Episode 96 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites

Good morning. Get ready for a feast of tasty cooking.

This is Saturday Kitchen Best Bites.

Welcome to the show. We've got some great chefs lining up

to cook for some very hungry celebrity guests today.

Theo Randall serves his take on liver and bacon.

He pan-fries calves' liver with pancetta and sage

and serves it with Swiss chard, chilli, lentils and a balsamic sauce.

Chris Galvin presents a seafood masterpiece with some red mullet.

He grills it and serves it with garlic squid,

pasta, flat leaf parsley and olive and caper salad.

The always perfect Marcus Wareing shows his unique way with lamb.

He slow cooks milk-fed lamb, serves it with seared baby little gem lettuce,

borlotti beans, courgettes and a ewes' milk cheese.

And EastEnder Patsy Palmer takes time away from Albert Square

to face Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Will she get food heaven - strawberries in my decadent strawberry mille feuilles

with strawberry sauce?

Or will she get her dreaded food hell, smoked salmon?

A delicious smoked salmon and spinach puff pastry tart

with watercress pesto and a watercress and walnut salad.

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

But first, the pride of Wales, Bryn Williams, brings sea trout to the table

and Dermot O'Leary gets to practise his knife skills.

You're the master at this craft. Tell us what we're cooking.

Today we're doing pan-fried sea trout.

A bit of bacon in there for saltiness.

Fresh peas, carrots, gem lettuce and a bit of horseradish.

Horseradish. Right. We'll get onto that a bit later.

We've got here some sea trout. Tell us about that first.

Sea trout is a rainbow trout

until the fish decides to go to sea.

So it's the same fish and this is why sea trout is always bigger than a rainbow trout

which is smaller cos it stays in the river.

Obviously the sea trout gets caught when it goes back up-river to lay eggs.

Price-wise, it is more expensive.

It is more expensive, but I don't think there's a price on quality.

-But saying that, it's half the price of wild salmon.

-Yeah.

So I think it's as good as wild salmon

cos there's a lot more flavour and more character to sea trout.

Do you use much in the restaurant?

Yes, it's on the menu just now.

-Fantastic.

-We'll just lightly season. We'll get you chopping there.

Maybe we'll get Dermot up. How are your knife skills?

I'm terrible! Fantastic. Thank you.

Show me, coach.

What we're doing is that.

This brings back memories for me.

The Guinness Book of Records, I'm in. The world's fastest carrot peeler and chopper!

-Are you?

-The sea trout goes in. A bit of salt.

-I get plenty of practice on this show!

-Small batons.

-These are batons?

-Don't cut your fingers off!

These are sharp, aren't they?

I haven't got these at home!

I'm scared!

This might take some time!

-We've only got six minutes, Dermot.

-OK. Don't worry.

That includes cooking them.

I'm going to do the batons of the bacon as well.

I'll blanch them in a little salted water.

That takes out the salt and firms up the bacon. So we cook it.

You're podding the peas, as well.

You can ask him the questions as well!

Front of house!

-So cut the bacon...

-You blanch this, as well.

It just takes out the saltiness.

-Are you not good with knives?

-No, that's so sharp, that knife.

-I used to do this for a living.

-Don't chop your fingers off.

-Pod peas?

-Yeah, there's a lot of pick and mixes and bean farms and pea farms down my way.

-Right.

-It was good summer work for me.

-Can I have a couple of these?

-Yeah.

-I love raw peas.

-They're great.

They are fantastic. So the fish, you cut all the way through to the skin?

Yes, three-quarters, all the way through to the skin.

Just turn it over at the last minute.

We've blanched the bacon into salted water

for no more than 30 seconds to a minute.

What it does, it just brings the bacon...

It just firms it up a little bit.

The last time you were here, you were doing some building work at Odette's.

-Yeah.

-Finished now?

-It's all done.

The bar's been done. We've got a nice garden outside now.

We're very lucky to have a garden in central London.

Holds about 30 people, which is great.

There's one downfall.

Everybody books for the garden, but when it rains, we don't have enough seats for them in the restaurant.

So it can be tricky when we let people book tables for the garden!

-Just going to season...

-That's a lovely smell.

A little bit of salt, a little pepper.

Just going to blanch the peas.

-I hope you're not going to work in your own restaurant!

-What are you talking about?

This is nice happy food.

I'm going to blanch the carrots for about 30 seconds.

-Then we'll add the peas.

-Yep.

-You'll blanch them at the same time?

-Add the carrots first, cos they need bit more cooking time.

This is nice, isn't it? Real men working!

-Band of brothers!

-You also take part in the Taste Festival?

Taste of London. Yeah, that was amazing.

-We had 48,000 people through the gates.

-It's a lot of work for you guys, isn't it?

That's enough. Yeah, it is a lot of work.

We sold 6,500 plates of food over four days.

So it's a lot of work. A lot of organisation.

A lot of work, but it's good fun at the same time.

A lot of people see what we do as chefs.

Sometimes they're afraid to come into the restaurant if they see sea trout and bacon. They may not like it.

So when it comes to taste, we have smaller portions

and if they don't like it, they haven't wasted that much money.

-It's like a little tapas bar.

-It's great.

Yeah, literally two or three mouthfuls, that's it.

-Yes.

-So we've just blanched the peas there.

With the carrots.

See the way he's cooking the fish. Cooking it all the way through on the skin side?

The only thing about that is,

how do you know, when it starts to...

It starts to cook? It's changing colour at the sides.

-I think it just comes from experience.

-Sure.

I try and barbecue a lot of fish.

-Obviously I catch...

-Great on barbecues.

-..catch my mackerel.

-Mackerel's pretty easy to do cos it does...

-Definitely.

-Cooks in its own oil.

-Yeah.

-I want to do more on the barbecue. What other fish should I do?

You can barbecue fish on the barbecue and just put a bit of tin foil down.

-Definitely.

-To hold it together.

You've still got that smokiness of flavour.

-You still get it seared.

-Holds it all together.

I love that flavour.

The burnt bits on the side.

So I've just got a bit of chicken stock and a bit of butter.

We'll add a bit more as we're cooking along.

That'll help to thicken the sauce.

-This lettuce, do you want it like chiffonade?

-Yeah.

You can do that. Chiffonade the lettuce.

I know it's "chiffin hard"!

There you go.

OK. So how does one chiffonade?

-Fingers out the way.

-Are you sure opening a restaurant is a good idea?

Don't do that. What you do is that.

-So you'll take your knuckles off.

-Like when you meet a dog.

-Yeah.

Just do that.

All right, Kung Fu Panda!

Just keep your fingers out the way.

APPLAUSE

-Perfect!

-It's more minced meat salad, as opposed to chiffonade!

Is that OK, Bryn? It's all right. Just slower next time.

OK. I got a lettuce once... Are you throwing that away?!

-I'm keeping it for the compost.

-It wasn't bad!

-Keeping it for the compost.

-Literally just turn the trout.

-I'm mortified about that!

-That'll take another 30 seconds.

-Trout's turned over.

We've turned the heat off cos there's enough heat in that dish.

Add the gem lettuce.

And now turn the heat off on this so it keeps a bit of texture.

