13/12/2015 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. With Christmas just around the corner there's no better

place to be than right here, as we've got a feast of festive inspiration.

This is Saturday Kitchen: Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

Stay exactly where you are because we've got the very best chefs,

fabulous food and a cracking celebrity line-up,

all waiting just for you.

Coming up on today's show:

The masterful Pierre Koffmann treats us to a dazzling dish of duck a l'orange.

And Luke Matthews pan fries some spectacular line-caught sea bass,

which he serves with mussels, saffron and samphire.

The mussels are cooked in butter and shallots,

before being added to a creamy saffron sauce.

Silvena Rowe gives us a taste of Istanbul with her sensational Ottoman lamb,

that is cooked with figs, prunes, almonds, mini meatballs and apple.

And Michael Ball faces his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Will he get his Food Heaven -

poached and roasted pork belly with sauteed cabbage and bacon?

Or will he get his dreaded Food Hell -

curried monkfish medallions with mussels in a cream sauce?

Find out what he gets to eat at the end of the show.

But first, if you're looking for something a little bit

different to serve this Christmas, then Will Holland is your man.

And parsnip and vanilla soup is on the menu.

Right, what are you going to show Warren how to cook, then?

What's the first dish he's going to learn over there?

The first dish we're going to teach Warren today,

-we're going to do a lovely soup of parsnip and vanilla.

-Parsnip and vanilla?

And then we're going to have some quince poached with saffron

and we're going to pop some scallops in there as well.

All right, so you want me to do the quince first?

Yes, you start with the quince.

I need you to make a stock syrup with some saffron in there.

Poaching liquor is water and sugar, yeah?

-That's the one. And I'm going to get on the soup straightaway.

-Yeah.

So that's going to go on there. I'll turn that one up and that one up.

You don't see quince used very much these days, do you?

Well, it's in season, isn't it?

It's in season.

I think the reason you don't see it very often is

because people don't really know what to do with it.

And so this is...

Warren's looking and thinking, "I don't know what it is." That's what it is, mate.

I though that was a kumquat. What's a kumquat?

THEY LAUGH

It won't ever get softer than that.

You know, quince don't ripen.

Or, they're ripe when they're still firm. So, it's...

A cross between a pear and an apple, isn't it?

Yeah, but you use them when they're really, really hard like that.

But you have to cook with them. And also they go brown.

Yeah, they go brown,

so I'm going to get you to do a little bit of water with some

lemon juice in there, James, and that will just help stop that.

Yep. We've got some saffron in there, as well,

in that poaching liquor. Now, you're going to cook them in sugar?

Although you're serving this as a soup, you going to cook them in sugar, as well?

Yeah, well, I'm going to get some sort of sweet elements going on in there because

parsnips are quite sweet, scallops are actually quite sweet.

So it's just a nice sort of sweet soup for a cold day.

So what I've got in here is the butter, onion and garlic,

and I'm going to stick a lid on that, just so the...

We don't get any colour. I don't want any crispy onions while I prepare my parsnips.

-So this is a white soup, basically?

-It's a white soup, yes.

-All being well.

-So 2010 has been a great year for you in the restaurant?

It's been really, really good, actually, yeah.

Started off with retaining my Michelin Star, which is always good.

And then we've just got a really nice momentum to the restaurant.

Various awards and accolades have been coming in.

Ones like the Sunday Times did their top 100 restaurants

in the country list, and I managed to get number 19, which was good.

Well, you're going in the right direction because, I mean,

in all of them you're going up the charts.

Yeah, there's the National Restaurant Awards, as well,

held this year, and last year I was 87 and this year I've managed to climb to 44.

So kind of halved my score, which was good.

In the right way. I'll do that for you.

-Give us a hand chopping that.

-So you've taken the skin off already?

I've taken the skin off, but I haven't taken the core out.

Some people, if they make parsnip puree or soup, take the core,

but I think at this time of the season,

parsnips are still nice and tender.

So I'm quite happy to leave the core in there.

Maybe after Christmas, as the season goes on, you know, they become a

little bit more woody and then it might be a case of just taking the core out.

Getting them out the ground in Scotland's the difficulty, isn't it? Finding them.

That's it. They'll be frozen into the ground.

But you do need a bit of frost on parsnips, I think, to bring out the sweetness.

A little bit of frost. Not... Not rock-hard.

-About two foot of snow where he is.

-That's it.

So they're in there sweating with the butter,

and I'm going to put the liquid in there straightaway.

-So I got some chicken stock.

-Right.

-Good-quality chicken stock.

You could use veg stock for this, as well.

Yeah, if you're a vegetarian, then by all means use veg stock.

And I've got milk, so it's half/half milk and stock, and it's quite

-a nice way of making a soup without putting cream in it.

-Right, OK.

-I know that's not right up your street.

-No, it's fine by me.

-A creamless dish.

-I've seen the pile of butter over there. That's all right for me.

And then the other ingredient I've got here, James, is the vanilla pod.

And as opposed to splitting it in scraping the seeds out,

-I'm going to put the whole lot in.

-The whole lot?

-I'm just going to use half of that.

But I mean whole in that I'm not

just going to scrape the seeds out, we're going to use the whole thing.

So that's going to go in there cos we're going to blend the soup and pass it, so that'll take...

But it has to be this and not vanilla essence or extract?

-Yeah, use the...

-Please can I ask the question?

Fish and vanilla, I just don't get it.

Is it not up your street?

No , I just... I mean, I really tried.

It's quite, kind of, 1980s, isn't it?

But what about parsnip soup?

Parsnip and vanilla I can start to begin to understand.

Well, this isn't 1980s. What are you doing here then?

What you're going to do for me, James, you're going

to take some lovely sprigs of tarragon.

I see what you mean, but it is French. I mean, the French do like the...

Yeah, I know where it comes from, and some of the best

chefs in the world use that combination.

It's just one I just don't get.

Let's see if I can change your ways.

The parsnip could be the vehicle to carry the vanilla to the fish.

Ah, let's see. Let's hope.

What on earth are you doing now?

What we've got here, we're going to...

I hope you've dusted the microwave off today,

because we're going to use the microwave.

I put some veg oil on a clingfilm plate, and then

a few sprigs of tarragon.

-Yeah, you'll be able to do this bit for me.

-You could do this bit, Warren.

A bit of tarragon, microwaved tarragon. It'd be great.

-Loads of that in my fridge.

-We're basically making tarragon crisps.

So as opposed to deep frying herbs to make them crispy,

we're using the microwave, and it's a really good way.

You can do it with all sorts of herbs.

We're doing it with tarragon today, but you can do it with parsley,

basil is a great one.

Little basil leaves. It's really, really good.

-So this is a little bit of veg oil on here?

-Yep.

I'll let you carry on with that one while I start opening my scallops.

-Yeah, thanks for that. Cheers.

-There's no jokes about...

-You look like you're enjoying yourself, James.

-Sorry?

-You look like you're enjoying yourself.

-Yeah.

