Bienvenue en France.

That's welcome to France to you and me.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm traveling throughout this beautiful country to explore the very best in French cuisine.

Bon appetit.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's a personal journey.

It's just about the best place I've ever been to.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's where I learned to cook.

Now, this is spectacular.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And it was the home and inspiration for one of my biggest food heroes, Keith Floyd.

And what's more?

I've bought his motor.

This was Keith Floyd's very own car for 16 years, and it's now mine.

Gives me goosebumps.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So join me as I rediscover the food destination that has it all.

Look at that.

[chuckles] [theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Today my French adventure brings me to my professional and spiritual birthplace, the magical Saint-Émilion, the place where I first trained to be a chef.

So this is it.

For me, this is where it all started.

My love affair with food and wine, of course.

I started coming here since I was about six years old, to be honest, on holiday.

And then, gradually, when I knew I wanted to be a chef-- I only aged about eight years old-- I got put in some of the most amazing chateaus around here, and then later on in my career, when I was training to be a chef, I worked in a lot of restaurants around here, and one in particular.

So as well as being a food and wine trip, this is a bit of nostalgia for me.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Saint-Émilion lies around 60 miles from France's West Coast, nestled on the right bank of the Dordogne River, a mere stone's throw from Bordeaux if you've got a good arm.

The area has some fabulous food.

But thanks to the Romans, who dug the first vineyards here back in the 2nd century, it's famous for one thing in particular.

JAMES MARTIN: This area has some of the greatest wine in the world.

You've got Figeac, Ozone, Puriza, Cheval Blanc.

The list goes on and on and on.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): You could say the wine here runs in my blood.

My old man was a Chancellor for the Jura Saint-Émilion, an 800-year-old wine club.

But there's wine and there's wine.

Now, there are many chateaux that can lay claim to be the best wine in France.

But if you're asking me my personal favorite, it's this one, Cheval Blanc.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): If you love wine as much as I do, this is your Shangri-La.

Built in the 1830s, Chateau Cheval Blanc is home to the legendary wine 82 Cheval Blanc, and it's one of only four winemakers to receive the prestigious Premier Grand Cru Classé.

In short, they know their stuff around here.

But what's more, it's the perfect setting to whip up my first dish for the crew.

JAMES MARTIN: Now, there are lots of things you can cook with red wine, of course.

I could have done a classic Coq au Vin, beef bourguignon, loads of different things.

But if you think I'm cooking with a glass of this, you're having a laugh because Cheval Blanc should be just for drinking.

So I thought I'd turn my attention to a classic sauce, bordelaise.

Now, so often chefs cook with different sort of wine in bordelaise sauce.

I've seen a lot of French chefs use this, Cot Lurton really, but I'm going to use just a simple little Bordeaux, just a generic Bordeaux.

And for that really, for the sauce, you need a good wine and lots and lots of shallots.

Now, what you need to do is chop these not too small.

You can be nice and fine if you want, but chop these up.

Now, what's been great about coming back here is that this is where it all started for me.

I ventured into the kitchens of some of the most famous chateaux around here.

I never actually got to cook at Cheval Blanc, but places like Monbousquet, which is that way, a little bit.

Purizac, Figeac, lots of shallots for this.

This is what you need.

This is the only bit of real work that you've got to do.

And then I'm going to get a touch of oil.

Just a tiny little bit of oil, first of all, into the pan and get the shallots cooking.

So straight into the pan.

And start cooking these down.

Now, you need to color the shallots a little bit first of all.

Now, they're a classic what they call mother sauces.

There's butter sauce.

There's a white sauce.

And this is one of the red wine sauces.

Deglaze the pan out with the red wine.

I'm going to add a few different things into this-- a little bit of bay leaves.

These are fresh bay leaves.

Just a couple of those.

Few sprigs of thyme.

So this is fresh beef stock.

You've got to make this.

You can't make this out of powdered stock.

The whole process of making a red wine sauce is the reduction, and the reduction thickens up the sauce.

So we take the stock, throw that in, and we reduce this down.

You can see what happens to the stock.

It goes jellify.

Look at this, Rob.

Look.

It's like jelly in there.

As you reduce the bones down, it gets this gelatinous texture.

So we reduce this down even more.

