03/04/2016 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. We've got a feast of fabulous food for you today,

so make yourself comfortable - you won't want to miss it.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've got brilliant chefs

serving inspired food and a healthy offering of celebrity guests, too.

Coming up on today's show...

Paul Rankin treats us to a sensational sharing platter

of spiced soy roast chicken.

The Michelin starred Claude Bosi

celebrates his love of British produce

with a creative fish dish.

He tops halibut with a breadcrumb, apple and English mustard crust

and serves it with a pork-pie sauce.

Glynn Purnell also has something quite unusual up his sleeve -

duck with liquorice charcoal.

He serves the dish with a tangy tamarind puree,

fresh green beans and rocket.

And actress Jaime Murray faces her food heaven or food hell.

Would she get her food heaven -

fillets of sea bass with a herby quinoa salad,

coriander mayonnaise and some crispy onions?

Or would she get her dreaded food hell -

baked beetroot with blue-cheese beignets

and a rainbow beet salad?

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

But it's Marcus Wareing who's getting the kitchen warmed up first

and he's got a fantastic field mushroom soup

with sauteed red mullet on the menu.

So, what are we cooking, Chef? What are we making?

Have you got your running shoes on today?

-Thanks very much!

-After that one I just saw there...

That was quick! Field mushroom soup, sauteed red mullet, field mushrooms,

shallot, lemon, a little bit of sauteed wild mushrooms.

So a lovely little field mushroom soup.

What am I doing? I take it I'm chopping stuff.

-Go... Let's do...

-The garlic and the shallot.

I'm just going to take some of these mushrooms.

These are just your normal mushrooms that we find in the supermarkets.

-These are the field mushrooms that we've got there?

-Yeah.

You don't wash those? Just use them?

No, no, straight in, as they are.

You like them as they get slightly older, don't you?

I do. I think they've got a much stronger flavour as they get older.

I think they lose a bit of their water

and the flavour just concentrates much, much better.

So, what's life like after having two stars?

Cos he's already had them.

He's been there, done that one.

"Had them," I said. He's retired now!

-The old boy over there!

-But what's life like?

Life is busy, incredibly busy.

And it's great. It's... Little bit of butter into there.

Shallots. We're going to put our mushrooms straight in there.

But what's the goal? To try and get three, is it?

Yeah, the goal is... I'm thinking, once you've got the second one,

it's always nice to take it to the next level, the next stage.

And I think that's just a time thing.

And as time goes on, we'll achieve that goal, hopefully.

-There you go. Confidence for you.

-Hopefully, hopefully!

So, shallots and garlic going in there.

Basically, we're going sweat that down, cook it down,

and then we're going to... Once that's broken down slightly,

we'll just put a little bit of chicken stock.

I'm using chicken stock because I just think the chicken stock gives

a little bit of earthiness and a really nice sort of flavour

but if you're not going to serve it with fish

or you're maybe just going to go vegetarian,

just use a nice veg stock or even a fish stock,

if you want to bring out a fish flavour.

But really, chicken stock's the one.

I don't suppose it's as strong as fish stock, really.

It also helps to complement the flavour of the mushrooms

and it just helps bring it out.

Basically, I've got another one here,

which has been beautifully simmering.

The stock is there. I'm just going to drop in some cream.

Like so.

-Like that.

-How long would we cook that for, really?

It sweats very quickly, so it's sweating for about

three, four, five minutes and then the stock goes in.

Ten minutes, maximum. Not very long at all.

It's important not to overcook soup, a lot of people can...

People think it's just an accumulation

of all the ingredients and just throw it in.

It is, but it's how you put them together

to bring out the maximum flavour of the ingredients.

That's the most important - bringing out the flavour.

Tell us about red mullet, cos I love this fish.

-It's one of your favourite fishes, I believe.

-It is.

-Red mullet's great.

It's one of these fishes that you can find in supermarkets now.

Your fishmonger can do the filleting bit for you.

But it's one of the skills, one of the first things I learned

in a professional kitchen, was how to fillet a fish.

I think it's a great, great thing to do. It's nice.

-But this is quite a small one.

-This is very small.

You can obviously get the medium-size ones.

You can get them bigger. We're going to serve two fillets.

I'm just going to take those off there.

All the budget went on him over there!

All the money?

There you go. Right. So I'm just making a little bit of...

This is just creme fraiche, shallots and chopped herbs going in there.

That's it, yeah. Season it as well, a little bit of salt and pepper.

But you can still use the bones of the mullet for stocks?

Yeah, you can put them in a fish stock,

you can put them in the freezer and use them another time.

If you're going to make the soup with a fish stock,

then use those bones and they'll be perfect.

You have to make sure that it's scaled as well.

-That's really important.

-Just need a little bowl of water.

-I'm just going to pin bone these.

-I'll get you a little...

Cold water. Don't disappear with that.

Cold water.

One second. Keep talking!

-Pin boning.

-Go on, Marcus. Push him. Push him!

There's a limit!

OK. So, we're just going to take out the pin bones.

The reason I want the cold water is just basically...

You've got cold water, Chef!

There you go. You just want to wash your hands, don't you?

So, little bit of cold water and as you're pin boning them,

just dipping your fingers into the water and taking out the bones.

Just takes the bones off the end of the... This little utensil.

It does take time but it is quite important to do that.

Very, very important.

OK, so they're out of there.

OK, so put that to one side, get rid of those.

-You're chopping the wild mushrooms.

-Yep.

-So, what I'm going to do is,

I'm going to cook the mushrooms and the red mullet.

And if you can just put that in the blender for me, that would be great.

-I can do that.

-OK, I'm just going to

put a little bit of olive oil in both pans.

There we go.

So, this has just been cooking for about five or six minutes?

-Yeah.

-There we go. Right, let's throw that lot in.

OK. Mushrooms into the pan, a little selection of mushrooms.

Like so.

You can buy them from the supermarket.

We've got some pied bleu, chanterelle,

a little bit of cep, shiitake.

Salt and pepper, just very, very lightly.

-You put butter as well as...?

-Yes, I do with mushrooms. I do.

I'm just going to season the skin of the fish.

Always make sure when you're putting a fish like this into a pan

that you just dry it off, otherwise it's going to stick.

A non-stick pan's very important.

OK. Olive oil. Skin side down first.

Like so. Thank you.

The sink's over there when you want it, to wash your hands.

