- Hello, we are sorted food
and this is part two of our huge Savannah challenge
where in 24 hours we'll be hosting a dinner party
for a table of Savannah locals.
But to do that
we have to truly understand southern hospitality.
In episode one, we explored the city to get a taste
of Savannah's incredible offerings before dipping our toes
in the water and giving it a first try.
- I think you have a future in this.
- But that was nothing compared to what was to come.
Along Savannah's coastline are a group
of spectacular islands that we were keen to explore.
Wilmington Island had something quite special waiting
for us, the Savannah Bee Company.
And we were there to meet Kenneth, the mead magistrate.
- Bees are so incredibly important to us.
They're responsible for at least one third
of all the food that we eat.
Our owner, Ted, he likes to call 'em flying teddy bears
and that's exactly what they are.
This is a general observational hive.
This is what we would put in schools
all throughout the country, through our Bee Cause Project.
Mead is just one of those wonderful gifts of nature
that was never truly intended to happen, you know,
at least this is how I see it.
Nobody truly knows who came up with mead.
Some hunter gatherer that was brave and thirsty
and brought it back to their village
and we're like, hey I can swing this axe really hard
when I drink this stuff.
The first one that we're gonna start with is Monks Mead.
It's a traditional mead, so honey, water and yeast.
Really, really good one.
It tastes like beer and champagne had a baby
and came out about 12%.
So cheers. - [All] Cheers.
- [Kenneth] The more you sip on it the more
the honey notes come through.
- That is a truly delicious.
- [Kenneth] Y'all ready for the next one?
- [All] Absolutely.
The reason why Savannah has no open container law
is because we are such a haunted city.
We firmly believe that if you fill yourself
within enough good spirits, the bad spirits leave you alone.
Very important, cheers guys. - [All] Cheers.
- [Kenneth] This is another style of mead called a Melomel.
So that means you're adding a fruit
during the fermentation process.
Actually Sweet body, but then it finishes dry.
So again, like it kind of makes you think it's overly
sweet, but it's not.
This one right here though
really interesting metheglin because it is using hops.
Really nice, this is kind of like a Prosecco
with splash of Elderflower St. Germain.
- That's sensational.
What kind of serving size, like is this 125 mil?
Is it 175 mil?
Is it shot?
- [Kenneth] It depends on the day that you've had so...
(laughing)
- Great, another delicious alcohol to add to the collection.
- You don't have a collection.
You're like me and if you buy something, you drink it.
- It was time to head out and meet the creators
of this incredible liquid and that meant veiling up.
- [Kenneth] So, welcome to our apiary here.
We got some of these hives out here.
- How often would you say you get stung?
- [Kenneth] Not nearly enough.
Hey girls, what's up?
It's good to talk to your bees, say sweet things to them.
Smoke's been used for quite some time
and all that's gonna do is just kind of calm 'em down.
Ooh. Yeah.
- Wow.
- [Kenneth] So that is a lovely piece of comb.
You can see how heavy it is.
Yeah, that's probably what, like seven pounds ish honey.
Stick your finger right in there.
Stick it in there and make sure you lift your veil.
Otherwise again, you'll have a sweet veil.
- Oh my goodness.
- [Kenneth] Isn't that awesome?
- That's unbelievable.
- [Kenneth] That's so good.
- That process was happening and has been happening forever.
It's magical.
- [Kenneth] It is, it really is.
Flying teddy bears they tickle you when they walk on you.
- Get him.
- [All] Laughing
Of course we had to grab some of that mead and honey
before heading to The Olde Pink House.
A restaurant in a stunning downtown mansion built
in the seventeen hundreds.
Fine dining with a modern twist.
- On this dish alone,
this is going to have two fried green tomatoes
with some candied smoked applewood bacon and top
that with a black peppercorn, thyme buttermilk dressing.
Baby green salad, caramelised apples, spiced pecans.
And we also have a pecan encrusted goat cheese fritter.
Now this is the guy right here.
This is a local East Orange flounder.