You don't want the lettuce soft.

Why are you putting the lettuce in the pan?

You get the water out of the lettuce, but still keep the texture.

This dish is all about texture. Soft peas, sweet peas, salty bacon.

Cooks cook a lot with lettuce.

There's a great dish with lettuce and peas called sauce verte

which we're making.

But you're about to ruin this by putting this in it!

-I'll cook you one separately cos you don't like horseradish.

-I can't stand it.

People ask me what would be my idea of food heaven and food hell on the show.

That would be hell!

I think we should swap over. I'll interview you one day.

You need to get over your horseradish fetish.

It's a really great thing.

-To finish off...

-It's not.

-It's amazing.

A little bit of horseradish in there.

Yeah, you've just ruined that!

Just a bit more stock, give it a bit more sauce.

People put Yorkshire pudding and then put horseradish in it!

-It's a classic Northern thing.

-You've just ruined it.

No. There you go.

In with the peas.

You want to get all that liquid in there. Very important to get all the juice in there.

-Nice fresh flavours.

-And now with the...

This will be on his menu tonight.

-Go down to Brighton and see...how far your sea trout...

-I'm banking all this in my head.

-That's that one cooked.

-Notice I get the dodgy one!

-I know!

-Thank you very much.

-Remind us what that is again.

-This is pan fried salmon - sea trout, sorry.

-With peas, bacon and horseradish.

-Easy as that.

Right. Over to the table. I'm sure everyone wants to dive into this.

You get to dive into this one.

I've got my own. This is a first!

A very big first.

Dive into that. Tell us what you think.

Blanching the bacon is quite important.

Yes, it takes that raw saltiness out of there.

It's combinations like Tom had. The saltiness against the sweetness of the peas.

Very important. And not overcooking the trout.

It can go very dry. It's an oily fish and you lose all its moisture.

Much better without the horseradish!

It's natural cos sea trout is in season at this time of year.

So are peas, so they naturally go well together.

That's what seasonal cooking is all about.

It tastes like it's doing you good!

And it's done, as well. Six, seven minutes.

It's so hearty.

-It's broth, as well.

-A broth dish, it's like you said,

it's literally from the ground straight onto the plate.

I'd definitely stick to shelling peas, Dermot!

Coming up, I'll be roasting duck breast with smoked aubergines for actor Brian Cox.

But first, we join Rick Stein as he starts his very first French Odyssey.

Come on, Chalky!

I want to show you where we're going.

I'm sorry you're not coming, but look, Chalky.

There is the coast of France, not a very good one.

There's England. There's Cornwall. We're down here.

Right? We're going down from Brittany, which sticks out here

down to...

OK, I know you're depressed, but it's not my fault!

The vet said you couldn't be chipped. You're too old.

AS ECHO: Too old! Too old! Too old!

There was a time when he wasn't too old.

But time, for a small dog, takes its toll.

He's been on the road with me for the past ten years.

Wherever I go, and I mean wherever I go,

they always say, "Where's Chalky?

"He's more famous than you!"

How true!

I think about that exceedingly good poem by Kipling which ends with,

"Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware

"Of giving your heart to a dog to tear."

Call me old-fashioned. Call me what you like,

but this great barge adventure starts with a trip on the ferry.

I could have taken a plane straight to Bordeaux,

but then I'd have missed out on all that lovely seafood on the way down!

I've been all over the world and I'm quite familiar with cuisines from all over the world.

but really, the one that has always been my favourite is French

because my restaurant in Padstow was involved through trips to Brittany

over many years.

The whole concept of seafood to me

is the French concept of seafood.

But latterly also from trips to the south-west of France.

The sausages and the cassoulets and the bouillabaisse and the fish soup

and those oyster bars,

and all that sort of stuff.

That, to me, is the centre of my life in food.

To get a prawn in England,

you just don't see it.

But there, mounds of 'em!

Mounds of 'em! Love it. Just love the whole thing.

Do you like French food?

Not particularly, no!

But I like a nice big prawn.

What about the markets in France?

They say I walk round like an aged pop star.

There's me walking round the market and they're carrying all the carrier bags! It's beautiful.

-There's nothing like it in the UK.

-Why not?

I don't know. I don't think we've got a taste for fish

and we can't make the effort, we can't be bothered.

It's one-stop shopping in the UK,

whereas in France it's very different.

It's their way of life.

We're so near, yet we're so different.

That's so true.

One thing the French have taken for their own is self-service.

I don't know why, but they love it, and they do it so well!

Instead of the perfectly nice posh restaurant on board,

I always make a bee-line here, because the litmus test

is to order a rare steak frites.

To me, it says, "Welcome to France."

It's so simple, and yet travelling around the UK, so frustratingly difficult to find!

Look at that. That is a proper blue steak.

I hate to say this - this is just a ferry -

but I had a feeling it was going to be all right,

in other words cooked properly.

A bit of Bordelaise sauce on top,

and actually, the wine's not too bad, either!

It's a bit rough, but it all sort of fits.

I'm in France before I've even got there!

Someone a couple of hundred years ago

said that the best thing he knew between France and England was the sea!

But I think there's something else that separates the two nations.

And that's the artichoke!

It's feared, and I suspect, loathed by the Brits,

judging by the fact I've never seen a field of artichokes growing at home,

but here they're everywhere!

I think the way I like best with artichokes

is just to cook them whole in boiling water with salt and lemon juice.

That stops them going black.

But I have to say round here there's a very good salad dish

that you use the artichoke heart with.

'Artichokes look so daunting. They're hard and spiky like an armadillo!

But it's just a big flower bud.

All you want for this dish is the soft heart from the centre.

Put them straight in a dish of lemon water

to stop them discolouring,

and then simmer for about 20 minutes.

Now, take some thick slices of smoked bacon,

and cut them into small chunks. We call them lardons.

And do the same with some fresh, crusty bread.

Take the artichoke hearts out, and leave them aside to cool.

Then hard fry the lardons.

It's much better if you can use traditional dry cured bacon.

It fries much drier.

And now the bread.

Fry until they're golden and crunchy

like little jewels!

Remove them from the pan and keep warm.

Now for the dressing.

In the same frying pan, put a couple of tablespoons of wine vinegar

and two teaspoons of Dijon mustard.

Give it a swirl, and add some vegetable oil.

Sunflower oil is fine. Season it with salt and pepper.

Poach a couple of good farm eggs.

Hard to do, I think.

A little tremble in the water so they set really well.

Now assemble a dish.

First, some soft, green salad leaves.

Slice the artichoke into about four or five thick slices.

Lift up and place on top of those salad leaves.

The more common way of eating an artichoke

is to eat it leaf by leaf, dipped in melted butter.

There's a saying in Brittany that with artichokes, you have more on your plate than when you started!

But this salad is one of the finest summer lunches you could hope to find anywhere,

and you'll find it, as I did,

in Brittany.

Brittany, with its great sea food.

It gave me loads of ideas for my restaurant in Cornwall.

I felt a bit like a pirate in those early days,

borrowing - I think that's the right word! -

recipes for spider crab and red mullet.

