[upbeat music] [french] That's welcome to France to you and me.

I'm traveling throughout this beautiful country to explore the very best in French cuisine.

Bon appetit.

It's a personal journey.

It's where I learned to cook.

Magical times.

Magical times.

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 for 16 years.

and it's now mine.

Gives me goosebumps.

So join me as I rediscover the food destination that has it all.

This is really, really delicious.

Mm-mm-mm.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ Today, my French adventure has brought me to one of the jewels of the glorious French Riviera, a town synonymous with glitz and glamour.

It's, of course, Saint-Tropez.

[mellow music] Now, when you think of Saint-Tropez, this is what many people have in mind.

But tucked away in a little busy side street is an amazing little fish market.

But whilst I head to the market, how about a helpful little graphic to show you exactly where we are?

[upbeat music] Saint-Tropez sits perched on a glistening bay near the midway point of the Cote d'Azur, on Southern France's Mediterranean Coast.

But right now I'm around about here, in Place aux Herbes, a fantastic seafood market, a hidden gem if ever there was one.

The perfect place to find ingredients for my first dish.

This looks pretty impressive.

It may be only small, but it's packed full of some pretty serious fish and seafood.

And one thing that's caught my eye straight away are these little fellas here, fresh langoustines.

They're amazing, taste delicious.

Some of the biggest I've ever seen.

Now check out the size of these prawns.

They're grade prawns by a number.

And if you look closely, there's a number on here 2/4.

These smaller ones here 16/20 is basically the number per kilo.

So the lower the number, the bigger the prawn.

And these ones are pretty serious.

Just look at them.

They're about, sort of, 3/4s.

And then over here we've got some beautiful octopus.

It's like a chef's paradise in here.

Beautiful squid, great mussels, great clams, which I'm going to have to get a few of these.

So hopefully, this lady can serve me.

These are 55 euros a kilo, which to me and you are about a fiver each, for one.

Madame.

[speaking french] Let me see.

No, I was wrong.

11.50 pounds each.

[chuckle] Merci.

The clams.

VENDOR: Clams?

[speaking french] And then I spotted one other thing, which I'm going to have.

It's some amazing samphire, which is delicious.

[speaking french] JAMES MARTIN: Not bad.

30 quid.

Your change.

JAMES MARTIN: Thank you.

- Merci beaucoup.

JAMES MARTIN: Thank you.

Thank you.

Merci.

- [speaking french] - Thank you.

Merci.

Bargain.

Well, I've got all the ingredients.

I think it's time to get started on that dish.

And since we're in Saint-Tropez, the crew have arranged for me to cook on a boat.

I just hope it's not this one.

[rhythmic music] ♪ ♪ Now you're talking.

This is the kind of boat you want to cook on.

And I've got a fantastic and pretty unusual cooking method that makes the most of my fabulous market ingredients.

It's called en papillote.

♪ ♪ It's not a bad life, is it really?

That is pretty impressive.

Now, if you're wondering why I'm sat down, it's because Rob wants to see this wonderful view.

But also that thing.

I've smacked my head on that three times since I've been on here.

I'm not doing it again.

That's why I'm sat down.

But en papillote, classic way of cooking fresh fish like this.

I'm going to start off with just a touch of fennel.

Now, this stuff is amazing.

And I actually think it's really underrated in the UK.

We don't use as much of it as we should.

But if you are going to use it for salads, cut it really thin and blanch it into cold water.

That way you get a really strong flavor.

It's an aniseedy really strong veg.

It takes about an hour in the oven to slowly braise.

It's great with duck, stuff like that.

But nice and thinly sliced we'll do for this because it doesn't take very long to cook this en papillote.

We've got these great spring onions.

Look at those.

I'm actually just going to keep the tops on because they look so pretty.

And just cut them straight into quarters like that.

For me really, this is the ideal sort of dish when you're sat in Saint-Tropez on a yacht because it requires so little cooking.

Mind you, most of these yachts will probably have about 16 crew and three chefs running around just to make breakfast for eight people.

Such a shame because to appreciate the place, I think you've got to go visit the market, not the bars and stuff like that.

I was here last night and the noise from this place is incredible.

I'm far too old to go in a bar like that nowadays.

The music blaring out, it was far too loud for me.

