29/11/2015 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning, it's time to turn the heat up in the kitchen

and get ready for the next 90 minutes of mouthwatering cooking inspiration.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've a whole host of top chefs cooking fabulous food for you

this morning, as well as celebrity guests galore.

You won't want to miss it.

Coming up on today's show:

Francesco Mazzei brings some Italian spice to the table with his 'nduja-crusted cod.

Claire Smith celebrates great British produce with a delicious

dish of duck breast, creamy Savoy cabbage and roasted apple.

She pan-roasts the duck breasts

and brushes it with a spicy glaze before serving.

James Tanner cooks a tasty Torbay sole, which he serves with

a red wine sauce, chanterelle mushrooms and creamed potato.

He fillets the sole and then pan-fries it in a hot pan

along with some mushrooms and a squeeze of lemon juice.

And actress Sarah Hadland faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven,

a chocolate fondant with salted caramel sauce?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell,

a truffle pithivier, with a Madeira reduction.

And you can find what she gets to eat at the end of today's show.

Our first chef has worked with the likes of Gordon Ramsay

and Marcus Wareing, but for almost a decade,

he's been making waves of his own by the Cornish coast.

He is the tremendously talented Mr Paul Ainsworth.

-Great to have you on the show, Paul.

-Good morning, James. Yeah.

-Now, what are we cooking then? We're not cooking fish...

-No.

..which is the area you're famous for.

-We've also got some amazing lamb down in Cornwall.

-You have.

So, we're going to do here, the shoulder.

-You want me to do...make a little salsa verde?

-Salsa verde, please.

Which is parsley, a little bit of parsley, some mint...

-Yeah.

-That's going to get thrown in there as well.

-So I've got the shoulder here...

-Yep.

-..which I really, really like.

A lot of people have not sort of seen or used a shoulder,

-I think because it's a bit fattier than the leg.

-Yeah.

But I think once you use it, it's much bigger flavour.

-So, that's the shoulder.

-And we just brine... Yeah, that's the shoulder.

You brine that in star anise, and bits and pieces.

Yeah, star anise, lemon, thyme, rosemary, sugar.

Brown sugar, for a bit of molasses flavour.

-How long have you done that for, then?

-24 hours.

-Right.

So, it's firmed it up, really concentrated the flavour.

We've really got that nice kind of...

We do it with all the meats now at the restaurant.

-And some fish as well, salting and brining beforehand.

-OK.

-Now, you've put that in duck fat.

-That's right.

-Straight in there.

So, it's just really easy.

There's no making stocks or roasting vegetables.

It's just straight into duck fat.

Sort of about... That's about 80 degrees, just warm.

Then we're going to go straight into the oven for four hours at 85.

Now, you gently cook that like what you do for the duck confit.

So, that's to slowly cook it in fat, the word confit,

-which can be done in oil as well, can't it?

-Yeah, absolutely.

And when that's ready, you don't have to use that straightaway.

Because it's like a duck,

that can just stay in fat like a no larder ingredient.

So, here's one that's been cooked for four hours in fat.

So, as you can see, it just pulls away lovely.

And the great thing about this, you can control the amount of fat.

So that lamb now is just delicious.

It had that's lovely brining,

so that's why the meat's not a dull grey.

It's nice and...

That's come like that. So, I'm just picking it down.

I want a bit of fat through there so it's not too lean.

So, I'm just going to break that up to make the mix.

I'm not going to break it down too much, either.

-There's your salsa verde, which has just been blended.

-Thank you, James.

-Now, you want me to get on and do the beetroot for this.

-Yeah.

So, the beetroot was an idea, it's a bit like a jacket potato.

So, we're just going to cut it down, not all the way,

like a jacket potato.

Olive oil, seasoning.

-Some Pedro Ximenez, like a sweet Spanish sherry reduced.

-OK.

-It gives it a nice depth of flavour.

-Right.

In my lamb, and is going to take a little bit of this salsa verde.

-Can you do that with any root vegetables, Paul?

-Yeah.

We do it with butternut squash, just roast it,

-it keeps all the flavour in there.

-It looks lovely, that.

Don't tell him too much, he'll have it on his restaurant menu over

the other side of the water there!

I've already texted someone.

You've already texted somebody?! Tell us about your restaurant.

How did you end up down in Cornwall, anyway?

How did you end up down there?

I met someone about seven years ago, Derek, my business partner.

We've got Number 6 and another restaurant

-called Rojano's in the square down there.

-Right.

And he, years ago, had some properties down there

and basically knew that Padstow was a really thriving area

and very up-and-coming.

And, obviously, Rick's done wonders for it and a great job.

It was just, er...

He always said, there's a space down there, not to sort of compete,

or something like that,

just to go down there and complement it and join the restaurant scene.

-Yeah.

-And then it's just... Nathan and Jamie down the road

and there's lots of great restaurants down there.

Cos the restaurant that you've got the Michelin star at is Number 6.

That's right, yeah.

-And that's a recent Michelin star. You got it in October this year?

-Yeah, yeah, lovely surprise.

It was the week before the guide was due to be released,

got a phone call saying that we'd won a Michelin star which was...

yeah, an absolute lifetime achievement.

I just couldn't believe it.

Is the goal to get two now?

PAUL CHUCKLES

No, quite happy maintaining one at the moment.

How do you win a Michelin star?

Does someone literally just come in, eat a bit of food and go,

"Right, definitely that's worth a Michelin star"?

-Erm...

-It's kind of...ish.

Kind of, yeah. I think it might be slightly more detailed.

Not any person. Obviously someone from Michelin

and not the tyre company.

-This is the beetroot, you're going to bake that now.

-Yeah.

-So you want to get that in.

-The beetroot in the oven.

So the idea of the pastilla is the filo pastry holds the meat in,

so you've got this lovely lamb mix that we've made. Then we're going to

wrap it in the filo pastry, James,

and then what we've got here is like a Chinese mandolin,

which are easily available to get hold of.

-Yes.

-And then fryer.

This is the last time you lot are coming from Cornwall.

Can't you just do Cornish pasty?

Right, next.

-So just making some potato string here.

-Right.

-OK.

-Beetroot's ready.

-Yeah.

-So we've got a plain salad now, yeah?

Salad.

Yes, pea shoots, we're just going to put those on last.

Like that, so we get rid of that.

Now, these... They use these for the daikon radish, don't they? In...

-Yeah.

-..sushi restaurants.

Yeah, we do it with beetroot and potato but it's really nice

because it adds a lovely kind of nice texture to the dish.

We use something like a Maris Piper or a potato

that we have down there called Lovers.

