Saturday Kitchen Season 2025 Episode 44

Reality Insight Hub

Saturday Kitchen Season 2025 Episode 44  #SaturdayKitchen  #RealityInsightHub   🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️ 👉 Official Channel: https://www.dailymotion.com/TrailerBolt 👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Transcript

00:00:00Good morning, it's the 1st of November, so we're delivering an incredible menu with more than a pinch of stardust and cocktails with a pack of punch. So I can guarantee there will be absolutely no returns. This is Saturday Kitchen Live.

00:00:30Good morning, welcome to the show. The wonderful Tomasina Myers is delivering us a Mexican fiesta and we're excited to introduce the chef from Britain's only Michelin-star Thai restaurant, John Chantresac. And as ever, Helen McGinn selected all-star wines that won't break your budget.

00:00:51Now our special guests are both true Hollywood stars with loads of awards between them. Lucky for us, they've swapped the bright lights of L.A. for the West End stage starring Arthur Miller's All My Sons. Please welcome Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Bryan Cranston.

00:01:09Good morning. Good morning. Lovely to have you both here, bringing a little bit of Hollywood stardust to our Clapham studio. You guys are busy in rehearsals right now? Yeah.

00:01:19The play's starting in two weeks? Something like that? Two weeks? Two weeks we have our first audience. Yeah. So you guys are over for a month before you begin, is that right? Yes. Yeah. It's been about that. About a month, not quite. It's quite a long haul, isn't it, to lead into a play? Actually, it's not. Is it not? It's very short. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. But you have to go in word perfect, don't you? Yes. I don't think you're helping. I mean, which one of us

00:01:48is not word perfect yet. Don't you have a earpiece to me? Don't they feed you? Nice. Stuff like that. It's actually really good. What, to do it that way? Yeah. Really? Yeah.

00:01:57Because it's so much more liberating when you get in the room. And then you learn the space and, I mean, listen to me. And the characters, you know.

00:02:04Yeah. Yeah. Right, we're going to talk more about that later. Let's see what's on the menu today. John, welcome along to the show. Now your restaurant, Anglo-Thai, won a Michelin star within three months of opening.

00:02:15Yes. So congratulations on that. And you're giving us a taste of British ingredients, Thai influences. Yeah, exactly. That's kind of what we specialise in at the restaurant.

00:02:24So today I'm doing a garlic and coriander marinated pusan, serving that with a tamarind dipping sauce, and then an autumnal salad that's in the style of a Thai som tam.

00:02:35Very nice. Very delicious, that is. That old dish. Yeah. Seen it before. Tommy, what Mexican delights have you got?

00:02:44So you would not catch a Mexican eating a burrito at lunchtime. You have to have a torta. It's an amazing Mexican sandwich.

00:02:50We're going to have a buttermilk chicken, a hot sauce in the Yucatan, and a delicious charred jalapeno aegi.

00:02:56Excellent. Lots of pickles going on in there? Lots of pickles. Mexican pickles galore. Okay.

00:03:00What's the ban in the burrito? What's that all about? Well, I mean, I could see a burrito once in six months in Mexico last year.

00:03:07The tortoise is what they eat at lunch. Okay. And the bread. We're doing delicious artisanal bread. Wait till you try. Wait till you try it.

00:03:14I mean, I'm a fan of burritos. I won't be joining that campaign.

00:03:17Helen, you have been living the high life on the ocean waves.

00:03:21I have. I went on a cruise. And it turns out, despite me not thinking this would be the case, but I am very firmly in my cruising era.

00:03:28Really? Yeah.

00:03:29Change women. Yeah.

00:03:30Okay. That could be misconstrued, but...

00:03:33But, hey, you enjoyed it.

00:03:35I loved it. I loved it.

00:03:36You got some wine for us?

00:03:37I've got some really lovely wine. So a bargain autumnal white to go with the ore dish, John.

00:03:42Some bubbles for you, Tommy, obviously. And we are going to be doing a little bit of tequila and mezcal tasting as well, which is very exciting.

00:03:52Yeah. That's going to be quite a lot of that. Now, Brian, Marianne, our viewers are in charge of what you eat at the end of the show.

00:03:56We're doing two heavens. So, Brian, first of all, tell us about your idea of food heaven.

00:04:02I think when I think of a food heaven, it's something that is comfortable and relaxing and it feels like a warm hug.

00:04:13And I always lean towards a great pasta, you know, with perhaps a pesto sauce and grilled shrimp on top.

00:04:21Or it could be a puttanesca. It could be as simple as spaghetti and meatballs.

00:04:25It could be any one of those things that just makes you feel like curling up with a book on a nice, nice warm day.

00:04:33Okay, you're already painting a picture then. And what about you, Marianne?

00:04:37For me, it will probably be a slow-roasted lamb. Lots of flavour.

00:04:42You know, I like the flavours to be built up.

00:04:45Right.

00:04:45Marinated.

00:04:46You're a big cook, aren't you?

00:04:47Yeah.

00:04:48I love cooking. I love all the preparation.

00:04:50Right.

00:04:50So that, for me, because you can just keep picking at it.

00:04:54Okay.

00:04:54When you lift that bone up, it just falls off.

00:04:57Okay. Nice. Got that.

00:05:00Well, we're going to ask our viewers to decide which one of their food heavens one gets to cook at the end of the show.

00:05:07You've only just started working together, so I hope we don't bring any sort of rift into this.

00:05:12It's competition, though.

00:05:13It's part of the format. We like a bit of competition here.

00:05:16So will you go for Brian's food heaven?

00:05:17If so, I'm going to make a maltagliati pasta, which literally translates to badly cut.

00:05:22So I'm going to then layer it up with a rich tomato ragu packed full of prawns and mussels and cuttlefish.

00:05:27I'm going to finish it with a little hit of parmesan, which is controversial to some.

00:05:32I'm sure Gennaro's watching this morning, so Gennaro, have your say.

00:05:35Or is Marianne's food heaven your dream dish?

00:05:38If so, I'm going to slowly cook a lamb shank with an array of Moroccan spices, preserved lemons and dates and raisins.

00:05:44It's all going to fall off the bone. I'm going to serve it with a traditional Moroccan bread to mop up all those bruises.

00:05:50Log on to the Saturday Kitchen website. You can view the terms and privacy notices and have your say.

00:05:54All of that still to come. Plus, do you know the difference between tequila and mezcal?

00:05:59Helen mentioned earlier she'll be teaming up with Tommy to give us a masterclass and mix a few cocktails.

00:06:05Look forward to that one.

00:06:05Right, John, shall we get on with the cooking?

00:06:07Yeah, let's do it.

00:06:08Right. So I'm going to get on with the salad. Now, very kindly, the kitchen have prepared this for me.

00:06:14This is the dressing.

00:06:15Yes.

00:06:15This is really interesting. Talk us through this.

00:06:17So the dressing sort of epitomises the four flavours of Thai cuisine for me.

00:06:24Sweet, salty, sour and spicy.

00:06:27But in the meantime, I'm going to crack on with a few bits here that's going to be with my poussan.

00:06:32So basically in this pan, I'm creating almost like a fish sauce caramel that's going to kind of glaze the chicken when it comes out of the grill.

00:06:42And then I'm also going to crack on with a dipping sauce.

00:06:46Righto.

00:06:46So that, again, it's going to be palm sugar, tamarind, fish sauce and a little bit of water to get that going as well.

00:06:54OK, so you marinate the chicken and you've got a...

00:06:57You marinate it, you glaze it and then you have a dipping sauce.

00:07:00So we're just like constantly building layers of flavour essentially.

00:07:03Is that a kind of traditional thing as well?

00:07:05Yeah, I think in the very best sort of restaurants and street food places in Thailand, that is very apparent.

00:07:11OK, OK.

00:07:12And talk about these pillars of Thai.

00:07:16Flavours.

00:07:18So, yeah, for me...

00:07:18Is that how it's known, the pillars?

00:07:20I kind of call it the four S's that are synonymous with the cuisine.

00:07:27So, like I said, salty, which comes usually from fish sauce, sweet from palm sugar, sour from things like tamarind and lime juice,

00:07:36and then spicy from the ubiquitous chilli that is seen everywhere in Thai cuisine.

00:07:42OK, good.

00:07:43So here, though, just to stop you, I'm going to knock up a marinade for the Poussin.

00:07:50So I've got coriander root, some salt, some white peppercorn, I'm going to add some palm sugar, some turmeric powder,

00:08:00and then coriander powder, and then just some fish sauce and oil.

00:08:04OK, well, I'm going to, while you're pounding this, I'm going to pound that.

00:08:07This is very nice, by the way.

00:08:08You bought this one.

00:08:09Yeah, so that one's actually been around the world with me prior to opening the restaurant.

00:08:13It's cooked a lot of pop-ups all over the place, and that trusty wooden pestle and mortar is packed in the suitcase.

00:08:21And, John, the coriander root is super important, isn't it? It's got so much flavour.

00:08:25Yeah, the root of the coriander plant, so this one here, it's really highly prized in Southeast Asian cooking.

00:08:34Not something that you actually really see in European cooking, which is a bit of a shame,

00:08:37because, again, it's sort of like utilising the whole ingredient, which we're not really doing here,

00:08:42but we use it a lot at the restaurant, we use it a lot in the cuisine.

00:08:46Talk about this. So this should be a traditional sort of papaya salad.

00:08:51Yes.

00:08:52This is what you do in your restaurant, you use British ingredients.

00:08:54So we've got apple, we've got celeriac, what else have we got in there?

00:08:58A bit of white cabbage, blackberries.

00:09:00Yeah, blackberries. So with this kind of salad as well, it's sort of like no holes barred,

00:09:05with being able to add, like, fruits and vegetables together, which I really like.

00:09:09You sort of get the natural sweetness from the fruits.

00:09:14And, yeah, I just really like working with seasonal produce,

00:09:16so it makes sense, really, to just be, like, reaching for those ingredients for the best peak flavour.

00:09:22And you work quite sort of hard and closely with British farmers to sort of build your store cupboard, as it were.

00:09:29That's kind of like...

00:09:30Chamonix, lemongrass, stuff like that.

00:09:31That's kind of like the pillars of what we try and do.

00:09:35Specifically with things like Asian ingredients, we try and get those grown for us in the UK.

00:09:39Uh-huh.

00:09:39And we really want to, like, drive down, kind of, the stuff that we're importing into the UK.

00:09:45Okay.

00:09:45So next up, I've made my marinade, and I'm going to basically spatchcock this Poussan, or baby chicken.

00:09:51Righto.

00:09:51What I'm going to do is remove the backbone, which is here, and you can just do that with a pair of heavy-duty scissors.

00:10:01And you just want to cut straight through, fairly easy to do.

00:10:05Do you still need that root?

00:10:07I do not, no, thank you.

00:10:08Okay, fine.

00:10:09When you say root, do you use all that as well?

00:10:11Yeah, exactly.

00:10:12It's got, like, a very pronounced fragrant flavour.

00:10:17And then with this Poussan, I'm just going to turn it over, and then with a bit of force, just kind of flatten it out.

00:10:23Okay.

00:10:24And the idea is that that will cook more evenly now.

00:10:27Righto.

00:10:27So tell us about how you got into cooking.

00:10:31It was quite sort of unconventional.

00:10:33Yeah, so I actually started out life in my teenage years playing music.

00:10:37I was a drummer in a band.

00:10:38And we, I had some great ambitions to be an international rock star, basically.

00:10:45Okay.

00:10:45That didn't really wash out, and I...

00:10:47Still rocking that kind of look, though, right?

00:10:49That is pretty much where it all comes from.

00:10:51Yeah.

00:10:51But I took a road trip across the States.

00:10:54I did, like, a 12,000-mile road trip across the States, actually.

00:10:57With a band?

00:10:58No, by myself, a bit of, like, a discovery trip, I guess.

00:11:03Okay.

00:11:03And it was in that time that I found myself sort of travelling a lot for food, and by the end of that, I sort of realised that maybe there was something in it for me with hospitality.

00:11:14And I actually moved to Thailand, where my father's from originally.

00:11:18Right.

00:11:18And I studied at Le Cordon Bleu, so I did a classical French diploma.

00:11:23Okay.

00:11:24But, ironically, in Thailand.

00:11:26Okay.

00:11:27And when you're learning French technique in Thailand, do they obviously bring a lot of Thai influences in?

00:11:34Well, it was actually, like, a very traditional programme.

00:11:36Okay.

00:11:37And, um, but you did get introduced to some of the Thai ingredients by the end.

00:11:44Right.

00:11:45So it's quite nice.

00:11:46It's just, like, I guess the very early foundation of me starting to cook both with Thai ingredients but using, like, Western sort of techniques.

00:11:55So I've just popped the Pusan in the grill.

00:11:59I'm going to start it skin side down to basically cook it, cook the bird through the, uh, the bone to kind of, like, protect the meat so it doesn't go, like, dry.

00:12:09Righto.

00:12:09And then just for, like, the final sort of five minutes, we'll flip the bird and we will, uh, get some nice colour and caramelisation on the skin.

00:12:17Got it.

00:12:18So, um, so you worked around in various restaurants.

00:12:23You then set up sort of pop-ups around the world?

00:12:26Yeah, so...

00:12:26In the room and stuff?

00:12:27I mean, I think, like, anyone that wants to sort of do their own business, a lot of the time you have no clue how you're even going to start doing that.

00:12:35Yeah.

