♪♪ -As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a baker.

♪♪ -Paul seems to know what he's doing.

-What you might not know about me is that I'm also a huge film buff... Go ahead, punk.

Make my day.

...and I love my bikes.

I'll be combining all these passions on an epic road trip from New York to L.A.

I'll be sampling foods that play a starring role, lapping up the scenery... as well as the cooking... Wow.

...and reliving some of my favorite movie moments.

I'll be rustling up some epic recipes inspired by my travels.

Oh-ho-ho!

And I'll be meeting a few famous friends along the way.

-This was a real discovery, I have to say.

-So join me on a journey from grits to gumbo... That's spicy!

...and from "Godfathers" to "Forrest Gump."

I'm a happy boy at the moment.

Come on, buckos!

Let's go for a ride!

Oh-ho-ho-ho!

That looks awesome!

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Engine starts ] ♪♪ -Well, fiddle-dee-dee to Manhattan.

The first chance I got, I was gone with the wind.

♪♪ Heading into the Deep South, I promised myself one thing.

As God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again.

But my trusty steed is sure causing me some pain!

[ Record needle scratches ] 800 miles in and on the approach to Savannah, Georgia.

the decision to use a hardtail is catching up with my backside.

♪♪ I've chosen a very classic bike, and it looks amazing, but there's been a couple of bumps I've hit, and it's been quite painful.

I'm just hoping I don't see any potholes.

There's some great food down in Georgia, proper home food, and that's what I'm looking forward to.

That -- and I need to pee.

[ Door opens, bell jingles ] [ Projector running ] The South, with its subtropical climate, historically relied on agriculture, with huge plantations using slave labor to work the land.

♪♪ Beans, corn, peaches, ham, and chicken were staples of the Southern diet.

Barbecue and Creole cooking all have their roots in traditional Native American and imported European and African cuisine.

The South's long history of racial tension has been reflected on screen ever since the movie camera was invented.

But what the Southerners have really done well is use their history as an asset.

[ Horn honks ] That's certainly evident here in Georgia's state capital, a city that's making a name for itself as a foodie paradise and also, in recent years, a movie-making hub.

With Savannah being the oldest city in Georgia, you've got all those generations of buildings.

I mean, this is pretty old.

1730s.

I can understand why the movie people came here.

It was like a live Hollywood set already made for them.

The state of Georgia then switched on to this, gave a bit of tax relief to Hollywood.

And, of course, the film crews have been using this place for the last 40, 50 years for filming, and everybody makes a little bit of money.

There's the beauty of it.

♪♪ I'm about to meet a man who has completed what some might call an impossible mission.

Like Savannah, Stratton Leopold has managed to combine food and movies.

He has one job as an ice-cream producer and a second as a movie producer, and he's been instrumental in bringing big productions into town.

Leopold's parlor is a mecca of movie memorabilia, and I've made it my mission to steal a glance... and maybe a scoop or two while I'm at it.

♪♪ -Paul.

-Stratton.

What an absolute pleasure.

-Welcome to Savannah.

Welcome to Leopold's.

-Thank you very much indeed.

I mean, your connection with Hollywood is incredible.

The movies that you've been involved with.

I mean, they're colossal.

I mean, "Paycheck."

I mean, "Captain America," for instance.

"Mission: Impossible."

Now, you have a lot of mementos from some of the films.

Would you mind showing me a few?

-Sure.

Let's do it.

Now, here we have this Panavision.

-Wow!

-This camera actually works.

In fact, this camera shot these films back here.

-Dear me.

"Deer Hunter.

"Close encounters of the Third Kind."

-Yeah.

-Now, that was a movie.

♪♪ I see you've got a lot of... -We have some photographs back here from various sets.

John Woo.

-Wow.

-Have known John for many years.

-And you've got obviously Tom Cruise.

-Tom.

Yeah.

That's in Shanghai.

There's Kim Basinger.

-Geez.

I always had a big soft spot for Kim.

When she was in the "Batman" movie, actually.

-Yeah.

-It's a who's who of Hollywood from behind the camera, in front of the camera.

You must be proud of what you've done.

-I am.

There's still more to do.

-Have you ever managed to get any of the ice cream in movies?

-Oh, yes.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-That's fun.

Which ice creams did you use?

-On "Mission: Impossible," we had chocolate chocolate chip.

That was J.J. and Tom's favorite.

We had some of that in.

