Original subtitles

I feel completely distraught.

I didn't think we'd go through with it.

Now it's a lot of uncertainty.

It's a shock.

We're all in deep shit.

Better the devil you know, than you don't.

It goes on.

I feel it's like the end of the world.

It feels pretty bad.

It's the ramifications of it all.

There doesn't seem to be a plan for

what we're going to do now.

You don't know what to do, because they're all arguing.

It little woken them, but... I think human beings

are still stupid and ego gets in the way.

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world ♪

♪ Felt the cool rain ♪

♪ On my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good ♪

♪ In this beautiful world ♪

♪ I felt the rain ♪

♪ Getting colder ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la ♪

I believe some things to be true about England, other than

that I know I can always find friends there.

It's where you can find some of the best

restaurants in Europe.

It's beautiful.

It's... I don't know... Sophisticated.

They're old.

They've been around.

But on this last trip, unexpectedly, the mood in London

became darker, more uncertain about the future.

The British people spoke last night.

Brutal wake-up call.

It turns out that it was about immigration,

that more than half of Britain's immigration

comes from outside the EU.

It's a disaster, a calamity.

The young are very, very angry about what's happened

and the gamble that's being taken with their future.

Few in London, anyway, went to sleep thinking that England

would leave the European Union.

That was for the rubes, the people from the sticks,

the country people, old, white people,

people who felt pushed out, neglected, disenfranchised

by the new, the young, the foreign, the decidedly

less-white England of today.

The votes were tallied, and the majority

had decided to Brexit.

♪ And the RAF of England ♪

The ramifications were unclear, but the financial markets

plummeted, the nation's credit rating was downgraded,

the prime minister resigned, and both political parties'

leadership basically disintegrated overnight.

♪

In uncertain times, I always look for the comforting

and the familiar, the things that always, for me,

made England great, like one of my favorite

restaurants on Earth, and one of the chefs

I like and respect most.

This restaurant helped make a persuasive argument

that there is some kind of merit -to British cooking.

Yes.

It's absolutely true.

Fergus Henderson, the most influential chef

of the last two decades, even though you have likely

never heard of him.

He changed everything.

It seems an instinctive thing to cook old-school,

simple, proud, English country cooking.

But it started a quiet revolution.

St. John, I love you and I need you now more than ever.

It's about the single ingredient on the plate,

speaking for itself in that classic Italian sort of way.

And so you can get lost.

Roast bone marrow with parsley and caper salad,

sourdough bread made here.

A dish that would become absolutely iconic.

If you've ever eaten bone marrow anywhere,

it's very likely because they did it here first.

My dinner companion is food critic and author Jay Rayner,

a man never with a shortage of opinions.

Bones.

Thank you, yes.

Salt.

And there you go It's a simple, good thing,

but it's one of the most influential dishes,

like, in the last 20 years.

It's a good thing.

You see his imprint everywhere.

It's true.

And what's interesting is that the aesthetic

gets passed down in other ways that you don't expect.

Yeah.

As I've become older, I've noticed

the food that I yearn for is food that I react to

in an entirely emotional way.

The problem is that it's so very, very rare.

I'm looking for a suspension... No-

-...of logic and reason.

This is something that I got here from the beginning.

Pickled calves tripe with radish, shaved carrot,

and watercress.

Lovely.

Wow.

Wow.

Thank you.

There are some tripe dishes that are just

uniquely wonderful.

And it's a tricky ingredient.

Once you're cooking it, it smells like wet dog.

The way we smell things and taste them is very different.

All the best foods stink.

Yeah.

And it's an extraordinary thing.

These foods, there's a faint whiff of death about them,

are the ones that remind you that you're the most alive.

The scent of your own mortality.

Of your own mortality.

Skate poached in court bouillon, with fennel in green sauce

of fresh parsley, herbs, and anchovies.

Hmm.

It's nice.

Savory treats -in the form of kidney.

Oh, the little kidneys.

They're so pretty.

And how were these kidneys done, sir?

Well, seasoned fair... Nice.

And then put sauce... P'shh, p'shh!

Sizzling.

Chicken stock... Butter, p'shh, p'shh.

P'shh, shh, and toast.

Done.