I'm just going to tell you, how much is a glass of soft drink were in a bar over there.

50 euros.

50 euros!

Madness.

But all we do now is we make a parcel.

So if you're any good at wrapping Christmas presents, you'll be quite good at this.

We start off with tin foil.

[rustling] And the reason I'm using tin foil, normal en papillote means to cook in paper.

We cook it in grease-proof paper.

Grease-proof paper and a barbecue don't really mix so we're going to use tin foil to protect it.

So just measure the old grease-proof.

Cut this and careful not to cut the skipper's fancy table like that.

And lay the grease-proof paper.

But it wants to be a decent sort of size because this dish, you basically just put everything in.

So starting with the samphire or some chefs call it "sum-fer", depends where you come from in the UK.

Now, this is amazing stuff, samphire.

People call it sea asparagus as well.

It's wonderful.

So often nowadays, we get this pickled in the UK.

It's grown on the cliffside.

It's not grown in the sea like seaweed.

It's not grown on land like asparagus.

It's a cross between the two really.

It uses the spray from the water.

And it's grown in clumps of rocks, but it's just delicious.

It's the perfect accompaniment with this sort of seafood en papillote.

So a little bit of fennel over the top.

And then really the seafood, you can chuck in whatever you want.

So we've got the wonderful mussels.

Those in.

A few of these gambas.

These are the local prawns.

These are French prawns.

That's what the woman said when I bought them.

Two different sizes.

Pop those in.

A few little bit of scallops.

This is the great thing about something like this.

You don't have to put really elaborate seafood that I've got in here.

You can just put a piece of cod, a little bit of asparagus if you can get any.

But that kind of stuff.

A few clams in here.

I often say to young chefs nowadays, if food looks good before it goes in the oven, you know it's good when it comes out of the oven.

It's as simple as that.

But this is the prime example.

Just check out that.

Beautiful langoustine, 11 pounds each.

I'd rather have five of these than a soft drink.

Look at it.

11 pounds each.

But this is just delicious.

We put our langoustine on there.

And now for a selection of bits and pieces, we've put a few leeks on like that.

So do the old spring onion.

Spring onions is perfect for this, really, because it's really nice and mild.

It's actually bang on for this type of dish really.

A few bits of parsley.

But again, you can mix and match the herbs.

You can put some Rosemary in there a bit of fresh thyme.

But I think it's this stuff that makes the difference, the chervil.

It's got a real distinct star anisey, a sort of aniseedy flavor.

It goes really well with the fennel.

But just look at that, Rob.

It's a picture.

Just look at that.

Bit of black pepper.

[grinding] Touch of the old salt over the top.

Now, the key to this is don't put any liquid in first.

What you need to do is fold this over, first of all with a grease-proof.

Fold it over with a tin foil.

[rustling] And then basically, I know we're in Saint-Tropez, but we're making a pasty.

Simple as that.

So what we do is we start at one end and crimp the tin foil.

[rustling] And as we crimp the tin foil like that, we're creating a little parcel or a big parcel, really, leaving a little gap.

Now, at this point when you get to this stage, tip it up, get some white wine.

A nice little glug in there and continue to fold up your little pasty.

Do the same thing again.

Whilst I make one for the crew, check out the backdrop.

I could be swimming in that if I wasn't cooking.

What we will do, preheat your barbecue.

Alternatively, you're going to cook this in the oven about 200 degrees, something like that.

We cook these for about 10 minutes in the oven, or about eight minutes on the barbecue.

[mellow music] That's my crew.

Ah, there he is.

Meet Chris, the only member of the crew to hit his head on the light more than me.

♪ ♪ I do this style.

[light music] ♪ ♪ Is that fish ready?

♪ ♪ It's about that, Chef.

♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN: Thank you.

Now we open it.

This is the best part.

Not yet, but this bit.

[foil crinkles] Ho.

[foil crinkles] You see, Rob.

Look at that.

Sometimes in life, things don't have to cost millions for you to enjoy them.

Look.

How good does that look?

There you go.

My posh pasty of seafood en papillote.

With a multitude of delicious shellfish, the seaside in a bag on a boat.

[mellow music] I'm on a culinary cruise around glitzy Saint-Tropez.

♪ ♪ Now, sometimes, if you don't know a place, the best way to see it is with a tour guide.

