Last updated 11:44, Wednesday, 13 August 2008

With big beards, bikes and leather jackets, Dave Myers and Si King aren’t your archetypal cooks.

Challenge: The hairy duo can be seen baking bread and making a wedding cake

But then that’s been the gimmick of The Hairy Bikers – as they’re collectively known – since they first appeared in their first TV series, The Hairy Bikers Cookbook, in 2004.

As they’ve proved time and again in the two series and Christmas specials since then, while they might look more at home at a Hell’s Angels’ convention, they can definitely cook.

You probably couldn’t wish to meet two nicer blokes either. Dave, the smaller of the pair, with dark hair and beard, hails from Barrow-in-Furness, while Si, blonde hair and beard, is your archetypal affable Geordie.

“I think it’s always going to be the case that people are surprised by our cooking because of the way we look,” Si says.

“The prime example is James Martin on Saturday Kitchen. He still jokingly winds us up, saying ’That’s a bit fancy for you two isn’t it?’ when he sees us cooking.

“But he’s a mate of ours and knows what our skill level is, he’s just playing to the image.”

For this, the duo’s fourth series, they’ve re-branded themselves The Hairy Bakers.

Whereas past programmes have seen them travelling around exotic countries on their motorbikes in search of local delicacies, this series sees them gallivanting around the UK.

“We did a Hairy Bikers Come Home as a winter special, and that got nearly three-and-a-half million viewers,” says Dave.

“After that we thought, as did lots of other people, it’d be a really good idea to do a series in this country for a change.

“The only problem with that is that it’s been done before, and very well, by the likes of Rick Stein and Gary Rhodes,” he continues.

“Because of that, we knew we’d be better off picking a subject to focus on than just going around Britain finding good food.

“Both of us bake bread, and we love cakes and pies, but they’ve been the things we’ve never really been able to explore while we’ve been riding around the world. You can’t cook things like that at the side of the road, really.

“As soon as we came up with the idea, a lass in the production office just yelled out ’Hairy Bakers’ and the series was born!”

The pair covered more than 6,000 miles on their motorbikes during filming and there are four episodes on their way.

The first, which will be shown on BBC Two on Monday, August 18, deals with bread.

Tune in to that and you’ll see Si and Dave bake the perfect classic brown loaf, as well as more adventurous brown ale and cheese bread and a naan to accompany the curry they rustle up on the shores of a lake.

These days, it seems as if you’re not allowed to cook on TV unless you’re highlighting an issue, whether it’s a campaign for healthy fast food, as championed by Gordon Ramsay on The F Word, or more livestock-related topics, as raised by the likes of Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recently.

Is the Hairies’ newfound baking evangelism their attempt to get people at home kneading dough and covering themselves in flour?

“We just impart the information and try to make it as visually interesting as possible,” Si says.

“If people watch this and have a go themselves, then that’s brilliant.

“I think at the moment people are interested in trying to save a few quid where they can too,” he adds, “so it’s about shifting your choice.

“Instead of going out shopping on a Saturday for bread and whatever, get some flour in and stay at home, get the kids involved and have a laugh. There’s nothing better than that, and who doesn’t love the smell of fresh bread or cookies wafting through the house?”

It’s a good point, but Si moves on to say making your own bread can have even more impact.

“I’m reticent to say it, but it’s about the values that it can instill too.

“My mam, my gran and aunties baked all the time, and it always made the people around them feel cared for. I’ve got three sons, and my wife Jane bakes for them now.

“She says baking is like getting one of those hand-knitted sweaters when you were younger; they made you look cared for and looked after, and baking is the food equivalent of that.”

During the rest of the series, the duo will investigate different sorts of biscuits and teatime treats, pies and pasties (including the interesting-sounding macaroni cheese pie in Aberdeen), and compete against the Women’s Institute in a Victoria sandwich competition.

The final episode of the series, which deals with celebration cakes, turned out to be their biggest challenge.

“We made a wedding cake for a couple,” says Dave, still with a hint of fear in his voice.

“At the beginning of that, we were told by a few people we wouldn’t be able to do it, that it would be too difficult.

“To make sure we knew what we were doing, we put ourselves in sugar-craft school and did some work with Slattery’s, the company who did Wayne and Coleen’s wedding cake.

“You’ll have to watch to see it properly, but we managed it, a big five-tier job. We knew we had to work hard, because come four o’clock on that Saturday, the bride was walking into the room and there had to be a perfect cake there for her.

“And we’re on the BBC, remember, so there was no cheating!”

The Hairy Bakers begins on BBC Two on Monday August 18

HAIRY FACTS

Dave currently lives on Roa Island, Morecambe Bay, and is currently Club Champion of the local boat club.

Si and Dave rode the highly desirable BMW R 1200 GS bikes throughout the series, but own many more between them. “You’ve got to have a bike for every occasion,” says Dave.

The pair met while working on the set of a Catherine Cookson TV mini-series. Dave was a make-up artist who specialised in prosthetics, while Si was a location manager, who also worked on several Harry Potter films.

The Christmas special, The Hairy Bikers Come Home, shown last winter, drew in just over 3.4 million viewers, making them one of BBC Two’s most popular shows of the season.

Si learned to use exotic ingredients when his dad, who was in the Merchant Navy, would bring back herbs and spices from all over the world for him to experiment with.