[upbeat music] [french] That's welcome to France to you and me.

I'm traveling throughout this beautiful country to explore the very best in French cuisine.

Bon appetit.

It's a personal journey.

It's where I learned to cook.

Magical times.

Magical times.

And it was the home and inspiration for one of my biggest food heroes, Keith Floyd.

And what's more, I bought his motor.

This was Keith Floyd's very own car for 16 years.

And it's now mine.

Gives me goosebumps.

So join me as I rediscover the food destination that has it all.

This is really, really delicious.

Mm-mm-mm.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Today, my French adventure brings me to one of the country's outstanding culinary regions, a place where traditional, hearty cuisine is shaped by a unique and idyllic landscape.

Just look at that, chestnut trees and walnut trees everywhere.

This place is really special.

Welcome to France and the Dordogne.

[upbeat music] Nestled between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, the Dordogne is named after the river, which meanders 300 miles through its vast swathes of arable farmland and dense forest, making it a haven for game and earthy treasures like nuts, berries, and truffles.

[french music] The region is peppered with chateaux and fortified medieval villages, echoes of a distant past wracked with poverty and conflict.

Hard to imagine amongst all this beauty.

But you can only look at the view for so long.

Now it's time to find out where the action is.

[lively music] ♪ ♪ And on this particular morning, that's here, just 15 miles from the Dordogne River in Rouffignac Saint Cernin de Reilhac.

I think that's how you pronounce it.

Nice ducks.

Every Sunday, this fairly sleepy town awakens to the sound of market mayhem.

What a place to source some local produce for my first dish.

♪ ♪ As well as food, I've got a bit of an obsession with gardening, those people who know me.

But I couldn't help but stop at this array of plants here.

But these are a few herbs.

Now, obviously, you've got different types of thyme.

You've got rosemary.

This is the thing that you've got to watch out for at home really.

If you're interested in cooking with lavender, which is amazing with lamb and stuff like that, buy lavender.

But make sure it's cooking lavender.

Don't get the one that tastes of soap.

There are two different ones, one you can eat and one that you put by the side of your-- well, you put underneath-- I remember, my gran used to have one of those toilet roll warmers with a doll on it, with a sprig of lavender in.

That's what you use that French lavender for.

But this one, you have to buy if you're ever in a garden center and you see this.

Now, it looks something that's dodgy and looks something you'll get arrested for.

But this is amazing.

This is lemon verbena.

Now a lot of people have this in tea, but this is amazing with strawberries and cooked with things like summer puddings.

This is just phenomenal.

And creme brulee, that famous dessert in France, using this taste sublime.

I'm going to have to have one of these.

Merci.

- Merci beaucoup.

Merci.

Au revoir Au revoir.

Check that out.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Now this area is so rich in produce, some things in particular, this is known as the duck area.

And then you've got walnuts, so many different things.

But if it's sweets you after and desserts, then these strawberries are some of the best in France.

Now, the best way to tell with strawberries is not to actually taste them.

You smell them.

This smells like summer in a punnet-- [band playing] With the noise of a brass band.

[chuckle] Someone's happy, isn't he?

These smell fantastic.

♪ ♪ There you go.

Right on cue.

Merci.

[band playing] ♪ ♪ Now I bought them, I can try one.

Look at that.

♪ ♪ And you know when food is this good, particularly fruit, you have to do so little to it.

But I've got the perfect recipe.

[upbeat music] And my clever crew have found a spectacular spot with a river view to make up my strawberry recipe.

They must be hungry.

♪ ♪ Now, I thought I'd do a variant of a trifle meets summer pudding-ish, using some fantastic brioche and these wonderful strawberries that I've got from the market.

I had to get these ones in particular because these are called Charlotte.

And the reason why I had to get them is my sister's called Charlotte.

Not as good-- sorry, sis --as these ones.

Now, these are like Gariguettes really.

There is a difference between these and the conventional-looking strawberry.

One obviously looks like a rugby ball, the other one is a little bit fatter.

