Who would be crazy enough to invite a chef for dinner?

Recenlty, the Alliance Francaise has been providing most of our social events. A couple weeks ago, they organised a party to celebrate the yearly arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau, a French tradition marking the first bottled wine of the year. The wine is not especially great but it is usually a good occasion to get a little bit tipsy. On that occasion, we hung out with a group from Chris's French class and had a good time so we thought we would keep riding this wave of "outside worldness" and organised a dinner at home the following week.

Friday came quickly enough but we were well organised. We had planned a menu, had all the ingredients and got to work a little bit after lunch as to avoid any flustered panic later. It is only when the meat for the "Daube Nicoise" (a meat and red wine stew) persisted in remaining hard and chewy after 2 1/2 hours of simmering that I realised how dumb and illogical it is to invite a chef for dinner...

Yes, people who learn French can also have a life outside of the Alliance Francaise and as it happens, one of our guests is a talented (and remarkably thin) chef from Serbia. Luckily, the other guests distinguish themselves in other fields but still, the pressure to perform was high and that, for a soup chef can lead to all sorts of overwhelming feelings. Nevertheless, we kept our cool and eventually, after many hours of simmering in a bath of red wine, the meat did soften up and the Daube came out quite nicely. We served it with some fresh pasta and green beans. Although not very high on presentation, this dish was convivial, plentiful and just what you need on a cold winter night (it's getting really cold here).

Of course, we followed that by a delicious and very popular cheese platter but the "coup de Grace" came with dessert. Following yet another one of Rosa's recipes, although with some variations, I had prepared a "Pear tart with hazelnut and honey". It was really delicious and perfect for a cold night. We served it with a little bit of cream on the side and it wasn't long until everyone was fighting over the last crumbs in the dish. We finished the meal with some coffee and the nougat Magdalena, the chef, had brought over from her own home cooking experiments.

In conclusion, Do not be detered by the foolishness of inviting a chef to taste your cooking. Although intimidating, many good things come out of it such as :

- the home-made goodie they will bring over, in this case Nougat,

- the incomparable feeling of having a chef ask you for a recipe,

- no one else does it and so you will seem not only brave but also really nice,

- and of course, they might return the favour!

Daube Nicoise

(serves 8)

1.5 kg of beef for stews, cut into 3cm chunks

3 tbsp olive oil

2 or 3 yellow onions, chopped coarsely

3 or 4 tomatoes, chopped finely

4 or 5 carrots, sliced coarsely

3 garlic cloves, sliced finely

the zest from one orange

dried herbs (laurel, thyme, rosemary)

2 cloves

some salt & pepper

50 cl. of red wine

300 gr. mushrooms, sliced of quartered

In a large saucepan, heat the oil and brown the beef on all sides in batches. Remove from the pan.

Add the onion and tomatoes and cook until onion softens. Add carrots, garlic, orange zest, the dried herbs, the cloves, some salt and pepper to taste. Add the wine and if necessary a little bit of water to cover. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for 2 to 3 hours or until meat has softened. Stir from time to time. Add the mushrooms about half-way through the cooking.

Serve with some fresh pasta, or gnocchi and some greens on the side. This recipe is even better reheated the next day so make sure you make enough for some leftovers!