TV show looking for dinner party holders

Do you like to throw dinner parties? Would you like to hold a dinner party with a difference?

We've been contacted by a company who are producing a new TV show and are looking for people who like to host Dinner Parties to get involved.

The show will be fronted by Charlotte Church and include people with fun friends who they would like to set up at a dinner party for the new show.

You must live in a flat or house that has a separate kitchen and dining area and be located within 50 miles of London.

If selected, please do not tell your friends!

To apply, please send an e-mail to: laurac@monkeykingdom.com including your name, age, telephone number, location and a brief description of your house or flat.

Come Dine With Me

I've just realised that no foodie/cooking blog could possibly be complete, without the obvious mention of the brilliant, "Come Dine With Me" on Channel 4! Within my workplace everyone is completely addicted - from the twentysomethings to the old timers like me! I'm convinced one of my colleagues is going to pop up on there at some time in the near future!

A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law was asking what on earth does one iron to these days now that she has viewed the entire back catalogue of Grand Designs (yes - even the ones where Kevin McCloud has hair!) and has no new Location Locations to look forward to?
"Come Dine With Me surely?" I questioned tentatively? Surely any self respecting person with Sky Plus series links not just the daily ones but the Sunday night Celebrity Special?
What is great about "Come Dine With Me" is the fantastic mix of people they manage to find - all in one town! I love the fact that everyone thinks they are the best cook ever but invariably have never heard of a "buerre blanc" or a "halloumi cheese"! They'd last five minutes on Masterchef!
The entertainment is always excruciating but my favourite bit (to quote Chris Moyles) is when they are as tired as a newt in the taxi home!! Everyone is always "shattered" rather that had a few too many! My ultimate favourite was the glamour model who was so "shattered" she slept through her own dinner party!
Anyway - the mother-in-law emailed this morning to admit to her first forage into the world of "Come Dine With Me" with news that the rest of the series is well and truly series linked on Sky Plus! What ever did we do before that??

Heston Blumenthal's Feasts

Heston Blumenthal's new TV series started on Channel 4, with the chef's totally surreal take on a Victorian Feast.

Using Lewis Carol's tale of Alice in Wonderland, Heston set about creating his version of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party for six specially selected guests. The lucky six were Rageh Omaar, Dawn Porter, Jemma Redgrave, Richard Bacon, Toby Young and Kathy Lette.

Drink Me
The guests were served a "Drink Me" potion as a starter, which comprised a bubblegum pink liquid, served in a specially designed drinking glass. The idea being to surprise the tongue with six very individual tastes of toffee, hot buttered toast, cherry pie, custard, pineapple and turkey. Seemingly an impossible task, but after infusing each of the original constituents in milk, straining, and with the addition of gelatin and colouring, the six flavours were stacked on top of each other within the glass. Judging from the look on each diner's face, the effect of the distinct flavours, was amazing and totally unexpected.

Turtle Soup
One dish thought of by Victorians as the height of luxury was Turtle Soup. While it is possible to legally buy turtle in some parts of the world, Heston felt that this might be a step too far for his guests and so hit upon the idea of another favourite of the Victorians, Mock Turtle Soup.

Taking calf's head and making a broth to form the Mock Turtle Soup was not enough for Heston. He filtered, froze and whizzed the broth and then put into watch shaped moulds and then finally covered the "watch" in gold leaf. His idea being to recreate the part in the story when the Mad Hatter dipped his watch in his tea.

The dish was served to the guests with the gold watch in a tea cup, together with a pot of hot water and a bowl containing a selection of delicious looking tit-bits.

An Edible Victorian Garden
For the third course of his Victorian Feast, Heston Blumenthal decided to deliver a Victorian garden to his guests and so a large board was constructed, filled with "soil" made from black olives, dried and chopped, a variety of salad and miniature vegetables, "pebbles" of baked new potatoes, plus fried eel and waffle cones and topped with deep fried insects, stuffed with an onion mayonnaise.

Yet another bizarre sight for the six guests, but they tucked in with delight to each and every corner of the garden and even managed to stomach the insects, which obviously tasted hugely better than they looked.

Vibrating Jelly
The dessert course took yet another unexpected turn as Heston explained that the Victorian's love of drugs and sex caused him to invent an Absinthe flavoured jelly, mounted on a base containing vibrators to induce a wobbling motion to the whole dessert. Add luminescence to further enhance the mind-blowing effect and you have a perfect way to round off a Victorian Feast - Heston Blumenthal style!

Each course devised by the chef, showed a level of genius that bordered on insanity, but Heston's thirst for knowledge into the history of cooking and also the science of food enabled him to acheive the seemingly impossible. The expressions of delight, wonderment, fear and laughter on the faces of each guest was magical and I wished I was there to enjoy the tastes too.

I eagerly await the next episode when Heston attempts to put his twist on a Tudor Feast.

Chicken Out

One of the things I feel most passionately about is the quality of the raw ingredients I cook with.

I believe that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Chicken Out campaign highlights the problem fantastically and hopefully has shown a great many shoppers why they should spend a little more when buying chicken and eggs.

The conditions in which some hens were being raised was shocking, but it is easy to see why the farmers are pushed to produce in this way, if they are constantly being pressurised into reducing prices.

If we all are prepared to change our buying habits, and choose our meat and eggs based on quality rather than cost, the farmer's incentives change and the lives of millions of hens will change too!

Of course as a result, we have tastier healthier chicken and eggs to eat and who doesn't want that?