Now I'm going to use these Charlotte ones to make a sauce.

You can call this a coulis because you're over here.

So the first thing I'm going to do is actually just make a similar sort of thing to a jam really, nice and simple.

All right.

So just trim off the tops like that.

There's nothing better than strawberries when they're in season.

The exciting thing is you have to wait for that season to happen.

It's such a short season, and then you use them as much as you possibly can.

Just the smell of fresh strawberries, just delicious.

I'm hoping that this dish may actually convert most of our crew.

I, for one, have been so excited about doing this, traveling to all these amazing places, tasting all this fantastic food.

But so far, in the last four days, the crew have had a Chinese takeaway and two pizzas and a burger drive-through.

So I'm hoping that somebody watching this will actually give this a go, you know, and that I've not just wasted 25 years of my life.

So what we're going to do is just cook these strawberries just lightly.

And I say lightly and I mean lightly.

Bit of sugar.

Just allow the sugar to dissolve a little bit like that.

Throw the strawberries in, in the pan.

Just a touch of water.

That's it.

Natural, natural flavors.

That's all we need.

Meanwhile, I need to do another punnet or two of these ones.

Now, while that's cooking in there, I don't have many pet hates, but I do have a few.

Mainly on restaurant menus in the UK, when you see the word coulis, right?

Over here, you can get away with it.

We're in France.

That's cool.

Over in the UK, this is called a sauce.

It's like jus and gravy.

There you go.

We got plenty of strawberries in there.

That'll do.

That's enough.

Next we're going to press these down.

Soften them up a bit.

Now, normally, what I would do is pass this sauce through a sieve.

But the crew here have gone out and got me this, which kind of looks like something that you got from a car boot.

So look.

[laughter] I'm not using that.

I'm just going to use the crushed fruit in here.

Mix together.

Now, while it's still warm, we're going to take this here, this lemon verbena.

Amazing, amazing stuff.

Smells delicious, tastes amazing and particularly with fresh strawberries.

Just look at that.

Look at that, Rob.

Look!

That is a picture on its own.

Look.

So you've got this like compote sort of thing going on here.

The difference between a compote and a jam?

15 quid, you know that?

Next, full-fat mascarpone, OK?

Good dollop of.

And next we've got some cream.

Take a little bit of cream and mix this together.

[whisking] But now what we need to do is layer this up.

Now, there is a trick to this.

We take a little oil, first of all.

And you put this around the edge of the bowl right the way around like that.

Then grab some cling film.

This cling film.

All right?

When it goes-- when you pull it and it goes [slurp] that's food wrap.

Don't use that stuff.

Stuff it inside the bottom of the mold.

Now, what the oil will do is help the cling film stick.

This is going to make it easier to take the dessert out in the end.

Make sure it's nice and compressed all in the bottom of the mold.

All right?

And we can start to layer this up really.

So first of all, we take a bit of the brioche.

And I've got two different types here.

The producer wants to know what the difference between that and that is in brioche.

Laziness.

This was when the baker first came in at 11 o'clock at night.

This was made at 6 o'clock in the morning when he wanted to go home.

Hand over the top.

Thin slice.

You know when you've gone wrong when it all turns red.

Go on.

And then what you can do really is basically just cut this and you kind of want to just overlap it first of all.

So take a little bit of the brioche and place it in there and another one.

And then we want to line this around the edge and just pop it around.

So you're kind of overlapping as you go.

And then this is where we fill in the gaps.

So just a little bit.

Now we're nearly there really with this one.

It's like building a house.

Get the foundations right first, then you can start to assemble.

So first of all, we'll take some of our wonderful fruit.

Pop that in the base.

Now, what you have to do with summer pudding and like this is compress it all.

Get your hands in there and make sure it's compact into the bottom.

Let's grab a little spoonful of the cream because you just layer this up.

Touch of cream, bit of fruit.

Touch of cream, bit of fruit.

And every time you do it, just compress the strawberries inside.

Now, once you get to the top, you got all this full of your strawberries.

