London uncoveres (Episode 1) - Visiting London's Craziest Cafe

The phone's gone. So he said, oh hello Neville, this is Reginald Crave. Do you want a pinny? What's that? A pinny. Don't you know what a pinny is? I thought you said penini. Whoa. Oh my God, Todd. You've broken the sodding egg. Watch it. Oh, that's going to burn you, Todd. Give it a minute. Seriously. It's still hot. Told you it's like a volcano here. I warned him. Would he listen? No. Has he fucked his whole day up now? Oh, they want to say hello to you, Todd. Is that all right? You're a celebrity superstar. He doesn't even know you. Oh my God. They don't know who he is. Only because I told them who he was. Well, you're going to enjoy it. It's absolutely amazing. Big fan. Oh my God. You all right? Well. You can't go nowhere, can you? I know, I paid her a tenner earlier. I know you did. God, you only paid me five, I ******* know. You must like us. Hello guys. Welcome to London Uncovered. Well, we're here at Ippolici's, which is a five-minute walk from Bethnal Green Station. The cafe is over a hundred years old. There's very few of these still remaining in London to this day. Let's go inside. Honestly, the atmosphere will be electric. We started off with six o'clock in the morning. We want you to be outside waiting for us, Todd. Six o'clock is not really setting me up. It's seven o'clock, eight o'clock. Hi, Todd. I'm very good, how are you? Nice to see you. Would you want tea, coffee, which one? I'd like a tea, please. A nice cup of tea. Ippolici's. When I decided to first start this series, there was one place that was top of my list. I've been here once before, but I was dying to come back and learn more about the history of this place. Hosted by third-generation owners Anna and Nev, this famous London cafe isn't just known for its wholesome, hearty breakfast, but it's also known for its crazy electric atmosphere too. Todd and Martin, we've just signed a good player. Welcome to London Uncovered. It's his birthday today. Shall we sing your dad happy birthday? Happy birthday to you. They're very excited, it's their dad's birthday. Happy birthday to you. Louder! Happy birthday dear daddy. Tell me how this becomes a phenomenon. My grandparents come over in 1900 to the cafe. They used to work for the guy that owned it. He left after a couple of years and my grandparents took it off him. This would have been like the real poor area of London. They come here with nothing, basically. They started this up and then my dad was born upstairs in 1925 along with his six brothers and sisters. So is this the room here that... That my dad was conceived in? Yeah. Born in and they were all born up here, the kids. Oh my God. This means a lot to us. My nan put all that lovely woodwork in there like in 1946. She had it all done, she could afford it. She had a panel put on at a time. Then my mum come over in 1961. Oh my God. Met my dad, they got married. She's been in the kitchen ever since. She's been in there 83 years. She's in here at like half six. She goes when she wants now, she does what she wants. You can't tell her nothing. But she's just real passionate. I think she's given me and Nana that passion for cooking. You've got a pinny. What's that? A pinny, they know what a pinny is. I thought you said panini. Not a bloody panini, a pinny. He's never been in the kitchen his bloody life, has he? Is it like the big breakfast that you sell the most? We do a lot of the abdelot ones. Abdelot, yeah. Sometimes people get them and they share them. But we get a load of tourists now as well. You find some lovely people like yourselves as well, like bringing them in. And they're like fascinated by it, you know. So you've got this. Sausage, egg, bacon, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, black pudding. I'll put you a little bit on. And some hash browns, I'll stick you a couple on. Nice. Is the toast normal or fried? We ask them if they want fried or toasted. Do you want to stick your fried slice on? Yeah, why not? That's the best of fried slice. And I'll leave it on the griddle for you. Cheaper bread for some reason. Right, let's stick some more tomatoes on. And we'll stick some bubble and squeak on it as well, shall we Toby? Yeah, definitely. Here you go. Got it nice and crispy now. We're just passionate about it. We want to serve you nothing that we want to eat ourselves. And when you come in here, it's a bit like, I don't know how you see, we're a bit too friendly with the customers sometimes. People are a bit near the mark. Because you're coming into our front room sort of thing. Everything you make, and I mean this genuinely, you plate it up, you make it like you want to eat it