-I mean, how did this all start?

-I grew up in it.

Just since age 10.

My dad starts me washing churns.

And I grew up making ice cream.

And I grew up eating a lot of ice cream, as well.

-Now, obviously, I have to try some of your ice cream.

-Of course.

-One scoop will be plenty, actually, I think.

-Well, I can't do just one.

-[ Laughs ] Thank you very much indeed.

Now, this is the one that you said Tom Cruise was particularly fond of.

-That is.

-I can tell this is rich with chocolate.

Mmm.

And the type of chocolate you use?

-It's Valrhona.

We use the best we can.

-Wow.

I mean, it's the king of chocolate.

-Yeah.

-That is beautiful ice cream.

-That's the rum and raisin.

-These aren't calorific, are they?

-Not at all.

-[ Chuckles ] -Actually, no.

It's very good protein.

-Oh, yeah.

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

Thank you.

Don't tell me any more.

To get that balance right -- Because sometimes rum can overwhelm.

-Yes, it can and becomes bitter a little bit, too.

It can.

-But the balance between the raisin, the softness on your mouth, and that rum just comes in right at the end.

You're thinking, "Wow."

Because it adds that nice spice to it, as well.

-Mm-hmm.

We make everything from scratch.

My father taught me to drink the cream itself, tasting it because there is a feeling that he had -- And I think he's correct.

He was correct.

If the cows eat too much onion weed, it'll translate into the cream.

So we're very particular which dairies we use and the cream we use.

It's just things like that that people don't do these days.

Doesn't have chemicals in it.

-So it's quality in, quality out.

-Yeah.

Exactly.

-It's a sum of its parts.

That beautiful -- I mean proper, proper ice creams.

It's rare to find nowadays.

-Thank you.

-And they are very, very special.

♪♪ ♪♪ -[Southern accent] My papa was always said, "Life's like a bakery full of donuts.

You never know how many you're gonna eat."

When I broke his record of 35 in one sitting, he sure was proud.

But down here in the South, I got me a hankering for some shrimp.

♪♪ Shrimp is the fruit of the sea.

You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sauté it.

And there's, uh, shrimp kebab, shrimp Creole, shrimp gumbo... -And...cut!

-[Normal voice] Well, it's not exactly "Forrest Gump," but I think you get the general idea.

And, yes, it's not a briefcase.

It's the camera crew's case.

And the chocolates -- well, they're not that good either.

But we're in Savannah... [ Organ playing in distance ] ...with that beautiful music coming from the church, which has been playing for about an hour now.

Now, the thing is about Savannah -- they really celebrate "Forrest Gump."

It's become a bit of a pilgrimage for people to come to Savannah, and there are locations throughout the city where they actually filmed.

Now, I'm gonna take you to a place, actually, you might recognize.

The long-standing family-owned Love's restaurants, popular with churchgoers and pensioners, was transformed by the makers of "Forrest Gump" into...a strip joint?

And I really wanted to know how the owners, Fulton and Debbie Love, felt about that.

-When they first come looking for locations for the film, and they said, "We got a movie coming to town and we'd like to use your restaurant and the old bridge."

And I said, "Sure.

We'll -- That'll be -- That'll be fine."

And I said, "Well, what's the name of it?"

She said, "'Forrest Gump.'"

I said, "What kind of movie..." [ Laughs ] "What kind of movie is 'Forrest Gump'?"

-After they put the dancing girls on all these windows, the public had saw them the day before going home, and all you could hear was, "Love's has turned into a strip club.

Has anybody known?

Love's has turned into a strip bar!"

-No!

Really?

-Yeah.

We just said, "Man, they're gonna leave out of here and we're gonna be -- have a ton of money to spend to get this place back straight."

You'd have never knew they were here when they left.

-I hope they left you a big check, as well.

-They did.

They did.

-[ Laughs ] So, I want to go in and have a chat with your chef and have some food.

Which food do you recommend I eat?

-It's hard to beat shrimp and grits.

-Grits is such a Southern thing, as well.

-It is.

Yellowstone ground grits.

And that little bit spicy sauce that goes with the grits.

It's hard to beat.

-Right.

-It don't do real good with my indigestion, but it's... [ Laughter ] -Resident chef Brandon is the king of spicy shrimp... and of giving Fulton crippling heartburn.

Brandon, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Hello.

How long you been here, Chef.

-I've been here for six years.

-Six years.

