YOU know how it is, you wait for ages for one hairy biker and then two come along at once. The pair in question are David Myers and Simon King, stars of BBC2's The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook.

If you haven't yet caught them, this is no ordinary cookery show featuring a fragrant temptress, laddish cockney or manic despot swearing like a trooper.

Dave and Si - as they are known - prefer to offer a melting pot of travel, cooking and eating, all washed down with a cocktail of humour. As an entrée, the first episode of their latest series saw them tasting weasel-filtrated coffee and goat penis.

The real comedy, though, comes from the way they work together. They might look more like rock roadies than chefs, and they often come across as overgrown students. But their passion - for food, motorbikes and seeking out new places - is undeniable.

Both Dave and Si have loved food and cooking since they were children - Dave in Cumbria and Si in Northumberland - although neither has had any formal training. As they point out, they are cooks, not chefs.

Disabled

Dave, 48, though, had a bit of a false start. His mum become disabled, his dad left work when he was eight and, for a while, the family lived on "instant mash and beans".

Fortunately, his dad's experimentation improved and the two learned how to bake bread together. His main passion, however, was art, pulling him to the city to view pre-Raphaelite paintings at Manchester Art Gallery whenever he could. He later worked as a make-up artist on Coronation Street and still has fond memories - and friends - from his time living in Salford and Worsley.

Si, 39, in his north east burr, explains how his culinary curiosity developed. "My earliest food memories are of being in the kitchen with me mam and dad and brother and sister," he says.

"My dad used to travel a lot because he was in the navy and he always brought stuff back with him. I can remember the first time I smelled garlic, it was quite exotic in those days!"

Si's career also began away from food, behind the scenes of TV and film. One of his jobs was on Newcastle-based children's show Byker Grove, the launch pad for Ant and Dec. He describes them as "lovely lads, and by the looks of it, they haven't changed much".

All double acts look back on a combination of circumstances and a meeting of minds that brought them together. Of course, for the Hairy Bikers, it was an odd situation - they met while working together on a Catherine Cookson TV drama, The Gambling Man, in the early nineties.

The duo began taking off on biking excursions together - initially round Britain, then further afield - when jobs, girlfriends, wives and kids permitted. And at home, their "party piece" became cooking for friends and family. Still, it took years before they were offered the chance to make a pilot TV programme, riding round Portugal, exploring the country's social and cookery delights. And so, a TV double act was born.

Their own favourite bits from the first series are seeing the TT motorbike races on the Isle of Man and visiting Namibia, which Dave says was "incredibly beautiful".

Beautiful

THE second series, which started last Wednesday, saw them in Vietnam with the extraordinary tasting sessions.

Si explains: "We were going to have deer penis, but we were told it was too big for two people, so we had goat penis instead. It was horrible, horrible, horrible!"

Other weird and wonderful experiences coming up include trying hallucinogenic honey in Turkey, and, in Mexico, getting stuck into tequila like there's no maéana. Looks like they won't be riding off into the sunset for a long time yet.

The Hairy Bikers cook book is out now. Tweet