It was the production team that entered first, complete with their microphones, cameras, lights and clipboards. In seconds, and much to the amusement of the customers enjoying an early morning coffee break, they transformed a popular Oxford restaurant into a bustling film set.

We had arranged to meet at The Rose, a remarkable little licensed restaurant and tea room at the lower end of Oxford’s High Street. Here you can enjoy delicious freshly baked bread and cakes created by proprietor Marianne Bruel, who begins her daily cooking routine at the crack of dawn. No one bakes a better lemon drizzle cake than Marianne.

The Hairy Bikers, Simon King and Dave Myers, known to their viewers as Si and Dave, arrived ten minutes later.

These boys don’t enter a room quietly. They rush in complete with their biker’s helmets, filling the space with excited, animated chatter. Helmets are eventually removed as they introduce themselves – cameras rolling.

“Fine,” said the director, as the boys sat down and having shaken my hand, “But could we do it again. This time, Si, I want you to look towards the Banbury cakes after saying hello to Helen,” he added.

So we did it again, and then again, and again, with the boys talking 13 to the dozen, until we got the giggles because we still hadn’t satisfied the director.

I soon discovered that I would find myself giggling a great deal during the next hour or so, as our impromptu chat was polished and modified by a film crew determined to get it right. After all, this was going to go out on BBC2. Nothing second-rate would do.

We were there to film for the Oxfordshire section of the Hairy Bikers’ latest series, Food Round the British Isles (working title) which goes out next spring. Having already taken us round the world, calling off at Transylvania, Nombia, Morocco, India, Argentina, Belgium and Ireland, in their previous series, the boys are now preparing to unlock the cuisines of every county in the UK and Oxfordshire was one of the top on the list.

They didn’t choose to be called The Hairy Bikers, but as they both hairy and both ride a motor bike (a BMW GS1200R and a Hesketh V-1000), they have happily accepted this title, even though this means they are stuck with their beards for the rest of their professional lives.

Si and Dave are long-time mates who have enjoyed taking trips together searching out good food for years. Both have spent years working in film and television. Dave is a highly-rated make-up artist and prosthetics man and Si a locations manager whose last job involved finding locations for the Harry Potter films.

They are not professional chefs, nor do they pretend to be, though viewers will recall how they have outshone many professionals during the three years they have been filming.

As Si explained: “We just look for the right ingredients, new or ancient recipes, things we just get excited about and then work at it till we get results.”

During their visit to Oxford they called in the award-winning Foxbury Farm, Brize Norton, to meet farmers Colin and Di Dawes. They also visited M Fellows Son & Daughter, the organic butchers in Oxford’s Covered Market, who have been serving the college kitchens with quality meat since 1773.

After leaving The Rose, they planned to visit The Kingham Plough, in Kingham, and say hello to Emily Watkins, a talented young chef who trained with Heston Blumenthal at his three Michelin-starred restaurant, The Fat Duck, in Bray.

After speaking to me, they also decided to try their hand at making Oxford sausages, which I was soon to discover would bear little resemblance to the ones as I know The recipe I’ve always followed comes from the Ralph Ayres’ Cookery Book (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, £14.99), a delightful collection of manuscript recipes written by the 19th-century New College head cook Ralph Ayres.

His recipe calls for equal amounts of pork, veal and beef suet, chopped fine and seasoned with peppers, salt, nutmeg, sage and thyme and worked together with egg yolks, before being fried without a skin.

Si and Dave were intrigued but, as is their style, immediately worked out how to cook an Oxford sausage with a difference.

“It’s got to be made with lamb, lemon and rosemary!” Si declared.

I protested, they argued, we all laughed and at some point I remember making a sarcastic remark about adding mint sauce rather than rosemary, if they insisted on making them from minced lamb. It was all great fun.

Towards the end, the director called for a shot of the Hairy Bikers enjoying one of Marianne’s lovely Banbury cakes, cooked especially for them. To heighten their flavour, she’d added grated apple and a tot of rum, which was her way of giving a traditional recipe a modern twist. At this point my admiration for the boys’ ability to play to the camera rose four-fold.

In the course of five minutes, they ate four Banbury cakes each and without any loss of enthusiasm as the cameras came in close to capture the crumbs which fell as they chewed.

When the director called for just one more close up, they complied without complaint, issuing forth similar joyful shouts to those they’d bellowed on the first shot.

They then wiped their mouths, drank another sip of tea and asked if that was it. The filming was over. We shook hands, they placed their helmets back on their heads and vanished. A strange silence then descended on The Rose.