-Yeah, I enjoy it.

-[ Laughs ] Are these local shrimps, are they?

-They are local shrimp.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Okay.

I mean, local shrimp brought in here, cooked.

And this place has been around for many, many years, so you know this stuff's gonna be fantastic.

-Add the sauce.

-The shrimp sauce for this Southern staple has bacon... cayenne pepper... red and green peppers... chopped tomatoes, and cream.

This is going to have quite a kick.

And the base for the shrimp -- a ladle, ladle and a half of coarsely ground corn boiled with water and milk.

Classic grits.

How important is grits to Southern cooking?

Is it pretty integral?

-Yes, it is.

It is.

-It is.

-A lot of people we get from up north ask what grits are all the time.

We get that question all the time.

-It's like rice pudding.

[ Laughs ] You've done this a few times, Chef, haven't you?

-I have.

-I mean, it looks amazing.

Beautiful.

There it is.

Southern shrimp and grits.

Thank you very much indeed.

♪♪ Mmm.

Those shrimps really pack a punch.

Wow.

The sauce is lovely.

Ooh.

That's hot.

That's spicy.

-It's spicy.

-Is that quite a normal thing to be so spicy in the South?

Do they like that?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Because the bacon with it, as well.

-The ba-- Yeah.

-And the peppers.

Ohh!

It is really delicious.

And I think the cream mellows it out a little bit.

It's something I would eat in the winter.

Mmm.

The flavor is stunning.

-Thank you, sir.

-Appreciate it, Chef.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

Ooh, I'm gonna pay for that later.

[ Engine rumbling ] ♪♪ That was about as traditional as it gets, but Savannah has changed with the times, and I'm about to take a look at the future.

♪♪ Housed in a former bank, the Local 11ten menu is all about taking a modern approach.

I've heard a lot about this place.

When you think of Southern food, you tend to think of chicken, deep-fried chicken.

But there's a chef in here called Virgil making Southern food pretty hip and pretty cool.

♪♪ [ Chuckles ] Oh, I heard this building was actually a bank before it was a restaurant.

That is very cool.

♪♪ -Nice to meet you.

-How you doing, Paul?

-Heard a lot about you, buddy.

-Oh, yeah?

-Now, the dish that you're gonna cook for us today, what is it?

-It's a tender pork shoulder and a crispy octopus.

♪♪ -What are you doing first?

And I'll take this off 'cause it's a bit warm in this kitchen.

-We'll start putting together the braise for the octopus here.

So we're doing celery, carrots, and then some aromatics and a little bit of onion.

It's a big old guy.

-He's a big fella.

-Alright.

So we're gonna cover this and let it simmer for about three hours or until tender... We're gonna start making our pork braise.

-Coffee?

-Coffee.

-You got big, big flavors in this.

Virgil adds tomato, Worcester sauce, garlic, black peppercorns, hot sauce, brown sugar, and bay leaves.

-To finish our braise here, we're just gonna pour in this duck stock that we make in-house.

We've got our Savannah River Farms pork shoulder right here.

-Pretty big.

-Yeah, they are pretty decent.

They'll shrink down some, though.

We'll just get it searing here, huh?

-Okay.

[ Sizzling ] -I love pork.

I really do.

I feel slightly guilty with the octopus.

And when I was diving, we used to go down and feed this octopus.

And I always feel guilty because they are highly intelligent.

I mean, I love octopus.

I love eating octopus.

-We have some butterkin here, a cross between butternut squash and a pumpkin.

Our butterkin purée is just going to be consistent of our butterkin and heavy cream.

-That's it?

-That's it.

We'll simmer that on low until it's thick, thick, thick, then we'll purée it.

Alright.

It looks like we got a pretty damn good sear on there.

So we'll bring it on over here to the braise and just plop it in, cover it up.

-How long will this cook for?

-Two to three hours.

A nice low and slow.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Right?

-Slow food.

-Lazy food, right?

-Yeah.

-The way I like to call it.

-Virgil toasts some sourdough bread, and, having sliced the octopus, it gets the traditional Southern treatment.

It's deep-fried to perfection.

♪♪ That tender, slow-cooked pork shoulder takes a quick gravy soak before all those meticulously prepared elements are brought together on a base of that creamy butterkin purée.

♪♪ Wow!

That's stunning!

♪♪ -A little Southern surf and turf.

-That's exactly what it is, isn't it?

Yeah.

Wow.

