Raymond Blanc's Royal Kitchen Gardens episode 6
Raymond Blanc's Royal Kitchen Gardens episode 6
Transcript
00:00Raymond Blanc is passionate about his garden at La Manoire Quatre Saisons and the amazing
00:08array of fruit and vegetables it provides throughout the year.
00:11Oh, they look so beautiful.
00:13But he's not alone.
00:15His Majesty King Charles III has long championed the kitchen garden and the importance of growing
00:21sustainable seasonal food.
00:24Now, Raymond has been invited to take a glimpse behind the scenes at the productive gardens
00:30of some of the nation's most spectacular royal palaces.
00:34This garden is a true inspiration for creating wonderful dishes.
00:39Raymond will be travelling the length and breadth of the kingdom.
00:43He'll meet the dedicated people who care for these unique gardens.
00:46Little genius, how do you manage?
00:50It's really about inspiring our visitors and showing people what they can grow in their
00:54own gardens.
00:55My celery looks like that already.
00:58He'll celebrate the extraordinary edible treasures they produce with the chefs who use them every
01:04day.
01:05Give me any food, especially when it comes from the garden, perfect.
01:10Is the egg runny?
01:11Oh, la, la.
01:12Speechless, chef.
01:13Speechless.
01:14Absolutely fantastic.
01:15I wouldn't mind having that every day.
01:17No?
01:18Not bad.
01:19Inspired by his travels, Raymond will also share mouth-watering recipes of his own.
01:25Heavenly.
01:26I hope you're going to make it in your own home.
01:30Bon appétit.
01:31All, but for a king.
01:33Long live the king.
01:34Long live the king.
01:36Join me as I journey through the royal kitchen gardens.
01:41For decades, King Charles III has been an enthusiastic supporter of organic farming,
01:50food provenance and home-grown produce, shared interests he's had in common with Raymond
01:58for many years.
02:01His Majesty's knowledge of food, of garden, how to grow a garden, all sort of heritage,
02:08rare varieties, organically, is immense.
02:11Whether it's been establishing educational charities to encourage sustainability...
02:16Do you all like being outside?
02:19Yeah.
02:20Despite the weather.
02:22...or helping restore and conserve historic, productive gardens for the public to enjoy,
02:28his personal commitment to all things green is part of a long tradition of growing food
02:34at our palaces, castles and great estates, which stretches back hundreds of years.
02:46Today, Raymond is back on the banks of the Thames, exploring historic Hampton Court Palace.
02:53On his last visit, he enjoyed a flavour of the Tudor court in Henry VIII's Great Hall
03:01and was wowed by the marvels of its magical walled garden.
03:10Today, he'll be getting better acquainted with one of its original 18th century inhabitants,
03:16the Great Vine.
03:19It's the first time I come and see this Great Vine, and it's seriously impressive.
03:25It makes me very small.
03:27Hampton Court's executive chef, Neil Roster, will be serving him an earthy taste of summer,
03:33marinated beetroot with goat's curd and truffle honey dressing.
03:39Oh, they look so beautiful.
03:42And Raymond will be creating some fabulous food of his own,
03:47asparagus with Cherville butter and a decadent chocolate mousse.
03:52It is magical.
03:58Welcome to Hampton Court Palace.
04:01There is so much to enjoy and discover. Come with me.
04:06First built in the 1500s, the majestic medieval mansion
04:11was both home to Henry VIII and his six wives,
04:15and it was the heart of the Tudor court.
04:19This is the exact spot where Justin's tournament was taking place.
04:36But in 1689, the palace underwent a magnificent makeover,
04:41when William and Mary added their own breathtaking Baroque masterpiece.
04:49Over the years, Hampton Court has seen so many changes.
04:53Since Harry's day, it has been the home of many royal families.
04:58They all left their marks on the house and also on the gardens.
05:04Now they welcome thousands of visitors each year,
05:07who come to marvel at the spectacular fountain court and iconic ewe maze.
05:17But Raymond's catching up again with the keeper of the kitchen gardens,
05:21Hillary, to see an equally impressive attraction,
05:24the 250-year-old great vine.
05:34Wow, it's gigantic. I heard so much about it.
05:38That's the first time I come and see this great one,
05:42and it's seriously impressive. It makes me very small.
05:45Is it one single grape?
05:47Yeah, it's one single vine. Yeah, so that's its trunk down there.
05:50And that's the trunk.
05:51Yeah, so it's four metres around the base of the trunk.
05:54It's a big boy. Yeah.
05:56How do you feed him? How do you look after him?
05:58Because it's immense.
