North Yorkshire The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain

We're on the road to find regional recipes to rev up your appetite.

-We're riding county to county to discover, cook and enjoy the best of British.

-Come on!

-Wahey!

We're here to find the true taste of North Yorkshire.

Wow, look at this, man!

We're on top of the world.

North Yorkshire!

-The biggest county in the United Kingdom.

-There's got to be fantastic food here that we can look at.

It's massive. It's home to two national parks.

-And a fantastic coastline for fish.

-And we've got all the moors for great game.

-Let's dive in.

-I canna wait to get stuck into it, eh?

'To find the true flavours of North Yorkshire, we head to the coast

'to cook up a county favourite that's become world-famous.

-'We try our hands at sausage-making and some of us were better at it than others.'

-Oh, man!

'There's an early start to catch the freshest fish the county can offer.

'And representing North Yorkshire in the cook-off is Andrew Pern. Will we be able to beat him?'

'The historic town of Richmond is home to the oldest castle walls in Britain.

'It should be a great place to discover some traditional county foods.'

This is it, Kingy. This is our chance to find out what really is the traditional dish of this county.

-What would you say is the ultimate Yorkshire dish?

-Yorkshire pudding's got to be involved for a start.

-Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

-There's Yorkshire curd cakes. And the best products in the world.

Give us something traditional and Yorkshire.

-We've got a Yorkshire curd tart. I'll warm it lightly and serve it with cream. Is that OK?

-Oh, heaven!

-What's in this?

-There's Yorkshire curd.

-Yes.

Butter, eggs, spices, currants and a little drop of brandy.

-Hmm! That's gorgeous.

-Good.

What's your favourite traditional Yorkshire food?

Roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, mash and vegetables.

Wow! You know, people love Yorkshire pudding.

-Does your mum make good Yorkshire puddings?

-Erm...

-No, she buys them out of a packet!

-Does she?

-Yes.

-Agh!

-No!

Shamed, shamed.

You are so in the doop, you, dude!

-This is a proper butcher's, isn't it?

-That's lovely.

-It's great British food.

-Yorkshire pudding, give us a tip.

-Hot fat.

Just make sure there's no lumps in your Yorkshire pudding. Let it stand. Make sure the oven and fat are hot.

Good eggs, good eggs.

Beat it like a galloping horse. The sound is like a galloping horse.

-Yes.

-The wife has a machine to do it, so it doesn't sound like a galloping horse.

Well, dude, you can see why they've built a castle here.

-It's fantastic.

-We're on a mission.

-One thing we've learnt from the people of Richmond

-is they love Yorkshire pudding.

-Without a doubt.

-It would be nice to do something different with it.

'We need something special to accompany the Yorkshire puddings.

'We're off down the A66 to Mainsgill Farm, home to some unusual livestock and exclusive local produce.'

What's that?

-I've heard of diversification in English farming, but a Yorkshireman doing camels?

-Good grief!

-He'll do anything to turn a quid, you know.

-A Yorkshireman?

-Aye.

'Andrew Henshaw and his wife Marie have been running the farm for ten years

'and offer everything from their own cured meats to locally produced cheeses and vegetables.'

This looks like a proper Hairy Bikers' kind of place. You've got fantastic veg, great grub.

-But there's a camel over there.

-That's Kevin. Come and have a look at him.

-All right.

-Come on.

-Good God, it's like The Desert Song!

-I tell you, we've got everything round here.

Hello, Kev. Do you spit?

LAUGHTER

-Oh, man!

-Oh, Kev!

-You've upset him.

That was a corker, that one!

-I hate animals!

-LAUGHTER

-We're looking for something to fill our Yorkshire puddings with. It's not Kevin.

-No.

-What have you got?

-Black Porkies.

-What?

-Black Porkies. Never heard of them?

-I've heard whispers.

-Come and have a look.

'Black Porkies are a North Yorkshire delicacy. They're sausages with an extra special ingredient.'

-Andrew, reveal all. What's in a Black Porkie?

-Well, it's the black pudding.

-It's a two-stage sausage. First, make the black pudding.

-So this is what?

-Dried pig's blood.

-Is there oatmeal in there?

-Oatmeal and barley.

We're gonna put the breadcrumbs in first. Now we're gonna put chopped onions in.

-The secret stuff now.

-Give us a sniff.

Oh, I've got it!

