06/12/2015 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. The next 90 minutes is bursting with mouthwatering recipes that, trust me,

you won't want to miss. This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. Some of the very best chefs are stepping up to

the Saturday Kitchen plate.

They'll be serving sensational food

and we've got a cracking line-up of celebrity guests joining us too.

Coming up on today's show,

Phil Howard serves a fantastic fillet of turbot with a smoky

celeriac puree, buttered cabbage and a hazelnut and truffle pesto.

And Stephane Reynaud cooks a simple but elegant scallop dish, which he

serves with leeks and chestnuts.

He roasts the chestnuts before cooking them with leeks,

spring onions, garlic, ginger, wine and some cream.

Tom Kerridge pan-fries some tasty venison T-bone steaks,

which he serves with potato cakes and a warm red cabbage coleslaw.

He serves the finished dish with an aromatic red wine sauce,

which is infused with cloves.

And Alexander Armstrong faces Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven, lobster in champagne sauce with skinny fries

and green beans, or would he get his dreaded Food Hell,

corned beef hotpot with sauteed runner beans? Find out what

he gets to eat at the end of the show.

But who better to start proceedings than a certain Glynn Purnell.

Here he is with a superb soup.

Good morning! I'm going to call you Jammo this morning.

-What did you call me at the start?

-Squadron Leader and Wing Commander.

Well, that's a promotion!

I'll tell you what, it's pretty impressive, that, though.

Well, it's not a fashion statement, let's get that straight.

Go on, tell us what it's for while we're doing this dish. So...

-OK. Let's get the squash soup on first.

-Right.

You chop that, I'll do the carrots.

I'm going to chop some shallots up to start the soup.

You should start any good soup with some onions and garlic and carrots.

But the reason why you look like that is for a good cause.

It's for a good cause, yeah. The whole of Purnell's kitchen...

Basically, November is man month, where men - proper men -

grow moustaches, um...

SNIGGERING

..and we get sponsored. You know, we get sponsored to do it.

It's called Movember, and we're called Mo Bros.

So if you see another man in the street with a fine,

handsome caterpillar on his top lip, you given him the nod,

you know?

LAUGHTER

I'm obviously missing something here, aren't I?

Well, James, I did mention the man thing at the start

so I don't know...

-Right, anyway, on with your carrots.

-On with my carrots, yeah?

You know, we just, um... So we've done that in Purnell's.

But also at the other restaurant, the Asquith, which opened...

But I've just opened a cocktail bar, so all the cocktail waiters,

not the waitresses, have all grown moustaches, as well.

-So...

-LAUGHTER

You know, there are a few hairy women in Birmingham

but they don't work at my restaurant.

Damn!

-Well, I certainly don't live with one!

-What's gone in the pan?

-Otherwise you're going to get into trouble.

-Listen, I live in trouble!

-I just want you to come with me into trouble.

-No way.

Right, what's gone in here, then?

We've got our butternut squash, our shallots, and carrots...

-Bit of garlic.

-Could you use other squash?

-Could you use pumpkin...

-Yeah,

the small green pumpkins are actually fantastic for soup.

-Because now is the time of year they're around and...

-Exactly.

And I knew I was coming on,

I wanted to do something simple, something someone could have a

go at, do at home, rather than black pudding crumble and cornflakes.

-Because that's what...

-That's what I normally do.

OK. Do you want to grab me some... So we've got the stock in.

Great, because there are loads of different types of squashes.

This is butternut squash, that I believe most of it comes from Kenya.

-It does.

-South Africa, most of the squashes that we get.

But you can get onion squashes and all manner of different...

-Spaghetti ones...

-All manner of different stuff as well.

There's one called Cream Of The Crop, delicious.

It's acorn-shaped and it's fabulous.

-You get some weird shaped stuff.

-And they grow easily.

-You can plant them at home, no worries.

-Yeah.

They do really well on a compost heap.

That's where they grow.

Not paying attention, but that's where they grow!

LAUGHTER No, go on.

I'm just going to get this squash in. So, basically,

it's the same theory as when you do a baked potato -

you put salt on the bottom of the tray and then...

This is just Maldon salt or...

To be honest, the cheaper industrial salt is better.

The really coarse stuff. But this is Maldon, which is fine.

You mean grit?

Yeah, proper stuff that you put on your pavement when it snows.

So it's the same theory of, um...

as a baked potato - you draw the moisture out and dry it out

so you retain the flavour.

I'm going to dice that and put it in the soup as a garnish.

-I'm going to put in sage and...

-Whack that in, James.

-There you go.

A bit of seasoning as well.

So I'll dice the shallots. If you want to start dicing the...

chopping some of the herbs for the persillade.

Persillade is a mix of herbs.

So we've got sage, tarragon, parsley,

a bit of chopped garlic and...

Do you want some garlic in that soup as well?

The garlic's in there, James. That's how quick I was. Did you see that?

Obviously you never... Um...

So, yeah, the cocktail bar. I wanted to make a cocktail...

I wasn't talking about the cocktail bar, but you're going to promote it.

-Go on, then.

-I'm not promoting it, I'm fascinated.

-Because they call themselves mixologists.

-That's right, yeah.

I just call them barmen.

And when they mix things, they muddle, don't they?

Yeah, they do. They use all this stuff and that and, you know...

Just...don't put an umbrella in my pint, that's all I'm saying.

LAUGHTER

Not with this moustache, anyway.

So it's the same theory as cooking, really, so...

Did you get involved in any of the cocktail recipes?

No, I just leave them to it. I just drink them.

But there is food in there, though.

The other thing is that the restaurant within the same

venue is called the Asquith, and I've got a fantastic young team,

which all of them have previously worked for me.

Jessica was at a one-star restaurant I had and Purnell's.

And they got to a stage where they went off

and did other things and came back to the area

and I wanted to set up another independent restaurant

so they can virtually run it with me overseeing it.

I've got Jason and Julia,

they've both worked in Michelin star restaurants as well.

So it's... It's exciting to see...

Don't get me wrong, I'm going bald and grey over it,

but it's exciting to see young people have a real good go, like.

But in Birmingham there is a big food revolution

going on in Birmingham, isn't there?

-And I started it.

-You started it!

-But there are a few growing up there, aren't there?

-There is.

It is fantastic, really. I mean...

15, 20 years ago Birmingham was a bit of a dump, to be honest.

I've lived in Birmingham all my life and it was a bit rough-looking.

But now they've developed it

and we even get people like James Martin come down to see us!

LAUGHTER

Rather than drive through it, they drive TO it now.

Yeah, we actually pay £25 to eat cornflakes!

That's what you gave me last time.

I did, yes, James, but there were more courses as well.

