Episode 138 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

If it's great cooking you're after, you're in the right place. This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. The chefs are on top form this morning

and the celebrities are feeling pretty hungry,

so coming up on today's show,

Aggi Sverrisson treats us to a shellfish delight.

He roasts scallops and serves them with

fregola and wasabi sauce.

And we get a little French sophistication thanks to

Alexis Gauthier.

He creates some unique stuffed boneless chicken wings

and serves them with a handmade potato gnocchi.

Atul Kochhar dusts off the Tandoor oven ready for a summer fish treat.

He prepares tandoori grey mullet with garlic,

ginger and loads of dry spices and he serves it with a cep salad.

And John Barrowman faced his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven -

meringue with a decadent toffee baked Alaska with toffee sauce,

or would he get his dreaded Food Hell -

watermelon with my watermelon sorbet with rose water

and marinated watermelon wedges?

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

But first it's time for some brasserie style cooking

from Daniel Galmiche,

with a little inspiration from his mother and aunt.

-Great to have you back on the show.

-Thank you very much, yeah.

-Of course, cooking French dish, so...

-Cooking French dish.

On the menu is what?

On the menu is what?

Fillet of sea bass today, which we are going to pan-fry,

served with sauteed potatoes.

We've got new potatoes we are going to blanch a little bit

and put some fennel in to give some flavour to the water.

-And a sauce vierge.

-And a sauce vierge, which is all there.

-And pancetta, yeah.

-Yeah. So, tell me about this sea bass.

-This is line-caught sea bass.

-This is line-caught sea bass

but you can now buy some lovely farmed sea bass.

-Now, the farmed ones are smaller.

-Much smaller, yes. That's right.

And equally good, actually, nowadays, yeah.

There you go, so... Why do you put the little...?

-Just so it cooks a little bit faster.

-Right.

-And for the skin.

-Does it kind of stop it from curling up or just...

-A little bit.

-..presentation?

-Yeah, little bit. So I'm going to pan-fry that.

-Can you do this dish with mackerel, Daniel?

-No.

LAUGHTER

-Yes, actually.

-Well, vierge can go with anything, can't it, really?

-Chicken as well.

-Yes, absolutely.

The weather is kind of good this weekend.

Yeah, it's actually like a warm dressing, really. So, yeah.

-So, skin first.

-There's a sink in the back there,

-if you want to wash your hands.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

Now, always skin first?

Yeah, I want to give a nice bit of crisp to the skin, which is...

-which is really nice. So, potato.

-Excuse me.

I'm going to take the shallots.

And you're just going to basically soften them down with some olive oil

cos the basic sauce for this is made out of olive oil.

Yeah, correct.

-As a base. There you go. Now, do you want some butter in there?

-I will.

-I know Frenchmen, they like butter.

-Yes, I'll put some butter in there.

Not right now, because I don't want the butter to burn. OK. Voila.

Right, so this is...this is from your restaurant or...?

This kind of dish... I suppose, not really from your restaurant

but inspiration for this dish, where does it come from?

Well, it's really kind of French home cooking,

brasserie, home cooking relation, you know.

Would that be from your new book, then?

That would be from my new book. Thank you, James, yes.

Yeah, which just came out.

So I'm very excited, very happy

and a bit nervous at the same time but, yeah.

-It's your first book?

-It is my first book, James, yes, absolutely.

And what kind...? How would you define brasserie cooking, then?

Well, I define it

a different region, obviously. So, brasserie, for me,

borrowed recipes from regional places

and in the same time a kind of speciality which was passed down from

grandma to mother to daughter, very much,

and adapted them within a brasserie and that's why

when you go to France in different regions you can find these

-beautiful recipes within brasseries which are regional.

-Yeah.

And so there is a relation like home, country and etc, which is nice.

Raw French cooking, then.

Cos you've got so many different regions and France...

-Oh, completely, yeah.

-..that do so many different styles of dishes.

Technique-wise, for instance, it's very different

the further down the coast you go as opposed to further north.

It is, yeah. And it's funny because every kind of

even neighbour town claims

to have the right recipe or the best recipe.

So there is always this kind of competition between towns as well.

-Yeah.

-So it's quite interesting.

So where would this dish originate from? Was this one of your mother's?

This one would be Mediterranean but would be an accent

of my great aunt and my mum,

which did inspire me to cook when I was young.

I met his mother last week. I've never seen anybody so petrified.

-This was at your wedding.

-It was in my wedding, yeah.

-Your wedding, yeah.

-Yes, correct.

-You were running around

-like a little puppy dog, weren't you?

-Yes. A little bit.

And the biggest wedding cake in the world, I think.

I'd probably say.

Well, the reason behind that is because

Claire, originally,

is half Italian and half English and I wanted to surprise her

and my pastry chefs made a kind of mini copy of the Coliseum

because they are from Rome originally.

Oh, was it? I thought it looked like Fulham Football Club.

It was massive, I know.

-I'd had a bit to drink by then....

-..Coliseum out of a cake.

-Sorry?

I'll just make the Coliseum out of a cake, no problem!

It did genuinely look like a football club.

So, it was kind of, you know, a way of marking a little bit the origin.

So it was...it was very nice.

Right, so, these potatoes, you cook these slightly.

We cook slightly with a little bit of fennel and just...

you can put some herbs in it. It's just to flavour a little bit.

We don't use the fennel,

-it's just to flavour, yeah?

-That's why I use a stalk of it.

So, now the potatoes have been blanched, I keep the skin on.

-I prefer the skin.

-Lime's gone in there. That's vierge, basically.

It's just basically shallots, lime, or lemon. Some people put...

You can put vinegar in, I've seen before.

Some really good quality olive oil and the tomatoes go in

-just as it starts to warm up, and then chopped herb.

-Yes.

-And you warm it up slightly.

-Now, you've blanched the...

Have you got pancetta there or what have you got?

The pancetta has been blanched.

The reason I blanched it a little bit,

-sometimes it can be a touch salty.

-Right.

So it will take a little bit out of the salt

and some pancetta is fatty as well and some people don't

actually take that a little bit as well.

It's a good way to do your potatoes with bacon and stuff,

to blanch it like that, isn't it?

Cos it's going to get it really crisp.

It crispens very nicely, too. Yes, correct.

Very nice.

Now, those people who haven't been to your restaurant...

-Yes.

-..it's a...

it's a big restaurant. Restaurant and hotel.

Yeah, it's a big restaurant.

-We can take a lot of covers.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, absolutely.

But wine is kind of a big theme in there.

The reason it's called The Vineyard, actually,

it's because there is not a vineyard around,

it's because the owner owns vineyards in California

so he based himself on a Californian house, really.

And...

And that's the reason, yeah, we've got a massive, massive wine list.

And, obviously, Sir Peter Michael makes wine so it does make sense.

Now, this is the key to cooking fish properly, you see?

You basically turn it once. That's it. Yeah.

Cook on the skin. That's right.

