of pressure.

You say in your autobiography your restaurant was kind of like

a training ground for you, really, when it came to acting.

-Was that right?

-Yeah. I think, being...

Uh-huh! That's heavy, isn't it?

Being a waiter, I think, taught me how to act.

Slightly. You know,

because, unless you're what every customer wants, every time,

you're not going to get good tips.

So, I, kind of, I learned to ascertain and break down people's characters

-within a second and then try and be what they wanted me to be.

-Right.

It sounds horribly divisive.

-But reading through the biography as well...

-Eh?

Reading through the biography as well, you say that you never

-actually wanted to be an actor when you first started.

-No. No.

I mean, I think, if someone had come down

and said, "Hey, you're going to be an actor",

it would have been an awful punishment for me.

Because, you know, I think, I got really embarrassed about it

and ashamed and I was quite shy and, you know, having to

act in front of people was a really weird thing for me to do.

So, you didn't go through to drama school and went through all that,

you know, pretending to be a fluffy cloud and all that sort of stuff?

No, I mean, that came later. But, no, I didn't train to be a cloud.

That's it. You've got to keep blending that now.

We're going to take the crab, we're going to put them in flour, egg and breadcrumbs.

Going to roll them around in these as well.

They get all mixed together.

Now, your life, as well, in your autobiography.

It's quite a fascinating life. Highs and lows, like I said.

You know, some great stories in there as well.

The Istanbul thing, I thought was fantastic.

-In Tel Aviv. In Israel?

-Tell everybody. What sent you over there?

Well, I mean, I had a good friend and he, kind of, said, I was

17, 18 at this point, and he said, "I think you should leave London."

I won't go any further with that story.

And he said, "I lived in Israel for a while and I think you should...

"Maybe there's a place for you there."

-Right.

-And he was talking about the kibbutz,

which is, essentially, a farm, where you go and you work

and they don't pay you anything but they clothe you and feed you and...

And I loved it.

I ended up staying there for almost two years, on and off.

-This was working as a volunteer?

-Yeah.

And some great stories when you were over there as well.

So many that I can pinpoint as well.

What about these ketchup sandwiches?

Toast and ketchup. Yeah.

The food was very bad.

I mean, at that point, I didn't eat a vegetable until I was 30....

So, living on a farm, where it's just, essentially, vegetables,

-was a tough ask for me.

-Yeah.

-I'm aware...

-Keep going, Nick.

OK, I'm aware tomatoes, and, in turn, ketchup is a vegetable.

Just having toast and ketchup was the thing that kept me alive.

I mean, a fascinating story, what brought you back to the UK as well.

-A girl. It's always a girl, you know?

-Yeah.

I just, kind of, fell in love and followed her back

and that didn't work out and I ended up being at Chiquitos, you know?

This was working in the restaurant as well.

So, when would you say was your big break? How did that come about?

Well, meeting Simon. Knowing Simon.

You know, he was going out with a waitress at the time,

who worked at Chiquitos and I met him through her

and we just, kind of, got on, you know, and hung out.

Just made each other laugh for years.

And that was, kind of, it, you know.

Right. Look. We've got the rice noodles here.

They are just going to go into the boiling water just for a second.

Only about for a minute or so.

Meanwhile, we'll take our crab cakes.

-You're basically grinding down...

-This is like pesto.

-It's kind of like that.

We've got some palm sugar

and into there now we add a bit of sesame oil.

And then we're going to add a combination of soy sauce.

This is a wonderful dressing, by the way. And then a bit of sesame oil.

-I love sesame oil.

-And this is fish sauce in this one as well.

-Ah, nam pla.

-Yeah. And, then, a tiny bit of a chilli.

This is so great having somebody else who can cook. There you go.

What else?

-Chilli.

-You want that ground down too.

-Yeah. That's it. Keep going.

I think it's a mistake, but that's fine. So...

Then what we're going to do is deep-fry this as well.

Now, you said at the top of the show, you didn't want to

write a book that was just all about what you'd been doing.

But the huge inspiration for you for the book was about your son

-because...

-Yeah, absolutely.

Because he's, like, four and a half now and he's a little monkey.

And, you know, I just wanted him to know,

because, sadly, I don't have folks any more,

so there are big gaps in my history of them

and just stuff like what they liked

and what they were afraid of and how they courted one another

and what was their favourite restaurant.

