of as a gastronomic nation, but one that is fast becoming a must—visit destination for food lovers. i'm embarking on a culinary journey through the ages that will take me from the capital of warsaw to the historic city of poznan. check this place out. exploring the city's communist—era cafes... it's cold! look at this place! this is awesome. ..visiting a farm that's over 100 years old... i mean, it's not bad. ..and learning the secrets behind the world's only legally—protected croissant. mm! come with me as we discover the world's table together in poland. poland's sprawling capital city warsaw sits on the banks of the mighty vistula river. shiny skyscrapers juxtapose the old town, creating a skyline symbolic of the spirit of reinvention that so defines poland's capital.

once a city in decline, decimated by world war ii and the subsequent communist rule, the last 20 years have seen warsaw quite literally rise from the ashes. today, an attractive job market, a youthful energy and a growing economy are transforming this city's food scene. this is actually my first proper time to warsaw, and i think it's fair to say that polish cuisine usually conjures up visions of big chunks of meat, hearty stews and stodgy dumplings. and whilst i do love a good sausage, i'm excited to sink my teeth into its cuisine and find out if there's more to it than just pierogi. and what better place to start than the old town, which is not actually as old as it looks. almost all of the city was rebuilt after the second world war. this resilience earned warsaw the nickname phoenix city.

the following a0 years of soviet rule further left its mark on poland and its cuisine. and to understand this history better, i'm meeting olga badowska, a local food journalist. she's taking me to one of warsaw's relics of the soviet era, a milk bar. olga! hi. great to see you. how are you doing? oh, great to see you. welcome to warsaw. thanks for having me. you're going to show me around, right? yeah. ready to eat? absolutely. right, come on. this way. let's go. oh, check this place out! what is this place? it's a milk bar. and, well, it looks quite modern, but it's actually the oldest open milk bar in warsaw. what's good here? you want to do traditional, right? yeah. so, well, the milk bar, as the name indicates, it used to be all about milk.

the very first milk bar was established in the 19th century by a dairy farmer peddling his goods. but it was during the communist rule that they took hold, serving government—subsidised food to the masses. this one may be the oldest, but it's embracing the future. i'm surprised by how popular it is, though, because, you know, sometimes old recipes or traditional food or meals kind of get a bit staid or out of fashion. if you think traditional, like, what is traditional food? are we looking back into 19th century or 17th century? the flavours changed and the ones that we call traditional now, they were kind of, like, established, like, fully probably during communist time. and it kind of became our, like, new tradition. i think that's the secret of those places, not only because they're cheap. yeah. this food kind of connects you to your identity.

this is the flavour, you know, from home. and it doesn't really matter who you are and what you do, you want something that is a comfort food and a milk bar gives you that. fantastic. dun—dun—dun—dun! coming! wow, look at that! chilled soup and pierogi. that's so pink! yeah, it's a pink chilled soup. and two eggy eyeballs. mm—hm. should i give it a go? yeah, you have to. oh, i'm looking forward to tasting this soup. it's cold! it's very nice and light and refreshing and tangy. is it? mm. yeah, it should be. it should be. sometimes the beetroot are slightly fermented, sometimes not. sometimes it's with broth and sour milk or kefir. ooh, yeah. it's really wakening up my taste buds already, you know? the dwindling number of milk bars are a sign of changing times. the end of communism sparked rapid changes in poland... ..and here on the outskirts of the city, i'm visiting

a farm that's managed to survive it all. hi, hanna! how are you? i'm fine. good to meet you. i'm nick. how's it going? oh, it's ok, but it's raining. hanna majiert runs this family farm with herfather, which has been serving produce to warsaw for over a century. it's april, so it's not so many vegetables now. mostly they are in the tunnels. uh-huh. but here you can see some of them survived winter and grow up. i can't believe we're in warsaw right now. as warsaw grows and changes, this farm must too to survive. it was tough times during the first war, during the second war. the land was, like, pshh, everything. a lot of mines, a lot of bombs. we find it every year. oh, you can still find the remains of the war? they are everywhere.

then, the �*70s, when they built the road, they took hundreds of hectares to build a factory. and every time, we rebuild. i'm the fifth generation now. right. all the farmers were flexible. when something changed, they knew what to do to have a farm. people started to travel to see different things, like they see in different countries. so we had a meeting with chefs from warsaw and asked them if there's something new that they would like us to grow. this ability to adapt to its environment is what kept this farm alive. but one of its most successful products has been growing here for over 100 years. it's amazing because the asparagus are growing on this land since 1905.