-Lovely.

-This is a very old recipe from this part of Yorkshire. This is the last ingredient going in.

-Milk?

-Milk.

-That's wacky, putting milk in black pudding?

-It gives it its creamy taste.

-Ah!

-A lot of people put water in.

-Is that a peculiarly Yorkshire way of making black pudding?

-Yes.

-With milk?

-Yes.

-And that'll rehydrate the blood.

-Yes, it makes it all moist again.

So when we bake it off, you've got a moist black pudding.

-You bake your black pudding?

-We bake it, we don't steam it.

-Interesting.

-This is the Yorkshire way.

-Go on there, Barry.

-All hand-made, you see.

-Yeah.

We fill the tray up with the black pudding that Barry's been mixing. It's now ready to enter the oven.

-How long do you bake it for?

-Two and a quarter hours.

-That's how to make black pudding.

-Can we go and make some Black Porkies?

-Let's go and make some.

'Andrew's Black Porkies are made with pork shoulder put through the mincer twice,

'so it's nice and smooth, ready to be mixed with the black pudding and other ingredients.'

-The basic ingredients for our Black Porkies is pinhead rusk.

-That'll bind it.

Our secret ingredient is our seasoning. Mix it up...

-Black pudding.

-Oh, look at this!

Mix it in.

-We'll transfer this back to the mixer.

-Right.

-This is the fun bit now.

-What we've got here is a natural hog casing, an intestine.

-This is gonna be messy, isn't it?

-This is a lot of sausage.

-Just wait for the pressure to come out. You'll feel it coming down the nozzle. And we're away.

-Crumbs!

Black Porkies by the mile!

And that's it. All you need to do is link them up.

-Proper strings of bangers.

-And that's all there is to it.

-Who's first?

-Go on, Dave.

Keep hold of the skin, get the tension and just feed it...

Blimey, look at that!

He-he-hey!

-Hey!

-LAUGHTER

Now, what it is is... We've got half-pound Black Porkies on here.

The thing is, I'm from Cumbria, so it's a Cumberland sausage.

-Come on, now I've paved the way, Mr King...

-Stand back.

LAUGHTER

We'll do that again. Hold on. Oh, man!

This is a disaster.

To try and link this, you turn it up there

and it looks like a poodle dump.

'We took some of Andrew's Black Porkies and we're off to cook in the true home of the British seaside.'

Scarborough, Britain's oldest seaside town!

Fish and chips and rock and fairgrounds. The seaside makes me feel alive!

-I can go donkey trekking.

-Don't be ridiculous. We'd need a shire horse!

'There's already a crowd enjoying Scarborough's sea air and we've got a treat for them.

'Yorkshire puddings, Black Porkies and proper beef and onion gravy.'

-Isn't it great? They've taken us to the seaside again.

-Scarborough!

-It's like Blackpool, but the other side.

-Yeah.

-Isn't it?

-We've got one of your fine products which is the Black Porkie. We've got to garnish it.

-Yes.

It's Yorkshire, so we've got to do a Yorkshire pudding.

My mother made the best Yorkshire pudding, God rest her soul!

-The other element comes courtesy of Kingy's mother.

-Beer and onion gravy with a local beer - Black Sheep.

And what looks like the contents of Fred Flintstone's garage! That will become gravy.

First off, we've got to get the Yorkshire pudding. It's the first thing I ever cooked.

I must have been about seven. Indeed, in this tin. This is my mother's Yorkshire pudding tin.

This is history. She told me that during the war, when she got this tin,

when the Luftwaffe were coming over Barrow-in-Furness, she'd hide under the stairs with it on her head.

She developed a way that a seven-year-old could, in a foolproof fashion, build a Yorkshire pudding.

Step one in the perfect Yorkshire pudding is you must have red-hot fat in your tin.

My mother would use lard, dripping or oil. This is goose fat because we're a bit posh.

We put that in the top of the oven. It must be hot. When the mixture hits the tin, it must sizzle.

The sizzle starts the rise.

You get a tablespoon. You put that in four times. Get as much flour on the spoon as you can.

And that's your flour. One...

Two... Three...

Four.

To that, half a teaspoon of salt,

and into that, two eggs.

-Oh, yeah.

-Just give the eggs a bit of a doofa-dooba.

Mix that beaten egg into the flour. We just put that into a paste.