Yes, thank you.

Good, wow.

Eat well.

Thank you.

Pig's head and potato pie.

The head brined, slowly simmered until tender,

stripped away from the bone, and seasoned then baked

in pastry with potatoes.

Yes, please.

A traditional dish that exemplifies

everything I believe in.

Wow.

Nice.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

All right.

Oh, look at that.

Great joy.

That's working.

Is this a hot water pastry?

So, it's a puff pastry, but somehow transfers of fats

through the pig's head out and the [indistinct] in

makes it so the crust... It's gorgeous.

Indeed.

Oh, God, that's good.

Extraordinary.

You look at this pie, and it's almost like something out

of a children's book.

Right.

The pie tradition is something very, very special.

If you go back in history to the Hogarth painting,

"The Roast Beef of Old England"... Yup.

...you'll realize that actually we were far ahead

of the French in the preparation of beef

and the roasting of meats.

A lot of it was over our side of the channel.

Yeah.

Which is no reason for leaving the European Union.

So they call it Great Britain.

What's great about Britain?

I can refer to a certain literacy and a wry sense of humor,

and a political tradition of democracy, which, ironically,

the referendum that's caused so many of us so much pain

is a perfect example of.

Also, a weirdly cosmopolitan, welcoming environment

in which the history of immigration into the country

has defined a far more open culture.

Until this point I was very, very proud, but that...

I wouldn't be here.

You know, my great-great grandparents

arrived as shtetl Jews off the boat into the East End

of London, and here I am still to this day,

and that's a very, very important thing.

A very tolerant country.

This is a very traumatic moment.

Will it all work out in the end?

I have no idea.

- Wow. - It's the honest truth.

Nothing is certain.

♪

You know what I like? A good pub.

Like the Princess Victoria in West London,

and stuff like this.

Did you like pork scratchings?

I do.

Hmm. Cheers.

Oh, that's insanely good.

Maybe you wouldn't think that the legendary cookbook author

Nigella Lawson and I could be friends, but we are.

We are, admittedly, very different.

She is the very definition of kindness, elegance, grace,

the woman who taught England to cook.

Nice.

What do you get here ordinarily?

Scotch egg.

All right.

Scotch eggs, please, and some whitebait.

Certainly.

And some chips.

Whitebait? This is, like, the greatest thing ever. Really?

Oh, yeah. Whitebait is so good, isn't it?

In a little pub, you can get whitebait?

Well, I'm sure in Charles Dickens' time, they used to have

whitebait then.

Mind you, then, they used to have oysters too, so...

I can't hear you over the crunching.

I can't hear myself over the crunch, actually.

I'll be... I lost interest in what I was saying.

Whitebait, tiny baby herring lightly battered whole

and fried, tossed with a little bit

of lemon juice and salt, the perfect bar food.

There's this slightly crisp, huh?

Hmm.

Do you have this in the States?

You're starting to see them, but almost never.

Beautiful, though, aren't they?

And fat chips, always important.

What is the appropriate condiment with chips?

Being old-fashioned, I think vinegar and salt.

If I'm in Brussels or Holland, I'm fine about mayonnaise,

- but if it's here... - Oh [indistinct] there,

- I'm with you there. - Yeah.

And what is it, chips with curry sauce?

Hmm, fantastic. Sorry.

It's really a matter of how many Guinnesses you've had.

A soft-boiled egg, wrap it in minced pork,

then roll it in bread crumbs, and what? Deep-fry it?

It's like a supernova of unhealthiness and deliciousness.

This is the important thing, the softness of the yolk.

Right. Who invented this?

It's just fiendish.

One of the explanations, Scotch used to preserve eggs

and send them to England.

What would happen is that they would [indistinct]

Some sort of lime on them, and it would discolor them,

so they then covered them to hide that.

This is just right.

When I grew up, they were very low-rent, very cheap,

rather spooky sausage meat, rock-hard egg,

that sort of tinge like, you know, -Uranus.

Right.

Uranus, as they prefer to call it now because they get

embarrassed.

And then deep-fried into those cheap red bread crumbs.

And then it got rehabilitated.

Very good eggs, very good pork meat.

All your basic food groups.

- Hmm. - These are really good.

