Come Dine with Celenika and Greg! (The Final Installment of CDWM)

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!

Come Dine with Amie: An Autumn Evening in Paris, 30th October 2010.

I have a terrible sense of direction, and a memory that is becoming as bad. I knocked on a door, and found myself being ushered into a party, and had to shout ‘I’m at the wrong house! Sorry!’ before running next door to Amie’s. It was the night before Halloween but our evening was going to be far more sophisticated; a French-themed fourth instalment of our Come Dine with Me competition.

The kitchen was warm and full of tempting aromas. The lovely hostess was gorgeously attired and incredibly calm. I was the first to arrive…or so I thought until surprise guest, (the seldom seen) Mish descended the stairs! With Amie’s two housemates also joining us, Amie was cooking for 10! I’d struggled to cook for 8 people, so I was astounded by her calm demeanour as she was cooking for the largest number of guests so far in the competition.

The table was of course beautiful, and contained what has become the CDWM staple - sparkly table confetti. But there was more than just sparkly stuff on the tables…olives and marinated artichokes too – I hoped the others would turn up soon! The promise of a feast was making me hungry!

Eventually the other guests arrived and we enjoyed our aperitifs (bubbly enhanced with crème de cassis) before taking our seats and taking part in the ritual of reading the menu.

Amie had created not one, but two menus! One entirely translated into French! We were invited to ‘Come Dine With (A)mi(e)’, and enjoy an ‘Autumn Evening in Paris’.

We had a selection of hors d’oeuvres to start – saucisson, pate (home made by Amie’s uncle in France), and towers of French toast, with a tomato salad, along with the yummy olives and artichokes which had marinated nicely.

So far so good, but I was somewhat filled with trepidation at reading the next item on the menu….

I’d never eaten snails before. If offered to me at a restaurant I’d politely but firmly decline. But hey, this was Come Dine With Me and everything had to be sampled for the good of the competition. Armed with only cocktail sticks, we tried our best to skewer the elusive snails inside the shells and very thankfully they tasted good! The garlic, parsley and butter sauce was actually quite heavenly – I love garlic, and was particularly good when mopped up with the crusty bread.

We were certainly in need of a palate cleanser after all the garlic and a lemon, lime, mint and gin sorbet did the trick. The serving was huge and left our mouths feeling lemony fresh, (leading to some awfully low quality humour about cleaning products).

But enough of that – it was time for mains! Chicken Chasseur in a mushroom and red wine sauce, with French beans and an absolutely indulgent creamy potato gratin. We were quietly told that this dish actually originated from Amie’s (welsh) grandmother, but it was most definitely sophisticated and accomplished enough to pass for French!

Photo by Jerome Taylor (of course!)

It wouldn’t be a French meal without a plateau de fromages though, and the even though we’d stuffed ourselves, we soon cleaned the cheese board. Amie had sourced a particularly lovely selection – the brie stands out in my memory, but I remember enjoying it all.

Somehow, we still had space for dessert – and I’m so glad we did as it was an extravagant one! Orange and ricotta cheesecake with a chocolate base, and I have to say the BEST meringues in the world! A last minute addition (they weren’t even on the menu), these were incredible – firm but slightly soft and squidgy on the inside – I’d never had any that good before!

Another photo from Jerome - many thanks!

All good things must come to an end, and very finally was home-made coffee ice-cream. I don’t drink actual coffee, but this was perfect – it was an intense hit of coffee flavour, but cold and milky and sweet and the ideal thing to end the feasting.

The evening, in true CDWM style, carried on until the early hours (we even utilised the extra hour that accompanied that night’s move back to GMT) with much noise and laughter. As I finally fell into bed (I’d been partially wearing my pyjamas for about 4 hours at this point), I was almost sad that we were nearly at the end of our competition, where we’d been treated to home cooked feasts that had all been put together with endless amounts of effort, attention to detail and innovation) but one final meal remains, (and very best of luck to them – the standard remains impeccably high!)

Come Dine with Sofia and Jerome: A Taste of the Orient. August 14, 2010

This rather great photo was taken by our lovely hosts,

Uncharacteristically late, flustered and still clutching an umbrella despite the sweltering humidity, I found myself swept into a circle of champagne clinking, as I arrived at the third instalment of our Come Dine with Me competition. The bubbly presented in neon pink flutes, perfectly matched our hostess’ dress, and immediately set the tone of what was to be an evening filled with fantastical food, frivolous drink and frequent posing for the camera.

