Last week saw the final episode of a Cook’s Tour of Spain.… and before you start to mumble about “yet more gastro-travelogue”, and “must be great for the film crew” it should be noted that this series was surprisingly good. When Thomasina Miers and her sidekick Guy Grieve made their earlier programme “Wild Gourmets” for Channel Four the whole elaborate “living off the land” concept rather fell apart, foraging is a very seasonal business and you would need a couple of years to make such programmes without cheating.

The Spanish venture was much more successful. For once the researchers had managed to find some real and authentic cooks, food producers and fishermen. The elements of the programme shot in Spain were charming and informative. The other side to the format – cooking dems shot in a British kitchen – was also well done. At no point was anything dumbed down to the level of frozen mashed potato. Guy had a different role this time out, he was to be on hand at all times in case anything needed shooting and in the last episode he dutifully nailed a chamois. The animal made its way to the grill after we had seen both the kill and the gralloching in the open air – and to think that Jamie agonised over whether to show a sheep being killed!

All the recipes featured seemed accessible and interesting whether it was the light fluffy meatballs made by the matriarch of a saffron growing family or the technique for cooking beans over an open fire by stringing the whole pods on a wire, (something I shall certainly be trying this autumn). A dish of baked onions – cut a cross in the top of each and add slivers of garlic; splosh on plenty of oil; add some jamon and some blue cheese; bake in a hot oven – looked simple, honest, authentic and appetising. You could almost catch the  smell of it wafting from the screen. Thomasina has good Spanish and the happy knack of seeming interested in the local cooking techniques and styles – that enthusiasm brought the best out of the Spaniards and made the series most enjoyable. Cook’s Tour proved that cookery programmes do not have to be either gimmick laden or hardcore reality television. Sometimes they can succeed by being well made, informative and entertaining.

Charles Campion