Hmm, really good.

Salt and fat, nothing better.

Oh, yeah.

This is nice.

It is nice, strangely calm.

It is an argument from England.

Really?

Yeah.

- If you have a good pub... - Yes.

...and if you're gonna have a pint,

this is the perfect time.

It's quiet.

It is.

We can pretend all is right with the universe.

I'm going to pretend.

England, as the anti-Brexit forces

found out to their dismay, ain't London.

It's different out there and a lot of it

is very, very beautiful.

As we get older, we start to look backwards

in our life and reflect.

When we're young, we only look forward,

we don't think of our past.

Our past has such a small value.

I'm of an age now, we become nostalgic,

we become philosophical.

One can, if a successful gentleman of many accomplishments,

for instance, with a little bit of money to spend,

make, as Emerson advised, your own world

far from the madness.

We're in North Wiltshire, and there's Bath in the distance.

It's really beautiful.

Oh, yeah, nice view.

You'll see how it just drifts away.

So that's about five miles as the crow flies.

There are few chefs who set the world of chefs aflame

like Marco Pierre White.

As young cooks, looking at his incredible rise

from working-class boy to the youngest

three-Michelin-starred chef in the world, we were inspired,

not just by his accomplishments and his food,

which were amazing, no great chef had ever

looked like him before or talked like him.

We were not, it appeared, alone.

I want to turn Rudloe into a house... Uhhmm.

...not a hotel, so when you walk inside, it's personal.

Once obsessed with nothing but working

the hardest, the longest, being the best,

Marco has transferred his obsessive nature

to the more pleasurable task of making the Rudloe Arms

his perfect place.

What's important about a restaurant

is the feel, not a look.

You could go to the best restaurant in the world tomorrow.

They could serve the best food.

But if you don't feel comfortable within that environment,

you'll never enjoy it.

Inside is as much a project as the grounds, every detail.

Then you can be yourself.

Number one, environment.

Number two, service.

Number three, food.

A pan-roasted filet of beef with escargot.

Whoa. It's beautiful.

Who do you want to come here?

People who enjoy themselves.

I like a mixed demographic.

- I wanna have everybody. - Uh-hmm.

I don't want to just target one market.

Food should be affordable.

Very, very good.

Has your food always reflected your aspirations and dreams

rather than where you came from?

I was born and bred on the outskirts of Leeds in a project

housing estate.

Even though I was born into very humble beginnings,

I used to cross my road, walk over the golf course,

and there I was on the Harewood Estates,

designed by the great Capability Brown, the stately home

of the Earl of Harewood.

That was my playground.

I was fascinated by the countryside.

I loved the rivers, the streams, the brooks,

the fields, the woods.

What was within them, that's what captured me.

It was a dream.

That was my escapism.

My mother died when I was six.

Mother Nature, she became my surrogate mother.

And so, therefore, I have this amazing

love affair with nature.

But look, once you go into a high-end restaurant,

you're about as far as from nature as you can be.

I mean, it's hard to rise up the ranks

of a good fine-dining restaurant, particularly in the time

that you came up.

Shit was not easy.

Everybody in the kitchen that I started in came from

a housing project.

They were working-class.

They were tough.

They were hard, really hard.

The flip side of that coin...

was nature.

It was all those beautiful ingredients, that beautiful

contradiction.

Come see my family.

Piggies! Come on, piggy, piggy, piggies.

Holy crap.

Come on, piggies!

Piggies! What do you think?

They seemed very well-groomed.

They're beautiful.

Don't eat, that's... those are jeans, not food.

They give you love bites, trust me.

Piggies, what do you think about our friends from America?

- Yeah. - What breed of pig are these?

These are Oxford Sandy and Black.

They're a traditional Wiltshire pig.

In four months, this is how big they've got.

Wow.

They remember your voice and your smell.

They're really, really affectionate.

Naturally, they're woodland.

Indeed, beautiful.

It's almost self-sustaining here.

Well, we will be for a bacon [indistinct]

Bye, pigs.

Piggies.

Piggies.

I've never been happier here.

I've found somewhere I'm really happy.

The legendary classic on Marco's original menu

back in the day, pig's trotter a la Pierre Koffmann,

an homage to another great chef and mentor.