That pork's tender.

With the complexity of flavors that you've got in there, you've ended up with a real celebration of the pork.

I thought all the other flavors would have taken it over.

It doesn't.

The whole dish is so well thought through.

The balance of flavors and textures.

You add all that together, and it tastes absolutely amazing.

I mean, the quality of your food is exceptional.

-Thank you so much.

-Thank you very much, Chef.

That is stunning.

Virgil has got me properly inspired, and it's time to put into practice an idea I have for a Southern dish of my own.

This is monkey bread.

Monkey bread incorporates those beautiful pecans which come from the South of America.

To start with, I've got strong white flour.

I'm gonna add a little bit of salt.

Fast-action yeast.

An egg.

This is an enriched dough.

This came from Eastern Europe.

And this particular recipe, because it's enriched, this is quite -- It's a treat.

I mean, it's a celebration.

It's almost festive bread.

You're also gonna add butter.

That's the fat that's gonna go in there.

Give it a luscious flavor.

Sugar.

Again, I'm adding all the ingredients that you'd expect to see in brioche, for instance.

And then finally milk.

So you've got milk, sugar.

Pushing the mixture together.

Begin to build up the gluten.

You do this for about 5, 10 minutes, pop it back in the bowl to rest, and we can take it to the next stage.

♪♪ [ Sniffs ] Oh!

But let me show you this.

This is a saffron mold.

This is very traditional in France and most of Europe, actually.

You'll see I brushed it heavily with butter inside, all the way around the middle and around the outside.

Now, here I have light brown sugar, which I'm gonna add some cinnamon to.

♪♪ Pecans.

Roughly chop the pecan.

You want to see the pecans in this recipe.

That's the beauty of it.

It's like showing off to your neighbors, really.

Okay.

Here's the dough that's been resting for an hour.

It's got a bit of air in it now.

♪♪ Roughly there.

Roll that out a little bit more.

I want to get 15 balls out of each.

♪♪ Okay.

So we have 30 rolls there.

Now, we've got some melted butter here.

Take some of the sugar-cinnamon mix and just drizzle it into the bottom.

A few pecans in there.

Get one of your balls of dough.

Dip it into the butter.

Dip it into the sugar mixture.

And then place it into the tin at the bottom.

And do that with all of the balls.

There you go.

Kids will absolutely adore this thing.

Pecans on the top again.

And it drops into all those gaps.

This will grow quite high.

It's gonna go just up to the lip of that.

And so it'll take its time.

So just put it in a bag, leave it for about two hours.

And when it comes nearly enough to the top, pop it in the oven, bake it off.

And don't worry about the color.

You've got sugar on the outside.

You've got cinnamon on the outside.

They will go very, very dark.

But that's the point in monkey bread.

♪♪ [ Chuckles ] Look at that fella!

Now you're talkin'.

You think, "What am I gonna put with that to make it even better?"

Well, icing sugar.

Gets a little bit of maple syrup.

A little bit of a mix-around.

And just drizzle it.

The pecan in that is delicious.

The sweetness.

The butter.

It's rich with flavor.

Get yourself a bit of Wild Turkey from the Deep South.

Nice drink.

And make yourself one of those.

♪♪ [ Engine rumbling ] Savannah.

It's such a friendly place.

It's got a pretty cool vibe to it, as well.

And I'm gonna find it fascinating as I move through the States to get that different feel from different places, but, to me, I feel very much at home in Savannah.

I love the food, and I love the people.

[ Engine starts ] See you in New Orleans.

There's just the small matter of 650 miles to cover on the way.

♪♪ ♪♪ -I needed some traveling money, and I had a plan all figured out.

The second I cased the joint, I knew it was ripe for the taking.

[ Chuckles ] [ Cash register dings ] First, I gain the manager's trust.

Do people request this table because of that?

-They do.

They absolutely do.

-As soon as he turned his back...

...I took my chance.

[ Alarm ringing ] [ Up-tempo banjo plays ] So now me and the old girl are on the run!

♪♪ She's the Bonnie to my Clyde.

[ Police siren wailing ] ♪♪ All we've got to do is make it to the state line.

Yee-haw!

♪♪ [ Engine sputters ] Uh-oh.

♪♪ Now I've got to fuel up.

I'll put 87 in.

That'll do.

Literally.

It didn't take much, this tank.

Gets me about 120 miles at a push.

