Original subtitles

There is one special place where I worked as a young chef

that has remained close to my heart.

Didn't think I'd come to France and find the Barnsley chop.

And one region in particular that is full of passionate producers

and incredible ingredients.

This is Provence.

We are going to be discovering the secrets

of the very best and simplest French cooking.

That is a discovery.

Nice and easy, simple dinner for one.

I'll be sharing tips, tricks and techniques...

We've got flavours of Provence.

There's sunshine for you.

..and enjoying a bit of friendly rivalry along the way.

That was close! I'm a little nervous.

I knew I wouldn't be able to fool them. Yes!

LAUGHTER

All in the name of bringing you a simple taste of Provence.

When you think of France, certain things spring to mind.

Baguettes, boules,

fashion, frogs' legs,

but there's an everyday ingredient we all adore

that's even more popular here than potatoes,

and whether you consider it a fruit or a vegetable,

there's no denying that in Provence, tomatoes are king.

How good does that look?

First brought here in 1790,

this region is now France's biggest tomato producer,

and they produce a lot.

You've got your little cherry tomatoes,

you've got your plum tomatoes,

you've got these big stunning tomatoes, even these orange ones.

That looks familiar, look at that, like a massive heart.

So I've fallen in love,

but how do I know if these toms are ready to buy?

It's not too soft.

It's not firm.

There's a, there's a loveliness about it.

And their aroma?

They smell ripe.

They smell sweet.

They smell delicious.

Could they get any better?

What I love about markets here in Provence

is that everything's affordable.

Well, affordable compared to British prices.

What more could I possibly want?

Even more choice?

How many varieties have you got here?

I have 50 varieties. 50?

Yes. Bingo!

That's quite a lot. Yes.

Why do you grow so many?

I love to, to cultivate, and the taste is not the same. OK.

And how about a top tip for storing them?

Back home, lots of people put the tomatoes in the fridge.

Never! Never? Ever?

You lose every flavour of the... From the tomato? Yeah.

It's clear to see from this market alone

that tomatoes here are a big deal.

So I imagine they're the star in a lot of delicious local dishes.

Can I pay for those? Thank you. Thank you.

I'm making it my mission to find the simplest,

yet most impressive Provencal tomato recipe.

I've heard a lot about a traditional,

versatile and above all, easy sauce.

Seems like the perfect place to start.

Merci, au revoir. Au revoir. Au revoir.

This is an amazing batch cook recipe.

Make it in bulk and store it in the freezer for those days

when you don't have time to cook.

It's delicious with pasta, fish.

The possibilities for using it

to bring a taste of Provence into your kitchen are endless.

I've just chopped up a little bit of garlic, small white onion,

just half of one.

I've got some local oil.

Into my pan.

I'm just going to get that gently frying off.

The nice thing about tomato sauce, you don't need

to use expensive tomatoes.

You could use tinned if you want.

All you're doing is, you're just concentrating the flavour.

You're taking the humble tomato, chopping it up,

adding it with a few ingredients

and just making it taste that little bit better.

Look at that green tomato.

I was actually quite staggered by the variety of tomatoes

on the stand.

Incredible, actually.

Pinch of salt.

Twist of pepper.

And of course, herbes de Provence.

Well, it wouldn't be a Provencal tomato sauce without this.

It's a blend including rosemary, thyme, and oregano,

but you can use any dried herbs you have hiding away in your cupboard.

It's really easy to go to a supermarket

and buy a ready-made tomato sauce, but personally,

you know, I think they are a little bit expensive

and if you can find yourself some affordable tomatoes,

some tinned tomatoes, you can still do great things with them.

You really, really can.

So, as that cooks away, the water starts to evaporate,

the flavour of the tomato just gets stronger and stronger,

and the more flavour comes out of it.

Fantastic.

Little bit of sharp vinegar

and you've got yourself a lovely little sweet and sour tomato sauce.

And there we have it,

a super-simple delicious tomato sauce with just a few ingredients.

But is it the ultimate easy tomato showstopper?

I don't know, I think with a bit of schooling,

I can do even better.

And I've got a secret weapon up my sleeve,

but before I reveal all,

I need more tomatoes,

so I'm stopping by Fabien and Laurene's farm

for a bit of pick your own.

I just have to find them first!

So far, all I can see are weeds that are taller than me.

