Ainsley Harriott and Grace Dent take a trip to the coast for some of the tastiest treats of the British Isles
Best of Britain by the Sea Monday 9.00pm More4
Ed Grenby - 6 May 2022
So there we are on these winding, bumpy little lanes in Devon or Carmarthenshire,” says Ainsley, “with me trying to sleep on the back seat, and Grace in the front trying to put on false eyelashes and lipstick.” If making Best of Britain by the Sea wasn’t always the most glamorous experience for Harriott and Dent then it’s at least ensured a foodie-travel show where audiences can for once realistically follow in the stars’ footsteps. For the More4 series, celeb chef Harriott and MasterChef food critic Dent explore the country’s favourite seaside spots, from top-end lobster restaurants to end-of-the-pier candyfloss joints. And they’ve got advice…
How did you survive a countrywide road-trip cooped up together?
AINSLEY With a strict policy about the music we played in the van together!
GRACE I would put this minimal German techno music on the stereo at 6.30 in the morning, then at one point there was a rebellion from Ainsley about what he called my ‘“bang bang” music. So we agreed that in the mornings it had to be smooth sounds like Luther Vandross and Barry White, then I could go back to bang bang in the afternoons. But we got on so well, it was strange being apart after shooting finished. I miss him!
What is it about the seaside and food that makes such a great combination?
AINSLEY It’s the beautiful sea air. Being al fresco gives you an amazing appetite, and the smell of salt – and especially if you’re near the boats, the actual smell of fish – just makes you want to have a bag of fish ’n’ chips in your hand.
GRACE In Norfolk, we ate at an amazing gourmet restaurant called Benedicts (restaurantbenedicts.com), but my most memorable moment was a bag of chips in Great Yarmouth. It was so good I ordered two more and ate all three. The other thing about seaside food is that it’s sentimental. In Great Yarmouth we walked into a place where they were making candy floss, and the smell of that, and the lollipops, and the fudge, was just the same as when I went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach as a kid in 1982.
You can get some pretty good ingredients on the coast, too…
GRACE It’s wonderful when you can see exactly where your food has come from. In Dartmouth, I met the guy who’d dived to get my scallops, and the moment a man tells me that he’s doing something utterly stupid and dangerous for food… well, I fell a little bit in love with him.
AINSLEY That was at The Angel (theangeldartmouth.co.uk), and I think it’s one of the best restaurants in the country. The cooking there is like music, like dance – full of youthful exuberance. It’s not just seafood either. We were in Carmarthenshire at lambing time, and one just started to emerge while we stood there. The farmer was like Superman, he just ripped off his jacket and leapt over the wall to start delivering this baby lamb.
GRACE He asked if I wanted to help. I said yes, and he told me to push its face back in, as it was coming out head first, and it needed to be feet first. Then I had to put my hands in to find the feet. We dragged the lamb out, and it just plopped onto the floor. He told me to pinch its ears to wake it up a bit, and then Ainsley and I just stood there looking at each other like, ‘We just had a baby!’
And what did you cook on the trip? Not lamb, presumably…
GRACE In our first week, on the Isle of Wight, Ainsley asked me what I’d like to learn to make. I had this amazing opportunity for him to teach me to cook anything – and I said “Please just show me how to poach an egg” because I’ve never been able to do it right. He did, and now I just make poached eggs all the time.
And what about dessert?
AINSLEY Up in Aberdeenshire we went to a place called Footdee (which the locals pronounce “Fittee”, by the way). It’s part of Aberdeen, down by the harbour, but it looks and feels like an old fishing village – which it was once. The fishermen there invented something amazing called a “buttery”. It’s like a squashed croissant made with lard – and you might as well just slap them on your thighs and rub them straight on, because that’s where it’s all ending up.
GRACE We also went to the Isle of Wight Sweet Manufactory (theneedles.co.uk), where they make all these incredible boiled sweeties, and they let us have a go at making our own rhubarb-&-custard ones. You sort of roll it out into this massive red and yellow snake, which is basically three kilos of sugar, then you have to wrestle it into the machine. We were hopeless, like the Chuckle Brothers or something.
AINSLEY Disconcertingly, he disappears briefly from the Zoom screen, then returns with a bag full of red-and-yellow confectionery and pops one into his mouth… I’m still eating them though!
So there we are on these winding, bumpy little lanes in Devon or Carmarthenshire,” says Ainsley, “with me trying to sleep on the back seat, and Grace in the front trying to put on false eyelashes and lipstick.” If making Best of Britain by the Sea wasn’t always the most glamorous experience for Harriott and Dent then it’s at least ensured a foodie-travel show where audiences can for once realistically follow in the stars’ footsteps. For the More4 series, celeb chef Harriott and MasterChef food critic Dent explore the country’s favourite seaside spots, from top-end lobster restaurants to end-of-the-pier candyfloss joints. And they’ve got advice…
How did you survive a countrywide road-trip cooped up together?
AINSLEY With a strict policy about the music we played in the van together!