Raymond Blanc arrived in Britain in 1972 as a 22-year-old, unemployed, French waiter
with only a shaky grasp of English.
Ten years later, he was a chef with two Michelin stars which he still holds today.
Good texture. Lovely, lovely.
While he has been successful in his adopted home,
he has never forgotten his first love.
Food, food, glorious food! My God!
The food and wine of France.
Beautiful!
Now Raymond is back to his favourite French regions,
so he can re-connect with the wonderful food and people that have inspired him.
Voila!
Oh! Oh, la la!
The flavour is intense. It's just...melting.
In each region, he will take over a restaurant for one night only.
Oh, la la! And cook a feast inspired by his journey. My beautiful Franche-Comte!
He will be serving a menu that features his version of famous local dishes.
Helping the master in his homeland will be two lucky young chefs
from his restaurant in Oxfordshire, Kush and Katie-Beth.
Oh, la la! Oh, la la!
Despite 30 years at the top in the UK,
this will be the first time Raymond has had a chance to be chef in France.
I've never cooked in France and I'm slightly, slightly anxious.
Oh, la, la! Stop!
Stop, stop. Don't go up!
Oh!
It's a daunting, nerve-wracking and exciting
task, but one perfectly suited to Raymond Blanc -
The Very Hungry Frenchman.
Sync and corrected by www.addic7ed.com
Burgundy, a diverse region of France
whose cuisine can be defined as the quintessential heart of French cooking,
created by peasants and eaten by aristocrats.
For centuries, home to the rich and powerful Dukes of Burgundy,
the region's fierce independence can be tasted in the food.
The food culture they developed then is the foundation of Burgundy's elegant cuisine,
sophisticated but with roots deep in the rustic
soil of the farms which dot this lovely landscape.
The riches that gave the dukes their wealth to develop
a lavish cuisine was founded around the best wines
and today, they still draw the world's attention, including Raymond's.
So lovely.
It's the wine that puts this region's cuisine on the map
with global dishes like coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon,
but nothing beats being in the place where that wine and those dishes were born.
For Raymond, taking lunch in a vineyard where food
and wine combine gives a true Burgundian experience.
Voila, le boeuf bourguignon. Merci bien.
That dish tells a lot about the story of Burgundy.
It's probably the most universally famous dish which is known across the world,
the greatest classic of Burgundy cuisine.
They are lucky enough to have this fantastic red
wine and white wine you can cook with your food
and that is a lovely recipe, so simple to make at home. I'm a very happy Frenchman.
Oh, la la!
That's a serious, serious chicken, that one.
A good coq au vin starts with a good chicken and
they've got some of the very best chicken in the world.
And of course, you can have red wine in desserts too - poached pears, for instance.
Lovely.
That is a truly local dish steeped in centuries of tradition
which really tells a great story about this wonderful region.
The cuisine in Burgundy owes its liveliness to the use of wine.
You can even start the day here, if you fancy, with poached eggs in wine sauce.
When I think of Burgundy,
I think of wines, I think of peaceful canals
criss-crossing around the Burgundian landscape.
In the south, you've got the Charolais, this big, fat, gorgeous cow.
It produces the best meat.
I think of happy people, people who truly
enjoy life, maybe more than we do in England.
With a history of France's finest cuisine keeping a smile on the Burgundian faces...
Raymond's feast has a lot to live up to.
I thought I knew all the French cheeses, but I only knew that much.
In the next few days, he will tackle some
of the region's classic dishes... That's it!
..in a local restaurant with the help of his two trainee chefs, Katie-Beth and Kush.
Yeah, they think I'm French.
You want it to be so perfect that you can easily mess it up. It's going to be fine.
From beef to blackcurrants, his menu will
reach a grand table of friends and colleagues,
eager to taste Raymond's take on Burgundy food.
Oh, beautiful. They will love it, Kush. Oui, chef.
As wine runs through the veins of this region and contributes
to the sophisticated cuisine from drinking to cooking,
Raymond decides to immerse himself in an annual ritual - the grape harvest.
Alors, on est parti! Voila!
On ne chante pas? We must sing!
His visit to Burgundy has coincided with one of
the most important times in this region's calendar -
the "ban de vendanges", the date the wine harvest begins.
We are so lucky. The weather is so perfect.
The grapes are dried, so effectively, the harvest will be good.
Good weather is the best news a vineyard owner can have.
As this region is known for hail, frost and rain at harvest time,
Anne-Claude Leflaive, one of Raymond's
friends and a respected local wine producer,
is happy to have all hands on deck to pick her outstanding Chardonnay grapes.
Harvesting is a labour of love.
Secateurs may be the universal tool, but you need some technique on a vine.