yourself. Yeah, yeah. Because this is literally, we grew up in here before school, after school, as children. We're like the third generation. And everything my mum does here, you saw with the stewed steak, with our ragout, with our pesto with it. We make it like we make it home. It's not super fancy, it's not whatever, but it's just nice on its grub. A lot of people have known for years, but Wendell and this guy, I've known them since I was a kid, do you know what I mean? Well you see a few people come in and it's their 100th birthday, so. Yeah, you see little Betty the other day. Yeah, I saw little Betty the other day, it's the fuel of life. Yeah, she brought her little brother in, he was 97. Happy birthday to you. Tony's my cousin, Irene's been there for like 12 years, we've like adopted her. First job she got when she came to England, so she don't know nothing else, so don't tell her there's any other places she can work. So she's like our little sister, and like my sister Anne, like we, like siblings they tell you, sometimes we kill each other, and then we're like 10 minutes later, oh sorry, oh, she's like sorry now, and we're like, just get on with it. How long have you got to work in a place like this with your family? What's your favourite part of the breakfast? Oh, it depends what mood I'm in. Do you know sometimes my favourite bit? When I overcook bacon and burn it, and the fat's really crispy, or whatever, and it's too crispy to put on a plate. I could eat crispy bacon fat all day, which is not, fried bread as well. I like limit myself, oh look, talking about fried bread, I've probably burnt yours. No, just right. But fried bread, I like literally have to limit myself to a couple of times a year, because I would eat fried bread every day. Yeah, I reckon we can flip these first, these first four rashers, Tobe. There we go. Perfect, look at that, lovely. Do you want to crack an egg? Yeah, why not, you literally deep fry the egg. Well, do you know, it comes lovely, otherwise it's just like, when it's easy to splash over and stay nice, I like to bang it on there. The eggs will come on the grill, they don't come out. No, and you get that snotty bit on top, so you get juicy, not snotty, you can't have a snotty egg. You can't have a snotty egg. Yeah, exactly, but a lot of places do it on the grill. I know, my baby, let me get this done with a spoon. Cool. This bacon's looking nice, Tobe. Todd, are you going to plate this breakfast up or not? Am I slacking? You're very slacking, you ain't got the job so far. Let's start with the fried bread, let's put the fried bread on, Todd. Three rashers of bacon, they look nice and crispy. Oh, they look lovely. They look good, don't they? That's it, lovely. A couple of bits of black pudding. Come on, Todd, get moving. You've got over 100 years of experience. Put that there one second. Give it just a little splash. A little splash to cover that egg yolk because we want it juicy, not snotty. Put that in your left hand. Gently, gently take it out and stick it on the fried slice. On the fried slice. Whoa! Oh, my God, Todd. You've broken the sodding egg. You've made my egg look ----. Do we need to get another egg? Why don't we put two eggs on it? All right, let's put two eggs on it. Any excuse to get another egg, greedy bastard. Let's put that in. While we're waiting for that, a couple of bits of tomato, a nice bit of bubble. It should be nice and crispy now under the bubble and squeak over there. Flick that over before you put it on, I reckon. Lovely. Mushrooms? Are you right-handed? Yeah. Just be careful, yeah. How many mushrooms? Just chuck them on there, lovely, and then we're going to put the beans on. Chuck them all on. Beans on the plate or beans in a cup? Beans on the plate, all that poncy stuff. Whoever started putting beans in a cup? Your mum never used to put beans in a cup for you indoors, did she? No. When I go out I'll have a cup of builder's tea. It's a cup of tea, isn't it? Yeah, builder's tea. I'll give them builder's tea, I charge them five quid. Not really. And then, last thing, grab the plate there where you can. See that spoon over there? Beans on the side, not near the egg. That's one thing I'm a bit funny about. I don't like my beans near my egg, I know that sounds silly. Have we put a sausage on it, Todd? No, you've forgotten the sausage. Stick it on the egg. I can't forget the sausage, that's the best bit. There you go. Stick a shoe to it. Oh my God, he's a prima donna, isn't he? Do you want to talk to us about the history? What other celebrities have been in? Yeah, we're pretty lucky. We get loads. This young lady here, she brought me in Harry Styles for a music video. Legend. No, you're