Maybe adapting the odd dressing for oysters,

and learning all those years ago that cider is a great friend of sea food!

I didn't go to Michelin-star restaurants, but little family-run businesses,

where the very thought of a menu was an anathema,

and, of course, the famous French transport cafes.

I have to say it's very nice that the French truck-stop Routier

is still thriving, going strong.

It's utterly packed. There's that many trucks out there.

Very nice little hors d'oeuvre to start with.

Afterwards we have some epaule d'agneau, shoulder of lamb,

with pommes frites, haricots verts.

Or a local speciality, eels done in cider with local Breton cider.

Unbelievably, there were just two people cooking.

The local favourite here is eels in cider.

The chef was quite unperturbed by the camera, and told me how he did it.

SPEAKS FRENCH

He says after he's put the cider in, he's got to reduce it right down.

"Reduire" is the word, so that it concentrates the flavour.

Makes a nice sauce. Then he'll put creme fraiche in there and take that down a bit.

I'm really going to like this. Just up my street, this sort of food!

Yum-yum!

CHEF SPEAKS FRENCH

I've just asked him how important it is that it's the food of the region,

and he said it's a pleasure to him to continue to cook traditional dishes

and would that we all had traditional dishes like this that we had to cook!

It's really quite sophisticated, that whole taste.

I was having to pinch myself to remember we're in a transport cafe, for God's sake!

Can we see our lorry drivers back in Blighty getting stuck into cold haricots verts and pate?

I can't really see it!

But I can't leave Brittany without trying a crepe or a galette.

They're so popular here, they've become a gastronomic symbol

and this is the classic Breton pancake

with an egg and a batter made of buckwheat flour.

Galettes mean a lot to me. I remember as a teenager first going to Brittany

and finding all these little shacks, almost, that did galettes.

And I've got a real weakness for what I call street food, and that's what galettes are.

You get so many different flavours. Ham, eggs, seafood of course,

But apple and lots of sweet things.

When you get south of Brittany,

they start to peter out and you find brioches, filled brioches, with the same sort of fillings.

More fillings in both cases than pizza toppings.

But the thing I particularly like about this

is the first one I ever had, in Concarneau.

It was just really simple, just ham, egg and cheese.

The words crepe and galette are pretty much the same thing, really.

Now, buckwheat flour. This comes from a plant very similar to a dock leaf

and there's loads of reddy-brown seeds that are crushed to make the flour.

It makes a very satisfying base for this dish.

I'm assuming you don't have those fancy little crepe hotplates at home

and you'd want to use a more obvious method of cooking like a frying pan.

So in go the egg, the ham and the cheese

and then all that's left to do is to make a parcel and fold the edges in.

I like to flip the crepe over to seal it.

I can hear old ladies in Brittany now saying, "Sacre Bleu! Did you see that?

"He turned it over!"

In the Vendee, I stop at the little town of Clisson,

a good place for freshwater fish.

It was razed to the ground and its inhabitants put to the sword

by the good folks that gave France liberty, equality and fraternity.

Apparently, the locals down here were too slow to change.

They were fond of the king and they liked their local priests.

The chateau that once stood in this vineyard was burned down at the same time,

just after the revolution.

But it was rebuilt and now it's owned by Monsieur Sauvignon.

I've been buying his Muscadet for ages.

It's like I know him, although we've never met until this very day.

Hello, Ricky!

We were waiting for you desperately!

-Oh, really?

-How are you? Good to see you!

This is Renee. Is it the first time you meet?

-It is.

-I guess you're tired, so...

We all know that Muscadet is a dry white wine

particularly good with seafood.

But Jean Erneste is very proud of what he calls his "trembling wine"

which is a creme en de Loire

made with Chenin blanc and Chardonnay.

For ladies, they insist on serving it with rose petals in it.

I don't know why, they just do!

It's clear to me that with all your family involved in it,

you and Pierre and everybody,

that it really means a lot. What is so special about wine making,

particularly in this part of the country?

We don't introduce ourself like wine-maker, wine-grower, wine-shipper.

We introduce ourselves, as you may have seen on our business card,

as a faconeur de plaisir.

It means builder of pleasure.

Because wine is only pleasure.

That's why it's fascinating.

Because you sell pleasure. You produce pleasure. You drink pleasure.

It's only pleasure. And the seasons are changing all the time.

Every year, the vintages are different.

So it's a fascinating enjoyment.

It's not a business, it's an enjoyment.

They invited me to stay at the chateau for dinner with the family.

It was quite a posh affair, with wonderful seafood.

The heart of which was sea bass cooked to perfection by Angelie,

a girl from the village.

They had wanted to serve zander from the river at Clisson,

but they couldn't get any.

But she poached the fillets of bass in a court bouillon

and served them with a beurre blanc sauce.

That's basically shallots, white wine vinegar and butter

whisked together over a low heat.

The new potatoes came from a little island off the coast

called Noir Boutiers.

Angelie can have a job in my restaurant any time!

Do you know, they really wanted me to have a taste of the Vendee.

Not over-complicated fancified dishes,

but simple seafood to complement their great wine.

And it really worked!

It's lovely. It's the sort of thing I love. It's very simple

and about the area. And this wine is just absolutely special.

So here's to you! Cheers!

-Cheers!

-Thank you! Thank you, Ricky!

I love French food, too. I've had some of the best food in my life in restaurants and cafes there.

Over the summer, I've been there for a few weeks

travelling around the south of France and I've come across many great ingredients

one in particular, magret duck. They use a lot of duck in the Ajain region where I was.

This, in particular, is going to be cooked very simply, that's the thing with this.

Just on the skin side with some aubergine.

I'm going to smoke the aubergine into a puree with wilted spinach.

Very, very simple.

A flavour you may have never had before, smoked aubergine.

I love aubergine. It's one of the best vegetables there is.

-It's so flexible.

-It is great.

But with the duck, all you do is place it in the pan like that.

Skin side down, and just gently cook it skin side.

It renders the fat. You get all this fat coming out of it,

then we turn it over and cook it in the oven for eight minutes.

While that's cooking, we can get our aubergine on.

It's pretty straightforward.

They're coming into greenhouses. Mine are just coming through in my veg garden.

We just literally cut them like that.

No need to salt them any more.

And soak them in milk and stuff.

Just place those in there.

A little bit of olive oil.

My garden has plenty of hybrid ones

so you don't need to salt them any more.

So they're ready-salted, like crisps?

What's that about?! How do you produce a hybrid ready-salted aubergine?!

The modern aubergine isn't full of water any more!

-It's salted.

-But by the very nature, that's what an aubergine should do!

ALL SPEAK AT ONCE

Can we just put it right? I work for those two!

Exactly. I've got them here. I'm going to just gently smoke them.

Nice hot pan. Tin foil in the bottom.

This is before you roast them?

These roast in the oven for about 20 minutes.

-And then you get these oak chippings. You can buy these...

-What are they?

-Oak chippings.

-Oak?!

-Oak.

-You mean like the tree, oak?

-Yeah.

That's the one, Brian!

It's not going to light a cigarette or anything!

They go in there, lid on.

And we smoke these for two or three minutes.

And the smoke will just keep it on a high heat.

