Episode 144 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Please settle in for loads of mouthwatering food on Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show.

We've lined up some of the finest foodie talent in the world

to cook for you today. We've got some hungry celebrity guests too.

Coming up:

Simon Hulstone comes all the way from Torquay armed with a grey mullet.

He serves the fillet with clams, tomatoes

and an orange and basil dressing.

The legendary chef, Ken Hom, treats us

to a fragrant Euro-Asian stir-fry.

He stir-fries pasta with fresh garlic, ginger, basil,

tomato, and bacon and curry paste.

And culinary genius Michael Caines creates a pie to rival all others.

He makes the beef, oyster and ale pie with button mushrooms,

carrots, pancetta and some puff pastry.

And Claire Sweeney faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven -

butternut squash with my velvety home-made butternut squash soup?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell -

dark chocolate with my indulgent Black Forest gateaux

with cherries and dark chocolate mint shards?

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

But first, let's rewind to when one of the best chefs in the world,

Daniel Boulud, came over to London from New York to cook us lunch with a difference.

This one had a deep-fried egg and three Michelin stars.

Making your debut on British TV, Daniel Boulud.

Absolutely, and I'm very happy to be making my first debut with you.

-Fantastic. Sounds good to me.

-The best show in the world here!

Best show in the world!

Right, what are we making here?

We're making this oeuf bourguignon where you're going to have to

poach me the eggs, five minutes, very gently and slowly

and be very careful not to crack the shell before

and put a little bit of vinegar in a little bit of boiling water here.

-Yeah. So you just literally be really careful with the eggs.

-Yeah.

We're going to cook the eggs in a very, sort of, soft peak.

-Right, OK. So they want five minutes, bang on.

-No more.

Yeah, absolutely. Four-and-a-half actually is perfect

if the eggs is room temperature.

So here I am creaming a Portobello mushroom like that

and peeling also the Portobello mushroom.

But if you can find porcini in your back yard then that can do

very well as well. You're chopping some shallots for me.

We're going to make a shallot puree with red wine

-and a little bit of thyme.

-Now, tell us about yourself then.

You went to New York, how long ago?

I went to New York three decades ago, almost.

-That was yesterday.

-What took you there?

Because you did classic, obviously French, but classically trained in France as well?

Yes, I train in some of the top three-star restaurants.

Roger Verge, Michel Guerard, Paul Bocuse.

I'm from Lyon so that's where I started also.

And then I work also with, erm...

I'm crushing some garlic for my mushroom here.

-Is Lyon the gastronomic capital of France, would you say?

-Yeah.

So, I wanted to work in the South of France so that was Roger Verge.

Olive oil on top of the mushroom.

We're going to let them marinade for a while.

-I'll put that in the fridge, chef.

-Yeah, go ahead.

Sweating the shallots here. Put some fire there.

-So you worked in France...

-Do you have a spatula or something?

-Do you have any spatula?

-I'm getting there, chef! There you go.

-Come on, James! Chop, chop!

-You go easy over there.

And so after a good decade of working with the best chef in France,

then I decided to visit America.

I made only a one way trip.

And never turned back.

America, I mean, America has gone through, and particularly New York,

has gone through a massive food revolution, hasn't it, really?

-Fantastic.

-A bit like London.

-Absolutely.

And actually, after being three years in Washington,

I was working for an ambassador...

We're going to put some red wine into these shallots.

You're going to put some garlic too, yeah? The garlic first.

And then after we're going to work on some duck confit with that preparation.

You're going to take care of the duck confit.

You want the skin off this and we're going to shred up the meat?

We're going to fry the skin and shred the meat

-and I'm going to do the rest of the mushroom.

-So just remind everybody,

the red wine's gone in, the shallots gone in, the garlic's gone in.

Reduce that down, you end up with that and then we're going to puree.

Exactly. Absolutely. You're very good, huh?

Erm, so, I almost ended up in London, actually, because after two years

-in America someone wanted to open me a restaurant here in London.

-Yeah.

I decided I wanted to go to New York.

I was in Washington.

I wanted to go to New York so badly and I went to New York.

I'm in the same zip code for the past 25 years.

And your restaurant is just off what?

Restaurant Daniel on 65th and Park.

Otherwise, there's Cafe Boulud on the Upper East Side also,

next to the Carlisle.

We could do a list because you've got them in Vegas...

There's Bar Boulud and Bar Boulud in London

which I just opened at the Mandarin Hotel in Knightsbridge right across

from Harvey Nichols there where you go and shop for your shirts!

Then you can just go and have a little lunch there.

Tell us about the London restaurant because it's the first restaurant

-you've opened in Europe?

-Yes, absolutely.

It's a bistro, it's a wine bar actually. It's, erm...

-Are we good there?

-Yeah, we're fine. It's OK, chef.

We're going to make a little puree with that

and I have the mushroom saute here.

By the way, do you have those Portobello cooked already?

-Did you put them in the oven?

-Under the grill, chef.

-But this is the bits that we've got...

-Ah, yes, that's right.

Just to show you a little selection here.

-This is the type of stuff you've got on the menu?

-Yes, exactly.

This is a tagine of lamb with sweet potato and egg plant

and all the Moroccan spice.

This is a rabbit Provencal.

This is a beef, pistachio and red wine and onion.

This is pate grand-pere, pate grand-mere.

This is fromage de tete,

so pate grand-pere has a little bit of fancy stuff inside.

Pate grand-mere is a little bit more livery.

And head cheese with the pork head.

-We make our own white ham and everything.

-Sounds good to me.

This was for you but it's for my lunch! Only joking!

-I was going to give them that.

-There you go, dive in.

Tell us what you think.

-Right, so moving swiftly on. We've got...

-Give me that Portobello.

-You say you had it in the...

-It's under the grill, chef.

-Under the grill.

-I might just turn that over actually.

They told me you were the best commis in London.

I kind of need to be on this show, I suppose.

Right...

OK, so I'm cutting some pearl onion here, splitting.

-Did you do the confit yet?

-I've done the duck confit, chef.

-OK.

The skin is on its way. I'm going to peel the eggs.

So these eggs come out here and then we quickly peel them.

-So these are soft boiled.

-Let them rest maybe a second.

-Yeah.

And then I've got my flour, I'll do my egg at the moment.

Flour, egg and breadcrumbs. So the shallots going in.

So, the shallots are done.

You're going to blend them also into that thing.

-Prepare me the breading there.

-Yeah. So flour, egg and breadcrumbs there.

Is this the type of thing that's on your menu at the moment

-in the new restaurant?

-Yes, actually.

In London we're doing that and we change doing it with asparagus,

spring time, we do it with asparagus as well.

And, erm, it worked quite well with that

and we have a wonderful herb dressing on the bottom.

A little bit of that.

Now, you've been to his restaurant in New York, haven't you?

-Yeah, in my younger years.

-In your younger years?

Yeah, yeah, not too long ago.

Went over with Raymond Blanc to his restaurant.