Right?

In we go with the bacon.

Do you want me to finish off this fish for you?

Yeah, if you want, that would be lovely. With butter.

This is why you and me are good mates, you see.

-Yes, because we love butter.

-Yeah, exactly.

-Yeah.

But it's a fundamental part of cooking in France,

isn't it, really?

Yeah, we use a lot of butter but it doesn't mean

necessarily a massive amount.

I mean, it gives some kind of

colourful, nutty flavour to things as well.

It's good. I like butter, too.

I'm a bit like you for that, that's correct.

You're looking a bit intense there, Angela.

Am I? I was just trying to work out, so what have you done?

Have you put the butter in...? It's skin side down.

We put the fish on, skin first, we get a nice crispiness,

golden colour around.

Flick it over to finish cooking and put

a drop of butter in the oil and just

finish it a little bit,

giving a lovely, nice, nutty flavour.

-Pat's trying to figure out how much this dish is going to cost.

-LAUGHTER

I can see it already, straightaway. You'll see it next week.

The battles that I have, you see.

It's more than £3.49.

Yes, it's more than £3.49.

-It certainly is.

-Yeah.

But if it's a farmed one, it's cheaper.

So it's more affordable so you can... you can almost do a dish for that.

-£3 a day, you said, no?

-£3.49.

-A day.

-Yeah.

-I take my hat off because, guys, to do so many...

-They are the hardest working crew.

-I am sure.

A touch of balsamic vinegar in here.

A little bit, yes. I like a little bit of touch of acidity

and sweetness to it. So, we are nearly there.

The idea of this sauce vierge, like I said, it goes well

with any barbecued meats or anything like that. Chicken.

Chicken as well. It's almost a dressing, really, isn't it?

You can mix and match the herbs. It doesn't have to be parsley.

No, you can put chervil, which I use and I love.

You can put chive, you can put basil.

-Tarragon is nice in there as well.

-You can put tarragon, yes.

-We're ready to...

-Ready.

-..to go when you are.

-Yeah.

So, the fish is cooked.

-Literally just turn it over once like that.

-Yeah.

I'll move that out the way.

So, the fennel's just gone in with the potatoes just for flavour,

-that's it.

-Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you can put a different herb as well.

You can crush garlic in it and...

-Just finishing this.

-I'll get you a spoon for them.

-There you go.

-Thank you very much.

Ready when you are.

-You can smell it, huh?

-Yeah.

Now, this, to me, would be sort of French brasserie food.

That and a bit of steak.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's completely

things people can relate to, I think.

And that was the

main focus for the book as well.

It's food people could relate to.

There you go.

And you can have that... The idea of that sauce is

as soon as you add the tomatoes, don't heat it up any more, otherwise

-it starts to colour the sauce too much.

-That's right.

-Just warm it up

and that's it. Don't boil it.

A small drop of that.

-Looks delicious.

-Beautiful.

-Voila.

Don't forget, this is from Daniel's new book.

So, what's the name of the dish again?

It's called a fillet of sea bass, pan-fried,

served with sauteed potatoes, pancetta, spring onion, sauce vierge.

Easy as that.

Cool, right, fantastic.

You get to dive into... Look at that, fork ready!

There we go. Do you know what?

This could be a heavenly dish for me, I've got to say.

-Breakfast, dive in.

-Is it really bad that I don't eat the skin?

-I know you've cooked it to perfection.

-Try a corner, I promise.

OK, there you go, but I'm not massively into the whole skin bit.

I'm just going to go there.

Even when it's crispy, I'm not into the skin.

So, sea bass, but really any fish with this.

-Salmon, anything like that would work.

-Yes, absolutely.

You can use salmon. Sea bream, I love sea bream.

I think chicken would work nicely.

-Sea bream, pancetta adds a nice kind of association.

-Oh, my God.

Mackerel very good, actually.

-Dive into that, girls.

-Did you not trust me to pass it down?

-Exactly!

-I know you too well, you'd have kept eating it.

-Absolutely beautiful.

That sauce vierge is gorgeous.

Yes, and a touch of balsamic vinegar really works.

Yes, it gives a touch of acidity to the richness of the dish.

And that vierge is so simple to make.

I didn't realise that you didn't have to continue cooking the herbs.

But you need to keep the flavour, it is dispersed quickly.

Straightaway, keep the freshness, keep the colour.

Sometimes you boil something too much, the herbs become brown.

I like the way he calls it home cooking.

I can't remember having that in Skegness!

What a beautiful piece of sea bass and a great way to serve it.

Coming up, I grill aubergines and serve them with tomato sauce

and deep-fried courgette flowers for Aggie MacKenzie,

after Rick Stein continues his travels across the length

and breadth of the UK to find some more of his famous food heroes.

The first time I found a patch of chanterelle

on the way to Bodmin from Padstow was of the same order of excitement

as seeing my first kangaroo in the bush.

It's that jolt of being there and seeing it with your own eyes.

With mushrooms, you never forget that musty smell

of dead leaves, autumn and earth.

I'm in a secret wood in the middle of Norfolk with Clive Holder,

a mushroom hunter extraordinaire,

and he showed me a host of golden chanterelle,

enough for 1,000 risottos.

They're supposed to smell like apricots.

-Maybe it's just...

-They do a bit.

They're so fresh. They're quite peppery when they're raw.

A lot of chefs won't like a mushroom, for example, this large.

They've got what I call "supermarket syndrome".

Everything's got to be small - baby vegetables,

baby mushrooms - and what they would like is something about this size

that they can present as a button girolle on the side of the plate.

These ones will have to be - I know it seems sacrilegious - to be torn,

but when you do, the white middle shows this is a true chanterelle,

not a forced chanterelle, which is yellow all the way through.

I've been searching for mushrooms for over 10 years

and have never come across such a developed patch as that.

That really knocked my eyes out.

It's like finding the first cep of the season, it's so exciting.

So how do you like to cook chanterelles?

-I just like them plain fried with olive oil and butter.

-Yeah.

I love the names that mushrooms have been given.

Look at these amethyst deceivers.

They, like all mushrooms, have to be cooked

using a lot of heat and very quickly, otherwise they stew.

As they're 90% water, they tend to turn sloppy,

so it's really not a good idea to wash them, just give them a brush.

Here I've sauteed them with kidneys, a great breakfast dish.

So, first of all, the kidneys. Take about three kidneys,

cut them in half and that gives you three halves per person.

If you're fastidious,

take out the fatty bits in the middle, but you don't need to.

It's nice, particularly in a lamb's kidney, which is quite delicate.

I've tossed the kidneys in seasoned flour and I fry them in hot butter -

not long, because I like them pink on the inside. Then turn them over once.

Halfway through, throw in the mushrooms and some salt.

I've always been cautious with wild mushrooms.

In France, you can take them into a local chemist for identification.

Just try taking them into Boots!

Now I take the kidneys out of the pan to continue cooking the mushrooms.