Trust you to pick on the cornflakes.

But this is one of your traditional... It was fascinating to eat, I have to say.

Tell us about that dish, because it's one of your specialities.

Basically, it's slow-cooked...

-It's moved on since the last time you came, James.

-All right.

-We're on to Cocoa Pops now?

-No, Rice Krispies.

Basically, I slow-confit the haddock,

I flake it in the bottom of the bowl, cooked in curry oil

and that is covered with a smoked haddock milk, foam,

so we infuse the milk with the haddock,

cos milk is porous, and we thicken the milk with Xanthan gum and put

it into a gun and it sprays out like a really airy sort of moussey...

And we serve it with spiced cornflakes and a poached egg yolk.

-It's nice!

-Posh!

-He cooked it all for us on The Great British Menu.

Basically, I'm off a council estate and it's my mum's haddock

and eggs put in a blender...

LAUGHTER Sounds good to me.

Maybe you should come to my mum's, James, she'll cook it for you.

Yeah, right!

I'm intrigued about these eggs

-because we want to get these on to cook.

-Yeah, these take...

-no time at all.

-So you're poaching the egg yolks?

All we want is the richness...

We've got to try not to put too much cream in this

because you fall foul to putting lots and lots of cream

and you lose the vibrant flavour of the fresh...

Not too much!

-Ah-ah!

-LAUGHTER

Just think of World War I - there was no cream then, chef.

-Just people like me!

-LAUGHTER

-Go on, then, with the eggs.

-So, basically, I don't want whites.

I'm not a big fan of egg whites, only in meringue.

So I like the really... the texture of the egg yolk.

It's like a sauce that you could never make.

So we're going to do that to richen the soup up.

You just boil the water. Taken it off the heat.

So it's round about 65-70 degrees.

You just want the egg to warm through the yolk.

So it's not aggressively cooking it,

it's just gently sitting there bathing in the water.

I don't know if you can see that in there.

So it's gently just rolling around saying, "Oh, damn, it's warm."

-Right.

-Now I'm going to chop the...

the roast,

so we've got a lovely sort of...

I'm going to pop this lot in the blender.

..a really nice sort of roast caramelised

soft butternut squash.

There you go.

-Get that on the heat.

-Thank you, James.

-You've got about 30 seconds left.

-30 seconds, OK. Let's do this.

What cheese are you using for this, Glynn?

-Cheddar, is it?

-Sorry?

-What cheese are you using?

-Er, Cheddar.

Grate a little bit over.

So I used Cheddar,

but we have used in the past a Berkswell.

I like to try and use English cheeses...

CUTLERY CLATTERS

We didn't need that one, James! We don't need that one, James!

Don't worry, carry on.

So the egg yolks... So that salt... Salt-baking that...

-Salt baking the...

-Squash.

You can do that with celeriac and all manner of different stuff.

Beetroot, which is really nice.

This goes in for, what, about 45 minutes?

Yeah, 45 minutes, just until it's nice and soft. And then...

The soup is there ready.

-Thanks, James.

-There you go.

There you go.

-And that's just the garlic, the... All those herbs and the...

-Yeah.

This is a rustic dish you can knock up at home...

Especially at this time of year.

A bit of olive oil there, please, James.

And there we go you, the veloute.

Round the outside.

Walking the dog, straight back in.

-There you go.

-There you go. Remind us what that is again.

It's a veloute of butternut squash with poached egg yolk,

-persillade and English Cheddar.

-Easy as that!

-There you go! Right. You get to dive into this.

-Fantastic.

And the egg, I presume, if you just break it down the centre it just

helps with the texture of the soup, as well.

Yeah, it gives it that richness.

A little bit to top up so we all get a taste.

What do you reckon?

Mm! I just need a bit more...

It always worries me when they don't say anything.

But it's a dish, literally, we've done that in six or seven minutes.

Yeah, it's soup - easy, nice and rich for this time of year.

Squadron Leader!

-It is pretty good.

-Absolutely, it's beautiful.

Sensational stuff, Glynn.

Coming up, I serve a crayfish cocktail for Mark Williams

after Rick Stein gives us a taste of India.

Today he's in Goa and lobster masala is on the menu.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus was blown from island to island

and found himself stuck in the land of the lotus eaters,

where his crew lost the will to go home

because they fell under the spell of the lotus plant.

Goa has that sort of effect on me,

with all its heavy scent of spices and its abundance of fish.

Have you ever thought what to do about cooking fish on a beach

when you can grill the things over charcoal, driftwood? Well,

why don't you try deep-frying them?

If you take a washing-up bowl like this

and just throw a bit of flour into it...

Then some salt.

Some cayenne pepper.

Some coriander.

Some cumin and some turmeric.

Throw in some fish.

And then drop them in the pan.

Not too many at a time.

Because you don't want the oil to lose its heat.

You do want to cook these really crisp.

Stir them around in the oil.

They're looking real good.

Turn them over.

I don't actually know what these fish are called.

But you could use whitebait.

That would be great if you could get a nice pound or so of whitebait.

Couldn't put THEM on a charcoal grill.

Just let them cook till they're sort of hard,

so you could almost eat the bones.

That'll take about three or four minutes.

Take a couple of wedges of lime...

..and you squeeze them over the fish.

It's really good!

There's just one small thing missing.

That's an ice-cold beer.

At low tide in the estuaries of Goa,

the women go clam-picking with little spoons, scraping away

the mud to find the shellfish that are so plentiful.

They remind me of oystercatchers back at home,

constantly looking for tasty saltwater morsels.

One of the dishes that I remember having years ago that Rouxie

cooked me was clam masala.

First of all you take some sweet red onions and plenty of ginger.

You don't need to peel it. And about 12 cloves of garlic.

And then some tamarind paste let down with some water.

A couple of tablespoons of turmeric.

And some red wine vinegar, again about a couple of tablespoons.

Cumin.

Coriander seeds.

Red chillies with the seeds left in.

Cloves. Goan cloves are really rugged and beautifully flavoured.

Now, put all those in a spice grinder with a good dollop of coconut cream

and blend it to a smooth paste.

Heat some oil in a pan and add a big tablespoon of that smooth

masala paste and cook it until it splits.

You'll know when that happens because it'll start to give off these

wonderful cooked aromas of ginger and garlic and everything else.

Then add your shellfish.

I've not just used clams, I've put mussels

and cockles in there just for a bit of variety.

They'll start to open in the heat almost as soon as you put them in,

but stick a lid on, just make sure they all cook for about 30 seconds.

Then add some lovely fresh chopped coriander

and pour the whole lot out into a serving dish.

We serve big bowls of this masala in the restaurant

and people are won over by the evocative aroma

even before they start eating it.