-We dined at the Cirque when he was there. So, fantastic.

-Oh, God.

-That's a while ago, isn't it?

-I think you're due to come back.

Yes, definitely. Thanks for the invitation!

I've now, I've been having Restaurant Daniel in New York for 17 years.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-It's a beautiful place.

-New York's changed a lot over the years?

-I mean...

-Where are those Portobello? Do you still have them?

-They're under the grill, chef.

-Under the grill. There? I'll get them.

-There you go, they're ready.

-Oh, superb.

-I've turned them over.

-Yeah.

Superb.

But London's changed, well, America, particularly New York,

has turned into this food destination for chefs to go to.

I know. New York is very exciting.

I think New York and London are certainly the two most

exciting cities when it comes to diversity in the food.

And that's why sometimes they say, oh, the French, they're losing it.

No, the French just keep cooking French.

But in a city like London and New York, you can have so many cuisines

represented at the same time.

So I think it brings a lot of, sort of, diversity in...

-And the opportunity of having...

-Right, my egg's ready, chef.

-I was panicking about this.

-OK. Actually...

-Flour?

I'm looking for some water. No, I just want to put a drop of... Voila.

-So, flour, egg. I'll do the puree, you tell us about the egg.

-OK.

I do that.

FOOD MIXER WHIZZES

So, the eggs themselves, I'll switch that off a second,

-the eggs can sit in the ice for quite a while?

-Yes, of course.

You can do that even a little bit ahead.

It's better if you let the eggs get to a nice room temperature

when you, erm...

-And you try to be very careful using a spoon like that.

-Yeah.

And baste your eggs with the eggs. It's eggs basted with eggs.

Breadcrumbs over.

-Do you want me to pick that up, chef?

-Lift this out.

-You're going to deep-fry that?

-Carefully.

-It's still and soft in the middle.

-Yes.

Deep-fried, no more than a couple of minutes. I'll get rid of that.

-You can sort your mushroom out.

-Thank you.

And so, after, what I do with the mushroom is I poke...

-..a ring like this.

-Yeah.

And make even,

well, one will do but I have two mushrooms and I'll make both.

And we've got a little bit of salt there.

-Just dress this little bit of salad.

-So this is a real good Fall dish.

If you don't have confit of duck you could put a little bit of ham

or a little bit of bacon for that matter, I think it will be delicious.

You writing this down because it'll be in your restaurant!

-On the menu tomorrow!

-So I put... FOOD PROCESSOR WHIZZES

-That's fine.

-FOOD PROCESSOR WHIZZES

There you go.

Put that in.

Put the puree there.

The stamp of that mushroom thing. Voila.

OK, we're getting there, is it almost fried there?

The eggs are not far off, chef, just a little, literally 30 seconds.

So on the plate I will put the shallot puree which has

a wonderful red wine flavour and that is where the sort of bourguignon

background to that dish comes from.

Nice little bed of shallots.

Then I...

-Wow! That's cool.

-There you go.

Do you want any liquor in here chef, or not?

I'm good, I've seasoned everything.

Did you put me the duck confit? Voila.

That's good. We're cooking for the whole table there.

-Are you starving there?

-Yeah!

-Right, and the egg...

I think I should also throw some chive inside.

-Look at that.

-MICHAEL WHISTLES

-A little deep-fried egg.

-So, if you...

..roughly chop chive like that, would be nice.

-In there.

-Perfect.

-There you go, chef.

-We're ready.

I'll let you do one. There's your egg.

-A spoon.

-We're ready when you are.

-Yeah.

So here we are spooning the fricassee of duck confit,

wild mushroom and...

..chives and a little bit of...

And then I'm putting this wonderful ring of mushroom.

So you see, by poking the middle of the mushroom, the Portobello,

I add the perfect,

I have the perfect setting for holding up the eggs like that.

-I'm cutting off the top.

-This is the moment.

Lovely and soft in the middle, look at that.

It's super soft, it's beautiful. Look at that. Mm.

Voila. In the middle. You put a bit of the...

-Happy with that, chef?

-Very happy.

What was the name of this dish again?

It's oeuf bourguignon which basically,

the shallot compote is made with pinot noir, Bourguignon wine.

Any good red wine will do.

And then, of course, this fricassee of mushroom and duck confit.

As simple as that. Try that this weekend. Delicious.

May I bring it to...

We'll leave it there just to have a quick look. There you go.

Got to make sure people can have a look at it because by the time it

gets over there and down at that end, there'll be nothing left!

-Yeah, that the problem.

-Have a seat over here.

-OK.

-There you go, dive in. Tell us what you think of that.

-Thank you.

-It looks gorgeous.

-It's amazing with the egg.

-Look at that, nice and runny in the middle.

-Mm-mm.

-That's how you want it.

-I suppose it creates its own dressing as well.

Totally, it's going to ooze over the mushroom.

Tell us what you think.

-Mm! Mm!

-I think that's a recipe your husband can do.

-Oh, yeah!

He's sat over there shaking his head going, definitely, definitely not!

Is there any restaurant in the world that man hasn't worked in?

He really is in a class of his own. Coming up:

I make a warm lamb, little gem and fresh pea salad with rosemary

dressing for Jerry Springer after the great Rick Stein.

I'm here in Balmain by the harbour

and there's this garden going down to the harbour filled with these

exotic smells like frangipane and ginger lilies.

Last night there was a possum whizzing through the trees above.

Actually, it sort of thumped onto the tin roof

and fell down the roof with all this sort of great noise.

I just thought, I'm so pleased to here.

I've got this dish which is tuna, right. Tuna's like...

Well, everybody loves tuna but I bet you'd love

tuna like they do in Sydney because it's properly looked after.

Look at how firm and meaty it is.

I just bought that in the market just like that, trimmed like that.

Beautiful.

I'm just going to cut it in half, OK,

so that I can sear it and the object here is, when I cook it

I sear the outside but I want the inside to stay nice and pink.

That's all I'll do with that at the moment. On to the dressing.

This is just a simple dressing

and I'll sort out this dish using lots of Australian flavours

so we start off with some water which is terribly interesting.

Then some lime juice.

And then two things which is, you know, which says Australia to me

or South East Asia, they're interchangeable these days,

plenty of fish sauce which is called Nam Pla. It's made out of anchovies.

I don't quite know how they make it. And then some roasted sesame oil.

Now, that's really strong but I haven't put a lot of that in.

Just stir that around.

Just taste this now. Tell you what I think.

It's not at all like an olive oil and vinegar dressing

but it's perfect for what I want, really, really good that.

Now we're just going to make the salad.

First of all, I've got some sesame seeds which I've roasted.

I just put them in a frying pan and just toasted them

until they were sort of popping.

The thing about sesame seeds, this occurs a lot in Australian cookery,

is it's a textural thing, right.

You roast them like that and they're all crunchy

and they taste really good in a salad.

And the next thing I've got in the salad,

another sort of unusual ingredient to have in a salad is rice noodles.

