Smoke and Celebration: Exploring Bonfire Night food traditions
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 977 Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2019
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Autumn is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness – when the air is perfumed with bonfire smoke, sweet crisp apples are weighing down orchard branches, and root vegetables are plump and ready for picking beneath the soil.
It’s a time of year when a whole new palette of British produce is ripe and ready to turn into pies, pickles, chutneys, cakes, jams and stews: hearty comfort food to warm and nourish as the weather turns colder.
Autumn is also a season for festive gatherings: with Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night leading swiftly into the frenzied run-up to Christmas, providing plenty of opportunity to eat, drink and be merry - and on November 5th in particular, food traditions abound across the UK; from regional specialities to family favourites.
In this programme, Sheila Dillon heads to North Yorkshire, to gather round a fire with Michelin-starred chef Tommy Bank; cook and food writer Meera Sodha; and chef and restaurateur Andrew Nutter. Together, they keep the autumn chill at bay with a bonfire feast – whilst sharing stories of their seasonal food memories.
Transcript
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| 0:50.0 | Well, let's hope it lights. |
| 0:55.0 | That was always the big thing on Monfai Night, right? |
| 1:00.0 | You always have to get somebody's dad who was really good at it. |
| 1:04.7 | Flames, flames. |
| 1:06.9 | The smell feels quite nostalgic, doesn't it? |
| 1:08.8 | Yeah, it does, yeah. |
| 1:10.3 | I think that all food and wine and drinks that's what we want to evoke and |
| 1:14.8 | that's what I really enjoy. So it's going to be really interesting today to talk |
| 1:18.8 | to if I want to find out what their nostalgic memories are. Yeah. |
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