(upbeat music) - We are Sorted. A group of mates who have your back when it comes to all things food. from cooking battles, to gadget reviews,
- Ben it's not worth it. - And cookbook challenges
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everything we do starts with you. (energetic guitar music) - Hello, everyone. Now
our mate James is a chef, and he's in our studio. Hello, James. - Hello, Jamie. - And we thought even
though we're in lockdown, we can still explore the
world of extravagance see what we discover. - So as always, we have picked some potentially pretentious ingredients and sent them to the studio for James, plus, I've left very strict instructions for Mike to prepare at a safe distance a few food items that
might work with them. - Shall I lift the cloche? ooh wow, it's oil a nut oil. It's not great you think oil off the spoon it taste peanutty but I can imagine it's not peanut oil, 'cause that's not pretentious
enough for this video. - [Ben] This is arganics virgin Argan oil. It's 100% pure, lightly
toasted, organic, cold pressed and perfect for culinary use delicious nutty taste
perfect as a finishing oil. It was a best kept secret of the Berber people of North Africa. It's a nutty golden oil that comes from the
fruit of the Argan tree which itself is ancient
and UNESCO protected. - It looks good, the branding is nice. It looks expensive. - So Argan oil products generally fall into two camps. You've got cosmetics and you've got culinary use and in culinary use, it's
very much a finishing oil or you can literally take it almost as like for the health benefits you just take like a tablespoon a day you might take a cod liver oil, similarly. - I've heard of it as a cosmetic thing but not as culinary thing. I've got some bread to dip it in. It's not the nicest
thing to eat with bread. To me it doesn't taste
like you're finishing oil in the same way that I want
to cook with peanut oil 'cause it imparts and amazing flavour. I wanna cook with this but this has been marked
as a finishing oil. I have two other pots. - [Ben] Well One is an
extra virgin olive oil and one is a pistachio oil. - This one's the olive oil. It's quite mild olive oil actually. It's nice. So I also have the pistachio oil. Woo, it's not got the same satisfaction as the olive oil. It's actually quite
similar to the Argan oil. It's very mild, therefore
it's more oily than flavourful. Weirdly, I'm enjoying it more now that I've gone back to it after the other two oils. - Interesting. - Maybe it's because
I've tasted olive oil. It's now kind of tasting
a little bit sweeter. - We've said that before we
things like whiskey tasting, you need to get your palate
in the right place sometimes - Yeah. - To be able to tastes tasted properly. - Yeah, well, my palate
is now in the right place and it's actually tasting nicer. - I think as always, we come back to the question, what's the definition of pretentious? just because it's
something unfamiliar to us. Is that pretentious? I think the story behind
this is really nice, because the founder of Arganic, basically spent a couple of years researching the Berber communities 'cause she loved the
heritage of the story. - Says over 600 Berber
women benefit directly from the production of our oil, it's on the label, which is cool. I don't know whether it inspires me to use it anywhere that
I wouldn't use olive oil. For example, we've tested
pumpkin oil as well before and that flavour kind of blew me away. It adds a different element to a dish this it's nice to have on bread and I started appreciating the flavour. But it's very very mellow. - And price wise James that bottle 250 mil any guesses? - £9.99. - It's a lot more than £9.99 the 600 Berber women who spent 15 hours hand crushing 30 kilos
of UNESCO protected nut. - Right (mumbles). - Is a little bit more than £9.99, it's £28. - £28. - For premium oils and
cold pressed extra virgin, it's on par. - If anyone actually does use Argan oil to finish their dishes or any other weird and
wonderful uses for it, let me know, I'd be really interested to know how it differs from olive oil if you use it in a different way. - Pretentious or not. - Definitely not pretentious. (soft upbeat music) - What's it gonna be? It's some dried things. I think they're crispy tomato slices. - Good, so we've we've
established you can read - It looks pretentious. Shall I taste them? I've got a lot of reservation. When you pick them up, they're a little bit crispy. They taste of tomato. The taste is good. But I'd rather be sun
dried tomato, I think. These are not crispy anymore. They're chewy. - [Jamie] Well James, theses are the Dardimans
tomato fruit crisps this savoury snack makes
a healthy alternative to traditional crackers, dehydrated and served in slices. They make a great accompaniment with cheeses, salad, pasta,
and best of all charcuterie. - They're a great ingredient. They're not for snacking. - Is that the issue? You're saying because they're dehydrated you don't like them? - Yeah, perhaps the freeze
dried one would be better. I don't dislike them, they have a nice flavour because they're obviously
really nice tomatoes. - What they say is that because they dehydrate rather
