Bienvenue a France.

That's welcome to France to you and me.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm traveling throughout this beautiful country to explore the very best in French cuisine.

Back of the net.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And it was the home and inspiration for one of my biggest food heroes, Keith Floyd.

And what's more, I've bought his motor.

This was Keith Floyd's very own car.

Santé.

[glasses clink] Cheers to the great man.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's where I learned to cook.

Magical times.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's a personal journey.

I feel like a groupie.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So join me as I rediscover the food destination that has it all.

Viva la France!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My French adventure brings me to a landscape barren, unearthly and desolate.

[western showdown music] ♪ ♪ Welcome to the Camargue.

Now, this place is as diverse as it is beautiful.

Look at that, the amazing salt flats.

Now I'm about to meet some of the people that call this place their home.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And don't worry, it's not all like this.

Beyond the eerie salt lagoons, the Camargue comes alive with nature.

Pink flamingos speckle the coast whilst horses and bulls chomp their way through the pastures inland.

It's no wonder they call this place the French Wild West.

Although, if anything, we're actually down south.

The Camargue lies in Provence, on the south coast, nestled between Arles and the Mediterranean Sea.

Its distinctive landscape is dominated by vast wetlands feeding silver salt lagoons and over 20,000 hectares of rice paddies.

Whilst there is some remarkable cuisine around here, the true icons of this region are the famous Indigenous Camargue horses and Camargue bulls.

I've come to Les Marquises farm, where the Laurent family have been breeding these incredible animals for three generations, and it clearly makes Patrick very happy.

The Camargue horse is believed to be the oldest living breed, and has been wandering these saltwater wetlands for nigh on 20,000 years.

The Laurents breed them to work on the farm, but the bulls are bred solely for La Course Camarguaise, a kind of bull running where the bulls are thankfully neither injured nor killed.

And Patrick and I are, uh, going to meet a few of his slightly intimidating friends.

JAMES MARTIN: Now we're going into a field full of bulls.

Great.

I'm glad I'm in here.

Now, I take it these-- they live outside all year round.

PATRICK LAURENT: All the year.

JAMES MARTIN: Like the horses.

PATRICK LAURENT: Like the horses.

And those bulls, they can live in a box or in a barn.

You know, we want them right wild.

Right.

So what makes these bulls special?

PATRICK LAURENT: They are aggressive, kind of generous.

You know, every time the-- the guy call them, they chase the people, they make action, they jump after the fences.

JAMES MARTIN: So basically, you just breed crazy bulls.

Crazy cow.

[laughter] Mad cow.

Mad cow.

Here, the mad cow.

[laughter] The mad cow.

And why don't they fight if they're crazy, there.

the-- - Together?

- Yeah.

Oh.

They fight.

- Oh, do they?

- Oh, yeah.

Every night if you call [howls] they fight.

The same if you put 100 guys together every night after the beer.

OK.

Good point innit, really?

So do you run with the bull or you just think they're crazy?

PATRICK LAURENT: I did it.

- You did it?

Yeah.

Are you crazy?

But you know, here it's every young guys want to run with the bull in the arena.

It's not like in Pamplona, you know.

OK.

Why do they do it?

PATRICK LAURENT: Why the guys or the-- JAMES MARTIN: Yeah, why do the guys?

Why did you do it?

Because why the guys want to-- Impress the ladies.

And impress yourself.

Right.

So if I got out now and you drove off, what would happen?

PATRICK LAURENT: No, they leave.

JAMES MARTIN: They'll leave?

PATRICK LAURENT: Oh, yeah.

I'm not going to test it.

You just keep driving.

But if you go very close, if you go in there-- - They're there-- - Yeah.

That's not good, yeah.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): A carnivorous TV chef like me is a red rag to a bull.

So I'll get back to what I do best and cook up my first celebration of local produce, fish from the salty sea and no beef.

I promise, guys, chef's honor.

[coughs] I thought I'd cook on a barbecue today, seeing as it's glorious outside.

So I'm just going to use a disposable barbecue to cook this wonderful fish.

This is pazu.

It's really simple, and all I'm going to do is stuff this and serve it with like, a-- [coughs] like, a nice sort of Indian style chutney.

Really, really easy to make.

But the first thing we're going to prepare our fish.