Just add milk now till it goes like single cream.

Don't worry about the lumps. There's no measuring required. That's still too thick.

-That's not single cream, is it?

-Oh, no.

Put a bit more in.

My mother used to say, "Just whisk it as much as you can tolerate it!"

Now, that, I would say, is like single cream.

Just leave that for about 40 minutes. That's the Yorkshire pudding mixture.

Now then, gravy. The secret of all good gravy is good meat juices.

The secret of all good meat juices is good bones. This is a marrow bone.

It's a wet bone. What I mean by "wet" is it's got a bit of meat on it.

You add some carrot, some celery and an onion.

And then...

Remember it's hot!

That's what it comes out like after about 20 minutes, half an hour.

Then you put it into a stock pot.

There's so much flavour in that, isn't there?

Then we're gonna deglaze the bottom of this pan with about half a bottle of beer.

This is some Yorkshire pudding mixture we made earlier on. We're gonna put that in the red-hot tin.

Oh, that's hot!

Watch this sizzle.

-Mega!

-As you see, that makes just enough for that said Yorkshire pudding dish.

-Ohh!

-It's a delicate operation, Yorkshire puddings, you know.

Don't open the oven door!

Now, we've deglazed that pan like that

and you get all of those lovely juices off and you add them.

Then we're just gonna put some water on.

Like that.

Just to cover the bones. We're gonna add tomato puree.

We're gonna add some peppercorns. About 12.

A couple of bay leaves in. We want to put a clove of garlic in.

Like that. Don't worry. Just whack it in. And I'm gonna do a bit of a bouquet garni.

So we've got some thyme and we've got some parsley here as well.

A little bit of salt. Put a top on that and leave it for two and a half hours.

Then you strain it and it comes out like that.

-Look at that. Lovely beef stock.

-You'll get the bones for nothing from the butcher's.

They're happy to give them away. Food for free!

I'll just goose-fat up my tray, same as the big pudding.

We're doing little puddings - a bit of fat, then I stick it in the oven to get it nice and hot.

Beef fat. The butcher will give you this for nothing. Food for free! Suet.

We're just gonna cut these into strips. We want to render the fat down.

Then, you see, we're going to cook our onions.

These have been roasted for ten minutes in the oven, so it's quicker to fry off.

OK, that's enough fat leeched out. It's just starting to render off.

It's changing colour slightly and shrivelling up.

Then just add a little bit of oil.

We're gonna saute those onions off, just so they go translucent.

A good way to accelerate the process is to put a bit of salt in.

Add a bit of pepper and we just let that go.

-I've got to be quick.

-Look at that!

Right, get the little 'uns in. The little 'uns will only take 10 or 15 minutes.

Now we're just gonna add some more beer in there.

And then we're just gonna start to ladle in that beef stock.

-Are you ready?

-Yes.

Take a bit of flour, then you put a little bit of water to make a paste, you see?

That's bubbling away nicely now. We've got that going.

Then we add it and all this is doing is just thickening the gravy,

but it's flour and water, so you'll need to cook it out.

So, a bit of the final flourish here. I've got some redcurrant jelly. That'll do us.

-Shall we get them out now?

-Get them out.

-Are we ready?

-As ready as we'll ever be.

-APPLAUSE

-That's a Yorkshire pudding!

-This is all its children.

-It's a big family!

-They're mega, aren't they?

-Look at this. Something that Desperate Dan'd die for, innit?

Gravy. Ohh!

Here we have it - our homage to North Yorkshire.

Yorkshire pudding, Black Porkies and proper gravy.

CHEERING

'Making Yorkshire pudding in Yorkshire is pretty scary.

'Time to see what the local experts make of our efforts.'

Don't drip it on your baby!

-What do you think, fellas?

-It's better than my mum's.

-Nearly as good as mine. Not quite there, but...

-Have you got any tips?

I leave mine in the oven a bit longer than what you do.

-These are fantastic sausages.

-They're good, aren't they?

-I'd recommend those.

-I'd recommend those!

They're lovely.

-Better than mine?

-That'll do for me.

'Our Yorkshire puddings, Black Porkies and gravy seem to go down a treat,

'but our biggest challenge is just around the corner.

'We take on one of the county's top chefs using local ingredients

'to see who can best define the taste of the region.

'It will be up to local diners to decide whose dish best represents North Yorkshire.