There is the daughter of Anne-Claude
and she is there, toiling away,
picking up the Chevalier-Montrachet grapes.
Maybe I will ask her to show me the skills of how to do it.
Claire...
Don't put leaves inside. No leaves. No, no leaves inside.
It's not good juice. She is going to be a hard boss.
No, no... I know that.
Oh, comme c'est joli!
Look at that, beautiful.
Oh, la la, elles sont belles. Oh, la la!
People don't realise, but after only five minutes' picking, my back is hurting.
I have to lean down like a prayer to cut this vine... Oh, la la!
Not easy.
When you do that all day, you will welcome a
glass of Montrachet at the end of the evening.
Almost. There's no doubt about that.
Following the French Revolution in the late 18th century,
the large vineyards established by the region's monks were broken up,
so today, there are hundreds of small vineyards.
The best wines, "grands crus", are made mostly
from the grapes near the top of sunny slopes,
something in Anne-Claude's favour.
There are 400 different types of soil in Burgundy and she is very proud of hers.
You see how nice it is?
For me, what is most important in here is what you don't see.
It is what is in the soil, OK?
The roots that go very deep in the soil
and give the minerality of the wine
and the complexity in the wine, and this is what is most important.
Her vineyard is the most celebrated vineyard in the whole world -
Chevalier-Montrachet, Batard-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet,
all her wines, whatever she touches, she makes gold.
As the sun continues to shine, the harvest is blessed with good weather.
For this vineyard at least, the vendange is nearly over for another year.
Now the process of wine-making starts.
You notice they are very small
and also the flavour...
Good flavour.
A bit more acidity than you would have normally
in a dessert grape, but a very good flavour.
Hidden from view,
grape juice becomes wine
and it takes time for Anne-Claude's wine to grace the tables of any feast.
From now to the bottling, it is 18 months. Deux grossesses.
So from now on, it will take 18 months of
pregnancy to make sure that the wine comes to...
Two pregnancies. ..to a great ChassagneMontrachet.
Finally, the moment Raymond's aching back and sore knees are longing for.
To you.
I would describe the feminine qualities of
that wine are there, big, extremely elegant.
My father used to describe the wine, comparing it to a woman.
One day I said, "You have to stop and try to compare it to..."
A man. Not only a woman with the legs and the body and... The chest.
Then he compared it to music and I thought it more...
Yeah. It's less personal. I think music, Mozart, Vivaldi... Tres bien.
To you. Raymond, merci. A long life to Burgundy. Vive la Bourgogne! Merci.
And when you're happy in Burgundy, it's traditional to sing a little song.
Whoo! Whoo!
In his time as one of the most respected chefs in the UK,
Raymond has known the stress and strain of
maintaining excellence in large restaurants,
so his return to the region is allowing him to follow a different path -
humbler surroundings to cook and be host,
happy in the knowledge that his Burgundy menu needs
to be fit for a king, but not served in a palace.
Come on. Come on.
Raymond senses he may have found a place close to
his rustic French heart to cook - La Ruchotte,
the rural dream of chef Frederic Menager.
"La Ruchotte" means "a pile of stone". I think
it's a bit more than that, but what I love about it
is the serenity, the peace, the quietness.
Then full of farm animals, everywhere it goes - chicken,
pigs, flocks of turkeys for Christmas, fattening up,
and all this food is either grown locally, farmed himself or...
Shut up! Don't compete with me!
You rooster, be careful. You have a chef beside you.
This hidden treasure deep in the countryside, 40 miles from Dijon,
has become a destination restaurant for the area.
What is cooking? Lovely, Frederic...
Ca va, Raymond? Tres, tres bien.
Long time no see. Beautiful.
Having trained under some outstanding French chefs,
Frederic was one of the rising stars of French gastronomy
when he decided to quit the bright lights ten years ago and escape to the country.
It takes a great amount of courage to make the choice he has made
because he's going away from the three-star
Michelin circuit to say, "I don't want that life.
"I want a simple life where I depend on myself and only I cook."
Sometimes, I must tell you, I've thought about it as well.
Sometimes you have... The bigger the team, the bigger the problems are.
So I understand his choice really and I respect it.
Much of what he serves is grown on his farm, so
everything is fresh and of the highest quality.
See how quickly he can make a fantastic dish?
Just get anything from the garden, chop it up, throw it in the pan,
break an egg inside, a few herbs and you are in heaven. Simple!
OK, let's go. Bring that. Attends! Don't be so mean.
It's not a restaurant portion.
Voila!
At the large dining table that is the central feature of eating Frederic's food,
Raymond can experience the ambience of the dining room before he holds his feast here.
Bon appetit. A ta sante! Merci, Frederic.