So this is a picture postcard of Saint-Tropez from me to you.

Enjoy this one.

Saint-Tropez is a place that oozes glamour, style, and sophistication.

Champagne on a bench?

That's living.

But it hasn't always been so flash.

Saint-Tropez was a quiet little fishing village right up until the 1950s, when along came a certain Brigitte Bardot.

That's not her, by the way.

And soon, every international jet setter wanted a piece of it.

Here's local tour guide Sylvie Brisseau to explain.

[rhythmic music] ♪ ♪ So we are here in La Ponche.

La Ponche means the point of the village.

We are at the extremity of the village in the fishermen area.

And here was shot the famous film When God Created Woman with Brigitte Bardot.

And you can see in the film all the fishermen boats and the nets all over the places here.

[upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN: But what's all this got to do with food?

Well, it turns out Bardot also played a role in promoting Saint-Tropez's most famous sweet, tarte tropézienne, a rich brioche cake filled with cream and speckled with sugar.

This tarte tropézienne was created by Alexandre Micka, a Polish man.

He made the recipe of his grandmother.

Then add the film When God Created Woman was shot in La Ponche, Brigitte Bardot came, bought the cake, and the following day the team loved it, came and bought the cake.

But Brigitte Bardot said to Micka, please call this cake tarte tropézienne and then you'll have success.

JAMES MARTIN: And testament to that, here's the very place where Saint-Tropez's most famous tarte was born.

So now we are going to discover the symbol of Saint-Tropez, la tarte tropézienne.

The recipe with a small cream, and then he increased the cream because people loved it.

And it's sugared above.

And now I'm going to taste this delicious cake.

Mm.

It's a dream.

♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN: Where's she gone?

What is it with arty cameramen?

Never mind.

But cream isn't just for cakes.

It can be your best friend when whipping up a French-inspired savory supper.

Now, in amongst the bustling streets of Saint-Tropez, there are bargains to be had.

Because I went out the night before we filmed that and I had this dish, which was roast chicken with dauphinoise potatoes for 15 euros.

And I wanted to make it for you now because I just love this dish.

That classic combination of potatoes, garlic, and cream works brilliantly with anything.

So first thing I'm going to do is chop up the garlic.

We just need a couple of cloves of garlic.

The misconception with dauphinoise was that it's very, very strong in garlic.

It isn't actually.

It's just 2 cloves of garlic for this amount of potatoes.

But create a paste.

Now different recipes vary with dauphinoise potatoes.

Some people say that you basically just rub the garlic onto the dish itself.

Others say you put the garlic inside.

Some say you put the cheese on the top.

But this is the one that I had.

It was just so, so simple, that is.

So that can go into our pan with cream and particularly double cream.

And we infuse the garlic with the cream and then the potatoes, which we're basically just going to thinly slice on a mandolin.

Makes you concentrate though this thing.

Every time you do a potato and you just finish it, it's that [phew] when you've just finished.

Watch what you're doing.

I'm just concentrating like mad.

It is actually-- do you know what?

I'm going to give up with that.

I'm going to go to a knife.

[chopping] Thinly sliced like that.

Next, take your spuds.

There you go into the pan with your cream and as it starts to infuse and warm up.

Some black pepper.

[grinding] Generous pinch of salt.

And then we'll just bring this to a gentle simmer.

Now, so often, you can make this cold, but I prefer mine just warmed up slightly.

It just speeds up the cooking time because I'm going to serve this with roast chicken.

And both dishes are going to take the same amount of time to cook.

So we can take our dish that we're going to cook it in and butter it properly.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is buttered.

Now we take our potatoes, which are nicely bubbling away, and pour these onto our dish.

And don't go ruin this recipe at home and try and make it not using cream.

It doesn't work with milk.

That's called potatoes and milk.

That's not called gratin dauphinoise.

Now the gratin side of it, some people use cheese over the top.

I personally don't.

I just leave it as it is.

I think that it colors enough.

And all we do is you take just entire lot and stick it in the oven.

Now, you can't have gratin dauphinoise without roast chicken.

To me, it's the perfect accompaniment for this.

And for roast chicken, you just simply do it.

We take some onion, nothing too fancy.

Just chop it up, including the skin.

A little bit of garlic because there's not enough in your potatoes.

