(cutlery tapping) (egg cracking)
(sizzling)
(upbeat music)
- Hello, and welcome to Sorted Food.
Now sit down,
strap yourself in, because we have a highly opinionated
bespectacled chef in the hot seat today reviewing some
potentially pretentious ingredients with one of two
incredibly good-looking, handsome,
but yet also very down to earth normals.
- Oh, I get it. You're switching in and out.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
- Ooh.
- Uh, bacon wrapped potatoes with some
sour cream and chives?
- I think what you'll find is the food team have called this
bacon wrapped potatoes with a nice dip.
I've inquired further, the nice dip
is sour cream and mustard.
- Straight off, it doesn't look very pretentious at all.
- [Jamie] Have a sniff, have a taste.
Let me know if you can work out what you think might be
potentially pretentious about this.
- Lovely mustard dip.
Well, it's going to be the potato or the bacon.
I'm going to say the bacon looks, um.
- Quality.
- Yeah.
- Boys, what you have in front of you is Iberico bacon.
Bacon, but better.
So, Iberico pork is known for it's juicy and tender meat.
So, what better way to try Iberico
than in a delicious thick rasher of bacon?
The abundance of fat from the Iberico pork
elevates this bacon to a whole new level,
whilst it melts in the pan.
This is a must for bacon and Iberico lovers.
- Can I just double check? What is Iberico?
Is it, is it a pig, a place, or a process?
- Yes.
- Good, good chat.
(laughs)
- So, Iberico pork comes from
the distinctive black Iberico pig.
So it's native to areas of Portugal and to Spain,
the pigs eat diet mainly of acorns, very natural.
They are allowed to roam.
They are the best quality pigs that you could really hope to
find, that are cared for in the most loving way possible,
and then are absolutely delicious to eat.
- I can absolutely taste the fat is better,
and it is mostly fat, and it is that wonderful fat.
It is exceptional.
- Yeah.
- Ooh! Slappy slap slap.
- [Jamie] So that's the packet. That's how it comes.
We got this from Fine Food Specialist.
They source theirs from a family run company,
Juan Pedro Domecq,
they've been doing this for two centuries.
- I can't think of many places where
a slice of bacon is going to be bettered by this,
if the price is as high as I imagine it has to be given the
process and the rules around Iberico.
- So speaking of price,
how much do you think we paid for
250 gramme packets of the Iberico bacon?
Bearing in mind, like, top supermarket brand levels,
you're looking at sort of, £3, £3.50 for 250 grammes.
- If that was six quid, I'd buy that.
I'd buy that.
I'd buy it because I think it was worth the special treat,
- Higher.
- But it's gonna be more like 20.
- I reckon it's £2 a slice. £10.
- Ebbers is on the money, £9.95.
- Wrapped around spuds, on a fry up with
some mushrooms and tomatoes, beans toast, egg.
It doesn't need Aberico.
The Aberico flavour should be savoured almost as is.
And I can't think of where you'd put that.
- I'm kind of okay with it.
I don't think I would pay that money for it,
because I think I'm happy with just normal,
really good quality bacon.
- I suppose there's only one question left to ask,
Iberico bacon, pretentious or not?
- No, it delivers everything that it says.
- It's not pretentious.
It just doesn't have a place on the fry up.
- Look how filthy your fingers are.
- I know, I told you.
- That is impressive. - Greased up.
- Number two?
Barry, it must be your turn to lift the cloche.
- It is. Yeah? Yeah?
- Give it a lift.
- [Barry] Yeah.
Yes!
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- It's got the croissant golden colour and swirl and layers,
but it's in a shape of a die.
I want to,
I want to see a cross section of this beast, may we?
- You mean a croiss-section?!
(they laugh)
- It looks like they've taken six croissants and squished it
together. But on the other side is look like they are one.
- [Ebbers] Jamie, what is this?
- Boys, this is croissant cube bread
created by a Swedish baker named Bedros Kabranian.
He's actually part of the Swedish National pastry team.
Essentially, he wanted to give a new shape
to the iconic French breakfast bread.
Didn't imagine for a second
how big a ruckus this would cause on social media when he
started promoting it.
- And don't get me wrong,
'cause I'm sure he's a better baker
than all of us put together.
However, the very name croissant means crescent,
it is literally named after its shape.
- I like croissants when they're freshly baked,
and they're like, crispy on the outside, soft in the middle.
So I've always thought,
could you put a croissant in a toaster?
Now I think you could.
- Would you like to see what our food team have invented?
- I don't, I don't, I know it's gonna be really bad for me.
Huh. What is, Jamie, did you offend somebody in the,
in the food team?
- What we have in front of us is a-
- Monstrosity!
- [Jamie] Is a bread and butter pudding,
but built as a cube, so that the layers of thick custard in
between toasted bread with a raisin jam. Posh comfort food.
- This, this I'm down for.
- Yeah.
And then we also have the ultimate cheese toasty with
multiple cheeses for that incredible cheese pull.
- I'm trying to like, be conscious of
my cholesterol intake, but.
