Spice Trip: our Stevie Parle's hot stuff That's not the case; adding spice means infusing dishes with depth and richness and fragrance. Award-winning chef Parle, 27, is always happy to jump on both proverbial and actual planes in search of exotic taste experiences, as attested by his new globetrotting television series and accompanying book, Spice Trip, in which he traces spices back to their countries of origin and the growers who cultivate them. He is joined on his travelogue by sparky spice expert Emma Grazette, 31, who was head of recipe development at The Spicery in Bath, which supplies spices and herbs to many of the country's top restaurants, and is evangelical about their therapeutic benefits. "It's high time spices reclaimed their rightful place in the spotlight for their tremendous healing properties," says Grazette. They aid digestion, invigorate and rejuvenate the body - and let's not overlook the aphrodisiac dimension. What's there not to love? In person the pair are likeable and funny, bouncing jokes off one another. Onscreen, their chemistry is tremendously watchable; think This Life actor Jack Davenport on a foodie road trip with Thandie Newton. Floppy-haired Parle is laid-back and diffident, deceptively relaxed in manner (although make no mistake, a deeply ambitious heart beats within). Grazette is the yang to his yin; wild curls and waving hands semaphoring her enthusiasm, always game to shinny up a clove tree (for that is where they come from) or hack away at a cinnamon trunk. "Stevie would be all calm and collected and nodding thoughtfully, where I'd be shrieking hysterically with emotion," says Grazette, ruefully. Not that Parle didn't have his own hyperbolic moments, most notably after eating a whole habanero chilli. "It was incredibly hot and as water doesn't help, I drank lots of mescal," recalls Parle. Because your body thinks it's been poisoned, it pumps out endorphins to compensate so I started feeling really high and ended up running through the streets of Mexico giggling uncontrollably. Rather than a manufactured television partnership, theirs was a friendship born of a serendipitously shared passion for nutmeg and cinnamon. They had been introduced by a mutual friend, and when Parle pitched his television idea, Grazette was a natural fit to co-present the six hour-long episodes, each focusing on a different spice. Parle is also very much the real deal. The son of two doctors, he was never academically inclined, finding inspiration not in the classroom but the kitchen, where his parents kept their well-thumbed Madhur Jaffrey and Ken Hom cookbooks. The family enjoyed travel, so when Parle left school at 16, he had no qualms about heading abroad, initially with his brother, to explore south-east Asia. "I was blown away by the way the food tasted; of star anise and ginger, chilli and fresh turmeric," he remembers with a smile. On returning to Britain, he set about learning his trade, with stints at Ballymaloe, Moro, the River Café and Petersham Nurseries. "I like food that's unfussy and homely; where the ingredients retain their integrity," he says. By his early twenties, Parle was doing "pop-up" restaurants - taking over a venue for anything from a night to a week and serving his own inimitable style of food. Then, at the tender age of 24, and newly married to wife Nicky, who worked in legal aid, he opened his Dock Kitchen restaurant in Ladbroke Grove, West London. I'd always been a chef and worked really hard, but I'm not sure Nicky anticipated it was going to be quite so full-on. We got through, though," he says. I love to be very busy, with lots of different projects on the go. The couple have a son, Sam, aged two, and chez Parle will be even busier any day now, with a sibling imminent. His other new "baby" is his television debut, which he and Grazette, who has an eight-year-old son, Mateo, filmed in a breakneck few months. They travelled to Mexico to learn about chillies and Grenada to explore the delights of nutmeg and mace. Zanzibar saw them investigating cloves, in Turkey they feasted on cumin, India offered a masterclass on cinnamon and Cambodia yielded the secrets of black pepper. Grazette, whose British mother and Trinidadian father met at Oxford, is fascinated by the history of the spice trade, which shaped so many economies and cultures. I loved uncovering the context of spices; how they connect peoples and places and the very different way in which they are used, not just to flavour food, but to cure all sorts of maladies. Thus, the Spice Trip book, which accompanies the series, includes tips on using nutmeg oil as an anti-inflammatory for joint pain, and fried cumin combined with ripe banana as a cure for insomnia. And while Parle provides a delicious-sounding recipe for clove, rose and mutton biryani, there's also less appetising (although no less useful) advice from Grazette that ground cloves are an excellent topical treatment for athlete's foot and other fungal infections. Kerala, home of cinnamon and the birthplace of Ayurveda, the ancient Hindu tradition of medicine, was the series highlight for Grazette. "I was swept away by how the people live there," she says. Their food, their lifestyle, everything revolves round creating a sense of well-being for mind, body and spirit. Parle had visited Cambodia before, but was overjoyed to return to a country that had proved so influential to his career path. "Eating in Cambodia was one of the reasons I wanted to cook professionally," he says. That first taste of crab with green peppercorns and Kaffir lime leaves has stayed with me all these years. Once the media circus surrounding the show dies down, Parle intends to direct his energies towards building up "a small empire"; large enough to accommodate his yen to run a cookery school and encompass another restaurant, but not so unwieldy that he dilutes his vision. "I'm not interested in the whole macho thing of working 18-hour days," he says. Cooking, like eating, should be a joyous thing. I really do believe if food has been cooked by some poor tortured person being shouted at you can taste it. For her part, Grazette, who already has a degree in English and Caribbean studies from the University of Sussex, plans to undertake a degree in natural therapy, do more writing and keep her chef's hand in with dinner-party catering. They are such a natural pairing that it's hard to imagine their paths won't be crossing again soon. "If Stevie were a spice he would be cumin," Grazette concludes. It can appear quite ordinary, but as soon as you heat it up you discover a warmth, an earthiness and a fabulous depth to it. And Grazette? Parle describes her as chilli, "noisy, fun, can be fiery in excess but also warm and comforting." From Spice Trip: Fried aubergine with tomato sauce and cumin salt This is just as good served warm or at room temperature, either as part of a mezze or with a chunk of bread as a light lunch. Serves 4-6 1 garlic clove, finely sliced 1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes, peeled 1 tsp dried chilli flakes 2 tbsp sherry vinegar 2 aubergines, sliced in ½cm (¼in) discs 1 heaped tsp cumin seeds, toasted Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Feta to serve (optional) Add a good slug of oil to a pan and gently fry the garlic over a low heat until it starts to stick together. Pour in the tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of a wooden spoon. Season and add the chilli. Bring to the boil, then turn down and leave to simmer for about 30 minutes, until thick and sweet. Stir in the vinegar. Meanwhile, heat a good drizzle of oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan. When the oil's nice and hot, sprinkle the aubergine slices with a little salt and fry on each side until soft and golden, about 5 minutes. Add more oil if necessary. When cooked, transfer to kitchen paper to drain. Keep warm if you want to serve the dish hot. In a pestle and mortar, grind together the cumin with a pinch each of salt and pepper until fine. Divide the aubergine between your serving plates, or lay it out on a platter and dollop the tomato sauce over it. Sprinkle with the cumin seasoning and feta if using. Spice Trip will screen on More4 later this month. The accompanying book, Spice Trip by Stevie Parle and Emma Grazette (Square Peg, £20), is available from Telegraph Books at £18 + £1.35 p & p. To order call 0844 871 1515 or go to books.telegraph.co.uk