01/05/2016 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. There's a mouth-watering menu

lined up for you today, so sit back and enjoy the show.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

You won't want to go anywhere as we've got top chefs

serving magnificent food

and a handful of hungry celebrity guests too.

Coming up on today's show,

Clare Smyth is serving some meaty monkfish with iberico ham.

Jason Atherton is plating up red mullet with spicy peppers,

chorizo and black olives.

He finishes the dish with candied aubergine and aubergine crisps.

Ben Tish is treating us to a sharing platter

of roasted salt marsh lamb

served with crispy artichokes and a wild garlic pesto.

He marinates the lamb in garlic, mint, lemon zest,

as well as fresh and dried chillies.

And Ben Fogle faces his food heaven or food hell.

Would he get his food heaven -

a basil sorbet with a blackberry and basil cream tart?

Or would he get his dreaded food hell -

smoked pancetta-wrapped watermelon with mozzarella

served with a watermelon-dressed salad?

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

But first up, he's one of my all-time culinary heroes

with a sensational sea bass dish.

It's the great Michel Roux.

-Welcome to the show, Michel Roux.

-Thank you very much.

What are we cooking, chef?

Well, steamed fillet of sea bass in green jacket.

My boys will be texting me now going,

"I can't believe that." But anyway...

-So, that's how the fish looks...

-Yes.

-..before we fillet it, but you know that.

-Exactly.

This is a line-caught bass.

-They're slightly bigger than...

-Yeah.

-..the farmed ones.

The idea is one kilo, one kilo 400,

-and then you've got a nice little fish to cook.

-OK.

Or two kilo, but then it's for six or eight people to eat.

That's going with me on my way back home. There we go.

-And I've got a nice fillet.

-Yeah.

-But let's go through the ingredients

-because we know what we're using for the recipe.

-OK.

So, we've got leeks, obviously.

-That's magical because it's for the sauce, the coulis.

-Yeah.

I'm doing a coulis, which is a leek coulis

with a nice little saffron thread

because it's more tasty and then the dill.

And then I need cream and then I've got chicken stock,

-but it could be vegetable stock if we wanted to.

-OK.

-But not fish stock for this one?

-No, no fish stock for this one

-because it's dull, it's boring.

-Yeah.

-And then I've got spinach leaves to put...

-This is the jacket.

That's the green jacket for the sea bass. A little beurre.

-And this is the julienne.

-Can you do the julienne?

I can do the julienne, yeah.

So, now I'm going to obviously take the skin...like that.

There you go. So, you've got to fillet the bass, pin bone it

-and then basically de-skin it as well, yeah?

-Absolutely.

And I've been checking if there is any bones

because what you do normally, obviously,

you've got to be careful not to have any bones in the middle.

So, you borrow the tweezers from your young lady...

-Is there any bones in there?

-No, there is none

-because you've done it before.

-Exactly.

-You've done it for me.

-I did it this morning.

-Good, lovely. So, here we are.

So, that's the sea bass because it takes a bit of time.

A small fillet like that will take about six minutes.

Six, seven minutes.

So, we've got enough for two portion there.

-That's done. Now the...

-Spinach.

-..spinach should be blanched.

If you're going to do this at home,

make sure you buy the big spinach leaves.

-Yes, it could be lettuce as well...

-Yeah.

..because lettuce are very delicate

and it's not a bad idea to use lettuce,

but spinach is perfect.

Often, the French wrap lamb and bits and pieces in it.

Because sometimes you don't find

those big, large spinach leaves nowadays.

Those tiny little ones, which are perfect for salad,

-but not so good for cooking or for vegetable, really.

-Yeah.

So, here we are.

Now, when you were last on,

well, the restaurant, The Waterside, had just closed

-because of a kitchen refit.

-Yes.

-Just had it done?

-We closed for three and a half months.

-Yeah.

50 people on holiday for three and a half months.

No, no, no, they were not on holiday.

We were all doing some work, but it was...

-THEY LAUGH

-You know me.

Yeah, I know you.

Nobody goes on holiday.

Put the oil...

-Yeah. Thank you very much.

-Goes in there?

-Yeah.

-So...

-So is there space for me in your new kitchen, then?

Oh, good Lord, yes. We've got 22 chefs, but I tell you,

-the kitchen is absolutely superb.

-Is it?

-Absolutely superb.

They've done...the builder, everyone...

I mean, the kitchen designer, my son, the chef -

everyone's done a fantastic job.

I think they've done a better kitchen than I had.

I'm very jealous.

I want to go back in the kitchen. Take me back!

I'm coming for a night to work, then. Definitely.

-Are you?

-Yes, exactly.

-OK. I want to be off on that evening!

THEY LAUGH

-This is brilliant. There you go. Right.

-Thank you.

-What do you want doing with the leeks?

-The leeks...

THEY LAUGH

It should be a young leek, not the big one like that.

So, if you can cut it, please.

-And you want these blanching, yeah?

-Yes, please. Thank you.

-OK.

Snip it, yes.

So, the spinach leaf, by the way, must be dry, so I pat it dry.

But what was unique, just to go back for a minute about the kitchen -

they've done a fantastic job in three and a half months

and they were ready on the day we wanted them to be ready.

-No delay. That's fantastic.

-None?

-No, not at all.

-Did you use French builders or what?

-No, British builders.

-THEY LAUGH

-But you can still find some people...

-Yeah, exactly.

..who are really doing a fantastic job.

-So, here we are.

-OK.

-Pat it dry.

A little salt and pepper very quickly on there.

-Do you want some pepper, chef?

-Yeah. There we are.

Pepper. Thank you very much.

-Very good.

-There you go.

And then you roll it.

So, you've got to put them into the little spinach leaf.

-Into the jackets.

-Into the jacket.

-And then you want some clingfilm for this?

-Yes, please.

I'll just put the leeks in the pan.

And if the stalks are a big too hard and big,

you cut a bit of the stalk, but that's not the case here.

So, we've got the leeks in the pan blanching.

The other leeks are frying away.

-And then we now are cooking and sweating the other leek.

-OK.

Have you got the butter there?

-There's the butter, yeah.

-Yeah.

Blanching it and as soon as it's blanched,

and it is blanched now...

Ooh! We don't want a beurre noisette.

Just on time.

-There we go.

-Voila.

So, you've got to sweat the leek.

There we are.

-Thank you.

-I'll do the other one, chef.

You do that one. Thank you.

So, wrap it in the clingfilm.

