For great food, get on your bike!
By Julia Shaw - 11/06/2009
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Too many cooks… goes the saying. But it seems we can’t get enough of celebrity chefs these days. And two of the most enthusiastic at getting their message across to the nation are Simon King and Dave Myers – who have just been touring the country putting together a new TV series... this time on British food. So what gets their juices flowing?
“Having spent two and a half years going around the world investigating other people’s cultures, we wanted to celebrate the food culture we have in Britain,” said Simon. “Everyone has a story about food - your mum, your grandma - and they love telling you what they cooked in their day. There are some amazing cultural dishes in the UK that have been cooked for hundreds of years that have nearly been forgotten about. For instance, have you heard of Shropshire’s Fidget Pie? It’s based around gammon and cooking apples with potatoes, sage and onions. It’s really delicious.”
Dave continued: “In this first series we cover 30 of the UK’s 89 counties, and eventually we want to do all of them. We talk about what local produce and recipes each county has to offer, and find a traditional meal from that county using local ingredients. Then we go head to head with the best local chef we can find, often Michelin starred. He cooks his dish, we cook ours - and then we do a blind tasting.”
We’re all spending less because of the credit crunch – so is this affecting locally produced foods? “Local organic produce can be more expensive - but it doesn’t have to be,” says Simon. “It’s such a simple equation. The more we buy from local producers, the more successful they will be, so they will stay in business. What’s frustrating is that people are trying to make a difference locally, but then you get the big food giants flying food in. Of course some supermarkets are doing well with local produce - but that’s how it should be. Your local supermarket should be selling local farmers’ meat, dairy produce, eggs and bread instead of the huge food conglomerates selling us everything.”
Adds Dave: “A lot of farmers have wised up, realising that they can do well if they sell direct. Trouble is, people will visit a farmer’s market every two weeks and buy a few treats, and then be down the supermarket buying the bulk of their groceries. We need that trend to change so that people buy locally more often, but to do that local produce needs to be much more easily available.
“Simon and I opened a food and meat section in Romford market. It’s fantastic with really good quality meat and fish, but at normal prices. And because it’s open six days a week it works really well.”
Given that the Hairy Bikers have travelled the world and the UK, tasting anything and everything, just what was the strangest thing they’d ever eaten? “Without a shadow of a doubt it was goat’s willy in Vietnam,” said Dave. “It was really disgusting,” chips in Simon.
“It didn’t really taste of anything but it was chewy and rubbery and in a hot pot. I think they eat it all the time in Vietnam. That’s the first and last time either of us will try that. “Give us a Shropshire Fidget Pie instead any day!”
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‘The Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain’ will be on our screens this autumn.
If you want to meet them in person, the Hairy Bikers will be demonstrating recipe ideas, along with many other celebrity chefs in The Summer Kitchen at the BBC Summer Good Food Show at The NEC Birmingham from June 10th-14th.
To book tickets go online to the website below or ring the ticket hotline 0844 579 3170.