08/11/2015 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

If you're in need of mouthwatering ideas for the week ahead, stay right where you are.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We have some of the finest food lined up for you this morning,

as well as the very best chefs and a handful of hungry celebrities too.

Coming up on today's show, Daniel Galmiche treats us

to honey-glazed lemon chicken served with buttered spinach.

And Tom Aikens serves sea bass with lime and lemon grass.

He oven bakes the sea bass and serves it with apple puree

and a fish stock and lemon grass and cream sauce.

And Lawrence Keogh serves a hearty British classic -

steamed steak and onion pudding

with creamy mashed potato and a bone marrow gravy.

And cricketer Freddie Flintoff faces Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Will he get his Food Heaven, haddock goujons,

chips and tartare sauce? Or his dreaded Food Hell,

harissa chicken and potato stew with herb and chickpea salad?

You can find out what he gets to eat at the end of the show.

But first, he's worked alongside the likes of Pierre Koffmann and the great Alain Ducasse,

and he's one of Scotland's most recognisable foodie talents.

Here's Tom Kitchin starting proceedings with a wonderfully

warming soup.

Welcome back, Tom. What is on the menu then, today?

Seasonal, seasonal, seasonal. Yes, that's what I'm all about.

Seasonality. We are going to do a pumpkin soup,

and we are going to roast off these little pumpkins.

You're going to take the bottom off, take the top off.

Don't take too much of the bottom because then it'll come out the bottom...

He's saying this because I did it in rehearsal.

I took most of the bottom off. OK, go on, then.

I'm going to get the soup on.

And if you could scoop out the inside of the pumpkin there.

This is great because there is loads of pumpkins around with Halloween.

Yes, exactly. Last weekend was Halloween.

They're still everywhere, bang in season, in all the shops.

You can make this with squash as well, I suppose.

Yes, butternut squash, anything like that.

It is a great dish for this time of year.

But the way that this one is presented would be

great for a dinner party or something like that.

And they're not very expensive as well.

No, no, they are cheap as chips. And they are in season.

When produce is in season, it is usually a lot cheaper, isn't it?

It is. Sure is. So we've got the little tops there,

so the idea is you want these little seeds scooped out.

And you're going to use this as a filling?

We are going to use the seeds as well,

we are going to toast them off

and they will go on top of the soup when we're finished.

Yes. And then the pumpkin as well, we'll use that as well.

So nothing goes to waste in this dish at all. Right, OK.

So literally scoop these out. OK, so I've taken some onions. Yes.

And I'm going to sweat that off.

Like so.

You can roast these and serve them with salt as well, the seeds,

as well, can't you? Yes, you can, yes.

Very good veggie dishes.

There you go.

So we take that, and you're going to roast off the tops as well?

A bit of salt, pepper, roast the whole lot.

Yes, roast it all in the oven, and that will be great flavour in there.

Then what I'm going to do with the skin of these pumpkins,

these are grey pumpkins.

With the skin, I'm actually going to make a stock with this.

Now, they are called grey pumpkins, although they are not grey. Exactly.

How long would you roast that one for, by the way?

That will cook for about 35 minutes there.

Bit of a fan of pumpkin, Elaine?

I'm not crazy about it, to be honest.

I think it is probably because I don't know what to do with it.

We shall try and make you anyway.

SHE LAUGHS

But the thing about this is, if you...

You can make soup, like you're doing now,

but amaretti biscuit is often a good tip as well.

Take a little amaretti biscuit, sweet biscuit. Never heard of it.

Little Italian biscuit. Oh, I know what you mean.

It changes the flavour again. But you are going to put some spice in here.

Yes, we're going to put a little bit

of cinnamon and caraway seed as well.

Cinnamon goes very well with pumpkin.

And it is lovely this time of year, as we get more into winter,

we've got more of the cinnamon and orange

and kind of mulled wine cooking.

OK, so I've put that in there. Now, we are going to use the skin to make a stock as well, yes?

Yes, we've got the skin there.

I'm going to put a little bit of chicken stock on top of that. Right.

And then we put some carrots in there

and a little bit of celery and garlic.

And a bit of cinnamon. So a little mirepoix.

Now you've been busy since you've been last on. A busy boy.

Just become a father again. Yeah.

Six weeks ago. Baby Axel has joined us.

Axel?! Axel. Not because I was mad Guns N' Roses fan.

I was thinking you were a car fanatic.

THEY LAUGH

Where is the name from? Well, it is very Scandinavian.

My wife, Michaela, she is Swedish,

and Axel is a very popular name over there. Is it? Yes.

Axel? Axel. With a name like that, he can do anything, really.

OK, so we've got salt in there.

We've got pumpkin cooked two ways. So we've got the stock on here.

Yes, we've got the stock on here. This is a stock we made earlier,

so we're just going to pour that on top.

And we will get that cooking as quickly as possible. Lovely.

So there we are maximising the flavour,

there's no flavour of the pumpkin escaping at all.

Right, you want a touch of honey in this one here, yes?

A little touch of honey. And what else?

You've got some spice going in? Yes, we've got a bit of cinnamon.

This is the roasted bit... Try not to burn myself there.

A little bit of cinnamon. A little bit of caraway seed.

And we will toss that through there. Take the whole lot in the oven, yes?

Yes, please. I will chop that one up. Thank you very much.

So, tell us what you do with these seeds, then.

Right, we are going to wash the seeds. Again, these...

Normally you just see these in health shops, don't you?

You know, the seeds. Either that or bird food tables. One of the two.

TOM LAUGHS

I guess you don't eat many seeds, James. Not really.

If you deep-fry them in butter, I would be interested. You know.

Is that what you are going to do with them?

Being Scottish, we will give them a deep-frying.

Yes, so we've got the seeds, and then we just wash them off.

Got all the inside of the pumpkin off.

They do add a nice texture to it. Exactly.

That's what it is all about, cooking,

finding different textures and...different parts of the dish.

We've got some parsley chopping up here.

Tell us what you do with these seeds. Wash them? Wash them.

And then I'm just going to dry them on...

Going all over the place.

Just going to dry them because we are going to put them

in the hot oil, and if they are wet, they're going to pop everywhere,

and we've got to be careful of our nice guests over there.

All right. OK, so we've got the oil in there. Lovely.

So you wouldn't deep-fry these in a deep fat fryer?

No, we're just going to do it in a wee bit of oil.

OK. Now, haven't you just opened up a little sister restaurant of yours?

Yes, very exciting.

We've opened a sister restaurant to The Kitchin, called Castle Terrace,

with a dear friend of mine, Dominic Jack.

He's the chef there.

Chef owner, chef patron. And it's fantastic.

Dom and I, we started at Gleneagles when we were 17,

and then we came to London and then we went to Paris.

And we were two young 20-year-old chaps living in Paris in a bedsit,

earning no money, working in big Michelin star restaurants.

So we dragged him home, and he's a fantastic talent,

he's doing amazingly well up there.

There you go.

OK, so the cooking of the seeds.

So the idea is these could spit everywhere.

They could spit everywhere, yes.