It is perfection.

Oh, my God, that is beautiful.

When I was a young cook, we would look at photographs

of this dish, my comrades and colleagues,

and gape at it with wonder.

First we'd say, "Oh, my God, that's gorgeous,"

and, "How did he do it?"

It just got all of the textural things

that every great cuisine around the world

understands to be, "Wow."

Pig's trotter has got 24 bones, so you have to remove

all those bones.

And then you braise it for four hours.

Right.

It's very simple.

People think it's more complicated than it is.

I know. This is tricky... tricky dish.

The hero of the dish, really, is the skin.

Yes.

It's just one of those great creations.

As the French say, "We never grow old around the table."

They also say, "Only the first bottle is expensive."

Cheers.

♪

So this is my big project I'm working on

because I've fallen in love with this little part

of England.

I put myself out to graze, I suppose,

I'm gonna say I'm retired.

And I like to do what I do here.

If I look at the amount of nature we have here now,

since we've done what we've done, it's enormous

- -compared to what we had. - Right.

And I like seeing the increase of songbirds,

the hens with their young chicks, the geese they're my...

Fabulous, aren't they?

Amazing.

They're nuts.

They are beautifully, beautifully nuts.

There's no guarantees how long we're gonna be here.

Just enjoy life.

♪

The mood in London is like a collective nervous breakdown.

Drinking seems appropriate.

But first, a proper base must be established, some food.

All right.

You have saltfish callaloo, right?

Yeah.

I'll have some of that and then vegetable patty.

Saltfish, I think I'll have one of those.

And the mutton would be good.

This is what happens when I come off tour.

Straight here, stuff my face, then half a Guinness,

and then the night is good, so, you know.

Jamie Hince is half the creative alliance that makes up

the band The Kills.

Maybe you know them from such shows as... this one.

And this, Peppers and Spice in Islington,

is his favorite local joint for Caribbean food.

I'm enjoying your currency lately.

It's suddenly become very affordable since yesterday.

You know, I know.

You know, Britain, we've got a long history

of taking back control of our country, you know, getting

in the driving seat again.

And then we get in there and we just let the handbrake off,

and that's it, you know?

Thank you so much.

I'm extremely hungry.

I'm very excited about this.

Yeah, everything's good.

The best Jamaican this side of Ocho Rios.

Damn, that's tasty.

I've spent so much time hanging out with people

where you just eat really posh, gourmet food,

and when I come off tour, I just get... start salivating

when I'm on Essex Road.

Uh-hmm.

It is a shame they don't have a bar here, though.

Right.

You have to drink a lot, don't you?

I know, it's... -In my job as well... ...hard out.

...people don't think about that, you know?

How much I have to drink just to do this.

Bastards.

I mean, they should be more sensitive to that.

They should be.

♪

It's been one of the nastiest campaigns, so much lying,

so much dissembling.

Catastrophe.

So far, the reaction has been, well, chaos.

So, yesterday, prime minister resigned.

England leaving the European Union.

Honestly, it kind of makes me feel like... I don't believe

in democracy anymore.

How quickly the pound is reacting to political news.

We're entering a very dark, dangerous period.

Politics where things are decided by the...

People were talking about, "It's just dumb having a central"

government in Brussels.

"We've got nothing in common with people from Romania..."

Right.

"...and Bulgaria."

So, I haven't got anything in common with people

from Sunderland or Wales, you know, just like they haven't

got anything in common with people from London.

When some old people in Great Yarmouth, get them to decide

the budget.

Give, like, the foreign policy,

get the people from Sunderland to decide that.

London's a lot different from the rest of the country.

Right.

It's wealthier, for a start.

It's way more cosmopolitan.

And people complain about it all the time,

between the people that are struggling and the people

that are doing well.

What it really shone a light on is how divided

the country is.

People don't just look at it as a financial thing.

It's an issue of cultural identity too.

Citizens who have lived here for 10, 15 years,

for the first time ever, being the victims of racial abuse.

Are you evil?

British drinking patterns seem to be driven

by the fact that pubs close at, what, midnight.

Yeah.

I noticed, as we approach last call, people start, like,

doubling up.

The drinking starts to accelerate in a mad panic.