So, you know, I think I didn't want him

to get a point where he thought, "Well, what was my dad like?"

Now he's only four and he's probably not going to be allowed to read the book until he's 50 so, you know...

THEY LAUGH

But what was that like writing a book?

Because you've written so many different things but what's that like writing about your life?

-Because, you know...

-It was very indulgent. Can I use this spoon?

-You can use the spoon, yeah.

-Thanks. Yeah, I mean, it was...

You know, I knew what I wanted to do and I wrote it all down.

I've got a selection of notebooks that I use

and I tried to write down everything I could remember throughout my whole life

and then just saw if I could make stories around it.

And you did that all while doing this film as well.

Well, tell us about the film.

It's the second in our kind of Snow White, you know,

we did Snow White & The Huntsman and now we've just done The Huntsman with me,

Chris Hemsworth and lovely little Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith.

I don't think I'll ever write a book and do a film at the same time.

-That's quite a lot of hard work.

-Yeah. It was just stupid.

Now, we've talked about the book

but we forgot to mention what it's called.

Oh, Truths, Half Truths And Little White Lies.

-Out now!

-Out now, there you go.

-What camera am I on?

-You do that while I'm pouring this in here.

-So, look... There's your dressing.

-Yeah.

Do you want me to stir that?

You can... We'll take the...

These little rice noodles.

There you go, we're going to pop those in as well.

And this will basically just warm everything up.

-Now, if you stir that together. You might need...use a bit of those.

-Yeah.

It might need some lime juice, fresh lime juice in there.

-I just binned a lot of rice noodles.

-You just binned a lot?

Yeah, I moved house on Monday and I found some

and I wasn't sure how long they'd been in that box.

-Well, this is it, you've got a new kitchen.

-I can't get rid of them.

-You're cooking in your new kitchen tonight?

-Yeah.

I've got like a plancha grill.

-Oh.

-Don't judge me!

LAUGHTER

-So, yeah, I'm going to be cooking on that tonight.

-All right.

-Are you induction or gas?

-I'm induction. I've gone full induction.

-He's on it.

-That's a section where I go induction

is not covered in my book, which is out now.

Look at that.

-Dive into that one.

-Can I?

-Yes, absolutely. That's all for you.

So that's your crab.

I usually have a thing where I don't like eating on telly

because people look and say, "Yeah, that's why he's so big."

-But it's like... Thank you!

-LAUGHTER

Mmm.

Oh, my God.

LAUGHTER

Now, try as he might, Nick couldn't hide his delight for that Asian-inspired dish.

And there's still plenty more to come on today's Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

But up next, Theo Randall serves up a spicy sausage supper.

-Do you like Italian food?

-I do. I love Italian food.

-This boy's...

Well, actually, he's the best this side of Kennington Road.

Pizza Express is at the other side.

Right, what are you cooking then?

-This lovely spicy sausage, which is Italian style but actually come from England.

-Right, OK.

-So it's using...

-What's the Italian style in it?

Well, it's using things like pancetta and Prosciutto fat.

-Don't they have a lot of fennel seed in it?

-Fennel seed and a bit of chilli.

-Right.

-First of all, we're going to put our pasta in.

So in goes the penne.

But I'm mixing that with some Swiss chard, so if you chop an onion up for me

and we'll start off with a bit of olive oil as usual.

-In the pan. I'm going to take the skins off the sausage.

-Right.

And you've got this lovely seasoned sausage meat inside, like a mince.

Now, where would this be from in Italy?

Well, you get these type of sausages in Tuscany.

You know, every kind of butcher has all these trimmings of lovely bits of pork.

They eat huge amounts of pork in Tuscany.

But look at that skin, it just comes off really easily

and it's a beautiful mince inside.

So do they put more fat in Italian sausages?

Yeah, there's lots of fat. They kind of use spices, chilli, bay leaves,

fennel seeds, that kind of thing.

And then they mix it up with all the nice bits of pork belly fat

and then they use things like shoulder.

They will mince it up quite roughly, it's got a lovely sort of texture.

And then if you just take out the skin, it makes a brilliant pasta sauce.

-Onions straight in.

-And a little bit of pancetta.

Theo, could you use a British sausage?

You could use a British sausage

but you need something with quite a lot of fat.

-Like a Cumberland sausage?