And that's going in a little bit of oil there?

A little bit of oil. I'll toast them off.

And I'll put a little touch of cinnamon on there as well.

And a wee bit of salt. Now, if you wanted,

you could actually roast the whole pumpkin off in the oven?

Exactly. Do what you're doing here with the onions and add that...

Wahey! Wahey!

OK, we will get that out.

Lovely. It doesn't take very long, then. Wahey! Wahey!

No, exactly. And then we are going to use that pan again.

I'm going to do a wee bit of crispy bacon on top as well.

And this is just normal sort of dry cured bacon? Yes, lovely.

We'll just get that nice and crispy, and then we will sprinkle

that over the top of the soup once we are all ready to go there.

Right, I've roasted this in a very hot oven, 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is really, really hot. And it cooks really in this time.

There's a sink in the back there, if you want to wash your hands.

Add this all to it.

Like that. The whole lot just gets roasted off together.

And we've got the honey in there, we've got the cinnamon,

the caraway seeds, it is going to be absolutely delicious.

I keep saying this all the time on the show that,

when it comes to soup, there is a cooking time on it.

It is not just basically throw it in a pan and boil it for three minutes.

It is that fine line between cooked and not cooked, isn't it?

And to really extract all the flavour.

In we go. Yeah.

Try not to spill it all over the sides.

You get a great colour from this as well.

This should be really fantastic. Get the cream handy. Give it a whirl.

I love it how he gets me to do this bit. Yes, and then he moves away.

The double cream in there? Yes, please, a little bit of cream.

This is where I said, you can put a little bit of amaretti biscuit

if you wanted to, at this point. You've got plenty of spice in there.

It just gives it a different flavour. It lifts it a bit.

We've got plenty of spice in here anyway. Black pepper. Lovely.

Put a bit of Thai in there as well, if you wanted. That would be me.

Maybe.

Salt.

Here we've got our...

..pumpkin.

GUESTS MURMUR

Have a taste of that, shall we? Agh! That hot, James.

Be careful. Yeah. There you go. It's all over the floor!

Slide in. There you go.

Right, so we'll have a taste of that. A bit of seasoning.

I'll just wash this spoon.

Do you need to pass that as well or not?

In the restaurant we would pass this but as we are at home, we won't.

LAUGHTER

When I was working in Paris, we used to do this dish...

I used to work for a chef and he used to have these big pumpkins

and he used to go to the table, pour it over

and then he'd shave white truffle over the top.

Ooh! You like that, do you? Perfect.

Unfortunately, we don't have any white truffle. BBC budget, mate!

We can't have white truffle!

You've got chives and pumpkin seeds, they'll have to do. That's lovely.

It's dramatic, isn't it? It makes fun eating, this does.

A bit of bacon on top... Do you want a dollop of that on there?

Yes, please. I'll put that on there. Crunchy seeds.

And then we can just serve the wee lids...

Don't forget the wee lid! Isn't that lovely?

So remind us what that is again.

We've got seasonal pumpkin soup

cooked with cinnamon and a bit of caraway seed,

crunchy seeds on top and a bit of bacon.

Very seasonal, James. Easy as that. Enjoy.

There we go! You get you try this. Ooh! See what you think of this one.

Have a seat over there. Oh, it looks gorgeous! Dive into this one, guys.

Tom? Ladies first. LAUGHTER

Dive in, tell us what you think of that one.

It does look nice, doesn't it?

Each pumpkin comes with a different texture, different colour.

Yeah, but for a dinner party, it would be great.

Have the soup ready beforehand,

the pumpkin is ready and then serve it like that.

Yummy! Happy with that? Absolutely delicious.

And you've got texture with the roasted pumpkin.

If you scoop it out, you've got a different texture. Yeah. Mmm!

Happy with that, guys? Mmm, it's really good.

A fantastic idea for a dinner party. It tasted as incredible as it looked.

Thanks, Tom.

Coming up, I cook an Eton mess torte for Melanie C

after Rick Stein takes us on a Seafood Odyssey that uncovers

something very unusual - the goose barnacle.

WAVES CRASH

It's not Chalky's favourite weather and the sea was really rough.

But it also makes you think about the communities that used to have

to survive on the sea.

You can imagine in winter everyone went hungry,

with storms raging for weeks on end.

In fact, in Mousehole, two days before Christmas,

they celebrate a man called Tom Bawcock,

who risked his life by going to sea in a terrible storm

and bringing back a boat full of fish.

Although this happened 100 years ago,

it still lives on in the dish that the villagers create with

the fish head staring at the sky out of the pie crust.

Stargazy pie.

You take a big roasting tray and melt some butter in it

and soften some onions in that, roughly chopped onions.

Now the fish - cod, coley, monkfish, that sort of thing -

fresh parsley, dried herbs,

and good fresh bay leaves, about six of them.

Turn that all over and then plenty of lemon juice on top of that.

Now make a soft, buttery, creamy mashed potato.

Nice and soft so you can fold it over in the fish without breaking it up.

This is Lorraine Edwards, by the way. Her brother is the landlord.

Hello!

Now, you smooth that mixture down nicely

and then you sprinkle it with lots of grated boiled egg.

Then you roll out your pastry and cover that with grated hard cheese -

Parmesan or Cheddar.

Then you stick the pilchards through -

some with their heads looking to the sky, some with their tails,

as if they're diving through the waves.

Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes.

After that, all you need is a man dressed up like the original

Tom Bawcock and into a hot steamy pub with lots of locals singing

and drinking, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the pie.

This is really Mousehole's equivalent to May Day. Every place needs

to have a special day and when you have a dish linked with a hero,

a man who saved the village all those years ago,

just for one day, the whole village becomes unified.

Well, the fishermen of Cornwall

and fishermen of northern Spain, Galicia, have a lot in common.

They're both Celts and their life is equally as hard.

But here, they fish for a delicacy which is loved all over Spain.

It's called percebes, otherwise known as the goose barnacle.

I've just been down there watching the percebes fishermen

and it is quite dangerous

and a testimony to the danger is this cross here

which actually commemorates somebody who drowned doing it.

And all the way up and down the coast,

there are other crosses.

I have nothing but admiration for these people.

It's a risky job but worth it.

These percebes can fetch up to ?70 a kilo.

The reason why there are so many people out today

is because tomorrow is the big seafood festival in Corme.

DRUMMING AND HOLLERING

Gracias.

I'll just try this now. This pulpo.

Mmm!

It's beautifully tender. To me,

it's a bit like pigs' trotters.

It's been cooked for so long that all its skin is really nice

and gelatinous.

This is the percebes festival at Corme,

where the octopus plays second fiddle to the percebes.

Well, I finally got some percebes.

It was a long wait, so here's my first time to try one.

Have a look at this.

I'm going to open one while you're right in front of the lens.

Look at that, it looks like sort of woven material, the foot of it.

I'll just break it off.

You just twist the end of like that and then just pull it out.

And that's the bit you eat, so here goes.

Hey, that's really good!

It tastes like, sort of, lobster claw meat, actually.