Fia and J, exuded nothing but calm as we took our seats at the beautifully decorated table and examined our elaborate menus with joy, (well…those of us who’d already taken our turns to host the competition were gleeful. The others felt competitive fear. Extreme competitive fear). Being one of the former group, I was astounded by the variety and culinary confidence promised by the 7 course oriental extravaganza promised by the menu. As well as being extensive, the menu was decorated with Chinese symbols, that literally translated into ‘food, glorious, food’ (well, ‘food’, ‘glory’,’ food’ - but you get the idea).

My stomach was rumbling, so thankfully there wasn’t long at all to wait for the first of our three (!!) starters; Vietnamese prawn summer rolls (goi cuon nuoc chan), served with chilli dipping sauce. These entirely reworked my preconception of ‘spring rolls’ and their deep-fried oily nature, as these ‘summer rolls’ were made of rice paper so thin it was almost translucent and didn’t require any cooking (therefore served at room temperature making them an ideally refreshing dish in the unexpectedly warm weather). Cool and crunchy as they were, the flavour was spot on, and accentuated by the kick of a glorious chill sauce (which was also very artistically presented).

 

Our appetites whet, we were soon ready for the second starter of a hot and sour thai soup (tom yam aed), with large chunks of oyster mushroom. These mushrooms were amazing - intensely velvety, soaking up the strong flavours – real lip smacking goodness. The ingredients had been sourced from authentic asian supermarkets, and it showed as each dish was truly singing with flavour. This continued into the third and perhaps my favourite starter (if I had to choose a favourite – I’d loved everything so far), the ‘yum wun sen sai mu’ (a Thai glass noodle salad with pork), served with ‘Bejing Bellini’! I’d worried that post-soup my appetite might not be ready for a third starter but the delicacy of the glass noodles, combined with the meaty juicyness of the minced pork, was heavenly, and we couldn’t help but devour it all.

We were certainly ready for our palate cleanser by this point. But this was no -neutral-and-not-all-that-exciting-sign-of-slight –pretension-palate-cleanser... Oh no: this was a sorbet. A GIN AND TONIC SORBET! What an utterly genius idea (and surely the only way to make a G&T even better)! Served daintily in shot glasses, we raucously demanded more of this heavenly creation! Made with an ice-cream maker this was a wonderfully boozy but refreshing and tangy slush-puppy of a drink. We consumed copious amounts increasing merriment, hilarity and hangovers the next morning.

After some silliness, posing and rapping, it was time for the main course – a Sumatran lamb curry had been promised. Being Indian, my idea of a curry is a distinctly sauce-y affair. But this was entirely different! The lamb had been slow roasted to melt-in-the-mouth perfection and served shredded, without sauce but still juicy. A wondrous concoction when served with pretty mounds of jasmine rice with a star-anise daintily placed on top. Once again, our plates were soon empty as we marvelled at the deliciousness of all we’d eaten so far.

Yet, still there was more! Dessert – Sofia’s speciality – was spectacular! Individual spongy chocolate spongy fondants were served hot, oozing with melting chocolate so intense that the cooling (home made) green tea ice-cream was a real pleasure to eat with it (who doesn’t love the hot/cold dessert combination)? If possible - it tasted even better than it looked.

A pomegranate gin cocktail was followed by yet more G&T sorbet as the evening took a decidedly more hazy boozy turn, complete with much photo-posing, uber-competitive ‘Articulate’, and just as competitive ‘Singstar’. Somewhere amongst the late night singing we took time to record our video diaries and score our hosts on their evening. Whilst I can’t reveal my score just yet, I really truly was astounded at how every single dish was beautifully presented, inventive and most importantly bursting with flavour. I’m really really hoping that they cook for me again…

Come Dine With Me 2010: Part 2. Ushi's Sloughdog Millionaire Dinner

Photos by Jerome Taylor

I’d been putting it off for weeks. I’d delayed on setting a date, being somewhat intimidated by the prowess of the first hosts during the first instalment of our Come Dine With Me competition, and I was rather distracted by the looming deadline of my 15,000 word dissertation (hence the lack of blog posts in April and most of May 2010). I had a vague idea of the menu – it had been established early on that I’d be cooking Indian food, being the only type of food I could possibly cook more impressively than my talented friends, but I had no theme or plans for entertainment.