00:12:35So the first step really was to just, yeah, cook the concept in other people's restaurants, wine bars, things like that.

00:12:44Right.

00:12:44And build over time.

00:12:46Okay.

00:12:46And actually, the first time I did that was in 2015 and we opened the restaurant in 2024.

00:12:53So it took a bit of time to, you know, organically build that brand and, uh, understand what the concept was to myself.

00:13:01But then...

00:13:01Your ten-year overnight success.

00:13:04Exactly.

00:13:05It's all in the, uh, all in the mise en place.

00:13:08Exactly.

00:13:08But you used to do these insane supper clubs in your, in your house.

00:13:12Yeah.

00:13:12I actually run the business with my wife.

00:13:14She's a sommelier.

00:13:16And, um, actually when she was pregnant with our first child, Rufus, whose birthday is actually on Monday.

00:13:21Happy birthday, Rufus.

00:13:22Shout out to Rufus.

00:13:23How old is he?

00:13:24He's going to be four.

00:13:25We're having a party after this.

00:13:27Cool.

00:13:27But, um, yeah, she was eight months pregnant when we, uh, decided to do one of those wild, uh, supper clubs in our house.

00:13:35So it's been a real adventure to get the doors of the restaurant open.

00:13:38And then a star within three months.

00:13:41Yeah, that was amazing.

00:13:42That's amazing.

00:13:43Matt, I think someone's ready.

00:13:45Are you good to go?

00:13:46Yeah, it's coming.

00:13:47Okay.

00:13:48Hurry up.

00:13:49At ease.

00:13:50It's coming.

00:13:51It's coming.

00:13:52So, dipping sauce is here.

00:13:55God.

00:13:55I think it's going to be...

00:13:57Nice.

00:13:57Right.

00:13:57I'm going to finish off the chicken.

00:13:59Okay.

00:14:00I like these.

00:14:01These, uh, these plates from your restaurant.

00:14:04Oh, it's right there.

00:14:07Oh.

00:14:09Oh, my God.

00:14:10Okay.

00:14:11So how long did this take, all in all?

00:14:13So it should be ten minutes for the first cook with, uh, skin side down and then, like, five minutes or so, skin side up.

00:14:19Let's try that.

00:14:20You can indeed.

00:14:21It's, like, salty and sweet, basically.

00:14:22Oh, wow.

00:14:23A little bit of spice.

00:14:24Wow.

00:14:24That's delicious.

00:14:26Um, so, yeah, just be liberal.

00:14:28Glaze it all over.

00:14:29And then, like, traditionally in Thailand, always served on the bone.

00:14:34It's really prized.

00:14:35So I'm just going to do the same here.

00:14:38Very nice.

00:14:39Just, uh, don't forget, if you want to make John's Thai Pusan at home, you can find the recipe at bbc.co.com forward slash Saturday Kitchen.

00:14:44Or you can scan the QR code below and it'll take you straight to this dish.

00:14:49Okay.

00:14:49So this, um, the salad is quite interesting.

00:14:53So you build it and then you put it into this pestle and mortar and then you kind of muddle it all together.

00:14:59Exactly.

00:15:00So you're trying...

00:15:00You're smashing it up, but you're just kind of mixing quite aggressively.

00:15:02So you're kind of, uh, trying to bruise the ingredients somewhat.

00:15:07Okay.

00:15:08So that they absorb.

00:15:09And they break down, right?

00:15:10Because you've got a lot of stiff vegetables.

00:15:12Exactly.

00:15:13A lot of breaking down.

00:15:14And it's also got, like, you know, acidic, salty flavours in that marinade, uh, in that sauce as well.

00:15:19Yeah.

00:15:20So that's going to help, like, break down the vegetables too.

00:15:22That looks and smells amazing.

00:15:25Oh.

00:15:25Remind us what it's called, John.

00:15:27So this is, uh, garlic and coriander marinated Pusan with a tamarind dipping sauce and an autumnal Somtam salad.

00:15:35Very good.

00:15:36Well done.

00:15:40Come on.

00:15:41Okay.

00:15:42Don't be polite.

00:15:43Come on.

00:15:43Just bring it up.

00:15:44Salivating here.

00:15:45Here you are.

00:15:46Marianne, if you, uh, want to tuck straight into that.

00:15:49Oh, yes.

00:15:49Try the salad.

00:15:50I made the salad.

00:15:53Right, Brian.

00:15:54Try the salad.

00:15:55Lovely.

00:15:56The dipping sauce.

00:15:57So straight.

00:15:58Are they getting special treatment in?

00:15:59They are.

00:16:00Are they getting special treatment?

00:16:01Being guests.

00:16:02To be honest, we did have this for breakfast in rehearsal this morning.

00:16:05So we've got to let them, we've got to let the guests.

00:16:06Uh, Helga, what's in my glass?

00:16:08So, um, knowing that your wife is a sommelier as well, which I'm so thrilled.

00:16:12So I do need to know what she thinks of this match.

00:16:15So with this, with the autumnal vibe you've got going on, we've got a white.

00:16:19It's called The Gathering Storm.

00:16:20It's from Majestic.

00:16:21It's £7, which is a ridiculous price.

00:16:24I think somebody's happy.

00:16:26Yeah, you're happy.

00:16:26And it's from the central Spain, which is hot and dry, but with a bit of elevation, you've

00:16:33got the coolness.

00:16:34So it's a blend of Sauvignon, uh, Vedeco's in there, but also you've got that little bit

00:16:39of Lise-aged Chardonnay, which gives it a bit more punch, a bit more breadth, but still

00:16:43the freshness to cut through, because these flavours, you need freshness in the glass to

00:16:47kind of cool it all down and keep you going back for more.

00:16:50I always say, you need freshness in the glass.

00:16:52Yeah, is that an example phrase?

00:16:53That's my fault, I'm fine.

00:16:55Are you happy with that, Matt?

00:16:56I think it's super delicious, like, that nice richness, but also that bracing acidity that

00:17:00helps, like, complement the food.

00:17:01Yeah, and most importantly, a really nice label.

00:17:04We know how we...

00:17:05And can we point out that Tommy tried to get some in rehearsal and her card was rejected?

00:17:11I just used a different card.

00:17:13I just used a different card.

00:17:14I didn't know that.

00:17:15That's so funny.

00:17:16So the food's going down well, I take it.

00:17:18How do you not eat the whole thing?

00:17:20You can.

00:17:20You did.

00:17:21I know, but you've got to pace yourself.

00:17:23Oh, no, I wouldn't worry.

00:17:25Just take it while it's there.

00:17:26I'm making you a salad next.

00:17:28It's so good.

00:17:29That's delicious, too.

00:17:30It's so good.

00:17:30The salad is wonderful.

00:17:31Oh, I'm glad you got it.

00:17:32It is, and the dipping sauce.

00:17:34What's in the dipping sauce?

00:17:35I know you've got cane, palm sugar.

00:17:38Palm sugar, tamarind, like, water, fish sauce, and a little bit of chilli powder, and then

00:17:44I just cut through some fresh coriander and lemongrass.

00:17:47It's great.

00:17:47It's all just very, like, aromatic, bold, fresh things.

00:17:49The balance of the flavour is what's so crazy about it.

00:17:51You need to go visit while you're here.

00:17:53I'm going.

00:17:53Please do.

00:17:54What I love about this is that, like acting, it's exploration.

00:17:59I mean, at first, you didn't know, really, what would go well with each other.

00:18:04You have to experiment.

00:18:06Yeah, of course.

00:18:06And it's taken, like I said, it's been like a 10-year journey just to really get to that

00:18:10point.

00:18:10And now, with the restaurant, it really feels like a very, like, galvanised, harmonious

00:18:15concept, which is really nice to see.

00:18:17And I think people are really understanding that and seeing it in the food.

00:18:20Well, the food's delicious.

00:18:21It does.

00:18:22That's amazing.

00:18:22Right?

00:18:23Wow.

00:18:23Tommy, remind us what you're doing in a bit.

00:18:25I'm doing a torta, buttermilk, chicken, spiced, delicious, hot sauce with butter all

00:18:30over it, pickles, and a charred jalapeno ali, which is such a killer mayo.

00:18:35I love it.

00:18:35I have everything.

00:18:36But let's hope I don't split it again.

00:18:38Don't forget, you're in charge of what I cook at the end of the show.

00:18:40Do you prefer Brian's idea of food heaven?

00:18:42Mal Tagliati pasta layered with prawns and mussels and cuttlefish ragu?

00:18:46Or is Marianne's food heaven Moroccan lamb shanks and preserved lemons and dates?

00:18:50More of your preference.

00:18:51Log on to the website now and have your say.

00:18:53Rightio, let's catch up with Rick now and more of his adventures.

00:18:56He's in Malaysia meeting their answer to Jamie Oliver.

00:18:59Take a look.

00:18:59Malaysia is a cocktail of influences.

00:19:08The Chinese, of course, the Arabs and Indians have all made a stake here.

00:19:13And there's a profusion of spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

00:19:17This place was once the spice centre of the world and known as the gateway of the spice route,

00:19:23Malacca.

00:19:24I met this remarkable man, Chef Wan.

00:19:28He's a sort of Jamie Oliver and Delia Smith rolled into one and hugely popular in Malaysia.

00:19:34There was a massive fan club wherever we seemed to go.

00:19:45They're so popular.

00:19:49Honestly, I had no idea how popular it was.

00:20:03Everywhere we go in Malacca, they're saying, hello, Chef Wan.

00:20:07And actually, they're much more, they're very, like in England, people say, oh, that's Rick Stein over here.

00:20:14It's, hello, Chef Wan.

00:20:18OK.

00:20:19Thank you, bye.

00:20:23We went to this old colonial hotel, which used to be a rich merchant's grand house.

00:20:29Chef Wan wanted to cook me something which he thought I'd like, a typical nonna salad.

00:20:34But the hotel was right next door to the central hospital.

00:20:37Chef Wan, Chef Wan, Chef Wan.

00:20:39OK, back to...

00:20:40You're so famous.

00:20:41Oh, God, back to cooking now.

00:20:43We're going to pound this.

00:20:45And then we're going to throw some tomato.

00:20:46Now, this becomes the base, yeah?

00:20:48The base of my, what do you call that, salad.

00:20:50Now, my grandmother loved to prepare this every time for any of the member's birthday.

00:20:55Do you want this just bruised or powdered?

00:20:57Yes, all the way down.

00:20:58Pound, pound, pound, pound.

00:20:59I'm sorry I didn't have the goggle for you.

00:21:02And so, while you're doing that, we're going to add in the sambal belacan.

00:21:05OK.

00:21:05Look at that.

00:21:06If you want it too spicy, put more.

00:21:08Oh, I like it spicy.

00:21:09You like it spicy?

00:21:09OK, we'll add some more of that.

00:21:11Now, to that, we're going to have this, what do you call that, dried shrimp.

00:21:14What we call udang kering.

00:21:15This is so significant in the Nyonya cooking.

00:21:17Every time you cook in the Nyonya cuisine, they're bound to have this ingredient in many of the dishes.

00:21:21So, udang kering or dried shrimp.

00:21:23That's not smelly, not like the belacan.

00:21:25The belacan, you mean?

00:21:26You think it's smelly?

00:21:27Oh, I think it's lovely.

00:21:28Yeah, belacan, the shrimp.

00:21:30I think it's lovely.

00:21:30Belacan, yeah.

00:21:31That's an essential ingredient in many of the Pranacan cooking.

00:21:34Now, keep pounding.

00:21:35So, while you're doing that, you know, we are also going to put in here some of this fish sauce as well.

00:21:40Yeah, that gives that nice, you know, salty flavour.

00:21:42So, that goes in.

00:21:43And I need some palm sugar as well.

00:21:45And in typical Nyonya cooking, we use a lot of palm sugar as well.

00:21:47That looks lovely, that palm sugar.

00:21:49Yes, I say.

00:21:49Very unrefined.

00:21:50Yeah, all you need to do is just create like that.

00:21:52See how quickly and easy it is?

00:21:54Yeah.

00:21:54Go, go, go.

00:21:55So, the whole idea beside this salad is to have this combination of spiciness, sweetness and sour.

00:22:02Yeah, that's the secret, just like any Thai Indonesian cooking as well.

00:22:04Yeah.

00:22:05So, you see that sugar, that sweet, and all these wonderful aromatic spices coming that's right in front of you.

00:22:10And, of course, here we have a lot of herbs as well in the Nyonya cooking.

00:22:13Ricky, Ricky, look at that.

00:22:14Look at all these wonderful things.

00:22:15Oh, it's very, very lovely.

00:22:15Oh, and this is called the daun kesom.

00:22:18This is very significant, again, in many of the Nyonya cooking.

00:22:20We use them in the form of our laksa, that sweet, tangy flavour.

00:22:23Smell it?

00:22:24Can I try it?

00:22:24Mmm, smell it.

00:22:26Mmm.

00:22:27We call that Vietnamese mint.

00:22:29Correct.

00:22:29What do you call it?

00:22:30We call it daun kesom.

00:22:31Oh, my.

00:22:32But sometimes when you pronounce it in our Malaysian language, we call it daun kesom.

00:22:35All right.

00:22:36Can you say daun kesom?

00:22:37Daun kesom.

00:22:38And, of course, we have mint.

00:22:40So, we have a variety of here, fresh mint and coriander.

00:22:42We can add all that.

00:22:44Right.