You know, the end bit,

the bit that goes right into the end of the claw - it tastes like that.

But it's a lot firmer and it really does taste of the sea.

It tastes sort of ozoney and...

Damn good! You have two sort of soak it down with a little bit of...

Swill it down with a little bit of...

Yeah, very good wine this! Is it good, yes?

You know that feeling on a Sunday morning when perhaps it was

a little late the night before, but you're looking forward to

something a bit physical, yet relaxed and gentle at the same time?

Well, the morning after the festival,

I remember spelling that distinct smell of cognac in the air as

we waited for the tide to get low enough to gather cockles.

RICK SPEAKS SPANISH

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

'Well, what he's saying is

'they don't serve them in little jars gathering dust in a pub somewhere.

'No, they cook them with a little lemon juice

'and white wine with rice, or they bake them in an empanada,

'which is rather like a pie or a pasty.

'Everyone wants to talk about seafood in Spain.

'I was cooking the classic clam dish, almejas a la marinera,

'on the quay and these two guys came up and wanted to give me tips!'

Can we start... Do you want to watch how I do it?

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

OK, well, I'm just starting with a bit of onion on here.

MAN SPEAKS SPANISH

Really?

Your mother and...

These chaps have just come up.

I think they're fishermen on the quay,

but they're very keen to know what we're doing and...

No, no, you can stay! It's all right.

Anyway, I've just been cooking off some onion for about 20 minutes

for this almejas a la marinera,

which is clams in the sort of marinera style.

Clams mariniere, if you like.

So all I'm doing now is just adding some...pimenton.

Some paprika to these onions. Just let that cook out a little bit.

I'm just going to add a little bit of tomato to this thing now.

Paprika smoked, smelling really good.

So just add a couple of tablespoons of tomato.

Sometimes this dish is done with tomatoes,

sometimes it's done without,

but it always has paprika in it, it always has onion in it

and generally a little bit of local Albarino wine as well.

So that's the basic sauce ready now.

I'm just going to add these clams to this.

These are carpet shell clams.

They're local ones and I'm very pleased to have found them here.

You get them all over Europe. I think they're the best clam in the world.

I'll just let them cook for...as my new friend said, just four minutes.

OK, they're nicely opened.

I want to get a move on now because I don't want them to cook any more.

I'm just going to put a little bit of chilli in there for background heat.

And now, this is very typical of this dish,

a little bit of thickening.

Sometimes they use cornflour

but I'm going to use what they call beurre manie, flour and butter.

Mixed together just to give the sauce a nice thickness, which is typical.

I'm not normally in favour of thickening sauces like this,

but this is a local dish

and I want to be true to the local style of doing it.

It just gives it a nice, sort of like,

velvet sort of feel to it.

Leave that to cook away.

SHELLS CLATTER

I hope you can hear me above the shells!

I'm shouting as much as I can.

You can see it is thickening up very nicely now. That's just about right.

Let's taste the sauce. Does it need any salt?

No, it doesn't need any salt,

because there's so much salty liquor in those clams.

It's just about there.

Just a little bit of chopped broad leaf parsley. Stir that in.

I think all these dishes, like mussels, clams,

cockle dishes like this, are best with just a few scraps of flavour -

a bit of tomato, parsley, paprika, a bit of chilli...

Nothing much else.

A good sort of local dish, really.

And I'd say that was a great local dish, Rick, and I'm always

keen to celebrate regional dishes in this country, especially desserts.

One of the things that brings a smile to anyone's face is this dish.

It's Eton mess. But this is a variant of it.

It's got the same ingredients but it's just done in a nice...

I think it looks nice, rather than just a dollop on a plate.

Don't you be messing with Eton mess

because is one of my favourites. Right, OK.

So, this is actually Eton mess.

First thing you do, start off with meringue.

I've got eight egg whites in there,, 450g of caster sugar.

In here as well, I'm going to caramelise

some caster sugar for the top.

This is just normal caster sugar... Oooh! ..in a pan.

We'll caramelise that.

I'm also going to make a strawberry sauce,

because Eton mess is obviously strawberries, meringue and cream.

Cream's whipped there with a touch of vanilla.

The strawberries, I'm just going to blend and make a sauce out of it,

which gets blitzed in there.

So straight in. Icing sugar, tiny bit of water. You don't need too much.

Now, these are English strawberries, still in season. Really?

Yeah, absolutely still in season.

And then we just basically chop these into a nice little puree.

Now, when I was reading about you,

1996 was when the Spice Girls all kicked off. Yeah.

But you were part of the original line-up.

It was like the Beatles - one left, you joined, massive success.

Was that right? It was really like the Beatles, yeah(!)

No, we...originally, we were auditioned.

There was a management company auditioning for a girl band

and I went along to the audition and I had a recall,

but unfortunately I was ill at the time,

so I wasn't able to make it, so they picked the five girls

and the five girls didn't include me or Emma Bunton. Right.

And I think they did a bit of work together

and they felt like one of the girls didn't work out,

so they invited me down to meet the girls,

and from that day, I became part of the band.

And then, later on down the line, we got Emma in,

when somebody else wasn't really working out, and it kind of...

I think once that five, once it was us five,

the chemistry was that great, that's when it kind of, you know,

we knew we had something special.

Special it was. I was reading a bit more about it.

53 million albums! So they say.

53 million albums! Yeah. It's pretty...

You couldn't do that now. He's got one! Can you sign it later?

I think Theo's got a million of them.

But, you know, there's probably not many artists who will ever do

that again because the music industry has changed so much

that people don't buy as many albums as they used to. Yeah.

But it was such a big massive success almost instantly,

because for the first two years,

you got 23 million albums or something like that.

Yeah, it was insane.

From the first single, I think we went in at number three

with Wannabe, and then it went to number one.

It stayed there for seven weeks and then every other single...

You know, our first Christmas number one,

we had three Christmas number ones in the end.

There was only one single... Have you burnt that?

No, I've not burned it!

It's just lightly caramelised. LAUGHTER

But, talking about music and the music industry,

you say it's changed, but there's not many people who have success worldwide as well.

A lot of Americans come over and maybe just hit America and that's all.

Yeah, well, you know,

we were so fortunate to be an international act.

And we had to break America - it was always the biggie.

And I think now, that's really stood me in good stead as a solo artist

because I still do a lot of work in Europe

and it enables me to keep touring and making music.

And talking about working a lot...

Well, you're doing your new tour, which starts this month.

Yeah, November 28, it starts in Cologne.

It's just a short, like, before Christmas.

We're doing eight shows - Germany, Austria, Switzerland,

one in Liverpool, one in London and...

Yeah, hopefully more next year if things keep going well.

And Germany is a massive market for you as well.

It is, thankfully, yeah. The wonderful Germans, yeah.

They've been very loyal supporters of mine.

And it's the second biggest market in the music industry

after America. Really?

Yeah, so it's a handy one to have, yeah. A handy one to have.

And I've got the meringue here.

Now, the way you do this is you basically just take

a little bit of paper, press that down...

That's a good little trick, isn't it?

