The Hairy Bikers visit The Bildeston Crown
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24 August 2009 – Update:
Chris Lee took on The Hairy Bikers …and won!
The Hairy Bikers’ Tour of Britain – a new series in which Simon King and Dave Myers get on their bikes to find the best of each county’s larder and meet the local producers who are keeping traditional recipes alive, started tonight on BBC2.
In this first programme of the tour, which was filmed last February, the duo start with Suffolk. Si and Dave cook a traditional county favourite at Snape Maltings, collect flour from a working water mill, and then pit their new-found knowledge against our Chris in a cook-off. Restaurant diners decide who has created the dish that best defines Suffolk and Chris emerges as the winner with eight out of the nine votes.
Chris’ winning dish is now on The Bildeston Crown menu and you can also view the recipe at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/roastedbreastofduckw_92120.shtml
Or read more on the BBC Suffolk website
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13 February 2009
Motorcycle-riding cookery experts The Hairy Bikers visited The Bildeston Crown, while filming part of their forthcoming BBC series. The series follows Simon King and Dave Myers on a tour of the British Isles, during which they will source ingredients unique to each county and go on to cook the local signature dish.
At each stop the bikers have a “cook off” with a well-known local restaurant chef, in which they compete to create a new dish from the county’s produce. For Suffolk, independent production company Cactus TV, which is behind the programme , chose The Bildeston Crown and chef Chris Lee to take up the duo’s challenge.
John Bonny, an associate producer with Cactus TV, explains the format: “We’re visiting 28 counties across the UK, discovering and celebrating the local produce available. We’re using local producers and sourcing ingredients to create a mixture of traditional and modern recipes that reflect the county’s cuisine and sense of identity.”
The Bildeston Crown is well known for being a champion of local food with dishes like Head to Toe Nedging Pork, Semer Lamb and Suffolk Beef Stew using owner James Buckle’s red poll beef as regular dishes on its menus. The Bildeston Crown chef, Chris Lee was delighted that he asnd The Bildeston Crown had been selected for a visit: “It has been great fun to work with Si and Dave. I share their passion for great local produce and truly believe that modern food is at its best when traditional methods are treated with a creative twist.”
To learn what was cooked and who actually won the “cook off”, you will have to wait until the summer when the programme will be screened on BBC2.
