Now, I've been quite privileged in my job as a chef to travel to so many different countries, but there is a place that has it all.

[music building] From farmers to fishermen, planes, trains, and automobiles.

[plane engine noise] Woo hoo.

And phenomenal seafood, that is the finest ingredient in the world.

How good does that look?

And it houses some of the greatest chefs in the world that just happen to be a few of my mates.

How good is that?

That's sensational.

Absolutely sensational.

[car engine] It's good, suspension on a mini.

[chuckles] [plane engine noise] Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

[plane engine noise] [theme music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): I'm on an epic road trip around Great Britain, and my travels have brought me to the south coast of England.

Today, I'm visiting one of my favorite places in the UK, the Isle of Wight.

And there's only one way for me to get there, by boat.

♪ ♪ [ship horn] Joining me on this leg of the trip is renowned Hampshire chef Lenny Carr-Roberts, who's going to help me explore.

So, Lenny, I feel like we're kind of locals for this, really.

We're Hampshire lads now.

So I would ask you what we're going to find, but I think we know what we're going to find.

It is like a little hidden gem, though, isn't it, the Isle of Wight?

Amazing place, amazing produce, a little microclimate that you can get amazing food from real passionate growers.

I mean, I buy a lot of stuff from this place.

It is a great place to visit.

It's not very big, but you've got an abundance of seafood.

But inland as well, you've got great meats.

Yeah.

Great meats.

The produce which you get from the inside is, I think, is some of the best, especially the lamb.

I find that the lamb has a richer taste, more gamier taste, and lesser sort of production lamb you get from like New Zealand, et cetera.

People think the Isle of Wight is miles away.

Literally, it just is less than a mile at its lowest point.

And you feel like you're going on holiday.

It's a stunning place.

And when you get off, usually your car is reading about 6 degrees warmer.

It's surreal, and stuff grows on the island that you can't grow anywhere else.

That's right.

I mean, great potatoes.

The tomatoes from the Isle of Wight are outstanding.

They're just beautiful tomatoes.

Not just that, it's the cheese from the grass that these animals are eating.

It's the cheese they're producing, like the Isle of Wight Blue.

It's a stunning cheese.

And you just wouldn't think it would come from this little island just off the Solent.

[upbeat music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): A county in its own right, the Isle of Wight is the largest island in England.

Thanks to its warm and sunny climate, it's a popular holiday destination.

And for the same reason, the landscape is ideal for growing crops, rearing sheep, and dairy farming.

The ferry takes just under an hour from Southampton and docks in Cowes, where this leg of the trip really begins.

Thanks, gents.

♪ ♪ See, I did tell you it was warmer.

It does feel a lot warmer, James.

You've taken your jacket off.

It is.

It is warmer.

It's weird.

- Look at that.

That is proper green countryside, isn't it?

[inaudible] Just like driving through Provence, isn't it?

I mean, the color of the pasture, you mentioned amazing sort of cheese here.

I'm going to go visit a guy that makes butter, which I'm looking forward to as well.

- You like butter?

I have to, don't I really?

Now, I'm going to send you to the other side of the island.

So I'm going to send you to Bainbridge.

Lovely.

And it's still got a butcher's, it's got a fishmonger's.

It's got an amazing little seafood little shack that they bring in lobsters and crabs that I'm going to send you to as well.

But what he does is sausage rolls like I've never tasted.

So I need to bring you one back.

Hopefully, yeah.

If they're that good, you think I'm going to last?

[chuckles] ♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): There's so much to see here, so we're splitting up.

While Lenny heads to Bainbridge to find those delicious sausage rolls, I've headed to Colwell Bay on the west coast to set up my mobile kitchen.

And just look at the view.

It really is spectacular, this place.

Lovely little sheltered harbor.

And when you're over here, you can eat from this place, which is also my local.

So we're going to do a wonderful little sort of brasserie dish, really simple, using all the great flavors from around these parts.

You wouldn't think it when you look at them, first of all, particularly with the tomatoes and the garlic.

Now, this area, particularly the Isle of Wight, is so famous for tomatoes and garlic.

I shan't bore you with it, other than the fact that it's got its own microclimate.

You can tell because it's lovely and warm, you see?

But we've got this beautiful garlic.

You can get different types of garlic, elephant garlic nowadays, which is one massive great bulb as well.

Or you've got this sort of stuff.

This is called black garlic.