Now, I'm going to serve this with entrecote.

So we've got this beautiful entrecote steak.

You can tell it's beautiful because the marbling of the fat.

Just look at the fat.

It's like butter.

Look at that, Rob.

Now, this is entrecote.

This is kind of like sirloin, really, and to cook this a little bit of oil, tiny bit of oil on the steak.

Get the pan really, really hot.

Really hot.

Rub the oil into the steak.

[sizzling] And then straight on here.

And it was this area, this exact place where I learned to cook steak properly and taste it properly because steak shouldn't be overcooked, shouldn't be well done.

So what I'm going to do now, just sear that off.

In here now we can add a little bit of butter.

Just to add a nice little color.

Just a few knobs of butter to get that color in.

I don't put any seasoning in here, because if you put salt and pepper in at this point, it's going to burn.

If I put salt in it particularly, it's going to draw the moisture out of the piece of beef.

So we just leave it.

Now, always the temptation is with me-- and I've said this before on different shows-- is you start fiddling with food.

Just leave it alone.

No need to prod it.

No I need to turn it over.

Just leave it, and it will quite happily cook.

All while the sauce is reducing it down like that.

Gets thicker and thicker and thicker.

Now, a steak is about there.

Flip that over.

Look at that lovely color on the steak.

What you don't want to be doing with this is overcooking it.

You don't want to ruin steak.

They call it over here bein cuit, or when I was training over here.

Cook it in the style of the English.

Well done.

Definitely not going to do that.

And thank goodness, our tastes have changed over the years.

It's massively different now, our appreciation of food, than what it was before.

I'm going to season it.

Salt.

Season it with salt and pepper, and I'm going to leave that to rest.

Just look at that, Rob.

Beautiful piece of steak.

Nicely cooked, not well done.

And then in here, what we're going to do is then finish this off with our mushrooms.

Never wash mushrooms.

Mushrooms absorb the moisture like a sponge.

And what you have to do with this is just brush them off if you're using wild mushrooms.

But I've got a selection here.

I've got some oyster.

I've got a little bit of large button.

All the while our sauce is reducing.

Take all the juices from the pan as well.

Don't you lose any of those juices from the beef.

Nice hot pan when you're cooking mushrooms as well.

Straight in.

All the time, your sauce is reducing down, which gives me the opportunity to try some of this-- 2011 Cheval Blanc.

This is very good.

Now, when I was taught when I was a young nipper, I was taught to look out for the tears around the glass.

I think you can see that, Rob, as you twist around the glass.

There's a little film that drips through in the glass.

You see that as it drips down?

If it separates out like a clean, polished windscreen, it's no good.

That's perfect.

Now, all the while you got the mushrooms just, just perfect.

And then a little bit of parsley.

We'll just chop a few bits of parsley up.

Throw that in the mushrooms.

A bit of salt.

Bit of pepper.

Quick taste.

Mmm.

Sauce is perfect.

It almost should be slightly sticky, slightly gloopy.

Take out our little bay leaves.

And then finish this off with a touch of butter.

It's what the French call monté beurre, to finish with butter.

And you can only do this if you use really good stock.

Those tubs of stock at home will be perfect for this.

But this is where you get a nice shine to this sauce.

Look at this.

Get in there.

Rob, look.

You get a lovely shine to it.

Great color, great sheen over the top.

So the mushrooms are ready, like that.

We just pour those over the top.

[lighthearted music] And then we've got a classic Bordelaise sauce over the top of that.

And there you have it.

Bordelaise sauce with mushrooms and now half a glass of the greatest wine in the world.

It's good here, ain't it?

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Don't worry.

The crew will be doing the driving from now on.

Cheers, chaps.

My French food adventure has lured me to Saint-Émilion, home to some of the world's most revered wines and the place where I first trained to be a chef.

The village was named after a monk who settled here as a hermit in the eighth century.

Today, its pilgrims are tourists with a taste for the finer things in life.

For me, however, it's a trip down memory lane.

Well, this is it.

The center of Saint-Émilion.

The square in Saint-Émilion.

And a lot has changed.

It's got a lot busier than it used to be, but we used to come here as a family and stay in this flat across here, those four windows.

And that right-hand window was my bedroom.