We've put the salt, the pepper, in the steamer.

Michel, you can put the clingfilm in the steamer?

-Yes, you can.

-And it won't melt?

No, no, it doesn't melt. No, no.

What you must always remember is taking it out

-when you put it on the plate.

-THEY LAUGH

You think, "What's that strange texture?"

Especially when you're on the television

because people think that you're getting a bit oldie.

THEY LAUGH

-They give you your P45.

-THEY LAUGH

-Saffron, chef?

-Yes, please.

There you go.

Saffron. Saffron, saffron.

Look at those lovely threads of saffron.

-Worth a fortune, you know that?

-Worth a fortune, yeah.

-There you go.

-Chicken stock. Thank you.

-The cream...

-There's a sink in the back

-if you want to wash your hands, chef.

-..will go last.

And now, in fact, the cream should go

and it's going in that one,

-which we just started cooking a few minutes before.

-Yeah, exactly.

-We had to...

-We had to, yeah.

-..because I'm a bit slow.

-I didn't say anything, chef.

-No, no.

-Can you switch that on for me?

-Yeah.

-Thank you very much.

Now that we've finished, we can put it back...

-Put it on there.

-..in there, good.

-There we go.

-Move that.

-So, now it's cooking. And we've got that.

-Now, we need that little bowl there.

-OK.

So, this is basically just deep-fried

-so they're nice and crispy.

-Absolutely.

-There you go.

Now I'm going to snip down it.

And don't forget that all the recipes cooked in the studio,

including this one from Michel, are on our website. Go to...

You can also find the dishes from our previous shows

on bbc.co.uk/recipes.

There we go. Right, I'll sort out the little fried bits.

You talk so quickly that if I was listening to the programme,

I would have no time to write it down, all those things.

-You've got to buy the book, I suppose.

-Ah, there you are.

-That's what you're doing, isn't it? A new book?

-Absolutely right.

Well, talking about books, my pastry book Sweet And Savoury

-is doing extremely well in UK.

-Yeah.

And now it's been, in fact, translated over the last six months

in seven languages

and I'm going to New York and Canada to promote it in the next months.

So, if you want to come on the trip with me...

-Absolutely. I'm there.

-..and we can sell the book.

-Absolutely.

-Your book.

-Well, my book's not out in America,

so we'd have a job, but anyway...

I'll sign yours, but anyway...

-So, this is steaming. This doesn't take very long.

-No, no, no.

-Four, five minutes?

-Five minutes, it'll be ready.

It's only been there maybe two or three minutes. It'll be fine.

-I think we'd like an audio book.

-Someone is asking something.

I said, "Could you do an audio book so we could hear your accent?"

Cos that would be very nice, wouldn't it?

Me and Liz are like that, "Please speak!"

Was that me or Michel?

-No, that's Michel. Yeah.

-THEY LAUGH

It's by popular demand. Thank you. Popular demand.

Michel, camera two, it's all yours.

-THEY LAUGH

-Oh, God!

Someone! Come back. Come back.

I'm very good for timing anyway.

Right, anyway, we're frying that off.

-You know, I'm used to 22 chefs, not one.

-Yes, exactly.

-Right, do you want me to blend this?

-Yes. Can you do that? Thank you.

-I'm sure you can.

-I can. There you go.

And then I'm taking that off.

So, just to recap what's in here, we've got the stock.

The stock, the leek,

a little butter to sweat the leek and then just a saffron thread

-and that's it. Cream to finish.

-No problem.

Well, I'm just going to blend this.

James, can I ask, would you ever use a bought chicken stock?

We can use...

You can even use water if you want to,

-but vegetable stock is perfectly all right.

-There we go.

-But chicken stock is a nice flavour.

-BLENDER WHIRS

I'm just going to add this slowly to this mixture.

-OK?

-Yes, perfect.

-There you go, chef.

-We've got a minute to go.

-Thank you.

The leeks are nicely cooked.

-Voila.

-And this, it's not going to a puree.

You're creating a nice sauce with this, chef.

-There you go.

-That's it.

The ladle? You've got the ladle for the sauce?

-I've got the ladle, yeah.

-Excellent.

-OK.

-So, give that a quick blitz.

There you go. It would make a wonderful soup, this.

Just nice and simple.

And then we're going to pass this through a sieve.

Take the little clingfilm off.

There you go.

Could you wrap the fish directly in clingfilm with no spinach?

-I'm sorry?

-Can you wrap the fish with clingfilm with no spinach?

-Would it melt?

-You can.

-Yeah?

-You can, yes, yes, yes.

But the way...

Look, give it a little shine.

A little pile...of little leek.

Little angel hair, I call them.

Angel hair.

-A bit of salt and pepper, chef?

-Thank you.

I shouldn't do that, but I've done it. I have salt.

-Put the pepper, please. Thank you.

-This is white pepper.

-Good.

-That's white pepper. Perfect. A bit of dill.

-Yeah.

-And then we put the sauce.

-There's your spoon.

-Thank you, chef.

Here we are. So, the coulis around.

Voila.

And all you've done is brushed those parcels

-with a touch of clarified butter.

-Voila.

And then add something there, but I've lost it.

-I'm sure it doesn't matter.

-What have you lost?

-A little fern.

You took it, I'm sure, but I'll put a bit more.

-JAMES LAUGHS

-When I've got something missing...

I'll find it, chef.

..I always say my assistant got it, you know?

-So, remind us what that is again, chef.

-Oh, yes, put that there.

Steamed fillet of sea bass in green jacket.

-Simple as that.

-Simple as that. Thank you.

The man definitely is a legend. Definitely a legend.

-Right, come on over here. Have a seat, Michel.

-Thank you.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

-And you get to dive into that.

Tell us what you think.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Tell us what you think.

I'll go on the side, yes.

You're over here, Michel. I don't know where you're going.

I was worried you didn't want me to sit next to you any more.

-THEY LAUGH

-Absolutely stunning.

-Stunning.

-Sauce is delicious?

-Stunning.

-Guys, dive in.

But other types of fish you could do instead of using sea bass?

Erm, yes. Sea bream is perfect and even a small piece.

But haddock, if you take haddock,

small pieces because it's hard to cook it.

And remember, if you're trying that dish at home

and you can't find large spinach leaves,

lettuce leaves would work really well too.

Coming up, I cook pea soup with mint cream

for comedian Jenny Eclair.

That's after we get a taste of the Cornish coastline

with the fabulous Rick Stein.

