T.V Chefs Take on Knutsford's finest.

Si and Dave preparing for their round in the Mooney's kitchen

Cactus TV's culinary moto duo "The Hairy Bikers" rode into Knutsford on Wednesday morning for the Cheshire bout of Pros v.s T.V Chefs.

It was a drizzly horrible day in Knutsford when Simon King's huge belly laugh penetrated King Street from an open window at The Belle Epoque. As i walked in, the brasserie section was alive with the buzz of production and frantic gaffer taping. Eager passers by stopped to press up against the beveled window in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the two rotund culinares. I was greeted by the fresh-faced production crew member who quickly brought me upto speed with the running order whilst negotiating with staff for sandwiches.

I spied two helmets, placed in an orderly fashion, on the red leather bench seat; the first real sign of their existence causing my celebrity shooting nerves to jangle. Strange really, I had just met them hours earlier on the nursery run when I dropped the window of my car and extended a "Welcome to Knutsford, Guys".

Dave appeared on the staircase and seemed quite preoccipied as he thumbed through some notes, ingoring the brasserie and its army of production people. He passed by and headed into the kitchen. I quickly snapped a 20mm onto one of my camera bodies and moved off into the tiled inferno. The two men stood at the opposite end of the kitchen, leaning over a prep area, slicing chunks of lean meat while musing over the ride into town.

Completely in the dark about what the show was focussed on, I hesitantly asked the production assistant for an update. "Yeah the guys are mounting challenges at all the top restaurants in the UK, on a county by county basis." All ingredients are sourced in the county and both resident chef and bikers have to come up with their own dishes, made from similer components. This sounded interesting, she went on to say that shortly after the food was prepared a panel of tasters would judge the dishes and blindly vote for the best dish.

Dave Mooney looked over at Myers quizzically for a moment and asked "What happens if the resident chef comes off worse with the panel?". "its not the way it's filmed, no one comes off badly, we dont want to upset anyone by making them look rubbish, we wouldnt  have a show other wise".He reliped. David Mooney's reputation as a top class chef would'nt be shaken by the two bikers as he sat causally in the kitchen sipping esspresso whilst the production crew scurried about the room.

As they closed for filming the two men looked drained wth the days output and after wrapping up they headed off back into the brasserie to suit up for the ride to into Alderley Edge. Cactus TV (of Richard & Judy, Saturday Kitchen fame) said that the new Hairy Bikers show is due to roll out across the television network next summer. From the information that I was able to harvest, it appears to be a large scale television production lasting for many weeks so be on the look out for scenes of Knutsford when it appears on our screens.

Offsite Links - Knutsford Times is not responsible for the content of other linked sites

http://www.hairybikers.com
http://www.cactustv.co.uk
http://www.thebelleepoque.com
http://www.farber.co.uk