Features / Food
Terry Wogan’s culinary tour of Bristol
This article was originally published on September 10, 2015
“I’m seeking out the flavours that this fine old port city has to offer” explains Sir Terry Wogan as he begins his trip to Bristol with London cabbie Mason McQueen in BBC Two’s Terry and Mason’s Great Food Trip.
Just to remind viewers where we are, there are lots of establishing shots of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
They begin their tour of the city on Corn Street, where Terry poses for a photo with a fan after they work out how to use her camera phone.
Terry sports trousers that our mayor would be proud of.
Their first stop is at Cafe Revival, Bristol’s oldest coffee house, where the pair take the piss out of the Bristol Pound.
“I don’t believe you can walk into a shop here with that garish currency,” Terry says when told about what Mason calls “funny money”.
Making the acquaintance of Pirate Pete outside the Arnolfini, Terry is told about Bristol’s pirating history before learning about some of the food brought back on the ships at the Hole in the Wall pub.
Over on St Mark’s Road, Rashid from Sweet Mart amazes Tel with the produce sold in his Easton shop.
“This place is an Aladdin’s cave of exotic food and spices,” the knight of the realm explains.
He and Mason are then shown how to make Gujarati vegetarian curry by Rashid’s wife Tehseen.
“I’m not hungry,” this little lad tells the pair after he is offered a taste.
But plenty of other customers, including food writer Genevieve Taylor, who chose Sweet Mart as one of her top-five Bristol favourites earlier this year, enjoy the curry.
Here are the other taste testers:
Terry and Mason then head back to Corn Street.
“At St Nicholas Market, the hungry traveler can stop and taste cuisines from the four corners of the earth,” says Terry as he strolls casually through the Glass Arcade, camera in tow.
He isn’t initially a fan of Eat a Pitta: “It looks like a salad bar.”
“Why’s Terry Wogan at St Nick’s?” that woman in the background must be thinking.
Ahh Toots, however, meets with a seal of approval.
As does Matina.
Other stalls featured include The Bristol Sausage Shop and Caribbean Wrap.
“There’s nothing I like more than watching people eating,” Terry says as he sat with performance poet and jerk chicken fan Miles Chambers outside Caribbean Wrap.
Then it’s time to visit North Street.
“I’m making a chocolate ss Great Britain,” says Zara from Zara’s Chocolates.
“Tell me why,” replies Terry matter-of-factly, before lending a hand on the decking.
Terry and Mason’s final stop is The Rummer, where head chef Andy Clatworthy prepares a three-course meal recreating the menu from the Berni Inns – the first of which was founded here.
“Bristol has been a sort of taste sensation hasn’t it,” Tezza concludes.
Sensational, sir. Sensational.
Read all of our stories about Bristol’s flourishing food and drink scene here
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