Original subtitles

I'm Adam Richman, global food explorer.

I'm back in Britain on a mission

to combine two of my biggest passions -

food and football.

Come on!

This is some delicious chicken in my face,

get that bird, ya heard!

Making the match-my-menu,

I'm visiting some of the biggest clubs in Britain -

exploring football culture fork-first.

Do you need me to tell you this is going to be spectacular?

From classic fan favourites...

Scran! Scran!

..to fine dining footie style.

You don't want a burger, no.

It's where beautiful grub meets the beautiful game.

My taste buds just qualified for the Champions League.

This is Adam Richman eats Football!

Today, I'm in West London,

home to one of the most trophied English clubs

of the last ten years, Chelsea FC.

Right now, I'm on the pitch at Stamford Bridge,

home of Chelsea Football Club.

And, in just a few hours,

Chelsea will be doing battle with Nottingham Forest

in the Premier League.

And these 40,000 seats will be full of fans,

brimming with pride and passion.

But, before we ball, we gotta breakfast.

So let's go from the pitch to the plate.

And I know someone with knowledge of a great place

in this part of London, for a great breakfast.

And, yes, if I'm talking knowledge

and I'm talking London, I'm talking about a cabbie.

Black Cab drivers need fuel to keep them on the go

and London cabbie and Chelsea superfan Neil

has brought me to his favourite spot.

Hi, Adam. Good to see you. Wassup, brother?

Good to see you too, man. How are you going?

This cabman's shelter, built in 1865,

was where hungry coach drivers

made a pitstop to rest their horses.

So, what is now serving black cab drivers

served horse and cart cab drivers?

Yep, yep. And proof of that is the post

where they used to tie the horses up.

You're kidding me? Still exists, yeah.

Of course it is.

What did I think, the cabbies were doing ballet?

Oh, god. I just had to take these Americans to Heathrow.

Ah!

It's the phone-free route-finding skills

of well-fed black cabbies that are a true wonder to behold.

London cabbies, real black cab drivers are a rare breed.

Correct me if I'm wrong -

The Knowledge is knowing every street in London.

Everything.

The very first one you learn, um, is Manor House Station,

which is a tube station in North London, to Gibson Square.

So when they ask you the question,

the way you repeat it is like this -

leave on left Green Lanes.

So I'm leaving on the left side of the road.

Right and right Highbury New Park, left Highbury Grove,

right St. Paul's Road.

That's the speed they want you to reply

on every single one they ask.

Is it true that once you say your route,

you just say your route, they write it down,

pull out a map and they pull out a string

to determine the straightest path?

The average is one centimetre off the cotton.

So we call it 'on the cotton'.

Now to find the straightest path to breakfast!

Can a non-cab driver get food from here?

They can get food from here, they can't eat inside.

Inside, 'cause it's a charity that was made for cab drivers.

Are there seats in there? There are seats in there.

I'll ask my uncle to let you in.

So where's the hatch? Just here.

Oh!

Bill?

This is super-cool.

Hello. How are ya? Hello, sir.

This is Adam. Adam.

Hello, Adam. Nice to meet ya. Pleasure to meet you, sir.

Alright, I gotta say it -

Uncle Bill looks more like a bouncer than a chef.

If I met you, I would be terrified

and I would go cry somewhere and just not eat breakfast.

You are very nice but very imposing.

Like, how do you gain entry to this?

Only if you get invited in.

This is like being a breakfast vampire.

And you have to seek permission.

Well, may I have permission to see the voodoo that you do so well?

You certainly can. Watch. This is my knowledge.

Forward step onto the step, then left turn onto second step.

Second step, continue forward.

Yield to the gigantic cab driver to my left

and then I will be polite and I will enter.

Ready. So turning left and going in right on the cotton, baby.

Right on the cotton.

Like a world hidden through a magical wardrobe,

this tiny cabstand holds a full dining room,

serving up everything from breakfast to Christmas dinner.

There is a legit dining room, dining area in here.

Bill's tasty breakfast sandwiches are skilfully built,

however you like 'em.

What is your go-to breakfast sandwich?

It would be doorstep bread so really thick, white bread.

OK.

That's what we call it, doorstep bread.

Doorstep? Yeah.

Because of the thickness? Yeah, because of the thickness.

Fried egg, not too runny but slightly runny.

It'd be sausage with loads of black pepper on top,

tomato sauce, then topped with more doorstep bread.

Well, I mean, I want to try something authentic

but I also want to try something good.

But if I've never had...I mean is adding cheese like,

"OK, American. We'll throw some cheese on it for you", or...?

No. Don't add cheese. Bill?

Whatever you like.

Can we do one bacon, egg and cheese?

I just gotta see how they do it on this side of the pond.

Was yours brown Neil, or...? No. Tomato sauce, please.

Yours was ketchup, yeah.

So, did you have a choice in supporting?

I know very often it's hereditary

but did people kind of choose their own clubs?

I didn't get a choice, no.

My dad said I was Chelsea, I was Chelsea.

But I went to school in West London,

which should have been all Chelsea

and there was probably two boys there supported Chelsea -

three, actually - but the rest were Man United.

'Cause at the time, Man United were...

In West London? In West London.

I know, we-we got teased 'cause Chelsea in the 1980s

had a bit of a downturn.

Wasn't great, got relegated twice.

Um...but, yeah, everyone supported the glory teams.

But I stuck with it and now it's gone full circle now

'cause we've won everything, so that's good.

Yeah, you certainly have.

Ooh! Thank you, Bill.

Thank you so much.

Doorstop bread.

That is just...I just gotta hold this up to camera,

just to show you the glory of Bill's magnificence.

You know it's gonna soak up all that fat from the bacon,

the juice from the egg and whatever sauce you put on it.

It's got the crust that you want and this -

this beautiful spongy-like interior.

Do you want to switch half-half? Get half of yours?

Alright. So, now I get to try the best of both worlds.

So, we have sausage, black pepper, egg and ketchup, tomato sauce.

And then my half that Bill made, expertly.

And, by the way, fast as heck.

The cheese may be a little unusual.

Yeah, there's no cheese in it. There's no cheese?

Yeah, I've just done you egg and bacon.

What happened to the customer's always right, Bill?

They're not. OK.

Alright, listen, I'm willing to learn -

even at the expense of my pride.

Toast me. Cheers.

Get in there.

Excellent. That's excellent.

I mean, I know I'm wearing it... You have to.

Mmm.

Bill, the best compliment

I can give you is this and I mean this...

..a great breakfast sandwich can be undone by one big thing -

they don't cook the bacon right.

Sir, you cooked the bacon right...

Thank you very much. ..on the cotton.

Yeah, on the cotton.

Now, I'm gonna try your half of the sandwich.

This is the, er, the sausage with black pepper...

..and tomato sauce, ketchup.

Tomato sauce.

You need, like, a PhD in physics to sort of work around this one.

Like, you've gotta clam it. Clam...

Like a Cornish pasty.

This could get very messy.

This might be the last shot of the day.

That's delicious.

That's really, really, really, really good.

What's crazy is -

because everything else is so savoury,

because of the black pepper -

I get a sweetness out of the ketchup

that I don't normally.

Exactly.

Good pork sausage, the way you cook it.

I mean, this is what you want. I mean, Bill knows the deal.

He's no novice at this.

Bill certainly scores a worldie

with his doorstep breakfast sandwich.

Bill, you're my hero, bro.

Stamford Bridge sits in one of the priciest parts of London,

with its surrounding streets home to multi-million pound houses.

I'm a football fan.

I want a football fan experience.

I want to go down the pub and have a pint and a snack

but this is, after all, Chelsea.

And since we are in Chelsea our pub snack

is probably going to be a bit posh.

So I am heading to the Harwood Arms,

London's only Michelin-starred pub,

for a snack that, you know, I'm just gonna show it to you.

Behold, the humble scotch egg.

But this one is elevated above and beyond

to mouth-watering fine dining deliciousness.

Some people say it came from Whitby in Yorkshire and, in fact,

that is most likely where the name came from

because one of the biggest purveyor

were Scott and Sons.

So Scott and Sons, it eventually became scotch egg.

Whatever the history, the Harwood Arms elevated pub grub

has earned admirers and accolades.

And head chef Josh has been at the helm for two years.

Incidentally, do you know if the folks from Michelin,

if they tried the scotch egg when they came?

Yeah. They have, yeah. They've been in and tried.

The Michelin inspectors were seriously impressed

but how could they not be,

with beautiful British eggs like these?

Just look at this.

I mean, it's incandescent.

It's like a high-vis vest or something.

Mmm.

For Josh, it's all about precision.

He boils his eggs for five minutes and 45 seconds exactly

to achieve the perfect runny yolk.

That does not taste like an egg.

There's something, like,

a deeper, more caramel-y kind of custardy thing.

God, that is ridiculous.

Adding to this next-level flavour bomb,

Josh envelops his perfectly jammy soft-boiled egg in minced venison.

So I've just sort of blast chilled the meat.

Oh, is it solid? Yeah, so it's nice and firm.

You get a lot...a cleaner cut on the mincer.

Now you're using venison.

You guys are known for game meats. We are, yeah.

In the middle of the city, you're known for game meats.

Yeah, yeah. Obviously, we specialise in it.

Um, it's super-popular.

That's why we sort of factored in the venison to the scotch egg,

to try and make people a bit more aware.

It's like, yes, whatever.

I like Bambi too but...

..a brother's gotta eat.

Josh then adds pork belly - for flavour and fat -

rosemary, thyme, garlic and aromatic juniper,

perfect for game meats.

So we're gonna shape the ball.

Egg's gonna go in.

Then we go into the flour,

into the egg, into the breadcrumb,

back into the egg, back into the breadcrumb.

Alright, let me watch the master at work.

So we're gonna go into the, er, into the flour.

Go into the egg.

Oh!

I am stealing that, chef!

So we've just... Slotted spoon for the win!

Yeah.

There we go, for the final time into the egg.

This breadcrumbing or 'pane', as it's known in the trade,

will seal the egg in a delectable crispiness.

Now, I know that there's a bit of a debate

in terms of condiments with a scotch egg.

Are you like, "Dude, I put enough flavour in there,

"you don't need it?"

Because I know other people that are like,

"It's not a scotch egg unless you have it with English mustard."

Thoughts, comments, questions, concerns?

Yeah, it needs mustard. Definitely.

We serve it with a sauce made from English mustard.

Oh, is that right?

So English mustard, er, red wine vinegar and brown sugar.

It's called an Oxford sauce.

I'm personally a sucker for whenever someone

with, like, a prodigious level of culinary skill

makes something that everyone eats -

not just for the supporters or the fans or even the players

but the community at large that live in the area.

Let's be honest - your life and your business

and your bottom line are all affected

by your proximity to Chelsea.

How many will you serve on a busy day?

Er, close to 100. Yeah. Respect, dude.

Alright. I'm doing way too much talking when I should be eating.

So I'm off to the dining room to taste this exceptionally good egg.

Oh!

Come on, admit it - that sound makes you hungry, doesn't it?

Look at that!

That is that jammy, gorgeous yolk.

It ju...it's just exquisite.

But I've never actually had Oxford sauce.

So it's mustard - which is obviously spicy -

but then they add brown sugar.

So that kind of goes spicy and sweet and then sour

because of red wine vinegar.

I'm gonna put some right here on my egg.

That's outstanding.

That's ridiculous.

Oh, my god.

It's almost like a crunchy potato chip -

all those herbs, the rosemary, the juniper.

It brings this like super-fragrant thing and it's like,

did I just eat a venison loin?

'Cause juniper and game meat is so perfect.

And the egg's a triumph. It's so good.

It's just a giant umami bomb that makes you feel happy to be alive.

Welcome to match day, Chelsea versus Nottingham Forest.

You Reds! You Reds!

You Reds! You Reds!

Well, the away fans seem ready to rock but, if I'm quick,

I've got time for one more match day bite.

And just down the street from the ground's main entrance,

I can sink my teeth into

an all-time British football classic.

A former footballer himself is serving up delicious delicacies

from his home of Anatolia, Turkey.

But also because he is right down the street from Stamford Bridge,

he has a secret menu with dishes

named after and inspired by Chelsea players.

This I gotta see.

Behind! What is up, chef?

Look at him go.

What's up GG? How are you, man? I'm good. I'm good, Adam.

How are you? Now GG's a nickname, correct?

Yes, it is. Yeah.

Your actual given name is... Gursel.

Gursel. So you played for QPR? Er, yeah.

I did my YTS, youth training scheme back then.

Please, he's pulling a Gordon Ramsay on us.

He was a footballer and then, through injury or whatever,

found his way...

No, but the only difference is I'm not Scottish.

You're not?

Surely...surely...I was like, I'm hearing it,

I wanna like watch 'Braveheart' now suddenly.

GG's menu -

which he's named 'The 1905' after the founding year of Chelsea FC -

is a football-themed feast.

So, it's broken up into the kick-off.

It's a two-course meal, bottomless beer or house wine.

You're making it messy for the folks

at Stamford Bridge my brother.

Yes, indeed. He is.

The stewards are like, "Do you have to?"

The wine is served very slowly. Very slowly.

Very smart man.

You now have different dishes named for different footballers

and it's not just current footballers.

So, for example there's the 'JT chicken skewer'

named for, as you guys would say,

captain, leader, legend John Terry?

John Terry.

So tell me how, for example, the chicken skewer is John Terry.

Chicken skewer is always something to lean back on,

is always there... Consistent.

Consistent. People always rely on a good chicken skewer.

So that's why we went for JT because he was the captain.

'Magic Box vegetarian moussaka'.

Magic Box, that was Gianfranco Zola.

Oh! Oh, gosh. I didn't know that was his nickname, OK.

Yeah. So Magic Box was Gianfranco.

So he was full of tricks and he was full...

And the vegetarian is full of flavours, different vegetables.

I love this. Yes.

But GG's making me a very special lamb dish,

which is yet to make it onto The 1905 menu.

This is the lamb skewer. This doesn't have a name yet?

This is why we're here so we come up with this.

You'd name it after me? Yeah.

I was a pretty good holding midfielder, I have to say.

I mean, I don't know if I'm really worthy of a kebab.

So was I but we never made it.

Yeah, exact...you got a lot further than I did.

Shall we start cooking it while we're talking?

Far be it for me to get between a man and his meat.

The grill or 'mangal', as it's known in Turkish,

cooks and infuses the lamb with a beautiful, smoky flavour.

So we'll just slowly move it, just to get the skewer moving.

So we just apply a little bit of lemon.

Using lemon not only cleverly lends a citrusy note

but also helps control the heat of the grill.

Missed.

Hey, man. You didn't play basketball.

As a restauranteur in Chelsea,

what are your guiding principles so you can appeal to the faithful

of the football club and the folks who live in the borough?

I think the fundamental's about love for the food.

About caring for the food.

And then, whatever you do, it sort of attracts the people.

It tastes good to them.

Oh, look at that. That is a beautiful thing.

This is now ready. It's ready?

Yeah, it's ready. Alright, so you know what?

I'm gonna get out of your way

'cause I know you have to plate that up.

I can plate it and then you can enjoy it.

Like a true footie fan,

I can't wait to get stuck into my kebab -

succulent, marinated and smoky chargrilled lamb

served with fluffy rice, crisp salad,

spicy chili and, of course, creamy garlic sauce.

Wow.

Damn, that's delicious.

That's delicious.

You know, usually when you add garlic,

it becomes so savoury and so dark.

There's a lightness to it somehow.

It's interesting, I've seen him use lemon in such a creative way.

The truth is, you can get a kebab before or after a football match

as most football fans do.

Go to the place where an ex-footballer

has combined the flavours and technique of fine dining

with the kebab you love.

Yet another piece of silverware for the Chelsea closet

but this has to be arguably one of the best kebabs I've ever eaten.

This is great food in any borough of London,

any borough of New York quite frankly.

But here it is, in the middle of Chelsea,

with some of the best fine dining

you're likely to find anywhere in West London.

But seriously, it is super-close to kick-off,

I've gotta get this in me before the game starts.

So, right now, I'm a man with a plan

and the plan is for lamb.

So you do your thing and I'll do mine.

I've had a fantastic time dining like a lion -

from the culinary cabstand delight of the doorstep sandwich,

with diehard fans Bill and Neil...

..to a Michelin-starred morsel

at one of the country's poshest pre-match pubs...

..and, finally, a mouth-watering lamb kebab -

courtesy of ex-player now chef GG -

that delivers delicious street food in upscale Chelsea style.

I've had my meals, now it's onto the match

because food, much like football, crosses boundaries

of age, race, religion and income.

And if you are in London,

there is truly something delicious for everyone at Chelsea.

Let's go from the plate to the pitch.

The Chelsea bun.

Cinnamon, yeasty dough.

And I guess it's currants or raisins.

Why would you make something lovely

and then ruin it by throwing in raisins?

Grapes are delicious and if you let 'em go past their prime,

you've just gotta let that grape go, people.

Just let that grape go.