Touch of fresh thyme.

So this is what makes me like-- the crew here just put this in there because it looks pretty.

That's reality.

That's what it is.

And I'll tell you reality.

You've got this beautiful view, not me, but of this nice set.

And you get to see Saint-Tropez behind me.

This is what I'm looking at.

Melvyn, give me that.

This is what I've got to look at.

[upbeat music] Take your chicken.

Fresh thyme.

♪ ♪ A bit of salt and pepper.

[grinding] A little bit of butter.

In the oven.

For anybody that's tuning in, this is a French program about classic French cooking.

Anyway, luckily, I've got one that's prepared earlier in usual TV stylee.

Just check this out.

Just look at that.

Tell me, is that not the greatest potato dish in the world?

And you've got roast chicken.

You can take our chicken out so we can chop this up.

Now, I'm sure once I've done this and you take a nice, pretty shot, this will all be cleaned up and polished and made to look really pretty because our team here are slightly obsessed.

However, this is reality.

This is real food.

Look at it.

And then you get the money shot.

Don't miss the money shot.

This is the one.

[laugh] Dauphinoise potatoes.

Roast chicken.

Do you know what?

I don't often get to eat on this program because the entire crew usually dive in and grab it all.

Gratin dauphinoise and roast chicken are just delicious.

♪ ♪ 15 euros for that.

15 euros.

♪ ♪ Cheers.

[upbeat music] Now, if you're doing a cooking show, I can think of worse places to do it than Saint-Tropez.

The glint of yachts on the Med, vast, clear blue skies, lush green vineyards, and best of all, I've got an old pal who lives around here.

It's fair to say he's got quite a nice gaff.

He also happens to be pretty nifty in the kitchen.

In fact, he's the godfather of modern cooking.

Who else?

Michel Roux.

- James.

- This is it.

I never thought you were going to come to see me one day.

- And I brought you a present.

MICHEL ROUX: Perfect.

This was owned by a legend.

This is a gift to a legend.

Thank you very much.

Oh, may I?

Oh, it's lovely to see you again.

You made my French trip even more special.

I never thought you were going to-- JAMES MARTIN: I brought the great man a bottle of plonk, and he's offered to cook me some lunch.

I think I've got the best end of the deal there.

Look at that.

Now, what are we cooking.

MICHEL ROUX: Well, we've got little quails, baby quails, spatchcock.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

Cooked on a grill with herbs, thyme, fresh thyme from my garden, olive oil.

Yeah.

- And salt and pepper.

- That's it?

- And that's it.

- OK.

The old flavor.

So, as usual, you're going to do the work and I'm going to look at you.

[chuckle] Nothing's changed.

I'll pass you on those birds.

Here you are.

So these are the little quails.

- Use the knife.

- Yeah.

And you cut it in the middle.

JAMES MARTIN: So basic, down the back.

MICHEL ROUX: Beautiful, beautiful.

- You've got a plate?

- Yeah, I've got a plate.

OK.

[clears throat] That's it.

I know I didn't think with you-- I didn't think it was going to be burgers.

No no no no.

No no no.

But look at that.

Isn't it lovely?

Hey, look, simple.

Yeah.

A lot of people don't think of cooking stuff like quail and you cook partridge and stuff like that on a barbecue.

It's nice.

- Absolutely.

It's superb.

Much better.

But the salt, you see that sea salt again.

So why do you put the pepper on after then?

Because the pepper burns.

A bit of olive oil.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

MICHEL ROUX: Here we are.

And then the thyme, sprinkled with thyme.

So this is straight out of your garden as well?

Yes yes yes yes yes.

Look at that.

Oh, dear.

Love it.

It's like any herbs.

You must not use too many of them.

Some people use too much herbs, too much alcohol, too much wine.

- Yeah.

- And kill everything.

- Always on the inside?

- Yes.

OK.

And then-- oh, look at that.

Nice, hot.

[sizzle] And that's it.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

MICHEL ROUX: Yes, it is.

That's it.

[upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN: So what are these then?

What's so special about these?

MICHEL ROUX: Toulouse, Provencal with herbs, Provencal herbs.

More fat than a UK sausage or not?

A little more.

JAMES MARTIN: And these sausages are simply oiled and popped on the barbecue.