If it tenses up, just hold the skin down.

Just push it down and it will start to relax.

Do you want me to do that while you wash your hands?

-You're making sure I've washed my hands!

-Yeah, don't worry.

I'll take over. Right, there you go.

-There you go.

-OK.

-Good.

-I'm just blending this up. You want it quite loose, don't you?

Yes, please.

That's it.

That's probably enough. Just keep mixing the mushrooms around.

So, Martin, are you a big fan of mushrooms?

Yeah, I think field mushrooms are great because they grow in abundance

and I don't think we use them enough, really.

Everybody goes looking for the wild stuff

but field mushrooms are cracking. Great flavour.

I think they get fantastic flavour as they get older, as well.

They really do.

-There we go, Chef.

-OK.

If you could just put a few herbs into those mushrooms, James...

-Do you want some butter in there as well?

-Yeah.

If you just put a little bit of butter into that...

-How many pieces?

-Two. That'd be great. One more.

Tell us a little bit about your book that was out just last week.

Yeah, that's right. My first book, which is great.

How To Cook The Perfect... And basically, I've just taken

80 of my favourite recipes and broken them down

and made them user-friendly.

Almost teaching the home cook how to cook things

but just take it to the next stage

and just make it a little bit easier.

So, what kind of dishes have you got in there?

We're doing soups, great desserts. Some fantastic roasts.

There's no recipes that you wouldn't recognise.

Scones, chocolate cake, brownies.

Really, really nice things.

But I've put the tips in

that you need to know to get that real success out of it

because there's so many people

stumble on so many problems with cooking at home

and there's a lot of questions that they ask themselves...

Is that like putting tomato ketchup in stuff?

He had to get it in, didn't he?

He won't let it lie!

So, basically, I've cooked the fish

three quarters of the time on the skin, flipped it over.

Mushrooms are ready and I've turned off the heat and the fish

-carries on cooking.

-Residual heat cooks that right the way through.

So... I just want to check... check my seasoning in the soup.

-A little bit more stock.

-A separate spoon.

-Remember who's watching.

-Yes, yes, yes.

OK.

-There you go.

-Seasoning's good.

OK. All-righty. Put that down there.

OK. I'm going to put the mushrooms in the centre of the plate.

This is a rustic dish, James.

It doesn't... You know, it's not... Can you do me some chopped chives,

-please? That would be great.

-Chopped chives?

Chopped chives. Have you got some more?

-I've chopped them all.

-All right, some...

Some... Some chopped...herbs!

-Chopped chervil! There you go. There you go.

-OK.

Is that what you do if you've not got the herb that you want?

You just make do with something else?

Yeah, take it from the garden.

OK, James, mushrooms in the centre.

I've got a little bit.

-There we go.

-Again, this is the soup.

You don't need to put the cream in, either, if you don't want it creamy.

If you want it to be vegetarian, vegetable stock is perfect.

Soup looks... What an amazing colour.

Great colour. Yeah, all the way round.

Fish on top.

I'll leave you to spoon that on.

It looks... I mean, the colour of that!

Delicious! I'll leave you to put the quenelle on.

Hot water. Just a little bit of hot water.

-Put your spoon in.

-Just looks like a little picture.

So, Marcus, remind us what this dish is again.

Field mushroom soup with sauteed wild mushrooms,

creme fraiche and olive oil.

By a two-star Michelin chef. Genius!

You could almost take a picture of that, it just looks spectacular.

-Look at that.

-Wow!

I'm amazed at how quickly you can do all of that.

Look at that. Have a seat.

-Beautiful, isn't it?

-Doesn't that... Go on, dive in.

-Right, OK.

-Work of art, isn't it?

-It is.

-It just looks...

-It looks incredible.

-So simple.

This time I'll make sure I get a bit of everything

cos it doesn't come back, does it?

Doesn't come back. Get a big spoonful.

I've got to try this.

-It's good?

-Mm!

What other fish could you use?

For me, I think the great alternative is scallops.

Cos of the sweetness and the earthiness of the mushroom?

It's such an earthy dish.

If you didn't get red mullet, use any kind of fish?

Yeah, use anything you like with this. You could use some salmon.

Even some smoked salmon would be great.

Smoky salmon with the soup would be lovely.

That would make such a perfect light supper.

Do try it at home if you can.

Coming up, I make a shortbread sable with raspberries for Matt Lucas

but that's after a visit to Lancashire

with a certain Rick Stein.

He is meeting up with a familiar face to Saturday Kitchen

and today he's in search of the ultimate hotpot.

'I'm on my way to Lancashire and you've probably guessed why,

'because on a culinary trip such as mine,

'where I'm really looking for good regional flavours and produce,

'I've been eagerly anticipating

'exploring the steamy depths of the county's most famous dish.

'So I rang up a friend of mine, Nigel Haworth at Northcote Manor,

'who's fiercely passionate about anything that comes from Lancashire,

'and said, "Please can you make me the ultimate hotpot?"...'

Come on, boy! Oi!

'..which I'm pleased to say he did!'

I've been cooking this for four hours now.

It's a lovely pot. Is that a traditional pot, Nigel?

That is, yeah. I'm told...

I'm told, Rick, that every household had one of these, in Lancashire.

-It smells...

-It smells wonderful, doesn't it?

I don't think there's any dish more appetising than this, really.

There isn't. And it's...

that long, slow-cooking is the thing that makes it so special.

What lamb cuts are in there?

-That's good.

-Basically, what you used to call the cheap cuts of lamb.

Under shoulder. You're looking at neck and then shin.

And shin's really important,

to get that real gelatinous feel to your hotpot.

The thing I like about it is it doesn't taste fatty.

You know, quite often, with a hotpot,

it's almost overpoweringly sort of rich. Fat.

OK. First of all, I'm using best end chops

but I'm going to just trim the whole end off

because the whole thing about hotpot is not to get too much fat in there,

otherwise it's just, you know, a bit overpowering.

So just... OK, so there you go.

You see, just knocking all that off.

And now you've just got a very neat little chop like that,

which will look really good in the finished stew.

So there's my best end chops done

but one thing I've picked up from Nigel, and it's a really good idea,

is to use some lamb shank, as well,

because when that cooks over a long period

it makes the stew very nice and gelatinous.

So I'm just going to slice some lamb shank

and put that in as well.

Also, I've got some kidneys.