than sun dry or freeze dry, they're able to retain all
of the fruit's vitamins, you get to keep the earthy
colours, the natural flavours, and there's no sugars or preservatives. So that is as tomato
as a tomato could get. - And it's nice, it tastes good. I think the issue I have is probably the claim that it's fine snacking soon as I saw that it was game over man I don't mind the chewiness but it's not great on its own. - Well, what if we served
it to you as instructed? - Look at these. My goodness. - [Jamie] There you
should have some canopies with piped garlic and herb cream cheese on top of your tomato fruit Crisp. - [Ben] Well have a taste,
see if it changed your mind. - No. - Oh, come on. - What do you want from a canopy base. You either want something
that kind of carries the topping and then disappears completely or you want something that gives a bit of texture to the canopy. What you don't want is something that stays in your mouth for five minutes after you finish the actual canopy. I wanna be clear and say that I'm not saying it's bad. Like it tastes nice. And I'm sure it has a uses. You just can't use it
straight out of the box. - Do you wanna have a
crack at how much it costs? - £5.99? - It was £5.95. - Ah, what a guess. - Okay, James. You know what I'm gonna ask you pretentious or not? - In my opinion. I'm gonna have to say pretentious, it's a good product, but it's trying to do something that it's not delivering on, put them through pasta put them through like
a dressing in a salad, chop them up and put
them on a cheese platter. Just don't snack on them and don't expect them to be crispy as soon as they hit your mouth. (upbeat music) - What on earth is that? Oh, it smells like a condiment. - That it is, can you narrow it down anymore? - [James] Well, it's sparkly. (Jamie laugh) It smells acidic, pickle-y
slightly mushroomy. It's kind of a little bit
split, separating in the pot. It doesn't smell great, but I don't know if I'm being
influenced by the looks. I'm not looking forward to tasting it. - Good, well in that case, put some on your tongue. Try it - Oh. It's really salty, slightly vinegary, it's slightly mustardy. - [Ben] It's mustard. - looks horrific. - So James, this is Savor
and Sens gold mustard add a subtle sheen to meat sandwiches and salad dressings with this mustard from French food pioneers Savor and Sens. - I'm still going with
the mushroomness I don't know why. - so it does have a little
truffle essence in it or a natural truffle flavour. So it is a truffle mustard as well. - Thank you everyone, thank you. - I potentially put you in this category but it says, this will instantly elevate any dish's visual appeal, presented to Culinary minded guests for unexpected yet undoubtedly
appreciated finishing touch. - No, surely if your
guests is a culinary minded they're gonna prefer a good mustard. I have been presented with some more beautifully plated food. It's an open salt beef sandwich with a single pickle on the top. It has two different
types of mustard on it. One has wholegrain mustard, which looks delightful. And one has gold mustard, which looks off putting. (Jamie chuckles) - I love some salt beef. - Okay, that was the gold, this is a whole grain. I don't know how fair a comparison says mustards can be quite different. And it's very subjective, like I prefer it without the truffle. I can't really taste it on the salt beef 'cause it hasn't got much of a kick to it. All I can really say is their main selling point
appears to be the visual appeal. And it's kind of splitting and I think it would look nicer if it was the Dijon or an English mustard. I think it would have
a better visual appeal. I think it's also worth me saying that I'm not adverse to
using a little bit of gold in dishes to make it look good, but this just doesn't look nice. - What about price wise James? - I'm trying to think of like
an average price of mustard. - I'll give you an
average price of mustard, a quality, wholegrain mustard, averaging out about 72
pence per hundred grammes. - I'll go for £5.99. - Not high enough. It's about seven pounds a jar and available in very high end shops like Harrods and Harvey Nichols - Seven pounds. You know my opinion already. - Pretentious or not? - It's totally pretentious. (upbeat music) - Oh, it's very yellow. And fruity. It's very subtle shimmer, but it catches your eye every so often. - [Jamie] Give it a taste. - It's really sweet. - More so than a more regular Prosecco. - Compare it closer to
Fanta than Prosecco. (Jamie lough) In terms of, if we're
going for sweetness scale tastes a little bit
artificial. You've said Prosecco. So I'm assuming it's alcoholic. But it doesn't necessarily taste alcoholic it could easily just be a soft drink. - This is the Pearl Cuvee alcohol free sparkling wine. Give it a shake and glitter
swirls around in the bottle. So it's sparkling in more ways than one flavours of white flowers, grapefruits and orange rind dominate. So, mixed with soda water
and a slice of orange. And now it's a refreshing summer spritzer. - Is the serving suggestion to spritz it, or is it like a white wine where you can spritz it? I can imagine in this kind of bottle. It's intended to be drunk like this. It doesn't say wine on