Lovers? Yeah, lovers.

-CORNISH ACCENT:

-All right, my lover?

-Luv-urs?

Yeah. Luv-urs.

So one that just kind of...a low sugar content

and crisps up really nice.

A little bit of butter on the potato.

Right, that's your beetroot, you want to serve that in the tinfoil?

Yeah, I just want to keep that in the tinfoil just to hold that

-lovely flavour in there.

-That's pretty good.

And then tell us about this,

what you're going to put on there or what I'm going to put on there.

What is this stuff?

This here is a... So a sheep's milk curd.

So we're just going to add a little bit of cracked pepper to it, OK?

-And then a bit of lemon juice, James. And that's it.

-No problem.

So the lamb in there like that and it's just like a spring...

It's just like a spring roll.

-Like that. OK?

-Right.

-A little bit of butter down the side

-and you fold the sides in so the mix doesn't leak on you...

-Right.

..and pop out the sides. Like that.

And then just wrap it up.

This is where that cut of meat is particularly good for this.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's great. It's a nice way of serving it.

You can get ahead if you're doing it at home, just put it away.

And then we just get the potato like that, James.

Just take a load out like that.

And then just literally bind it round.

Like that. And the pastry keeps it nice and...

The pastry keeps it nice and tight in

and then the potato goes lovely and we just dust it with

a little bit of salt when it comes out the fryer

and a little bit of cumin.

So, like you said, you can make these in advance.

I mean this one's been frying away now.

-Which we can take out.

-Yeah.

Another couple of minutes. You want these for about three minute?

Yeah, just until they go lovely and golden.

I mean, the lamb just warms inside, it's just steaming.

Now, whereas Nathan's purely fish, you're doing mix-and-match.

You're doing this...

Yeah, that's right.

I just sort of like to showcase, you know,

in Cornwall we've got some brilliant artisan suppliers

and producers and stuff and we've got great duck and brilliant...

We use a fantastic butchers in Launceston for great pork,

lovely lamb like what we've got here.

So, yeah, we've got some brilliant suppliers down there.

I just like to showcase... Cornwall's got brilliant fish

-but we've also got other great ingredients as well.

-Yeah.

Because we saw you on obviously The Great British Menu,

people probably recognise you from there, where you did this

sort of wacky dessert, didn't you?

Fairground, yeah, fairground dessert, yeah.

So, yeah, that was a great moment to sort of win that, it was brilliant.

Right, well, there you go.

There you are, they're nice and crispy like that.

-These are done for you. I'll pop that one on there.

-Brilliant.

Just a little bit of...

-A little bit of seasoning.

-Yup.

-OK?

I like to put cumin in but I like it to hit the plate as well, so...

-Have you got a serrated knife there?

-Serrated knife.

THEY LAUGH

-Serrated knife.

-Chop chop!

I've got a knife, it's not serrated. Oh, yes, I've got one.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

So, again, nice and crispy and I like to serve the end bits as well,

they're just great, nice texture.

You can see, like, the lamb inside just...

cooks like that. And then I'll take a little bit of the...

-It's a sausage roll, isn't it, Paul?

-Yeah, it is. It is a sausage...

There's little bit of the salsa verde like that,

-so as you're eating it, you get...

-Burgers, sausage roll.

-Yeah.

So, just like that.

One on there like that.

Just have them down.

-Little bit of...

-What are you after?

-Olive oil.

-Olive oil, yeah.

-It's...

Like that.

What is this, that I put in the beetroot? What was that?

-Pedro Ximenez.

-Right.

-So, again...

-Sounds like a Spanish golfer.

-Yeah. Yeah.

-So, that's the reduction that you've got in there.

-Yeah.

So, tell us what... That looks fabulous.

-So, we've got baked beetroot...

-Yeah.

..topped with sheep's milk curd, ewes' milk curd.

Lamb pastilla, potato, and salsa verde.

It's a well-deserved Michelin-star chef. Brilliant.

-And you can relax now.

-Phew.

You've not actually taken a breath throughout the whole of that,

-have you?

-No, I haven't, no.

-You've got to dive into this.

-That looks well nice.

-Oh, wow.

-Looks delicious, doesn't it, really?

-Looks amazing.

Yeah, and that beetroot. Great way of cooking it.

I mean, I cook it with salt as well, that salt crust,

-like you were saying, in tinfoil.

-Here we go first.

Great way for this Christmas as well.

Do you do something like that with all the leftovers

that you've got at Christmas?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, with filo.

Yeah, you could do that with turkey and a cranberry dip.

-Make it more interesting than it actually is.

-Yeah, yeah.

-But you get the...

-I can't talk.

-This is the nuts. The nuts.

-LAUGHTER

That lamb was deliciously tender,

and the baked beetroot was absolutely bursting with flavour.

A real cracking plate of food.

Coming up, I cook Yorkshire puddings with onion gravy for Adam Garcia,

after Rick Stein takes us to a snail festival in southern Catalonia,

along with 12,000 other people.

It takes a long time to get there.

Ever eastwards,

the sun is three times as hot now as it was in damp, rainy Galicia

where I started my journey, over a fortnight ago.

Navarre is blessed with an extremely fertile landscape.

It has the damp, west wind from where I've just come from,

the protection of the Pyrenees to the north,

and the warmth of the Mediterranean breezes coming from the east.

And to top it all, you've got the water from the mighty River Ebro.

And that's why the region is known as the vegetable capital of Spain.

The flat land of rich, eluvial soil

has been chopped into small plots called huertas.

Here, it seems anything will grow.

The town of Tudela is the commercial centre

at this garden of Spain.

It was founded by the Romans, and like virtually the whole

of Spain, once Rome fell, it was governed for centuries by the Moors.

It's a rare thing to see three distinctive styles

of architecture nestling together, separated by hundreds of years -

Roman, Moorish, and Christian.

In fact, it was the Romans who named this river the Ebro.

'Today, I'm meeting Floren and his wife Mercedes -

'vegetable growers who supply some of the top chefs in the restaurants

'in Spain, chefs who really put Spain on the culinary map.'

-Artichokes.

-HE SPEAKS SPANISH

-What is it in Spanish?

-Alcachofa.

-Alcachofa.

-Alcachofa.

-Great.

-These are beans.

-Oh, broad beans, I love them.

-Yes.

I've just discovered you supply Ferran Adria and Juan Mari Arzak

-with their vegetables.

-Adria, Arzak, si.

So you're the vegetable king.

He start 25 years ago,

so when Juan Mari is not so famous,

Ferran Adria is not so famous, they start too,

so they, all of them start together,

-so they grow up together.

-So you're all...