You see, good ingredients don't need much help.

What do I do with these?

Are these for your breakfast tomorrow?

For my breakfast tomorrow.

What do you think?

God, yes.

I can't hide anything.

JAMES MARTIN: No.

And what does a great chef do whilst he's waiting for his sausages to cook?

He enjoys a drop of wine.

So that's my wine from my vineyard.

It's not plonk, though, is it?

It's good.

It's good plonk.

It's good plonk then.

I don't give it-- I don't give it to just anyone.

JAMES MARTIN: No.

I give it to my best friend.

Yeah, look at that.

We're getting there.

JAMES MARTIN: Next up, bread.

Proper French bread.

You could carve it out and live in it.

So where on Earth do you get this bread from?

Just look at this.

- Locally, in [indistinct].

He's a lovely baker.

Yeah, so the meat is cooked, I believe.

Now, you know a lot.

- I can't believe-- Look at that.

Look at that.

Oh, look at that.

And I need more [indistinct] there.

♪ ♪ We're going to serve it with this.

What's-- what's this?

- Yes.

What's in here?

Well, that's my little tomato, again, from my little herb garden.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

MICHEL ROUX: Which I barely cook I mean, lightly cooked in olive oil.

And I'm going to put-- smudge them on the bread.

Right.

So what do you want me to do?

Tomatoes.

Squash the tomato.

Squash the tomato.

You can put a bit of olive oil as well.

That's it.

Squash them.

That's it Oh, lovely.

Oh, I love it.

Look at that.

JAMES MARTIN: Now, this is what I call teamwork.

I wonder if he's got a job going?

Look at that.

Look at that.

OK.

And I give you another one.

JAMES MARTIN: Ready.

Happy with that?

- That's it.

See, look at that.

Yeah.

Mm.

[laughter] Just look at that.

Three-star barbecue.

Yes.

♪ ♪ - Cheers.

- Cheers.

Cheers.

And it's not bad, isn't it?

- It's not bad, is it?

Yeah.

We're not bad at this, you know.

You can't beat simple ingredients done right.

And that's just the idea behind my next dish.

Now, one of the questions that I often get asked is what do chefs like to eat?

Well, if a chef like Michel Roux was coming round for dinner, I would probably doing this dish, to be honest.

It's basically fillets of sole, goujons, with a tartar sauce.

It's all about the preparation, this dish.

And this is one of the things that if you've got your mates coming round, who just happened to be three-star Michelin chefs, this is a good go-to dish.

Now making the tartar sauce first.

And for that, I'm using 2 egg yolks.

Then this, some mustard.

[light music] So stick in a blender and start to blend it up.

And then gradually pour in the oil.

[whirring] ♪ ♪ So what you'll end up with is this-- nice thick, mayonnaise.

Now, you can see from the color what happens by using that rapeseed oil.

And then we can turn this into tartar sauce.

And for that, all we need is a little bit of shallot just finely diced because this goes in raw.

Into there now as well, we put some capers.

Throw those in.

You can chop them up if you want.

Take the gherkins like that.

[chopping] Chop them up.

And they you go in.

A little bit of vinegar.

Just a tiny bit.

Touch of parsley, salt, [grinding] A bit of black pepper, and mix this together.

A touch of lemon juice.

You don't want it too thick, but you certainly don't want it too thin.

See, that looks pretty good to me.

Homemade tartar sauce.

Lovely.

Now I'm going to serve this with goujons, the fish equivalent to a chicken nugget, not really selling it to a three-star Michelin chef, but it is fabulous.

And I'm going to use this.

This is lemon sole.

Beautiful fish.

Now with flat fish like this, there's 4 fillets, 2 on this side and 2 on this side.

In a round fish like trout and salmon, there's 2 fillets.

So what you need to do is remove those fillets.

It's actually pretty straightforward.

So first of all, you remove the fins.

So what we can do is there's a natural line down the fish like this.

Insert the knife in, slice it through all the way down to the bottom.

Then what you need for this is you need a filleting knife.

This is a filleting knife.

Bendable but sharp.

Because what we do is we start at one end and we work our way through it, and we make long incisions.

Once we start to cut the confidence, we keep going.

And we just keep going.

And then about three knife cuts, it'll just come straight off.

Same thing again with the other side.