06:01I mean, this plant is over 30 metres long, it's all over.
06:05It's huge. How do you feed him?
06:07Mostly it's manure that we feed it with,
06:09so every year or two we'll put 10 tonnes of manure
06:12on the area outside where the roots are to feed it,
06:15so that gives it lots to eat.
06:18The largest grape vine in the world,
06:20it was planted by the palace's most favourite head gardener,
06:24Lancelot Capability Brown.
06:27The scale of it is really impressive,
06:30and what I'm the most surprised is the health of the grapes,
06:34the health of the root system.
06:37All the leaves, it's very healthy.
06:39It's all but healthy, which is usually a contradiction.
06:43So how do you do it?
06:45Well, I think just time that you spend looking after it,
06:48like, you know, I spend hours each week, like, caring for it.
06:52You have to prune it, you have to make sure that there's,
06:55like, the balance between the leaves and the fruit on it.
06:59It's been cared for for a long time,
07:01like over its 250-year-old lifespan,
07:03there's always been somebody who's been responsible for caring for it.
07:07When will they be ripe?
07:09These will be ripe in the middle of September,
07:12so, yeah, like middle of September,
07:14and the harvest will take a few weeks.
07:16And what do you do with it?
07:18Well, sell them to visitors.
07:20So it's not just for royalty?
07:22No, not anymore. It was. It used to be in the past,
07:24in fact, they used to even number each bunch of grapes
07:26to make sure that nobody else got them,
07:28but nowadays they're just sold to visitors.
07:30Imagine 250 years ago,
07:32to be able to put grapes on the table of the guests.
07:36Wow, what a show.
07:37Exactly.
07:38What a show.
07:39That shows your rank, that shows your pedigrees,
07:42that shows your quality in lifestyle,
07:44how you feed your guests so well.
07:46I think I will come back during harvest time.
07:49Yeah, please do, yeah.
07:50OK, I'm a very good commis,
07:52very happy to help you in cutting,
07:54being supervised, of course, by you.
07:56Yeah, sure, we can do that if you want, yeah.
08:06Coming up, Raymond discovers
08:08the wonders of Hampton Court's herb garden.
08:11This is a good King Henry.
08:15You are in a King Henry heaven, eh?
08:18Lovely.
08:20See you after the break.
08:33Welcome back to Raymond Blanc's Royal Kitchen Gardens
08:37and the opulent setting of Hampton Court in Surrey.
08:41Later, palace chef Neil Roster will be sharing his secret
08:46for making the most of its bountiful beetroot.
08:49You prefer to roast them rather than to boil them?
08:52Yeah, I find the roasting process,
08:54you keep all the flavours in the beetroot.
08:59But first, he's taking time to soak up the splendour
09:03of Hampton Court's impressive one-acre walled garden.
09:16As a chef, when you see an abundance of produce,
09:19like in this garden, all what you want to do
09:22is to go in your kitchen and create some beautiful dishes.
09:30Originally built for William and Mary,
09:32its formal grid of geometric beds and paths was recreated in 2014,
09:37using a layout inspired by contemporary 18th-century paintings.
09:43At its heart are the historic herb beds
09:46and Raymond's meeting gardener Ichiho to find out more.
09:56I see here so many herbs which I don't even know the name.
10:00I would love to come back to your garden
10:02and be your apprentice for a few days, OK? Sure.
10:05Because I would like to create a medicinal herb garden at Le Manoir.
10:09But show me a couple of herbs that you really love.
10:12Yeah, right. This is called a hyssop.
10:15And olden days, they laid the floor with this hyssop
10:19to cover the smell of body odour,
10:22because they couldn't have bath like we do every day.
10:25But what about using petal of roses?
10:28Oh, that would be lovely. The French would have done that.
10:31Yes, I'm sure.
10:33Herbs had a wide range of uses,
10:35from the medicinal to culinary,
10:37and Hampton Court is still home to some little-known varieties.
10:41So what do we have here?
10:43This is Good King Henry.
10:45Good King Henry is not after Henry VIII.
10:49This is from German word Guten Henry, which is Good Henry.
10:54You can eat leaves, young shoots, flower and seeds.
10:58Young shoots is called the poor man's asparagus.
11:01And young leaves for salad,
11:03and bigger leaves for steaming like spinach.
11:07And that?
11:08That is seeds, and they can be eaten like a quinoa.
11:11Wow, so you can eat the whole plant, the whole bush.
11:13Sure, very useful.
11:15So this definitely is a Good King Henry.
11:17Yeah. Shall we taste some leaves?
11:19Yeah, yeah.
11:25It's very pleasant, very pleasant texture.