You're all a formation of the Nouvelle Cocina.

Yeah, Nouvelle, si.

So, now, Catalonia.

And it's moments like this

when I realise I can't live without seeing the sea.

It's so important to me.

I've been longing for this moment,

ever since we left the mountains of the Basque country.

This is home to the world-famous El Bulli restaurant,

but I'm not going there.

Instead, I've been invited to join Rafa

and his restaurateur friends, a few hundreds yards away,

in a quiet cove, with the heady scents of warm olive oil and garlic.

I must say, this filming's an odd sort of thing sometimes.

I mean, for weeks now, we've been in the rain

and the cold of northern Spain, and trying to find a sunny day,

and suddenly find ourselves here, the north of Catalonia.

I can remember coming through this part of Spain in the '60s,

and it was all like this, really - in my memory, of course.

But, I mean, a lovely day, nice people, lovely food, real food.

I'm going to see how they make salsa romesco for the first time.

Really looking forward to that.

Happy as Larry.

All the magic of this famous sauce takes place in a mortar.

Crushed garlic, almonds and fried bread,

cooked until crisp in olive oil,

and then fried livers - monkfish livers -

which is really important when you use the salsa in a fish stew.

That's all smashed up in the mortar.

Now, they tear off fresh parsley, and add the fried bread.

I think this is what cooking and creating flavours should be about.

When I arrived, I saw tomatoes on the barbecue.

They're skinned, and pulped, most satisfyingly,

and then the flesh from the roasted romesco peppers.

That, in all its golden Catalan glory, is a salsa romesco.

Rafa, my host, starts to make another iconic Catalan dish,

called a fideua.

Vermicelli-like pasta is toasted in a pan,

with oil and cloves of garlic, until they become golden.

Well, Catalonia has strong links to Italy.

In another corner of this fisherman's house,

a mate of Rafa's barbecues the new season's green asparagus.

And now, for the all-important fish stew.

Chunks of red gurnard and monkfish, dusted in flour,

are fried in olive oil.

What's really nice about this, is that they are all friends.

They're all restaurateurs, but I think one's got a disco,

but maybe he or she cooks at the disco.

One of them cooks at El Bulli, which is just around the corner,

but what I really like about it is they're all good cooks,

so I'm picking up tonnes of stuff, and I know that everything

they cook will be the best possible dish, so I'm very excited.

Once the fish is fried and put to one side,

the pan is deglazed with fish stock,

and then in goes some romesco paste.

That's all mixed together, and immediately sieved,

to achieve a smoother sauce for the stew.

Finally, the fish goes back, and remember,

they've chosen fish which Rafa refers to as "duro" -

that means it won't break up in the cooking.

While that simmers, Rafa finishes off the fideua

by ladling in fish caldo - fish stock.

I've just been talking to Rafa,

and he's saying that dishes like this, these fish dishes,

originated from the fishermen.

I mean, basically, they would just be coming home from sea, got all...

Sorted all their good fish for market,

and kept all the little ones for making a stew for themselves,

and they'd just boil up, sometimes in seawater,

with whatever was available -

olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, sometimes a pinch of saffron -

and that would be a dish.

And now, they fetch big money in top restaurants.

-OK...

-MAN SPEAKS SPANISH

I think I'm right in what Rafa's just said,

cos I wondered why he was putting this newspaper on top of this pan,

and he said, "It's just to scare the little vermicellis".

Yeah?

It's to scare them, and they all come up like this,

so they're all pointing upwards.

Maybe you put them in the dark, and they're saying,

"Where's the light, where's the light?"

-Yeah, yeah.

-That's right.

-Oh!

And sure enough, as the little pasta pieces soak up the stock,

they begin to point upwards,

like delicate little flowers searching for sunlight.

-'Finally, it's time for lunch.'

-CHEERING

'Late, even by Spanish standards.'

'The fideua is traditionally served with alioli,

a fiercely garlicky mayonnaise,

which works so well with a pasta

that has soaked up a good fish stock.

THEY SPEAK SPANISH

LAUGHTER

Excellent. Really good.

Rafa's just said, what's lovely about occasions like this

is not just the food, it's to be here with all his friends,

who love his cooking as well.

This is the most important. This is the most important.

After eating the fideua, it was time for the fish stew,

which has been cooked with that fabulous romesco sauce,

and it didn't disappoint.

With great food like this,

everyone got into the celebratory spirit.

It may be to do with all the wine they had while making lunch,

but in this part of the world, next to their love of food,

it's football, and their beloved Barcelona.

THEY CHANT: Barca! Barca! Bar-ca!

Wherever there's sun, there's celebration.

Further south in Catalonia, in the town of Lleida,

they hold the biggest snail festival I've ever seen.

Thousands of people travel for miles

to celebrate their passion for the humble caracoles.

I'm very pleased that the Spanish's love of a good party

extends to snails,

-cos I love snails.

-PARADE MUSIC PLAYS

People either love them or absolutely hate them.

Really, in the same sort of way as people love or hate oysters.

And, of course, on the sea, on the coast where I live,

there's endless oyster festivals,

but it's great that here at Lleida,

there's a snail festival,

and this weekend, they get through 12 tonnes of snails,

and that is so many snails, there's not enough of them in Spain,

so they have to get them from North Africa and South America.

'Before I came here, I'd only had snails the French way,

'cooked in garlic, butter and parsley,

'but I lost count of how many different ways

'they cook them over here.'

I'm just trying to catch up in all things Catalan

and doing a bit of reading,

and came across an author,

which I must confess, I knew nothing about him,

but he's easily the most famous author,

certainly writing in Catalan, probably, in the 20th century,

but probably in Spanish as well -

Josep Pla -

and I discovered he's really enthusiastic about food and drink.

He was a real... really loved old whiskys.

And he wrote this thing which, really, I really like,

which says, "cooking is an art which transforms things

"in an amiable and discreet manner",

which I think is, really, what I think about food.

Also, he thought nothing of sitting down

and eating 300 snails at one sitting.

THEY PLAY TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Mmm.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, I'm just beginning to get the hang of eating these snails,

cos you have to just twist them out of the shell,

and then just pinch the last bit off, which is...

I mean, it's not...

It's not anything nasty,

but it just isn't as nice-tasting as the rest, as the main muscle.

But Rafael was just saying,

there's going to be 12,000 people eating snails here today.

I mean, I wonder how many you get in the UK.

I'm not knocking the UK.

I mean, I don't mind that people don't like snails,

but it just seems to me to be so wonderfully Spanish,

that you can get 12,000 people coming here, drinking,

enjoying themselves, eating snails.

I mean, where else in the world?

