I'm gonna be travelling all over Italy for
the summer of my 30th birthday, tryna get reinspired and cook for some of the toughest
food experts in the world. No seriously I don't know if I can kill a
lamb. Tryna get him to try something is like um,
trying to get him to take a new mortgage. I'll tell you now not many English cooks would
have the bollocks to do this. I mean you could say, "Jamie Oliver, what
a catastrophically fantastic f*ck-up." This lot here are waiting for me to phone
up saying,
"oh yeah I'm just on the back of a low-loader at the moment." I f*cking hate this van, the romance is over. Good start. D'you want me to help? Alright, it's all good. Lots of love. Goodbye. See you later, take care. So I'm starting off in Sicily, right south. That's gotta be nearly 2,000 miles before
I even get there! We're all going on a summer holiday! The food that I'm hunting down is the real
deal Italian stuff, I'm gonna be learning from the people that count, it's almost like
day one of c
ollege again y'know? I'm just so excited I can't possibly tell you. I guess it's the unexpected isn't it, that's
what travelling is supposed to be all about. Yeah not always knowing exactly where you're
going. After 36 hours on the road I'm really pleased
to see that ferry to Sicily. I can't wait to see some of this street food. Wow what's that? Asparagus flower? Frittata? Gee whiz, wow look at that swordfish, now
that is a bit of fish. Can I smell fish? Absolutely not, even outside can't smell
fish,
it's fresh. Look at the lovely red gills; if they're not
red like that, then it's not fresh. Look they got boiled artichokes, boiled potatoes,
lovely salad I mean that looks good y'know? Like in England we think fast food is like
in a box, ding! And down here you get the most, I mean look
how fresh these are this is fantastic. I mean you never seen artichokes like this
before, I mean... super fresh. Then old handsome over here has just boiled
them all up in this huge vat. Un momento signor
e... There's a lot of cooking going on in this
street. He's cooking the fish really simply but he's
cooking it as good as any restaurant I've ever seen. Sicilian fast food, that's the original fast
food. So you can buy your stuff in the market. Yeah. And then this man here, do you have to pay
him to cook it? Yes. I bet he could teach me a few things about
grilling I tell ya. If you do really wanna learn about street
cooking you should come and cook here, one day. Yeah but how, I can't do that, I
don't even
know anyone... I think they're all arguing about whether or not I can cook here on Saturday. You can come here and cook some stuff. Will they mind if I come and cook? No, they won't. Grazie mille, grazie, fantastico! Day two in Italy and my great escape ain't
exactly the way it looks in the brochure. I've travelled halfway across Europe to get
to Palermo in Sicily. I'm absolutely gobsmacked how well people
on the streets are eating, they're really adventurous and they know loads abou
t food. But me and my big mouth... tomorrow night I'm gonna be taking over the
fish grill in one of the craziest markets in Sicily, and I've got no idea what the locals
are gonna make of English boy doing their cooking. I really need to try out a few recipes for
tomorrow night, so I'm gonna get out of the city and I'm gonna camp at a friend of a friend
of mine's. I've never met a countess. What does it mean, is it like a lord, or a
lady? Scusa, scusa! Were you going to destroy my garden, my cour
tyard? Well I wasn't intending to, I can't believe... Oh no... Given I'm already staying in their garden,
and mowing most of it down, I think I better use me own kitchen. It's the first time I've used this kitchen,
and I've kinda... It's a good first impression! Leave it like this. Don't touch it any more. I know the punters in the market have their
fish plain, but I wanna know how adventurous they are, so I'm gonna be doing some really
simple Italian seasonings because I like my fish with a lit
tle bit of extra flavour. Hello chickens! So for subtle-flavoured fish like grouper,
a bit like bream, I'm gonna try some fennel tops they're beautiful. I'm not sure if this is Sicilian or not because
I don't live here, but this grows here, this is caught here, and it's simple. But the fennel inside the fish is going to
taste absolutely delicious. And for stronger fish like red mullet I'm
gonna be making a delicately fragrant salt. I haven't tried this before but I think that
orange, just a hand
ful of rosemary, smashed up could be good. Literally take the orange zest off of one
orange. And you know there'll be some bits in there
y'know it's pretty much mush but there'll be some big bits in there as well, let's not
get all airy-fairy about it. Now, that's a lot of salt yeah? But if you're gonna make a flavoured salt
y'know this keeps really well for like a couple of months. Y'know, I'm gonna taste the salt now. I think that's quite interesting. Tomorrow night, I mean don't get me wrong
I mean I'm not scared or nothing, but that market was chaos. Y'know he had a grill two and a half times
the size of this and, y'know I've worked on grill sections and it was absolutely packed. Look at that. There's gonna be a lot going so I've gotta
kinda pull me finger out really tomorrow. Hm, I'm not sure if I'm gonna sleep well tonight. Out of all the parts of Italy that I've been
to before, I feel more like a little white English boy than I ever have done before,
and I... I feel pretty forei
gn to be honest. I think I've arranged to meet the guys at
about four. So we're on the grill tonight. But it don't exactly look like I'm expected
does it? Me and you on the griglia? So they're gonna carry on cooking fish for
the punters, and I'm gonna be cooking alongside them with my new sauces, but I could do with
a bit of help. You go... down the road... una momento you'll
be paid when I get me wallet out. Get me... une, due, quattro bunch of basilico. I'm using the kids, because... quite fra
nkly
the adults scare me. To say that I'm in a really rough area is
an understatement. I've been to some pretty rough parts of the
world but I ain't ever... I got two women tryna beat the crap out of
a young lad. It's eight o'clock and the sauces are ready. But contrary to our earlier agreement, mister
grillman's having none of it. So I guess I'll just have to try and sell
'em myself... I mean you could say, "Jamie Oliver, what a
catastrophically fantastic f*ck-up." So with no one taking the app
arent risk of
me grilling their fish, I'm gonna have to buy me own and see if I can give it away! Got a, um... I wish my Italian was better. What they're saying is the fish are so fresh,
don't mess with it. This is all kind of, y'know... life-shaping
experiences. Jesus, what have I got myself into. Senore? I've asked him where I'm gonna put it because
I don't think they particularly like me. Stop taking the piss. Okay... come on, you're Italian. Complimenti. It's very good. Grazie. He thinks it'
s beautiful. Even the man says it's good now! The fact that they like it... I was gonna go back to my camper today with
a bit of a complex, I've gotta be honest. A night's work for free and no one likes any
of the stuff! Grazie. I tell you what after tonight mate I need
more! In one? No way mate. This is like being in Essex, it's like Duke's
nightclub! I'm quick shocked - every Italian I've met
is a food expert, or at least has an opinion about food. But they're much less open-minded than I thou
ght
they'd be. Grazie mille.
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