RICK STEIN: People that like food that I respect more than anybody

are those that understand about simplicity in cooking.

And nothing sums up simplicity,

pure, delicious simplicity,

better than just a dish of grilled queens.

Queens are just a type of small scallop

and all you have to do is brush them with plenty of butter

and season them liberally with ground black pepper and salt.

Then you put them under a hot grill and notice the wonderful smell

that actually comes from the shells as well as the scallop meat.

It's like hot beaches, and hot beaches is what it is

because all beaches are is bust-up shells.

These are now well and truly cooked.

And the next thing I'm going to do is to add some seaweed,

to put some seaweed on the plate.

In addition to that lovely smell of the shells,

I want the lovely smell of seaweed.

That beautiful ozone smell which I'm going to enhance

just by heating the seaweed up for a few seconds only

in some boiling water.

Because when this comes out, you get that,

oh, indefinable sort of wonderful smell of seaweed,

which people love.

Put the...queens on top of that.

And having done that, I go for the final piece,

which is, to me, by far the most important -

the butter itself.

I'm very pedantic about beurre noisette.

I don't use a frying pan.

I use a saucepan because a frying pan's black

and you can't see what's going on in the bottom of the pan.

With a saucepan, you can,

particularly if it's got a steel lining, like this one.

And I need to be able to judge visually

exactly when the right point to stop the cooking is.

Because if you take it too far,

you've got burnt butter rather than beurre noisette.

Beurre noisette means nutty in French

and that's what I'm after - a sort of nutty flavour.

Another pedantic point of mine is...

Not quite there, but nearly.

..is I put the lemon juice, which always goes with noisette,

actually on the scallops, not in the butter.

Now, that...is plumb right. Lovely, lovely flavour.

Quite dark but not burnt.

And finally, a little finely chopped parsley...

..to complete the dish.

That is delicious.

I think I might just pop one into the old mouth there.

Mm. You can't beat just a properly made,

simple butter sauce like that.

One of the great enthusiasms of running a restaurant

is creating this calm and serene and relaxed atmosphere.

But what makes me enjoy it so much more is the knowledge

that 12 miles out from the Cornish coast,

things are vastly different.

The fish that all those people are sitting down and enjoying

in that warmth is being caught in totally different surroundings.

And the soup. The nightmare of that vegetable soup.

GULLS SQUAWK

Let me tell you what being truly seasick is like.

It's like being as close to death as anybody would want to be.

We've been nervous. It's so rough.

I've never been out in anything like this before.

Honestly, I've been frightened.

But it's all worth it

when you see this fish that's just come out of the cod end.

It smells so wonderful.

My whole desire to cook fish

has just been given such a lift by something like this.

And I feel really pleased with myself.

I'm still alive.

I'm out here in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean

with a load of fishermen laughing at us

cos we're so ill, but it's worth it.

GULLS SQUAWK

A lot of these fish just get thrown back,

but this is the stuff that makes the classic fish soup.

The sort of stuff that everybody else throws away.

There's so much flavour in it.

You can't do anything else with it

but just put it in with all those vegetables

and cook it for about 40 minutes

till you've got this really intense, deep, dark flavour.

It's a bit like the sort of flavour of a fine white Burgundy,

that the complexity of the flavour

just keeps going back and back and back.

Lots of people think fish soup's

what you put all the old ends and pieces in, but it's not.

And look how much stuff goes in the fish soup just for four people.

All these vegetables, all this fish.

First of all, some onions in this pot

with lots of olive oil - good olive oil.

Some leeks.

And, no, we're not bothering with too much measurement.

You can see what we're talking about.

Just lots of vegetables here.

And some fennel, the herb and the root.

It's called Florence fennel.

Some garlic. Lots of garlic. Provencal soup after all.

Some bay leaves. A couple of bay leaves.

More aroma from a whole load of orange peel,

which I dropped in there.

Some red peppers roasted under the grill, let to blister,

so that there's a nice, charred flavour in the soup.

Looking for strong, robust flavours all the time.

Some saffron. A lot of saffron. Expensive quantity.

Very important in the fish soup.

And finally, some tomato puree.

Now, I'm going to leave that to sweat, as the French say,

and to form what they call a confit -

a confit of vegetables - for about 40 minutes

because that is the only thing that I'm going to thicken the soup with.

No flour, no breadcrumbs, no rice. Just the vegetables.

And now, over to the fish.

This is the sort of fish we use in the fish soup.

Ling - cheap, very underrated.

Here we have one of Ivan's lesser congers.

Some of them go to about 15, 20ft.

Gurnard - another underrated fish,

used by lobstermen as bait in their pots,

but very good flavour.

And these wrasse, which are beautiful-looking

and look as though they must taste wonderful,

but, in fact, they're rather boring, but ideal material for fish soup

cos they're very, very cheap. Good, thick fillets.

So, into the pot first goes the wrasse fillets,

then the dogfish, the gurnard,

the ling and finally, the conger.

Loads of conger in all our soup.

Now, there's a lot of fish in there -

about well over two pounds just for four people.

But the more you put in there,

the wonderful...more wonderful and thick-tasting the soup becomes.

So, I'm just going to fry these fish fillets

for about another five, ten minutes.

Frying things changes their flavour and that's what I'm looking for.

It's all nicely amalgamated.

Now, there's one other fish ingredient or seafood ingredient

that goes into this, which is prawns.

The shellfish gives it a wonderful, sweet, additional fish flavour.

Now, while I've been cooking this soup,

I've been making some stock with a load of bones.

Any old bones will do.

This is the sort of thing that's gone in.

That's a bit of conger, some bass.

All the old fish frames from the fish filleting go in there.

Contrary to what people think, it only takes about 20 minutes.

You can cook it longer, you'll get more taste,

but the taste will be glue and general bitterness.

About four pints going in here now.

Now, we'll leave that to simmer away for another 40 minutes -

as long as that - to get all that flavour into the soup.

And there are a couple of ingredients

that I haven't put in yet.

First of all, some tinned tomatoes.

I used to put fresh tomatoes in

because I thought you had to put fresh into everything.

But, actually, English tomatoes are rather what I call vapid,

a bit lacking in flavour for something like this fish soup.

In addition to that, I'm going to put some orange juice in.

That's the juice of these oranges that I took the peel off earlier.

To squeeze this orange juice, I've got this wonderful machine.

I was actually brought up on a farm

where we used to castrate lambs with something like this.