I mean, isn't there something a bit special about a country

that 12,000 people come to eat snails together?

I think there is.

'Now, this is what I like about Spain.

'They actually love being together in a crowd.

'It seems the bigger the crowd,

-'the happier they are.'

-CHEERING

'Here, there are thousands of enthusiasts,

'who don't necessarily know each other,

'but are united in their love for the humble snail.

'Salud.'

Thanks, Rick. Now, this week's masterclass,

I thought I'd demonstrate something

that I probably get asked about more than anything to do with food -

how to make the perfect Yorkshire pudding -

and for that, it's not my recipe, to be honest.

It's actually my grandmother's. My late grandmother's.

Granny Smith.

-Granny Smith.

-Another apple there?

It wasn't an apple, but, yeah, Granny Smith.

She knew how to cook proper food - in particular, Yorkshire puddings.

Now, you start off here, and she would always use lard, all right?

-Good, northern...

-Lard, pig fat, basically, or dripping.

One of the two. Dripping, obviously, is beef fat,

but that is a must.

There wasn't such a thing as goose fat and duck fat when we were a lad.

It was lard or dripping. So, you put that in there.

425 degrees Fahrenheit.

On her oven, it was full-on.

On the old enamel gas stove, with the little red dials on it, full-on.

And then, basically, what you do is you get that quite hot,

and the filling for this is...

This is where it's quite controversial, but I think it works,

and we still use this recipe today in the restaurant,

so, we use flour, 8oz plain flour, eight eggs.

-That's a lot of eggs.

-Now this is...it's a lot of eggs,

but we were also farmers, so we had a lot of chickens.

But this... To me, it just works every time,

because Yorkshire puddings should be firm on the outside,

and soft in the centre,

so they shouldn't be, sort of, solid all the way through.

They shouldn't be too soft on the outside.

They should be crisp, just to hold their shape, and soft in the middle.

So, you throw in all the eggs like that - always by hand.

A good pinch of salt. Mix it by hand.

She would have never had these fancy glass bowls.

She would always have those, sort of, the...

-You know, those old mixing bowls that your granny always had? Yeah.

-Yeah.

So, basically, she would mix this all together,

and it didn't matter about the lumps, either.

The secret of that is, you just mix this all together, like this.

Throw in a pint of milk in there.

And mix that.

All right.

-I'm becoming a master.

-Yeah.

-Even just by looking.

This is... This is... This is one portion, Adam, you see?

You don't get to be this sort of size, with smaller portions.

Have you ever tried a Yorkshire pudding before?

Oh, yeah, yeah, I've been here, like, 18 years,

so I was very swiftly schooled.

Have you been to Yorkshire and tried a Yorkshire pudding?

-I haven't.

-No, right.

Then... Then, you need to put that in the fridge,

and then this is what you end up with.

-It looks like dishwater at the moment, right.

-Yeah.

Yeah, it's not great, look, but if you mix this together...

Now, the secret behind this is,

if you make a batter with flour, particularly like pancake batter,

and you whisk it together, if firms up the flour.

Like with pancakes, you always leave pancake batter to rest,

before you cook it. This is exactly the same.

If you want a light Yorkshire pudding, you start off with this,

mix it together after it's been in the fridge, ideally overnight.

That's how you want to do it.

Alternatively, at least a couple of hours in the fridge.

And then come back over here with your Yorkshire pudding tins,

and while, they're still hot and they're preheated,

then you pour this mixture in the Yorkshire pudding tins,

and it should just sizzle as you pour this mixture in, which that's doing,

and the sizzling will actually cause it to rise straight away.

Three quarters full.

Close the oven door.

Very hot oven.

Close the oven door, and leave the oven for 15 minutes.

-OK.

-Open the oven door for ten seconds, close it.

Cook it for another ten minutes, then turn the temperature down.

-What's the opening door thing?

-You're drying it out.

You want to get rid of the steam.

You want the steam to rise, get rid of it,

because otherwise, too much steam will cause it to collapse.

And then you can slowly...

These have been reheated again,

-but these are Yorkshire puddings.

-Wow, they're massive.

Proper Yorkshire puddings, like that.

You have these wonderful little...

Now, depending on what tins you use, depends on that traditional shape.

-OK.

-But with these muffin tins, you're going to end up with

more like a dome shape, but the flatter the tin,

the more of the Yorkshire puddings you have with the hole in.

The difference is, you get them slightly smaller.

So I'm just going to make a standard gravy with that.

So, first of all, and like you said,

-you've been in the UK now 18 years.

-Mmm.

Never really been offstage, I suppose, in that 18 years?

It's been a while, yeah. I've done...

I came here because of the theatre

and sort of have been very lucky to work a lot in it.

You say lucky, but I mean, you've worked

so hard at it, from a boy that was brought up in...

Where's this place?

-Wah-roonga.

-Wahroonga.

-Where on earth is Wahroonga?

-Wahroonga is north...

erm, northern suburbs of Sydney.

-Right.

-So, I think it means the place of many trees,

-cos there are many trees.

-Right.

-Erm...

So, how would you go from that, then, into the enjoyment of dancing,

and particularly, doing it as a career? How do you...?

Yeah, not sure.

Just decided to do ballet cos a friend of mine was,

and we were mates, and he was like, "Come and do ballet."

And I was like, "All right."

Was that the done thing, in, sort of...

No, but I was so young at the time that I didn't know any different.

-Right.

-I was like six.

-And you're like, "I'll just go there."

-Yeah.

And found out I was quite good at it -

not brilliant but all right - but I really enjoyed it,

-and then I just sort of continued.

-Right.

And then I was very lucky that the school that was in Wahroonga...

-Yeah.

-..happened to have one of the best tap dancers in Australia,

a guy called Glenn Dumbrell,

and that's when I first sort of fell in love with tap dancing,

and then he knew people in the industry, and brought them to teach,

-and then I met them, and they took me to work, basically.

-Yeah.

They said, "You're good enough to come."

Took you to work, cos you were in a musical,

were you, in Australia, before you ever came over here?

-A couple of years.

-Yeah, a show called Hot Shoe Shuffle,

where I met a guy called Dein Perry,

who was basically my mentor for a long time. Another tapper.

-And then that...

-Another tapper.

-Another tapper.

-Another tapper.

And that got invited...

-Don't forget it.

-Yeah.

That got invited to come to London.

It was the first Australian musical

-to be invited to come to London.

-Right.

So I came here in '94, and that was it.

I sort of went, "Oh, wow, this is not like Sydney."

-Yeah.

-And just wanted to stay and try my luck.

What was it about...?

Did the West End draw you in, or what was it about?