Add more butter, put the kidneys back in and toss everything together

and pour over some buttered toast... and that's all there is to it.

Finally, sprinkle on a little bit of parsley and serve.

So simple and so good. Another great combination is mushrooms and garlic,

but here it's mushrooms and kidneys.

If you haven't tried it, you jolly well should!

In the grounds of this detached house in Cropwell Butler in Nottinghamshire

are three brothers who make the best pork pies I've tasted in a long time

from a recipe going back 150 years.

Here, just smell that, Rick.

I think pork pies are regarded as the butt of many a British Rail joke

along with the curled-up sandwiches.

In fact, I've noticed that in most

of the pork pies I've had recently, there's a serious absence of jelly.

This is the heart of a pork pie - jelly made from pigs' trotters

which have been simmered till they fall apart.

This mixer looks as if it was your grandad's!

Yeah, it's got history.

And my grandfather, when he was in business in Nottingham,

he had 16 of these in a row, all mixing pastry, mixing meat.

I think this is the only one left probably in England today.

You've just got water and lard in there, then?

-Water, English lard, sea salt...

-Sea salt?

-Sea salt.

And we're going to slowly tip it in, Rick...

..and all that should mix in with that pastry

-and really hit it with some power.

-Brilliant.

-Thank you, Rick.

So, what's the secret of a really good pork pie, then?

Well, I think the secret is the quality of the ingredients,

what you use and what you put into it.

I don't think you'll see any finer hot-water pastry than this one.

Then we move onto the meat, which is hand-butchered.

Chop...chop it - in a mincer, but chop it in a big mincer,

so you've got the quality of the meat there, big chunks of meat.

That's mixed perfect now. No need to mix that no more, job done.

Everything about this is sort of apt, this pork pie,

because the pigs are local and it's tied in with the cheese, the Stilton.

Yeah, the history goes back years ago when everyone produced...

The farmers produced the pigs, the cheese was being produced,

they needed something to feed the pigs on,

so they fed 'em with the whey.

The quality of a pig when it's fed with whey is beautiful.

And they had so much pork, they said, "Right, let's make a pie,"

and they made it by hand, which is a Melton Mowbray when it's handmade.

They look fantastic!

Ah, beauties! You know they're cooked, see, they're bubbling up.

Been in there an hour.

-What do pork pies mean to you?

-Ah, everything really. It's my life.

At 2.30am, you can wake up wondering if you've jellied the pies,

if they're ready to be sold next day...

Ah, it's a passion. Once you've picked the pie that you've cooked,

you've got that segment in your hand ready to eat and you bite into it

and get that lovely crunch of the pastry, then you're into the jelly,

and then you're back into another texture with the meat.

So far in my gastronomic journey, I feel I haven't done justice

to the vegetables we grow here. I've come to Coleshill Organic Farm

to meet Peter and Sonia Richardson.

It must be a very nice place to work, and it's nice with all these flowers.

Yeah, our singing gardener planted all the flowers

and everyone that walks through - we have lots of people walking through,

it's a short cut into the village - they all comment on the flowers.

When we do our boxes, we send out newsletters with recipes and things,

just so that when people get an unusual vegetable, like a celeriac -

"What's this nobbly swede?" - they can actually do something with it.

Whoever thought up vegetable boxes was a genius,

paying a small sum of money each week to a local farmer

for a selection of his fresh produce. Well, it inspired me with this dish -

leek cannelloni with Provolone piccante cheese.

First of all, melt some butter in a non-stick pan,

then add three or four sliced leeks.

Stir the leeks around in the butter

and add some thyme. I'm using lemon thyme here.

Continue to cook gently while you crush some garlic.

These organic leeks taste hotter and more peppery than ordinary ones.

I add a little water, a little more stirring,

then salt and freshly-ground black pepper.

I need a good concentrated tomato sauce

to spread under the cannellonis.

Just take some olive oil and some finely chopped onion, chopped garlic,

sweat off the onion and garlic in the olive oil,

then add a can of Italian tomatoes -

not fresh British tomatoes, they won't taste good enough -

and then you just knock that down, reduce it right down.

Don't get me wrong, I like English tomatoes in the summer -

they're perfect for this sauce then -

but not the hot-house winter ones - you're better off with tinned.

Now, I add some ricotta cheese to the nicely softened leeks

and roll about a tablespoon up in some soft lasagne.

Cannelloni were my first introduction to Italian food,

cos my parents had a flat in London and there was an Italian deli nearby,

and I just remember little cardboard boxes of cannelloni,

that delicious tomato sauce and the bechamel and the Parmesan on top,

so I'm always trying to slip cannelloni recipes in somewhere.

Now, to finish off, a simple bechamel sauce.

First I need to infuse flavour into the milk. I tip it into a saucepan,

add half an onion studded with three or four cloves,

then I add a bay leaf or two and a few peppercorns, and then I simmer,

but I don't let it boil. I take it off the heat

and, in another saucepan, melt some butter, add flour

and stir to make a roux.

Cook gently for three or four minutes.

Now I pour the milk through a sieve and into the roux and whisk briskly

to make a smooth sauce. Bechamel's the easiest mother sauce to make

and goes back to Louis XIV.

There's loads of rows whether it was French or Italian in origin -

I'm not too bothered, it works for me. I add a bit of cream

and some grated Provolone -

it's a cow's milk cheese from Southern Italy.

Finally, I add an egg yolk for extra richness

and to make the sauce brown in the oven. Then I whisk in some salt.

I have to admit that the idea for this dish came from

our own leeks with plain white sauce, which goes so well with roast lamb.

Then I pour the sauce right over the cannelloni and sprinkle with cheese.

So, all that remains to be done is bake in an oven at 200 degrees -

centigrade, that is - for about half an hour.

Now, this, of course, is a vegetarian dish.

I feel a bit sorry for Christopher our cameraman - he's a vegetarian,

and he suffers awfully bland food with such stoicism on our travels.

It's so rare to get something good. This is for him - he REALLY liked it.

I have to say, the cameramen on Saturday Kitchen aren't

quite as polite as Rick, and anything we cook gets wolfed down

in about three seconds flat with no comment whatsoever.

Now, just to make sure, film the fork,

he's got it in his back pocket. Look at that.

He does, he devours it in seconds.

Anyway, Rick cooked a great vegetarian dish there,

and what I thought I'd do is cook you another vegetarian dish.

We are using another of your great ingredients, aubergines.

-You love aubergines, don't you?

-I love an aubergine.

-So, simple thing.

This is classic Italian kind of stuff. Aubergines with tomato sauce.

Really fundamentally, for the aubergine, we've got flour,

a bit of egg. Forget the breadcrumbs.

Some full fat mozzarella cheese, Parmesan.

I'm going to pan-fry that and place them under the grill

and serve that with a tomato sauce,

which has got fresh tomatoes and tinned tomatoes.

You are starting to get them in season at the moment, mine are

coming through in the greenhouse at the moment, starting to get there.