Glue it, otherwise it looks like the National Lottery balls

whizzing round a convection oven

as it flies all over once it cooks and gets nice and light.

And all you do is that. In the oven. Wants to go in for about...

Do you put a bit of vinegar in your eggs? Some people do.

No, vinegar or cornflour will make it sticky.

You can actually do that but this will become sticky anyway

because it's nice and thin.

So I've got my strawberries as well,

which I'm basically just going to dip.

I've got some that I'm going to make in my Eton mess,

and what we do is dip this in there.

I'm liking the look of this, James.

Now, your new tour starts with your new album as well.

This is your fifth solo album. My fifth solo album, yeah.

The third on your own record label. Third on my own label, yeah.

I mean, is that because the music industry has changed?

Is it easier to do it yourself or...? Why was...? It was...

Well, I thought it would be a good thing to do

because when I was - romantically, I put it -

"released" from my contract with Virgin Records,

yeah, I had options.

I could have maybe signed with another major,

gone with an independent, but of course,

the Spice Girls were very successful,

and luckily I got a few quid out of that and I just thought it would

be fun to do my own thing and just have complete creative control

and do the exact opposite of everything I'd ever done before.

Because the new album is something slightly different -

it's quite electronic-y sort of...

Yeah, I think in the production,

the electronic element is probably the most different thing,

but this album reminds me of my first, Northern Star,

because it's a pop album but it's got lots of different influences -

a bit of rock, a bit of dance, a more acoustic sound...

It's got good driving songs -

Think About It, that was a good track.

It's a great album for the car. Track three. Track three.

James has done his research! Yeah, I was listening to it!

Yeah, so I'm actually really excited about this album.

I think it could possibly be my best ever album.

Because you write as well.

A lot of people write, but all the songs on there are yours.

Well, you know what, from day one with this the Spice Girls...

We co-wrote Wannabe, everything we ever did,

and I've always loved to work...

I work with great musicians and great songwriters.

But it's really important for me to have my input,

melody-wise and lyric-wise. So...

And you've dabbled in a bit of acting, theatre as well - Blood Brothers.

Is that something you want to do again?

I did! Yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to do more theatre.

I'd like to do some TV acting, actually.

I think in this country, we have really fantastic dramas. Yes.

Great TV dramas... Carry on talking, you didn't see this bit!

SHE LAUGHS And that's something I'd really like to have

a go at, so maybe I'll see what's out there next year.

You can take over a bit of this! The state of that!

LAUGHTER

See, it's "mess" for a reason! There you go. It looks really nice.

Yeah. This is the dietary version.

You can't go wrong with those ingredients, can you?

Cream, strawberries and vanilla?! And meringue. Exactly.

But you just put a pile of this on as well.

It must be difficult to talk and interview and present

and cook and everything at the same time. It's not easy.

But you've been doing it for quite a while

so you should be better than that.

LAUGHTER

Right!

I was going to carry on but... I'm only kidding.

No, you can take over on the show when I'm off, you see?

I don't think so. Fancy that? I do like cooking.

My mum is a very good cook. I know. That's why I'm a bit nervous.

Your mum's sat over there watching.

Yeah, she's tutting and shaking her head, James.

Right, we get some more of this...

So you kind of layer it all up as you go.

So, we have another passion that we share, don't we?

As well as cooking? Motor racing! Oh, cars!

Your brother is a big, big driver. Flippin' heck!

Don't worry about that. THEO LAUGHS

It's Eton mess. Shut up, Theo! Sorry.

LAUGHTER

Yes, carry on about our car...

So, my brother races in the British Touring Car Championship. He does.

He's very good. He's very good, yes. I'm very proud of my little bro.

So you were there, weren't you, at Silverstone. I was there!

I do go and watch it. I...

Are you friends with Jason? Jason Plato, yeah.

He's a good guy.

I was disappointed he didn't win this year. Yeah. It was tough.

I was his pit girl.

I think, that was probably the defining moment of his downfall.

What did you wear, some hot pants?

Oh, you got your g-string out, didn't you?

No, I did - I tried, but I looked like a windsock.

Right, you stick the strawberries on the top.

That looks...that does look fantastic.

So delicately placed and that's for me. Mine!

Oh, my goodness.

Eton mess. Where do I begin?

You can, of course, double it, if you want and make it for two. GUESTS CHUCKLE

Dive into that. OK. None of that fancy pasta in there.

Look, I've got to get it...

I've got to make everybody think I'm like a delicate lady

that doesn't eat like a pig. OK.

Oh, the caramelised, whatever that sugary burnt stuff on the top is.

Covers up the broken bits!

You see, it's called Eton mess for a reason

but I didn't see anybody complaining about how it tasted.

Now, if you'd like to try cooking any of the studio recipes you've seen on today's show,

all of those are just a click away at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Today, we're looking back at some of the tastiest dishes

from the Saturday Kitchen store cupboard.

Now the masterful Daniel Galmiche never fails to impress with

his flavourful French cuisine and this next dish was no exception.

Here he is with a simple but sensational lemon chicken.

Great to have you on the show. Thank you very much.

I love your food, love your food. It's great to be back.

What are we cooking? We're going to do a simple, pan roasted chicken.

Yeah. With lemon. OK.

Crushed garlic, a bit of honey, so zest, honey,

just to mix up with it.

A bit of chicken stock, in oven, nice casserole

and some buttered spinach.

Now this is very simple this dish.

It's very simple... The whole process is this chicken,

that's the key to it, isn't it?

Yeah, actually at home, I do it differently

because I just put the whole chicken,

I do a bed of lemon and whack it in the oven like that and leave it.

There you go. And the chicken caramelises.

This one is absolutely huge.

Now you cook this a lot for your for kids and leave it whole?

Yes, for Antoine, we do a lot of casseroles. The name of my son...

This is chicken cut for saute.

If you've never seen this done before,

it's one of the fundamental things

that we all learn at college, isn't it?

There you go.

Fricassee. So, Mike, you can try this later.

That's a sharp knife. Yeah, it is a sharp knife.

The idea of this is you end up with four pieces of dark meat

and four pieces of white meat.

So everybody gets a bit of dark meat and white meat.

One, two... One leg, one thigh? Yes.

So the second one in here.

This is a particular chicken that you're using for this one?

That's a Label Anglais, they call that,

but I didn't expect it to be as big as that.

So you could feed probably eight and not four in that one.

It's a good variety of chicken.

Two in my house, that. Yeah, I know!

Two in...!

You've got other chickens in France, poulet de Bresse.

Poulet de Bresse, a famous chicken, poulet noir,

which is really a good variety as well.

But, yes, poulet de Bresse.

You often see the big white one... Which you call the capon. Yeah.

Which is a castrated chicken, really.

It's still less big than this one.

So you see you've got the two legs and two thighs there

and now for the four pieces of white meat...which is off here.

That is off here.

Tell me about this restaurant, then?

Alors, it's within a boutique hotel in Reading called The Forbury Hotel,

which is an absolutely fantastic hotel,

which has been co-designed with some of the couturier,

which makes it very sleek, very trendy.