It was. I mean, I never thought of actually...

When I was doing this show, I was still deferring university.

-I was doing a science degree at Sydney University.

-Yeah.

And I was like, I'll just go and do that,

and have a bit of an adventure, and I'll go back and do my science.

And then when I got to...

I think the.... I think it was...

Maggie Smith was in the theatre next door,

and I was sort of, like, "Oh, wow, that's pretty cool."

And then, you know, someone else,

and it's such a history, there's...

This is, like, the home of...

You know, England - legitimate West End theatre.

You say that, but your travels has brought you

all manner of different things - the Olympics.

To stand there on your own and do that.

That was the opening ceremony. It must've been...

That was pretty awesome.

-Awesome or scary?

-Absolutely terrifying.

-Right.

Genuinely terrifying, going up,

cos I had to come out of this lift by myself

and I didn't really think of it when I was doing the rehearsals,

then as I sort of came up, I got a peek at the 85,000 people

in the audience and I was like, "O....K."

It was the first time I've ever said, in a really un-Australian way,

"If there's a time to show off,

"now would be the time."

This is the Australian opening of the Olympics.

People would think they just missed it.

The Australian Olympics, yeah.

Of course, you've went from that into movies - Coyote Ugly,

all manner of different stuff.

You're back on stage now, so tell me about Kiss Me, Kate,

which is launching next week.

Yeah, we start previews down at the Old Vic in Waterloo on Tuesday 19th

and then we open on 27th, the week after that.

It's sort of one of those full-circle things -

when I came to London,

one of the first things I saw was Sunset Boulevard,

which was directed by Trevor Nunn, Sir Trevor Nunn.

I was like, "This is amazing,"

and I'd read about him, knew about him, obviously.

I'd said one of my goals was, "I'm going to stay here

"and I really want to work with Sir Trevor Nunn."

That was my...

And he's directed Kiss Me, Kate,

so I'm getting to work with Sir Trevor Nunn.

It contains old Cole Porter tunes and all manner of different stuff.

It's Cole Porter, yeah, it's the story of Taming Of The Shrew,

Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew, but done in a musical form,

so it's pretty cool and I'm down in the Old Vic,

which was the original national theatre

and where Olivier was and Richardson,

so it's one of these things

where it's really thrilling to be able to...

Yeah. But I believe it's the first musical ever to be performed there.

It is, they've never done a musical. They've done panto

and Sir Ian McKellen was down there doing a panto,

so this is their Christmas show, their very first musical

and Kevin Spacey, being the artist director, was like,

"It's time to put a musical in the Old Vic."

I'm certain you're going to get a lot of people coming to see it anyway.

I hope so.

You get to take some of these,

cos I know the cast of Kiss Me, Kate wanted some Yorkshire puddings.

They're all really good cooks.

-Except me.

-Except you.

They were all very thrilled

and, well, jealous and they thought I was undeserving,

being not a very good cook, to come on and get to sample...

Oh, well, there you go, eating it on their behalf. Dive into that.

That's classically a Yorkshire portion for a starter.

I don't even know how to...

What you do is you eat that first of all as a starter,

then you get it again for your main course.

-Yeah.

-And again for your third, with jam in.

Then you get...

Well, my mother gave us a Viennetta cos she wasn't very good at desserts,

but then you add Yorkshire pudding at the end

with honey and jam at the end.

-There it is.

-In theory, you'd eat about 20 Yorkshire puddings

-by the time you're done.

-It's a multifunction food source.

It's proper grub,

but if you eat all that, it might slow you down a bit this afternoon.

I don't mind, I have the perfect excuse.

-It is quite hot, you can see.

-Yeah, it's literally...

I don't have an asbestos...

But the idea is, if you see this,

they should be firm on the outside and soft, you see, in the middle.

That's the key to them and I think that's the eggs, I really do.

My granny was right on that and her bacon sandwiches were legendary,

but that...

That's...fluffy. It's eating...

It's like eating Northern clouds.

-LAUGHTER

-Whoa!

-Whoa!

Now he's turned into a poet!

Now, I must admit, no-one's ever described my Yorkshire puddings

as "Northern clouds", but I'll take that, Adam.

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 taking a look back at some of the tastiest dishes

from the Saturday Kitchen store cupboard.

Now, the fabulous Francesco Mazzei spices things up

when he brought in a very special spreadable salami. Oh, and some cod.

-Great to have you back on the show, boss.

-Thank you.

-What are we cooking?

We're cooking cod with 'nduja crust,

but as you know, we've prepared one already here.

'Nduja crust - this is it.

-This one, yes.

-This is the crust that we're going to make

-and we're going to put that on the top.

-Yep.

This fish needs to go in the oven for how long?

Six to eight minutes, cos it needs to cook.

OK, that's gone in there.

-OK, James, you're going to help me to do the paste now.

-Fire away.

-Run through the ingredients for our paste.

-Fennel seeds,

then anchovies, then capers.

Parsley, of course, egg white, use only the egg white cooked.

-Yeah.

-And the breadcrumbs, which we soak in this vinegar.

I'll use these fennel seeds here, cos you want these ground up first.

-Yep.

-There you go.

Fantastic.

We've got this beautiful salami here.

Yep. Tell us about this salami, cos this is special.

Yeah, as Rick was saying, it's like sobrasada, Spanish,

but slightly different, cos it's much more spicy.

We don't use smoky paprika in it, just peperoncino.

It's very common where we come from, this one - quite proud.

Calabria, Calabrese.

Just tell me about that, cos peperoncino,

they're a bit hot, aren't they?

They're very hot, very, very hot, so it's a bit like...

-There's those little ones, aren't there?

-Yeah, very little ones,

mostly red,

and I'm sure you know about Thai chilli, no?

-I certainly do.

-Pretty similar.

We put some capers here.

Is it quite often spicy round that neck of the woods of Italy?

If you think about Italy, you'd say they don't eat a lot of spice,

but you'd be amazed if you come to Calabria how much spice,

how much chilli we eat.

-Right.

-In everything. I'm going to slice this one.

I'll show you how beautiful this ingredient here is.

Look at that, it's just amazing.

It is very soft.

Very, very soft, so usually what we do, as I said,

-is mainly use pasta sauce.

-Yeah.

On stew. But it's a bit of a challenge

if we do use this one a bit with fish.

I'm going to slice a bit of bread now, cos I need to soak with the...

-I presume there's a lot of pork round there.

-A lot of pork.

Nearly every single family now, these days, kills a pig

and make its own salami.

-Can you eat it raw, Francesco?

-Sorry?

-Can you eat it raw?

This is not raw, this is slightly cured.