Lid on. Don't do this near your net curtains, or it'll create one big mess!

Turn your duck over.

-The last thing you want is dirty nets!

-Exactly!

-What would your neighbours think if you had dirty nets?

-Eight minutes.

The thing that fascinates me about you, Brian, is you always wanted to be an actor,

which many people do, but it was the process of getting to where you are now.

Mopping the floors at age 15, dreaming about film and television?

Yes, I used to go to the movies when I was a kid.

And then I eventually I had no way of knowing how I'd get into it,

but through a series of happenstances

I ended up working in my local theatre when I was 15.

Mopping the stage, and taking the money to the bank.

From there, I went to drama school and then started working in the theatre.

But I always loved the movies. That was my passion.

But I think that was always going to happen anyway.

But it was the theatre that got you spotted for movies?

The theatre is what we do best here probably.

There's an argument for that.

But it's our cultural heritage more than cinema is.

America's much more to do with movies than the UK is.

I know that's a heresy and people argue with it, but it's a fact.

You got spotted when you were in the theatre for the movie Manhunter?

Yeah, I was actually on Broadway.

No, it wasn't Broadway, it was a public theatre in New York.

And the casting director came to see it and she couldn't see me

because she was in a bad seat.

When I went for the interview, she said, "Can you turn your back to the camera?"

I said, "Why?" She said, "I couldn't see you, but I could hear your voice."

-And that was it?

-That was it. That's how I got the job!

Hannibal Lecter. The film was not that big a success,

but what it did, while you were doing that,

somebody played King Lear and you swapped round.

Tony Hopkins was playing King Lear while I was doing Hannibal Lecter,

then when he did Hannibal Lecter, I was doing King Lear.

It was weird, because the film, the producer went into bankruptcy,

so the film remained in escrow for a long time.

And then Jeremy Thomas released it here in the United Kingdom

and it became a huge success.

And then when The Silence of the Lambs came out, they put it on television,

and it was the highest rating television they had in the US.

-It became a cult hit.

-Became a huge cult hit, yes.

So literally all we do now is scoop these out.

-You can smell the aubergine.

-I love aubergine.

You don't use too many oak chippings, but you get rid of the skin like that.

-Can you buy oak chippings? Just buy them?

-You can buy them from a garden centre.

But it's the theatre you've gone back into now?

Yes, I've come back. You have to keep your, as it were, end up!

To keep your skills going you have to do the theatre periodically

-so I'm now doing Lolita which is a one-man performance.

-It's a massive role.

-It's huge.

We have to condense a 330-page novel into an 88-page script.

And it's tough! But it's good. I'm working with a wonderful editor/adapter/writer

-called Richard Nelson.

-How do you remember 90 minutes?

Well, what I do is, it's kind of semi-memorised.

A lot of it is read from his notebooks.

So we create a world where he's in his cell,

it's Humbert Humbert in his cell.

And it's just after he's finished the book.

And he starts to re-read passages of the book.

And it kind of creates this world, really.

The problem about the book is, when you do the book,

everybody has this image of Lolita

but when you make a film of it, you see Lolita.

Whereas the image of Lolita is still in the guy's head.

You have a specific thing about research. You try not to research things too much?

No. I think you can research things good.

The proof is in the pudding, rather than the...

I mean, I'm not totally against research.

It's a fallacy to say you don't do some research. I do a lot of research.

But I don't think research gives you a performance. A performance is something else.

So the theatre you're in at the moment. Also you've got a movie.

That's at the Film Festival.

Literally when I open, I have to fly off to Toronto.

In between two shows I'm going to the Toronto Film Festival.

I've got a film called The Good Heart, which I made in Iceland

just before the financial crisis which hit Iceland very badly.

Thank God, we were able to get our film made

-and that's coming up.

-And the cheque cleared?

The cheque cleared. The cheque did clear. They're very honourable there.

They've had a rough time.

-And then Mr Fox?

-Yeah, Fantastic Mr Fox.

-That's with George Clooney...

-George Clooney, Meryl Streep,

Jason Schwartzman.

-That's out later this year?

-That's out later on, yeah.

-You've worked with some amazing people.

-I've been very lucky.

Right. Literally, you've got the smoked aubergine.

There's a light hint to the smokiness,

but it needs lemon juice, otherwise it's as if you're smoking 20 a day, without lemon juice.

This is almost like my favourite vegetable of all time.

It is very, very straightforward.

A nice bit of aubergine puree.

-It's great cold, as well, this.

-Really?

Then you've got the duck.

I've got a reduced sauce here. The French love reduction sauces.

This duck, which you leave to rest,

and it should be nice and pink.

So once you've pan-fried it,

it goes literally in the oven eight minutes at 200 degrees Centigrade.

No more than that. Keep it nice and pink.

It's really important that you don't overcook duck

because it can become very tough.

James, does the aubergine take a lot of seasoning?

Plenty of salt. That's the thing with that.

Just a little bit of this red wine sauce on the side.

That's it. Very, very French.

Bistro cooking. Dive into that.

Tell us what you think of that one.

-I'm just going to taste...

-Straight into the aubergine. It's got a delicate smokiness.

-I cooked it the first time in France.

-Oh, that's fantastic!

-Like that?

-Oh, yes. That's wonderful.

-He's a good actor, as well!

That's great French bistro-style cooking

that's surprisingly easy to do.

If you'd like to have a go at that duck dish

or try your hand at any of the recipes on today's show,

they're just a click away at BBC.co.uk/recipes.

We're not live today. Instead, we're looking back at some great cooking from the Saturday Kitchen archives.

Now it's time for an Italian twist on liver and bacon

thanks to the honorary Italian, Theo Randall.

Good to have you on the show. I ate at your restaurant yesterday. Very good it was, too.

-Thank you.

-Scallops. Delicious. Lovely.

-What are we cooking today?

-Pan-fried calves liver with pancetta, sage,

lentils, Swiss chard, a bit of chilli with the Swiss chard, creme fraiche and balsamic vinegar.

We don't put calves liver and lentils together normally. Is it calves liver and mash?

Yes, it's an alternative.

It's a nice carbohydrate. I love... Or pulse, rather.

It's very nice with liver.

And it's really nice with the balsamic and the creme fraiche and the chard.

-What's first, then?

-Well, this is a nice bit of liver

which I'm just going to trim up.

You get liver sometimes that has these sinews in.

And it's great if you want to take them out.

Because liver's so tender, if you've got this tough old sinew,

it defeats the purpose of it.

This calf's liver is not the same calf's liver as the normal stuff you buy in the supermarket?

This is French Limousin liver

which is really the best in the world.

It's the one that's had the nicest life.

They're six-month-old calves.

-What, by the sea in a deck chair?

-By the sea in a deck chair, yes!

They haven't got that sort of bitter taste that you get with a lot of liver.

Do you think a lot of that is because people overcook it generally?

People tend to overcook it. A liver this size, I'd only cook it a minute on each side.

You want it to be pink in the middle.

This liver's quite expensive, isn't it?

It's more expensive than other liver, but it's definitely worth it.

-Definitely worth it. That piece, about a fiver?

-About that.