00:22:44So, all this goes.

00:22:45So, what we need to do here, we'll just keep some nice one, and then we're just going to shred them and put them together in the salad, yeah?

00:22:50Very easy.

00:22:51So, let me have a look.

00:22:52That's perfect.

00:22:53Good.

00:22:53Are we there?

00:22:53So, now what we need to do here is you need to put them all inside, and then we're going to throw in our noodle together.

00:23:00Okay.

00:23:00Mix them up.

00:23:02So, I'm going to add a bit more sugar.

00:23:03As I said, it has to have that nice sweetness.

00:23:04Oh, definitely.

00:23:05Great sugar, that.

00:23:07So, then we're going to add here some other spices as well.

00:23:10Now, smell this.

00:23:11This is the bunga kantan.

00:23:14Ginger flour, if I'm not mistaken.

00:23:16Ginger torch.

00:23:17So, is that actually the real flour of a ginger fruit?

00:23:19Yes, yes, yes.

00:23:21Can I put that in?

00:23:22Yes, yeah, you can put that in.

00:23:23Let me cut that, and this is how.

00:23:26So, what I'm doing there, you can throw in the prawn as well, yeah?

00:23:32So, you have lovely mint Vietnamese.

00:23:34So, one end, you have all these wonderful spices, and then you have also...

00:23:37Stir it.

00:23:39Another more, look at that.

00:23:40And then you slice shallots, or you can also add some red onion.

00:23:42Yeah.

00:23:43And we need some bud chilli again to spice it up.

00:23:46Is that not too spicy?

00:23:47It's looking great, this.

00:23:47Yeah, look.

00:23:48And then we have also here the leaf, and then we have the chai, the Chinese called kucai.

00:23:53Is that garlic?

00:23:53Yes, correct.

00:23:54You smell that?

00:23:55Yeah, yeah.

00:23:55So, can you see all these wonderful aroma that goes inside?

00:23:58And then we have, as well here, toasted peanuts as well.

00:24:02Yeah, and then we have fried onion, and chili again.

00:24:05And the whole idea here, Rick, is to, what do you call that, you know, balance everything...

00:24:09...between sweetness, and sour, and spicy, and tofu, of course, extremely healthy.

00:24:13Is that prawn?

00:24:14Oh, yes, it's right.

00:24:15Yeah, and you use that as well, very typical of Nyonia cuisine.

00:24:18Yeah.

00:24:18Okay, now, we're going to throw in this wonderful lime juice.

00:24:23After this, Chef Wan said, I'm not going to have you on my show anymore, Chef Wan.

00:24:26You abuse me.

00:24:27So, we're going to squeeze this.

00:24:28Oh, I love it.

00:24:30Squeeze it, darling.

00:24:31So, that's what you call a salad?

00:24:33Yes.

00:24:33To us, a salad is just lettuce, tomato, that sort of thing.

00:24:36Oh, no, no, no.

00:24:37We have something a bit more than that, Ricky.

00:24:39We are in Malaysia, isn't it?

00:24:41Isn't that so simple?

00:24:42You've done it very well, I must say.

00:24:44Now, this can feed the whole entire family.

00:24:47May I try some?

00:24:48Yes, of course, of course.

00:24:50Can I have a fork here?

00:24:51Thank you very much.

00:24:51Yeah.

00:24:52Take a bite to that.

00:24:54And don't forget those wonderful shrimps.

00:24:56Oh, the shrimps.

00:24:57You love your seafood, darling.

00:24:58Oh.

00:24:59Don't you love your seafood, darling?

00:25:00Don't you love your seafood?

00:25:04Now.

00:25:05Mmm.

00:25:06You're not a bad cook.

00:25:07You're not just a TV chef after all.

00:25:11Well.

00:25:12And, of course, I'm going to garnish with a bit of nice basil here.

00:25:18And two lovely flowers.

00:25:20Sadeb lah.

00:25:21You know what Sadeb means?

00:25:23Yes, it means excellent, lovely, lovely.

00:25:25And coming from two diva delicious.

00:25:35He's quite camp, isn't he?

00:25:37Right, the supermarkets are full of pumpkins at the moment, not just carving kinds.

00:25:40There's probably loads going cheap today.

00:25:42So don't use those.

00:25:44However, there are delicious ones like this little onion squash knocking around.

00:25:48So I thought we'd do like a little kind of squashy salad, figs, a bit seasonal.

00:25:55Just nice and straightforward.

00:25:56So I'm going to peel this down and roast it in some...

00:26:00It's got sort of American vibes to this.

00:26:03Tommy's not sure about it.

00:26:05As she pointed out in the rehearsals yesterday.

00:26:08It's got a bit of cinnamon in there.

00:26:10There's a bit of maple syrup, there's some thyme, some smoked paprika.

00:26:15And then I'm going to roast the figs in some port and black pepper.

00:26:19And again, a little bit of maple syrup.

00:26:21And then I'm going to make the dressing from balsamic vinegar.

00:26:24And all the juices left over from everything else.

00:26:28And anyway, so that's all I'm doing, which is why I said eat up.

00:26:32Have you got some cress here?

00:26:33Yeah, a little bit of watercress.

00:26:35A little bit of peppery watercress.

00:26:36Nice.

00:26:36So I'm going to get on with this.

00:26:38You're going to tell us all about your play, the new play that's coming out.

00:26:42All My Sons, Arthur Miller play.

00:26:44Yeah.

00:26:45Set in the 40s.

00:26:48Well, we're not really setting in the 40s.

00:26:51Well, it was originally intended to be written by Arthur Miller

00:26:55back in the late 40s, right after the war.

00:26:59But Ivo van Hove, our director,

00:27:01who is known to sort of toss everything up in the air and see where it lands,

00:27:06he wanted a sense of timelessness.

00:27:11So it could be the 40s.

00:27:12It could be now.

00:27:14It could be 100 years ago.

00:27:17So it's very interesting.

00:27:19And a sparse set.

00:27:20We're not doing a traditional set.

00:27:23So it's a real, real exciting time for us

00:27:28because we don't really know how it all comes together.

00:27:31It's kind of like cooking.

00:27:33It is.

00:27:33Where you've made this before, perhaps,

00:27:36but you might have other ingredients

00:27:38and you don't really know if it's going to come out the way it did before.

00:27:43Or at all.

00:27:46But it's alive.

00:27:47It's alive.

00:27:48It keeps things...

00:27:49It does.

00:27:50It keeps things interesting.

00:27:50Yeah.

00:27:51And organic.

00:27:52It's interesting what you said about the...

00:27:54It's quite a sparse set.

00:27:56That puts a lot more focus on you guys.

00:27:58Yeah, and the words.

00:27:59I think I saw a production of Evo's some years ago.

00:28:04And what struck me about it was when you strip all that sort of big set and loads of props,

00:28:10you can really hear the words and you can really focus on the relationships.

00:28:14Uh-huh.

00:28:14I mean, without giving too much away, give us a rough idea of the plot.

00:28:20Go on.

00:28:20Well, we play a loving couple.

00:28:23Uh-huh.

00:28:23And I'm delighted to be able to work with this amazing actor, as well as the rest.

00:28:31We have a terrific cast.

00:28:33Yeah.

00:28:33But the story is really about family and idolatry and putting someone on a pedestal

00:28:41who you have such faith and belief in, and perhaps there's some disappointment and a sense

00:28:49of betrayal or lack of character that happens over the course of the play.

00:28:55But it's very dramatic.

00:28:57It's a beautifully written play.

00:28:59Uh-huh.

00:29:00And hopefully we don't mess it up.

00:29:02That's how I feel every Saturday.

00:29:04And how are rehearsals going?

00:29:07They're great.

00:29:08I mean, I'm loving it.

00:29:09Like, you know, going to work every day, it's like, what's going to happen?

00:29:13I mean, that looks genuine.

00:29:14Yeah, no, no.

00:29:14It's like I'm discovering something else every day, going into the room, working with Brian

00:29:21and Papa and Hayley and Tom and all the other actors.

00:29:24It's like, it's so rich.

00:29:27I mean, there must be quite an intensity to doing a play like that every single day,

00:29:32because both of you have got sort of, you know, TV backgrounds where it's all very different

00:29:37and it's all sort of out of sync.

00:29:39And I suppose you don't have to be sort of full of emotion all day long.

00:29:44Yeah.

00:29:44You're delivering a play to people.

00:29:46And it might be the, you know, the hundredth time you've delivered it, but it still has

00:29:50to be.

00:29:50Yeah.

00:29:51We have a responsibility for the audience.

00:29:54This is the first time they're seeing it.

00:29:55So it may have been the 100th time we've performed it, but we have to give it our all every single

00:30:01time, or we're shirking our duties as actors.

00:30:06I mean, they deserve to be able to be told this story.

00:30:09And human nature is where sometimes you feel you could have not slept well or you have a

00:30:16cold and you feel like you're leaning back in the play and you have to remind yourself,

00:30:21got to lean forward.

00:30:22Get on with it.

00:30:22Leave them and go.

00:30:24Yeah.

00:30:25And I wonder if there's a correlation, you know, with cooking and acting in the sense

00:30:33that you may have prepared a meal that you've done a hundred times before.

00:30:40And yet you could be on autopilot when you're making it because you know it so well.

00:30:45Absolutely.

00:30:46Do you know what I remember?

00:30:47It brings into mind.

00:30:49And I remember working for the chef and it was a Sunday night service and we were all

00:30:54very, very tired after a busy weekend.

00:30:56And he made this very strict point.

00:30:58I won't say what he said because it's unrepeatable.

00:31:00But he basically said these customers are paying exactly the same now as they did at lunchtime

00:31:06or they did on a Saturday night where everyone was buzzing and everyone, everything was flying.

00:31:10So you need to deliver.

00:31:13Right.

00:31:13And you need to remember that, right?

00:31:15Yeah.

00:31:16We're fortunate to be in the creative arts as a chef, as an actor, as a singer, as a painter.

00:31:22You're very fortunate to be able to make a living.

00:31:25But it comes with a responsibility.

00:31:27Yeah.

00:31:27And what drew you to the part, Maria?

00:31:30I just, I read it and I was just like, bloody hell, this is really good.

00:31:35Yeah.

00:31:36Simple as that.

00:31:36Yeah.

00:31:37I read it and I just, the writing and the relationships.

00:31:41Because when you first read it, you know, it's like, okay.

00:31:44So this is a loving couple with a couple of sons and stuff.

00:31:50But then when you dig more, you start to like figure all this other stuff out.

00:31:54But then by the time you get into the rehearsal room and you see, you know,

00:31:59who's going to be playing Joe and all the other characters,

00:32:02it just takes on another level again.

00:32:04So you were able to overcome the disappointment knowing I was playing.

00:32:10See, that's a professional.

00:32:11This guy from Malcolm and that's a professional.

00:32:12I'm starting to sweat now.

00:32:15Yeah.

00:32:16I was delighted.

00:32:17Right, let me, yeah, I've just realised I haven't told anyone what's going on here.

00:32:22Sorry, what's...

00:32:23Okay, so that's a bit of goat's cheese.

00:32:24Lovely.

00:32:24That's a nice, soft, young, fresh goat's cheese.

00:32:26Mm-hmm.

00:32:27So quite zesty.

00:32:28So I've got the, so the onion squash went in, in the maple syrup and the spices.

00:32:33That gets roasted for about sort of 25 minutes.

00:32:36As did the figs, they went in for a bit shorter time with the port, maple syrup.

00:32:40I chucked a bit of thyme in there and some black peppercorns.

00:32:42Um, and then what am I doing now?

00:32:46So then, basically, you, I'm just going to layer it up.

00:32:49Uh, watch those black peppercorns, um, if you don't want to be chewing through those.

00:32:53And then the syrup from the figs here, I'm just going to reduce that and make a little

00:32:58dressing, again, with a little bit of balsamic vinegar and some oil, olive oil.

00:33:02Um, and then just a little bit of salt, because it can be, Tommy, it can be quite sweet at this

00:33:07point, so a little bit of salt will just take the edge off now.

00:33:10Thank you, Matt.

00:33:11And I was, um, I was watching Marian last night, uh, an interview about how, uh, you know,

00:33:18a different, uh, totally different director, obviously, Mike Lee, how, how he gauged the

00:33:23characters and he got you to write down something like a hundred different names of different

00:33:27people and take little sort of facets from each one and narrow it down to about three.

00:33:33And then it became the character.

00:33:35I mean, this is a totally, which is why it's all those

00:33:37parts that you play are always very intense.

00:33:39Right.

00:33:39Yeah.

00:33:40I mean, obviously your director here is a very different kettle of fish.

00:33:44Yeah.

00:33:44And, and there is a script.

00:33:47Yeah.

00:33:47Right.

00:33:48When you're working with Mike, there's no script.

00:33:50Right.

00:33:50Um, wow.

00:33:51Yeah.

00:33:52I mean, it, it's a very different process, but an amazing one nonetheless.

00:33:59Do you know what I mean?

00:34:00It's, um, I think he's very much into relationships, Evo, you know, and creating those,

00:34:07those relationships and hitting the sensations that the characters are feeling, you know?

00:34:14Okay.

00:34:15Um, I mean, Brian, you described, um, taking on a new character, a bit like dating, which

00:34:21I thought was a weird analogy.

00:34:23Well, we, we go into every character that we do not knowing it's outside of us.

00:34:30So it is a lot like meeting someone for the first time, right?