So you can imagine when you're covering such vast areas, you're stopping quite frequently.

Oh.

$4.70.

[ Laughs ] Wow.

That was expensive.

[ Truck horn blares ] ♪♪ I've covered over 643 miles from Savannah to get to here -- just outside New Orleans.

That's the equivalent of riding from London to Prague.

You're left to look around.

It's just literally tens of miles of crops going left and right on both sides of the road.

It is beautiful.

It's beginning to dawn on me now.

It just seems to go on forever and ever and ever.

It is absolutely vast.

I've been on the road now for nine straight hours to get to the city I've always associated with jazz music and one iconic movie character.

[ Spy music plays ] [ Trolley bell dings ] ♪♪ The name's Hollywood.

Paul Hollywood.

♪♪ [ Gunshot ] Well, I've just arrived in New Orleans.

I'm here to check out the food.

And, to me, the food is all about gumbo.

Now, what is gumbo?

That's what I want to discover.

What is the real gumbo?

♪♪ I'm heading to a restaurant called Revolution.

It's in the heart of the French Quarter.

This has been a bit of a game-changer in New Orleans.

The food is contemporary.

It's modern.

It's got a Cajun and Creole twist, and the chef de cuisine holds the secret to these fantastic recipes.

This is nice.

Very tasteful.

Hello, Chef.

Lovely to meet you.

-Hi.

-Hi.

I'm Paul.

-Nice to meet you, as well.

Welcome.

-Now, can I ask you a rudimentary question?

-[ Chuckles ] Sure.

-What is gumbo?

-It's a stew kind of sauce that's roux-based.

So, some of the ingredients that you would commonly find in a gumbo always starts with the basics of Cajun Creole cuisine -- the trinity.

Onions, celery, and bell pepper.

-Right.

-And then, of course, there's always garlic, which we call the pope.

-Why do you call it the pope?

-Because garlic is so important in so many things.

Today we're preparing our version of a refined gumbo called Death by Gumbo.

It is one of our signature dishes.

It shows the evolution of the Cajun Creole cuisine.

-Okay.

-Alright.

So... -Impressive.

-I have just a real basic classic chicken stock, and we're gonna fortify it essentially with all the tiny little quail bits.

These are the wings that we cut off of the quail.

We don't waste anything.

-Yeah.

-I'm also gonna add some slab bacon, house-made tasso, and house-made andouille, some fresh thyme, and bay leaves.

-Andouille?

-Andouille.

It's a large, ground, German pork-based sausage that's smoked with pecan wood.

-There is so many influences in the food, isn't there?

-Yeah.

There truly is.

-I mean, obviously, I get the French and I get the Spanish.

You got the German... -The Germans.

The Native Americans.

-Haitians, as well.

Native Americans.

-Absolutely.

Yes, sir.

The Canadians.

The British.

-What did the British bring?

Fish and chips?

-[ Laughs ] -The roux is made from toasting all-purpose flour in vegetable oil.

It's thickening up beautifully now.

-We're gonna add our onions, mushrooms, and our garlic.

It's gonna actually get darker.

-It is.

Much.

-And that's from all the sugar that's in the onions that's caramelizing.

If you would grab our celery and bell pepper, we're gonna go ahead and add our stock until we get the thickness that we're looking for here.

-Look how silky that is.

-The quail is gonna be stuffed with some Louisiana jasmine rice here.

-Yeah.

-Now I'm going to add an oyster or two.

-Mm-hmm.

-A couple pieces of andouille on either side.

-Mm-hmm.

-We're gonna sear our quail.

-He's a fat little fellow, isn't he?

-He is a fat little fellow.

-[ Laughs ] Once the skin is brown and crispy, the quail goes into the oven on a high heat for 10 to 12 minutes.

-And then here we have a finished quail.

-Look at that.

It's so special.

The smell coming from the gumbo broth.

It's intense.

You can get the garlic.

You can get the mushroom.

You get the onion.

I mean, that is stunning.

That's a bit special.

♪♪ Wow.

Are you married?

-[ Laughs ] Engaged.

-He's a lucky man.

-[ Laughs ] -It's so full of flavor, isn't it?

And as a rounded dish, as well.

The quail with the rice with the oysters.

And backed up by the gumbo at such a perfect consistency and flavor.

That is absolutely delicious.

Now you've got to go to New Orleans.

Death by Gumbo.

What a way to go.