Now for that, just get some red onion, cut it up into slices, a little bit of lime.

Now, I'm going to use this wonderful fish, which is really simple.

You can actually use red mullet or rouget, they call it over here, it's wonderful.

But with the fish this small, just cook it whole on the barbecue.

Nice and simple.

Take a little knife, cut it like that either side just so it eases the cooking, really.

And then take the fish and then pop the few aromats in here.

You can put herbs, bits and pieces in it, but it's really that simple.

Even a little bit of mint sounds unusual, but I'm actually going to serve this with a little bit of mint, a bit of black pepper on it, a touch of salt.

Now, I'd use a little bit of olive oil normally, but as soon as it's out here-- and it is hot, all right?

Even hotter where I'm stood.

All right?

It's 35 degrees today out here, very hot, so I'm just going to use melted butter.

You can use olive oil at home.

And I'm going to take this and just put it straight onto our barbecue there as it is, whole.

And then what we're going to do is make the chutney.

Now, the key to this really is it's simplicity.

Over here, I've got some wonderful squash or you can use pumpkin.

This is frozen.

I've got it from a supermarket just down the road here.

But the reason why I'm going to use frozen stuff is that it speeds up the cooking time really, really fast.

This chutney is going to be made in about three or four minutes.

So a little bit of onion, and we'll start with a few bits of diced onion.

A touch of garlic, just chopped.

And then what I'm gonna do is get some of this melted butter again.

50 mils in there.

Now, throw in the garlic and the onion.

Now, because this is quick to cook, you almost need to cook the garlic and the onions thoroughly like this.

And while that's cooking, we can turn our attention to the spices because I'm going to use three main spices for this.

This is turmeric.

This is ground coriander.

Now, you've all got these at home generally in the cupboard, when the last time you did something like a curry in 1962.

A word of advice.

Once the label changes, color on a jar like this because you've had it on the windowsill for 56 years, technically it's knackered.

All right?

And we've got some nice bit of curry powder in here.

Once you've opened up the jar like that, three months.

That's all it lasts, three months.

Now, the key to this-- and this is what I do learn as a chef, my Indian Mates, water.

And you slake the spices with water.

Really, really important.

And you mix that together because if you put the raw spices straight in the pan, they burn.

That's going to cook nicely.

In we go with the pumpkin.

And all this starts to come together.

And then what I'm going to serve the fish with is some charred lime.

So just put those on as well.

Check our fish.

Flip that over.

You see Rob, look at that.

Get in there.

That's better than your burnt burgers and your sausages.

Look at that.

Mm.

Nice bit of fish.

Now, this is starting to come together.

Now, just to incorporate a little bit of sweetness to this.

I like to use some mango chutney.

So just a good, I would say, tablespoon.

But in 35 degree heat, things act a little bit weird.

Mix that together.

Now this is star anise.

You often get it ground, but this is the whole spice as well.

Just take one of these and throw it in.

Now, you only need one.

You count it in.

But most importantly, you count it out.

Because if Granny Smith-- that's my gran, by the way-- got that in her teeth, she won't be too impressed.

So literally, just pop that straight in, a bit of salt, bit of pepper.

And of course, with Indian food as well particularly you've got the spices.

You don't need much seasoning, really.

Salt, pepper.

You've got the sweetness anyway.

And then finally, just a bit of herbs-- limped bit of herbs, limp parsley.

Then take some fresh mint.

Now, I'm just going to finish this off with some lime juice, just a squeeze in there.

Mix that together.

And then all we do now is just pop this on the plate, and you've got this really simple chutney that you can serve it with chicken, with fish.

But for me, when you get fish as good as this, a nice piece of fish on the side like that.

And then you've got your charred bit of lime on there.

Now, ideally what I'd like to do is do a little cheffy drizzle of oil.

However, I'll do a little cheffy drizzle of melted butter.

It's good that, innit?

[exhales sharply] [western showdown music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And there you have it, my beautiful barbecued fish with an Indian spiced squash chutney, parsley, and a squeeze of lime.

Let's see how it goes down with our cowboys and cowgirl.

Mm.

[speaking french] Excellent.

Take it that's good then.

[whimsical music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My French adventure in the Camargue has revealed a truly distinct landscape-- a wetland fed by salty Mediterranean waters with its own unique inhabitants who've lived here and nowhere else for thousands of years.