00:34:34You don't really know that woman until you welcome her into you.

00:34:39And the same thing for me, and you, you get to know them and they tell you things and you

00:34:45exchange conversations with your character.

00:34:48And the more you do that, the more comfortable you feel.

00:34:52Uh-huh.

00:34:52And pretty soon it feels like the character has, has come inside of you and, and taken

00:34:59hold.

00:34:59Okay.

00:35:00And, and you, that's where the actor develops the sense of confidence in performing when

00:35:05you feel you've got it.

00:35:07Yeah.

00:35:07And at times you feel like you might be splitting up.

00:35:10Yes.

00:35:10That's right.

00:35:11Yes.

00:35:11And they start moving.

00:35:12You might, they feel, you feel like you're splitting up and they're moving away from you

00:35:16and you're chasing them.

00:35:17You're chasing them and you, you want to be with them.

00:35:19They don't want to be with you or vice versa.

00:35:21And it's like, oh.

00:35:23Yeah.

00:35:24And throughout that whole period for the, cause you're here till March.

00:35:27Yeah.

00:35:28Mm.

00:35:28I mean, do you kind of think and feel as that character throughout, or can you leave it at

00:35:32the door?

00:35:33You can leave it.

00:35:34I can leave it.

00:35:34I can too.

00:35:35Yeah.

00:35:35I have to leave it.

00:35:37I think over the years you develop, for lack of a better explanation, a switch and you

00:35:42get into the theatre and you flip the switch and you start feeling and thinking and preparing

00:35:47yourself to perform that night.

00:35:50Okay.

00:35:51Okay.

00:35:52Yeah.

00:35:53Fascinating.

00:35:53I mean, I would guess it's the same as a chef going into the theatre.

00:35:56I love the analogies between the chef.

00:35:58It's great to be.

00:35:59That's very, yeah.

00:36:00Gracious of you.

00:36:01Oh, I think it is.

00:36:02I think it's the same.

00:36:04Right.

00:36:05It's a little bit more.

00:36:06Matt, it's not looking bad now.

00:36:07It's not what's not looking bad?

00:36:09It's a salad.

00:36:09Thank you very much, Tommy.

00:36:11That was worth getting up five o'clock for.

00:36:15Matt, wouldn't you say that every time you have a full house in your restaurant, that

00:36:21it's showtime.

00:36:23You're going to put on a production.

00:36:26Absolutely.

00:36:26Yeah.

00:36:27Yeah.

00:36:28Yeah.

00:36:28Absolutely.

00:36:29That was always the thinking.

00:36:31However hard the day's been.

00:36:33I mean, John, you know, Tommy, you know.

00:36:36However hard the day's been, it's like, right, heads down, let's push on.

00:36:39Exactly right.

00:36:40I mean, sometimes it could be brutal.

00:36:42Anyway, I made you a salad.

00:36:43Oh, come on.

00:36:48Go on.

00:36:48Knock yourself out.

00:36:49You tuck into that.

00:36:51What do you want me to make at the end of the show?

00:36:53Would it be Brian's food heaven?

00:36:54Seafood heaven?

00:36:55No.

00:36:55If so, I'm going to make a maltagliati pasta, which literally translates to badly cut, fortunately.

00:37:00I'm then going to layer it up.

00:37:02Who wants anything badly cut?

00:37:04You want it cut down?

00:37:05No, it's traditional.

00:37:06I'm going to layer it up with a rich tomato ragu.

00:37:08Hang on.

00:37:09I've had any.

00:37:09I'm going to finish it with a salty parmesan.

00:37:12Or do you prefer the idea of Marianne's food heaven rather than Moroccan lamb?

00:37:16So you're going to slow cook lamb shank with rare Moroccan spices, preserved lemons, dates, raisins.

00:37:21The lamb's going to fall off the bone and then serve it with a short Moroccan bread to mop up all those delicious juices.

00:37:27We can only make one heavenly dish at the end of the show.

00:37:29So log on to the website, vote for your favourite.

00:37:33Well, you're...

00:37:34Brian's going to finish it.

00:37:36Diving into that.

00:37:37This is good news.

00:37:42Okay, I love this.

00:37:43You're joining in.

00:37:44It's great.

00:37:44Oh, my.

00:37:45Very good.

00:37:46Happy?

00:37:46Oh, it's so good.

00:37:48Right, let's head to County Mayor now with Anna Hawes.

00:37:50She was here in the studio last week with Stephen Frye, in case you missed it.

00:37:54I play, I remember.

00:37:55Here she is rustling up a salty treat for the Irish coast.

00:37:57Are you struggling with a salad?

00:37:58You did.

00:38:00The last salt factory on Ackle closed in 1820.

00:38:08In those days, the islanders used the salt to preserve food for the long winter months without refrigeration.

00:38:14I've come to meet Maeve O'Malley.

00:38:15The salt that Maeve and her family are producing is more likely to be used in cooking and is sold online to many countries.

00:38:22Do you know what?

00:38:23I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't think it would look as cool as this.

00:38:27Thanks.

00:38:28You're like, this is just where I work.

00:38:30It's just regular.

00:38:31Yeah.

00:38:31So if I boiled a pot of water, I have done this before.

00:38:36I noticed that the salt stuck to the side of the pot.

00:38:39Yeah.

00:38:41So you probably were boiling it too vigorously.

00:38:43I'm like, I've got no patience for this.

00:38:46I know.

00:38:46That's what we did at the start and we were boiling and boiling and boiling for hours.

00:38:50But what we learned was that it's slow and low temperature.

00:38:54Oh my gosh.

00:38:55So that's what we do here and that's what creates a really nice soft, flaky salt.

00:39:00Once that's brought down then to the concentrated brine, that brine is pumped into our pan and that's where we gently heat it and allow the salt to form.

00:39:09So Anna, this is our master salt maker.

00:39:12Wow.

00:39:13The slowly growing salt crystals are watched over by Maeve's dad, Ciaran.

00:39:17So how do you get, well, I just put my hands in there, scoop.

00:39:20No.

00:39:20How do you get the salt out?

00:39:21We use this.

00:39:22Okay.

00:39:22If we get the shovel onto the bottom of the pan like that and if you move it right up to the top.

00:39:28Okay.

00:39:28And I'm going to scoop all of this salt.

00:39:30All along the bottom, yeah.

00:39:33That's good.

00:39:34Whoa, that's really easy.

00:39:37Now let it drip for a while.

00:39:39Can I taste them?

00:39:40Of course.

00:39:42It is sweet and obviously it is salty.

00:39:46It's like tasting the ocean.

00:39:47But there's a lovely kind of mineral layer in it.

00:39:50So you've got like your magnesium, your zinc, your potassium, calcium.

00:39:54So that's what's giving it the flavour.

00:39:56Whereas, you know, your regular table salt, it's 100% sodium chloride.

00:40:01The final stage of the process is to spread the salt on trays before it's dried for four to five hours in a temperature-controlled drying chamber.

00:40:09I saw you did a kind of like a flick.

00:40:12Yeah, that's a particular technique.

00:40:15Would you hire me?

00:40:17This is the master salt maker, so I'm not even allowed to do it.

00:40:21Oh, really?

00:40:22No, I'm not very good either.

00:40:24What do you mean either?

00:40:25Sorry.

00:40:26I may not be trusted with the salt spreading, but I can be trusted with using the finished product.

00:40:33So I'm going to create a wonderful thank you dish that really puts their salt centre stage.

00:40:40Salt-cured pan-fried cod with a tomato panzanella salad.

00:40:45All cooked on the windswept beaches where the story began.

00:40:48The first thing I'm going to do is actually toast my fennel seeds.

00:40:55And what this is going to do is release the natural oils and flavour that are in the seeds.

00:40:59And it's a key ingredient to go into this kind of flash cure.

00:41:02And that is all about gently seasoning the fish with the salt and with the sugar and some spices.

00:41:09I'm going to put a teaspoon of fennel seed in there.

00:41:14Three tablespoons of that beautiful acle salt.

00:41:17And two tablespoons of sugar.

00:41:21And I think orange zest is one of those citrus fruits that you don't always associate with fish,

00:41:25but it's got like a lovely kind of floral, fresh, citrusy smell.

00:41:29And I think it goes really well with cod.

00:41:31Just a little bit of orange juice to bring it together, not too much.

00:41:35And then just give it a stir.

00:41:38I'm just going to place that on top.

00:41:41I'm going to leave this to cure just for maybe about five, maximum ten minutes.

00:41:45I am not just saying this.

00:41:48This is genuinely one of my favourite salads to make.

00:41:51And the reason why I love it is because it's so easy.

00:41:55And all the ingredients really complement each other.

00:41:57So I'm just going to chop the kalamata olive.

00:42:00What's so beautiful about this olive oil is that it's going to grab hold of all of the flavour in the olives,

00:42:05drain that out into it, and it's like the baseline for the vinaigrette.

00:42:08It's really, really special and really simple.

00:42:11So I'm going to take a garlic clove.

00:42:13Even in this wild, windy beach, I can smell that garlic.

00:42:18I can smell the kalamata olives in there.

00:42:20And now we need to season our tomatoes.

00:42:22I'm using this beautiful smoked salt on this because I felt it really kind of brought out a beautiful sweetness

00:42:28and an interesting little hint of smoke at the end.

00:42:31I'm going to throw them into the salad bowl now to let them kind of macerate.

00:42:35And you want to give that maybe five or ten minutes so that the juices can start to come out.

00:42:40And what I might do is actually add a little bit of my marjoram in there now as well.

00:42:46Add a little splash of red wine vinegar.

00:42:49Just a little splash.

00:42:50A few little capers.

00:42:51And last but not least, roasted peppers.

00:42:54I'm going to give that just a little sprinkling of our nice kind of smoked sea salt.

00:42:59So this isn't going to taste like barbecue or anything like that.

00:43:02It just gives it a little bit more personality.

00:43:05While the salad infuses, our cod is now flash cured and ready to cook.

00:43:10So I'm just going to essentially dip the fish in some water just to kind of release any of the excess salt on it.

00:43:17One of the most important tips you can get when you are pan frying fish is to make sure it's dry.

00:43:23Just pat it dry and that will really help it not stick to the pan.

00:43:28There's like a lovely kind of crust of golden brown now on the base of the cod.

00:43:34So that usually means it's a good time to turn it over.

00:43:37Off he goes.

00:43:38All right.

00:43:39Ah, beautiful.

00:43:40Look at that.

00:43:41That took me about four minutes.

00:43:43On the opposite side again, I'm probably going to cook that for another four minutes.

00:43:46While that's resting, I'm going to finish off my salad.

00:43:55So this is essentially a sourdough baguette that I just ripped up and I let it dry in the air.

00:44:02In that short while, you can see how much juice has just come from the tomatoes and you want the bread to kind of absorb all of that.

00:44:07The smell of this is just like it's summer in a bowl.

00:44:14And when the cod is nicely cooked, you should be able to just flake away the pieces.

00:44:20And look at that.

00:44:21The sun has just come out now, just in time for me to feed Maeve and her family.

00:44:26Pans and Ella salad with a flash cured cod.

00:44:29Thanks for that, Anna.

00:44:37Still to come, Helen and Tommy are keeping our spirits up with tequila and mezcal masterclass with some cocktail classics and elevated elixirs.

00:44:46That won't be easy to say after a few of those.

00:44:47And what dish do you want me to make at the end of the show?

00:44:50Will it be Brian's idea of food heaven, a male tagliati pasta covered with mussels and prawns and cuttlefish ragout?

00:44:56Or do you prefer the idea of Marianne's food heaven, melting Moroccan-style lamb shanks?

00:45:00We preserve lemon in the dates.

00:45:02Log on to that side.

00:45:03And have your say.

00:45:04Right, Tommy, what are we making?

00:45:06Right, toss it, baby.

00:45:07So we're going to buttermilk some chicken.

00:45:08It's a very simple buttermilk.

00:45:10So we've got some plain flour coming in here.

00:45:12I've got some corn flour.

00:45:15That's the white stuff you use for baking, not the maize.

00:45:18Or you can use white flour, which is so good.

00:45:20I've got some pancake breadcrumbs.

00:45:22I've got a bit of polenta.

00:45:23So we're aiming for, like, crispy, crunchy, delicious texture.

00:45:26A little bit of sugar.

00:45:28Some sea salt.

00:45:29And then some spices, because you want that crunchy coating to have lots of flavour.

00:45:33So I've got ancho chilli flakes.

00:45:35That's a sweet, rounded fruit chilli.

00:45:37You can find them everywhere in supermarkets now.

00:45:39Mustard powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika.

00:45:41And that is it.

00:45:43That's it.

00:45:43And that's all we need.

00:45:45You're going to make me my mayo.

00:45:47So over here, I've got some charred jalapenos and some garlic.

00:45:51That is the classic way you roast your chillies in Mexico.

00:45:54So I'm going to put them there for you.

00:45:55What's that doing?

00:45:56Just giving a charry kind of flavour?

00:45:57It gives it some lovely smokiness going on.

00:45:59It's really, really beautiful.

00:46:00Lovely.

00:46:01So I'm going to mix this flour together.

00:46:04And these tortures, you just add so much flavour into them.

00:46:08That's what's so fun.

00:46:08And lots of kind of dipping sauces, mayos, you know, refried beans maybe, if you're doing that traditional route.

00:46:16Avocados, tomatoes, pickles, absolutely essential.