You can take the leftover bits of brioche that you've and basically just use that as a lid.

Grab your plate and we'll just put a few bits of fruit.

Use these different ones really, a few dotted around.

And then fold over the cling film.

Give it a good press down like that.

Make sure it's nice and compact.

Now, take the cling film off, turn it over, and then pray.

Because, hopefully, this cling film should just come off.

We can garnish it with some more of these wonderful types of strawberries over the top.

Look at that.

And then finally, of course, grab some of this lemon verbena.

[theme music] There you have it.

Now, the team here always like me to name something.

To be honest, I haven't got a clue.

It's made by a Yorkshireman in France, and it's kind of a trifle meets summer pudding meets Charlotte Russe Royale thing.

It's going to taste good, though.

So, for want of a better name, here's my sumptuous summer pudding with juicy strawberries topped with zesty sprigs of lemon verbena.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ My journey through the Dordogne finds me in a region deeply in touch with its culinary traditions.

♪ ♪ Historically, this area was known as the Perigord, a term, which is still used today.

Its lifeblood are hundreds of small farms like this with goats providing milk used raw to make a local speciality cheese called Cabecou, and geese bred for foie gras, a liver pate that's one of the region's most famous products.

♪ ♪ But the real superstar of the Perigord has to be these chaps.

In fact, the humble duck is so popular here that locals are more likely to use duck fat in their cooking than butter or olive oil.

♪ ♪ Some local farmers have even used the fat to power their tractors.

Seriously, although not this one, I might add.

Now I'm on a mission to prove to my crew there's more to duck than take away spring rolls.

[lively music] So I've booked us into a rather special auberge where le canard, that's duck, is always on the menu.

Here's ex-pat Chris Millenship, chef and owner of the Auberge de Castel-Merle with one of his other passions, truffle.

But more about that later.

[upbeat music] Chris has decided to make us no less than three local specialties.

♪ ♪ Magret duck with a truffle sauce.

There we are.

Preserved duck.

JAMES MARTIN: Confit de canard, a preserved duck leg roasted and served with pomme Sarladaises and cepes mushrooms.

[sizzle] And finally, salt duck breast with herbes de Provence.

♪ ♪ Apparently more is less, but we'll see.

JAMES MARTIN: Isn't the saying less is more?

Anyway, if you ask me where food is concerned, I say more is more.

See, every now and then, I like my job.

And this is one of those times.

If you come to this region, you have to try a duck dish.

This has been cured with herbs of Provence.

Just so simple but so tasty.

That is delicious.

Talking of flavor, my second dish is this one confit of duck.

Classic duck confit.

It's basically salted duck leg that's slowly cooked in duck fat, roasted in the oven.

Mm.

And especially served with potatoes with cepes.

It's pretty good this.

All washed down with some local wine.

But this is the one that I'm interested in, magret of duck with Perigord sauce.

It's a classic reduction sauce, normally done with Madeira and then finished off with truffles.

You have that with some delicious roasted duck breast.

That is fantastic.

Really, really tasty.

The key to this is keep the fat on it.

That retains all the flavor.

Think of it like pork.

When you take all the fat off it and roast it in the oven, it's dry.

It still tastes OK, but you need that fat in there to give it oomph, if that makes sense.

And this is just the perfect example of it.

Mm.

This is really, really delicious I don't know about you, but I'm ready for pud.

So here's a retro looking treat perfect for all you chocolate nuts.

Now, there are so many different dishes that I could do from this area.

But I thought I'd use walnuts because they're in abundance all over the place.

And a classic dessert of chocolate and walnut fondant with two sauces, one of which is a chocolate sauce, the other one is an anglaise or custard.

But the first thing you need to do with any fondant is to prepare the molds properly.

Now to do that, you need softened butter.

So butter that's been left at room temperature.

And basically, use your finger to get right into the corners all the way around right into the bottom like that.

So take the little molds and dip these into the walnuts like that.

You do it with hazelnuts as well if you wanted to or almonds.