a legend. She's the top producer director lady. See you later. She brought in Harry Styles for it. It just happened on camera. What's that? She works around the corner there. Look at this lady, this lady is top pottery lady from LA. Are you working till three? I might bring you something. It's your actual birthday, right? It's my actual birthday today. Thanks young lady, see you later. People are just so nice. We've got here the lovely Abdullah breakfast. You've got sausage, beans, deep fried mushrooms, hash browns, two tomatoes, black pudding, three slices of bacon, fried bread and two fried eggs. Looks absolutely delicious. Starting with the sausage. Obviously it's getting dipped in the beans. Anna was saying she gets the sausages all the way from Essex from a local butcher straight to the cafe. You can just tell with every single bite. So I guess the other thing that they were talking about in the kitchen is about the mushrooms and how they're deep fried. I mean I'm not the hugest fan of mushrooms to be honest but as far as mushrooms go with the beans we're going to finish them. It's a fryer for a reason, right? Fry up, fry everything. And literally they go to the length of frying the egg. They literally have a whole like they have a whole pan just of oil just to deep fry the egg. Don't tell my mother about this one. Fried egg and fried toast. It was kind of famous because of the K twins. K twins? I can't ******* speak to that. I'll tell you a story about them. When Ronnie died Sir Reggie phoned up the cafe and I didn't know he wanted to see if they had to check that it was alright that he could stop outside the cafe the prison makes you phone up and like ----. So the phone's gone and I picked up the phone and I've heard oh hello is Neville there please? That's what they call, I'm named Nevio but they call us Neville Is Neville there please? So I said yeah speaking. So he said oh hello Neville this is Reginald Cray and I said oh hang on a minute Mr Cray I think you want to talk to my dad. So that's who he wanted to talk to. So I went and got my dad and he asked him is it ok? And he actually got really emotional when he came outside. Because I suppose Bethnal Green had changed so much in 30 years that it had been in prison and the only place that hadn't changed was the cafe. I have had this bubble and squeak before. Normally like when I've had it at breakfast it's kind of bland you can't really taste it, it just tastes like mashed potato. But the last time I came here honestly the bubble and squeak was so good. It's not something I'd normally like but I'm sure it'll be just as good this time. Absolutely. It's the cabbage that they run through it it's almost like they it's almost like they fry the cabbage and you get this really nice crispy not like burnt but like caramelised cabbage taste as it runs through the potatoes. We've had the legend film that they'd done with Tom Hardy he was a gentleman like real class act, do you know what I mean? He ate at breakfast he filmed both them bits but people were coming in they'd say oh can I have a photo taken or whatever and he was like yeah he didn't turn one person away. I can't believe how much his twin looks like him actually they are identical. And I said the bread pudding is just coming out of the oven news break, breaking news the bread pudding is just coming out of the oven I don't know if you want to see it on camera have you had mums bread pudding? No I haven't no. Have you been doing this? Ted, Todd, Tim, Steve come and meet Fred. I mean I don't like bread pudding you go bakeries you try my mums bread pudding and you tell me it is the gobbler there was an old English lady who used to work in the kitchen here my mum when she first came as a young girl and she showed her how to make bread pudding so it would have been an old east edin recipe she would have been from round here yeah you can just see the caramelisation and the crisp on top and I don't even like bread pudding but be careful because it is super hot give it a little blow before you watch it, oh that's going to burn you Todd give it a minute seriously I told you didn't I, well it serves you right Todd I did warn you told you it was like a volcano here like a volcano coming out of the mountain of Vesuvius mountain of Vesuvius I warned him would he listen, no he has fucked his whole day up now what size are you Todd oh wow, what size are you Todd really appreciate man I know you love coming down to the cafe because I will miss you the first day well I got to eat a lot more than breakfast today better than what I remembered thank you so much what Kazana cooked it you bastard if you can't take a date to come eat enjoy