11:28You can imagine just a bit of water,
11:30tiny bit of olive oil, pan-fried.
11:32Two seconds, keep all the nutrients inside,
11:35you are in King Henry heaven.
11:37Lovely.
11:39Thank you very much. You've been absolutely amazing.
11:41Thank you.
11:52To salute the versatility of herbs,
11:55Raymond has the perfect pairing of English and French flavours,
11:59asparagus with Cherville butter.
12:05And probably it is the simplest dish that I've ever done.
12:09But I always like to add a little bit of complications,
12:12because nothing is ever simple in life.
12:15And here with my beautiful asparagus,
12:17what is really interesting actually,
12:19although one is white and the other one is green,
12:21they are exactly the same family,
12:23but the white grows underneath the earth,
12:27so it doesn't have the light bringing its chlorophyll,
12:32like this one.
12:34This one grows straight out of the ground,
12:36this one is buried under the earth.
12:39And it's trying desperately to get to the light,
12:43and different flavours and textures,
12:45and mostly different cooking.
12:47So I'm going to cook first the white asparagus.
12:50Why? Because it takes three times longer
12:52than the green asparagus.
12:54Interesting.
12:55They're more linear, harder,
12:57but the taste is so much sweeter,
13:00much depth and gentle, and gentle flavours.
13:04So voilà.
13:05The white asparagus, you need to peel it,
13:07because it's quite fibrous, the outside.
13:09You just hold it flat like that,
13:15and that will remove all the linear parts of the asparagus,
13:19after you have all tenderness, juiciness.
13:21And now I'm going to start cooking my white asparagus.
13:26I'm going to add a bit of sugar,
13:29that will help the flavour,
13:31and a big pinch of salt.
13:35And that will take 25 minutes.
13:37Whilst my white asparagus are cooking,
13:40now I'm going to prepare my cherry sauce.
13:45I don't need very much, as much as plenty.
13:50CHOPPING
13:54For me, and for most of us, we love this dish,
13:57because that's the first vegetables from the season,
14:00with the peas, the baby spinach, the radishes.
14:03But those are the noble vegetables,
14:05that's one we all love.
14:07Actually, in France, we love the white asparagus.
14:10We only mostly cook the white asparagus.
14:13In England, we love the green asparagus.
14:16And the reason why,
14:18I don't know.
14:20LAUGHS
14:24I put it in that casserole here.
14:28So now I'm going to sweeten my shallots with butter.
14:32Very little, you don't need very much.
14:35Voilà.
14:38C'est bien.
14:40Maybe a bit more.
14:45C'est bien.
14:47So I sweeten them to remove all the sulphur,
14:50which makes you cry, you know.
14:52When you peel an onion, you cry.
14:54Here, all that vulgarity is going out,
14:57and you get only the sweet flavour of the shallot.
15:00So now, what I'm going to do, I need my chervil.
15:04Just cut the base.
15:07And very simply wrap it up,
15:09and you chop your chervil,
15:11quite roughly, in big pieces.
15:14Chervil is such an unknown and unused vegetable,
15:18and what a shame,
15:20because England is the best country to grow it.
15:22It's dark, it's grey, it's cold,
15:24and it grows all year round.
15:26So now my sauce is nearly ready,
15:28just with water, like my mum taught me.
15:31Very simple home cooking.
15:33So what I have to do now,
15:35is to put that chervil in the base here.
15:39Voilà.
15:41Add a bit more water.
15:44So chervil,
15:46how do you describe it?
15:48Delightful, delicious, one of my favourite herbs.
15:51And the flavour is slightly aniseed flavour,
15:54if you want to describe it.
15:56But delicate, but with a huge character.
15:59Beautiful, it's less strong than sage,
16:01or thyme, or bay leaf, or all these herbs.
16:04It's more delicate, but the flavour is quite remarkable.
16:08Voilà, and now I've got four minutes.
16:10Put my green asparagus.
16:12Très bien.
16:14And now I'm going to add a little bit of butter,
16:17to give it a richness.
16:19Not all of it, I will just add that much, maximum.
16:23Put that away.
16:25And you just emulsify it very nicely.
16:28And you have really a delicious sauce.
16:31So simple, my mum always used water.
16:34No stocks.
16:36There's enough flavour in that chervil,
16:38and in those shallots.
16:40A little bit of juice.
16:45Et voilà.
16:49A bit of jus.
16:51Tiny bit of salt, tiny bit, you don't need very much.
16:54A bit of pepper.
16:56And my asparagus are already here.