Now, some recipes do have lambs' kidneys, some don't,

but I like a few kidneys in there

and I've just cut them in half

and just removed the sinewy bits from the middle.

So I'm just hand slicing these potatoes.

You can use a mandolin but, actually,

if you do them by hand they always end up a bit thicker

and you need a slightly chunkier slice

because otherwise they'd break down in the cooking.

There we go.

To make up the hotpot,

you brush the bottom of the pan with some melted butter

to stop the potatoes from sticking.

Begin with potatoes and build up the stew in layers.

Next, onions and then the meat - half chops and half shin -

and some of the kidneys.

Now thyme. I think it goes particularly well with lamb.

A good quantity of salt

and freshly ground black pepper.

You often find other ingredients in a hotpot.

I've added kidneys, but sometimes they put in black pudding,

mushrooms and even oysters, when they were particularly cheap.

It's important to season every layer

and finally, just some chicken stock but you can use water.

There'll be so much flavour in the stew anyway.

Top with a neat layer of potatoes, because you want it to look pretty

when it comes out of the oven,

all brown and crackling.

Just press those down a little bit and...

..just a little bit of melted butter on the top.

Actually, this Lancashire hotpot

came from a time when nobody had ovens

and everybody took their individual pots to the local baker,

who put it in the baker's oven after he'd done his bread.

Then when you came back,

presumably from a shift at the mill,

there was your pot all bubbling and hot, hence hotpot.

I'm putting it in the oven for about two hours

but it's even better if you can leave it for about six to eight

on a gentler heat.

I took the lid off for the last 20 minutes.

I can't think why regional stews like this

are not more available everywhere.

I mean, think of the similar dish scouse from Liverpool,

or Irish stew or Welsh cawl for that matter,

all of them so good that if they were in France,

they would be famous regional specialities

like bouillabaisse in Marseille,

coq au vin in Burgundy or cassoulet in the Languedoc.

Then, to finish off, some pickled red cabbage,

which adds such a sharp piquancy to the dish.

Now, we've had a request for a masterclass in biscuit making

from Carly Cunningham in Northamptonshire,

so I thought I'd show you one of my favourite biscuits -

you like them too - which is the little shortbread.

So, the idea is that we take these ingredients here.

Now some people use rice flour, some people use almonds.

I put a little bit of ground almonds in and it's very simple.

You take the almonds, you put the icing sugar,

you put cornflour,

so it's very different to a standard short pastry.

Plain flour.

And then we just add butter.

And this is the reason why it is so short - ie the shortbread -

is that you don't add any water.

It's just the amount of butter to flour in the recipe,

because normally pastry is much different,

ie there's a less amount of butter per flour,

which makes it more pliable,

more manageable to work with,

but the most important thing with biscuits, I always think -

and I learned this from my grandmother -

was literally always make it by hand.

If you make it in a machine,

it toughens up the flour and if you make it by hand,

you can actually get the whole biscuits almost together

in about a minute or two,

by just rubbing this butter together in between your fingers,

and it'll create this crumb

and it'll go from white to sort of cream

quite quickly, if you just keep going.

So be patient with it.

Don't allow the butter to be too warm.

The temptation is, you warm it up too much and then it melts

and you're not going to get the same sort of texture.

You want the butter to all mix into the biscuit,

so you rub them together with your fingers

and really get that butter in.

And the colour actually starts to change - I can see it changing -

but also, the texture changes,

cos at this stage, if we're making any shortcrust and stuff like that,

which is a mixture of lard and butter, of course,

we would then add a touch of water to bring it together,

but this, we won't need any of that.

So the idea of, particularly, shortbread

is the less you work with it, the better,

so always, always, wherever possible,

by hand, and bring it all together.

You see the colour changing now?

-Yeah.

-And we just bring it all together,

-like that...

-I can confirm the change of colour!

You do bake a bit, though?

I did a bit of baking last weekend, but it was sort of pre-mixed...

-Pre-mixed?!

-Yeah, well, the mixture was already made,

but you still had to put eggs and, er, I think it was flour.

So, you do your biscuits and bits and pieces,

but I'm surprised you get time, anyway because...

Congratulations, first of all, on your new series.

-Thank you.

-Going very well. So a six-part series, would that be?

A six-part with a compilation episode at the end.

So, the first episode was out on Tuesday

-and repeated last night, on Friday.

-And what's that?

That was with that great... I mean, the German comic.

Yes, he was strange, wasn't he? But brilliant!

Where does he just suddenly pop up from?

-I mean, just...

-That's Henning Wehn and he, er...

The Matt Lucas Awards began on radio, this idea, a few years ago,

and so it gave us a great chance to have people on the show

that were maybe of a lower profile because you don't have

the pressure on radio to, you know, to have big high-profile acts.

-I just thought he was amazing.

-But one that does the circuits, or...?

Yeah, Henning Wehn.

He considers himself the German ambassador of comedy.

So he was on the first episode

and then we have another episode on Tuesday night

at 10.35pm on BBC One, The Matt Lucas Awards,

-and that has got Richard Madeley...

-Yep.

-..Sue Perkins

and another comedian I'm a big fan of - Marc Wootton.

And also, not forgetting, of course, your own mother.

-And my mum.

-Your mum.

-Yes.

-What's that like, working with your mum?

It's very nice, yeah, yeah.

I'm glad I haven't got my mum here, watching me do this!

Really? Is she very critical?

Not critical, but more critical of what you wear.

Oh, really? Well, you could have put a tie on.

-Is that a conscious effort?

-No, I shouldn't

be cooking in a jacket, probably. That's normally the complaint.

But anyway, look, moving on to these biscuits...

-Yeah, change the subject.

-Yes, exactly.

Little amount of flour as possible.

Like that. Carefully, carefully.

And then all we do is just grab the cutters and cut these out.

-Very nice.

-When you do this, though,

the quick tip is just to take a step palette knife,

go underneath the pastry before you cut them out,

otherwise, if it does shrink,

you'll end up with, like, rugby-ball-looking biscuits. So...

James, I'm a little disappointed it's not heart shapes for me.

Heart-shaped cookie cutter would have been nice.

-Is that all right?

-Yeah. Thank you.

Is that all right, like that?

And we lift these off and then pop them in the fridge before we bake...

It's more like a Pac-Man, more than anything else, but there you go.

Pop them in the fridge and bake them, just gently, like that,

for about ten minutes and we'll leave those to one side.