Where are they?

Fabien? Yeah?

Where are you?

I'm here.

Where's here?

Here!

How do I get...?

Ugh.

LAUREN LAUGHS

Ah, bonjour, bonjour! Bonjour!

Look at these two, buried in tomatoes and weeds.

It's like a jungle.

Bonjour! Bonjour. Bonjour. Bonjour.

Nice to see you again.

I've got to ask you, why all the weeds?

Why do you let them grow?

It's organic, we don't use products, so...

Nothing? It's nature.

This is it. You have to accept it.

Does it not fight with the growth of the tomato?

Yes. It does?

It's good for the tomatoes.

We have more taste like this.

So the fact that the tomatoes are fighting with the weeds

is making the tomato plant stronger and stronger and stronger...

The taste is better like this.

In my farming, in my growing, I love perfect lines,

I love perfect walkways.

This here, for me, this is hell.

It's quite extraordinary.

But give me that basket.

You know, look at that.

This beauty, this deliciousness,

this stunning collection of tomatoes

is amongst all of this.

I love the fact that you can keep it that simple and deliver,

you know, this beautiful product, because a lot of farming,

and farmers, would never do this.

We know that there is less productivity

because it's more difficult to let it grow, we know that,

but we know that it's better for people.

It's better for taste, it's better for us,

and it's better for soil.

There's a tomato in here that's, well, is it even a tomato?

It's like a... It's a peach.

It's got, like, a fur. Yeah.

Can I try? Yeah, of course. Yes.

Can you do me a favour? Can you just hold that for me?

I have something that I think would make this better.

OK.

Oh!

Is this OK?

You are so crazy. Ah, I'm a chef.

I'm a chef.

Now, we're going up to different levels.

I have to say...

That is fantastic.

That is a discovery.

There is a fruitiness about it, and the texture of the skin

is completely different to all of these, the texture is soft.

Oui.

That's incredible.

I wonder what other mysterious varieties are hidden

amongst the undergrowth?

We love this one, because there is a story behind this tomato.

The name of this tomato is la tomate du voyageur.

It's travel tomato. Ah.

Because they just take a piece like this, look,

they eat it and after, they keep the rest for the next traveller.

The next journey? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

That's like, it's like a little brain. Yeah.

Now for the real reason I'm here,

to pick tomatoes for a very special kitchen

where I'm going to be getting some advice

from a very important local cook, and here's a clue.

What were the school meals like when you were at school?

They weren't good. Was it? Yeah. Really?

But everything changed. I think now, it's better.

Really?

My dad used to provide fruit and vegetables, potatoes, to all,

to quite a lot of schools where I'm from. Oh, cool.

And the school meals were very basic

and then when they stopped the potatoes, the fruit, the vegetables,

it just got worse and worse.

Ah, oui.

But do you know the worst thing? Custard?

Oh. Pink. Ah! Yeah.

With a bun on top that had pink icing sugar.

Bleugh! I know.

You guessed it, I'm going back to school!

I think that's absolutely perfect.

Where better to learn the secrets of simple,

delicious French food than with one of the local dinner ladies?

Meet Maude and Sebastian, who works with the school.

Hello. Bonjour.

I brought a present. Super, merci.

Unbelievably, Maude is preparing a three-course lunch for the children,

and it's not because she's trying to impress me, she does this every day.

Today's meal starts with a chilled gazpacho

with cake and cream for dessert but the main event is soupe au pistou,

packed with fresh, locally grown vegetables, beans and pasta.

It's a minestrone soup in the style of St Remy.

C'est une minestrone Provencale.

D'accord!

C'est pas Italien?

Non, c'est pas Italien.

It's quite unusual to see this many vegetables for children.

This is proper fresh cookery. It's beautiful.

Yes, it's...

I want to come to school here!

I'm definitely too old for that, but I am a student in Maude's kitchen.

Six goes in... Six?

And after she instructs me to add some tomatoes to the soup,

I'm on pesto duty.

Come, come with me. Basilic.

Garlic.

Olive. Olive oil? OK?

All these ingredients in front of me,

the freshness of them is like any top restaurant would use.

I mean, the basil itself is beautiful.

Pesto's something I never had at school.

Definitely not fresh basil.

Well, I suppose that was a long time ago.

This, to me, sounds very expensive.