Load as many in.

Do you think if you extend the drinking hours,

that it would improve behavior or make it worse?

I mean, let's face it.

Your countrymen have a bad reputation as far as...

Drinking.

...sensible... yeah, sensible drinking.

Do you think that's a function of... Whatever.

♪

You know, when I was 14, 15, "Fear and Loathing"

came out in Rolling Stone.

I think it was the artwork first

that spoke to me in a really transformative way.

♪

It captured perfectly all of my rage, all of the absurdity,

all of these things that I didn't think

anybody else was seeing or responding to... Yeah.

...in the same way.

It was unlike anything I'd seen.

Artist, author, icon, Ralph Steadman, continues to make art

every day.

He was the visual expression of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's

finest works.

When Hunter came, 1991, 1992, I brought him

down to the pub here.

"Oh, Martin, this is Hunter."

"Hello."

Here would be Ralph's local, The Chequers Inn in Kent.

"Hunter, what do you like?"

"Chivas Regal, please."

So I said, "Okay, Martin, could you make [indistinct]"

That a double?"

Well, these optics, you know, they've got nothing in them.

They're tiny, little chiclet-size, yeah.

So did that twice with it, put it down in front of Hunter.

Hunter looked at it and he said, "What's that, a sample?"

Where are you from originally?

Well, I am Welsh.

My mother, she was Gwenny Rogers from Rhosllanerchrugog.

Uh-huh, don't ask me to spell that.

No, I can't even do it myself.

So how English do you feel, given that you grew up

in Wales?

Well, in a way, you know, it was not far from Liverpool.

The food is pub fare, a runny egg wrapped in

Parma ham and breadcrumbs, prawn cocktail for the man.

I think, it was the Scanlan's article the first you worked

with Hunter Thompson?

Kentucky Derby?

Yeah.

Wait, before that, would you say that you were

a respectable figure, making a living doing your work?

Because you kind of were transformed very quickly into a

counter-cultural figure.

I think a lot of people will, appropriately or not,

see you as an outlaw artist.

Yeah, but I didn't start off wanting to be an artist.

I wanted to be an aircraft engineer.

I didn't like factory life, but I had to go every week

to do technical drawing, and that's where the lines

and circles began.

Right.

I've been doing a book called "Critical Critters:"

The Beastly Sneers and Callous Observations by Ceri Levy."

He's writing about the thing.

Articulated bum lice?

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

I don't know whether they exist, but... Well,

I'm pretty sure they do... What?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they do.

Really?

Some sort... there's definitely bum-seeking insects

that I've encountered, they [indistinct]

He thinks that I'm obsessed with things to do with,

you know, lavatorial humor.

That's kind of an English thing.

Is it?

I saw an advert, "You, too, can learn to draw"

and earn pounds."

I took the course while I was doing military service.

I was drawing the guys in the billet playing cards,

blankets on the bed, boots in the bed.

Very simplistic stuff.

Nevertheless, it got me started.

And have you heard of an echidna?

I have not.

This is a hedgehog type of creature.

There aren't many of these left, you know.

They reach critical stages.

And this is going in, too, 'cause, "Excuse me",

we're collecting from endangered species."

We can all learn to do this first.

- Not this... - Right.

But this.

That is very difficult.

I don't think I can do that.

I'm quite sure I can't.

My basic motor skills are not so good.

Here, you got fish and chips.

Oh, blimey.

More old-school on the main courses.

Fish and chips with mushy peas over there,

Steak and Stilton pie for me, because any mystery meat

wrapped in pastry at a pub is pure crack for me.

Thank you very much.

Oh, you've got the pie, wow.

Oh, yeah.

Hmm.

We don't do this back in America.

So many people have said to me, "Do you pencil it in first?"

I said, "No, you just start drawing."

"But don't you make a mistake?"

I said, "There's no such thing as a mistake."

A mistake is an opportunity to do something else.

You have to leave it and let nature take its course.

Oh, my God, now, isn't that lovely?

That is... I like... I'm impressing myself.

It's so good.

All of nature is impressing me, actually.

That it's just so wonderful how it works.

It's a kind of natural process of evolution, isn't it?

It's what we're doing all the time.

