Chat Ed : Welcome to this evening's FRENCH LEAVE chat with chef John Burton Race! French Leave is a cookery show that goes beyond the kitchen, taking us on a journey into the French countryside and into the heart of a family. Fed up with life in the UK, chef John Burton Race is swapping the pressures of running a highly successful London restaurant for a farmhouse in south-west France. Joining him on this adventure are his wife Kim, their six children aged between three and sixteen and the family pet – a Labrador puppy. John hopes to rediscover his family, his love of cooking and his creativity. But will the reality of life in rural France match up to his dreams, or will it be a case of out of the frying pan into the fire?
John Burton Race : Hi everybody!
Terry Dean : hi
Helibore : Hello John!
andy : when did you up sticks and go to france? how long did you spend there and did the film crew spend every day with you?
francais karim : bonjour
John Burton Race : I spent about 13 months in France and for filming the crew were with us for about seven days of every month.
bonjour : are you still leaving in france and enjoying it, do you miss the UK
John Burton Race : When I was in France I didn't miss the UK at all. I've been back in England for about two months.
duderoo : what made u make such a decision
John Burton Race : That's a long one...I wanted to do French Leave for about three years (the book) and I couldn't get any publishers interested. Through a mutual friend I met Pat Llewelyn of Naked Chef and Two Fat Ladies fame and after a long drawn out process she said that she wanted to follow my story. At the time I saw very little of my family and children. On average I was spending 12 hours a day in the restaurant and three hours commuting to and from work. I was also running four different consultancies and basically I was looking for a change.
Lisa : Presumably you have moved back to the UK, now, if so would you like to live in France at a later date?
Trinity : Any plans to go back?
barbara : Would you like to live in France permanently?
John Burton Race : I plan to go back at Christmas for a short break. I love France. I don't yet know what the future holds for us though.
DamianHertford : Host please tell John, I have reported young Charles to, The Society for the prevention of cruelty to deaux cheveaux (van division)
Stephen : hello John. Enjoyed tonights episode but what happened to the old van ?
Jack : What happened to the banger in the end john?did it go for scrap?
John Burton Race : It definitely did not go for scrap. It was sold to a local where it's getting treated a lot better than Charles treated it. And P.S., I reported him as well.
freakwentflyer101 : great show.: why did the french farmers turn their desert plates upside to eat?
sally : love the programme John!! why do the French turn the plates upside down??
John Burton Race : To save on washing up.
Philippa : Congratulations on embracing the French way of life, even my French mother has been impressed when watching the videos of the programme I've sent her! Do you think you could live in other similiar countries like Italy, or is it just a French thing?!!
John Burton Race : It's definitely not just a French thing for me. My underlying interest is food. So I could probably live anywhere where there's some good food.
Champignon : As a chef, you already had an extensive knowledge of French cooking. Did you learn anything new, surprising or unexpected?
John Burton Race : The answer is yes...I learnt about ingredients at their source. I learnt about the passion of the people that produce these ingredients and I am now able to differentiate between a good ingredient and a bad one. I also learnt that cooking for the family with no help meant I had to change my style of cooking completely. It's OK to be elaborate when you have got 17 chefs in your kitchen.
EoinK : How did the French react to having an Englishman cooking for them, and sharing some of their secrets with you?
John Burton Race : Initially they were very suspicious and it was for me to get their confidence and prove that I knew something about food. Once I achieved that they were willing to pass on what they knew
oijohn : Your mother in law, what is she like?
paul plummer : john how are you going to try and combat your mother in laws horrid taste in english junk food
John Burton Race chuckles, contrary to popular opinion my mother in law loves me :) What you saw on TV was a set-up by the crew. Paul, I'm going to ban her from bringing any into the house.
Christophe Isabel : John, did you improve your play of Ptanque ?
John Burton Race : I'd love to say yes, but apart from fishing and shooting I'm a lousy sportsman.
jim : i am really looking forward to seeing the truffle seies
iceman : john for the millionth time! what do truffles taste like?
John Burton Race : Well truffles are supposed to be an aphrodisiac, call me boring but I never worked out why. They have a very earthy smell and quite a tough texture. It's one of those things that you either love or you hate. Kim hates them. She says they smell of dirty socks.
sue : John I would be banging my head against a brick wall by now. Why are your family so fussy about their food - most of the time they wont even give if a small taste. How do you overcome that
John Burton Race : I've got a sort of terrier mentality and once I've got the bone I'll never give it up. I can assure you that my perseverance is working.
Stephen Lord : do you know where i can get the music and who did it?
Annaboo : Hello there! Love the music to the show - what is it?
John Burton Race : Yep, a very young gentleman called Daniel Pemberton wrote the music for the show. I think he did the Edwardian Country House too. If you contact my producers at Optomen they will be very pleased to give you his details. I hope you love his music as much as I do. The number for Optomen TV is: 020 7967 1234
Beth : Did you just turn up at the convent or was it pre arranged?