-Are you happy with that?

-That looks absolutely perfect.

And then full power? About two minutes, yeah?

Full power, two minutes, or it might even need two and a half, three minutes.

-I'm just opening these scallops.

-Full power there.

Right, the quince is poaching there.

-The soup's cooking away nicely there.

-Boiling away.

Scallops, tell us about these hand-dived scallops.

Yeah, hand-dived.

-Always buy hand-dived scallops.

-Always from Scotland.

Always from Scotland, that's it. Scottish scallops.

No, definitely. Scottish scallops

are some of the best in the world. Definitely.

Dived as opposed to dredged.

Did you say the west coast of Scotland, yeah?

Mainly the west coast.

The great thing about the west coast of Scotland

is it's very rocky, so the dredgers can't get in close to the coast

so there's plenty of scallops for the divers to pick up,

and only 3% of the scallops we eat are actually hand-dived.

But the difference is unbelievable.

I would never used a dredged scallop, only hand-dived.

Don't worry, nobody's noticing this, Will. Don't worry.

That's all right. You carry on boiling my soup over for me.

That's sound effects. It's me rustling some sound effects.

So, the scallops.

-You don't use the roe for this?

-No, I'm not a fan of the roe, actually.

I'm glad you said that.

I'm not a fan at all.

No, the only thing I could possibly do with it is dry it and turn it into a powder.

Dry it, grind it, paste, powder it. Yep, totally.

There's no point being nice after you just took the mick out of him saying vanilla.

No, I'm going to convert Nick today.

You get quite a lot of chefs, and they leave the roes on the scallops

and it tastes like overcooked, fishy scrambled eggs.

Cos it's a totally different thing.

-The meat is protein and the other thing is a bag of eggs.

-Yep, definitely.

I'm glad we've agreed on one thing today, Nick.

What I've done here as well, James, is I've cut them in half straight through,

as opposed to cutting them into pieces that way, just because I

don't want thin discs that are going to overcook. I want nice chunks.

I'm going to take this soup now.

Give it a quick blend. So it will actually cook in real-time.

MICROWAVE BEEPS There you go.

I've just heard the beep of the microwave, so that's always a good sign.

Yeah, I'll get that bit.

Right, so cooking these scallops. I've got my pan here

and it's warm, but it's not smoking hot.

So you don't add any cream in here, just a bit of milk, yeah?

Just the cooking liquor that it's in so it's got a creamy consistency

-to it, but you don't need to add a hell of a lot of cream.

-Right.

I'll go check these.

I'm just going to put the scallops in on the flat side,

so the cut side down.

And I've lightly seasoned those with salt.

Salt in here.

Right, the scallops only take, what, 20 seconds?

Yeah, I'm just going to literally colour them on one side

and then I'm going to turn the pan off and we're going to

let them cook through on the other side really, really gently.

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

A knob of butter in there.

There you go. And just pass this soup through.

And it's got the vanilla, the parsnips and everything else in there.

You can see how lovely and creamy it is.

The parsnips kind of just emulsify into that lovely soup.

A touch of lemon in there, as well.

-That's it.

-There you go.

Give that a quick stir and we're ready.

You can see with my scallop pan now, I've actually turned that off the heat

so it's just the residual heat in there cooking those through beautifully.

We're ready when you are.

Start plating up. I believe Claire has got an allergy to scallops,

so I'm not going to try and kill one of the guests on Saturday Kitchen today.

How do you find out you've got an allergy to scallops?

-You'll find out whether you're allergic to scallops in about ten seconds.

-You'll find out.

When your face resembles a Michelin man.

-CLAIRE:

-And you stop breathing.

We're going to put these beautiful scallops,

just nice and plump pieces.

And if you ladle that soup in for us,

and you can see my microwave tarragon.

Just little pieces.

Happy with that?

So, like you said, you can do different types of herbs with this.

It doesn't have to be tarragon in the microwave.

Also, I mean, the soup is just a really nice winter warmer.

If you don't want to do the garnish, then just do the soup.

Move over there and you finish that one off. So remind us what that is again.

It's saffron poached quince with parsnip and vanilla soup

and pan-fried scallops.

Easy as that.

Put that little bit of extra microwave on there.

-There we go.

-Thank you very much.

-Dive into that one.

-Thank you.

There you go, without the scallops. Tell me what you think.

Have you ever tried scallops and quince before?

Oh, every....every Friday.

Is it a regular flavour combination that you have, Warren?

-That's fantastic.

-You like that?

-Mm.

-Pretty good.

What about the quince? Try the quince and the saffron.

Now, you put quite a bit of saffron in there to get the colour, mainly.

Yeah, get the colour.

It just adds a really nice sort of perfume to the dish.

You've got the vanilla that adds a nice aromat to it,

-and then you've got the saffron.

-That's brilliant.

I think Warren's discovered a new favourite food.

You're just making food up. What's quince?

-WILL LAUGHS

-I think it grows on a tree.

-There you go.

-Did you go shopping in Narnia to get these?

Those flavour combinations really work. Give it a try at home.

Coming up, I cook delicious Arbroath-Smokey fishcakes with a

chive sauce for Lisa Faulkner. After a Christmas odyssey with Mr Rick Stein.

And today, he's in Sri Lanka.

I had been told that some of the fishing scenes in Sri Lanka would be

some of the most visual I was likely to see anywhere,

but I must say, it has exceeded all my expectations.

I mean, it's like central casting, fishing-wise.

I mean, when I first saw it I just thought of Newlyn,

of those Newlyn School of painters.

People like Stanhope Forbes from the last century, from Victorian times.

Because all those boats are still powered only by sail.

These ones here which are motorised just bring the fish

into to the shore from the bigger boats.

But to me it's just like I can hardly believe I'm here.

This teardrop-shaped island was all about fish and coconut and cinnamon.

This was a first for me.

It's a spice so associated with Christmas,

and one I've used all the time I've been cooking.

But I'd never seen it in its raw state before.

Today, Sri Lanka is still the leading source of this fragrant bark.

I imagine that's incredibly difficult to do.

I could never master it.

He's trying to get them off in one long, sort of, roll.

This is wonderful.

I mean, as a cook I've been using cinnamon for about 40 years,

I suppose, just taking it out of a jar

and snipping a bit off. I never realised there was

so much skill going into packing these lengths of cinnamon,

apparently 3½ feet long, as tightly as possible.

The other really important product from this island was

the coconut, and particularly the oil that was extracted from it.

Once they'd been smashed open, they were dried over husks of other

coconuts that had gone before them.

It's this process of drying the flesh of the nut,

I suspect, that will make you either love coconut oil or hate it.

All this machinery would have been here

when Ceylon was painted pink on the world atlas.

That's if you're of a certain age.

Here they were squeezing the flesh to extract that essential oil.

It was by far the most common cooking medium on the island.

That smoky coconut taste and aroma

that was all-pervading in most dishes, and in the air.

I visited an old friend called Geoffrey Dobbs,

who owns a very nice house on the island of Taprobane.

