[plane rumbles] As a chef, I've been privileged to travel to all corners of the globe.

But there are one small group of islands that, in my mind, has it all.

From farmers to fishermen.

And great seafood.

These are delicious.

Absolutely delicious.

Joining me on my journey, I'll be meeting some of my mates who just happened to be some of the finest chefs in the entire world.

[cackle] Butter.

[whoosh] Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

Woo-hoo!

[frenetic music] ♪ ♪ I know a tour around the UK would be complete without visiting our capital city, London.

It's now regarded as one of the food capitals of the world and rightly so.

Located in the southeast, surrounded by the home counties with a population of more than 8 million people, London is, of course, the UK's largest city.

The River Thames runs right through the middle.

Later, I'll be following its path West to the food Mecca that is Bray, where I have a date at the Waterside Inn.

I can't wait to take it all in.

Now I'm here in my trusty little Mini, about to go on a little trip down memory lane to visit some of my favorite restaurants, some of which I used to work at.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ But the culinary scene here is changing all the time.

So I want to find out what's hot right now on the streets of London.

♪ ♪ I'm heading West to infamous Notting Hill, where the acclaimed Chef Clare Smyth has opened her new restaurant Core, which has already received two Michelin stars, a remarkable achievement for its first year.

I've always known she's one of the world's best chefs so I can't wait to try her menu.

Hi.

Hi, there.

That looks pretty special.

So it's potato and roe.

And this is [?

dulce ?]

beurre blanc, which is quite a classic.

- Have a seat.

- Cool.

First of all, before I eat it, congratulations because, I mean, you're winning awards after awards after awards.

The biggest one.

World's best female chef.

What was that like for you winning that?

You know, it's always an honor to win awards.

It's so nice when people vote for you and you get recognition.

But you know, it's lovely, yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: What's it like having a place of your own?

Because this is officially a place of your own.

It's great.

I mean, it is.

No pressure?

Different pressure, different pressure.

But this is home for me now.

We've built somewhere where we enjoy being.

It's, kind of, an open environment.

The kitchen is spectacular, by the way.

Thank you.

I wanted to just break all the barriers that put people off of fine dining.

So that's why we knocked down the wall.

We opened it up.

Here we serve the guests, the guests see us.

And when people come in the door, it's very relaxed.

All my personal things that I've collected as a chef over the years, all my books, all the things, you really know it's a chef's restaurant.

We don't have dress codes.

I play my own music.

That's a bit of a personal taste for some people.

Right.

We don't do all those things that you typically associate with fine dining.

So very humble ingredients.

We're cooking less meat and fish, cooking more vegetables, changing the way people think little bit by bit.

Is that not a risk?

Because I mean-- It is.

Anybody-- anybody would be thinking, well, you would then be chasing the three stars and you would just go back after that again.

No, I've done that and it's time for me to take risks.

I'm confident enough in my cooking ability, the things that I know that taste good.

This tastes good, by the way.

I've nearly finished it.

This tastes amazing.

Amazing.

And I think that it's amazing how receptive people are and how open they are to taking something like a potato or a carrot and enjoying it just as much as a piece of turbot or a fillet of beef.

Well, congratulations on all your success and now you've got a place of your own.

Thank you.

JAMES MARTIN: It's fantastic.

Clare's cooking is a tough act to follow.

To be a front runner in one of the gastronomic capitals of the world is an accolade every chef aspires to.

Now, I thought long and hard about what to cook really, and especially in this environment, there's so many things you could cook from so many different restaurants that are dotted all over the place.

You've got St.

Paul's there.

Obviously, Tower of London.

I've cooked in that one, which is apparently the Gherkin.

I haven't been in that one.

That one's called the Walkie Talkie.

And that one's called the Cheese Grater apparently.

This has got history with me.

I did set the fire alarm off Monday morning, 8:30 AM while searing off a lamb chop.

Nine fire engines blocked the entire traffic for three hours so I do apologize.

But I wasn't going to do lamb chops.

I thought I'd do a curry because out there somewhere is an old library, and a mate of mine runs this restaurant.