Now, all I've done with these walnuts is basically just crush them up in a food processor really.

You can buy them already done like this if you want.

But coat them nicely in the mold like that.

Put a little bit in the base.

So once you get to that stage, they can be left to one side.

And now it's all about the filling.

So in here over a bain-marie or a pan of hot water, I've melted some dark chocolate.

And into there, I'm going to add some butter, plenty of butter, and just leave that just to melt down together.

And now we can create our sponge part of our filling, which is done with eggs.

You want about 4 eggs for this and some sugar.

Now, normally, people try to perfect the sponge by basically whisking up the eggs and the sugar to create loads of air, which creates a wonderful sponge.

That's fine, but it's not really what we're after for this.

We just want to incorporate the sugar and the eggs.

[whisking] Now, we've got our chocolate and our butter melted.

And now we incorporate everything else.

So throw in the eggs and the sugar mixture and then chuck in the flour.

So it's basically throwing everything in together.

[tapping] Now, so many times I've done chocolate fondants with all manner of different recipes that you whip up the egg whites separately and fold those in, but this one I've actually found the best, to be honest.

So once you get to this stage, we can then pour our chocolate into our molds.

This will rise up a little bit so fill this about 3/4 up the side of the mold.

[lively music] ♪ ♪ Pop them straight in the oven and they take about eight minutes in the middle shelf.

Set the timer to eight minutes.

Now the clock's ticking because what we have to do now is make everything else.

And first of all, I'm going to make a custard for this.

Very simple.

They call this in France creme anglaise, but it really is a custard.

It's just a thickened mixture.

The base of it, it's a combination of either cream or milk or just milk or just cream in a pan infused with vanilla.

So pop that straight in there.

And now we're going to separate the eggs because we just need the egg yolks.

Because it's the egg yolks that thicken this mixture.

Now, at this moment in time, as the cream starts to boil and infuse with our vanilla, we add our sugar.

If you add the sugar too early and you end up with little yellow specks, that's because the sugar cures the egg yolks.

And you'll never get rid of it.

So put the sugar in at the last minute.

[whisking] Once this is brought to the boil, it's nice and infused, we pour that onto the egg yolks.

Pour it back into the pan.

Give it a mix.

And then this is really where you've got to keep your eye on it.

Because you put the sauce or the custard or the anglaise or however you like to call it back on the heat, and we thicken.

It doesn't take very long at all.

Now, the key to this as the bubbles start to disappear, the sauce should be nice and thick.

So just take it on and off the heat until it's ready.

But that looks pretty good to me.

We can then pour that back into our bowl.

Rather than just serve it with that, I actually thought I'd do a chocolate sauce with this as well.

First of all, you take equal quantities water and sugar.

And you make a stock syrup by bringing this to the boil.

The sugar dissolves, but what you end up with is a thick syrup.

Now, once your sugar and water has boiled, all you do really is take this off the heat and throw in some dark chocolate and mix.

And it really is this simple to make a chocolate sauce.

So many times people put butter and cream in it.

Nothing wrong with that, but it's all about the chocolate.

One more minute to go.

And what you end up with is something that's really nice and shiny but also tastes of chocolate.

Just chocolate that had a bit of sugar.

[timer beeps] Now, these are ready.

When they come out of the oven, just leave them for about a minute before you serve them.

Because as they cool down, they sort of ever so slightly shrink.

They become much easier to take out.

And while that's happening, we're going to go back to the 1980s in the days of Wham!

and Taboo and lemonade.

When I first got a classic French cookbook and it had this in it, it's called feathering.

Anybody that went to college around that time, particularly catering college, will remember this form of decorating the plate.

You start off with the Custard and you go around with the chocolate.

Now, we're not finished yet.

So what you do is you take your little molds here, tip them out.

Never any doubt, you see.

[upbeat music] Cocktail stick.

[light music] ♪ ♪ [laugh] Now, I know what you're thinking.

Was I Wham!, ROSS, or Frankie Goes to Hollywood?

