East Sussex The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain

-We're the hairy bikers.

-We're on the road to find regional recipes.

We're riding coast to coast to discover, cook and enjoy the best of British. Come on.

We're here to define the trust taste of East Sussex.

Oh, look at that, Dave.

It's beautiful, man.

I don't know too much about East Sussex except that to Londoners

-it used to be seen as an escape to the sea.

-It's fabulous, isn't it?

Yeah. And the landscape, it comes at you in layers, doesn't it?

You're right, Dave. you've got the delicious sea just over there.

You've got the most wonderful salt marshes. I mean, it's a superb location.

You can't help but get good food with that kind of environment,

a bit of sophistication and a bit of the big-town culture creeping in.

-It's got to be a winner, hasn't it?

-It has. Let's dive in.

-Let's go.

On our quest to define the true flavours of East Sussex, we head for the seaside.

We cook up a hearty dish for a rowdy crowd.

A turnip.

-Swede.

-Swede down south.

-Swede. Swede.

-They're at it again!

We toast a world champion sparkling wine maker, who's growing grapes right here on the Sussex Downs.

We stuff ourselves with Rye scallops and find out all kinds of wonderful ways to serve them.

And representing East Sussex in the cook-off is Ross Pavey.

Will we be able to beat him using the county's finest ingredients?

On our way to Lewes, we came across the village of Pet.

Our luck was in because locals run their own mini market every Saturday morning.

Yes. What a find. That's great, isn't it?

It's on my doorstep. Very lucky.

You are. Fabulous. What have you got?

Rye bread. And this is a proper cheesecake.

Stops people going to the supermarket, doesn't it?

Well, look at that scented geranium and apple jelly. Pickled pumpkin.

They don't have to get in to their cars. Lovely sunny day.

Go for a walk and set themselves up for the week.

What do you reckon is like the most famous dish, the signature dish of East Sussex?

-Well, there's banoffee pie.

-Banoffee pie.

-Yeah.

-Is that Sussex?

That was invented at The Hungry Monk Restaurant in Jevington.

-Wonder where they get the bananas from for that, though.

-They're not locally grown.

You've blown it now, haven't you? See you.

Bye.

On to Lewes, the biggest town in East Sussex. It's steeped in history.

Anne of Cleves used to live here. Are there any real typical Sussex dishes?

The Sussex smokey which is obviously from the sea...

-Yeah.

-..with smoked haddock.

My grandfather used to go out fishing in Brighton in the old boat

and come back with loads of cod and bits of...

-Lovely. Lovely.

-I love a bit of skate.

Nice bit of skate. Good.

-It's good, here. Oh...

-Sussex cheeses.

Say Cheese is THE place to go for all things fromage.

There are so many local varieties, but there's one that has really caught our eye.

This is obviously not from this cheese, but it's a cheese, same age, same batch.

-You get a distinct fruity aroma when you take...

-Yes, you do.

-Yes.

-The European Court of Justice, in 2008, said I cannot call it Parmesan.

I must call it Farmer's Hand. Now, say Farmer's Hand three times quickly.

-Farmer's Hand. Farmer's Hand. Farmer's Hand.

-You're there.

-It sounds very much like...

-Parmesan.

-What I can't call it.

-All Parmesan of high quality is an eating cheese.

-Yes, it is.

Whereas in Britain, it's always considered as a cooking cheese.

-Well, it's a fabulous cheese.

-Yeah.

Quite apart from whatever you decide to call it.

'We have to take away some of their fab produce. It's so good.

'It might come in handy later.'

-What are the ingredients of the county?

-Good lamb, isn't there?

-Yes. Very good.

-Lamb.

You can't get any better lamb anywhere else in the world.

-Really. Why's the lamb so good here?

-Cos it's feeds off the Downs.

Bill's, the local produce down there, is a fantastic grocer's

that's got a rich variety of Sussex produce.

-Hello, Bill.

-Nice to meet you, Dave.

Bill Collison's run a shop on this site for 20 years.

He's passionate about supporting local farms and produce of his county.

-You're the man to talk to about Sussex food.

-I know a bit. Lived here all my life.

-What does East Sussex mean to you?

-We've got the salt marsh lamb, which is amazing, and the scallops...

They're Rye, aren't they?

We've got the best sweet corn in the country.

And we've got great strawberry fields.

We've got some lovely apple orchards, good cherry orchards.

-Yeah.

-As the seasons go on, we get a bit more sunshine and there'll be loads of it.

-We get people bringing stuff in from their allotments, little farmers and everyone wants to grow.

-Lovely.

Lamb is obviously a firm favourite in East Sussex.

What gives it such a fantastic flavour are the salt marshes, here.

We need to get some local lamb to cook with and we think we've found just the man to help us.