How much is it in your restaurant?

-We'll talk about that later!

-Not as much as it is in his!

I'm all quiet over here!

-Exactly!

-Quiet, yes.

With this we're going to do some pancetta,

which is smoked pork belly.

I'm going to throw this in a pan without any oil

cos it's got a lovely fat on it already.

You want all the fat to come out and give it that sweet flavour you get from bacon.

Tell us a bit about... I'm chopping up the chard here.

Tell me a bit about chard. Italians love it?

Italians love it. It's a seasonal thing at the moment.

These stalks have got a real sweetness

and if you blanch the stalk in here,

when you braise them it's got a really nice taste.

Particularly with the garlic and the chilli.

It makes a huge difference.

You use the leaves as well, but you just blanch these a bit longer.

Yes. And so put the leaves in.

We cooked some lentils before. Lentils with garlic, sage and water, about 20 minutes.

You're using the little puy lentils that we've got here?

These are puy lentils. There are loads of lentils on the market.

You can get Castelluccio lentils, Italian lentils.

They're a bit lighter in colour but they're the ones you get most in the supermarkets and delis.

They cook quite quickly, don't they?

They cook quickly. There's no need to soak them.

-Yep.

-I think oil and a bit of lemon is the best thing for them, really.

So the pancetta's starting to fry a bit.

You get this really nice smell from the pancetta. The sage is cooking in the fat of the pancetta.

Then while we're doing that, we're going to slice a bit of garlic. Thank you.

You can smell it already, can't you?

Yeah.

A bit of olive oil in the pan for the chard.

-These won't take very long.

-Just fry them off.

Soften the garlic. Add chilli. That gives it a kick, which is nice with the chard.

That's it.

Quick toss.

I love the fact that everything's in the pan.

It's all about ingredients, pure flavour.

It's all very quick, quick, quick.

-I like that.

-It's all on a four gas... You don't need a huge great stove to do it.

Get some chard in.

There's your chard, strained off.

Add that to it.

Straight in there. Lovely.

Got the pancetta there. We're going to put the liver in.

A bit of butter with liver is really nice.

-It adds that sweet flavour you want.

-OK.

This liver doesn't take long to cook at all. What are you looking at?

-A minute each side.

-A minute each side. That's it.

Do you think that's a common mistake? A lot of people would put flour on this, as well.

Flour would completely ruin it.

-I'm just going to get a slight bit of colour onto it.

-Yep.

There's a sink behind you.

Put that out of the way so you can see.

So if you squeeze a lemon into those lentils.

-Squeeze a lemon into the lentils.

-Yep.

-So the secret of the liver is a really hot pan?

Really hot pan. Make sure the butter goes a light golden colour.

You're cooking it in the same pan as the pancetta.

All the fat from the pancetta goes through the liver

and it adds more seasoning and creates more flavour to it.

Do you cook much liver in the restaurant?

Yes, I serve a lot of liver. It's very popular, actually.

Spring, summer time, I love liver.

-A lot of restaurants don't do it.

-I don't know why. They're scared of doing it.

-I think you've got to love liver.

-I love offal, full stop.

I prefer the innards to the outtards!

Great. Lovely.

-Right. OK.

-So then we need some balsamic vinegar.

-These are your lentils. Do you want me to season those?

-Yes, please.

Salt and pepper.

These are great warm in salads, too, aren't they, lentils?

-Not just...

-I mean, salads are very nice,

or even on their own, just cold, with some nice herbs.

Very nice with chopped parsley and chilli or something.

OK. I'm going to put this gorgeous green chard on there.

You're only saying they're good for you cos you've got these two sat next to you!

-I'm being a good boy.

-I've been to your restaurant. You put double cream...

Even better with half a pound of butter on it!

Get this liver in the pan.

-Smells good.

-Lovely. Sweet, beautiful.

It's that caramelisation on the liver that I love as well.

Lovely pancetta.

-You need to get colour on it, don't you?

-Yeah.

Pancetta on the top.

Sage.

This is kind of like a little sauce to go with it, this one.

I'll deglaze the pan with some balsamic. Not too much. But a good quality one.

If you don't, you tend to get a slightly nasty vinegar taste.

Lentils in there. Thank you.

-Do you use a lot of different vinegars?

-Balsamic, yeah, red wine vinegar.

Not many aroma ones, just the basic ones.

It's nice just to have a knob of creme fraiche at the top.

Gives it that extra creaminess.

That creates its own sauce in the juices from the pan. Just strained off the fat.

Very simple.

Clean that little blob. Theo, that looks fantastic.

-Remind us again.

-Pan-fried calf's liver, pancetta, sage, lentils and chard.

Cooked in about six minutes. As easy as that.

Theo, that does look amazing.

It looks delicious. A proper meal. There we go.

Do you want chips with this, Tim?

I think we should start at the other end!

I think that's a good idea!

Liver particularly, I think the golden rule is don't overcook it.

This is probably one of Tim's pet hates.

Yeah, because it goes tough and livery. It has that kind of slightly...

-Gorgeous.

-Is it nice?

-Absolutely gorgeous.

Particularly with the balsamic... Sorry, Stuart. You're not getting any!

It should have a pinkness all the way through, unless you want it well done.

These lentils, you hardly seemed to cook them at all.

-They were already done!

-You weren't paying that much attention!

They were boiled with garlic and sage and dressed with oil and lemon.

-It's quick as well.

-About 25 minutes.

-It's really tender!

That went down a treat. Now it's time for a trip to the north-west of France

because Keith Floyd is in Brittany.

He's in the mood for cooking, but there's bound to be wine involved somewhere!

# When you're visiting St Malo

# You just have to see the sights

# Busy old time in the morning

# And by night the harbour lights

# It is famous for its vistas, It is famous for its views

# There's a brilliance of the colour

# A diversity of views

# There's the vast fortifications

# And the picturesque old quays

# With amazing panorama and the prospects such as these

# You'd not credit they exist

# Lost in all this bloody mist! #

That was, of course, The Nearly OK Corral, the boys from Clifton being very witty.

I understand. Know what I mean?

But this little caff nestling in the cobbled streets of St Malo

was a source of inspiration to me.

Jacques Ives and his dad, who's got more war stories than Gunga Din,

are creating a little mapette of Brittany, the classic assiette de fruits de mer,

a riot of colour and flavour from lobsters to winkles,

from clams to crabs, mussels to prawns and cockles to orsin.

From dust to dust and ashes to ashes.

But the sea urchin, that gently perfumed prickly egg

that tastes like a moonbeam on a calm sea is superb.

Expensive, of course, in a restaurant, but you could pick a lot from the shores yourself.

Forget the lobster. Have a feast on cockles, winkles, mussels and clams.

And perhaps the odd crab or two.

There's a lot more to Brittany cooking than just plates of seafood and pancakes.

Brittany hasn't always been a rich and prosperous tourist area.

The real people here eat simple, humble things,

like this amazing dish Jacques and I are going to cook for you today.

It's the same kind of dish as a Lancashire hot-pot

or as the boiled bacon and cabbage as you find in Ireland.

It's very complicated, it takes hours to do.