I'm going to cook those off for about two minutes,

stir them up with a fork and then drain them through some

hot water because I'm going to serve them warm in the salad.

So, making up the salad. In there goes spring onions.

They're a bit coarser than ours but they've got a lovely flavour.

And next, the lime zest, that's the zest of about one and a half limes.

And now some garlic chives. That's what garlic chives look like.

We ought to have them at home but you can have them in Chinese shops

but nowhere else. I've chopped some up so in they go.

Then some green chilli.

If you're using chilli just taste a bit in a salad like this

because you want to make sure it's not too hot.

But these are quite mild so plenty of chilli in there.

Green chilli. And then this is a really interesting ingredient.

You can get this in England everywhere.

It's pickled Japanese ginger.

I don't know how they manage to get it so thinly sliced.

Probably one of those dreadful mandolins that I used to use.

I don't use them any more, I had a nasty accident with one those not so long.

Next, some coriander.

I haven't really chopped this coriander up at all

because I like big leaves in a salad like this.

So lots of coriander. And now some watercress.

Just a bit coarser than ours and a bit stalky

but it's got a very good peppery taste. Yeah, I like it.

And now these sesame seeds which I've roasted, as I said,

for a nice textural point there.

In they go.

Now I just stir that salad round a bit, mix everything in nicely.

And then these noodles which I've cooked for about two minutes.

Plenty of noodles.

Seems odd this but it works terribly well and they're warm,

they're served warm.

I just like, again, just as with the texture,

so the use of warm and cold. I think it works together very well.

Finally, the dressing.

Plenty of dressing because it's more like a sauce

and a dressing in this case.

I want plenty of moistness with that tuna when I slice it and serve it up.

Now, that's ready.

All we need to do now is just sear that tuna.

First of all some oil in a really hot pan and in goes the tuna.

Searing, what I'm looking for here is about two minute's cooking,

no more, just want to pick up some colour there.

Tuna cooks really quickly so I have to be careful

because I want the centre to be raw in fact, absolutely raw.

And the outside is going to have this lovely caramel coating to it.

Notice how quickly it cooks, just in that short time you can see

it's cooked about almost a quarter of the fish already.

So that's cooked nicely on both sides. Just dunk either end in.

Just to finish that off. A little bit of seasoning now.

Some sea salt here.

There we go, plenty of it. And now, here we go with two ingredients.

First of all soya sauce and balsamic vinegar.

I'm going to put a load of soya sauce in here.

Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.

This is a real Australian sort of dish.

And not quite so much balsamic vinegar.

We just let that bubble down because that's going to coat this tuna

with a beautiful, sort of, sweet and slightly tart flavour

and also colour it up nicely.

OK, that's just about down. Just turn it over one more time,

maybe just a tiny bit more salt on there. The...

The soya and balsamic has bubbled away nicely down to a thick syrup

which I'll just pour over the dish when I serve it up.

Look at that, eh, mahogany. Mahogany tuna.

And that's it. That is done.

Look at that. See, it's nice and raw in the middle

which is just what I want.

But because it's sort of cooked like that on the outside,

it gives people the illusion that it's cooked

and they'll love it like that. I promise you.

So just put those nicely on the top like that.

And then just a little bit of that sauce right over there

and what could be nicer than that?

OK, let's get that out to these famished people.

God, it's really quite, sort of, bracing here today.

-It's a bit like a Cornish summer!

-It's freezing.

'I hate these sequences I have to do serving food up

'to people I don't know.

'But here it's some friends who love food and eating out

'so I'm not too fussed.'

-It's magnificent.

-Oh, it really is.

'And this is for you, Chalky. Her name's Lilly. Shame you're not here!'

Great stuff from Rick. I liked the look of that salad.

A simple warm salad can be a great weekend lunch

and it's perfect for summer although it's just round the corner,

although you wouldn't tell from the weather.

What I'm going to show you now is not a tuna one,

but a lamb one which is very, very quick and simple.

I've got a loin of lamb which I'm going to get straight on to cook because we're going to try

and do this from start to finish in about five minutes..

So Jerry can at least take this recipe home and do something.

-I need a pen.

-You don't need a pen, it happens so quick.

This stuff, this is what we call rapeseed oil,

you can use olive oil for this, but it's rapeseed oil.

And we can take a couple of knobs of butter, that's going to go in.

In the pan, in we go with the lamb straightaway.

-It's good for you cholesterol.

-Good for the cholesterol.

Particularly lamb like that, it's got no fat on it so literally all the fat's been taken away.

So it's a nice tender piece of meat because we can serve this nice and pink.

That's what we're looking for. And it should cook really from start to finish in about five minutes.

You can treat it like a steak. Now it's a warm salad, I'm going to use peas and lettuce,

a classic combination that I'm going to put together.

I'm just going to de-pod some of these.

So, tell us a little about how it all started for you.

It's like a true American rags to riches story.

-Started off in a Tube station.

-Yes.

I keep thinking it was... Yes, I was born a Tube station.

My mom kept... I thought she said the East Finchley Station

but I'm thinking East Finchley Station isn't underground

so either she wasn't real smart, you know,

I wasn't getting a lot of protection there.

-Because this was in the Blitz, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

-It wasn't the Blitz, it was when the B2s were coming.

-Right.

This was 1944 and women in their ninth month there spent their

nights in subway stations because those were the air raid terminals.

So I was born 11:45 at night in a subway.

So every time I hear a train go by I still get this jolt.

-And then your parents went to America.

-Yes.

And I was raised in New York.

Actually, my family wound up in England...

England saved my life because, saved my family's life, because

most of them were killed in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany

and my parents got out just a few weeks before Hitler

went into Poland to start World War II.

So they got to England and during the war my sister and I were born

and then we went to America when I was five and I grew up in New York.

You mentioned politics at the start, wasn't it that

that started off as your passion because you're parents used to talk

a lot about politics?

Yeah, it used to be the conversation around the dinner table

because politics wasn't just a hobby, it affected our lives.

And so they were always very conscience of what was

going on in the world.

We used to always discuss it at the dinner table.

So my first job out of law school in America

was working for Bobby Kennedy.

That's how I got started and then I went into politics myself

-and I was the mayor of Cincinnati.

-And then...

I've been everything you can't respect!

And talking of that, what about this TV programme?

-How did that all start?

-I was drinking.

-Right!

JAMES LAUGHS

That was horrible. No, I anchored the news.

I was a news anchor for ten years for the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati.

The company that owned us also did talk shows.

So one day, we were pretty dominant in the ratings,

and one day they took me to lunch and said,

"We're going to start another talk show and you're the host of it."

I was assigned to it. I'd never had any particular interest in doing talk shows but I was assigned to it

and it turned out 18 years later to be very successful.

It's silly, it's stupid.

Wasn't the idea of a talk show first of all slightly different to that?

It was much more serious in the beginning.

And then we decided to go young because all the talk shows

were relating to middle aged housewives, that was the demographic.