Fresh spices, fresh seafood, minimal cooking, is the secret

and that's what the next dish is all about too.

So, this is Goan prawn caldine, and like a lot of these Goan curries

we start with some onions, some garlic - just sliced in this case.

And some ginger. Sort of standard flavours to start off a curry.

Just stir those around a bit.

So while that's cooking away gently - I just want it to lightly brown -

I'll just tell you about the other ingredients for this caldine.

I'm just sticking with prawns today,

but you can make these caldines with all kinds of fish.

They're like a fish stew, like a Portuguese fish stew.

That's where the word "caldine" came from.

I'm not sure whether it refers to the dish or the stew itself,

but it's definitely a Portuguese word.

So these are like...they're a bit like Sydney Harbour prawns.

I wish we could get prawns like this in England. Look at those. See?

Look at the feelers on them. So I've peeled a load of those laboriously.

And just look at them, they're just going to taste wonderful.

Also while that's cooking away, let me talk about these beautiful spices.

These other spices that go into the caldine.

I don't know what it is about peppercorns out here,

but they just taste more full-flavoured than the ones at home.

If you taste an English peppercorn against a Goan one,

the Goan the one is just - phhwwoosh! - like that.

Beautiful cumin.

Look at those coriander seeds - lovely oval shape

and they taste really lemony. Turmeric and poppy seeds.

The poppy seeds give the caldine a thickness.

It's not a thin fish stew, it's slightly sort of viscous.

So first of all, that spice powder.

I've just ground that up and I haven't roasted the spices

because I'm looking for really fragrant flavours,

not the round, nutty flavours you get from roasting spices.

Horses for courses.

And then the ground-up poppy seeds for thickening it up.

And now the liquid. In there about three-quarters of a pint...

of coconut milk.

And now...

some tamarind water.

Now, tamarind water is made out of tamarind

and the tamarind is the pod of a really big tree.

And you buy this down in the market like that.

And I just put that all in a bowl with warm water,

break it all up in the water.

And then pass it through a sieve and give it a good squeeze

to get all the last goodness out of it. So that's tamarind water.

Like lemon juice but not quite so sharp.

OK, so just bring it up to the boil

and add now some sort of shredded chillies.

And these are very mild chillies. That's another thing about this dish,

not all Indian food is searingly hot and this is quite a mild...

It's a bit like korma of the fish cookery world in India,

so it's not too hot.

So I'm just going to put a good handful of those chillies

in there and a bit of salt.

So we'll just leave that to simmer away for 5-8 minutes, and

while I'm doing that, I'm just going to come over here to the prawns.

And this is one of the most distinctive features about Goan

cooking, both meat and fish cookery,

that a lot of meat and fish is first marinated in a bit of vinegar.

This is coconut toddy vinegar, rather a nice name, I think you'll agree.

But white wine vinegar would be just as good.

Just about a couple of tablespoons in with the prawns and some salt.

Ideally, you should really marinade this for about 20 minutes.

I've only done them for about five or six, so they're just...

I've just tasted one raw, actually, and it just tasted wizard.

So stir those in, and they'll only take about two minutes to cook,

and like I keep banging on, don't overcook seafood,

and that goes for Goan prawns just as much as Padstow scallops.

Finally, some chopped coriander.

Lots and lots of chopped coriander.

That looks absolutely wizard.

But it's also great to bring back those influences

and recipes to my own kitchen.

Well, this is another dish I got in Goa, in fact.

I thought it was more appropriate to cook it back in Padstow because it's

quite fiddly and these are the sort of dishes we do in a restaurant.

It's called Goan lobster masala.

First of all what you have to do is get all the meat out of a lobster.

First of all you cut the lobster in half like this,

out with the tail meat, which comes away in one great big chunk.

And now we take all this soft head meat out which, for want of a better

word, we call gunge, I suppose, but it's excellent, beautiful taste.

And we want that in the masala as well.

Now, just in the other section here we've got the stomach,

which you can't eat, really. It looks a bit like a plastic bag.

So we take that out, and then the rest of the head meat.

Now, you can if you like take all the rest of this away,

but I like to leave it in the dish

because it's something to chew on for those that like that

sort of thing after they've finished the main part off the meat.

Now let's just take the meat out of the claw sections.

Incidentally, these lobsters are local ones,

but you can, for this dish, easily use those ones from Canada or

North America, the masala is so well flavoured.

And they're much cheaper.

So again, I'm trying to be user-friendly in this series.

I'm trying to get things from supermarkets and fishmongers

that are easy to get. And see, that comes out in a lovely chunk of meat.

You can take the little,

thin filigree of cartilage out of the middle of the claw, but I like to

leave that in so we get a nice shape for the claw in the finished dish.

So we just cut all these bits of tail meat

and claw meat off into about inch chunks, just like this.

And the claw meat.

Like that.

That's fine. So let's go on and make the masala.

First of all, the masala paste - home-made, jolly good.

Green chilli, ginger, garlic, salt.

These limes for the salad at the end.

And onion. So, first of all the onion.

SIZZLING That much.

And some garlic.

There we go. Some ginger.

Some green chilli next.

And now some masala.

Now, this is actually Rouxie's recipe from Goa for masala,

and it's a sort of general-purpose fish masala.

And masala is just a curry paste but made fresh,

so it's nice and wet and smells absolutely lovely.

So now all I have to do is just fold the lobster in.

By fold, I mean you don't want to break it up any more

than it is already broken up.

In fact, I first had this dish in Rouxie's restaurant out in Goa,

and they use what we call crayfish over here.

And you can use them here, but they're actually more expensive

and I don't think they've got such a good flavour.

I think our lobsters, or American lobsters, are the best.

But you just turn it over in the masala.

Just like that.

We've just got to put it back in the shell now and serve it up.

I've warned the shells up in the oven so everything is nice and hot.

I think...

you need, what, let's think,

about a pound and a half lobster ro two-pound lobsters for two people.

So just two of those would be absolutely fine.

I must admit, that looks rather special.

Normally I don't care for putting lobsters in strong sauces,

but if they are these, you know, cheap American lobsters,

it's fine, they still taste jolly good.

I think that's perfectly OK. Now, look at that.

We're just going to serve that up with a simple Indian salad

and some naan bread.

The great thing about this salad, when I first saw it I thought,

"There's nothing much to that, it's just cucumber with lime

"and salt," but it just works so well with the lobster.

So just a good squeeze of lime,

and it's like so many things in Goa,

not many ingredients but they all work perfectly.

Plenty of salt and that's it.

That lobster definitely looked amazing, Rick.

Now, we're loving having your films on each week.

And that lobster is a great ingredient, but quite expensive.