There's kind of two restaurants. There is two.

It's a Mediterranean kind of brasserie,

which we say, and upstairs on a Tuesday,

we're going to open a fine dining on the first floor.

We can offer both kinds of dining experience

and try to keep people in house and give them a variety of different...

Now I mention the Michelin sort of thing.

Are you on the hunt for another one because...?

Yes, I would like to retain one again, yeah.

It's the purpose of doing this fine dining as well and to have,

not only a second option of dining, but something a bit different.

We've got the breast there with the leg on.

Look at the size.

Just trim that off. Lovely!

That's that one. OK, lovely.

I'll get that off on the back.

So the honey gets mixed with the lemon. Yeah.

There's a bowl if you want to wash your hands. Yes.

Give that a quick mix.

So this is a nice, little glaze with the honey and lemon.

Yeah, just a glaze there.

You can have that prepared

and let it a little bit...almost soak and marinade.

Just any runny honey, will do?

Yeah, it's simple. I just want to... OK.

This is the important bit, isn't it?

Because you don't want to get it too hot.

A little bit of oil in there.

There you go. We're going to colour the chicken first off. Yes.

A little bit, that's right.

A nice colour. And also, a book.

You were thinking about doing... It's not completely confirmed yet,

but I've done my synopsis.

It's just been sent.

There's a good chance it's going to be done, yes.

What's this all about? It's about childhood memories.

It's about when I used to hunt with my dad,

when I used to go to see my grandma in the farm and cook with her.

When I used to go with my brother,

steal cherries in the next-door neighbour's field, or something.

He used to chase us with a tractor, this kind of thing.

This is the kind of dishes that would be in the book? Yes.

Country cooking, sort of stuff.

Or going mushroom picking

and I attach to every story,

a real story, obviously, there is a recipe attached to it.

And a few things which people will relate to, actually.

I will lift that one out.

A lot of people would have done the same. Yeah.

Who didn't go in the neighbour's, you know,

getting an apple or whatever?

So we're just going to seal off the chicken.

Just get a bit of colour on there. Yes, a little bit of colour.

OK, you've done that, we need to... I will continue to do that.

Basically, if you've got a huge chicken like this,

I'd do it in bits and pieces. It's massive. That's the thing.

I'm going to start some lemon now.

I'm going to add some slices of lemon.

I normally do it... I cut it as a whole

and I put the lemon under the chicken, on slices like this,

and when it comes out of the oven, it's almost confit.

Very sweet, because you only get the juice of the chicken. OK.

And then the chicken just gets lifted out? Yeah.

There is a sink in there if you want to wash your hands. Yes, I will. OK.

So what is it about French food, anyway?

I mean, I always thought French food is just

literally about the ingredients, but the secret of French cooking

is the quality of the ingredients, don't you think?

Yes, I think the quality. Michael can tell you that.

We hear so much... The ingredients are a great part of the dish...

But we hear so much about Italy and all-round...but the fundamental

out of great cooking is France and it seems to be, you know...

Has the attitude changed?

Because I think when I was training over there,

when I was a young kid, they sort of looked as if we were

roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, that kind of stuff.

It's changed over the years?

It's changed a lot. I've been in Britain now for 21 years, actually.

The change is tremendous.

There are plenty of fantastic British chefs who've learned -

Michael is an example in here

of people who have been superbly successful.

A great chef and there is plenty... My agent!

We know each other for a while, over the years, and he knows me

because I have been in the West Country before.

You can see the way people develop and the produce now

and he's going to visit the farm and telling what he wants.

People produce for him.

We're going to crush the garlic.

Crush the garlic? OK.

A bit of garlic.

I keep it with the skin, I like it.

Like this, just put it on the top.

Fundamentally, it's just garlic, thyme and lemon.

A little bit of thyme. You use lemon thyme in there, Daniel?

Well, with the lemon and thyme, lemon thyme.

But you can, actually.

Deglaze with a bit of this.

A simple casserole.

The lemon will give it a nice, little sharpness, as well.

Yeah, absolutely, which is nice. A little bit of salt.

I'll pop that in the oven while you get on and do your spinach.

Lovely. And bring out the rest of it. Yeah.

How long does it cook in the oven for?

It will cook for a good 30-35 minutes.

Really simple, buttered spinach.

Get the pan hot, a little bit of butter. Some spinach.

We've got the chicken here - look at that, it just looks marvellous.

Magic!

Then it wants some of this sauce reducing? Yeah. Nice and quickly.

I'll take some of this.

Look at the colour. Really nice.

Just crush the garlic in there, as well?

Yeah, crush the garlic because I like to have the...

It gives you a kind of puree, confit garlic, and I like it.

OK. A little bit of this.

I'll get that while you finish off your sauce. Yeah.

I'll bring the plate over.

There you go.

Now I know everybody takes the mick out of me for the butter I use but...

I will use a little bit.

Excuse me.

It thickens the sauce, doesn't it?

The flavour as well comes out and I like it.

Are you using flour? Sorry?

Are you using flour on the chicken?

Yes, Michael, it's a good point - you can use it

if you do a classic chicken casserole like coq au vin.

Yes, you just put some flour in it and it thickens the sauce.

Do want the chicken on?

Yes, please, thank you.

A couple of pieces of chicken. Yeah, a couple of nice pieces.

I need a bit of salt in here. Excusez-moi. Another one.

Another one there.

Go on, then, get the sauce on. That's a good portion, that.

Then the sauce goes over the top, nice and simple. A very simple dish.

Very nice.

But the butter is important right at the very end, isn't it? Yeah.

So will you spoon the sauce over the top and everybody looks at it.

Remind us what that dish is again?

That's pan-roasted chicken with some lemon,

crushed garlic, buttered spinach.

Easy as that! Easy as that.

There you go. Right, over here.

It smells delicious for this time on morning. There you go.

Good Lord!

It's a big chicken! Yeah.

You make it look so easy.

It's normally a bowl of cereal.

You get chicken and lemon.

Lovely.

The lemon will be quite hot

because it's straight out of the oven.

Mm-mm.

Happy? Lovely. Happy? It is that sauce right at the end, isn't it?

Yeah... Do you want to pass it down.

It's not too... The strength of the lemon is OK.

The secret of it is not to add too much, is the most important thing.

Yes - if you put too much lemon in it,

it could become acidic and sharp.

The balance is OK there, isn't it?

It's got a nice tang to it, as well.

Simplicity at its best but still packed full of flavour.

It was absolutely delicious, Daniel.

Now it's time for a classic with the late, great, Mr Keith Floyd.

Today he's in the Perigord region of France

cooking omelette aux cepes in the home

of Monsieur and Madame Moulin.

Good luck, Keith.

I can't possibly see what they can see

in all that kind of absurd activity.

I mean, you've got the beauties of the Dordogne,

a bottle of wine, freshly chilled in these silky cool waters,

which are full of fish which we can catch and cook,

and they're hurtling up and down motor mechanics on a racing track.

Absolutely ridiculous. Probably going home for hamburger and chips.

