As children, we never ate out: my father was always reluctant to pay when you could make something delicious out of great ingredients at home. So special-occasion home cooking has such strong memories for me.
My dad used to buy beautiful meat from Selfridges for a treat, so I think my last meal would have to pay homage to that tradition: a carefully sourced T-bone steak marinated in spicy Oaxacan sauce, served with squashed new potatoes, roasted with lots of garlic and extra virgin olive oil. And a crisp green salad is essential.
My husband bakes bread every weekend since I bought him a bread-making course for his last birthday. So I’d ask him to make some of that too. That gift has worked out pretty well for me!
I’d follow the steak with a delicious slab of hard English cheese – maybe Doddington – with chutney and some charcoal cheese biscuits. I’d probably have to have a bowl of vanilla ice-cream, too, with a chocolate and 100% agave tequila sauce.
I’d want to eat it in a beautiful English country garden, full of roses. I can’t decide where that would be, there are just so many places that resonate – Suffolk, Hampshire and Gloucestershire among them. To me, there’s nowhere better than Britain in summer.
I’d want to share my last moments alone with my husband, and we’d cook the meal together – it’s just part of the fun, isn’t it?
I love wine, even though I don’t know a huge amount about it. I’ve had a beautiful Nero d’Avola from a small maker in Sicily, though – it’s medium-bodied and quite complex. So I think we’d share a bottle of something like that.
We’d listen to music only after dinner: I find it interferes with chatting around the table. I’d play a mixture: something from the Cure, Fleetwood Mac, and then get friends to pile round and put on some Skrillex to send me off!