17:02Of course you could serve mayonnaise, mayonnaise,
17:05salsa verde, there's so many beautiful sauces
17:08that you can serve your asparagus as a cold, tepid,
17:11or warm, but tepid are always best.
17:13Because of course, the warmth is a catalyst of flavour.
17:16As simple as that.
17:18So that's now ready.
17:20They are absolutely cooked, you can see.
17:23Oh, look at these colours.
17:25How beautiful they are, vibrant.
17:27And I can imagine the taste and the texture.
17:30Spring, beautiful spring.
17:32So voilà.
17:35All what I need to do now is to plate it.
17:38So, yeah.
17:40So you, of course, you put the colours separate.
17:44You just...
17:46And so gorgeous, so beautiful to watch, no?
17:56This is the end of the season now.
17:58Normally I would have loved to have fat, gorgeous,
18:01chunky asparagus.
18:03Asparagus as big as Adam.
18:05Maybe not as big as Adam, maybe too big.
18:08But voilà.
18:12Et voilà.
18:14Look at these colours.
18:16And you have your beautiful serve with jus.
18:21That you pour on here.
18:26Great flavour.
18:29And so that.
18:31Only 20 grams of butter.
18:33That's all.
18:35Of course, my British friends would take a fork and a knife.
18:39But a Frenchman will just do it like that.
18:45Mmm, beautiful textures.
18:47And the taste is going to be so different.
18:50So English asparagus is delicious,
18:52but totally different character.
18:55And you eat all...
18:57All of it.
19:01Oh-ho-ho-ho.
19:03Vive la France.
19:09Totally different, sweeter.
19:15Actually, both of them are delicious in their own way.
19:18Vive l'Entendre Cordiale.
19:24MUSIC
19:41Coming up, there's beautiful beetroot straight from the Palace Garden,
19:46courtesy of executive chef Neil Roster.
19:49It's a bowl of health which we've just created here.
19:52It's so beautiful, this one.
20:06Welcome back to Raymond Blanc's Royal Kitchen Gardens
20:10from palatial Hampton Court in Surrey.
20:15After a lesson in horticultural history from gardener Itiho,
20:20Raymond's shared a herby combination of French and English cuisine,
20:24his asparagus with Cherville butter.
20:30Later, he'll be hearing how 18th-century monarchs
20:33made chocolate the height of fashion.
20:36It does become a luxury drink because of its association
20:40with romance and love, which has always been there.
20:43Still today. Still today.
20:46But first, in the cafe kitchen,
20:49Hampton Court's executive chef Neil Roster has the ideal ingredient
20:54to give Raymond another treat from the Palace's productive garden.
20:58I love having the kitchen garden,
21:00mainly because of the kind of produce we get from the growers.
21:03There's such a variety over the seasons.
21:06It's all fresh. We know where it's come from.
21:09The flavours are so different.
21:11There's such an intensity of flavour
21:13from something that you grow yourself
21:15rather than something that you would buy from a supermarket.
21:20If we have a lot of produce, say the beetroot,
21:23we'll get 50, 60 kilos at a time,
21:26so we'll turn some of it into chutney,
21:29some of it is grated for salad, some of it is roasted.
21:33Once you start speaking to the customers that are coming in,
21:36they get really excited about it,
21:38and then we try and explain what they are, where they've come from
21:42and that they can go to have a look at the actual garden
21:45and some of the produce will still be there
21:47because it's not taken out all at once.
21:49The gardeners are there, so there's loads of questions they can ask.
21:56I enjoy gardening myself now at home, something I never used to do,
21:59but growing fruit and vegetables and stuff since being here.
22:03Just the way things are, I think the flavours of the food,
22:06all the different herbs and the fact that you can get hold of these products now
22:10are all readily available to use, so I think everybody should give it a go.
22:14In the summer, most of the produce we get from the garden,
22:17we try to show it as it should be shown.
22:20We try and do a lovely salad bar, up to 14 or 15 different salads
22:24which show off the garden as it should be shown,
22:27loads of flowers, colourful flavours,
22:30and it's the best way of doing it, I think.
22:33On Neil's menu for Raymond today is marinated beetroot
22:37with goat's curd and truffle honey dressing.
22:43It is a true summer still life.
22:47All of these colours, beautiful, bulging with flavour, with colour,
22:51and they're all coming from this garden.
22:54Did you grow them?
22:56Yes, look, as we can see, we've got all these lovely different flowers.
23:00As we can see, we've got all these lovely different types of beetroot.
23:03So many varieties. Which variety do you have here?
23:06So we've got a golden beetroot, and then we've got a red beetroot,
23:12and as you can see from the lovely shave, we kind of call it Paul Smith beetroot
23:17just because of the lovely colours that you get out of it.
