TWO celebrity cooks visited a Ryedale restaurant to film an episode of their new television series.

Si King and Dave Myers, who appear on BBC2 as the Hairy Bikers, dropped in at the Star Inn, Harome, where they cooked with Michelin-starred chef and proprietor Andrew Pern.

Dave said: “Andrew has been really generous with his time, and his level of skill and expertise is fantastic.”

The new series, provisionally called The Hairy Bikers’ Food Tour of Britain, sees the boys travelling to 30 different UK counties to sample local produce.

In North Yorkshire, Si and Dave go to Whitby to buy langoustines and turbot fresh off a trawler boat, then to the Star Inn at Harome, where they have a “cook off”’ against Andrew Pern.

Si said: “Yorkshire has the most diverse and fantastic natural larder, with the sea nearby for fish, the moors for game, and so many local farmers and small traditional bakers.

Dave said: “The beauty of all these local suppliers is that the food is so fresh you need to do very little with it.

“We bought the langoustines off a trawler, cooked them in some hot water, and they tasted fantastic.

“They were still in the sea 24 hours ago.”

The Hairy Bikers’ first series was shown in 2004, and now they get in excess of four million viewers.

Si and Dave previously worked in television production, but they have always been keen cooks.

Dave started cooking as a teenager to help his mother, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, while Si was inspired by his father, who was very well travelled and used to bring back spices from around the world.

Now that they have proved that big, burly men can cook too, the bikers want to convince the public that cooking is for everyone.

Si said: “You don’t have to be a Michellin-starred chef to cook, just give it a go.”

Dave said: “If the other 29 counties we’re visting turn out to be as good as North Yorkshire, then we’ve got some great times ahead.”

* The Hairy Bikers’ new series will be shown from next May at 5.15pm on BBC 2, five nights a week, for six weeks.