This is the best produce.

I don't think back home in the UK, that we would,

could afford to do this.

How much does it cost to feed a child?

A meal costs ten euros per child.

But the price the families pay

is between two and three euros.

Cooking organic is, of course, a bit more expensive,

but when we changed our practice, we also decided to reduce waste,

because in our normal kitchen, you would cook more and waste more,

so it's reduced the price.

We serve them small quantities

and then if they want more, they can have more. Ask.

It turns out the tomatoes that went in the soup were just blanching

so they could be added to the pesto, and hey presto,

it's now pistou, hence the name of the dish,

soupe au pistou.

Now it all makes sense!

What other types of food do you feed them?

I mean, this smells delicious, by the way.

Calamares. Calamari? Mm. Squids. Squid?

Yes. You feed children squid?

Yes.

With, a la c'est trois, with a bisque d'homard.

Bisque..? Vin blanc, yes.

With um... Sorry, sorry.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Lobster bi...

you serve lobster bisque to the children of this school?

Oui, c'est ca. Yes! Les calamares with...

With calamari?

I can't believe what she's just said.

You're kidding me?

Lobster bisque, bisque homard...

Oui, bisque d'homard. To children?

Aux enfants, oui, bien sur. Yes! Il y a eu plus rien.

Ils ont tout mange, avec le...

et on, on met la sauce, c'est l'aioli.

I don't, I can't believe that.

I can't believe that I, that, that a school chef

serves her children lobster bisque with squid and aioli,

and they eat it all?

Yeah. Wow!

And they are back, because the food and the meals are very tasty,

the children eat lots of it

and then that contributes to reduce food waste.

That's a proper meal. That's...

That's a proper meal, yes.

That's cooking at its very, very best. Mm.

So, this restaurant is almost like a classroom?

I need to come back to school!

Now I know I've come to the right place to get some advice

about the best tomato recipe in Provence

and it's not pistou Maude is recommending, it's a tart.

Des bonnes tomates mures deja. Mm.

Good tomatoes. Good tomatoes.

Apres des, d'huile d'olive. Oui.

Sel, poivre. Oui.

Herbes de Provence.

So cook the tomatoes in the oven with oil, salt...

Yes. D'accord, apres?

Apres au four. Au four.

Uh, a 180.

Oui. 180 degrees.

Mais avec un petit peu d'humidite. With some moist.

Mm, roast tomato tart, I can definitely do that.

Et les aubergines. Aubergine.

Meme cuisson que les tomates. OK.

Et apres tu...mozzarella avec un peu de creme ou de mixer.

So, mozzarella, cream on there, and that's going to go on top

of aubergines, cooked tomatoes, and pastry.

Oh, and there's more.

Et apres tu peux faire une, juste une huile.

That's not a very simple recipe, is it? Uh...

Apres c'est pas ma specialite, huh?

She's a chef Michelin!

Oops, that bell means the students are lining up outside

and I've been distracting Maude in the kitchen.

We need to feed these kids!

Can I do that?

The soup needs to go into big containers and to be taken

into the dining room, where the children receive table service.

It's honestly like a fine dining restaurant,

but all my talking in the kitchen means we've made a mistake.

I forgot to put the pasta in the minestrone.

That's my fault.

Mix it.

Now it's finished, there we go.

Crisis averted.

And just in the nick of time

as the kids come piling into the dining room,

ready for their lunch.

Do you know what's really interesting,

what I find quite extraordinary is, these young kids right now

are about to have a three course lunch.

I grew up in the wrong country, I think.

So well behaved!

So quiet.

Not one single person that has sat down

has touched the bread on the table.

If that was in my school when I was growing up,

all those bread baskets would be empty by now.

Not because we'd have eaten them,

because we'd have probably thrown them at each other!

Ah, here's the soup.

The first course is a true celebration of tomatoes,

although not exactly Provencal, gazpacho.

My wife loves this, I bet she wishes she was here now.

But perfect to cool the kids off on this rather warm day.

Mademoiselle, voila.

Voila, monsieur. OK?

Good? Good? All good?

Good, good.

Not so much?

I'll speak to the chef.

Main course is up, seems like the pistou I made is going down well.

It's quite incredible that all this fresh veg, they're all eating it.

It's fantastic to see such young people eating local great food

and cooked with real love and attention.