-Yeah. Cumberland to a fine mince, I'd say.

-OK.

-Let's get a better knife for that.

-So the garlic has gone in as well.

The garlic's gone in, onion's gone in.

-Now, we're using some of this chard.

-Swiss chard.

So if you take the leaves off and cut the storks really, really fine,

like matchsticks.

This is fantastic stuff but it does grow a different colour.

You get the orange chard, the red chard.

-They call it rainbow chard, don't they?

-Yeah.

-And that is lovely.

The thing is, I always find the red chard can be slightly tough, though. Have you ever found that?

If you cook it it's got very stringy stalks.

-But you've going to use the entire lot?

-So a little bit of pancetta.

-You put plenty of onion in there, didn't you?

-I did put half in.

Let's put a bit more sausage in there to even it up.

-Is that chopped enough?

-A little bit finer, please.

Your knife skills aren't what they used to be.

It was fine in rehearsal and now you've just changed it.

-That's because I did it!

-Exactly!

We won't use that bit.

-So your restaurant is celebrating, what, your fifth year?

-Five years.

-I know, it's amazing, isn't it?

-Yeah. Five years.

Five years and going strong.

And it feels like five minutes ago but it also feels like 10 years.

OK, so those sausages are starting to break down, all that fat's coming out of them.

And that smoky pancetta is going to season this sausage

and the onion is there for the sweetness.

So if we get that chard in quickly.

-So what do you call this in Italian?

-Bietola.

-Bietola.

-Bietola.

-The French call it bette.

-They do call it bette, yeah.

-And we call it Swiss chard.

I used to cook it a lot when I was in France working over there, with liver.

Yeah, that's very nice.

And the stalks are lovely because you can blanch the stalks

and you can make a lovely gratin with eggs and cream

and cheese, like a...or something.

So quite sort of chunky. I'll just break that down.

Now, as well as celebrating your fifth year, you have started writing a new book, have you?

I've started writing.

I mean, I've got a lot of recipes which I've been collecting

over the years. The ones that I like to cook at home.

So, yeah, the new book is going to be quite a big one, I think.

Is that Spanish food or...?

-It's Japanese.

-Japanese.

Right, I'm going to put the stalks in.

-The stalks are in already, just put the tops of these ones in.

-OK.

So we just want to cook that sausage down.

So you've got all that sort of fennel and the garlic.

A little bit of chilli, bits of dried chilli.

Now, it's important to use the right pasta for the right dish.

Why are you using penne for this one?

Penne because it's penne regatta, which means it has got

the little lines on it, so it will hold the sauce.

I mean, you could use anything like a rigatoni or something

or even maybe a pappardelle, a flat egg pasta.

But this one, you know, it's quite an easy one

-and everyone likes penne, don't they?

-So just recap what we've got in there.

OK, so you fry the onion, a bit of garlic.

We've got the pancetta, we've got the sausages

and we're just breaking them down so they become a bit more manageable.

And you par-cooked this beforehand, so this is not real time.

Yeah, that's going to be out in a second.

OK, so I need a little bit of Parmesan. Shall I do that?

-I'll do that.

-What's that?

-Parmesan.

-Oh, I'll do that. Sorry.

I'll do that. There's a sink in the back if you want to wash your hands.

You are also doing the old food shows a lot this month.

Yeah, so I'm with you in Birmingham

and I'm actually doing a pop-up restaurant on the London Olympia

for the MasterChef weekend.

And I'm doing a demonstration Taste of London, Taste of Christmas.

So, yeah, I'm busy. Very busy.

OK.

Let's get this chard out now. I'm just going to drain the chard out.

The stalks are nice and soft.

How much Parmesan do you want, anyway?

That's tons.

I'm enjoying this, you see?

I'll keep going.

These are the best Christmas presents ever.

-Are they your own range?

-No.

LAUGHTER

-They will be soon.

-No, these are brilliant.

So, I'm putting the cream in, James.

They're good for the corns on your feet.

-A little bit of cream. You'll like this bit.

-What's that?

-The cream.

-It's cream.

-It's cream?

-Yeah.

-Double cream?

-Yeah.

-Your favourite.

-Double cream. I reckon it needs a bit more.

Oh, come on! We'll use that pasta water. All right, there you go.

-So, the chard has gone in.

-The chard's gone in.