'Todd Cameron was born and bred in East Sussex and runs Food For Thought,

'breeding hundreds of ewes on the Romney Marshes.'

My word, this is a proper rural idyll, isn't it?

You've got a little soupcon for us?

-We have put something together.

-God bless you.

-Our salt marsh organic lamb.

What cut of the lamb is this?

This is rump of lamb, the chump. The actual meat, itself... you'll notice very different subtle flavours.

I'll give you a little piece each, so you actually taste it in its raw form before you adulterate it

-with anything else.

-Oh, yeah. Salt, straightaway.

And no salt has actually been added to this, at all. It's actually the natural flavour.

-Texture is great, soft.

-Normally you only find Romney Marsh sheep here,

but we went for a Welsh Mountain and crossed it with the Hampshire Down.

You have intravenous fat layers that run through the muscle structure,

so it stays nice and moist. Even if you crucify it cooking it, it stays moist in the middle.

It really is absolutely superb.

-One doorstep.

-Thank you.

Yes.

-Yes.

-OK.

LAUGHTER

There goes my supper, then.

The delicacy of a carthorse.

-You, however...

-Mm. That is so tender.

Could you show us where the lamb comes from?

No problem at all.

So, Todd, why is it that that lamb makes for a better tasting lamb?

It was originally sea.

Sea is reclaimed back from marshland over years and years and years.

The salt coming across over the top of the sea wall almost contaminates the top part of the actual grass.

Winchelsea originally had a couple of monasteries and they had herb gardens.

But Henry VIII destroyed them and we now have about 400 years' worth of herb-infested pasture

-from the original herb gardens.

-Wow. Magic, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Magic lamb.

-Magic lamb.

-All through into your meat.

-Indeed.

-If you're going to cook one thing that says Sussex, it's got to be this?

-Yeah.

-But should be a nice old recipe, shouldn't it?

-Just old-fashioned good comfortable food.

-Brilliant.

-We'll do it justice, Todd.

Brighton. And the bracing sea air.

You know you're at the seaside when you see a pier. Lovely.

Lovely. Tell you what, Kingy, good East Sussex salt marsh lamb.

And we're going to cook it here within a whiff of the sea.

We're making salt marsh lamb stew with barley and root vegetables.

Let's get cooking.

Isn't it great? We're at the seaside.

# Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside,

# Oh, I do like to be beside the sea

# Oh, I do like to stroll upon the prom, prom, prom

# Where the band starts playing Tiddly om-pom-pom. #

Don't go all Sex Pistols on us! Look, we're trying to sing something nice.

Now, then, one of the most iconic things in East Sussex grub, that's your salt marsh lamb.

And the lamb shank is at the bottom bit of a leg of lamb.

One of the most traditional ways to cook lamb is with barley.

Now then, what we're going to do, just very, very lightly season these lovely lamb shanks.

I've put some oil in the frying pan. It might be a bit hot because we want to sear them.

Now, the other good point to make about meat is before you cook it, bring it up to room temperature.

Never cook it straight out of the fridge,

cos it's like you coming straight out of a snowdrift into a very hot shower.

One thing we've found out with lamb and cooking lamb is some cuts of lamb, they're great pink -

the rump, the loin's good. But other cuts like the shanks, the shoulder, they need cooking for ages.

And it'd be nice to have a bit of garlic in it as well, cos garlic and lamb's lovely, isn't it?

-Oh, let's have four cloves. How we getting on?

-We're doing fine. The onions need to be sweated down.

A little bit of sea salt. I'm going to grind that with the garlic to make a garlic paste.

You see the salt acts as an abrasive, which grinds the garlic to mush.

And we have this lovely garlic paste and you can never use your chopping board again

cos everything you do is going to reek of garlic.

-But it's worth it.

-Aye.

It's important the onions don't brown.

Well, you put them in a hot pan. I mean, you know...

I know, but it's your pan.

-They're golden brown. Not dark.

-Yes.

-The other great ingredient with lamb... a turnip.

-Swede.

Look, it's not a swede!

-They're at it again!

-Swede.

-Swede down south.

-A turnip is white.

-No.

I'm a country man, so I should know, and I work on a farm.

I don't care whether you're from bloomin' Mars. That's a turnip.

-A swede is white.

-It's a swede.

What you doing with this dish, the lamb shank and barley?

Any root vegetable you get your hands on will do smashing.

-Are we agreed this is a carrot?

-Yeah.

Right. We're just going to put these onions into the lamb shanks.

Now, at this point, you can put the garlic in. The turnips can go in.

-Swede.

-Foundation of all good stew.

A couple of pints of good chicken stock.

Couple of bay leaves.

Another classic with lamb, some rosemary.

That'll do.

And some thyme.

Finely chop the thyme.

Now, to the barley. Just put a handful...

Madam, you look as if you've got small hands. Come here.

