My Dinner with the Dupres

As some of you know, Jean and the girls are in South Carolina, leaving me alone for the first time in quite a while. In general, I’ve kept myself busy, but cooking is not one of my great strengths. Fortunately Annick and Philippe Dupre have had me over for dinner to help ease my cooking stress. Last Saturday night they invited me again. Armed with my French/English dictionary, I arrived around seven. It was the beginning of a wonderful event.

Joining me for dinner was Loraine and her husband Michael. Loraine worked with me at Le Jardin D’ Anador. We began the evening with a bottle of Champagne and the usual salty finger foods backed up with some of Philippe’s cherry tomatoes. The rose wine was opened (along with a red that was allowed to breath) and we then were treated with a tomato/mozzarella/eggplant stack with balsamic vinegar and spices, garnished with basil. This tasty entrée was completely prepared and cooked by the Dupre’s ten-year old daughter, Chef Doriane.

Our plat was grilled steak cooked to perfection and served with steamed zucchini, grilled red pepper (from my garden) and string beans (which the name in English caused great laughter among my French dinner companions). The wine was a Bourgogne and was fruity and delightful. A cheese plat followed offering five cheeses from various regions in France.

Dessert was delivered in stages. First was a vanilla cake draped in caramel sauce with Belgium chocolate-coated crackers. Next was chilled strawberries followed by a flat apricot flan.

After espresso, our after-dinner drink was a home-made limoncello, the main ingredient being pharmaceutical alcohol (have I told you yet how much I love the pharmacy here?).

We all sat around the table for quite a while and chatted. At midnight, I excused myself having not understood a word of the table-talk for about an hour.

The Dupres are wonderful people and I so look forward to my next dinner with them.