Round the corner there's a lovely little macaron shop where I got my first sweet tooth, I think.

And then I remember looking at this place.

Back then it was a two-star Michelin restaurant.

Now, it's changed hands and it's a fancy hotel still, but this is where I first experienced life as a proper chef.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): The guys here at the Hostellerie de Plaisance have invited me into the kitchen, the very place where I got my first taste of working with food, and in a professional kitchen like this, there's always a new kid on the block.

So where are you from, then?

Sydney.

Sydney.

You like it here?

- I love it here.

Nice.

I've been in France for three years almost.

Right.

Spend some time in Brittany.

And what brought you to this place?

My girlfriend lives nearby.

It's always a girlfriend, isn't it?

It's always a girlfriend, you know.

No.

Back when I was training, it was about the food.

It was the chef.

It's not about the girlfriend.

No, good chef.

It's all changing.

So it's good for learning.

Yeah.

It's quite unusual, this, because when I-- when I first trained-- how old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

- 26.

- 26.

Oh, he's an old boy, you see.

When I was, like, 12 years old, I used to be down here.

Yeah.

Down here.

You see, this was it.

This was my home.

Nowadays, they've got all the brand new pastry section in there, and it's all air conditioned and really nice, but when I was here, this was it.

All this is new nowadays.

Look, you've got water baths and stuff like that.

We just had an intense stove and an irate chef that used to just-- just-- MAN: We still got that.

You still got that.

You still got that.

We still got that.

Technology is new, but the chefs don't change.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah, you see.

You see.

And-- and-- and the weapons of choice was good.

The rolling pin was quite impressive.

He did get me right at the back of the head from over there.

But this is it.

This is what I saw in France.

One year, this was my France.

♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): You know what?

It's all gone a bit flash round here since my time in the mid '80s.

They're saying that this stove is going to be replaced.

To me, it's-- yeah.

Why would you replace something like this?

It's just-- just great to cook on.

Nowadays, they're after all mod-- least sort of fancy chefs.

They're all after modern things, induction hobs and stuff like that, so they don't get hot.

This is what I remember.

Magical times.

Magical times.

I was about down here, though, then.

Can you imagine it?

The young 10, 11-year-old kid in here.

His eyes open to excitement.

Yeah, those were the days.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Right, before I get too sentimental, best let these guys get on with lunch service so I can sample a little Saint-Émilion fine dining.

Now, it's quite interesting site here.

The place hasn't changed.

It's got a lot busier, a lot more touristy, a lot more cafe bars and bits and pieces, more tourist shops.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So the place is familiar, but what about the food?

[sizzling] Chef is preparing me a steak cooked over vine cuttings and served with a red wine sauce.

Just in case you forgot, they did wine in these parts.

And like all fine dishes around here, there's an artistic take on veg.

It's quite fascinating, this, that they still use the vine prunings.

It just adds a little taint flavor to the meat as well.

Makes all the difference.

Will you have the beef, sir?

[speaking french] JAMES MARTIN: It's interesting that they said the sauce is made out of this stuff, Chateau Pavie.

Now, I would never put this in the sauce.

It's far too good, in my opinion, for that.

The food is very different.

When I was here, it was much more classical.

Nowadays, you've got slidey bits of puree on plates and what looks like powdered stuff.

Mmm.

You get that little hint.

Sounds really weird.

It's woody, but it's not woody.

It's not like chewing on a bit of balsa wood.

The flavor, particularly from those vine prunings, really helps that steak.

It's just delicious.

Do you know what?

I've been waiting for on this road trip, and it hasn't disappointed.

And to be honest, it's quite nice just now and then to be the other side of the fence.

It's good, this.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): But a chef can't stay out of the kitchen for long, and being back in Saint-Émilion has brought back memories of one of my favorite one-pot wonders.

Do you know what?

That was a great trip down memory lane, but the thing that you didn't see is when they cooked that fantastic piece of steak, they brought it to the table, and I thought, yeah, I'm in for a treat here.

They cut a little slice of it and then took the rest away and gave me a little piece, which was nice.

But back in the kitchen, way back in '80 something, when I was working there, I used to do this dish as staff food, and it's a classic dish all over France.

It's otherwise known as Hunter's chicken, but it all starts with preparing the chicken.