00:46:19We're going to make some pickles.

00:46:20And they're really fun, delicious sandwiches.

00:46:23OK.

00:46:23So torta is just a sandwich?

00:46:25It's a sandwich, but it's not just a sandwich.

00:46:27I mean, how can you say it's just a sandwich?

00:46:29There's so much flavour going on.

00:46:30You know, with Mexican food, it's about, I think it's very similar to Thai food, the layers of flavour.

00:46:35So, yeah, I think it's all about layering the flavour, crunch, texture.

00:46:40So I'm putting these in a hot pan, hot fryer.

00:46:44Do you have a deep fat fryer?

00:46:45I quite like...

00:46:45I do have a deep fat fryer.

00:46:46I quite love having a deep fat fryer.

00:46:48You can reuse the oil.

00:46:49Less mess.

00:46:50So these are going to deep fry for about four minutes.

00:46:54You could, of course, pan fry in pancake crumbs.

00:46:56You still get some crispy chicken.

00:46:59And without the deep fratting...

00:47:01So you saw loads of these on your last trip to Mexico, right?

00:47:05Yeah, I mean, the bakeries are having an absolute kind of crazy thing going on in Mexico City right now.

00:47:11I mean, when I first lived there 20 years ago, the first sourdough bakery opened.

00:47:16Now they are everywhere, and it's just incredible seeing them all.

00:47:21What caused that kind of revolution?

00:47:23Well, I think it's looking to America, looking to Europe, this exchange of ideas.

00:47:29I mean, the corn tortilla, obviously, is epic and it's wonderful and it's delicious.

00:47:34But the sandwich, you know, for your lunchtime, and those flavours, the salsas, the aiolis, the refried beans, avocados,

00:47:44the crunch pickles, it just goes so well in the sandwich.

00:47:46And so, yeah, they're trending everywhere.

00:47:48So when I got back, I thought, we've got to get these on the menu.

00:47:51Okay.

00:47:52So this is the bread you're using.

00:47:54This is from the Dusty Knuckle.

00:47:56That's from Dusty Knuckle, which is an incredible bakery in East London.

00:47:59But we've actually teamed up with bakeries all over the country

00:48:02because it's so important that you get, you know, the bread right.

00:48:06It's all about good bread, good ingredients.

00:48:08And in Cardiff, you're using, for example, Alex Gooch.

00:48:11Yeah, Alex Gooch.

00:48:12I'm very familiar with his bread.

00:48:13I get it every week.

00:48:15Yeah, Flourpot in Brighton.

00:48:17Flourpot in Brighton.

00:48:17Edinburgh, 12 triangles.

00:48:19Yeah, I mean, really great, great.

00:48:21So, like, you know, the starting point is the bread.

00:48:23So basically, if we run out, if we run out, you can't get them.

00:48:28Okay.

00:48:29And that's the way it should be, right?

00:48:31The bread's going to be fresh, it's going to be delicious.

00:48:33And then the fillings.

00:48:34So the moment...

00:48:35If you need water, that is your water.

00:48:36Oh, yeah, thank you.

00:48:37Oh, yeah, so I've got to get my pickle on now.

00:48:39So what I'm going to do for my pickle, I've got cider vinegar,

00:48:42which is what they use in Mexico.

00:48:45The pan's a bit hot.

00:48:46And equal quantities.

00:48:47Have you got my water?

00:48:48Yeah, yeah, sorry.

00:48:49There, there.

00:48:50You're nicking me.

00:48:51It's called sabotage.

00:48:52I nicked the jug.

00:48:53Sabotage.

00:48:53It's easier to pour this from a jug.

00:48:54Yeah, yeah, whatever.

00:48:56So in the restaurant, you traditionally do this with beef birrier.

00:49:00Well, at the moment, so, yeah, so we launch with a beef birrier.

00:49:03So we have this regen birrier beef on our menu, which is insane.

00:49:08And it is from grassroots, so you come from really good farms.

00:49:12We take half carcasses in, slow-cook them for five hours,

00:49:15then we do a bone broth for about six hours,

00:49:18and then you dip them, and they are kind of insane.

00:49:21So that's good.

00:49:22Very nice.

00:49:22Yeah, so the quality of the beef is awesome,

00:49:24and they've been going down really well.

00:49:26I mean, a burrito's okay, right?

00:49:28But actually, when you go to Mexico,

00:49:30unless you go right to the north of the country,

00:49:32they're not really eating them that much.

00:49:34So I thought it would be fun to show you what the,

00:49:37especially in Mexico City, what the kids are really eating.

00:49:40And they are delicious.

00:49:42I mean, they're just incredible, insane.

00:49:44So there we are.

00:49:45So in my pickle, I've got bay leaves,

00:49:47and I've got allspice, classic Mexican spice,

00:49:51sweet and rounded, lovely flavour,

00:49:52coriander seeds going on there,

00:49:54and then salt, a bit of sugar,

00:49:56and that side of vinegar.

00:49:58And then how long have my chicken been in?

00:50:00What do you think?

00:50:01A couple of minutes.

00:50:02Not long enough.

00:50:04A couple of minutes more.

00:50:05There we are.

00:50:06So I've got my cauliflower going into my vinegar.

00:50:09But basically, the sugar just needs to melt,

00:50:11and then you turn the heat off,

00:50:13and you throw in your ingredients.

00:50:15I've got some carrot here.

00:50:16I'm just going to finely slice it.

00:50:19And pickle's a big thing, right?

00:50:20Pickle is a big thing.

00:50:21They're all over.

00:50:22Because just like Thai food,

00:50:24you've got a balance of flavours.

00:50:25So you've got acidity to cut through slow braises,

00:50:28and then you've got the crunch of them.

00:50:32I need some of those ciabatta rolls, please.

00:50:33Come on it, chef.

00:50:34Char-grill them when you're ready.

00:50:37And heat, super important.

00:50:40So people think about, you know, chilli spice,

00:50:43just blowing your head off.

00:50:44But it's about balancing the flavours.

00:50:46And so in this pickle, the jalapeno,

00:50:49the flavour of the jalapeno cuts through.

00:50:51Like a green bullet chilli is not the same,

00:50:53not the same flavour.

00:50:54So those go on there.

00:50:55OK.

00:50:57And equally, the chilli in this hot sauce,

00:51:00it's a Yucatecan hot sauce,

00:51:01so the chilli is a habanero, or a scotch bonnet.

00:51:05I'm going to finish this.

00:51:06You've got those.

00:51:07And so the flavour is just incredible.

00:51:09In the Yucatecan, you get lots of citrus,

00:51:11Seville oranges,

00:51:12you get ricardos of allspice and cumin.

00:51:15So this hot sauce has got layers and layers of flavour.

00:51:18And that hot sauce is in your latest book, right?

00:51:21It's in my book, but you could use any hot sauce.

00:51:24But the flavours in this are really, really good.

00:51:26The citrus flavour.

00:51:27OK, you've got that.

00:51:28Oh, well saved.

00:51:29Were you on the bread or was I on the bread?

00:51:33You don't know what I said.

00:51:34I think I was on the bread.

00:51:35So here we are.

00:51:36We've got the chicken coming out here.

00:51:38Looking nice and crunchy.

00:51:39Let me move on.

00:51:40I'm just going to probe it.

00:51:42There we are.

00:51:43So even after all these years of you going to Mexico,

00:51:45you're still kind of picking up new things, right?

00:51:47Well, that was...

00:51:48I mean, you know, going there for six months last year

00:51:51was just insane for that.

00:51:52It was really fun.

00:51:53And you do, you keep learning.

00:51:55Because the food, like anywhere, keeps evolving.

00:51:58So, you know, it doesn't stand still.

00:52:01And there's so many different peoples living in Mexico

00:52:04and they all bring different things to the table.

00:52:07I mean, the Lebanese population,

00:52:10there's so much going on with Lebanese food at the moment.

00:52:12Mexico is indeed.

00:52:13Oh, really?

00:52:13It's just very, very exciting.

00:52:15OK.

00:52:15So we've got all these off.

00:52:16And does it take a sort of bit of a twist, Lebanese food there?

00:52:20Would it have to have got a Mexican sort of...

00:52:22Well, you've got the classic...

00:52:24You've got that classic street food thing, Al Pastor,

00:52:26which is an incredible split roast

00:52:28with pork instead of lamb and amazing flavours.

00:52:33Look at all this butter.

00:52:34We're going to just slather it all over the chicken.

00:52:36So it's going to be coated in this lovely Yucatecan hot sauce.

00:52:41You know, just...

00:52:42Oh, it's delicious.

00:52:42Kind of honey in there, spices, citrus, yum.

00:52:47And then you've got that...

00:52:48So in this aioli, we've got coriander, fresh lime.

00:52:50So we've got lots of light, citrusy, buzzy flavours going on,

00:52:54which is what's important.

00:52:56Put this butter here.

00:52:58And basically, the torta is all about the flavour.

00:53:01And you want lots of sauce in,

00:53:02because that white bread is going to soak up lots of juice.

00:53:06And that's the whole idea, that style of bread.

00:53:09Yeah, I mean, they're quite messy, right?

00:53:10They're messy, they're fun.

00:53:12I mean, these little rolls look like ciabatta.

00:53:14Yeah, it's like a ciabatta roll.

00:53:17But it was fun when we approached Dusty Knuckle and said,

00:53:19look, we want to put a killer torta on.

00:53:21It's got to be the best, most delicious sandwich in London.

00:53:24They're, like, great.

00:53:25And we worked with them for about six or seven months.

00:53:27Then we went out to the bakeries in, you know,

00:53:30where our restaurants are.

00:53:31And so it's been a really fun collaborative process.

00:53:35Here's this chicken.

00:53:36And we're just going to layer it up.

00:53:37So, Matt, if I give you...

00:53:40There we are.

00:53:41There's that.

00:53:42You put some pickle on that.

00:53:43So, right, OK.

00:53:44There are our pickles.

00:53:45There are our pickles over there.

00:53:46Kind of running out of room.

00:53:47Yeah, we are.

00:53:48Right.

00:53:48It's a messy business, this.

00:53:50Right.

00:53:50OK, here we are.

00:53:52Is this how you do it?

00:53:53Yeah, you just...

00:53:54In the restaurant?

00:53:55Mm.

00:53:55Yeah, well, obviously, we're using slow-cooked beef at the restaurant.

00:53:58So, slightly different.

00:54:00And then a bit of this.

00:54:01Bit of that.

00:54:02Yeah.

00:54:02That I'm going to...

00:54:04Yeah, if we swap.

00:54:06Oh, wow.

00:54:06This is so cack-handed.

00:54:10We're getting a mess, yeah.

00:54:11Right, here we are.

00:54:12I've got your avocado slices going on.

00:54:14We've got some more pickles.

00:54:15OK.

00:54:16Give me the pickles back.

00:54:16What else do you want?

00:54:17OK, that's good.

00:54:18What else do you want?

00:54:20Is yours more to construct?

00:54:21Keep on your toes.

00:54:22Right, what's going on here?

00:54:23I want some jalapeno alie on that.

00:54:26Er...

00:54:26Come on, it's that.

00:54:26That's green stuff.

00:54:27Yeah, it's got fresh, it's citrusy.

00:54:29It's lashing.

00:54:29It's so subtle, this jalapeno alie.

00:54:31You think about jalapeno and you think that it's super spicy.

00:54:35It's like Build-A-Bear.

00:54:35There we are.

00:54:36I think you can see this is...

00:54:37No ordinary sandwich right now.

00:54:40And there we are.

00:54:41Where's my towel?

00:54:42Have we done that?

00:54:43Just like Build-A-Bear.

00:54:44Got some coriander in there.

00:54:45What?

00:54:45Yeah.

00:54:46What now?

00:54:48Yeah, it's coriander.

00:54:49Let's have some coriander.

00:54:49OK, let's do coriander.

00:54:50Slavour.

00:54:51Great.

00:54:51I've got coriander in the mine.

00:54:53OK, perfect.

00:54:53Do you want me to sandwich mine?

00:54:54Yeah.

00:54:55Shall I slice an egg in a sandwich?

00:54:56Look, there we are.

00:54:58OK, hot sauce.

00:55:00No, let's leave that open.

00:55:00Come on.

00:55:01Hot sauce.

00:55:03There we are.

00:55:03There's some hot sauce in there.

00:55:04Yeah, there we are.

00:55:06Where's the hot sauce?

00:55:07This stuff.

00:55:07I've got it here.

00:55:08Got it.

00:55:08Right here.

00:55:09OK.

00:55:10Good to meet you.

00:55:11And there we are.

00:55:11That is a torta.

00:55:12It's messy as hell.

00:55:14It doesn't take much washing up.

00:55:18There we are.

00:55:19And some fresh pickle-y things on there.

00:55:22There we are.

00:55:22Finished?

00:55:23Is that all right?

00:55:23Can't actually get there.

00:55:24I mean, come on.

00:55:25Right, happy?

00:55:26Yes.

00:55:26Brilliant.

00:55:27What's it called?

00:55:28It's called a buttermilk chicken torta with yucataka salsa and a charred jalapeno aioli.

00:55:33Thank the Lord.

00:55:38Right, now cut it.

00:55:40Right.

00:55:40I'm not touching that.

00:55:42How's?

00:55:42What are we drinking?

00:55:43OK, so with this one, the combination of having the bread in there and the fried chicken led me straight to bubbles with this one.