I'm going to make this little mixture here,

which is a mixture of cream and custard,

to fill in these little biscuits that I'll make for you now.

But, you know, you first started off...

-Acting was your first love.

-That's right, yes.

And you went to drama college. Was that in Bristol?

Well, no, what I did was, I was in a thing called

the National Youth Music Theatre...

-Right.

-..when I was 13.

And, actually, I'm hosting a benefit for them

next Sunday at the Vaudeville Theatre.

And then the National Youth Theatre when I was 16,

and that's where I met David Walliams.

And then I went to university to do drama,

but I never actually went to drama school, and I didn't finish...

Did you always want to go into comedy

or was that part of the acting thing?

I wanted to be a serious actor,

but I decided to do a bit of stand-up comedy

in my year out between A-levels and university,

and then got kind of swallowed by that and never finished my degree

because in my second year at university, I was, I think,

21 and I started being in Shooting Stars,

so then I just kind of went off to be in TV shows.

Then from that, of course, then you met David and then...

Yeah. So, David I've known since I was 16

and we were huge fans of Vic and Bob

and we sort of bonded over that and a love of comedy.

And around the same time I started working with Vic and Bob,

I started doing these small, live comedy shows

at the Edinburgh Festival with David Walliams.

And did that include the characters of Little Britain?

A few of the characters from Little Britain

started out in those live shows,

but we moved from there and we did some stuff on cable TV,

what was Paramount, before it was the Comedy Channel, UK Play...

-UK Play.

-That was before Dave came along.

And then Little Britain, which started on Radio 4, which is why...

And my new show started on Radio 2.

I like starting things on radio.

Is that because you see it as a testing ground or...?

I think radio is a really intimate medium

and I would never say the audience are less demanding,

they're actually probably more demanding,

because they have a personal relationship with the channel,

so, in a way, there's a real...

I think it's more challenging to get it right on radio

but I think if you get it right on radio,

it gives you more confidence when you move it to TV.

Certainly does. But you're one of the few comedians

that have been able to mix and match, because not only...

I mean, it's varied, your career, because you've got the singing,

of course, because we saw you in Les Mis, the 25th anniversary.

-I was, yeah.

-And then you managed to do that

and the serious acting as well and comedy roles, as well,

but you still don't lose touch with that...

I mean, you always want to be an actor.

Last year was an interesting year.

You know, I was in Les Miserables in London for three months.

I did my first lead role in a film in America

and I did an American accent.

That was with Billy Crystal and James Caan,

and that's going to be out at some point soon.

I'll come back on for some more cake when that comes out, please.

-Cos we saw you with Johnny Depp...

-That's right, Alice In Wonderland,

and then I did The Matt Lucas Awards and that was last year -

-three really different things.

-So, what's next for you?

You're going to do a bit of film?

OK, the next two things I'm doing...

On Monday, I go to Glasgow -

please don't rob my house in London, by the way -

to direct a pop video for the Proclaimers.

-Really?!

-Cos I'm a massive fan, yeah. And then...

And then I'm going to Serbia the week after that,

to be in a film with Jessica Lange,

who I had a massive crush on when she was in Tootsie

when I was about eight.

Probably the last time I had a crush on a woman.

I think she's about the most beautiful woman

ever to walk the earth. Apart from my mum!

Apart from your mum, of course!

-We're just putting...

-Whoa, whoa, fire in the studio!

Just going to finish this off. There you go, that's all it takes.

-OK.

-A little bit of that.

Not on fire, like I've just done there.

All we do now is we just take a few raspberries.

To cover up the burns!

No, that's not the burnt bits, trust me.

-OK.

-And then we take a little bit of mint and then finally...

-Garlic.

-Garlic, yes.

You can do this in your kitchen, you see.

This is just plain sugar.

-All right.

-Plain, caramelised sugar.

Take your rolling pin...

I've been doing this all week at the Good Food Show at Bluewater,

so this should work.

I've got to do it again on Sunday.

-Whoa!

-So you can do this all over your kitchen, Matt, you see?

Like that.

It's home-made candyfloss.

Wow! I could use that for hair!

LAUGHTER

There you go.

I think that deserves a round of applause.

That's what you're going to get. Dive in. Tell us what you think.

Thank you very much. I certainly will.

Takes five minutes to make it

-and 15 minutes to clean the floor!

-Yes.

But it means... Obviously, eating it means I've got to ruin it.

Do you ever feel sad when...?

-Oh, just get into it.

-Oh, right, OK.

-There we go.

-Dive in.

-Crack on.

This is basically just a puree of raspberries, which...

I know you like your fruit, so raspberries, strawberries,

-a bit of shortbread.

-Mmm!

-The secret is, make it by hand.

-It makes it lovely and short.

-It's very nice.

-Thank you.

-Why is it called shortbread?

-Cos it is short.

-What do you mean, you mean not tall?

No, short, as in the butter to flour makes it short,

-which makes it brittle.

-Oh!

-There you go.

Glad you enjoyed it, Matt, and remember

if you're making shortbread at home, use your hands, not a machine,

you get a much better end result.

If you'd like to try and cook

any of the fantastic food on today's programme,

all of the recipes 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 archives.

Now, if you're looking for some inspiration

on how to spice up a regular Sunday roast,

here's Paul Rankin with a perfect alternative.

This is roast chicken done your way, cos you like your Asian flavours.

Yeah, it's kind of a classic roast, but with aromatics.

So we're going to brine the chicken,

then we're putting garlic, ginger, scallions inside it

then a honey soy glaze.

And the vegetables - five, four, three, two, one.

-OK. I'm...

-The whole point behind this...

-Yep?

..is that you sort of get the one that takes the longest in first.

OK. So you want me to prepare these first?

Say your carrots take five minutes - they go in five minutes to go.

So I need about ten slices of ginger.

-Yep.

-Just bash the scallions and bash the garlic for me.

The chicken. You know, classically, you can whack a chicken

straight into the oven, a bit of salt and pepper,

bit of oil and whatever.

But what I'm going to do is I'm going to brine it

and this is something that makes your chicken deliciously juicy,

it gives it a wonderful seasoning,

it makes it much more tasty, I think.

So, for the brine, I have salt and sugar.

So just heating up a little bit of the brine.

-I've a litre of water.

-A lot of people will be worried about this,

thinking it departs from the flavour,

but I actually think it's improving it, really.