Looks as though it might be extremely painful.

So, in they go.

Everything now is ready to come down for another 35-odd minutes

and that'll be that.

I keep telling my kids this sort of passes as an outboard motor

as well as a liquidiser.

I think you could sort of zip up the estuary at about 40mph

with that on the back of a small boat.

But this will do the job in about one minute flat.

I'm liquidising all this fish and the prawns.

Doesn't matter about the shells at all

cos after I've liquidised this,

I'm just going to pass it through a sieve and the soup will be ready!

This is better than aerobics.

I'm really working to get this stuff through.

But it doesn't want to be too solid.

They don't want to be eating sort of seafood porridge,

if you see what I mean.

And there it is in all its wonderful, deep,

reddy-brown splendour.

Now, this rouille, as it's called,

it's made with chilli...

You can buy jars of chopped chilli.

..garlic, saffron and just mayonnaise.

Those float in the soup.

And on top of all that, we sprinkle a generous amount of,

in this case, Parmesan, but you can use Gruyere or Emmenthal

or any hard cheese like that.

And as is traditional in these things,

it's only now necessary for me to try it.

Mm!

Mm. That is fantastic.

I have to agree with Rick, that soup did look fantastic.

There are so many other great soups you can do very easily at home

if you don't fancy having a go at Rick's.

I've got one to show you that's inspired by a recent trip to France,

where I was this week.

We're just coming into season. We have some peas.

It's very simple to make and it's great.

You can actually make this with frozen peas, like I'll do now,

until the season's progressed. But we've got some frozen peas,

shallots, butter, a touch of cream, some mint...

A touch of cream? You've got a yard o' cream there.

-I'm not going to use all of it.

-Good.

A touch of cream and some chicken stock.

Jenny thought this was apple juice during that.

-I thought, "Ooh, that's novel."

-THEY LAUGH

Like you put apple juice in pea soup...

What we're going to do is basically start this off.

We're going to chop these shallots.

It is cooked in real time so we'll chop these nice and fine.

I'd help, James, I really would,

but I don't think you would need me interfering.

Now, you didn't have an oven for years, did you, at home?

How did you cope without an oven?

Well, we didn't cook because we didn't have an oven.

-But I didn't miss it.

-What did you eat?

Well, I was gigging a lot at the time.

-We're going back some time now.

-Yeah.

And I've got quite an undemanding partner, weirdly enough.

And he just likes sandwiches. We ate like children at a tea party.

THEY LAUGH Just ate sandwiches!

We'd have sandwiches and crisps and maybe, if he'd been a good boy,

he could have jelly and ice cream afterwards.

And then a daughter came along

and she was fed by her nanny, mostly.

And then, one day - this is true - she came home from...

You should never let them go to other people's houses, children,

cos they come home with all sorts of ideas.

She came home saucer-eyed. She was about six.

And she goes, "Did you know, and this is true,

"you can make cakes in your house?"

-THEY LAUGH

-And I said...

I said, "Not in this house, love. There's no cooker."

And then I did try and...

We had a microwave.

And I got a cake mix and I thought, "I can make...

"I can do this in a microwave. I'm sure I can.

"You know, I'm quite an intelligent woman.

"Just read the instructions on the back of the cake mix."

Anyway, I put the cake mix in the microwave

and it had a grill function

and for some reason, I put it on the grill function.

I grilled this cake. It looked all brown and beautiful.

I got it out and we cut it open. It was just liquid on the inside.

She has never trusted me ever since, my daughter. She's 19 now.

But your daughter's not a great...

This has kind of passed on to your daughter, really?

It probably left her mentally scarred when she was a child.

Yeah, she's not confident in the kitchen.

She doesn't cook either?

-Well, she's a very good salad maker and...

-Sandwich maker?

Salads and sandwiches.

I have to say, Jenny, I'd love a restaurant near your house.

You'd be in all the time, wouldn't you?

Didn't you have a few disasters at Christmas?

Which is probably the hardest time to cook anything.

See, this is the stupidity and arrogance

of somebody that can't cook but is overly optimistic,

and, you know, think I can do anything.

And so I said, "We're doing Christmas at our house!"

And so we had to do this.

And we had some dummy runs and all this kind of thing.

We had fake Christmas dinner for about six weeks.

Got a bit bored of it.

Come the day, we'd been having it for six Sundays previously.

So, we did the whole thing,

got a bit distracted and finished the Christmas dinner.

It was all all right.

About four days later, I found the chipolatas in the cupboard.

You know when you're cooking

and you think, "I haven't got any space to put these down!

"I'll just open this cupboard door and put them in there.

"I'll remember them." And I didn't. And then I did Christmas lunch...

-Am I distracting you?

-No, go on. Carry on.

-I did Christmas lunch.

The recipe's on the website anyway. I can't get a word in edgeways.

Sorry, people are more interested in this than my...

-I'll tell you what I've got.

-Go on.

-Shallots, butter in there.

-Yeah.

-Frozen peas have gone in.

Chicken stock, not apple juice. Chicken stock. Bit of double cream.

And all I'm going to do is just basically bring this to the boil.

And you kind of just defrost the peas, that's all.

Then I'm going to blend it all up with some salt and pepper.

I've whipped up some cream here. Going to add some lime zest

-and chopped mint into there.

-God!

It's almost as easy as opening a tin.

THEY LAUGH

And, erm...

Anyway, the next time I did Christmas lunch...

This is fascinating, I know.

But you know when you're getting things out of the oven

and you just forget cos you don't cook on a daily basis?

And you don't have an oven, yeah.

-Yeah, and you're not used to ovens.

-Yeah.

So, oven novice.

I didn't put an oven glove on.

-Well, that's not good.

-Oh!

And my hand welded.

I got the stuffing out.

You know how long the stuffing's been in that hot oven?

Got it out with my bare hand.

And there was a funny smell and I thought,

"Ooh, it smells a bit porky. What's that?"

My hand, but welded to the stuffing dish.

I had to sort of pull it away, the skin.

I had to... It was my right hand.

I had to eat my Christmas lunch with my left hand.

Just a spoon in the left hand

with my other hand in a big thing of cold water, like that.

-Got me out of the washing up.

-Now, these are the kind of stories

that you're telling on your new tour?

No, I'm funnier than that on my tour. These are just anecdotes.

-These are anecdotes.

-I'm doing daytime anecdotes.

I'm just going to blend this up. Just two seconds.