We're far too busy. We've a half-hour programme to demonstrate the whole thing properly.

I'm bound to cheat, we're bound to have a little glass in-between times.

This is Jacques. You might have met him a few years ago in a wonderful series called Floyd on Fish.

We've returned to cook this brilliant dish.

Jacques, while we much about with all of these things,

you've got about two minutes to explain how, this dish, where it comes from,

-why we're doing it. And we've got to fill this up as well.

-OK.

Watch all this. You can find out - turn to page 76 of my brilliant new book

for the exact details.

Where does this dish come from?

It used to be an old farmers' dish,

cooked by women in the fireplace.

And it's supposed to be a very poor dish.

Because everything you need for that course is supposed to be at the farm.

But, um...

-Let's see. That's it.

-You tie it up. That's a bit boring, all of that.

It's an old peasant dish, OK? We're doing it very quickly in this brilliant half-hour programme.

Throw that away. That, by the way, is buckwheat flour, eggs, butter, cream and milk all whisked up.

Made like a Christmas pudding, made like a dumpling.

In the meantime, what we do, Clive, is we have this brilliant piece of beef,

these bones of beef, and we pop those into simmering hot water.

I don't know if you can see that from here.

They go in there for, ooh, about four-and-a-half hours to simmer very, very slowly

to get a lovely rich juice.

Also, imagine, please - out the way, Jacques, please!

-Sorry!

-Imagine, please, that has now been simmering for two-and-a-half hours.

OK? Cos it has.

So we put in some onions. One, two, three.

Four onions. A couple of little turnips.

A few carrots and a few leeks.

And we let that simmer for about 20 minutes.

20 minutes has passed. Clever, isn't it?

Cos we then put in the cabbage. Brittany is famous for its cabbages and cauliflowers.

They go in there like that.

Now that has happened two-and-a-half hours ago.

At the same time, in this big boiling pot,

we've got water - passez-moi le sac, s'il tu plait -

we have this dumpling which we put in there, but we don't.

-We pass that to the director.

-Thank you very much!

-And we pass it back!

-Who would not get into the World Cup this year!

Hey, what are you doing about this? You just forgot it!

Good Lord! Awfully sorry, I forgot to put the smoked bacon and the sausages in.

They go in and simmer with the dumplings for the last hour or so.

At the same time, these lovely dumplings have been cooked.

OK?

Clive, where are you? Can you still see me?

Let me show you what happens at the end of all that.

You have...these brilliant pieces of meat...

cabbage and vegetables.

Look at that.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

The cameraman's telling me to lift it up. There's the beef cooked.

OK? There's the clear consomme which you eat as a soup before you have the dish.

There's the cabbage which you'll remember we added almost at the end of the cooking.

There are the carrots and the little swedes.

It's rather brilliant, isn't it?

What we'll do now is amuse ourselves. Go and weed the garden,

read your cookery books, do your yoga and we'll dish it up and you can taste it.

Well, there you are.

OK, Clive, long, loving pan right across this.

The smoked bacon, the rib of beef,

the smoked sausages, the little turnips,

little carrots, cabbage and this splendid dumpling.

It's a wonderfully simple dish.

It's typical all over France, this kind of long-cooked dish

containing very simple ingredients, like the choucroute in Alsace.

But why are we so ashamed in Britain of the wonderful things we do?

Like the Hank... Lancashire hot-pot. Not the Hankashire hot-pot!

It's exactly the same kind of thing. We'll do that in my next series.

Anyway, this is a peasant farmers' dish.

Do you know, curiously enough, and believe me or believe me not,

you do not eat this with wine or cider or beer.

You drink it with milk.

I was drinking milk with my friend Jacques Ives

who I met two years ago where this series, Floyd on France was created.

One night, we were sipping our milk. Late winter evening, nothing else to do.

A little honey, slightly warm, cold night.

And we planned Floyd on France. Good night!

Oh, dear, he's done it again!

There's a cameraman in the tree.

All I'm trying to do is a little cooking sequence,

a light lunch for some friends of mine.

I know you expect to find me in the posh restaurants and posh kitchens of fine hotels,

but sometimes it's nice to come to a family, and that's what we've done.

Because the director is really obsessed with architecture,

he chose this house not because it's got a wonderful kitchen,

in fact, the kitchen isn't all that good, really,

but he loves the shape of the building.

So here I am. If it's not too much trouble for you, Clive,

come out of the blinking tree and come into the kitchen.

Is that all right with you? Good. See you in a moment.

Ah, good. Thank you very much.

I'm cooking Sunday lunch for my friends Michelle and Henri.

It's a superb and classic Brittany dish, chicken roasted in cider.

They've never heard of it! Typical!

Anyway, Clive, come over here. We're roasting a chicken. I'll explain that in a second.

I'm going to serve it with stuffed apples. Baked apples stuffed with walnuts and raisins.

You'll see all of this later on. That's one part of it.

I'm going to serve it with a vegetable of fresh artichoke, absolutely cleaned out,

just the heart and the lovely little leaves. Come here a bit, Clive.

Stuffed with what we call a jardiniere des legumes,

little peas, lettuce, carrots, young baby turnips and stuff like that.

And it'll be sort of like this.

You'll see all of this later

because film is very expensive

and the director's much happier taking pictures of houses and architecture than cooking bits.

Like that. OK? Right.

While you were out playing in the garden,

I was busy in the oven here. Come on down, Clive.

I've got the chicken, which is free range. Actually, two of them.

Two free-range farmers' chickens

roasting in butter on a bed of chopped shallots and chopped carrots.

At this stage, I need to put some splendid Brittany cider in.

This will help me to make a sauce

later on, of creamy cider and Calvados.

So that must now go in the kitchen - no, not the kitchen, it's the oven!

We all know that. For another three-quarters of an hour or so. Something like that.

So if you'd like to cut now, turn round,

you'll find Henri and Michelle busily preparing the hors d'oeuvre.

SPEAKS FRENCH

What are you actually making, Henri?

A tuna fish salad

with tuna, des oignons,

-onions.

-Onions.

Chou-fleur.

Cauliflower.

Concombre.

Tomates.

Quelque capres.

-Pour le gout.

-Oui.

Et puis, je fais un petit vinaigrette.

Attention! Chaud!

Female dragon!

That's the rice. Going to be rice in it as well?

C'est lourd.

HENRI SPEAKS FRENCH

It's quite interesting here, actually,

how, the thing I'm always talking about that cooking is a family affair,

these two are cooking together.

They've kept the kids out cos they're noisy and trip over the camera and stuff,

but normally, they'd be peeling things and doing stuff.

That's true, Henri? Everybody likes to cook in this house.

Everybody likes to eat also!

Also we don't have a lot of time

so that's why usually the children help us.

Why are you cooking langoustine for lunch?

Because it's the quickest meal you can find.

And I'm very lazy.

And usually, in Brittany,

very often we begin by langoustine.

They are fresh, they are nice, they are easy to cook.

The only thing you have to know

is that you mustn't leave them to cook too long.

-How long, exactly?

-Well, you see the water was boiling.

And you put them in water boiling with some salt.

-Sea salt.

-Yes, sea salt.

