TELEVISION stars, The Hairy Bikers, were filming in Chester this week with leading members of the food and drink industry.

The larger-than-life Dave Myers and Simon King were in the city filming their latest series, which has a working title of Hairy Bikers’ Food Tour of Britain. The series, for BBC2, explores Britain’s regional foods and will be screened later this year.

The duo pitched up at P & A Davies bakers in Bridge Street, to sample Chester Cake and were spotted tasting a plate of local delights at Joseph Benjamin in Northgate Street.

Diners at the busy restaurant-cum-delicatessen were willing TV extras as the couple were served potted Cheshire cheese, Cheshire air-dried ham, local beef and homemade sausage rolls, made with C S Austin’s award-winning Chester sausage. This was all accompanied by a selection of breads, made by baker Jane Tomlin in Hoole village.The leather-clad pair were also filmed doing a masterclass with Carole Faulkner of The Cheese Shop.

According to baker Kelvin Davies, of P & A Davies, Chester Cake is a good way of using up leftover cake.

He said: “The base is made of sweet, shortcrust pastry, topped with cake crumbs mixed with dried fruits, water, sugar, spices and caramel. This is then topped with pastry with is baked off and topped with fondant icing.

“Recipes for Chester cake go back at least 100 years – apparently in Liverpool it’s called Docker’s Wedding Cake and in Ireland Paddy’s Wedding Cake!”