In Jimmy and Shivis Farmhouse Breakfast Season 2 Episode 20, music legend Tony Hadley joins Jimmy Doherty and Shivi Ramoutar for a morning of farmhouse cooking, wildlife encounters, and great conversation.
Inspired by Tony’s favourite breakfast ingredients, Shivi creates a delicious twist — kipper and black pudding cakes, served fresh from the farmhouse kitchen. Meanwhile, Jimmy meets Jay at the wildlife park, where it’s shearing time for the rams. The countryside community spirit continues as Sue from a local hedgehog rescue drops by to share expert tips on how to help hedgehogs thrive in home gardens.
In the workshop, Max McMurdo crafts ingenious off-grid appliances perfect for eco-conscious campers. Then, Tony introduces some of his favourite ales for a mini farmhouse beer tasting session, before Shivi wraps up the show with a Mediterranean classic — keftedes (Greek-style meatballs) bursting with flavour.
#JimmyAndShivisFarmhouseBreakfast #TonyHadley #CookingShow #FarmToTable #Channel4Food
Morning, Shiv. What are you doing? Morning, Jim. I’m limbering up. Apparently, we’ve got someone from the ballet here today. No, no, no, no, not the ballet. We’ve got Tony Hadley from Spandal Ballet. Oh. Oh. Okay, let’s get on with the show. Come on, get cooking. Welcome to the show that weekends were made for. M. We’ve got food that is so good. We’ve got countryside. You’re having right fun with that, aren’t you? We’ve got crafts. And we’ve got lots of wildlife. Oh, you know, after this, I set up a car wash. So, if you’re looking for some weekend cooking inspiration, this is as good a steak as I’ve ever had. If you fancy a bit of DIY, this is actually really good. Or a cheeky tipple. Cheers. Cheers, guys. Cheers. Or if you just want to hang out with some famous friends, it’s just gold and some fairy ones, too. You’re in the right place. Cooking good. Settle back for Jimmy and Shivy’s farmhouse breakfast. [Music] Welcome to Jimmy and Shivy’s Farmhouse Breakfast. Now, our guest today, you might remember him as the velvet voice behind some of the biggest hits of the 80s, but today he’s swapping the stage for the stove and his mic for a mug of tea. It’s the front man of Spandal Ballet, the legendary Tony Hadley. Hello. Hello, Tony. We’ll be chatting music memories and hoping he belts out a banger whilst we cook up a delicious breakfast feast. But first, let’s have a look at what else is coming up on today’s show. I hang out with Sheep Sheer Jay. You sometimes wonder yourself where my life has got to when you’re manscaping a boy. We find out how to help the precious hedgehogs in our gardens. This is a hedgehog feeding station. Very modern, isn’t it? Yes, it’s very trendy. Max is back in the workshop. It looks great. It’s a feature piece and it keeps you warm. And of course, there are drinks. It’s gold. And a wonderful criate inspired dish to round off the show. With tatsiki. Yes. Now it’s time for a spot of breakfast. We know Tony loves a kipper. So, we’ve got a kipper and black pudding cake. Oh, lovely. So, Tony, what is your go-to breakfast? Well, actually, the one you’re cooking is pretty spot on. Although, um I mean, I try and be healthy for breakfast. So, it might be sort of, you know, avocado. Yeah. So, egg, and that kind of stuff. Or just sort of nuts and seeds and oats and things like that with a yogurt. Okay. I feel this is still healthy. Kippers are great for you. Oh, kippers are great. I mean, I love fish anyway and so so anything like this I’m I’m absolutely mad for. That is lovely. It’s probably good to lubricate the vocal cords, right? All that oily fish. Yeah, it’s very good. But Tony, if you’re not being healthy, um or if you’re doing what you want to do, what is your breakfast of choice? Cut of eggs, cut of fried eggs, cut of sausages, bacon, black pudding. The best things in life, Tony. Bit of things in life. Brown sauce. Brown sauce. But also, how did you have your bread done? Toasted. Or if you were to have it any way you wanted, it’s got to be toasted. Got to be toasted. Got to be a fried bread man. Do you know what? I forgot. I haven’t had fried bread in such a long time. You threw me. Yeah, I know. Fried bread because you don’t see it very often cuz everybody said it’s so unhealthy. Oh, but it tastes so good. Nothing that right. So good. Proper. You know those you know those cafe the double O egg kind of thing. You go in there. What do you want, darling? Oh, I’ll have that double egg fried bread. Oh, that that’s amazing. Oh, I love I love all that. So, Tony, you’re gearing up for a tour again, aren’t you? Uh, I’m always gearing up for a tour. I never stopped touring. But this is a big one, right? Super big. This is the big banger. Big band tour. Big bangers. We got to get a big banger out. We got to get a big banger out. We did a swing tour which went so so well. People just seem to love that kind of music. The Sonra, Tony Bennett, Jack Jones, and yeah, the real classics. So that was really successful. So this time we called it the big band tour along with all the classics, you know, Fly Me to the Moon and That’s Life and Magal Ballet. Yeah, you got to do, you know, it’s it’s your legacy, isn’t it? I mean, you know, gold, true, through the barricades and only when you leave sounds great. We’ve got about 18 people on stage. So, we’ve got a big brass section. So, it’s going to be absolutely awesome. So, incredible. I mean, those those songs you said as legacy, if you turned up and you didn’t play them, ah, I think there would be a bit of a riot. There would be a riot. Oh, I would be quite upset. Well, I’ve seen I’ve seen artists do that. you know, I’m only going to play the new songs for my new album and nothing else. And you you literally see people walking