-That's a beautiful colour.

-Like that. That's just the peas.

And you add enough cream now just till you make a nice colour.

Into there now, I'm going to add some fresh mint.

You know, you could take that to the paint shop

and say, "That's the colour I want for my downstairs bathroom."

-HE LAUGHS

-It's a beautiful colour.

-My granny had a bathroom suite like that.

-Lovely!

-Avocado.

-Avocado, isn't it?

-In we go with the salt. I put some mint in there.

-I can smell it.

I cannot believe you can actually buy minted frozen peas now, but...

-You cannot, can you?

-Whatever next?

-Hey, that's ridiculous.

-You can grow your own mint.

-Delia'd be liking them.

-Now, you did a series...you did a tour last year, didn't you?

-Yes.

Doing another one.

-Cos it was so successful. 150,000 people watched it.

-Did they?

-Yeah, that's what it says on my piece of paper here.

-Gosh!

-How many of them enjoyed it?

-SHE LAUGHS

-And you're doing it again?

-Yes, I'm back on the road.

I'm going to...I did a tour last autumn

called Because I Forgot To Get A Pension.

So, it was a desperate sort of...

It's a legitimate begging around the country.

"Give me some money. Help me."

-Ooh, look at that.

-It's not finished yet. Carry on.

-You could have this cold as well, couldn't you?

-Yeah.

-If I keep talking.

-Yeah, go on.

-So...

-Not yet.

-Not yet?

-Go on, carry on.

-I'm a bad girl.

-Go on.

-Bad, greedy girl. Not more cream?

-So, where are you going to? Yeah, there's loads of cream.

-All over.

God, I'm going to have a massive heart attack live on telly.

-And there's a little bit more cream going on here.

-Trying to kill me.

Where are you going on your tour? Where are you going?

I start in Leeds and then I'm all over. I mean, just look...

-Oh, look, very oily now.

-HE LAUGHS

-I think he's overdone the fat content here.

-No.

There's a little bit of salad to keep you healthy there.

-A few pea shoots. Look at that.

-That is beautiful.

-Stunning. Look at that.

-That's beautiful.

-In five minutes.

-So, yes, it's the same tour, but it's been extended.

-Right.

Due to popular demand and the fact that I still haven't got a pension.

This isn't a proper soup spoon. What do you do?

There's not proper cutlery.

I don't know whether I can possibly eat it.

SHE LAUGHS Tell us what you think.

It is genuinely...

-Fresh?

-It is genuinely delicious.

-There you go.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Jenny, but more importantly,

I'm glad you've invested in an oven now.

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

you've seen on today's show, all of those are just a click away

at bbc.co.uk/recipes.

Today, we're looking back at some of the best recipes

from the Saturday Kitchen larder.

Now, she's one of the finest chefs in the country

and it's always a pleasure

to welcome her to the Saturday Kitchen studio.

So, over to you, the three-star Michelin Clare Smyth.

-Great to have you on the show, Clare, again.

-Good to be here.

On the menu for you, something in season at the moment.

-Coming into season anyway.

-Yeah.

Well, the very beginning of the season.

So, we've got roast monkfish with iberico ham.

We've got peas, broad beans, morel mushrooms and some asparagus.

Sounds good to me. So, I know you want to get the monkfish on.

You want me to do this little butter as well to go with it.

-Fire away.

-It's a really simple, seasonal dish

and quite easy to do at home as well.

Now, tell us about the restaurant

because you've had a little bit of a refit recently when I drove past it.

-It was closed for a number of weeks.

-Yeah, we closed for five weeks

-and, yeah, just totally refurbished the dining room.

-Yeah.

For the...this is the third new dining room we've had, actually,

in the 15 years the restaurant's been open, which is pretty unusual.

-Yeah.

-A complete refurb and new design.

But it's really beautiful.

I'm really happy how it's turned out.

Did you get a new kitchen or not?

-We just sort of tidied the kitchen up a little bit.

-Right.

-It's...

The kitchen is only six years old,

so, yeah, get a few more years out of it yet.

Few more years yet. So, the monkfish has gone in.

-Yeah, we're just going to roast the monkfish up.

-Yeah.

-Whilst that's roasting, I'm going to start cooking the morels.

-Right.

Nice little warm pan here.

-So, these are fresh morels that we've got in here.

-Yes, they are.

Yeah. But, obviously, people can use the dried ones

cos they're quite difficult to get a hold of.

They are, and they can be quite expensive as well.

So, I'm just going to start with a little bit of butter.

-I'm going to take some of your shallots there.

-Yeah.

Where do you get your inspiration from

for a three-Michelin-star menu?

Where does that come from?

It's quite...it kind of comes from everywhere.

It comes from produce, really.

You know, it's trying to find seasons, the produce,

great suppliers, great producers of stuff.

Erm, yeah, and obviously, your training

and sort of background as well has got a lot to do with it.

-We'll sweat those down a little bit.

-So, the morels have gone in?

-Yeah.

Just going to sweat them a little bit

and then I'll put some white wine and some stock in there.

-Then we'll get a little bit of colour on this monkfish.

-Yeah.

Then I'm going to pop it into the oven.

Little bit of butter in there, James.

If I can borrow that just to cook my butter in there as well.

-I know you like a little bit of butter in there.

-A little bit, yeah.

Shallots, garlic, mushrooms - they're going to go in.

Making a little butter to go with, to finish it off.

Just to stir into the peas. I think it's a really nice butter

that you can just pop into the freezer.

You can put it on top of anything, really.

You could put it on top of a bit of steak.

-Do you want me to pop that in the oven?

-Yes, please.

-OK, how long does this take?

-About four minutes in the oven.

-Four minutes. Quite a high oven.

-Yeah.

-That goes straight in.

I'm just going to put a little bit of white wine

into the morels there.

-Going to move this over.

-There we go. You can use that.

-Just reduce the white wine a touch.

-Yeah.

-Some chicken stock in there.

Now, you have a particular way of cooking these asparagus as well,

-don't you, which is slightly different?

-Yeah.

I think we cook a lot of the vegetables

-and things at the restaurant very simply.

-Right.

We don't like to...

-It kind of makes its own sauce as well when we're cooking it.

-Yeah.

It's almost just seizing all the flavour into it.

I'm just going to prep those now.

And that butter you're making is actually originally

from a snail butter recipe that we used to use

with Dijon mustard in it, a little bit of ham.