I had a vaguely advantageous situation as I’d convinced everyone to stay over at mine after the meal, hence could utilise the ‘get everyone too hammered to criticize’ game plan! I sought inspiration in the Pornstar Martinis discovered in Rotterdam, although I decided to re-invent them as martinis of the ‘Bollywood Star’ variety.

Inspiration along these lines, came only four days before the event itself. A recent visit to Slough Museum, combined with a re-watching of The Office had left me feeling much pride in the town I’d been living in for the last 9 months. So a Slough theme appealed, but I couldn’t think of a way to combine it with the Indian Menu, until inspiration hit…’Sloughdog Millionaire.’ A theme that was partly Bollywood, partly rejoicing in Slough (by virtue of being held there), and with some ‘Millionaire’ game show entertainment. Sorted. I sent out email invitations with mocked up Slumdog Millionaire posters which were received with some amusement (rather than ‘bemusement’ I hope) - no one even noticed I’d missed the ‘g’ out of ‘Slough’.

My main course and dessert I’d been testing on a number of guests over the previous few months, so I felt pretty confident with my chicken curry and vegetable rice with cucumber raita. My dessert – individual Baileys tiramisu wasn’t bad, but previous incarnations hadn’t been quite right in terms of cream and liquid and biscuit ratio. I had however sourced better receptacles for the individual desserts, and taken on board Sharon’s advice on soaking the biscuit fingers until they were oversaturated with liquid, and thinned out the layer of mascarpone and Baileys infused cream, so I was hopeful that these would turn out well. Previously I’d made them without any drama, but making eight of the things the night before, proved to be far more fiddly and tricky than I’d anticipated…a job I expected to take an hour at most, turned into three…

Cooking the chicken curry involved having to use my parents’ kitchen, a 7am start and the biggest steel pot and spoon I’ve ever seen (my mother never ceases to amaze me when she produces ridiculously gargantuan cooking implements out of nowhere). It was a great help though, and ensured good mixing of all the spices (fresh chilli, ginger and garlic green paste is the secret, as well as cloves and cinnamon sticks when you start cooking).

As I was hosting on my own, I’d been granted special dispensation from the group to enlist some help in the cooking. Whilst I’d been faffing around with the tiramisu for hours on the previous evening, my mum had made the samosas to accompany my Bollywood Star Martini starter. I was massively thankful as I battled with a vegetable curry – Aloo Gobi (potato and cauliflower curry), as well as an apple and coriander chutney for the samosas and the cucumber raita. Rice would be made after the starters were served.

Another challenge was seating – given I can normally only seat three. I was counting on borrowing a folding table from my parents that, was until the morning of the meal, as good as mythical. I’d never actually seen it before and there were mutterings from my dad and sister that it was broken. I finally saw it just a few hours before the guests arrived - massively relieved that it was fairly study and of a good size, (and there’s nothing like some heavy duty tape to stick a slightly broken table back together).

The food was mostly cooked by early afternoon, and I quickly prepared my menus – on individual red crepe paper scrolls tied with silver ribbon. Not as hand drawn or as beautiful as the previous dinner, but not bad for a last minute job.

Then to decorate the table – my tour de force was my Bollywoodised Place Names – Greg Rukh Khan, Salman Khan Foley, Kajol Jayasinghe, Aishwarya Aldred, Amitabh Taylor Buchan, Sofia Mitra Mukerjee, Preity Amie Zinta would be joining me, Madushi Dixit, for dinner. Flowers, menus, candle sticks, tea lights, sparkly table confetti and a little pot of bubbles each, made for a fairly crowded table, (and a slightly drunken, but luckily not too destructive table fire later on in the evening).

The full menu (complete with Bollywood film style Acts and Intervals) was presented as follows:

Act 1

Pink champagne on the Veranda

Bollywood Star Martini with Samosas

Act 2

Chicken Curry with Vegetable Rice

Aloo Gobi

Cucumber Raita

Chapattis & Naan Bread

Interval

Act 3

Individual Baileys Tiramisu

Chai

I’d covered the walls in saris, put songs from the emotion-fest that is bollywood film Khabbie Kushie Khabbie Gham on the DVD player, and I’d prepared Who want to be a Millionaire style multiple choice questions about my guests. Literally an hour before the guests arrived, I’d spotted a ‘Millionaire’ board game in the charity shop across the road, for a princely sum of £2. Theme sorted!