'Our opponent is...Andrew Pern.

'Head Chef of The Star Inn, Harome.

'Andrew and his wife Jackie turned The Star into one of the first pubs to be awarded a Michelin star.'

The food that we serve is like me. I was born and bred around the area.

I put on the menu what I like to eat, using local Northern produce.

Things like ginger parkin we do with rhubarb ripple ice cream.

You can come in for a pint and a bag of crisps or for a pan-fried foie gras or sea bass.

One of the main things we use is game like the grouse, partridge, pheasant, roe deer, fallow deer, woodcock.

It's on our doorstep. It's shot to order sometimes!

People are coming from the cities to taste a bit of the countryside.

We've got a nice network going with the smaller suppliers, be they professional or amateur.

Jo Campbell brings down brilliant vegetables like rainbow chard, beetroot, curly kale, shallots.

It's like a harvest festival every day. They can turn up with honeycombs or wild mushrooms.

The postman brought in two bags of mushrooms. One guy brought truffles. Didn't have a clue what they were.

I swapped him with 20 pounds of pork sausage. He was over the moon and so was I!

I'm very proud to be a Yorkshireman.

We've got a brilliant pantry on our doorstep - the Vale of York, the Moors, the North Sea.

It makes my life very easy and it's a privilege to work with the suppliers that we have.

'To take us on, Andrew's taste of North Yorkshire is an assiette of Harome-reared duck,

'served with a traditional Yorkshire sauce.'

-HORN TOOTS How are you doing?

-Wahey!

-Get run over! Are you all right?

-Nice to see you. It's a bonnie spot you've got here.

-Shall we do a bit of cooking?

-Yeah. Would you mind?

-No problem. Bit of Yorkshire hospitality!

Mind your heads!

Andrew Pern, star chef of The Star Inn. What have you got that really represents North Yorkshire?

Harome-reared duck. We're gonna partner that with a traditional Yorkshire sauce.

-We'll break the duck down and do an assiette of duck.

-He's off with the Michelin star thing already!

-We've only been here two minutes!

-That's the challenge.

We'll break it down to six components of duck. We'll put some mash with it and you're gonna help me.

The lovely duck here is from Loose Birds, a guy based in the village.

-That's a fantastic-looking duck.

-Look at the colour, the yellow.

-It's had a nice life.

-Anybody that comes up with a name like Loose Birds is all right with us!

Some people are a bit disappointed when they turn up though! Ulterior motives, I think.

-So, if one of you can do some spuds...

-About four big 'uns?

-Four big 'uns, yeah.

Add a bit of ballast to the dish. If you can pick me some of this lovely curly kale...

-Look at this! Do you want it picked and shredded?

-Yeah, please.

-I've got to say it is of the highest quality.

-I picked that about half an hour ago.

-Really?

-Yeah.

It's fresher than Kylie, that. Absolutely on the money.

While you're doing that, I'll break down the duck. We'll take the legs off here, pull the bone out,

dislocate his little leg.

It's great, your restaurant. It has a Michelin star, it's fine dining.

-But you've still got that ethos of really good Yorkshire food.

-We're a pub first and foremost as well.

You've got to fill Northern stomachs. There's not many fusions and foams here.

-You're not a squirting foam man, are you?

-No.

We're going down the breast bone, taking the breast out.

We're not leaving any meat on the bone. Waste not, want not. You know what we're like.

-Are they your duck sausages?

-Yeah, we own a butcher's as well.

You're taking over the world, aren't you?

-We've got the lovely breasts here, as I say.

-That's fantastic.

That is good meat, isn't it?

The duck is traditionally quite fatty, so we'll trim some of this.

You want some fattiness cos that's why it tastes nice. There's the two breasts here. I'll score these.

We'll get these into the pan.

We'll cook those pink, skin side down, nice and crispy.

It'll release some of the fat, so it's not too fatty on the plate.

The duck legs take a lot more cooking.

Chef, this is shredded and done.

For the orange, I've got a bit here, but I need a few extra portions.

You've got to be very finicky. Can you see how skinny these bits are here?

-This is hard.

-Has he got a zester?

-No.

-Why don't you use the zester?

-I can't. He hasn't given us one.

-Delia Smith uses a zester.

-I don't want any white on there.

-Right.

-No pith.

-I'm not taking the pith out of this orange.

The sausages go into the same pan as the duck breasts. Duck meat bound with pork.