Give me two handfuls.

Go on. Go on. Right in the pot.

-And again.

-Again.

-And another.

-Three's a bad number. Put four in.

-Four in.

LAUGHTER

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

Lastly, just for a bit more flavour, one big tablespoon...tomato puree.

Give that a whisk. Bit of seasoning.

And then you get a very large Geordie to stir it.

-Only a minute.

-Now, the lamb shank needs to be cooked for ages

and it's one of those dishes you can cook all day and it'll be lovely when you get home.

So, let's put it in the oven for a minimum of about four or five hours.

Thought you were going to get fed, didn't you?

But in the words of the great Fanny Craddock...

-ALL:

-Here's one I prepared earlier.

-Absolutely. Oh, look at that.

-Beautiful.

-Look.

-Just one lamb shank?

-No, there's six there. It's exactly the same as we've just done.

-You're starting to irritate me you, now.

She's been irritating me for 50 years.

Have you been together for 50 years?

-Not quite.

-Congratulations.

-Not far off.

-That's fantastic.

-What are you doing for your golden wedding? We are available for catering.

Yeah. That, bar mitzvahs. Anything.

We haven't finished yet cos we want to finish off the sauce with some parsley and mint jelly.

So what we have to do before that is to take the shanks out and just let them to rest.

The barley's swelled up.

It's a proper thick stew, so really we just need this,

the lamb shanks and some good crusty bread.

And as if by magic...

It's nice to finish off a stew like this with a jelly.

We've got mint jelly. There's blackcurrant jelly.

-Let's go with the mint.

-All right, mate.

Do you want to do that and sort the seasoning out? Cos now we can chuck the season in.

We just want to finish that off with some nice fresh parsley.

You put the fresh herbs like this in at the end cos you don't want to stew the parsley in with it.

For a little bit of sweetness...

-Finish that off now with the parsley.

-Get it in. It's great.

Now, then, at this point, we turn the lamb shanks.

If the lamb shanks fall to bits, it doesn't matter cos all that meat's going to absorb the juices

and it's going to be, like, gorge.

That can just sit now for as long as you like. And we'll plate one up.

-That beauty.

-Oh, yes.

This is equally beautiful. Isn't that barley fab?

Look at that lovely swede.

LAUGHTER

Just put a few more lumps of turnip on.

Really good rustic bread, just for dunking and scraping.

-That's a proper dinner.

-And there we have it.

A taste of East Sussex on a plate.

May it stick to your ribs forever.

Thank you.

Oh, what a hearty and wholesome dish.

It's brimming with flavour. Let's get the verdict of the Brighton locals.

Here you go. Help yourselves. Time for a taste.

You can really taste the lamb in it. The lamb's beautiful. And the jelly at the end of it. Really nice.

-Good wholesome flavours.

-What do you reckon?

-Delicious.

-I love the consistency of the barley. It really makes it.

The sweetness of the lamb and the turnip.

Yeah, thank you, madam.

So many different flavours going on here. It's brilliant.

-Do you like the barley?

-I do, actually, and I've never eaten barley before.

-Yeah?

-No.

-It's her, Kingy!

-What's this white thing?

-That's barley.

-I like the pearl barley.

I haven't tasted that for years and years.

I've got a horrible cold and this is the best thing that's happened all week!

This is one of our favourite county dishes so far.

Such tasty lamb and it works so well with the barley.

As always, we're taking on one of the county's top chefs

in their restaurant, using local ingredients to see who can best define the taste of the region.

It will be up to the local diners to decide whose dish best represents the true flavours of East Sussex.

Our opponent today is...

..head chef of Moonrakers in Alfriston.

Ross' champions local ingredients and insists on sourcing produce from within a 25-mile radius.

The local produce in East Sussex is just abundant.

I'm just touching the surface of what's available and when.

Seasonal produce limits you in terms of what you use, but it's part of the challenge and excitement -

to make a dish out of what is around at the time.

The relationship with our producers builds bonds.

They come and eat in the restaurant, we go and visit them.

Our supplier will phone and say "Ross, I've landed a great fish.

"Do you want us to bring it in for you?" It's great, isn't it? It's fresh off the boat.

We're blessed with the rich pickings we've got of the suppliers in East Sussex.

People are passionate about the farming that they're doing, about food.

A lot of people do their cooking at home and have their own allotments

and just enjoy finding out where it comes from, what it's about.

A real frustration of mine is knowing where to get good local produce in East Sussex.

So, with that frustration, I decided to set up my website, Chefs SOS,

which stands for Suppliers Of Sussex, for chefs, primarily, to have a look at.

So if someone comes down from London, a first-time chef down here,

they can click on the website, find fish, meat, vegetables. Everything is on there.

Every chef in East Sussex should be using the produce we have.