we grow only violet and green one. some of them are thin, some of them are...fat. like people. nick laughs like people! as the only farm left in warsaw, its local shop is often frequented by the most talented chefs in the city. hiya. how are you doing? hello. very good, very good. i'm just picking some asparagus for the restaurant. this is marcin przybysz, the head chef at epoka, one of warsaw's emerging restaurants. every three months, he conjures up elaborate new recipes. they are really, really good. and his relationship with this farm is an important part of that process. we can try them raw, actually. they are perfect. mm! these ones are special because they have different seed than the green ones and white ones. and these ones, they're, like, really, really rustic. yeah. usually, everybody are picking the perfect straight asparagus. uh-huh. i prefer an art brush shape of asparagus. oh, look at them! they're, like, so curly. they're like little

mini seahorses. exactly! and so, with a perfect selection of not—so—perfect asparagus, marcin has invited me to cook with him. it's called epoka because we are cooking from all epochs of polish cuisine. oh, wow. look at this! thank you. here is our main entrance. over there, we have two rooms. i see a lot of cookbooks here. yes, the old cookbooks is actually my inspiration for the place, because we are in the building from 1857, and when i was searching what type of restaurant i can do here, i actually found these books. wow, look at that! and the book is called... oh, it's so old. ..practical warsaw chef. that means it's actually perfectly fit to me. so, what are we cooking tonight, chef? we're going to cook asparagus.

and we're going to actually cook asparagus from this book. oh, right. yeah. it's a book from 1786. 1786?! the name of the book is great chef. well, you've got a lot to live up to. i cannot wait to get stuck in here. no problem. i have a couple ofjobs for you. starting with the asparagus. truffle slicer. you're using a truffle slicer? this is where i slice off one of my fingers. look at that venison! a lovely sear on the outside there, chef. some garlic, thyme, rosemary. rosemary and thyme. butter. oh, yes. look at this basting action. eat it now, it looks so delicious. put all the flavour on the top. 0h! look at that. now, this is going in the smoker. some local morel mushrooms, a stalwart of polish cuisine, followed by more mushrooms. we have mushroom puree in the shape of the mushroom. nick laughs this is like a work of art. marcin�*s old cookbooks focus heavily on presentation. you make it look so easy,

marcin, this is ridiculous. finally, the beautifully seared and smoked venison, topped off with some bone sauce that's been reduced for two days long. ok, now the best part. oh, my goodness. oh, thank you very much, chef. you can try it. go for it! don't mind if i do. yeah. how should i attack this? mm, mm, mm! why is it so important to you that you keep these old recipes alive today? that's my mission. i'm doing this for the kids, for the country. because it gets me really upset when i discovered these books and i realised i don't have a clue about it. so that they can enjoy it? exactly. it's pretty incredible what marcin and his team are doing in there, taking ancient recipes and adapting them for modern times. my time in warsaw has made me realise that my view of polish cuisine was defined by the impact of its more recent history, reflected in the simple dishes served in the country's

much—loved milk bars. chefs like marcin are looking further back to an earlier history, when lavish banquets were made up of varied ingredients and complex flavours. there's clearly a rich history buried under communism that's now being lovingly rediscovered. and what is amazing is when you taste his food, you kind of get transported back in time. and thank goodness for chefs like him, who are putting the effort in to really boost this place�*s reputation. next on my culinary adventure, i'm leaving warsaw to visit another polish city that's playing a huge role in that change. nick exhales i'm continuing my culinaryjourney west, across the middle of the country, to see what else poland's food scene has in store. poznan is only 2.5 hours by rail from warsaw, and whilst it hasn't been the country's most internationally—renowned city, that's all changing,

and i'm going to find out why. poznan lies on the river warta. once poland's historic capital, it's one of the oldest cities in the country. home to two prestigious universities and an abundance of magnificent renaissance—style buildings, today, over half a million people live here, making it poland's fifth largest city. it's renowned for its arts, culture and cosmopolitan outlook. there's so many people out and aboutjust enjoying themselves. little shops, boutiques, cafes. what a great place to just come and chill out, you know, for a few days! recently, one of poznan�*s biggest draws has been its food scene. last year, it became home to one of only three michelin—starred restaurants in the country. but it's an everyday pastry that's at the heart of this city's culinary fame. baking st martin's croissant requires a special licence, which has only been awarded tojust over 100 bakers and maciej marcinkowski is one of them. maciej, how are you doing?

hello, nick. i'm great. i'm nick, nice to meet you. it's time for you to have a little crash course on how to make croissants. ooh. right, so, have you ever had any experience with a yeast dough? usually pizzas, pizza dough. it's very similar to pizza dough. this is quite an old tradition that is all about sharing. it's inspired by st martin. legend has it a local baker dreamed of a lost horseshoe and was inspired to bake croissants for the whole town, honouring st martin's spirit of helping those in need. now, every st martin's day, the town unites for a parade and devours an astounding 700,000 croissants, baked for the celebration. so, now let's get to rolling. it should be four, maybe five millimetres thick. poznan�*s food scene might be evolving, but since 2008, its croissants have claimed the world's first legal protection, ensuring they're baked this way forever.