They've got a bit of orange and juniper in there. They can tick over in the oven.

We've coloured off the duck legs here. They're a bit tougher and need more cooking.

We do them the night before. They call it confit, so it's a slow cook, it cooks in its own fat.

-Nice and gentle.

-It's great cos you can keep it for weeks in the fridge.

That's what it is. It's a preserve. "Confiture" is jam, so it's a preservative.

But because it takes so long, I've got some already in the oven that we put in through the night.

I'll put these in. They can tick over and I'll pull the other ones out.

Let's have a look at this orange. We are making Yorkshire sauce here, not marmalade.

-There's nothing the matter with that.

-This is finer than a dragonfly's knitting.

We're gonna do the sauce. In we go.

-That's port wine?

-Yeah. Have a swig later if you want to.

-I may need it.

-A bit of redcurrant jelly. ..When you've won?

-Yeah.

-Celebrating?

-Yeah.

-We'll see.

We've got the orange zest going into here. Slightly lumpy, some bits.

-I didn't cut it. I just peeled it. It was, you know...

-Here...!

-Any port in a storm. Shut up!

So that's just ticking over.

-Do you want this mashing, Chef?

-I do, but not lumpy mash. It's got to be smooth, Michelin-star mash.

-Have you seen a masher?

-There's a masher there behind you. The mouli?

Lewis, give him a hand with that. Show these amateurs. Go on.

-Are we gonna mash taters or wear it?

-LAUGHTER

-What's the crack with this?

-Potatoes into there, back over your pan.

I want one of them. They're good.

All I'm saying is "organ grinder"!

-You're meant to be on my side.

-I know. I am.

While you two are messing about, I'm doing the serious business.

-I've got the port in here, redcurrant jelly.

-Right.

-We've got some nice duck stock here.

-That'll put hairs on your chest as well as your chin!

-You could strip paint with that!

-The cream and butter go into your mash.

-Are you happy for me to season it to my taste?

-Yeah.

I've taken the confit duck legs out of the oven. Now we just trim them up a bit.

So we've got the thigh and the drumstick, OK? Nice and tender, lovely, flaky meat there.

This mash is smoother than an estate agent's brogues!

-Drop the curly kale into the mash.

-Raw? You're not gonna blanch it?

No, if you blanch it, you're diluting the flavours. The heat of the potato will cook the kale.

-Oh! Oh!

-I bet he's got a machine for this. He's taking the mickey.

-Yeah, he is.

-Would you like to taste?

-Thank you very much, sir.

Lovely. Delicious. Load that into there.

-Yeah.

-Can you manage that? Make sure it doesn't come out the bottom.

We've got a nice, hot pan here. I've got some lovely duck livers. Lightly fry them.

Only for a minute each side.

-These lovely duck eggs are going in here.

-Do you put vinegar in the water when you poach the eggs?

-I do.

A dash of white wine vinegar. See how the white is coming around it? Poach these eggs for three or four minutes.

-So they'll be nice and runny in the middle. Are you listening?

-I am.

I didn't realise it'd take two of you to do your mash.

OK, so livers here, then all the bits for the duck plate.

-The eggs come out.

-Oh, man!

-Nice and soft. We'll trim them up a bit.

-Let's have a go at the breasts, as they say.

-Look at that.

Spot-on, that. OK, so we're gonna plate the dish up now.

And the idea is then we go around building up the plate.

We've got the thigh, the duck sausage,

we've got the duck liver, then the poached egg.

-And a bit of the breast in the middle, OK?

-Hold on.

-What's up now?

-You've got six on that one and seven on that one.

Symmetry, symmetry!

-That can't be true.

-It's true.

-One, two, three, four, five, six...

-BLEEP

-It is.

-Yes!

-Then over we go with the old sauce. See the orange zest in there?

-Yeah.

Nice, deep flavours in the stock.

-Looks nice with the star anise.

-Bit of flavour, bit of spice as well.

OK, finishing touch.

How about that then? Three plates of the Harome-reared duck.

Livers - you can always tell a good bird by its liver.

I don't know. Look at this skin!

Oh, God!

That confit's to die for. The skin's crispy. It's just beautiful.

That duck liver is as fine as I've tasted. Absolutely brilliant.

Great combinations of flavours, lovely gloss to the sauce.

Oh, look at that. Now, there's a duck egg!

