Original subtitles

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

that has remained close to my heart...

I 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. That'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.

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

Modern French food has been perfected over many, many years.

Now, I will be honest, I wasn't the best historian in the world,

as my long suffering teachers can confirm,

but I am keen to make amends - and I know just the person to educate me.

The mayor's sister is a history buff

and she has offered me a food history lesson

in exchange for a meal.

Which means just one thing.

If I'm going to impress her, I've got to do my homework.

There's one simple ingredient I have in mind

that's not only a classic world-wide staple, but cost-effective too.

It's been eaten for millennia,

and it turns out it's even grown here in the south of France.

No, it's not wheat.

It's rice.

Surely a rice dish will impress my history-loving dinner guest?

So I've come to Valerie's deli to find out about a variety

that's not only unique to this region...

Bonjour! Valerie.

..but it's also an unusual colour.

I'm looking for red rice.

OK. I've heard about this, and I've not used this before.

So why's it grown here then?

It's used mainly because the Camargue region,

you know, the delta of the Rhone,

the ground is so salty that nothing else in the beginning would grow.

The only thing that will grow is the rice,

because that draws the salt out of the earth

and makes it better for other crops afterwards.

How do you cook this?

Well, you cook it like normal rice, but longer -

and depending on if you want it to be vraiment al dente,

you know, more gritty kind of thing, some chefs like it that way.

It won't make a very good risotto

which is supposed to be creamy, and smooth, it won't do that -

but it's very kind of... It's got kind of a nutty flavour to it.

I was going to ask you what does it taste like.

Nutty, is it? Yeah, very nutty flavour.

Cooking rice has always been a mystery.

Everyone has a different way of doing it -

one cup, two cup, bit of this, bit of that,

bit of water, a pinch of salt, and everyone has this thing.

Rice, you want it to be a little bit sticky

because when you're eating it the rice sucks up all of the flavour.

Yeah, the sauce goes into it.

You don't want your rice falling through your fork.

That's why they have it sticky.

Can it be sticky, like long grains? Not really.

If you cook it a lot, like, 45 minutes... It'll break up. Yeah.

OK. So could I...

I mean, if I wanted to sort of let this down with a bit of this

because it's more user friendly, price friendly?

Yes, you definitely could, if you wanted to make like a rice salad,

but you'd have to cook them apart. I mean, it's not much more.

I mean, it's the same almost.

No, because growing it and processing it and everything,

is the same cost whether it's white or brown or red.

But you'd have to cook them apart. Yes.

Because otherwise your white rice will go pink.

Yeah. That will stain that. Yeah.

So if you are going to mix the two together, cook them separately...

And this will, in about, like, a quarter of an hour, 20 minutes,

it'll be ready to go - and that at least half an hour I would say.

OK. But tasting it as you're going, you know.

And seasoning the water? Er, yeah.

There's no other secret tips in there that I need to know?

Not really! Sneaky little ingredients that a Yorkshire...

Well, they don't have a lot of rice in Yorkshire, you know.

..a Yorkshire lass would be putting into her cooking

that I need to know about? Well...

As a Lancashire lad... Ooh! ..I don't want a Yorkshire girl

keeping some secrets from me!

Ah, no, no, no.

OK. Thank you. See you, bye.

I did get one more bit of info out of Valerie.

It's rice harvest season in Camargue

and as it's France's only rice producing region,

I've headed down there to find out more

about this rather unique ingredient.

I'm visiting producer Michel,

and I've brought along Lucille from my production team to translate.

Bonjour, enchante. Marcus, bonjour. Marcus. Bonjour. Lucille.

Bonjour, Lucille. Bonjour.

Around 180 farmers in Camargue

produce approximately 70,000 tonnes of rice every year,

ranging from long grain white rice to Provencal red -

and it turns out this small area of Provence

is perfect terrain for the crop, thanks to the river Rhone.

Why does rice growing work on this land?

La Camargue c'est plat.

He said because Camargue is flat.

Et, on a de l'eau et des ecoulages.

It's very easy to like, bring water here because of the river,

but it's also easy to remove it from the land.

So where is the water?

Cos with rice I expected this...

I was expecting to be wearing my wellies.

Michel explains that water is pumped into the fields

from the nearby Rhone

and is topped up over the growing season

as it evaporates or is absorbed by the soil.

Leading up to harvest time,

they let the water go so that the crop dries out.

Rice needs to be in water from the moment you put it in the soil

until you're ready to harvest.