And then you wait for the first boiling.

-And that's all.

-That's it?

Because if you leave them a little longer, they will be soft and not good to eat.

-Right.

-So you must stay on your langoustine.

-It just takes a minute.

-Fine.

-So that's nice for me!

You like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, don't you?

Well, yes, usually about ten minutes!

HE LAUGHS

No, we like to eat, but we don't have a lot of time to make.

All the family is coming in the kitchen at the same time.

While the children are putting the table on,

I'm doing something, my husband is doing something else.

And in ten minutes, everything is OK.

That's because you've got fine Brittany fresh ingredients?

Yes, that's the idea.

Because as you see,

Henri is making sometimes in summer time tuna fish salad.

Because we have a nice garden. A lot of things are coming from the garden.

It is not expensive to use the vegetables of the garden.

Things like that.

Langoustine are very fresh, very easy to cook.

So it can make a very nice meal very easily.

Who does the shopping in this household?

The one who has time. Usually, it's Henri!

HE LAUGHS

They must be about ready now?

Ca va. They are all boiling and there is a sort of white cream on it.

Then they are ready. You just stop.

And then...

Wait. Hot.

There you are.

And it's ready! We just need a dish now.

Henri?

Henri's dropped a boo-boo. He hasn't got the plate ready!

Mother's going to be furious!

Non, il est trop petit.

Non, non.

Un autre?

Non.

Ah, oui. OK.

Well, it's finished.

The mayonnaise on top of that.

We do the mayonnaise. We take five minutes, not more.

Well, two minutes, not more. It's ready to eat.

Because it is very nice only if it is not cold.

It is much, much nicer when they are just cooked.

OK? We do the mayonnaise now.

En France, on ne peut pas manger la bouche pleine.

No. Ni parler avec la bouche pleine!

Voila!

SPEAKS FRENCH

-Tiens.

-Non.

-He is shy.

-Very shy. I am very shy.

I will show you.

Anyway, the time has come for me to go.

Life isn't just one happy round of langoustines. I have to carry on cooking.

These wonderful people won't get to eat unless I bring in my dish.

So I'm off to do that. You carry on, all of you. Just enjoy yourselves.

I've got to do the hard work!

'We let this sequence with all the munching and the crunching run on a bit,

'because I was so enjoying lunch.

'I completely forgot the camera and really felt at home here.

'That's what the French are all about.

Food is family and sharing.'

Slight snack. This is a little dish which I hope you'll enjoy enormously.

Clive, have a look at that. That is my sweated labour this morning.

While they've been eating langoustines, the director's been up trees, I've been cooking.

What I want to do, for the benefit of everybody, is to recap on how this was cooked.

It's a simple roast chicken on a bed of roast shallots and onions and carrots roasted in butter.

Then I poured cider into it. Then it cooked for about an hour.

Then I put cored apple which I stuffed with walnuts and sultanas and sugar,

baked those in the oven,

put them round the chicken, then I strained off all the liquid

reduced it, mixed in some double cream and some butter,

and strained it through a sieve over the sauce

and I made that myself, OK.

And even the Brittany people have never even heard of this dish

and yet it's a classic Brittany dish.

Here, quite simply, some fresh vegetables stewed with bacon, carrots, little turnips,

lettuce and stuff like that in no water at all, just butter.

Then filled into the cleaned out shells of artichokes.

So that's what I've done. You can all have a lovely time. Bon appetit!

Monsieur. On va manger?

Tres bien. Je ne sais pas si c'est bon,

mais ca sens bon.

'He's saying here, it smells good, let's hope it tastes good.

Usual doubting Thomas routine!

Anyway, it was a success, although they'd never heard of my Brittany chicken and cider dish.

Anyway, we finished with cheese and the classic tarte aux pommes.

It wasn't a difficult lunch to cook, just a harmonious melange of fresh produce and love.

Yum-yum!

C'est tres bon!

Mmm!

Tres bon.

MAN SPEAKS FRENCH

That was classic stuff. We're not cooking live in the studio today.

Instead, we're enjoying some of the tasty treats from the Saturday Kitchen recipe book.

Still to come on today's Best Bites:

Kenny Atkinson and Jose Pizarro are competitive in the Saturday Kitchen omelette challenge.

You can see the results a little later on.

Marcus Wareing cooks an incredible dish involving succulent milk-fed lamb.

He slowly cooks the lamb and serves it with seared baby little gem lettuce,

borlotti beans, courgettes and ewes' milk cheese.

And EastEnder actress Patsy Palmer leaves Albert Square for a while

as she faces her Food Heaven or Food Hell.

Would she get her Food Heaven, strawberries with delicate strawberry mille feuilles

with strawberry sauce, or Food Hell, smoked salmon with smoked salmon and spinach puff pastry tart

served with watercress pesto and a watercress and walnut salad?

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

Now it's time for a taste of some really good cooking, thanks to Chris Galvin.

Get ready to be impressed. I was!

-Great to have you on.

-Thank you very much.

Now, tell us what we're cooking.

We're going to grill some red mullet fillets. Beautiful small fillets.

-We're going to sear some squid with some garlic.

-Lovely.

We're going to make a salad of flat parsley, shallots,

some orzo pasta...

-Orzo is this sort of rice-shaped...

-It's a rice-shaped pasta.

-Which is fun. We'll cook it in a little saffron stock.

-Yep.

Some baby capers, super-fine capers,

black olives and shallots.

What's this one here?

-A pepper.

-Yeah, that's your job, James.

OK. Do I need to take the skin off that first?

Skin it, we'll cut it into strips and put it in the salad.

-What's first, then? Fire away.

-First job is to grill the fish.

I think people are intimidated by cooking fish sometimes.

This is a great way to start cooking.

Fish that's not too thick. Certainly fillets like this,

just put it on the grill and it'll cook in about two minutes.

Very simple.

First, we'll take some olive oil.

-I use a regular olive oil to cook with.

-Yeah.

There's a misconception here that people go out and spend a lot of money

on extra virgin oil, then they cook it and ruin it.

Yeah.

Cos extra virgin olive oil can react with heat

but it also reacts with light.

So you buy it in a dark bottle.

If you buy it in a light bottle and keep it on a windowsill, it can go off.

I'm not sure it interferes with the flavour. That beautiful green is something else

when you see a beautiful fruity oil.

I'm just checking the pin bones are taken out.

But the extra virgin oil, we use to finish a dish.

That's where the flavours are.

If you heat it, all that fruit goes. It's an absolute waste.

Tell us a bit about red mullet. You can get it most of the year round.

I think where Graeme comes from there's some beautiful mullet.

From around the islands there.

And they say down in Weymouth,

the sea would turn a brilliant sunrise red years ago

there were so many mullet in the sea.

Unfortunately, they're not there any more.

But they still come from Cornwall, Dorset, we catch them round the British Isles.

-OK.

-OK. We'll brush the tops of the those with a bit of oil.

-I'll do that for you.

-Thank you very much.

You can prep your squid.

Then we're going to take the squid. Here we've got the baby squid.

I'll show you how to clean this.

We separate the head from the tail.

Eugh! My kids would love that!