The guests arrived and pink champagne was calmly served (champagne flutes began the great use every type of glass possible mission). Guests took their seats, blowing bubbles and comparing whose Bollywood names whilst I got the Bollywood Star Martinis ready.

Passion fruit and mango juice, much vodka and gin, sugar, ice and passion fruit seeds, served with a separate shot of cava. I had lovely martini glasses for the girls and manly tumblers for the boys (made slightly less manly by neon squiggly straws), and shot glasses all the way from Uzbekistan. Samosas accompanied the drink along with an individual serving of the chutney. Much topping up of drinks, quickly bought with it a genial and slightly burry atmosphere. As a result, cooking vegetable rice and some token chapattis for the main course, was a challenge too far, so I went for straightforward plain rice instead and naan bread (and hoped no one would notice).

Serving up the main course with rice in little mounds, chicken curry in small bowls and individual ramekins of cucumber raita, didn’t leave much room for the Aloo Gobi, and left me thinking I’d taken the ‘individual’ thing a step too far.

The small napkin/candle table fire was luckily moved from table to sink without catching fire to the saris on the wall. Post meal silliness involved my personalised ‘millionaire’ questions, more bubble blowing and a new game…Face Table.  All you need to play is sparkly table confetti, a slightly moist face, and a table!

Photos by Jerome Taylor
 Dessert went down well – the tiramisu turned out far better on this occasion than ever before to my delight!  Chai (Indian tea) which I’d only really made once before that morning (my parents were guinea pigs), had been greeted with enthusiasm when the guests first saw the menu, and I was relieved that I hadn’t offered a choice of various post dinner hot beverages, as by this point in the evening, simplicity was by far the best plan.

The evening continued for many more hours in a similarly entertaining fashion. I’d surprisingly stopped caring about winning quite early on the evening, as just having pulled off the evening without any disasters, and with appreciative guests, seemed like a brilliant thing to have accomplished. I recorded a witty and erudite video diary entry on my view of the evening, to find at 2am when I was in my pyjamas and far worse for wear, that none of the recording had actually worked, and that we’d need to re-record all our thoughts. So the actual video (when we finally see them all after the last meal we have), will consist of my drunken incoherent mumblings about how I’m now too old to not be in pyjamas at 2am. Fitting I think.

(Many thanks to Jerome Taylor for his beautiful photos).

Come Dine With Me 2010: Part 1: Alex and Jessica's Twisted Tea Party, Taggs Island

I first came across Come Dine With Me in 2005 in my final few months as a student and was instantly taken by the concept. The programme's subsequent notioriety in the last few years, has spawned a phenomemon of competitive dinner partying amongst groups of friends, in the style of the TV format. My friends and I, 1) love our food, 2) love being on-trend and 3) love being competitive, therefore the idea that we should host our own competition in 2010 was a source of great excitement and anticipation.

The first of our five dinner parties (with 8 of us involved, we imagine this competition will take approximately a year to compete), was hosted by Alex and Jessica. Expectations were high - Alex has long been known as easily the most accomplished of the group in terms of his culinary skills, (in fact I would say he taught a number of us (me included) how to cook when we lived together as students), and Jess is one of the most creative people we know (she has fantastic ideas which she pulls off in a beautiful way). However, we'd almost been lulled into a false sense of security when we were emailed a relatively simple menu (distributing a menu in advance is one of the pre-requistes of the competition):

MENU

Starter- Chestnut Soup

Main Course- Butternut Squash & Goats Cheese Lasagne

Dessert- Lemon Meringue Pie

Dress Code- English Tea Party

It sounded simple - all dishes with mass appeal. I struggled to understand how an evening meal could be carried out in the style of an 'English tea party' but nonetheless, I was eagerly anticipating the evening. The location was also going to be idyllic - on a houseboat on the Thames near Hampton Court Palace.

I was first to arrive (apparently as predicted by our host and hostess). I was immediately struck by the gorgeousness of the elaborately laid table.

Attention to detail and beautiful presentation characterised the evening. As the other guests arrived we caught a glimpse of just some of the preparation (some very complicated looking checklists) that had gone into the (weeks) of planning for the evening. That was when the competitive among us began to worry...

