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- [Chef] Crack your eggs, bake.
- [Jamie] We uncover the tools
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Hello. Today we have teamed up with BASF's
vegetable seeds team to challenge Mike and our chef Ben
to an ultimate beat the chef cooking battle,
where they have to use a key ingredient.
And this is the moment where they found out
what that key ingredient is.
- Tomatoes.
- Lots and lots of tomatoes.
- That's right, boys.
It's a tomato, but it's not just any tomato.
This is an intense tomato.
And it's all been created hanks to seed breeding.
- Intense tomatoes.
- I wonder what makes them intense.
- First up, they met with a scientist called Ben
to learn all about it.
- It's nice meeting you.
I'm the tomato breeder for BASF.
I'm a breeder for 25 years.
- This is the first time I've heard of seed breeding.
Are you able to explain in the simplest of terms,
what seed breeding is?
- Seed breeding is actually the optimization of many traits
in a plant.
This is actually the result of a seed breeding
for thousands of years.
The first tomato, 10,000 years ago had a very,
very small size, and nowadays
you have tomatoes in all different sizes,
different colors, different flavors.
So in the beginning we make a lot of crosses
between different parents
and then combine all these traits.
And then finally, and that's a long breeding process
of crossing several years.
And then at the end, we have all these traits combined
in these two parents, and then we cross them,
and then you have the final product.
- Is it like crossbreeding dogs?
- Yes, you can compare it with that.
- Should we try one? They really a lot less watery.
When you cut into it, look at that.
It's like they've taken the whole flavor
and just turn the volume up on it.
- Yeah. You get the sweetness,
but also the moment you taste it,
and you sort of get, you salivate,
because it's just delicious.
- Myself and our audience
were wondering, are GM and see breeding the same thing?
- No, it's not the same thing.
As a breeder, you have a toolbox,
and with this toolbox, you develop your varieties,
and one of these tools can be GM,
but within BASF vegetable breeding here,
we are not using these tools. We are GM free.
- Next up, they met with a food forecaster
named Anne to learn all about how seed breeding
can limit food waste in the home.
- First off, what on earth is a food forecaster?
- Well, actually a food forecaster is trying
to look into the minds of consumers about 10, 15, 20
years ahead from now,
because that's the time that our breeders
need to come up with lesson varieties.
So we actually try to have a crystal ball
and look into the future.
- So when forecasting, future food trends and traits,
what types of things are you looking for?
- So definitely the flavor variation trend is one thing.
Convenience is another one, sustainability for sure.
- With some of those traits, specifically say food waste,
how does seed breeding actually help it?
- We try to breed for the correct size, flavor,
shelf life that the supermarkets are needing.
And we know by extending the shelf life
of a salad bowl by one day or even half a day,
then minimizing waste by 14, 15%, which is huge
if you just think about that amount for the whole year.
- Wow.
- After Ben and Mike learned all about seed breeding
from our experts,
I send them to meet chef Franck to show them how to use
the intense tomato and a few delicious dishes.
- All right, guys, you all right?
- What's on the menu?
- It's a char grill salad.
We have this beautiful, intense tomato.
Look how firm and beautiful we are inside,
and look at the water that's coming out of it.
No that much.
Tomatoes that don't have that much water content into it,
it's when you grill it,
you've got a very good char grill mark on it,
And the water doesn't link it into the pan.
Simple char grill vegetable.
It doesn't need it from CNM.
- Wow. That's amazing.
- I think we've all tried excellent tomato before,
but the way this behaved in the kitchen
and the way you cook it and the way you prepare it,
that's, what's really interesting.
- What have we got now?
- It's a very simple starter
with cucumber, red onion, tomatoes
and a little bit of dressing.
When you peel a tomato, like this has been blanched,
sometimes the pulp come with it.
Because these tomato are so firm and nice
and become come up very nicely,
Don't ever need a knife.
- I peeled tomatoes before to get rid of the peel
to use the flesh without the peel.
I've never gone on to use the peel in a useful way.
- [Franck] That's it.
- I almost don't wanna break it.
- This is actually, this really is so inspiring.
It just sings of tomato.
- What a beautiful product to work with. So good.
- I'm glad very you like it.
- The fried tomato skins are so delicious and sweet.
We've learned so much. I've learned so much.
- You're most welcome guys.
Anytime, the pleasure to work with you both.
- Now we've just gotta battle out, Mike.
- I'm ready.
- You don't look ready.
- He was born ready.
If you've got a problem during the day,
you just give me a ring.
- What are you doing on Wednesday?
(laughter)
- So will Mike beat the chef?
Let's find out?
(upbeat music)
Okay, boys, are we ready?
- So ready.
- I can't wait for this one.
Ready to go in three, two, one, go.
- How do you beat a chef?
You out chef the chef with the help of other chefs
and that's what I'm trying to do today.
So I'm going to make a sweet tomato and basil cheesecake.
- Mike, what are you doing?
- One of the things that chef Franck was saying
is that because of the low water content of the tomatoes,
they're really good for making jams.
So I thought, what can I integrate a tomato jam into?
Tomatoes well with cheese, ricotta, basil.
Can I completely go nuts
and create a tomato cheese cake that tastes good?
- What I like is you're stepping outside the box.
My concern is you can't see the box anymore.
You're so far away from it.
- And there lies the jeopardy.
- Coming to Ebbers,
how are you gonna make sure that you beat the normal?
- So I'm combining two things.
One, the flavors and kind of inspiration of a dish
we had in De Moines several years ago,
restaurant Proof, and they did tomato menu,
and one of the dishes on the tomato menu
was this kind of red Malaysian pork curried ribs.
So that's what I'm going to do,
but I'm going to incorporate everything we've learned
from Ben, Anne, and chef Franck
in terms of the method and where the intense tomato
can play a role within that dish.
- I don't know about you,
but I quite like to taste an intense tomato
to see how intense it is.
- I don't get it yet.
- Try that.
- That is a very delicious tomato.
- You know what it tastes of?
Five tomatoes.
- Yes - You know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- I sliced up my intense tomatoes, going to roast them,
stick them in the oven for about 45 minutes.
- So step one for me is to make a marinade for my pork ribs.
That's red onion, garlic, lemongrass,
garlic, cafe lime, tamarind, salt,
sugar, and of course, intense tomatoes.
- Should we make a tomato jam?
Going to take some more tomatoes,
dice them up to about one centimeter.
And then I'm going to stick that in a pan with some sugar,
some lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract,
and a pinch of cinnamon.
- So I have gone for pig pork ribs,
but it's basically pork belly with the ribs still attached.
So super meaty.
Put with a couple of bones in there too.
- How's it going over that side of the kitchen, Mike?
- I think it's going okay.
I've got my jam on the go.
The secret to my dish is not just lots
and lots of well-balanced flavors, but also time.
These pork ribs will benefit from marinating.
For an hour? Okay. Overnight, better.
I've had some that have gone for two days. Excellent.
- The first thing I needed to do was most lots of tomatoes.
I slice them. I put them in the oven.
I did not cover them the sugar.
So taking them out of the oven,
I'm going to now cover them in sugar
and put them back in the oven for about 40 minutes.
Salvaged.
- Boys, you've had 15 minutes already.
Mike, you've got a jam on,
you've got stuff in the oven,
taken stuff out of the oven.
You're going to put it back in.
Ebbers, you've cut a bone.
- Pork has been marinating for a while.
I placed them into a roasting tin
and scraped off access marinade.
We'll use that for the sauce, but to braze the ribs,
I'm going to blend up watermelon,
intense tomatoes and salt.
And that's going to braise in an oven
for about three hours at 140.
- Low and slow.
- And another example of seed breeding.
Watermelons that are now much, much smaller to avoid waste.
- Buttery biscuit paste, ginger snaps, brown sugar
blitzed up to a crumb.
I'm adding melted butter and vanilla extract.
- The braised pork ribs are going to be excellent,
but I want to serve them with a wonderful
curry coconutty sauce.
I'm going to use coconut oil,
all of the paste that we marinated the pork in.
Basically you cook it until literally
it kind of all separates,
and you want it to break,
and that is one of the things that's iconic
when it comes to Malaysian curries,
breaking the oil.
- [Mike] So the buttery biscuit base has gone into
the lined spring form pan,
and I'm just flattening it and compressing it
with the bottom of a glass, which is a cool little tip.
- Couple of other key flavors into my base,
turmeric and salt.
- This is candy basil.
I'm essentially brushing leaves of normal fresh basil
with egg whites, and then tossing them in sugar.
And they're basically going to candy.
They're going to go a little bit harder,
a little bit crispy, but take on all that sugar.
And there's another aspect where I can combine lovely,
savory basiliness with sugar
in order to make it work in the cheese cake.
- Once that paste is cooked out
and the oil has broken,
in with a tin of coconut milk
and then half a tin of cold water.
And you now want to simmer that very, very gently.
If you boil it too hard,
there's a risk the coconut milk will separate,
and into are the spices, cinnamon, star anise, clove.
- [Mike] Wow. Some of them have really caramelized.
- Hey Siri, define burned.
- My tomatoes have burned.
Give it a try again.
I'll keep more of an eye on them.
Hopefully they'll be roasted and they'll cool in time,
but now it's going to be touch and go.
- I'm going to cook off some Jasmine rice
with pandan leaf, absorption method.
So rice, which I've washed and drained into pan,
pinch of salt, pandan leaf, and one and a half times water.
My dish today is kind of an entire feast,
and on the side, not just the Jasmine rice,
but also a salad made with intense cucumber,
Pak Choi, and a whole bunch of fresh herbs,
Thai basil, mint, and coriander.
I'm gonna chop it all up and toss it all
with a very special dressing.
- Okay. Well, it's going swimmingly.
Let's make a cream cheese filling.
It needs to be a bit peakier than usual
because I'm adding a ton of ricotta
which doesn't set as well as normal cream cheese.
I'll be here forever.
- Basil salad done.
I'm not going to dress it until the very last second.
But when that comes,
I'm going to dress it with intense tomato kombucha.
So a home brew and I put the stalks from the vine tomatoes
and some of our intense tomatoes in here
for the second ferment.
So I imagine quite physic.
(shouting)
- [Mike] Do any more, it'll be butter.
Cream cheese in.
Ricotta, because tomato and basil.
Fold that together.
That's excellent. That is the consistency I need.
Otherwise, it's just going to split everywhere,
and now with icing sugar
and finally vanilla extract.
- That's delicious.
- Tangy and sour and the intense tomato element from it.
Yum.
- [Mike] I'm basically gonna spread this jam over my base,
but leave like a centimeter around the edge.
I'm hoping that when I put my cream cheese over the top,
the cream cheese will almost seal it in when it sets.
- What are you doing to your ribs, Ebbers?
- So I'm just dribbling over some of this cooking liquid.
It's got all the pork juices,
but also the watermelon, the intense tomato juice.
- I think they're okay.
So as well as my tomatoes and my battle with them,
I'm topping my cheesecake with a fried tomato skin.
It was something that was demonstrated to us by chef Franck.
And I'm just going to Nick it.
Take it out of the boiling water
and put it straight into icy water
because I'm going to slowly peel off the skins
and then I'm going to deep fry them ever so slightly,
so they go lovely and crispy, not too brown.
And they're going to sit delicately
on the top of my beautifully formed cheesecake.
- Okay, 15 minutes left.
- Last few minutes before serving.
This is go under a hot grill to hopefully char in places
and the intense cherry tomatoes
to gently simmer and poach in that curry sauce.
(sizzling)
- I haven't seen the cheesecake from Mike yet.
- Oh no.
- [Jamie] Whereas Ebbers,
it feels like it's in a slightly better place.
- Salad's all about texture.
So we've got the crunchy raw Pak Choi, the intense cucumber,
but also some crispy shallots.
- That is a cheesecake.
- Feel like this is moment of truth for you, Mike,
how are you feeling?
- [Mike] Yeah, nervous.
- If just one bit of that cake sticks to that tin
and it opens...
- It's going to bring everything else with it.
- [Jamie] Come on mate, we're with you mate.
Come on, come on.
- [Ben] For the normals.
Yes.
- Nicely done.
One minute to go.
- Ribs back in the game.
Oh, good slice.
- [Ben] Just finishing touches.
- Forced to say, 10, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one.
Step away from the intense tomatoes.
- Well done.
- Ah, that's the first time
I've turned around and seen that.
(upbeat music)
- Well, they look good.
Let's start savory.
As soon as I heard you were doing a curry, Ebbers,
my heart sank because I knew my job would be more difficult.
- You seem to have come to the table a little bit defeated.
- Cheers.
- I wasn't expecting it to taste like that.
- The pork is really delicious.
And then the tomato is so interesting.
It doesn't act like a tomato.
It's like creamy and it holds together.
It actually, that is a really good juice of that tomato.
Try to convince her.
- I hope it's disastrous.
(upbeat music)
Oh, that's fantastic, Ebbers.
I think those tomatoes are a game changer, though.
Like the poaching just works brilliantly.
Shall we move on to dessert?
- Yes.
- [All] Cheers.
- It's not what you expect, and yet it's delicious.
And then when you know what it is, you're like, ah, genius.
Why didn't I think of that?
- You can't be thinking that right now though, can you?
- Well, I'm not judging it, so my opinion's irrelevant.
- It is clever though.
Why not use tomato?
It's a little bit weird to begin with
because you have that taste that you associate
with savory flavors, but the jam is brilliant
and it's a really good use of tomato
I probably would never thought of before.
Small tweaks would have improved a lot.
The basil is a little bit soft.
School boy error, I put it in the fridge.
Nice, well.
- What a feast.
- Feels like judgment time.
- They're both delicious and that as a meal together
is actually quite, quite good.
But I think there is a winner and it's gotta be Ben.
- Yeah.
- It has to be Ben.
That is seriously delicious,
generous and makes good cheese tomatoes.
- Nice.
- Well done mate. Absolutely 100% deserved.
- Well, you've heard what we think around this table,
but it's over to you.
Comment down below who would have been your winner.
- And a massive thank you to the vegetable seeds team
at BASF for inviting us on this journey
into seed breeding.
- And if you want to know more about seed breeding
and see Mike and Ben ask the experts your questions,
click the link below it's in behind the scenes video.
- [Jamie] Before you go, just a quick shout
to say thanks to all of you who are using
and sending us your thoughts on our Packs app.
We wanted to create a tool
to help you boss your mid-week meals,
cut down on food waste and reduce the cost of your weekly
food shop, and you are helping us do just that.
So thank you.
We want to make this as accessible as possible right now.
So if you haven't tried it, you can now for a full month,
absolutely free.
The link is in the description box below
and now for the bloop.
- I mean he will absolutely know the candy basil trick
because I stole it from him.
- Talking of taking things from chefs,
I put an ice cube tray in the freezer this morning
ready for my kombucha.
- If you want some ice, you can pick out of there.
Sorry.
- Ebbers, if you need another recipe for ice,
I'm happy to give it to you.
(laughter)