Yes. Kept the eyes for your kids!

They've got big eyes on this.

Save the eyes for Graeme's kids!

Does it have to be baby squid, or can you use larger squid?

You can use larger squid, but you'd have to cook it very, very quickly

or you'd need to braise it for a while to get it tender again.

So the baby squid is nice and sweet

and a beautiful caramel comes off it.

-I'll stick that under the grill.

-Yes, about two minutes, James.

Two minutes. OK. We've got our squid.

Can I chop something? I'll prep the garlic for you.

What we need to do is slice the garlic.

And we'll blanch that in some water, just to take off the sinews off the garlic.

Then we'll fry it till it's nice and brown and crispy, with the squid.

It cooks very, very quickly.

Tell us about your restaurant in London.

You're cooking with your brother, are you?

Yeah, unbelievably! The nice thing is, cooking with a younger brother, he does what he's told!

Right. You cook in one restaurant and he cooks in another?

We cook together. We've never had a cross word in our lives.

-Is that why you cook in separate restaurants?

-Yeah, it is now!

Am I right, you look out of your restaurant,

it's in a fantastic location right on the top of the Hilton Hotel.

One of the most beautiful views in London, for a restaurant?

Yeah, we look down onto Baker Street.

-So you can see him?

-I keep my eye on him!

-So I'm just literally blanching the garlic, just to take the harshness out?

-That can come out now.

You need to get the water off cos it's going into hot oil.

We don't want to create a fire.

The pan's hot here. It's full of squid now.

It needs to get very, very hot. Get some olive oil in. Go with the garlic.

Then the squid. Meantime, we'll get the salad together.

We drop it in while it's warm.

Now, we mentioned, we were on about travels and stuff.

You travel a lot. Where do you get your influences with food from?

Predominantly around France, yeah.

I'm a bit of a bore. I go round and round France.

But it's such a big country, so many beautiful regions,

that I never tire of it.

How do you feel about French food?

Are they keeping up with everything else that's happening, or..?

Absolutely. There are some really exciting young French chefs coming up.

It's constantly evolving.

Problem is, you can't reinvent the wheel.

-There are some beautiful combinations that are time-honoured.

-Classic French food is fabulous.

Absolutely. As Graeme says, it's important we look at food to make sure it's clean,

light, we eat in a different way to years ago.

So we're going to get them almost from smoking.

I'm also going to anoint this dish, we're going to finish this dish,

with some Bagnoles wine which comes from the south-west of France.

It's a fortified wine

where there's a wine spirit added to it that stops it fermenting.

It just leaves some residual sugar.

So rather than the ubiquitous balsamic,

we're going to have some Bagnoles wine which is reduced here in the pan.

-It's come down nicely.

-Not too dissimilar to balsamic.

The oak barrels to mature.

That's right, but it has very much its own flavour.

You can serve it with some foie gras to start, or you can serve it with a dessert.

Have you heard of the Bagnoles wine, Ains?

I was thinking back. As soon as you said it,

it takes me back to visiting a few places and trying it.

It's quite intense, isn't it, Chris?

It is. It's deep. This is a three-year old Bagnoles.

As it gets older, the flavours develop

-and you start to get candied fruits coming into it.

-Yeah.

And almost a cocoa tobacco flavour ten years or more.

Then it gets a bit expensive, then. But a three-year-old is nice.

Fish is under the grill, chef.

It's out of the grill, Ains. It's out of the grill.

ALL SPEAK AT ONCE

See what I mean? Interfering! Interfering, see?

It's a joke, OK?

-Get the squid on.

-Here we go.

So, in with the garlic.

Now, the secret is with squid, what? Very, very quick cooking?

Very, very fast. Now I'm going to draft the rest of the ingredients.

And this is where the simplicity comes in.

Black olives, fine capers...

The orzo. It's a beautiful colour.

That pasta is fantastic when you cook it with saffron.

I feel like I'm working back in a kitchen here!

Graeme, where's your knife?

Get yourself over here, Ainsley!

Right. I'm going in with the squid now. The pan is nice and hot.

Do you want me to segment this lemon?

-Just leave some segments of lemon there.

-Right.

-A hot pan, then(!)

-Very hot!

It's fine. If you're doing this at home, do it outside!

Or watch your curtains! But it does need to be a very hot pan.

Yep. It happens all the time.

We have a window in the bistro

where customers look in and see a bit of fire going on.

They love it. My brother does it on purpose!

Drops a bit of water in there, a bit more flame!

The salad's coming together now.

-We've got the segments there.

-I'm going as quick as I can.

-Olives.

-There's your segments.

There's your plate.

That red mullet, very, very quick to cook, isn't it?

Very quickly. And it's a nice, light dish.

Here's the squid. That's as much as you need on the squid, James.

Drop it in now.

The squid goes in right at the last minute.

-It'll start making the salad collapse if you're not careful.

-Lovely.

Give it a stir.

-I'll get the fish slice.

-Bring the Bagnoles over.

-The fish.

-That's fantastic, that glaze!

-Can't wait to taste that.

-Little bit of seasoning.

Lift that over there.

I'll put the red mullet there for you. There you go.

Look at that. The colours are fantastic, aren't they?

Where's this idea come from?

-I must admit, I stole this from a two-star restaurant in the south of France.

-You nicked it!

Yes!

So this one won't be in your book.

-You're compiling a book.

-I'm writing a book with my brother.

We have a bistro cookbook.

-It's dishes we like.

-Yep.

And a bit of a diary. Stories from the kitchen.

-A coffee table book.

-He's giving you a run for your money, Ains.

-You've got a new one out.

-Absolutely.

I'll see you at the book signings, Chris!

Just drizzle a bit of the Bagnoles around.

Remind us what that is again?

This is grilled red mullet with parsley, lemons, olives,

and seared squid.

Colour speaks for itself. Delicious.

OK. I don't know about you guys. I'm having this one!

There you go, Graeme.

-Come over here.

-I tell you I'm impoverished.

I'm going to try everything first.

Dive in. Dive in.

I'll try a bit of salad first.

The girls were just asking, Doreen was just saying,

what type of fish would you go with this?

-The squid salad is fantastic.

-Any oily fish.

You can go from the expensive end, sea bass,

some tuna, but equally I use sardines, mackerel.

Even some shellfish. Some grilled prawns, scallops.

-It lends itself...

-I love that...

-It's very quick

and if you cook at home for a dinner party, you lay the salad out. There's no fear on the dish.

But don't put the dressing on too soon. And don't add the squid. It'll wilt it all down.

-It's a last-minute job.

-Have a taste. The glaze is delicious.

That's perfect for summer dining.

Both Kenny Atkinson and Jose Pizarro

had to pull their socks up if they wanted a decent time on the omelette challenge leader board.

But would they manage it? Let's find out.

-Kenny, on the board with 34.76 seconds. Not bad.

-It's not good.

Not good, either! Jose, 28 seconds.

With .88 over there. Not too bad. Middle of the board.

I think you can go quicker. Let's put the clocks on the screens. Ready?

Three egg omelettes to cook. Get your hands out!

Three, two, one, go!

GONG

-GONG

-At least I can eat one of them!