The final installment of our Come Dine With Me competition was upon us.
We knew that visiting Cel and Greg would involve travelling far far away. Further away than France, outside of the EU, and certainly outside of our time zone, to a land where they (to quote Alex) “haven’t yet adopted the 24-hour system…When you ask them the time they just grunt, point to the sky and say…’Sun God is sad’”. Our final Come Dine With Me evening involved travelling, all the way to Zone 5, back in time to Bromley for a 70s themed meal!
This was the first meal where full fancy dress had been adopted by all involved, and stepping into Cel and Greg’s well-themed living room, there were squeals of delight at seeing each other’s outfits and wigs (and also a bit of a tumble from an over-excited Sofia whose 6 inch platforms didn’t combine well with stairs). There was a real sense of occasion of this final meal in a competition which had already stretched to just over a year (385 days to be exact). Tonight was the night where we’d finally find out all the scores and crown the winner with that most coveted prize…ultimate glory!
The table was decked out very nicely, with the now obligatory table confetti. We studied the table placeholders with delight with ‘Disco Dave’ became an instant favourite.
Re-invented as 70s icons, I did hope that the preview menu, which featured classics such as Prawn Cocktail, would as per the tradition of our competition, be a ruse for a much more elaborate menu. As we unrolled our pretty pink scrolls we were not disappointed. PHOTO Extensive, with the now traditional alcoholic courses (two no less), and scrumptious sounding sweet endings AND cheese, we oohed and aahed in anticipation of home-made biscuits and home-made truffles, and all decided we would make sure that we paced ourselves so that we could sample everything!
Time for starters. None of us knew what river cobbler was, but we all agreed that we liked rocket leaves and pesto dressing, and so hopes were high. We were not disappointed – the dish was like a fish cake, the prawn texture was great and the river cobbler was similar to cod. There was a spicy kick to it, which always rates highly with me, and the rocket and lemon were a suitably punchy accompaniment.
Next it was time for psychedelic sorbet! Neon blue in colour, it was served ambitiously with mint and a bottle of vodka, encased in ice and fruit. Sadly I got a little bit over-excited and drowned my sorbet in neat vodka, which didn’t do it too many favours flavor-wise, but it did add to the general merriment of the evening.
Thankfully it was then time to soak up the alcohol with a substantial main course. The menu had promised Coq au Vin, and that’s what we were getting! Cel had soaked a chicken in wine for an entire day, and it had been cooked to tender perfection. The sides were also delicious – thyme new potatoes, braised red cabbage, carrots and green beans. Nicely presented with lots of colour on plates that were empty very quickly!
Then another boozy and colourful course – Gin Mint Fizz – a very green it was far better than an after dinner mint!
All the Come Dine With Me meals have featured brilliant food, but Cel and Greg had perhaps the best and most organized entertainment of all (all jokes of burlesque puppet shows aside). Greg deftly demonstrated his prowess in creating a ‘basic’ balloon animal, and we were instructed that we’d only be able to have dessert once we’d mastered our own – Generation Game style! Amie, our very own closet-mechanic engineer had no problem in figuring out how to create a range of poodles. The others took a little longer but managed to create acceptable animals. Disco Dave fashioned his balloons into an elaborate headgear, ignoring any instructions on how to create animals. Mine was awful – most optimistically it looked more like a misshapen rodent than a dog! Luckily, we were served dessert anyway, and it was utterly splendid! Flourless chocolate cake with vanilla cream, blueberries and raspberries.
The cake was sublime – soft and so very deeply chocolatey, it had a wonderful texture and when it was combined with the cream and the tangy tartness of the berries, it was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had!
Somehow, we still had space for cheese and lovely oatey and super thin homemade biscuits. A perfect way to end the meal.
It’s become tradition that at any event hosted by my friends, I will put on my pyjamas at the first opportunity. That evening was no exception! I was pjyama’d up and ready for the after-dinner entertainment. Not a gladiator fight between Alex and Sofia, but a film quiz! With video clips, cups of tea, and home-made chocolate truffles on sticks, this really was ideal entertainment!
Final video diaries and scoring for the evening was completed, and Disco Dave, being an observer to the competitive process was instructed to calculate the scores for each of the meals that we’d had (all scoring had remained secret throughout the entire, year-long competition). The anticipation was palpable around the coffee table as the scores were read out…at 34/40 and forth place was…me (fair play I thought – a good score but I hadn’t been as technically adventurous as the others, or had as many courses, but mine was the only meal with featured a fire and a fight!) Then in joint third place was Amie with her French themed evening and tonight’s meal with Cel and Greg (36/40 – both really excellent meals and evenings, which a lot of effort had gone into, and very deserving of the high scores)…. So now, we could barely contain our excitement as the two arguably most competitive teams Alex and Sofia and Jerome remained!! Who would win? Alex’s meal was the one that had set the bar so high right from the start with incredible attention to detail, presentation and technical skill, whilst Fia and Jerome had produced as many courses of really lip-smackingly tasty oriental food and been the original innovators of the G&T sorbet! Disco Dave heightened the unbearable tension with dramatic pauses a plenty and announced SECOND place…as…
…
…
… Sofia and Jerome! This led to an intial shout of joy and elation from Alex swiftly followed by gulps of intense FEAR, as he suddenly had visions of Sofia hurting him for beating her to first place) and then in a twist of brilliant announcing, David announced a joint score of 38/40 to Alex!
Hurrahs and huge relief all round (none of us really wanted Fia and Alex to scrap) there was much much congratulation to our equally deserved winners. It had been a truly excellent competition, with all the meals being a triumph, and the most impressive meal that any of us had cooked before. We’d had such a good time, and everyone we knew had become involved in what was a talking point for us all. We mutually decided a year off was needed, but that this was something that we’d do again…Forget the Olympics – Come Dine With Me 2012 awaits!
I love Barcelona. The weather is always beautiful and you can walk endlessly and discover wonderful places without even trying. Losing ourselves in the maze of streets around the Gothic Quarter (the 'Barri Gotic' - or just 'Barry' as I called it), and chancing upon this amazing ice-cream shop, Gelaaati!, was one such treasured find. We'd been given free samples of the made-on-the-premises ice-cream when we'd sauntered past in the morning, and as luck would have it, we managed to find ourselves back at the shop when both tea and energy levels had become precariously low.