out. And I think you you you’ve got to remember if you’re a new band, if you’re a young new band and you’re playing a a club or a small theater or whatever, of course you’re playing all new songs and people know that’s what you’re going to do. But if you’ve got a history, I mean, I’ve been doing this since I was 20. So that’s that’s 45 years. Do I dare I say it? And a lot of hits along the way as well. You know, when you do things like true or through the barricades, people immediately go back to that time in their lives when they met their husband, boyfriend, had children or whatever, and it takes them on a little kind of journey really, a memory journey. And um and so that’s why it’s really important to do those songs. I’ve been to one of your concerts. It was amazing the dedication of fans. The love of those songs. Yeah. They just they go wild. Yeah. They they they just love it. I have to say generally speaking over the years they’ve actually been very very nice and you know some some of them can take it a bit too far but generally speaking they’ve all they’ve all been really lovely and wonderful. Can I show you what’s happened here with your breakfast? I’m intrigued. So this is a panade version. Pan is basically a fancy word for breadcrumbs. We’ve got flour, egg, and lovely fresh breadrumbs here but you can use gold and dried breadcrumbs. Go mentioning gold. Gold. Oh Tony, well done Tony. for that one, didn’t you? It’s that fun. So, inside the um the cake itself, we’ve got the black pudding. We’ve got the softened spring onion. We’ve got the kipper, potato, and some chives. And that’s that. And then they’ll end up looking like that. Ideally, they can go into the fridge to firm up a little bit. And then into a frying pan for about 8 to 10 minutes, turning them halfway. So, I’m going to pop this one in here, Jimmy. And Jimmy, you can poach a couple of eggs for me. I’m going to wash my hands. Oh, I’m so sad I missed that pun. Sorry. Sorry. I mean, you’ve heard them all before. So Tony, when does the tour kick off and where where are the venues? Never ask an artist when a tour starts, but anyway, 23rd of November at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. That’s the beginning of the tour. Before that, we’re in Europe on a European tour, but that’s a rock tour. This is the big band swing tour and we go right up until I think the 17th of December. I think the Royal Albert Hall is the 2nd of December. So we’re playing all those beautiful symphony hall, Birmingham, you know, um you know, Liverpool, Filimmonic, wonderful venues, classy venues. Yeah. You are known as the person that says hello to everyone. Be it all your fans, be it be it to the security, whoever it is, you make time to go around and shake everyone’s hand and say, “Thank you so much. Thank you so much.” No ego. You’re not a star that just rushes off and jumps in the car and is whisked off. You really take time. You got to treat people with respect. It doesn’t matter what you do, where you come from. You have to be treat people with respect. We’re all the same. That means we’re all the same. We’re human beings and and and hello, how are you? Oh, yeah. You know, just just be polite and be nice because at the end of the day, all we want is to earn a few quid, do a do a job, bring up our children properly and sensibly and, you know, go for a pizza on a Friday night. Job done. I love how you I think I think you should go for prime minister, myself. So, here are some I made earlier. The beauty of these cakes is that you can pop them into the oven to keep them warm. And actually, once you’ve cooked them, you can cool them, freeze them. You make a massive batch of them. So then the weekend, you don’t have to do the whole process. You take them out of the freezer, defrost them, and into the oven or into a pan. Are we good, Jimmy? Yeah, I reckon we are. Okay, fabulous. You hungry? Yeah, I’m always hungry. Went for a blinding curry last night and um and it was great. I end up meeting the chef and all the staff. We had a picture together. They come out. Does that happen everywhere you go? I imagine it does. places. But the weird one was there was about 20 people from Denmark who are Ipsswitch supporters and they’re here to uh you know come and support Ipsswitch which is uh pretty cool. So and then this lovely um dressing here. This looks amazing. Fresh whole grain mustard, little bit of vinegar. This is everything you love Tony in one big cake. I’m getting very excited again. This is going to make those big bangers come out silky smooth. Can you keep your bangers to yourself? Bangers coming out every every 5 seconds. It’s a shame we weren’t making sausages for Tony. Big banger sausage. Oh, that looks amaz. That’s fantastic. And here we have it. You are. It’s great. I love coming on these kind of shows. You hungry? Have a nice cup of tea. You just get fed. The sun’s shining and you get fed. It’s fantastic. Your kipper and black pudding cakes. Yes. Look at that. Breakfast time. Tony Tony tuck in. Oh, I’m so excited. Thank you. This is brilliant. This has got everything in it that I love. All his favorites. All the omegas. Yeah. Thumbs up. What do we think? Are we coming on tour to cook for you? He’s still got the moves. Brilliant. Yeah. Love it. Love it. Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, I think I’m gonna leave Tony to enjoy that. But there’s still so much coming up on today’s show. It’s sheep shearing time at the wildlife park. There we go. We find out how to help hedgehogs in our gardens. Max is getting creative. That is an off-grid fridge. Tony is showing us some of his favorite tipples. This is like a fever dream. I’m drinking beer with Tony. And there’s a separate dish to end the show in style. See you soon. It’s going now. Well, Tony, the first one’s nearly gone. Look at that. [Music] Welcome back. We’re still here with the amazing Tony Hadley, everyone. Y look like I’m dressed for dinner. We’ve already served him a delicious breakfast, but there’s still so much more to come on today’s show. Yeah. But before all that, I’m heading to the wildlife park to see one of our rams having a lovely haircut. [Music] Now on the farm, I’ve got lots of sheep, but one job I hate is actually shearing. But luckily for me, Ranger Jay absolutely loves it. And so today, we’re going to shear one of our rams. [Music] How you going on, Jay? Doing all right, you Jim? I’m good. I’m good. You’re all kitted up. Yep. And we’ve got lovely Cheddar here who’s one of our beautiful Norfolk horn sheep, isn’t he? Yeah. He is our breeding ram and we’re just getting him done before we do the girls. Yeah. Is quite hot and uh he’s definitely been enjoying the good life at the moment. Yeah. So, he’s done he’s done what he’s needed to do done. But now when the sun’s out like this, you look at a big sheep like that and you think, “Oh, wouldn’t it be lovely to get that jumper off?” Well, it’s not just one jumper. It’s like wearing like three jumpers with a waterproof coat. All right then. So, should we should we get him going? Yeah. So, he can just take the bucker for me. I’m just going to keep him held and then we’ll just take his body. Yeah. Hopefully, he’ll turn around. He’s from he’s quite a big boy and his horns don’t help. Yeah. So, Jim, do you mind just holding the head for us? And I am just going to have to just gently lift up his body and take him to the side. You got him. So, three, two, one. That’s him. There we go. There we go. He’s a big fella. Yeah. He can’t do that very many times. No. There we go. But just look at the thickness, right? I mean, it’s early season, but already as thick as you like. Let’s crack on. Yeah. So, some of the boys aren’t as flexible as the girls. So, we just got to pop that leg back. That helps open up the belly. Just going to go around being very careful of the manhood. Yeah. I The thing is, I was about to say, the thing about a breeding ram, it’s all about a certain organ, isn’t it? Yeah. Okay. The one bit you really don’t want to cut. Yeah. You sometimes wonder yourself where my life has got to when you’re manscaping a boy. That’s first the belly fluff. And this is basically if we were selling it that completely useless. Yeah. Then on here got a little bit of all there. So just stretching that out just to gently trim there. We’re just tidying up the inner legs here. The interesting thing about shearing sheep is that one there’s a real welfare issue in terms of you need to get the fleece off because it’s hot weather and also you don’t want fly strike. It creates a very horrific condition but also you’re harvesting a material that has a great use or once upon a time was in great demand. That’s it. It is a beautiful fiber. Admittedly, something like Cheddar’s wool you wouldn’t be making your finest fleece, your finest clothing out of, but for your like carpets, your curtains, it’s perfectly good for that. Yeah. Instead of all this horrible synthetic stuff that we have now, what’s the most challenging bit? The neck. So, this bit we just got to really stretch out his neck, which he no one ever likes. No. And obviously bit more of a challenge with him because he’s got the sideburns. Yeah. Along with the horns. But a lot of this is using my legs to manipulate his body to try and stretch out that skin. The stance you have, you’re not only supporting his weight, but you’re also having to curve round getting the most fleece off as possible without cutting the skin. Exactly. So I’m just doing the back strokes here. So just going to lift off his head gently. So Jay, as well as working here, you also shear other people’s sheep as well, don’t you? Yeah. So this time of year, I’m running around all these small holders and just helping them out do their sheep as well. So just going to go here, kick the ball out the way, and then we start going down this side of the body. The thing is, once upon a time, the fleece was actually really worth quite a bit of money. They said it used to pay for the rent of a farm and but nowadays it’s actually a cost. We don’t really benefit as farmers from producing wool which is such a shame because it is such an amazing material. But that being said, we have got a use for it here. Oh yes, our wolves love it. Yeah. Who knew that they would like sheep? Yeah. So what’s the world record for shearing a sheep? So for sharing a sheep is just under 40 seconds and I think I’m very far away from that. You’re done well though. You’re done well. Right, he’s ready to go. New haircut. Time to show off his summer body. That’s good luck. Little bit touched. That’s it. Get him. There we are. It’s got a little got a little floater on there. Look. Hey, come on. There’s your treat. There you are. There you are. There you go, Cheddar. There’s your treat. So, once the fleece comes off, you’d have to bundle this up. It’s quite a traditional way of doing it, isn’t it? Yep. And uh I’m not very traditionally good at it. All right, let’s have a look. So, yeah, it sounds crazy. You just throw it up in the air and pull it out. Yeah. And then Look how stretchy it is as well. I’m always amazed by the size of it. It looks like it just came off a camel or something. Yeah. We want to have the more darker fleece that’s on the outside. Yeah. So, we can just see all the white and then take one/3 each. Throw one third over. Right. If I get over here. So, I want a bit over there like that. Yeah. That one’s thread over there. You want to start scrunching it up as tight as you can. You should be able to fret up in the air and it not come apart. There we go. Look, we take this bit and we literally keep twisting. You should be able to pick it up. Throw it up in the air and it stays in one piece. Really? Yeah. There we go. Right. Well, I’ll take half a cheddar away with me then. Brilliant one, Jay. Thanks a lot. I’ll see you later on. See you a bit. See you, Cheddar. [Music] Blimey, he looks so much bigger with all that fur. I know. But it loves getting it off because when the sun is out, you want to be keeping cool. But we don’t waste any of that wool. The wolves absolutely love it. I bet they do. From wolves to hedgehogs. Now, it’s time to welcome Sue from Suffk Hedgehog Hospital. Sue, thanks for joining us because you’re going to tell us how we can make our gardens a bit more hedgehog friendly. I am indeed. And we very desperately need to as hedgehogs are in such trouble. Their decline is massive. It is massive because I remember as a kid you just go out in the garden with a torch and there’ll be hedgehogs all over the place. But I haven’t seen a hedgehog for ages and and and why is the decline happen so is it the way we we’re planting our gardens, putting fences up, do you know sadly it’s absolutely everything that we’re doing. We are making our gardens super tidy which obviously wildlife it’s not good for. We’re concreting in areas to park cars. The roads are getting busier. We use more pesticides. There are so so many things that we’re doing. It’s all what we’re doing, right? But we can do some things to to give them a helping hand. We can. Okay. Yeah. What can we do? Well, for a start, you can have a hedgehog house in your garden. This one got one of those. Tony’s got one in the back of the garden. Yeah. Right. Now, this one does look cute. Um, it actually comes flatp packed on the internet, but it’s tiny. Now, this little hedgehog here is not a particularly big hedgehog. And as you can see, he’s going to struggle to get through this hole for a start. In fact, oh, he just about makes it and he’s got to try and turn to get into here. And he’s Yeah. So, and he’s a small hedgehog, too. Okay. So, I I get what you’re saying. So, a lot of these things that are sold online as a hedgehog house actually isn’t that good cuz it’s too small. We want rid of that. Let’s get out of the way. Let’s have a look. A bit blue peterish. Here’s one we’ve did earlier. So, you made this one. So, this is made This is actually made by um one of our volunteers who’s fantastic. And you will see there’s a huge difference. Our little hedgehog here goes in perfectly easily. Can turn inside. He can sleep in there with his family. Also, a hedgehog likes it feels safe to go into an area here and be able to turn. You need a hallway, right? So, yeah. Yeah. They like a hallway. So, this is a good one. And then on top of that, you’ve got some sturdy plastic roof because you want to keep them nice and dry. Yeah. Okay. Would you put hay in that or just leave it empty? What we would tend to do is use barley straw, which is what we’ve got here. What we normally do, and this is where I’ll get covered in it. Now, put a little bit in. Probably put a piece of paper or something in the bottom. so that if you want to you can clear clean it out. The best thing to do is leave some near it where that it can actually go and make its own nest and they like to build their own nest. So just make sure there’s sort of plenty in to start with. And the other thing you’ve got down here, you’ve got some ventilation holes here as well, which are very important. They need air flow um when they hibernate. It’s not so much in the summer, it’s when they hibernate. Are there any scents that you should avoid? Is there any smells that they wouldn’t go into the house if that was prevalent? What you mustn’t do is put your food into the hedgehog house? No. Because it attracts other animals. You don’t want rats turning. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And they’re not going to feel feel safe sleeping. So you’ll never get your hedgehog to sleep in its house if you put the food in the entrance. So the key element is nice and roomy, plenty of bedding, and you’ve got a waterproof roof, and it’s made of robust material. One question I’ve got to say is that once you’ve built this, you’re not going to put this right in the middle of the garden. Where would you place something like this? Ideally, you want to put it um behind a shed or somewhere they like to go under bushes, something a bit secret. Yeah. And put the entrance away from the prevailing wind. Yes. So that they they feel nice and snuggly and and cozy when they go in it. And just, you know, cover if if you’ve got logs and twigs and things, cover it up a bit. Make it as natural as possible. Okay. This this would be placed so the hedgehog can hibernate. Yes. Yeah. Or if you know it’s breeding season, a female could easily have babies in there. Um I’m going to have to rethink my hedgehog. What’s your hedgehog box like, Tony? It’s not as small as the other one. So, okay, I’m going to go I’m going to go and review this. You got to do a renovation for the hedgehog. This may be a really stupid question, but in the city, I’ve never seen a hedgehog. Is there anything we can do as city dwellers to encourage wildlife to come back like a hedgehog? Um, there is. There is so much you can do in the cities and actually um they do better in the towns and cities sadly now than they do in the countryside. Really? Yeah. And why is that? Well, largely because um sadly badgers do eat them. They do like to gobble up hedgehogs. They do. They’re a bit prickly on the outside. Sadly to a badger, no. If you see the size of a badger’s paws and teeth. Gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And badgers are on the increase, aren’t they? We’ve got awful lot of badges and less hedgehogs. So, what what else could we do with it? What’s this? This is a hedgehog feeding station. Very modern, isn’t it? Yes. It’s very trendy. Pretty cool. So, you basically made this out of one of those storage containers. And all you need to do is cut the little hole out in here. Okay. So, you got a hole cut there. Yeah. And then the same scenario. It’s like the crystal maze for hedgehogs, isn’t it? So, it pops in through the door. Where’s my door? Here we go. So the hedgehog goes in through the door. So it creates a little baff there and his food and water and things are here. Keeps the food dry and nice and dry. And again, Tony, this is really simple to build. It’s it’s a it’s really rewarding. And then you’re doing your bit for this amazing creature. Oh yeah, it’s cool. I mean, my kids my you know, they all love animals and stuff. So So this this will be a great thing to do. Absolutely. And I’ll definitely do it in the city because I did not realize they’re hedgehogs in the city. Okay. Brilliant information. But now it’s time for a break. But don’t go anywhere cuz when we come back, Max is making something for all you campers. See you soon. Right, I’m definitely going to have build one of these. It’s brilliant. Crystal boxes. Really cool. [Music] Welcome back. We’re hanging out with Tony Hadley. Yes. And we’ve had a fantastic breakfast so far. I’ve served up a mangstyle breakfast. It’s fantastic. And we’ve seen one of my rams have a really good haircut. There you are. There you go, Cheddar. Now, Max has been busy in his workshop again, and I can’t wait to see what he’s done this week. No, it’s going to be interesting. Yep. See Today I’m going to build two off-grid domestic appliances out of nothing but a load of old pots. Well, and a bit of scaffold pole, but we’ll come to that. So, I’m fascinated by off-grid living by not using energy, no electricity, and people have been doing it for thousands of years. So, the first item I’m going to make is a heater powered by tea lights. I’ve got this old scaffold pole here. It’s a bit rough, so I’m going to just sand the ends, then locate it in that clamp, and then we can start assembling the heater itself. [Music] That’s great. That’s nice and smooth. Now, we can slot that in one of these key clamp bases. And simply because we’re dealing with fire, I want it to be nice and secure and safe. Right now, we need to select a saucer for the base. I’m thinking one of these. And that’s going to sit in the middle like that. Then put one of these pots. That diameter looks good to me. put that on top there and basically fill this void here with the tealights. Now, this technique has been used for thousands of years and it’s basically a concept where you you capture the heat from the tea lightss and then that gets absorbed by the top terra cotta pot and it kind of just radiates outwards. Whereas, if you put your hand over a candle, the heat only goes upwards. This radiates it outwards. It’s quite a clever concept actually. This would be fantastic if you’ve got a an outdoor seating area. Maybe in the summer if you sat out late at night, you can use this just to keep warm. And it requires absolutely no power. Right. See if it works. [Music] So to be clear, this isn’t generating more heat cuz that’s kind of impossible. This is just collecting that heat and then distributing it differently. [Music] Feel like I’m at an old person’s birthday party lighting their cake. Okay, it’s lit. It’s not that warm yet, but it’s going to take time. Let’s put that to one side. Then we can concentrate on my other design and come back to it and see just how toasty that gets. Now, the first design was all about heating. My second design is all about cooling. And I’ve actually experienced these in Africa. They’re amazing if you need to chill something offrid. So, we’ve got these various sizes of terra cotta pots. This is going to be my base. And on top of that, quite a large one. And we’re going to put some sand in the bottom. Only probably an inch of sand. And it’ll make sense soon. It’s actually quite damp already. Maybe two spoonfuls. And then we’re going to put a smaller pot in the center. And then pack all that outside edge with yet more of the wet sand. There you go. Pat all the way around. Now, it doesn’t matter if you get a little bit of the wet sand on the inside cuz hopefully it will hold its form and we can empty that out. And ultimately, let’s be honest, who doesn’t enjoy making sand castles? I think that might be enough. You know, trying to clean it up. Now, I’ve just tamped it down all the way around to make sure there’s no air pockets. Cuz if you’ve got a bit where there’s no wet sand, it won’t draw the heat out quite as well. Pretty confident that’s a good job all around. Let’s try and take out the middle pot just to give it a clean. Oh, yes. Put that back in the bucket. Now just drop it back in. Lovely job. And basically that’s it. It’s that simple. The damp sand takes the heat from the center pot and cuz it’s porous, it pulls it through the sidewall and it evaporates outwards. We’ve got the other saucer. Just flip that upside down. That becomes the lid. And hey presto, that is an off-grid fridge. They’ve been using these for thousands of years. both of these techniques. Right now, the test. I’ve got a bottle of milk. We’re going to pop that in there. We’re going to stick the lid on and let it work its magic. Now, obviously, in a warm environment, this works the best. And it kind of just takes the heat from the center pot. The water from the sand evaporates outwards, taking the heat with it. Such a simple, brilliant technique. Right now, let’s bring the heater in and see how warm it’s got. Yeah. Out here. here that’s already warm. Whereas a tealight on its own, you’d only get direct heat above it. And actually, if you sat around a barbecue with your friends, put this in the middle of the table, it looks great. It’s a feature piece and it keeps you warm. And of course, once the tea lights have gone out, it’s going to continue generating heat. And the pair of them together, they look fantastic. They’re good for your pocket. They’re good for the planet. And I’m really chuffed with them. Well, that was a bit different, wasn’t it? I didn’t know you can make a heater or a fridge with a terra cotta pot. I know. Hot and cold out of two pots. Hot and cold. Now for the drink segment. And it’s a bit unusual this week because our guest has brought the drinks. He has. I’m hopping with excite or rather I’m hopping with excitement. Well, I got I love real. I love real. And it all started when I was up in the Cotswwells and being a London I was always drinking light and lagger. Yeah. And we’re all in there. All right, son. All right. You know, and they said, “What you having to drink?” I said, “Have a light and lagger, please.” They just went, “What? In this pub, mate? You drink real al. So anyway, so that was the start of my Real Al experience. So the first one we’ve got, this is a good goto beer. I mean, it’s a crowdleaser. This is a landlord Timothy Taylor. I’m not a beer drinker, so this is a whole world of experience for me. Are you going to try some? Yeah, but look at the color, guys. It’s not silver, not bronze. It’s It’s gold. Always believe. I’ve got to say, can I just say for me this is like a fever dream. I’m drinking beer with Tony H. It’s amazing. Hold on. I love the smell. It’s delicious. Right. It’s beauty in the yeast. You don’t want You don’t want it too cold. No. Real loud. You want it, you know, you don’t want warm. You know, the Americans go, “Hey, you know, you drink warm beer.” You know, we don’t drink warm beer, but you want it you want it cold enough that it’s it’s it’s delicious, but you want it just warm enough that it still lets off all those hoppy aromas. That yeast is gorgeous. What’s the next one? This uh local to me actually. We live in Buckingham Shere. uh the Marlo Brewery, Rebellion IPA. But there’s something really important about traditional beers. It’s part of our culture, part of our heritage. Uh and and of course, don’t forget the beer isn’t just about getting a little bit tipsy. It was nutrition because it was basically liquid bread and people were paid in beer. So you had small beer. The phrase small beer was a weak beer and agricultural workers were paid in in beer. Beer. Wow. Let me get a bit gassy when I drink beer. Do you? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, look at the color of that. Let’s not go there, right? Yeah. I really love this yeast from it. Yeah. It’s I mean, that’s the thing. There’s beautiful harps and and and just, you know, it’s kind of o natural. But just take a moment to look at that color and the and the lovely frothiness of the head. Even though it’s it’s come out of the bottle there. I really like this one. I think I like it more. Smells incredible. Maybe I am a beer lass after all. It’s good. I don’t think you can go wrong. I mean, I like, you know, I’m nothing against laga. I love laga, you know, sunny days and stuff like that, but my go-to will always be real al because of the flavor. Because a lot of the time if you over gas it, you you lose a lot of flavor where these are these are kind it’s just more kind of natural. And this is a traditional Indian pale, isn’t it? M this is a this cuz there’s so many craft breweries out there and they’re doing an amazing job but actually when you look at some of these old breweries they’ve been making craft beer for a good couple of hundred years. What is craft beer? I’d never understood that terminology. It’s a new movement and I think it’s a way of actually engaging a whole new generation into the wonderful world of beer because there’s so many styles. There’s so many ingredients but actually these beers here are sort of the cornerstone aren’t there of traditional ales. So this is another one. Abbert. Yes. This I want to know can or bottle. Why would you have it in a different receptacle? Basically I’m asking you. You’re the expert. I’m not an expert. Weight and transportation. That’s a lot lighter than So it doesn’t make any difference in the quality of what’s inside the You shouldn’t do but you do get bottled condition. But yeah, so the canning process is just much easier. Chocolate. I’m tasting chocolate. Yes. Completely. It’s great to drink, but imagine cooking with it. Yes. It’s good for cooking. Yeah, like a lovely steak pie or like Yeah, steak and apple pie, stuff like that. Or you’re cooking beef for like, you know, sort of five, six hours, put one of any one of these and it will just adds a bit of zing. That chocolate is so undeniably strong. It’s there. It’s true. We hadn’t done that one yet. I knew that was coming. It’s just it’s just another again, it’s a great part and it’s 5% so it’s quite strong and you can really taste the flavors in this. Got to say this has been one of my favorite segments of the whole series. Having a few beers with Tony Hadley. I know. It’s been pretty good. But you know what they say, Als. Oh dear. It’s so important. I mean, I I have to say it’s so important we look after our pubs. We’re really blessed with some great pubs. Oh, get good wines, get good beer. You should be prime minister. I’d say if you start a party, I’m voting for it. But you’re so right. Keep our pubs going because they’re the center of so many communities. Absolutely. And once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. It it it’s so sad because, you know, you can have meetings in your pub and we you know, people get together. I mean, in our village pub, we get normally Friday nights and stuff like that. We all get everybody comes in and we have a good drink and it’s great. I I love pubs and it’s unique. We, you know, this country is unique for pubs. So, I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t agree more. It’s essential British countryside. Cheers. Cheers, guys. Thanks for having me. I think it’s time for a break. There’s still more to come. More to come. Yeah. We’ve got a final dish coming up which is going to be brilliant. Yeah. See you soon. Cheers. Cheers guys. Thank you. [Music] Welcome back. It’s been pure gold with our guest Tony Hadley. It’s got to be gold. Got to be gold. We got the jumper on. Yeah. And we’ve got one more dish to finally round this all up. It’s my delicious criate inspired kefz which are basically meatballs. And in this is what I love about this dish because it uses some incredibly interesting flavors and it throws them together and it tastes good. So we’ve got cinnamon and cumin. We’ve got mint parsley and I love that combination. And Jimmy, you’re going to make a tatiki. Okay. Lovely. And we’re going to pop this into a kebab. You’re a bit of foodie, aren’t you? I I love food from all different walks of life. I’m a massive foodie. I’m a beery. I’m a whinery. Just one of us. It’s wonderful. I’m a beer. I’m a whiny. I’m a beer and a whiny. I mean, I I just love food and and drink. I mean, you know, there’s nothing better than, you know, with family, friends, and stuff. You’ve got to In your job, though, you’ve traveled the world, haven’t you? You’ve been lucky enough to gig all over the world. You must have stayed in some amazing places and some eaten some amazing food. What really stands out in your mind of great food? We go to Italy a lot. We do a lot in Italy and the food there from a basic tratoria to a posh restaurant. The food I mean I I would always opt for the more familyrun kind of restaurant that’s Yeah. Yeah. So the more basic kind of the food’s amazing and especially when the family are there and there’s no menu and you just cook what the family are cook and it’s just awesome. Yeah. And whenever I go to Italy, I mean, I’m always trying to watch my weight, which is a big problem as you get older. But you go to Italy and I mean, just a basic pizza, just a buffalo, isn’t it? And it’s it’s just a good ingredient that goes into it as well. Beautiful Spanish food as well. New York is one of my favorite go-to places. Tapas. Um, also, uh, fish when it’s baked in salt, you know, you get sea bass and things like that. Indonesian foods in Holland the other week. and uh always go to an Indonesian restaurant in Holland. It’s just amazing. So you are really cosmopolitan in your food. You’re you’re basically eating around the world and so passionate as well. You can hear the excitement. One of the most interesting places was um we went to Koala Lumpa once and that just incredible place. I remember the fish. I mean I I love meat but I love fish and when it’s done with all the spices and the herbs, it’s just awesome. And are you a big cook at home? I’d like to think I’m a big cook at home, but no. No. I like tasting. I just put loads of chili and garlic in everything and everyone goes, “Oh, don’t spicy.” Yeah, I’m a real chili garlic fan. But I I I would I really should cook more. I really should. My wife Ally, she’s a she’s a great cook. And um and then my my eldest daughter, she she’s a good cook. She’s become a good cook as well. And she’s having a baby. I’m going to be a granddad. Hey, you’re going to be a granddad. I got to put that one in. Congratulations. How? And first grandchild. Yeah, first one. I’m I’m very very excited. Oh, it’s so exciting. I’m so thrilled for you, Tony. Chubby cheek, their fat little legs. It’s uh Oh, no. Just I’m I’m very very excited. Yeah. And Tony, with your gigging, you do a lot tours and all the rest of you. You do a lot for charity as well, don’t you? Well, you try and do what you can where you can and um even for the local school just to raise some money for for uh you know equipment that they need or whatever in the local primary school. We’re doing a little one for our cricket club to get some new outfits for the kids for cricket cuz my girls love their cricket. But you’ve got such a fantastic platform in which to do that. Can we go back to the very beginning Tony? Because I read somewhere that you had a very different idea of what you wanted to do. Was it a vet or an orthopedic surgeon? I originally wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. Did you? Yeah, that’s what I wanted to do. Wow. So, I was a bit of a nerd really. I’d microscope scalps. Used to go I even went to a spare part surgery convention at Ear’s Court once. That makes me really weird. What did that cost you? An arm and a leg. Yeah. Very good. We didn’t even rehearse that one. Yeah. So, I genuinely wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon, but I just I wasn’t clever enough at the math. So, therefore, physics. You know what? If if you had what a waste to the music industry if you’d have done that. Absolutely. We wouldn’t have had all those amazing all those bangers. I mean, you know, I’m very lucky. I mean, I’m I’m doing a job that I love. I discovered music, you know, when when you were younger, seeing Queen Bowie, Roxy, Mark Bolan on TV, Elton Rod, and all those guys I’ve managed to meet over the years. And it’s, you know, I always think it’s amazing when you when you watch Top of the Pops as a kid and you’ve got all your heroes there and then