Well, I think it's the first time I've had to wade to somebody's house.

GEOFFREY LAUGHS

It's fabulous.

This house was built in the 1920s by a person called Count de Mauny.

He came here with Sir Thomas Lipton,

and built this rather fantasical house here.

Unbelievable.

And what does it feel like to have your own island, then?

Well, sometimes I can't really believe it.

Sometimes I pinch myself, but when I wake up every morning

and look out to the South Pole...

Nothing in-between?

There's nothing in-between here and the South Pole.

I was intrigued to know how he survived on that Boxing Day in 2004,

when the tragedy happened.

I was swimming in the sea just on the other side of the island

and I experienced a very strong current.

Then I looked at the island and I was about 18 foot higher,

so I thought, "Well, there's something very wrong at the moment."

And then I was taken across the island

and I had landed up over there between a palm tree

and the top of that house, and I was lucky to be left alive.

All I can say is I admire your British understatement,

saying you were lucky, you know?

GEOFFREY LAUGHS

That particular Christmas time certainly changed

a few lives there, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.

Especially for a bunch of kids further inland.

This hostel at Savan Sarana is run by Carla Browne to help disadvantaged children.

On the day we visited, there was to be a feast and a blessing

by the local Buddhist monks for a new, long sought after dormitory.

They are very good indeed. Very nice.

He's just frying outside, which seems like a very good idea

to me because you don't get all that oily smell in the house -

not that it matters too much.

But he's frying some river prawns with flour, egg, salt,

a little bit of coriander leaf and some turmeric.

And they're jolly good.

It was the tsunami, and the desperate need of these children

that made Sri Lanka Carla's home.

They are the forgotten children, and in Sri Lanka it's a stigma.

And the families are very, very poor so they are here.

Probably their lives here are better than at home.

I mean, but they're lovely kids.

You will see them, they're beautiful kids, and lost.

So it's that building at the back that is being officially blessed today?

It is today.

And almsgiving is when the monks come and chant and we prepare the food.

We give them food and the children will have a wonderful meal today

because not every day do the children have food.

Really?

Because there's not much funding for this hostel so sometimes they think

that food is going to be given by the people and it doesn't turn up.

CHANTING

So the monks were there to bless this new building, and alms -

in this case food - were given to them.

From what I could see there were about ten different

curries on the table, from fish to cashew nut,

all served with the local red rice.

It was considered a privilege to serve the monks,

and I was happy to join in and be included in the ceremony.

Also, I was interested to notice that they range from older,

more experienced ones, right down to youngsters.

As I understood it, the boys had their horoscopes looked at

by their local village wise man,

and he decided if they should continue to be monks or not.

Apparently, it doesn't suit them all.

This dish stood out that day.

The cashew nuts were so satisfying.

It's made with lemon grass, garlic, and chilli, fried onions,

turmeric, the essential Sri Lankan roasted curry powder,

pandanus leaves, and of course a generous dollop of coconut milk.

And then a handful of fresh curry leaves

and some green beans for that bit of crunch.

Now cashews.

I couldn't get fresh ones,

so I bought salted ones and let them soak in water.

They were lovely.

To finish off, add some lime juice.

A bowl of this curry is amazingly tasty and satisfying.

I'd really love this during the Christmas break.

What a delicious-looking curry.

And as Rick said, it would be a tasty alternative to a rich

Christmas food that we're having over the next couple of weeks.

And I've got something a little bit different for Christmas and I'd be having a lot of these, to be honest,

because if this was one of my food heavens,

this would be it. Arbroath Smokies.

I absolutely love them. Whether they are in pate, whatever they are.

Arbroath Smokies are, in actual fact, they are not herring.

That's different, they're kippers.

This is actual haddock.

And what they do is they cure it and then they hot smoke it.

What we're going to do is do a little fishcake using the Arbroath Smokies.

They have to come from Arbroath up in Scotland.

They are brilliant and the flesh is absolutely incredible.

If you are ever up in Arbroath and you're at one of these markets,

they do an amazing sort of thing at the markets

where you can actually taste the hot ones that come out of the smokery.

You just have them in newspaper with lashings of butter.

And when I was up there last time, this poor old lady was complaining

because she'd set up her underwear stall right next to the

smokehouse, and the wind changed.

-She wasn't very happy, really.

-No.

So anyway, what we're going to do is I've just got some potatoes in there

and flake them into the potatoes.

Bit of lemon, bit of chives, that's kind it, really,

but you've just got to pick through and mind the bones.

But you'll be quite good at this, doing what you've been doing recently.

-Cooking in all these Michelin Star restaurants.

-Yeah.

You had practice at doing all this sort of stuff.

But firstly, you got spotted as a model first, didn't you?

I did. When I was about... I think I was 16,

and I was on a tube station and asked

if I wanted to be a model.

-And I said no.

-Right.

And then ended up giving the modelling agency lady my number

because it was all in the time of just home phones,

no mobiles, and she just kept phoning and in the end I said,

"All right, I might as well give it a go."

-And in the end you gave it a go.

-I did.

Was it that that opened the door to the acting, sort of thing?

Well, what I thought, I saw it as a way of getting money to put myself through drama school.

I thought it would be a great way to earn some cash, really.

But is that what you wanted to do as a kid, drama?

-That's what you wanted to do?

-Yeah, I wanted to be an actress.

And it worked out that I didn't actually have to go to drama school until later.

I went later, but I got a film and started from there, really.

-You got a film because it wasn't that the French director...

-Yeah, Jean-Jacques Annaud.

-..that spotted you?

-Yeah.

-So it was film that really started,

because a lot of people go from television the other way.

Yeah, it was film. And we went over.

It was a film called The Lover, which sounds much more dodgy than it was.

And it was a great film set in Paris and Vietnam.

We went over to Vietnam to film it, but I was told... They had

a beautiful French caterers on this show and gorgeous cakes and

amazing food, and they told me I wasn't allowed to eat it and I had to have

Vietnamese green beans because they didn't want me to put on any weight.

Then of course from doing obviously that film,

Dangerfield was the one that really...

Would you say that kind of launched you to the British public?

Yeah, I think it was the... It was a massive drama over here

and it was great fun to film and I met my friend Amanda Redman,

who I then went and studied drama with, actually.

It opened a lot of doors and it was fantastic.

-It went on to be a huge success, that, Dangerfield.

-Yeah.

And then of course there's the soap, Brookside.

Brookside, yeah.

-And then from there you've done all manner of stuff since then.

-I have.

All connected with food, I have to say. Holby City.

-A knife was involved. Didn't you get stabbed or something.

-There you go, food connection.

Stabbed with a knife.

I like the best one, Spooks, where you got deep-fried, didn't you?

Yeah, I can see one over there. It was slightly bigger than that.

I mean, that was quite controversial at the time.

Although we didn't see it, it was very controversial.

Yeah, it got the most complaints ever, I think, which was strange.

Very nice that people were so upset about my death. Some people.