He's called Vivek Singh, and he does this amazing pigeon dish.

And he's kind of relative to London, really, but it uses a dal and particularly split yellow peas.

So the first thing I'm going to do is incorporate the onion with this.

Now really with Indian food when I've worked in his kitchen, it's onions, onions, and onions to start off this process now whether it's a curry or whether it's a dal.

Now instead of using a little bit of ghee, I'm going to use some butter.

In we go with the onions and I want to brown these off, first of all, before you add the rest of the ingredients.

So we'll get the onions cooking away nicely.

Meanwhile, I can prepare our ginger.

And the easiest way to peel it is with a spoon.

Now, even though this is going to cook for about an hour, this will break down anyway.

You still need to chop it quite small.

And then we're going to use about 3 cloves of garlic just chopped up.

Look this is what you're after, caramelized onions.

Now we can put in our ginger and our garlic.

Give this a quick mix.

And then we can concentrate on our spices for this one.

Now I've got a range of different spices.

They're all quite crucial to this really.

We've got some turmeric.

I've got mustard seeds, I've got ground coriander, ground garam masala, and I've got cumin.

And I keep cumin whole.

But we're going to put some turmeric in first.

In we go with the mustard seeds.

A little bit of the ground coriander.

Garam masala which is quite crucial to the entire bit of this dish.

And then the cumin seeds also often called jeera seeds.

You can buy these from Asian supermarkets.

Quick mix.

Now, you need to concentrate on this bit because you don't want the the spices to burn.

So often with the dried spices, they can burn quite quickly.

So add a little bit of water to this now and you get this wonderful smell.

And then we can turn our attention to these yellow split peas.

Now these have been soaked overnight.

You can actually make this with chickpeas as well.

But whatever you do, don't use the dry ones straight away.

Give this a little mix and then we're going to add some chili.

My word of advice is add two chillies to start with.

And then after the cooking, check it, and then probably add another one or two if you wanted to.

Then we go with the water.

No stock needed.

There's so much flavor in there anyway.

So while they're cooking, this is the boring bit.

That's going to cook for about an hour.

Meanwhile, enjoy London and I'll finish off my beer.

[percussive music] ♪ ♪ Look, just get right in here as they start to soften down.

Now, I'm going to finish them off in a minute, but I'm going to turn my attention to the pigeon.

We're going to make a simple little marinade.

And it's really easy this.

We're going to make it in a bag.

So the first thing we're going to do is zest and juice a lemon.

A bit of that.

Touch of lemon, doesn't matter about the seeds.

But a little bit of garlic.

Now you can put a touch of salt with this if you wanted to and just grind this down.

Just use the edge of a knife.

You take this paste, pop it in with the lemon, and then we've got some yogurt that's going to go in there.

And then the spices, we're going to keep it really quite simple.

I'm going to use two.

I'm going to use a little bit of turmeric and just a little bit of garam masala.

We've got this beautiful pigeon breast here.

Now, they're quite small, so they're quite delicate.

And they cook quite quickly, which lends itself really well together with this.

So move that to one side, quickly wash my hands, and then give this a quick mix in the bag.

And just leave that to one side.

Now, you can do this when you're preparing the little lentils as well because you can make this the day before.

It wants to sit in the marinade for at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight.

And I've got some pigeon in here.

So I'm going to take these lentils off now.

Meanwhile, my barbecue is nice and hot.

What I will do is take a touch of oil.

Just a little bit of oil.

And then grab these pigeon breasts out of here.

Now, the important thing is with all game birds is that you don't overcook them.

It's really the big mistake that people make.

Seriously, cook it pink.

It's exactly what it wants to be.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ So we just turn that over.

But this way of cooking it, think of it like a tandoor.

That kind of stuff.

It's perfect.

So we'll leave that cooking for a couple more minutes.

Meanwhile, we can turn our attention to our little dal here.

So I'm going to use some fresh herbs.

I've got some mint, I've got some coriander.

Into the pan.

And then I always finish this off with butter, usually a few knobs of butter.

But in this heat, we've got about 25 mils of butter.