But in terms of food, there's one thing in particular that the Camargue is really famous for.

And for that, we go to the saltwater lagoon by the medieval walled town of Egmore, or Dead Water.

Here, as the wind calms in the summer, millions of salt crystals appear at the surface.

It's harvested by hand the same way it's been since Roman times.

This is Fleur de sel, delicate sea salt crystals that form on the surface of the seawater as it evaporates.

And as harvest manager Luke will explain, it's no ordinary table salt.

The product is special.

Its-- fleur de sel is very important for me and for [speaking french].

In French, we say [french] de sel [french] of the salt.

Look, it's a different salt.

The harvest is natural.

No chemicals, no machine for the harvest.

It's only guy with a pail and no machine.

It's like snow, the same thing, the same color, and no big salt.

It's like snow.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): People have been using salt to preserve and season their food for thousands of years.

But this divine Fleur de sel is purely for flavor.

Just don't use too much.

And a little sprinkling of the good stuff is all I need to help create this simple Provencal-style tart.

This salt really is the caviar of salt.

It's beautiful, but it's not pure white like snow.

It's actually got a pink tinge to it.

And that's because of the water that it comes from.

It really is fabulous.

I'm going to use this to create an amazing classic French tart called pissaladiere, which is basically an onion and anchovy tart, which originates not from the Camargue itself, a little bit further away.

It's actually from Nice, but it's all about the onions to start off with.

About four onions, make sure it's nice and thinly sliced.

Look at that.

And then throw them into a pan with plenty of butter, so a good knob of butter and just chuck the onions in.

[upbeat music] Now we can add a touch of garlic, a little bit of garlic, throw that in.

So in we go with some fresh thyme.

We're just cooking this with a little bit of color first of all.

So this is going to cook down now for about five or six minutes.

Just gotta wait for the onions now, which is nice because it'll give you time to comment on my shirt on social media, because you're all into that nowadays.

And to be fair, when you're walking around the Camargue surrounded by bulls and everybody else is wearing this shirt, it looked quite cool.

They've all got Cowboy hats on.

But in Hampshire, frying the onions, I'm not quite sure.

Let's take a little bit of white wine now.

Throw that in.

[sizzling] Now, usually this tart is a combination of onions, anchovies and olives.

But I've got to be honest with you, I don't really like olives.

I don't trust them.

That's it.

And I remember trying them once, and I really liked it.

And then every olive that I've tried since then, I didn't like it.

So I actually need to go out and find the tree where I like the olives from.

That was in Crete, next to the Domes of Elounda, which was basically an island where lepers used to go.

Anyway, so next we're going to make our little tart.

So you grab your all butter puff pastry, stick that on there.

So what we're after is a nice thin tartlet.

To do that, just dock it with a knife.

Now we can take our onions.

We can season this with black pepper, and of course, some of this wonderful Fleur de sel.

Right.

Look, you just pour the onions over the top.

Now, you're not creating this thick layer.

It's not a deep pan pizza.

It's just an onion tart like that.

So it just wants a layer of these amazing onions over the top.

Next, we can turn our attention to these amazing anchovies.

Just little fish, that's all they are.

And all we do with these is just grab your anchovies and stick them on like that.

So what they do with these-- it's probably one of the oldest forms of curing fish, really.

They just salt them, and then wash off the salt and stick them in the oil.

And all you're doing now is just grab a little bit of fresh thyme over the top.

There's no denying that that looks just beautiful as it is without olives.

Stick it in the oven.

20 minutes, it's done.

Need some more wine.

This smells delicious.

Not only is it the onion, but it's the salted anchovy.

Look at that.

That tastes beautiful.

[western showdown music] Howdy.

[whimsical music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My journey to explore the roots of French cooking has brought me to the Camargue.

It's a strange blend, a world in 360 square miles.

You've got the glistening cosine of the South, ranch-like farms that evoke the Wild West.

And on top of that, you've got a curious culinary nod to the Far East.

Yes, we're talking rice.

There are as many as 200 rice farms in the Camargue.

Its paddy fields produce around 5% of Europe's rice.

And Maison du Riz, a farm that has been growing rice for five generations, is one such producer.

I've come to meet one of the owners, Jacques Roziere, and I've been told I can find him somewhere amongst these paddy fields.

