The last supper …

… we ever organise on this scale. (Probably)

Back in July when we were pottering about with some potters in Cornwall, they talked about getting together in October to divi up the sale proceeds from the gallery and think about next year.

Flush with the success of selling a photograph and flush with more than one glass of Sharps Doom Bar*, Anniemay blurted out, “we can hold it at our place. Igor will cook…..” I have to tell you that Igor was not that eager.

But the die is cast and the day is now upon us. I am cooking for 12. Well, 12 humans and one dog, to be precise. The dog is a young golden labrador currently being socialised by one of the group before heading off to be trained as a hearing dog for the deaf. I assume we can rely on the dog to be discrete with regard to any raucous indiscretions at the dinner table.

I’ve never cooked for that number before and I run through my repertoire of dishes that might easily scale up. Then we hit the old ‘who doesn’t eat what’ syndrome. There are a couple of vegetarians and a couple of non-red meat eaters. So I settle on a sweet potato chilli for everyone.

A few tins of black-eyed beans, kidney beans and chopped tomatoes, peel and chop a few sweet potatoes and onions - a liberal sprinkle of chilli - and my job’s done.

Annimay’s, however, is only just beginning. Because having volunteered me to cook, it falls upon her to play the hostess. And she’s wondering how to seat 12 people when we only have 6 dining chairs, not enough cutlery, plates and glasses …. and all the other paraphernalia that goes with feeding people at a dining table.

She’ll come up with something, she always does. And it’ll be nail-bitingly last minute. But we can rest afterwards, secure in the knowledge that it’ll be someone else's turn next time.


* Doom Bar is a sand bar at the mouth of the River Camel in Cornwall. It gives its name to the local ale. You never had Anniemay down as a beer drinker did you. Neither did I.