This is properly hot here, I cannot tell you.

And this incorporates this together.

Now, this is where you can taste it.

You can either add a bit more chili if needed, but we need some black pepper.

And a nice amount of salt.

The thing is, with lentils and split peas and beans, that kind of stuff, it uses a base flavor so season it properly.

And then all we do now is simply put it on a bit of this.

And we can take our nice little bit of yellow split peas down the center.

Literally doesn't take very long to cook on a hot barbecue like this, keeping it nice and pink.

Otherwise, it goes a bit livery in the end.

A little bit of oil on the top.

Finish that off and we take a few pieces of the pigeon like that.

And then finally, for a little bit of color, just a bit of pomegranate, a few pomegranate seeds.

We just sprinkle these just over the top.

So there you have an Indian-inspired dish of pigeon with split-pea dal.

Try it.

It's good stuff.

A flavorsome curry that salutes our cosmopolitan capital city.

The exciting food scene here spreads way beyond the swanky West End.

So I'm leaving Central London now, heading to Peckham to meet three bearded blokes on an industrial estate.

Yes, you heard it right.

And here they are-- James, Richard, and John, founders of Blenheim Forge, which is tucked away in a railway arch.

But it's certainly worth the trip as they're making something no chef can live without.

Their unique handmade Japanese knives are top of the line, and they take time to perfect each and every one.

James.

The perfect day to be doing this, isn't it?

Yeah.

Really it's hot outside and hot inside.

JAMES ROSS-HARRIS: Yeah.

So what is the deal with Japanese knives and what makes them so special and so desirable?

It's the process of folding metal.

So all of our blades are laminated, which means you can have two or three different types of metal, basically.

So this is what we call a billet, which is a piece of steel.

We've already done four or five hours of pounding already.

JAMES MARTIN: Like a little sandwich.

JAMES ROSS-HARRIS: Yeah, so it's basically a sandwich.

It's very hard.

Japanese core steel.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

And to support that, we've put a tougher, more flexible cladding on the outside.

JAMES MARTIN: What is the point of it?

JAMES ROSS-HARRIS: So if you look at the Japanese style of blades, they're often a lot thinner than the Western-style knife.

So that means you can create blades which are much finer.

They're a lot lighter.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

So a few hours to get to there and then we need to stick this in then, do we?

JAMES ROSS-HARRIS: Yeah, this is going in.

The forge is at about 1,200 degrees at the moment.

JAMES MARTIN: Right.

Once the metal reaches 1,000 degrees, James can start to hammer it into shape and compound the metal to give it its strength.

[metal clangs] It's a lot of work JAMES ROSS-HARRIS: Yeah, it doesn't move very much.

Once you get below a, sort of, dull red, it has to go back into the forge to reheat.

Otherwise, it still is likely to crack.

JAMES MARTIN: The process is repeated until it resembles the blade of a knife.

So this is what we end up with then, is it?

JAMES ROSS-HARRIS: Yeah, this is a blade that we've nearly finished the forging on it.

There's still a little bit of refinement to do.

But this is where it takes hours and hours and hours.

JAMES ROSS-HARRIS: Yeah so it's a lot of work and a lot of practice to get to this sort of stage.

JAMES MARTIN: Once the billet has been strengthened and flattened, it needs to be cut into the correct shape and then sharpened.

Would you like to have a go?

I've got to have a go at this.

Go ahead, mate.

Maybe not that you want one for sale.

I've got one which has a slight flaw in it.

Start by just resting it on to get a feel and then gradually apply more pressure.

That's good.

A little bit lower on the spine.

I suppose this is what makes your knives unique [inaudible] to each individual, isn't it really?

Yes, but they're fully handmade so you're never going to make two exactly the same.

JAMES MARTIN: All the same.

What do you reckon?

Got a job?

It's getting there.

Maybe.

A couple more weeks of training.

JAMES MARTIN: While I'm drying off, my knife is given its finishing touches, a wooden handle, and a final sharpen.

Then it's ready for use.

So this is it.

After all those hours and hours and hours of work, a finished knife not made in Japan, made in Peckham.