- Yeah, well just don't have any for the next three weeks.
You'll be fine.
- Yin and yang.
- Tell my family I love them.
- Oh, he kissed that.
- [Barry] There's a chance
there's more cheese than bread in that toasty.
- [Ebbers] Yes.
- No, too much. Too far.
- [Jamie] So this is a bread and butter pudding
built as a cube,
so layers of thick custard
in between toasted bread with a raisin jam
bread and butter pudding in itself.
- Okay, so, right, this is delicious,
but what's stopping you just doing the exact same thing with
normal croissants?
- Tessellation.
- Oh, god.
(laughs)
- This does make more sense to me,
for some reason, as a dessert.
And I can't, I can't tell you for why.
I think it is just the excessive cheese there
makes it almost inedible.
Whereas this is actually surprisingly tasty and light, and
you actually get the crunch and the gooey,
and it soaks it up.
- Does it add anything over and above
a standard brioche loaf?
- Yeah, because if I'm, brioche is just buttery and sweet,
this is so textured and so light inside,
and we have a really crispy outside as well.
In fact, it's crispier than other normal croissants,
because you've got more of a solid surface area.
What are you doing?
(laughs)
- I'm providing the audio experience whilst
you explain how much you love the crispy flakiness.
- Weird, though, isn't it?
- It's teamwork.
- Have a little scratch.
(laughs)
- You do have better edges and more flakiness around there.
Although I think you lose some of the
elegance of a croissant.
- So we sourced this from a place called The Gourmet Market.
Like the Cronut,
these bakeries have got lines around the corner,
they're selling out of them.
They can't make them quick enough.
So this really is a thing.
How much do you think we paid for
that croissant cube loaf?
- £8.50.
- I'm going under that it's £7.50.
- £6.50.
- And do you know what,
you know when you're the one that gets
sent to the local boulangerie
to pick up croissants for the family,
and if you're not very careful, by the time you get home,
a few of them are squashed and crushed?
At least you could put a couple of these next to each other.
And on top of each other in your basket,
on the front of the bike and you're home,
no damage done. Practical.
- What fairytale are you living in?!
(laughs)
- Um, do you know what? £6.50, it's fun,
I think you'd buy it. You'd do it once,
you'd find out how to play with it.
I think you might stick to regular croissants after that.
Maybe I'm wrong.
- Croissant cube load, pretentious or not?
- Ooh. A little bit, but it's not pretentious.
- Now I've had time to digest it, not this, but this,
not pretentious. Kind of cool.
- This is going to take a while to digest, I promise you.
- Please, Jamie, lift the cloche.
- Ooh!
- That is beautiful.
- Fancy, hey?
So in front of you, you have a Chawanmushi,
which is a Japanese steamed,
savoury custard with some soy marinated seafood in it.
- Could you just pronounce the name of the dish?
You said it so quickly? I almost didn't hear.
- You know what, stuff it.
Chawanmushi.
- I don't know if you're right or wrong.
- Yeah.
And the pretentious ingredient in question
is in front of you as well, which is the soy sauce.
Please, dig in.
- Wow.
Wow.
- Whoa.
- Wow.
- Whoa.
(laughs)
- That's phenomenal.
- Do you want to try it in the dish?
- It's got a wonderful wobbling set on it.
Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Firstly, what are you expecting from soy sauce?
- I always just associate soy sauce as a seasoning.
So one part of many things, okay.
- Triangle.
(laughs)
- With a number of other condiments,
and together they season and elevate a dish.
I think when it's more the focus
and when you try on its own, it's completely stand out.
- [Barry] That's the soy sauce that we use here
in the studio fairly regularly, a fairly standard soy.
So just as a comparison, side-by-side. Okay.
- It's harsh. Harsh on the tongue.
- Okay.
- [Jamie] The viscosity is very different.
- [Ebbers] You can literally same, same, volume in the dish.
You can see through it.
- [Barry] This is Kamibashi soy sauce, five years old.
It originated in Japan.
It's a soy sauce that is aged in cedar barrels for five
years to give it it's well balanced, salty taste.
This is the perfect ingredient to use in asian cooking,
or on its own to drizzle over sashimi sushi.
- Ultimately, like with the previous ingredient,
you're buying into centuries of tradition
and process, and respect for how a product gets
to where it is. And you're paying,
therefore, not just for the process of fermenting,
but then for ageing.
- I can't imagine using that in like,
a stir fry midweek or something like that.
But, if we were to go to the effort of making sushi,
or buying really good quality sushi,
or sashimi or something like that,
if that feels like the right place for it.
- Let's talk money.
So bearing in mind the flavour and balance of this soy from
Kamibashi relies on the exact replication of the process
250 years old, and diligently overseen by the Okada family,
right up to the 17th generation of today.
The standard soy sauce in front of you,
for 200ml bottle is £2.50.
What do you reckon this one is?
- I would pay,
£25 for that bottle, 10 times the price.
- I think it's twice that, I think it's £50.
I'm going to say £50.
- Interesting.
Could you justify £31.95?
- That doesn't surprise me.
It's not hugely more than I thought,
less than you thought.
- It's Less than I thought,
it doesn't mean I'll be prepared to pay it.
- Again, just like the bacon,
its application is so different from
perhaps the, like the staple midweek ingredients that
we associate bacon and soy sauce to be a part of our,
pretty much, everyday cooking.
- But that is a spectacular bottle of,
- Soy sauce.
- Yeah.
- Alright then. So is it pretentious or not?
- We said at the start, sometimes it's about the vocab
and the language around the marketing and the packaging,
but I don't know how else you would explain this if it
wasn't for listing off the numbers of years,
the years of fermentation and ageing and cedar and the family
name is important, the tradition.
So I don't think it's pretentious, I think it's factual.
I just think it's such quality,
that we don't get it anywhere else.
- This one could be interesting boys. Men, please.
Lift the cloche.
(chicken clucks)
- Is it a chicken Barry?
- Well done, Jamie! 10 points!
- Pou-let affines.
- Pou-lay.
Poulet.
- Pou-let.
- Poulet.
- These are La Cour D'armoise Poulette Affinee,
these chickens have been favourite in France's
three-star Michelin restaurants,
the chickens hens and Guinea fowls from Patis Farm,
are renowned for the exceptional quality
and incredible taste.
- [Jamie] So this is Michelin star chicken?
- [Barry] Yes.
- I mean first impressions, it looks like a chicken.
Like, there's nothing special.
There's no,
sometimes you can see there's different colouring of the skin
or something like that. It literally looks like a chicken.
- Should we eat it? Well, we cook it first, then eat it.
- Oh, Jamie, it's like Sunday lunch.
- So in front of you,
you've got two dishes cook the same way.
Both slow roasted,
one is the potentially pretentious ingredient,
and the other is a relatively standard one,
but still good quality.
Start dishing up.
- Shall we do a bit of thigh, Jay?
I'll give you a bit of thigh.
It's worth pointing out,
the other one is still high welfare and really good quality.
- We're just picking it up.
We're going in, we're going in with the fingers!
- [Barry] You going in?
You're starting with the potentially pretentious chicken.
The poultry's fed with the food produced on the farm,
maize and wheat form the basis of their diet,
with the addition of essential oils
and more than 25 wild plants from this protected site.
These include dandelion,
heather, bramble, nettles, and horsetail.
These plants are all selected for their tonic properties and
the farmer says they give a much more organic flavour,
but what are you getting?
- I'm getting two very different textures.
- [Barry] Are you?
- From the two different chicken thighs.
- [Barry] Okay.
- In terms of dark meat, which is what I've gone in with,
I would say that the potentially pretentious one
is incredibly dark.
- So it turns out, two weeks before their slaughter,
they are on a strict diet of five different herbs.
And for the hens, they are then also fed cows milk.
This creates a better distribution of the fat throughout the
chicken, giving it a different texture.
- That,
feels crazy.
- This, the potentially pretentious one,
I feel it's almost like game meat.
It does taste incredible.
It's just not what we always associate with chicken,
because we're so used to this style of chicken.
- So if you were creating your ultimate
roast chicken dish for a bunch of mates,
what chicken would you go for?
- Easy answer, not that chicken.
- Standard chicken?
- I'd go standard chicken.
- The potentially pretentious one is not bog standard.
It tastes incredible,
but it's texture puts in a place where I think most people
would think twice about it.
- Let's talk money again.
So our standard high welfare chicken, £8.30.
What are you thinking for the
potentially pretentious chicken.
- So I wouldn't think twice about £8.30 for a chicken,
possibly pay a bit more.
Would I pay double or triple?
Three times the price 24, £25.20.
- I think that's £35.
(laughs)
- £55 for a single chicken for a single chicken.
- In the 30 odd years on this planet.
- Why round down?
(laughs)
- In nearly 30 years I've lived!
I struggled to justify that price for a chicken,
based on all preconceptions.
I just wonder if maybe that is part of
including the piguvian tax,
whereas that, already high welfare,
but is that just pushing the price down the road to other
nutritional sustainable environmental concerns and costs,
you know, in years to come?
- Is it pretentious?
- I'm not sure even all the backstory of feeding on the
special tonic diet and the milk fed chicken is something
I'm quite ready to jump on board with yet.
So it's very, very close to pretentious.
- Oh!
- Very, very close to pretentious.
- All of the talk about eating special diets
and drinking milk in the last two weeks,
it just, that's bumf, and therefore that's pretentious.
- Ooh! We got one! Finally,
we can now call this episode
a pretentious ingredient episode.
- It's about resetting the barometer
of what is normal to us,
and that's normal up until now,
and what perhaps normal should be.
And then probably more importantly where you would use it.
Because I think most of the ingredients today,
are stand out on their own, but where would you use them?
Is it midweek?
- I think that's where we need your help.
Were any of these pretentious?
And what would you do with them? Please comment down below.
Let us know.
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