Cos when people have this idea of a three-star menu,

they think it's massively complicated.

Elements of it can be quite straightforward and simple.

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, it's all about precision in cooking. Quality and precision.

I think Paul will agree with me on that.

I mean, Paul, how long did you work with me for

at Hospital Road? Three years?

-I was there for three years, yeah.

-Yeah.

-I mean, we've got a few stories.

-He's not saying anything, you see?

Yeah, we've got a few stories.

But, yeah, I mean, it's all about quality ingredients

and trying to find the best produce all of the time.

-And, yeah, precision, really.

-Yeah.

And consistency, like you were saying, it's just...

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Over and over again.

Yeah, and it takes a lot of focus.

So, you'd normally do this with snails, you were saying?

Yeah, it's a really nice...

Just sweat down the button mushrooms,

the shallots, garlic, parsley.

A little bit of chopped ham in there is really nice.

Mustard and almonds.

We put ground almonds into it cos when you're putting the snails in,

it helps absorb the butter and stick to the snails,

which is really nice.

So, we wrap that in clingfilm. That can go in the fridge.

-That's just the ham in there as well.

-Yeah.

We've got one that's in here, which we did this morning.

So, you were talking about the asparagus.

-Just coming into season now?

-Yeah, just coming in.

It's probably some of the first we've seen, I think.

Yeah, I think...we've just got it coming from Wales this week.

This is the first one.

Sort of a little microclimate there, that it starts.

Put that one there.

OK, so, we're just going to put it into a hot pan

with a little bit of olive oil.

-But you're cooking this really quickly?

-Really quickly.

-Little bit of salt.

-I'll lift this off and have a look.

So, that's just chicken stock in there?

-Little bit of stock in there, yeah.

-Right. So, no need to blanch it?

-You just cook that with the olive oil and chicken stock?

-Yeah.

We're going to do the same thing with the peas and the broad beans.

Going to actually put a bit of butter into the peas, though.

Turn that up for you.

Just check that's OK. Those are just braising away.

Pop the peas in.

It's a really quick, simple way to cook things, like this.

Few of those, little bit of salt.

So, when you had your five weeks off travelling around,

what ingredient did you find the most fascinating for you

on your new menu?

Well, I was up in Cumbria, so I was visiting the farmers and stuff.

They were... Actually, on Paul's menu,

I ate some Herdwick mutton, which was fantastic.

-Right.

-And really, really delicious.

And, you know, talking with a farmer and he's saying to me,

"Mutton's a by-product of lamb."

So, if we're all going to eat lamb, we have to eat mutton as well.

So, it just makes sense.

And, really, talking with those people make you understand that,

so I want to put it on my lunch menu now

just to sort of balance out life, really.

The circle of life. That's how it's got to be.

Cos also there's that in between sort of lamb and mutton -

the hogget around sort of December time,

December/January time, which is also really good.

Yeah, it's absolutely delicious. Yeah.

Right, well, I'm going to get the fish out, so you can check that.

-You can just taste these.

-This has had four minutes exactly.

Now, of course, all of today's studio recipes,

including this one from Clare, are on our website.

Go to bbc.co.uk/saturdaykitchen.

All right, I'll just cover this over with the butter.

Yeah, and we'll just rest that monkfish for about a minute

-whilst this is finishing off.

-Right.

-Pop in our broad beans.

The key to this is basically allow it

-to rest just a touch, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So, I'll lift that off

cos you're going to top this with some...

-Yeah, we've got some beautiful iberico ham here...

-Yeah.

..which is just going to melt over the top.

The fat of that just melts right over the top of the monkfish.

I've seen it often done with lardo as well,

-which is the same sort of thing.

-Exactly the same sort of thing.

I'm just going to wrap that around there. Let it sit and melt.

And I've got my butter here ready.

-Yeah, we're just going to pop some of that into the peas.

-Yeah.

-This is great cos you can freeze this as well, can't you?

-Yeah.

Good thing with that.

So, I think we're almost there.

You just pop that into the peas, let it melt in.

What do we need? Spoons.

And if people were using the dried morels,

would you use cold or warm water maybe?

-I'd put a little bit of warm water on there.

-Yeah.

We'll just stir all that lovely butter in and also...

You get the colour in that way as well.

Yeah, also, I think that this butter's really good

if you're roasting mushrooms as well.

And you can just sort of fry it up

-if you've got girolles coming into the summer...

-Yeah.

..which is great.

That asparagus is ready.

So, how many seats is in the one in Royal Hospital Road, then?

-It's 44 in total.

-Right.

-I presume you do that lunch and dinner.

-Yeah.

We do, yeah, about 50 covers for dinner,

about 40 for lunch every day, which keeps us out of trouble.

OK, that's about ready.

-Right, I'll switch that off. Ready when you are.

-OK.

The great thing about this is it's almost self-saucing

because you've got all that wonderful, sort of buttery peas

and all the herbs and everything already in there.

-And the broad beans, you've just basically de-podded those.

-Yeah.

Peeled them, obviously. Taken the little white bits out.

What we do in Michelin-starred restaurants.

-Was that your job when you were there?

-Shelling the peas?

-Shelling the peas.

-Yeah.

-HE LAUGHS

-And then cutting them in half.

-And then cutting them in half.

-Yeah.

-And all of the...yeah, the baby onions.

-Yeah.

So, and then we've got a few just little broad bean flowers,

which are absolutely stunning.

And this is actually one of the guys down near Poole

that grows these for us.

Now, you've got one of these that you test the fish as well.

Yeah, I didn't use it just now, but just a little spike.

Steak, everything - just poke it in and just feel the temperature of it.

And it's...I mean, chefs don't know when things are cooked.

-We have to check as well.

-Yeah.

-I couldn't live without that.

-And the broad bean flowers?

-Yeah.

-Tell us what that is again.

OK, it's roast monkfish with iberico ham, peas,

broad beans, morels and asparagus.

How good does that look?

It looks fantastic.

You know it's going to taste fantastic as well.

Now, a quick word of advice.

Don't take the mick out of this one. THEY LAUGH

-I'll try not to.

-Tell us what you think of that one, then, sir.

-Well...

-That monkfish.

The great thing about monkfish is

we used to give it away, really, back then.

But nowadays, it's become hugely popular.

-I think a victim of its own success, really.

-It is.

Chefs have been telling how fantastic it is

and the price keeps going up.

Yeah, and it's almost priced off people's menus these days.

-It's a nice nose-to-tail fish.