[surging music] ♪ ♪ It's wonderful to see true craftsmen creating tools that are oh so important in the kitchen.

And my next dish really will require a sharp knife for the perfect cut.

This dish really in particular sums up, I think, the classic style of cooking that London should be associated with, beef Wellington.

Now, classic beef Wellington would use a center cut fillet of beef.

Now, this is the polar opposite of what I learned in London.

Because when I first started off, we would take the fillet of beef, seal it, and cook the beef all the way through with the pastry in it.

We're going to change this slightly to speed up the cooking time.

So what we do is we seal it off in the pan first, no salt and pepper.

Now, while that's coloring, we can turn our attention to the rest of our ingredients, one of which is quite unique with this.

And that's duxelle.

You need the mushroom duxelle.

It's basically just a dried mushroom stuffing.

You take the mushrooms and we're going to stick them in a blender.

Now, one thing you don't want to do with this is wash the mushrooms.

if you wash them, all that water is absorbed into the mushrooms like a sponge.

So they're ready really.

They're done.

Meanwhile, our beef is searing away nicely.

That's what you want, a nice bit of color on it like that.

And then we roast this in the oven.

Now, I've set the oven about 200 degrees centigrade and this wants to roast now for only 20 minutes.

That's all it needs.

Now, while that's in the oven, we can prepare the rest of our ingredients.

So we're going to use a little bit of the fat that's left over from here.

Maybe a touch of butter into there as well.

And then start to fry this mixture.

Now, you don't want to overcook these.

We're just basically coloring them.

Now as soon as your mushrooms are ready, we can season this up now, salt and pepper.

And that's done.

Now, what I do to make life a lot easier for you is take the mushrooms and then tip it out onto a tray with a cloth underneath and allow the moisture to soak up.

So it is a stuffing, but it's quite dry, which is exactly what we want for this.

This is the beef that you end up with once it's been in the oven.

So it's cooked sort of rare, but you can see it's cold.

Now, this is what I spent my childhood doing.

I was laying spinach like this in restaurants.

Instead of blanching it into water, a little bit of butter.

It's all you need.

And lay each individual leaf like fish scales.

I've got some pancakes which want to be nice and thin.

The reason for pancakes really is to absorb that moisture from the beef as well, so it doesn't make the pastry go soggy.

Because the other bit of moisture you're going to add is some of this.

This is a little bit of chicken liver pate.

You can make it yourself if you want.

But for this, trust me, you've got enough on your plate and life's too short.

And then it's an assembly job.

We've got our puff pastry, our proper all-butter puff pastry.

Now, the important thing with this is you don't make it too thin.

Because if you make it too thin, it's going to break in the oven.

If you make it too thick, it's going to be soggy.

It's not quite right yet, but it's nearly right.

That's right.

It's that thickness.

And then we can take your pancakes and you cut the pancakes to size.

You don't want them overlapping each other.

You build it up like a little patchwork quilt.

Now, once you got to that stage, you can take your pate and you spread this over the surface.

This is the bit that takes the time.

It's the assembly job.

I know it's a little bit fiddly, but it's worth it.

Trust me.

If you just spend the time just doing this.

Then you've got your little mushroom duxelle that goes over the top.

Then we've got our spinach, and the easiest way to do it is roll it up like that.

Turn the kitchen paper over and unroll it.

And then you lift off this.

You've got a layer of spinach.

Then you turn your attention to the beef.

We can place that on there.

Season it up.

And then egg wash all the way around.

And then basically lift this up and fold it together at the same time.

So fold one over and then fold the other one over and take the whole lot and roll it over.

Now the reason why you put the fold underneath as it cooks, you don't want that to split.

Grab yourself a tray.

Lift this off and on.

Egg wash this all over the top, all the way into the corners, all the way around.

And then you can either leave this as it is, or you can create a nice little pattern.

The best way to do that is to use a table knife.

Just decorate this with little scrolls and then you've got your nice Wellington.

You can either pop this in the fridge now, or you can pop it straight in the oven.

Either way, takes about the same amount of time to cook about 20 minutes.