it's kind of like, i don't know, champagne in france, for example. yeah. that's certified as well like that. now, we need to get layers in our dough, so repeat it until we get 81 layers. it can now take anywhere up to three hours to create 81 layers of pastry. we're using one maciej made earlier. i'm going to show you what shapes now we need to cut out of it. now for the filling, which can only be made out of these ingredients to be called a st martin's croissant. poppy seeds, dried candied orange peel, sultanas, biscuit bits, peanuts, and also a little bit of almond aroma. so, to make them look like a croissant, we've got to roll them. wow, look at that shape! it does look like a horseshoe. it does. but what's left to do is one final test. i mean, it's not bad. all right, so let's put them in the oven. while the croissants cook, maciej draws my attention to the view outside... quite a lot of people are gathering usually for this part.

..where at noon every day, poznan celebrates the legend of two goats, who once headbutted each other upon the top of the town hall. there we go. oof! steady on! what an amazing show! show over, it's time to enjoy my freshly baked st martin's croissant. mm! can you taste the almonds? mm, very almondy. it kind of, yeah, it tastes like marzipan, but it's not. marzipan, yeah. what a fantastic experience this is, overlooking the town square, eating this old delicacy! mm. fantastic. poznanians have a reputation across poland for their creativity with food. but there's one particular ingredient that takes centre stage — the potato. so revered, there's even a museum dedicated to it. but that's for another day, because i'm off to meet liska morawska—kmita, a popularfood blogger, who wants to show me just how diverse the humble

potato can be. how are you? i'm nick. good. i'm liska. lovely to meet you, liska. nice to meet you. thanks for having me. what a lovely city this is! yes. so, where are we going? what is this place? we're going to the pyra bar. uh-huh. because pyra. .. yeah. ..means potato and they serve everything what is made of potatoes. great. well, i do love potatoes. yes, i love potatoes. the pyra bar is a regular haunt for local poznanians. dishing out over 30 different potato—based meals, it's a potato lover's paradise. ok, right, so let's get ordering, shall we? we'll take pyry z gzikiem. uh-huh. it's a traditional dish. it's baked potato with some cottage cheese, and... ooh. oh, it smells amazing! fresh dill. what's with the potato obsession here? it's cheap. you can make a lot of dishes from the potatoes.

uh-huh. yeah. and they have a lot of varieties of potatoes here. and it became very, very popular. the rest of poland even has a nickname for poznanians due to their devotion to the potato. they call people from here "potatoes". what, potatoes?! pyra, yes. potato people? yeah, yeah, yeah. the mighty potato arrived in poznan in the 18th century from germany and quickly became a household favourite. nicholas janowski saw an opportunity and elevated the potato from a kitchen staple to a restaurant speciality. when we opened 15 years ago, we were just like kids. we were like, "hey, let's make a potato bar. "it's going to be fun." you know, but we didn't know nothing. and then it came to us that, 0k, we need a lot of equipment. we need a lot of people. then we're going to struggle with, i don't know, four,

five, six tonnes of potatoes a month, because it's too weird, it's crazy. it takes a lot of work. it needs a lot of people. and people do not copy that so easy, like they copy another burger place or pizza or stuff like that. and we are kind of unique. how is poznan�*s food scene changing? when we were starting in 2009, we were just at the beginning of the movement, butjust one year more or one year later, two years later, the people, the places were just growing like mushrooms. and it's changing very fast. and chefjarek kin�*s restaurant 62 is at the heart of this renaissance. hi,jarek. hello, nick. how are you doing? nice to meet you. jarek�*s menu is reminiscent of the traditional flavours of his childhood. apron for you. and on the menu today is duck filet, served with some classic polish flair. let's cook. potato doughnut. oh, a potato doughnut. yeah. we don't need a middle. i can hear the duck sizzling in the pan. garlic and thyme. out comes the blowtorch. nice. beetroot powder. beetroot powder, whoa! look how vibrant that is. extra flavour. this is the red

cabbage reduction. easy on the truffle, chef, you'll go bankrupt yourself. it's beautiful. oh, my god. look at the juice coming out of that breast! and here we go. the piece de resistance. middle. 0k. we've finished. good job. so, we can taste it.