Parfait. It's a challenge because I'm cooking
for French people who are difficult and demanding
and they will say, "Who is that half-Frenchman?"
Immediately, there will be a serious doubt in
their mind as to the credentials of this Frenchman.
"Two-star Michelin? Oh, yes. In England, it means nothing."
So there will be a prejudice against my skill.
I've got to overcome this prejudice and give them a
feast like they have never had. I'll give them that.
Knowing where his food comes from is vital to Raymond's life as a cook.
He learnt these values as a child
and while he may never have dreamt he would
return to Burgundy to host a feast like this,
it is this belief that brings him to the
high pastures of the Morvan region of Burgundy
to come face to face with his main course - beef.
Raymond has asked Katie-Beth, one of his young kitchen
assistants and a butcher's daughter, to join him.
As ever, he is in search of the best herd.
In Burgundy, he is hoping that's the big white Charolais of farmer Marcel Diot.
Monsieur, bonjour.
Raymond Blanc. Enchante. Marcel Diot.
Marcel has been farming this breed for 38 years,
winning countless prizes for their quality.
He was in the mum's belly.
Yesterday. Today is the first time it is outside.
New steps in the world, a new world for him. He stays
very close to his mum, as you can see. He's gorgeous.
Raymond has the pleasure of taking the calf on its first trip to pasture.
Marcel doesn't breed at speed.
Some breeders will take a cow to slaughter after only six months,
but his cattle live outdoors for three to four years.
Pas la, pas la, pas la!
Good, Katie. Bravo!
He wants his cows to grow slowly as the meat will taste better.
They only drink spring water
and have only a small supplement of cattle
feed on top of the grass they eat in the field.
Marcel's prize Charolais also live in a single-sex
environment with bulls and cows kept separately.
They are free. They eat the grass, they sleep,
they eat more, they sleep. There is no stress.
It takes four years to create the most tasty, the most beautiful beef.
It's a Charolles, the best meat.
Is the grass important, the type of grass that they eat? Oui, oui.
Look at the kind of rump that they have.
Look at the definition of the muscle. It's not a big rump and fat. No. Very lean.
Only that much, compared to Angus Aberdeen.
With gold standard cattle in his gaze and
the world's best red wine at his fingertips,
Raymond knows what local dish he has to serve up.
A Burgundian classic in their own back yard?
A boeuf bourguignon for locals will need the right cut.
Madame knows, of course. That's typical. He knows
how to farm the food and she knows how to cook it.
The farmer's wife would cook with paleron - "blade",
so Raymond is now armed with a regional recipe tip.
Katie, what is paleron?
Blade, chef. Well done. Where is it? Show me.
Here? Where your shoulder blade is? Pretty good. Underneath.
It's a beautiful muscle and I hope we will be able to carve it out, OK?
There are so many great treasures in France and that, the Charolais, is one of them.
Back at La Ruchotte, the distinguished rural restaurant
where Raymond is going to be chef and host for one night, he is keen to try out
what he hopes will be the most delicious boeuf
bourguignon in Burgundy. Get me a pair of scissors.
And he has managed to purchase some of Marcel's reputable beef for his pot.
This boeuf bourguignon is a wonderfully simple recipe,
though it requires both a long marinade and slow cooking in the oven.
OK, the beef, the veg, the herbs, everything ready.
The blade is one of the toughest parts of the beast and ideal for a long cook.
These pieces are made to be cooked slowly and they are relatively less expensive.
First, a wine-based marinade to flavour the beef.
You don't need an expensive wine. You want something rich and deep.
Cabernet Sauvignon, perfect for the bourguignon. One bottle for four.
I'm concentrating the flavour and the colour of the wine.
So quite thick because it cooks for about two hours. OK.
The marinade adds depth of flavour.
It also tenderises the meat and adds a dramatic colour.
And pour your warm wine... Not hot. You mustn't cook the meat.
After 12 hours, the marinade will have worked its magic.
This dish to me incarnates a region.
When I see this, immediately I think of one region and one only - Bourgogne.
After just 12 hours' marinade, look what has happened.
All that colouring... Beautiful.
OK, now we're going to drain it.
So a big...
So press...
See what's happened as well? A lot of wine, OK. We need to dry it.
If you don't dry it, when you pan-fry it,
it's going to spit all over the place. Voila!
In a very hot pan, sear the marinaded meat in vegetable oil.
Smell that. The kitchen is already full of Burgundy, every bit of Burgundy here.
That's a very nice coloration here. We're going to use the same pan.
To get a little extra flavour, cook the
vegetables in the juices of the seared beef.
I don't have to use two pans. A bit of butter... Plenty.
Now we're ready. A nice bit of browning here.