Just the way that it was.

And then of course, obviously, we talk about MasterChef.

I mean, hugely popular programme now, incredibly popular.

Did you realise when you were going to be doing that that you'd stand a chance, or nothing?

No, I loved the show.

I mean, I just wanted to go on. When they asked me I just thought,

"I'll go, I'll have a nice day's cooking and that will be it."

And I had no idea I'd stay the course, really.

I just had no idea, and it was brilliant,

and the most amazing thing I've done, really.

It is kind of thrown into the deep end, innit, really?

Because they take people who don't... I mean, it's fair you've cooked at home, but it's very, very

-different to be cooking at home and cook in a restaurant.

-Absolutely.

Yeah, and they throw you in and they literally don't say,

"Right, you can do this and once the cameras have stopped we'll carry on for you."

You do everything, and I leant very fast,

but I loved every minute of it and I think it was such a great

opportunity and I just want to do loads more cooking.

-You should have said that and you could have had a go at this.

-Yeah.

These are the little fishcake sort of things.

You just roll them up into little balls.

That's a lemon and everything else. I'm going to deep fat fry that.

I think the secret of fishcakes -

and I don't know whether Nathan's over there, the king of fish -

but I put more fish than I do potato, because I think a lot of fishcakes

there's not enough fish in there and it can be almost like hunting for it.

If you almost put two thirds fish to one third potato.

And how long do they take in the fryer?

They're going to take about two minutes.

I'm a bit scared of the fryers.

Well, I'm not surprised, really.

THEY LAUGH Not surprised.

Well, Yeah.

I always think, how do you know when it's cooked in there,

-apart from it just turns a different colour?

-Yeah. That's it.

-And it's done?

-Yeah, there's no rocket science behind it.

-When it's changed colour it's ready.

-OK.

So this, I'm just going to put a little bit of white wine in there.

We're going to do a nice little lime beurre blanc.

White wine, some chicken stock - although this is fish,

we do it with a bit of chicken stock. I'm going to saute off a little bit of spinach in there, as well,

and we reduce that down with some double cream.

Quite quick, this sauce.

Now I'm going to add some lime juice and some butter.

So, MasterChef, are we going to see you do a cookbook or anything

-with that? Because didn't Matt Dawson do one?

-I'd love to.

I think he might have done. We'll see what happens, really.

I just feel like I've just started on this big road of food

and I just want to learn so much more and maybe get

back into some restaurants and do some cooking there, as well.

-There you go, free staff, Nath.

-You're more than welcome to come down.

You're welcome to learn anything about sashimi or anything like that.

I'd love to. I thought girls couldn't...

Is it true that girls can't be sushi chefs?

-Traditionally, yes, because their hands are too warm.

-Oh, really?

-Traditionally, yes.

-Oh, my hands are freezing, I'd be great.

-Perfect.

-Because you warm the rice up too much and warm the fish up.

-Oh, I see.

-I thought it was some sort of...

-It's cos your hands are warm.

There you go.

Now, tell us about the new thing you're doing at the moment.

Murdoch Mysteries? Tell us about that.

Yes, I've got a new drama coming out called The Murdoch Mysteries, which is a Canadian TV detective drama.

So has this already been out in Canada?

Yes, it's been out in Canada and it's the second series now over here...

..that I've done. I think there's about four series.

It's done really, really well and it's a great detective show.

So I got to go out to Toronto for the summer

and shoot out there, which is brilliant.

Running around with a little gun, shooting people.

What is it about, then?

Well, Yannick Bisson is in it, he's a detective, and always

solving all these things that go wrong and my character's come back.

I went and did it last year and I've come back this year,

and she's come back because she's lost her fiance.

And he has to find him.

-Du-du-duu.

-Du-du-duu.

Right, just quickly run through...

Whoa, that's good. Fishcakes are in.

I've just wilted a bit of watercress. Lime juice.

To get more juice out of a lime,

-you whack it in the microwave for eight seconds.

-Oh, really?

18 seconds you'll end up with a walnut, but eight seconds

you'll end up...

That's great.

A little bit of that and then what we do with that is we just take this and we just spoon this.

This is the watercress.

And instead of using spinach just wilt some watercress down.

-I love the idea of the watercress.

-It's just very different.

And then of course you've got your little fishcakes

which are great, you can prepare these in advance.

These come out, look.

And then you take your little fishcake, sit them on there

and you've got lime butter.

You don't need anything else with it, really simple.

I just want to come and eat all the food every week.

You can do.

In fact, I've just noticed, you can come and decorate our Christmas tree, because look.

This is what I love. BBC have got cutbacks, but look at this.

Oh.

It's only half-finished. Look at it! I love it, it's brilliant.

What do you reckon?

-Mmm.

-Those Arbroath Smokies are amazing.

The Smokies are fantastic.

They're brilliant, aren't they?

That sauce, as well. Ah, it's beautiful.

They're absolutely brilliant.

Glad you enjoyed it, Lisa.

Now, if you can get a hold of some Arbroath Smokies,

they really are delicious.

If you'd like to try cooking any of the studio recipes

including that one - 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 finest

dishes from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Now, as one of the few chefs to gain three coveted Michelin Stars,

it's always an honour to have the great and personal friend of mine

Mr Pierre Koffmann visit the Saturday Kitchen studio.

In this next clip he treats us to a fantastic French classic - duck a l'orange.

-We're cooking a traditional French dish?

-Yeah, we've duck a l'orange.

It's called bigarade, no?

Bigarade sauce, yes, made of sugar...

and vinegar. I nearly forgot what I was going to say!

-So we're going to start with some mallard first.

-Yeah.

We are going to put the skin of the orange inside to give

a bit of flavour.

-I'll let you do that.

-Yeah.

-Perfect.

-I'm going to start to do the vegetables.

-Right.

The vegetables will be a mix of bacon, sweet bacon, carrot,

celeriac and cabbage, with a touch of garlic to be really French.

-I'll give you that there. There you go.

-Keep your breath alive.

-Do you want that turning up?

-It's fine. Done the orange?

Yep, done it. It's in.

There you are.

Right, I'm going to peel the old orange.

-James, did you used to work for Pierre?

-I literally spent...

-Nearly, nearly.

-Nearly.

I spent a morning when I was 18 years old in a kitchen.

He's actually calmed down a lot since then.

-He was too scared to knock at the door to look for a job.

-Really?

I must have been shouting.

No, I did genuinely knock on the door at 17 years old,

with a roll of knives and I ran off.

-Did you?

-Yeah, I ran off.

I mean, back then, you know, it was THE place to work.

-Mr Angry with a pig's trotter in his hand.

-Yeah.

But, I mean, most of the traditional dishes came out of Pierre's kitchen.

That was the Waterside and Tante Claire.

How did the Tante Claire start?

If you are a chef you want to have your own restaurant -

so that's the dream of every chef.

And so, after working for many years for the Roux brothers,

I decided to try my chance at my own restaurant.

So that's how I started. It was quite successful.

