What to Eat Now is a British cooking television series produced by Optomen Television in which chef and culinary explorer Valentine Warner embarks on a mouth-watering journey through the very best of autumn food.
The series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 15 September, 2008. There are 12 half-hour episodes in two seasons to date.
What to Eat Now: Autumn - the title of the first season - premiered in South Africa on DStv's BBC Lifestyle channel on Tuesday 29 September 2009, at 18h30. New episodes air weekly. There are six episodes in the first season.
Repeats
Tuesdays: 23h10
Wednesdays: 04h20
Synopsis
In What To Eat Now we’ll be joining chef and culinary explorer Valentine Warner as he embarks on a mouth-watering, content-rich and beautifully filmed journey through the very best of autumn food.
It’s one of the most exciting parts of the culinary year, when food planted and conceived during the spring and summer is finally ready for harvest.
And it’s a moment that allows Valentine to cook some of the dishes he loves most, dishes like rabbit and damson pie; mussel and lovage soup; home-smoked mackerel; fresh truffles and scrambled eggs; and roast duck with apples and quinces.
Each episode follows the growth of the autumnal ingredients that Valentine then shows us how to cook.
The show uses natural history filming techniques to capture the life cycle of rabbits and snipe to mackerel and lobsters, from pumpkins and carrots to apples and pears, explaining not just how they grow but also how their individual flavours and textures develop.
And then, just when they’re perfect for eating, we join Valentine as he brings back each ingredient from the river, sea, woodland and field and launches it into ovens, pans and barbecues.
Food programmes are constantly exhorting us to eat seasonally and we all know we should. But, faced with supermarket aisles that offer us virtually everything all year round, few of us understand how the natural rhythms of the culinary world actually work.
Wherever he goes and whatever he hunts, fishes, picks and cooks, Valentine makes the connection between cooking and the environment, explaining how and why certain foods and animals appear when they do - and revealing why some foods are in danger of dying out.
Crucially, this isn’t just an indulgent romp through obscure corners of British food. Valentine shows us how best to cook produce we can all buy at this time of the year.
Valentine's enthusiasm for seasonal eating is infectious and once you understand exactly how and why foods appear at certain times it’ll be hard to resist the urge to cook them for yourself.
It’s a refreshingly clear proposition: here’s what you should be eating now: this is how it grows and this is how to cook it.
Informative, funny, and packed full of riveting information and great recipes, What to Eat Now is the six-month story of what we should be eating come the end of next year and the definitive guide to autumn cooking.
Episodes
Episode 1
Valentine visits an archaeological dig in Northumberland and turns the tables on the rabbits who are wreaking havoc with the ruins. The rabbits end up on the menu in a deliciously simple stew with peas, cider and lettuce.
Then Valentine heads to the hills of North Wales to source perfect autumn lamb for his melting dish of slow roast lamb with bitter herbs and honey; and he visits Derbyshire in search of the black gold of the food world: truffles.
Episode 2
Valentine goes on the charm offensive as he takes on the ladies of the Women's Institute by entering his sloe gin and blackberry jelly in a competition to find the tastiest dessert; sources the two main ingredients for his quick and simple crayfish with hazelnut stuffing from the banks of the River Kennet; and goes on a mission to convert some clay pigeon enthusiasts to the delights of the real thing with a warm autumn salad of wood pigeon, roast chicory and pickled walnuts.
Episode 3
One of Valentine's lasting childhood memories is the fabulous taste of his dad's pumpkin soup, and with this in mind he sets off in search of the perfect pumpkins.
He makes a deliciously sweet onion tart, and at the Newent Onion Fayre his competitive streak comes to the fore as he attempts to break the record for eating a raw onion.
Plus, he tracks down the best beetroot in Britain for a scrumptious seasonal salad of beetroot and green sauce.
Episode 4
Valentine celebrates the very best of autumn fruit, enlisting the help of a community of Benedictine monks in North Yorkshire in his search for the best Bramley for his autumnal pudding - Apple Charlotte.
He overindulges on a visit to the country's biggest collection of plum trees in the Garden of England and creates a sweet and scrumptious plum crumble.
Finally, Valentine proves that pear and cheese is a perfect autumn pairing as he makes a delicious, sweet and savoury treat - pear and cheese tart.
Episode 5
Valentine travels to the remote Scottish island of Jura in search of red deer. He is bound to see a stag or two but managing to shoot one for his venison pie may not be quite so simple.
Valentine thinks plump partridges are a fabulously tasty autumn treat and a great choice for people who are not partial to birds with too gamey a flavour.
Taking inspiration from his travels he cooks up partridge with raz el hanout, a heady mix of spices and seeds popular in Morocco.
Finally Valentine gets very excited at the prospect of the crispy skin and juicy breasts of autumn duck, cooking up a delicious dish of mallard with puy lentils and chanterelle mushrooms.
Episode 6
In the last programme of the definitive guide to the very best seasonal food, Valentine celebrates the finest British fish and seafood.
Valentine battles the tide when he travels to Holy Island off the coast of Northumberland for the plumpest mussels to make his delicious take on a Cornish pasty - a mussel empanada.
He sets sail from Cornwall in search of the ultimate autumn treat of delicious deep fried oysters, and he tries to get a group of lifeguards hooked on his all time favourite fish with a quick and simple supper of mackerel on toast.
If you eat food that's in season you get the best flavour and the best bargains. Why eat anything else?