Eight courses

Parma ham

Tomato mozzarella and basil

Gnocchi with pesto

Scallops with bacon and cream

Beef, Kangaroo and Ostrich with Gratin Dauphinoise and sugar snaps

Rhubarb and maccaroons

Caramelised oranges with clotted cream

Chocolates

Stuffed Mushrooms

I recall first eating these shortly before a trip to the theatre. An early evening meal. My younger brother and I had been required to spend the afternoon asleep so as not to be too tired for the evening, and we were in that halfway frame of mind between sleep and full wakefulness. It was winter.

They were large, flat mushrooms. My mother talked about how she had first decided to make them. "Life is too short to stuff a mushrooom" was the quotation at the beginning of Shirley Conran's "Superwoman" - a twentieth century version of Mrs Benton. And the quotation had got my mother thinking. Not along the lines the quotation was suggesting, but "What a good idea to stuff a mushroom". So she did.

INGREDIENTS

As many large flat mushrooms as there are people.
Chopped bacon or lardons.
1 Chopped onion.
1 finely chopped clove of garlic.
Breadcrumbs.
Olive oil.
Salt and pepper.
Parsley.

The mushroom stalks should be removed and finely chopped and added to the other ingredients which are the stuffing. The inverted mushroom caps should be stuffed to the brim and beyond with the stuffing ingredients. Bake in the oven until piping hot and oozing. Eat.