I was lucky, too.

We had 36 covers on the first night and were full since.

But what brought you here was not food. It was rugby.

No, because the reputation of food in England was not that

-brilliant at the time.

-Right.

I came to rugby.

I come from the south west of France,

-where they play a lot of rugby.

-Yeah.

The game was invented in France, in fact, not in England.

So I said I'd go to London to see the French beat the English.

They did it that year by 35 to 3, in case other people forgot.

LAUGHTER

Talk about living on past glories!

-42 years later, I'm still here.

-What's the score now?

-I don't know, I forgot.

-But you retired recently.

Sometimes it's better to forget about those things.

But you retired recently, as well, and then you've come back into it again.

Yeah, I decided to retire ten years ago now, so...

And I was getting bored, so I decided to start again.

I had my time, my time in retirement,

and now I'm back cooking.

I still enjoy it like the first day.

Cos it was a pop-up restaurant that got you back into the kitchen?

Yeah, they asked me

to do a pop-up restaurant on the roof of Selfridges, where time to

time, I used to call the head of the restaurant because he was very hard.

It was supposed to be for a period of a week,

and we managed to do two months.

In those two months, we did 3,200 pigs' trotters.

Ten of them was yours, as well.

No, I had ten pig trotters at The Berkeley.

The final service at The Berkeley, I came in with nine mates

-and we all had pig's trotter.

-Right.

But I came to the pop-up and had pig's trotters.

LAUGHTER

And you had pig's trotters last night?

Oh, my goodness, they're amazing.

Pierre told us in rehearsal that he only uses the rear trotters.

Yeah, because the front ones are too small, so you've got nothing.

Have you ever done anything with the front ones?

No, we don't even buy them.

I don't buy the whole pig, you've got to understand.

I buy just the trotter.

At the beginning, they used to be free, the trotters.

Nobody used the trotter.

But now you've got to pay for it.

I had beans on toast last night.

So how long would you put the duck in there?

-How long would you put the duck in the oven for?

-For about 15 minutes.

It depends on the size of the duck, of course.

-Now this recipe comes from your love of classical French cooking.

-Yeah.

Particularly the area you were brought up,

because this links in with your book.

So tell us about this and the connection with your book,

because that is a direct link to it.

The drink is made in the village I come from in France.

It's called a Poussoir Pierre. It's a copy of Grand Marnier.

Grand Marnier is done with brandy.

Poussoir Pierre is done with Armagnac.

We're going to make this sauce now.

So the sauce is a kind of caramelised sauce,

so you put sugar and vinegar.

You reduce the vinegar. You cook it, in fact.

It will turn into, not burnt, but caramel, you know?

This book is a series of your journey through that area, as well?

Yes, I come from this part. It's not only from this part of France.

It's French, that's all. You see the caramel is golden now.

So what vinegar have you put in there? What type of vinegar is that?

White wine vinegar.

Yeah, I come from a generation where it was white vinegar or red vinegar.

We didn't have 20 types of vinegar the young chefs use now.

Tell us about this, then. What is this?

That is only Armagnac and orange.

Very similar to Grand Marnier.

Also, this recipe is in your book as well, this cabbage,

cos this has got the bacon, we've put some celeriac in there, some carrots.

Where did you first start in your cooking? Something from your parents?

No, it's from at home. Every Frenchman eats well at home.

Or they used to.

I was at school until the age of 14 with a report - "can do better."

I never did better, so one day they call my Pa and said,

"Maybe he can do better somewhere else.

"We'd have a free seat for somebody else(!)"

-So I chose a job.

-Yeah. You chose the right job. Certainly did that.

I went for a different job.

I went for a cookery school because it was still a school.

So a little bit of white wine in there.

-So there it's ready.

-We've got our duck here. Look at that.

Looks absolutely fantastic. Very festive with the orange out of there.

Now, the book is a sort of relaunch, is it?

The relaunch of a book called "A Memory of Gascony".

-A memory of my young life when I was a young boy...

-Yeah.

..in France, so it's a very nice book to read.

I cannot leave you on your own!

LAUGHTER

Can we have that again in slo-mo?

He's your hero. Oh, dear.

-Made my day, that has.

-It's a nice book to read.

Same in French, you see. 23 years on, I just want to run away.

So you've got a lot of reading in that book.

I think it's a beautiful story.

I think it will be the perfect book for Christmas for you.

-Right, we've got this.

-Yeah.

Do you want me to finish off this?

-Yeah, good.

-Don't leave him alone!

I'll keep an eye.

But you're still cooking every night in the restaurant.

Yeah, I do five days a week, you know. I really enjoy it, you know.

To be honest, I know nothing else but cooking.

Well, you don't need to, do you?

To be a good chef, you've got to be greedy, you know?

-You've got to enjoy eating.

-Yeah.

-Can I put this on a plate?

-If you are not greedy...

Yes, you can, of course.

..you are not a good chef, you know.

Before, they used to say you've got to be scared of a skinny chef,

but now you've got some good skinny chefs.

By the way, he did point a knife at you when he said that.

-Do you want me to put some butter in there?

-I'll let you.

-You enjoy your butter, so, yes.

-Thank you very much.

-What's the most single important ingredient in cooking?

-Salt, maybe.

Salt, because a pinch of salt can change a dish completely.

If it's not properly seasoned, it can be terrible,

and just pinch makes it nice, you know.

-Salt would be it.

-Well, I'm not seasoning this one.

I'll leave that with you.

So you've got a little bit of butter in there.

You want the orange in there now.

-Yeah.

-I'll leave you to season that.

THEY CHEER AND APPLAUD

That's why I wasn't doing that.

LAUGHTER

Happy with that? There you go.

-Duck a l'orange.

-Duck a l'orange.

-So tell us what this dish is in French, then.

-Canard a l'orange.

-With the cabbage?

-With the boiled cabbage, you know.

There you go. Just look at that.

APPLAUSE

Right, looks great. Look at that.

Well, I didn't do anything on that one.

-Have a seat over there.

-Tuck in there.

-Now I can relax now.

Let's dive in.

-Tell us what you think of that.

-It smells amazing, doesn't it?

And that bit of vinegar just gives it a little bit of a kick, as well.

Yeah, sharpness. The orange, too, will do the same.

Well, it's stunning, obviously.

Absolutely spectacular. That duck tasted divine.

Now, from one legend to another.

It's time for another journey through France

with the late, great Keith Floyd.

This is what happens when you let your emotions rule your mind.

I'm a fool to myself, you know.

My relationship with the director is based on trust and understanding.

I don't trust him and he doesn't understand me.

He knows I hate flying.

I have got no head for heights, but somehow he persuaded me

to take a short flight, he said, just for a good few shots.

How could I possibly refuse?

Anyway, the crew was suggesting I was a bit yellow.

I protested, I prayed for fog, but to no avail.

The bottom line here is that I do not like being in this balloon.

I know it looks great on television.