And for this, we're just going to remove the little tops of the legs like that, get rid of those, and then portion up the chicken.

So remove the legs.

Just get the knife in there and cut through.

Flip it over.

You can see this part here is called the chef's eye, the chef's oyster.

It's the nicest part of the chicken.

So we cut that out.

So we get that nugget of meat.

Now, a lot of people are wary when they start prepping a chicken because they think it's hacking through bones.

There's none of that.

It's basically just trimming through joints mainly.

So you've got to understand where the joints are.

I was never very good at biology.

In fact, I wasn't very good at anything, to be honest, really.

Failed cookery at school.

Anyway, then you can cut through our carcass like that.

Just give it a whack through.

There we go.

And then chop this straight in half.

So what you end up with is four pieces of dark meat, four pieces of white meat.

Olive oil.

You start browning off the chicken.

Take the chicken straight in the pan and color this for a couple of minutes.

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

Now, it's entirely up to you whether you put bacon in this really, but it's what I used to do way back then.

So you've got the bacon.

We can get the shallots.

Just cut these in half.

[lighthearted music, sizzling] Classic dishes like this should always remain as they are.

Too many times, Chicken Chasseur has been stripped back, and you've got chicken breast meat with it and no bones with it.

The Hostellerie de Plaisance, the place that you've just seen, is the prime example of that.

It's gone all modern and fancy, but it's called Hunter's Chicken for a reason.

It's rustic, and that is exactly what this should be.

So keep the bones in it, all the chunks of veg, that kind of stuff.

That's all the flavor.

So we sear it off first.

Lift this out.

You always try where possible to get a bit of color onto this.

That will help darken the Chasseur as well.

So we throw the shallots and the bacon in and start to color it.

Now we can add the garlic.

So I've kept the skin on the garlic, just crushed it like that, because it's all going to cook gently anyway.

And now we can add our tomato puree.

Now, this is really key for this.

You add about a tablespoon of tomato puree.

Now, the tomato puree will add flavor, but also it will help thicken the sauce.

Another thing that will help thicken it is just a touch of flour.

And you only want a tiny bit at this stage.

So about half a tablespoon will be enough.

But then we can grab some red wine, Saint-Émilion red wine.

And this is where this dish varies so much.

Sometimes you can have it with white wine, and cream I've had it with, as well.

So there's no real set recipe.

It's each to your own.

Good little bit of chicken stock, we can throw in as well.

Get that bringing to the boil.

We can pop our chicken back in.

And then tarragon.

Now, classic Chasseur doesn't have to have tarragon in it.

It can have a variety of different herbs.

But for me, this is one of the ingredients that is a must.

If you can't find fresh tarragon, you can use dried.

And then we've got a few mushrooms.

I like to use some little brown cap mushrooms, as well.

You can use wild mushrooms, entirely up to you, but they get thrown in as well, the whole lot in.

And then, finally, it's about the tomatoes.

Now, this is a dish exactly how I used to do way back in the 1980s, where you just chop the tomatoes and throw them in.

And all we do now, give it a good blast of salt and pepper.

Now, you can either cook this now in the oven for about an hour or on the stove top now for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Either way, you can enjoy a nice glass of Saint-Émilion.

It's good stuff, this.

[lighthearted music] Now, there are so many complements you can serve with Chasseur-- salad, green beans, that kind of stuff.

But it has to be mashed for me.

So I've got some pre-cooked potatoes, which I'm going to pass through a masher.

This is a masher.

So you get the par-cooked potatoes and pop them in.

And you've got to do this in stages, really, this one.

So squeeze.

[groans] [upbeat music] Squeeze.

[groans] ♪ ♪ Come on.

♪ ♪ That was easy.

Next, proper mashed potato should be a combination of not milk.

It should be cream and butter.

Don't worry about the diet.

If you love your loved one, it doesn't matter what shape or size they are, does it?

Might be a bit bigger after this bit of mash.

Look.

Cream and butter.

Mix this together.

I always find mashed potato-- it should line your esophagus while you're eating it.

You know what I mean?

You know it's going to be good for you, but it's going to be bad for you.

So it's one of those things that, when you eat it, you should feel the need to phone A&E because it is proper stuff, this.