Once you start cutting, don't stop.

To remove the skin, what you do is you start off with the tail end.

If I turn the knife too much like this, it will cut through the skin.

Too much the other way, it's going to cut through the fillet.

So what we do is just hold it like that, so it just points down towards the board slightly and just wiggle the skin.

The knife stays exactly where it is like that.

And you've got this beautiful sole fillets.

There we go.

And then what we can do is basically just cut these into goujons.

So for that you just take nice thin strips.

You can, of course, buy the fish already filleted.

But there is something about filleting it yourself.

Right.

We're going to do the little goujons here.

This is what the French call to panée-- flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.

That's what it is.

So beaten egg, seasoned flour, [grinding] Salt and pepper.

And what we can do is just take your goujons into your flour, dust off any excess, and then into the beaten egg.

Make sure it's all coated.

And then into the crumb.

And then this coats your goujons.

Lift these out.

And this is, to be honest, one of the perfect dinner party dishes because all of it is prepared in advance, everything.

Then all you need to do is just pop them in the fryer, set it as hot as possible.

So about 180, something like that.

And then I'm going to cook these in batches.

So try not to throw them all in together because they'll all stick.

They want to fry no more than a couple of minutes.

So just keep your eye on.

As soon as the breadcrumbs turn brown, they're ready.

♪ ♪ You can have a sprinkling of salt at the top.

Start to pile these up.

One for me, one for the pot.

I defy anybody who's a fancy chef not to like these.

They're just delicious.

But then, of course, you've got your tartar sauce.

♪ ♪ We're not quite finished yet because we take a few wedges of lemon.

Here's a little tip as well.

When you take the lemon and you cut the little membrane off.

Because when you squeeze the lemon, it goes onto your food, not the person next door.

There you have it.

Fish goujons with homemade tartar sauce.

♪ ♪ [french] I'm coming to the end of my culinary adventure in Saint-Tropez and my stay with the legendary French chef Michel Roux.

But I have one final dish to cook up, and Michel has offered me a guided tour around his beautiful garden for inspiration.

MICHEL ROUX: Oh, you're lucky.

You're right.

JAMES MARTIN: Seen a few?

Yeah.

- Beautiful lemon tree.

There's a good one there.

Yeah, it's a four season, so I can get lemon particularly all through the year.

Oh, this one was caught.

Look at that.

The chap, he was caught between branches.

Isn't it lovely?

And then I'm going to pick up-- This one is almost ready.

JAMES MARTIN: There's a few.

So is this the only-- what do you have growing in here then?

Oh, cherries, but the cherries season is over.

Plums, apricot, and then [cough] a lot of figs.

My God, this one is a bit tall, the branch.

Can you?

- Oh, you want that one?

Would you mind?

[laugh] Well, you've got to do something surely.

What do you mean I've got to do something?

MICHEL ROUX: That's it.

Pull the branch.

[laugh] That's it.

Look at that.

Look at the color of that Oh, look at that.

- It's nice.

- Firm, young.

That's good, that's good.

Three lemons, four lemons is enough?

- Yeah, three lemons enough.

- Good.

JAMES MARTIN: Where are we going to get the figs from then?

MICHEL ROUX: Well, look at that.

JAMES MARTIN: Well, this is a serious fig tree.

MICHEL ROUX: It is, it is.

It's superb.

And there's so many of them.

Yeah because you're going to see, they're going to bleed the milk.

Look at that, the milk running there.

Look at that.

They're beautiful?

Yes.

They'll do.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, they'll do.

Yeah, there are quite a few ready.

But it's the beginning of the season.

That one should be lovely.

You want me to get that one?

Yes, please.

Back at work again.

MICHEL ROUX: Yes.

JAMES MARTIN: Why do I always have to work around you?

MICHEL ROUX: Well, that's the problem.

JAMES MARTIN: [laugh] MICHEL ROUX: It's like-- it's like anything.

You're lucky you're tall.

But they are beautiful.

I just wanted to show it to you.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

Shall we get cooking, then?

- Yes.

Good.

Well, I feel peckish.

- I'm not washing up.

- No.

[laughs] I have to say, I've known my friend Mr.

Roux for many, many years.

And I've cooked with them a lot on TV and at home.

But never have I cooked at his house in the south of France, so I'm pretty nervous.