And what they do is once it's harvested, they basically heat it up and store it.

And what you end up with is this really unique-- look at that filling in it, in there.

Just taste amazing.

It's just wonderful with meats.

Now, you can use that.

It's quite difficult to get hold of.

I'm just going to use the standard garlic, but for that, I need plenty of it.

So about a couple of cloves for this.

Chop it up nice and small.

And then the other ingredient from these parts are tomatoes.

Now, they produce beautiful tomatoes here on the island.

Much longer season than you get literally over there.

And I live literally over there.

My tomatoes are long gone before these are still keeping going as well, but beautiful Isle of Wight tomatoes.

Lovely juicy and fresh.

I'm going to use the small ones as well like that.

Touch of shallot, not too much because I want all the flavor from the garlic and the tomatoes really.

Just a little bit of shallot we can add to the pan.

Now, the oil is quite crucial for this.

They do a lot of things over here, but they don't do this yet.

Olive oil.

Really good quality olive oil.

And I find the best ones for these is either from Cyprus or Greece olive oil.

I find that produces the best one really.

Nutty olive oil.

Now, you need plenty of it.

So what you want to do is just leave this to color slightly but not burn.

So I need to cook this for about 30 seconds.

While that's happening, we can then throw in our tomatoes and start to stew these down a little bit for a couple of minutes.

Gives us time to talk about another local ingredient.

This is Mangalitsa pig, unique to Hungary really.

If you google them, they're kind of weird looking pigs.

But this Mangalitsa pig is fantastic in terms of flavor, and that is literally produced over there.

And it produces this amazing meat.

Look at this, look at that.

But it's just fat with a little bit of meat in it.

But that is proper, proper bacon.

And then what we do with this, we just chop it up into pieces.

The flavor from this is immense.

Absolutely immense.

Now, if you're going to pop this for your bacon sandwich as well, and you pop this under the grill, get yourself a fire extinguisher handy, because it could basically spontaneously combust.

That's going to go in there.

It's all going to mix together, together with some of this.

This is some chorizo.

You can tell the good cooking chorizos are soft.

You either get them like this, soft one like this, or slightly soft like that.

But the word you're looking for really is picante.

It's the extra spice, extra paprika, really.

And what this does is gives it a beautiful color.

So just roughly chop this any old way.

Just make sure it's nice and small like that.

You can see the soft chorizo because it starts to break up.

So we're just going to stew this down nicely.

While that's happening, you can throw in some basil, half a bunch, rip it up.

Just look at this stewing away nicely.

Hmm.

I love pork like this.

And you really appreciate good quality ingredients when you see them.

And this is fantastic.

We just leave this to cook for just a minute or two.

Black pepper.

A little bit of salt.

And while that's cooking, I admire the view.

[jazz music] However, I have got one complaint about this area.

Beach huts.

I was brought up near Skeggy, Skegness as they call it.

You know, near there.

Whitby got a few beach huts, but on average, they're about 15 grand, roughly for about a 20 year lease.

Here, 300 grand.

300 grand for a shed.

Nuts.

Right.

That sits there.

Meanwhile, we're going to turn our attention to our bread and our prawns.

Look at these beautiful little prawns over here.

I'm just going to peel these but leave them whole.

So it's quite simple.

All you do to remove this, just hold the body like that and just peel it from one side.

And then you can if you want to do it whole.

You just press this part of the tail and it should just come out.

A few bits of prawns like that.

Just going to take a little drizzle of oil on there as well.

So wash my hands.

And we'll take a little piece of this wonderful, wonderful sourdough.

So with the bread, a little drizzle of the old olive oil and get that char grilling.

At the same time, we can pop our prawns on.

♪ ♪ So we've got a nice little bit of charred bread.

And before we put it on our plate, grab some garlic and just rub the garlic over the top like that.

This makes a little garlic bruschetta in there.

Now if you want to spice this up and make it a little bit more spicy, you can grab some chili.

But I actually like putting these right at the last minute because you want a nice little spike of heat, but you don't want it too hot all the way through it.

So fresh chili into our little pot, mix together.

And all we've got to do now is just wait for the prawns.

♪ ♪ Look at these.

Just look at these.

Food is a beautiful thing.

Look.

Now, we're just going to plate this up.

So we've got our lovely little bit of bread.

Now, we can grab our beautiful little salsa.