the bottle anywhere. It's just shaped like a wine bottle. - The place where we bought it from described it as sparkling wine. - What's going on? Okay, so you've given me an
alcohol free sparkling wine. It's actually really similar. - Is it really? - Yeah, the pearl is more soft drink. This is more winey It's got a bit more of a tang. I like the idea of alcohol free wines 'cause it means that you can kind of have a drink with your mates that are drinking alcohol and not feel left out. But if I wasn't drinking alcohol, I think I'd prefer to go for something that isn't trying to replicate alcohol, but it's just a nice drink. - And what you'll also find there is everything that you need to turn this into a spritzer, which may or may not be the right way to drink it, but is a serving suggestion, at least. - Well, it's alright, you know. Tastes a bit more winey, I guess, 'cause it's not as sweet 'cause it's been diluted. The fact that they've made it yellow means that it doesn't look like wine, which is another tick in my opinion, like they're not trying to be wine, even though they kind of say it kind of don't I'm not sure. I've gone on the journey from thinking oh, this is a nice off
alcohol free drink to is it sparkling wine or is it not? And do I serve it with soda water or not? If I picked up the
bottle off the shelf. I'm not sure what I'm getting. - How much you think it costs? - £4.99. - [Jamie] Add 10 quid to that. It's 14 pounds 90 pence. - That feels quite expensive, especially when you can buy other bottles of sparkling flavoured water which is what this essentially is for a lot cheaper, - Soooo, pretentious or not? - I'll err towards pretentious, but I can't say it is pretentious 'cause it's not really trying to be wine but is it? But isn't it? I don't know. (upbeat music) Turning round, opening the cloche. Woo, yokolato. It feels premium. Feels like something
you'd buy in an artisan little deli shop. - [Ben] Now what you got? - It looks like a cake, but it's incredibly heavy. It's a solid block of chocolate. It smells good. - [Ben] It is La Molina's
Millestrati Gianduja. a milk white and dark chocolate
layered Gianduja cake. - Okay. - [Ben] it is indeed solid, even for James's arms. - [James] Ah, - [Ben] It looks sticky
and fudgey and delicious. - [Jamie] I mean, that looks incredible. - [James] It's crazy. - We should definitely
point out that La Molina is an Italian chocolatier. They have incredible handcraft chocolates, they deliver excellence throughout. - It's good. I think the layers are probably
like really traditional and it's like a feast for the eyes, - But there not different flavours within the different layers. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I have taken this
and separated it into milk, white and dark chocolate, I'll go for milk. (mumbles) They do taste different, but you'll never get to
taste them differently. Why would anyone do that? (Jamie and Ben chuckle) - [Ben] The layering is
more about the visuals. Whereas I think traditionally Gianduja is used as like
a filling for other thing. - It tastes like praline, like you could put a hard
chocolate shell outside of it and it would be a praline that you know and love. - How much for that two kilo cake. - I can imagine it's quite expensive, maths wise I'm coming
out at like 100 pounds, although I'm basing
that on like 100 grammes of pretty decent chocolate, 90 pounds, - [Ben] it's actually
less than that 79 pounds. - What a bargain. (Jamie laugh) you look at that, and you think, wow, that's 79 pounds for a cake, but actually, it's 79 pounds
for two kilos of chocolate. See... it's quite reasonable. (all laugh) - And it sounds crazy to say that. But we come back to the same question and the same narrow word
of pretentious or not. - It's not pretentious. It's not trying to be
anything that it's not. I'd say you know what you're
getting when you buy it, but I'm not sure we're 100%
knew what we were getting When we bought that. But if you know what it is, you know what you're getting, and damn, it's gonna
serve a lot of people. It's a celebration thing, you know. - Well, I can't wait until we all get back into
the studio to celebrate. - Yeah, I don't think
that's going anywhere. - I wanna put my face in that. Well, there were our thoughts, but we'd absolutely love to
know what you think as well list the products down
below in the comments and give us your opinions
pretentious or not. - We've also built the sorted club, where you can get tonnes of foodie inspo using the packs midweek meal app, discover and share
restaurant recommendations using the Eat app. Listen and contribute to
our feast your ears podcast and send us ideas for new cookbooks you'll receive throughout the year. Check it all out by
heading to sorted.club. (energetic upbeat music) And now a blooper. (beep) - But I like a little bit more of a kick to my dipping olive oil. - Maybe James wasn't the right person. - Shut up mate, I can see you well I can still see Jamie. A judging look. - Yeah, but this olive oil is not to my tasting and
my sourdough is too chewy.