And then I'm going to do a simple little sauce with this.

Now I'm going to start the sauce with just a touch of red wine.

And then we're going to pop in some of this pre-made veal stock.

You can see it's already nice and thick anyway.

A good glug of Madeira.

And you want to reduce that down by about a third.

Add a little knob of butter sauce.

Now, the texture that you're after is kind of like warm golden syrup.

And then just to simply serve this, you carve it.

At least the knife's sharp.

This really is one of those dishes that's well worth the effort that you put in.

Take some of this wonderful Madeira sauce to go with it.

Great dishes like this take time.

But given practice, it's definitely worth it.

Cheers.

And there you have my classic beef Wellington with a delicious Madeira sauce.

I've had an amazing morning in our glorious capital, London.

It is a magical city this.

Catching up with award winning chefs and top quality craftsmen.

But the incredible restaurant scene here spreads way beyond the hustle and bustle.

So I'm swapping my mini for a pleasure boat to take a tranquil trip down the Thames.

Now you're probably wondering why I'm bobbing up and down on the river.

Well, just a stone's throw out of London is a place where I think all the great food of Britain has come from.

And that comes from a little place just further upriver called Bray.

Now, nowadays, it's become synonymous with the Fat Duck, one of the greatest restaurants the world has ever seen.

That's modern gastronomy.

But if you're after something that's pure, that's authentic, that's classic, that's timeless, you've got to go to one place and that's the Waterside Inn.

Nestled on the bank of the Thames in the picturesque village of Bray, the Waterside Inn is the only UK establishment to have held three Michelin stars for over 30 years.

And I'm not just tipping up for a bite to eat.

I'm here to have a long overdue catch up with some of my food heroes, Michel Roux Sr.

and his son Alain.

This place is extra special.

Michel started this place more than 40 years ago.

And although Alain is technically in charge, Michel is still a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen.

James.

How are you doing?

You all right?

- Thanks.

- Good to see you.

Right.

What's on the menu, then?

I'm looking forward to this.

Well, we're just about preparing an apple tarte tatin.

Now, you sell a lot of these, don't you?

10, 15, 20 every night.

Yeah.

Give a nightmare to the pastry chef.

Exactly.

Now tell me about the history of this place, then.

Because if you did a family tree of all the chefs who have worked with you, but also not just the chefs, the people that worked front of house-- front of house as well, there cannot be a restaurant in the UK, a decent restaurant in the UK that hasn't been influenced by you guys over the years.

Well, I would say 30% to 40% of the Michelin star chef restaurant come out of the Roux stable.

Not bad.

It's not bad, is it?

He's ready with the apples.

Oh, you see, he's got the lemon.

Look at that.

OK, Pour them in the lemon juice.

I'll do that.

And then you-- Yeah, OK.

JAMES MARTIN: Are you teaching your dad how to cook?

[laugh] - In the bowl.

In the bowl.

I think you've done too many apples, Chef.

ALAIN ROUX: They were quite big.

MICHEL ROUX: They were quite big.

So now butter, very little butter.

JAMES MARTIN: Pastry was your-- is your love, isn't it really?

If you want to be a great chef, you've got to-- you've got to be reasonable at pastry.

You've got the pastry.

You've got what I call the technique, the mastery, the discipline, and the heartbeat JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

Because in pastry, everything is wet, everything is measured.

In cooking, no, you can play.

And they sometimes play with too much.

More of an exact science, isn't it?

Exactly.

JAMES MARTIN: Right.

So what's next, then?

Puff pastry.

ALAIN ROUX: Puff pastry.

That's it.

Scissors.

ALAIN ROUX: Trim a bit.

Scissors.

JAMES MARTIN: I love these signs.

Every single kitchen in the UK should have this.

Who put these in here?

Is that you or is it-- - Alain.

Alain.

That was about 20 years ago.

He says I'm just fed up.

They don't taste their food during the preparation.

And then when the dish is finished, it's too late.

Yeah.

So taste, taste, and taste again.

JAMES MARTIN: So this goes in the oven for how long?