If you've got really good fresh tomatoes, then use fresh tomatoes.

If you haven't, use half and half.

As Rick pointed out, we've got a bit of garlic,

some onion and some oregano and basil right at the end.

So, that's all going in the tomato sauce.

In this pot here we've got chopped onions,

bit of garlic, oregano, tomatoes, tinned tomatoes.

Placed in a pot, brought to the boil, turned down.

Gently simmer that for an hour.

That's the problem with tomato sauce,

people don't cook it for long enough.

-At least an hour.

-A wee bit of sugar in it, or not?

-You can, but do that at the end.

-Right.

I'm just going to pinch a tomato, because I like them.

So, you've got the aubergine. No need to salt aubergine any more.

What we're going to do is slice this.

And then I'm going to pan-fry it.

I'm going to dip it in a bit of flour and some egg.

Only a couple of slices. That will do. There you go. A touch of flour.

I never know whether to fry them dry or put loads of fat in.

Well, aubergines nowadays don't soak in as much liquid as they used to.

You used to have to salt them and stuff like that.

The aubergines that we get now, even the stuff I grow in my garden,

-you don't really need to salt them any more.

-Do you grow aubergines?

-Oh, my goodness.

-Because you've got your own allotment,

we mentioned that earlier.

-Growing your own raspberries and bits and pieces.

-Absolutely.

Actually, Matthew, my husband, does all the hard work.

I enjoy the harvesting.

What I want to know is, your career to this day, I mean,

you are doing what you do at the moment, obviously,

-How Clean Is Your House? - great series, as well.

-Thank you.

How do you go from what you originally started out doing,

then working for a magazine... You've got an interesting career.

You actually worked for someone very special, didn't you, at one point?

Yes. I try and keep it a secret, but it's out.

Yeah, I went to work for what I thought was the Foreign Office,

and on day one they sat us down and said, "Actually,

"it's not the Foreign Office, this is MI6

"and you've got to think about whether you want to stay here."

I thought, "Oh, my goodness, this sounds quite exciting.

"I'll have a bit of that."

And actually, you know, it wasn't particularly exciting.

Then I ended up working on a magazine that my sister did.

Lots of sisters on this magazine.

They were looking for a junior sub-editor and her editor said,

you must have a sister looking for a job who could be a sub-editor.

So I did.

Eventually, I worked at Sainsbury's magazine, I was chief copy editor and

I had a bit of a reputation for being the greediest

person on the magazine, and my desk was situated nearest the test

kitchen, so whenever the food came out, my desk was the first stop.

So, "Oh, yes, I'll have a bit of that."

And actually it was like,

"Stop there, other people have got to taste."

And this passion for food has not only gone into your garden,

but you've got a new toy in your garden as well,

which I've just had fitted as well - they are fantastic.

A wood-burning stove, oh, I just love it. Absolutely love it.

It's so exciting, it really is. It really is, it's lovely.

-They just take an awful long time to heat up.

-Yes, about 45 minutes.

-But the trouble is - have you used yours?

-I've used mine.

Actually, funnily enough,

I've got 100 chefs coming for dinner at the end of the month.

Including these two. And I'm having to cook pizzas for them all.

That's kind of scary.

Oh, that is going to take hours and hours and hours!

Well, let me tell you something, beware. It gets up to 500 degrees.

It gets extremely hot. It cooks a pizza in about 15 seconds.

Anyway, this is quite quick, this one.

So, we've got on here pan-fried aubergines,

a bit of, er, obviously flour,

the egg has gone in here. Just pan-fried.

Salt and pepper, and then over the top

I'm just going to put some mozzarella and Parmesan.

And then we take the whole lot of these and just place them

on a baking tray.

Like that.

And then flash them straight under the grill, a really hot grill.

And this is the secret with this, very, very quick.

While that's cooking, I'm going to deep fry some courgette flowers.

Oh, my favourite.

I cannot understand why in the UK we don't sell courgettes with

flowers on like they have in Italy.

But the flowers here, absolutely delicious.

In France, they stuff them with some lovely salmon mousse.

We've got a little tempura batter here.

A bit of flour and some sparkling ice-cold water.

Straight in there, keep it nice and loose, just pop that straight in.

-Yum.

-Easy as that.

Didn't you have an injury once when you were cooking?

-Quite a serious injury.

-Oh, yes.

Back in the '70s when I first really got into cooking -

I'm showing my age, I know, I know. Don't I look so much younger?

Anyway, I was making caramel oranges.

You're too young to remember caramel oranges.

Well, it's Suzette sauce, you start out with caramel in the pan.

Well, actually, it's boiling water and sugar - boiling sugar, really.

And I thought, "Oh, this smells nice."

And I just kind of dipped my finger in... Ahhh!

The next thing is, I'm ringing the doctor,

I didn't know where to put myself, it was awful.

At the time, I didn't have enough money for a taxi so I had to

get on the bus to go to casualty,

-but my finger was so painful.

-The skin falls off as well.

I actually went on the bus with a glass of water with my finger

dipped in the water. Sitting like this wally on the bus.

I was in such pain. And yes, the skin came off like a sort of broad bean.

Just a big blister three days later. I've never done that again.

Obviously, you are doing this show about cleaning at the moment -

quite a fascinating series as well.

One thing I have a nightmare with is cleaning the hobs and ovens.

What's the best way of cleaning them?

Well, you have to do it as you go.

I know that's boring, but that's the easiest thing,

-absolutely.

-Any top tips for us? For cleaning your kitchen?

In the kitchen, I tell you what is really important.

Keep that washing-up cloth and the wiping down cloth - the second

it starts to smell, you know it is spreading germs everywhere.

You know, you have got to change them every day, really.

-Because it's chopping boards are the worst thing, really?

-Absolutely.

You can make yourself really ill.

You have got to keep everything absolutely...

So we have got our sauce there,

-I have just blitzed in the basil right at the end.

-That's gorgeous.

Under our grill, now.

You have got a hot grill. Then take our aubergines.

These cook so, so fast.

-What we can do now is just lift these off.

-Mm!

-And it cooks in real-time, you know.

-That's amazing.

Actually, aubergines often take quite a bit of time.

There's nothing worse than a bone in an aubergine?

Got to be completely soft.

And these, just deep-fried with a little tempura batter.

We then take that, place it on the top.

-For me! Oh!

-That's for you, yeah.

-Dive in. Tell us what you think.

-I was hoping you'd... Oh, yeah!

-Just a touch. Go on, dive in.

-Yeah, just a little, drizzle of olive oil.

-Lovely.

-Over the top.

-Ooh, James! Thank you.

The combination of aubergine...

aubergine, tomatoes, mozzarella, Parmesan,

so quick and simple.

I know. I love Italian food. I really do.

Might be hot. Tell us what you think.

-The secret is to cook that tomato sauce for long enough.

-Mm!

-Happy with that?

-Mm.