This is tomatoes, the garlic, all that wonderful chorizo as well.

And it's chorizo.

I'm trying to educate this crew.

Look at this, beautiful, beautiful prawns.

I'll just put a few more little tomatoes with it on the side.

And there you have it, a lovely prawn bruschetta.

You wouldn't think that most of this produce comes from just literally around here.

It's not bad, that.

♪ ♪ Bon appetit.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): The ultimate seaside snack, simple yet delicious.

[upbeat music] I'm in one of my favorite places, the Isle of Wight.

Earlier, I sent Lenny Carr-Roberts to the beautiful seaside town of Bembridge to check out some amazing producers and suppliers of fresh fish and locally reared meat.

First up, we're off to Woodford and Sons, a family-owned beautiful butcher's that James tells me has the best sausage rolls.

Wow.

Look at this stuff.

I mean, James told me this was a special butcher's shop, but this is amazing.

I mean, you've got scotch black beef fillets, but you've also got this fantastic Isle of Wight lamb.

It looks stunning.

And you can see the skill in the butchery here by a butcher that is a master of his art by Graham.

Hi, Graham.

How are you?

Good to see you.

Now, James tells me that you make the best sausage roll in the world.

Is that correct?

Oh, so I keep saying.

So tell me, Graham, these sausage rolls, what makes them so special?

Well, what we use really is our special seasoning.

And also, we all use free range pork.

I love to see these sausage rolls.

♪ ♪ Graham, that is absolutely fantastic.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, thank you.

Right, James, you tell me these are the best sausage rolls in the world.

Let's see if you're right.

Oh, my days, that is fantastic.

If they give Michelin stars to sausage rolls, this should have three.

My goodness.

So next up is Captain Stan's.

James tells me it's the most amazing fish shop right here on the coast in Bembridge.

And it has no shortage of amazing fresh fish.

Wow.

Hello, what's your name?

- My name is Lyn.

Oh, hi, Lyn.

I'm nice to meet you.

I'm Lenny.

How are you?

Are you OK?

- I'm OK.

Thank you.

Lyn, this fish here, this sea bass looks like it came off the boat today.

Yeah, that was caught just this afternoon.

The rest of the local fish was caught just yesterday as well.

So it's all lovely and fresh.

Yeah, fantastic.

And this turbot, this is massive.

This is local-- It is all local.

Yeah.

We have our own boat that goes out of Bembridge Harbor, goes out in the morning, comes back in the afternoon with a lovely, fresh catch.

So you're never going to get fresher than this, are we?

- Not really, no.

- This is stunning.

Now, James sent me here to pick up one very specific thing.

He says your white crab meat is to die for.

So have you got some white crab meat left?

I actually have one pot left, it's very popular.

Then I better have it.

Thank you, Lyn.

How much is that?

- 7.50 pounds.

- Keep the change.

James is paying.

Thank you ever so much indeed.

♪ ♪ So I've had a bit of a top day today.

Here in Bembridge, I've just come to the best dressed crab.

It is stunning.

The produce in the Isle of Wight has just blown me away today.

I use it at my pub and restaurant, and I think it's astounding.

But when you actually come to the island and see how these guys grow it, how they catch it, how much respect these people show their produce around the island, it's just absolutely fantastic.

And the food, well, I know this is going to taste amazing.

And it just is.

Life just doesn't get much better than this.

And I have to say, James, you've been a star.

But I'm not sure you're going to get this sausage roll.

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): If that sausage roll doesn't make it back, there'll be trouble.

Trust me.

Having seen all those delicious ingredients, Lenny has inspired me to cook a wonderful veal dish that never disappoints.

Now, at first, this dish doesn't really lend itself to the Isle of Wight.

It's only until you visit there quite a lot, you realize that all this produce is from around there.

Whenever I go to the Isle of Wight, I always buy my beef and veal from there and lamb because I think it produces some of the best the area of Hampshire has to offer really.

So plenty of salt and pepper.

The first thing I'm going to do is seal this in the pan.

We're just going to get a nice little color on the veal and get that in there.

Give my hands a quick wash.

We can't really cook and talk about the Isle of Wight without cooking with garlic.

And just take a nice bulb of garlic, the entire lot and stick that in there as well.

So once you get a nice little bit of color on the veal chop, which that is, flip that over.

The garlic's nicely caramelized a bit.

And then I'm going to add the tomatoes.