Ah, there he is.

JAMES MARTIN: Jacques.

Hello.

Hello.

Oy, fantastic.

So this paddy field, a rice paddy field-- - It's good.

- It is very good.

It's very soggy as well.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): But soggy is good, well, for rice anyway.

The key to growing rice is plenty of water, plenty of sunlight and warmth.

And a good wind helps keep the bugs away.

And what type of rice do we have here?

This rice is the first sushi rice made in Camargue.

It's the first year.

I have perfume rice, black rice, red rice, rice for risotto.

Many, many.

I made just a small amount of rice for sushi.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Who'd have thought, sushi in the South of France?

See that's fantastic.

You see, I haven't looked like this since I was at Morecambe with my with my trousers rolled up.

Look at that.

Have you been to Morecambe?

No.

You've never been?

It's kind of like Saint-Tropez, but a little bit different.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Well, if he ever goes to Morecambe, let's just hope he's not too disappointed.

Rice production in this region is no new thing.

It's been going on here since the time of Henry IV in the Middle Ages.

Maison du Riz educational center or barn gives a little insight into the Camargue rich rice history.

It's a ball machine.

Proper machine.

Ah, [french] machine.

So how does it work?

Yes, this first machine keeps the ball exterior.

This machine for white rice.

You clean the rice.

And this machine is for separation of broken rice and integral rice.

So basically what he's saying is there's two main parts, three main parts.

This really there's the first part, which is basically the machine that takes the outer casing of the rice.

And this is the paddy rice, the classic paddy rice.

It removes the outer casing, just breaks it up really.

That's the first part.

The second machine the rice goes in and it polishes it.

What that does is reduce the size of the grain down but produce this flour.

And then finally, we then select the base of this.

This one is for select.

Fire away.

OK.

[engine rumbles] I keep my paddy rice.

I have integral rice.

So the French love this.

This is integral rice.

But cuisine-wise, what?

One hour?

JACQUES ROZIERE: No, 30, 35, 45 minutes for cooking this rice.

JAMES MARTIN: So you can see the outer casing has been broken up.

The grains are still quite large.

That's why it takes a little bit longer to cook.

Now it's going into the machine, which has got a stone in it.

So this basically grinds down the outer casing of the rice.

So because of that, you end up with this stuff.

This is this rice flour.

Now, this is famous for what, is it animal feed?

Yes, just for animal.

Yeah, and basically beer.

This is fantastic for beer.

So basically what this machine is doing is grinding down the small individual rice and polishing it, really.

And I have my white rice.

JAMES MARTIN: And because of that, the rice is much smaller.

And hence, it doesn't take 45 minutes to cook.

This will what, cook 10 minute?

JACQUES ROZIERE: Yes, 10, 12 minutes And you put in this machine for the broken rice.

Look.

JAMES MARTIN: So this basically tests the quality of the rice, really, to see how much rice is at the end as opposed to broken rice.

And you have broken rice here and not a lot.

So this is just the outer casings.

You see?

All the outer casings of the broken rice.

A plain white rice.

So now you know where rice comes from.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now, not only is Jacques an expert rice harvester, he can also whip up a mean risotto.

And he's invited me to give it a try.

Right, what have we got here?

A few herbs, a little stock, a hefty portion of Jacques' black rice.

And, yes, that's beer.

But he's not being careless.

It's Jack's very own rice brewed beer for added flavor.

And now for the final touches-- truffle shavings and foie gras, just for that added bit of French-style richness.

And once the rice is slowly cooked, it's ready to serve while the rice still has a little bite.

JACQUES ROZIERE: Gents.

[speaking french] More risotto, special [speaking french].

One black or one white beer?

Noir, black.

Cheers.

Do you want this one?

Mm.

That's it?

Yes.

Foie Gras, piment espelette.

Espelette pepper?

Yes.

Cream and Parmesan.

That's it.

And my big-- my beer.

My black beer.

- And of course, your beer.

Yes.

- Cheers.

- Santé.

Magical day.

Thank you.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's certainly given me an idea for my own bit of kitchen magic.

And while you look at that, I've got to go change my shirt.

You see, what do you reckon?

It's not bad, is it, really?

I bought a selection of these from those Cowboys.

I think it's quite cool.