The trouble we're gonna have, it's about the timing, the cooking. Everything is perfectly cooked.

Or as my father would say,

"Aye, passable."

'But the locals will decide whose dish is best in a blind tasting.

'Andrew's duck was so fantastic, we had to find out what gave it such a distinctive flavour.

'Paul and Janet Tanning started Loose Birds 13 years ago.

'They're based in Andrew's village, so this produce couldn't get any more local for The Star Inn.'

I think this must be it, dude.

'All the birds are free-range and have the run of 23 acres of land.'

-Ah, so these are all your loose birds!

-They are.

-These are what Andrew wants and loves?

-Basically, they're Andrew's ducks.

-He'll use nearly all these ducks.

-What breed of duck are these?

These are Aylesbury/Peking cross ducks.

They're a normal commercial duck.

I just rear them a little bit differently to what the intensive chaps do,

so that's why we get a better flavour, a better duck really.

-Let the duck do what it wants to do.

-What's it like being a Michelin-star duck?

-I don't think they know a lot about it!

-They look very healthy and very happy.

We try to make sure all our birds are outside for half of their lives, if not more.

This level of freedom, what does that do to the taste, Paul?

They're not forced. They're allowed to grow naturally.

And also look at all the grass, there's sting nettles, thistles. They're eating all that.

They get vitamins and minerals. They wouldn't get that in a shed.

-What else have you got on your farm, Paul?

-Mainly chickens.

I rear about 200 chickens a week to sell to local delicatessens and local butchers.

And a few select restaurants who I think are good enough to cook my stuff.

That's a proper producer that takes care where his stuff's going.

You follow your heart sometimes and I'm very lucky in Yorkshire to be able to do what I want.

I love these animals. I love these ducks. And I just love producing absolutely fantastic food.

Let's see if we can pull some loose birds.

Come on!

Stuffing! Paxo!

Sausage, peas...

They're not easy, these birds, are they?

'Having seen the quality of Andrew's duck, we need some fantastic produce to compete.

'North Yorkshire is well known for its coastal offerings

'and where better to head than Whitby Fish Market?

'But for really fresh fish, you've got to get up early.'

I can't look, I can't see anything. What unearthly time of the world is this?

It's six o'clock, but it's lovely. We need fresh fish to take on a Michelin-star chef.

-This is the gig.

-I know. I dreamt last night I filleted him!

Right, fish market, we're off.

Charge!

-Very, very quiet.

-There's a lot of empty boxes.

How about in here?

It's empty. There's nothing. There's squat-all!

-Have you got any fish in?

-No, there's nowt in today.

-Nowt?

-What do you mean?

-It's been bad weather, so...

-It's lovely out there, man. Look at it!

-It's flat calm. If you've nowt on the quay, where do we go?

-The pub.

-LAUGHTER

-Smashing(!)

-There's a boat. Come on.

-That's a big 'un.

-That means fish.

-Come on! Excellent.

-So have you got owt on, Skipper?

-I've got some langoustine.

-Have you?

-Can you sell us a few?

-I'll give you a few, yeah.

-Top man!

Thanks, gents. I've never been on a trawler before.

Wow!

-Oh, look at that!

-Magic!

-Oh, brilliant!

What a result! Look at this!

It's like a box of Quality Street.

It's better. It's like finding a box full of all the purple ones at once.

-Thank you, thank you.

-Thank you.

'The langoustines look so tasty, but we want more local fish for our plate.

'John at The Whitby Catch has just the thing.'

-I'll show you what we've got.

-What a lovely fish shop!

-Is most of your fish local, John?

-It is.

-Virtually everything.

-When you're buying fish, there's a simple way of making sure that it's fresh.

-If the eyes are bright, it is.

-If you lift the gills, they're nice and red.

-Yeah.

-That is 100% proof it is fresh fish.

We need to get some of your finest. We're up against a Michelin-starred chef.

-What do you reckon, John?

-I would think certainly...

-I've got my eye on something.

The turbot looks very nice and that would be the ideal fish for him.

-Let's go for the turbot.

-As regards filleting, you lads are the cooks, you'll want it filleting for you?

-Steady on!

-We can handle that.

Shall we have a little test then and see how good you are?

Take your knives, go!

-One.

-Myers has got one off already.

-That's cheating, that. Speed isn't the essence.

