Dinner Date

I'm interested in the more and more outlandish ways television is helping people find love, and Dinner Date (ITV, 5pm, daily) is one programme I am loving.   Let me explain the concept:  a girl or guy (the dater) looks through five menus and chooses three dates (the datees) based on their proposed three course meal.   Simple.  

The dater then goes to the three datees' houses and they enjoy the meal together.   At the end of each date the datee rates the dater out of three stars.   Once the dater has had all three meals, they choose their favourite datee and they go for a romantic meal in a restaurant of their choice whilst the other two answer their doors to a tray with a ready-meal (think spaghetti carbonara) and a mini bottle of wine.   

In terms of whether I could compete in such a programme, I just don't know.   You have to be pretty brave (or mad ...in which real life situation would you ever do this?!) to cook for a complete stranger in the first place, let alone one you are trying to woo.   The stress of meeting someone for the first time, mixed with cooking trauma could well cause a person to keel over.   Not that I'm a stress head.   I'm just pointing out the danger.  

Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to know what some of my friends would cook if they were on the programme, so I posed this question: what three course meal would you cook to entice the man / lady of your dreams on a blind date?  Here are some of their answers: 

       Becky

Starter: Little pieces of bread with smoked salmon and mackerel pate
Main: Beef wellington and chips
Pudding: Crowd pleasing chocolate brownie

       Anna

Starter: Fried calamari with hot and spicy sauce     

Main: Thai green chicken curry

Pudding: Elderflower & lychee cheesecake   

       Ellie

Starter: Scallops

Main: Steak and chips

Pudding: Blueberry cheesecake

       Mimi

Starter: Spanish cold cuts of meat

Main: Steak pie with 'man-veg'

Pudding: Jam roly-poly with custard

       Dan R

Starter: Either sushi or oysters

Main: Slow roasted lamb cutlets served with honeyed parsnips and a warm lentil and feta salad

Dessert: Home made Toblerone cheesecake

       Giles

Starter: Salmon, prawn and avacado sushi

Main: Moroccan lamb tagine with apricots, served with couscous mixed with pomegranate

Pudding: lemon posset with dipping shortbread biscuits

       Smithy

Starter: Stuffed mushrooms

Main: Lasagne - a recipe given to me by an Italian family (which I can verify is the best tasting dish in the world)

Pudding: Chocolate fudge cake   

       Dan L

Starter: Bruschetta

Main: Paella

Pudding: Stick toffee pudding

So, there we have it, a snap shot of the culinary delights some of my friends would serve up.   I think they all sound delicious, and I must say, I am very impressed with the calibre of food they are able  to produce - I had no idea I had such talented, foodie friends (where are my dinner invites, eh?!)

Oh, and if you were wondering - my menu would be:

Starter: Scallops wrapped in Parma ham

Main: Duck with sweet potato mash and purple sprouting broccoli

Pudding: Chocolate melt-in-the middle fondant with vanilla ice cream

Thank you to the lovely contributors - happy dating! x

(Post a comment stating what your three course menu would be ... my favourite will be put into the main blog!)