But we decided to have a talk show for young people.

Young people are wilder and more open and crazier, to be honest.

And then the show started to go crazy just because it was young

and then the company said we're only allowed to do crazy.

The scary thing is, though, we've been on for 18 years

and we now have the children of our original guests coming on!

Which is wrong because they were told not to procreate!

-You know, so it's another generation.

-Another generation!

-I feel horrible.

-Are you still doing it now?

-Yeah, we're in our 18th year.

-Does it still give you the buzz?

No, I mean, I enjoy doing it but it's crazy.

I can't justify it as anything other than it's escape entertainment.

Another show that you're doing which we see on satellite over here

-is America's Got Talent.

-Yeah, I'm the host of America's Got talent.

-It's kind of like the same thing or not?

-Well, this is normal people.

In fact a lot of the people on America's Got Talent have teeth!

And, erm, that's kind of been new for me.

-But that's the biggest show in America.

-It's a big one.

It's the highest rated show in America and I get to host that

and we're in our, I'm going to do my second season of that.

-I guess you're starting to see it here in England.

-Yeah.

America's Got Talent just has no taste. That's a problem.

You mentioned your life and one of the things that must have been great

for you was doing the show which is going to be over here in the summer,

-Who Do You Think You Are?

-Yes, I did.

The BBC does that show and they took me around the world for ten days

and traced my family back to 1773.

Great and harrowing at the same time, I suppose.

Yeah, there was some stuff...

As I said, most of my family was exterminated in the concentration camps.

My grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins.

I lost 23 relatives in the camps and they found the records.

You know, my parents hadn't known where all these people wound up.

As I said, they got out just a few days before Word War II started

and Jews weren't allowed out any more.

So, erm, so were able to find, they took my sister and me,

and we went to the various camps.

Chelmo, Theresienstadt and others were killed in Auschwitz.

Horrific stories and pretty tough to find out particularly

with the records they kept, the pictures they had.

But I found out my past. So, I found out...

It was an amazing show, it'll be on here this summer.

We're looking forward to seeing it. Can't wait to see it.

Just run through what we've got in here. A warm salad here,.

We've got onions. These are those things, Jerry.

I'm not crazy about them.

-These are cooked, I know you don't like raw onions.

-Cooked, OK.

-Cooked lettuce.

-You cook lettuce?

-You cook lettuce.

-LAUGHTER

-Yeah.

-Why would you...?

-It's a warm salad, Jerry.

-It's warm?

-It's warm.

-We've got cooked lettuce.

-It's very colourful.

-I've got some peas as well.

-And peas? Oh, let's go green.

Let's go green. I'm going to go green.

-Oh, this is environmentally good.

-Well, not as much as he is.

-But we've got our lamb in here.

-And the lamb.

-Should be about ready.

It's nicely cooked. Now, I love my butter, Jerry.

I would think so! Do any of your customers live?

Erm, they only come once but that's enough.

This is a lot.

This is great for the arteries but it smells good

-and I'm sure I'm going to love it.

-It smells good. But this is lamb.

Now I know you have a fond affection with a pig.

-Yes.

-Tell me about this then because this is great.

This is an absolutely true story.

This young girl wrote us a letter in Florida,

she's in a 4-H Club, which is in America.

It's a club where they teach young people about farming,

agriculture, raising animals.

And she wrote us this letter saying that she had raised this pig

and would we come to see her and the pig at the county fair

where she was going to show it off?

And so we go and sure enough the pig, her name is Bella,

she wins the blue ribbon but now they start auctioning her off.

And I said, "Why are they auctioning her off?"

"Because they're going to turn her into bacon."

Well, that offends me because I'm Jewish.

So, anyway, I feel bad because Bella is so cute.

-How are they going to kill her because it's 4 a pounds?

-Right.

So I start bidding. My wife says, "You're crazy!"

I said, "No, they're going to kill her unless we save her."

So I bid and I got a 1,000!

-1,000 for a pig?

-1,000 to buy a pig!

So I said to the young girl,

-"OK, I bought the pig but now you've got to let her live."

-Right.

So I have to send her 100 a month to feed Bella!

LAUGHTER

Now I find out that Bella could live to 25!

There's no way I'm going to live another 25 years particularly

-eating this food.

-You should be a guest on your own show!

-Look at that.

-So I have to put Bella in my will.

-Right. Are you serious?

I'm dead serious. Here's Bella, she weighs 300 pounds now.

-Look at Bella.

-She's beautiful. Can you get a picture of Bella.

She's beautiful. She's going to stay pink her whole life.

Now my rabbi really gets upset.

He says, "Gerald, you're Jewish. Why are you buying a pig?"

I said, "Look, I'm making America Kosher one pig at a time

"because no-one's going to eat Bella!"

-Now I've got to buy all these pigs.

-It's going to be expensive.

-It's unbelievable.

-Anyway, that's Bella.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to eat this now.

-Eat the lamb!

Good lord, now I've got to start bidding on lamb so they don't die.

-This one's called Paul, this one.

-This is Paul.

-But this is going to be delicious.

-Yeah. Tell us what you think.

-Mm. Very good.

-All cooked in real-time.

-Wow! You really did this.

Yeah, I really did it. Very, very simple...

You didn't put it in a microwave or anything!

No, it's gone in one of those things which you'll have in your kitchen which is an oven.

-Is that what it is?

-That goes in the oven.

-I thought it was a TV.

We've got some lettuce, we've got some shallots in there

which I've sauteed off, some fresh herbs,

made a dressing out of a little bit of rosemary, some grain mustard, white wine vinegar,

touch of this delicious rapeseed oil and a bit of lemon.

This is actually excellent.

I don't want to talk with my food in my mouth. So keep talking!

Summer on a plate.

If you'd like to have a go at cooking any of the studio recipes

on today's show, all of those are just a click away at

bbc.co.uk/recipes.

We are looking back at some of the best cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

If you're in Torquay and you're expecting food and service

like Fawlty Towers, think again,

because Simon Hulstone is here and he means business.

-Great to have you back on the show.

-Hello, James.

On the menu is grey mullet.

Grey mullet, silver mullet, flathead mullet - whatever you want, really.

-Some people call it poor man's sea bass.

-Yeah. It's a fantastic fish.

And they grow up to two or three kilos, so it's a great alternative.

I'm going to serve it with some clams. I've got some tomato hearts.

I'm going to do some cucumber and it's going to be

an orange and basil dressing. And grilled spring onions.

You're going to give me that to do!

I'm going to get you to do that so you can get your fingers

nice and messy. So if you can fillet and give me a nice portion.

I can do that, yeah.

So all I'm going to do is cook the spring onions quickly,

-just to break the fibre down.

-I learnt something new today. Torquay.

-Yeah?

-The English Riviera.

-It is indeed. We've got palm trees...

-Did you know that?

-Palm trees, really? I didn't know that.

There's two people in the studio that didn't know that.

-Are palm trees native to Torquay?

-It's a microclimate.

-Is it really?