Well, it can depart... So, you dissolve your salt and sugar.

That's about five tablespoons of salt, four tablespoons of sugar,

for a litre of water.

If you brine it for too long,

it does start to take over the whole flavour, James,

and you don't get such a natural flavour.

So allow your brine to cool,

in goes your chicken.

This is probably not a perfect-size receptacle for this

because you want quite a small one so that the brine totally covers it.

-I brine it for about an hour.

-Right.

And then you have

something like this.

And it doesn't look any different at all.

So, what we have to do now is dry the chicken

before we season it up and start to roast it.

Very important, actually, when you're doing any kind of roast...

-Yep.

-..to dry your meat. Really important.

And also cook it from room temperature, wouldn't you,

-as well?

-Yeah.

-Think that helps?

-Take your meat...

If you've got a large piece of fish

or a decent-sized piece of meat - steaks, et cetera...

Sorry, I've dropped a bean.

-Carry on.

-I don't think the viewers would have noticed that!

I don't... You know.

Yeah, take them out of the fridge an hour or so before,

let them come to room temperature, and that's the way to go.

What about brining chickens at home? Have you ever...?

Just simply take a chicken and put it in the oven, yeah?

Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, that's about my expertise as a chef.

In the oven - done.

I've got some five-spice powder here,

which I'm mixing just with a little bit of salt.

We don't need too much salt because

there's so much salt in the brine.

So, five spice and a little bit of salt going inside.

-Yep.

-And then we rub the rest over the top of the chicken

and five spice is one of those classic Asian seasonings,

which just makes all poultry and pork taste amazing.

Right. Now, you want to do this...

This is the veg... Explain to us about this veg, then,

cos I'm nearly there with the last one.

So...

In French cookery, you have this bouquetiere de legumes, you call it.

You always have a glamorous name for it.

-Your French is very good!

-So this is like a bouquetiere de legumes

or little ragout of vegetables.

When I was training in French cooking,

we would blanch them all separately

and then refresh them in ice-cold water.

And this is quite a lot of work, actually,

-so what I do is I sort of get them ready...

-Hurry up, I'm ready.

..and then the vegetable that takes the longest to cook goes in first,

so it means you can use one pot.

So in goes the carrots and they'll take about four or five minutes.

-That's number five, yeah.

-And then the next one to go in

will be the beans, which will only take about four minutes.

So we just keep going like that.

And when I do these sort of vegetables,

my kids eat way, way more vegetables.

-OK, all right.

-So, the scallions, the ginger...

The scallions, the ginger...

What do you call scallions over here?

-Spring onions.

-Spring onions.

Spring onions, garlic, ginger in there.

The holy trinity of Chinese seasonings, really.

That's what Ken Hom calls it, anyway.

My dad, Ken Hom!

JAMES CHUCKLES

Me and Ken go way back.

You can just tie the chicken legs together, like that, put a little...

You put this powder all over it, then, really?

And inside it, yeah.

So a very simple way to tie a chicken, just round the bottom,

bring it round there, up round the top.

And...

Double over on that one, so that you don't have to have someone to...

You know, someone has to press down on the knot?

So, if you do a double tied...

You're basically just holding the legs together...

Yeah, it's just keeping it neat, you know?

So, classic technique for roasting a chicken - hot...

Ooh, that pan is smoking!

-Did you turn that up?

-I didn't turn it up!

-You turned that up!

-I wouldn't do such a thing.

Wow! So, the classic French technique is, on one side roast...

..and then the other side, very quickly, you brown it.

LAUGHTER

You did this on purpose!

-I wouldn't do such a thing.

-This is going to be on the Best Bits thing,

isn't it? Do you remember that time Paul Rankin set the chicken on fire?

Exactly. Go on, then.

-Right, so what we do...

-That's number four gone in there.

-The beans have gone in.

-..brown it both sides, whack it in the oven,

and you start it off in a really nice, hot oven.

-And a hot tray.

-In a hot tray.

And don't forget, you can find Paul's recipe,

along with all the other recipes,

on our website, bbc.co.uk/saturdaykitchen.

And if you want to taste it,

I've got this on the Sunday lunch menu at the restaurant tomorrow,

Cayenne in Belfast, so get on the plane, come over...

You can come over now and have your roast chicken at the restaurant.

-It's all worth it for the chicken.

-Yeah.

It's all worth it for the chicken.

Not only that, you were working with another familiar face on the show,

as well, your mate Mr Nick Nairn.

Yeah, I've got a wee telly show going with Nick Nairn.

It's called Paul And Nick's Big Food Trip.

Oh, there's a bowl, there.

And Nick and I travel...

-Number three going in, by the way.

-..travel about the coast of

Northern Ireland and Scotland, searching out great food,

mostly arguing, I have to say.

Yeah, mostly fighting. About four tablespoons of light soy sauce.

Now, why light and not dark?

Well, it's a personal preference, really.

I think sometimes people...

Or you can use a combination.

Or you can use the dark.

I find the dark a little bit...

almost heavy and caramelised in flavour.

A little bit of chilli sauce going in there.

This is that sweet chilli sauce?

Sweet chilli sauce and, of course, a wee bit of whisky.

Delicious! A pinch of chilli flakes.

Now, this recipe...

Could you just grate me about a tablespoon of ginger, please, James?

This recipe came...

Em...

It's inspired by our staff meal

because you know when we have a lot of chickens in the restaurant,

quite often you're left over with the wings?

You make something beautiful from it.

I used to give it to the staff and what I used to do was mix...

You're generous, aren't you?

They loved the chicken wings! They loved them!

So we would mix honey, soy sauce and ketchup,

which is a really simple glaze.

Fry up the chicken wings, in it went and, I tell you, they loved it.

More like a barbecue sort of thing with the ketchup, as well, isn't it?

Yeah, gives you that lovely little sort of tang to it.

It becomes a little bit sweet and sour.

There's your ginger.

You start the chicken off really hot in the oven, about 220.

It's going to take about an hour and ten minutes for a chicken that size.

Yep. Number four.

Number four going in.

After about 15 minutes, you whack on the glaze,

you start to baste it over the top.

Number two, number four...

-Anyway, it's all gone in.

-Yeah, it's in there now.

-Good man.

-Five gone in there.

This is what it comes out like.

Check this out. So you've got the beautifully glazed chicken.

Looks good, doesn't it, guys?