Our fears for how high the bar had been set in terms of the competition felt completely justified as we each unrolled the individual scroll menu waiting for us on the table. It seemed that the previous menu, whilst technically correct, had acted as a decoy! The full menu was as follows:

Appetiser
Warm Gin Punch
Cucumber Sandwiches with Soy and Wasabi
Chestnut Soup with Bacon and Thyme Croutons

Palate Cleanser
Shots of White Russian and Bloody Mary

Main Course
Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese Lasagne
Leafy Salad with Rosemary Dressing
Fresh Bread Buns with Roasted Garlic Butter

Dessert
Individual Lemon Meringue Pies

Drinks and Petit Fours
Earl Grey with White Chocolate Strawberry
Coffee with Port and Stilton Truffle
Hot Chocolate with Home-made marshmallow
Jasmine Tea with Orangette

We were left open-mouthed in amazement and delight, as we sipped on our warm gin punch from beautiful china cups. Whilst we marvelled, yet another surprise - the unveiling of a special guest (the one and only Woo), who would provide the entertainment for the evening in the form of tricks and and fortune telling!

The cucumber sandwiches (crustless and triangular of course) were a perfect juxtaposition of daintiness with an intensely good wasabi kick (considerately served separately so that the wasabi could be added to each guest's individual taste). There was a short break whilst the croutons were prepared for the soup, but we were kept entertained by a puzzling Portuegese box game supplied by our entertainer Woo. The croutons were most definitely worth the wait - they made a very pleasant soup fantastic. The combination of bacon and thyme worked wonderfully with these crispy on the outside and squigy-in-the-middle cubes of fried bread in the chestnut soup. Many of us learned for the first time that chestnuts are available from supermarkets in tins. Truly, you learn something new every day!

We began to fear that we would be full before the main course arrived, but the miraculous effect of the palate cleansers appeared to remedy that. A creamy White Russian with a perfectly tangy Bloody Mary, served in polka-dot espresso cups and trendy test-tube style shot glasses respectively, created much delight and added to the atmosphere of merriment. (Suddenly the conversation seemed much more hillarious...)

Before we knew it, our stomachs were ready for the next installment of food - the main course: Jessica's Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese lasagne (originally Nigella's although she uses pumpkin), served with some much needed (to abate our feelings of gluttony) salad with wonderfully crunchy pinenuts.

We were utterly stuffed with wonderful food yet still not at the end of our meal! Thankfully our hosts had anticipated that a break would be appreciated at this point by their over-indulged guests and took the opportunity to prepare the meringue element of the dessert, whilst our fortune cookies were skillfully read to us in a comedically entertaining fashion.

As the delectable looking individual desserts were served (with candle adorned birthday versions for Alex and Amie), our delight was tempered with our competitive natures - others in the group had planned to employ the 'individual dessert' strategy after a strategic conversation with a friend in the catering industry!

We'd eaten so much, yet every ramekin was left empty as we savoured the perfect combination of pastry base, lemony filling and meringue.

The meal was still not over - we were intrigued as our after dinner hot drink order was taken, as Alex explained that each petit four had been specifically created and chosen to complement the hot drink chosen. We pondered for a moment...what if we all chose the same option? "Alex, do you actually mean to say you have created 36 of each of the petit fours?" we questioned incredulously. To which Alex responded with more than just slight hysteria in his voice, "Welcome to my world!"

Truly, this time Alex had surpassed himself. The strawberries had been dipped in a thick layer of white chocolate and chilled. The deeply chocolately truffles had the smallest hint of stilton adding to their luxurious flavour. The marshmallows were the first home-made variety I'd every experienced and were professionally light and fluffy. The orangette were tiny slivers of meticulously cooked and prepared orange peel dipped in dark chocolate. We helped ourselves to ample amounts of them all.

Finally, the wonderous feast was at an end. We slipped off to film our video diary responses and scores for the evening (which are not to be revealed until the very end of the competition). This really was one of the most amazing meals I'd ever had. Our hosts had been able to entertain us all whilst producing such intricately planned food and drink - all of which tasted fantastic. Even the intially intriguing tea party theme had been a really coherent concept that naturally suited the evening. The rest of us will now have to battle for second place - assuming there has been no tactical voting, first place it seems has already been won. Given how much I enjoyed the experience - I don't think I mind.