Hello.
Welcome to Fridge Cam.
We are Sorted Food.
Now, this week I want you to grab your watches,
and I want to just turn it all the way back 18 years--
Why?
To the first dish I ever cooked for my family.
Aww, that's sweet.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So fish pie is one of those comforting dishes
that is just--
it reminds me of family cooking.
I don't eat it very often and I cook it even less.
But when I do it's an occasion-- it's like a big family cook.
And this was the very first recipe I ever
cooked for my whole family.
It's not as quite big to me.
I think the first thing I did was a chicken tonight honey
and mustard sauce with boil-in-the-bag rice.
I was an adventurous cook for my young age.
I wonder what you looked like then.
Nailed it.
I very much blame my parents, because I got cookbooks
for Christmas and birthday.
And this was the one that my mom and dad gave me
for, I'm guessing, my 12th birthday.
In June 2000.
Oh, no.
How old am I. No, my 13th birthday.
13th Birthday.
As you can tell, we are not at the studio.
This is my house.
I don't let the others in here all the time,
but we basically thought we'd cook some stuff up and get
the opportunity to ask Ben some questions about all of his food
memories.
And this was the first dish that he's ever
cooked for his family.
So the base the fish pie--
chopped up carrots, celery, onion, garlic.
Peeled them, diced them, really fine.
We'll hold the garlic back, but these three
veg all go into a big pan with a good glug of rapeseed oil.
I'm sure Jamie would have used olive oil,
but I'm not going to.
Got my potatoes on to the boil so they can be mashed.
So I had a whole cookbook of ideas to choose from,
and I went for fish pie.
Yeah, but why?
So I thought this--
I recognized all the ingredients,
and you had boiled eggs, and you had to make mashed potatoes.
So they were kind of things I already knew--
But put them together.
Put them together.
And it is something I know--
particularly, my mom loves fish, so I
was like, if I'm going to cook for the first time
dinner for mom and dad and my brothers, then I'll go fish.
So that's why I cooked it back then.
Why do I cook it now?
Same reasons.
Everyone loves it.
It's comforting.
It's family favorite.
Cod already skinned.
And I've gone for smoked haddock,
just because I love an extra flavor profile going on.
So bit-sized pieces.
OK.
I suppose the big question out of all of this is,
do you remember what the reaction was from the family?
There is only ever one reaction when
your parents eat the first thing you've ever cooked.
They're not going to tell you it's rubbish.
I mean, I'm all for the constructive criticism,
but they're not going to say it's rubbish.
So I remember it being very good.
OK, fine.
Can you imagine if Evie, when she gets to, of an age where
she's going to cook dinner, and she'll be down in front of it,
and you start critiquing it?
What'd you say about her artwork?
For a 3 and 1/2 year old, I think Evie's artwork
is quite spectacular.
I mean, Evie can write her name at 3 and 1/2, and Barry is 30
and he still struggles.
The perfect soft-boiled egg--
room temperature, boiling water, six minutes, chill them down,
peel them.
And when we break into this later, you can see--
the same way as I can feel-- that is a soft yolk.
Right.
I'm going to the garlic in with this softened veg,
and you can use the board to do some parsley.
This is one of the easiest sauces known to man.
Rather than making like a roux, or a bechamel,
or anything like that, we're just
going to put this in with cream.
All of the softened veg, lemon zest, a bit of mustard,
and then what looks like the world's biggest
amount of spinach, but is going to end up
as the world's smallest amount of cooked spinach.
That's what spinach does.
But it will go down into the sauce.
So we can pop our eggs in, and hopefully we
get the perfect yolk.
Boom.
And then bring that sauce over, and it just
goes over the top of all of our eggs.
I'm not going to say this is special to this dish,
but it's makes it so good, all the fish goes in raw.
And what that means is, as it cook,
you don't lose any of that flavor.
It seeps down into what you can see it's a very thick sauce.
Yeah.
It loosens it all up.
So literally just give it one mix in.
If a bit of egg comes to the top, not a problem.
And that's it.
Job done.
Just waiting on mash.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I've never seen somebody pick apart a stick of butter
and put it on top like that.
You can definitely tell we're at your kitchen today.
Cath Kidston plates.
You always have-- you love it.
I am such a big Cath Kidston fan, or my wife is.
It's one of us.
You decide.
A nice hot oven, and basically in there until it's bubbling,
the fish cooked, and it's crispy on top.
About 20 minutes.
I can't believe you would have nailed this
when you were 13 years old.
I don't think the carrots were that finely diced.
And I'm not sure it was perhaps as well-seasoned as we now can,
because we know what we're doing.
But it was pretty much the same.
Mashed potato, eggs, fish, sauce.
It tastes great, considering how simple it is.
Age 12/13 I cooked it, I liked cooking it, I liked the result,
I stuck with it.
Age 31, still cooking it.
[LAUGHTER]
Right, can I ask you some questions?
Mmm, I love this bit.
People have obviously noticed that you've
got a slight penchant for the West End.
Yeah.
I do like the theatre.
What's your favorite musical?
Because you always seem to be seeing something on the West
End.
The reason I always seem to be seeing stuff
is that two years ago I made it my New Year's resolution
to see something in the West End every month.
And favorite?
So many favorites.
It's got to be musical.
Half A Sixpence.
What's the biggest cooking mistake you've ever made?
Depends on how you define biggest.
But I was once catering for a wedding in Ireland.
I wasn't-- I was part of a team that were.
And it was solely my fault that all
of the meat for the main course was a little bit overcooked.
There was a lot of beef fillet we couldn't use that day
and had to put into shepherd's pie the next day.
But that moment when I was like, this is someone's big day--
Yeah.
I've got so involved in plating up all the starters
and helping the first course go out,
that the beef has been in there for probably five
or 10 minutes longer than it should have been.
That's why I always, always, always have a contingency
up my sleeve.
All right.
I think this is quite a big question.
Because I don't know the answer to this and I
know you quite well.
If you weren't a chef, what else might you have been?
I quite like the idea of being a teacher.
Oh, really?
And I get a lot of stick for being teacher's pet,
but that's because I used to aspire and like
the fact that the teacher was able to pass on information.
And that's what I do now, and I think we're lucky in our job.
Because I'm not a teacher, but I'm still able to teach.
And flip reverse it, when were in the classroom,
I was always amazed at what they were teaching us
what we able to learn.
And I've always liked learning.
And it's even better when we do that live with you guys
helping to shape that process.
If you want to feel all cozy and warm inside with fish pie,
then you'll want the recipe.
You can get that downstairs, jamieoliver.com.
And we'll also put our version on our site.
Do that.
OK, right.
Today is a very big day, because we have
a front cover for the book.
Hallelujah!
That's right.
What?
Why does it say Janice?
Janice isn't the name of the book, that's
because Jenny bought a copy, therefore her name
is in the front of the book.
If you bought a copy, then Ebbers
would be on the front of the book.
Or Ben, or Ben.
Or Ben.
Or if you buy a copy, then your name
will be on the front of the book.
Mmm, I slept my way to this book.
The less said about that, the better.
Yeah, I think so.
If you want all the details, you can get them, as ever,
in the link downstairs when join up to the club letter.
We'll also be talking about loads of stuff
around supper clubs, so stay tuned.
Not just recipes in books, recipes in mouths, too.
Until next time--
We will see you very, very soon.
Good night.