Yeah, it's lovely down there. It's the Riviera.

-It's not the Riviera, mate.

-It is, come on.

It's close, but it's not, though, is it?

Well, it's not like Nice or anywhere like that,

but it's NICE enough for me.

-EVERYONE GROANS

-That was a bad one.

-It's a good job you're a better cook.

-Well, yeah. Today, hopefully.

So I'm going to take the seeds out of the tomatoes,

so I get these nice little seed sacs. Lovely flavour in there.

It's normally just disposed of when you open them up,

so we're going to use those for the dressing.

-They just pop in your mouth so they are great.

-There's your fillet.

Thank you.

Nearly there.

Take this one out. So tell us about down in the restaurant.

-It's split into two, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So, The Elephant itself, we've got a ground floor brasserie,

which caters for everybody, really.

So it's more for tourists and we use everything as local as possible.

Sustainability is a big thing for us down in Devon.

And on the first floor we've got the fine dining restaurant,

The Room, Which we got a Michelin star for.

Hopefully we still have been a couple of weeks.

LAUGHTER

Do you want this trimming up?

Yeah, if you could just give me a nice pave of that.

Just make sure there's no red underneath.

Take that belly flap off and skin.

-Sorry, Chef!

-If you're going to do it, do it properly, Chef.

You know I mean?

It's my name on the dish!

Yeah.

-Belly flap?

-LAUGHTER

Happy with that?

I can take that, yeah. That looks lovely. Let me just...

get that into a pan. Nice steaming pan. Little bit of olive oil.

And we'll season it. Skin side down.

Thank you very much.

I'm going to let that cook in the pan.

Do you use much grey mullet up in Scotland?

-We use sea bass.

-Sea bass.

-He's TWO star!

LAUGHTER

-We can't afford sea bass.

-Grey mullet is a cheap alternative.

But you do have it up there. You use it quite a bit, don't you?

-Yeah, we do use it.

-It is a great fish.

-If you could just segment those for me, please.

-Right.

And I'm going to do these hearts of cucumber.

So what have you done with the tomatoes?

I've just deseeded them and kept the seeds back,

and then I've got these cucumber hearts.

And I'm going to use an apple corer,

and again using the seeds rather than the flesh itself.

So what took you down to the Riviera?

Torquay. Where you from there or what?

Well, my father is a chef as well,

so originally we moved down that way for his job.

-But I've been back for the last seven, eight years now.

-That's nice.

It's a fantastic place to live. It really, really is.

-It's got everything for us. It's just a bit too far away from London.

-Yeah.

So I'm just draining off those spring onions.

And I'm going to grill these off in the grill pan just to get

a little bit of colour.

Because you have, to be honest,

-you've got your own microclimate down there, haven't you?

-It is.

We are surrounded by Dartmoor, so a lot of the heat that we lose...

Dartmoor gets all the snow and the wind and everything,

so when it gets to us it's all chilled down. It's quite nice.

-So, clams...

-It's nice because I fly over it a bit.

-It's you, is it?

-Yeah, it's me.

Oh, right. LAUGHTER

I thought it was. I could smell the aftershave.

-Thank you very much!

-LAUGHTER

-Right.

-So the fish is cooking. You want some liquid in there?

Yeah, I'm just go to bring that temperature up.

SIZZLING

So white wine going into there and I'm going to cover that with

another pan to let it steam through.

I'm going to put my onions in there as well with them.

We're just going to use... Yeah, just the hearts again.

And then once my clams are cooked I'm going to use a bit of the juice

to make the dressing.

So, yeah, break those down.

It's actually quite light, this.

Would this be in your restaurant bit or the brasserie?

We use this in our brasserie. It works really well.

We use a local farm and get all our nice vegetables

when they are in season from them

and these are the sort of things we have all the time on the menu.

So again, it's all about seasonality for us down in Torquay.

Just going to use a spatula.

A lot of people panic when they cook stuff like this

and keep turning it over. You just turn it over once and leave it.

Yeah, just once. I'm just going to let it get a bit cooked on that side.

A little bit more oil in.

And then I'm going to let the residual heat of the pan

just cook through that.

The fish carries on cooking all the time,

so it's all about timing, really.

So the next thing is I'm going to make a dressing.

And all the dressing basically is is the orange juice.

I'm going to reduce that down.

And it's going to have... Put a bit of white wine in there.

A little bit of sugar.

It depends on what your oranges are like. If they are too sour...

Lovely, thank you. And then all I'm going to do is to monter that up

with some olive oil. The clams are all cooked.

Could you take those out of the shell for me? I'm just going to take a little of that clam juice

-from there as well.

-Take them out the shell?

-Yes, please.

-Yeah?

-Lovely.

So these are like mussels, once they're open they're done, don't prise them open.

Yeah, and you've got that lovely stock as well so that's all usable.

I actually prefer mussel stock compared to clam stock.

It's got a cleaner flavour to it.

So I'm just putting some olive oil into that.

And you've got these little bits of shallots?

Yeah, my shallots are going to go through there as well. Nicely cooked, thank you.

And all I need then is a little bit of basil,

finish the dressing.

So we've got a Rivera down south, is there one in Scotland?

-We just have a big playground.

-You do, it's fantastic up there, innit?

Have you never been to Inverness?

-Oh, it's beautiful up there.

-It's stunning.

-Have you ever been to Inverness?

-I have, yeah, yeah.

I flew over it with James.

-Nice dressing.

-Right, we've got our clams.

All right. So we're just going to dress the plate.

So we've got these, these are red spring onions.

Slightly different. They do lose a little bit of colour when they're cooked.

Same sort of flavour.

-Yeah, same flavour. I'm going to put the clams...

-I'll put the cucumber in that pan.

-Please do.

Bit of olive oil in there.

Clams in there, I'm going to put a few oranges around the plate.

-I'm going to drop the basil in there as well.

-Which is ready for you.

-Spoon's on there.

-I trust you.

Trust me? As you threw it on the plate!

-Well, you know.

-There you go.

-There's your cucumber.

-Lovely, these have just been warmed up.

-The cucumber's got a lovely flavour when it's hot.

-Have you just used the centre, the seed part?

Yeah, we use the rest in the restaurant for different things,

but for this dish particularly, just that.

I'm going to put a little bit of the clams around the outside.

And then we're going to add all these nice colours as well.

So we've got the lovely...

-the bases are the seeds of the tomato.

-Yeah.

So all of those nice little poppy bits and flavours.

It's so nice to use these because a lot of people throw them away.

That's it, it's thrown in the stock, and we've got the nice heritage yellow tomatoes.

So it is more of a warm salad. And we've got that dressing.

Put the clams around there.

And then the oranges, so it is a Riviera style dish for you, James.

And then talking of Riviera, you've got what looks like a harvest festival now.

Yes, we've got some lovely rocket flowers. These just add a bit of pepper and colour

and love to it, you know.

There's a, these are flowers from a broccoli,

-and then we've got the borage, which has got the cucumber flavour.