-Really is lovely.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah.

So simple and so tasty.

Now, if you can't get hold of iberico ham,

Parma ham or lardo would work really well too.

Next up is Keith Floyd.

He's celebrating some of Norfolk's finest food

as he continues his adventure through Britain and Ireland.

He's got a recipe for the perfect potted shrimps lined up today,

or as he likes to call it, potted shrimps the hard way.

KEITH FLOYD: In the words of the master -

and I hardly think you need reminding that I refer,

of course, to Ernest... I mean Noel Coward,

Norfolk is, in a phrase, terribly, terribly flat.

But East Anglia,

once the kingdom of that wonderful Saxon king Wuffingas -

great name, great bloke -

has always been one of Europe's rich melting pots.

This is where the Norse, the Danes and the Flemish,

not to mention some brilliant thriller writers, decided to settle.

And the region became prosperous from wool, weaving and corn.

Despite the polyglot influence - that's this week's word -

it's managed to retain a unique character.

Although, on the surface,

it seems to be the epitome of peaceful, merry England,

its reticence belies the strong character

that's reflected in the recipes and produce.

Not to mention Oliver Cromwell,

who, like myself, was a very misunderstood man.

Notwithstanding Oliver's peccadilloes -

that's next week's word -

he wouldn't approve of plans to dredge the seabed,

the habitat of shrimps, whelks and mussels,

in order to build motorways.

While I was there, not that I have any political aspirations

or a desire to interfere, there were plans afoot

that could put an end to this plentiful source of seafood.

I have a fine time, don't I? Cruising down the river.

Late afternoon, early spring - absolutely idyllic.

I'm headed for the Wells Bar, which is not, for once, a pub.

This hell of white water with teeth like bananas ahead of us,

that is the Wells Bar.

Beyond them are the shrimp grounds.

And on this little boat, The Romulus,

we're going to throw some nets or whatever they do -

I don't know cos I haven't done it yet -

and for sure as eggs is eggs,

we ain't already got some in the oven or in the deepfreeze,

we're going to catch these delicious little brown shrimps

and I'm going to cook you some proper potted shrimps.

But in short, the title of this little cooking sketch is

potted shrimps the hard way.

The shrimp, or even better still, crangon vulgaris,

is a totally inadequate word

for up to 2,000 different species of crustacean.

These little brown relatives of crabs, crayfish and lobsters

have a funny habit,

rather like most senior BBC personnel,

of swimming backwards.

No names, no pack drill.

So, these, then, these little things here,

are the freshest little brown shrimps

I think you're ever going to see.

No wonder they're so expensive, though.

I mean, that's not exactly a huge catch, is it,

for four or five hours trawling?

And it's jolly hard work. I mean, they did have a winch,

they could pull it in by machinery,

but there just weren't enough to justify it.

And do you know, I was, in fact, going to cook these on the boat -

potted shrimps my way - but it's a bit rough,

it's a bit choppy and it's not easy to do it.

In fact, I could hardly open the caviar I had for my lunch.

My hand slipped on the tin opener.

So, to get back behind the breakwater, in the calm waters

and do these things with a bit of butter,

bit of mace and stuff like that.

The man who wrote that stuff about those who go down to the sea

and do their business in small boats knew exactly what he was on about.

So, don't whinge about the price of a saucer full of fresh shrimps,

or for that matter, anything that's won from the unforgiving sea.

But at Wells-next-the-Sea,

the serious business of preparing shrimps continues,

as it has done for the past 500 years or more...or less.

You'll notice that these little boats have shrimp boilers on board.

This is to ensure maximum freshness, flavour and taste.

But sifting these little beauties reminded me of those days

when you went blackberrying - one for you, one for the basket.

And, indeed, just the smell of freshly boiled shrimps

wafting on this cool April evening

became one of the most endearing memories of Norfolk.

867.

868.

I actually think that's enough.

I mean, this is the freshest and the biggest potted shrimp in the world.

It is, as we say, from trawler to table

in only, actually, five and three-quarter hours.

It was a very quick preparation.

But look at the little beauties. Aren't they fabulous?

Brown Norfolk shrimps.

You need - it's very important -

some melted butter, which I've melted on the galley below.

And you've got to skim off this scum from the top

because you don't want that to ruin the dish.

All you otherwise need to make this superb thing

is...a good pinch of mace.

Into there.

Quite a lot of mace because we've got enough shrimps here

for a little army.

Stir the mace in.

Lots and lots of grinds of lovely black pepper.

It's quarter to seven on this lovely April evening

and my little fingers are frozen.

They really are.

It does worry me, though, as I tuck into these

and prepare these, this aggregate thing.

I know nothing about politics and stone dredging and stuff like that,

but it does seem to me a bit worrying

that if they do dredge up this 140 square miles around here,

we're going to lose these sorts of things,

and the whelks and stuff, and that would be a bad, bad thing.

So, the White Fish Authority and everybody must get behind it

and make sure it doesn't happen, whoever the responsible people are.

Right, the mace - the powdered mace - black pepper

and then you simply pour in this wonderful melted butter

till it comes to the top, like that,

so that, when it sets, you have a golden crust of butter.

And we won't even bother to put that in the fridge.

I think we'll just leave it here for about an hour or two

and I'll have to take it on into the next cooking sketch

because it's ten to seven and although it's Norfolk,

they're open in a couple of minutes, so I'm off.

And so to the US base at Mildenhall

in my armoured potted shrimp carrier...

Brilliant piece of saluting, by the way.

..and a quick rundown on American food from Sergeant Joey Garcia.

If you're down in Florida and Georgia, the Kentucky area,

they have a tendency to make their fried chicken a little spicier.

Whereas compared to the north, it's more crispier

-and greasy foods up north.

-Yeah.

Then you head up towards the west

and they have a tendency to make chicken a little more extravagant,

like adding...sauteing in the...

Sauteing chicken and then frying it.

But me, I just eat. I eat anything. I love chicken.

Tell me, have you eaten any British food while you've been here?

Yeah, when I'm off duty.

I like to try different things,

like, I believe it's called Yorkshire pudding.

-Right.

-And the traditional Sunday English dinner.

Have a nice day.

It's brilliant, isn't it? The flying suit.

Getting into the American way of life is quite fantastic,

but also armed with the imperial British potted shrimps.

Anyway, I've never been to the States before.

This is the closest I've been to it for some real American cooking -

black-eyed beans, fried chicken and stuff like that - and I can't wait.