23:21So Neil, can you talk me through this dish, please?
23:23So basically what we're going to prepare is a roasted beetroot,
23:27a marinated shaved beetroot, goat's curd salad with a truffle honey dressing.
23:33Sounds simple and absolutely delicious.
23:36So what I'm going to do is I've added some thyme,
23:40a little bit of rock salt, a little bit of olive oil,
23:45and then I'm just going to add a splash of water,
23:49which will create a small amount of steam, and then you have to...
23:53So you prefer to roll them rather than to boil them?
23:56Yeah, I find the roasting process, you keep all the flavours in the beetroot,
24:00whereas when you're boiling it, you lose all the colours, all the flavour,
24:03they become soggy, and they're just not very nice at all.
24:06But I mean, you're also adding flavour through adding the thyme as well into it.
24:11Yeah, so with the olive oil, the water just steams them slightly to stop them drying out,
24:16and you've got the thyme, which will infuse all the way through.
24:19But they steam themselves as well, because there's lots of moisture.
24:22Yeah, there's lovely moisture.
24:23And you retain all that flavour.
24:25Yeah, definitely, definitely.
24:26How long do you roast them for?
24:28Normally, I'd roast them between two and three hours at about 160, which is about 320, I think.
24:34OK, makes sense, yeah. OK, in the oven.
24:37So we're going to put those into the oven,
24:39and the next process is we've got some that we've already prepared.
24:45So as we can see, all the lovely flavours and juices.
24:48Yeah, absolutely, and look at that.
24:50Look at that, and the skin should just come off really simple.
24:55Oh, beautiful colours, eh?
24:57It's lovely, isn't it? Look how you're just roasting it, how it keeps the beetroot.
25:01I have some very fond memories, because my father was a great gardener,
25:05and we would have a huge garden to feed a family of seven, imagine.
25:10OK, and all the vegetables would be harvested, all the root vegetables would be harvested,
25:15such as parsnips, sweets, beetroots, of course, potatoes,
25:20and we kept off the floor in the cellar, covered, of course, with a bag of jute.
25:27OK, no light, so they don't germinate.
25:30OK, and it was the most beautiful sight to be in that cellar,
25:35smelling all this perfume and looking at that extraordinary still life.
25:39Sounds lovely.
25:40And that was really, I'm sure you have such memories as well,
25:43because we are coming more or less from the same generation.
25:48Yeah, my grandmother, she used to grow all the vegetables herself in the backyard.
25:54There was chickens, there was all sorts of animals running about,
25:58and it was such fun to go and visit, and especially her cooking as well was absolutely amazing.
26:05She was one of these people that could just throw things into a bowl
26:08and produce an amazing meal from it.
26:11So show me now.
26:14So basically what we're going to do is start to put the dish together,
26:18and so we've got some lovely raw shaved beetroot,
26:21so we're going to place a good mix into the bowl.
26:24Cut very thinly.
26:25Very thin so that the pickling process is really quick when we add the dressing to it.
26:31And then I'm just going to slice some shallots.
26:39Again finely as well.
26:40Yeah, very fine, just for some bite and some texture into the dish.
26:49And then we're going to use a sherry vinegar and lemon juice dressing
26:54with a touch of sugar into it, which will do the pickling process.
27:00So it's a slight pickling effectively, where you have this exchange of beautiful flavours,
27:05the acidity comes into it.
27:07And it keeps the earthiness of the dish.
27:10So colourful, so colourful.
27:12And again, we don't lose any of the colour in the actual beetroot.
27:16It just adds a little bit of flavour.
27:20A good pinch of salt through, please.
27:23For good luck.
27:24Absolutely.
27:26I hope I'm a good apprentice, chef.
27:28You are indeed the best of them, lad.
27:33So basically we can put that to one side and just leave it a minute.
27:38And how long do you leave it like that?
27:40It only needs to be a couple of minutes.
27:41It will actually turn quite quickly and it will soften up
27:44and you'll see the juices coming out of it.
27:47To go with the dish, we're using a goat's curd.
27:50I'm just going to add a little bit of mint.
27:53So what we've got is, again, an underused cheese.
27:57It's the first part of the process of making goat's cheese.
28:00It's so full of protein and it's really good for your stomach.
28:07So basically what I've done is I've got the goat's curd,
28:09chopped mint and I've mixed it together and I've put it in a piping bag.
28:13I prefer to use a piping bag for ease of use.
28:16Yes, makes sense.
28:17And it gives a clean plate when you're finished.
28:19Very professional, eh?
28:20Indeed, look at that.