-Dave's got two fillets off.

-We'll see what his are like compared to mine.

-Right, OK.

Look at those bobby-dazzlers!

This is Dave's fish. There's more meat on that than there is...

-And this is John's fish.

-He's left nothing for the cat!

-I think the competition goes to The Catch. And your whelks are very nice as well.

-You're quite welcome.

-Right!

-Right!

-We've had your duck.

-Game on.

We're doing Whitby turbot on a bed of braised leeks with langoustines and we're doing a Sandefjord sauce.

'Local diners will decide whose dish best represents the true flavours of North Yorkshire.'

-I'm gonna crack on with these leeks.

-We'll get them on braising.

-Anything you want me to do?

-Andrew, would you do us some barrel potatoes? Like they used to at...?

-Back to the old college days.

-It'll be nice to have them boiled and tossed in butter.

-These spuds here?

-Yeah.

-Bit of microsurgery!

Look at these fine North Yorkshire leeks! I'll top and tail those.

-Just like that.

-They're like a row of badly capped teeth.

These are gonna be braised in some vegetable stock.

-In they go.

-We got some cracking seafood at Whitby.

-It's my home town, Whitby. It's where I was born.

-You and Dracula.

Look at this belting turbot!

Because your portions are a bit generous, we've supplemented it with another turbot to get the volume up.

Going for the gross profit, are we?

-Now I could fillet it.

-Go on, mate. Go on.

-Go on, son.

-Wait a minute. Hold on.

-Get limbered up.

-Now, this one is the prime fillet.

We're off. I've always been good at filleting.

-I used to do it with my mum's feet when she couldn't afford the chiropodist.

-He's a worry, isn't he?

-I don't think I want to eat that any more!

-Thank goodness this is not going out there!

-Look at that. Lovely.

-I'll just run that on the bone.

I'm not rushing now. This isn't competitive filleting.

-How are we doing with those potatoes?

-All right. Nine you wanted. Do you want them on?

Get them boiling. That'll be lovely.

-Do you get your fish ready-filleted?

-Some we do, some we don't.

We get massive 150-pound halibut. We buy chunks of halibut, but it all comes from the North Sea.

A lot of it we buy on the bone cos we use all the bones for stocks.

-Turbot, halibut, lovely.

-Yeah, lovely.

Those leeks have been in for three minutes.

They're gonna sit there and continue to cook in their own heat. Perfect.

Look at that. Now, that's a Yorkshire portion, isn't it?

-Look at those. Aren't they fantastic?

-And these are landed at Whitby?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-We caught the boat as it came in.

-It was an absolute corker!

Our strategy has been that if we buy the best quality produce we can,

add a bit of fire and don't make a mess of it,

-we've got a chance.

-Less is more.

-It's true.

-You've got the good ingredients.

The most important thing about langoustines and any seafood is not to overcook it.

-Yeah. Nice and delicate.

-Nice and easy.

The Sandefjord sauce is a sauce after your own heart.

-Or possibly heart-stopping really!

-Stand by.

-Does it need a Harome health warning with it?

-Aye.

-First, tip in half a jug of cream and boil that up.

-I see what you mean. You weren't joking!

I'm gonna put a star anise in that and let it infuse and boil down,

-but I'll taste that cos I don't want it tasting of sarsaparilla.

-Sarsaparilla juice, no.

The langos are done. They've been in two minutes.

I'm just slashing the turbot skin, so that when we cook it, it's not gonna curl up.

What we're gonna do with the langos, it's fiddly, but it's worth the effort...

What happens is, cut through it, cut the flesh out either side,

so when it's served at the table,

it comes out the shell, there's no drama and it's really easy to eat.

-Would you do your langoustines like this?

-If we serve them whole,

we part-peel them here to make it easier for the guests.

They hold on to the tail, into the mouth, then pull it away with their teeth.

-Kingy, taste that. I just want to see if I've got the star anise. I think it's dead right.

-Perfect.

-Just enough.

-Yeah.

-Into this I'm whisking about 200 grams of proper Yorkshire butter.

Oh, lovely.

-Ever seen a thin Viking?

-LAUGHTER

-Look, not a hint of a split.

-That looks good.

I haven't got my herbs in it yet. That's just the base.

-A little undercurrent of star anise.

-That's lovely.

I tell you what, I was right about the Harome health warning though!