-Slightly smoked as well.

-Hung up.

It's very nice.

In the meantime, we'd like you to taste some.

OK? While the bread soaks there.

I'll get a plate.

Have a taste of it. It's very, very spicy, so be careful.

Debra's loving this, this is pate straight off.

THEY LAUGH

-You've got liver in there.

-Like a bit of breakfast.

No liver, no offal.

-Trust me.

-What's it made from?

It's made of 40% pork fat,

so not the lightest thing in the world.

-OK.

-And it's meat from the back of the leg,

from the shoulder, so very nice.

-There we go.

-So pork fat, leg and shoulder. He sold that, didn't he?

-There you go.

-Thank you very much.

Deborah's going, "Lovely, thank you very much for that breakfast(!)"

-There you go.

-We've got a bit of bread here.

-The bread that you've used is the liquid from...?

-Correct.

-Which is what?

-This is sultanas.

And moscatel vinegar.

-Right.

-A bit of balance with it.

I'll put this one back here.

-OK.

-OK, very, very nice.

-Looks very good.

-Happy with that?

Very happy with that.

Turn it to a paste, yep.

Just going to put a little bit of olive oil on the tray.

Olive oil, please. Extra virgin, always.

-That's really lovely.

-Do you like it?

-It is sobrasada.

It tastes almost the same to me.

The difference is the country, I presume.

That's from Spain, this is from Italy.

-Well...

-The last thing we had there, of course...

Where's this stuff from, where does it originate from?

-Is it Italian?

-It's Italian, but there is a lot of people saying...

THEY LAUGH

-They say Spanish, or the French...

-Nah, it's Spanish, Spanish.

It's Italian, we are proud of it.

It's not Spanish!

OK, very nice indeed there.

-Yep.

-Fantastic.

-What am I doing with this?

This one, I'm going to put in the broccoli,

so I'm going to clean the broccoli in the meantime.

We're going to saute the broccoli here.

This is ready. Do you want to get this...?

We'll put this one on top now.

There we go, I'll leave that with you.

That's nice, that's very well done, James.

Is this what you do for a living, yeah?

-Yeah, do you want the egg in there?

-The egg white, please.

Thank you. We'll just take the red part away.

OK, so we mix the white again.

A little bit of that in there, yeah?

We can mix it, yeah.

-Did you guys like it?

-Yeah, really good, actually.

-It's lovely on bread as well.

-Yeah, yeah.

Especially if you toast bread with some burrata cheese on top.

-Oh, definitely.

-Or mozzarella, then you slightly...

-My favourite.

-Burrata?

-Yeah.

-You must be used to this, Debra,

cos you went to his restaurant last night.

I did, it was absolutely phenomenal and I had the burrata.

She was scared. As soon as she walked in,

I said, "Look at her face."

-THEY LAUGH

-"Do you like it?" "Yes, uh..."

-Amazing.

-Was it? I'm going to go, I'm going to go.

-You've got to go.

-Please.

Previous place, I ate his food before and thought,

-"He's pretty good."

-You'll love the fish stew.

OK, now, this is done.

Pretty good at making pizzas as well, but that's another story.

Ha-ha-ha(!) Actually, this is one of the main ingredients

of one of the pizzas I did a long time ago.

-James, do you mind doing some garlic for me?

-Garlic?

-Yep.

Slice garlic and some chilli.

-Yep.

-We're going to spread this on top.

-Move that out the way?

-Yep, please, thank you.

What we can do also - we can use this one for scallops, for example.

-Right.

-Mackerel, oily fish, or salmon.

It's also nice if you can do

a whole fillet, then you bake a whole fillet.

You cook the whole thing in it?

The whole fillet, then it can be probably a good idea for Christmas.

Do you want me to do that?

You often have cod for Christmas over in Italy, don't you?

We do have baccala, which is, of course, cod.

A bit of salt here, so we blanch our broccoli.

-The salted cod?

-Yeah, the salted cod. Sometimes we do our own one.

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

Yep, thank you.

You would serve salt cod for Christmas?

-Is that what you have over there?

-Yes, we do.

New Year's Eve, mainly we don't eat any meat.

Of course, we do 13 different dishes.

-13 different dishes?

-13 different dishes.

-Wow.

Most of those are vegetables, like broccoli with anchovy water,

which is another interesting thing.

-What is this anchovy water? Is it what they call garum?

-Garum, yes.

We had this last time you were on.

-We did that that last time with the cavatelli.

-Can you buy it?

Difficult to buy in London, quite difficult to buy.

-We get imports sent from Italy.

-Where does it come from in Italy?

South, there is a place called Cetara, which is near Naples,

where they do the best one.

Of course, that's where the best anchovies come from, in Italy.

-The Spanish ones are better.

-Yeah.

-The Cantabrian ones.

-Yeah.

-But in Italy, Cetara...

-That wouldn't be where your new series is from, would it?

-It may be!

-We're coming to that!

-Are we coming to that?

The garlic in the pan,

then a few pine kernels here.

There we go, beautiful. We've got sultana there.

Nice. In Cetara, what they basically do...

I'll put a bit of chilli in because in rehearsal we had a bit of...

-"Overpowering."

-No, put plenty in.

What we did in rehearsal warmed everybody up.

-There we go.

-So they put this anchovy in the barrel.

-Anchovy, salt, anchovy, salt, anchovy, salt.

-It's short.

After six months or five months, they put a small hole in the barrel

and the liquid that drops out is basically the anchovy water.

-Can you get me some?

-Fantastic.

What if you put Marsala wine with it?

You've got Garum Marsala.

LAUGHTER

Salt again. We don't really need pepper, there's plenty of chilli,

-a bit of cod there.

-There's your fish.

OK. So we add a little bit more water here.

Remind me what you've got in there.

-You blanch this off.

-Blanch the broccoli.

-Sure you don't want a bit more CHILLI in?

-I think it's enough.

-OK, OK.

-Oh!

-Too much!

-He did say Spain was best, so we've got to get him back.

All right, let's do that. We've got a nice plate here.

We've got one over here.

You've got one? Fantastic. Good.

So you definitely should try fish with it, or just in a stew,

put a little bit of this, or the famous Arrabiata sauce, which is

usually a vegetarian dish.

You do your tomato sauce with a bit of parsley,

garlic and then a scoop of it.

You don't need to tell him, do you, really?

-OK.

-Sorry.

-That's fine.

OK, we've got to put the broccoli here with the sultanas,

which gives a little touch of...

Can I say Christmas?

You can say Christmas. Broccoli at Christmas, I don't know about that.

-I said sultana.

-It's sultanas at Christmas, even.