♪♪ Wandering around the French Quarter is like being transported back to the early 1700s, when the city was founded.

Philippe II was the Duc d'Orléans in France, hence New Orleans.

This became very much France away from France.

You've got all those overhanging balconies.

The ironwork all the way around.

It's like going back 300 years.

Elvis Presley famously sang from one of the balconies in the movie "King Creole" way back in 1957.

One thing's for sure -- this place is a real feast for the eyes.

It's as the sun sets that you can really feel the French Quarter bursting into life.

-Whoo!

♪♪ -It's our wedding day.

-Wherever you go in New Orleans, you see saxophonists, you see drummers, you see guitar players.

New Orleans.

It's not just about the art and the food.

It's about music, too.

And they are amazing musicians.

And, in fact, I'm heading to a bar now that's got just that -- music and beer.

Nice.

♪♪ The spirits of Fats Domino and Al Hirt still feel very present here at the Musical Legends Park, where modern-day musicians pay tribute to those jazz icons.

Former Bible and vacuum salesman Steamboat Willie is gracing the stage tonight.

My mum actually came here and listened to this guy.

He's meant to be amazing.

-♪ Jack Daniel's..." ♪ That charcoal taste puts a smile on my face ♪ ♪ For all of humankind ♪ ♪ You ladies can sip martinis ♪ ♪ And gents can swallow your beer ♪ ♪ But absolutely in New Orleans ♪ ♪ All the Jack Daniel's here ♪ -Mum's got great taste because this is perfect drinking music.

♪♪ But you know what?

He does look oddly familiar.

♪♪ Dad?!

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ -I'm on the hunt for a Southern breakfast here in New Orleans, and there's one eatery that's become an institution since it opened in 1863.

Its success is tied to its simplicity, because Café du Monde serves two things, and two things only -- coffee and beignet.

I'm here to check out beignet.

Well, really, the English version is actually probably more like a fritter or a doughnut.

You can get them filled with fruit, but these are actually plain.

And I'll sneak around the back to see if I can see the process.

And I'm looking for Burt, who runs it.

From what I've been told, Burt's been here since the start, which makes him over 157 years old?

Hello, Burt.

Nice to see you.

How are you doing?

-Good to see you.

-You've been here... -I've been here for 32 years right now.

-Oh.

This is a hell of an operation, isn't it?

-Yeah, well, it's 24 hours a day, 364 days a year.

-Are you saying that the bakers are here 24/7, making beignets?

-Making beignets.

Yep, yep.

We're in the heart of the French Quarter.

This is a 24-hour part of town.

-I mean, I've seen a lot of staff here.

How many staff do you actually have working here?

-Right now we probably have about 50 people working.

-Wow.

-Just serving beignets.

You know, you can have your beignets one of two ways.

It's with or without sugar.

Highly recommend the sugar.

-May I try some, please?

-No problem, man.

We got that covered.

-Beignet is basically a soft, enriched dough.

It's fermented in there, and the fermentation in there gives it a little bit of flavor, as well, but it does make it stick.

Look at those rollers.

Look at the amount of flour they've had to put on there to stop the dough from sticking.

Then you've got this beautiful cutter that cuts them all.

Literally just throws it straight into a fryer.

Now, they're in the fryer for around 10 minutes.

I love the fact that you don't even see which fryer it is.

It's either one, two, or three.

-After you've been here a while, you don't have to look.

-[ Laughs ] Fantastic.

And how many doughs would you make in a day?

-10 to maybe 14, 15.

-That's a lot of dough.

-And it's right behind each other.

-Yeah, yeah.

It doesn't stop.

♪♪ She's putting sugar on it.

-Here you go, Paul.

I picked these out myself.

I'm telling you.

And look.

Here's some café au lait.

-Thank you very much.

-Watch out.

They're very hot.

-I will.

Thank you very much, Burt.

-Hey, man.

-I mean, they look amazing.

I mean, I quite like beignet with icing sugar.

I mean, look at the queue, though.

The advantages of being on telly.

That's quite a lot of sugar, don't you think?

Aah!

Aah!

Aah!

When I've got asbestos fingers, that's roasting!

So while we wait a half an hour, I'll have some coffee.

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ And I still can't touch it.

That's mentally hot.

I mean, "hotter than the sun" hot.

She was 25 when I got these doughnuts.

It's quite an open structure.

If you look inside, looks a bit like a choux bun.

It's crispy on the outside, beautifully soft on the inside, but a little bit chewy, too.