ok, i'll do it individually. so here's the beautiful pink plump duck. mm. it's so tender and beautifully plump and soft. it's packed full of flavour, but it's not overpowering in any way, which is great. oh, wow, i can't wait to taste this! mm! that is so surprising, because, no, that was genuinely surprising because inside was this tangy, like, whoa, punch in the face a bit. i'm going to go in like this. oh, that's lovely, that's beautiful. and i can actually... it's a pleasure for me when i'm watching you eat. ican... nick laughs hello! how's it going? great to see you. and where there is duck, there is usually a celebration here in poland. jarek has invited me with a few new friends to sample some of his menu.

these dishes epitomise fine dining, offering an experience that rivals those in new york or london, but at a fraction of the cost. what struck me most on this trip is the people's undying love for the traditional recipes they grew up eating. mwah! dishes that have become synonymous with their national identity. this is like a work of art. i'm so inspired by the determination of those i've met who, after centuries of political upheaval, are redefining modern poland by creating dishes and restaurants like this one while still respecting their past. there's so much to do, to see, to taste here. i can't wait to come back and discover what else is in store.

hello. the first half of this week brought us heat and humidity quite widely but over the past few days, we've seen things turning cooler and fresher as well. now, through the course of the weekend, fairly settled. a lot of dry weather on the cards. some spells of sunshine on offer and another warm day in the southeast on saturday before cooler conditions work across the uk again for sunday. so, what we've got is this frontal system starting to work its way in from the west, so that's going to bring a bit more cloud to parts of wales, northern england, perhaps the southwest of england, southern counties of northern ireland initially, too. a few spots of rain if you're underneath this weak weather front here through the central swathe of the uk. either side of that, a little bit more sunshine. northern scotland seeing a bit more cloud, bringing a few showers — not as many as recent days. it won't be as windy here but still fairly breezy.

now, in the hazy sunshine down towards the southeast, temperatures again up to about 25 degrees 01’ so but a fresher feel away from the southeast of england — typically about 12—19 celsius. overnight saturday moving into sunday and we've still got this weak weather front. it's really quite slow—moving over the next 2a hours or so, eventuallyjust pushing across parts of south—eastern england and east anglia as we start sunday morning. could be the odd spot of light rain and here, around about 13—15. but again, a fairly fresh feel to the weather to start sunday where we've got those clearer skies further north. so, sunday, then. initially quite cloudy, perhaps the odd spot of showery rain in the south—east. that should clear away. and then, this cloud in the north just sinks a bit further south. it will be a broken cloud, so there'll be some glimpses of sunshine. also the chance of a few showers, particularly through the spine of england, for instance. temperatures between only about 12—21 celsius, so a few degrees below average really for this time of year. what about the week ahead? well, it looks like we've got a westerly influence to our weather. so although high pressure sits in the atlantic, weather fronts are toppling around the northern side of that high pressure and bringing fronts our way at times. so monday, some rain initially for northern ireland, western scotland, just pushing

eastwards through the day, some uncertainty about how far south we will see any rainfall, that front tending to gradually fizzle out further south, i think. so southern england, south east england, east anglia in particular, could stay dry, 21 degrees or so for the warmest spots, but we're typically looking at the mid to high teens for most of us on monday. and that theme continues, really, for much of the week ahead. after a warm day in the south east on saturday, slightly cooler conditions with a mixture of some sunny spells and a bit of rain at times, too.

live from washington, this is bbc news. joe biden�*s problem is not his age, it is not his anything, really, he has no problem rather than it is his incompetence. rather than it is his incometence. ., , , rather than it is his incometence. ., , incompetence. donald trump is a aenuine incompetence. donald trump is a genuine threat _ incompetence. donald trump is a genuine threat to _ incompetence. donald trump is a genuine threat to this _ incompetence. donald trump is a genuine threat to this nation, - genuine threat to this nation, his threat_ genuine threat to this nation, his threat to our freedom, he is a _ his threat to our freedom, he is a threat _ his threat to our freedom, he is a threat to our democracy. us presidentjoe biden and former president donald trump hit the campaign trail one day after a debate that has left democrats nervous, and republicans celebrating. hello, i'm helena humphrey. glad you could join me.

the us presidential debate dread still looms large within the democratic party. presidentjoe biden is vowing to stay in the race for the white house, despite a shaky showing at the cnn presidential debate. his performance prompted the new york times editorial board to call for the president to leave the race, writing plainly: "mr biden is not the man he was four years ago." questions over mr biden�*s age and fitness for office are not new, but the face—off between president biden and former president donald trump on thursday evening triggered private panic among some democratic officials, despite a firm public defence of mr biden�*s performance from his campaign and allies. in a fiery speech on friday, mr biden hit back at criticism over his age and told supporters he will win re—election in november. i know i am not a young man, i know i am nota young man, to i know i am not a young man, to state the obvious. i do not walk as easily as a user, i do not speak as smoothly as they

used to, i don't debate as