00:55:54But we, so this is a cava.

00:55:57It's called a segura viudas from, so we're in Spain, obviously.

00:56:01This one's from Tesco, £12.

00:56:03But the reason why this one works particularly well with this is because it's a vintage cava.

00:56:09Right.

00:56:09And we all know about Cremon now, which is essentially the same as champagne but made in French regions other than champagne.

00:56:16And it's a really good value.

00:56:17But I kind of feel we've forgotten a bit about really good cava.

00:56:20And especially when it's vintage, so this has been aged for at least 18 months, which gives it more richness, a bit more texture, and a bit more flavour as well.

00:56:30And I just think bubbles and anything fried goes really well.

00:56:34It's so good.

00:56:35Yeah.

00:56:36Oh, do you like it?

00:56:36I'm so pleased.

00:56:37Yeah.

00:56:37You like it?

00:56:38You say that quite often.

00:56:39Bubbles and fried food.

00:56:40Bubbles, I mean...

00:56:41Fish and chips.

00:56:42Bubbles.

00:56:42It just kind of works.

00:56:43You said it's from a bit of a match made in heaven, though, fried food and bubbles.

00:56:47Yeah.

00:56:47Can I love that from Tesco?

00:56:48Yes.

00:56:48Is that a little town in Spain?

00:56:50Yeah, that's a little town in Spain.

00:56:52Very little town in Spain.

00:56:53Look at these.

00:56:53Quaint little place.

00:56:54That's cool.

00:56:55We did that school.

00:56:57Look at the acidity.

00:56:59It's brilliant.

00:56:59Yeah, the freshness.

00:57:00The buttermilk chicken as well.

00:57:01Oh, I'm so...

00:57:01Yeah, fantastic.

00:57:03Very nice.

00:57:03Look at this.

00:57:04Very nice.

00:57:06Oh, I'm going in.

00:57:07That's good.

00:57:08You're very good at your food noises.

00:57:09Oh, my goodness.

00:57:11And the hands.

00:57:12Mmm.

00:57:12I mean, it speaks volumes.

00:57:14Yeah.

00:57:14It's messy food.

00:57:15You like messy food.

00:57:16Tourses are messy.

00:57:17Yeah.

00:57:18It's good.

00:57:19That's like proper street food.

00:57:19Oh, boy.

00:57:20Yeah, it's street food.

00:57:21It's street food.

00:57:21Yeah.

00:57:22You guys good?

00:57:23Oh, so good.

00:57:24OK.

00:57:25OK.

00:57:25Well done, Tommy.

00:57:27No mess, no fuss.

00:57:28Right, well.

00:57:29Right, time for a trip to Provence now with Marcus Waring, where he's exploring the local obsession

00:57:33with olives.

00:57:34MUSIC PLAYS

00:57:35In Provence, you don't have to walk too far or turn too many corners before you find yourself

00:57:50surrounded by locally grown produce.

00:57:53It's what the region is all about.

00:57:55But there's one particular fruit, and it is a fruit, that people here are utterly obsessed

00:58:01with.

00:58:01In fact, there's a very small village called Moyers that has not one or two, but three shops dedicated

00:58:08to it.

00:58:09The olive.

00:58:11They've been grown here for over three and a half thousand years, and I want to understand

00:58:16Provence's passion for these tiny, briny delights.

00:58:23First off, I'm going to discover the secrets of their most famous by-product, olive oil,

00:58:29and find out if the more expensive ones are really worth it.

00:58:32So I'm meeting local expert Thomas in one of those three shops, Moulin-Saint-Michel.

00:58:40Right, Thomas, start me off with the basics.

00:58:43And this is something I actually can't believe I don't already know.

00:58:48What's the difference between olive oil and extra virgin olive oil?

00:58:53If we do one press, it will be extra virgin.

00:58:56If we do other press, it will be virgin.

00:58:59Extra virgin oil will have less than one percent of oleic acid, and virgin is between one and

00:59:10two.

00:59:10There's a difference between one percent and two percent.

00:59:12Yes.

00:59:12And that's the difference between extra virgin olive oil and olive oil.

00:59:16I never knew there was so little in it, but that crucial first or second press is what

00:59:21makes the difference to the flavor.

00:59:24Thomas starts me off with the blend of extra virgin olive oils made locally in the Valet

00:59:27of the Boat.

00:59:30This one is very mild and very nice, and it actually is slowly warming your throat.

00:59:35Exactly.

00:59:36But it's not.

00:59:37It's not like...

00:59:38I love it.

00:59:40Well, that's a good sign.

00:59:41What else do we have?

00:59:42Mono varietal.

00:59:44Pichot.

00:59:45One.

00:59:45Yes, it's stronger.

00:59:49I like it.

00:59:50I'm starting to think he says that about all the olive oils.

00:59:54This one is also extra virgin, but unblended.

00:59:58Hmm.

00:59:58Yeah, that's good.

01:00:00Ooh.

01:00:01Hmm.

01:00:02It stays very long.

01:00:04Is there a...

01:00:05On the palate?

01:00:05Yes, on the palate.

01:00:07Yeah.

01:00:07It's like fine wine.

01:00:09Hmm.

01:00:10Exactly.

01:00:11Hmm.

01:00:11Much like fine wine, we are always told we shouldn't really cook with extra virgin

01:00:17olive oil.

01:00:18But is that true?

01:00:20What do you think of cooking, frying with olive oil?

01:00:23Uh, you can fry, but it will lose too much flavour.

01:00:27The flavour of oil is best when it's cold.

01:00:29Yes.

01:00:30So when it comes to cooking, you might as well use less expensive regular olive oil and save

01:00:36your tastier extra virgin for salads, where a little goes a long way.

01:00:41If you were making a vinaigrette, would you put mustard?

01:00:45When I do salad, I put olive oil and salt.

01:00:49That's it?

01:00:50Yes.

01:00:51No vinegar?

01:00:51No.

01:00:52My wife put vinegar.

01:00:55You're not happy about that?

01:00:56No.

01:00:57She's the chief of house.

01:01:00Exactly.

01:01:02But Thomas is the chief of olive oil facts.

01:01:05He's told me that the bottles are traditionally green, because the dark colour of the glass blocks

01:01:10out light, which can damage the flavour of the oil.

01:01:13Who knew?

01:01:25Armed with one of Thomas' more salad-friendly olive oils, I want to show you the simplest

01:01:30and most cost-effective way of bringing a taste of Provence into your kitchen.

01:01:36French vinaigrette.

01:01:37Or as they call it in France, well, it's just vinaigrette.

01:01:41And another corker from the Toma fact machine.

01:01:44Just keep it away from the heat in the kitchen, because it just damages it.

01:01:47And what I love about quality ingredients like this is that you only really need to use it

01:01:53sparingly, because it just packs so much flavour, so much punch.

01:01:57It's great.

01:01:58Right.

01:01:59Vinaigrette.

01:02:00The classic is pretty straightforward.

01:02:02A good olive oil, a lovely white wine vinegar, a little bit of Dijon mustard, salt

01:02:07and pepper, and it's as simple as that.

01:02:09So, just get yourself a jar.

01:02:13The ratios are three to one.

01:02:16So, three parts olive oil, one part white wine vinegar.

01:02:20I use a white wine vinegar because I think it's a cleaner vinegar.

01:02:23It's just nice and clean and crisp and sharp.

01:02:27But too much vinegar, and it can kill your salads when you're making the dressing.

01:02:31So, you have to be very careful about the ratio.

01:02:32So, three to one is the perfect ratio.

01:02:35And I'm just going to add some salt into it.

01:02:38And I remember my teacher holding it up in the classroom, rather than making it in a bowl,

01:02:42whisking it, and just putting the salt in, and just watching it drop.

01:02:46It was almost like being in a bit of a science lesson, rather than a cooking lesson.

01:02:52I just think that's just beautiful.

01:02:54Good twist of pepper.

01:02:56There's one more ingredient that I'm going to put into here that's going to bring this

01:03:00vinaigrette to life.

01:03:02And that's a good spoon of a smooth Dijon mustard.

01:03:08It doesn't look much of a vinaigrette, does it?

01:03:12It goes on.

01:03:14I suppose you could say this is where the magic begins.

01:03:16It's very simple.

01:03:17Just shake it.

01:03:20How cool is that?

01:03:21Look at that.

01:03:22I guarantee you, if you do that in front of your children, they'll think you're a magician.

01:03:29There we have vinaigrette.

01:03:32Simple and delicious.

01:03:36Stick it in the fridge.

01:03:37Use it when you want.

01:03:39What's it taste like?

01:03:40Oh, got it right first time.

01:03:50This is not as bad.

01:03:51100% kids are not going to be impressed with that one, Marcus.

01:03:53Right, the website vote is now closed.

01:03:55We can soon find out whether we'll be tucking into either Brian or Marianne's food heaven at

01:03:59the end of the show.

01:04:00All right, it's time for Helen and Tommy to lead us through a masterclass, masterclass,

01:04:05in the world of tequila and mezcal, while I sit here behind all my drinks.

01:04:09Take it away, ladies.

01:04:11Okay, well, that's exactly what we're going to do.

01:04:13We're going to start by looking at the differences between tequila and mezcal.

01:04:19But before you even taste it, you can tell the difference by just smelling it.

01:04:23So that's what I want you to do first.

01:04:25So you pick up your glass with the tea on it.

01:04:29Is this for me?

01:04:30Yes, you're the only ones with that.

01:04:32Smell that.

01:04:33And then smell the mezcal.

01:04:35Oh, I'm not.

01:04:35Okay?

01:04:36Yeah.

01:04:37And can you see straight away, without even tasting, you can smell it.

01:04:40The differences in the smell.

01:04:43Tommy is going to explain why that is so.

01:04:45So, first of all, so tequila, mezcal is the mother of tequila.

01:04:50So tequila is single variety, bleu agave variety, and it's steamed.

01:04:56The agave hot, the piña is steamed.

01:04:58So you've got lovely classic flavours, quite clean.

01:05:02Mezcal's a whole different ballgames.

01:05:0430 different varieties of agave plants.

01:05:06Some of them take 40 years to grow and harvest before they're ready to cut.

01:05:10And then great big fire pits are dug up.

01:05:13Different types of wood, depending on the region they're from.

01:05:16Put in the plants, covered over, and roasted for three days, three to four days.

01:05:22That's where you get that lovely smoky.

01:05:24And we know someone at the table might know a little bit about the whole mezcal process.

01:05:29Is that not right, Brian?

01:05:30I fell in love with it years ago.

01:05:33And my partner, Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, and I have our own mezcal company.

01:05:39Which we're using in the cocktails.

01:05:40Which we're using in the cocktails.

01:05:41We are.

01:05:42So what we've done here is we've got two tequila cocktails and two mezcal cocktails.

01:05:47I'm sure it won't surprise you to know that I'm going to be making the simple version of both cocktails.

01:05:52And Tommy here will be making the elevated version.

01:05:56Okay.

01:05:56So, yeah, so they're both, we've got both widely available, really good value tequila.

01:06:03And, well, I've got to say that now, haven't I?

01:06:05But great, fantastic mezcal too.

01:06:07So we're going to start with the most classic of tequila cocktails, which is the margaritas.

01:06:13And it is so simple to make, even I can do it.

01:06:17So you just need a shaker, and in your shaker you put in, I always go 50 ml of tequila.

01:06:25Some people do a little less.

01:06:26Then you've got your 25 ml of lime juice and 20 ml of triple sec.

01:06:33So some people don't use the triple sec, which then, I think that's a Tommy mug.

01:06:39That's a Tommy's.

01:06:39That's when it's just agave or sugar syrup.

01:06:41Yeah, but I like the sweetness.

01:06:43So in a shaker, over ice, give it a shake until it goes cold on the outside.

01:06:48And then simply strain it into your, if you can do a salt rim around your glass, if you want to make it look fancy.

01:06:54That took all of 15 seconds to make a party in a glass.

01:06:59Now, the thing that's really important is to look out for 100% agave.

01:07:03Because that will differentiate you from the awful tequilas of people's use, which made them feel ill, and this happy, wonderful drink.

01:07:10Yeah.

01:07:11And that's the difference between waking up in the morning and feeling like death, and not.

01:07:14Yeah.

01:07:15Exactly.

01:07:16Have you had a sip of your margarita?

01:07:17Oh, yes.

01:07:18What do we think?

01:07:18Very delicious.

01:07:19Yeah?

01:07:20Good.

01:07:20Okay, so Tommy.

01:07:21I can make some great decisions now.

01:07:24That's questionable.

01:07:24The most popular cocktail in all of North America.

01:07:27Is it really?

01:07:28Margarita.

01:07:29For a good reason.

01:07:30For a good reason.

01:07:30I'll come on to why I think it's so popular.

01:07:33And then we've got a different tequila cocktail here.

01:07:35It's called an Acapulco Spritz.

01:07:37It's got Campari.

01:07:39It has got fresh lime, tequila, triple sec, and fresh orange juice.

01:07:43It's delicious with blood orange juice in January, February, March, when blood orange is a season,

01:07:48because they've got extra acidity.

01:07:49And I like the spritz element, because you top it with soda, which turns into a long drink, which is quite fun.

01:07:55That's dangerous.

01:07:56Also delicious for pink grapefruit.

01:07:58Yeah, really good.

01:07:58It's a bit Paloma.

01:08:00Yeah.

01:08:00Yeah, it is.