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Here in the Dordogne, the food might be simple and rustic, but there's one earthy treasure here that's worth its weight in gold, the black Perigord truffle.

♪ ♪ If you've never tasted truffle, I urge you to try it just in a little one.

Just at least once in your life just try something like this.

Mm.

♪ ♪ And as it turns out, our auberge owner, Chris, is not only an expert in three ways of cooking duck, he's also a keen truffle hunter.

And what's more, he's pals with a local farmer Guy, an industrious chap who set up a truffle plantation 20 years ago in this stunning orchard.

♪ ♪ CHRIS MILLENSHIP: Originally, of course, all the truffles were found in wild, natural truffle patches.

And you would find around the tree, often on the side of a wood in a clearing, what the French called [french].

It means it's burnt.

It looks as if there's been a fire, basically because the truffle absorbs a lot of the humidity and stops grass growing.

Guy was a young lad and he walked to school.

He went through a wood with flies and truffles all over the place, so he filled up his school bag with truffles.

And the teacher told him to get them straight out of the class because the smell was too strong.

These wild truffles started to disappear, so the plantations have been put in beginning in the '80s.

Monsieur [indistinct] has a dog to find the truffles, but we can also find the truffles by using a long stick, like here.

And you tap lightly on the ground.

And if a transparent fly comes up, that's where the treasure is.

We're talking about something that costs around 1,000 euros a kilo.

So it's the black diamond of the Perigord.

[upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN: Even if you know where to look, truffles aren't always easy to find.

Are they, Chris?

It's a good job he's got a stash back at the auberge.

Ah, Chris.

- There we are.

The black diamonds.

[laugh] Look at these.

What have you preserved these in?

They're in sunflower oil because you want to have a neutral oil.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

You don't want to put it in olive oil so that the flavor of the truffle doesn't compete with another flavor from an oil.

So where did you get these from?

Oh, I found them locally.

Not far.

In the wild.

He's not giving any hints away, isn't he really?

There you go.

- No, no.

Just locally.

In the woods not far from here.

And how long can you keep him in here?

They can keep a fair amount of time if you put them in the fridge, but it's best to be used rapidly as soon as you-- JAMES MARTIN: I'll pass you these back.

Now, I'm going to give you a little tip when you're over in the UK.

You know you can get truffles in the UK?

- Yes.

- Not just chocolate ones.

You know the best place?

CHRIS MILLENSHIP: No.

Basingstoke.

Oh, yeah?

JAMES MARTIN: Basingstoke, I'm serious.

I found truffles in Basingstoke.

But, you know, there's 30 different types of truffles.

Yeah.

These are not the chocolate ones.

These are real ones - The black one.

Yeah, these are black truffles, trust me.

OK.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah, in Basingstoke.

Next time you're over, I'll take you-- I'll take you truffle hunting.

- We'll do that.

All right.

Good to see you.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN: Hopefully, you're starting to get why these are known as black diamonds.

But if you want more convincing, I've got a stunning dish that'll do the job.

This nugget of gold is what they were looking for, a classic French black truffle, full of flavor.

Now, the most famous dish using truffle has to be Rossini or tournedos Rossini, which is steak cooked in a classic Madeira sauce with truffle.

But you can make this with duck, equally brilliant.

And I'm going to use some duck breast for this.

I'm going to make a little duck rillette.

I've got some brioche and then I've got some wild mushrooms.

Now, it's entirely up to you which type of wild mushrooms you use, but the sauce is always the truffle and Madeira.

That's the key to a Rossini.

Now, what I'm going to do is put in the duck into a dry pan.

So nothing else in there, just a bit of black pepper and some salt.

And basically, what we're going to do is render down the fat.

Just gently cook it.

It'll give a nice glaze to this, but also a color.

So we'll just leave that to one side.

Meanwhile, we can turn our attention to this.

This is duck rillette.

Classically, Rossini would be done with foie gras, but you can make this using the rillette, which is duck confit.

Basically, a cured duck leg that's been cooked with the fat.