To take on the bikers, my taste of East Sussex is wild turbot with chicken wings and celeriac.

No contest.

-Hello, Ross.

-Good to see you.

Nice to meet you.

Welcome to Moonrakers.

Ross, what's your version of East Sussex on a plate?

We're going to do some wild turbot, celeriac puree and celeriac fondant, with some chicken wings.

-Chicken wings.

-Sweetness of the chicken wings works well with the turbot.

-Really?

-Yeah.

We're going to peel the celeriac nice and quickly.

The trimmings of the celeriac we're going to use for the puree.

The middle piece we're going to do celeriac fondants, which we'll cook in chicken stock.

Do you use butter with that?

We'll put a little bit of butter in at the end.

We're going to get chicken stock up to temperature and put the celeriac fondants in

and braise them really slowly 'till they're cooked through. A bit of thyme.

The suppliers that I use, they're so passionate about what they do, it shows in their ingredients.

So not messing with them is the best way to get them on play, I think.

-Yeah.

-I'm just going to chop this up for the puree.

And there's no waste with it, either, is there?

Now that's just come to the boil, we're going to turn it down to simmer.

-Smelling nice already.

-Thank you.

We're going to put that on the stove to cook down.

25 minutes, half an hour, till it's really soft, absorbed all the stock and cooked right down

so we can puree it up. So that'll be great.

-Right, let's get the chicken wings on. Just knock the ends off.

-Yeah.

A lot of people just use the wings for stock, so it's nice to use them for something different.

I'm just going to get a pan on to heat up. Season that up.

Just a bit of rapeseed oil.

-Just gives it a nice earthiness as well.

-Oh, right.

I like cooking with that. We've got a local guy who supplies it from East Sussex, which is fabulous.

So we're just going to caramelise these quickly.

Let's flip those over.

Whilst cooking, just to get a bit more flavour, we'll use the rest of it as well so no waste.

Give it a nice flavour. Lots of butter.

-You can't get away without butter, can you?

-No. Not at all.

Put some thyme in there.

Thyme, for me, is the best herb. Works with fish, meat, everything.

-Yes. It does. It's very good.

-It's great. Right. I'm going to prep the fish quickly.

-Lovely piece of turbot.

-Look at that. Monster.

Keep the skin on so when we cook it, it doesn't fall apart.

Yeah.

-Oh, look at that. That's beautiful, isn't it?

-Meaty, meaty fish, isn't it?

-It's beautiful. Yeah. Absolutely. Just seasoned it with salt.

-Yeah.

Bit of dried scallop roe.

Just enhances the flavour and gives it a bit more fishiness.

Right.

-Dried scallop roe.

-Just turn it over. So they've got a nice colour on them.

We'll use the rest of the chicken stock in there.

Oh, yeah. I'm getting this now.

Right. We've got these little vac-packed bags, which we're going to put

a couple of portions in each.

-Seal them down. Do you want to just flip the lid for me? Is that OK?

-Yep.

So we'll just seal those.

MACHINE WHIRRS

-I'm going to get one because I'd love to have everything in my freezer just done.

-It's handy.

-Yeah.

-Why not?

Isn't that clever? They're like perfect-looking things.

I'm just going to check the fondants to see how they're doing. There they are.

Going to stick this chicken in the oven for a few minutes.

Right. We'll get these in the fridge.

These carrots I forgot to put in.

-We normally sweat them off with the chicken a bit just to give added sweetness.

-Yeah.

So I'll get those in. Better late than never.

All the flavours you're using are kind of clean flavours, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-See, here. Lovely.

Fondants are ready.

Celeriac puree's nearly there. Chicken's in. So we're nearly there.

-He's good, isn't he?

-He is good.

-Season that now, I think.

Sort of season everything more towards the end of cooking.

-Yeah. So it's not overseasoned. The flavour's reduced.

-The stock as well has got salt, hasn't it?

We're going to strain this.

We'll just get most of the liquid out.

-That's great. If you want to chuck it back in there for me.

-Yeah.

-We'll just get it in the blender quickly.

It's a Thermomix so it heats up and cooks and blends all at the same time.

-What?

-You can make a hollandaise sauce from beginning to end.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Fantastic.

I've spent hours whisking at the stove.

-We'll get that instead of a vacuum-pack machine.

-One of them and one of them.

WHIRRING

It's a bit noisy. Add a bit of liquid.

Thermo blend.

-Cor, that didn't take long.

-Taste for the seasoning.

Perfect. So we can leave that in there and it'll hold its temperature.

-Which is great.

-Because it's a thermo blender, you see.

-Just going to put the fish in to the water bath. Put the timer on for...

-Got to get one of them.

-Six minutes.

-Right. Let's check the chicken, see if this is cooked.

-Oh, that's good.

You want to take these bones out.

-They just pop out, don't they?

