Food Unwrapped

Let's go! Whoo-hoo!

'Britain is a nation of foodies.'

Sweet. Really peppery.

'What do we really know about where our food comes from?'

I've never been cornered by an ostrich.

This is like Oxford Circus, but for cows.

'And how it's processed before it reaches our plates?'

The place is run by robots!

'We go to the ends of the Earth to find out what's really in our food.

' I've got to change my transport.

'We meet the people who make it. ' I don't know where to look.

'We ask the questions to learn the truth.'

Let's do it. 'On tonight's show...' Wow, look at this place!

'My first stop's Holland to find out why there's a buzz about a new type of protein.'

Look at that. Insect burgers. It's amazing.

'Then I go to Italy to investigate extra-virgin olive oil

'and test some oil sold in British supermarkets.'

It doesn't smell very nice.

'Kate's in the American deep south on the trail

'of a sauce that spices things up.'

You think you're OK, then it comes back with a vengeance.

'Then in Germany, investigating the night-time milk that calms things down.'

From special cows, magic cows?

'Meanwhile, Matt's spending the whole show in the woods.'

I think we have something. 'Foraging for the truth about truffle oil.'

Oh, my God, it is a truffle! 'And then asking just how wild is your wild boar.'

Let's get out of here.

'First up, insects.'

I've always loved insects. I loved them as a kid, but also I studied them at university.

It was part of my PhD. I've always known that there's cultures that eat insects.

In the UK, there's faddy things like you get lollies with ants in.

But at the moment, there seems to be more and more products like this cricket flour.

They're turning up in our specialist delis. People are taking it seriously.

So I'm off to a part of Europe where insects are already on the family dinner table.

I'm in Holland looking round a fantastic supermarket.

Lovely bread, fresh meat, fish, all that kind of stuff.

But check this out - in the fridge, insect burgers. It's amazing.

'They even do an insect version of the chicken nugget.

' Nice? That... That's delicious!

'So I'm off to find the raw ingredients.'

I've arrived at the largest insect farm in Europe.

I thought it was going to be massive, but it's quite small.

I wonder how small the farmer is?

'I'm here to meet Marieke Calis whose family have farmed insects for 30 years.'

Hi there. How are you doing? I'm Marieke. Hi.

I've come to see your insects. Come on. Thanks very much.

'Marieke's farm produces insects for pet food and human consumption.'

Wow, look at this place!

Yes, here are we rearing a part of our insects.

'All the bugs in this room are for the pet trade.'

Tell me about these guys. This is a box of beetles of the buffalo worms.

Buffalo worms? Yes. Look at that.

There's millions of them.

'These beetles are breeding stock.

'The eggs they lay will hatch as buffalo worms.'

After six weeks, we have... Look at that. Wow! ..adult buffalo worms. Six weeks? Six weeks.

One tray of beetles like that could produce that many trays?

There's literally tray after tray after tray after tray. Yeah.

You can cram in a lot more insects in one room than I could pigs in one field.

Yeah. I can't stack my pigs one on top of the other. You can try.

They've got to be good balancers.

Look at that.

It feels quite nice!

'Buffalo worms are a big seller because they are so versatile.

'They can be made into flour, chocolate and are a favourite at a Dutch barbecue.'

These are the little critters that I've eaten in the burger on sale in the supermarket. Yeah.

'It's not just me who can see the benefits of insects.

'In 2014, Marieke's insect orders for human food products doubled.'

Here is the sifting machine. This is where the sifting happens? Yes. It's a bit noisier in here.

'The insects are processed here.'

Look at these guys.

'It's nil by mouth for the last 24 hours to empty their guts.

'They're blanched and then freeze-dried or frozen.'

At the moment, we have to do a lot of work to mechanise and to lower the price down.

If we can lower the price down and learn the people that it is good to eat them, we are big business.

The mechanics of the farming needs to develop.

Salmon farming isn't that old and that's had to learn a lot on how to become industrialised,

so if insect farming can do the same, it could be available everywhere. Yes.

'Later, it's insect versus cow. Who is the more efficient meat-making machine?'

We can push that into anything like a beefburger or a grass-whopper!

'Next, truffle oil.' Do you know how they make truffle oil?

Do they just put truffles in oil? Is that it?

Where does the flavour come from? Do you pour the oil over the truffle

or do you soak the truffle in the oil? 'You soak it in, then it's got more flavour.'

'I believe they stick it in the oven.' Oh, really?

It just says, "Olive oil and truffle flavour." 'Yeah, it would be the truffle and the olive oil.'

OK, thanks for your help.

'Right, so all I need is some oil and a truffle.'

Hello. Hello. Are you Melissa? I am. Good. That's nice to know.

'Melissa has been a professional truffle hunter for nine years

'and is taking me to a secret spot on the Sussex Downs.'

What is a truffle? Truffles are fungi, but they're underground fungi.

The organism itself attaches to the roots of trees.

Not any tree? Not any tree. I would say beech is king, hazel, oak...

Quite a hard thing to find? Yeah. We'll nip in here. I like the look of it under there. In here?Yeah.

I'll ask the dogs to work. Find me some truffles, Zebby.

Look for truffles. Come on, look for truffles. Where's the truffle?