This one's actually the calm one.

The other ones look like Liberace's flannel.

They're a bit excessive.

A bit too much gold.

But I'm quite pleased with this shirt, actually.

So I thought I'd do an amazing little risotto with this.

Not using wild rice, I thought I'd use white rice to make a black risotto, but a squid ink risotto.

Now, don't be put off by squid ink or cuttlefish ink.

There's a predominant little flavor of fish with it, but I'm going to serve it with squid and some monkfish.

It starts off with just some onion and garlic, which is the basis of a lot of risotto.

So what you have to do first of all, is thinly slice it and then dice it.

So cut it through and then get this nice and fine.

Tiny bit of garlic, not too much.

So pan on the stove, and then we'll grab a little bit of butter.

Because first of all, to make the risotto you've got to cook this without color.

You don't want to brown the onions or garlic.

You just want to pop them straight into our pan.

And then it's all about the rice that you use.

So this is risotto rice.

This is the polished rice.

It's got a little fat grain to it, which absorbs all that nice flavor of everything that it goes with.

Roughly about 25 grams of rice per portion, but mix this together.

Now, also, you want to coat the grains of rice in the butter.

That's why it's important not to have this too hot.

You don't want to burn the rice.

You don't want to color the onions.

You certainly don't want to color the garlic.

Otherwise, it goes quite bitter.

But the onions and garlic are a background flavor for everything else, because it's all about this stuff.

It's an amazing liquid, this.

But a little bit goes a long way, so that's all you really need.

[gentle music] And now we can deglaze this with some white wine.

And then what we can add is our stock.

Now, although this is a fish risotto, I still use chicken stock.

You can use veg stock if you want.

But you want something that's, dare I say, not too fishy, not too strong in flavor.

And basically, you just stand here now and stir it for about 10 minutes.

So just keep adding a little bit more stock.

♪ ♪ Now, I'm going to serve it with, of course, some squid, some of the little tentacles that you get with it as well, these little fellas.

Lovely.

I couldn't resist using some of this monkfish.

It really is fabulous, this stuff.

I'm just going to use some of this medallions of monkfish, a little bit of squid here, some of these little tentacles, which I'm just going to take.

So we'll get a pan, and we'll just basically just pop our nice little bits of monkfish in here and our squid.

And then to finish off your risotto, the key to, I think, a really good risotto is A, making sure the rice is cooked, and B, the texture.

.

Far too many times, risotto is too thick and too heavy, too stodgy.

What you've got to think of risotto is the rice is absorbing more and more liquid as it cools, as it sits on the plate, or as it sits in the pan.

So you've got to be careful with it.

Even now, you can add a little bit more stock.

Because the minute you add the Parmesan cheese to risotto, which is a must, remember, the cheese is going to keep absorbing the liquid as well.

So Parmesan cheese-- fish, we can just flip over-- touch of lemon juice.

Then finally, just a little bit of parsley over the top of the squid and the monkfish.

Black pepper, a pinch of salt, and grab our plate.

And then we can just put our risotto on the plate.

♪ ♪ Grab our bits of squid and just pop these on.

Don't go making faces out of it.

And then, just for an amazing hint of color, I've got some of these little edible flowers.

That is a beautiful plate of food, a bit like my shirt.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm nearing the end of my gastronomic roam around the Camargue.

It's an environment quite unlike anywhere else in France.

You'd be forgiven for thinking you've just woken up in another country.

The cuisine is also unique, and in the spirit of that, there's a chef around here with a very particular way of sourcing ingredients.

This is Armand Arnal in his Michelin star restaurant La Chassagnette.

Whilst a large proportion of us chefs obsess about meat, this chap has turned his attention elsewhere.

Here, it's all about harnessing the complex flavors found in the garden-- fruit, veg, and herbs, and no supporting actor there.

The stars of the show.

And here's the proof.

Just look at that tomato.

The big difference with this restaurant is what's behind the scenes, and that's a humongous organic veg garden.

It's kind of like the savory version of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

And best of all, the chef here has allowed me into his garden for an exclusive pick-your-own to source some ingredients for my final dish.

But first, a chat with this vegetable visionary.

So I don't know what's better, the restaurant or the garden.

I think both, to be honest.

Yeah.

The idea is to-- the garden dictate a little bit what we're going to do at the restaurant.