-Pop out, nicely.

-Oh, that's nice.

-It's lovely.

-I like that. And you've cooked it on the bone so you've got all the flavour.

-All the flavour of the other bits of chicken, thyme, carrots.

-Yeah. Then it becomes an easy eat.

You're not concentrating on the bone but on the flavours. Brilliant.

I love it when you get tips like this.

Just going to put a bit of Madeira...in the pan.

Get it on the flames so we can flame it off.

We'll put the rest of the chicken stock and cooking liquor in with the Madeira.

Reduce it and reheat the chicken in it. Gives it a beautiful flavour and sweetness.

Burn the alcohol away so it's not quite such a flavour.

Now all the alcohol's burnt off, we'll put the cooking liquor back in and reduce that down a bit.

Fish is ready to come out.

-So what temperature have you cooked those at? Cos it's certainly not boiling point.

-No. It's 55 degrees.

We'll finish it off in the pan, get the skin crispy.

It cooks it through a bit more, but it still keeps moist.

-It's going to be very delicate. You can see it's sort of started to cook through a little bit.

-Yes.

Very moist. You can serve it straight from the water bath.

-But I like to get a bit of crispiness.

-And colour.

A bit of colour as well all adds, doesn't it?

Want to hold it down till the skin's cooked evenly all the way through.

Put that to the side and let it cook through for a few minutes.

-You can see it's getting a nice colour on there, now.

-Oh, yeah.

-Getting crispy.

Going to pour that back onto the chicken...

..just to get the flavour in there.

-Just to warm up the chicken again, really.

-Yeah.

Flip over the turbot.

-Good colour on there.

-Yeah. Looking good.

Just finish that with a little bit of butter.

What I'll to do with the cooking liquor is heat it up with a bit of cream,

so we'll get ready to start plating up, I think.

-Oh, wow.

-I'm going to add some soya-based lecite.

-What does it do?

You put it in and when you foam up, it holds the foam.

So we put a bit of that in. Give it a stir.

When we whizz it up with the blender, mix it all in. You won't be tasting any of that.

The chicken's nicely heated through.

-What I've already got done is beetroot puree, as a garnish.

-Yeah.

Celeriac puree out.

-Just put a bit of chicken on top of each.

-Yeah.

Piece of turbot.

Fondant.

-I've just thinly sliced some beetroot.

-Yeah.

Crisped them off in a bit of oil. Adds a bit more colour and texture.

-Yep.

-Bit of that rapeseed oil for colour.

-Great colour, isn't it?

-Finished with sorrel cress.

Adds a great flavour to the fish.

Just get a bit of that to finish the dishes off.

There we go.

That's my take on the East Sussex style of food and what we can do.

Pan-seared wild turbot with celeriac fondant and chicken wings.

-Well, that's good.

-That's very good.

The way of cooking it, where he kind of poached it first and finished it, worked beautifully.

-The fondant is brilliant.

-Try it all together. Yeah. Some of the fish with the chicken.

That's very good.

But it's the locals who decide whose dish is best in a blind-tasting coming up.

Ross' turbot with the free-range chicken wings was a delicious and fantastic combination.

We might follow his lead and do surf 'n' turf, too. It is Sussex. You can't ignore scallops!

They're so good, they've got their own festival.

We're here to get the lowdown on the local style of scallop fishing from skipper Russell Drew.

-Russell! You all right, Russell? Have to jump?

-Use the ladder.

Is your boat insured?

LAUGHTER

Hi, guys. I'll show you the gear.

-You catch them in spring-loaded harrows, dragged along the seabed.

-Yeah.

And they flick up and hopefully leave the rocks behind and flick the scallops into the bag behind.

So what's the difference between the way that you're fishing for scallops and hand-dived scallops?

Where these scallops live, they're like a minimum of 100 foot of water.

So for a diver to go down and try and make a living out of it,

he might get two, come back and then that'd be it. So this is the only practical way of gathering them.

-Where are they?

-Set areas. They don't move around. So next year, it'll be exactly the same place.

-They'll be in the same spot every year.

-Yeah.

Let's have a look inside.

A guided tour of the fun that is in a scallop. Look at that.

That's nice and plump. So this time, they've got the lovely roe.

-Yes.

-What you need to do is cut behind this black piece here.

-Yeah.

Need a good wash, obviously.

Look at that. Yes, yes, and yes.

Four ton of those, please, in the panniers.

Coming up.

See you, boys. Home safe, lads.

Jolly scalloping.

Time to hit the scallop festival in Rye.

This is Lorna. She organised the festival.

The scallop festival came about because Rye Bay scallops are some of the best in the country.

I think they ARE the best in the country. And so we felt we needed to educate people.

Nearly all of the restaurants and pubs and even the hotels and bed and breakfasts have all joined in.