I've got another great British ingredient,

which I know you love as well,

which are these little sort of crayfish, or freshwater crayfish.

-RICK:

-English or American?

These are American - they've taken over everywhere.

If you get the English ones, which are very rare,

they've got little white tips to the claws.

You know, I had this thing once,

like the GIs in the Second World War,

they're oversexed and they're over here -

-that's the American crayfish.

-These things...

-Rick, calm down!

LAUGHTER

Is that why you get crayfish tail sandwiches everywhere?

Everywhere, because they are... It's almost free food.

In every river, every estuary, there's these little things.

And to peel them, all you do is you just basically... I'll peel one.

All you do is you just take the tail off, like that.

You just press the tail either side.

-Why do they look like they've been smoked?

-And they just peel off.

That's just the colour of them.

Normally, you get them, not like this, but you get them in brine.

Which are OK, but I'm going to do

a little sort of cocktail to go with this,

using a little bit of mayonnaise, a little Marie Rose sauce.

But these ones are actually the cooked ones.

-But they produce this wonderful meat.

-Do we know who Marie Rose was?

-I mean, I don't.

-Don't know.

No. I know who Marie Claire was.

LAUGHTER

Got no idea. Anyway, on with you. So you trained at...

-We said we were going to find that out, didn't we?

-We did.

-In rehearsals.

-Somebody will look it up. Somebody will phone in. Please.

Now, you studied at Oxford.

You studied at Oxford - your first student film

-was with Hugh Grant, wasn't it?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Privileged, it was called.

I don't think it's available any more.

-Don't think it's available any more?

-I hope.

-Privileged, it was. Yeah, it was good fun to do.

-Yeah?

But you say that acting, for you,

didn't come easy in your career. It came...

Well, no, I didn't have the advantage of Hugh's good looks,

did I? I sort of had... I had to climb me way up the coalface.

No, well, people have different rhythms to their acting careers.

Mine's sort of...

I mean, as a character actor, you always look a bit better

when you've grown into your face.

When you look like the corner of a handbag.

But when you started... The big break for you, wasn't it,

in the Royal Shakespeare Company. Got touring with them as well.

Well, I just... People say about big breaks. I don't...

You just keep moving, you know?

But in terms of acting, cutting your teeth in acting,

the theatre must be the best...

Yeah, yeah. I was old enough...

-I got my Equity card in 19...

-HE MUMBLES

..when I joined the Mikron Theatre Company.

And at that point, you have to have a job to get a card in Equity,

so I worked in a community touring theatre,

which kind of doesn't exist any more.

And the generation before me, your Pete Postlethwaites and all...

Hallelujah.

..and all that lot, they all worked in theatre in education,

which was a big, powerful sort of... And that's been lost, really.

Cos then we know you from, obviously, The Fast Show.

-How did you meet Paul, then?

-Paul and Charlie were...

..were trying to make it as sitcom writers.

And I was cast in a sitcom pilot they did and then Paul said,

"Well, yeah, you might as well come and do something on Harry's show."

So I did that. And then I was...

-I went to The Fast Show as "The Actor".

-As "The Actor".

Yeah. "You do it, Mark. We can't do that."

But your filming career, it is incredible, when you read your CV.

101 Dalmatians, you've got Stardust, you've got The Borrowers.

-Sense And Sensibility. Incredible film career.

-Yeah.

And then you get picked to do Harry Potter.

I know, I get picked to play for England.

-JAMES LAUGHS

-Yeah, that was scary.

For the first read-through, you sit around and you...

There's about 40 or 50 actors at the read-through and you just think,

"Right, that's... Yes, that's Maggie Smith and..."

HE MUMBLES NERVOUSLY

I've just got to interrupt here, Mark,

cos I met Michael Gambon a few years ago, in Padstow,

and he said, "I'm really happy today -

"they've decided not to kill me off in the next episode."

I remember Jason Isaacs...

Jason Isaacs saying that, at one point, he went up...

Cos he got banished to Azkaban, the character, Lucius.

And he went up to JK Rowling and said,

-"Please get me out of Azkaban!"

-LAUGHTER

And she said, "Maybe."

Isn't that what it's like to do a thing like that?

Cos you didn't start until the second one, did you?

No, I didn't. I'm not a lifer.

So when you do stuff like that,

because the book comes out first, don't you rush in the queue

and get the book to see whether you're in the film?

Well, no, what happens is, when you're in it, people do it for you

and they'll ring you up and go, "Oh, guess what?

"You get killed by a snake. You nearly get killed by a snake."

-It's like, "OK, right."

-LAUGHTER

"Thanks for that."

But isn't the pressure on even more with something like that

because the book was so popular and is so popular?

I think that...

Well, one of the things we've all noticed after it's ended

is that we're trying to come to terms with what happened as well.

Even David Heyman was asked in New York.

-In New York, when we were in New York.

-Yeah, OK, got it.

And they said to him, the journalists,

"Did you think that this would go to eight?"

And he said, "No, I had no idea. No idea."

It wasn't a game plan. It just kept...

The books and the films had a symbiotic relationship.

And what the fans were into created that, made that all work.

It sort of... You can't take it apart, really.

You almost grew up with it and become more, dare I say, mature with it?

-Because it got darker and darker as you get older.

-I mean it's...

It's half some of the cast's lives.

You know?

How did the fans feel that the last book being split into two films?

Well, I...

Well, as a kind of fan myself I thought, "Oh, is that cynical?"

And then I thought, "No, actually you can't...

"You couldn't... You couldn't do it."

And also I think that the split, the last scene of Part One is brilliant.

It's practically my favourite scene in the whole...

Ask James, "Harry Potter or Bruce Lee?"

Harry Potter or Bruce Lee?

You're saying... I got given the DVD last night, you see.

Your DVD of Harry Potter, and I...

To be fair, I watched a bit of the first one and I watched the last one.

But then... Enter The Dragon came on last night.

And if it's a guy with a wooden stick or a guy doing this,

-it's definitely...

-Hwaaaaaaa!

Sorry, I had to pause it. And I did watch it later on.

Yeah, but have you got...

I mean, a lot of it's to do with children, you know, obviously.

That bit. It's not compulsory for people over 18 to watch, really.

-But then later on...

-You know Alex Jennings, the actor?

He started this as a joke, but it kind of gained.

He started this thing, a support group for actors,

who have children, who are not in Harry Potter.

-Oh, no!

-"Why aren't you in it, Daddy?"

Right, I've got to talk about this dish, because we've missed it all.

-Have we?

-So I've got mayonnaise.

-I've been paying attention, though.