And I like that, actually, in a doughnut, beignet, fritter.

I'm not quite sure what you're gonna call this one.

It is a sort of hybrid of all three.

I imagine there's quite a lot of calories in that.

♪♪ Here in the French Quarter, there are plenty of eye-catching sights.

[ Clears throat ] Among those, voodoo shops.

I'm sure I can find something in here with my name on it.

Gambling man.

Cajun man.

Animal attraction doll.

[ Lion roars ] [ Laughs ] ♪♪ Reiki healing doll.

I could probably do that with my buttocks at the moment sitting on the bike for so long.

Maybe she'll do my butt cheeks a lot of good.

Ah.

Here we go.

"The roots of New Orleans voodoo tradition go back to ancient Africa," which is what I thought it did.

"This greatly misunderstood spiritual path came to the New World via the slave trade, and many forms of its practice are still alive and well in New Orleans."

And, again, you hear about it a lot.

"Thanks mainly to Hollywood, there are quite a few misconceptions about New Orleans voodoo."

I'm not taking all the blame for this.

Where's the manager?

Hello.

-Hello.

-So, I was reading up in there about the voodoo.

It came from Africa originally.

-Right.

So, anywhere where there was a large slave population, there's going to be some form of voodoo that sprung up.

-Yeah.

-It's a mixture of African-based religions and Catholicism, along with any indigenous peoples' traditions like Native American practices.

The negative connotations have been just Hollywood.

-Yeah, so they've twisted it slightly to make it fit the genre.

-Yeah, whenever they don't understand something, they can make it darker.

♪♪ -I'm traveling across the States on a custom chopper from New York to L.A., and I want something to help me in that journey.

Is there anything in here that could help me?

-First thing that I would do is we have a blessed potion oil for safe travels.

-Ah, alright.

Which one?

-So, that's something that you could anoint your bike with.

-Safe travel?

-Yep.

-Have you got anything small I can fit on the bike?

-Maybe one of these guys right here.

-That's small.

-They're more for just kind of keeping away negative energy.

But that might help.

-That might help me?

-Yeah.

-To be honest, that'll probably help me.

-Yeah.

-Fantastic.

I'll take these, please.

Much appreciated.

Thank you.

-Thank you.

Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

♪♪ Before I hit the road and head out west, I have one more historic venue to visit.

This place really has an air of royalty about it.

♪♪ And that's because, in the 179 years since it's opened, Antoine's has welcomed presidents, popes, and dignitaries among its patrons.

In 1990, Oliver Stone and Kevin Costner took over one of the 14 themed rooms to shoot a lengthy scene for their controversial movie "JFK."

Even though the famously rich dish Oysters Rockefeller was created here, I'm told there's a Southern classic on the menu for me.

-Hello, Paul.

-Nice to meet you.

-You too, yeah.

-Okay, so, I'm in the famous kitchens of Antoine, and I need to find that classic dish.

Which one are you going to cook?

-I would say our Crawfish Cardinal.

-Is this a very popular dish?

-Yes.

-All locally sourced?

-Uh-huh.

All locally sourced, yes.

-I'm looking forward to this, Chef.

You carry on.

-Cool.

Let me heat my sauté pan.

A little bit of clarified butter.

Get my crawfish.

-How much do you go through?

-Daily, we probably go through 15 to 20 pounds, if not maybe even more, depending on the business.

-That's a lot.

-Yeah.

On peak season, we're probably doing more like 50 pounds.

-Does that represent the Deep South?

-Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that's a big, big thing down here is crawfish.

I got my parsley, green onions, white onion, garlic.

Tomato products, more parsley, you know, salt, pepper.

-That's all thrown into the hot pan.

So, this style of cooking down in the South, is this something which you learned yourself on the job?

-Oh, yeah, a lot of different styles.

There's a lot more French, you know, old French, then they have the Cajun, the Creole.

You know, they have some Haitian foods mixed in.

There's so many different kinds.

I'm going to add a little bit of wine.

-Can't go wrong with a bit of Chablis.

-Yeah.

[ Chuckles ] -Whatever you cook with, you must be able to drink.

Don't think of just buying any old rubbish wine and saying, "I'm going to cook with that."

Why would you do that?

I mean, it wrecks the dish.

Whatever you put in -- If you put quality in, quality comes out.

A thyme, butter, and basil roux goes on top to coat that crawfish.