So, a real classic one would probably have tomato in, but

I just thought Swiss chard adds a little, different dimension.

I want to show you this

because I know you are a fan of Italian produce.

-In fact, I was at Mr Tom Kerridge's restaurant last night...

-Yeah.

-Have I got to close my eyes?

-No.

-OK.

-This is from the UK.

Check that out. That is a UK-grown black truffle.

I don't believe it. That's amazing.

-Oh, my God, it smells good as well.

-Yeah!

-God, it...

-Get your hands off it.

That's a UK-grown black truffle. Look at that.

That'll be on tonight's menu, if I get my hands on that.

-It's lovely, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's very nice.

Grown in the UK.

I did promise the guy not to tell you where it was

cos he's literally got it.

It's near Oxford. LAUGHTER

OK, so the pasta is in,

add a bit of the pasta cooking water to sort of help it along.

Now, you use a lot of this water in there, don't you?

Yeah, because it's starchy, so it gives it a sort of nice... It emulsifies...

Do you think this is the difference between a lot of people

adding a bit more sauce or oil, you'd use the water?

I always use water because then you don't...

You're not enriching the sauce too much.

You don't make the sauce too heavy.

Perhaps some people would add lots and lots more cream, but...

So, you've got chilli flakes in there as well.

Chilli flakes in there, Swiss chard, sausages, pancetta,

a bit of Parmesan.

Look at that. Nicely emulsified.

And then, I think we can probably plate that up.

Make sure it's all kind of creamy.

So all the sauce sticks to the actual pasta.

That's kind of what you want. And let's put that on a plate.

That's a lovely penne.

And if you can't find these Italian sausages...?

If you can't find Italian sausages...

-You can't really make the dish.

-You can't really make the dish.

-Yeah, exactly.

-Just get some alphabet spaghetti.

-That kind of stuff.

-Well, you could if you really want, but...

-Do you want a sprinkle of cheese?

-A little sprinkle of cheese.

-A little bit of pepper.

-While you explain what it is.

And that's my penne with spicy Italian sausages, pancetta,

Swiss chard, cream and Parmesan.

It's pretty good.

There you go.

All done.

Easy as that. Have a seat over there. Dive into that one.

-It looks hot.

-It is very hot, yeah.

-Tell us what you think of that.

-OK.

I'm a bit worried. It's embarrassing eating on the telly, innit?

-Particularly when it's hot.

-Mm! It is good.

Like you say, you've got to get the right type of pasta for that one.

It really is important cos a lot of pastas, you get the wrong pasta

and the sauce just falls away from the pasta, it doesn't hold to it.

-It's very important you get a ridge pasta.

-What do you think of gluten-free pastas?

-I think they're getting really good now.

-Yeah?

Some of the corn ones are really fantastic.

Just using corn. They are kind of yellow. The quality is really good.

Yeah, I'd go for rice myself, but you think corn is better?

I think the corn one has got more flavour. It tastes of something.

That's his own range. But anyway. LAUGHTER

-What do you reckon to that one?

-It's lovely.

-Happy?

-Isn't it lovely?

-Nice and simple.

-The sausage is really good.

The flavour, the meatiness of the sausage.

It's got fennel in there.

Just a fresh bit of English black truffle on the top.

-That would have been nice.

-You're not getting that one.

You're right, Mel, it is embarrassing eating live on TV.

And that's why you'll never catch me doing it.

A great dish there from Theo.

Now, it's over to Keith Floyd who is continuing his trip

around the UK and this week he is in Northern Ireland.

You now, after years,

I mean, literally decades on the road

making these cookery programmes,

I can sort of play a gastronomic blind man's buff.

I can put a mask on, I can taste a dish

and I can tell you where we are.

In fact, I'm so good at that kind of thing that

if I wanted to make another fortune, I could invent another board game.

I'd probably call it... I don't know, Gastropoly?

No, that doesn't ring right. I'd probably call it Culinary Pursuits.

You know, the kind of thing you would throw a six

and if it landed in Yorkshire, you'd get a pudding.

You throw another six in Lancashire and it gets a hotpot.

For example, where are we now?

Richard, spin the camera around. Give them a clue.

Look, cranes, hoists, jigs and stuff like that.

I'll give you another idea. This is also where they built the Titanic.

And if you were to eat this dish now, which I'm going to have

served to me, you would know exactly where we are.