28:21It's cool, eh?
28:22It's like a little present.
28:24Merry Christmas.
28:25Merry Christmas.
28:27So firstly, we'll use the pickled beetroot.
28:30Look at the difference.
28:31It's so amazing.
28:32Look at the difference.
28:34Already this beetroot has a bit of salt, a bit of acid.
28:38It has cured and pickled the beetroot.
28:40And you can see the difference.
28:42Look, that one is all soft.
28:44That one is very, very hard.
28:47And that creates a lovely exchange of flavour.
28:50And of course, taste, taste.
28:52Which is the main thing.
28:53Less sweet.
28:55It's really lovely.
28:56It looks absolutely stunning.
28:57So appetising.
28:59So what I'm going to do next is I'm going to put some goat's curd onto the plate.
29:04Okay.
29:08And then we're just going to pick some of the other beetroot up.
29:13Here, for you.
29:14Thank you.
29:17And then we're going to use some of the red.
29:19Of course.
29:21And then I'm going to use our truffled honey dressing.
29:27Why truffle?
29:29The flavour goes so well with the beetroot.
29:31You've got the earthy tones of the beetroot and of the truffle.
29:34And mixed with the honey, it just goes so well with this dish.
29:40And then to finish the dish off, we're just going to use baby watercress.
29:46Gorgeous, gorgeous.
29:47And then also I've got some red-veined sorrel.
29:50Voilà.
29:51Which has got a nice...
29:52I said it was beetroot leaves.
29:54This is from the garden.
29:55We picked it this morning.
29:56So it just adds some colour plus a little bit of acidity.
30:01We're actually standing in a beetroot patch here.
30:04And to see those beetroots being cooked and laid on the plates
30:07and create that extraordinary palette of colours, tastes, textures and flavours.
30:13And so nutritious.
30:15It's a bowl of health which you've just created here.
30:18And it's so beautiful as well.
30:20Really beautiful.
30:21Thank you.
30:22I look forward to it.
30:23It's such a simple dish and so easy to do.
30:25And I'm just going to finish it with a touch of black pepper.
30:30So there we go.
30:31There's a finished dish.
30:33Shaved marinated beetroot, roasted beetroot with a goat's curd
30:37and we've got some red-veined sorrel salad.
30:40Just give me a knife and a fork, please.
30:42And a glass maybe of Chablis.
30:46That would be nice.
30:47I forgot that bit.
30:55So now, let's have a look.
31:13Oh, they look so beautiful.
31:18So sweet.
31:19So absolutely perfect.
31:21I'd like to try the way of goat.
31:27So delicious.
31:28Really a very brilliant dish.
31:30We have the garden, very simplicity, inexpensive, delicious, nutritious.
31:36That is a perfect food that anybody would want to have.
31:39Thank you.
31:40Chef, merci.
31:41A pleasure.
31:42It's been a pleasure.
31:43Thank you very much.
31:44OK.
31:45Let's finish it off.
31:54Speechless, Chef, speechless.
31:55Absolutely fantastic.
32:08After the break, historic kitchen's guide, Mark,
32:11reveals the mysteries of Georgian chocolate making.
32:14We have these, which are lightly roasted, and you end up with...
32:18Something like that.
32:19The lip.
32:20Look how gorgeous it is.
32:22And Raymond recreates an indulgent dessert dedicated to Mamon Blanc.
32:28A simple, guilt-free chocolate mousse.
32:31It is magical.
32:38See you after the break.
32:50Welcome back to Raymond Blanc's Royal Kitchen Gardens.
32:54Today he's been back revelling in the regal heritage of Hampton Court Palace.
33:00Its marvellous home-grown produce has inspired Chef to create a simple homage to herbs.
33:07Asparagus with chervil butter.
33:10Later he'll be taking a trip down memory lane with a dessert to die for.
33:15Mamon Blanc's chocolate mousse.
33:23But first, Raymond's meeting interpretation guide, Mark,
33:27in the palace's historic kitchens to learn about George I's favourite tipple.
33:34Introduced to England around 1600,
33:37chocolate was primarily prepared as a drink for over 200 years.
33:42In its 18th century heyday,
33:44high society flocked to London's coffeehouses to talk politics
33:49and partake in the fashion for hot chocolate.
33:52So, Mark, can you tell me what's going on here?
33:54Well, we're actually processing chocolate in the Georgian fashion.
33:58So here we have some unroasted but fermented beans.
34:03This is how they would be transported.
34:06They're then roasted on site.
34:08So we have these, which are lightly roasted.
34:10That also helps the process of loosening up the skin so we can peel it.