That's up to them. I'm happy with my little life this way,

the quiet contemplative sort of life.

It's none of my business how the French run their rivers,

but I think they should confine all this water skiing

and motorboat stuff to St Tropez and let us,

sort of more gentle folk, get on with doing what's

important in life, which is cooking, and sitting paddling by the river.

I'm going to cook for you a very, with no further ado...

Notice you see trawlers, aeroplanes, anything you like -

punts, flat-bottomed punts, we can do it.

I'm going to cook you a salad which is typical of this region.

It uses... Do you want come in closer here, Clive, and have a look and see

what we've got, which is some pre-prepared goose giblets.

You can buy them in a tin from delicatessens in England.

You can also buy them anywhere around here in the Perigord.

All you do is you heat up some...

You have to follow me around on this rocky, little, flat-bottomed punt.

Into the hot walnut oil, you put a few of these giblets, OK?

Then - stay with me, Clive - you add a few croutons,

already slightly fried, you warm them through.

You add a few fresh walnuts - particularly nice here,

this is a walnut-producing region.

And they've got that fresh, not, like,

three-months-after-Christmas taste that many of ours are like.

Then into the salad, you stir that around.

Close up on the salad here, please.

Oh, it is spitting and burning my little artist's knee.

We won't worry too much about that.

The final moment, we just tuck in a little drop of wine vinegar.

Into that, let it bubble.

You can smell the lovely vinegar mixing with the walnut oil.

You tip that onto the top of there like that,

grab a fork,

stir it round a little bit,

and have a little mouthful.

It's quite delicious and very simple.

Here comes another one.

I thought we'd got away from them.

Look, bloody menace they are.

# Up the lazy river in an open boat

# Now everything is perfect for the lunch afloat

# Then these bats from hell

# Come and break the spell

# Crazy, lazy river

# Mon dieu! #

The River Dordogne gives the Perigord fertile land

and a pleasant leafy atmosphere so beloved of the British.

They've been here for centuries

because this was the front line of the Hundred Years' War,

but they were so busy building castles

they didn't have time to learn to cook.

Of many specialities, foie gras is probably the most famous,

but also the most controversial.

I mean, the stories the farmers tell about

geese happily queueing up to be force-fed

seem to me to gloss over the really quite barbaric process.

Still, I'm not here to moralise.

Bergerac is a bustling, prosperous,

seemingly typically French market town at first sight,

but then you discover they're fiercely proud

of its English heritage.

Anyway, it's Saturday morning,

the most important market of the week,

too busy to stop even for death.

When you arrive for the first time in a strange country like the Perigord,

and I've never been here before,

the first thing you do is go into a good bar.

Find somebody who's chatting really well, ask him to tell you

who runs the best restaurant in the region.

Having found out, go to the best restaurant in the region,

make friends with the proprietor, which is what I've done,

a chap called Bernard, he's a super guy.

And then, you get him to take you around the market where,

in France, where all life is at.

This is the essence of the whole place

and we go wandering around, when he's stopped chatting up the women,

cos he's one of those sort of fellows,

we'll do some shopping and explore this whole, wonderful area.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

You might think that once you've seen one French market,

you've seen them all, but you couldn't be more wrong.

It's by the marketplace by the little old ladies

and the old men who come in to sell their produce from their small farms,

it's there where you find out the little regional specialities,

it's there where people haggle and talk,

worry about their change, smell the fruit,

meet each other, discuss what they're going to have for lunch.

It's also where you pick up little tips like what to do with ducks feet.

We'd throw them away, wouldn't we?

But not in Perigord - they save them to use them to enrich soups

and, afterwards, grill them in a little melted garlic butter.

Something the Chinese are very fond of, duck feet.

And, for the most exquisitely prepared parking meter,

this gets the Floyd Award.

Quelle style!

Voila. Ca, c'est du lard au cochon.

This is pure pig fat, OK? Just pig fat.

Alors, le hachis.

Il faut couper le lard. Oui.

De l'ail, du persil, des echalotes, uh..pour faire...

Pour mis dans la soupe?

Bon, et on fait... On fait... De l'eau. Bon.

Here's another remarkable thing, very peculiar to this region.

This is a chicken blood pancake.

When they kill the chickens, they let the blood run onto a plate

until it coagulates.

Once it has quite elated they chop little bits of garlic into it,

put it into a frying pan and make an omelette out of it

or make a pancake out of it. It's now cooked and cold.

You might ask, "What do you do with it?"

Well, to enrich an otherwise boring dish of perhaps just fried potatoes,

you chop this up into little pieces, add some parsley.

Again, this word "hachis" comes into the cooking around here, toss little

pieces of this with the bits of pork fat, into your potatoes,

and you have a fabulous meal

which hasn't really cost you very much money.

Again, a poor country that uses everything.

But the marketplace isn't just for buying lunch -

it's for a quick check on what's been happening last week,

for checking out any little deals that can be done, for seeing,

and of course, being seen.

We've got the chief of police with us, he's in disguise.

I think we'll be quite safe.

He's the guy with his sunglasses on his head.

Bernard is a kind of a godfather in this town, he knows everybody,

and you couldn't have a better guide.

Where are they now?

People are always asking me how we choose our locations.

Well, usually because the director likes the architecture,

but in this case, he chose Tremolat for these few shots of French

provincial life, simply because his great hero, a real film director,

Claude Chabrol, shot his macabre little masterpiece Le Boucher here.

Also, he liked this sign

showing a man drinking wine from his soup bowl -

kindred spirits, I can tell you.

Right, that sums up the area,

so let's go and do a little cooking sketch now.

Of course, cooking sketches need kitchens and so, after a few

agonising seconds in the tourist office, we came up with this one.

I thought it would be really good to show you a typical Perigord meal,

the sort of meal that an ordinary family has on holidays,

feast days, birthdays and things like that.

We found, in our usual way, by tripping around the place,

we ran into somebody called Mme Moulin, and her husband M Moulin,

who are farmers and they open up the house from time to time

for visitors to come and sample

the simple country food of the region.

Anyway she's one of those ladies who, bit of a tartar,

a bit precise, doesn't like film crews interrupting her work

which she takes very seriously, so I'm letting them get on with it

while I'm just sitting here having a slight glass of wine

and later on, when she's ready,

and if she's in a bit of a better mood,

we'll try and get in and see exactly what she's doing.

Husbands please note the happy acquiescent attitude of M Moulin,

sitting here, pretending to be helping his wife making the soup.

One word from her, like "Henri!" and he was there, obediently.

She made us this amazing soup. It's just sort of bacon, cabbage,

water and onions, thickened with egg yolks,

looks absolutely appalling.

You've pour it over stale bread.

Surprisingly enough, it tastes absolutely delicious.

# It does not take a knife to make this grand potage

# With onions, pain et beaucoup de cabbage

# La la la la... #

In Perigord, they call this soup "la touraine".

Mrs Beeton calls it "soup for the poor and needy".

However, it is very good but much less good was this dreadful dish

of stewed gizzards, made with M Moulin's home-made red wine.