Even if I might trip over this step, one look at this dish

will say one word to you, two syllables and it's delicious.

You've got it. It's Belfast.

And the famous Ulster Fry, the backbone of Northern Ireland,

the meal that launched a thousand ships. Look at it.

It is soda bread, it's potato cakes, it sausages,

wonderful Irish bacon, the best bacon in the world, in my view.

Eggs, tomatoes and stuff like that.

And they eat this at any time of day.

In fact, I wouldn't dream of starting a show without it.

Good breakfast even though it is 5.15.

Brilliant!

Before I started making these scrumptious little programmes,

all I had seen of Belfast was pictures on the news.

Pictures that for some strange reason didn't dwell on

the culinary heritage of this proud city.

I must confess, though, I didn't actually come here with a song in my heart,

but after a blinding breakfast at Benny's Cafe

and a few pints of the Imperial Stout,

not to mention an ear bashing by the most loquacious people on earth,

I thought I was in Florence.

This is the kind of thing that gets you arrested in these programmes, you know?

Walking around the streets of Belfast, gazing at the buildings

and the things behind you and talking to yourself.

Whereas, really, of course, I am thinking about the deep and profound

culinary meaning of this splendid city here in Northern Ireland.

I'm meant to cross the road here, but I forgot to do that.

Because La Direction, as our producer is affectionately known,

insists on giving a sense of place, here's one of me yet again

struggling through another anonymous city centre of these fair islands.

It's a great pity.

You wouldn't even know you were in Belfast, a city that exudes

joie de vivre like buckets of Guinness sloshing around your toes.

We went to celebrate the architecture of this city

by going to probably the most famous pub in the world,

but the BBC, through painstaking research, turned up when, of course,

this architectural jewel was clad in tarpaulins, camiknickers and...

HE LAUGHS

According to Oscar O'Flahertie Wills Wilde,

there are three great arts -

painting, music and ornamental cake decoration,

of which architecture is but a subdivision.

This is a brilliant pub, you know?

John Betjeman said it was the best in the universe, the best in the entire world.

Artists through the generations have adored it.

In fact, James Mason used it for his great film The Odd Man Out.

The advantage, of course, he had over me was that

he had a real director, Carol Reed. But, you know, look at it.

It's a cathedral to drink. Isn't it?

And that is not just a quick pun.

This was actually made and decorated by Italian craftsmen,

plasterers, sculptors and painters

who were moonlighting whilst building cathedrals and stuff.

What a wonderful way to earn a living,

much better than making spaghetti.

BELLS TOLL

Come in, my son, I'll hear your confession now.

Richard, don't look so serious. I know you've been a naughty boy,

but that was only a little joke, you see?

What we're really going to do here is

because I'm a kind of a sleuth, detective,

champing around the lanes, the byways, the pubs,

the bars, the bistros of these great British Isles of ours -

Ireland included - looking for things, I need help.

So, I read the Belfast Cookery Book

and it says pizza napoletana, fritto misto, quiche Lorraine,

tarte aux oignons, all that sort of stuff,

I thought that's not Irish food.

Somebody who knows about Irish food is my great mate,

and we are friends, unusually,

because often I say we've been friends for, like, minutes,

-but we've been friends for years.

-Yes, this is true.

-This is true, is not?

-Yes.

This is Niki Hill, she's the leading writer on the world's

oldest English-speaking, or English-written, newspaper

-which is called the Belfast...

-Newsletter.

-The Belfast Newsletter.

-250 years.

-Man and boy.

-Yes.

-It's a brilliant paper.

She wrote very nice things about me in that one,

that's why I've invited her on to my programme today

to pretend to be an expert because you are an expert, aren't you?

-Oh, of course, yes.

-On everything.

-Yes.

-On food in particular.

-Yes, very much so.

-I mean...

-A great eater.

-And a great eater.

I mean, is this stuff, this champ, this Irish stew, this hot whiskey,

this Murphy's, this brown bread and butter, these oysters,

-is this Irish food?

-The stew's not quite right.

Well, it's, you know, a stew is a stew is a stew.

The champ's not quite right but it's almost right

because champ is a big mound, it's like making cement.

It's a big mound of mashed potato with scallions in it.

What are scallions, for our English-speaking viewers?

Scallions are spring onions

and the spring onions must be stewed in milk beforehand

so they're are all nice and soft.