So that's the first actor of the place.

It is, but it is like a chef's playpen, isn't it really?

I mean, this is just a small area.

What have we got growing in here then?

We have zucchini.

We have red peppers here, tomatoes over there.

We have a few apples and pear trees on the other side, and a lot of herbs in between, like basil, American mint, sage.

Of course, you're not far away from the sea here.

No, we are like, 30 kilometers or so.

And I presume because it's like this most of the year around the sun hopefully.

Yes, yes, yes.

We really have to be careful with the wind.

That's the only problem.

And the soil is kind of salty naturally.

Right.

So it's a lot of complexity to grow everything.

JAMES MARTIN: Because I've seen some amazing bits and pieces all around.

I mean, I've just passed some American mint, which I've never seen before, that famous for mojitos that you grind up really strong.

You never see that grow anywhere.

This is the first time I've seen it grow anywhere.

Yeah, what we do, I travel a lot and I bring some seeds instead of bringing vegetables or some fruit from all over the place.

I just bring seed and I try to adapt it to the land of Camargue.

Now, you as a chef have trained all over the place.

Why this area for you?

I fell in love with the Camargue.

I was from Montpellier, so I was very close to the place.

And I fell in love with this beautiful light and this horizon.

And, I don't know, I just passed the bridge.

It was a restaurant, a small restaurant before.

And I fell in love.

And what's the speciality here then?

What's your-- you've got to have a trademark dish.

What would it be here?

We don't have trademark dish because we're working through the seasons.

But the idea of the restaurant is the opposite of the other restaurant is we think about the vegetable first.

So we-- we're working a lot on training on vegetables and training of taste and mix with herbs.

And then after, we use the meat or the fish as a complement of this dish.

Because a lot of people would look at the meat and the fish as the main element and then add vegetables as a garnish, whatever.

You look at the opposite.

Our garnish is the meat of the fish.

That's the garnish.

- Exactly.

With the garden like this, who's to blame you?

It's fantastic.

[french cultural music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And really, who could blame me for grabbing a few bits for my final dish with a little helping hand from one of Armand's expert gardeners.

And there we go, all the foundations for a fantastic dish.

Perfect picking.

I have to say, this is a spectacular place.

Not only does it have an amazing restaurant, but what a garden!

And for inspiration, this is probably the best place to be, I think, mainly.

And I've got so many different things to choose from.

You've got a selection of herbs, fresh veg further on, flowers all around me.

But I'm going to take my inspiration from the flowers and particularly one flower which I found further around the corner.

These are courgette flowers.

Amazing.

Anybody with a garden knows that these are just as delicious as the courgette underneath.

So all I'm going to do is just take out the little stamens.

Now, I've used these quite a lot when I was working and training over in France.

So often they'd be stuffed with a bit of salmon mousse or often pache mousse, and then they would be poached.

But for this, I'm going to keep all the sort of ingredients from the garden and use that for my inspiration for this one, and just keep it really simple.

We've got some basil leaf over here, which is like a lovely floral basil over there, and we've got some of this American mint.

What I'm going to do is just chop that up.

Now, this dish, I'm going to keep vegetarian really.

So I've got some cream cheese.

Take this mixture and just mix it together.

Keep it really simple.

You don't need much really when you've got great ingredients like this in the garden.

And all I'm going to do is grab this and just take a little bit of the mixture and just fill it up.

So like a decent sort of spoonful.

You just fold these over.

Now, you can cook these in different ways.

You can poach them.

I'm going to pan fry them, but they're amazing deep fried in a batter.

You just leave them as they are and just deep fry the entire flour.

No need to stuff them, but leave them as they are.

But you just fold them over like that.

It creates these amazing little parcels underneath.

And you can use whatever you want really, for the herbs.

A bit of tarragon would be nice, but just fold them over.

They just look delicious.

I also found in the garden some of this sweetcorn.

Now, this is spectacular, really tight homegrown sweetcorn.

I grew this in my own garden at home and I know this is good because basically the little cobs are nice and tight.

You can see that.

And that's the right amount of sunshine and water, which makes this the perfect place for this sort of stuff.

So I'm just going to chop this and just remove the corn.

Get rid of this and then we're really ready to cook it.

All you do is throw some oil in the pan, just a touch.