That's really lovely. And the aubergine is melting, it's great.

That was so Italian, you could be in Italy.

Now, if you'd like to cook any of the studio recipes you've seen on today's show,

all those are just a click away at bbc.co.uk/recipes -

we're looking back at some of the great

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Now it is time for another Aggi.

This one is armed with some Icelandic inspiration

and some seaweed ash.

But there's no butter in it.

-Great to have you on the show, Aggi.

-How are you?

-Now, something scallopy for you today?

-Scallopy.

-Scottish scallops, hand-dived, of course.

-Right.

-We have some fregola here.

-Fregola is what, a pasta?

-Yes, semolina.

-Semolina grains, really.

-Right.

You can cook it either in boiling water, straightaway,

seven minutes, or you can cook it almost like a risotto.

So you want that in, do you, first of all?

-Do you want this salted boiling water?

-Yes.

-A little bit of salt in there.

-Get some salt in there.

So that just goes straight in. You can buy it like that, anyway.

-And then the sauce, what have we got in the sauce?

-Shallots...

-Yes.

..which you are going to chop.

-You're going to do some mushrooms for me.

-Yes.

-And then you're going to do...

-Some lemon grass?

-Yes.

-Bash it out.

-So particularly when you think of Iceland, I think

of this sort of stuff, the seaweed and the ash that you've got here.

-But not lemon grass.

-I love this fresh, clean flavour.

It's so beautiful.

-So I'm going to open the scallops. Start on that.

-Right.

Now, this ash that we are putting on right at the end, is the seaweed.

Is that seaweed?

-That's seaweed, dried out, and blitzed.

-And that's it.

-That's it.

-Because you eat this as a snack, don't you?

-Yes.

That's the favourite, much better than crisps.

And healthier, of course.

Not as good as a chocolate bar, is it?

-Well, it depends how you look at it!

-Yes!

Right, so we've got a few little bits of diced shallots in here.

-So, preparing the scallops...

-Scallops, yes.

You're using the hand-dived king scallops.

You mentioned Scottish scallops, what about from Iceland?

-Do you have any scallops up there?

-We have very small scallops.

Unfortunately, they are not as good as the Scottish, I have to say.

Why is that? Because the seas are colder? Why do you think?

Yes, and also we just have very little amount there.

We've overfished it a long time ago and we've not really survived.

-You've amazing king crab up there, don't you?

-King crab, we have.

Langoustines, we have. The King crab is just fantastic.

-It is, fabulous. But very expensive.

-Yeah, it's crazy. Crazy.

-But I would say it's worth it.

-So tell me about your restaurant, then.

Because you've not just got one, you've just... This is your third.

My third, yes.

So we have two 28-50s, one in Fetter Lane in the city,

-we just opened one ten days ago in Marylebone Lane.

-Right.

So it's a new venture for you,

particularly a different style of food?

-Yeah.

-So...

-Completely. Cream, butter, friends, food, yeah.

You name it, it's there.

It's like a little wine bar, as well, isn't it, in London?

Yes, wine workshop, I would say.

So you get really good wines, fantastic value.

And some lovely, lovely food.

You can come and eat at the bar, have one or two drinks,

can have everything from smoked salmon to hamburger.

-Now, you take the roe off this?

-Yes, I don't like the roe.

-You don't like the roe?

-No, I don't. At all.

Are you a roe on, or roe off?

-Roe on, definitely.

-Roe on person.

-Don't say that.

-Scallops, roe on or roe off?

-Either or.

-Either or.

-I love a scallop, me.

-Right, so we have got some shallots in here.

-This is the start of the sauce?

-Yes.

So one of the scallops I'm going to chop up, they go in the fregola

later on and the three scallops I'm going to pan-fry later on.

You don't want any colour on this,

-so the mushrooms are going straight in.

-No, I want to sweat it.

-And this bit of scallop is left over for the...

-Fregola.

-..fregola, the pasta at the end.

-Exactly.

Right, lots of lemon grass going in here.

Lots of lemon grass, exactly. Salt, a bit of salt.

So, where do you get your inspiration from now with you

having three restaurants to look at and menus? Where do you...?

-Everywhere, really.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

As long as you can take bits and pieces from everywhere,

I think that is very good.

There is certainly lots to choose from in the..

-particularly in London, when you are travelling around.

-For sure.

-Right, you have got two wines going in here.

-Yes.

Yes. Noilly Prat and white wine. Put them both in at the same time.

This is a little bit of vermouth and a little white wine.

-And you don't reduce it down too much?

-Never, never, never.

-Right.

-It's no good. You just want to take the alcohol basically out.

-So give it one minute, or so.

-Yeah.

-Scallops, will you put them in a pan?

-Can do. I've got a pan nice and hot for you.

-Marvellous.

-So, a little bit of olive oil.

-A little bit of olive oil.

-No butter?

No butter. Unfortunately.

-I was trying!

-So, I'm going to cook them 90% just on one side.

-There is a sink back there if you want to wash your hands.

-Thank you.

-So cook them all the way through on one side?

-Yes, on one side.

So they're nice and crispy on one side, soft on the other side.

Right. Do you want me to pass that through a sieve, now?

-Yes, give it 30 seconds and we're there, I think.

-Right.

-So the idea is just to reduce it down a little bit?

-Yes.

-OK.

-Yes.

-That's good. Have you chopped the herbs?

-No.

That was your next job.

There you go.

Now,

I've always been told to buy scallops super, super fresh.

But you reckon they're better after a couple of days, is that right?

Well, let's put it that way, if you're going to eat them raw,

you're definitely going to have them super, super fresh.

-When you're slicing them for a ceviche or tart or whatever.

-Yeah.

But...

if you're going to pan-fry them,

you definitely want them day-old or even two days old. Why?

-Because when the are so fresh...

-Oil?

-Yes.

Because when they're fresh,

they're stiff and very difficult to cook.

-And it often goes chewy.

-Right.

-And we don't like them chewy, do we?

-Well...

-Well, I don't know...

-Eating them raw, I don't know.

-Yes, raw, good.

So here, I have a little bit of xanthan gum which is

-a thickening agent similar to...

-Xanthan gum?

-Xanthan gum.

-You can get it at stores these days.

-Right.

A little bit of thickening agent.

You can use arrowroot, you can use cornflour,

but then you need to put it back on the stove and put it up to boil.

With this thickening agent, you don't need to put it back to boil.

Can I get the wasabi, please, James?

Yeah... I see you're about to ruin it, you see.

Come on, don't be like that.

You're about to take perfectly nice scallops and ruin them.

I tell you, I will surprise you.

-Get it all in there, go on.

-I can't eat it now, it's ruined.

-Come on.

It's the food of the devil, that. It is my absolute Food Heaven.

-Hell, I mean.

-No, you said heaven! You said heaven!

-I knew it, I knew it.

-Five years, and I still get confused!

-OK, let's see. Do you want a taste?

-No, I don't want a taste.

-You're all right.