'I'm not sure we're ever going to find one.'

We might have been a bit ambitious with the size of that basket.

Come on, look for truffles.

Oh, I think we have something!

Oh, my God! Oh, my God, it is a truffle!

If I got that into my restaurant, I'd be quite excited. That's a decent size.

It's still got... Oh, oh, oh!

Be very quick. You've got to be very quick.

Oh, my God! Oh, my God, you're amazing!

Good boy. Melissa, would you have any idea about what that would cost?

Here in England, ₤15 maybe?

I'm very impressed and excited. Shall we put our one truffle in our enormous basket? He might eat it.

Oh!

Did you get that on film? Woo-hoo-hoo! You have got to be quick.

So I've got the truffle. That took Melissa and I about three hours to find that one little truffle.

These things clearly aren't in abundance, so I'm wondering, if they're that hard to find,

how can you fill supermarket shelves all over the world with bottles of truffle oil?

'Back at my restaurant, I chop up the whole damn thing to make my own truffle oil.

'Just oil and truffles, right?

'Later, I head to France to sniff out the real deal.'

Wow! Nice, isn't it?

'Next up, hot sauce.'

Now, what I want to do is cook up some chilli sauce like the ones you buy in the shop.

Now, a lot of them have a list of ingredients as long as my arm.

In this one here, you've got loads of different peppers and garlic powder and stabilisers.

So that's a little bit tricky.

But there are some others which have fewer ingredients

like pepper, vinegar and salt, so I'm sticking with that.

Let's see if I can make a chilli sauce.

It should taste all right.

I'll just put a big old glug of vinegar in.

And then a bit of salt.

I don't really know how much.

Let's give this a little whizz.

'Three simple ingredients. How hard can it be?'

It doesn't look much like chilli sauce.

Wow, that has got some...

That has got some knickers on it. Blimey!

'Let's hope it doesn't taste pants.'

Whoo-ee! That is so hot.

But it really does not taste quite right,

whereas these, it's a whole different show. How do they make them?

Whoo-hoo! 'Later, I'm in Louisiana to find out

'what you need to make pepper sauce.'

You think you're OK, then it comes back with a vengeance. Yes, it does.

'Earlier, I discovered it's pretty hard to get a decent flavour

'out of a home-made hot sauce with only three ingredients.'

Whoo-ee! That is so hot, but it really does not taste quite right.

'So I'm off to a place well known for blowing your socks off,

'the Cajun capital of hot condiments - Avery Island in Louisiana.

'I've been told it's made on a hidden island and the best way to get there is by water.

'My first hurdle is swampland.'

Hey! Hey, how are you? Yeah, good. How are you doing? What do I do?

Just stay seated. Be safe. No hands in the water? No hands in the water.

Why? What's out there? Alligators. Alligators? That's right. Agh!

'This is the only place in the world they make tabasco,

'a hot sauce with just three ingredients.'

Whoo-hoo!

'Its secrets are tucked away and protected by a huge expanse of salt marsh and water.

'Safe from alligators, I make it to the island and find sauce boss, Tony Simmons.'

Hi! Kate. It's nice to meet you, Kate. Yeah, you too.

This is where your hot sauce starts. This is where it starts.

Your sauce contains pepper, vinegar and salt. Correct.

This, to me, is a chilli. No, we call it a pepper. Really?

'And the colour of the pepper determines the colour of the sauce.'

I'm going to have a little nibble. Do you want one, Tony? It's hot.

It's hot? It's very hot.

Oh!

That is hot.

The pepper is about ten times as hot as the sauce.

It's beginning to burn. That is very hot.

'Clearly, a kick-ass pepper is a good start for a hot sauce.'

You think you're OK, then it just comes back with a vengeance. Yes, it does.

I can't carry on for a minute.

Oh!

So you can see our barrels where we're starting to fill them with mash.

Right, so this is just 100% pepper?

That's all pepper and we do add some salt to it when we put it in the barrel

because we find that the salt makes like a fermentation process.

'Ah, so that's where I was going wrong.

'I should have put my chillies in an old whisky barrel and sealed it with salt.

'Sealed inside the barrels, the pepper mash ferments for three years in the scorching Louisiana heat.'

What temperatures are we looking at for these barrels?

In the summer here at Avery Island, we will have 100-degree days.

So these barrels will be in the 30s for a few months? Yes.

And why do you age it for three years?

The flavour and the colour is much better after three years. The heat is the same.

'If the flavour comes from fermenting the chillies in the bourbon barrels, how do they control the excess heat?'

Are you sure you want to do this? I'm ready.

Whoo-ee!

Are you beginning to feel it? Wow!

Boy, that is some hot pepper in the air, isn't it?

'After a long soak, fermented pepper mash is mixed up with around four times as much vinegar.'

The vinegar has been added to our pepper mash

and now we're stirring it for up to 28 days to infuse that vinegar.

We have to keep some of the solids out of it, so it's not too hot.

So the reason why you end up putting in so much vinegar

is because your pepper to begin with is so hot? That's right.

'So that's why my hot sauce failed. I didn't ferment my chillies in a whisky barrel.

'My flat never reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit

'and I didn't put nearly enough vinegar in to cancel out the heat.'

And then taste it.

Unmistakeably the best.