01:08:01It's like a fresh, fresh Paloma.

01:08:02Yeah, exactly.

01:08:03Yeah.

01:08:04Super nice.

01:08:04But with your Campari in there, too.

01:08:06So we're going to move on to Mezcal now.

01:08:09And I'm going to make the simplest cocktail I think you can make with Mezcal,

01:08:14which is essentially, it's a gin and tonic, but you swap out your gin for Mezcal.

01:08:17It's completely different.

01:08:18So it is so simple.

01:08:20You have got in front of you, that one there is your Mezcal and Tonic, your M&T.

01:08:26Garnish it with...

01:08:27Is that a drink?

01:08:28Yes, it is.

01:08:29Try it.

01:08:29I love a Mezcal and Tonic.

01:08:30Try it, actually.

01:08:31That's quite nice.

01:08:31So it gives it, it's so refreshing, it's long, but it's got that lovely, earthy smokiness

01:08:37running through it.

01:08:37See, I'm a big Mezcal fan.

01:08:39Yeah, and it's quite all tonal.

01:08:40It's more interesting.

01:08:41I like the smokiness.

01:08:42Do you like, do we get approval over here?

01:08:44Definitely.

01:08:44That's a good move.

01:08:45It's a good one, isn't it?

01:08:46Yeah, it's great.

01:08:47It's great.

01:08:47Sometimes the squeeze of orange is quite fun.

01:08:49And again, if you're thinking about these agaves, 40 years to harvest, they are up there

01:08:54with proper good whiskeys.

01:08:56And actually, that flavor of the smokiness makes you think of a good malt whiskey, doesn't it?

01:09:00And now, if you don't want to have the sugar of a tonic, you can also substitute it with

01:09:06club soda.

01:09:07Soda, yeah.

01:09:07And one ounce of Mezcal is 70 calories.

01:09:11So you can sip this all night long.

01:09:13That's good for the diet.

01:09:14That's good for the diet.

01:09:16What is your favorite, Brian, what's your favorite Mezcal cocktail?

01:09:20Well, I drink my Mezcal with probably just one big rock, and I just let it change the

01:09:28temperature a little bit and sip it.

01:09:30I just like to have it nice and quiet.

01:09:32Like a good whiskey.

01:09:33Yeah, I mean, because what Tommy was saying is that, yeah, our Mezcal here, this is from

01:09:40an espadine plant, and it takes six years to harvest this.

01:09:45But we also have a tobola, which takes 25 years before you can harvest that.

01:09:50Yeah, that's the thing.

01:09:51There's so much variety.

01:09:52You do your smart Mezcal cocktail.

01:09:53Okay, so now we're doing a sour, which I love any kind of sour.

01:09:57So what we're going to do is, it's very important for a sour to dry shake first, and that's

01:10:01how you get all the lovely foam.

01:10:02So I've got 45 ml of Mezcal.

01:10:05I've got some fresh lime.

01:10:07I've got some agave syrup, and I've got pineapple juice.

01:10:12Now, you might think, ooh, pineapple.

01:10:14The thing about pineapple in Mexico is they're so sweet and acidic.

01:10:17And then I've got aquafaba.

01:10:18Now, obviously, if you've got a spare egg white knocking around, you can use egg white.

01:10:22But then if you're not eating eggs, if you're vegan, anything like that, aquafaba does the job.

01:10:27And actually, everyone's eating chickpeas at the moment.

01:10:29So it's just, you know, rinse out your chickpea tin and then use that.

01:10:33And that's what's going to give you the foam, the all-important foam on your sour.

01:10:37Sorry, Toby, we're just questioning, everyone's eating chickpeas at the moment.

01:10:41Or has a chickpeas tin.

01:10:43Well, there is.

01:10:44I think there's a proper beanie, chickpea kind of phrase going on at the moment.

01:10:49I think they are, actually.

01:10:50I will raise you up.

01:10:53He's messing with me.

01:10:54He is messing with me.

01:10:55Take him off.

01:10:56Also, you said pineapples are more acidic.

01:10:59Did you say pineapples are more acidic?

01:11:01In Mexico, the pineapples are sharp and sweet.

01:11:03And you use them in salads with tomatoes.

01:11:05And if you think about the way you use a tomato, that's how you use them.

01:11:09Okay.

01:11:10So this, yeah, into the glass.

01:11:12And you can see that I used to shake cocktails.

01:11:15You used to have a bar.

01:11:16You used to have a tequila bar.

01:11:17In Mexico City.

01:11:18What do you think of the sour?

01:11:19I'm going there.

01:11:20I'm going there.

01:11:22Again, a sour.

01:11:23And that's super easy.

01:11:24Look how pretty that is.

01:11:25I like sour.

01:11:26Okay.

01:11:27Sour, no?

01:11:27Oh, pineapple sour.

01:11:28There you are.

01:11:29I was going to show that one.

01:11:30You moved it away.

01:11:31Sorry about that.

01:11:32They're all drinkable at whatever.

01:11:34But the pineapple is very subtle because there's not too much of it.

01:11:37So you just have a lovely, just a little.

01:11:38That's really nice.

01:11:38It's so delicious.

01:11:41I do like that a lot.

01:11:42Yeah.

01:11:43Yeah.

01:11:43And just think about those agave plants.

01:11:46Sitting, sunbathing for all that time.

01:11:48That's why it makes you happy.

01:11:49Solar power.

01:11:52Ryan, what do you think?

01:11:53Such a tenuous link.

01:11:54Just it.

01:11:55Yeah, it's so versatile.

01:11:56Mezcal is really incredibly versatile.

01:11:58Because the foundation of it is fruit.

01:12:02Where we make ours in Mexico, in Oaxaca, Mexico, there are so many.

01:12:07There's zapote, which is a Mexican fruit.

01:12:09There's strawberries and bananas and guava and mangoes.

01:12:13And so the bats and the bees cross-pollinate and get into the roots of our product.

01:12:19Yeah.

01:12:20So if you had to choose, tequila or mezcal, Matthew?

01:12:23I think they're difficult to choose between.

01:12:25I think they're totally different drinks.

01:12:26But I always order a mezcal margarita.

01:12:29Very good.

01:12:30Love that.

01:12:31Good man.

01:12:31I think it's mezcal all day.

01:12:33It just feels so much more complex.

01:12:34I actually quite like, I really like this mezcal and tonic.

01:12:39Yeah.

01:12:39It's got like a piquiness, but not as aggressive as a whiskey peat.

01:12:43Yeah.

01:12:43What about you guys?

01:12:45I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm...

01:12:46You're going to say mezcal.

01:12:49Stay on brand.

01:12:50It is mezcal.

01:12:52And by the way, with chocolate, a chocolate sauce with mezcal in it, with doughnuts dipped in.

01:12:58What, what?

01:12:59Agave, agave and cacao.

01:13:01You know, varietals, really good together.

01:13:04Wow.

01:13:04Nice.

01:13:05Next one.

01:13:05Yeah.

01:13:06I know what I'm making my son for his birthday.

01:13:07Oh, well, that'll, that'll help the day.

01:13:11Thanks, guys.

01:13:12Love that.

01:13:12Thanks for my drinks.

01:13:13Delicious.

01:13:13I've got to cook it a bit, though.

01:13:15Right, we're going to soon find out whether you voted for Brian or Marianne's Food Heaven,

01:13:18but first size, promising Dave, the best fish and chips in the world.

01:13:22Oh.

01:13:27We're off to the local chippy, but this is a chippy with a difference.

01:13:31We've often said that good cooking starts and ends with good produce.

01:13:36And if you have great produce in the hands of a highly trained chef, you're going to get a great end product.

01:13:42That's certainly what I'm hoping for.

01:13:44Well, trust me, mate, the place I'm taking you to makes the best fish and chips in the land, Barnum.

01:13:50This is it, dude.

01:14:05This is it.

01:14:06Look at that.

01:14:06How are you doing?

01:14:07Are you all right, mate?

01:14:08How are you?

01:14:08Not bad.

01:14:09Good to see you.

01:14:11Oh.

01:14:13Right.

01:14:13Hello, Richard.

01:14:14I'm Dave.

01:14:14How are you, Dave?

01:14:15How are you?

01:14:15All right.

01:14:15Nice to meet you.

01:14:16How are you going?

01:14:17All right, man.

01:14:17All right?

01:14:18Yourself?

01:14:18Yeah, good.

01:14:18Thanks, Rich.

01:14:19Yeah, good.

01:14:20Good.

01:14:20So your chip is in the Michelin Guide, Kingy.

01:14:22I'd say, dude, but what?

01:14:25Dude, it's the best.

01:14:26Where did you train?

01:14:27I trained in London.

01:14:28I trained in the Barclay and Hyde Park Corner, Meridian, Piccadilly, and then I stayed at the Intercontinental and Hyde Park Corner as well.

01:14:35So Pierre Coffman was my head chef.

01:14:36Pierre Coffman was your head chef.

01:14:38And the fish Richard uses is whatever comes in that day.

01:14:41You never know what's going to come in.

01:14:43That's the beauty of it.

01:14:43You see the chalkboards and things, and we might have two of one thing and ten portions of the next thing.

01:14:49And, you know, it just depends.

01:14:50It's exciting for the dine.

01:14:52Oh, brilliant.

01:14:52I mean, it keeps the lads on their tours as well, you know, the chef lads there.

01:14:55Here's the man here.

01:14:56Look at him.

01:14:56Here he is.

01:14:57Blumming heck.

01:14:58There we go.

01:14:59Cheers, son.

01:15:00What have we got?

01:15:01We've got logfish, turbots, halibots, two of our souls.

01:15:05Monkfish.

01:15:06Gosh, look at that halibut.

01:15:08You've got science here for two biglots.

01:15:11It's your door there, isn't it?

01:15:12Cheers, Joe.

01:15:13Look at that.

01:15:14Look at that soul.

01:15:15Oh.

01:15:16It's a 17 and a half kilo halibut.

01:15:19What?

01:15:20The size of that boy.

01:15:21So where will that have come from?

01:15:23That's not big, Lee.

01:15:23Just out in all sea.

01:15:25How far out?

01:15:26Oh, well, the boats are working anywhere from 25 to 30 mil off at the moment.

01:15:30Aye.

01:15:31Well, it's just on a day, though, isn't it?

01:15:32Just every day.

01:15:33Daily boats, you know.

01:15:34That's prime fish.

01:15:36That's beautiful.

01:15:36Oh, it is.

01:15:37I've promised Dave, and this is going to be the ultimate fish and chips, and I've promised

01:15:40him.

01:15:41So he kind of let us down now.

01:15:42Well, for the ultimate fish and chips, there's only one fish you need, like, for me.

01:15:46And, you know, and they've got to be of a certain size, these things.

01:15:49Oh, yes.

01:15:49The turbots, you know, the king of the sea for me, you know.

01:15:52Yeah.

01:15:52You know, you've seen the size of that, you know.

01:15:54It's brand new, wise.

01:15:55So healthy.

01:15:56You know, you look at the gills, you know, bright red gills, you know, everything about

01:15:59that's, you know.

01:15:59The beauty is with the fish, what have you noticed about the smell of it?

01:16:04There isn't a smell.

01:16:04There isn't a smell at all.

01:16:05If you've got no fish merchants and it stinks, walk away, you know, because it's not fresh.

01:16:08It's not fresh, you know, I mean, that's brand new.

01:16:10Joey.

01:16:11Cheers, John.

01:16:12See you later.

01:16:13Bye.

01:16:15He doesn't flip him, nor it.

01:16:17How's he carried that on his own?

01:16:18Keep up the good work.

01:16:20Good boy.

01:16:21Richard is a born and bred local boy, and although he went to London to train, he's always been keen

01:16:26to bring his skills back to the North East, as he thinks the local produce here is second

01:16:31to none.

01:16:31To make the ultimate fish and chips, Richard is using turbot, often referred to as the

01:16:36king of the seas, and more commonly seen on the menus of fine dining restaurants.

01:16:41Apart from the fabulously fresh fish, Richard also uses local beer for his batter and local

01:16:47potatoes for his chips.

01:16:48The combination of high-end skills and top quality ingredients is what makes this local

01:16:54chippy a cut above the rest.

01:16:56Oh, the anticipation's killing us.

01:16:59I hope he doesn't let us down.

01:17:00Ah-ha.

01:17:01Do you know?

01:17:02Look at that.

01:17:05Now that's fish and chips.

01:17:07It's perfect.

01:17:09The batter's made with a local lager.

01:17:12It's called Agriculture, believe it or not.

01:17:14Right.

01:17:16Riggan for a brewery just down the road from us.

01:17:18He's creating another young lad that we're trying to support, and we serve his beers in

01:17:22here.

01:17:26I can say with all honesty, integrity, and my hand on me heart, that is the best fish

01:17:38and chips I've ever had in my life.

01:17:42Yeah?

01:17:43I'd use expletives if I could.

01:17:47What a champion of the seafood that comes out of our waters, man.

01:17:51It's just superb.

01:17:52But it's back to the old classics, isn't it?

01:17:53You know, you kind of go wrong with fish and chips.

01:17:56It's what everyone wants to eat, you know?

01:17:58Yeah.

01:17:59Yeah, it's true.

01:18:00But it only works if you can get fish like that, skill like yours.

01:18:05Potatoes like the potatoes.

01:18:06Yeah.

01:18:07No, it all comes together.

01:18:09That's, you know.

01:18:09Your tartar sauce isn't bad, either.