ALAIN ROUX: 180 for about half an hour, 40 minutes maximum.

The most important thing is the pastry needs to be cooked.

Yes.

It takes 25 minutes, 30 minutes?

Half an hour.

Half an hour up to 40 minutes.

Yeah, he added another five minutes.

- Exactly.

- He knows he's in charge.

Technology's changed.

It's changed.

1972, you didn't have these fancy ovens.

No.

JAMES MARTIN: However long it actually takes, Alain is a step ahead of us.

There we are.

JAMES MARTIN: So we got one in the oven that's been in there for 25, 30 minutes.

We haven't decided yet.

Well, I think it was probably 30 minutes.

40 minutes.

MICHEL ROUX: 40 minutes.

[laugh] Between 30 and 40 minutes, depending on what oven you got.

It depends how you like your pastry.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

Now this bit's the important bit.

Ready.

Steady.

Go.

Aha!

Aha!

Not bad.

Not bad.

Almost great.

Say nothing.

MICHEL ROUX: Look at that.

It is one of the greatest desserts ever made, isn't it?

MICHEL ROUX: Yes.

I love apple Oh And then if you're really on TV, you do that.

And you look like an idiot.

You look like an idiot.

Anyway.

JAMES MARTIN: Shall we taste?

MICHEL ROUX: Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

MICHEL ROUX: Oh, yeah.

It's hot.

MICHEL ROUX: Oh, yeah.

It is hot.

[laugh] This is one of the finest restaurants in the world.

And in my opinion, certainly the best in the UK.

That is amazing.

MICHEL ROUX: So, are you happy with that?

- I'm happy with that.

- Good.

Lovely.

Now I'm going to psych myself up because I've got to cook for you.

Where's the bar?

- The bar?

- Yeah, I know -- We closed the bar.

-- No, no, I've spoken to [inaudible].

- No no no no no no.

- No no no.

No no no no no.

No no no no.

Last time you come, he emptied the bloody bar.

JAMES MARTIN: That's a bit rich coming from the Roux clan.

Michel's a notoriously difficult chef to impress so I'm under pressure, especially as I'm going to be cooking in his kitchen, not my own.

We've run around in the kitchen and we've found some beautiful, lovely Dover sole.

Now, I would normally cook this whole.

But again, the producer said, that's not good enough.

We want to see it filleted.

So I'm going to show you how to fillet this and do it meuniere style.

Now, the meuniere is these ingredients over here.

It's a little bit of butter, some chopped parsley, and lemon.

Now what I'm going to do first of all is remove what they call the skirt, which is the outside edge.

And for that, you need a pair of scissors.

And we just cut that all the way around.

Turn it over and do the other side.

And we trim this around.

Just makes it easier to work with.

Now, nature has been amazing.

It's actually drawn a little line where you need to cut one on one side and one on the other.

Now, on flat fish like this, there's 4 fillets.

On a round fish, there's 2 fillets.

So all we do is just take the knife, and we cut along this central line concentrating and carefully remove these fillets.

Now what's great about this so often when you're cooking in everybody else's kitchens, all the chefs are staring at you.

They are way too busy here.

Way too busy.

They've got about 60 people for lunch, 60 people for dinner.

So you've got your nice fillets there.

We'll leave that to one side.

Wipe the board a bit.

Now what we need to do is skin these.

Now, the best way to do that is get rid of that knife and use a more solid knife.

Hold the knife nice and flat to the board and you wiggle the skin like that.

The skin just comes off.

And then what you do is you can trim up these lovely bits of fish by removing this skirt again area, this little bit here.

And there you have your nice fillets, nice and simple.

So we've got again, you can see how much preparation is involved in it.

I mean you can times this by 1,000 of what's going on behind me.

We've got beautiful asparagus.

We've got some beautiful pigeon there for the menu.

There's some veal bones being roasted this morning, but you've got a nice little bit of fish.

Just wash my hands.

Then what we need is we need to get this pan nice and warm really.

Now, the guys assure me here that 16 is the correct number.

Season the flour.

Some black pepper, and some salt.