You're certainly your depiction of politicians

early on. You seemed filled with rage and disgust,

deservedly, I'd think.

And there were some epic depictions of Nixon.

Was it Nixon as Godzilla, was it, that I...

Yeah, he was a great subject.

I mean, I've done him as a flying Nixon, a vampire Nixon,

bat Nixon... Did you ever get an official reaction

to your work from the White House?

Never.

"I am not a giant, shitting Godzilla."

You don't wanna deny that.

No, it's funny how that was.

And Boris Johnson here.

I think the hair, in this case, is just...

It's an irresistible impulse.

Well, to do it, I... I've got to come out

with it more [indistinct]

But it's perfect.

Boris is our Trump.

Well, they're both... It is a supernova

of incredibly bad hair.

Yeah.

I mean, the two of them together... What's happening? What's

going on in this country?

Is it gonna be okay?

Not at the moment, no.

Does it say anything about the country as a whole?

So, I think it does.

Perhaps there's been a secret desire to really say,

"Wait a minute, what would it be like to be on a...

The... a great British Isles again?"

I was doing this last week just

because I can't stand snakes, so I said,

"Okay, I'll do you one."

I did one snake last week, decided to do this,

Saint Lucia racer snake.

Ugh, right there.

And then the next day, we had the referendum.

Friday morning, when people realized what had happened,

there was a terrible gloom.

There's a scent I... We all felt it.

This desire to restore England to its former glory

as the British Isles, it's certainly given a revived,

a very powerful urge in Scotland... to reconsider whether

they wanna be a part.

Oh, dear. I think it's only gonna get worse

- -before it gets better. - Uh-hmm.

And I'm certain that what we are experiencing at the moment

is a kind of rather large hangover from something

that we've still got to come to terms with and get over.

Do you think some of your stuff has anger in there,

or exasperation, or... That's... I think so... look,

I said to... I don't know, 50 years ago that I wanted

to change the world, and I think, 50 years later,

I succeeded.

It's worse now than it was when I started, so I changed it,

being that was... This is great.

It's kind of emerging.

You know, it's coming.

I mean, this guy, he demands a Steadman.

He really... -Something... -He was born to have you work...

I try to lighten it up a bit.

The sea.

The sea, where a man can forget his trouble

and the troubles of the world, commune with something

infinitely larger and more powerful than himself.

Where he could find himself locked in an epic struggle

with a creature of the sea, plumbing the depths for that

most primordial of needs:

food.

Well, let's hope we have them quick.

Get off, get off.

Oh, my God, there's the forehook, look.

Oh, my God.

Not good.

Oh, my God, it got the bait.

Nature, it's overrated.

We're in the middle of the English Channel.

We are designed to find, kill, tear apart,

and devour the food we need to survive.

It is why God, in His wisdom, gave us legs upon

which to run, eyes in the front of our heads

to seek out prey, fingernails and thumbs

with which to tear apart our victims,

teeth to smash flesh and bone between our mighty jaws.

♪

Here in the coastal town of Weymouth

at the Marlboro is where I'll be smashing

deep-fried haddock between my freaking jaws

with something called a chip.

Sliced white bread and butter so we can make a chip butty.

Would you like a chip butty?

I don't know that I've ever had one.

- I've heard of them. - Delicious.

All right, you're an easy man to please.

The chef suggests the mushy peas

infused with butter and cream.

I have such fond memories of Weymouth.

My sons went to school just down the road.

I used to bring them to the Marlboro for lunch and that.

And they weren't big fans of fish and chips

because they were, sort of, 13, 14 and they preferred meat

to fish and chips.

But this is the best restaurant, in my opinion, in Weymouth.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, that's very kind.

I'll put the mushy peas in the middle.

You see, this is how we do it in Yorkshire.

So go ahead and taste the mushy peas without vinegar.

Bon appétit.

They're all right.

Now, put the vinegar on.

Oh, my... So working-class, as they say in Yorkshire.

Mmm.

Would you prefer them with vinegar?

It transforms the whole thing.

Completely different, isn't it?

I love buttering my bread.

Now, this is the best bit.

I can't believe you've never had a chip butty.

Well, today's the day.

When I was a kid, this was one of my favorites.