34:16And you end up with...
34:17Something like that. Beautiful.
34:20Look how gorgeous it is.
34:21So from here, you've got that beautiful nib, shiny and gorgeous.
34:25Already it tastes like chocolate.
34:28It is chocolate.
34:29Very bitter, yeah.
34:31It's bitter because I like my 100% chocolate.
34:33I'm a purist.
34:34Absolutely.
34:35OK.
34:36And now they take these nibs and...
34:38They are ground.
34:40And Robin is grinding.
34:41They're ground, Robin here.
34:43What we've got here is a saddle quern.
34:45It's heated from underneath by some...
34:47So you put some coal underneath.
34:49Indeed, yeah.
34:50We want this about blood temperature.
34:52Yeah, yeah.
34:53The same point that chocolate melts.
34:55The reason that chocolate is so wonderful...
34:57You don't want to separate the chocolate from the batter.
34:59No.
35:00You just want to melt it down and incorporate it all.
35:04It makes the batter and the chocolate...
35:06Join together.
35:07Yeah.
35:08And so you end up with this.
35:09So you mould it in here.
35:10Yeah.
35:11OK.
35:12That is lovely.
35:13Look at that chocolate.
35:14Look at that.
35:15So pure.
35:16When did you start this chocolate making?
35:18The first chocolate kitchen at Hampton Court Palace
35:20is put into place by William III.
35:23It starts off as a luxury drink,
35:25so it is a certain bit of society.
35:28The top part, the crème de la crème, if you want.
35:31It must be hugely expensive.
35:33It is expensive.
35:35It's not as expensive as tea, but tea is mostly taxed.
35:40But it does become a luxury drink
35:43because of its association with romance and love,
35:46which has always been there.
35:48Still today.
35:49Of course, besides being so delicious,
35:52but also it was always thought to be an aphrodisiac.
35:55Absolutely.
35:56Because of the cerebrum, which is inside the cacao.
36:00But actually you need to eat five kilograms of chocolate
36:03to have really any effect.
36:05So, bon appétit.
36:06And do you know what theobromine is?
36:08Food of the gods.
36:09Food of the gods. Here we are.
36:10Are you going to do something for me?
36:12We thought we would have a go at making John Knott's wine chocolate.
36:17The recipe we've got is 1723,
36:20so it would have been used by George I.
36:24Favoured by royalty,
36:26Knott's rich, indulgent recipe called for half a pint
36:30of either pale cherry or port.
36:35Four-and-a-half ounces of chocolate, roughly chopped,
36:39and a whopping six ounces of sugar.
36:43The ingredients were then gently heated
36:46to create a sweet, boozy beverage that was strictly for grown-ups.
36:54Look at this. Look at this.
36:57Oh, no, no, no, no.
36:59I'm sorry, it's not for you. It is for me.
37:02Obviously. Guests first.
37:04Absolutely.
37:05Oh, it looks so appetising.
37:07Look at that gorgeous colour.
37:10And the smell is delicious.
37:13Well, let's taste it.
37:18Anytime. Bedtime, bedtime drink.
37:22Bedtime drinks, it will work.
37:27Gentlemen, thank you so much for having travelled me
37:31all the way to Georgian time.
37:33And also thank you for showing me,
37:36really I love to see the artisan work, OK,
37:40how this pod of chocolate is transformed in such a drink.
37:45You've been great teachers, I am grateful for it.
37:48So long live the King.
37:50Long live the King.
37:52Voilà. Cheers.
37:56In honour of Hampton Court's historic connection to cocoa,
38:00chef's final dish is a simple dessert with a nod to his own past,
38:05Maman Blanc's chocolate mousse.
38:09Everyone loves chocolate.
38:11I think there are millions of chocolate recipes,
38:14but the one I'm about to prepare is probably the most delicious,
38:19the silkiest and the simplest recipe from Maman Blanc.
38:23She loves simple.
38:25She had five children to look after.
38:27It couldn't be complicated.
38:29So, for my chocolate mousse, four ingredients.
38:32Chocolate, and there I take a good chocolate.
38:35This one is 70% cocoa.
38:37I put a bain-marie here underneath, OK.
38:40Be careful, chocolate will start to grain
38:43when it reaches a temperature of 103 degrees.
38:46OK, then you've got lemon.
38:48The lemon juice will do two things.
38:50It will prevent the egg white to coagulate, OK, or separate,
38:55and also it will add flavour.
38:57Acidity is a catalyst of flavour.
39:00The third ingredient is sugar,
39:03and there is only 20 grams of sugar for four guests.
39:07So no guilt whatsoever.
