Where on a map is Iowa?
Iowa--
When you leave London, you head west.
I've got this vision in my head where
a lot of these smaller cities in the US all look quite similar.
And then you go over New York.
Don't go as far as LA, otherwise, you've gone too far.
I don't know whether we're going to find anything that's going
to absolutely amaze us or whether it's going to be quite
run-of-the-mill.
But I'm looking forward to finding out.
I got a B in geography.
Would you believe it?
No, I didn't.
I got a D. I just remembered.
Iowa is this state here.
And we've traveled from London to spend 24 hours
in Des Moines, the state capital of Iowa.
Lots of people who have heard this all
asked the same question.
Why?
We're trying to find game changers-- stand out
food and experiences that you remember forever.
And our whole itinerary has been put together
by some of you, the locals, so it's out of our hands.
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Location one, the downtown farmer's market for breakfast.
We've got a bit of a plan.
We're each going to split up, go and find
what we think is the best looking breakfast available.
Buy it.
Chuck it onto Instagram, and you're going to vote.
Got this in the bag.
The fresh produce is amazing.
And the whole market, though, is so tactile.
Everyone buys by looking, by smelling, by touching.
And then they purchase all the fresh stuff.
You know, I just won Barry and I two tickets
to see a volleyball game.
Go, volleyball!
Yay!
The season starts in September.
[INAUDIBLE]
So we're going to have to come back.
Does that look good?
Perfect, perfect.
Need some help with that?
No.
I'm all right.
Oh my god.
This is amazing.
Nice cake.
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I might fail on the looks department, for my breakfast,
anyway.
Oh, OK.
But I've gone for a breakfast bowl, which is full of sausage,
potatoes, egg, onion, topped with cheese, salsa, sour cream,
jalapeños, hot sauce.
This is everything you want in a breakfast.
This is a Ton-of-Yum, packed full of fresh stuff
from the Rinehart family farm in Iowa around the corner.
It's got bacon.
It's got fresh tomato.
It's got zucchini.
It's got buff mozz.
It's got basil.
and it's got an egg soufflé.
As you saw, Barry went big--
American big-- with an iced cinnamon bun.
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Another one of those really easy things to share.
Just do it.
I had a little sample, so I know how good that tastes.
That's so good.
Time to split up.
Bas and Jay in search of gold, whilst Ben and I
were sent here, the World Food Prize Norman Building.
The World Food Prize recognizes the achievements
of individuals who have advanced human development by improving
the quality, quantity, and availability of food
in the world.
I read that off the website.
It's, basically, the Nobel Peace Prize for food.
And it was started by this amazing guy, Doctor Norman E.
Borlaug, who won the Nobel Prize back in 1970.
He created this award to inspire others to make an impact
globally through food.
Since its inception in 1987, past winners
have impacted millions of lives globally
in overcoming challenges in poverty, malnutrition, obesity,
water insecurity, just to name a few.
And we were blown away.
So the building is stunning.
But around this kind of mezzanine,
there are a few phrases that have been inscribed.
And it actually says there that this
is a celebration of the man who saved
more lives than any other person who has ever lived thanks
to the advancement of the human condition
by increasing the quality, quantity,
and availability of food, because food
is the moral right of all who are born into this world.
Enjoying yourself.
We're running out of time, but we're
going to make that bedtime reading.
Dare I say it?
I think this is the game changer of the future of food,
and it's here in Des Moines.
Meanwhile, Jay and Bas were here.
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This is the Iowa State capital, seat of the Iowa General
Assembly.
And it's located in Iowa's capital city, Des Moines.
The commanding feature-- in case you hadn't noticed
it-- is the central towering dome
constructed of iron and brick and covered
with tissue-paper thin sheets of pure 23 karat gold.
Is that the same stuff you put on a cupcake?
It probably is, you know.
[TRUMPET MUSIC]
I've never been inside a capital-like building before.
I want to recreate like a West Wing moment, where there's
a whole gaggle of us, and we just
walk around a corner talking about massive government
issues.
Tell them that we need to get the Senate onto this
immediately.
Tell Congressman Smith that he's out.
If he doesn't vote with us, he's against us.
I know what you mean.
It doesn't work with the shirt.
Off the back of our Food Prize experience,
I remembered something I'd seen back in the airport--
Cultivation Corridor, which we learn
is an organization built to support and sustain
the science that feeds the world.
And this is Billi, who is lovely,
who told us some more of the cool stuff they're working on.
We use our land to feed the world.
And we're moving everything we've done with human health
into animal health-- putting in like a Fitbit on an animal.
And so you know they're taking less steps.
Well, maybe they're not feeling well.
What's going on?
And it's not technically a Fitbit,
but it's similar to a Fitbit.
You can put a sensor in a pig's nose.
If it goes off, you know that one's not feeling well.
And maybe you can take care of an issue
before it hits your whole herd.
Turns out, Des Moines is doing some really amazing stuff.
It was time to meet up.
Nature was calling.
Cue chubby lads in life jackets montage.
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We'll bring it back, promise.
Jamie said you two are like that scene out of The Notebook.
Well, we just noticed Jamie's life jacket.
What are the chances that's going to work when he falls in?
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It's surprisingly peaceful on the lake.
You're some skimming stones away from being a cliché--
two, three, four.
[SPLASH]
One.
Next, you sent us for ice cream.
And not just any ice cream--
apparently, the best ice cream on the earth.
It's an amazing artisan like ice cream
done the old-fashioned way.
And it's got a pastry chef in there who
does really innovative flavors.
They don't do the classics.
And it's all made from local grass-fed dairy milk and cream.
I have a blueberry pancake ice cream.
I think there's actual pancake in the ice cream.
I've got black cherry and white chocolate.
Ooh.
Coffee, caramel, and donuts in ice cream.
I'm pretty sure before mine was ice cream,
mine was a really light, airy, fluffy, beautiful pancake
with blueberries.
And now it's just absorbed all the creamy dairiness
from the ice cream.
Like a full hit of cherry and a crunch of white chocolate,
which is very nice.
But in these ones, you get the texture of donut and pancake.
This doesn't taste of Oreos.
This is Oreos--
[INAUDIBLE]
--in the ice cream.
I would actually go out there.
I'd say that was definitely the best ice cream I ever
had in my entire life.
That blueberry pancake ice cream was the best.
If there's a queue, yes, you know it's going to be good,
but you didn't expect it to be that good.
Like the whole of today, Mike's kept lots of secrets
up his sleeve.
But he's been most excited for this one, and, therefore, so
am I.
The last item on your list centers here, Proof.
And according to locals, the best restaurant
in the whole of Iowa, and they didn't even have a menu.
What I'd love is that, potentially,
for you to be able to say one of the best meals of your life
you ate in Des Moines.
This month is tomatoes.
So it's heirloom tomato season here in Iowa,
so every course is going to be revolving
around beautiful, colorful tomatoes.
First course, heirloom tomato salad--
so every color, and shape, and size under the sun
with some micro herbs and mozzarella ice cream.
I know.
It is really nice.
But it takes a minute to get there,
because it's so different to what you're expecting.
I know what you're thinking, what the hell
is a confit tomato?
I don't know either.
But I can tell you what it tastes like.
When the waitress brought this over, her exact words were,
"There's a lot going on on this plate."
And she had to get a piece of paper
out to describe everything that was on it.
We're not in Des Moines anymore.
We're in Flavor Town.
[INAUDIBLE]
We're in Flavor Town.
Shut up.
Round three.
They are pushing the boundaries of cooking techniques.
What I also love, they're using every part of the tomato
and every cooking technique that I knew existed and a few that I
didn't.
This is the first course that's come to the table.
It's actually made me salivate based on what you can smell.
A dish that tastes very different to it looks.
I don't usually enjoy fish courses that much.
I just don't, because they're not meat.
I do like this one.
[CROWD CHATTER]
Smells incredible.
Oh.
Mine is prosciutto-wrapped chicken with melons.
How do you make food taste like that?
With every mouthful, you're like,
I don't know where I'm going and if I like it.
But by the end of it, you're like I really
enjoyed that journey, and I want to do it again.
There he is.
Awesome.
When he explained this dish to us, I went wobbly at the knees.
And this is dessert just arriving now.
This feels like a step too far just from the description.
Basil ice cream!
Give me the basil!
Of all of the courses, the brownie
has the most tomato in it.
The basil ice cream is amazing!
Man versus food, and we're still here.
Barry's still here.
Gentlemen, thank you so much.
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I reckon I can probably pinpoint a couple of moments
that were game changing for me.
I think Black Cat Ice Cream was out of this world.
I've never had an ice cream flavor that isn't just flavor
but is actually in the ice cream.
I think Proof, as a restaurant, that 10-course meal that we
had was a game changer for me.
I've never had tomatoes so many different ways before.
If you are open to finding new experiences,
that is the place to go, because I
think you'll have a new experience every five minutes.
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