-I can tell you're Italian.

-Yeah.

Surely you do it, a lot of dry food.

Put the broccoli here. Put the fillet on top. OK.

-You'd better put that on.

-Thank you.

Broccoli is the only thing that my kids will eat,

the only vegetable my kids can eat.

-Yeah.

-A little bit of olive oil.

So remind us what that is.

OK, this is cod with 'nduja crust and broccoli.

-Fantastico.

-Easy as that.

-Come on over.

-Fantastic.

-Grab a seat.

-I'm looking forward to this.

-Oh, yeah.

-There you go.

-I like that crust.

Oh, look. That looks beautiful.

It will be on his restaurant menu, that. You can guarantee it.

-That's all right.

-I was going to say...

-It looks a bit special.

-Try a little bit of everything together, yeah?

But it is great, I mean, pork and cod,

monkfish and that kind of stuff, it really works well.

I also tried it with oyster, bit of oyster, a bit of 'nduja gratin,

-melts.

-Don't tell him too much.

-That's beautiful.

-I'm so lucky to be on the show with this guy.

-Not too spicy?

-Mmm!

-Yeah?

-Really good.

-A little bit of kick?

-It's beautiful.

You can taste everything. Sometimes the spice can overpower,

can't it? But it doesn't.

-It's beautiful.

-Particularly for breakfast.

-Yeah!

-It's gorgeous.

-Fab.

-That's one word, brilliant.

Honestly, pork can really complement whitefish,

so give it a go if you can. Now it's time for a certain Mr Keith Floyd.

Today, we're back in Burgundy

as he continues his French culinary adventure.

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

'Now, we thought subtitles would be a bit naff here, so

'I'm going to sort of translate what he's saying as we're going along.

'First of all, he's telling me to go in ahead of him.

'I'm sure you understand that. And he's got 110,000 bottles here.'

KEITH SPEAKS IN FRENCH

'I just said, I suppose you could hang one on here in a major way

'with this lot, but he said yes,

'only with a couple of really attractive women, though. '76 wine.'

'Ah, here's some stuff, 1980. Should be very good indeed.'

This is the life, chaps.

'I had a really good time here.

'I have to tell you that. I can feel it as if it was only yesterday.'

KEITH SPEAKS IN FRENCH

'I'm asking him, you know, "Do you think it's a bit too cool to drink the wine this way?"

'He says, no, this business of heating wine up to room temperature

'is a bit of a nonsense, really, and in fact,

'had a good reason to exist in that way if you lived in a very,

very cold chateau but otherwise it really spoils the wine to warm it.'

Hoo!

'That was me saying, gosh, this is really good.'

'Yes, and if it's too warm, too "chambred",

'it just wouldn't be up to standard like that.'

'Do you sell this around the place?'

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

There's something which is quite good.

There's one thing that me and President Reagan have got in common,

Gevrey-Chambertin made by Rene Leclerc,

because when one of the French prime ministers went over

for a little entente cordial, the best way to do it was with his wine.

I think that's quite amazing.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

C'est superbe, ca.

Oui, c'est vraiment beau.

This, then, is Dijon.

Not only the home of mustard but the power base of dukes in former times

and now the stylish capital of the region.

You know I'm a cheerful chap most of the time

but if you think in this next sequence I'm a bit grumpy

and a bit off-colour, well, you're jolly right.

You see, I've got to cook

for about 15 brilliant chefs in this luxury hotel, and I'm petrified.

OK, what we've got here...

I'm in a bit of a problem, actually,

because the meal's been brought forward by an hour

and there's about 15 chefs of very high denomination

waiting outside there, and I'm trying to make a cream sauce

to go with this ham, which won't be cooked in time,

so it's a bit of a nightmare.

But I've reduced some shallots and juniper berries in vinegar

and I added those to some flour and butter,

which I melted together and some veal stock,

and now I'm going to whack in a bottle of white wine into here

and let that simmer away for quite a while until it thickens

and becomes a rather special sauce.

I'm going to shift it onto a higher gas.

Another sauce I've got to make, which is worrying the chefs here,

is using wonderful...

..Gevrey-Chambertin to reduce that to almost nothing,

because that's going to go over my fillets of fish,

which hopefully I will cook in the fullness of time.

But the man from the tourist office who organised this little party

has said, "Do you mind bringing the meal forward

"until four o'clock?"

And I won't, just won't be able to, it won't be ready till five.

It's a bit frightening.

Quite genuinely a little bit worried.

They're sort of gathering round in their dark suits

and tinted glasses like vultures sitting on a telegraph wire

and I'm on a long freeway.

I was so busy cooking I didn't have time or the courage to go

into the dining room but if I had known this lot were there,

I wouldn't have carried on.

At least that's all right, that's...

That's the special piquant sauce

that's going with the slices of ham which might be raw.

And that's that wine that cost nearly £20 a bottle

just evaporating away into nothing

to make a sauce which is going to be fresh perch,

fillets of fresh perch you see, in a red wine sauce

which I've just invented and I don't even know if it's going to work.

But if it does, it'll be absolutely brilliant, I can assure you.

If it doesn't, then I'm going home to Mother.

And these guys just keep walking in, dipping their fingers in

and they say nothing.

I imagine that's what the King of France used to say to them

when they went to the guillotines.

Just presumably there's some imperceptible sign

they make between themselves that means you're a total jerk.

Can you get a small ladle from up there, anybody?

THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH

'For those of you not interested in the drama of the situation

'and still seem to think that this is a cookery programme

'as billed in the Radio Times,

'I poached the perch for two or three minutes in a little white wine

'with a knob of butter and a bay leaf.

'Then for the sauce, I reduced some chopped shallots

'and red wine till it was almost nothing

'and whisked in a bit of butter

'till I had this smooth, pink sauce. It was great.

'And I then waited in the kitchen for the news.

'The waiter came back, thumbs up, "ca va". It's OK.

'I was so relieved.

'It doesn't matter whether you're an accountant, a football player,

'Nigel Mansell or just a cooking genius like me,

'you need to know what the punters think about it.

'They said it was OK, I felt better.

'Then the really good bit - the French TV turned up,

'the press turned up, the radio turned up

'and I gave a rather elegant little interview in French

'and English for the six o'clock news that night.

'It was really great.'

# So what is the verdict, how do they feel?

# And what do they think of this wonderful meal?

# And what do they say, could it be tout a l'heure?

# As they taste this fine cooking, I cry encore. #

'So they can have a small rest now while I carve the ham.

'Most interesting how people treat you.