39:09You will enjoy it, you will celebrate it with your friends.
39:12So 20 grams of sugar, OK.
39:15My egg whites are here, OK,
39:17so I'm going to need two more egg whites.
39:26Très bien.
39:28This one here.
39:30So there's eight egg whites here.
39:32Six were already cracked, OK.
39:37Look how gorgeous they are.
39:39Those come from the farm next door.
39:41So, the next stage, chocolate is moving.
39:44We are now going to whip those egg whites.
39:50So a bit of lemon juice, voilà.
39:54And in this stage, what I'm going to do is to beat it.
39:59And by doing so, I'm incorporating lots of air inside.
40:08It's very therapeutic, you know.
40:10The thing is, cuisine, I found it a way of complete escape, you know,
40:15when you succeed, of course.
40:17When you don't succeed, it's not so good.
40:20So you see that's the first stage,
40:22so the egg white is quite still viscous.
40:24You can see bubbles of egg white in that albumen.
40:33So now, at this stage, I'm going to add the sugar, a little bit.
40:41And only 20 grams, so please, no guilt whatsoever.
40:45Just enjoy it.
40:49So, of course, you try to crack as much air as possible,
40:53to make it as light as possible,
40:55to get as much volume as possible,
40:57nearly there, nearly there.
41:00And the three or four strokes, and there.
41:04Yeah.
41:06You see, it's very soft peak.
41:08They don't stand up.
41:10That's what you want, you see?
41:12That's perfect.
41:14Voilà.
41:16So, what I'm going to do...
41:24I'm going to put about one third.
41:27And I'm going to mix it very fast.
41:32Why? It's to lighten the base,
41:34to further the incorporation of the remaining egg white.
41:38So you can go very fast here,
41:40otherwise the chocolate would solidify,
41:42it would get hard,
41:44and you would hate me for it.
41:46Voilà.
41:49So I've lightened this base,
41:52and I'm going to mix it very fast.
41:55So I've lightened this base,
41:57and now I'm going to mix it beautifully.
42:01So, quickly, turn the base.
42:06Like that.
42:09And then fold.
42:13Of course, if you want to make your mousse a bit richer,
42:17you can add butter,
42:19you can add a little bit of cream if you want to,
42:23but I prefer it like that.
42:25Look at that beautiful colour.
42:28It starts to take shape,
42:30and now we are ready.
42:32Look how beautiful it is.
42:39This dessert really demonstrates how easy it is to be made.
42:44Voilà.
42:49Voilà.
42:52So now, I'm going to chill this beautiful chocolate mousse
42:56for 4 hours, up to 12 hours,
42:58and I will also show you many, many variations
43:02how to create this sumptuous dessert,
43:04fit for a king, no less.
43:11So this chocolate mousse, actually, was refrigerated for 4 hours,
43:16and now I will show you a few other ways you could do it.
43:20Of course, you can serve it individually, just like that.
43:24Look how gorgeous it looks, so simple.
43:27Or you can create a beautiful little dessert,
43:30for 4 guests or 6,
43:32it depends how gourmand you are,
43:34and wrap it up with a little biscuit, so simple.
43:37Voilà.
43:39Or what you can do as well,
43:41is to spoon it up with some beautiful quenelle.
43:46Et voilà.
43:49Look at these gorgeous colours.
43:57Some lovely quenelle.
43:59Oh, that's lovely.
44:01So for garnish, you could use anything,
44:03a bit of crumble, the French call it crumble,
44:06and they've just discovered these beautiful English specialities.
44:11OK, a chocolate crumble,
44:13OK, it's just a bit more cocoa powder into your crumble,
44:17and you've got this gorgeous, look at that,
44:19this wonderful, it has so many wonderful textures.
44:23A tiny little bit of grated,
44:25just like that, look at that.
44:28So beautiful.
44:30And why not a bit of colour, eh?
44:34I must say that the French are completely in love with their chocolate mousse,
44:39and I remember as a kid, we would have to sit down for the whole meal,
44:43while the adults talked about politics, about religion,
44:47all the social topics,
44:50and we have to wait and wait for that chocolate mousse.
44:53But you know what?
44:55It was always worth waiting for,
44:57for this simple, guilt-free chocolate mousse.
45:00It is magical.
45:13¶¶ ¶¶
45:32As a Frenchman, coming here at Hampton Court
45:35was an extraordinary discovery,
45:37to see the grandeur of this wonderful castle,
45:40to feel its history everywhere,
45:43the extraordinary gardens,
45:45all this grand and beautiful and mighty, fascinating.
45:49Really, to discover this place is a must.
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