-Borage is great.

Yeah, it's got lovely flavour.

And then these are, it's just wood sorrel.

It's got a nice sour sort of crab apple sort of flavour to it.

-Remind us what this is again.

-We've got grey mullet,

with a basil, clam and orange dressing.

-And vegetable hearts.

-Easy as that.

-Simple.

There you go, that's the first one.

My goodness.

Dish number one finished.

-Grey mullet.

-Fit for a queen, my goodness.

-Looks great.

-Can I tuck in?

-Dive in, yeah.

Probably the first time you've had grey mullet for breakfast!

-Wow.

-Dive in to that.

It is quite delicate, it's nice and light.

-It's a fantastic piece of fish.

-It's used a lot in Indian cooking. We don't use it as much over here.

Well, people are scared of the name, grey mullet, they go for red mullet.

People use the silver mullet name or the flathead,

-but it's fantastic.

-The zesty orange is really great with it, too.

-Really nice. I'm going to pass it on.

-Yeah, dive in.

The orange in there just makes it.

Yeah, it all works really well, all the flavours match.

-Orange, basil, tomato.

-There you go.

Definitely one of the best looking dishes we've ever had on the show.

It is Keith Floyd time now and today he's heading for the blood pit.

But don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds.

As a boy, the first fish I caught and cooked was a wild trout

on a Somerset May morning.

So I can't get excited about trout farms,

tanks of sullen fish waiting for the supermarket's order make me

sad because these days the apocryphal trout is the gastronomic crutch

of the lazy or unscrupulous restaurateur.

But here on the River Mole, Caroline Bower's recipe for trout is intriguing

if you read the right newspaper.

-Well it has to be a tabloid.

-It HAS to be a tabloid?

-Definitely.

Can't you rip up the Times? I'm sure it tastes a bit better with the Times.

I suppose if you've got the time you could rip up the Times.

Well, we haven't got the time for the Times.

Clive, I know you've been out of the business for a long time,

come down and have a look at the trout so we can show the good people at home the essential ingredients.

Which are fresh trout for Caroline's farm right outside the window here,

sea salt, for seasoning it in a moment,

a little lemon juice as well, which we'll put on, and surprise, surprise,

a prime ingredient, one of Mr Murdoch's poorer efforts.

OK. You're the expert here,

you show me what we're going to do.

I'm putting the fish literally like that in the newspaper,

apart from putting some sea salt in the cavity, as we call it.

Or its tummy.

Tummy. I'm not going to do anything to it, no butter,

no other ingredients. I'm going to make it up into a,

I hope a meat parcel.

Can you make Christmas trees and things like that out of newspaper?

You could try.

I bet you were good at school and handicrafts and things.

-Girl Guides.

-Girl Guides.

I've always wanted cook with a Girl Guide!

-Now...

-Pat, come on, this is the important bit, you halfwit,

-we're trying...

-Cold water.

-This is the essential preparation process.

And now you soak it till it's really wet. I mean, not dripping,

but really wet. I'll give it a shake in a minute. Get off the drips.

-OK.

-That one's ready.

-Ready for what?

-To go in the oven.

-We don't have to eat it out of the raw newspaper?

-You'll see!

-Fine, fine, good.

Have a drink, don't worry about the cameras. Cheers.

Great. Mouthful of salt helps it go down. Not a bad wine, actually.

You see, you nearly forgot the salt, you got over excited!

It's the wine that does it.

-And then repeat the procedure...

-Repeat the procedure with the tap.

-On the tap.

-We'll do this one.

-OK.

Give it a shake. Now they're going into the oven just like that.

Excellent. Of course, any sort of fish can be cooked in this way or not?

It's a very good way for any whole fish that's got a skin on it, and you'll see why in a minute.

But it's a terrific way for some sea fish, which tend to make the house rather smelly.

Because there is no smell, the smell stays inside the newspaper.

That's really good, a smashing tip for those of you who like to eat fish but can't stand the smell,

gutless though you are.

It does actually make the house stink when you've been cooking herring.

Don't you mind, surely the good things about food are the smells that go with it?

The good thing about farming is the smell of the dung.

Isn't all that part of life?

I don't know, when you wake up in the morning and you come downstairs and the kitchen stinks of...

You are here on your lovely farm and you have goats and geese and chickens

and sheep and things like that.

I'd rather have dung than stale herring smell.

You're not a disillusioned romantic, are you?

Anyway, into the oven with those.

Allow me, ma'am. I am a gentleman after all.

I like to open the oven for a lady.

So what's happening to them now?

They're going in to a hot oven and we, they will take about 20 minutes.

But the thing is, you know they're cooked when the newspaper is dry

so it's foolproof, you can't go wrong.

-Perfect. And odourless.

-And odourless.

Right, stay down there for a second and bring the other ones out because,

you see, we're running a bit short on time and the pubs will be open in a minute

and we don't want to miss the first drink of the evening

and we've done one of those things that this programme has vowed

never to do. It just shows you can't believe everything you hear, does it?

We have some already-ready just happen to have in the oven.

Bring them on, m'darling, and we'll go and eat. Two prepared, beautiful newspaper trout.

Courtesy of Caroline. We're going to eat them now.

-I'm bound to make a pig's ear of this. Am I doing it right?

-Yes.

The outside bits you can be fairly brutal,

-it's just the last layer that you've got to...

-I couldn't be brutal to a piece of food to save my life!

-Right...

-Now, the last layer you've got to be careful...

The object now is to use the paper to peel the skin away.

That's right, it should take the skin with it.

It won't have, it won't have

-newsprint all over it?

-It won't have anything, the skin comes away

with the newspaper.

You've done yours beautifully. Look, Clive, hers is perfect.

Just in case I make a pig's ear of this, look at that one to see how it really works.

But on the other hand, on the other hand,

-with a masterly stroke of genius...

-There you go, there you go.

-Now...

-Turn it over with a swift...

-A very swift plop, like that.

-Yep.

That's it.

I haven't done it too well. Actually, I've done it quite well, haven't I?

Those of you who don't like the heads, there's a unique moment to hack the head off.

Those of you who are a bit squeamish about it.

-Let me take away all the gubbins.

-Lovely.

-There you are.

-Great.

-Have some lemon.

-Good, thank you.

And some salt. I'll taste it absolutely au naturale first of all.

Because I think the idea of this is since it's been cooked and all the flavours kept in,

the true flavour of your wonderful fish should come out, shouldn't it?

-That's right.

-But, one thing I must say,

without wishing to cause any offence or anything at all like that,

trout farms seems to be springing up with such profligation these days

that you are almost getting to the point where it says "Last trout farm before the motorway."

You know. But you reckon yours are the best trout

and this is going to be the proof of the pudding, isn't it?

Why are yours so good?

Well, we, I think a lot of it depends on the water.

We use a river that comes straight down from Exmoor.

And therefore the river runs over granite and is very clean.

It has a lot of mineral salts in it and all that sort of thing.