I know it looks a lovely sunshiny day, alpine scenery,

drifting over the Vosges Mountains, here in Alsace on our way to lunch,

but we're 3,000 feet and nothing on the clock but the maker's name.

Happily, I've got a decent glass here to cheer things up

and when we do land, I'm going to cook the most fabulous pheasant in

cabbage and show you how they make the superb cheese which was, in

fact, invented here many centuries ago by Irish monks in Munster,

where they founded a monastery.

But, in the meantime, this is Keith Floyd, above the Vosges Mountains,

absolutely terrified for Floyd On France.

He said it was simply a question of mind over matter.

He didn't mind and I didn't matter,

but things went wrong, we ran out of gas, and, you've got it,

we crash landed in the road.

Ha-ha-ha!

Andre Graf, my mad pilot, managed to save a little gas, of course,

for what he called essential requirements.

It is Alsatian Champagne from Alsace

and, of course, it's an old tradition since 1783,

when the balloon was invented in France.

So, since this year, ever,

when there is a new flight,

people who fly the first time in balloon,

they have to drink Champagne.

Pity you didn't save the gas you used to

cool down the Champagne to put in the balloon.

Yeah, sure. We should have had the gas we used.

HE LAUGHS

-OK.

-Brilliant.

And then there is another tradition,

but I guess we just have to take care of the technical

point of view, but this is the other tradition.

THEY LAUGH

My rendezvous was a remote farmhouse in the Munster valley,

where they survive purely on the sale of their cheeses.

Of course, the rest of the journey was made on foot,

while Andre entertained me with witty stories of derring-do

drawn from a vast experience - all of six hours - of balloon-flying.

It turned out that Andre was a distant relation to

another of the valley's famous sons, Dr Albert Schweitzer, who once said,

"You'd never get me up in a balloon, John."

What I'm doing today is cooking a very simple Alsatian dish

of pheasant rolled in cabbage and stewed in white wine.

Riesling, in fact, the wine from this area.

The very thing that's important to mention about French

provincial cooking, the reason it tastes

so good all the time is that they use the ingredients from their

own area, and Clive, if you'd like to spin round these ingredients.

Here's a pheasant that was shot locally, for example.

Here is home-cured salt and smoked bacon from this very farm.

Carrots from the garden. Juniper berries from Sainsbury's.

Bay leaves from the garden, as well, and dried.

Garlic from here and properly homemade sausages.

The reason the taste di... dish tastes good -

sorry to slur my words -

is they use the Riesling wine.

They wouldn't go and buy a jug of Moroccan wine to make their

dish in this part of the world, like we'd probably have to do in England.

You can still make it that way if you want to.

Anyway, I've got to wrap up the rest of these little leaves

around the pheasant.

I'm muttering my words a bit, but sometimes that happens

and you have to put up with it because I've been up very

early this morning getting shots and making cheese

and all that sort of stuff.

Then what I have to do is fry off all my little

bit of ingredients in the frying pan and mix it all up together.

Now you've seen that so many times before.

You've seen those really interesting shots above frying pans.

Why don't you go, as I said earlier, have a look at the cheese-making,

and I'll join you a bit later, OK?

# When manufacturing a Munster cheese

# You'll need these ingredients, please

# One vat of local rather fresh white curd

# And all of zees must be stirred

# There upon a fire of wood

# You have to warm it up real good

# Until it gets so nice and heated

# See that the mixture's carefully treated

# Now add the rennet to make it all congeal

# You must feel a little ill

# Fish out the lumps which now are nice and thick

# Then you must chop them quick

# Or you'll be far too sick. #

THEY RETCH

That was very witty.

Anyway, the set cheese are salted, stored

and turned daily for up to three weeks.

It's a strong tangy cheese with a pungent smell,

but it's quite delicious.

There we are, that's four or five minutes in the pan there.

Nicely golden, slightly browning

and they're ready to go into the main pot.

Incidentally, this is a dish

that you don't have to just use pheasant with.

You could use old grouse, old pigeons, all kinds of game birds.

Birds always - chickens, pheasants, quail -

but as long as they're the old and tough ones,

it's the way of using up all the old toughie ones.

Not succulent tender ones that you would use for roasting.

Now, the other thing is, of course, there's a lot to Alsatian cooking

and Alsatians owe a lot to me

because the reason I'm having this very substantial dish today is

cos, after that horrific crash and my ex-friend the balloon pilot

is coming to lunch, we need something to build ourselves up,

because I didn't enjoy that experience at all.

Fishing boats and things are OK, helicopters are OK,

but that blasted balloon really made me a bit miserable.

Clive, I'm going to have to bring this over to you, if you don't mind,

to show you what I've got in there now.

Just the packets of pheasant wrapped in cabbage

on top of their little bed of vegetables and bacon, OK?

Bay leaf goes in. A couple of juniper berries plop in like that.

And then, you can't use -

I'm very sorry about this, English sausage manufacturers -

you can't use those ones you sell with e-numbers in

in the supermarkets for this dish.

You've got to find somebody who makes a proper sausage, OK?

Just give those a slight prick.

Then, bearing in mind the old principle that you should

never cook with wine that you can't drink...

I mean, if the wine is not good enough to drink...

..which this most certainly is, you mustn't cook with it.

So I'll just pour myself one last little slurp and then,

cos it is only the balloon pilot after all...

The way he was interfering with that gas yesterday was very worrying.

There we are, that goes in like that.

The lid goes on the top.

Seen the lid?

This is the thing we do very carefully

cos the next time you see this dish it will be cooked

and the director will say, "Did we see the oven properly?"

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

'I didn't realise so many people were coming to lunch.

'I panicked when I saw these big farmers with enormous appetites

'coming in from the fields.

'It was a bit much to ask one pheasant - not that I did -

'to feed six people,

'so remember, one pheasant is fine for two or three,

'and the mad balloonist and I had to make do with some cream cheese.'

It is cheese - it is first of all cheese,

but this cheese is not right at all

and it is still a sweet cheese,

so it is served with some cream.

So there is what we call in France, the small milk.

I mean, it's what drops.

The whey, I think we call that.

And so you take this

and you pour it on the cheese here

and this is very good.

I mean, you have truffe du perigord,

or you have goose liver or Champagne,

something very well known from France,

but this one should be very well known. It is very good.

Would you have sugar with it?

You take some sugar with it.

I guess there's already some on it, but it is very, very fine.

So, all the gastronomy in the farms was originally...

Beautiful.

..so that people could stay all the summer long on the mountain

and they didn't need anything. They just took some sugar with them.

'Mad as a hatter. There are more out than in, you know.

'Anyway, back at the Maison de Tete, they're busily

and cheerfully preparing the great regional speciality, choucroute.

Take it away, boys.

LIVELY ACCORDION MUSIC

You all know what choucroute is, of course.

Just to remind you, it's fermented cabbage boiled and then heaped with

slices of cooked smoked ham, bacon, pork, sausages, liver,

dumplings and boiled potatoes.

It doesn't half build you up.

