James Martin welcomed a host of guests on to his ITV Saturday Morning cooking show which aired a festive edition on Christmas Day. The TV chef prepared a Christmassy dessert for Chris Evans and Denise van Outen but changed his mind when the pair cheekily criticised how long the dish took to make.
Turning to Denise, James began: “This is a dish that when I knew you were coming for Christmas I thought I’m going to do a dish that I got from New York because you were on Broadway.
“I’m going to do a dish that comes from slightly around the corner from there and it comes from this amazing bakery where I learnt this dish called the monkey bread.
“Now I’ve done this before on TV but I’ve never done it with this ice cream.
“We’re going to make a chocolate bar ice cream in my Christmas present to myself.”
“We’ve seen it,” Chris commented. “We all want one, don’t we Denise?”
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“Yes, a nice bit of kit,” she replied.
James began preparing the desert and made a special vegan version for Chris but the TV chef kept being interrupted by his guests’ cheeky comments.
When it was time to make the ice cream, James said: “This is the only time I’m going to get them both to be quiet.
“This is my little Christmas present to myself, [inside] is a vegan ice cream with chocolate bars in it, frozen solid.
“Put it in this machine and there’s a blade that sits underneath and the blade goes all the way down and back up again.”
“Now we’re with you,” Chris said and Denise echoed: “I’m with you, I can’t even speak.”
“Oh you’re back in the room now, are you?” James asked.
Earlier in the show, James quizzed Denise on performing in her cabaret show during the coronavirus pandemic.
Denise said: “We’re very lucky with the cabaret show in London because it’s a restaurant setting so even in Tier two, three we could still open and perform and it did really well.”
“We’ve had acts from Cirque du Soleil, Moulin Rouge, all the Vegas showgirls.
“I absolutely love it, I thrive off of it, I chat to the audience, I compére the evening, I sing, then the acts perform while I sing.”
“It’s quite spectacular, it’s lovely. I really enjoy it,” she added.
Denise went on to discuss her upcoming Dancing On Ice stint, she said: “I’ve got to be honest I’ve watched the show for many years with my daughter.
“She loves it at her age, it’s magical. I always said I’d never do it because I’m too scared.
“I did Strictly in 2012 and I loved it and it was hard but this is a million times harder.
“It doesn’t matter how good you are at dancing it’s all about your balance and losing the fear really.”
James Martin’s Saturday Morning continues on ITV on Boxing Day at 10.40am.