To thicken the sauce, Raymond uses toasted flour which has a nutty flavour.
Voila. Slowly.
More. More, more, more.
Tres bien.
Let's put some more water. To give the sauce more
volume for the long cook, Raymond adds more liquid.
You can use stock, but my mum always told
me to use water and she was a very wise lady.
Look at that beautiful colour.
And Raymond isn't shy with the salt.
These are tiny little pinches. Fairy pinches.
Don't be cheeky, OK? I couldn't help it.
You can already feel that magic, do you? You can
start tasting the herbs and... Everything in here.
And the beef as well. I love Burgundy.
There's rusticity, but also a lot of elegance.
This goes into a pre-heated oven at 100 degrees for four-and-a-half hours.
Raymond garnishes the beef with mushrooms and lardons.
Voila. The beef is ready. Tres bien. Look at that!
You could do a beautiful mousseline of potato.
And to finish, marinated vegetables glazed with butter.
So simple and so lovely.
Not too much. Katie, here, take a little.
Beautiful, melting? Yeah, it's really tender.
It just melts in your mouth. So succulent.
With the boeuf bourguignon recipe delivering
the mouth-watering depth of flavour he hoped for,
Raymond is on course to deliver the guests a
dish that meets their refined Burgundy palates.
Beaune, just a few miles from the kitchen, is the wine capital of Burgundy
where many of the locals can train those refined taste buds.
Here, 163 restaurants flirt with a population of just 25,000.
It is such a lovely little city, genteel. It's full of lovely little wine shops,
little patisseries everywhere, bakeries.
And you can see people look happy. They just meander
around the city and they feel totally relaxed.
If you love food, wine and an elegant city, Beaune is the right place for you.
It's a place of gastronomy that sits amongst the tiles of Burgundy architecture.
The market has been here since the founding fathers
of the region's cuisine, the Dukes of Burgundy, ruled.
A visit here is a must for Raymond to taste and
think about the finest ingredients for his feast.
A little Santenay. It is ten o'clock. Perfect.
Beyond cheese and wine, Raymond's visit to
Beaune has also brought to his attention mustard
and the last remaining moutarderie - mustard factory.
The region is famous for this condiment from the well-known Dijon recipe
to the unique, hot, rarer moutarde de Bourgogne,
a unique product of this producer and it is of interest to Raymond.
Mustard was the cheap spice of the past, OK?
When you couldn't afford pepper which was too
expensive because it was imported from far away,
so only the rich could afford it, but the
crushed mustard seeds was the spice of the poor,
which made quickly its way to the tables of the rich because it was so delicious.
At the Fallot Moutarderie, they uphold the old artisan traditions
that made mustard the spice of all men.
One detail - their old delivery truck has caught Raymond's attention.
I think I like this car very much.
That car is made in Sochaux, my home town, OK?
One thing I don't like in this car is that colour.
That's not the yellow of Dijon.
That is very much the colour of English mustard, not French mustard,
so if you have a car which is meant to represent the Burgundy value
and you get the wrong colour, you are in trouble.
To prove there's not a waft of English trouble inside,
he's meeting Marc, the grandson of founder
Edmond Fallot, and donning the strict dress code.
Very designer(!) Yves Saint Laurent? It's made to measure. Thank you very much.
Not any more. Too much mustard and coq au vin.
C'est la vie.
Is it possible to have a proper chef's hat?
We can do it, yeah. Next time, I wil do it for you. Next time. Oh, yeah.
Marc has to import some mustard seed from Canada too,
but he is encouraging more local production and only uses Burgundian seed
in the moutarde de Bourgogne that Raymond wants.
It is a premium mustard and all the raw materials are coming from Burgundy.
As they say, as hot as mustard. And it is.
As a chef, as a craftsman, tasting the raw ingredients is important
because that allows you to establish the acidity, the strength
and also the flavour of that seed, and they're all very different.
That one is very good because, of course, it comes from Burgundy.
To start the process of making their mustard,
the 1,500-kilo sack of seeds is emptied into the factory for blowing and washing.
It will not fall on the head of somebody? No, we are sure about that.
Marc, when did you learn how to make mustard?
My grandfather bought this factory in 1928.
I learnt the process and the secrets
how to make a very good Dijon and Burgundy mustard.
So what are the secrets of making a great Dijon mustard?
I will not tell you. Why not?
But you know, it's like cooking.
When you have good ingredients,
when you know how to cook it,
you have the best cuisine. Mm-hm.
The factory is an assault on senses, both taste and hearing.
Mustard-making at its simplest involves grinding and crushing mustard seeds
with acidic liquid like verjuice.