And then what we do is just lightly dust these fillets in the flour.

Now these will be different sizes, of course, because some you've got the rowing.

The undersides are generally shorter.

So a nice hot pan.

A little bit of butter.

Now, with this fish really, we don't want to overcook it.

[french] MICHEL ROUX: Is the pan hot enough?

JAMES MARTIN: It's hot enough, yeah.

I'll turn it up a bit.

Ah, I thought so.

And then we'll just have a drink cause I need one.

He's not doing badly.

[giggle] Another few years, he'll be perfect.

[laugh] Hey, look, there's something going on over there that they'll let you see.

Right over there.

It's over there.

The chef wants you over there.

MICHEL ROUX: See you later.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah, he just wants you over there.

Yeah.

Now, you take our little palette knife.

Turn it over.

Doesn't take very long at all.

Plate's nice and warm and then we can lift off our fish.

It's not every day you get to cook for two three-star Michelin chefs.

It's not every day where you really want to cook for two three-star Michelin chefs, to be brutally honest with you.

Pan quite high because this is where we make the sauce for this.

And then we throw in the butter.

All the while we can keep our fish nice and warm.

And then while that's happening and the butter is starting to go this nut brown color, which is what we want, I can then take my lovely little bits of watercress.

And we've got some Waterside Inn house dressing.

Mix that together.

And that's your nice little dressing done.

You see the color of the butter starting to change?

Quite simply, we just need some lemon and parsley now.

We've then got a little sieve with a cloth underneath.

You can use a bit of tea towel if you wanted to.

Take our fish out now.

Then we add our lemon.

So take it off the heat.

Just a squeeze of lemon juice through the cloth.

Now, this is a sauce that I've been doing years and years and years.

You don't have to pass it through a sieve.

But this is the water side in, so we sieve it.

We then add our parsley.

Give that a quick stir.

Grab our nice warm plate, a little bit of watercress, bit of this butter over the top, and we'll get the chefs over.

A little bit of lemon.

Do you want lemon with it, or are you happy?

I like a bit of lemon.

OK.

Knives and forks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

MICHEL ROUX: Oh, the beurre noisette.

Look at that.

Now, I can tell you it's been beautifully cooked.

And you know why?

Because the way the fillet is holding beautifully well.

ALAIN ROUX: Yeah, it's been flushed lightly.

Not too much color.

So the fish should be tender.

JAMES MARTIN: Keep going, keep going, keep going.

[chuckle] Oh, my God.

I don't know anyone, anyone who cooked sole meuniere, fillet sole meuniere better than that.

What about your son stood next to you?

ALAIN ROUX: There's no butterfly.

Normally, when I do the sole meuniere, there's butterfly.

[laugh] The fish-- the fish is all-- yours is not so bad.

He's been talking to the fish and says stay flat.

Well, you got it-- I think.

the Pan's not too hot when you cook the fish, do you think ?

Not too hot when you cook the fish?

You've got to have it hot but never too hot.

Because otherwise it curls up.

Absolutely correct.

And that's why I was trying to confuse you before.

Yeah, OK.

I wanted it hotter to make sure that you were a bit in a mess.

I was already in a mess when I woke up this morning, to be honest with you.

Happy with that?

- Beautiful.

- Yeah.

What about-- what about the watercress?

Did you put a bit of lemon on it?

I put a bit of dressing with it.

Dressing OK?

MICHEL ROUX: You're too good.

No, that's your dressing.

Ah!

[cackle] - Well, not bad.

- Not bad.

JAMES MARTIN: But I'll let you eat this because you've got 60 for lunch.

I'm going to go and grab a seat.

And I need another drink.

Now I'm back aboard my pleasure boat.

And with the wind in my hair, I can't resist cooking up a true classic from their menu.

What I'm going to show you is a dish that comes from the Waterside Inn, a variant of it.

That's all I'm going to say cooked on the back of a little boat on a camping gas stove.

But you get a similar idea of what the flavor is all about.

You've got a lovely piece of lobster, and I'm going to show you how to make the sauce for this, first of all.

So the first thing I do is got our veal stock.