ACCORDION MUSIC CONTINUES

I was in the middle of cooking a very important dish

when a couple of coach loads of German holidaymakers marched in

demanding choucroute and so my chicken in beer

had to be put to one side.

I'll explain what I've done up to now.

First I fried chicken pieces in butter, flamed them with gin,

added shallots and mushrooms, covered them with beer,

pinch of salt, pepper and parsley and simmer them for about an hour.

Now's the time to finish the dish off.

Although the mice have been at the chicken during my absence, and some

of these chaps behind me have been eating little bits of it,

I would in fact like to continue with the cooking demonstration

if that's all right with the rest of Germany in this part of France.

Right, so all we do, we lift out these portions of chicken into here

and finish off the sauce by adding a little fresh cream.

Pull it back from the heat so it doesn't all curdle. Stay there.

And then we enrich it with a knob of butter

before putting it back on to the heat like that.

I shall ask Mark to taste this in a minute to see

if he thinks it's any good or not.

Melt the butter into that.

Check for seasoning. I think it needs another grind of pepper.

Like that. I then think I can simply pour that over there.

Bubble it up.

Sprinkle a little parsley on and that is coq a la biere,

a ma facon, ici a la Maison des Tete in Alsace, OK?

It's terribly dexterous to be able to carve a tomato, I mean a mushroom

or whatever it is, like that, but it does nothing for the flavour.

Why can't they leave things alone?

And another thing, they didn't even ask me

if I wanted these little tombstones

put on top of my wonderful-looking dish, which I cooked on my own.

Looks silly like that.

And now, of course, for the terrible moment of truth.

As usual, the rules of this game are

the chef will be invited to taste it.

If he says something nice, he stays in the film.

If he criticises it, he gets cut. Quite straightforward.

He doesn't actually know I've said that.

SPEAKS FRENCH

THEY SPEAK FRENCH

Mm, it's very nice, Floyd.

Perfect cooking.

The sauce is all right, but if you keep a little bit beer

and you put it on the ham, it brings a little, you know?

-Just brings the flavour...

-Much better.

-..much better.

You see, we do it here and another place, but very good.

Very good.

So what he's really saying there in precise terms, although the sauce is

made from beer, I should have saved a little bit of beer,

fresh beer, to add at the last minute,

just to re-bring back the flavour of the beer.

Otherwise it was quite well cooked.

You heard. I mean, you can speak English as well as I can.

All these chefs are smiling, drinking Champagne.

Everybody's being very happy.

If he's such a nice bloke, then, why is this in the kitchen,

I would like to know? He says it's just for pointing at the orders.

But I see chaps round here with bandages and things like that.

This has been used quite a lot.

What exactly is this for?

-That...

-HE LAUGHS

I can't tell you in French, in English.

But, when somebody is doing something wrong, he becomes,

a little bit...

Why that is broken in two places, and we have repaired it. You see?

-Est-qu'il se cruel, un monstre, comme ca?

-De fois. Souvant.

Ouais, souvant.

LAUGHTER

What I've always wanted to do is take a lesson from a master chef

and have a go at my producer.

Where is he?!

Cracking stuff there, Keith.

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

mouthwatering recipes from the Saturday Kitchen store cupboard.

Still to come on today's Best Bites:

Time didn't seem to be the main concern when Wolfgang Puck found

himself at the Omelette Challenge hobs, against Theo Randall.

How did they both do? Find out in just a few minutes.

Silvena Rowe brings a marvellous,

Middle Eastern lamb stew to the table.

She serves it with a side of saffron and rose-water pilaf.

And Michael Ball faces Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven -

poached and roasted pork belly with sauteed cabbage and bacon?

Or would he get his dreaded Food Hell - curried monkfish medallions,

with mussels in a cream sauce?

Find out what he gets to eat at the end of the show.

Now, I used to work in the kitchens of Chewton Glen

when I was a young lad, so it was a pleasure to have the executive chef,

Luke Matthews, join us in the Saturday Kitchen studio.

Here he is with a spectacular sea bass dish.

Please welcome Luke Matthews! Great to have you on the show.

-On the menu today, we have what?

-Beautiful, line-caught sea bass.

Absolutely delicious, really lovely and fresh.

I'm going to fillet that off.

You can see the difference between the line-caught one

-and the farmed one - size.

-Well, that's for one.

I mean, that's probably a 5lb fish.

The farmed ones are normally portion-size.

You can use the farmed, or you could supplement it

with sea bream if you wanted to.

I know you're going to get on and start filleting this,

because you want me to get on and do the...

You're going to start making the mussels.

This is a little broth to go with the sea bass, then?

It's almost like two dishes in one, really.

You could eat the broth as a soup, and then, for a bit more luxury,

put a piece of fish on the top of it.

So I'm only going to fillet one side of this off.

I'm going to get on and cook these mussels,

that's the first thing I'm going to do.

So we have a little bit of shallot in here.

It's an interesting part of the world, really, where you are,

because it crosses two counties, doesn't it? The hotel?

It does indeed, yeah.

Some of the hotel is in Dorset and some of the hotel is in Hampshire.

So it is an interesting situation.

But you've got an amazing selection of food round there.

Particularly - we're talking sea bass now - you can

literally walk out of the hotel and see the coast were you get this from.

And you can walk the other way

and you're in the forest picking mushrooms. We're very, very lucky.

Graphically-wise,

you're literally just on the edge of the New Forest, aren't you?

We're sort of between Southampton and Bournemouth, right on the coast.

I'm just pulling out the little pin bones now. With some pliers.

When the fish is very fresh like this, it can be difficult to pull them out.

But fortunately these are coming out nicely.

What about Scotland, can you get sea bass up there? Is it different times of year?

Mainly in the summer, when the sea warms up a wee bit,

it goes to -15 in Scotland!

That's before you go in the sea, is it?

But when it gets a bit warmer we get the sea bass, the Dover sole

and red mullet, as well, which we never used to get.

It's migrated further north. There you go.

So a decent-sized chunk, that's what we're after for this.

I'm going to get the pan, a little bit of oil on here.

Is about 140g. We just heat a pan up,

-we're just using some neutral oil.

-A little bit of rapeseed oil.

I'm just going to put a bit of sea salt.

The hotel itself has a big, massive restaurant.

-How many rooms have you got there?

-We've got 70 now.

70 rooms, as well as these fantastic, new, little treehouses.

These new treehouses, yeah. They're really fantastic.

We're going to cook that as much as we can on the skin.

We're going to watch the cooking come up.

When it's nearly up to the top, we just flip it over.

-That's why you want me to hold it like this.

-That's right.

As it's so fresh, it tightens, so it can go round in a circle.

-Mussels, looking good.

-They're nearly ready, as well.

-There's your tomatoes.

-I'm going to start the sauce.

-I'm going to clear that down.

-I'm going to get rid of that.

-You utilise the bones and everything, as well.

-There's no waste there.

All of that can be eaten... Well, not the bones.

Right, we've got our mussel meat that you've passed through.