[sizzle] So with the duck, we're nearly there.

You've got a nice bit of color on it.

You can see already how much fat is coming out of the duck.

Whenever you're cooking with the duck, don't remove the fat off it.

Otherwise, it can dry out and become quite tough.

So keep that fat in there.

Gives it nice moisture as well.

Just color that nicely.

You can take a couple of spoons and make our rillette really.

[light music] Just leave that to one side.

Our duck is ready.

You can turn this over.

Pop that straight in the oven now.

This is going to cook for about eight minutes.

It's already dead.

You don't need to kill it again.

We're going to cook this the classic French way, which is nice and pink in the middle.

Now, the key to a good Rossini is these two ingredients here, good quality stock and Madeira.

And what you need is a pan on the stove and get this Madeira on.

Like that.

Now, it's a good idea to flambe this.

Just burns off the alcohol.

You lose a lot of the strength, but you end up with a taste.

You can also add just a touch of red wine.

Not too much.

But you cannot make this without the Madeira and you certainly can't make it without this stuff.

This is reduced beef stock.

You can't make this with powdered stock cubes.

It must be the liquid stock.

And you'll see the reason why as it reduces.

So you pour that in.

And now we basically just lift that over to one side and reduce that down.

Meanwhile, we can prepare our mushrooms for this.

We're just going to use a little bit of shallot, finely sliced.

So we've got some chanterelles, got some girolles.

It's not classic in a Rossini.

It would be truffle.

But I thought this would be a nice garnish.

Now, before I saute the mushrooms, we can make a croute, which is another accompaniment with Rossini.

I'm going to use brioche, which is delicious.

All-butter brioche.

I'm going to grab a touch of butter and we'll slightly toast the brioche.

♪ ♪ Just turn that over.

So flip that out.

And then we can throw in our mushrooms.

So whenever you're cooking mushrooms, nice hot pan, that's the key to it.

Straight in there.

In we go with our mushrooms.

Don't be tempted to put too much butter in there.

You want them to fry as well.

And while that's happening and our duck's in the oven, I just want to show you this.

Take this rillette and you put it on warm brioche or warm sourdough.

Oh!

[cackle] Now the mushrooms are cooked.

Bit of seasoning, like that.

And finally, this is the one thing that I couldn't resist.

This is chervil that we just chop up and throw those in there.

And it kind of complements the mushrooms, really.

So we can then turn our attention to the nugget of gold in here, black truffle.

I'm going to chop this up.

All the while your sauce is reducing down nicely.

Now, you can tell when the sauce is ready.

If you get right in close, look, you can see it almost goes, like, treacly sort of stuff.

It's quite an unusual texture to get, but that's what you're looking for.

And then what we can do is finish this off with a little bit of butter.

♪ ♪ And we shake the pan.

This gives it a nice shine.

You see that?

You get this lovely sheen.

And then we can throw in the black truffle.

My director says that the duck is ready.

[sizzle] We shall see.

So leave the duck to rest slightly.

And now what we can do is serve this.

Take the little bit of brioche, some of this duck rillette.

You've got the mushrooms.

We've got the duck, nice and pink.

♪ ♪ But this, it's all about this sauce.

Classic Rossini sauce.

And just because I can, more black truffle.

♪ ♪ Rossini, the best sauce in the world bar none using this.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ It's nearly time to bid au revoir to the Dordogne, the epitome of rustic.

It has a simple charm to its food.

And who needs fancy high-end cooking when you've got incredible ingredients like this?

But I've got a real taste for the duck around here.

And I'm back at the Rouffignac market for some particular ingredients for my final dish.

♪ ♪ Now, I had to come to this store.

Because there are many around here, but this one is probably one of my favorites.

The thing about duck and chicken, they use the entire thing.

They eat the whole lot, the cock's comb, everything.

And over here, we've got a variety of different things.

Magret, of course, which is famous around these parts.

We've got the smoked magret duck breast, which is amazing.

If you can get this in the UK, buy it.

It is phenomenal.