Also, the fish get an enormous turnover of water,

they're not sitting in sort of a muddy pond like that, they're just having a turnover of...

Have some, have some salad.

No, no, the fish is just too good.

Actually, look me in the eye, Clive, please, I'd like to make a sincere gesture.

This fish is absolutely brilliant. It really is,

It really is, I recommend it as a way of cooking.

It is quite the nicest trout I've ever had. Absolutely splendid.

So there you are, my little red herrings,

like the lady said, sharpen up a bit!

Anyway, we set sail with Frank and Phil on a course for the blood pit,

a centuries old fishing ground so named out of respect

for countless tons of pilchards that met their maker here.

We too would drift and haul nets by hand in the time honoured fashion,

except that we'd be aided tonight

by a little magic box called a fish finder.

Thought I doubt these boys need such a device.

Floyd On Fish takes life pretty seriously.

When we came down today...

LOUD TALKING OVER HIM

Be quiet, a minute, please, sorry about that. Just while I get this very difficult piece out

for the punters at home, you know what I mean? They're all land lubbers.

They don't know how hard you work.

Because we wanted to get some really good pilchards,

we came down to Newlyn, which 30 years and more ago was one of

the hubs, the centres of the pilchard industry which supported

thousands of families in canneries, the woman working, cleaning the fish,

hundreds of men out on the boats catching the stuff.

In fact, there were so many boats that at night their lights

twinkling around the place looked like floating villages at sea.

As I said, we came to Newlyn and what do we find?

A tin of Japanese pilchards!

Well, I believe in these fishermen.

I think they're going to catch this stuff

and I'm going to heave this bloody rubbish over the side.

# A good sword and a trusty hand

# A merry heart and true

# King James's men shall understand

# What Cornish lads can do

# Here's 20,000 Cornish men

# Will know the reason why. #

What a shame the bobbing red sails of the pilchard boats are no more.

Replaced by huge trawlers that suck the ocean,

not only of Cornwall's proud heritage but its fish too,

and with a shameful disregard for tomorrow.

Oh, there's a romantic sight for you, isn't it?

Red sails in the sunset.

It's what pilchard fishing is all about,

pilchard eating too cos eating fish is great fun.

The French and the Italians

and all that all gloat over their sardines

and charcoal grill them. Pilchards they catch too, and they put them

in spicy tomato sauce, they call them escabeche of pilchards.

And when we go on holiday we say, "Oh good, escabeche and pilchards.

"Jolly good. Read that in the Good Food guide and things.

"Absolutely splendid." Will they eat a pilchard? Will they hell.

But when we've caught some in this ancient and lovely method,

if only you could be with us here now, you'd really enjoy it.

The sky, the light, these wonderful blokes cracking jokes all the time,

they're going to tell us the whole tale in a moment.

But as night fell, Frank and Phil exchanged anxious glances.

You see, there was a woman on board

and Frank was muttering darkly about her black net.

So in the hope of easing the atmosphere,

I asked Frank how to cook a pilchard.

-I've never ate a pilchard in me life.

-Have you not?

-No. That is the truth.

The best way to make this is...

to scrawl them. Put them in the sun.

-And that dries them?

-And then they're handsome then.

But it's no good for you to...

I know you're a cook.

But our way is to marinate them or scrawl them.

How much longer are we going to wait to pull any pilchards in?

A quarter of an hour, 20 minutes.

Altogether, in about three hours, I suppose, from start to finish.

We come out and we gotta look where we're going to drift to.

-It's a lovely night.

-Oh, it's a smashing night.

Good night for a murder.

Well, you can murder one of that lot.

If we do catch any, who's going to buy them,

-who are you going to sell them too?

-Eh, jousters.

That's the people who go around with their little carts

and selling to the doors.

-That still happens?

-Oh, yes.

A lot of jousters are out.

-People can still buy a fresh pilchard off the jouster?

-Yeah.

And the rest, the canning factory?

No, we fish for a salter.

-Salt them and send them to Italy.

-That's miles.

In Bristol, where I live, I couldn't get a pilchard from one year

to the next, but the Italians can get them. That doesn't seem fair to me.

I think, going back to 30 year ago, 95% of the pilchards went to Italy.

All of them.

Sent to America which went to the Italian immigrants that was there.

All of them went to Genoa and all these places.

And now these are put on the ends of the barrels.

And also every seller used to do his own fish, used to huddle them then.

What does that mean?

He used to put them in a little rig and salt them out of the tank.

It was called huddled.

You see pictures of them in some old magazines.

But they've played a great part in the fishing industry of Cornwall.

They were the foundations of all the fishing.

# And shall Trelawney live?

# And shall Trelawney die?

# Here's 20,000 Cornish men

# Will know the reason why! #

Well, my friends on the boat have been heaving this net in my hands

the last 20 minutes. We've got one pilchard so far.

I hope I did the right thing by throwing

the tin of Japanese stuff over the side.

Plenty of time, lots of faith we'll get lots more.

We'll still have a good amount at the end of tonight.

Look at them. Aren't they pretty? Handsome, I think the word is.

Handsome. Lovely.

Another half hour, another huge length of net.

And nothing.

Spirits were low and it wasn't just the cold night.

Something was wrong, we'd run out of whisky.

We're trying to get some good luck into all of this

and they tell me they won't sing.

That I've got to sing the Cornish anthem. I don't know what it is.

-Tell the words again.

-The Cornish anthem is Trelawney.

What are the words? Fish and tin...

That's the other one.

Fish and tin and copper, boys.

Fish and tin and copper, boys.

And Tre and Pol and Pen.

What's the tune?

I've got no orchestra here.

But it's something like...

# For 'tis fish and tin and copper, boys

# And Tre and Pol and Pen

# Heave the ropes, me babbies, hard

# Get them buggers in. #

-That's about the best I can do.

-That will do for the time.

So I'm afraid, my gastronauts,

we're going to be rather hungry tonight

because after five hours of working really hard out in the night in

the Cornish sea, we've got a black net, which in the trade means zero.

And for our pains we've got four pilchards.

I really wish I hadn't thrown that tin over the side now.

This is absolutely fabulous.

The best and the freshest pilchards you've ever seen.

I don't think you'll be very happy about having to eat them

at this luxurious resort and this splendid table.

But after the day I've had, I don't give a damn.

And I can't even be bothered to tell you how to cook them

because if you don't know how to cook them, grill fresh pilchard, then you know nothing.

Excuse me a sec.

Those are absolutely fantastic. They really are.

Although they're brilliant, I still think the final score is

Newlyn 3 and Japan 27.

Classic Floyd there, at his best!

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

from the Saturday Kitchen back catalogue.

Still to come,

both Jun Tanaka and Mark Sergeant were hoping for better times

when they met at the omelette challenge hobs,

but would either of them succeed?

The heat was on, but were the eggs in the pan?

Find out a little later on.

Michael Caines creates one of the tastiest pies in the world.

he makes a beef and oyster pie with ale and button mushrooms,

carrots, pancetta and topped off with some puff pastry.