I got my mayonnaise, my crayfish. Basically in this sauce here,

we've made the mayonnaise - egg yolks, a bit of mustard,

some olive oil, some brandy, bit of vinegar, a tiny bit of Tabasco,

some tomato ketchup, lemon juice. That's the sauce done.

-Salt and pepper.

-James, can I ask you a question?

-Will you please show us how to make melba toast?

-This is it.

He did, actually. He just did it.

-It's toast. Toast, look.

-But he held it... Look.

-Toast, cut the crusts off the toast.

-But how do you make the toast flat?

-Watch.

-This is brilliant.

-Slice this...

Actually to toast it, you know, mine will bend up like that,

-and I'm having to cut on a...

-Like that. You rub off the excess.

You cut it, place that on there, upside-down,

so you got toasted that side, that way. And then under the grill.

I've got a theory.

Mark's got a theory! Back the truck up!

-It can't be too big a slice, can it?

-No.

-No, there we go.

Can't be too big a slice.

-That's your theory?

-That's the theory!

That's the whole theory?

I love all this putting that on the side.

That's the start of the mayonnaise anyway.

We were saying this morning that Melba toast's

so much better than blinis, you know?

I think it's better for most dips.

But some people like little potatoes...

Anyway, back to Harry Potter.

-Oh, right. I thought we are on a food programme.

-Well, I am.

-But my producer's giving me a load of stick in my ear.

-Oh, is he?

Yes, exactly. Harry Potter.

-The eighth one is available now, including the box set.

-Yeah. Yeah.

I mean... Yes. I'm going to buy the box set

cos I just want to sit down and watch them all, you know, in a row.

-You must get one for free, Mark, mustn't you?

-I hope so.

But there'll be others, other people want them.

-Do you like seeing yourself on the screen?

-Well...

How long you think it will take

to watch the entire duration of Harry Potter?

How money Bruce Lee films will it take?

Eight hour-and-a-halves.

19 hours, 38 minutes to watch every single bit of Harry Potter.

Oh, you knew the answer.

Don't ask questions you know the answer to, that's not smart.

Oh, just be quiet, Mr Evans. There you go.

Don't forget, you're on next after this.

-I had forgotten, actually.

-LAUGHTER

I got so relaxed!

Right, all I've done is just take the lettuce. You can use iceberg.

I've got to get eggs into the omelette pan

-in the Omelette Challenge.

-I'd forgotten about that.

You can use iceberg, I used little gem lettuce for this one.

It's so good to see the prawn cocktail back.

-Isn't it?

-It should be back.

-Do we get any wine with this, Jim?

-No, you don't.

-What's really nice is seeing it in a cocktail glass.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Rather than on a plate.

-A bit of that.

-Deconstructed prawn cocktail.

-Exactly.

-What you need is a wedge of lemon.

-Yes, please.

-Easy.

-There you go.

And some of this Melba toast, you see?

How easy is that to do Melba toast?

You could easily do that this Christmas.

Why is it called Melba toast?

-I've got no idea.

-Dame Nellie Melba.

Is Guy googling as we speak in my ear?

I think he used to live with Marie Rose.

-It's Dame Nellie Melba.

-Or Dame Nellie Melba.

-That sort of a relationship.

-Really?

LAUGHTER

Very nice, tell your mother.

So glad you enjoyed it, Mark.

Now, if you'd like to try 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 most delicious dishes

from the Saturday Kitchen store cupboard.

Now, he's one of Britain's most accomplished chefs

and, after five years of trying to get him on the show,

it proved be well worth the wait.

Here is the fantastically talented Mr Phil Howard.

It's taken five years to get you on the show.

-Well...

-You're finally here.

So Food Heav... What would it be? What are you going to cook?

OK, we're going to cook a piece of turbot

with a smoked celeriac milk puree, and a truffled hazelnut pesto.

Sounds good to me. Right, OK, so we need get on and do this celeriac.

So what we'll do here... The big challenge is to get the celeriac...

-is to get that happening.

-Get that ready.

And it's all about trying to get...

That there needs to be cut into wedges and baked.

I'll do that, yeah.

It's all about trying to get some flavour into the milk,

which we've then got to set

with a slightly sort of new-wave gelling agent called agar-agar,

which has been around for years

and has been creeping its way into the food world over the last...

into the restaurant world in the last couple of years.

It's a pretty heinous thing, but it has got some spectacular uses.

Now, when I think of The Square...

Cos I started my training when you kind of first opened,

cos it's been running, what, 20 years now?

-It is 20 years next week.

-20 years.

When I was in London, really, it was very classical, it still is.

You stick by the classic roots of cooking.

It's absolutely, without exception, classical combinations of flavour.

That's where we stay classical,

cos I'm just an absolute believer that nobody's yet

demonstrated to me that a weird, wonderful, modern, wacky

combination of flavours is better than a classical one.

Mushrooms with thyme and garlic, chocolate with orange,

pears with red wine. Those are the things that make me happy,

and make my stomach happy, and I'm a firm believer that it makes...

That's what we all love. So the flavours are classical.

But the challenge must be, in Central London,

because you've got all these sort of new guys opening up as well,

the challenge must be to keep doing something different, surely?

Well, you know, people, humans, we're all...

99.9% of us are greedy. You know, we love food.

And stomachs and tongues don't lie,

and delicious food is instantly recognisable.

-And that's what... I like to think that that's what we rely on.

-Yeah.

And so we just, you know, that's all we do.

We stick with classical flavours which are delicious

and people respond to them, and that's what keeps them coming back.

Yeah, of course, it's a competitive, modern world, London,

and you can't sit around cooking, you know...

delicious though it is, beef bourguignon for 20 years,

you've got to make sure you're doing more than just...

-More than just the basics.

-Right, so I've got celeriac here.

-You want a bit of truffle oil in here?

-A bit of truffle oil.

-Yeah.

Kind of great example.

This is taking something, you're acknowledging...

you're acknowledging what's delicious about it

but you're kind of giving it a slight modern interpretation.

So we've just got to sweat the onion and the celeriac really quickly.

So this goes in the oven for how long?

That goes in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Celeriac's got to be tender. It's got to be tender.

-So the milk's gone in there.

-Milk's gone in there.

-That's just onion, celeriac and milk.

-Yeah, and a little bit of salt

but if you put too much salt in at the beginning, the milk will split.

So the next thing there is to get the piece of turbot roasting.

-Yeah.

-A little bit of salt always right at the last minute.

This is where the classic thing then comes to mind.

When I think of your cooking, it's turbot, cos you love this fish.

Yeah, I love lots of fish. I love a humble piece of cod too

but there is nothing quite like a piece of turbot. It is...

For me, it is the king of all fish.

