Feasting-en-France

One aspect of Ardgour-en-France that I meant to write about is the food. Anyone who’s known me for more than five minutes will probably have picked up that food is something that I’m passionate about. Making, sharing, and appreciating good food is an important part of how I relate to people, so the challenge of planning the catering for a group of that size, and making sure that not only are all the dietary requirements met, but everyone actually enjoys the food is one that I find stimulating.

There’s a slightly selfish aspect to it. When food is part of my identity in this way, and especially when I get positive responses to meals that I’ve cooked or planned, it gives me a layer of armour against the voices of disordered eating. It would be better, I think, if I didn’t need to get my validation externally at all, but somehow getting it from being a provider of nourishment and culinary pleasure is quite hard to make coexist with seeking it from being thin, thinner, thinnest, and I’m fairly certain that it’s healthier for me to crowd out the latter with the former.

I think we ate pretty well throughout - as ever, there were a few hiccoughs with me forgetting to order the odd ingredient, or not being able to find something in a French supermarket that would be straightforward in England, but all the cooks did a sterling job of improvising alternatives. I was particularly pleased with and proud of the Medieval Feast on the Tuesday night. A feast of some description has been a feature of several of these holidays, and this was the third time that strongtrousers and I have run the show.

And we’re getting good.

I mean, we’ve been decent cooks for years - it was whilst we were living together at the Suite that I first really got into food, and I learned an enormous amount, and through the years I think we’ve both learned back and forth from one another. But even so, in previous years the feasts have been hard work, they’ve been very stressful, and although we’ve made some fabulous food, not everything has worked. By now though, we’ve learned. We’ve learned what works for big groups and what doesn’t, we’ve got the confidence to make things up on the fly when we need to, and we’ve broadened our repertoires considerably. And so this time everything just worked. All day, I could barely believe how smoothly everything was going, and how unstressed we all were, and when we served the food, how well chosen and well received every single dish was. Look at the menu below and tell me you don't wish you'd been there ;)



With thanks to pseudomonas for the calligraphy.