You just mix this together, so you end up with creamy mashed potato like that.

And then, finally, just to finish off your Chicken Chasseur, you need a bit of seasoning.

And a good tip whenever you're using fresh tarragon is always to put more in at the end.

It just kicks the flavor even more.

And of course, it wouldn't be French cooking without a little bit of butter just to finish it.

[lighthearted music] Now we can serve it.

You've got a nice dollop of your mashed potato.

Like that.

And then, of course, your chicken.

I love this dish.

It's so, so simple.

The flavors are just ace.

I can't wait for a taste of this.

I've been cooking this dish for over 30 years now, and it's still as good as I tried it for the very, very first time in that restaurant in Saint-Émilion.

That is a true French classic.

That's delicious.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I've traveled to the picture perfect Saint-Émilion in the Southwest of France, where my love affair with food began.

Now, the area might be known for its spectacular wines, but when I was a nipper here, it was another speciality that had me drooling at the shop windows-- macaron.

But forget your common fancy colored varieties.

At this particular macaron shop, the lovely Elodie and her colleagues make their macarons to the original secret almond recipe invented by nuns in the early 1600s.

So you are in the original shop in Saint-Émilion.

We are making the original macaron, which was invented in 1620, and we bake them with fresh, sweet, and bitter almonds, so sweet almonds and bitter almonds.

Every morning, we put them in a boiled water, and after that, we peel off by hand, and we put them in the oven just one, two hours, around to make them a little bit dry.

We put in this machine, and they will crunch the almonds with some sugar to make the marzipan.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): When it's ready, they mix in egg white and sugar, pipe out the mixture, and shape each individual macaroon by hand before popping them in the oven for 20 minutes.

Now, legend has it that the secret recipe was leaked to local families by a nun who visited Saint-Émilion during the French Revolution, and it seems to fit in well with the local love of Oh, that's very good with the Cordeliers.

Cordeliers, that's a sparkling wine from Saint-Émilion as well, so that's pretty good.

That's a really good mix.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Sounds good to me.

And Elodie's macarons have given me an idea for a classy French pud that's easier to make than you might think.

[music fades] Now, there are, of course, lots of classic dishes that I could use this red wine for.

But Saint-Émilion, you don't want to waste this.

It's a drop of good stuff, so I thought I'd make a dessert really, not using macarons, which are famous from Saint-Émilion.

But I'd use the red wine to make a wonderful poached pear with red wine.

So, first of all, it all starts off with Conference pears.

What I'm going to do is basically just peel these, because by peeling them, you get all that nice flavor and the red wine absorbed into the fruit.

What I like to do is just basically flatten off the base, not only because you can make the pear stand up after they're cooked, but also you can get the core out.

To do that, you need a melon baller.

And just work your way down, and you'll get to a point where and the core comes out.

And then it's a matter about poaching these little fellas, so we'll stick them in the pan.

Got to use Saint-Émilion wine for this, just a little bit.

[gentle instrumental music] ♪ ♪ Don't worry, I've got a glass.

Ah.

Then, we're going to flavor these with a touch of vanilla.

We just basically scoop out the seeds, throw them in, and then just a little bit of sugar.

And then what you need to do now is bring this to the boil.

Don't boil them too rapidly.

Otherwise, the top parts of the pear break off.

Once they've come to the boil, then just simmer these nicely.

They'll take about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how ripe they are, and then leave them in the syrup.

That's the key to this.

Now, if you take a jar that's sterilized, one that you pour boiling water in, and tip it out and pop the pears in when they're cold, you can keep these for a good few months.

But, ideally, they want to be in this red wine for at least two days, and you end up with this beautiful color.

You can have these with a cheese board.

You can have them just served on their own with ice cream.

But what I'm going to do is I'm going to serve them with a soufflé, but a soufflé with a difference because this is kind of like a foolproof soufflé.

Now, I say that because I'm setting myself up for a fall here.

But the key to this is actually one ingredient, and that's the custard.

And it's cheating, this.

What you need is four medium egg whites.

Chuck them into the machine.

Then what we're going to do is prepare our molds.

So we've got here two little nice soufflé molds, a little bit of softened butter with your finger to get right into the corners.