-Come on. So, lemon in.

-And...

-Is that cooked?

It should have been, it's been there six minutes.

It's perfect.

-It's a good job.

-You're lucky, I think.

-There you go.

-Right, you want the scallops in there as well?

-Please.

-There you go.

-Chopped herbs can go in there as well.

-Chopped herbs.

There we are.

Right, and then you have got some what looks like random stuff

-that you found on the way here...

-Yes.

-..that you're going to put in?

-A bit of dust.

-A bit of dust. That goes last.

So we have this lovely, beautiful seaweed, obviously.

Sol, it is called.

-So, you... You just eat this as it is?

-Yeah. It's beautiful.

Sea fennel.

THEY MURMUR

Seriously, come on.

-I don't know whether it is as good as a Dairy Milk.

-It's much better.

Monk's beard. And some sea beet.

It is good. No?

-I love seaweed.

-You like seaweed?

-Yeah.

-There you go, munch on that!

-Mm!

-So we are going to heat this up for about 30 seconds.

-Mm! It's good.

Cook the scallops and the vegetables. Lemon on the scallops.

-How is it?

-It is like cheap bubble gum.

-It sticks to your teeth, doesn't it?

-It is a bit chewy.

-Don't say that.

Is it stuck to one of your teeth? There you go, look!

What?

Don't be like that. OK, so...

Give it about ten more seconds.

This is just to warm the scallops? You just add a touch of...

-water in there?

-Yeah. Lemon, olive oil, salt.

And we should be there THEY MURMUR

-Lovely. Switch off. We are ready to plate.

-Are we ready?

-Yep.

-OK, let's go.

-Move that out of the way.

-Please. Thank you.

So that just goes in the middle.

Fregola, scallop, all this lovely seaweed...

And this is a dish...

Where would it come on your restaurant empire? Which one?

-Texture. No cream, no butter.

-This is the Michelin-starred one?

-OK.

-Scallops.

-Scallops do look wonderful, I have to say.

-Thank you.

Yeah.

-Like that. Do you want sauce?

-No, you're fine. Lovely.

I'm sure it's wonderful - before you put wasabi in it!

-You need to taste it, please.

-No.

-Seriously.

-All right, I'll have a taste.

-Good.

-OK, do you want to do the dust?

-No, I'll leave that with you.

Are you going to put some of this stuff on it?

-A little bit, just...

-What is this that you're putting on now?

-This is sea fennel.

-Sea fennel.

-Yeah, beautiful.

-This is this one, yeah?

-This one. That's the monk's beard.

-Monk's beard.

-Yeah, beautiful as well.

-Like that.

Do you want to do? Shall I do?

-No, you can put the little bit of...dust on the top.

-Dust.

Olive oil, and we are flying.

I have to say, it does look fantastic.

Remind us what this is again.

Scallops, fregola, sea vegetables and plenty of wasabi.

-And don't forget the ash on the top.

-Of course.

It does look... I have to say it does look fantastic.

-Like a picture on a plate. Dive into that.

-Ooh, that looks delicious!

Look at that. It looks fabulous, doesn't it? Fabulous.

-But you could, of course, make that without the wasabi?

-I could have.

-I could have put butter in, but it wouldn't have tasted the same.

-Yeah.

Get to the seaweed.

Aggi, Aggi, Aggi, oi, oi, oi!

Oi, oi, oi! That is... It could do with a bit more wasabi, though.

-Exactly!

-But it is... I mean that lovely mixture of...

The flavours just go so well together.

-You got the pasta and then the...

-A little bit of texture in there.

And then you go and ruin it with a wasabi. Brilliant.

Seaweed better than crisps or chocolate? I'm not sure about that.

Now it's time for the late, great Keith Floyd to go crazy about fish

before tasting a little Eastern promise.

-FISH SELLER:

-Look at that, what quality!

21 and a quarter stone of cod, how much am I bid?

Yeah, we don't want to see any more.

We've got 'em good.

We've got 'em good, what do you say?

These faces of fish merchants, wise and yet cunning,

they could trade in diamonds.

But they chose the fresh, silver jewels of the sea

landed here irrespective of weather, wages or demand.

And of course they do it for love and out of a sense of tradition.

It can't be the money, the prices are low for the fishermen.

It's the diner in smart French restaurants who pays

and the bloated middleman who wins.

Fred doesn't seem to mind about money, he just loves fish.

Fred, you are working down here in the fish market,

getting all these beautiful fish in, but why does the housewife

only end up with a bit of cod or a bit of plaice? Why isn't she...?

I think, personally, if you ask any man in the street what sort

of species of fish they can think of, they would come up with three.

Cod, plaice and haddock.

Because we are not educated in this part of the world.

But with all the fish around us, all this fish we've seen here,

monkfish, turbot, halibut, hake.

Most of it gets exported, most of it goes to France.

You've got a Roman Catholic country, France and Italy.

And they take all the fish from us, whatever they can,

because they are educated in the ways of fish.

Those cods' heads make wonderful fish soup.

I mean, a cod's head down here, they can come down and take them away.

-For nothing, almost.

-Yes. We only dump them in the bin.

Or it goes for crab bait.

But this octopus, nobody is buying this, why not?

I just threw that one in with some small cuttlefish

I'd been packing away for London.

But this could be cut up and deep-fried, couldn't it? Delicious.

-You've got to belt it first, to tenderise it.

-That's right.

But all the tentacles are lovely, especially when they're pickled.

You see, the French are very discerning, they buy our best fish.

So do the Chinese, they know all about it.

Yes, they buy large cuttlefish and dry them out.

You eat the cuttlefish in with the curry stuff that they send away

and give you in their takeaways.

It's very sweet, very nice.

How many people know, if you were to chuck these on a charcoal grill,

for instance, it's a beautiful fish.

For that in a French restaurant, you would pay £8 or £9 for that

as a main course and you wouldn't blink, they'd be so pleased to do it.

When I was at sea, landing fish here,

we couldn't get more than about 10p a pound for that if we were lucky.

-It's ridiculous.

-Now, it's £2.30 per pound on today's market.

-£2.30 a pound today?

-£2.30.

-It's not going to England, though, it's going abroad.

-Yes.

-Many to France.

-It'll make three times the money in France.

That's right.

I tell you what we need, Fred,

we need hundreds of you all over the place

with your big cauldrons of soup, charcoal grill with the red mullet

and frying a bit of octopus and having a good time.

-It's been great talking to you.

-Thanks very much.

I'll get one more in there if I can.

We've got farmers in charge of the fishing industry.

-You tell me what a farmer knows about a fishing trawler.

-Not a lot.

Even cauldrons of Fred's fish head soup on every corner

couldn't relieve the monotony of this concrete jungle.

After the charming Barbican, this isn't exactly appetising.

Cooks build better buildings out of margarine.

But there is an oasis of civilisation here, it's Chinese, of course.