That not only makes rice semi-aquatic,

but different from other grain crops like wheat, oats and barley.

What harvest is this, then?

Alors c'est du riz blanc, oui,

c'est ce qui est utilise courrament dans la consummation courrent.

So it's the white long grain rice? Yes, exactly.

For commercial use? Yeah. Long, ah, oui. Alors. I don't need you!

A quick harvest when the sun shines

can make or break a small farmer like Michel -

and without his huge harvester,

production at this level wouldn't be possible.

Can I... Can I have a go?

Bien sur.

Pas de probleme mais il faudrait laisser un cheque ou quelque chose.

Cheque? He talked about money, why?

He said it's OK, but he needs a deposit

in case you damage the crops.

Ah, no, no.

I promise, in straight line. Tres bien.

I love straight lines. Tres bien, tres bien.

C'est possible? C'est possible. Ah, yes! Proper machine.

The purpose of this mammoth machine

is to cut, separate and clean the rice.

Yeah, I've driven a few tractors but nothing quite as big as this one.

The bigger they get, the better.

Wish me luck.

Michel has 20 hectares of rice fields,

which produce 50 tonnes of white rice

and 20 tonnes of red that need harvesting every year...

..and the key to success is keeping this going in a straight line.

Each day, the combine harvests between six and seven hectares

of rice, depending on the weather.

So it takes Michel and his team around five days

to gather all of their crop.

Maybe longer this year, with me pitching in.

Oh, no, there's a wobble!

MARCUS LAUGHS

I hope Michel was joking about writing him a cheque.

That was incredible! Incredible.

Having learnt that driving a combine harvester well

is a skill I don't have, it's back to the job at hand.

It's not the white rice I came to see.

I need to research Provence's unique red rice

if I'm going to stand a chance of impressing the mayor's sister.

Voila, Marcus. De riz rouge. Hein?

This just... This looks identical to the white rice.

Si, si, si, si. Mais si vous allez voir,

la difference c'est quand on enleve la premiere enveloppe,

donc on enleve la balle.

Uh, he's saying, yeah, outside is completely identical.

The difference is inside.

Yeah, you can see the difference there, yeah, of course.

The colour intensifies as it's dried out before

being packaged and sold...

..and Michel tells me the red rice that grows here

actually only dates back as far as the '80s,

when a white rice cross-pollinated

with another type of wild red rice.

So this really only grows in Camargue,

and it's something the region is fiercely proud of.

How far away is it from harvesting, roughly?

So he said harvested is 13% of humidity,

and currently it's about 18%.

The red rice needs another week or two to dry out,

but Michel doesn't just use high-tech machines

to get maximum yield from his crop.

He also embraces techniques that are about as organic as you can get.

Puisque on a pas parle de...du canard.

Why is Michel talking about ducks?

Because he said they're the only one in France that use duck

to remove the weed from the rice when it's growing.

Et ici, Marcus, imagine-toi, mille canards.

1,000? 1,000 ducks normally here. 1,000 ducks? Oui.

Qui font leur travail. Regarde ce qu'ils mangeant, ils mangeant ca.

They eat this.

Ca c'est des deux plantes.

These are the two plants the ducks eat? Voila.

They'll... Those two plants normally are, like,

restricting rice to grow properly.

Ducks have three advantages.

It's organic.

It's very good publicity for their production.

Et economique a des chefs etoiles.

And then it's also economic because then they can sell the ducks

for chefs to cook in their restaurant.

It's a good job the ducks don't like rice.

Ah, oui.

And how do you remove the duck?

Ah, ben, on les appelle.

Non! No, no.

MICHEL WHISTLES

No! No way. Si, si, si.

No way. "Canard, canard! Allez les canards, allez!"

THEY LAUGH

Now, you can't get a better way of farming than that.

Nature in perfect harmony.

I've certainly got my creative juices flowing.

Merci. Merci beaucoup.

What I've found out about the red rice is

that it's part of this landscape.

It's what this area is all about.

It's organic.

It's a small crop compared to the white rice,

but it's unique to this region.

I've still got some work to do

to figure out exactly what to cook with the rice -

but while I was in Camargue, near the coast,

I took the opportunity to grab some sardines

for a quick Provencal lunch.

I'm told even the Romans were big fans

of these cheap and cheerful oily fish,

so maybe the mayor's sister would approve.

And turning them into a tasty meal is not just quick

and cost-effective - it's super simple

Don't even need to pin-bone them,

because once you've cooked them,

you can pretty much eat the pin bones,

but you can just pull them out when they're cooked.

So, cut along there, from the belly to the tail.

Just nick off the head.

I'm going to butterfly mine, which is the simple technique

of opening up the sardine and removing the backbone.

Just bring your knife inside gently, breaking the bones,

and it just opens up, look -

and because the fish is so soft,

what you do is just put your little knife underneath,

cutting through the bones,

cut off the end.

There's the bone.

The key is just to move gently.

The flesh, the bones are incredibly thin and delicate.

You do not need to put any pressure on this at all.

Just take your time.

One of my first jobs

when I moved to London

in a very, very large, deluxe, five-star hotel,

I was given the chance to work in the fish section,

where, for eight months, all I did every day

was fillet fish and shellfish and more fish.

But whenever I used to go home and see my mum and dad,

there was always the comment that I did smell of fish

and as hard as I tried to scrub that off my hands

and...and not my clothes, but mostly just the aroma of raw fish,

it did used to make everybody laugh.

"Are you a fisherman or are you a chef?"

Right, ready to cook.

Trust me, this'll be one of the quickest lunches you've ever made.

Good glug of oil.

And I think what really goes well with sardines is plenty of pepper.

The oily fish, very strong flavour of the sardine.

Pepper - the perfect contrast.

They are delicate, so avoid griddling them

because the skin sticks.

And if you're thinking of a barbie, then it's best to cook them whole.

So, once your pan is hot, in they go...

Just gently shake, just to prevent it from sticking.

Just get a little bit of "incy" colour on there.

..and start counting.

20 seconds, I'd say, and you can see the colour changing already.

Already starting to cook.

That's how quick they are.

Flip it over...

..and out.

Pour over the pan juices...

..and, by my reckoning, that's possibly the fastest way

to bring an authentic taste of Provence into your kitchen.

Less than 30 seconds.

It doesn't get much quicker than that.

Look at that.

Lunch.

There's another ingredient growing in Provence

that has also come as a complete surprise to me.

Originating in Asia and introduced to Europe by the Romans,

this is the first time it's been grown here since antiquity.

We know it as a salty snack, but there's so much more to it.

It's pistachios!

Benoit. Bonjour. Welcome in Provence. Thank you.

I would never have guessed that these trees were a pistachio tree.

For me, they almost look like a pear tree or a little apple tree.

We started six years ago with a farmer group,

and the pistachio tree needs six years to become productive.

Sorry, sorry, whoa, whoa.

Are you telling me after six years this is the first...

Harvest. ..year of harvest of fruit? Yeah, yeah. Wow.

I can't...I can't think of it as a fruit, because it's...

I just think of it as the nut. It's a shell fruit. It's a shell fruit.

Yeah, like almond, walnut.

They contain a shell-covered, greeny-purple seed.

That's the bit we've been eating for centuries.

Benoit is one of a pioneering group

trying to future-proof this region against climate change

by turning this former vineyard

into a crop of heat-loving pistachio trees.

In south of France, in Provence, we have a lot of problems

with climate change. Less and less rainfall,

more and more heatwaves, and the pistachio tree

is really, really adapted to this new climate condition.

And is this a lot for one particular tree?

No, it's a small harvest for a tree, because they are young.

Yeah. They are still young, but the tree will continue to grow,

and in five or six years we will have a big, big harvest on the tree.

The rose colour is when the fruit is ready to be harvested.

OK. But when the fruit is unripe,

it looks like another fruit, which is mango.

If you look, this fruit is quite yellow,

and this is because this species of pistachio

is the same family as the mango.

The skin of the pistachio is equivalent to the flesh of mango.

Of the mango. Soft. And the shell of the pistachio

is equivalent to the stone of the mango.

Hey. You're winding me up.

Are you serious? Seriously? Yeah, seriously.

Yeah.

If you take the fruit, you have a first skin,

you can remove it, and inside you find the nut.

Is that good to eat? Yeah. It's ready to eat.

It's a fresh pistachio, so maybe the taste will be surprising for you.

I want to try, I want to try your first one.

The fresh-fresh. This one is fresh.

I don't recognise it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Because it's fresh pistachio. Yeah.

You know what's really funny?

I don't actually feel like I'm eating a pistachio, but yet I am.

Yeah. I feel like I'm eating something

that I've never eaten before, because this does not taste... No.

..like the pistachio that I'm familiar with.

No. And it's a lot of sugar.

It's, er, it's sweet. Soft. It's soft. Yeah.

My memory of pistachio in the kitchen is a pistachio paste.

Yeah. And sometimes it has a real element of, um, almond.

OK. And maybe almond from the manufacturer was added into it.

Plus colour, because it was also quite green.

This is a problem.

When you buy pistachio ice cream, you don't find the real... Flavour.

..flavour of pistachio. And do you know why that is?

It's because most people never, ever get to taste the fruit like this.

Yeah. Because the flavour we're familiar with... Yeah.

..it's had some form of treatment,

whether that's a puree or salted dried nut.

Yeah, yeah.

So is it like grapes where there's...

..there's a date in which you have to harvest them?

Did you wake up one morning and say, "That's it. Allez. Off we go"?

For the pistachio, we have to find the good moment

when the shell is open... Yeah.

..but the skin is not cracked.

Can I help you finish harvesting? Yeah, please. Should we go?

So you just literally just take them off?

So you just have to pick the fruit. I will help you.

I think this is absolutely fantastic. I really do.

It's not often you get, in life, especially as a chef,

to do something completely new, something unexpected,

especially from a tree that you've never seen before...

..in such a beautiful place like Provence.

It's just very special.

And that's got me thinking about my recipe.

Pistachios have such history. They're even mentioned in the Bible!

If I can use some in my recipe,

surely this will impress the mayor's sister.

Actually, I have got someone very special coming to see me

to have a little...a little bite to eat, of which one of my recipes

has pistachios in. OK. And I was thinking about using the dry ones.

Could I take some of your fresh ones?

It will be an honour for us. Yeah. I won't take too many.

Yeah. You've got to make a living.

THEY LAUGH

This is their very, very first harvest

and I think to be here is an absolute joy.

There's a little bit of regret, I have to say,

that I've not discovered the origins

of this particular ingredient before,

because I've just got a whole new-found respect

for the simple pistachio nut.

Research done,

I've settled on a knockout recipe fit for any VIP guest.

Made from layers of simple but delicious ingredients,

it's a Camargue-inspired red rice salad with pistachio nuts.

Right, I'm going to start off with my red onions,

and I want to get them onto the grill.

Most importantly, leave the root,

because it's the root that keeps the onion, holds it together.

Nice glug of oil, pinch of salt, twist of pepper.

And straight onto a hot grill.

I love the smell of onions sweating away on a barbecue or over a grill.

It's fantastic. It reminds me of the seaside back home in Southport.

I used to walk along the seafront,

and every now and again you'd come across a van

selling burgers and hot dogs

and there was always a tray of onions just on the side,

all burnt and caramelised.

Don't worry if you haven't got the barbecue fired up.

Roast them in the oven instead.

There we go.

What we're going to do now is we're going to add the marinade into it.

So just drizzle a good glug of olive oil - don't be shy.

Balsamic vinegar.

The older they are, the more expensive -

but the cheaper ones are just as good in a dish like this.

And just a little sherry vinegar.

And for a final twist...

I just think that the cinnamon, just a touch of the cinnamon,

just works beautifully with the onion,

the balsamic and the sherry vinegar.

Then back over the heat to marinate.

As the onions start to cook,

they'll start to release their sweetness, too.

Now to my next bit. I've got this beautiful kale from the market,

and I'm going to put them onto the grill and just crisp them up.

A little bit of oil.

When I was growing up, one of the things I used to love

when my mum and dad, on special occasions,

used to take us to a Chinese restaurant up in Southport,

was the crispy seaweed.

I could never, ever get enough of it -

and I think this just reminds me of that.

See here, look. It's the gentle burning.

You've got your crunchy bits, you've got your soft bits

and you've got the little vein in the centre.

Nice. Now it's delicious and edible.

All it needs now is a pinch of salt.

And there you have it.

Crispy kale.

Smells good, too.

That's done.

And to top my salad,

I'm opting for another simple but super tasty local ingredient.

Pomegranates. We see these on trees all around Provence.

Another ingredient that my dad used to have,

only ever at Christmas.

And every now and again he'd bring one or two of them home

that he couldn't sell,

and I guarantee you they'd be sitting in that fruit bowl

day after day, week after week.

I think it was cos we just didn't know what to do with them.

Because every now and again, my dad would cut one open

and then he'd get me a toothpick and just...

..just pick them out one by one,

and I used to think to myself, "Really?!"

But anyway, I've learnt how to use them since then,

and these are great.

Look at that. What a beautiful colour. That's sunshine for you.

OK, so just to get these seeds out,

just turn them over, and you can sort of just tap them out.

Just crush it a little bit, and they just sit beautifully on dishes,

especially in North African-style food.

They bring vibrancy, they bring crunch.

Wish my dad had shown me this when I was trying to eat them,

rather than sitting there with a toothpick.

Look at that. Beautiful.

I think my onions are good to go.

Drain off the marinade, it'll make a perfect vinaigrette.

And what's really lovely about this dressing

is that lovely little flavour of cinnamon just sitting in the back -

and that's your dressing ready to go.

And finally, here's my red rice,

already cooked as per Valerie's instructions,

with some added spring onions for crunch.

I don't need to do much to it.

I think keeping this simple,

layered with all the other bits of goodies

that are going to go on top,

and I think that's going to be absolutely sensational.

Kale, crunchy kale, and just start to build the dish up.

Just keep the outside of the rice so you can see it.

I love this bit. And you know what you're doing,

you're just building up the layers.

Just a few more onions.

Sprinkling of the pomegranate.

Next, it's not historic,

but it's certainly retro, and perfect for a salad.

It's cottage cheese.

And finally...

A few of these beautiful pistachio nuts.

A simply stunning salad...

..packed with some of the oldest ingredients around...

..but can it impress pistachio farmer Benoit

and the mayor's history-loving sister Mireille?

Bonjour. Bonjour. Please come in. Come in. Bonjour, Marcus.

As if the stakes weren't high enough,

Mireille's brought along some of her own Roman-inspired dishes

to rival my salad.

Ah! Please, please show me. I love goodies

There are sardines with raisins, celery and coriander.

A little different to how I prepared mine earlier.

Ooh. Ca c'est une terrine de joue de boeuf.

OK, terrine of beef.

It's made from an old recipe of beer during the Roman empire.

Really? Yeah.

Et ca c'est du concombre, ils le faisaient frire.

Fried cucumber. Fried cucumber? Fried cucumber?! Yeah.

Et ca c'est la sauce de poisson au sel.

Oh! Fish sauce. Yeah, yeah.

How old are these recipes? Deux mille ans.

2,000. 2,000 years old? Yeah. 2,000?!

2,000, yeah. Wow. Oui.

It's from an old book.

Apicius, the writer, was cuisinier de l'empereur.

So the cook of the emperor of Rome?

Fascinating.

And it seems the emperor liked a rather weighty loaf.

I would imagine it's quite heavy.

Yeah!

THEY LAUGH

I knew that was going to be heavy.

LAUGHTER

Et ensuite, nous allons, la cochlear, c'est une cuilliere.

C'est quoi ca? It's a Roman spoon. Avant.

I actually feel more like Marcus Aurelius, actually.

THEY LAUGH

But how does my salad compare with these traditional Roman dishes?

Mm. C'est pratique pour les morceaux.

Mm. It's really good. You like?

It's fresh. Fresh. Yeah.

The taste of onion, caramelised.

Et qu'est ce que, qu'est ce que vous avez mis la?

Cinnamon. Canelle. Canelle. Yeah, canelle.

Was cinnamon, was that around 2,000 years ago?

Oui. Yeah? Oui, oui, bien sur.

Can we try this one? Oui. Alors.

Cucumber. Cucumber. Concombre.

Fish sauce. Pas beaucoup, hein?

Tu fais gouter aussi quand meme.

Interesting. I think the cucumber is unique.

The sauce is superb. Yeah, it's a taste we don't know.

C'est tout simple. Yeah. Can I...can I try those? Tell me.

Les sardines.

Le pique, voila, voila.

Dry flavour, but sweet and sour.

Ca c'est! This is good on everything.

They put it... On everything. ..on everything. Yeah.

Et meme dans les desserts.

Not dessert? Even in dessert. Even in...!

THEY LAUGH

I love this, I love this.

Delicious, delicious...delicious.

Et delicious. And delicious.

THEY LAUGH

OK. You are...you are a real Roman.

Maybe that's why my name is Marcus.

It's Roman.

THEY LAUGH

Cooking with the red rice

and finishing my dish with pistachios was brilliant,

and I couldn't have done that without their beautiful ingredients.

LAUGHTER

Sante. Maintenant, maintenant on boit.

When you think of simple, delicious food,

I think we have a lot to thank the Romans for.

That was a lesson today, and I really enjoyed it.