The only fish I ever ate as a child was fried haddock.

Wouldn't eat any other fish.

And then the vinegar, quite generous.

And then the salt.

And this is what we call a chip butty in Yorkshire

where I come from.

Mmm.

I like the cheap bread because the bread turns

into the same texture as the potato.

Right.

That's why it's perfect.

If you have posh bread or crusty bread, -Right.

...it's not the same.

How's your haddock?

Good.

But it's proper working-class food, is fish and chips.

Yeah, when I was a kid, we'd eat them twice a week.

They'd cook fish and chips in dripping, -beef fat, not oil.

Uh-hmm.

It makes a massive, massive difference in the flavor.

Yeah.

It's quite good.

You were hungry.

We worked hard out there.

Keeping warm.

Indeed.

It's big.

It's too big, look, I'm done.

One more bite, yeah, me too.

That's my problem.

I go for the chip butty before the fish.

It's the child within me.

Hidden away safely behind the walls of a former

Victorian-era schoolhouse, insulated from the moronic

inferno blazing outside, is Rochelle Canteen,

a green idyll, the unpretentious brainchild

of Margot Henderson and her business partner

Melanie Arnold.

How long have you been up and running here?

Ten years.

- God, I can't believe... - Ten years, where have you been?

I know, what is wrong with me?

You were a chef before Fergus, yes?

Yeah. Well, I started cooking in restaurants

- -when I was 12. - Yeah.

But this is Fergus, peas in their pods.

We met when I was working at the Eagle,

and I said straightaway to him, "We should open"

a restaurant together."

And he said, "Well, that's a good idea",

but let's be lovers as well,"

which I always thought was quite good.

And then we had a restaurant.

The whole area has changed down to it.

It's very Shoreditch, groovy guys on little

motorbikes with handlebars.

What was the neighborhood like before?

Quite a large Bengali community.

Before that, it was quite a strong Jewish community.

But then they moved out, next group move in.

It's a poor area.

A lot of people working in the fabric, clothing industries.

The bandstand in the middle is all the rubble from the war.

I think the gardeners still find, you know,

children's shoes and things.

Really?

It is a very interesting area.

Just how beautiful these blocks are.

It's quite a lot of building works

- -going on at the moment as well. - Everywhere in London.

I mean, the whole city seems to be, kind of, transforming.

It's certainly expensive... My daughter, she's moving

because of what happened today about the EU.

She's going to either live in Scotland or New Zealand.

And she's so embarrassed and ashamed to be English.

Is it the end of the world?

It feels... right now, it feels like the end of the world.

We have separated.

We're a little mean island saying,

"When the going gets tough, we want to get out

and just look after ourselves."

It's so selfish and disgusting.

It's also, out of London, there is a lot of people

who are really struggling and have lost their way

and don't believe in what the government has done.

So, I don't blame the people either.

But they're being fed, sort of, lies, I would say.

Anyway, it's all too depressing.

We must change the subject.

Vitello tonnato, cold-roasted veal thinly sliced

and covered with a creamy sauce of tuna and capers.

Oh, this looks good.

These are good.

Hmm.

So, what's going right?

I mean, it's a bad day to ask.

Well, there's lots of great restaurants opening in the city.

Right, London, and UK in general.

It's just gotten just better and better every year, right.

It's brilliant, isn't it?

It's so exciting.

Great chefs... The people who voted "for,"

was it a sense of people who feel they just...

They've been screwed?

I mean, young people, unemployment in the north,

it's dire.

Right.

People haven't got jobs.

But, I mean, everyone's looking for chefs.

Right.

Why we should turn... We should set up some great big new

cookery schools in Britain.

I mean, no one can get enough decent chef.

- Uh-hmm. - Some more encouragement.

I mean, there is work to be had.

But it's just how you find it and where you come from.

Lamb chops with lentils and green sauce.

Hmm, so good.

Where'd this little lamb come from?

From Wales, Welsh lamb.

Nice. People who dine out now, do they want food simpler

and more stripped down, and with less bullshit,

or do you think it's going the other way?

Simple, but with a sort of twist.

That have got a story about where it's come from.

- Right. - It's very interesting.

You know, they're all coming up with new dishes.