Then grab yourself some sugar, and we tip the sugar in.

Swirl it around so the sugar nicely coats the inside of the mold like that.

And then what we do is cheat.

This is bought-in custard, not glow-in-the-dark yellow custard, fresh Custard.

And we need about 4 tablespoons-ish, but that is the key to getting a good soufflé every single time.

So we get our egg whites whisked up.

Just whisk these up till they're nice and firm.

[gentle instrumental music] Right, your egg whites are ready.

And then you grab your egg whites, and you fold them in.

Now, ye olde recipes will tell you to cut, fold, figure of eight, cut, fold, figure of eight.

Get this thing in the oven as quick as possible So you fold it in carefully in two or three stages.

So you've got your soufflé mixture.

Next, pop this in our little pot.

And then you need to get your palette knife, and you're creating a nice little dome.

Now, get the almonds in there.

We've got the world's smallest flaked almonds.

Soufflé, oven, 10 minutes, the clock's ticking.

Meanwhile, we can make our syrup for our pears.

So bring this to the boil and then simmer this for about three or four minutes.

So once you've got this thick, sticky syrup, then you can grab a few of these pears.

Chuck them in.

That's what the syrup does is create this wonderful glaze over the top of the pears.

We're just going to get ready for our soufflé now.

[upbeat instrumental music] Take a nice pear on the plate, a bit of the syrup, scoop of ice cream.

That's it.

We're now ready.

We have our soufflé.

Dit-da-da, dit, deh!

So there you have it, poached pears with red wine, the world's smallest almonds, ice cream, and custard soufflé.

Now, the key to doing this at home, next time you do it, is make sure you've got another bottle of wine.

Before the guests arrive, hide the custard.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm nearing the end of my time in Saint-Émilion, an enchanting place near the banks of the Dordogne.

It boasts exquisite cuisine and exceptional wines.

No wonder it left such a big impression on me as a boy.

But I'm not the only Brit who's come out here to work.

This stunning scenery and fantastic wine has had its effect on many.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And this clever chap, in particular, Jonathan Maltus, OBE, a former engineering salesman who arrived here 25 years ago, he's now made his name as a top winemaker with a very, very special wine.

So in '96, Lyn and I were lucky to get a parcel next door to a chateau called Chateau Angélus, and we made a new wine called Le Dome.

And with the 2010 vintage, this got 100 points from Robert Parker and signed us off as being, in theory, having just made the perfect wine.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Scoring top marks from a world-renowned critic is an astonishing feat, but this region is a wine buff's wonderland, with enough variety to satisfy any palate.

JONATHAN MALTUS: The river on the left bank, it's basically the Médoc.

This is Cabernet Sauvignon dominated wines.

And here on the right bank, smaller properties, and we're Merlot driven.

So there is the two sides to Saint-Émilion.

There is the Cote, which is basically the hilly side and then the plain.

From the plain, the majority of wines are early drinking, quick drinking.

On the Cote, which is essentially clay over limestone as opposed to sand mainly down here, you have all of the Cru classes of Saint-Émilion.

So, therefore, if you want to make really great wine, you've got to buy some land up there.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): With wine, so much is down to location.

And that's never truer than here in France.

JONATHAN MALTUS: The French are completely obsessive about the concept of place, or terroir.

And it's always confusing sometimes to people who grow up understanding wine by looking at the label and seeing Cabernet Sauvignon.

There's something rather reassuring about that.

So you learn-- many people in the world learn their wine drinking through grape variety.

And when you come to a French label, there's nothing on it.

The same with cheese, it's the same as wine.

The whole thing about France is an obsession with place.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So when you buy your bottle of French plonk, you're not looking for chardonnays or pinot noirs.

You're looking for Chablis, burgundies, or even a lovely Saint-Émilion.

It's not the grape so much as where it's grown that counts here.

And it's that sense of place that's important to me, too.

So I'll be cooking my next dish here in Jonathan's vineyard, if that's OK with him.

James is more than welcome to come and cook.

And if he does, I'll bring the wine.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now, Jonathan, that's an offer I can't refuse, once I've finished my afternoon snack, of course.

Macaron, "macaroon," whatever you call it, "scahne," scone, who cares.

Stick it in your mouth and enjoy it.