Far too hot in here for the flying suit,

but an American mint julep really cools you down.

I've some us chums here, one of whom is a sergeant.

-Sergeant, please.

-Yes?

-Sergeant Susan Locke, isn't it?

-Yes.

-What are you doing here?

-I'm cooking.

Right. What are you cooking? What are these things?

Richard, climb in behind our shoulders.

What is this lady doing, please?

You have to treat me as a simple English native, OK?

Cos I haven't been to America before.

She's doing Southern fried chicken with her own recipe.

What is special about your recipe?

-It's not her recipe. It's MY recipe.

-Oh, right. Sorry.

-We're doing the wrong person here.

-Right. What is your special recipe?

Tell me about it. SHE LAUGHS

My special recipe - what I do before

is after I clean the chicken and stuff,

-I marinate it in red pepper, a little ginger...

-Right.

..some hot sauce,

erm, white pepper and a little chicken base.

Marinate it in there.

Marinate it for a while and stick it in the walk-in refrigerator.

-Then, afterwards, I have egg wash and flour mixture.

-Right.

Just regular flour and egg wash milk in it.

And I dip the chicken in there, dip it in flour

-and then I double-dip it again, which makes it crunchy.

-Crunchy.

Brilliantly crunchy. Can I have a quick...?

Excuse me, I know this is going to deprive some poor airman, but...

THEY LAUGH

-Gosh!

-It's very good. It's really good.

-What's happening here?

-These are black-eyed peas.

What, from the song, like...?

It was the 3rd of June Another dusty Delta day.

-Isn't it?

-Yes, that's right.

Papa said, "Pass the black-eyed peas."

-And what else is in here?

-They're made with ham hocks and onions.

Then cooked for about eight hours in their own sauce.

That is fabulous.

This is...

Well, I mean, that is like a sort of cassoulet,

like a French dish of beans and pork and stuff.

I think it's absolutely fabulous.

I've been making these things, you see.

This is a very, very British kind of dish.

Richard knows I made it on a fishing trawler.

I actually went out and caught these myself,

shelled every single one of them, melted the butter in.

Look at that face.

I didn't do that to your okra and to your black-eyed peas.

Well, it might taste very good, but it just doesn't look very good.

Look, OK. These are what?

These, you've made. These are what, these?

-Corn breads.

-These are corn breads. Individual corn bread. Right.

And I reckon my potted shrimps on top of your corn bread

as a little aperitif to a meal...

..you would really enjoy them. I think you will.

And I'd like you to taste some and see. Now, it's perfectly OK.

If you say they're dreadful,

we will, of course, edit this whole sequence from...

-THEY LAUGH ..from the programme.

-Of course.

-Of course.

-You see, so... But tell me.

-Mm.

-See what you think.

-Is it really good?

-Mm.

These are cooked with...just boiled

and then mixed up with melted butter and mace and black pepper.

-It needs a little bit of salt.

-Tastes like shrimp.

-It's lovely, though.

-It does. Tastes just like shrimp.

The corn bread kind of overpowers it a little.

It is shrimp. Good.

-You don't need more salt, do you think?

-Yes, I do.

I don't think I'll open up a potted shrimp factory

in Memphis, Tennessee.

I think I'll go and have another mint julep

with some people who really appreciate me.

See you later, girls. Bye! THEY LAUGH

-Who was that schmuck?

-THEY LAUGH

BBC commissionaires would do well

to take this guy's correspondence course.

He's brilliant.

Even so, I feel a little hurt that my potted shrimps

didn't meet with Auntie Sam's approval.

I'd love to know what they were saying behind my back,

the little monkeys. Never mind.

I booked a table for lunch at Congham Hall,

cooked by ace chef Robert Harrison.

It's time in the programme for a piece of serious cooking

and I'm going to take a back seat here and let Robert,

my old mate, cook some scallops for us.

I know he's already got some chopped shallots,

little bits of chopped bacon.

That's a julienne of vegetables. What are the vegetables in there?

In this case, it's a mixture of peppers -

green, red, white peppers, carrots, celery, leeks.

But anything you want, really. Anything that takes your fancy.

Some fresh...

And that's the really good, exciting thing -

-fresh, chopped basil.

-That's the main ingredient.

-This is lime juice.

-That's right, yes.

-Lime juice.

And some excellent Norfolk fresh scallops

and a bit of Gewurztraminer, as the wine to do it.

So, what do we actually do?

-Right, shall I start cooking?

-Yes, please.

-OK.

You put the butter in the pan.

Get it very, very hot and we fry the shallots and the bacon.

Shallots first, and then the bacon. Very, very hot, but no colour.

It's very important.

Those have got to start off on their own before the bacon goes in.

-No, the bacon at the same time.

-Right.

-Lovely, and about half of that.

-And half.

-As quick as you can.

-Right, yes. HE LAUGHS

-So, really, really well. No colour whatsoever.

-Right.

So, now it's time for the scallops. Lightly season.

-Throw it in.

-You in on that, Richard?

Scallops, shallots and bacon at this stage.

Again, no colour, and we put the scallops until they're just opaque.

No more. Otherwise, they get very tough, very chewy.

-We fry them up quite well.

-Right.

And now the second main ingredient, the Gewurztraminer.

-And how much of that is that?

-Erm, more.

More, more. That's fine, that's fine.

-And the lime juice, please.

-The lime juice.

Whoa!

-Too much lime juice.

-I put too much lime juice in.

You'll be eating this, I take it.

So, at this stage, they're quite opaque.

They're fine. We take them out, keep them warm and later on,

-we can put them back in just to finish cooking.

-Right.

And, again, it's very important not to overcook scallops

or boil them, et cetera.

OK. So, those go to one side for the second.

They go to one side. We've reduced the liquid with that lime juice.

-Then we're going to add butter, as in a beurre blanc.

-Sure.

So, that sauce has now reduced, thanks to the magic of television,

and the next phase continues.

-With what? The julienne of...?

-Julienne of vegetables.

You know, I'm totally convinced that British chefs are in the ascendancy.

We're not so frightened of imitating the French and so on any more.

What's, in your mind, the state of British cooking?

I think, with all the local produce we're getting,

especially the young vegetables that are now being picked,

new suppliers coming along,

that's why, really, chefs are becoming better cooks, really.

-Because of the...?

-It's a matter of supply, I think.

Matters of supplies, yeah.

And the great interest taken, of course, by the suppliers,