So I'm going to keep things really simple.

I thought I'd use some of these wonderful lemons and some figs and oranges to make a classic orange and lemon butter sauce to go with some pancakes.

So firstly, I'm going to get a pancake batter on.

Now for that I'm just going to use some flour.

Now ideally plain flour for this.

You don't want self-raising.

Otherwise, you end up with risen pancakes.

So a bit of flour, about 125 grams of flour, a couple of eggs.

[tapping] 2 eggs.

[tapping] And a little pinch of sugar, about 15 grams of caster sugar.

Now also, now I know that Michel likes this.

He likes rose water, but I managed to pick up some of this orange water.

It's kind of a similar sort of smell.

Very strong.

So we're just going to add just a touch.

No more than that.

Just a little hint of the orange blossom water in there.

Now, I'm going to use a combination.

Rather than just use milk, I'm going to use a combination of milk and cream to make the batter.

So firstly, we pop the milk in.

Give this a quick mix now.

I remember this from about 25 years ago doing this in the old three-star Michelin restaurants when I was training.

Always make this by hand, but most importantly, leave the batter to rest.

Now, ideally you need to leave this to rest in the fridge overnight.

[whisking] He's not promised me a bedroom yet, but we're working on it.

This may or may not swing it.

But the key to this is leave it to rest.

Now, I'm just going to enrich this with just a touch of cream.

Instead of making a traditional pancake batter, which is basically just flour, eggs, and milk, this one has a little bit of cream, a pinch of sugar, and some of that orange blossom water.

Just a little hint, because his taste buds are pretty on the ball, to be honest with you.

Now, what I'm going to create with this is like an orange sauce.

So this is not too dissimilar to a sort of a crepe Suzette.

I'm going to use the oranges and lemons.

I've got some wonderful lemons here from his garden, like that.

Grab your oranges and just segment them.

The easiest way to do that is follow the shape.

So once you make one cut, the second cut follows the shape of the orange.

It's round so what you want is a round-shaped orange once you've taken all the pith and skin off, like that.

So follow the shape.

Every time you cut, follow that cut and go round again, like that.

So ideally, when you're finished, it should resemble an orange, round.

Not a triangle, not a square, round.

And then all we do with that is you take your knife, and then in between each little line, cut.

And that will give you the segments you need.

Nice and simple all the way through.

Keeping that juice as well because this is quite crucial.

We need that orange juice so keep it all in the same bowl like that.

Give it a squeeze.

And another one.

And what I'm going to do is just repeat the process with these wonderful Roux lemons.

[birds chirping] So follow the shape of the lemon All the way around.

Pressure's on.

I haven't felt this pressure since my old cookery teacher used to stand behind me at school.

Mrs.

Baxter was her name.

Right.

Now, our sauce.

This is the key to this.

So plenty of oranges and plenty of lemon juice straight into our pan.

[sizzling] Drain off some of this lemon and orange juice as well.

And then grab some basically some icing sugar really just to sweeten it up just a touch.

Now keep the heat on and you're reducing this liquid down.

You almost want it to reduce by half really.

It's this classic orange butter sauce.

Now, if you wanted to can get a bit of orange zest, just a touch, [grating] Just to add some more color and more flavor.

And now for our pancakes.

[tapping] So this is where it's a good idea to test it for the first time.

A little bit of butter.

Now, ideally, you want a bit of clarified butter for this.

But seeing as we're outside, just a little bit of butter, just some plain butter will do.

It's difficult to describe the texture.

Runny, that kind of stuff.

You don't want it too thick.

You don't want it too thin.

Just runny.

We pop the pancake mixture in, give it a quick swirl.

And just leave it.

Now, our sauce is not far off, so we just switch off the heat.

You can see.

Look, Rob, if you get in here, it starts to go sticky.

You see the texture of it.

If I get a whisk, see what I mean.

See that?

That's basically just orange juice and sugar.

It kind of goes that, sort of, caramelized texture.

[scraping] But to turn this into amazing orange butter sauce, you, of course, need butter.

But what you have to do is be quite bold with the butter.

And the butter is the key to this.

Whisk it off the heat.

[whisking] Now, I feel like when I'm doing this, my whole career has gone full circle, really, because when I was training as a young kid, not a million miles away from here in Bordeaux, in a fancy two-star Michelin, this was actually one of the dishes that I did.

