‘It was as close to visiting Willy Wonka’s factory as I could get’

Inside the Factory returns with a Christmas special focussing on, you guessed it, chocolate factories! Presenter Cherry Healey tells us how she got to live out her childhood dream…

On Sunday 22 December, Inside the Factory returns for its ninth series and they kick things off with a Christmas special, which sees Cherry Healey, historian Ruth Goodman and new co-presenter, Paddy McGuinness head to Belgium.

While Goodman explores how the country has become so world-renowned for their chocolate, the other two visit chocolate factories.

McGuinness visits a chocolate shell factory – they make 4million chocolates per day - us Brits are responsible for eating 44.7 million of them over the festive period!

Healey visits another chocolate factory to see how white chocolate is made. It was, she says, a dream come true. Not least because she loves chocolate. “I always put my chocolate in the fridge. At the moment, I'm really into chocolate covered caramel discs. In the evening I take them out of the fridge and have with a cup of tea.”

Of course, nine series-in and Healey’s used to having once-in-a-lifetime experiences on Inside the Factory. She explains that episodes on food are always thrilling for the audience, too. “Food is so emotional for so many people. It’s so important people fall in love with different types of food.

“Everyone’s got their favourite ice cream, their favourite biscuit, their favourite cheese. To see how they’re made is really magical, because we see these ingredients and products in our kitchen and in the supermarkets every day.

“I think we sometimes take for granted that we have such an amazing selection in this country. And to see where it’s come from, to see the farmers that are growing it, the effort that goes into it and the process of how it gets onto our table, is fascinating. People feel very close to the food they eat.”

We asked Healey to share her favourite food experiences on the show – including two from the new series.

White chocolate

Healey says the festive special is her favourite from the new series. So, what made the white chocolate factory so exciting for Healey to visit?

“It was an amazing, amazing factory. Some people don’t consider white chocolate, to be ‘real’ chocolate because while milk chocolate and dark chocolate contain cocoa solids, white chocolate has cocoa butter which doesn’t taste as strong. But real chocolate or not, when you put it in your mouth, you’re getting the sweetness and the milk, but it also feels very luxurious.

“They make a staggering amount in the factory and I got to experience the whole process. At one stage, the white chocolate is really powdery and it looks like a Winter Wonderland, with the machines covered in this amazing white powder. It feels like it's snowing chocolate – it was like every kids dream. Further on in the process, the white chocolate has to go up a really huge conveyer belt, which looked like a big ski slope, but again, it's chocolate.

“To top it all off, at the end they took me to their test kitchen where they brought out slabs of milk, white and dark chocolate which were as big as a marble work top. They then took a hammer and chopped it up for us to try and I got to take some home – it was the best gift bag I’ve ever had in my life.

“The whole experience was as good as you think it might be. It was so magical. It was as close to visiting Willy Wonka’s factory as I could get.”

Jaffa cakes

In series seven, Healey got to head to another sweet-based factory, this time jaffa cakes. “It’s one of my favourite episodes, purely just for the indulgence.

“We saw the jaffa cake being made in its little components. And at every stage, I was allowed to eat one. It started with the spongy biscuit, you could take that off the line and it was hot and just amazing. And then I had it with the orange marmalade on it and then finally with the chocolate.

“There’s nothing like a jaffa cake, fresh off the line, still slightly melted. It really blew my mind.”

Christmas turkey

In two of the Christmas specials, the Inside the Factory crew have come to film in Healey’s house, something she loves. In the Christmas special of series seven, Healey made a vegan roast for the film crew. “I've known them for a long time and they feel like family. So we had this mini, Christmas meal with the vegan roast.”

Then she quickly adds: “Do you know the other one I really love? It’s when I learnt how to make the perfect turkey,” a lesson she learnt on the Christmas special, series five.

“We did that with the wonderful Dr Stua, our food scientist.” Healey learnt that to create a moist turkey you should add a tray of ice to the oven at the same time as the turkey because it turns to steam, creating a sauna-effect.

“I loved both these episodes, partly because I then go and use all those tips at home when I'm making my Christmas lunch, but also because at the end of the filming day, you get to sit down with the crew and have a Christmas lunch together and it's really jolly. Those shoots are so fun.”

Use your leftover turkey to create these delicious Boxing Day dishes:

• Coronation turkey sandwich

• Turkey curry samosas

• Turkey curry

Beer made with bread

Episode two of the new series focuses on sliced bread. And, while McGuinness heads to a bread factory, Healey visits a new business that uses leftover bread, that would otherwise go to waste, to make beer.

“The bread industry wastes a huge amount of bread because to make sandwiches you discard the ends, which get thrown away.

“If you think about how many sandwiches there are every single day in every single shop, in every single town, it's a staggering amount. And this new startup is using bread instead of barley to make beer and the beer is amazing, it doesn't taste of bread at all. It's so clever.

“I think after the festive episode that's probably my favourite in the series, not just because I love a good, clever startup that’s doing something good for the environment, but because we get to really introduce Paddy.”

Talking of her new co-host she says: “I expected Paddy to be funny because he's a comedian, but what I didn't expect was how nice he is as a person. He's really thoughtful, he's a really good listener, he's just a really lovely person to talk to. And in the second episode of the new series, we get to see why he’s so suited to the show.”

Of course, between the first two episodes, comes Christmas, and Healey will be taking the lessons she’s learnt on the show into her own kitchen.

“I love the full Christmas food experiences – Brussel sprouts with pancetta, roast potatoes – my boyfriend makes the best ones in the world, turkey, the mince pies, Christmas pudding and brandy butter. I love it all!”

Watch the festive special of Inside The Factory at 18.30 on Sunday 22 December on BBC Two, or catch up on BBC iPlayer

Originally published December 2024.

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