It was FOWL, if you'll pardon the pun.

What is particularly good, however, is the confit de canard.

Wonderful piece of duck, preserved in its own fat,

reheated in the oven until it is golden, crispy and fatty,

and it's absolutely superb.

But it's best in the winter.

OK, what we're doing here is making what we call a very simple

Perigord omelette of cepes, you see, wild mushrooms.

Clive, come down and have a close look at these cepes

which have been preserved over the winter in their own juices

and now they are being passed through... Oh, oh.

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

Sorry about that. Look, we will start again.

I've already had a row with the crew this morning,

the lighting man isn't feeling very well,

I'm trying to speak in two languages for five different people

who don't understand any damn thing and the fat's getting too hot. Right.

Starting from the top.

Clive, you like me, don't you? Stay with me nicely.

These are cepes, wild mushrooms which have been preserved throughout

the winter in their own juices in an airtight container.

We've just put them into the oven with some goose fat

and warmed them through.

We've chopped into that some fresh garlic and some fresh parsley

and now, using the typical fat of the region -

with the old dragon peering over my shoulder - which is goose fat,

by the way, we put it onto the stove like that.

Ca va comme ca? Ca va.

Il faut battre.

If you didn't know how to make an omelette, you know now.

"Il faut battre. Ca veut dire..."

That's, "so you must beat the eggs". Well, we all know that.

Un peu comme ca.

We've already put salt and pepper in.

Ils ont deja sale et poivre? Oui. Vous versez un peu.

Oui. Et avec la spatule, vous...

Clive, this is a very important bit. This is how to make an omelette.

Pas tout d'un seul coup. Voila. Comme ca.

Voila. Allez... Allez-y par la.

And here we go, we're making a fine and frothy omelette.

These are free-range eggs, by the way,

notice pour over the little bits of liquid to the edge.

Get it like that. Ca va? Ca va, ca va.

Bon. Now I've got to mix up the cepes in there.

Il faudra peut-etre quelques cepes.

Quelques cepes into there. Some cepes - that means some cepes.

Pas tous, parce qu'apres, il faudra faire une autre.

Oh, yes, I am not allowed to put them all in

because this is for demonstration purposes only

and she wants to keep the ones for her own lunch.

Voila. Right, and it's like that.

Un peu plus? Un peu plus.

Et puis, apres vous prenez une assiette pour la retourner.

D'accord.

We must look beyond it a little tiny bit runny in the middle

otherwise it won't be good enough, and we then just fold it...

Oh, oh! J'aurais pas fait comme ca, moi.

Ca va, ca va, oui.

I'd like her to come to England and cook a roast beef

and Yorkshire pudding with my mother standing over her shoulder like that.

Ca peut aller ou pas? La presentation est bonne.

La presentation est bonne. The presentation is good.

Ca manque quoi, alors? Moi, j'aurais fait un peu differement, mais...

Well, montrez-moi. Allez-y, allez-y.

Oh, mais... Oh!

If you're so good at it lady, you cook it. OK? Bon.

Clive, can we just spare a second, please?

We are now going to see a real omelette au cepes.

Faite par la maitresse de cette superbe maison - Mme Moulin.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present omelette au cepes,

cooked by Mme Moulin.

The essential difference there is that she cooked hers on both sides,

but that is, actually, if I may say so, a peasant way

of cooking an omelette because that omelette can be served cold

and it's tougher and stronger, it could be carried into the fields.

The way I made mine is more in line with the way you'd like to

have your dinner parties, with a softer, fluffier interior.

I won't dispute with her whose was the best.

Both have the same good ingredients two different ways, OK?

Yours looked good to me, Keith.

As ever on Best Bites, we're looking back at some of the tastiest recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue.

Still to come on today's Best Bites,

Rick Stein made no bones about dreading the omelette challenge

when he faced Francesco Mazzei at the hobs, but would either of them

improve their times?

Find out in just a few minutes' time.

Lawrence Keogh treats us to a warming British classic.

He makes steamed steak and onion pudding,

served with creamy mashed potato and a bone marrow gravy.

And the great Freddie Flintoff faces food heaven or food hell.

Would he get his food heaven,

haddock goujons, chips and tartar sauce?

Or would he get his dreaded food hell,

harissa chicken and potato stew with a herb and chickpea salad?

You can find out what he gets to eat at the end of today's show.

Now, when the talented Tom Aikens paid us a visit to the studio,

he cooked one of the lightest looking dishes we'd ever seen

on Saturday Kitchen, but he served it on possibly the heaviest plate.

Have a look at this.

Good to have you on, I've been looking forward to this.

Me too. What are we cooking?

We're cooking this lovely fresh piece of sea bass,

which is going to be baked

in the oven with some lime zest and some lime juice and olive oil.

We are going to make an apple puree with lime juice and lime zest,

a little bit of sugar, and the sauce, finally,

is fish stock, cream, lemon grass - very simple.

Lemon grass. So, first things first. What are you going to do? Puree?

Take these lovely two apples here, chop them up,

a couple of limes, a bit of juice.

With the skin on, the lot? Yes.

All on, chop chop. Bit of water. Lovely.

What I'm going to do is get on and make the sauce... Yes.

..which is just fish stock, cream, some bashed lemon grass

and a bit of lemon juice.

Simple as that. These are Granny Smiths, yes?

Yes, they are.

I use those just cos they're just a little bit more sharp,

a bit of acidic taste just to freshen it up a little bit.

Right. So where did your love of food come from?

Basically I sort of, I guess, when I was a lot younger... Yes.

..in my teens, my mother was a very good cook.

She used to do a lot of home baking at home

and we always used to help out as much as we could

and then my father, he was in the wine business, and we would go

quite often off to France for family holidays and things... Yes.

And sort of, from there, generally got into cooking.

Mother and father were absolutely horrified at the prospect

of their two sons going into cooking

but I think we've done pretty well.

So they are not complaining any more.

Definitely not complaining!

So, I have just chopped up that lemon grass, boshed him in there.

And then bring him up to a slow simmer.

Now, you trained... What was it?

What did you train in? Classic French?

Yes, all classically French.

I mean, since I left college at the tender age of 18,

I then came down to London and worked mainly in, well,

all in Michelin restaurants, and all classically French trained.

Which is probably one of the most famous ones at that particular time,

La Tante Claire with Pierre Koffmann. Pierre Koffmann, yes.

He's a great guy. An amazing chef.

I really loved working for him.

And then you worked with another very, very famous chef, who's just

opened a restaurant in London, in France, in Paris. Joel Robuchon.

Yes, L'Atelier...

It has been open about two months now and it is amazing,

he's an amazing chef.

I mean, when I was there, working in Paris, I was there for a year

and it was absolutely incredible, I learnt a hell of a lot.

Very, very long hours... No sleep, yes? Yes, exactly.

The usual thing with us crazy chefs, no sleep.

Right, so we have got loads of stuff going on here,

so I have got my apples with a bit of lime juice,

lime zest and some sugar and a bit of water. That's cool.