Kai Ching spoke no English

and my Mandarin leaves a little to be desired,

but no language is necessary to enjoy his dextrous culinary genius.

Delicate lemon sole, squid,

which for once, at least, won't be deep fried in batter.

Spring onions, fresh ginger, giant prawns, more expensive than lobster.

And succulent scallops straight from the Barbican.

But first, the expert's way of preparing squid.

Not to be recommended for you at home if you value your fingers.

Because of that very delicate cutting,

the squid cooks quickly in the intense heat of the water.

And a wok isn't just used for stir-frying,

it does every job except roasting in the Chinese kitchen.

But a wok at home on an electric ring

or without the huge fires of a Chinese stove

is less efficient and you could be better off with a frying pan.

Now the squid, strained, is transferred for seconds only

into a very hot oil.

The whole cooking process is over. It now remains to add flavourings.

These are a delicate mixture of spring onion, carrot, garlic,

ginger, monosodium glutamate, sherry, soy sauce and a little stock.

Notice he used only one ladle for the entire operation.

The squid is tossed into his colourful mixture

and is cooked in the time it takes you to watch.

But the speed of his hands belie the years of dedicated experience

he's taken to master his art.

And art it is, my Oriental gastronauts.

Don't believe the old adage "God sent us food,

"the Devils sent us the cooks." That squid was good, very good.

Much better than the greasy, deep-fried rings

we reluctantly enjoy in Benidorm.

For further enlightenment,

I spoke to Kai Ching's brother, Kai Loon, in his elegant dining room.

Do you know, after the heat on the kitchen,

watching Kai Ching cook with such devastating speed,

it's really good to kind of relax here

and sit back and enjoy ourselves a bit.

Indeed, indeed. But this one is different. You cook yourself.

-Right.

-Rather than my brother cook for you.

I would rather have you have to go in there.

So, in fact, for the perfidious Albion,

you've given me this kind of trawling net.

Indeed. What you do is you put it...

Fish in there and dip it in there

-and count to one, two, three.

-I'll bring those closer to me.

And it is cooked.

What you do is put it in there. Not too much.

Not too much, put it in my net.

This is a bit like a sort of Far Eastern Swiss fondue,

only we are cooking in water here, not in oil.

But it's a great thing.

Also you are involving the chopsticks.

-And involving chopsticks too.

-This will require lots of seasoning.

Excellent. I've counted one, two, three there to get my fish cooked.

You've got a little too much fish!

-Great.

-What you do now, dip into that.

-Dip it into there from my trawler.

-That's right.

And just plunge it in and have a little taste.

-Very difficult.

-That's right.

Our cooking is done in a matter of minutes or seconds,

-rather than the long boil.

-Right.

And I believe that will congeal

and the whole beautiful flavour of the nature of the food is preserved.

Do they appreciate that? Do the customers appreciate that?

Not everyone, I believe some of the connoisseurs, they really do.

And the majority, unfortunately,

their lack of knowledge is an awful lot.

Of course, one of the things about eating such delicate fish

as we are eating now, is to be able to use these chopsticks,

which to my way of thinking, you can pick up little succulent morsels.

And eat them and have a good time.

But a lot of people can't, won't, are too ignorant

to even take the trouble to use them, aren't they?

They want to use knives and forks and things. Which spoils it for them.

How do you feel about that?

There are lots of people who want to try it, they are scared by it.

But I truly believe that chopsticks is only

a matter of picking up the food.

Myself, I am strongly against metals, like cutlery.

If you don't believe what I said,

put one teaspoon into your mouth for one minute or two.

What does it taste? Metal.

-Metal.

-Even tea should be served in porcelain.

-Or indeed even our very splendid wine.

-It should be porcelain.

Or a glass.

If you, you know,

just put down chopsticks to people in restaurants, and they say,

"Oh, what's that? I can't use that." What would you say to them?

Do you help them?

People who walk into my restaurant make use of chopsticks.

I'm not making any difficulty for them. I want them to enjoy my food.

-Sure. And the chopstick is the way to get them to enjoy it.

-That's right.

Actually, what you are doing is you always rest this one

-on your third finger.

-Your third finger.

-And that acts as a station.

-They are motionless.

-And your thumb and your first finger.

-What we move is the other one. This one stays.

-That's right.

The next procedure is to put the finger together

and you rest this one in between the two fingers.

-Right.

-And use the finger to hold it there. When you move...

You've got...the power of the science,

of the old Chinese science.

I mean, that is fulcrums and cranes, it's all to do with mechanics

and civilisation, which was invented in China 1,000 years ago.

I think the place where you talk

and where you eat is just as important and just as good

as the bed where you make love and hold your near ones and dear ones.

I think that, you know, love and food and conversation

and taking the time to use the right utensils,

taking the right wine to drink, are all very important.

We truly believe...

-..in the long table with a family dining in harmony.

-In harmony.

Harmony is the word. A harmonious experience.

And that's why we're sharing everything on the table.

And you always start with the mild ones

and gradually go up into spicy ones, that's how you end up with it.

In the tradition of the banquet,

there would be one course after another

and they were playing games,

allowing you time for conversation.

-And that's how the meal should be.

-Right.

It might take three hours, but that is the all evening.

And eating, I believe, is the best thing in life.

I never get bored of watching that great man in action.

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

cooking from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue.

Still to come, it was Will Holland's first

attempt at the Omelette Challenge

and he was determined to beat the returning rival John Torode.

But would either of them cook a decent omelette?

Find out a little later on.

Atul Kochhar gets the tandoor oven out

and created a summery fish treat.

He cooks tandoori grey mullet with garlic, ginger

and loads of dried spices and serves it with a fantastic cep salad.

And John Barrowman faced his Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would he get his Food Heaven -

meringue with my decadent toffee baked Alaska with toffee sauce?

Or would he get his dreaded Food Hell, watermelon with

my watermelon sorbet with rose water and marinated watermelon wedges?

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

Now it's time for chicken with a difference, thanks to the

amazing French chef Alexis Gauthier.

And if you ever wanted to take the bone out of a chicken wing

quickly, watch and learn.

-Welcome to the show, your first time.

-Absolutely.

On the menu is what? Something...

-Something very refined, a little bit French.

-OK.

Stuffed chicken wings stuffed with confit tomatoes, Parmesan,

ricotta, plenty of chervil and...

Some broad beans to go with the garnish

but we want these guys to do the broad beans.

-I think they can do that. Can you do that?

-You don't get a free dinner.

-Broad beans, please.

-And we need the two skins out, OK?

-Yes.

-I need to put that in.

-That's the one that we're going to prepare?

You are going to understand. You do roughly chopped tomatoes, chervil.

And I start with my chicken wings.

Very simple, chicken wings. That's not a part we give to our staff,

unlike some others.

We keep it for customers.

-You remove the bone out by doing this?

-Exactly.

I've cut on both sides and then very nicely, it's so simple.

I just pull out the beautiful...

Bone out of the middle.

-And that bone gives you a pocket for the stuffing.