You sure that's not your food heaven?

It's close. It's pretty close.

-There we go.

-So, another thing I want to show you is that...

-I...

-You have to hurry up, I've been told in my ear.

You said we had time to do everything, James.

Whoops!

Another thing I like to do...

You know how it's quite difficult, sometimes, with a chicken?

You just put that on the heat a little bit, if you will.

-OK.

-..Is I like to take the legs off.

You just do it like you're boning it.

-So...

-Don't forget, you can take that little sort of...

The little oyster in there, we call it.

Do you call that the oyster in France?

-Sot-l'y-laisse.

-Huh?

-Sot-l'y-laisse.

It means, "The stupid one will leave it on."

It means the...?

The one who is stupid will leave this best part on.

-There you go.

-I'd probably leave that on, yeah.

I'd be le sot-l'y-laisse!

You know how it's quite difficult, you know, to...

to carve a chicken at the table, I think,

especially in a family situation...

Right, butter. Ginger.

Do you want that in there?

So I take it... I let it rest.

Very important to let it rest when it comes out of the oven.

When a chicken is cooked, it's very easy to get the breasts off.

-There is all your veg.

-And you can do it mostly with your hands,

teasing it off.

So I'd get it ready to this stage, then I'd pop it back on a platter

and whack the platter just lightly in the oven to warm it slightly.

You've got a cold platter.

So, you've got the ginger, soy and butter in there, James?

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-And then...

-Soy's gone in.

So, we have our drumsticks, we have our thighs.

-There's all your veg.

-Look at those big...

Look at that delicious cauliflower!

-Hmm, hmm.

-Lovely, isn't it?

A bit too much cauliflower there.

So, on goes the chicken, beautifully carved.

Well...

Beautifully carved(!)

I reckon the veg looks better than that.

Oh, no, that looks good now, little bit of jus on there.

Tell us what that is again.

That's my aromatic roast chicken with a soy-honey glaze

and vegetables five, four, three, two, one.

That's what it is.

Yum.

He's off, it's gone. Right, over here.

It does look fantastic.

-Dive into that.

-That looks amazing!

Welcome to Saturday Kitchen!

And that's all for me, yeah?

-Yeah, dive into that. Tell us what you reckon.

-That is amazing.

I'm going to go straight for a big bit of chicken there.

-I'm all for that.

-You hungry?

-A little bit of broccoli.

-Avoiding the cauliflower, though.

-Yes.

-And...

You picked the one with the bone in it, you see.

It's not that well carved, is it, really?

Personally, I'd just go for the veg because I think they are...

more perfectly cooked.

Thanks, James(!)

That is very nice.

That chicken was so succulent and you weren't wrong when you said

we'd see that recipe on Best Bites, Paul.

Now, it's that time of the week, to jump on board

one of Keith Floyd's culinary tours through Britain and Ireland.

He's out exploring the West Midlands today.

Enjoy this one.

When Queen Victoria used to travel up to see Partick Thistle play,

she ordered the blinds shut

as the Royal train travelled through the Black Country

so she wouldn't see or smell the acrid and poisonous smoke

that belched from the chimneys as the train sped north.

Now most of that industry has gone.

The forges and the factories have largely disappeared and the planners

have turned Dudley into a clean, modern town, just like any other.

MUSIC: Great Mass In C Minor by Mozart

I don't want to call my producer a plagiarist,

but, in fact, he nicked this piece of music

from Channel 4's excellent series, A Truly British Coup,

starring three of the best-known actors in telly today -

Ray McAnally.

When Satan stood on Brierley Hill

And far around him gazed

He said "I never more shall feel

"At hell's fierce flames amazed."

Which brings us to a rare piece of film

of the BBC's programme review board.

I knew it was wrong to mention Channel 4!

Though, because this is loosely a cookery programme,

it is my duty to point out where those square packets

with lyrical pictures of farms and smiling animals come from.

In this case, it's the Birmingham meat market

where everything except the grunt is used.

To misquote Spike Milligan,

Why is there no monument To faggot in this land?

If it's good enough to eat It's good enough to stand.

I mean, that is a point, you know.

Faggots are so important here in the West Midlands, in the Black Country,

that there should be national recognition of them.

I've got the faggot king here, Richard, to tell me about faggots.

Starting now, because this is a cookery programme, you see,

you've got 30 seconds to explain to me all about faggots,

all about Black Country cooking,

without mentioning the words "Black Country" once.

-That should get him going!

-That shall be very exciting.

I'll try that now. Here in the area, as I say,

we are very famous for our faggots and peas.

-And in this particular area of the Black Country...

-That's one.

The faggots and peas are like Yorkshire pudding is to Yorkshire

and we are very proud of the traditional Black Country food

-of faggots and peas.

-Right, faggots and peas,

as created by the king, are precisely that.

They are wonderful, wonderful things,

so wonderful that I'm going to have a little taste of them, if I may.

You always have...

I mean, every typical faggot manufacturer and faggot eater

always, of course, wears a silk bow tie

and neatly double-breasted blazer and stuff like that

because it's traditional and we like to stay traditional.

Thank you very much indeed, Richard.

Ow!

RICHARD LAUGHS

Keep going.

They love it when I do things like that.

I had a late night last night, that's the truth of it.

Anyway, there we are, I'll just have a new plate, a new plate,

and a new bit of gravy.

Even that's hot. They are really trying to sabotage me today.

Do you know, in the sink over there, you won't believe this,

there's about 11 plates of half-eaten faggots

because I haven't been too successful this morning,

doing the simple tasks of spooning delicious mushy peas onto a plate,

a very simple round plate with a wonderful faggot on it.

Mike cooked them and I can't even serve them.

It's quite extraordinary. Listen, why did you, on the other hand,

give up that glittering career in London as a chef with nouvelle cuisine

to come down here and cook the humble faggot?

Well, what's wrong with that, Keith?

I can't see anything wrong with coming back to my roots

-here in the Black Country...

-That's four.

-..and keeping alive

the true, traditional faggots and peas

that we are all very proud of in the area.

A nice faggot here.

Mushy peas. Come back from a hard day's work,

nice drop of real ale from the Black Country

-and what's any better than that?

-Couldn't be a lot better.

I tell you what...

though, there is a deli... divergence here...

Sorry, I had a mouthful. ..a divergence of opinions.

Richard makes his faggots differently from

the Floyd family in Somerset. Very worrying indeed.