Should I be buying pounds now with... No, that's what

I kept thinking.

What do we all do now?

If I were a cruelly cynical, exploitative...

That little [indistinct]

You know... what would I... What would I be doing?

Are you selling or you're buying?

Yeah, I don't... I'm [indistinct]

Look at me, master of high finance.

You look so well.

Well, thank you.

You must be... You're making me feel

much better without them.

This meal and the wine, I have to say,

your company has made me feel much better about the world

and myself.

Can you reinvent yourself in England or in London...

I mean, maybe you can.

I'm sure you can.

But people are obsessed with class here.

Still, really?

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

It's our measure of authenticity.

So people are always trying to bust people.

"He's a toff!"

you know.

What is a toff?

An aristocrat, yeah.

Aristocrat? Right.

My friend Adrian wrote a book called "The Angry Isle,"

and he talks about how the British are famous

for being polite, apologizing a lot, but that that actually

masks a deep anger.

Do you think there's any truth to that at all?

Well, I think... because I've been spending

a lot of time in California, which is, you know...

And so when you... when you come to London...

If you come to London for a month, you won't make

any friends, and you probably won't find anywhere to go,

- but after that, the best people - you've ever met in your life.

When I went to LA, that first month, I was so popular.

Everyone's... I started, like, six bands, and then,

nothing comes of it.

There's a kind of real first impression thing... -Right

...that doesn't go anywhere.

In London, it's just get it done and deal with it.

Right.

Well, hey!

See, here we go.

We're closing, closing.

[indistinct] closing... Get [indistinct] some.

Staggering news is now sinking in.

Markets are giving a brutal reaction.

When the world seems like it's spinning out of control,

and the inside of your skull feels like it's being gnawed on

by angry wolverines.

The sun has risen on a completely different UK

and a completely different EU.

When you wake up still tasting tequila,

feeling shame, fear, and regret in equal measures,

it's good to have a friend... Europe's weaker,

Britain's divided, where do we go now?

...who, without judgment, gives you a shoulder to cry on

and maybe a simple good thing, like some eggs and sympathy.

I'm horribly and savagely hungover.

That's very unlike you.

I was feeling shame, and regret, -and mourning...

Yeah, you're not the only one.

Don't know what's happening.

Okay, I'm gonna give you some eggs in Purgatory.

Why Purgatory?

Because they're in chili sauce and tomatoes,

special hangover cure.

I know you need it.

I... yes.

Now, do you know about the delicacy -of fried slice?

No.

English delicacy which is like British bruschetta,

you fry plastic bread.

Uh-hmm.

I've got some really good beef dripping.

Kind of magical.

Pure grease.

It's a... I... that's what I need right now.

Yeah.

I think that's how everyone felt a bit

after the referendum too.

I think there's something very strange about you

because you look normal but it's all going on inside.

Yes, you have got a slight pleading look in your eyes.

I do. It's a... Okay, the whole point of this is,

the plastic bread soaks in all the fat.

Right.

So when you eat it, it bursts with grease in your mouth.

It's that good.

I like the noise.

Here, I'm gonna give it to you.

It may still be a bit runny I like runny.

I need runny today.

Okay.

Just try a bit dry first, so you can just get the fats

going into your mouth.

Hmm.

There is light and hope in the universe again.

- Thank you. - That's what I aim to provide.

Spice, runny eggs, and grease, just what I needed.

Hmm, so good.

I have something absolvent.

You know that thing in "The Simpsons" once when he wants

to put on weight so he doesn't have to go to work?

And he allows himself to eat things that when you rub it

on something it makes it go see-through, like that.

"Your window to weight gain."

Yes, here, here, just make this turn

see-through now if you want.

I can see myself in about six months.

I do feel quite pleased that we can be

a corrupting influence.

That's something that we can be proud of.

These are frightening times for many.

The world is changing, and there is no stopping

those changes.

But in such times, there are always two ways to go,

run and hide, build walls, cower in fear and suspicion,

point the finger at our neighbors, look, like desperate,

frightened people do, for someone to blame,

or stand up and try... at least try to build a better world,

to look for, instead of a man on a horse to save us

or a wall to keep us apart, to our better angels.