Mm.

They're delicious.

Now, I could cook something with these.

And I'd like to do a chocolate mousse.

However, currently at this present time, it's about 35 degrees.

So while you're watching this, I will go deeper and deeper shades of red, OK?

Now, I thought I'd do a lovely fish dish.

Now I cook this dish first of all at the Plaisance, which we've been to, of course.

And this was done with hake.

It was hake Beurre Blanc with steamed potatoes.

But what I'm going to do is just take a little bit of ling.

Now, this is a wonderful little white fish.

You can use hake if you can get it.

You can use haddock.

But, so often, when it's fresh, it's quite floppy, quite delicate.

So by salting it a little bit, just for about 10 minutes, it firms up the flesh nicely.

And I'm going to serve this with a classic Beurre Blanc.

Now, there's variants of this all over France.

This is a classic sauce that's thickened with butter.

And our producer said, we'd love to do this sauce.

It's classic, fits in with everything you've done really.

But, ideally, what you need for Beurre Blanc is very, very cold butter, which we haven't got.

So I'm going to give it my best shot and try this.

But, first of all, what we do is make a reduction.

And for that, we use some shallots into the pan.

And then we add aromatics, like white peppercorns.

These ones, I don't often use white peppercorns really.

White pepper, my tendency, I put it in mashed potato really, and that's about it, and a reduction like this.

So a few white peppercorns, a little bit of fresh thyme, a few sprigs, a touch of bay leaf.

This was fresh until 15 minutes ago, and now it's dried.

That goes in.

Now, you need a reduction for this.

It's the aromatics, the things that are in the pan, the shallots, the peppercorns, the time, the Bay leaf, and you get the reduction from this, white wine vinegar.

Now, sometimes, you can use white wine.

Sometimes, you can use white wine vinegar.

Today, I'm going to use both.

But you just get white wine vinegar, just a good glug.

Now, what this will do is actually cook the shallots, as well, while it's reducing.

And then we take equal quantities white wine vinegar, together with some amazing white wine from this chateau where I'm cooking now, just a little bit, because most of it's going in the glass because I'm getting hot.

That's H-O-T, for those people who don't understand Yorkshire, or 'ot.

Woo, that's good, that.

Next, we reduce this down now.

While that's reducing down, and we're waiting for our cold butter to get cold, over here I've got a steamer.

And I'm going to steam my veg for this.

Now, I'm going to go right back.

Now, chefs watching this will laugh their heads off, to be honest, because this is something that you learn at college.

One of the techniques that I say I mastered over here-- I haven't done this for about 10 years.

This is the art of turned veg.

Now, it's kind of a forgotten art, this sort of stuff.

If you go back to ye olde cookbooks, the kind of cookbooks that you've got, Rob, those ones, they'll have these in there.

You'll see pictures of it.

But this is what cooking was like.

It was basically preparing the veg like this.

Eight weeks, I was stood there doing this.

It's not finished yet.

Carrot, similar one with the carrot.

Now, all the while this is happening and I'm changing color, the pan is reducing down to almost nothing.

This is the reduction.

What you want is the essence of the wine and the vinegar, the shallots, the peppercorns, everything else.

What you don't want is liquid, because when you add the butter, that liquid will split our sauce if we're not careful.

There you go.

We've got enough there, I think.

But what I'm going to do is steam our veg.

So we take all of our veg, whack it into a steamer like that, and get that cooking nicely.

All the while, this is reducing down nicely.

Meanwhile, we can prepare our piece of paper for our fish, a piece of like that.

Fold this over.

I'm doing this because this is exactly how we used to do it way back then, like that, and then taking our piece of fish.

It's a good idea, that salt trick, it starts to firm it up really.

It's kind of perfect for this.

Cut it through like that.

We'll probably do a nice piece like this onto our greaseproof paper.

A little bit of seasoning, black pepper, we take our nice carrots and our courgettes, which are cooking nicely.

Now, look at this color in here.

Rob, get in here.

Look, look, look, look, look, look at that.

Look at that.

Now, stay on it, Rob.

Stay on it.

Don't you leave me.

We take the fish in there.

Put the lid on and cook it away nicely.

Next, while that's happening, we've got a few chives, so diced chives.