CB : did you really break-down/get lost each time, it looks a bit set-up, how come you just happened to be somewhere where gastronomes appeared?
John Burton Race : I actually didn't just turn up. I walked five and a half miles in 90 degrees to get there. The only pre-arranged stuff was that the crew followed me. CB, if you knew me I'm the type of bloke that loses my car in the multi-storey car park, goes back to it two hours later only to find that the engine is still running. Kim has divorced me at least 50 times for such behaviour. Yes, I really did break down and as for gastronomes - these were only local farmers. There were no gastronomes.
Daisy : Will you be meeting with any more wild boars?
Muhunthan : Why was one of the boar in last weeks show not sacrificed for culinary purposes ? It is quite delicious and I for one was disappointed not to see how the french cook it!
John Burton Race : I'm sure that the wild boar and I will meet one day. Apparently there are at least 1500 roaming around in the southeast of England after they escaped during the 1987 hurricane. Because my last encounter with a wild boar was one that tried to bite me I am tempted to get my own back and give you the pleasure of seeing how I will cook it.
livlov : hello john ...out of all your children, whos the one that made the most of the language?
John Burton Race : Olivia is completely fluent in French - both written and spoken and in fact she won the music prize at her college singing in Spanish in a French school! Amelia, the little one, dreams in French but unfortunately she has taken on board the very rough southwest accent. So I'm sure that no one in Paris could understand her.
food fanatic : Do you prefer the french way of living and eating to the english?
manuel : is there anything you do not like in french food?
John Burton Race : The answer to that has got to be yes, but the thing is in France is that it's a part of their way of life. We have some fantastic ingredients in England, great farmers markets and brilliant produce - unfortunately being British we don't seem to be able to sing our own praises. We don't seem to be able to do much with what we've got. I'd love to do a sort of French Leave in this country.
Ged Kelly : hasn't that been done with river cottage
John Burton Race : manuel, yes there is. I hate sauces thickened with blood and there is a chicken dish and a hare dish in the southwest, which uses both blood and chocolate to thicken and sweeten the sauce. I just can't stomach it. Ged, no because in River Cottage the food, in my opinion, isn't practical or attainable for most people. I love the programme and I think Hugh is great but I'd like to get hold of ingredients and do something that we all might aspire to cook.
Richard66526 : John - Between you and C4 you have made a programme that has clearly attracted many viewers - Are there any plans to make another series?
betty : John, would you like to do another series and if so, where would you like it to take place ?
betty : If you could do it again, which country would you pick and why ?
John Burton Race : There is talk of another series. My first choice would be to do something here in England. I believe that although I can't cook English food as such there are enough beautiful ingredients to create a new style of British cooking. There are a lot of very passionate, smallholders, farmers and vegetable and fruit producers in this country and I would love to show people what there is out there.
Jeffrey Alan Herring : You could do it county by county - Norfolk Leave, Suffolk Leave etc
John Burton Race : I would also like to organise a farmers market. The way they are organised in France where they are set up under co-operatives and they work alongside the larger retailers and use them to distribute their products.
Leon : You can do a farmers market in Wiltshire
barbara : Come to Basingstoke we have a fantastic regular farmers market
yo : lincolnshire fab raw ingredients
Fabienne : come to wallingford for our fantastic farmers' marker
John Burton Race chuckles at Jeffrey, I'd love the opportunity to do that - fingers crossed! I live in Oxfordshire and we have farmers markets all over the place, unfortunately it's just a cottage industry, I believe that if they could get organised it would be the way forward.
daveb : if one dish epitomises your time in france , which dish you found would it be and why?
RickSteinsLoveChild : Hi John. What would you say is your favourite dish?
John Burton Race : I think food is about an atmosphere and it depends who you are with and it depends what the weather is and what the scenery is and what mood you are in. There are so many dishes when I'm in a really good mood and I'm feeling in love that are memorable.
Jonathan : John thanks for a great cooking show.
April : Do you have any cookery books published?
Jules : Can you give me any tips for a rich, dark sauce for beouf bourguignon?
John Burton Race : I have one other which was published back in 1994 called 'John Burton Race' which was just a collection of recipes that I used to serve on my lunchtime menu at the L'Ortolan when I owned it. Jules - you need to make sure that you cover the beef in very, very hot oil and likewise if you cover the vegetables when making the stock that will affect the colour of the finished sauce. The red wine will do the rest.
Chat Ed : That's it! Thanks for coming and talking to us John!
yo : best of luck!!
EoinK : What was your favourite of the local wines?
jorandall : good luck!
razvi : good luck for the future
ellen baker : What are you going to do with all those chairs? Ellen age 10
MarkD : Thanks John
John Burton Race : Thank you all for watching the series. I've been completely overwhelmed by the response and I hope that you are enjoying it as much as I did. Thank you, goodbye.
April : Bye John!
John Burton Race leaves the room