They are mixed with a "verjus" which is
made of vinegar, Burgundy white wine, salt...
and all the other secret ingredients.
This recipe, which could be 300 kilograms at a time, is brought in here, mixed
and then grounded in this big silex stone.
We can already see the seeds here which have been crushed
and this lovely yellow juice is oozing out of these seeds.
You don't have any overheating of the mustard during the crushing,
so you have all the flavour inside the mustard.
It's the best way to have a very good, artisanal mustard.
You realise that mustard here...
OK...
I wouldn't mind... Oh, I'm dreaming now of a beautiful steak.
Or un poulet au vinaigre, poulet a la moutarde.
Charolais beef. Oh, la la! Don't say that. I feel famished.
So all the hungry Frenchman requires to satisfy his tummy
is a pot of mustard.
That is a very, very big pot of mustard, I can assure you.
Wow! It goes for your nose as well and your eyes.
Oh, la la!
Marc has decided to offer Raymond a more manageable
tub, but it's not only Raymond who's hungry.
The workforce have gone to lunch, proving that French
and English mustards are different in many ways.
Please, quick, quick! Getting better! Oh, that's it! I'm in trouble again!
You have to put the cork... Oh, my God! My God! Oh!
OK. Tres bien.
Normally I sign my books, but I am signing a Bourgogne mustard.
We have around 10,000 jars to sign. Oh, my God! Let's get on with it.
Voila! Thank you.
Back at the kitchen, Raymond's planning to use
both the cheese and mustard he found earlier.
Kush, taste the mustard, please. Bourgogne mustard.
Clears out your nostrils a bit!
He's going to make Burgundian canapes called gougeres for his feast.
These savoury choux pastries are often served cold at wine tastings,
but they also make a good warm canape, filled
with a traditional mustardy cheese mixture.
The butter. A pinch of salt. Very important because
if you forget that salt, the pastry is so thin
and bland. OK?
Thin and bland would not impress Raymond's guests.
Choux pastry is really an important pastry.
Very light. You can fill it as it puffs out.
L'amour de cuisine - the love of cooking.
Raymond likes nothing more than this kind of work,
combining feel and fine judgment.
Don't cook it too long. The milk is evaporating.
Choux relies entirely on the moisture in
the mix for the steam that puffs the pastry.
All right, Chef? That's the most difficult bit. You are adding egg white and egg yolk.
Egg yolk adds colour, flavour, richness. Egg white adds binding and lifting powers.
Find a friend like me. No? It's a partnership. Oui, Chef.
Absolutely. Look at your texture. It is very simple.
I will look. We're looking for it to fall off the spoon like that? Fall off. Oui.
Tres bien.
Now a little cheese and a piping bag.
8mm nozzle.
Cool that down. Oui, Chef. For about 10 minutes.
Room temperature is perfect.
Voila.
Originally, gougeres were more like pancakes.
Light ones like these need a more modern oven.
There we are. Tres bien. Now a cheese and mustard filling.
Now a roux, a classic of French cuisine.
You add your flour.
So that's the roux. Shall I heat your milk? Yes. You could put cloves inside, bay leaf.
Whatever flavouring you want. We are going to use the mustard.
It's blending now, exactly as I want it. Look, voila. I can smell it now.
The cheese comes from a little further away. It's
a Comte Reserve, but it's still only come 60 miles.
Now you can salt, seasoning. You need very little salt.
Pepper. Voila. ..Give me the rest.
Silkier. Voila.
And the most important part of the operation.
Voila. Shall we taste one?
Bien. More mustard inside and that would be perfect.
I would try some new ones with lots of cheese. A mountain of cheese.
That's the canape recipe settled for his feast. All
he will need to do is serve them warm on the night.
The surroundings Raymond has chosen to cook his feast
are a strong reminder of the simple roots great cooking can have.
Frederic the chef and owner of the restaurant no longer chases Michelin stars,
so he has time for other pursuits.
Oh, la la. Look at these little things.
Oh, look at that.
Look at that.
In six months, it will be ready for the pot!
Sorry!
Oh, look at the little things.
That one wants to really go out. Come on, baby. Life!
Fun! The fields!
You've got to be very gentle. Voila.
Voila! Look at that.
Oh, la la. Oh, la la.
"I want to go back in my lovely comfort!"
What chickens are they?
You need some chickens in February. So he is trying this breed
which he has never tried before. He heard very good comments.
OK, petits. I will leave you. Back to the warmth.
It's 10am in Bligny-sur-ouche, a village near Beaune.
To continue in the spirit of his rural pursuits,
Raymond has decided to try to catch a local fish
he wishes to serve as a starter - gudgeon.
Raymond and Kush are hoping the early angler will catch the poisson.