And then you make a big hole in the middle, as I say,

like making cement, and you put the butter in

and you make cement.

And it's high in whatever you like to think, but it tastes gorgeous.

Mrs Currie, if she's still in power, I don't know,

I don't follow politics,

says that the Northern Irish people are even worse

than the naughty people up in the north

for eating high cholesterol, fatty foods.

Well, you know it's eating and drinking.

We talk about having a feed of drink and we have a feed of food too.

I don't care about it, it's lovely.

I mean, without the Ulster fry after a night's drinking,

-you know, you'd be done for.

-How much has food changed?

I mean, trotting up and down the streets here, the Golden Mile

which I think once was a street of sort of brothels

-and women of the night.

-No, not quite.

-Not quite?

No, it was all insurance companies but it's now all restaurants because

everyone decided when the Troubles hit Northern Ireland in 1969,

they said, "Where am I going to go for my holidays?

"I'm going to get the hell out of here."

So they went to France and they went to Spain and they came back saying,

"I want paella and I want all these goodies,"

so hence the Golden Mile and hence all these restaurants.

But, listen, I mean, I'm not an interviewer.

I mean, I'm getting fed up with this journalistic bit.

At the end of the day, this is a cookery programme

so if you'll excuse me from trying to interview you,

which I do very badly, I want to go off and do some real cooking. OK?

-So, look, let's drink to ourselves...

-Yes.

..let's forget the camera because we're fed up with them.

-We can talk about the Golden Mile as it used to be 50 years ago...

-Oh!

..when they're not listening and stuff like that.

-In this booth?

-Well, what about this booth?

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

to the gull's way and the whale's way

where the wind's like a whetted knife

and all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover

and a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trek's over.

Good, hey? But it's really interesting, isn't it, in Portrush,

it's great to find a little restaurant

that celebrates the area?

George McAlpin is one of a growing breed of young chefs

who are not content to pay lip service to the French

but develop and exploit local produce

to create dishes that are second to none.

Here he's cooking salmon, halibut and lobster

in a light, creamy champagne and butter sauce.

Although it looks extravagant, this dish is quite simple

but what makes it superb is the freshness of the fish,

and lobster isn't essential, by the way,

and the immediacy of the cooking and serving.

You have to admit that was a virtuoso performance

of my new chum, George here.

George, bring that in a minute because I must taste it.

But, look, this is a town, like Clevedon in Somerset,

you would hardly find this sort of dazzling selection of stuff

around there and yet here we are on a blustery Northern Irish coast.

George, I must just taste this a sec, excuse me.

Mm. Divine.

What's this got to do with Ireland?

I mean, where's all this stuff come from?

Well, this is all locally caught, as I say, we're on the harbour

in Portrush and it's all caught by local fishermen.

It's absolutely supreme. Now, look. Look at this.

This I've never seen before.

Richard, come really close into that, please.

It's got caul on the outside, like a faggot.

Where did this dish come from?

Well, it's actually, brunoise of vegetables

and fillet of lobster roasted in the oven,

-served with a lobster sauce.

-And who...? It is your own...?

-Yes, yes.

-Where do you get your...?

Do you wake up in the middle of the night like a musician

and run for the Yamaha and say, "I must get that tune down,"

or is it a carefully thought out kind of thing?

Er, sometimes, some days, things come to you easier than others

-and...

-Well, this is...

Obviously you have to work at it and try different ideas

and sort of try and blend them,

get them all to work nicely together.

This has really come to me in a major way.

Richard, look at this, I'm going to cut

right through the middle of this.

See these very finely diced vegetables on the top,

inside the caul and the wonderful fillet of turbot

at the bottom there. I must just taste that

and this fabulous rich fish sauce.

You should feel very jealous, you lot.

Now this also fascinates me. What are those?

Richard, over here.

They're little port fillet chimneys wrapped in puff pastry.

Going to hack right down to there. What's that stuff on the top?

It's mushroom duxelles.

That sort of minced mushroom and onion and stuff like that.

Yes, and it's served with a rosemary jus.

Oh, wonderful, a jus. Richard, come back here.

A lovely rich, meat glazey sauce, flavoured with rosemary.

And this. Over here, quick!

We just haven't got the time to do

this brilliant young chef the justice. What is this here?

It's a fresh orange terrine filled with fresh summer fruits.