Dear boy, I'm sorry about this.

Just pop that out the way, would you?

I must get down to some real work.

Look, I'll explain all of this, but first of all,

look at the ingredients,

which are the caul, or they call it "kell" up here.

This is the lovely fatty tissue which surrounds the liver.

Some breadcrumbs, some lights -

normally given to dogs, it shouldn't be -

some liver, some onions, some heart and some sage.

Now, where I come from, and this could be heresy,

we take the whole of the pig's pluck

and, of course, a well-plucked pig leaves nothing but the "squile".

OK, work it out. You've got it

in the back of the Sunday Times there, how to spell it.

And we poach it first of all with the sage and the onion

and then we mince it when it is cooked and wrap it in the caul.

Richard doesn't. He has the whole ingredients raw,

minces them raw like I'm going to do now...

# With a spong in my heart! #

You all know what a spong is, don't you?

No, I don't think you do. And you mince away

for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours

until, finally, you end up with a lovely dish of raw,

minced lights, heart, liver and stuff like that.

The sage is in there, the onion's in there, the breadcrumbs are in there.

You take a piece of this kell, as they call it up here,

or caul as we call it down in Somerset.

You put a little dollop on.

Don't be afraid to use your hands.

It is lovely to play with, this sort of stuff.

It's a bit like being a potter, I suppose,

or even, if you like, a bricklayer.

Sometimes I think I'm a kind of gastronomic bricklayer.

You take the ingredients, you mix them together.

Richard, can you give me a dish, please?

-A dish there.

-Thank you very much indeed.

Pop that in your little dish. It needs no further fat.

Whack it in the oven. Whack it in the oven, dear boy, could you?

Very kind. And can you imagine,

you come home from a really hard day's work

and find a room smelling of lovely, hot faggots.

No joke intended. Anyway, I've been rattling on about here,

the Black Country, and I've now got to cook something

which I think represents the Black Country

and I, frankly, haven't got a clue

so I'm going to go on a little magical mystery tour.

# Postman Pat, Postman Pat... #

It's really weird, isn't it? Do you know what he said to me?

He said, "Just go and chat up John the driver.

"He knows all about Black Country food,"

but I hate trying to do interviews and stuff like that,

so stay with me, but I'm going to ask you some questions,

just to make him happy.

What's your favourite food?

Well, I like chitlins.

Not many people like them, but I happen to like them.

-What are chitlins?

-They are pig's inners and what you actually do

is boil them up with a bit of swede,

put a bit of mustard on and away you go.

I mean, this interview which I am trying to conduct

and I'm conducting very badly, and I haven't got any inspiration.

Could you, as they say, give us a song?

It's a long way to tip a drink down, isn't it?

Well, yeah.

-There is a little song.

-If music be the food, then...

There is a little song, it's a Cradley song.

We finish off on a night, it goes something like this, actually.

# Oh, pin back your ears and I'll sing you a song

# Of a town that is dear to me heart

# Where they makes chains and nails And they holds jumble sales

# And everyone's mad about darts

# So take me back where the smoke rolls black

# The Delph prize ales flow free

# Where factory wenches lie over park benches

# Cradley Heath means home to me. #

FLOYD LAUGHS

HILLBILLY-STYLE BANJO AND FIDDLE MUSIC

My producer's shortly going on a course

on how to choose music for television programmes.

I wish I'd sent him on one

before we started making this modest, little series!

For example, this particular piece is called Cowboy Time.

Most appropriate for taking a narrow boat out to lunch(!)

Yee-ha!

I've racked my brains to create this dish

which somehow reflects the Black Country,

at least as I've seen it.

Quite a difficult task, but to make it even more difficult, of course,

they've put me on a seven-foot-wide narrow boat.

I mean, there's no room here to manoeuvre at all.

And there's a huge crew of people all behind me.

It's very, very difficult indeed. But I thought about it all

and I reckon the secret, for me, at least, was beer

because the Black Country beer is terribly good

and I'm actually not a beer drinker, but up here,

I've been swigging back a few different kinds of pints

and enjoying them very much indeed.

So I thought I would cook some beef in some beer with some onions.

Years ago, of course,

a typical kind of barge dish would have been a long pot.

The bottom of it would have been filled with apples,

that would be covered with suet pastry, on top of that

would be meat, that would be covered with suet pastry,

on top of that would be vegetables,

that would be covered in suet pastry.

They'd have popped the whole thing

on top of their coal-burning stove all day

while they trundled up and down the canal

and when they had finished working, the whole thing was cooked -

the vegetables, the meat and the pudding at the bottom.

Anyway, I can't undertake that. I haven't got that kind of...

well, experience, really.

So, all I'm going to do is fry some little pieces of meat here

some stewing steak, cut in nice little collops.

That's a good Midlands sort of word.

Collops of steak.

OK. Get those quite nicely browned.

And then, now that they are brown,

over here we will transfer them into this other dish

which has got some good onions sizzling away in the bottom.

There is a delicious smell in this little narrow boat.

You mustn't call these things barges by the way.

Captains of boats, narrow boats, get very upset if you call them barges.

We pop that in like that.

Then a drop of excellent mild ale.

Turn up the gas to maximum.

A drop of mild ale in there like that.

Then a little tiny bit of...

..tomato puree.

Stew that round.

A few good English herbs, a sprig of parsley,

a little bit of thyme

and a little bit of sage.

They go in there and bubble away

for, oh, 20 minutes or so.

When that's reduced, you then add some excellent...

..dark meat stock.

OK? And then you cover the whole lid, let it simmer.

That, all together, would probably take about two hours.

So, you go out, look at the lovely countryside, see the salmon leap,

the kingfishers darting up and down and the fishermen pulling out

crayfish and lobsters and stuff like that and the herons flapping

and look at the wonderful sights you can see.

And when you return, fresh from this wonderful experience,

my dish will be ready.

# The gas was on in the Institute

# The flare was up in the gym

# A man was running a mineral line

# A lass was singing a hymn

# When Captain Webb the Dawley man

# Captain Webb from Dawley

# Came swimming along the old canal

# That carried the bricks to Lawley

# Swimming along, swimming along

# Swimming along from Severn

# And paying a call at Dawley Bank

# While swimming along to heaven. #

Another terribly good thing about the Black Country

is the availability of toffee apples.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the leaping salmon,

the kingfishers and stuff like that.

