Listen
Dallas Campbell on cooking and pizza
Broadcaster and writer shares his pizza secrets
Hello. I'm Dallas Campbell. I travel a lot for my work, which is not only fascinating, but it also means I get to try food from all over the world. Even more than loving eating food. I love cooking food. I love cooking food on my own. I love cooking food with friends and family. It's something that can be shared. It's something we can all take part in. And part of my love of cooking comes from the fact that it engages all your senses. It’s about the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it tastes, the way it smells. Absolutely everything. If I had to pick one favourite dish to cook, I would probably say, yes, it's cooking proper Napoli pizza. I love making pizza. I love the process of making the bread base because it involves flour and water and yeast. So you get that wonderful smell, but also it involves getting your hands dirty. It involves kneading the dough and pulling it apart. And it's that unctuous, moist, delicious, gooey experience that makes it so fun. You can also watch that yeast transform the dough itself as it rises and rises, and then you get to punch it back, which is very, very good. If you've had a difficult and stressful day after that, of course, after you make your pizza base, you can put the tomato sauce on top, the mozzarella cheese and whatever topping you decide. So it's very, very creative. After that, It goes into a blisteringly hot oven and then the aroma, the smell start to percolate out. There is something particularly delicious about pizza. I've never met anyone who doesn't like pizza. And I have to say without blowing my own trumpet, I reckon my pizzas it's up there. I don't think anyone's made pizza as good as me.
Allegra McEvedy on Essential Cooking Tools for Fish
Top chef, restaurateur and food writer talks fish
Hi, my name's is Allegra McEvedy. I am a chef food writer, sometimes tele person, and I am fanatical about fish. Most of the year, you'll be cooking your fish indoors, and there are two bits of kit. I find absolutely indispensable for that, the first one I call my special flipper. Right. And it's just somewhere between a cake slice and a pallet knife. So it's about kind of five centimetres wide and probably about 10 centimetres long, um, and not solid it's, um, kind of got slats on it and yeah, it's extremely useful for fish because when you put fish in there pan quite often, um, skin the contracts and it will try to curl up. So if you just gently put your special flipper on top of it and press it down that way, you'll get a nice flat fillet of fish. The second thing you'll need is a really good pan and it is worth investing in a few quid in one, go for something very heavy, the heavier, the better when it comes to cooking fish, because they conduct heat in a more even way. Ideally, it'll be a cast iron skillet, and that's really heavy, but it gives you a bit of a workout too.
Dr Christian Jessen on healthy eating
The importance of a balanced diet for young people
When you're going through puberty, your body is going through massively important changes. You're growing, you're developing and therefore your eating habits need to change accordingly. You'll be using up loads of energy and will probably feel hungry most of the time. And it's a big temptation to simply satisfy this hunger with snacky sweet chocolaty, junk food, but actually this isn't what your body needs at all. You need to make sure you're eating a healthy, balanced diet to keep active and to keep looking good. A balanced diet includes all of the different major food groups, including fruit and vegetables, carbohydrates like bread rice, potatoes and pasta. You need dairy products to give you calcium and vitamin D. And these come from milk, cheese, and yogurts. You also need some fatty and sugary foods, but these you should have in moderation. Finally, protein to help build your muscles is very important too. And you get this from meat, fish, eggs, and beans.
Nadia Sawalha’s tips on healthy eating
Nadia talks about the importance of a balanced diet
Hi, I'm [inaudible], I'm a TV presenter, stroke actress, and a real foodie. I love my food, but I also love feeling really healthy and vital and energized. So I try and make sure that I have a healthy diet. That doesn't mean that I never have any cakes or biscuits or anything naughty cause I do. But my tip with that is to just have them occasionally and that way, um, they feel like a real treat. My other tip is to use lots of herbs and spices. Everyone knows that we need to cut down on fat. The thing is with fat, butter, oil all that sort of stuff and salt is that they're all very tasty. So if we take them out of our food, we've gotta find some way to put some of the tastes back. And I do that using fresh or dried herbs, lots of spices. Spices don't have to be hot and chilli like, you know, spices can just add a great aroma and a great punch to dishes. My other top tip is really, really to try and stay away from things that are white, white bread, white rice, white pasta, because the problem with eating them though, they taste nice enough is that they burn very quickly in the body. So quite soon afterwards, you're hungry. Whereas if you eat brown rice, brown, pasta, brown bread, it just basically keeps you fuller for longer. And actually really does taste great. A lot of people, are a bit funnier brown, brown rice, they think it's a bit like hippie and a bit sticky and a bit like glue. That's what people say to me. So my tip on that is to use basmati brown rice. And I also add a little stock to it, a little stock cube, maybe, chicken stock or vegetable stock, if you're vegetarian. And that really adds extra flavour. My other tip is eat loads and loads of vegetables, you know, and the thing is lots of people think they don't like vegetables cause they caught them very well. Don't ever boil them, steam them add a little drizzle of olive oil, maybe a zest of lemon, a little fried garlic. I never have broccoli without a bit fried garlic and a drizzle of oil. And after years of hating broccoli, I now love it. So keep things brown, lots of fruits and vegetables and keep your treats as treats. Not an everyday thing.