We can throw the corn in.

Now, I almost want this to char really, rather than just fry on its own.

So make sure it's nice and hot.

And at the same time, we can throw in the little courgette flowers.

Now, just to help it char a little bit, I've got some floral honey.

You can use things like maple syrup if you want, but just a tablespoon of this will just help the sweet corn just sear nicely, which is exactly what we want for this.

Now I put the shallots in, because if we put them in too early, they're going to burn and taste bitter.

So just roughly chop them up.

We can throw those on the top as well.

Just to keep it really simple, that's the key.

So the courgettes, we just flip over, they'll cook at the same time.

Now for a little bit of white wine, just a touch.

Fresh tomatoes.

These are like a plum version of a Piccolo tomato-- really simple, full of flavor.

Lid on.

And the reason for the lid is I'm going to steam just the base part of the courgette flowers.

While that's steaming, I can cool down a bit because he's hot in here.

♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Just take a look at these fantastic ingredients.

It's enough to inspire you to grow your own.

And now that I've cooled down, the courgette flowers are nicely cooked.

Give this a quick stir.

Now I'm going to create a little salad with this, almost like a warm salad.

And for that, I'm going to use lettuce.

Now, this is kind of like a beetroot salad really, batavia lettuce.

And the gardener said it's fantastic cooked.

It's got a slight peppery note, a bit like racket, really.

You could use that.

You just put a few bits in there.

And then this is where we incorporate some of the leaves and the flowers.

So we've got some Mexican tarragon, which are these lovely yellow flowers.

They can go in, some Suzy flowers-- and then some of these alliums.

Wonderful.

And then just to bring all this lot together, a good knob of butter, a bit of seasoning, some salt, pepper.

And that's really the key to any stuff like this.

When it's fresh out the garden like this, don't overcook it.

Just keep it really simple.

And lift of the plate.

Now, it's interesting.

One of the first times I ever cooked with lettuce was in France.

And it's in a lot of the dishes.

And it's how they call it Anglais, or in the style of Anglais, the style of the English.

But the UK, we never really cook with lettuce that much, and it's such a shame.

We just often just open the packet and stick it in salads.

But when we cook with it, it tastes fantastic.

And what we do now is grab our stuffed courgette flowers.

And finally, of course, you can take your pick around here in terms of flowers, and petals, and leaves.

Everything in this garden is edible.

Everything.

Let's put these over the top, allium flowers, and some of these white allium flowers.

So often these look like wild garlic flowers.

You can put those over the top.

Now, as we're here and in this restaurant and it's got a Michelin star, we've got to put a little cheffy drizzle of olive oil over the top.

And there you have it, stuffed courgette flowers with an ant.

It's protein.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And this, aside from the trespassing ant, is my cream cheese stuffed courgette flowers with a colorful selection of petals and veg, all sourced from this wonderful garden.

[whimsical music] It's difficult to find something that's not to love about this area.

It's just stunning.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's like walking through a film set.

One minute you're in a Western movie.

So basically you just breed crazy bulls.

Crazy cow.

[laughter] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): The next, a Martian landscape.

It's like snow.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And then an English country garden.

JAMES MARTING: For inspiration, this is probably the best place to be, I think.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): But the way they treat their cuisine, it could only be France.

The Camargue has it all-- great scenery, coastline, and amazing food and drink.

Delicious.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And after all that, I think I need a lie down.

See you next time.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [speaking french].

Take it that's good then.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Coming up on my journey through the Camargue, we take a look at one of the region's most prized commodities, and I reveal a little foodie secret.

I don't really like olives.

I don't trust them.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My French adventure in the Camargue-- Beautiful.

Howdy.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Coming up on my French adventure in the Camargue, I go for a paddle in a paddy.

I haven't looked like this since I was at Morecambe.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): A rice paddy, that is.

And I give out tips on how to present your food.

Don't go making faces out of it.

[music playing] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My journey to explore the roots of French cooking has brought me to the-- A bit like my shirt.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Still to come on my French adventure in the Camargue, I visit a Michelin star veg patch.

I don't know what's better, the restaurant or the garden.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And I'll be grabbing a few of its tasty treats for my final dish.

Now, this is spectacular.

[music playing] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm nearing the end of my gastronomic roam around the Camargue.

It's an environment--