Ah...

A masterpiece. I have to say, George,

-that I award you the imperial stout for being brilliant.

-Cheers, Keith.

For being young, you make me feel like a passe 40-year-old

but it is my programme, so shoot off, if you don't mind.

I'm going to do some cooking now.

So, Richard, stay with me.

Off with the coat and on to a cooking a sketch right away.

So this, then, is the beef simmering gently in beef stock

and stout, absolutely perfect.

Richard, I hear you cry, what beef, what Guinness,

what stout, what stock?

Actually, this is the classic modern way of cooking beef

with oysters and Guinness.

You could say the perfect TV meal.

No, not that one, my dear. This one, actually.

This is the perfect TV dinner, look, wonderful local oysters,

fabulous fillet, little shallots, bit of brown sugar,

a wonderful meat glaze,

the reduction of beef bones and stock and stuff like that,

a little butter and some stout.

And as I always say...

Back to me, Richard, please. ..if it isn't good enough to drink,

it's not good enough to cook with, so I'll just check.

Absolutely perfect. Right,

we haven't got very much time, so I have already...

poached my fillet of beef...

in some meat stock and some stout. OK?

I've got it reduced down to that with a few shallots and a bay leaf.

Now for the important part of making the sauce.

Come in very close, you may walk, you...

You have actually got legs.

We put... Because of the bitter sauce you get from the stout

and beef stock, a little of the brown sugar, like that,

dissolve it in and then,

whisk in a few little knobs of butter.

A huge whisk.

And we whisk that until it gets creamy, shiny and unctuous,

which will take a second or two.

While that's just finishing off there,

I must now...

..concentrate, because I'm going to offer this to George in a moment,

you've seen what a brilliant chef he is. Just taste.

That brown sugar is essential into that,

it takes the bitterness away and gives it a superbly unctuous flavour.

Back a bit, please, Richard.

Right, sauce onto the plate, first of all,

strain through so we don't get the shallots and things.

OK? Like that.

Which is perfect.

Save a bit of that. Over there.

Now, while I cut up the meat,

I'm going to pop my little oysters in for a second or two.

OK, have a little close-up into there, Richard, if you can get it.

Just warm the oysters through. They are naturally raw.

You just want them glazed with the sauce,

only there for a second. OK, you've seen those. Right, back.

Oh, for the difficult bit.

We just carve that down.

Oh, cooked, if I may say, to perfection.

Pink in the middle.

Thin slivers of fillet of... fillet of beef.

Like that, one, two, three.

Maybe, cos this is for George, maybe I should make a bit of

a better effort there and overlap them, like that.

A little bit of my julienne of vegetables.

Trembling hands.

Do you know, I've made hundreds of these programmes,

I still get very nervous cooking for really talented people.

It's genuinely true, you know. I haven't...

cleaned that as well as I might. Right...

Oysters.

My oysters can go...

around here.

Like that, and I'll get a bit more of this...

sauce.

Now, OK, under the pressure, I don't suppose I presented that

as beautifully as George... But George, come and have a taste.

Tell me what you think.

I know you might criticise the presentation,

but see if the flavours are there.

Well, it looks very good.

Certainly tastes very good.

Do you want to tell several million people what you really think?

I think it's absolutely fabulous, I think that's one for our new menu.

-Really, truly?

-Yes, I do.

Righto, see how I feel about that.

Beautiful oysters. Beautiful beef.

Well, I told you George was a man of integrity.

Everything he said is true.

Those oysters are perfect, the beef was brilliant,

the sauce is fantastic.

I'm a bit proud.

No cooking programme of mine would be complete without a dollop

of mythology, and I'm standing here on the Giant's Causeway,

which, it says here on my tea towel, issued by the National Trust, was...

It's the Giant's Causeway, made by Finn McCool,

you remember Finn McCool in The Heartbreakers?

Great man in the early 17th century.

Anyway, he was fighting forever with this Scottish giant

over the water there, and they built this causeway

so they could do battle in the middle.

But Finn McCool was a pretty smart kind of guy,

and he'd heard that the Scottish giant was so big that he borrowed

his son's school uniform, you know, Just William's short trousers,

a blazer and a peaked cap,

walked across the causeway, so petrified of the Scottish giant,

he thought, blimey, if that's his son, what's his dad like?

He threw a little fit of pique and ripped up the causeway,

and this is all that remains.

HE LAUGHS

SLOW DRUMBEAT

MUSIC

Ah, the Bushmill's distillery. Yes, I remember.

Of course, taking me there is a bit like giving a strawberry donkeys,

but simply, to make the mash, the first stage,

you add water from the River Bush to Irish barley.

And the next thing I recall is the heady fumes of the wash,

this is where the yeast is added,

which feeds off the sugar to make the alcohol.

Then it's but a few wibbly, wobbly steps to the distillation plant,

where the raw spirit is circulated through the system three times.

I was surprised to learn that this is the oldest distillery

in the world, and was first granted a licence in 1608.

AD, of course.

So this then is the end of the process,

this is the end of the line.

This is where this wonderful spirit is stored in oak barrels

for up to 10 years, you know that? Before it's bottled.

But in the meantime, there's some other people getting

a real kick out of it, the angels,

because 20% of the liquor in these barrels evaporates up -

and they call this the angel's share.

MUSIC FADES OUT

Thanks, Keith. Now, as ever on Saturday Kitchen Best Bites, we're taking a look back

at some of the best moments from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Still to come on today's show, it's Lawrence Keogh versus

Paul Rankin in a battle for the top spot in the Omelette Challenge.

French chef Daniel Galmiche is here

with a chicken and cucumber en papillote.

He cooks the chicken on a bed of cucumber, before topping

with toasted almonds and a paprika cream sauce.

And Elaine Paige faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Did she get her Food Heaven - grilled salmon with tempura prawns?

Or her Food Hell - confit duck leg with a flageolet ragout

and celeriac mash? You're going to have to keep watching to find out.

But now, it's time for Jason Atherton,

who's serving up a Japanese-inspired mackerel dish.

Great to have you on the show.

Now, your little restaurant empire has suddenly grown

-since the last time you were on.

-Yeah.

We've got different flavours from different parts of the world,

where your restaurants are from, so what's the name of the dish?

Just barbecued mackerel with marinated beetroot and mooli,

-and matcha green tea.

-Sounds good to me.

So, you want me to fire off with this mooli, first of all?

If you can just peel it in nice, long strips.

-And make a giant tagliatelle, please.

-Peeler. Right.

-Somebody will get a peeler from somewhere.

-I'm going to fillet the mackerel.

-Yeah.

Take it straight down, take it straight off

-and we're going to cure this in a lime cure.

-Yeah.

With just sugar, salt, coriander seeds...

take it straight off...

You can tell when the mackerel is as fresh as possible,

because it's literally nice and firm, that's the key to it.

Yeah, making sure...

Any oily fish, you need to be as fresh... Any fish will be

fresh as possible, but you know, with the mackerel, even more so.

-So we take it straight off.

-So, tell me about your restaurants, then.

Because literally, you started off...

-Well, you've got the Pollen Street Social.

-Yeah.

-Which is in Mayfair.

-Yeah. And then, you've got...

they've expanded globally, really, these ones.

Yeah. Well, we, erm...

My business partner's from Singapore,

so the next obvious step was to open something in Singapore,

which we did about a year ago now, and then we...

It was really successful, so we opened another one,

which was really successful,

-so we opened another one...

-Another one!

No, no, it was just...

I don't know, I just enjoy running restaurants, you know?

And I've got a super bunch of talented guys work for me,

-so we make more partners and, yeah...

-Yeah?

-So we just launched in Hong Kong, a couple of weeks ago.

-Right.

Which has gone really, really well.

We've been a big success with 22 Ships.

-Which is on 22 Ship Street in Wan Chai.

-Right.

And it serves modern European tapas, so nice little dishes like this,

but in smaller portions where you can share it with your friends,

it's a 35-cover tapas bar,

it's really cool, playing funky music and, yeah...

Sounds pretty good. Sounds pretty good. This is...

-This dish is a mix of, not raw, because it's marinated...

-Yeah.

It's cured, but...

It was inspired by a trip to Japan,

which I went to in March with the family,

and we went to a famous sushi restaurant called Jiro.

And I wanted to emulate how he does sushi there,

so I won't serve sushi in my restaurant,

because I'm not a sushi chef, but this is near as damn to sushi.

But you have to train for so long

-to be able to do it properly, don't you?

-Yeah.

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER