[speaking french].

That's, welcome to France, to you and me.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm traveling throughout this beautiful country to explore the very best in French cuisine.

Back of the net.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And it was the home and inspiration for one of my biggest food heroes, Keith Floyd.

And what's more, I've bought his motor.

This was Keith Floyd's very own car.

Santé.

Cheers to the great man.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's where I learned to cook.

Magical times.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's a personal journey.

I feel like a groupie.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So join me as I rediscover the food destination that has it all.

[speaking french] [UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL FRENCH MUSIC] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Today, my French adventure has lured me to the Eastern edge of this grand old country, towards a place called Jura.

Look at that.

Beautiful.

People never realize how big France actually is, compared to the UK.

Now, I'm traveling about as far East as I can go.

If I go any further, I'm gonna hit the Swiss border and Geneva.

But this area is so famous for food, in particular cheese, and what I think is France's national cheese, Comté.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Established in the late 1700s during the French Revolution, the Jura region lies along the country's Eastern border, between Dijon and Lake Léman, where wooded hills and valleys sweep up past lakes and dairy farms to rolling mountains shrouded in thick forest.

In fact, the name Jura derives from the Gaulish word for, forest, and it's this dramatic landscape, with its diverse climate, that gives the area such a rich variety of produce.

I love this place.

All around here, there are little apple orchards and pear orchards.

This place is very famous for apple and pears.

And as it's harvest time, it's in September, I couldn't resist making a trip up here and cooking with a few.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And as luck would have it, on my way to Jura's heartland, there's a fella who can help.

Matthew Tissot not only can heave a crate of apples as if they were mere feathers.

He's also manager of the beautiful Orchard [french].

This place produces thousands of kilos of delicious apples and pears every year, thanks to the area's exceptional growing conditions.

♪ ♪ I'm looking forward to cooking with a few of these.

♪ ♪ So, Matthew, you're a third-generation farmer.

Yeah, I am the third-generation farmer.

My grandfather started in the year 1948.

1948?

Yeah.

And he put-- after my dad [french] and me, 10 years old-- I take the orchard off my dad.

And why this area?

Because-- what makes this so special?

Yeah, because in the Haute-Savoie area, near the Mont Blanc, we have the excessive temperature.

So it's extreme weather.

Yeah, it's extreme weather.

It's better for the apple.

What are these?

What type are these?

This type is [french].

[french].

[french].

And we start the picking tomorrow.

We start, tomorrow, the picking.

Mm.

Delicious.

It's like a-- well, I would say better than Cox's, but-- MATTHEW TISSOT: I don't produce the [french].

Do you use this for taste then or not?

For [french].

Yeah, I think it's OK.

This, particularity, you can-- for eating.

it's good for cooking, too.

It's delicious.

And the weather's been kind this year 'cause this looks like a good year.

Oh, it's a good year.

This year, it's a good year.

It's very hot now.

It's good for the sugar.

And I hope in the future, we have the fresh night for the contrast for the wrapper.

And we hope, in the future, there's a younger Matthew for the 4th generation.

Ah, I hope.

My son come with me.

He may not have a choice.

Yeah.

[laughs] Now, I could've done so many different dishes using Matthew's delicious apples and pears.

But I thought I'd do a combination of them both, really, and use it to go with some beautiful duck, almost like a spiced chutney, but it's kind of like a sauce.

So it's kind of a work in progress, really.

It's not a chutney.

It's not a sauce.

It's just a mixture of the two, really.

So the first thing I'm gonna do is grab these beautiful pears.

I always tend to peel them whenever I'm doing anything because the skin is quite tough.

Doesn't really lend itself that well.

If you leave the skin on the apples, on the other hand, you can leave the skin on.

I don't have to be too fussy.

We'll lose these out of the way.

Now, these apples are beautiful.

Just to show you how fresh they are, you don't get any fresher than that.

Look at that.

Straight off the tree.

The flavor of these are just spectacular.

So all I'm gonna do, basically, is just chop these up, cut them up into decent-sized chunks for this one.

So I wanted to do sauce vierge, which is a variant on a classic sort of duck a l'orange, really, for this.

But in the supermarket yesterday, I couldn't find stock.

I could find the powdered form, but I need fresh stock for it.

And I walked-- because our great assistant, Sam, who does all the work, has got one of these things on her phone.

How many steps did we walk?

SAM: 2,500.

2,500 steps to find stock in the world's biggest supermarket, I think.

Couldn't find it.

So what we're gonna end up with is, like, a work in progress with this one.

But I like the idea of chutney with duck.

So you've got the pears.

We've got the apples.

Get a hot pan on the stove, and we're gonna start this process of making the chutney using this Demerara sugar.

You put a little bit in the pan, just a touch of sugar in there.

And what we want to do is just melt this slightly.

It just speeds up the cooking time.

So while that's happening, I can then prepare a little bit of garlic and some onion.

Next, we've got some spice.

We've got a little bit of star anise.

We've got some cinnamon.

This is what I class as sort of winter spice, really, a bit of cinnamon, a few coriander seeds just slightly crushed up, a little bit of tarragon.

So often, we think of tarragon with chicken and fish, but it goes really well with anything, really.

It's just a wonderful herb.

I love it.

I use it a lot over here.

A little bit tarragon.

Now, you could, if you wanted to, use some cider, which I know that the crew would like to use.

In fact, it probably wouldn't reach the pot.

But I've got a little bit of apple juice.

Just a touch of apple juice.

Now, spice this up, a little picon of spice with the vinegar, a bit of white balsamic vinegar.

You can use white wine vinegar for this.

And all I'm gonna do now is just basically just give this a quick season.

And I'll just leave it cooking for about 10 minutes.

Just let it stew down nicely.

Now, at the same time, we can get on and cook our duck.

Now, this is what we call Magret duck.

Beautiful duck breast.

Look at those.

Absolutely stunning.

Now, when in France you've got to try duck.

It's where I first tasted it.

Cooked properly, if that makes sense-- as in properly, not well done.

This was bleu, but it was just delicious.

And I've loved it ever since.

But there's a way to prepare it, really.

And this is a good tip.

Whenever you're cooking with duck breast, what you have to do is get your knife in and cut out this bit.

It's nice and simple.

But this sinew and that together will cause the duck breast to shrink when you cook it.

So by removing it, it should, in theory, stay a nice sort of size.

And then all I'm gonna do now is basically just season this with some floral pepper.

This is Szechuan pepper.

It goes really well with duck.

And we just want to chop this up.

Now, if you've got a pestle and mortar at home or a little grinder, grind them up.

But this is commonly called floral pepper 'cause it's really a wonderful flavor and goes fantastically well with duck.

And all we do with this is just grab the pepper, over the top, a bit of the salt, like that.

And no need to put any oil on this whatsoever 'cause what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna barbecue it and just sit that on there.

Nice that.

Now, if you can see this-- turn it over.

Mm, mm, mm.

See, just look at that.

It's a beautiful thing.

Meanwhile, we'll just mix this all together.

Now the duck's ready.

Like that.

And you can see it doesn't shrink very much by removing that little bit of sinew.

What I'm gonna do with this is just finish it with some honey, just over the top.

I wouldn't put this on when it's on the barbecue.

It'll just burn.

Like that.

And then finally, we've got our nice little chutney stroke, stew stroke, just pot of loveliness, really, which has spiced up these delicious apples.

And then finally, we got our duck.

[music playing] ♪ ♪ And then what you do-- you just put the duck on.

And there you have it.

Roast duck breast on a barbecue with a nice spicy apple and pear compote.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My adventure around the great gastronomical region of Jura in Eastern France has shown me a place that's picky about produce, and this fantastic environment is ideal for cheese, apparently.

JAMES MARTIN: Now, not a lot of people know this.

I've only been recently awarded a very honorary thing, and I was awarded an [french] of Cheese in France.

It's a fancy French name for it.

It basically means I'm a cheesy monk-ish.

I've got a certificate and everything.

But around here is a legend in the world of cheese making.

He's far more important than a monk.

This man is a king.

And what he makes is France's most famous cheese and its most popular cheese, Comté.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And just like any monarch, this king of cheese has his very own castle.

Well, it's a fort in the heart of Haut-Jura National Park.

1,150 meters above sea level stands Fort des Rousses.

Designed in the mid 1800s to house over 3,000 soldiers, the fort is now home mainly to cheese, and the occasional cheese fair, hence the crowds.

But I've come to meet two very special people, the aforementioned king of cheese, president of the appellation d'origine contrôlée, Jean-Charles Arnaud, a master fromagier, Marc Geirno That's not them, though.

Now, this is Marc.

He's the big cheese around here, master fromagier.

Yes.

And Jean-Charles-- a cheese maker as well.

Yes, absolutely.

I mean, this guy-- there's not a lot this guy doesn't know about cheese as well.

But also, Jean-Charles, you're a president of a very special club.

Is it-- Oh, board.

Not really a club, but it's a board, INAO, and we manage all PDO production in France, wine, cheese, olive oils, and anything.

And in France, we have about 2,000 cheeses, but only 46 in PDO production.

It's very tough to get PDO production.

And that means that it comes specifically from the area.

Absolutely, with traditional way of processing it to mature it.

And just to prove how good this guy is, Rob, just check this out.

This-- he's carved this all by hand, the whole lot.

Yes.

How long did that take?

- One day.

- One day?

Yeah.

One day, and the wedding are gonna demolish it in about two hours.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Lucky wedding guests.

Oh, that reminds me I promised the bride and groom I'd show them a little snap I took.

Congratulations.

But if you're a real fan of fromage, you may want to sit down for this next bit.

[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ Deep within the Fort, in over 50,000 square meters of vaulted rooms, more than 100,000 rounds of glorious Comté cheese are aged and refined.

♪ ♪ This is just about the best place I've ever been to.

These caves are-- are incredible.

Maybe a temple for Comté cheese.

JAMES MARTIN: But why-- why this fort?

Huh, It's a strange story.

I was a commando instructor in the fort in 1980.

And I discovered the vault-- the vault stone of the fort, and the climate, the permanent climate in the fort.

And I decided when the army stopped to use the fort, to buy it and to transform it.

Now we're just gonna go down a little bit further, because you can tell the different ages of the cheese as well.

The color changes.

Uh, at minimum, in the fort, the holes, we mature cheese minimum one year.

And it's necessary to be able to listen to the cheese, to understand in which position he is during the maturing process.

It's completely different.

So these are all made the same-- these were obviously done in the same batch, same month, same day?

Yes.

But each wheel is a little bit different.

JAMES MARTIN: So is this one a good one?

JEAN-CHARLES ARNAUD: I think so.

- Can we taste this one?

- Of course.

This is heavy.

How heavy are these?

It's about 40 kilos, and it means it takes about 450 liters to process this wheel.

So 450 liters.

Yeah, and 40 kilos of cheese.

40 kilos.

Yeah.

And 135,000 of these.

Yeah.

We can make a good fondue tonight.

We can make a serious fondue tonight.

[laughter] Mm.

And now you can smell it at first.

It smells good, huh?

This is the first information, and the second information is with your two fingers, you have to press it.

Do that, and you can keep it.

And you can appreciate, of course, the texture.

Young cheese is a little bit elastic.

And after, you can get this type of creamy texture.

Yeah, it's nice.

It's around one year.

Hmm.

Not so bad.

Nutty, a little bit nutty.

It's not so bad.

It's fantastic.

[laughs] But we can keep it one year more, and we will discover, after one year, some completely different flavors.

But it's a very good cheese, very good one.

It is very good.

Let's put it back.

[grunts] James?

Go on.

[instrumental french music] Now this is your cheese.

- It's my cheese?

- Yes.

Are you James?

The problem is I've got to find it.

[laughter] Thank you very much.

My cheese.

I'm coming back for that.

It's amazing.

Where did he go?

Jean-Charles?

Jean-Charles?

I think it was this way, huh?

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And all this cheese gives me a little idea for some rather decadent comfort food.

Now, that fort was incredible.

Trust me.

It's the type of thing that could be a movie set, not just full of cheese.

It's amazing.

And from an amazing place to an amazing dish, I thought I'd give macaroni and cheese the ultimate makeover, use some of this amazing Comté, of course, but do lobster mac and cheese.

Really, really simple.

Now, it's a bit elaborate, I know, but it tastes amazing.

So first of all, to cook the pasta.

Plenty of salted boiling water.

And I've got some macaroni here.

You can use a smaller one if you want, or I've got some of the medium sort of size.

So I'm gonna bring this to the boil and then get the macaroni cooking.

While that's happening I'll prepare the lobster.

It's an amazing thing of lobster.

Now, many people don't know what to do with it, don't know how to prepare it.

They look at it and go, what am I supposed to do with that?

Well, it's actually really simple.

You just break it all down.

First of all, you remove the legs, i.e.

the main claws.

And then what you do, basically, is you can just break this part of the body up like that.

So you can keep this 'cause there's lots of flavor in there I'm gonna add to our sauce.

But this one-- we can then break this down even further.

So you can do it two ways.

You can either crush it, or alternatively, use a pair of scissors, all the way down.

So just cut either side of the shell, like that.

And then all you do is you grab the tail and just open up, and the entire tail just comes out.

So as soon as the water's boiled, get the macaroni in.

Don't put any oil in there.

As long as it's plenty of boiling, salted water, that's the key to it.

It won't stick.

So with the claws themselves, you can break these down again.

So all you do with that is break this.

And the same thing with that one.

Break that one.

And then using the back of the knife, just give it a little tap, either side of the claw.

Now, lobsters are one of these things that-- I know the price is a little bit excessive sometimes, but that's all to do with the season.

When the season's around and they're in abundance, The price drops, really.

Inside the claws here, there's a little sinew in there.

Remove that.

You just go down each and every joint, really, and fish out the meat.

So just use a metal or a wooden skewer to get in there.

If you're fancy and got your own lobster pick, use one of those.

We'll just repeat the process with the other one.

But this dish, of course, is all about the mac and cheese, so drain this off.

And we can get our sauce in here.

Now, proper mac and cheese shouldn't be like a breezeblock.

You shouldn't have to slice it per portion.

This, hopefully, fingers crossed, will do it justice.

And for that, you start off with a simple roux, which is butter and flour.

Now, we don't want to boil the butter.

We certainly don't want to color the butter for a sauce.

What you're creating is a simple roux to start off with.

So be careful not to get the heat too hot.

Now, this is gonna be the difference between a good mac and cheese and a bad one, is the flour.

So a couple of tablespoons is all you need.

And mix this together.

Now, you can see straight away the texture's very different to a traditional roux that you're so used to.

And normally, this would be much thicker.

And then add the milk.

Now, keep the pan on the heat.

Turn it up a little bit.

Now, you see the sauce starts to thicken up.

It's a good idea to use a whisk for this one as well because it stops the lumps forming.

Keep it on the heat.

Keep the temperature nice and even.

That's the key to it.

Now, that texture there-- not me.

This.

Would be our classic roux.

You need to slacken it down a bit.

It's way, way too thick.

Now, that would be the traditional sauce for mac and cheese, quite thick.

We keep going.

A bit more milk.

Keep it moving all the time.

Keep it moving.

Now, conventional mac and cheese wouldn't have white wine in it.

However, this is pretty special.

This is lobster mac and cheese.

So we're gonna put a touch of white wine in there, together with a little bit of mustard and some nutmeg.

So just use a touch of nutmeg, a tiny bit.

Nutmeg's quite strong, so you don't want too much.

A little bit of grain mustard.

Keep mixing this together.

All the time, you can see the texture changes, and it gets thicker.

Now, the temptation with this is to stop there.

My best advice, really, is to add a little bit more liquid than you think you need because the pasta will keep absorbing this moisture.

And if it's too thick, by the time the pasta is added and it cooks for about another three or four minutes, it becomes really, really thick.

That's looking pretty good to me.

Now, at this point, we'll add some of this beautiful Comté.

Now, visiting that fort-- it sort of changed my whole attitude towards Comté.

When you visit somewhere like that and you see all those cheeses, you understand that French love this stuff.

It is just fantastic.

So grated cheese.

We're gonna throw that in there as well.

And this is really the key to a mac and cheese.

It sounds daft, but it's all that little tweaks here and there.

You can see the sauce getting a little bit thicker.

Then you add a little bit more liquid.

The temptation is just to throw it all together, but really good mac and cheese-- I mean, good mac and cheese takes a little bit of effort.

Now we can turn the heat off, and then you can throw in your macaroni now.

So with the lobster, we're just gonna chop up the meat like that, and then the lobster goes in.

But you can see the texture changes again.

It starts to thicken up again.

So just a touch more milk.

Now we can grab some fresh chives, nice and finely sliced.

And now I'm gonna use just a little bit of tarragon.

So we throw the herbs in.

Mix this all together.

And then we're nearly there.

Texture's not bad.

Look at this.

Now we're talking.

It looks delicious.

All I'm gonna do is just pop this under the grill.

So we'll just put our bits of lobster over the top.

Don't waste any of it.

And then we've got just a little bit of breadcrumbs over the top.

Not too much.

And then some of this amazing Comté cheese.

[music playing] Then under the grill for about two minutes.

This is gonna be good.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ A cheese like Comté and a place like that deserves a dish like this.

This is proper.

Proper.

My amazing journey around Jura has revealed an area with a distinct foodie character, thanks to some outstanding regional ingredients.

And now I'm on my way to meet a famous local chef who can unite the very best of Jura on one plate, plus, give us a little reminder that we're just next door to Switzerland.

[yodeling] ♪ ♪ [mooing] [bells clanking] ♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): This is the two-star Michelin chef Jean-Paul Jeunet, renowned for bringing refined gourmet cuisine to the rugged Jura mountains.

Here at his friend's Alpine-styled restaurant, Jean-Paul has offered to cook me his local take on a classic risotto.

This I have to see.

Jean-Paul's recipe starts kind of like your classic Italian risotto, first with my all-time favorite ingredient.

Yes, butter.

Then you've got shallots, a bit of garlic, Arborio rice, followed by a dash of French [french].

We say in French-- [speaking french] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): That is to say, when the rice is transparent, it's ready for the next stage, the chicken stock.

But now comes the difference.

Jean-Paul complements his classic risotto with iconic flavors of Jura, Comté cheese, locally sourced walnuts, and after a little cream, a yellow wine that's famous in this region.

We are in the region where you are [french] or yellow wine, and you have Comté.

So together is a fabulous [french], fabulous partnership, yes.

An example-- in Normandy, you have the cider and the Camembert, or perhaps a [french] with a beer in Alsace.

Use the product in the same regions.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Very true, Jean-Paul.

The idea is that certain ingredients from the same geographical area will naturally complement each other.

But of course, the proof is in the tasting.

But it's really hard to eat with an audience.

[bells clanking] Mm.

This is a prime example of a chef being creative, using two ingredients that are from this area, Comté and the yellow wine.

And the walnuts.

[bells clanking] Do you know what's really weird?

But often, when you have risotto, is it can be quite heavy, quite salty.

But I'm gonna stick my neck out here.

And I reckon this is the best risotto I've ever had.

Now, what I love about this place, as well as hearing the cowbells, is you can actually stay in this little hut.

Look at that.

Wonderful, isn't it?

And those people, if you're into skiing-- you can get a ski lift up there, if you're into that sort of stuff.

I did go skiing once on a school trip.

I was about 13.

And I went up in a lift similar to that, one of those chairlift things.

And I just went round.

I got to the top and couldn't get off.

A week of my life wasted.

I'd just rather sit and eat this.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And if you need something to help you get over a ski lift mishap, I've got a warming dessert just for you.

Now, with so many ingredients and dishes from the area of Jura to choose from, and being to an amazing apple orchard of Matthew's, I thought I'd do a classic simple French apple tart.

It's just apples and puff pastry with a little bit of jam, some apricot jam for this one.

So first of all, we chuck the jam in the pan.

And we need to slacken this down a little bit.

So to do that, just add a little bit of water, just a touch, and get that started.

Next up, we've got our puff pastry.

Now, this is all butter, puff pastry.

There's so many different recipes for apple tarts in France.

Some people use a little bit of shortcrust.

Others use sweet pastry.

But for me-- and what you'll find in many patisserie shops-- is puff pastry.

But it has to be made with all butter because it's the butter that gives it the flavor as well as the apples.

Now, the reason why puff pastry rises in the first place-- it's layers of butter and pastry all the way up, and as the butter melts, it's trapped in between the layers of pastry, causes steam, and it creates the puff.

Now, with tartlet like this, you don't want too much rise into it.

Otherwise you end up with a soggy base.

And to get rid of that, you use a knife, not with a fork, because it creates bigger air holes all over the top like that.

And then what we do-- let's get a bit of icing sugar, just a touch.

And what the icing sugar does is caramelize on the bottom while it cooks so you get this nice, sweet, crusty base.

And then what we can do is grab our apples.

Now, I would say these apples were from France, but they're not.

They're from about 20 yards away, down at the bottom of my garden.

They don't get any fresher than these.

But peel them.

You don't have to peel them, but particularly for the bottom layer of apples, I always like to peel these.

And it's the top layer that I actually leave the peel on So you get a nice color to it.

It's entirely up to you which ones you want to go for because an apple tart-- you can use any apples you wish, any flavor, any type.

And then we'll grab a knife and cut this either side like that and then slice this.

I remember the first major mistake that I ever made when I was a young chef, age 14-- I helped the pastry chef make 800 portions of apple tart for a wedding.

And I got put in charge of looking after them in the oven, and I got my centigrade and Fahrenheit mixed up and burnt the entire lot.

Nice start to a wedding.

800 portions of apple tart ruined.

I actually wanted to run away, but I couldn't.

I was 14.

Now, all you do is just lay these on the base.

You don't have to be too precise.

It's the top layer that's gonna go above it that kind of makes the difference.

So once you get to that stage, we can then grab the other apples and slice these through.

Now, if cut them thin enough, you don't need to core them.

And then take your apples.

Do the same thing again.

This bit you can concentrate on a little bit harder.

Now, the key to this, though, is making sure the apples are quite thin when you slice them.

Otherwise, if they're too thick, what happens is the pastry doesn't cook underneath and you end up with a soggy base.

And you just join it the other side like that.

You can see by actually taking the apples and not peeling them, what you end up with is a nice color around the edge.

Now, we're not far off.

Now all we need is just an egg yolk.

So break the egg yolk like that.

Touch of egg yolk just roughly around the edge.

So I always like to leave a little frame, and then icing sugar.

You get this lovely glaze to the top.

This apricot jam is gonna help when it comes out of the oven.

You can put the apricot jam underneath if you wish, but either way, you get a nice sort of sweet flavor with it.

So that's it.

your apple tart.

All you've got to do now is stick it in the top oven, quite high oven, 230 degrees centigrade, and leave it for about 20 minutes.

The key to cooking any French apple tart is a hot oven.

And you can see what you end up with is this puree underneath the apples, but also, the top caramelizes.

We just slide that off.

Now, you're probably wondering what I was gonna do with this apricot glaze.

You can use this in a variety of different ways.

You can use this as a base for the apple tart.

Or you can lightly brush, ever so slightly, the top.

Doesn't need too much.

Otherwise you're detracting the flavor from the apples.

So there you have it, one classic French apple tart.

The other 799 were burnt.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My gastronomic journey through the rolling mountains of Jura is sadly drawing to an end.

But before I go-- my crew are moaning they're hungry, and since we're miles from the nearest drive-thru or service station, where better than right here on a fine Jura hill to cook up my final dish?

Now, this place is absolutely beautiful, stunning.

And I could've cooked so many different dishes from the region, really.

You've got Mont Blanc, which is not very far away from here, which is that classic dessert with meringue, chestnuts, and cream.

Wonderful dish, but a little bit tricky to do outside in this temperature.

So I thought I'd do a dish which is that way, really, in the style of Vichy.

And it's using carrots.

It's a way of cooking veg, which once you learn how to do it, you will never do them any different.

It's just fantastic.

they taste amazing.

And I'm gonna use these amazing carrots, a little bit of sugar, some butter, some star anise, a little bit of salt, and some water.

So the first thing we need to do is get our mixture on for our Vichy.

Now, traditionally, this would be done from the town of Vichy, which is famous for its mineral water.

However, we've just got some random bottled water.

You at home?

Tap water.

Doesn't matter.

And we pop that into our pan.

Now, I'm using quite a wide pan for this.

It's quite crucial because the key to this is as the carrots cook, the water evaporates, and you end up with a sauce at the end of it.

So what you don't want to be doing is cooking them in a small pan.

You'll need to allow the steam and the water to evaporate so everything cooks nice and gently, but also, it reduces the water at the same time.

So make sure you can do it in a tray like this or a bigger saute pan.

So the water's gone in.

Sugar.

One table, two tables, three tablespoons, four tablespoons, five tablespoons, six tablespoons, quite a bit of sugar.

Star anise.

Now, it's purely optional whether you put this in.

Traditionally, Vichy would be just done with sugar, butter, salt, and water.

But with carrots, these little fellas here are just delicious.

This is star anise.

Got a wonderful aniseedy sort of flavor.

But with carrots, these are just phenomenal.

I'm gonna serve this with pork as well.

But put plenty in.

So often with star anise, you just put a little bit 'cause it's quite strong.

You need that strength in there.

It really complements the sweetness of the carrots as well.

So the sugar's gone in.

A good pinch of salt and some butter.

This is probably the reason why I like this dish, to be honest.

But just a little bit of butter.

The whole package.

Mix this together.

So we've got the sugar, the salt, and the water all coming to the boil.

Now, this is the classic combination that you want for our carrots.

And the carrots-- I couldn't resist buying these 'cause these are just beautiful.

When you get carrots like this, just fantastic.

And you need decent-sized carrots.

At home, you can use those little sort of small ones, really, as well, those little Chantenay carrots, the little stubby ones, which are fine, 'cause they're quite fat at the tops, quite short.

But they work really well with this 'cause they cook quite quickly.

But with carrots like this, these are perfect to cook them whole.

What I'm gonna do is just trim off the tops.

I'm gonna utilize the tops as well.

There's lots of flavor in here.

You can use this in salads, and I'm gonna finish them off with a few bits of carrot tops.

But just very simply, I'm just gonna peel these.

If they're smaller carrots than these, just scrub them with a bit of a cloth, something like that.

You wouldn't necessarily peel them.

There'd be nothing left.

But these are just probably perfect for this.

I think if I'm honest, the reason why I like this style of cooking carrots is because I first came across them when I was quite young.

I wasn't really into my veg, to be honest, when I was a young kid.

I don't think many kids are, certainly back then.

Chips was about as near as I got to veg, and probably frozen peas.

But carrots-- to make them taste a little bit different-- and the reason why I liked them was because of the sugar.

And the idea being, as it reduces, you get this sort of sauce, this glaze that glazes the carrots.

And so many times, as chefs and cooks, we're taught to cook carrots al dente, that sort of crisp to the bite.

But for me, carrots really should be slightly over.

Now, you can grab our carrots and basically just pop these in.

The real key to this is not totally immerse the carrots in water because you got to remember the water's gonna evaporate.

And it's really crucial.

That water needs to evaporate, which makes our sauce.

So if you put too much water in, it's gonna take too long to cook and create that glaze.

So just pop them straight in so they're almost sort of three quarters immersed, if that makes sense.

Like that.

Perfect.

Now, with our carrots boiling away nicely, the key to this is just, basically, at home, just have it on as full as possible, really.

As soon as you bring it to the boil, just leave them for about 20, 30 minutes.

Gives it enough time to then cook our beautiful piece of pork.

Now, this is a lovely loin of pork, almost like a-- sort of a four-rib beef equivalent, really.

So you've got the four ribs here.

Now, if you're asking this in your butchers or the supermarket, what you need, really, is you need what you call French trim.

French trim-- the bones have been cleaned, but crucially, it's been what they call chined.

It's had this bit removed.

Now, this is the spine or the chine.

And there's two of these.

Imagine this on the pig.

This is its back, and there's two of these.

The spine sits in there, and there's another one here.

And basically, remove this joint, which means that it's easier to carve as a roasting joint, which means each one of these cutlets is a portion.

But also, when you cut it raw, you can cut all the way through.

It's crucial that it's had the chine removed.

You'll never do this at home.

You need a big meat cleaver to do it.

It's much easier if you get somebody else to do it.

But that's a French trim cutlet of pork, a whole cutlet of pork.

Wonderful.

And then what we're gonna do with this is cut this into pork chops, really.

Cut straight the way through, and you get a nice piece of pork.

Same thing again, all the way through.

Nice piece of pork.

Like that.

Now, I can tell this is good pork because there's a good mixture of fat and meat.

The key to this-- and we were pig farmers when I was a young kid-- is have pigs that are bred to be in a field.

Nowadays, they're all sort of bred to do the 100-meter hurdles, and there's less fat on it.

Well, fat is flavor, and it's exactly what you want when you're cooking pork, so you don't want to dry it out.

So what I'm gonna do is just basically pan fry the pork, a little bit of oil in the pan, a little bit of pepper.

Touch of salt and pepper.

And then basically, we're gonna fry the pork in the pan.

This is gonna take about maybe 10 minutes to cook, six, eight minutes on one side and those carrots for another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna go wash my hands and wash the board.

I keep telling the producers we'll get letters if we don't.

[jazz music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): You know what?

It's a stunning location, but they could've picked a spot closer to running water.

♪ ♪ Right.

Now, when the chops are browned on one side and only when they're ready, turn them over.

♪ ♪ Oh, and your carrots, too.

♪ ♪ How good do they look?

Pan-fried pork chops.

Almost, just almost as good as roast pork with crackling.

Whenever I cook this, it just reminds me of a saying a chef taught me once.

And it's right.

There's nothing better than a crispy skin from a mammal, unless you're vegetarian.

You got the carrots.

So it's important to leave these to rest for about five minutes.

A quick shake of the pan, and you'll start to get this wonderful glaze that glazes the carrots.

Now, just to serve these, you can just have them on its own.

To be honest, that's how they'll serve them over here because in every single Michelin star restaurant I've been to and the crew have taken me to, I've had a carrot.

I don't know what the obsession is with France and carrots at the moment, but, hey, yo, that would be 38 euros, please.

However, I'm gonna serve it with a few more, because out of all the dishes that I wanted to cook in France on this trip, these carrots were one of them because they're so simple, so delicious.

It's really unusual.

You just think, well, it's just carrots, but with the sauce and the glaze, they just taste superb.

And then we've got our pork chop.

Now, I'm gonna finish this with some of these carrot tops.

Just take a little bit.

There's a lot of flavor in here as well.

Throw them in, and just finish this off, as in the sauce, because this is the sauce that goes with it, the buttery glaze.

And you just put over the top of the carrots like that.

You don't really need anything else.

Now, I know what you're thinking.

This is gonna smell beautiful.

It's gonna smell of pork, aniseed, that kind of stuff No, it doesn't.

From where I'm stood at the moment, it smells like burnt, singed hair.

[mumbles] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): But it was worth the pain.

My succulent pan-fried pork chops with cracking carrots, prepared in a classic Vichy style.

Well, it's time to bid [french] to this part of Eastern France and hit the open road.

But what a place this is.

A distinct landscape with a varied climate gives it incredible produce, whether fresh off the tree-- Mm, delicious.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): --or nurtured to perfection.

Thank you very much.

My cheese.

I'm coming back for that.

I always crunch that gear.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now, I wonder how much of that cheese I can fit in this car.

[UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL FRENCH MUSIC] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Duck breast on a barbecue with a nice spicy apple and pear compote.

Coming up on my French adventure in Jura, I find myself in a cheesy wonderland.

This is just about the best place I've ever been to.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And I put a decadent twist on a cheesy classic.

[theme music] My adventure around the great gastronomical region of Jura in Eastern France has shown me a place that's picky about-- This is proper.

Proper.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Coming up on my culinary adventure in Jura, one of France's top chefs cooks me his take on an Italian risotto with a French twist in a Swiss setting.

Look at that.

Wonderful, isn't it?

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And I use some of my homegrown apples to make a simple French-inspired dessert.

[theme music] My amazing journey around Jura has revealed an area with a distinct foodie character, thanks to some outstanding regional ingredients.

--apple tart.

The other 799 were burnt.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Still to come on my French adventure in Jura, I cook up my final dish, gorgeous pork chops with carrots in a classic Vichy style.

With the sauce and the glaze, they just taste superb.

[theme music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My gastronomic journey through the rolling mountains of Jura is sadly drawing to an end.