That's perfect.

-I've got a plan.

-I have! I've got a map. We need to get round these chefs

to see how they're cooking their scallops.

-I can sense a good scallop recipe with my nose. I don't need that.

-We do cos we'll get lost. Come on.

All right.

-Hello, Paul. Dave. Good to see you.

-Nice to see you, Paul.

What's the title of the dish?

Pan-fried Rye Bay scallops with black pudding and a caramelised apple with cider sauce.

-That sounds superb.

-Yes.

-I love my job.

-It's simple, but it's so good. Paul, fabulous. Thank you so much.

-Lovely.

-John. John.

-There he is.

-How do you cook your scallops for the festival?

With pureed shallots, tangerines and cracked black pepper.

This is a big treat for us.

-Mmm! Lovely orange and the pepper.

-Now we've raided your kitchen, we'll go and find somebody else's now.

-Thanks very much.

-Thank you very much.

-Scallops, scallops and more scallops. It's a world, isn't it?

-It would be. The festival's on, isn't it?

-Good pub.

-It is, isn't it?

-Oh, yes!

Hello, chef. How you doing? So what's dish for the Rye Scallop Festival?

It's a hickory barbecue glaze on there, sweet-corn fritters, and the prawns are smoked as well.

-The citrus in it! Fab.

-It works really well.

Local produce, eh? Cannot whack it, can you?

Come on a scallop crawl. It's great.

It's really inspiring to see scallops cooked in so many ways.

We're going to do ours with apple, black pudding and Sussex three-cheese polenta,

but it's another local ingredient that will really make our dish sparkle.

We're off to raise our glasses to an award-winning sparkling wine producer

with vineyards right here in the Sussex Downs.

RidgeView Vines was founded by Christine and Mike Roberts in 1994.

They have a massive 20,000 vines across 16 acres.

What a fantastic place here.

-Gorgeous view, isn't it?

-Isn't it? What grapes do you grow here, Mike?

We only use the three varieties of predominated champagne.

-That's Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier.

-Why particularly here, Mike?

Because we have such a close proximity

and such an affinity with champagne because, of course,

Champagne is only 88 miles to the south of us here.

I suppose so, so why not? And you've got the chalky soil, too.

How do you get the fizz in sparkling wine?

It's all in there, so shall we go and have a look and see?

Wow. Cor blimey.

-It's very James Bond, isn't it?

-There's a lot of wine in here.

One of those big tanks there actually would contain the equivalent of 20,000 bottles.

-So, English wine growing, it isn't a cottage industry.

-No. No.

This year, we will be producing just under 200,000 bottles.

Samples!

So this is the wine from the pressing.

This is last year's harvest, pressed, fermented, sugar changed into alcohol.

It's wine that's ready to take the sparkle.

The sparkle will mean that you have to bottle it and give it some more sugar

and some yeast to feed on that sugar to make the bubbles. We've planted and picked the ingredients.

I went to a restaurant last night that served our wine.

And you see people buying it and opening it and you think, "We're really part of us, that is."

Really lovely. It is fabulous.

If you recall, what we've had to do is to put yeast into the wine to make the secondary fermentation.

That's going to start a fermentation in the bottle, not in the tank this time.

-An we're going to get our lovely bubbles.

-Yeah.

But we're going to have sediment in there. So what we've done is to gradually, over seven days,

twist the bottle very, very gently and let the yeast slide down to the neck of the bottle.

We put it into the neck freezer.

-The neck freezer?

-Yeah. Now, this runs at minus 26

and so the wine is frozen for about an inch.

-So you pop the top off, which is a crown cap.

-It flicks the cap off and the gas of the wine

-pushes the ice out. And, of course, in some solutions, the yeast and everything else.

-Sheer genius!

We now have clear wine. We then take it off this machine, cork it.

The cork is a pure cylinder.

It's not the mushroom that everybody expects.

But the cork is driven halfway in and by squeezing that wire onto it,

it squeezes it and deforms it into that mushroom shape.

-How long before we drink it, Mike?

-In the best possible environment, something like eight months,

so it's really very drinkable once it's about three months.

This wine is our Bloomsbury. It is two-thirds Chardonnay.

Look at those fine bubbles just tracing their way up.

-It's a lovely sight, isn't it, sparkling wine?

-Yes.

-Sparkling wine with the Sussex Downs in the background.

-In the vineyard!

-Wow.

-I'm getting like pears.

Gooseberry. Apricots.

At the moment, my head. I'm on the lawn at Glyndebourne, about to have my tea and watch the opera.

It tastes fantastic, but it's also won an award for being the best sparkling wine in the world.

Against some 55 countries that entered into the competition.

-Wow. And it's from East Sussex.

-Cheers.

-So, guys, what are you going to cook for us?

-Loads.

To start off, we've got some lovely fresh scallops from Rye

in an English sparkling wine sauce.

We've got black pudding with some local Granny Smith apples.

-Yeah.

-All served with Sussex three-cheese polenta.

And deep-fried sage leaves, dude!

It will be up to local diners to decide whose dish best represents the true flavours of East Sussex.

So we'll make the polenta first, but we're making a dry polenta

cos we want it to be cut and fried as a little cake. So, first off, we've got to make wet polenta.

Let's do that.

Into a pan, 250ml of water.

200ml of Sussex milk from a Sussex cow.

Half a tea of salt. Bring to the boil.

What I'm going to do now is I'm going to add this polenta, about 100g of polenta.

We have it on good authority from Bill, down in Lewes, that there's great corn producers in East Sussex.

Start to stir that through. So it'll take about five minutes. As it cooks through, it absorbs the liquid.

-The trick is that when it starts coming away from the edge of the pan, that's when it's done.

-Yeah.

-Is that there?

-That's there.

-Handful of Farmer's Hand.

-Isn't that lovely?

Handful of the Sussex Charmer.

Now, this goat's cheese. And the three Sussex cheeses.

They're very different in character and that's going to give us more depth and interest in our dish.

-Pepper?

-Yes, please.

-I don't think we'll need salt in that.

-No, we don't. No.

Because we're serving a dry polenta, what we need to do is put that

into a greased baking tray with some greaseproof paper on the bottom.

Spread it out and we're going to set it aside in the fridge.

So, scallops... Granny Smiths.

-When we were in Rye, we went around three restaurants.

-Yeah.

One chap we went to, the Granny Smiths was his idea.

-I think, like all good cooks, you pinch off one another, don't you?

-Absolutely.

These are fabulous Rye scallops.

Look at those. This bit you don't want to eat, particularly.

You wouldn't, would you?

So what you do is you just put your thumb in there.

Open it up and it'll just come away like that.

There, you see.

And then there's a tiny little bit of sinew there

and all you want to do

is cut that off like that and there, that's ready for the pan now.

I'm putting lemon juice on the apples because it's going to be a while before you use them

and we don't want them to go brown. If they taste a bit lemony, all the better.

-So those are all prepped and lovely.

-The apples are prepped.

-Yeah.

So they can go there. And I just want nine slices of Sussex black pudding.

We've proved it - you make black pudding down south, too.

-This one's full of barley, actually. What I need to do now is get the tomatoes on.

-Whack them in.

-I'll get the polenta on.

-Lovely. Tomatoes, what I'm going to do is I'm going to roast them on the vine.

Balsamic vinegar.

Olive oil. Cover them with oil.

-Little bit of balsamic.

-Just a little salt.

-Yes, please.

Like that. Ten, 15.

-Ten to 15. Yeah.

-Ross, could you pass me the polenta out the fridge? It's probably cool by now.

There we go.

I'm going to cut out some nice roundels of polenta.

It's a beautiful thing, Mr Myers. It's a beautiful thing.

-I'll finish them off. Do you want to get on with the sauce?

-Yeah. All right. There you go, bud.

Shallots, two. Now, this is a very fine sauce.

You know, it's a traditional sauce that you would do with champagne,

but as we have a product that is better than champagne, let's use good English sparkling.

Some butter and some light olive oil.

Sweat this off. There's some heat off this cooker.

I've got no hairs left on my arms.

I've done this a few times before, I must admit.

About 150ml of the sparkling.

Apply sparkling wine to shallots.

Oh, yes. Just bubble that away, reduce it by half.

Deep-fried sage leaves - they're great. What we're going to do is put them in some hot oil

very quickly.

Needs to be that hot for them to keep that shape and for them to go really crisp on the plate.

It's lovely. Literally, it just takes, what...

not even three seconds. Just dead quick.

I'm going to strain the shallots out so I'm left with the shallot-infused sparkling wine.

-Back on the heat.

-And a good splash of fish stock.

We'll boil that and reduce it again.

I'm reducing the fish stock and the sparkling wine.

-Do you find the fish stock reduces and becomes quite salty?

-Yeah. Yeah.

Got to be careful with the seasoning.

Time to put some cream in.

Oh, Mr Myers.

-How's that?

-It's enough.

-Yeah.

-And the mustard.

About that much.

The mustard's going to go great with the scallops and black pudding.

All we need to do now is put some parsley in, just to take that kind of beigeness off it.

-Are you going to add that now so it infuses?

-Yeah. We'll take it off the heat.

Parsley.

And that's the sauce. We just set that aside now.

We'll just heat it through before serving.

-Polenta.

-Light olive oil.

And I'm going to get the apples on.

We don't want to blast-fry them. We just want it to rumble away and go nice and golden and brown.