It's white-fleshed, it's squeaky-clean, it's mighty,

-it's got a great texture.

-Would you agree with that?

-Absolutely.

Yeah, it's fantastic.

And the big turbot are just unbelievably good, aren't they?

It's one of the chef's favourite...

He'd probably put it in a Sunblest blanket, you know.

LAUGHTER

I'd have to make a net, wouldn't I?

Yeah. But just having it on the bone,

literally turbot on the bone is just so delicious, isn't it?

It just is one of nature's greats.

For top ten ingredients, this would absolutely,

definitely be one of them.

Now, as well as The Square in central London,

you're working with another two restaurants.

Yeah, I'm a partner in a restaurant called The Ledbury, which is

-a great restaurant that is...

-Just happens to have two Michelin stars.

Just happens to have two Michelin stars as well. I think probably

it's going to end up with three quite soon. Nothing to do with me,

I have to say. I'll take a bit of credit in training the young man but

Brett Graham, the chef there, is a phenomenally talented cook.

He's actually, for me, the one chef in the country who really

successfully dovetails classic cooking with modern flair.

He is absolutely great.

So he's doing great things,

and then another restaurant called Kitchen W8, which is in...

just off High Street, Kensington, which is

a slightly more modest affair. Just a great neighbourhood restaurant.

-Modest affair, just with a Michelin star as well.

-Yeah.

-Where are we going? We're going in here?

-Left-hand side oven. Yeah.

How long is that going in for? Couple of minutes?

-About four minutes, I should think.

-OK.

Because the celeriac is grated,

it just loses its flavour into the milk incredibly quickly

so all we've got to do there now, with a bit of luck, is...

I'm going to cook my cabbage.

This is a good tip for you at Christmas time

when you're doing Brussels sprouts or cabbage, don't boil it.

Basically just cook it with a little bit of stock and some butter.

That's it, really.

So, in a hot pan, you've got some stock here.

Throw that in.

A few knobs of butter straight in,

and you throw the cabbage in.

Do Brussels sprouts exactly the same way.

Just put that in there quickly.

So, you get rid of that and this is just the infused milk.

What we have there is infused milk.

And what we've got to do quickly is cook that out with something

called agar agar, which is a seaweed-based, completely

natural gelling agent, which we've got to sprinkle in there.

-Need a surprisingly small amount.

-So this is instead of using gelatine.

Yeah. But it has completely different properties.

Ultimately you are turning a liquid into a solid

but it has very different mouth feel.

It's got a nasty texture to eat as a lump.

It certainly does when you're making desserts.

You wouldn't swap agar agar for gelatine.

No, good old-fashioned gelatine

gives you that lovely soft, supple...

Which is what is important about it. This is...

What's weird about agar is you can set a jelly and serve it warm.

You can serve it up to 80 degrees.

So that's all you've got to do there, is bring it up to the boil

and that's worked its magic.

The next thing is to smoke it

and this is a slightly clever little trick.

What do we need? We need a little bit of clingfilm on here.

I'll move it over there so you can see it.

Then we're just going to cover it with clingfilm.

-This is a gadget for you, Sarah.

-Fancy.

And that's sealed up, and then make a little gap in there

and we pick this thing up.

And then we just fill the pan with smoke.

Lofty, our cameraman, is happy.

He hasn't seen anything like that

since Top Of The Pops and Dusty Springfield. Look at that.

Lofty's getting one of them. It brings back memories, doesn't it?

So that's that. That just needs to sit for about 15, 20 minutes.

Just turn that off so it doesn't go bang.

And the smoke will penetrate the milk and flavour it.

This has cooled right down.

This has cooled right down but literally that won't take too long.

This is just got to get put into... Only problem we might have here,

we're struggling with total volume for the blender. I'm sure if we...

-I'll move this out the way.

-If we get that cranked...

-You see it gets pretty solid.

-Yeah, that does go absolutely solid.

Like cold mashed potato.

This is where it gets frustrating,

where modern techie things don't work how you want them to.

This, the problem we've got is we haven't got very much of it.

Do you want a bit of cream in there or something?

-We're going to get there.

-Trying to get plastic in there as well.

Yeah, we're going to end up with my feet sticking out of the jug.

-Why don't you grab the piece of turbot out of the...?

-Yeah.

-That's...

-Don't worry, we've got many left, it's fine.

OK, we're looking good. It's not going to be quite as...

So you want me to just top it with this topping?

You're just going to top it with the hazelnut and let that sit.

-That's the hazelnut.

-That's where the recipe can end

but I've also brought along the truffle just because...

-just because I can. Just because it's that time of year.

-Yeah.

But the recipe is 99% magic just as it is.

-So then...

-Are we doing that?

So this...

is not quite as smooth as it should be.

In fact it's still warm enough here if you...

We'll warm it a little bit further.

Quickly warm it up.

There you go.

It should be absolutely super smooth.

I'll give you the plate.

-There we go.

-That first.

Cabbage is a great thing. It's a humble thing but it's a great thing.

Now as well as this, as well as the restaurants as well,

-you're writing your first book.

-The first book.

It very nearly made it to the finish line but in the end I...

In order to get everything in there I wanted in there...

There it is - lovely, rich, not as smooth as it should be but...

-That's delicious.

-There you go.

Pan handle's hot.

And there is a magnificent bit of turbot.

It does look great, I have to say.

Just like that is great.

But if you really want to just be indulgent about it...

-Black truffle over the top.

-..and cover up the grainy puree...

-There's turbot in a posh blanket.

-It certainly is.

Tell us what that is again.

Turbot with a hazelnut and truffle pesto

and smoked celeriac milk puree.

It's been five years but the man is a genius. Thank you very much.

There you go and we're looking forward to the book.

Definitely going to have one of those little smokers, they're great.

-There you go.

-Thank you very much. Looks amazing.

Dive into that. Have a seat.

What can you say?

A truffle blanket would be better, actually, wouldn't it?

-Oh, I like that.

-Ever had black truffles before?

-No.

-No?

-No.

-Your first time?

-Yeah.

-Dive into that.

I'm going to have a little bit of everything, if I can.

In season at the moment and we're getting British truffles as well.

They're just coming into season and they are what they are, you know...

That's very good. Not a sandwich in sight. Well done, fella.

Well done, fella! There you go.

Classic cooking at its best.

It tasted great, especially with that truffle blanket.

Now it's time for another French adventure with a certain

Mr Keith Floyd.

So, my little liver dumplings,

it's time to set off on another BBC mini break,

this time aboard the Nouvelle Premiere,

France's gastronomic express.

Pity I forgot my train spotters' guide.