-Absolutely.

And it becomes like a little pocket. Like a little ravioli.

I have to put my stuffing in. So...

Knowing a little bit about you, classically trained.

Very, very classically trained.

Yes, a bit too classically trained sometimes.

The ultimate chef has got to be Mr Ducasse in Monaco.

You were working there for quite a number of years.

I spent many years trying to understand what French food

was all about.

Until I decided I'm going to do it for myself.

And I came to London and discovered the different

kind of restaurants we didn't have in France, like Indian restaurants.

By the time I was in France I had never had Indian food.

It is true to an extent about France even now. You don't...

There isn't the selection of different types of cuisine

that you've got in Paris that you have in London.

-London is unique like America and a bit like Australia in a way.

-Yeah.

In France they are a bit too French sometimes.

That's probably the problem.

So who would you say has the most progressive restaurant scene,

the UK or France?

-Definitely UK.

-Attaboy!

You wouldn't have said that literally 20 years ago.

-You wouldn't be saying that now.

-That's true.

It is incredible what has happened. Do you think it's...

I'll be guillotined if I'd been saying that 20 years ago.

To start with.

People like James Martin have changed the British food scene.

We haven't. They've just learned how to poach an egg. That's all it is.

I'm doing the jus here.

I've got the ricotta, touch of garlic, the sun blushed tomatoes.

-And if you can just add the chervil.

-Yep.

The idea of this dish is it has to be very nice and fresh

and it's very now.

It's a lot of vegetables and a little bit of meat.

You're making a sauce to go with this here.

-I'm making a classical French jus.

-What's it called?

-It's a chicken jus.

-Chicken jus.

-Jus for juice.

-We caramelise the meat.

-My mother's watching. So that's gravy.

Yeah, that's gravy.

So we've got the olive oil in here, the garlic,

-the sun blushed tomatoes.

-We can put one egg. The smallest you can find.

-One egg?

-Yep.

And you put plenty of salt and pepper and olive oil and Parmesan.

-Got that. Parmesan cheese.

-Quickly, quickly, quickly.

-I'm doing it, chef.

-I'm doing it.

-Thank you.

-You've got seasoning in there.

-I've seasoned it up.

-You can start the potato, please.

I need to get on with this.

I can't believe what you've got us doing over here.

-Are you doing it well?

-Do the viewers know what we're doing?

I've got no nails. This is awful.

We are peeling broad beans before they're cooked.

And then we are splitting them in half. This is what you want?

That is what I want, yes.

-A little bit of butter in here.

-We're not going to use them.

I can't believe this.

I haven't been splitting them in half.

I didn't know that was part of the process.

You're going to do this with a little gnocchi.

-Tell us about the place where you've got now.

-Yes, Gauthier Soho.

It's a lovely French restaurant in Central London with a Michelin star.

And this is where you can have those little delicacies.

These little French delicacies.

Have you changed your cooking style since you've been over here?

You've adapted it slightly or what?

I haven't adapted but I'm a lot more open-minded in terms of ingredients,

obviously, and I use mainly British ingredients.

We use a lot asparagus at the moment. A lot of broad beans.

And it's exciting because I believe only ingredients near us are good.

OK. So, look at this. A little pocket of clingfilm.

I put my chicken in it. I'm just going to twist them.

And this is a bit like if I was cooking sous-vide.

-Do you want a bit of water in here?

-Yes, please.

Bit more.

You see, a nice brown jus. Then this is the one I put in earlier on.

-So now the gnocchi. Have you mashed the potato?

-I've done that.

That's only had four and a half minutes, so it needs a bit longer.

-So you're going to do your gnocchi. Tell me about this.

-So, the potato.

Obviously, salt, bit of cornflour we use.

-Cornflour, normally you would use flour but...

-Thank you very much.

-One egg yolk.

-A little bit more, actually.

-You want an egg white, as well.

-Oops! Sorry.

That's added protein we call that.

It's nice when it's crunchy, you know. And then I mix this together.

OK?

-I'll whisk that up slightly if you want.

-That's very important.

If you can add just a touch.

Thank you very much. So we've got the potato here. Perfect. Nice texture.

OK. If you can add a little bit of cornflour. Just a touch.

-Stop. Thank you.

-Normally you'd use flour for this.

Cornflour is a lot lighter.

And it doesn't make the gnocchi taste like a basketball.

It's nice and soft. We've got a perfect texture.

OK?

-Are you going to use a little flour to rub it out.

-Yep.

Just going to roll it a little bit.

-Make some little...

-How many beans do you need?

-20 per person.

More than that. More than that.

Life is too short to do this.

But this is so relaxing to do the broad beans.

-I can do the whole Zen thing while I'm doing it.

-I cut this.

-It's ready.

-I'm going to take that out.

-Yes, please.

So, I've done the little balls of gnocchi.

Try to make them a similar kind of size. Voila.

Thank you very much.

-Get that hot. Is that hot?

-It is hot, yes.

-Shall I believe him?

-He said it's hot.

-It is hot.

-Good. A little bit of...

And here, one, two, three. Lovely gnocchi. Look at this.

You did it the other way over the fork.

I think I was taught by a left-handed person. It's like that.

It's very light.

But the texture of the potato needs to be exact for that.

It has to be very soft and actually those baking potatoes you

find in the UK are perfect for that.

They are not too tight. They are just perfect.

-That's on.

-Little bit of olive oil.

What I'm going to do is I've got my chicken here.

Which I'm going to open it.

Push it here so it all comes out.

Nicely, some little cushions of chicken.

OK.

-A little bit longer on this.

-I'll move that over.

-Thank you very much.

OK.

I need more butter. Thank you very much.

So what I do is add butter here.

-We've got plenty in this studio, don't worry about it.

-Wait!

I need to put the gnocchi in.

Yes, sorry. On you go. Sorry. I'm not very good working with people.

-I like to do it myself. OK.

-Are you going to use the broad beans or not?

-Sorry?

-Why were we doing these beans?

-You take them home to your staff.

-I'm going to make a nice dish with chicken wings...

-Soup with the pods.

-Soup with those?

-We don't throw anything away.

-And you give it to the customers?

-The soup, of course.

You've got one minute left.

-The gnocchi basically wants to lift to the surface, really?

-Yes.

The moment it's up is the moment we're going to remove them

because they are very fragile.

We didn't put a lot of flour, a lot of egg. So they are very... Voila.

Look. This is perfect.

And then I just put them in this butter. Whoop!

I hate that when there is a flame.

Voila! Two little gnocchi here.

Thank you. I need some fresh thyme, as well.

-Fresh thyme.

-Yes, thank you very much indeed.

-A little bit.

-Yes.

OK. So, I caramelise lightly the gnocchi. In this lovely brown butter.

That tastes like chicken, obviously. Plus the stuffing.

I've got my jus ready here.

-Ready to plate when you are.

-Yes.

I'm going to start with the potato gnocchi.