A little of what you fancy does you good! Now, the herbs.

-Dill and chives.

-Are these gonna go into the sauce?

-Yeah, they're just gonna relax down.

-Relax down - I like that.

At the last minute, I'll put some lemon zest in. I've got to watch it doesn't split and go horrible.

Yeah, the citric acid. I like the relaxing of the herbs in the sauce.

-That's good. I like that.

-I have to say the kitchen is buzzing. It's a great atmosphere here.

You've got very happy people working for you, other than the fella with the glasses who looks miserable.

Yeah, they're a good team.

-Great.

-Is it all coming together at the last minute now?

-Listen, you fry the fish and I'll do the...bits.

-Skin side down?

-No, flesh side down to get colour, then I'll cook it through skin side down.

-Crisp it up a bit.

You don't want soggy skin.

-I've got to watch this. I want it browned, not burned.

-I'll try not to put you off.

-I'm adding chives to that butter.

-Leeks?

-I've got them sweatin'.

The pressure's on now.

Come on, come on, don't panic. All the chefs are watching you.

Andrew, we encouraged you.

-I didn't!

-There's two of you. There's only one of me.

I can smell the sea. Oh, look at that! Just blushed with sun.

A little blast of citrus into these.

So are we up to Michelin-star standard...? Nothing to it, is there?

-The leeks aren't overcooked, are they?

-They're absolutely spot-on.

-Like poetry in motion, watching you two.

-This is lovely.

-This is done.

-You're shaking a bit, Chef. Are you all right there?

-Not under pressure in any way, are you?

-Yeah.

They're nice spuds. Who did those?

I don't know, but whoever did, they've got a job.

-I'll put these langies on.

-Lift these tails out. Use them as garnish. Reminds me of being back at college!

LAUGHTER

-Right, that's it.

-That's it. It's a tribute to North Yorkshire.

It's Whitby turbot on a bed of braised leeks with a Sandefjord sauce,

surmounted by langoustines which have been poached, then tossed in chive butter.

-Job's a good 'un, Bob's your uncle.

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

-Thank you, Chef.

OK, let's have a taste of this then, see what the best of Whitby has got to offer me.

-It's got a nice flake, hasn't it?

-Lovely flake.

Maybe a bit too flaky. Bit dry? No, lovely.

-Langos...

-Langos.

Hmm! Proper job. Delicious.

The presentation's a bit dodgy, but the combination of flavours is good.

-Well done.

-Thank you very much.

-I was suitably impressed.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

I hope the duck's gonna do it against the fish. I'll never live it down.

'It's crunch time. The diners here will taste both dishes, but without any idea who cooked which.

'First up is Andrew's assiette of Harome-reared duck.'

-It's all very tender.

-Sweet taste. Lovely and tender.

The duck is absolutely delicious.

That definitely melts. Beautiful.

The combination of flavours and textures is amazing. I loved it all.

The sauce was velvety smooth, the duck was crispy. Beautiful.

It was nice to have the tender, crispy duck and that sauce complemented it superbly.

For me, just a bit too much gravy, but it was absolutely delicious.

The textures were absolutely super together and the whole flavour was fantastic.

'We all knew that would be a hit. Will our dish go down as well? Fingers crossed.'

-Beautiful.

-I like that. Hmm!

Hmm, nice.

-Plenty of meat on this one.

-It's come away wonderfully.

I thoroughly enjoyed that. Very fresh. Very fresh.

The sauce was just right. Not too creamy or heavy.

You can undercook fish or overcook fish. You have to get that right balance.

That for me was perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Presentation maybe lacked a little.

The fish was meaty and it was tasty. It was cooked just right.

The langoustines had that sea flavour. Lovely.

CHEERING

How are you? All right?

-You're all alive. We haven't poisoned you!

-First question - have you enjoyed the food?

-Oh, definitely.

-That's a good start. So far, so good.

OK then, now the killer question.

Which dish best reflects the taste of North Yorkshire?

Show of hands for the duck.

Show of hands for the fish.

Put your other hand up, missus. Put your other hand up.

-It was close. Well done.

-Well done. Well done, man.

'To be beaten by Andrew isn't so bad. He's a great chef. Any other result wouldn't have been right.

'North Yorkshire has much to offer - delicious game, tons of fish,

'stunning countryside and wonderful people. We'll be coming back to this county very soon.'

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2009

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