 |
| An intimate atmosphere made us all feel welcome and comfortable which gave a fun night for all of us |
It is
already for a few years that new kinds of dining-out are invented. For smartphones
there are many apps available which enable people to share leftovers on a kind
of ‘marketplace’. The so-called Restaurant Day gives amateur cooks the possibility
to expose their kitchen skills every three months. To me, it all suits to the
trend in which bottom-up initiatives are more appreciated than the traditional
economic activities.
Tour the Forks’ history started with the inventions of
‘secret dinners’. Secret in different ways: you never know where you are
expected and whom you can expect. It offers the participants (I think you cannot
use the word guest here) another way
of having a fun night out.
After
almost two years of ‘secret dinner silence’, the move to a new studio and many interesting
food-related activities, Tour de Fork decided it was time to re-vive the
successful event. The first hint was given about a month up front followed by the invitation a few weeks later. This didn’t say
more than the date and time and, off-course, the theme of the dinner. With
accepting the invitation we said yes to a dinner centred around bread, which
was prepared by a be-friended cook.
Bread does
not seem the most exiting topic for a dinner. I mean, we are in Italy. The
bread here is usually not that outstanding, even though things are changing. But maybe the choice for this topic made me
even more curious, as a bread-loving Dutch girl like me. Besides that the
published menu already showed that we would travel around the world following
the historical discovery of the baker. As at this moment when food and history
are daily matters for me, I could not wait to start
the journey.
To stop
the first hunger, we were welcomed with a good glass of gin-tonic accompanied
by Indian papadums
and a yoghurt mint-dip. It might have been the way the drinks were served, but
within a few minutes, people were chatting with each other. Since it was the
first ‘secret dinner’ in the new series, Tour de Fork decided to only invite
friends. Which made that we at least had one thing in common, namely knowing
the hosts. It felt a bit like we arrived all from the same family but that
somehow we never got to meet each other. This dinner was a good opportunity to
make up for that!
When the
drinks started to do its’ job, we were invited to sit-down at the big table
hosting all the 18 guests. I know the studio from an earlier collaboration. At that time it had a cold
feeling, literally as well as figurative. But the way it was decorated now,
made me completely forget about that. It felt like being hosted in someone’s
warm living room instead of sitting in a sober basement.
While
chatting with a fellow ‘stranger’ we enjoyed the one and only Italian dish of
the night: the ribollita, a Tuscan
stile soup with different kind of vegetables and beans. Completely in line with
the farm-style dish it was sided by two big pieces of heavy bread. One of them
included garlic, the other made out of rye. Here it would have been great if
the pater familias had asked us a
moment of silence and used this to explain about the choice of the theme and
made us all aware of the story it has. Later it was explained that it was a
choice not to take this role as it was also an opportunity for the hosts to
have a relaxing evening among friends. Next time though, I hope they will do it
to give the event also a more educative side.
I think
the third course was the most exotic dish for every-one, even though it was
based on the northern kitchen of the cold Sweden. Six small pieces of self-made
rye bread where topped with different spreads and toppings; homemade
mayonnaise, smoked mackerel, boiled eggs and pickled cucumber. Flavours all unfamiliar
to us and therefore more exciting to talk about. Whether it was this or the
shots of vodka that traditionally help the Swedish to digest their heavy meals,
we all had fun and the ‘family members’ started to feel more related and
chatted along like they’ve never done else.
Before
we knew, midnight was long behind us and it was time for the last part of the
dinner. The dessert (bread pudding) another shot of vodka (there was a lot to
digest) and the envelop, meant for the payments which were announced already on
the invitation. Although this might be the most undesired part of the evening,
(you feel like staying at your friends and then they ask you to pay…) in this
case they made it part of the whole concept which avoided possible embarrassing
moments.
The next
‘secretdinner’ is planned for January. So if you got curious while reading this blog
(you should) I suggest you start to follow the studio and make sure
that you are between the next run of invitees.