Let that cool down. Then what have you got here?

That is the fish stock, the cream, lemon grass.

I'm just going to stick a little bit of...

If you want, cut that in half, and just give me a squeeze

of juice in there and what I'm doing here, I've got olive oil,

some lime zest and I'm going to slice this fish

fairly thinly on there. In here? Yeah.

I'm just going to lay that on there.

So, this way of cooking fish,

I mean, is this the way you cook it in your restaurant? Yes, sometimes.

It's just sort of, I guess,

a little bit of a healthier way of doing it and also simple.

If you don't have any frying pans at home, this is the way to go.

Is that for all of the Chelsea set then? Well, you know, could be.

JAMES LAUGHS

Lighter way and easier way of eating, yes, indeed.

Now, the bass that you've got in here,

is that sort of line-caught or farmed?

It is, it's line-caught sea bass.

Oh, it's escaping.

The smaller ones that people would buy, say, from a supermarket.

Yes, they're all farmed sea bass under about 450g.

How do you feel about farmed bass?

It's all... I mean, it's all going to happen in a few more years -

we are all going to be eating farmed fish, I'm afraid to say,

which isn't great prospect. What about bass?

It's got worse over the years. It's like most farmed fish,

when they start out, they're experimenting,

the quality's really quite high and then,

as they get into the more intensive production, the quality dips off

and the problem with all farmed fish is

they put too much oil in the feed and it makes them grow too quick.

I have to say, I have to say, particularly, I mean,

catching bass, I mean, I go fishing quite a lot on the south coast,

there's loads and loads of bass.

Some days we can be out and catch 100 or 150 sea bass. Really?

The big ones on a line. You catch them with live mackerel.

You use mackerel as a live bait. They tell you they're disappearing.

That is lime juice, lime zest and salt.

In the oven, two or three minutes and then it will be ready.

So that just goes, what? Onto a hot tray? Hot tray. Simple as.

Easy as that.

So tell us a little bit, I mean, you have got one restaurant

in Chelsea and another one that's just opened.

What's the other one like?

Well, the one that I've just opened literally two weeks ago

is a more very simple sort of casual eatery, all-day dining, or will be.

What's that called, Tom?

It's called Tom's Kitchen.

A bit of free marketing there.

That's just going to be all sort of home style,

sort of comfort food, so lots of home roasts, macaroni cheese,

burgers, grills, steaks, soups, salads, casseroles.

Macaroni cheese, huh? Macaroni cheese.

I make a wicked macaroni cheese. Sausages and mash.

You know, stuff that we all like to eat at home, you know?

Sort of family dinners and lunches, that kind of stuff.

You've got somewhere else to eat, Tom. There you go.

So, we are going to just... That's it, we can sit and relax.

What goes on here? You've got...

Have you put any sugar in there? No sugar.

No sugar. Back here. Yes.

We're just going to reduce that down. Just a touch of sugar.

So, this is just going to give a bit of acidity to the fish

and once we reduce that down,

we'll put a little bit of olive oil and that's it.

And then to garnish it,

I'm just going to do a few of these fresh herbs here.

So we've got some chervil, some dill and we've got some tarragon,

so all I'm going to do is just pick a little bit of that.

Now, is this the type of stuff that you've got in your new book?

Yes, the book that I've done is not a typical chef's book,

it's things you can actually do at home and create at home,

so a lot of the recipes are sort of

home roasts, soups, stews, casseroles.

There are some nice sort of dinner party pieces as well,

that you could do as well, but it's mainly sort of

things that you can knock up in 15 or 20 minutes, 45 minutes.

Nice, simple stuff.

Simple stuff and it sort of teaches as well, the way that

I shop myself and how I look at food and it's very interesting.

So, can I blitz this up now? Yes, you can blitz that. Away you go.

Fish should almost ready as well and then we're ready to plate.

There we go. Just blending this lovely apple puree up.

Then, when you've done that,

if you want to give that a little pass and then it'll be ready.

Check the fish.

There we go. Blitz that.

Fish will be a minute. OK.

Perfect planning.

I am working today. There you go.

Blitz this up. Yes. Blitz him up.

So this is just the lemon grass. Yes, that's the lemon grass,

a little bit of lemon juice, fish stock and cream.

I love lemon grass. You do? Love it, love it.

Very refreshing, very light.

I believe it's native to sort of southern India

but it's got a beautiful, beautiful...

It's been around for years.

So, what we're going to do with this is just put a little dabble

underneath this, so this will just go underneath the fish.

A little bit of that, some of that.

So this slate's quite interesting. It is.

I got it off the roof at work. Do you serve stuff like that at work?

On slate? Yes, sometimes, yeah.

Just a little bit different Your waiting staff...

Always want to be different.

You waiting staff must love you, Tom.

The weight of it! Yes, they do.

Get two of those on a tray and it saves them going to the gym!

Anyway, reduce that down, just to a syrup.

A little bit of olive oil.

That's ready. OK, so what's next?

Fish when I get it out of the oven.

I'm going all cheffy, I'm making a froth.

That would be a nice froth.

A bit of froth. A bit of frothing.

So...

Are these the type of dishes that you learned in France or are you

just basically adapting them along the way?

No, just adapt them as you go along.

A little bit more lime.

This is quite trendy at the moment, isn't it? The old froth business.

Yeah. There you go. What's next?

Perfect, right, we're done. Fish on.

You want to put a touch of olive oil,

a bit of salt, a bit of lemon.

Touch of olive oil. A bit of salt.

Yes.

There you go.

Mix it around.

And then take this, little drizzle over there, over the fish.

Oh, look at that. Not bad.

Don't worry if you haven't got a slate at home, put on a plate.

Exactly!

There we go. Or eat it on your roof, yeah! Yeah.

Go around to your neighbours and hack away at his roof.

I'm sure they'll be so happy. So simple and so light.

And then just a few herbs.

Tom, that is fantastic. The ladies over there are going to love it.

The ladies are going to love it. I don't know about the blokes.

Don't know about the blokes but... That's fantastic.

Remind us what that is again.

So we've got baked sea bass which has got lime juice and lime zest on it.

You've got the apple puree, again with lime juice and lime zest,

and the sauce, the fish stock the cream, lemon grass,

lemon juice and the fresh herbs. Tom, it's been worth the wait.

You're a star. No problem. Thanks very much.

Pick it up. Let's go.

Right. LAUGHTER

Ready? Ready, I'm ready.

I don't know if you're going to pass this down,

you might want to slide it down, but dive in. It looks amazing.

You will have to push it down instead of lifting. Look at that.

Beautiful. What about if people can't get...

The effect and the flavours are fantastic but if people want to mix

and match the seafood, what other fish would you recommend? Mackerel.

Mackerel's very good. Really? Cut with the apple.

It's got to be absolutely fresh, fresh, fresh. Yes, fresh as.

That works really well. Really, really well.

It has a tang to it. It is real fusion food, though, isn't it?

The cream and the lemon grass.

I mean, I like Thai food as well, you know.

I've been to Thailand a few times and picked things up here and there.