Now, I think this is quite topical in the UK is foie gras, which is force-fed duck or goose liver.

Now, you either agree with it or you don't.

However, in France, it's what they do so they serve it on all restaurants.

It has an intense flavor, very buttery sort of taste.

However, there is a way of getting the flavor at home without you actually going near foie gras, duck, and goose.

And that is using one of these, melon.

It's really unusual.

And you get the flavor of the foie gras from this.

And very, very simply, all you do is you cut the melon into chunks, you put it in the fridge for about two days, and it'll almost go, sort of, translucent, ideally in a plastic bag.

And then you pan fry it really, really hot in butter.

And as the butter caramelizes, the melon changes color and it changes texture and density.

And when you taste it-- and I've blindfolded some famous French chefs and fooled them into thinking that this can taste like that.

So if you want to have a go at home and you don't agree with the idea of it but you like the taste of foie gras, try using melon.

It's very unusual, but it does work.

♪ ♪ But I won't be using foie gras or melon for my next dish.

Something else has caught my eye.

This confit of duck.

Inside this tin are two whole duck legs.

These have been cooked in the duck fat.

You can take these out, roast them in the oven with a little bit of honey on it on the top.

And the leftover bits, the bits that fall off the duck that are not whole, they turn into this, which is like a pate.

This is amazing.

Rillette of duck, it's a combination of confit duck, the duck leg that is cooked, and duck fat mixed together into a paste.

It's like the ultimate pate.

It's got no liver, no foie gras, nothing like that.

It's just using the duck legs and it tastes phenomenal.

And I, for one, am having two tins of this.

[light music] [french] Lovely stuff.

Now, my producer tells me he's found the perfect place for doing duck.

Although I think he may be taking this too literally.

Now, for this part of the cooking sequence, we're in this amazing river here.

Now, there is stuff going on behind me.

There's some kingfishers and stuff like that, but it just looks beautiful, doesn't it?

Now, the producers were hoping that duck would be floating down the river.

But when you put a chef in the middle of a river, ducks don't come anywhere near you.

But we've got some duck in here.

We've got some duck confit, a little bit of these truffles as well.

And I thought I'd do a simple little rosti.

And for this, you need potatoes.

So I'm just going to peel these, first of all.

It doesn't really matter what type of potatoes you use.

Some people say the waxy ones work better because it holds it all together.

Just a couple really, maybe two or three.

[bell rings] French bells.

[bell rings] [peeling] The producer would like me to say something at this point in time.

What do you want me to say?

It's nice and quiet until about five minutes ago.

Don't you go running up there.

That's the producer.

He's about to go running to tell the guy to shut up No, you picked the location, you deal with it.

Poor guy.

It's a Sunday.

The guy's practicing.

Leave him alone.

[grating] It's got tired now clearly.

Right.

Now, on with the rosti.

I'm going to mix this together with a few things.

Because so often rostis can be quite greasy.

They almost look like those hash browns that you get from service stations along the M4 for breakfast.

Not that I've eaten those before, but you know those ones that are full of grease.

Ugh!

Now, to stop that, we can add a few ingredients.

Now, what we need to do is just get rid of the water out of here.

It is water before people start phoning in.

There you go.

Bit of that.

We'll lose this out of the way.

That's enough, really, for this one.

And then this is the way you're going to stop it from being greasy.

We're going to add a touch of creme fraiche.

Full-fat creme fraiche, a couple of tablespoons, like that.

1 egg like that.

A little bit of fresh thyme.

And then I don't know why I'm talking about greasy because I'm about to put duck legs cooked in duck fat, to be honest, in our rosti.

But I have to put this in it.

This is the stuff that I got in the market.

These are these duck legs.

Classic comfy canard.

Look at that.

A tin of gold.

This is what we're here to see.

Now, we take this duck confit straight in here.

We're going to mix this all together.

This is your creme fraiche, the egg, and the duck.

A little bit of black pepper.

And a touch, just a touch of salt.

Now, remember, this duck is quite salty so you don't want too much.