And like my apples, I want it hot enough to caramelise them,

but I don't want it too hot that they just burn.

It's great you've got a lot of pans, Ross.

Just as well, dude. We've used most of them!

This is an everyday scene in every Chinese takeaway up and down the country.

Now, time for the BP.

I can smell your apples. Beautiful.

That's what we want.

-That's what we're after. Look.

-That's the one.

-Do you want your black pudding crispy?

-Yeah.

-Take it out of the oil.

-Yeah. Take it out the oil.

-Right.

-They're done.

-They done?

-So we're got three that are all right?

-We've got three corkers.

-Yeah.

-Ring, Kingy.

-Yeah.

I'll get ready to plate up on here.

Yeah. And it's a final push. This is dried scallop roe. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, this griddle is mega-hot.

You can hear it going pssst!

I'm not going to cook any more than four at a time on here.

Are we on the same wavelength, Kingy?

-Yeah. Definitely.

-Sauce needs to go back on, which I'll do.

-Heat the sauce through. That's great. It hasn't split.

-Good.

We've made a lemon olive oil and we're going to put the polenta in the sage leaves in a lemon olive oil.

-Beautiful.

-All the sage, the lemon, the cheese. I think we're on a winner there.

-Deep-fried sage leaves.

-All right?

Where's the tomatoes?

I leave the green bits on the tomatoes cos I think they look more like tomatoes.

-Yeah.

-Do you know, these are like incendiary devices.

Kingy.

Don't get much better than that, mate. Well done.

-Look at that, man.

-Yeah.

Now, as these scallops rest,

that'll juice up and warm up the black pudding and the apple.

Just to finish...

Yes.

-That is our take of Sussex on a plate.

-It certainly is.

Rye king scallops in a sparkling wine sauce with local black pudding,

Sussex three-cheese polenta with some lovely sauce, Granny Smith apples for that tartness.

-Baked tomatoes and deep-fried sage leaves.

-Bob's your uncle.

There you go, Ross. Dive in.

Let's have a taste.

-Smells good.

-Good.

-Let's have a bit of everything.

That seems to work really well, actually.

Black pudding, sweetness of the apple, scallops.

Great with the tomato. Cuts right through it.

The sparkling wine sauce, just complements it all.

-I'll put it on my menu, shall I?

-Yeah, if you want to. That would be a great honour. Thank you.

Ross liked it, but let's see what the locals make of it.

The diners here will taste both dishes, but without any idea who cooked which.

First up is Ross's seared turbot with celeriac, chicken wings and thyme sauce.

It was very well presented. There was colour.

Very labour-intensive for someone who'd go to the effort of boning the chicken wing.

I thought the fish was absolutely beautiful, succulent and obviously very, very fresh.

I was quite surprised by the celeriac, actually, with the chicken and fish.

To be honest, to have fish and chicken on the same plate,

I wouldn't personally order it together.

I loved the celeriac - both the puree and the slice

and the colour combination with the beetroot - which is quite typical to East Sussex.

The beetroot was a nice local flavour.

That proved pretty popular.

Next on the menu is our dish of king scallops and black pudding, in a sparkling wine sauce.

Ten out of ten for presentation.

I would order that if that was on the menu.

The consistencies between the scallop and the black pudding were very marked.

To begin with, I thought that was good, but, actually, I'm not mad on the consistency.

The black pudding and the apple combination really worked well.

The scallops, they were a bit bland for me.

I thought the three cheeses would be heavy,

but it was very light, and with the reduction of the white wine, beautiful.

Each thing on its own was lovely, but for me that was too much.

It spoilt itself by being overfussy, really.

Hello.

Firstly, I'd like to say thank you for having us in your county.

We've had a great time. We've had wonderful food.

-Now, we have to say a big thank you to this man here, Mr Pavey. Thanks, mate.

-Thank you.

-I'm sorry about your kitchen.

-That's all right.

-Nothing a Brillo won't fix.

Now then, it comes to the crux of the matter.

For the chicken and turbot, could I have a clear show of hands, please?

So we have one.

-For the scallops and black pudding, a show of hands, please. OK.

-Eight.

The turbot and the chicken was Ross's dish.

And the scallops and the black pudding was David and I.

I'll give you your money later.

LAUGHTER

What I have to say is that really what we've been doing here today is celebrating food.

-And we know that you've had fine plates of food.

-Fantastic.

The scallops, to me, sort of represented Sussex more

because it was presented more rustic, so that to me was more Sussex as opposed to yours.

I would like to say that the fish was superb and it was actually

my favourite bit out of everything, individually. The fish was fantastic.

Thank you so much to Ross for having us in his kitchen.

'What a result. I can't believe we beat Ross.'

He's such a talented chef.

There's so much on offer in East Sussex.

It's full of surprises, from Farmer's Hand to fizz.

This county has everything.

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