And look, they're, they're all eating.

Superb!

I'm already doing seconds and I've not even finished the first round.

These kids know what good food's all about.

The boys over there have got their hands up, they want more.

The soup, c'est bon? It's good?

Third course is home-made lemon polenta cake

with a mint-infused Chantilly cream.

Oh, did you hear that noise?

Of course it is.

Oh, wow!

Great day at school.

I never thought I'd say that.

Just look at how happy these children are.

I hope I can get this reaction from Maude later.

I've decided she should be the judge of my recipe.

I've taken her advice and opted for a roast tomato tart,

but my version is super-simple and if I may say so myself,

absolutely beautiful.

I'm excited to show you this one.

So, frozen pastry is absolutely fine,

especially for a tart like this.

This frozen pastry, defrosted.

Good to just take it out overnight, put it into the fridge.

First thing I'm going to do is make it look pretty.

Little bit of eggwash around the outside,

and what we're going to do is, we're going to create an edge.

It is pretty hot out here, so I'm doing this quite quickly.

My first finger down of my left hand, and then with my thumb

and first finger, just pull it over the top, and that just creates

a beautiful little edge that'll be nice and crunchy and crispy.

There we go, over the end, quickly done.

That's it.

To stop the centre of the pastry from puffing up when it bakes,

just dot a few holes with a fork.

I need a little bit more eggwash.

Perfect.

That's my pastry base, and there we go.

Pop that in the oven, 180 degrees C, about 12, 15 minutes

until it's nice and crunchy.

But by magic... here's one I made earlier.

Look at that.

What you've got there is, you've got a lovely, perfect base,

and you see the golden colour, that's from the eggwash,

and that's going to protect the pastry when I put my goodies on.

So, that's my base ready to go.

I've got some beautiful tomatoes

that I'm going to put onto the grill, get them nicely charred,

and I'm going to make a lovely tomato paste,

so an intense flavour of tomato, and then finish it with sliced tomatoes,

a bit of thyme leaf and some sliced garlic on top,

and then into the oven.

I'm using a mixture of tomato varieties.

Different shapes, sizes and colours

to really celebrate this most Provencal of produce.

I love tomatoes.

My dad bought the tomatoes from the marketplace.

My mum and my brother were tomato pickers in the summer holidays,

and all they did was just pick tomatoes.

Fabulous memories, but when I was growing up,

we had a couple of varieties.

We certainly didn't have 50-plus varieties.

Touch of olive oil, sprinkling of salt on each one.

It was quite funny when I was in the field with Fabien and his wife.

They did laugh at me that I came with my own little pot of salt.

The tomatoes did taste good, but just add a little bit of salt

and they just go up another level.

Right, look at that.

These are ready for the grill, over we go.

Straight on.

Face down.

Look at those!

How beautiful are they? Look at that.

Stunning!

Tomatoes on the vine, every single one of them perfect.

Oh, one fell off.

Mm.

And what we're doing is, we're just getting a little bit

of roasting going on.

One of my favourite parts about a fry-up back home

when I was with my family was that my dad always used to make tomatoes

in a pan, chopped up tomatoes

with just a little bit of salt and pepper,

and he just used to fry them until they stewed, but I always remember

they used to caramelise and just taste fantastic

and he always put white pepper,

never a pepper mill, he didn't have one of those,

white pepper, and I always remember the warmth and the heat

and every now and again he would always, as a bit of a laugh,

make us sniff the pepper pot,

knowing full well that we'd spend

the next 15 minutes sneezing our heads off,

and they thought it was quite funny.

If you don't fancy firing up the barbecue for this,

you can do what Maude suggested and roast the tomatoes in the oven.

Once they're done, they're added to a pan with olive oil and garlic

and cooked down to reduce the amount of moisture.

That's it.

Just going to put a few thyme leaves in here and the point of this,

the real reason is, I don't want to have my pastry,

I don't want my pastry to go soggy.

Even though I've cooked it,

I still want it to be nice and crunchy and crispy.

I've got a lot of memories of pastry cases,

or pastry or apple tarts that my mum, and plum tarts

she used to make, and every single time, the pastry was soggy.

I'm sorry, Mum, but it was.

My dad will always bring home a batch of plums

or a massive batch of apples, and he'd say, "Get them cooked,

"get them into an apple pie, get them into something,

"get them into a crumble."