But you can make this rosti with parsnip, a little bit of apple in here.

Just keep it really simple like that.

But it's the creme fraiche and the egg that makes all the difference.

Now, I could fry this in a touch of olive oil, but what I'm going to use is some of this duck fat, which is just-- this is so highly prized, this sort of stuff.

It's delicious.

So all we do with this is grab our little rosti.

[sizzle, pop] This was a new shirt this morning.

Just color them on one side.

I've got it.

Look, while it's cooking, I learned I-- look, if you take duck fat and rub it on your feet, it keeps your feet warm.

Now, I heard about this.

When people swim the Channel, they rub duck fat over their body to keep them warm.

It works.

How cool is that?

I just look a bit stupid.

I haven't ruined my trousers up like this since I was about 12 at school when we went to Blackpool.

I love Blackpool.

We used to have a donkey called Bimbo from Blackpool.

He was well cool.

Look, there's your little rosti.

Look.

Now, while that's happening, we can take our truffle.

This area is famous for so many different things, walnuts, chestnuts, but this is the ultimate prize.

And Chris kindly gave me this knife, this old truffle knife.

It's beautiful.

All ebony wood.

It's fabulous.

I'm going to slice these.

Now, normally, when these are in season, these would be black on the outside, but almost like a mushroomy white, beigey color inside.

But when you preserve them, it turns them all black.

They almost look like a pickled walnut really.

If you were to get fresh truffles bang in season, this costs you about 500 pounds a kilo.

If you were to get white fresh truffles in season, 3,000 pounds a kilo.

Truffles, duck fat, it's fair to say these aren't everyday ingredients for everyday cooking.

But if you get the chance to indulge, they're worth it.

Scrape off every little bit and don't lose any of it.

Now, we're going to use some of this amazing truffle oil that Chris gave me.

I have to be honest, when he first gave me it, I thought he was giving me his urine sample, to be honest.

But this fresh truffle oil in there.

Now, with the rosti, I could have done poached eggs.

I could have done.

But I'm stood in the middle of a river so I'm going to do fried eggs.

Fried eggs cooked in duck fat.

Another one in here.

Grab our plate and what we can do is lift off our little rostis.

Look at that.

No need to drain off all the fat.

That's fat is flavor.

And the key to the egg just at the end is just finish it over the top like that.

Lift the whole lot off.

[chuckle] And then finally, you just pop this truffle and truffle oil over the top.

And there you have it, my potato rostis made with succulent duck confit and fried eggs topped with Perigord black truffle.

Off you go.

And off I go, too because I've reached the end of my time in the Dordogne, a place with an abundance of unique and delicious ingredients.

This smells like summer in a punnet.

Where simple, traditional farming brings rich and complex flavors.

That is delicious.

And where the real treasures lie just underfoot.

[laugh] Look at these.

Dordogne, Perigord, whatever you want to call it, this place tastes so good.

You can ask my crew.

Au revoir.

[frantic music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN: Topped with zesty sprigs of lemon verbena.

[upbeat music] Coming up on my French adventure in the Dordogne, I'm given a tasty insight into the region's passion for all things duck.

It's truffle.

It's duck.

This is what food's all about.

And I create this showstopping dessert, 1980s style.

♪ ♪ [theme music] [upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN: Coming up on my culinary quest of the Dordogne, our Chris will be revealing the secrets of the black diamond of the Perigord.

So where did you get these from?

Locally.

Not far.

In the wild.

He's not giving any hints away, isn't he really?

There you go.

- No, no.

JAMES MARTIN: Well, maybe not all the secrets.

And I'll be showing you how to make one of my favorite sauces of all time.

Oh!

[cackle] [theme music] [upbeat music] In the world, bar none using this.

Still to come on my French adventure in the Dordogne, I pick up some truly unique local ingredients.

And I, for one, am having two tins of this.

And use them to cook up a special dish for my crew on the river, or rather in it.

You picked the location, you deal with it.

[theme music] [theme music] [upbeat music] It's--