01:18:11No, but we'll try.

01:18:12We'll try.

01:18:13We'll try.

01:18:14We'll try.

01:18:14You're a very modest man, aren't you?

01:18:17Honesty, mate, that's superb.

01:18:19It's beyond superb.

01:18:20I promised you, didn't I?

01:18:22Well, you delivered.

01:18:24Much of change, to be fair.

01:18:25No, no, no, not at all.

01:18:27I think, my God, Northumberland's delivered.

01:18:29From start to finish, I've waited 63 years for this.

01:18:34I think those fish and chips were the perfect way

01:18:37to end the gastronomic paradise that Northumberland has turned out to be.

01:18:47Thanks for that, boys.

01:18:48Time to find out whether it's food heaven for Brian or Marianne.

01:18:50Now, it could be Brian's heaven, which was seafood and pasta

01:18:54and, like, a big old hug in a bowl.

01:18:56Or it could be food heaven for Marianne,

01:18:59which was lamb falling off the bone and Moroccan spices

01:19:01and stuff like that.

01:19:03Thank you to everyone who voted.

01:19:04I can't put this down, clearly.

01:19:07I can reveal that 64% of people want you to have...

01:19:11Lamb!

01:19:11Marianne!

01:19:12Yay!

01:19:14Sorry, Brian.

01:19:15Sorry about that.

01:19:16Right, so, away with the shellfish.

01:19:18We don't need the shellfish.

01:19:20Let's move this aside.

01:19:21Right, let's go on with the lamb.

01:19:23So, John, you're going to make the bread for me.

01:19:27Don't forget, obviously, because I'm going to garble this

01:19:29because I've had quite a lot of mezcal and tequila now.

01:19:32So, don't forget, the recipe is on the BBC website.

01:19:36So, here's some ingredients you mix together

01:19:38and it makes bread.

01:19:40John's got it there.

01:19:41This is a traditional...

01:19:44Oh, that's a pasta plate.

01:19:45This is a traditional Mexican bread recipe.

01:19:48I'm going to get on with the lamb.

01:19:50Moroccan.

01:19:51Moroccan.

01:19:53Easy on the cocktails.

01:19:55Yeah, I mean...

01:19:56Right, let's move that aside.

01:19:58Maybe we should...

01:19:59Okay, so, what you would do is marinate the lamb shank

01:20:07in some coriander and some smoked paprika

01:20:11and some cumin, bit of ginger and garlic.

01:20:15Rub that all over.

01:20:16In fact, I'm going to put the ginger and garlic in the sauce.

01:20:20So, let's get that on and I'll start cooking up.

01:20:23You do that overnight, you get a better flavour, obviously.

01:20:27In the meantime, I'm going to slice up the ginger and the garlic

01:20:29and then we've got preserved lemons going in there.

01:20:32We've got a couple of chillies

01:20:33and then we cook it up for a couple of hours with some stock

01:20:38and then halfway through,

01:20:40I'm going to chuck in quite a lot of toffee dates,

01:20:42medjool dates.

01:20:43So, they go nice and sticky and they'll kind of dissolve

01:20:45and then I've got some big old fat golden raisins

01:20:48going in there as well.

01:20:50So, the end sauce is quite sweet

01:20:53but it's also quite spicy.

01:20:56And then you could just use a lamb shoulder

01:20:57if it's like sundae...

01:20:58Nice.

01:20:59Yeah, great, delicious.

01:21:00OK, right, so while that's going on there,

01:21:04Helen, let's have more drinks.

01:21:06I know, that's what I'm here for.

01:21:09So, you were just talking about the sauce being

01:21:14the spice and the sweetness.

01:21:17This is a red wine from southern Italy,

01:21:19Solice Salentino is the region

01:21:21and it's from the Co-op, which is a shop.

01:21:24Oh, Co-op!

01:21:25Yes, exactly.

01:21:26Co-op, Italian.

01:21:28Co-op, Italian region.

01:21:30Yeah, it's £8.15 from the top,

01:21:32from their truly irresistible range

01:21:34and I absolutely love this wine

01:21:36because it has got that touch of spice.

01:21:39The grape is Negromaro

01:21:40but it's also got sweetness

01:21:44from the ripeness of the fruit.

01:21:46So, it's not sweet as in sugar.

01:21:48It's dry but it's just really generous and warm.

01:21:52And you were saying, you know, about the food,

01:21:55your dish being a hug on a plate.

01:21:58This wine is basically a hug in a glass.

01:22:00Wow.

01:22:01So, with lamb as well, you need something with flavour

01:22:04and I think we're firmly into...

01:22:06Is it?

01:22:07Yeah, we're firmly into...

01:22:08Nice full body.

01:22:09Yes, nice legs.

01:22:10I do love lamb too.

01:22:12Very underrated.

01:22:13How delicious.

01:22:14I love lamb.

01:22:15What lamb?

01:22:16Yeah.

01:22:16Is lamb underrated?

01:22:17Well, I feel like...

01:22:18I feel like I keep eating, um...

01:22:20I don't know.

01:22:20I just think it's delicious lamb.

01:22:24Now, Brian, we can't have you on

01:22:26without talking about Malcolm in the Middle

01:22:27which you've now recorded four new episodes.

01:22:30Yes, we have.

01:22:32And how was that after all those years?

01:22:3420-something years?

01:22:3620.

01:22:36It'll be 20 years since we said goodbye.

01:22:39All the boys who are in that show with me

01:22:41are now the age I was when we first started the show.

01:22:46Right.

01:22:4726 years ago.

01:22:48And beautiful kids with children of their own

01:22:53and it was just so great.

01:22:55We all slipped back into those relationships.

01:22:58It was just...

01:22:59Is it nice getting back in the fold?

01:23:00I loved it.

01:23:02It was so much fun.

01:23:04We're so lucky.

01:23:05I mean, I have to say,

01:23:06I've just had a message from my son, Henry,

01:23:08who's watching this morning.

01:23:09He said,

01:23:09I can't believe you haven't told me

01:23:11these guys are on today.

01:23:12He said,

01:23:12Will you tell Brian that him and his mates

01:23:14used to watch Breaking Bad in school all the time?

01:23:17And that was the common room chat all the time.

01:23:20And Breaking Bad, it was a great show.

01:23:21However, my favourite thing I think you've ever done

01:23:25was in the studio.

01:23:27Was Gil...

01:23:30Well...

01:23:30Who was the studio boss?

01:23:31Yeah, yeah.

01:23:33Yeah, his name is...

01:23:35What's his name?

01:23:36Griffin Mill.

01:23:37Griffin Mill.

01:23:38That was it.

01:23:39Griffin.

01:23:41And that's pretty much how he was acted.

01:23:45He's still in character.

01:23:47Griffin Mill, yes.

01:23:49Yes, he's quite a narcissist, that one.

01:23:52How much fun was that to play?

01:23:53The most fun.

01:23:54The biggest jerks that you can play are the most fun.

01:23:59Yeah.

01:23:59Right?

01:24:00Yeah.

01:24:00I mean, Marianne knows that.

01:24:02But, you know...

01:24:04No, I'm just...

01:24:05I know, I know.

01:24:08No, it is fun when you can just let loose.

01:24:13Yeah.

01:24:14And play, and it's so much fun.

01:24:17And, Marianne, how is it being back in London?

01:24:19Because you grew up in...

01:24:20It's nice.

01:24:21I'm actually enjoying myself.

01:24:23Yeah?

01:24:24Yeah.

01:24:24Are you nice being a tourist in your...

01:24:26It is.

01:24:26That's how I feel.

01:24:27I feel like a tourist.

01:24:29Also, how good is the food in South London?

01:24:31So good.

01:24:32Yeah.

01:24:33And, I mean, it's changed so much.

01:24:35Yeah.

01:24:36But, as I was saying earlier, it's always had the art school there.

01:24:39So, that's always kind of changed, you know, the atmosphere of the place somewhat.

01:24:45Yeah.

01:24:46It was...

01:24:47I'd be interested in watching both talk about the arts in the UK and how well it's supported.

01:24:54Oh, yeah.

01:24:55A bit different to what it is in the States, is it?

01:24:57A lot different.

01:24:58Yeah.

01:24:58It's very commercialized in the States, and it's unfortunate because the prices go up,

01:25:04it becomes an elitist activity, and only the wealthy can attend, and it's just wrong.

01:25:10We're not generating new audiences, a new appreciation from younger generations, and it's vital that you do it.

01:25:18Well, it's done really well here.

01:25:20And people from all economic status come to the theater here in the UK, and they support it,

01:25:26because the country realizes the value, and they support it themselves.

01:25:31And do you think you get a different kind of clientele to the theater?

01:25:36Do you get a different sort of...

01:25:39Oh, yeah.

01:25:40...quality of actor?

01:25:42I mean, is that unfair?

01:25:43I don't know if there's a different quality of performance, but there's a difference in the audience.

01:25:48In the States, for some reason, it's become this obnoxious, immediate standing ovation, regardless of the...

01:25:57You won't get that here.

01:25:58I know.

01:25:58You do!

01:25:59You do!

01:26:00You do now!

01:26:00When you get on a plane, and you're heading into the States, everyone claps.

01:26:04Yeah.

01:26:05It's an applause.

01:26:06Yeah, if the plane lands...

01:26:08I mean, it's a given for me that the plane will land.

01:26:12Yeah, I know.

01:26:12One would hope.

01:26:14But you're right, the arts should be for everyone.

01:26:16They should be.

01:26:16Every kid should be able to go to the theater and be lifted out of their own lives.

01:26:21Yeah, I think it's changed a lot here, though, because when I was growing up, you had Greater London Arts,

01:26:27and the ILEA, and we went to shows.

01:26:31We were taken to the theater.

01:26:33We went to the Sadler's Wells and saw London Contemporary Dance.

01:26:36We were taken to the National.

01:26:37I'm not sure how much of that happens anymore.

01:26:40I think it's been cut a lot, actually.

01:26:42We've got to watch out for it.

01:26:43We've got to, like, really after it.

01:26:45Ooh, got it.

01:26:46It's our cultural heritage.

01:26:47Absolutely.

01:26:48Totally.

01:26:49Yeah.

01:26:49We have an opportunity to do just that, because we're only doing seven performances.

01:26:54There is room to do a special performance.

01:26:57where you just have high school kids from all parts of London to come and see it.

01:27:01Oh, my.

01:27:02It's quite hot.

01:27:04Wow.

01:27:04Even though she won, do I get the taste of it as well?

01:27:07Funnily enough, Ryan.

01:27:09Yeah.

01:27:10See, you get your...

01:27:10Our very good kitchen has lined this up for you.

01:27:13Oh!

01:27:13So this is the...

01:27:14Oh!

01:27:15So nice!

01:27:16I mean, so we thought we'd reward you, and you were so enthusiastic about it.

01:27:20But that's not fair.

01:27:22Try the cuttlefish.

01:27:24That's good, because that doesn't always happen.

01:27:26I know.

01:27:27But I'm very happy with both these dishes.

01:27:28Oh, OK.

01:27:29So normally you just hide it.

01:27:30But thanks for pointing that out to everyone.

01:27:32And also slightly hero-worshipping these incredible guests.

01:27:36But let me ask, who paired this red wine with this seafood?

01:27:41You would have had a white.

01:27:42You would have had a white.

01:27:43You would have had a white.

01:27:44There's red with this.

01:27:45Exactly.

01:27:45There's red wine in the ragu, so...

01:27:48There is red wine.

01:27:48Ah, there you go.

01:27:49Yes, of course I knew that.

01:27:50It was actually being a rose.

01:27:52Can I just point out?

01:27:53That was my rose.

01:27:54It was a test.

01:27:55I'm doing the test.

01:27:55Really?

01:27:56Yeah.

01:27:56You're taking it off the white.

01:27:57Oh, look.

01:27:58Oh, look at this.

01:27:59It's sliding out.

01:28:00Didn't he do well?

01:28:01Didn't he do well?

01:28:02Oh.

01:28:03Very good.

01:28:04Oh.

01:28:05Yeah.

01:28:06All good?

01:28:07Oh.

01:28:08Yeah.

01:28:09All good?

01:28:10Right, yeah.

01:28:11Oh.

01:28:12You're so happy with your pineapple sour, aren't you?

01:28:14It is very happy.

01:28:15So good.

01:28:16Not left your hand.

01:28:17It's so delicious.

01:28:18Well, I'm not.

01:28:19If I put it down, somebody will take it.

01:28:20I know how this works.

01:28:21How is that, Marianne?

01:28:22Have you tried it?

01:28:23Happy.

01:28:24Okay, good.

01:28:25Don't interrupt.

01:28:26Okay, fine.

01:28:27I'll take that.

01:28:28That's all for us today on Saturday Kitchen Live.

01:28:30Thanks to John, Tommy, Helen and, of course, Brian and Marianne.

01:28:33All the recipes from the studio are on the website, bbc.co.dk.

01:28:35forward slash Saturday Kitchens.

01:28:37I've got more Best Buy to you tomorrow morning at 10 on BBC Two

01:28:40and I'll be back here live next Saturday at the earlier time at 9.15, Tom,

01:28:44because of the Lord Mayor's show.

01:28:46Our guests are Sam Holland, Christelle Pereira, Jeremy Lee

01:28:50and Traitor's finalist Joe Mahler.

01:28:51Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

01:28:52Bye for now.

01:28:53Bye.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended