I'm Prue Leith, cook, caterer, restaurateur, cookery school founder, and writer of 16 cookbooks.

Prue: This looks so delicious.

I'm absolutely dribbling.

Prue, voice-over: I'm in my 80s, so I haven't got time to waste.

This series is all about the things that really matter to me-- family, fun, food, and friends.

Ha ha!

I've got to let it out when I can.

♪ Ah da da da ta da ♪ Prue, voice-over: We'll be sharing simple home-cooked recipes... Oh, I did it.

And what does that do?

Well, unfortunately, it's not quite doing it.

Ha ha ha!

Prue, voice-over: and celebrating the best produce.

I'm lucky enough to live in the astonishingly beautiful Cotswolds with my long-suffering husband John, and now he's agreed to join me in the kitchen, too.

[Pop] Ooh!

♪ Prue, voice-over: Coming up today, JB Gill will be here to prove some things aren't just for Christmas.

JB: This is good because there's only so much turkey soup you can have.

Ha ha ha!

Prue, voice-over: John and gardener Philippa brighten up our surroundings... John: I do love your choices.

I think they're absolutely wonderful.

More color, the better.

Prue, voice-over: and I simplify Japan's most famous export.

This is really, truly delicious.

Have a go.

Not difficult, looks pretty, and it's lovely.

Welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.

♪ A well-prepared meal can really wow your guests, and it doesn't always have to be the most expensive ingredient that steals the show.

I'm not vegetarian, but I firmly believe that you can eat really well with humble veggies front and center.

My recipe today is all about making veg the star.

♪ I think too often we think of veg as an accompaniment to meat, but it can be the star, so I'm doing nothing but veg, and they're going to be either grilled or roasted, so first of all, the roasted ones.

I've got a peeled onion here, and I'm just going to chop it into chunks.

Prue, voice-over: Vegetables get their vibrant colors from natural compounds... And another one.

Prue, voice-over: which also indicate they are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Red peppers.

Just take the fleshy side out, leaving the pith in there so you have pieces like that.

♪ If you go just down on the skin side, you can get most of the pith in there.

I'm too mean to not keep that bit, and then I'll put some tomatoes.

These are washed, but they're not taken off the stalks because I like them on the stalks, and then I'm just going to brush everything with a little bit of olive oil.

Prue, voice-over: Yes, I'm using a regular paintbrush.

I'm just gonna make a bit of room for the aubergine here.

I don't know where this recipe came from because it's not really a recipe, is it?

I mean, I'm just grilling veg or roasting veg with a bit of olive oil.

Cut the aubergine in half and then cut into the flesh.

I'm not going into the skin.

I'm just going quite deep into the flesh like that, but you sometimes see on restaurant menus Mediterranean vegetables, and they are grilled or roasted.

I think the roasting and grilling just gives them a bit of extra flavor.

So that's going into a 200-degree oven.

I'm gonna put it near the top so that it gets charred on the top, I hope.

Prue, voice-over: They should take 20 to 25 minutes, turning them halfway through.

As well as helping them to retain vitamins, roasting veg also releases natural sugars, enhancing their flavor.

Next, I'll show you how to grill all the remaining veg.

Prue: I'm going to make this courgette into a few fat bits like that.

Prue, voice-over: Oil the courgettes before placing in a hot pan.

Don't put them that way because you don't want the lines going that way.

You want the lines going that way.

And then don't move them because if you keep moving them around, you keep muddling the stripes.

Prue, voice-over: Cut the hispi cabbage, which is a sweeter and softer cabbage variety, into quarters and grill flat side down.

Our veg growing is so hit and miss.

I have to confess that most of this veg is not from our garden.

All sorts of things are nice grilled.

Runner beans work.

So does asparagus.

It's particularly good.

I think the great thing is not to overdo them.

You want to get them nice and charred, but if they've still got some bite in them and they still taste a little bit like--not raw, but they have a proper fresh flavor.

I'm just turning them over now.

The hotter the better really because they're good and charred, but they're still a bit crunchy in the middle and not too soft.

I just thought I'd show you one trick that I learned from Delia Smith many, many years ago.

Delia wrote a book called "Summer Cooking," and it on the cover was this recipe, and it is so simple, and it became completely universal.

You couldn't go to dinner but you didn't get this for a first course, and what you do is you chop a pepper in half, If possible chopping the stalk in half, too, so that you get a bit of stalk on both sides.

Then you cut out the pith like that, and then you put some tomatoes in the middle and a couple of black olives, olive oil all over it.

Pepper, salt, and that's it, and you just roast it.

Prue, voice-over: Roast for 25 minutes or until soft and juicy.

♪ Delia Smith has been a friend of mine since we were both really rookie cooks.

I had just opened my restaurant when I met her, so we're talking about 1969 or something, and she was already on television, I think, by then, and she was very famous, and when I opened my cookery school, I used to try and get her to come and demonstrate to the students, but she wouldn't because she can do anything on television, but she is really nervous in front of real people.

♪ Now for something to go with the veg.

Since you might want a bit of starch with your veg, how about some couscous?

Prue, voice-over: Fully submerge the couscous in boiling water.

And that's it really.

That's all you need to do, and in about 5 minutes' time, it will absorb the water, cook the couscous, and that's done, and then you can flavor it.

I'll leave that there for a minute while I make the sauce, and the sauce is also a bit easy.

My sauce is going to consist of a bit of yogurt, mayonnaise, about equal quantities of mayonnaise and yogurt, and a dollop of olive oil.

Clove of garlic.

Slice that roughly.

Some chives, tarragon leaves, parsley.

Prue, voice-over: Finally, remove the basil stalks and add the leaves along with a tablespoon of lemon juice and of course salt and pepper, but don't take your eyes off that veg.

Prue: You can see they're soft now because they're sort of half cooked, which is how I like them.

I think those could do with a bit more.

They're a bit stiff still.

If it's a sunny day and you're sitting outside, this is perfect food.

Prue, voice-over: The green goddess sauce just takes a quick whiz.

Prue: I put the green sauce in here.

Now for the couscous.

It's had about 5 minutes and you can see it's cooked.

So now you can flavor it how you like.

I like to put a little bit of lemon zest in it.

The great thing about lemon is to just take the yellow bit off, the outside zest of the skin.

Don't take the pith because the pith is bitterer and doesn't contribute anything except bitterness.

Cooks often say that if you cook with love you do it with a lot more care and attention, but it's not necessarily true.

I mean, obviously there are lots of very grumpy chefs who are incredibly talented and can cook wonderful food, and they hate their customers, but I sort of feel you need a bit of love.

Now, this is a mixture of all those herbs, which is chives, parsley, tarragon, and they're going in there, all of them.

Why not?

Prue, voice-over: Give everything in the bowl a good mix before adding some salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Prue: There are lots of starchy things like couscous or mashed potato that really depend on you seasoning it properly, and it can be really boring if it's not properly seasoned, so just always taste everything.

Prue, voice-over: Now it's time to see how the grilled and roasted veg are getting on.

Prue: Those are just about done.

♪ I'm going to take the tomatoes off because I think they'll be overcooked if I leave them any longer.

Prue, voice-over: If you want the remaining veg to char a bit more, as I do, place the tray higher in the oven and set it to grill.

♪ Prue: Well, I said I wanted them charred, and charred they certainly are.

Ha ha ha!

But I do like a bit of char, so I'll leave most of it.

These ones are perfect, though.

That's how they should be.

I'm glad to say John is a vegetable eater, and he does love a bit of good veg, so he would be happy with all this.

Prue, voice-over: Basil is the perfect herb for Mediterranean dishes.

Prue: It goes beautifully with pizza, with this sort of vegetable dishes.

If you wanted this dish to be a little bit heartier, you might add a bit of goat's cheese to it because goat's cheese always goes really well with tomatoes and Mediterranean vegetables.

Prue, voice-over: And of course, don't forget Delia's peppers.

Right.

I think a piece of crusty bread... and a few leaves of basil is a really nice snack or first course, or you could have two of them for lunch with a bit of cheese.

It'd be lovely.

So there we are.

That's my making veg the star.

Looks good, doesn't it?

♪ Coming up, I've got some tips to take the hassle out of root veg... The trick is to bend your fingers a bit.

You can end up giving yourself a manicure.

Prue, voice-over: and my guest JB Gill needs a bit of gentle encouragement.

JB, I think you need to put a bit more welly into this.

Ha ha!

Now my husband John will be the first to tell you that I'm not always one for perfect presentation, but what I am good at is taking simple ingredients and giving them some oomph.

The good old spud is probably the most versatile of veg.

You think chips or mash or fried or roast potatoes.

All delicious, but my favorite I think, is Hasselback, which is a bit of a fiddle to do but worth it.

♪ The first thing you need to do is to make sure that the potato will not wobble around, so I'm going to take a tiny slice off the bottom of it just so that it'll sit firmly on the table, and then you put a couple of wooden spoons each side or chopsticks.

If it's a big potato, I'd use wooden spoons.

If it's something-- if it's a tiny one, then I would use chopsticks, and the reason you do that is because I'm going to cut little slices down through the potato.

Prue, voice-over: The name Hasselback comes from a 1950s Swedish restaurant.

Today, the technique of slicing looks pretty and helps the veg capture more flavor.

I've got a potato, a sweet potato, and a parsnip.

Prue: Like that.

Prue, voice-over: Keep the wooden spoons in place so you don't slice all the way through... ♪ and repeat the process with the sweet potato.

♪ Sweet potatoes are quite hard.

You have to give it a bit of welly.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Finally, you can move on to the parsnip, a much easier veg to work with.

When you're chopping anything, the trick is to bend your fingers a bit because if you have them like that you can end up giving yourself a manicure which you didn't intend.

You can use your knuckle as a guide like that.

♪ Prue, voice-over: After slicing, place in a roasting tin and cover with melted butter flavored with herbs and chili.

Prue: So basically, it's a roast potato, but when it comes out of the oven, it looks quite interesting.

The butter will soak in, especially where the cracks are, but when they are half roasted and they're beginning to open up, I might go back and put the rest of the flavored butter in there.

You need to put them in an oven at about 180 for about 50 minutes, probably 50 minutes for the potato and the sweet potato and rather less, 40 minutes, for the little roast parsnip, and that's my hack for Hasselback potatoes.

Prue, voice-over: I first moved to the Cotswolds with a plan to keep ducks but thought better of it, but my guest today is braver than me and has really embraced the good life.

My guest today started life as a boy band pop singer and had no less than 5 UK top singles.

He's done a few things since then.

JB Gill, welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.

Thank you, Prue.

It's an absolute pleasure to be here, and it's a beautiful kitchen might I add.

It is good kitchen, isn't it?

I need one of these at home.

You've had such an interesting life, and you're so young.

You've got a whole lot more life to come, so I want to talk about all that, but first of all, tell me what we're going to cook.

OK.

One of the things I have been doing in recent years, almost 10 years, actually, which I can't believe, is farming turkeys, so I've brought along a turkey today.

♪ I think we should cut some of the breast into steaks and then bash them out a bit like escalope, but not as thin as that, just like a sort of flattened steak, and then fry them and serve them with a sauce made with cider, cider vinegar, apples, mustard, creme fraiche, and shallots.

It's very simple and isn't going to take long, and I'll show you the ideal way to do roasties, and I think it'll be delicious.

Well, that sounds good to me.

I'm always trying to find different ways to cook the turkey, especially after Christmas, and I'm always searching for the perfect roast potato recipe.

It's always something that I've wanted to learn because I like to think that my roast potatoes are quite good.

I'm sure they're excellent.

But we all want to make the perfect roast potato.

Well, I think this is the best way to make it.

You boil them for 5 or 7 minutes just until the outside of the potato has started to cook, and then you bash them around in an empty pan... Ah!

Give it a good bash about so that the potatoes begin to be a bit-- do you see they're breaking up a little bit?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

And what does that do?

Well, unfortunately it's not quite doing it.

-Ha ha ha!

-Ha ha ha!

Shall I have a go?

Let me have a go.

-Give it a--give it a go.

-I'll try.

See if I can give it a good old--ooh!

There's another really brilliant trick, and that's you put a handful of breadcrumbs in with them, and that makes it-- if you haven't got nice crunchy bits on the edge of the potato, nobody knows it's not potato because bread tastes very much like potato.

-Yeah.

-And we'll do that, as well.

Ha ha ha!

This is what I wanted to hear, all the tricks of the trade.

Ha ha ha!

Prue, voice-over: Once the potatoes are roughed up, add to a baking tray of sizzling hot fat.

And just give it a splash about, turn them over... [Sizzling] ♪ Get them all coated.

Yeah.

All coated and then put them in the oven.

Excellent.

Prue, voice-over: Roast at 200 degrees until they are good and brown, turning them over once.

-So we've got our turkey here.

-Yeah.

So this breast has already been escalloped, and we're gonna cut it in half.

Prue, voice-over: Escalope is a thin slice of meat often tenderized by beating with a rolling pin.

To do this, you need to cover the turkey with baking parchment before giving it a good bash.

This is always the fun bit, isn't it?

This is the bit I get my kids to do when they cook with me.

Good.

JB, I think you need to put a bit more welly into this.

Ha ha ha!

There we go.

Prue, voice-over: Next, dice your shallots.

You have a cooking show on telly, don't you?

Yes, I do.

"Cooking with the Gills," which I do with my with my little people, with the little Gills, which is great fun.

Obviously my wife, as well.

Tell me some of the things you cook.

I mean, we cook lots of different things, and lots of it is themed.

So for instance, we did samosas when it was Eid, so it was nice just to see, you know, different types of food being cooked from all around the world.

For me, seeing my children cook is great fun having them involved.

I think that's wonderful.

Prue, voice-over: Sautee the shallots in a couple of teaspoons of butter and another couple of oil... ♪ before slicing your apple into cubes.

How did you ever come to be on a farm?

I mean, I think of you dashing about.

Ha ha ha!

It was pretty much accidental.

So I remember, you know, at the height of JLS, I was, like you say, dashing about.

I was traveling a lot, didn't really spend a lot of time at home, and when I left my family home, we moved to where we are, and it was purely based on me being able to just have a bit of--you know, enjoying my downtime whenever I wasn't touring or, you know, going through a busy period of promo with the boys, and I was working out, you know, "What do I do now?

What sort of things am I interested in?"

Funnily enough, I rescued a pig from the RSPCA, a pig called Ginger, and she ended up being the first animal that we had on the farm.

Not many people rescue a pig by way of a pet.

Very true.

Prue, voice-over: Add two cloves of crushed garlic to the pan.

I'm gonna give them one more minute with the garlic added, and how are you doing with your apples?

The apples are now diced, so we're good to go with that.

Prue, voice-over: Remove the garlic and shallots from the pan before adding apples, butter, olive oil, and some brown sugar.

Do you see these are just beginning to caramelize a bit?

We need them to be a bit more.

They're looking good, though.

And stick them in there, as well.

Wonderful.

And would you always cook everything in the same pan?

If I can because it's so much easier for the washing up.

Ha ha ha!

But sometimes you can't.

Prue, voice-over: add another two teaspoons of olive oil, season the turkey with salt and pepper before frying, then add two teaspoons of butter to the pan.

Now we cook that for about 3 minutes.

So tell me about the turkeys.

To be honest, I didn't really do much with turkey.

You know, I've hardly ate turkey, and to me, growing up, you know, it had always been that very dry meat.

Anyway, it was also good for me because it was a seasonal thing.

At the time, I wasn't doing so much with JLS, but it just helped me to manage some of the other TV bits and pieces that I was doing, so that was pretty much how it all started, and I think this year has just marked our 10th year of turkeys.

Well, I think that's so brave and so amazing.

Prue, voice-over: Once the turkey is nicely browned, add those apples, garlic, and shallots back into the pan.

Pour in 60 mils of apple cider vinegar and 120 of dry cider and boil to reduce the liquid down.

You haven't given up singing.

I haven't given up singing.

Ha ha ha!

So what's happening now?

We had a reunion tour with JLS in 2021.

Then we had another tour in '23.

I believe that you-- you know, to me, you seem so young, and yet you're having a sort of reunion tour as if you were in your 60s.

It's been 15 years of our first album, which doesn't even seem possible to me.

-Heh heh heh.

-Ha ha ha!

But yeah, I mean, I love being part of the group, and we've--you know, we've always had, a good relationship, and I'm good friends with all the boys individually, of course, collectively, and our families, as well, now get to experience it, which is beautiful.

Yeah.

Prue, voice-over: When the cider and vinegar form a syrupy consistency, take the pan off the heat, stir in a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, add a tablespoon of full fat creme fraiche, and leave to rest.

So I'm gonna put a bit of butter in the bottom of the pan and a little bit of garlic.

What we're trying to do is just ziz up some green beans and make them a little bit more interesting than normal.

You know, as soon as you can smell the garlic, you know you've got enough, and the beans were already had about 5 minutes in boiling water.

We just want to heat them up in the butter.

♪ Prue, voice-over: While the beans reheat, add the juice and zest of half a lemon to the pan.

Oh, it smells so good.

Perfect.

OK.

And then a little bit of parmesan cheese, and that's it.

So, JB, I think we're nearly there now.

Yes, we are.

Should we plate up?

-Yeah.

-There we go.

It doesn't feel like a normal turkey.

No, it doesn't, but this is good because there's only so much turkey soup you can have after Christmas because they often end-- people actually really enjoy sort of the brown meat if they get the whole turkey, so actually sometimes it's the breast that's left over, and actually it's nice to be able to tell people, you know, try something like this, which they can have and is a full meal again rather than sort of just leftovers, you know.

The beans descend.

I think that looks pretty good.

Prue, voice-over: And do we have the perfect roasties?

Look at that.

They look all right, don't they?

We've got more potatoes than we deserve really.

Ha ha ha!

My mouth's watering.

I don't know about yours.

Absolutely.

Mine's watering, too.

OK.

So here we have JB's KellyBronze turkeys, escalopes with apple and apple cider vinegar sauce and green beans with parmesan and roast tatties.

-The best... -Very good.

Well done.

roast tatties.

Thank you.

♪ Well, it smells good, doesn't it?

It does smell very good.

Should we have a little taste?

This is a rather huge steak it must be said.

That's good.

A few beans.

Prue: Right.

JB: Lovely.

There we are.

That's for you.

-Thank you very much.

-And I'll do me one.

I feel like I should do yours.

-Why not?

-Ha ha ha!

You've got the bigger steak here.

Probably neater than me.

There we go.

How many potatoes would you like?

-Stop, please.

-Ha ha ha!

What I like and what I should have are two different things.

-There we go.

-Thank you.

Lovely.

That's beautiful.

Excellent.

-Well, here we go.

-OK.

I'm full of everything.

♪ Those beans-- if I repeat this at home-- will be my wife's favorite forever.

They're so good.

Turkey does not have to be roasted.

JB, thank you so much for coming.

It's honestly a pleasure.

It's been such fun having you, and this is delicious.

I had not thought about that.

Those roast potatoes are indeed perfect.

Oh, good.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Still to come, Philippa and I go in search of something tropical... Prue: I wanted to have some of the plants of my childhood.

Prue, voice-over: and I'll teach you a method of preserving that packs a tasty punch.

Prue: None of these ingredients are essential.

These are there for the flavor.

♪ Prue, voice-over: It's amazing how particular sounds, sights, and scents bring memories of our childhood flooding back.

I love my greenhouse almost as much as I love my kitchen, and I want to fill it full of plants that transport me back to growing up in South Africa.

Prue: It's my long-term ambition to have color all year in this new greenhouse, not just annual geraniums.

Prue, voice-over: Gardener Philippa and I are heading to RHS Wisley to get some tips on bringing a touch of Cape Town to the Cotswolds.

Garden manager Peter Jones looks after plants, including the more exotic varieties similar to those my mother spent hours tending.

One of the chief reasons I was sort of bellyaching to John, my husband, that I needed a proper greenhouse, is that I wanted to have some of the plants of my childhood because I grew up in South Africa, and in the summer, everywhere you go, there's bougainvillea and plumbago and all of these things which I have tried to grow in the garden.

So can they grow in a temperate climate?

Yeah.

You'll be able to grow bougainvilleas, and you'll be able to grow mandevilla, as well, in a greenhouse, especially a south facing one.

with your greenhouse that you've got, you've got lots of floor space, so I'm guessing you're gonna want lots of big pots.

-Yes.

Now, the key thing when doing lots of potting and not wanting to have to pot it all the time is to use a compost with a high loam content, something that's got lots of minerals in it.

-And that'll compress less?

-Exactly.

Which means we don't have to repot.

Yeah, so that means you have to--you would repot every 3 to 5 years rather than every year.

You've been so nice.

Oh, happy to help.

Can I have your phone number so we can ring you up?

Prue, really!

Of course.

Happily.

I'll gladly help.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Now, I know John has made some clever pots on caster wheels, so I'll leave the planting to him and Philippa.

Philippa: Right, John.

John: Here we are.

Philippa: We gonna have a go at planting this mandevilla today?

We had a great time at Wisley, and this chap Peter Jones gave us a great tip for planting mature plants into pots where they're gonna stay.

Prue, voice-over: Thus far, we have a lemon tree and some cannas.

This mandevilla is the latest addition, and it brings more color, which is perfect.

Philippa: Mandevilla, or also known as a Brazilian jasmine, it'll be blooming from hopefully May to October.

John: I love the color.

Philippa: Yeah.

The orange center is really unusual, isn't it?

This should grow to about 10 foot tall, so it'll be a nice feature.

-Oh, it'll go right up?

-Yeah.

I love this.

I love the reds and oranges and yellows.

I'm the sort of builder and architect, so it's over to you and Prue, but I do love your choices.

I think they're absolutely wonderful.

More color, the better.

Well done.

I think that's absolutely marvelous, terrific.

Philippa: It's coming.

John: Okey-dokey.

♪ Prue, voice-over: While certain projects take lots of time, in the kitchen, I've got some hacks that really speed things up.

I'm now going to show you how to make quick pickles or quickles.

♪ I like pickles because that little, slightly sweet acidic kick livens up almost any dish.

They're pickles but the kind that you can eat pretty well straightaway and more for flavor than for preservative.

These won't last forever, but they'll last for a week or so in the fridge.

In order to pickle anything, you need water, vinegar, sugar, and salt.

Prue, voice-over: To a pan, add 240 mils of hot water, 240 mils of apple cider vinegar, a tablespoon of sugar, and half a teaspoon of salt.

And you bring all that to the boil, and if you're going to pickle anything that's really tough like a carrot that needs a little bit of softening, you don't want it to be totally hard like raw, then you can put the carrots in for a little while into the boiling or simmering liquid.

So they're gonna go in there, and then the other veg I'm going to do today is cucumber.

Everybody likes pickled cucumber.

All I'm going to do-- take the two ends off, split it down the middle, and then slice it up.

♪ The carrots have been boiling in the pickle water for just over 5 minutes and have started to soften.

So I'm gonna take them out.

♪ In a sterilized jar, start layering your little cucumber and boiled carrots with some seasoning.

These are mustard seeds.

I sometimes use coriander, which I love.

This is sliced garlic.

None of these ingredients are essential.

These are there for the flavor, but what you've got to have is the salt, sugar, vinegar of the pickling liquid.

Keep topping up until the jar is full.

I'm adding dill for extra flavor.

This is where you have to be a bit brutal because you want your pickles to be underneath the liquid, so I'm gonna push them all in here hard.

Prue, voice-over: Next, add your salt water vinegar that has been simmering away into the jar.

Prue: You don't need to leave any air gap.

Your main concern is to cover everything so you get the flavor in.

There we are.

♪ And then you just leave it to get cold.

So that's your pickle.

It's done.

You can leave it open if you like and then close it when it's cold, but it doesn't make much difference.

Quick pickles, a hack for quickles.

♪ Some foods more than others put our pleasure senses into overdrive thanks to their perfect blend of flavor and texture.

Surely there is one that tops the list.

In South Wales, there are a couple of friends who are giving the Italians a real run for their money with authentic Neapolitan pizza, and they are my food heroes for today.

In Cardiff, two childhood friends have turned their love of pizza into a business.

Jess Phillips and Ieuan Harry have made a name for themselves as the Pizza Boys, offering fun experiences and new flavors to customers, but it all started with pizzas at home.

We were, like, kind of self-taught.

You do the usual.

You watch YouTube videos, and you, like, read things and you think you know what you're doing until you actually went to Napoli, where pizza's like a religion there and they--you know, it has the highest standing in their society.

Prue: Street vendors sold tomatoless pizza in Naples as early as the 1600s, but pizza as we know it today originated there in the early 19th century, and it's barely changed since.

Things that hit me is how good something relatively simple could be, and you have to fully, like, immerse yourself in it because there's no stopping.

There's always something to do.

Jess: The more you know about dough, the less you know about dough.

I think at the start we wanted to be experts, and we've realized that it's such a vast and kind of--even different flours.

Every flour is different.

We know what we know.

We've experimented, we've found something that worked, and then we stuck with it.

Prue: And the secret of their sauce?

Jess: We try and use as local produce as we can, and if we can't use local, we try and use the best produce we can.

It's the simpler the better.

If you use a really good quality tomato and then season it with good quality salt, and that's it.

We find it the nicest, the freshest taste.

We hand mill it to gather consistency.

We get those pips out, which can be a little bit bitter, and we find it gives the sauce the right kind of body, and that's it.

No messing.

Simple tomato sauce.

Prue: Simple but winning.

After just 3 years making pizzas, they were named best in Wales, and the empire is expanding.

Jess: So we've opened a New York style pizza place, and we called it West Pizza.

Again, going back to... Back to our roots, our West Wales roots.

Pru: they've also got a mobile wood-fired oven that gets them the length and breadth of Wales, spreading the pizza love.

I think it's one of the pleasures of the job is that we get--we travel around quite a lot with the vans, doing different weddings, doing different events.

So I think weddings is one of our favorite things because you get to, you know, be a part of someone's special day, which is always good fun.

When you're making a pizza, you're trying to just make that pizza.

Now you'll get some bad ones and some good ones, and some will be better.

When you set out, when you get that dough out of the box, you're trying to kind of make something that's really, really good, and someone's first experience will be that pizza, and you want it to be the best experience.

You want it to be that they go, "This is what pizza should taste like."

You want to give them that Napoli experience we had that just blows your mind that something so simple could be so mind-blowing.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Next, John continues to excel in the kitchen as we tackle an Eastern dish popular all over the world.

♪ Result!

There we are.

Look at that.

Perfect.

Perfect, darling.

Well done.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Getting John to join me in the kitchen has been a bit of a revelation.

He's better at it than I thought he'd be.

Not sure I like the competition.

Let's see how he copes with today's challenge.

John has been doing so well in the kitchen, I thought we ought to up the ante a bit and I should get you to make sushi.

-OK.

-You're up for that?

Yep.

♪ We're going to make it two ways, one with Nori, which is that dark seaweedy stuff that goes around most sushi and one without.

So, John, the first thing we have to do is the rice.

This is sticky rice.

Did you do that deliberately?

Because you don't like sticky rice?

No.

Honestly, this is lovely.

The way you cook sticky rice is not very different from most rice.

You put it in a pan.

If the sticky rice is taking up half an inch in your bottom of your saucepan, then you need an extra half an inch above, so it must have as much water above it as in it, and then you bring it to the boil, put a lid on it and simmer it for 15 minutes, and then just push it aside and forget about it for a bit.

It's called the absorption method because what then happens is all the water gets absorbed by the rice, and it's cooked.

So that's what's happened here, and then we want to flavor it slightly.

Prue, voice-over: Before flavoring, rinse the cooked rice to wash the starch out.

And this is rice wine vinegar.

So that goes in there.

This is salt... ♪ and this is sugar.

You don't think that sushi has sugar in it, but it does.

Prue, voice-over: Mix it all together, but be sure to wet your hands or fork before mixing.

This stops the rice sticking to everything.

-Is that about right?

-Yeah, that's fine.

-Do you think I've done it?

-I think you've done it.

Just leave that in there.

-Leave it in?

-Yeah.

OK.

Prue, voice-over: John and I will both be using roughly 100 grams of salmon for our sushi.

Check that your salmon is absolutely fresh.

♪ I just want to show you how to take the skin off because the skin is still on it.

OK.

The trick is to get a grip on this end, which you can either do with a cloth, or you can put a bit of salt on your fingers, and a bit of salt will help it, and then you take a knife.

Do you see?

You just sort of push it.

-OK.

-You don't cut it.

Don't saw at it and cut through.

Just push.

Yeah.

Why not?

♪ Result!

There we are.

Look at that.

Perfect.

Perfect, darling.

Well done.

OK.

Now you're gonna cut it into long strips, but I'd try and cut it like that first.

A bit like doing bread.

And I'm going to cut mine into first long, thin strips and then across to make little dice.

Prue, voice-over: Ensure your tools are up to scratch.

The thing about a very sharp knife is you hardly need to put any pressure on it.

You just sort of stroke it, whereas if it's a blunt knife, you find yourself pushing and pushing, and it's much more difficult.

Well, I reckon I am pretty good at this.

I should have cheated, John, because there's a very easy cheat to make it easy to skin the fish, but I forgot, Which is if you put the fish into the freezer and get it really cold, not frozen, but very, very cold, it stiffens up, and then it's much easier to get the skin off because it's not slithering and sliding all over the shelf.

-That makes sense.

-Right.

So my salmon is going in there, all these little cubes.

Prue, voice-over: Cut your avocado into strips or cubes to match the salmon.

This, by the way, is cucumber with all the seeds scraped out of it, which is a good idea because it can be very wet.

if you have all the seeds and the middle, it's too juicy.

You can stop that by putting salt on it, and then the juice comes out, and then you rinse it and dry it, but then I think it's often too salty, so rather just take the middle out.

It looks like she's making a meal for somebody who's dentally challenged.

Ha ha ha!

Prue, voice-over: Put your cubed avocado and cucumber into a bowl, add a tablespoon of lime juice and one tablespoon of wasabi paste, then give everything a good mix.

The salmon I'm going to season with some light soy sauce and 3 kinds of sesame-- a little bit of sesame oil, some black sesame seeds, and some white sesame seeds.

Mix it all up.

Are they a different sesame, or is the white the inside of the black?

Ha ha ha!

I wish you'd stop asking me questions I don't know the answer to.

I'm sorry about all my questions.

I'll try to temper them to what you can answer.

Yes.

If you wouldn't mind only asking me questions I know the answer to, it would be very-- I always have an insatiable curiosity.

Gets me into a lot of trouble.

Prue, voice-over: Now it's time to wrap the sushi.

Wet your hands and put a layer of sticky rice onto the nori, leaving a third of space at the end to help wrap later.

John is making traditional sushi wrapped up in a seaweed nori.

Oh.

Very good.

What's next?

Prue, voice-over: Add a slice of cucumber, avocado, and salmon widthways on top of your sticky rice, then begin to roll the nori towards you using the bamboo mat, keeping everything nice and tight.

Wet the end of the nori sheet to help it stick.

♪ If you don't want to be bothered with nori and rolling them up and all that, I'm going to show you a much simpler way of doing it.

I am making what I call sushi for scaredy cats, people like me who don't like nori, for example, and I'm just going to stack up the ingredients in a little mold here, and you'll see they look very pretty, and it can do for a first course for a dinner party because it looks so fancy.

What you do is you put a bit of rice in the bottom, push a layer of rice down, and then a layer of the salmon, which is all nicely flavored, and push that down nice and evenly, and finally a layer of the avocado and cucumber, and then if I was doing this for a dinner party or something, I'd stick them all in the fridge and then I'd later, take the top off.

We'll risk taking it off now.

♪ John: Oh!

Very good!

Prue: Pretty, isn't it?

Then you put a little bit of decor on the top.

Maybe.

Do you want to do a tiny baby one?

OK.

Rice at the bottom.

Then I put a spoonful of this in?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, compared to what I had to do, this is a doddle.

Heh heh heh.

♪ Prue, voice-over: After 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge, John's nori-wrapped sushi should be easier to cut.

Here's your one, John.

OK.

♪ -Am I allowed to-- -Yes.

I think we need to unroll it.

Unroll it.

Ooh!

-That's right.

-OK.

And then I think you need to take a little bit off the edge.

OK.

And remember, lots of forward action and very little pushing.

-OK.

-Now you want to make them all absolutely even, so I reckon you should cut it in half-- -Cut it in the middle?

And then, yeah.

What am I doing?

Am I doing this into 3?

Seems about right.

Or 2?

3.

3?

Whatever you like.

I think as long as they're even.

♪ You never said to me cut them identically.

-I did.

-You just said cut them.

Did you?

Prue, voice-over: Once all your wrapped sushi is cut to even pieces, mix some wasabi into light soy sauce for the dip.

So now you dip it in there and eat it with a bit of that.

This is guaranteed.

Go on.

In your mouth.

I don't have a-- Any good?

Yeah, it is very nice.

♪ I mean, what's nice about the homemade is that when I've had it in the shop, it's been very tacky, and this isn't tacky.

This is very smooth.

Prue, voice-over: John has a wine from the Bordeaux region to pair with the sushi.

And it's quite sweet.

I mean, it's not sweet like a sweet wine, but it's certainly not acidic.

Yeah.

So it'd be very nice with this.

This is really, truly delicious.

Have a go.

Not difficult, looks pretty, and it's lovely.

♪ ♪