Now, I'm going to roast these on the vine.

So you take these beautiful Isle of Wight tomatoes, and then this goes so well, of course, just simply with basil that I'm just going to put in a little bit more olive oil.

And all I'm going to do is simply just roast this off in the oven.

Now, because we want to serve the veal nice and pink, we don't want to overcook it.

This is probably going to take no more than about eight minutes in the oven.

It gives us enough time to then turn our attention to courgette flowers because when you get them small like this, they're just delicious, deep fat fried.

And that's how I'm going to do them.

Nice and simple with just some flour and some sparkling water, nothing else.

Just mix this together to create a nice little batter.

[gentle music] Try not to make it too thick.

Pinch of salt.

And then all we do now is get these beautiful courgette flowers.

Now, you can see the batter is so thin, you could almost see the flour through the batter.

So try not to make the batter too thick because these cook very very quickly.

These are going to be in the fryer for no more than a couple of minutes.

♪ ♪ Look at these beautiful things.

Nice really hot oil, that's the key to cooking these little courgette flowers.

And you get them lovely and crisp.

Amazing things.

Just look at that.

Beautiful.

You can stuff these with ricotta and deep fry them.

The French love to serve it with a mousse and then steam them as well.

But either way, us Brits need to eat more of these.

They're just delicious.

And talking about eating more of, the veal's nearly ready.

Yes.

That's perfect.

Nice little spring to it as well.

I'm just going to lift this out and just leave that to rest slightly.

With all meats, we leave it to rest.

But this, you've got all this gubbins, this lovely flavor in the pan.

I love the word gubbins, but the garlic, the basil, everything else, the tomatoes, we're going to season this.

Grab some oregano.

That just sits on there as well, just a touch.

And then if needed, a little bit more olive oil but just a touch of balsamic vinegar over it to create like a warm dressing because you've got all the lovely juice from the meat and everything else.

We've got this beautiful veal chop and then your lovely vine roasted tomatoes.

Wonderful little bit of garlic as well.

And then you've got this amazing little sauce.

This is your dressing over the top.

These amazing courgette flowers.

Just look at that.

If a chef could have a bunch of flowers, that's what it would be.

You just have to deliver them warm.

Tasty things as well.

And talking of tasty things, I'm finally going to serve this with one of my favorite things from Hampshire and the surrounding area.

And whenever I grab some meat from the Isle of Wight and go back home, and my home is in Hampshire, I've got to get some of this.

This is burrata.

Mozzarella with folded cream in it but made in the UK Burrata.

Because when you just put it on the top, the money shot is this.

Oh, my days.

Look at that.

It's the a thing of beauty.

All you've got to do is get a boat.

It's not very far the other way.

It's got cracking food on it.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Just like my locally reared veal steaks topped with creamy burrata, deep fried courgette flowers, and Isle of Wight tomatoes, delicious.

[music climaxes] ♪ ♪ I'm on the Isle of Wight.

I've set off on a pilgrimage to meet someone who produces something I couldn't live without.

Well, it may or may not surprise you that I love my next ingredient that I'm about to see, butter.

I've been criticized in the past by using way too much of it.

I don't care.

I don't care that there's websites out there that have nicknamed me Jimmy Three Chins.

There's other ones on there that have said Jimmy Five Bellies.

I don't care.

I love it.

I really do.

I think it's a vital ingredient in so many dishes and adds so much flavor.

When you get really good quality butter, it's just one of the most fantastic things to eat, I cannot tell you.

But here on the Isle of Wight, there's an amazing farmer that's got a very special breed of cattle, and it's used to produce an amazing butter.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Nestled in the heart of the Isle of Wight countryside are a 140 strong herd of Guernsey cows on Briddlesford Lodge Farm, which is a family run business.

Their farm shop is crammed full of delicious dairy products.

But of course, I want to sample my favorite.

So Debs, I really want to try this butter.

But apparently, I've got to earn it first.

You have to.

So the machine is churning it at the moment.

But what we've got here is the finished product.

This is ready for the shop then.

Almost.

- Yes, almost.

Just extrude it and wrap it, which is your challenge today.

My challenge?

Well, first of all, I'm going to start with this piece, but your challenge is to cut it.

So show us how-- so this is full of butter, this one?

Yes.

It's nice and full of butter.

We've got it ready.

All right.

And so you just have to turn the handle and until we get to about 190 grams.

About 190 grams.

Yeah, because I'm experienced.

I can just about say that that's 190 grams.

Maybe not.

Go on then, I'm going to swap.

All right.

190 grams you want?

Yes.

Not too fast.

No, a bit more, a bit more.

That'll do.

I reckon that's-- yeah, I reckon that's not far off.

Yeah, I'll do one more.

And this is the great thing about homemade butter, isn't it, really?

It's a lovely process.

It's literally simple pure ingredient, isn't it, really?

And also, you can tell from the color.

I always think good butter, you can tell by the color of it.

It's lovely and yellow.

Go on then.

I'm going to follow your class.

Yeah, one each.

So how often are you making butter?

You're doing this every day?

Yeah, about two or three times a week, actually.

So normally, it would be chilled, so it would be a lot easier than [inaudible].

[inaudible] like that.

See, I need you at Christmas.

I'm hopeless at even wrapping presents.

And do the locals really appreciate this?

Yeah, they come from all over the island for the butter.

And butter sales have just been going up and up and all the shops-- I wonder why that is.

I think people just appreciate a really good, well-made product, don't they, I think?

It's not some chef wittering on about it on TV all the time, is it?

See, look at that, Isle of Wight butter.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): In fact, they have a whole range of dairy products here at the farm now run by Paul Griffin.

It's been in his family since 1923, when his great grandfather, Charles arrived here with his family, their possessions, and all their animals.

This is random.

I've never been in a field full of cattle where I've been sat on a table having afternoon tea, but it is the Isle of Wight, and I love it.

Now, interestingly, this all started with just 16 cattle.

That's right.

All the cows that you see behind you descended from the original 16, brought to this farm by my great grandfather.

Happy cattle as well.

Very happy cattle.

But it's basically as much as it is the cattle, it's this.

You've got to grow good grass to get good cattle to to give good milk.

Guernsey milk is famous for the golden color.

If you feed less than 50% grass in the ration, you lose the color.

So scones, should we try this?

Very good.

But before we dive into it, can I-- can I try the raw material?

Because people always freak out when people taste the raw butter.

But that's how I think you should taste this.

I'm with you.

I'm going to go as well.

You can taste, dare I say, the artisan but the creaminess from it.

It's a beautiful butter.

I mean, yeah, I've have never tasted anything better.

I'll go along with that, actually.

Shall we taste these then?

My mom made this scone, so don't say anything-- don't say anything nasty about the scones.

[chuckles] Mother's over there.

All right.

I know there's going to be people watching this going, there's no wonder he's got three chins.

I don't care to be honest with you.

It might be high in fat, but it's still good for you.

Well, the clotted cream is superb.

The jam, nice and sharp.

Exactly how you want it.

A little bit of sweetness.

Lovely.

The butter, well, goes without saying.

The scone, however, much as the rest.

It's delicious.

Not bad that.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): But of course, the butter is my favorite.

So good, in fact, it's the vital ingredient for my next dish.

Now, if mention the word souffle to many people, panic sets in.

I'm going to demystify souffle because this is double baked souffle.

It's actually much easier.

And I'm using some molds here, and we get some of this wonderful butter.

And I actually just like to do this by hand, so nothing sticks.

And then the flour, we tip the flour into the molds.

So that's your molds done.

That's the crucial bit.

That out of the way.

Next on to the sauce.

We're going to use some of this amazing butter.

It's like a pot of little gold.

Look at that.

Beautiful.

Now, so often with white sauces, people always, always generally add too much flour.

Flour is just used as a thickening agent.

Two tablespoons will probably be enough.

That's going to sit in there.

Get a whisk and start mixing it.

So once we cook out the flour, it takes about 30 seconds.

Then we can turn our attention to the liquid element of this.

And for that, add a little bit of milk to start with.

And what will happen if you keep it on the heat, it gets this really thickened mixture.

Now, if you keep adding this liquid a little bit at a time, gradually it'll start coming into the sauce.

Now, too much, you'll end up with it going lumpy.

What you want is just enough.

You see, it's got this almost like a thick puree.

Turn the heat down now and just leave that to one side.

Well, pay attention to our cheese.

Now, this is a souffle mixture you can make with any type of cheese you want, really, but I've got some wonderful cheddar.

We just grate this, and we're going to put half of the cheese into our souffle mixture.

The other half goes on at the end.

Keep it on the heat to melt that cheese, and we can add a touch of mustard.

I love mustard and cheese.

So we've got the cheese, the mustard.

I've got a little bit of rosemary here, which I love as well.

Just put a few bits of rosemary in there.

We can just season this up.

And then switch this off and just leave it to cool slightly.

Take the mixture and pop it into a bowl.

I'm going to incorporate eggs, obviously egg whites into the souffle, but I'm going to put some of the egg yolks in here.

So we'll put the egg whites straight into our bowl.

And the yolks, I'm going to put two in here.

So that's the mixture that you want.

Not too thick, not too thin, and nicely seasoned.

So for the egg whites, what you're looking for is nice firm peaks.

Not overwhipped but certainly not under whipped.

So that looks pretty good to me.

It should hold together nicely and then quickly fold it in.

This is going to take about a minute before this goes in the oven.

So we hold in all that lovely air.

So once you've got the mixture to there, we pop it into our mold, so you can see we've got this lovely smooth souffle mix.

And then what I do is just take a palette knife or a knife, just create a little dome around the edge.

And then you just use your finger.

This will just help the mixture just to rise up through the middle.

And then rather than just putting them in the oven as they are, just water is all you need now.

Now, what this is going to do is stop the base of the souffle from burning.

So I've set the oven about 400 degrees, and these are going to cook for about 12 to 14 minutes.

[upbeat music] Now, what you end up with is once they're cooked and cooled and tipped out the molds, you end up with these little fellows.

What we do then is double cook them.

It saves you so much hassle if you're doing a dinner party at home.

Double cream, just a little bit.

Lovely.

And then we can grab more of this cheese.

Like we had the sauce at the beginning, what this is going to do is create a sauce at the end.

To reheat these, they take about the same amount of time, between 10 and 14 minutes in a nice hot oven.

Straight in.

I'm just going to show you the ones that are cooked first.

How good do they look?

I'm going to serve this with a wonderful little French style dressing really.

I've got an egg yolk in here together with a touch of mustard.

Give this a mix and then add the white wine vinegar.

So this is a simple little dressing.

One part vinegar to four parts oil, veg oil.

Season it up and then mix in some water.

Just a touch of water.

I always find that's really the key to this little salad dressing.

I've got a wonderful little vinaigrette.

It's going to be perfect with this little salad.

And the salad contains some nice little bits of chicory or [inaudible], a few little bits of little gem, and some watercress.

Just a simple little dressed salad.

Wait do you see these.

And then you can just carefully lift them out really.

They're lovely and light.

Look how light they are.

You've got that nice bit of souffle.

Nice little bit of sauce to go with it.

They look amazing.

And then your salad, you can just put around.

There you have it.

Double baked cheese souffle with a simple little French dressing salad.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Hearty and delicious.

One to enjoy any time of day.

[upbeat music] I'm on the Isle of Wight with my mate and Hampshire chef Lenny Carr-Roberts.

He's hunted out some fine local produce.

Have you got some white crab meat left?

I actually have one pot left.

It's very popular.

I better have it.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): While I went in search of my favorite ingredient.

Look at that, Isle of Wight butter.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Now, we're reunited.

But before my final cook, there's just enough time for one last treat.

I really have saved the best until last.

See, now, you're going to like this.

[inaudible] JAMES (VOICEOVER): I can't come to the Isle of Wight without taking Lenny out on a boat.

I wish it was that one, but I'm sure this will be good fun.

You do take me to some nice places, James.

You don't know what you're doing yet.

So Lenny, the reason why I brought you on one of these is that you've got to see, I think, the iconic landmark from around these parts.

The needles.

Wow.

You've never seen it from a boat?

No.

It's the best way to see it.

[adventurous music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): And it's the best excuse for a Bond-like adventure out at sea.

Would you agree, Lenny Penny?

How can you not like this?

It's amazing.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And there they are, the iconic needles.

A row of three distinctive chalk stacks towering into the sky.

Look at that.

That is amazing.

Now, interestingly enough, all around here, you've got wrecks.

But also, it's very, very tidal and fast currents going through here and literally big drop offs.

And it's on those drop offs around the wrecks, that's where you go bass fishing.

And I've caught some amazing bass from here, literally just off these rocks here.

But on a day like today, it's pretty special.

So talking of bass, I'm hungry.

So am I. Should we go cook?

Might need your help for this one.

