[theme music] Here we go.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm going on my most ambitious British adventure yet-- Yes!

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): --meeting some of the finest chefs in the world.

You've been sweating over, James.

Aw, poor James.

Aw.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Cooking my way from the far South.

Duck on a barbecue is just off the charts.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): --to the northernmost reaches of the land.

It's a magical experience.

JAMES MARTIN: You've got to do this.

It's amazing!

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And using some of the best produce you'll find anywhere.

FARMER: Come on, pigs.

Come on.

Come on.

GALTON BLACKISTON: Look, look at him.

How can you miss that mouth?

[laughs] JAMES MARTIN: And some of the places require a little bit more effort to get to.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'll be traveling by land, air, and sea.

TONY SINGH: Yeah, look.

Look, dolphins!

TONY SINGH: Dolphins.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So join me as I explore the British Isles, from islands to highlands.

The next stop on my adventure is sunny Devon.

Torquay, to be precise.

With me is my mate and local chef, Simon Hulstone.

He's a local lad, and he brought a Michelin star to Torquay with his amazing restaurant, The Elephant.

JAMES MARTIN: So, why Torquay and why Devon then?

Torquay?

I grew up here.

Came here in '87 as the chef of a big five star hotel, moved away after doing all my training, and came back and took over The Elephant.

It was a bit of a chance meeting, really.

JAMES MARTIN: Right.

So what was Torquay like before you came down here?

Because it's changed an awful lot.

It's changing again.

SIMON HULSTONE: It's fantastic.

There's so much investment going into the Bay.

There's new restaurants coming down, there's lots of independents.

People are starting to believe in food.

There's great suppliers, and we're going to see so much decent food because Devon's a larder for the rest of the country.

It is an amazing thing.

I mean, Devon is just spectacular, because it's not just the great seafood, great oceans that you have to get the fish from, but also you've got great pasture, you've got-- I mean-- SIMON HULSTONE: It's a microclimate.

We're always a couple of weeks ahead of everyone else with our produce, so we're getting wild garlic, we're getting the asparagus before other people.

Our strawberries take us through sometimes up through to October.

It's just mad.

We've got wine, we've got cheese, we've got chillies, we have chili farms, wasabi, everything.

We can grow anything down here.

[lively music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Devon is located in South England and is a food lover's paradise.

Today, Simon and I are in search of the county's best produce, just outside Torquay.

So while Simon heads West for some award-winning cheese, I'm heading up the Coast for another award-winning ingredient grown in a bungalow.

Forest Fungi near Dawlish is the brainchild of Scott Marshall.

He left behind a job selling furniture to set up this fantastic venture.

Not only do they grow a wide variety of delicious mushrooms here, but they also have a wonderful farm shop and cafe.

What a place.

How are you doing, boss?

You all right?

- Good to see you.

- Found you.

Well done.

It's just tucked away, isn't it, really?

Yeah.

But you're not far from the coastline.

Pretty close.

So how did it all start?

Why mushrooms?

Why here?

Why you?

Why-- We started six years ago, myself and my fiance.

We set it up as a mushroom farm and a farm shop.

I'd already been interested in foraging and wild mushrooms, and then we found people that were cultivating beautiful mushrooms in similar ways to what we're doing now.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

Set this up and have never looked back.

And it's going from strength to strength.

A busy place.

It is a busy place, yeah.

So can we have a look at some of them?

- Of course.

- Good.

I'm looking forward to this.

[upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Scott makes growing mushrooms sound easy, but it's not.

They need a controlled microclimate and just the right amount of water and light.

Wow, this really is a bungalow.

It's a bungalow.

I mean, it's fabulous, isn't it?

What's going on in here, then?

You're harvesting.

SCOTT MARSHALL: So in there, yeah, we're harvesting.

That's Dave.

He's cropping the pink oysters as we speak.

JAMES MARTIN: Right.

And also, the yellow oysters as well.

JAMES MARTIN: So how on Earth does this happen?

How do you get mushrooms?

SCOTT MARSHALL: So these ones are grown on straw.

Essentially, the straw is pasteurized, so cooked up to take out the bacteria that will compete with the mushrooms.

The spores are put in there, it's mixed, and then sealed with this plastic.

And then when it's ready, you can see them just sort of poking out those little splits.

When that happens, the fruit comes through, and then we just keep it very-- So this is classed as a fruit?

SCOTT MARSHALL: Yeah, the fruit of the mycelium.

So in here, I mean there's moisture because I can see the floor is wet-- SCOTT MARSHALL: Yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: It's warm.

SCOTT MARSHALL: Yeah.

Moist.

Moist, plenty of airflow.

A bit like humans, they breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, so we have to keep exchanging the air.

You can see the vents just in the top corner over there.

Right, yeah, yeah.

And there's one just on this side as well.

And are there any native to the UK that you can produce on a farm?

Yeah, so the Gray Oyster are native, the Hen of the Woods that we grow a native.

The rest are Japanese.

So the conditions in here are pretty much a Japanese autumn, that's what we're looking to recreate.

And then to produce mushrooms like this, how long would this take?

With these, probably only about three weeks.

With the other ones we grow, it can be up to six or maybe 12 weeks, depending on the species.

I absolutely love it.

I've got a-- can I go pick some?

Of course.

[esoteric music] JAMES MARTIN: Wow.

It's like something out of something space age, isn't it, when you see it for the first time?

SCOTT MARSHALL: Yeah.

So these look ready to me.

How do we take these off?

Dave is the expert.

He'll show you.

JAMES MARTIN: OK, go on then.

So the best way, with the pinks, is just to have a nice firm grip around the base, and then we're literally just going to just tinge him off.

And then it should come from his little home.

Can I take that one?

Absolutely you can.

Not that, I want the bigger one.

[laughter] It's not at all, but-- DAVE: Just a nice firm grip around the base there.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

DAVE: And then just give him a wobble and up he comes.

I mean, just look at that.

Just look at that.

How beautiful is that?

In a bungalow.

In a bungalow!

Love it.

Absolutely love it.

Thanks, gentlemen.

Thank you very much.

How cool is that?

[lively music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Right, I think it's about time I took some of these delicious, award-winning mushrooms and got cooking.

And what better place to head to than the rugged Devonshire coastline?

It's just stunning.

It's a beautiful place.

And I thought I'd pick this beautiful place to do a wonderful little steak dish using these amazing mushrooms that we've got from the farm earlier.

Beautiful color.

When you get mushrooms like this, I'm actually going to do three different things with it.

I'm going to char grill some, I'm going to pickle some, and turn some into a ketchup.

But I'm going to serve it with this lovely Dartmoor beef, which I've got from a lovely butcher just over the top of the hill there.

But you can see this is absolutely beautiful.

I'm just going to char grill this and serve it with a selection of mushrooms, because I think it's the perfect combination.

So a little bit of black pepper and a nice amount of salt.

And I've got my barbecue, my trusty barbecue, heating up.

And we'll just stick this on.

[sizzling] So we'll cook three steaks in there.

This one's for my dog.

Now, while that's cooking away nicely, we're going to turn our attention to our pickle.

Our pickle is really simple.

We use rice wine vinegar for this.

Don't start using malt vinegar, it'll completely destroy it.

It's not pickled onions you're making, it's pickled mushrooms.

And for that, we'll just pop the vinegar in the pan like this with some sugar.

And a bit of salt.

And a nice amount of salt as well.

So all you want to do with our pickle is just bring this to the boil.

[sizzling] Looking good.

Now I'll wash my hands.

Sorted.

Meanwhile, over here, we're going to turn our attention to these wonderful mushrooms.

Now, when you're pickling mushrooms, pick the ones with great color.

These wonderful farm mushrooms, look at these.

You just peel them off like this.

They're just fabulous.

Look at the color of that.

It's a thing of beauty.

Look at it.

We take our pickle and we just pop our mushrooms in and just allow these to wilt down.

And just look at these ones.

Gorgeous.

We just break these mushrooms up like that.

I'm just going to take a few of these and just soften these nicely all the way.

We'll just keep our eye on our steak.

Oh, look at that.

Beautiful.

Right.

While that's on, a few more of these mushrooms, why not.

Just break them up like that.

Just with a few of those in there.

It really transforms the flavor.

Just leave those to one side.

Meanwhile, we turn our attention to the rest of mushrooms.

We can then grab our nice large ones that we've got in here.

Just look at these fellas.

The color them, amazing.

And you can actually treat these like steak, literally treat them like steak.

Cook them like steak.

Nice little bit of olive oil.

Keep my mistake.

[gasps] Just look at this.

Delicious.

And then a bit of salt and pepper on here.

And then we just pop these straight on the barbecue.

When you get mushrooms like this, they're meaty.

They genuinely are.

They taste meaty, and they can really handle quite robust, strong flavors.

So you can pickle them, you can soy them, you can do all manner of different stuff with them.

All you are, you're keeping your eye on your delicious bit of steak like that.

[gentle music] While you're doing that, you can have a little drink.

Catch the view.

See, look at these.

Look at that.

Beautiful mushrooms.

[sizzling] Just check those out.

It's all under control.

Right.

While our steaks are cooking nicely, our mushrooms we're just going to leave to one side.

You're all right there.

Look, and then I'm going to turn my attention to what I've got here.

I've got a mixture of these wonderful little shiitake mushrooms.

And all I've done is just basically bring this to the boil with water, nothing else.

About 200 grams of mushrooms.

You can use dried mushrooms if you want, but fresh like this are amazing.

And then what you need to do is pass this liquid off.

Don't throw it away, because that's the bit you need.

You can keep the mushrooms, use that with garlic butter, that kind of stuff if you wanted to.

But the liquor is what we want.

And all I've done is mix that with some rice wine vinegar, a bit of ketchup manis, which is like a reduction soy, that kind of stuff.

A bit of soy, bit of sugar, bit of salt.

Brought it to the boil, and then thickened it.

But you thicken it with this sort of stuff.

It's called agar agar, which is like a seaweed powder.

If you're doing anything vegetarian, you can use it for jellies, that kind of stuff, instead of gelatine.

But what you're going to do is set that, let it go cold, set it and then blitz it.

And in here, I've got this amazing mushroom ketchup.

This is brilliant with steak, but all I'm going to do now is just take our steak off, because this is ready.

[sizzling] Just look at that.

And then, I'm going to top this with a similar sort of flavoring.

We're going to use some of this.

This is ketchup manis.

It's a really, really strong flavored soy.

It's wonderful with steak, chicken, even mushrooms.

It's just delicious.

But you just brush that over the top.

We can grab our plate and take our wonderful char-grilled mushrooms, just beautiful as they are, really, like that.

And then I've got some of these pickled mushrooms.

They are amazing, these sort of things, but particularly these type of mushrooms.

Don't go pickling a bit of button mushroom.

They'll look a bit odd.

Just a few of these on over the top.

Get rid of that.

And then what we can do is grab our steak.

You need to leave it to rest as well.

[gentle music] [laughs] Let's put a few bits of steak over the top.

And then, of course, you've got this mushroom ketchup.

This is fabulous.

And you can see the texture of it.

I'll just squeeze it out on here.

But look.

It's thick, but it doesn't melt, if that makes sense.

You just take a little bit of this over the top.

And there you have it.

My barbecued steak with a soy glaze, mushroom ketchup, pickled mushrooms, and char-grilled mushrooms.

How good does that look?

Enough for two.

One, actually.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Only kidding.

Steak and mushrooms this delicious, I'd be Billy Nomates if I didn't share it with this crew.

[upbeat music] I'm in Devon, where my mate, top chef Simon Hulstone, has been showing me around his hometown of Torquay.

It's a place that he loves almost as much as his footwear.

JAMES MARTIN: Tell me what it is with you and collecting trainers.

[laughs] I've got 150 pairs at the moment.

150 pair of trainers?

Why?

It's an addiction.

Yeah.

[laughs] I don't know!

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Whatever floats your boat, Simon.

But there's another thing that he loves just as much, fresh produce right on his doorstep.

So I've dropped him off at Sharpham Wine and Cheese.

Mark Sharpham is the managing director of this estate.

They've been making cheese here for over 35 years, and he's going to show Simon how they make theirs.

SIMON HULSTONE: Good morning, Mark.

How are you doing?

Nice to see you again.

- Nice to see you again.

- Yeah, good.

I'm really looking forward to a good tour.

Yeah, OK.

Come in and get changed, and off we go.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Time to change those fancy trainers, Simon.

Very trendy.

MARK SHARPHAM: This is some Ticklemore goat's cheese.

SIMON HULSTONE: Lovely.

MARK SHARPHAM: So this is a 1,000 liter vat.

This is our biggest vat.

SIMON HULSTONE: Wow.

So I'm just going to cut this.

So this is having a bit of mechanical cutting.

We need to know the temperature that we start at.

Then we lift the temperature using this hot water jacket.

SIMON HULSTONE: OK.

So it's a slight cooking of the curd, and that pushes some of the way out.

So it's a matter of moisture control in the curd.

Yeah.

Soft cheeses, you want a lot of moisture.

These are semi-hard cheese, you want less moisture.

And all the recipes are slightly different.

SIMON HULSTONE: OK.

MARK SHARPHAM: So it's quite an art.

So this is moving in the 21st century now.

Mm.

Maybe.

- Almost.

Maybe.

Not quite.

The molding, as you'll see, is all still entirely by hand.

OK, let's go and see another part of the process.

Perfect.

[lively music] MARK SHARPHAM: So this is a batch of the Sharpham Ticklemore goat's cheese that we made yesterday.

Fantastic.

MARK SHARPHAM: They're 24 hours on.

So yesterday, these would have been turned probably three times already to keep the shape of the cheese in our highly technical cheese molds.

SIMON HULSTONE: So you hand turn them.

Why would you do that rather than a machine?

We like handling the cheese.

That's part of the skill.

Yes.

Tradition.

The cheese would lose something, frankly, if it was turned by a machine.

So Mark, this is the finished product, salted and drained.

Correct, salted and drained.

Not finished.

- Oh.

MARK SHARPHAM: So this is only about a week old.

But as you can see, the penicillin mold is now grown all over this.

The cheeses will continue to be turned.

They will then go into a maturing room, and we will hold them for another two to three weeks, something like that.

Then they'll be wrapped, then they're available to go out into wholesale distribution.

So the whole process is a month, pretty much?

It's about a month, yeah.

SIMON HULSTONE: So Mark, let's get out in that sunshine and take some of this fantastic cheese.

OK, let's go.

[gentle music] SIMON HULSTONE: Mark, what a glorious sunny Devon day to be here.

You're very kind.

So you helped make this cheese earlier, so have a taste.

SIMON HULSTONE: Super.

This is the Ticklemore.

This is the Ticklemore goat.

SIMON HULSTONE: This is fantastic.

You can taste it's got a nice little bit of saltiness, acidity has gone through there as well, it's not too dry, and just flavors bursting out of it.

That's going on my menu.

MARK SHARPHAM: Great.

- Cheers.

Thank you very much.

- Thanks for coming.

So, James, if you're lucky, I'll be bringing some of these cheeses back for you to try.

If not, I probably have eaten them.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Well, it's my lucky day, because Simon did save me some, and I've got a seriously tasty serving suggestion.

[clink] Now, I'm going to use some of this fantastic cheese that Simon found for me to create a massive smorgasbord of cheese.

I'm going to use this one, first of all.

This is called a saver.

It's a wonderful cheese, Jersey milk as well, unpasteurized.

And I'm going to bake this one as well.

So this is a mixture of some cooked, some not cooked.

We're going to chop this up into pieces like that.

And then, before we do anything, I'm going to line this dish with some vine leaves.

And they add a nice little flavor to it.

And every couple of slices, we're going to have some pickled onions.

And we can start to layer this with a few pickled onions and a bit of this cheese.

And then, because this is a semi-hard cheese, what I'm going to do is add a little bit of liquid, and you get that in the form of double cream.

Look at that.

A bit of cream.

A touch of fresh thyme.

And then this is purely optional, it's bacon.

Smoked streaky bacon for this one.

So as it bakes, you get this amazing crispy bacon with it as well.

Just a little bit more cream.

Just a touch.

And then, also, I think the secret with this is a little of dessert wine.

And by adding the cream and the dessert wine and everything else, you get this amazing sauce.

It goes like a fondue that you can spread over the bread.

So once you get to that stage, pop that in the oven, 200 degrees.

That's going to go in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Now, for my next one, I'm going to use this cheese called the crema.

It uses a combination of goat's milk and Jersey cow's milk as well.

And if you're not a big fan of goat's milk, this is a good way to start, really.

You just take the top off, pop it into a dish like this, just take a few slices of garlic, and just stir it with a little bit of garlic.

You just take a little bit of Rosemary.

Again, you can drizzle this with a little bit of dessert wine, if you wish.

And then, just take some cracked black pepper just over the top.

So once you get to that stage, we'll pop that in there for about 10 minutes.

While that's happening, we'll turn our attention to our other hot one as well, which is panade.

I'm going to use this Elmhurst one, which again, Jersey cow's milk.

It's lovely and rich.

I often find with this one, you can cut it far too small.

And when you cut it far too small, it just ends up with a big mess all over your fryer.

So when you're doing this, cut it into chunks.

Now, I'm going to do this with a little bit of flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.

Now, I like to use these little panko breadcrumbs nowadays.

These are basically just dried and shaved, and when they deep fry, they go nice and crisp.

And then, we've got some seasoned flour over here, a little bit of beaten egg, a little bit of thyme in the crumb.

And then, you can also take the vine leaves, if you wish.

You can partly wrap it, if you wanted to.

Into the flour.

Into the egg.

And you roll it around the crumb.

Take that off to one side, and just repeat the process.

Some you don't have to use the vine leaf.

Salt and flour.

Egg.

Breadcrumb.

[quaint music] So to simply cook this now, I've got some oil.

Now, deep fat fryer, you want it to sell about 170, so not too hot.

What do I mean by too hot?

The breadcrumbs brown instantly straight away and the cheese doesn't get soft.

[sizzling] So they only take a couple of minutes, that's all they're going to need so you get a nice bit of color on.

Look at this cheese, it's just all starting to melt a little bit and go a bit gooey.

It's exactly what we want.

I like my cheese boards without biscuits.

I like them with proper bread, really good bread, but char grill it.

It's a nice little bit of oil.

Stick them on here just to griddle.

[sizzling] Looks good, doesn't it?

And then, really, from now on, it's an assembly job, where you take a massive cheese board.

Fabulous vine leaves.

We can then take a combination of the cooked cheese and the raw cheese.

So I'm going to use some of this rustic one as well.

Nice few little bits of herbs in there, the chives and the garlic.

You can smell it in there as well.

It's wonderful.

Some grapes in amongst it as well.

I've got some celery, particularly the top part of celery, because they're lovely and sweet.

Look at this sticky cheese.

Look.

Look at this.

Mm!

Stuff like this excites me.

You see, as a cook, you can't not get excited about stuff like this.

Then, we've got our ones that are in the oven as well.

See, cheeseboards don't have to be boring.

Look.

It's all ready.

Look at this one.

It's a pot of bubbly loveliness.

There's a saying out there, less is more.

It's an absolute load of rubbish when it comes to cheeseboard.

So there you have it.

Cheese boards should never be the same again.

It's not bad, though, is it?

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now that's a cheese platter fit for a king.

And all the king's men, and women, no less.

[lively music] I'm in Torquay in Devon.

It's quintessentially British, and you won't go hungry.

It's got all the seaside favorites.

And if you fancy something a bit special, you don't have to stray far from the waterfront.

Now, beyond the arcades and the fish and chip shops but still overlooking the harbor, is this place.

The best place for food.

The Elephant restaurant is grand on the outside and elegant inside, and it's where my friend and guide for the day, Michelin-starred chef Simon Hulstone, works his magic.

- How you doing, boss?

- Hi, James.

The sun is still shining, I can see it.

The sun always shines in Devon.

I'll tell you what, though, what great place to cook.

You just see the boat tops, palm trees.

SIMON HULSTONE: Boats, palm trees.

JAMES MARTIN: And now tell me about this restaurant, then.

When did you first get ahold of this?

Because you've had one of these things for quite a while.

Yeah, so we've had a star since 2006, but we've been here since 2005.

Because when you think of Torquay, when you first came here, there wasn't one?

No, there's never been a Michelin-starred restaurant in Torquay.

It's a great achievement.

But for us, it's all about consistency and quality ingredients and just making sure the restaurant's full and my bills are paid.

- Yeah, exactly.

What's on the menu, then?

Because I'm hungry.

So I'm going to cook up a lovely piece of local cod.

I've got some of these mushrooms from Forest Fungi.

Chicken stock reduced that down with a little bit of lemon thyme.

I'm going to finish it with some agretti.

And then some asparagus from my farm and some bit of chicken skin.

Crispy fried chicken skin.

I'm looking forward to this one.

Lovely.

All right, get cooking, then.

Right.

Won't be long.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Simon might have numerous awards, but trust me, his food speaks for itself.

So we've got a fantastic piece of cod here that we've just salted just slightly.

So I'm going to cook that skin side down.

And then we've got these wonderful Hen of the Woods mushrooms, which I'm going to cook in the same pan at the same time.

So these mushrooms really hold themselves up to meaty dishes.

Got a nice firm texture to them.

They take in lots of flavor.

And we're going to just pop that fish in the oven for a few moments whilst those mushrooms cook.

So the mushrooms, I'm just getting that butter all in there.

And what we want to do is we want to get a nice smoky flavor into these as well, so I'm going to be barbecuing them on this little Japanese grill.

You can smell that.

It's absolutely stunning.

A little bit of salt.

And then we have our agretti, or monk's beard, as we call it.

And we're just going to literally just wilt this down, almost like a spinach.

My stock's come up to the boil, so I'm going to add some lemon thyme.

And this is right at the last moment.

And just take it away and let that infuse.

Lovely.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I really love Simon's cooking Yes, it's Michelin starred, but it's not pretentious, and nor is the restaurant.

It's simple flavors, but cooked to absolute perfection.

JAMES MARTIN: Ah.

Here we go James.

Looking forward to this.

I hope so.

JAMES MARTIN: You're not bad at this, are you?

Yeah.

- I've had some practice.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah, you've had a bit of practice.

And you kind of-- throughout your career, you were a little bit obsessed with cooking competitions.

Not random cooking-- - Yeah.

Well-- Not MasterChef competitions, we're talking mega competitions.

Proper.

So, yeah, for me, I've always wanted to do something.

I'm very competitive.

I never got to be able to do sport because of the hours I did cooking all the time.

And competitions were something that I could compete against other chefs, I could learn, I could travel the world, and I could win some big prizes, you know?

- Yeah.

It was really good.

Well, this is testament to that as well.

This is fantastic.

I would say cheers, but you're going back to the kitchen because lunch is about to start.

So thank you very much.

- Thank you.

Thanks for joining again, James.

It is a delicious.

It's proper cooking.

[gentle music] See, normally, I would leave some for the crew.

Not this time.

No.

It's fantastic, that.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Time now for me to get back in the kitchen.

And after having that wonderful meal cooked by competitive Simon, I've upped my game.

So this dish is a little homage to the great Simon Hulstone.

It's a fantastic dish.

It uses chicken and mushroom in a different sort of style, but in a risotto.

Now, what I've got in here is just some chicken stock with a little bit of water, and then I've got some onions.

Now, these have just been peeled, and these want to just cook in the stock for about 30 minutes.

And you end up with the basis for our risotto.

But not too strong, so I'm going to flavor these with mushrooms as well.

These are what you call trompette, or trumpet of death.

But just to infuse them with this hot stock.

So in we go with a few of those, together with ones that you've become more familiar with.

These are called porcini or seps.

Just a few of these.

Just flavors are stock that we're going to cook our rice in.

So once you've got to that stage, we can turn our attention to the shallots and the garlic.

But the key to this, really, is make sure it's nice and finely chopped.

[lively music] A bit of garlic.

Give it a whack.

Just chop through, and then a good knob of butter.

And chop the shallots and the garlic in.

So you want to sweat the onions and the garlic down without color.

So grab a wooden spoon.

[sizzling] And then, once it's nicely softened, we can think about our rice.

Now, there's two main types of rice, really, for this Carolina rice or arborio rice, it's entirely up to you which one you use.

But pop the rice in.

So coat the rice in the butter like that.

And what I like is just a glug of white wine to go in there, but also to go in there.

Because this takes about 15, 20 minutes to cook.

You need something.

And then, we can utilize this stock to cook our rice.

So this bit is the important bit.

It's all about adding the stock a little at a time, really.

So as it starts to dry out, grab a little bit more of this stock and add it to it.

So you can see the color that you get from this stock, and particularly those dried mushrooms.

I'm going to add fresh to these as well for a little bit of texture.

But already, you can see they got that lovely brown color into your risotto.

Keep stirring it.

Keep on the ball.

And I've got my fresh mushrooms here.

Now, these are a selection of girolles chanterelles, anything you've got, really, anything you can get hold of.

But the best way with mushrooms is never wash them.

Mushrooms absorb moisture like a sponge, literally loads of moisture.

And when you come to fry them, if the pan's not hot enough, they just dump that moisture out and you end up sweating the mushrooms rather than frying them.

So to prevent that, I've got a very hot pan over here.

Get the butter nice and foaming first.

[sizzling] And then pop the mushrooms in.

Try not to be too tempted to add too much butter to this, because these mushrooms will be fine.

They'll just nicely cook, nicely color.

While that's happening, we can finish off our risotto just by checking the rice, really.

Have a little taste.

Some people say it should have a little bite to it.

I'm not that keen.

I really like the risotto cooked, not overcooked, but just cooked.

And then, once you get to this stage, we can then just leave it off the heat.

[lively music] And then to finish off risotto, you must use Parmesan cheese, so grate some Parmesan.

Once your mushrooms are cooked, they can go in the pan, back on the heat just to finish those off.

Now, while they're cooking away in the rice, with these onions, to get a beautiful color onto the onions as well, you can keep the route on and then just cut these right through the center.

And then what I like to do, in a hot pan, just with a small amount of butter, is color the onions, just on the side that you cut.

By keeping the root on, they hold together.

[sizzling] Just get a nice bit of color on there and just leave those to one side.

Meanwhile, pay attention to your risotto.

Now, I always like to finish mine off with two ingredients, Parmesan being one, and the other one is mascarpone cheese.

It just adds a nice creaminess.

In we go the mascarpone, in we go with the Parmesan.

The pan is off now.

Mix it all together, and then season it.

[lively music] Now we're really ready to serve it.

And I like risottos on a big platter.

Looks really good to me, that.

Nice and creamy, great texture.

It just falls, which is exactly what it should be doing.

Spreads all over the plate like that.

Now, I'm just going to finish this with a few things.

Now, we've got these gorgeous little onions.

They're wonderful, wonderful little flavor to go with it.

And then finally-- well, nearly finally, is I've got this.

This is really heavily reduced chicken stock, almost like a chicken essence.

And we just sprinkle this on the top.

And a little bit of it sits in the onion, you see.

A few bits of herbs.

And then finally, this is crispy chicken skin.

It's like this umami sort of hit.

Just a few bits over the top.

So there you have it.

My version of a chicken and mushroom risotto.

Layers of flavor.

A little homage to the great Simon Hulstone.

A top class chef.

SIMON HULSTONE (VOICEOVER): And you know what?

I think I'd approve.

It sure is tasty.

[upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Today, I'm in Devon.

I've left Torquay and said goodbye to my good friend Simon Hulstone.

But before I go, there's one last place I just have to visit.

I don't know whether I've told anybody this, but I'm a massive fan of art deco.

I love the furniture, the lines, the fashion, the history, the food, and the ambience.

The whole style and the whole history of the 1930s fascinates me.

So no trip to Devon would be complete without a trip to this place.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And this is it, the absolutely stunning Burgh Island, home to a fantastic historic hotel.

There's just one problem.

When the tide comes in, the island is rather difficult to reach, so they've come up with a unique way of getting their guests there.

A sea tractor.

[upbeat music] Well, this is the first time I've ever gone to dinner dressed like this on one of these.

I've got a feeling this place is going to be a bit special.

[quaint music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): This place really is unique.

As soon as you get here, you're instantly transported back into the roaring 1930s.

Former guests include Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, and Noel Coward, to name drop a few.

Charles Fuchs is the latest owner of Burgh Island, and he's recently had the whole place restored to its former glory.

And with one of the largest collections of art deco antiques in the country, it's pretty glitzy, to say the least.

- Charles.

- James.

- Good to see you.

- Nice to see you.

I feel dressed for the part, anyway.

You look it.

- How are you, Gary?

- Pleased to meet you, James.

Pleased to meet you.

You've been here 27 years?

27, James.

Can you imagine?

- And Charles, you're only-- - Yeah.

- Only months, really.

- I'm a new boy.

Yeah.

So how on Earth do you acquire an island?

Well, it was bizarre.

I mean, I'm not hotelier, so I am now, obviously.

A mate of mine, he showed me this picture of this island, and he said, "I'm buying this island."

I went, "oh, that's amazing."

A week later, he phoned me and said, "the funding has fallen out of bed.

I don't suppose you're still interested, are you?"

Not a moment's hesitation, "yeah."

JAMES MARTIN: Right.

Well, Gary's looking for something to do, so what are we drinking, then?

What I think you should both have, now, gin is right, Charles.

Is it?

GARY: So vodka is left.

- Oh, OK.

That's good.

You see?

So let's do one gin and one vodka.

With an olive, of course.

- With an olive for me.

Got to have an olive, because classic-- classic-- It's wonderful having your own bar-- I know, it's great.

There's nothing like tea and vodka.

JAMES MARTIN: So, tell me about the history of the hotel.

When was it first built?

Was it a house before?

Yeah, there was a chap called Archie Nettlefold.

He was a playboy, he owned theaters up in London in the '20s.

He wanted somewhere to get away from London and the crowd, and he came down here and he bought the island, and he built himself a house.

And then Noel Coward and all his mates, you know Noel-- Yeah, yeah.

--came down and didn't leave.

So he started charging them and it turned into a hotel.

But I mean, running a hotel is one thing, but having one that's on its own island-- Yes.

I mean, it must be a tremendous upkeep as well.

CHARLES FUCHS: Yes, getting stuff off and on, the tide comes in and out twice a day.

So when it's wrong, you've got mostly tide during the day.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

CHARLES FUCHS: The bins have to go across.

We've got power cable and water under the beach, which bursts out occasionally and frees itself.

Food has to come across.

Staff have to come across.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

CHARLES FUCHS: Yeah, it is difficult, but that's what it is.

I mean, people come dressed up and then have their pencil mustaches and their suits and looking the bit.

JAMES MARTIN: And you have a band and all that sort of stuff in the evening.

CHARLES FUCHS: Yeah, band tonight.

And there's dancing.

Yeah, that's why I need a drink first.

So what have we got in here, then?

Ooh, good old classic Martini, James.

Chilled.

Cheers.

God, that's proper, that.

Isn't it?

I'll tell you, you're gonna have a happy afternoon.

JAMES MARTIN: When's the tide go out?

It changes daily as well, so you never know where you are with the tide.

That sounds good to me.

That's an interesting relationship.

You wouldn't have a clue with the tide after one of these, I can tell you that for a fact.

Anyway, cheers.

Cheers.

[gentle music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): What a location, and I've got the perfect dish to pay homage to this glorious hotel, and Devon too.

Now, it's easy to understand why people have fallen in love with this place.

This really is a unique spot.

And you'll certainly fall in love with this food, because this is really, really simple.

This is a lump of fish on a barbecue.

I'm going to serve it the wonderful beurre blanc sauce, which is, of course, a French classic, as is art deco.

So what you start off and do, first of all, is make a reduction.

And chefs like to call this a gastric.

It's actually a really strong mixture of vinegar and white wine.

And it's a reduction that you commonly use in a lot of sauces.

A lot of French sauces, anyway.

So we start off with some diced shallots.

It's a good idea to use shallots, not really onions because onions are too strong.

They're nice and mild.

So chop them all up.

And then we take a mixture of white wine vinegar and white wine.

[sizzling] It's a bit hot, that pan.

So we take white wine vinegar and we make a simple little reduction in there with some shallots, some peppercorns, a few bits of peppercorns, a little bit of bay leaf, and you reduce this down to almost nothing.

Now, a good tip is just a little bit of this amazing Devon cream.

Now, classically, you wouldn't add the cream to this, but it stabilizes the mixture it, makes it much more easier to work with.

So while that's reducing down, I can turn my attention to my amazing brill.

You have to love this.

It is absolutely beautiful.

And I'm basically just going to prepare this really simple for a barbecue.

So we take it whole like this.

And then using a pair of scissors, we just remove the fins like that.

[gentle music] Take the head off, get rid of that.

Then, we take our lovely piece of fish and we're going to cut this straight in half.

Go either side of that big bone.

There's one bone right through the middle.

You want to just pick it up either side of that.

But look at that.

Just look at that for a piece of fish.

Beautiful.

And then simply just to prepare this-- I'm just going to use the same knife because it's going to cook anyway.

We've got a bit of lemon a few bits on there.

Like that.

And then, I grab these en route from the supermarket.

I thought these were quite cool, really.

You just pop your fish in.

I'm going to season it up.

A bit of black pepper, a bit of salt, a few bits of lemon, and close this down.

Same again.

Fish on.

A bit of salt and pepper.

Over the top.

I'm just going to nip and wash my hands.

Now, this sauce has almost disappeared.

Now, this cream, it's just-- look, that's what we want.

Makes your eyes steam.

That's what it should be.

It's quite strong.

And then we just leave that to one side.

And all I'm going to do now is lift off our griddle and cook our fish over our coals.

How good does that look?

[gentle music] So look, you just flip this over.

Oh, check this out.

Beautiful bit of fish like that.

But we're going to finish off this sauce.

Now, you can see it's almost literally reduced down to next to nothing.

And then this is where we add the butter.

Now, there are people who watch these shows that apparently watch them while they're at the gym.

But if you're on a treadmill at this point, turn it up a bit, because I'm about to add about 450 grams of butter.

You cannot make this with olive oil, you cannot make it with margarine.

It has to be butter.

So you just keep whisking it in.

And you do this off the heat, really.

It doesn't melt in all the butter.

Just put it back on a little bit just to bring it back again.

But whatever you do, don't boil it, because it's the butter that thickens the sauce.

So you finish after about adding 500 grams of butter, ish.

You've got beurre blanc.

And then, we're just going to flavor that with just a touch of lemon juice like that.

And then chives.

Fresh chives I always think are the best.

A little bit of parsley.

You leave it as it is if you wanted to.

But just a bit of that in the sauce.

And keep mixing it together.

Try to keep it in the fridge, otherwise it'll firm up like a block of butter, and then you've got, well, beurre blanc by the slice, to be brutally honest with you.

But then to serve this, we can then grab our fish.

See?

Look at that.

Beautiful.

Always try wherever possible as well-- try and leave the skin on the fish if you're going to do stuff like this.

Just protects it, just in case it catches a little bit too much, you can leave the skin behind.

Like that.

And then, we've got these amazing art deco plates that I don't think we'll ever fall out of fashion, really.

A bit like this sauce.

In fact, a bit like this place.

There's something uniquely special about it.

Let me just pop a little bit of the beurre blanc on the side.

A little bit of olive oil, and there we have it.

Beurre blanc with brill from literally just out there, cooked in one of the most beautiful places I think I've ever been.

It is fabulous.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): There you have it, a touch of French class.

Perfect for the glamorous 1930s.

[gentle music] My time in glorious Devon has come to an end, and I've loved every minute.

It's been a joy to have my good friend and Michelin-starred chef Simon Hulstone as my tour guide.

I've tasted the wildest of mushrooms.

How beautiful is that?

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Simon sampled some top class cheese.

Oh, it's stunning, isn't it?

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And I've experienced art deco splendor on Burgh Island.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm sorry to be leaving, but one thing's for sure, I'll definitely be back.

[theme music]