you meet them and then they turn out to be really lovely people as well. I think that’s how people feel about you because we did say this before, but you’re so warm and you say hi to everybody. You have time for people. What’s lovely is that you haven’t changed through, you know, amazing experiences and don’t forget the new romantic era was unbelievable, wasn’t it? Yeah. And you were at the forefront of that. And that wasn’t just about music, it was about fashion as well. Yeah. Which is sadly lacking in music today. I mean, if if you look at sort of British musical history, you had the sort of rockabilly look. You had the mods, the rockers, you had uh the kind of hippie kind of prog era as well. You had glam rock, you had punk. Then you had us, the new Romos. And um New Romos. I love the new Romos. Yeah. Hey man, the new Romos. And it was it was brilliant. But it was all about fashion music and I think British kids have always identified with that kind of vibe and we don’t really have it now. No. But but some of your albums were mad bonkers. Robin Hood. Oh yeah. Robin Hood Scarlet, you name it. Yeah. But it was like wall paint on your face and then you’d have like a ballerina shoes on. Tie you tie a sort of leather band around your sort of head and stuff. pushing those boundaries, wasn’t it? It was just exciting and fun. Yeah. And um you know, we used to go to the Blitz Club and Steve Strange would stand at the door and No, you can’t come in. No, you can’t come. If you didn’t look cool enough, he he turned out Jimmy MC Jagger got turned away. Did you What a story. Yeah. And I was I said to Steve, I said, “Steve, I wanted to meet Mick Jagger. I don’t care how uncool it is.” and and I’ve met Mick and uh he lovely fellow, you know, but but I wish I’d met him when I was 18. That would have been amazing. That would be quite a story. Can I show what’s happening here? So Tony, we’ve formed the meatballs together. They’ve rested for a bit and I’m frying them up about size of a golf ball, squashed down, and they smell incredible. And you’re just going to flip them over. Fortunately, we’ve got some prepared earlier. TV magic. Jimmy, you have some lemon in there. And you can make a bunch of this. Freeze them. I love the freezer. And then you’ve done the hard work. And all you have to do is defrost them. Oh, nice. And oh, they look great. Pop them into the oven. So, we’ve got our gorgeous kefas here. Jimmy, can you pass me that lovely salad over there? Here we go. I promise I won’t eat all of these like I did. I’ll leave some for the crew as well so they can have you talked about meeting legends, but you met Frank Sinatra when you were very young, didn’t you? Yeah. Se 17. And uh so I used to used to go to a lot of concerts. Don’t ask me how I got in, but I did. And I took my mom uh because she’s a massive Sonatra fan and I knew because I’d been to the concert the night before that what what was his last song and literally I just ran across the stage got pushed back and then he said what’s going on and I just went Mr. Sonatra, you know, and um I was seven 17 at the time, I think. And he said, “What do you do?” I said, “Well, I’m I’m at school and I’m I’m in a band and I’m a singer and and I want to be playing the Albert Hall like you.” And and he said, “Well, son, good luck to you.” And we shook hands again. And then six years later, Span Ballet performed at the Royal Albert Hall. Wow. That is a tale. Six years isn’t long. But the most important thing to remember is is because a lot of kids today feel that they can’t achieve anything. Yeah. And you got to dream big. You got to think big. And dreams do come true. So you have to really strive to the nth degree and believe in yourself. And yeah, it takes a lot of confidence and it’s scary sometimes, but you’ve got to go for it. You’ve got to go for it. Well, you’ve played some amazing venues, massive gigs. U but also you’ve been in the jungle as well, haven’t you? So they asked me several times to go in for it and and and eventually they asked me again after Span and I had been together in 2014 2015 and so I thought what better opportunity than to go in the jungle you’re on TV five nights a week prime time and it worked and I then picked up a whole generation of new kids go oh we have bloke gold you know because everybody knows that song it has transcended generations so I was meeting like you know I remember Amsterdam airport there was about 20 guys they’re about 18 19 all on a stag dude and oh he’s so he’s a gold man is he so it got me a new generation and it just connected me back with people but you met some funny things out there didn’t you some had to meet some weird stuff but actually not this delightful things now this is nice I hope you’re going to love this although I’m ear marking one of these Jim I don’t know what you’re going to need these are my criate inspired keer with tatsiki Yes. [Applause] [Music] Go on then, Tony. Do you want to grab one family style? Why should we come in half? Oh, he’s very smart about this. We got It’s like dappa suit on, right? Casual jacket you throw on, don’t you? There we go. Here we go. Let’s have a little taste of this, Shiv. I want to see Tony. Don’t get on that dapper suit. I got a bit of this here. We got some here as well. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Oh, the meatball’s amazing. Give us a oneliner, Tony. One more time. Just one more time. It’s just gold. Yes. Yes. I think that is all we have time for today. What a show it’s been. Full of fun, food, and of course, drink. Yes. And of course, our brilliant, brilliant guest today, Tony Hadley. Tony. And of course you guys at home, too. And we’ll see you soon. Oh, these are delicious. M good. [Music]
Dining and Cooking