Then in here we've got some fish stock.

And then I've got this stuff, white port.

It has to be white port.

Don't go raiding the cupboard, your late grandmother's port that's all knackered and in the back of the cupboard next to your Taboo from the 1970s and '80s.

It's got to be white port.

Good quality ingredients, we'll end up with good quality food at the end of it.

Now, hot pan on the stove.

Put a little bit of white port in here.

Lovely.

That's fish stock gone in there and we get that boiling.

Next up, we grab our veal stock.

What you need is a decent amount because the key to this sauce is the reduction.

What I mean by that is when you add all these ingredients to the pan, we reduce it all down.

Now, it's all about our lobster for this one because we have to prepare this lobster.

You've got the claws.

You've got the head.

You've got the tail.

So the first thing you do is remove the tail like that.

And then rather than just crack this, what we do is take a pair of scissors.

Just cut either side of here like that and lift out this bit.

And then you lift out the tail meat like that to reveal this beautiful piece of meat.

Now we've got the claws.

So, like the whole lobster, we can break this down into three parts again.

So the first thing we do is snap it through that joint.

And then the other thing we do is snap it through the other joint.

And then using your fingers, you can poke the meat through.

That's one.

There's two.

And one final one Just poke it all the way through.

But anyway look, we've got a nice claw.

Now, this is my old cook's knife.

Look, it's even got my signature on it.

And to be honest, this is probably only-- the only thing it's good for is cracking lobster claws and just break open the shell.

Twist the bottom part of the claw like that, and the meat will come out.

So you've got a nice bit of claw meat.

Do the same thing again with the other one.

Nice quick whack.

Now that is a boat.

Check out the boat.

Check out the dog.

[giggle] Come on.

Don't stop.

Come on.

Come on.

Faster What are you cooking?

Lobster.

Oh, not bad.

JAMES MARTIN: Right.

Look, we got our nice little lobster.

Now, as well as this wonderful meat that we've got in this dish, I'm actually going to use the shells as well as a little bit of a garnish.

So we just take a pair of scissors and just break them like that just into nice little pieces.

And the same thing with the claws as well.

And then with the head as well and cut around it.

Like that.

Lovely.

So now really, all we've got to do is wait for this sauce.

And as it's reducing, we can add some of this.

This is cayenne pepper.

Now, you've got to treat this quite carefully, particularly carefully.

If you're cooking outside on a boat.

So close your eyes.

Then all we need to do now is just reduce this down.

While it's reducing, we can take nice, pretty shots of the river.

[lively music] ♪ ♪ [bike bell dings] He's got the right idea, that fella, ain't he?

Now, to finish off this sauce, we add a touch of butter.

Just a little bit in there.

Black pepper.

Pinch of salt.

Then in here.

Now we had all these bits of shells, and then pop in the meat.

So we can lift this off now.

Pop our other pan on and then just leave this just to warm up the meat.

Finally, we have over here a selection of different veg and some red currant jelly.

And all you do really with this is just take a little knob of butter, get that melting a little bit.

And then we've got some ginger, some nice little julienne of ginger, some carrots, and leek.

Just wilt this down a little bit with some red currant jelly.

That's what you want.

Don't start changing this and using raspberry jam or strawberry jam.

It's not the same.

Red currant jelly.

Some salt and pepper.

Then we're really ready to plate.

You can grab a nice wilted veg and then we grab our lovely pieces of lobster.

You grab some of these shells.

Got a nice little head of lobster sits on there.

More of this lobster meat.

This dish is so, so tasty.

The lobster claw.

And then you've got this delicious sauce.

And then finally, we get this fresh chervil.

It has to be fresh chervil.

Look at that.

So there you have it.

It's a classic lobster with white port.

Cheers.

A truly sublime dish.

Perfect for a leisurely trip down the river.

What an incredible day visiting London and its amazing food scene, old and new.

Then down the Thames to Bray and the wonderful Waterside Inn.

With so much to take in, I just wish I had more time to catch up with more of the greats in this neck of the woods.

Next time though, I'll come knocking for sure.

[frenetic music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