Anyway, it takes the dipso... I mean the diplomats and politicians

between Paris and Strasbourg in supreme luxury,

and it offers them a standard of cooking, wine and service

which is equal to any starred restaurant in France.

Of course, I know it's not a patch on the British Rail cheese toasty

but at least they're really trying.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

This is the life, lads.

The train journeys east

through splendid countryside to the vineyards of champagne

and through the battlefields of two world wars.

But don't let's be glum.

More interesting is the way of preparing food.

Take this fish choucroute, created by Joel Robuchon.

What they do is prepare these meals freshly every morning at

a central kitchen at the station in Paris, vacuum-pack and chill them,

and then the chefs simply have to steam them and serve them.

And believe me, the quality is superb, and beautifully fresh.

Of course, they charge like wounded buffaloes, which might have

something to do with why the service packed up earlier this year.

A great shame.

Journey's end and the foothills of the Vosges Mountains

are thickly clad with vines.

Here in Alsace the Riesling and Muscat grapes reign supreme.

This is the town of Colmar,

and if you detect a Teutonic influence in the architecture,

well, that's because we are just a few miles from the German border.

-HE MIMICS GERMAN ACCENT:

-Very interesting.

But what I really like is this wonderful wrought iron work

celebrating the charcuterie.

You know, the pates sausages, terrines and foie gras

for which Alsace is justifiably famous.

Now then, what has this building

and the Statue of Liberty got in common?

The answer is this man, who designed both -

the Maison des Tetes, the house of heads,

which I shall be cooking in shortly, and the aforementioned statue.

It's refreshing to see him clutching a glass and a bottle

rather than a hammer and chisel.

A man right after my own heart.

This is my new chum, Marc. Say hello, Marc.

Right, I'm going to make some liver dumplings.

Quenelles de foie, they're called here.

Clive, if you have a spin round the ingredients, I must explain this

quite carefully, cos it's simple and liable to go catastrophically wrong.

This is minced, raw pig's liver, into which I've added some

fried onion and bacon, chopped up and minced all together.

Look, it's a nasty, gungy puree there,

and I've put salt and pepper into it.

Moving over a bit, we've got semolina flour there.

Here, a bit more to your left or right, whatever it's called,

a couple of beaten eggs.

Over here, some finely fried chopped shallots.

Some nutmeg for grating in.

And some finely chopped parsley, and breadcrumbs soaked in milk.

Now, up to me again please, dear Clive,

because this is where I have to explain myself out of trouble.

All you do is mould those into little tiny shapes

and steam them or boil them in barely simmering water.

And they become delicious. But what will probably happen

when I mix it all together and put them in, they'll explode

and sort of make the whole thing look rather like one of those

water processing works you see by the sides of motorways.

Anyway, let's have a go. So, what I... Aw, that's hot.

What I have to do is put my breadcrumbs in.

Like so.

My eggs in, and I have no confidence in this dish at all,

I can tell you that.

I just don't believe it's going to work.

A little semolina goes in, which I mix in. Semolina flour, this is.

I hope that... Here, a little bit of the onion.

And the parsley.

Now...

We grate a bit of nutmeg in.

Like that. That water's probably boiling too fast behind me.

Now this is where it all, I'm sure, is going to turn to rat.

Because I would have thought that this needs to be a much drier,

firmer mixture.

But when I was discussing this with Marc, the chef here

in the Maison d'etre, he assured me that none of that was a problem.

So I'll just have a quick swig, if you don't mind,

because I'm on the wagon basically speaking, but...

This is a fairly nerve-racking occasion.

And now we're going to see what kind of a fool I can possibly

make of myself by putting this liquid mixture into here.

And it's bound just to separate into a whole... Oh, no. It's not!

Look! It is... Hey, it's working! This is incredible!

Now, how do I get the damn thing off the spoon?

That's what I'm not so sure about.

Marc?

Ou est le chef?

Chef?

I'm hoping the chef's going to come and help me

cos I'm in real trouble here.

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

This is just bad luck that I've screwed this up,

but happily help is on at hand.

Now, watch very carefully now.

-Ah, you just tip them on to the...

-You must all the time to...

-Wash the spoon.

-Yes.

And then you do it like this.

-I see.

-Correct?

-Yes.

So it's really rather like poaching eggs, in fact. Terribly simple!

It's really simple.

All you need is 20 years of experience in a real French

kitchen and you just whack it out like that.

Pretty good, hey?

Now the most important thing is to make the little sauce to go

with my dumplings, my liver little liver-liver dumplings! My dears.

Which we've made between us. I taught him how to do it earlier on.

Come down close to the pot, please. Some finely sliced shallots.

Chopped shallots.

Which we now deglacer with a little bit of white wine from Alsace.

Put on to maximum heat and let that...

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

Now we leave that to reduce, which will take a second or two.

-In the meantime, I will begin... Il doit etre cuit, maintenant?

-Oui.

I shall begin to prepare these beautiful little liver

dumplings on to the plate.

Tip them up that way, they look neater.

And I'm going to make these look quite superb.

That's reducing away nicely.

These have been in this simmering water, by the way,

for 12 minutes, which is very good.

12-15 minutes.

So we do that.

Now, it's no good me saying that that's ready cos it isn't.

It's not ready till there's almost no liquid left.

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

Tres bien.

It's jolly good to have somebody

who really knows what he's talking about on hand.

Voila. This is a... what we call a demi-glace.

It's a stock pot which has been reduced slowly,

flavoured and thickened with cream.

If you want to make a demi-glace,

look it up in one of the cookery books.

Right, this is sufficiently reduced.

Come in, Clive, have a good look.

See how rich and thick it's got now.

But with all these sauces, there's always a good thing...

This is not nouvelle cuisine, I can assure you.

This is Alsatian cuisine.

Enrich that with a little knob of salted butter.

That will make the shauce... The sauce, sorry.

Very shiny and a lot more gentle.

-Gentle.

-Right, merci.

-Be mindful of what you have to... Slowly, yeah?

-Slowly.

Now, just very gently, to beat in the butter.

-OK? Comme ca?

-C'est bon.

-Oui, maintenant. Absolutely.

-All right.

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

We've got to add just a little tiny-weeny...

Like that, just to make the flavour come right through, OK?

Just to finish off the flavour.

Yes, and it does make a big difference.

-Yeah, and a spoon.

-Spoon.

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

MAN SPEAKS FRENCH

Here we have a little bit of carefully prepared tomato.

Very finely chopped chives.

That's a good dish with potatoes.

-Fried or boiled potatoes?

-Boiled.

-Boiled.

And I think that's a bit too much salad.

-That's too much.

-A little bit.

There we are.

OK, now I'm going to give myself

a little round of applause for this, if you don't mind. Sorry.