You're very dangerous. You've never fished.
They are shown to a fishing hot spot by the president
of the local fishing society, Monsieur Niveau.
The maggots in Burgundy are pink. In England, they're white.
Unfortunately, they cannot catch gudgeon from the bank.
I've got to look good, Kush. Nobody cares how you look - it's about me!
Voila, help me.
Putting on waders is not one of Raymond's greatest skills.
OK.
Don't touch me now!
It's for a giant?
I'm not a giant! I'm a small big man.
Or a big small man.
Kush, you are going to pay for that. Pay for what?!
C'est pas sexy, eh?
Oh, la la.
Of course, the key to successful fishing is
absolute peace and quiet. Allez, les petits! Allez!
It's 12 o'clock. Come on, soon.
How many fish would normally be caught in a day? Yesterday, 1.2 kilos.
But today is not our day so far.
Finally, a bit of luck. Monsieur Niveau reels in a gudgeon. But just one.
Raymond may be needing a more reliable source
for the feast, but for now it's a taste test.
Our starter is goujons, served with tartare sauce.
Oh, they are beautiful. How many did you catch? None.
None. I'm proud of that. Thank God we had a professional fisherman.
You dry them before we flour them. Dusted with seasoned flour, they are deep fried.
Separately we'll do a little tartare sauce.
Egg yolks and vegetable oil are whisked with Dijon mustard
to make a mayonnaise, the base of the tartare sauce.
OK, Kush? Oui, Chef.
Chef, the thickness? Tres bien.
To that, add chopped chervil and parsley, garlic,
capers and chopped baby gherkins, a little lemon juice,
salt and pepper.
Oh, the textures are lovely, no? And a small amount of vinegar?
Yes, just to give it sharpness.
The "je ne sais quoi" will lift. OK? Voila.
Of course, for our guests we will have a big, big dish of white bait.
No thanks to you, Kush.
The geographical location of Burgundy as the transport
crossroads of France has always drawn in chefs
to feed the hungry travellers and thus
build much of the region's gastronomic fame.
Bourgogne is big about its food. It loves its food.
So it's got lots of great chefs that come here.
It's fantastic produce.
You've got frogs everywhere, pikes. It's a big
gare de manger. It's really a place about food.
So a lot of great chefs have come here, set up their shop here
and created a little place of excellence.
One of these places of excellence is Relais Bernard Loiseau,
an inn on the former Nationale Six, one of the old roads to the French Riviera.
Sadly, Bernard Loiseau took his own life in 2003.
At that time, he held three Michelin stars
and was at the forefront of French fine dining.
His light style of cooking is still much admired
and Raymond will pay homage to one of his classics.
This establishment is a legacy to one man, Bernard Loiseau.
He was a great chef, an innovator, a modern chef,
who knew that cuisine had to become lighter,
fresher, cleaner, obeying all the cycles of seasons.
Dominique, Bernard's widow, remains good friends with Raymond.
She has skilfully retained their three-star reputation.
On this visit she has found an old photograph
of the inn, which she is keen to show Raymond.
Take off this old photo from 1875.
Ahh. Voila. Ah, voila! Voila.
C'est interessant.
Parisians used to come in carts with their horses.
They came with the horses. That was the water for the horses.
Can we go outside just to see how it's changed? Of course.
Also known as the Cote d'Or, it has changed
little since 1875 as a staging post and eatery.
This is La Cote d'Or, this building on the corner here.
Today it is still effectively a traveller's inn, albeit with three stars,
and the grand cars have become trucks. The ramparts and tower here.
As more people drove to the French Riviera,
it gained popularity with the rich and famous,
being given its first Michelin star in 1926.
Guests today still take breakfast in the
original dining room with all its great memories
of the famous people.
These are very expensive motor cars, OK? Coming from here.
Whether it is Fitzgerald or... Who are the famous people who came here?
Charlie Chaplin came here? Yes. Charlie
Chaplin, Danny Kaye, Hemingway, Dali. Everybody.
Did you get planning permission to change your
beautiful Burgundian windows in that style? Yes.
Yes, but they are nicer now.
Planning permission, a long time ago in France, was
all about how many bottles of wine you put in the car.
Not any more. It's more difficult!
Burgundy windows may have changed and cars may not need to hold so much wine,
but Raymond knows inside are the wonders of modern French food, steeped in history.
These days, frogs legs nestle on a light bed
of parsley jus, one of their signature dishes.
And those famous poached eggs in wine are truly haute cuisine.
Merci.
They look marvellous.
That is representative of a very local cuisine,
where you get your frog, simply pan-fried,
with loads of garlic and fresh herbs. What you
are doing here is to take a simple peasant dish
and you create something of total excellence, of total beauty.