And Claire Sweeney faced her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven,

butternut squash with my velvety home-made butternut squash soup?

Or would she get her dreaded Food Hell, dark chocolate,

with my rich, indulgent Black Forest Gateau,

with cherries and dark chocolate mint shards?

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

Now it's time for a visit from the legendary Ken Hom.

He's been inspired by some leftovers and a certain Mr Keith Floyd.

I love it when you're you're on, what are we cooking,

-something slightly different?

-Yeah, something slightly different,

cos it's such an eclectic show.

When you're doing Chinese, I got to do something different.

I'm TRYING to cook Chinese.

I'm doing something sort of invented by hazard,

I had all these ingredients left over, some cooked pasta,

and today I'm cooking pasta in homage to Keith Floyd, the bow tie.

There you go, little bowtie, but they mean

-butterflies, don't they?

-Yes.

And I'm combining that with orange,

because I had some orange in the fridge, garlic, ginger,

some onions, peppers and really unusual - I had some curry paste.

So I thought I'd thrown that in with some tomato paste

-and some tinned tomatoes and some chicken stock, always.

-Always.

So this is Ken Hom cooks Indian then.

-I'm going to chop my onion up.

-Well, I think it's

-Ken Hom cooking British.

-Yeah.

What I mean by that is, the food in this country has become

so eclectic, and Chinese now, according to the latest research,

is the most popular ethnic cuisine in this country.

What is it about that cuisine that you think us Brits like?

I think people love it because it's spicy if you want,

if you don't want spicy, it's fine.

There's something for everyone I think.

And it's become so part of the fabric of this country that to

go out for a Chinese is amazing.

And the thing is, a lot of people stir-fry at home. Makes sense.

-Thank you. And if you could chop up some peppers into small dice.

-Yup.

-You want me to do that?

-Yes.

-That's a good hint there.

And I'm just chopping up some ginger.

It's very interesting, see how you do the pepper now, you're young...

Young and? Eh, here we go, go on.

See how you run back and forth, what you do, this is easier.

I'm running back and forth cos I haven't got a knife sharp enough!

And the thing is, you don't have to cut in two pieces,

just one piece, like that.

All right, OK, fair enough.

But I know you, you never stop working, it's just...

This year has been sort of a landmark for you.

-An interesting year for me.

-It all started, you first got the OBE.

Yes, that was very humbling.

And it's funny, maybe because I've been around for so long

they said, "We'd better give him something."

-Bus pass normally, Ken.

-Yes, well, I'm getting that too!

I do love getting my discounts at age 60.

THEY LAUGH

I love it.

But nobody has ever said, "We don't believe you're 60."

-See, that's the problem.

-It's all that good food you eat.

Literally, cos you still continue to work.

Tell us about this amazing show you've been doing.

I just did a documentary for, believe it or not, Korean television.

And it's become bigger than kimchi,

it's watched by ten to 15 million viewers.

In a country of 45 million, can you imagine that?

A third of the population, incredible.

Yes, when I went there in July

and August I was treated like a rock star.

You can chop that up. We add the aromatics first.

What was really interesting is, the programme also won the

best TV programme of the year, which has never gone to anything but drama.

So what was it about then?

It's about... You have the silk root, and this is about the noodle...

-The noodle root?

-That's right. And where things come from.

Yes, put the bacon in there.

Interestingly enough, we put the peppers.

We're just going to set Francesco this next bit, but go on, then.

Actually, probably where he's from,

this is where a lot of pasta came from.

It came from the Arabs, who got it from us of course, in China,

and they brought it back dry.

Which is fascinating.

They made pasta and the Sicilians invented the fork to eat it.

Because the thing is, the Arabs don't eat noodles any more.

So what came first, pasta or noodles?

Ugh, I think noodles came first.

We've discovered that as the truth, but the thing is,

Marco Polo did not bring pasta to Italy.

That's the myth. They had it for a long, long time. We cook that down.

OK. And we've got these.

Yes, we've got all the seasoning,

and actually we could chop that a little bit.

This is just some orange zest.

And that will add a very nice, lovely, orangey flavour.

And we have the tinned tomatoes.

Also, talking about 2009, your book has been re-released,

25 years since...

Yes, scary, isn't it? 25 years.

And this was the first Chinese cookery programme that...

..really was...

I mean, I was terrified of going on television.

-I still am, Ken, don't worry.

-You can't tell that.

-I am, trust me!

You want to cook this down for about 30 minutes.

-We have some salt and pepper.

-Right.

You want to cook that until it gets a little bit thick and wonderful,

and then the pasta, which we've already cooked...

We've got a bit of sugar in here, Ken.

Yes, that can go in here, thank you.

-That was also left in your cupboard, was it?

-LAUGHING: That's right!

You want to stir this around, and I think Peter will like this,

as will the young ladies there, and Francesco.

He's Italian, so I'm very nervous now,

whether he is going to accept this.

We've got some basil, chives.

So tell us about this book then,

literally it's being brought out again to celebrate...?

-Well, it's never gone out of print.

-In 25 years?

-Yes, believe it or not.

People like Delia, myself and Madhur Jaffrey.

We've been around for a long time, with Keith, really,

I remember on television I said to him,

how come he can poke his finger and taste everything and I can't do it?

You're not in the BBC studio.

Oh, there you go, he's out and about then.

So this gets all sorted out, the pasta's precooked,

-little bit of bite to it.

-That's right, little bit of bite to it.

-Got some chives.

-Yeah, we want it al dente.

-Basil in there.

Look at that, it's great.

This is one of those dishes you can concoct very easy,

it's absolutely delicious, and what's nice about this, you don't

even need cheese because it's so tasty.

A few of those leaves on the top.

So remind us what that is again, Ken?

It's a stir-fry pasta with orange and curry. What could be more British?

Easy as that.

He's got a hold of it, bring it over, come on then.

Especially with Francesco, I'm nervous.

I know Peter will like it.

Peter, dive into that, cos I know you're a big pasta fan.

-Oh, yeah, I am.

-Tell us what you think.

-And when you boil the pasta...

-Do you want these?

-Yeah.

-And I always did.

-Lots of salt when you boil the pasta.

Do you put chicken stock cube in the pasta,

in the, eh, in the water as well?

Not when you're boiling it, that's a waste of chicken stock.

OK, I'm glad you've said that cos

-I've wasted a lot of chicken stock.

-LAUGHTER

-Now you know.

-He's not a singer, he's a comedian.

But it's the type of pasta that's really important for this,

you could use the little tubes, penne pasta.

Oh, the penne is wonderful in that.

Like I said before, fusilli would be also very good.

The corkscrew gets all that wonderful sauce.

-Francesco, dive into that, stick your fork in.

-Yeah, I will.

Want to see what the Italian says first of all.

The world is upside down, huh? Chinese making Italian and...

-What do you reckon?

-Agree with Ken, this is really a British dish.