As you can see, I made it all on my own with no outside help

or interference in any shape or form.

It's absolutely brilliant and to prove it,

I'm prepared to eat it in front of you.

-Except for, that's a little hot.

-SPOON CLANGS

I'll use that one.

They are light and delicious.

Yeah, actually, not unrelated

to the great British faggot,

but they're a much finer, more delicate version of them.

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

I'm nearly an Alsatian. There's an answer to that.

DOG BARKS

Here we go again with my musical chum Amadeus,

and here's one of the production assistants looking very anxious.

Colmar, despite being invaded three times since the Franco-Prussian War,

is a resilient place,

and its citizens exude a genuine joie de vivre,

which only those who have experienced utter hell show.

And they make brilliant cakes, which they arrange on shelves

in much the same way as a Bond Street jeweller displays his wares.

Of course, what makes the cakes of Alsace so good...

Although, a Hungarian countess once told me,

"The only place to enjoy a cake is in Vienna."

She was a bit of a snob, of course.

..is the painstaking care of small family businesses

who employ a couple of young apprentices,

who are very proud to learn and maintain

the fine tradition of master cake-making,

and they do make exceedingly good cakes - and croissants, of course.

They're also brilliant at making sausages,

and in a better world, we'd devote a whole series to this master

sausage-maker, but it's a cruel world, and until now,

the sausage-maker was one of gastronomy's unsung heroes.

-# Saucisson

-Saucisson

-# For the flavoursome meal

-Very flavoursome meal

-# Such a succulent treat

-It's a tasty treat

-# They stuff them fit to burst

-Tasty, with every flavour

-# Saucisson

-Saucisson

-# And the French are the best

-Cos the French are the best

-# When it comes to the test

-When they take the test

# Saucisson, bon

# Saucisson, saucisson, bon

# Saucisson, saucisson, bon... #

Classic stuff there.

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

the tastiest recipes from the Saturday Kitchen library.

Still to come on today's Best Bites -

Silvena Rowe and Will Holland go head-to-head

at the Omelette Challenge.

See how they both get on in just a few minutes.

And Stephane Reynaud treats us to a sensational scallop dish

which he serves with leeks and chestnuts.

The chestnuts are roasted and cooked with leeks

and cream in a white wine sauce.

And Alexander Armstrong faces Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven -

lobster and langoustine with a champagne sauce,

skinny fries and green beans?

Or would he get his dreaded Food Hell -

corned beef hotpot with sauteed runner beans?

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

Now for a lesson in simple cooking with classic French flavours.

Stephane Reynaud is certainly your man.

Here he is with a sensational scallop dish.

Stephane Reynaud. Good to have you on the show.

-It's great to be here again.

-Exactly. It's been a year.

-One year, exactly one year.

-One year.

So what's on the menu for today, then?

-Today, we are going to have scallops, French scallops.

-Yeah.

So, with chestnuts, wine, leeks,

garlic, spring onions, ginger and cream.

-Excellent.

-There's always cream and wine in France, you know?

So, in essence, it's a very, very simple dish,

-so we need to get on.

-Simple dish.

These are chestnuts here, so to prepare those,

-I'll show you how to do those.

-Thank you.

These want to get roasted off in the oven.

These are not conkers. Don't get the two mixed up.

All right?

I love these chestnuts, you know?

-We used to have a lot in France in my village, in Ardeche.

-Yeah.

You know, I'm from Ardeche,

-and you know how we call these trees in Ardeche? The chestnut tree?

-No.

-The sausage tree.

-Sausage tree.

The sausage tree, that's true.

-Because chefs...

-You French...

-No, no, chestnuts used to be the pigs' food, last century.

-Right.

-So that's why we called this tree sausage.

-Sausage tree.

So look at those great scallops.

Right, so we are going to chop these up.

You have a lot of these markets, particularly stallholders,

-in France selling these, don't you?

-Yes.

-Nice chestnuts.

And it's nice, at this moment in France, you can you can

-go in Paris and buy on the street chestnuts like this.

-There you go.

-So you take the whole lot, whack them on.

-20 minutes.

20 minutes and just prick them with a fork or cut them

and as they cook they should open up nicely.

And then you always get somebody

-other than yourself to then peel them, don't you?

-Yes.

-Have some friend to come before the lunch and then...

-Oh. Yeah, go on.

-Maybe too hot?

-Yeah, it's warm.

LAUGHTER

-Come on.

-No, they're warm. They're all right. Fine, carry on.

Right, so the scallops. You're using the hand-dived scallops.

-Sorry?

-Hand-dived scallops, these ones.

-Yeah.

In season at the moment in France?

It's a great season and now in France and it's only five months,

-the season, so scallops are very cheap in France at the moment.

-Yeah.

-So you have to use it.

-They are. I've been round markets in France.

I can't believe how cheap they are.

-Yeah, it's like 2 euro 50 per kilo at this time.

-Wow.

Yeah, really, really cheap.

-Really cheap.

-Cheap during the season.

-Yeah.

-Don't say that!

-Exactly.

It's from November to March so if you go in the South of France

during the summer, it never has scallops in the restaurant.

Every restaurant in the South of France have

scallops on the restaurant during the summer.

-I can't understand that.

-A lot of restaurants here, though, Stephane,

-use scallops most of the year round.

-Yeah? We try to have...

They're from Scotland, you see.

-Scottish scallops are the best in the world.

-No, come on.

Of course they are!

Scallops from Erquy, Erquy which is a little

village in Brittany in France, has the best scallops in the world.

-Scotland.

-Scotland.

-No.

-Right, we've got leeks.

-OK, one to two.

Because they wear the kilts, you see and they're all that sort of thing,

-dressing up as a woman thing.

-That gets you good scallops.

I can't wait till the next time you go to Scotland!

Right, so the idea is you prepare those

and then basically you don't use the roe for this, no?

Just like this and then we're going to fry them on the pan.

I have the garlic, I chop all the vegetables.

-Tell us about your book, then. The first book was the book on pork.

-Yes.

Which was hugely successful. I mean, literally, global success.

You've done a few others since then. What is the latest one?

The last one is 365 Good Reasons To Sit Down And Eat.

So you have a simple food for every day with the seasonal products.

And you have a lot of different stories inside,

a lot of jokes, a lot of strange recipes.

You should try to make the recipe on the 1st April there. Next time.

-First of April recipe?

-Yes.

-Why?

-Yeah, you have to look at the book.

If you can find the ingredients to do the recipe...

But you've got people who draw in the book as well.

There's drawings in there.

Yeah, there is drawings, there is a lot of stories and I like to write

some stories in my books, I don't like to write only recipes there.

How much time, Stephane, do you spend when you're writing a book?