It's OK.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And I've got just the recipe for some freshly sourced seafood back at my pop up kitchen right on the quay.

I love risottos, but I love risottos with seafood.

And I'm going to do a lovely crab risotto.

Just look at this beautiful crab that Lenny-- he's enjoying his second glass of wine by the way-- got me earlier, but we've got this beautiful white crab meat.

I'm going to make this risotto with some mussels and some clams and together with a beautiful piece of line caught sea bass.

But the first thing we're going to do is cook our mussels.

So for that, we've got some garlic.

Of course, we must use garlic.

Bit of that in the pan and a knob of butter.

So we're just going to cook the garlic just a little bit together with some parsley stalks.

Just a few bits of parsley.

And then the flavor in this is whatever wine Lenny leaves me really.

It's going to make a wonderful little stock with our risotto as well, while the mussels and clams are cooking.

Now, you put the mussels and the clams straight in the pot.

Now, these have just been washed and put the whole lot in.

Now, normally, I would cook this with a lid, but I've left the lid at home.

Improvising.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Look at this.

What I'm going to do is decant this.

I say I'm going to decant it.

Lenny.

Yeah.

When are you ready, can you remove the meat from those Keep?

Me the juice.

Thank you very much.

Don't eat them.

They're counted.

While that's happening, I'm going to turn my attention to this risotto, because I'm going to use the clams and the mussel meat, as well as the juice to make this simple risotto.

So we start it off with just a tiny bit of garlic, a bit of shallot, a bit of garlic, like that.

Chuck a bit of butter in there.

In we go with the garlic.

In we go with the shallot.

Now, we've got some rice.

This is our Bora rice.

You can use Carolina rice.

Really, they're the two main races.

The rice goes into the pan with the onions and garlic.

Now, you're not coloring the rice.

You're not coloring the onions.

You're not coloring the garlic.

All you're doing is just coating it in the butter.

It's like a 1980s pop video.

Look.

Then we go with just a touch of stock.

I'm going to use some of that stock that we've made, but just to help it on its way, this is veg stock.

Now, that old tale that I've heard where you've just got to stand here stirring risotto for 15 minutes.

I don't know which Italian told you that.

But it wasn't my mate, the late, great Carluccio.

He said, it's all about the beginning and the end.

So we just pop the stock in, leave that to gently simmer.

And while that's happening, I'm going to turn my attention to the rest of this risotto.

So I've got some beautiful tomatoes here.

I've got some wonderful samphire.

It's grown on rocks all around the UK really, particularly on the south coast.

You've got some beautiful little Parmesan there, mascarpone cheese, some of this gorgeous crab.

But this really is the main event.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a beautiful line caught sea bass.

Now, just check that out.

One of the finest fish in the seas around here.

The beautiful, beautiful fish.

And I'm just going to fillet this.

It's a little bit fiddly, and while I do that, the director will just cut to a nice shot of water lapping up against the shore.

He's into that kind of thing.

♪ ♪ Here, James.

- Thank you very much, fellow.

- Cheers.

Are you enjoying yourself?

Lovely.

It's nice, isn't it?

This is what happens at the hut.

You just arrive by boat, and this place gets so busy.

It's a fantastic place to come and see and watch the world go by.

But look, I'm just going to use some of this beautiful clam and mussel juice.

There's so much flavor in this as well.

But one thing you have to do with this is leave it for a little bit because you'll find a lot of sediment or grit sits on the bottom.

So once you get to that stage, don't go stirring it.

Just let it fall to the bottom.

Now, really, now, it's all about just waiting for this risotto, which will take another couple of minutes.

♪ ♪ Now, when our risotto is just cooked, our rice is just starting to cook and finish off, I'm just going to take this off to one side and start to cook our sea bass.

Now with our sea bass, I'm just going to season this up.

So black pepper and a bit of salt.

[shouting] See what I mean?

So we're going to cook this fish now in the pan.

And with sea bass, really, I always start it off in a loaf pan and gradually heat it up.

You can already see straight away it starts to curl up.

So when it goes in the pan, skin side down, just hold it for about a minute to stop it from curling up.

So you can see the fish is cooking about halfway up, which is perfect.

At this point in time, we can add our little bits of samphire.

Just fry off in the butter as well.

It takes a couple of minutes to samphire to cook.

No more than that.

We've got some tomatoes.

They're beautiful.

Chop the tomatoes up like that and do them in little dice as well.

Nice and simple.

You've got some diced tomatoes.

We've got the risotto still warm.

Throw the tommies in.

This beautiful crab.

Crab needs to be put in right at the last minute.

Just a few bits of crab that's gone in there.

These wonderful mussels and clams, they're going in.

Give this a mix.

Now, with risotto, what you have to do is make sure it's quite loose, so it'll firm up a little bit while all the ingredients are in.

And then we have a way of actually making it a little bit more liquid again.

So parsley, Parmesan cheese, of course, that classic risotto, a bit of lemon juice in there.

And then I finish this off with two ingredients really, a little bit of mascarpone cheese and either cream or a little bit more stock.

So you just put a touch more liquid in.

I've got all the juice from those mussels and clams, so I haven't wasted anything.

But we stir it around, and this is where you can really concentrate on the texture side of it.

That's what we're looking for.

Perfect.

Our fish, we just flip it over.

Look at that beautiful piece of fish.

Really is fabulous.

Look at that.

And now, we can just simply serve it.

Put a pile of this wonderful little risotto on the plate.

You've got this beautiful piece of sea bass, just a fantastic cut of fish.

And then finally, just a few bits of this delicious samphire over the top.

So there you have it, my pan-fried sea bass with samphire and a seafood risotto.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): What better way to end the day?

I just hope Lenny approves, seeing as he's supplied the crab.

Well, go on, boss.

Thank you for my lunch.

Thank you for my lunch, James.

- It's a pleasure.

- This looks amazing.

Well, you know you can't beat sea bass.

It's beautiful-- - Can't beat sea bass.

Oh, my days.

Oh, my days.

It's not rocket science, though, is it really?

I mean, but classic risotto.

I think the key to it really is letting it sit there and then finishing it off with the Parmesan, a bit more stock.

A lot of risottos are too heavy, too stodgy.

But I think this is just so simple that it's stunning, like you say, it's all about the beginning and the end.

And sea bass, I think, is the perfect fish to go with it.

But top lunch.

- Cheers, pal.

Cheers, mate.

Thanks for that.

It's not bad, is it really?

Not bad at all.

I got used to this.

Which one's yours then?

Mine's a little red dinghy.

Yeah, the little red one.

Yeah.

Yours is that big yacht.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Sadly, neither boat is ours.

So it's back aboard the ferry we go.

And it's time to bid a fond farewell to the Isle of Wight.

But at least, I've got that sausage roll to enjoy on the journey over.

Right.

Come on then.

Well, where is it?

There was a bit of a problem with the sausage roll.

No.

There wasn't.

Well, there was, because he only had two left.

And the problem was that we had one, and it was so nice-- Yes, I know that.

OK, I got you one.

It's there.

And it's still warm.

It is still warm.

- I got you a - Present.

Oh.

Thanks, James.

Oh, butter.

butter for the sausage roll?

Just taste it.

Just taste it.

Open it up and taste it.

OK, OK, OK, OK.

I think it's a fair swap.

Well, I know you like butter.

This is a proper sausage roll.

Oh, that is creamy, isn't it?

All to do with the amazing pasture Jersey herd.

Wow.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Yeah, it is-- Fourth generation farm.

Not only that, I got you this as well.

I know you love your cheese as well.

You do love cheese.

So I got you this.

This is halloumi.

Yeah.

Made on the Isle of Wight.

Can I have it?

Oh, thank you very much indeed.

Well, I feel a bit bad now.

I give you one sausage roll.

You give me two.

But I've had a top day, mate.

It's been absolutely stunning.

I've had an absolute ball.

And I've never thought that one little place like Bembridge would have a fishmonger's like that, they'd have a crab shack like that, and they'd have the butcher's that which was just out of this world.

At the other end of the island, I mean, we're leaving Cowes now, but you've got the amazing hut.

Yeah, you've obviously got the needles, which you can just see in the distance.

I think the Isle of Wight is an amazing place, and it just happens to have, in my opinion, the best sausage roll there is.

End off.

Just that you need to get a ferry to come and get it, don't you?

- Yeah.

- Or me, I'll call you.

- Yeah.

Lovely.

Look at that.

By the way, I had two.

I did have two.

Yeah, I did have two.

Yeah.

I knew you were going to be mad about that.

I told them I was going to tell you.

I didn't have two.

I couldn't help myself.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