'When I first came into the kitchen, they stood away from me

'but now Clark Kent has suddenly become my new friend,

'zipped out of the telephone box, hung up his tights and cape

'in the deep freeze and is quite prepared to give me a hand,

'even talk to me as if I was a cook too, which I am, really.

'I had that blinkin' ham soaking in my bath all last night,

'so I couldn't get washed before I came this morning,

'to get the salt out of it and then I poached it for about four hours.

'Should've been five but it's OK, it's cooked nicely

'and I made that brilliant cream sauce, slightly piquant.

'There you go.'

And you lot all witter at Christmas when you've got to carve the turkey.

And then they don't, they get father-in-law to do it,

get somebody else to do it.

Well, you come here one of these days and carve boiled ham

for 18 very superior gastronauts and you'll never complain again. Yep.

Where's it going to go?

Want me to take them all the way through?

Yeah, go all the way through.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

Highly amusing, isn't it?

Bonjour.

This is incredible.

I mean, take six cooks,

any television programme in Britain cannot top this, I bet you.

Look at them, 17 of France's best chefs

and particularly from the area of Dijon, quite incredible.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

'To see these great chefs,

'and there is one here with the Legion d'honneur,

'tucking happily into this very lusty meal

'confirms my belief that the best dishes are the traditional ones

'and that's what Burgundy cooking is all about.

'Because it's firmly based in the rich and sophisticated background

'that no-one would dare to muck about with it,

'despite modern trends.'

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH

'And now it's prize-giving time.'

-APPLAUSE

-Merci messieurs.

I don't really want to put it on because it's got all

the signatures of, as I said, some of the best chefs in France in there

and certainly the best chefs of Dijon but just for once,

I'll show off for a second.

THEY SING IN FRENCH

< Why are you the only person in the room wearing your hat that way?

Parce que je suis comme Napoleon.

THEY LAUGH

Fabulous stuff and there'll be more from the legend next week.

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,

it was Aiden Byrne's first crack at the omelette challenge

when he faced Galton Blackiston at the hobs,

but how would they both get on?

Find out in just a few minutes' time.

James Tanner cooks some tantalising turbot sole fillets

that he pan-fries with chanterelle mushrooms.

He serves the sole with spiced red wine sauce and creamed potato.

And Sarah Hadland faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven -

a chocolate fondant with salted caramel sauce?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell -

a truffle pithivier with a Madeira reduction.

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

Now, Clare Smyth is one of the country's most talented chefs

and it's always a pleasure to have her in the Saturday Kitchen studio

and she always champions the very best of British produce

and this delicious duck dish is no exception.

Welcome back, Clare.

-Now, this dish, cooked from start to finish in seven minutes.

-Yep.

-So, fire away.

-Basically we're going to get started straightaway.

It's a spiced duck breast with cream savoy cabbage

and we're going to do a little... Well, the spices we've got,

we've got coriander seeds, fennel seeds, nutmeg,

cinnamon going in there, some orange.

So basically we're going to start to...

-Start cooking the duck straightaway.

-Now, tell us about this duck, then,

-cos I'm going to get that celeriac on the go.

-OK.

-What type of duck is this?

-Basically this is an English duck.

It's from a little farm based down in Devon so it's free-range

and it's quite a nice size little duck breast.

It's a little bit paler than some of the French Magret duck you get,

you know, they can be quite dark red and actually this cooks

-really quickly, incredibly tender, really, really good.

-Right.

It's, like you say, a different colour, slightly smaller.

-Yeah, and it's just, like, a really tender meat.

-Right.

This is the one we use in the restaurant

and it's nice to use English, we have great English ducks

and chickens so there's no excuse really not to be using them.

-So we put it in skin side down.

-Yep.

OK, that's just to render the fat down and that's going to develop

a really nice flavour and go nice and crispy, hopefully.

Now, tell us about the restaurant because there's a lot of mystique

where three Michelin star food's concerned.

What's your secret to holding them, continuing to hold them for so long?

Consistency, really, you know? You work your way up to that level

and then you have to hold it every day,

the same dedication and commitment,

-there's a huge team that work there.

-Yeah.

All the time, you have to obviously move with the times

and move forward as well.

Yeah, it's a...

You say a huge team, give people the numbers that, you know,

the numbers that you're actually serving

as opposed to the numbers that are actually eating.

-Well, there's 41 members of staff employed...

-Right.

..for a restaurant with 14 tables

and we're open five days a week.

So, yeah, we do about 100 covers a day.

It's a massive amount of work.

Yeah, it is, it's just the detail.

I mean, the benefit from that, really, I suppose, is the weekends,

-that you don't work the weekend.

-Well, yeah.

Or rather YOU do because you do these cookery classes, don't you?

Yeah. Well, on a Saturday once a month I do a masterclass

which is really good fun. It's really casual and...

-One for you there, Amanda.

-I could come along to that.

We do seasonal stuff as well so, you know,

the menu changes throughout the year.

OK, I've just popped the apples in there.

I'm going to roast them with the duck in the pan.

I'm just going to put that into the oven.

You do your signature dishes as well when you're doing your cookery class.

Yeah, exactly. We're doing...

We do, like, a take on the lobster ravioli

-which is signature dish of the restaurant.

-Right.

We do tortellini at the minute

but that's all going to be changing soon with spring coming in.

So you can go and do the class a few times throughout the year...

-Right.

-..and pick up many techniques.

So that's once a month and the rest of the time,

-well, the weekend, the chefs all get their time off.

-Yeah.

-So it's just one team all the time which is great, you know.

-Yeah.

Keeps the consistency in the restaurant and we're pretty much,

you know, we're pretty full all time, really.

-So I just start to sweat down this nice smoked bacon here.

-Yep.

I'm going to put a lid on that.

We've cut our celeriac here into fine, fine dice.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-Whilst you're doing that,

I'm just going to toast off some of these little spices here.

So I'm going to put the fennel seeds, coriander seeds in a pan.

All we're going to do is just toast them very lightly because we want

to just release the aromas, we don't want to actually burn the spices.

So we just toast them for a few seconds in a nice, hot, dry pan.

So we're using this celeriac but it's also great for purees,

-soups and all that kind of stuff.

-Yeah, roasting.

It's really good with roasts as well.

You can roast it in salt, can't you? You can bake the whole lot in salt.

Yeah. That's really, really good.

OK, they're just going to go into a pestle and mortar.

Do you have it on your menu, Lawrence, or not?

We've done it as celeriac and apple juice.

We cook it in apple juice and apples and celeriac and just cream it.

-Quite tasty.

-The most famous one, I suppose, is remoulade

which is like the French coleslaw with just a bit of grain mustard.

-Yeah, I love remoulade and ham.