We score it down to the bone
as you see on both sides of the fish.
A little salt pepper, little season flour.
We will be flash fry.
This this is our southern sushi.
Local Georgia shrimp which are a little bit sweeter
and instead of rice we wrap 'em in grits.
- This is the most bizarre thing.
I'm kind of here for it.
- Southern sushi. Oh, you've changed.
- It's a nice restaurant.
Cheers boys.
- That is tasty.
- So obviously when you eat sushi, yeah you expect to
have those individual grains that are soft
but got a slight sort of sticky bite to them.
Whereas here,
the grits and the slightly spice shrimp
runs all the way through it.
- I'm liking the creativity.
- Yeah.
- That's like a dish me and you would do in a battle
but not get right (laughing)
- What I like is he gives us permission to play
around and mix and merge some
of the amazing flavours, ingredients we've seen.
- I think we should definitely do that.
- I've never had a BLT with green tomato.
I mean BLT is a combination that works and always has done.
Take out a ripe juicy red tomato and sub it
for a tangy green tomato that's been fried
but then have that buttermilk dressing
- Far too tasty for a salad.
- If all salad tasted like this,
I eat them more often.
I don't think I've ever had flounder before.
- Have you not?
- Cheers boys.
- Super flaky, isn't it?
That apricot chutney has got a real
sort of smoky bitterness to it.
- Yeah - It's absolutely delicious.
Chuck us one of those biscuits.
Let's see what we're getting ourselves in for.
- It's so good.
- We're having discussions about potentially
attempting to make one of these with our menu.
- Oh, that's the fluffiest thing in the world.
Oh, that so buttery.
- That one is pure butter.
- Salty butter.
But there is that sugar in there.
As he said, a little bit of sugar brings it out.
- That vinaigrette. What was in that?
- Orange zest.
- Orange zest in the vinaigrette.
- Again, lots of fruit going on.
- Spiced pecans.
- We should use the pecan.
I'm still really worried about even attempting one of these.
- Do you know what?
I've made scones load of times.
- These aren't scones.
- They're made the same way, but it's different ratios
of ingredients and they end up a different product.
I've never made a biscuit.
(laughing)
- Oh good.
- In true southern hospitality style,
they've gifted us a dessert that we didn't even order.
- Everyone said we've gotta eat the praline
while we're here.
Very southern thing.
- Oh, you can really taste the pecans in there, can't you?
Vanilla ice cream, homemade.
- Made in house and that is also excellent.
- That's the perfect end to a meal.
- Boy, we've eaten a lot.
Have we got any idea what we're doing tomorrow?
- I think, I think I, no.
Actually no.
- It's almost like we have too many ideas.
How do we make them work?
- Despite still not yet having a plan
for tomorrow's challenge,
we thought we'd put it to the back
of our minds and spend the evening taking advantage
of Savannah's famous nightlife.
- I found a boozie peach.
- It's 9:30 in the evening.
We've got frozen alcoholic slushies cuz you're allowed to
drink on the street.
And we have plans to meet someone.
- We don't know who,
or where they're going to take us.
We've just been told to be here.
- Nice.
- Yes
- Hello boys.
(laughing)
- Amazing.
- Sorry for being late.
How are we doing this evening?
- Very well.
- We're doing good.
- Lovely, lovely so my name is Miss J Deveraux.
- You can clap and applause.
- My name is Miss Marie.
Miss Marie Con.
It's a pleasure to meet y'all.
We're going to be y'alls honorary drag mothers this evening.
- I think we got to cross the street.
- Uh oh, know what that means.
- Have y'all already learned lesson number one?
Everybody say hey!
- [All] Hey!
Are we good?
OK, this whole area right here is one
of the oldest bars in Savannah.
- A lemon shot.
I mean the clue is what's strapped to the side of it.
- Lovely
- Isn't it yummy?
- Are we ready to go to another place?
- Hey cowboy.
- Hey
- This way right here gentlemen.
- Ya'll know what a death drop is?
- Oh
- Arms out.
- Yes.
- You did it Dixie.
- All righty y'all.
Welcome to Barrel House.
(dance music)
- More peach.
- Savannah has an interesting culture because we have an art
school that exists here and we have a historically
black city.
As well as a city that has progressive heroes
like Casimir Pulaski, and other Native American figures.
So it's a little bit more accepting
- How we doing Savannah?
(dance music)
- Somehow we'd woken up feeling fresh
raring for the task ahead.
But it was time for the hard work to begin starting
with the return to our amazing friends at Davis Produce.
Today is the day we think we've got a plan.
It's all about setting up and buying our ingredients.
So I'm back at Davis.
Do you have any tomatoes?
- We have orange tomatoes, which are really great.
- Okay. Some okra, some peaches
and then some sort of sweet relish.
- So this is our vidalia onion relish, it's sweet.
- Okay, nice. Thank you so much.
- You too.
- Welcome to our crib.
Let me show you where we're hosting tonight's dinner party.
This is spectacular. Come on in.
Welcome to the entrance fall.
And in here,
this is where the hospitality happens.
And this is the list that we're trying to conquer
in the next three hours.
- Jay, stop chatting. Start chopping.
- Our pork dish is slow cooked pulled shoulder of pork
cooked in the monk's mead plus all the usual suspects.
Onion, garlic, organo, smoked paprika, salt and pepper
and a little sip for the chef.
- We have been surrounded by boats
and especially shrimp boats
throughout our entire time in Savannah.
So we have to do some shrimp.
So we're starting off with the base of bacon and bacon fat.
Then the classics, onion, carrot, celery and garlic.
Sweat it all off before the last minute
adding in some seasoned shrimp.
We've left the tails on.
We're gonna to saute it off and serve up. Simple as that.
- Who are you most worried about impressing?
- I think it's the fact we've got such a mixture.
Food writers, chefs, people who've lived here
all their lives. People who create the produce we are using.
- Baseball players
- Baseball players.
I was gonna put cider vinegar in this gazpacho
but why not use pickling juice from the okra?
Yes, we've had cream corn a number of ways.
This is our take on it.
Not hot but cold like a corn gazpacho
because when we tasted the corn it was too good to cook.
So we got peeled cucumber, pepper, onion, garlic, corn
and our pickle liquid from the okra.
- What we wanna try and do is pay homage to
Chef Captain Sailor Steve off of the burger boat.
He had this amazing sauce that he put on his shrimp tacos.
It is a combo of mayonnaise, sour cream, sriracha,
bit of cumin.
Actually, I wonder whether that's too much cumin.
That's my paprika.
And when we've nailed this sauce, it's going to be the salad
to our potato salad.
And what I mean by that is the sauce
that blends it all together.
- There you go.
- Woo!
- Is that a Carolina Reaper?
- Yeah.
- Let's add a splash of apple cider vinegar.
It definitely tastes more acidic now.
- Bear with me now, I'm just stuffing a cavity.
- Always something disgusted.
- Now we're not gonna get anywhere close
to the wonderful smoked chicken that we had at Wiley's
but we are going to roast chicken cuz that's the
British way, but with all of those influences.
So we've stuffed it with lemon and now we're gonna brush it
over with honey from the showroom plus peach
and Carolina Reaper sauce and mustards.
So kind of homage those flavours we tasted
but with the ingredients we picked up along the way.
- I'm walking around with a lamp for the last 15 minutes.
- Hope you got an idea.
- Pardon?
- Hope you get an idea.
- This is the attention to detail
that the Southerners will come to expect from us.
Ooh, sh--
(laughing)
Whilst we took care of the reception room downstairs
Ben was getting to work
on the most intimidating element of the meal.
- I'm following a recipe
from a southern cookbook and every bone
in my body wants to put a little bit more butter
in this because I'm used
to making like a crumble or a scone mixture.
Now Marsha said make it on the wetter side
but you've gotta be able to roll it out and cut it.
So it's kind of a fine line.
What she did say was with years of practise and
you just know when it's right.
I haven't any practise and I've got no idea.
I'm excited for this evening cause we've had
such a wonderful time and everybody's been so nice.
I can't imagine they will be anything but lovely
when they sit down to dinner.
That said, we really want to show appreciation
and do something extra special, not just, meh.
I'm also doing this while the boys are downstairs.
I don't need an audience.
- Oh, and your seasoning as as you go
because you are sweating onto them as you
- No.
Am I sweating?
- Little bit.
(music)
- We've had some delicious pecans or pecans since we've been
here and they've all been smoked and roasted in loads
of great spices.
So I've just got some plain pecan halves.
Whisked up some egg white,
chucked in some of our seafood grub.
Bake 'em off.
(music)
- That's got a great flavour to it.
(upbeat music)
(doorbell)
- Hello. Welcome.
How are you?
Great. Good to see you again.
- Smells heavily in here.
- Yeah
- You can hear a bit of a hubub downstairs.
People are arriving.
- What's up guys?
- I'm just busying myself making sure
that everything tastes as good as we'd all want.
- Steve, Mark, nice to meet you.
(indistinct chatter)
- If the boys can keep everyone downstairs
for just another five minutes or so
with lemonade, beer and wine, it should all go to plan.
(cheering)
- This takes me back, it's been awhile.
And it's showtime.
(upbeat music)
(indistinct chatter)
- Thank you so much for everyone who's come.
We basically tried to take inspiration from each one
of people that we've met along the way
and made a British spin on taking some
of that influence and putting them into these dishes.
So be kind.
- So to kick start,
a take on creamed corn, except we're going
in this southern heat with an ice cold corn gazpacho.
- Brings back memories of the fresh corn on the cob.
- Pulled pork, which has been cooked and pulled in mead.
(cheering)
- Lovely.
- Some barbecue shrimp.
And everywhere you look there are more shrimp boats
so we couldn't not put them on the table.
We've had some pretty phenomenal chickens
since we've been here.
fried and smoked at Wiley's and yeah
we couldn't do either of those really justice here.
So we've given it our take on the British roast chicken
but with a glaze of honey, peach and Carolina Reaper.
So it's got that kind of spice
the honey and the fruitiness all across it.
- This is, this is the interesting one.
(laughter)
- I mean, I can make a scone or a scone
but the thought of trying to make biscuits for ya'll
- I'm like, I'm like this is interesting.
- You're killing it man.
(chatter)
- Everything's gonna be delicious.
- This pork is fantastic.
- There's an old term called GOB,
Good old boy.
Y'all are good old boy.
(laughter)
- Not only is it appreciation, but it's also respect.
(cheering)
- You know what, when you, when you are cooking
with ingredients so fresh, you almost can't go wrong
because what we found with all the food we've had here is
since we've been in the city is, is often less, is more.
- Definitely.
- But serve it with a smile
and in generous portions.
(laughter)
- I have to say that the food and the experience
were just wonderful.
You all are all so amazing.
- Everything I had in my mouth was just so,
it was so tasteful.
It was such a fun night.
So many cool people and learning new things about, you know
the culinary field.
It was just this perfect mesh of, of the two cultures.
And you could taste it in the palate
and it was just, it was super cool.
- They could come here and open a place
and these southern folks would come right in
and just eat their food.
They did a good job of it.
- It was definitely a very special exchange
of energy tonight because we had the opportunity
to learn more about their background and their culture
as well as them being open and receptive to learning more
about the background and culture of the Geechee Gullah
and just being a southerner as a whole.
And it felt really good.
It was very heartwarming.
- Y'all are southern now.
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
fool yourself for a minute.
You're southern now. The food was great.
- You know the best way to someone's heart
is through their stomach.
So they, they made it into all of our hearts
and then they'll will always be there.
As long as they keep us fed.
- Our time in Savannah absolutely blew us away.
From the beautiful sandy beaches to the incredibly
rich food culture and welcoming southern hospitality.
It was certainly somewhere that none
of us would be forgetting anytime soon.