Fast forward 30-ish and a bit years, I'm now in the south of France cooking for a legend.

[chuckle] Look, that sauce is perfect.

Have a quick taste.

[smacks] [french] It's good.

Take our pancake.

Flip it over.

Make another few more because this one is always for the cook.

Now, notice I said cook, not chef.

There's only one chef in this household, and it ain't me.

It's the concentration.

[tapping] Now, what I'm going to do just to finish off the sauce is we take the orange and the lemon.

This lemon is from his garden.

So we'll just take that and stir this in.

[scraping] Like that.

Now you see?

The texture of the sauce, look at that.

It's actually the butter that's thickened all that together.

Nothing else.

So concentrate on my pancake.

[vocalizing] [humming] [speaking french] [birds chirping] It's quite interesting this, as you're stood here in the south of France, and I've been so looking forward to coming to Michel Roux's house.

It's actually very, very good.

It's just the pancakes are a bit of a risk.

[tapping] Do you know what that is, Rob?

Back of the net.

Look at that.

Ready.

This is the one.

This is it.

This is it.

[mellow music] ♪ ♪ Wow.

Just look at that.

Orange and lemon butter sauce.

Monsieur, a crepe with essence of orange blossom water, orange butter sauce with a hint of Roux lemon.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Careful, careful.

Oh, my God.

I've got few trees on this place.

It looks good.

Now, less is more.

It looks more than less at the moment.

So you may be in trouble.

Hm.

Your sauce is heaven.

The pancakes are a bit thick.

You've done a great dish.

JAMES MARTIN: The sauce is OK.

It's a bit more than OK.

You know something?

JAMES MARTIN: What's that?

Your sauce is superb.

Yeah.

Now, the citrus are making a good balance.

I think what makes the difference between a very good dish and superb dish is my lemon from my orchard.

But whenever you need something from me, I'll be there.

What about a case of that wine?

Yeah.

[chuckle] Yeah.

Any time.

[laughter] Thank you very much.

No no no no.

But, you know, nobody is going to take my plate.

I'm damn serious.

I'm not sharing things which are really out of the common.

That is very, very good.

Can I stay the night?

We're going to open a bottle.

You can stay one night.

OK.

Maybe even tonight if you do me another dessert like that.

That's fine.

I promise I won't win your pool.

Yeah.

[laughter] He's a liar.

JAMES MARTIN: I am a liar.

Love him.

JAMES MARTIN: And I love it here in Saint-Tropez where the treasures of the sea are never far from reach.

These ones, they're pretty serious.

Just look at them.

And where superstar chefs live just around the corner.

We're not bad at this, you know.

But behind all the glitz and glamour, it's simply about fantastic food and big-hearted hospitality mixed with a bit of friendly competition.

[light music] ♪ ♪ OK.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ I've never played before.

You must be joking.

♪ ♪ [wheezing] It might surprise you, but I'm not very good at petanque.

But when you're at your mate's and he's got a pool, there's only one way to relax.

Until next time.

Vive le France!

[splash, splurt] It's quite deep in here.

[frenetic music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN: Bag on a boat.

Coming up on my French adventure in Saint-Tropez We get a taste of the town's heavenly signature cake.

It's a dream.

JAMES MARTIN: And I cook up my own take on local cuisine from my home kitchen.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] [mellow music] JAMES MARTIN: I'm on a culinary cruise around glitzy Saint-Tropez.

[upbeat music] Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN: Coming up on my French adventure in Saint-Tropez, I'm treated to an amazing lunch by one of the world's greatest chefs.

[chuckle] Just look at that, three-star barbecue.

Yes.

JAMES MARTIN: And I cook up my favorite dish to serve when I have a chef coming round.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN: Now, if you're doing a cooking show, I can think of worse places to do it than Saint-Tropez.

The glint of yachts-- [french] Still to come on my gastronomic ramble through Saint-Tropez.

I cook up my own special dish for Michel Roux.

Do you know what that is, Rob?

Back of the net.

And he gives me his honest verdict.

The pancakes are a bit thick.

Maybe a bit too honest.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] [upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN: I'm coming to the end of my culinary adventure in Saint-Tropez.

And my stay--