The thing is, with a Beurre Blanc, you want to make sure you've got everything ready.

So you've got it all set.

So now the key to this is cold butter.

It's cold.

[bangs butter] Right.

Now what I'm going to do is make a classic Beurre Blanc, that sauce, ideally in a cold kitchen.

But out here, it should be just as good.

So you take your whisk.

All the liquor is almost gone.

You see, get in there.

Look, Rob, almost disappeared, look.

There's not a lot of liquid left in there.

But then what we do is we take our butter.

Now, if you're into health food, you might want to turn away at this point because this dish is not for you.

This is butter, just a little bit.

All right.

Don't go ruin this at home and make it with margarine.

It's butter.

It's called Beurre Blanc for a reason, white butter.

We mix this all together.

And you keep whisking it and whisk it and whisk it and whisk it.

And the idea is that as the butter melts, it thickens up to create a sauce.

I used to make this to order.

And if it wasn't right, it was generally the contents of the pan that was thrown at me from one end of the kitchen to the other.

Now, you thought there was enough butter in here with the packet.

Just a little bit more, it's nearly there.

[uptempo instrumental music] Starts to thicken even more.

Now, at the same time now, we can take our fish out.

This is ready.

Lift this out.

Leave that to one side.

You've got your nice little bit of turned veg, and then we take another little bit of butter.

So there's a theme throughout all this.

A little bit of butter like that.

You just roll that around in the bottom of the pan because we use this to glaze our carrots and our courgettes, so they go in.

Once they're glazed, they can go back into our saucepan like that.

Now in our pan, we put our spinach.

We're just going to wilt this down nicely.

And then, finally, pass this through a sieve.

So what you end up with is the essence of the butter, the aromats, and everything else but without the shallots.

And you can see that the butter has actually thickened the sauce.

And I blame this probably for my love affair with butter, to be honest.

I spend so much time doing it.

And then, finally, into our sauce we grab some fresh chives.

They're going to go in.

Now, I never got to do this in the hotel.

This is the special bit.

This is the bit that requires 20 years of experience, putting it on the plate.

Now, I'm doing this exactly the same way as it was served back then.

This was two Michelin stars back then.

It's a little homage to Saint-Émilion.

Look at that, quite happy with that.

Next, take our fish.

Pop it in the center.

And then, finally, your classic Beurre Blanc.

And after that, I need a glass of wine.

It's good, that.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So there you have it, my delicious steamed ling with turned veg and a beautiful Beurre Blanc.

Perfect, with a little chilled white wine.

Let's see what Jonathan's lot make of it.

Well, they're certainly getting stuck in.

Very nice.

Yeah.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'd say my Beurre Blanc has been a hit with these guys.

And Saint-Émilion is certainly a hit with me.

It's where I first fell in love with cooking.

This is it.

This is what I saw of France.

One year, this was my France.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): A place that blends modern fine dining-- - It's good, this.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): --with 400-year-old confectionary.

And, of course, it's a wine lover's paradise.

Woo.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Saint-Émilion, for me, you're one in a "milion."

Sorry.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [music fades] And now half a glass of the greatest wine in the world.

It's good here, isn't it?

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Don't worry.

The crew will be doing the driving from now on.

Cheers, chaps.

Coming up on my French adventure in Saint-Émilion, I'll be visiting the exclusive hotel kitchen where I first worked as a young chef.

Can you imagine it?

The young, 10, 11-year-old kid in here, his eyes open to excitement.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And in my home kitchen, I'll be mostly wrestling with a potato ricer.

[grunts] That was easy.

[theme music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My French food adventure has lured me to Saint-Émilion.

That's delicious.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Coming up on my culinary trip to Saint-Émilion, we see marvelous macarons, made to a recipe nearly four centuries old.

And back in my home kitchen, I'll be busting the myth that soufflés are trouble.

[theme music] [theme music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I've traveled to the picture-perfect Saint-Émilion in the south-- Hide the custard.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Still to come on my French adventure in Saint-Émilion, I'll be meeting a fellow Brit, who's become a local wine hero.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And to you, sir.

And I'll be cooking up a classic French dish for his family in the middle of their stunning vineyard.

[theme music] [theme music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm nearing the end of my time in Saint-Émilion.