With 20h33 I've been going round the UK finding different places to run wine dinners. There are always teething problems, and most of the places I do it at have never run these things before, so there's a lot of learning getting done on both sides. But once the first night is out the way, and it goes well, everyone is on board and it's a great laugh. Last week was my first night at La Ferme, a French restaurant in Farringdon in London. And it went great.
I try and keep the pressure off the guys who are putting the dinner together. I run the night, do all the intros, and hopefully we're just like any other paying guests, just with a slightly bigger table. As I said to Francois down there, it's got to make sense for both of you. The restaurant needs to make money, get bums on seats, and get people experiencing their food. It's the same for me and the wines.
It's funny, the guys at the restaurant are always nervous that people will like their food, and I'm nervous that they'll like the wine. I think we both back our stuff. You wouldn't flog food or wine if you didn't rate it yourself would you? But it's always nice, especially on the first night, to get some good feedback from the clients.
6 courses of great food came out, with all kinds of foie gras, seared tuna, iberico pork belly, and canneles coming out. It was superb. And for me flogging wines it really helps to have great food like that to show off how well the wines can match up. Especially the Sauternes at the end with the pudding. Watching people who've never tried Sauternes before sip it for the first time is wonderful. This ear to ear grin just appears!