And my mum would have to do this batch cookery.

So she'd roll out her pastry, she'd put it on a plate,

put the apple puree on, put the pastry on top,

put them in the freezer and in the freezer, we had a chest freezer

and we'd have about six or seven apple pies,

all raw, none of the pastry was cooked.

Then whenever we wanted an apple pie, she'd just take it out

the day before, and you can imagine what's going to happen,

all the apples are just going to go watery.

Put it in the oven, it was cooked, looked like that,

nice and colourful, put it onto the table to cool down.

Guaranteed every single time, ten times out of ten,

as you went in to take your slice of apple pie, the pastry base

was always soggy - in fact, it was raw.

We just had to eat around it.

And it always used to make us laugh

because we could never solve the problem

until I went to catering school, and then we solved the problem.

The secret is to cook the pastry before adding the filling.

Right, the tomatoes are looking good.

In fact, if I take away the olive oil and I take away the garlic,

it's a little bit like what my old man used to make for our fry-up.

Right.

I started with three large ones and all those cherry tomatoes.

And that's what it comes down to,

and that's by removing all of the water.

It's sweet, it's delicious, it's concentrated.

We've got a little bit of garlic in there

and we've got some thyme, salt and pepper.

Just smells delicious.

If I'm going to impress Maude,

I need to make this look as good as it's going to taste.

So I'm slicing some more tomatoes to put on top,

and I have a little secret ingredient.

So, put a little bit of tapenade on the base.

This adds an unexpected salty, briny hit of flavour.

Now for my tomato paste.

Get a generous amount on there and spread it out nice and evenly,

then arrange the sliced tomatoes on top.

Just make it look pretty.

That one under there.

Now all it needs is some sliced garlic, thyme leaves,

a drizzle of olive oil and seasoning.

Exactly the same ingredients that went into the tomato paste.

It really is so simple.

There we have it.

180 degrees for about 12 minutes.

Serve it with a fresh salad, little vinaigrette.

Absolutely delicious.

School's out for the day.

I'm hoping Maude and Sebastien will be pleased with my work

and confirm that this is the ultimate simple,

show-stopping tomato recipe in Provence.

Thanks for inviting us. Ah, pleasure. Thank you.

Nice to see you, Maude. Nice to see you.

Tarte a Provence. Tres belle.

Merci! Very nice. Merci! Magnifique. Smells very good. Oui.

It really is a thing of beauty.

I'm rather proud of it.

Perfect served alongside a simple green salad.

She's giving it a close examination.

Don't worry, Maude - you won't find a soggy bottom under there.

Mmm, la il y a...

I think she likes it.

C'est tres, tres bon.

It's perfect.

Result!

Um, do you think the children at school

would eat something like this? Comme ca... Oui!

THEY LAUGH

Of course. Bien sur!

The children are connoisseurs.

So, I suppose if we're going to put tomato tart on the menu,

what time do we need to get started? Shall I come and help?

Er, c'est six heures, sept heures? Tomorrow it's Wednesday.

Yeah, oui. Not school.

Oh! Oh, no.

THEY LAUGH

Ah, oui! Really? Day off.

Lucky kids. Having a day off, I mean.

Not because they won't get my tart for lunch.

I hope Maude doesn't mind that I didn't follow all her advice.

When we were at school,

Maude said she was going to put some mozzarella.

Well, she told me to, I didn't put it on.

I think Maude was thinking of pizza.

THEY LAUGH

The mozzarella would work.

But I-I like this - it's clean. Pas besoin. Yeah, it's fresh.

Pas... Yes, c'est ca. Simple is better. Perfect.

There's no confusion. C'est ca.

And when you finish this, apres, the fromage.

Avec le vin rouge. Avec le vin. Ah, oui. Oui? See.

Us chefs, we talk alike. Le vin. THEY CHUCKLE

It's been wonderful to learn so much from Maude.

Not only is she a fantastic chef,

she's an example of why the simplicity of Provencal cooking

is so special.

To get her seal of approval on my tomato tart

was the icing on the cake.

Or should that be the cherry tomato on top?

Maude and Sebastien loved the tomato tart.

I think that was a success.

Even if I can't quite take all the credit.

You can't really fail when you've got tomatoes as good as that.