Keep the liquor for this, as well, yeah?

The secret of this one is the sauce.

All the sauce is made completely from the mussel stock.

So mussel's really got a lovely load of flavour.

Going to put a little bit of shallot in there, James.

So, Luke, you must have a few stories about Mr Martin, do you?

Back in the day? Young whippersnapper?

He only says that when he's stopped cooking, you see?

LAUGHTER

I think the difficult thing is which stories I can say.

None of them.

Because if you say something, I'm going to leave you here!

Most of them are too rude.

I mean, there is the story of when he crashed his car

into a lamppost on his first day, but I won't talk about that one.

Did you visualise this young lad in the pastry turning into this

-global cooking sensation?

-I think I always knew James was special.

-What, when I ran into the lamppost?

-Tell everyone that story, James.

All right. You know what it was like, working in London.

I worked in London for three years. Mary, when you work in a kitchen in London, you never see London.

-You never see daylight, you never see anything.

-You're just working.

-And it's all dark?

You're just working all the time.

So I arrived at the Chewton Glen, driving this beautiful driveway, all the way up.

-And you arrive past a health club...

-Was it a Fiesta?

I think it was. I can't remember.

There wasn't much left of it after I hit this lamppost!

And as I was driving up the driveway, there was the health club there,

and I turned around, and this lady was walking up the health club...

Attractive lady, he said in rehearsal.

..with not a lot on. I just turned and looked, a casual glance,

as it turned around the lamppost was there, I drove at it,

it drove over it, snapped it in half.

The lamppost snapped, hit the top of the car,

and the car stopped right outside the main entrance.

And the lady?

She'd just gone.

That's his side of the story, anyway!

Right! Moving on with this, on with the sauce.

-Right, sauce is going well.

-Yep.

In a minute we're going to add some cream.

The last ingredients we've got is the samphire, which is

the salty element of the dish.

We're talking about ingredients in that neck of the woods, as well,

anyone who hasn't been to the New Forest. Mushrooms, as well.

You've got some fantastic lamb, so much wonderful things.

A great larder to be able to work from.

I think with people's love of food nowadays,

there's so much more call for all of this product.

Everyone's getting better at it.

We are very lucky with what we can get.

We've got the mussels in there, you want the juices pouring in?

If we put the juice in there, James, please.

That's a little bit of the sliced fennel gone in there, as well.

Yep, and I've also got the saffron in there.

Just what we need, actually.

You've got samphire there, is there a season for samphire?

Is it only the summer?

I think nowadays it can be farmed all year round, you can get it.

It comes from somewhere hot, I suppose, at the moment.

Certainly, we can get it all year round.

It's amazing, I've actually seen it growing.

In South Wales, as well, I've seen it on the rocks.

What it requires is the spray of the water.

So it doesn't grow right on the water's edge,

it grows on the rocks where the water sprays onto the rocks.

-I saw you picking it.

-It's fantastic to go see it. Wonderful stuff.

No need to blanch it, you're just going to pan fry it,

-just put it straight in the pan.

-Yeah, straight in.

Because you want the crispness of it.

It's interesting, you're cooking the sea bass all the way up the side of the fish.

-The key to it is not really turn it over that much?

-No.

I want to get that lovely, crispy skin, because all the goodness is in

the skin, the oils and everything - the things that are good for you.

Skin that's not crispy, you don't really want to eat it.

Throughout your career you've worked in different places,

but classically trained, you can see from this sort of stuff,

-the classic form of cooking.

-This is proper, proper...

-Proper.

It's all about flavour. You don't need any special...

You haven't got to make a stock for four days or anything like that.

It's almost instant, this one.

There you go, you want to throw those in, as well.

You want to be careful with the samphire,

you pick out the centre one, because that can be quite stringy and woody.

So pull off the little bits around the outside.

I'm going to turn the fish over, turn this up a bit, and then

start adding a touch of butter to this to finish it all off.

Just going to drop a knob of butter in there.

-People don't realise how good mussel stock is, do they?

-It's delicious.

You shouldn't throw it away, because it makes wonderful sauce for pasta.

Also, fantastic this time of year, as well.

Proper, decent-sized ones, that's the key to it.

This is the way that we finish it -

little bit of butter just to finish it off.

Allow it to go a little nut-brown colour,

and this over the top of the crispy skin on the fish, as well.

That skin looks very crispy.

It's quite difficult to get a crispy skin, isn't it?

Like you say, the key to it is a little bit of oil...

It's patience, as well. Don't try and turn it over too early.

-And a good pan.

-A hard pan.

We're ready to plate up when you are.

When you put the mussels in, don't boil it too long,

because the mussels will toughen up.

You want to keep the mussels nice and soft.

They're not pleasant when they've overcooked.

You've got your nice bit of fish there.

Just allow that butter just to go slightly nut-brown.

Just keep going over the top, and it'll continue to cook that.

-Mary's excited.

-I am.

-I need a slice, please, James.

-There you go.

-Thank you very much.

We put some fresh thyme and a little bit of shallots in that mussel...

when we cook them.

Finish it with a tiny little bit of this, which is micro fennel,

so it's very, very long sprouts of fennel.

-You can get these in supermarkets.

-Yeah, you can now, can't you?

So, tell us the name of this dish.

So, that is my line-caught sea bass with mussels, saffron, samphire.

-A classic, and looks delicious.

-Thank you.

I know this is going to taste good,

because it certainly smells good. Luke, have a seat over here.

-Mary, dive into that.

-Doesn't that look good?

You've got the skin crispy, and that is really difficult.

-Did I see you pressing it down onto...

-Yeah, that's my bit!

You press it...because when it's that fresh, it curls up.

It will curl over, yeah.

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

The key to getting that nice and crispy, you can eat the skin, as well.

-Yeah, you want to eat the skin, don't you?

-Yeah.

-The skin looks lovely.

-Lovely, thick fillet...

Mussels - bang in the season.

-Things people should be buying, as well.

-Yeah, definitely.

And there are so many things you can do with the mussels.

It's blooming hot!

THEY LAUGH

-You just nod.

-Mmm... Mmm!

-Happy? There you go.

And remember, if you want a crispy skin, just have patience.

The key is not to turn the fish too quickly.

Now, when Wolfgang Puck came in for his first omelette challenge

against Theo Randall,

he thought that charm could work his way to the top of the board

with a secret ingredient, but would it work? Let's find out.

Theo, just outside of our top ten. 20 seconds.

But, Wolfgang, out of everybody on our board, we've got

a plethora of chefs on our board - who would you like to beat?

Let me look. I don't have my glasses. Who is this guy here?

-This guy?

-Yes.

This guy? Martin Blunos.

-Martin Blunos?

-This guy here.

-Two Michelin stars. So, a bit like you.

-OK, a little bit like us.

So, usual rules apply.

A three-egg omelette cooked as fast as you can.

-Let's put the clocks on the screens, please. Are you ready?

-OK.

-Three, two, one, go.

-All right.