That's what he has done. Thank you very much.
Yes, of course.
Beautiful. Look at that. The heart of burgundy.
It's just a reduction. Seven litres of wine gives you one litre of this sauce.
It takes a long time to make the reduction.
He has poached the eggs separately,
do a beautiful, heavily-concentrated sauce, an essence of red wine.
You've got the heart of the red wine here, the heart of Burgundy.
And you must eat a little of each together, you know.
You must put the things together.
By 1935, the inn had three stars, which it held until 1965.
When my husband came in '75, he absolutely wanted to bring three stars again.
And my husband say every day when he puts his socks...
He said, "I will get three stars. I will get three stars."
It was his obsession. I can sympathise a great deal with Bernard because, after all,
my whole life was shaped, every moment of
it, seven days a week, eighteen hours a day,
was defined by that pursuit of excellence.
It's what we call a vision. He had a very powerful vision.
And it takes only one man to create a state or to create something truly beautiful.
A man's vision and he dedicates his whole life at achieving this.
Bernard was very much one of those guys. I must tell you,
you know I am cooking in Burgundy and hope to
cook something beautiful for my Burgundian friends.
And I hope you'll be coming... You'll cook for me?
Of course! I will come with my daughter, too!
Thank you. I look forward to it.
With the knowledge that he will have at least
one three-Michelin-starred guest to feed,
Raymond enjoys the rural kitchen, far from the
whirl of the many staff at his English restaurant.
What a life. How true it is, how beautiful, how pure.
And all that you have is a table to cook for
10 or 15 guests, a beautiful little kitchen
and a farm around you. And just away from the tourbillon of life,
of the other life.
The medieval monks, when they were helping
developing the region's vineyards and great cheeses,
would probably have also enjoyed some of the
Burgundy tranquillity which is enchanting to Raymond.
At the time of building up the region's cuisine,
they are thought to have introduced blackcurrants,
arriving with the trade routes from Asia.
Today they remain the fruit most closely associated with Burgundy,
being eaten and used to produce a variety of cassis cordials.
Bonjour. Bonjour! Bonjour.
One of the renowned growers of blackcurrants in
the region has inspired Raymond's dessert choice.
You gave me an idea.
I'm going to take this cassis to make a beautiful
dessert called vacherin. It will be special.
This blackcurrant vacherin is a tantalising combination of textures.
Smooth ice cream, a fruity sorbet and crunchy meringue -
flavours combined to burst in your mouth with eye-popping pleasure.
You can make it as simple or complicated as you
want, so we've gone for the complicated version!
OK, let's go.
At least one hour before, marinate with the sugar.
Macerating with fructose or caster sugar draws
juices and thus flavour out of the currants.
That will marinate a little bit for better flavour.
Voila. Tres bien. So ice cream
- I take eight egg yolks, 140 grams of sugar only.
200 grams of cream, 200 grams of milk. Next a vanilla
creme Anglaise, which will become the ice cream.
You could use 100% cream. Much richer. I like
my ice cream melting, but less fat into it.
And it gives a better texture. Voila. Tres, tres bien.
How can you see it is good vanilla? Because it's soft. Yes, soft. Pregnant with seeds.
And as well - smell. Smell that. You have to use that sense.
Very important. Lovely and fat. That's come from Madagascar. OK?
So we puree it with a bit of syrup. Could you use essence?
Yes, you can use essence. You can use dried vanilla.
You can use the whole baton. The puree uses the whole of the vanilla for more flavour.
Wonderful. Cream is gently warmed to infuse with vanilla.
There's still black pods of vanilla. It's beautiful.
The flavours burst out. The smell is wonderful.
That is added to creamed egg yolks and sugar.
Gently, gently. There's no need to go fast.
It's OK. Voila. Pour it back in here. You see?
This is a very delicate part of the process. It's not thickened enough now.
It's going to curdle from the bottom to start with.
That's why you stir, to distribute the heat. Oui.
See, it's very quick.
From thin to cooked. Oui.
That's good. If you leave it like that, it will curdle even now.
Voila.
What you can do is put that on ice if you want to. Look at this.
That has to be cooled down before it is churned in an ice cream maker.
Away.
Now the macerated blackcurrants are blitzed into a
puree which has to be sieved for silky smoothness.
This always reminds me of my mum making jam,
getting the fruits in the forest to puree them
and make desserts and sorbet and so on.
With a little lemon juice added, this goes in the ice cream maker to create a sorbet.
Katie has already made discs of meringue and
so Raymond is ready to assemble the vacherin.
Very nicely done. Now for our vacherin.
We have our meringue, vanilla ice cream, a sorbet blackcurrant cassis
and a little bit of whipped cream.
Voila, tres bien.
The ice cream goes everywhere. Voila.
Then you take your meringue and you press on it to sink it.
Tres bien. So then more vanilla ice cream.
And what you can do is freeze it at that stage. Tres bien.
And then I press again and I'm going to finish with my cassis.
You'd freeze it so the colours don't mix.
Up and down. Well done. And drag it. Up and... Voila!
This should be kept in the freezer until ready to be served.
This sumptuous dessert should be ideal to finish
the feast for Raymond's friends in Burgundy.
Feast day. Kush and Katie are busy in the kitchen of the farm restaurant.
Although the epitome of rustic Burgundy,
Raymond's determined to bring his top chef detail.
To tick all the boxes of his feast, he knows the
French and cheese are inseparable at dinner time.
Burgundy produces more different cheeses per hectare than any other part of France.
So a grand cheeseboard as his final flourish is on the menu.
Bonjour. Bonjour.
Alain Hess is a third-generation cheese
affineur, which means he ages and sells cheese
produced by selected Burgundy dairy farmers.
Forty local cheeses, just in the Burgundy area?
He's making me taste them all. I'll end up like a Michelin man!
Raymond's often asked how to select cheeses for a cheeseboard.
In Burgundy, the enormous choice could make it seem impossible, but it really isn't.
You have always to think of your guests. They are made of kids, of children,
they may be made of ladies who like a more delicate cheese, less fat content.
Guys usually like their cheese big and strong and rich and fatty. Masculine.
That's his own cheese, with triple cream.
Not single, not double, but triple! Why not?
I take the fattest part.
There's a lot of new cheeses I am learning here.
I thought I knew the French cheeses, but only that much!
Fascinating machine. I have never seen one
like that. A very French republican guillotine.
Fantastic.
Voila.
Ahh! Vive la republique! Long live the republic!
Making a cheese tray is not easy. You have to think a lot. I am so tired already.
I am. I am tired.
Merci, Monsieur Hess.
Merci beaucoup. Merci.
Back in the kitchen, thankfully Raymond isn't too
tired to organise. The feast is just hours away.
The dining room is being set and the table laid under Raymond's watchful eye.
You work here with Katie. Oui. And I work here.
We're very lucky. I think it'll be a lovely feast tonight.
There are 20 guests expected tonight. The chicken house is over there.
Raymond needs to collect last-minute ingredients. You lazy thing! Two!
Look.
These are my favourite flowers.
Every detail of the table has to be just perfect.
I want to do so well. You want it so perfect, you can mess it up!
It's going to be fine! All right, let's go.
It's 7pm and guests are starting to arrive. Time for the show to begin.
Chef? They are perfect.
You go and tell them, "Madame, the gougeres..." It's about experience, OK?
The big smile. The gougeres de Bourgogne. Oui. With my really English accent?!
The gougeres of...Bourgogne. De Bourgogne. Yeah! Merci beaucoup.
I'm cooking THEIR food, THEIR recipes. Classics
that have been there for hundreds of years.
I know what a good gougeres is. So I am waiting for the last judgment tonight.
They think I'm French. I told you!
Goujons and tartare sauce to start the feast.
With his friend Dominique as a guest at the feast,
he's paying a small homage to her late husband, Bernard.
Snails, Chef? Snails with nettle sauce, regarded as Bernard's signature dish.
C'est parti, les enfants.
Raymond will be happy that Bernard's daughter Beatrice approves.
Oh, beautiful. They will love it, Kush. Oui, Chef.
The most tender, melting beef was his ambition.
You should be able to cut it with a spoon. The proof is in the eating.
What Raymond wants in the meal he's cooked is to
represent everything learnt on his mother's knee,
the joys of his young life growing up in
France and the years being a chef in Britain.
Cassis. It's about conviviality, It's about joie de vivre, it's about love -
of food, of wine, of each other.
Well done. Chef.
It was very tasteful. I love it. Very special.
We had this typical Burgundian meal, I love all this meal,
and cooked by people from UK!
That was totally amazing!
Messieurs, madames.
Merci pour votres generosite!
Raymond senses his guests must have heard him make a speech before!
As they laugh and sing, it's a moment to reflect on his Burgundy journey,
thoughts that find him thinking about the life
he might lead in the future, a different path
that would maybe lead him to an auberge like this, a place to call his own.
It's a little bit romantic as an idea, but I must say this place touched me a lot.
Next time, Raymond continues his journey in Lyon.
They eat so much food!
Oh, la la!
Women who know how to cook and how to give pleasure through their cooking.
That is fantastic. ..I have to wear it.
The guests are arriving at seven o'clock. OK? Oui.
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