While you've been away, I have been very busy.

Richard, come and have a little look.

I've fried away my black pudding and my little beetroots, OK,

so they are succulent and ready now.

Lift up a little tiny bit to pop into my beef

which has been simmering in the beer and the stock

and my thyme, bay leaf, parsley and sage.

Now, while you were out there looking at all those things,

my producer nipped off the barge...

Sorry, the longboat...narrow boat, for a few seconds,

Vikings as we are,

and nearly bought a Staffordshire terrier

and while he was doing that, he explained what I was cooking.

They said, "That sounds very good."

As a matter of fact, I'm very proud of this little dish.

We now have to finish it off very slightly.

I have to put...

..the beetroot and the black pudding into the sauce there.

OK.

I'll turn the gas up to maximum for a second

just so that they can all absorb their individual flavours.

Witness, my dear Watson, or Richard, as I call you normally,

witness the interesting colours in here.

Can we see the purple? And the beef and the black?

I mean, that is my Black Country dish, I think.

The only way to test anything like this

is to ask a knowledgeable man from the region to try it.

And how do we get out of the sequence

to get the guy who's driving it,

the captain, to come and taste this, I'm not quite sure.

While you think how to do that, I am going to pick this up,

tip it into my lovely white dish

because I always like food

really to be the star of the whole thing.

Pop it into my dish like that.

A delightful arrangement of colours...

..and flavours.

A few chives on the top.

And that, I think, sort of sums it up.

Beef simmered in beer, beetroot -

the kind of thing that grows out of lovely, sooty, black oil -

and the black pudding.

'Before you reach for your pens,

'of course I meant black soil, not oil,

'but I do get carried away by it all,

'but not as much as my producer,

'who, after seeing this Staffordshire bull terrier,

'which will be here in a moment,

'immediately stopped the shoot and tried to buy it.

'When none of us would lend him the money,

'he spent the rest of the day singing Old Shep.

'It was really tedious.'

One very small step for a person.

A wonderful dish that I'm incredibly proud of,

Nigel, if you're not too busy pulling your boat in.

-One second.

-Right.

Do you know,

they do get me doing some very silly things on this programme.

It's not easy cooking on a narrow boat

with a couple of knives and forks

and now he's probably going to tell me he's a vegetarian

or something really strange like that.

-Not quite.

-Not quite, excellent.

Beef stewed in beer with beetroot and black pudding.

My interpretation of what could be a dish of this area.

-Love you to try it.

-It's got all the makings anyway.

-I think so.

-Let's have a do.

But you must tell me precisely what you honestly think.

Very nice.

-Yeah.

-Do you want a bit more?

Yeah, a bit of black pudding.

So, what do you cook on the boat most of the time?

We are near enough vegetarians.

My wife does lots of things with beans and things like that.

We don't eat much meat,

mainly cos we can't afford it, I suppose.

If somebody said tomorrow, "Don't have any meat,"

it wouldn't worry me. but this is very nice, this is.

I mean, I've no views about it really.

Lonely, living on a boat?

Not really. Can be.

It's not like in the old days

when there were hundreds and hundreds of people on boats.

Of course, there was all the things...

shops and that, catering for the boat people,

but now you haven't got that sort of support

and people think you're a bit of an oddity anyway.

But you can live with that,

it's better than living in a council house.

I could sit down and eat this, definitely.

Go ahead. You go ahead. With that, I shall leave you.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much for the wonderful ride.

-Much obliged. You're welcome.

-Take care of that little baby.

-Right.

I could watch that man all day. Fantastic stuff.

As ever on Best Bites, we're looking back

at some of the best recipes from the Saturday Kitchen library.

Still to come on today's Best Bites...

Andrew Fairlie and the great Michel Roux

battle it out at the Omelette Challenge hobs,

but how would they both do? Find out in just a few minutes' time.

Glynn Purnell offers inspired flavour combinations

with his dish of duck with liquorice charcoal.

He serves the dish with a tasty tamarind puree,

green beans and some wilted rocket.

And actress Jaime Murray faces her food heaven or food hell.

Would she get her food heaven -

fillets of sea bass with a herby quinoa salad,

coriander mayonnaise and some crispy onions -

or would she get her dreaded food hell -

baked beetroot with blue cheese beignets

and a rainbow beet salad?

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

Now, for his Saturday Kitchen debut,

Claude Bosi celebrated his love of British produce

with halibut and a pork-pie sauce, no less. Tasted delicious.

-The first time you've been on.

-Yes.

-So, what are we cooking, then?

An interesting dish, to say the least!

-I hope so. We are doing halibut...

-Right.

..with breadcrumbs and English mustard...

-Yeah.

-..and a pork-pie sauce.

-A pork-pie sauce.

Now, that's not one you get in a service station, that, is it?

-You've made this one?

-We did, yeah.

You've made this one. Right, fire away

because I know you want to put the halibut on.

We're going to get on and do the crust as well,

I'll start that for you.

With a little stock. What stock have we got?

Here we've got fish stock and apple juice.

-Fish stock and apple juice.

-The apple juice is just...

-Bramley apple.

-OK.

Bramley apple. And, erm...

I like the Bramley because it's quite nice and sharp.

-Right, OK.

-For the fish, a bit of oil.

A dash of butter.

Then straight in the oven.

-So, why halibut, then?

-I just like halibut.

It's quite nice and lean, not too watery.

It keeps its shape. It's a perfect fish.

You could do it with monkfish but you have to salt that first.

-The crumbs, you've got...

-I'll do the apples for you.

OK. For the crumb, you've got salted butter.

I use a lot of salted butter.

I just like the flavour of it.

Do you use unsalted butter at all?

No. The only time we use unsalted butter at the restaurant

is for the puff pastry, but if not,

even all the pastry we're doing, we use salted butter.

Now, tell us about Hibiscus, then.

-Hibiscus.

-It is, what, ten years?

Ten years old, yeah. Ten years old this year.

And...

It's been busy.

We started in Ludlow. We started in Ludlow...

ten years ago. And we decided after three or four years ago

-to move down to London.

-For any foodie out there

-that doesn't know Ludlow, it is really...

-It's beautiful.

-..the capital of food outside of London?

-Absolutely beautiful, yeah.

Because it was where... I mean, Shaun Hill,

some of the great, great chefs...

It was almost like a little place

-with some amazing restaurants just in there.

-Yes, it was.