All the stuff that he's got going in there are some of -- all the things that tick my boxes.

-Basically, I'm going to pan-sear my fish off.

And this is our local drum.

-Right.

And this is local to the Gulf?

-Uh-huh.

Yeah, yeah.

We get that in pretty much daily.

I've never had that.

It looks good.

-Drum's good, yeah.

I'd say it's a lot like redfish.

My sauce is ready.

-Much more than a sauce, though, there, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's almost like another dish on top of it.

A little bit of parsley on top.

-It looks lovely.

-Thanks.

-Well, I'm really looking forward to trying it, but I've got to get out of this kitchen, because, to be brutally honest, it is absolutely roasting.

[ Indistinct conversations ] Joining me for dinner is fifth-generation owner Rick Blount.

This, I've been looking forward to, Rick.

I can see why it's popular.

Got a little bit of spice, he's got in there as well.

The sauce is just beautifully creamy.

Crawfish is delicious.

Sometimes the spices can overwhelm, but this actually complements it.

-It amazes me still that the recipes that we cook every day still hold up, even after all this time.

-I mean, what you're doing is eating a little bit of history.

It's what you're doing.

The history of New Orleans on the plate.

That's delicious.

-Cheers.

-Thank you very much, indeed.

♪♪ ♪♪ New Orleans has been a joy, but it's time to push on.

♪♪ I've got most of Louisiana and the colossus of Texas to navigate on the way to my next stop.

♪♪ ♪♪ And this is a bucket-list moment because, right now, I'm riding the Mother Road.

♪♪ Finished in 1926, Route 66 was America's first super highway that, quicker than ever before, transported millions of people and produce nearly 4,000 miles from Illinois all the way to the sunny Californian coast.

Well, I finally caught up with Route 66 just outside Amarillo in Texas.

Now, I'm heading up to Santa Fe.

It's going to take another three hours or so to get to Santa Fe.

This café is the perfect point to have a little bit of breakfast.

After World War II, car culture exploded all over the States, and people began exploring.

♪♪ With familiar, home-cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the menu, all available 24/7, it's no wonder diners became an icon of American culture.

A great place to stop off for breakfast.

What have you got on the food side?

What's recommended?

-Well, we usually have breakfast.

♪♪ -That's not breakfast.

-It's breakfast -- -That's a buffet for about 120 people.

-You can eat pie anytime.

[ Both laugh ] -Do you make all the pies here?

-My mom makes them every morning.

-Oh, really?

-Yep.

-So, what pies have you got here?

-This one is the chocolate peanut butter.

This is the coconut, chocolate.

We have a pecan.

And this is the Elvis, which is the chocolate, peanut butter, and banana.

-Do you mind if I have a slice of that, please?

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Thank you very much.

-And you'd like a coffee?

-Oh!

-Okay.

I'll get it.

-Only in the States would you have one of those for breakfast.

I mean, look at the size of them.

-There you are.

-Thank you very much.

This is the classic American diner.

I've always wanted to visit a place like this, but to visit on Route 66 for breakfast... Coffee?

Yeah.

Cream pie?

[ Sighs ] Eh, it's part of my job.

Let's have a look, shall we?

I love it.

It's not really for breakfast, but the cream's delicious.

The chocolate inside is lovely, very mousse-like.

The nuts give another texture to it, as well.

And, actually, the crispy base on the bottom is delicious, very buttery.

So the whole -- Then you get a kick of banana, as well.

That's -- That's pretty good.

Everything in the States, brilliant.

[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ ♪♪ I've tipped the odometer just over the halfway point of my epic journey now, and one thing is becoming increasingly clear.

This road trip is proving to be everything I hoped it would be.

It's a life tick for me to travel across the States on something like this.

One scoop will be plenty, actually, I think.

-Well, I can't do just one.

-[ Chuckles ] That is stunning.

-All you could hear was, "Love's has turned into a strip club.

Has anybody known?"

-Are you married?

-[ Laughs ] Engaged.

-He's a lucky man.

It starts to get interesting now because you start to see the mountains.

Just from being like a billiard table to something with a bit more scenery.

It's going to be amazing.

See you in New Mexico.

-Next time, I'll be strapping on my spurs for some cooking in cowboy country.

-You're unique among most people I know.

-How are you?

-Lovely to meet you, buddy.

-Isn't it something?

-I think it's amazing.

Mmm-mmm-mmm.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