— August Ambassadors' Dinner at The Mansion —

I wanted to start this blog with a bit of insight behind the scenes. Patrick (one of our fantastic chefs) was given the responsibility of preparing the dinner for the August Ambassadors’.

I managed to catch him briefly whilst he was making the mango jellies and shortbread biscuits for dessert and asked…..

How are you feeling about your Ambassadors’ debut?
“I’m looking forward to taking the lead in the kitchen this evening. This is a great challenge and a great opportunity for me to deliver my own and Dines’ high standards.”

When you started working at Dine did you think you’d be cooking the Ambassadors’ dinner?
“Yes, it was always a goal of mine to be running the dinners, I hope to be in the position one day where I can work in the creation and innovation of the menus.” (The creation of menus is currently the soul responsibility of Dan our founder and our executive head chef Mark.)

What’s the most challenging part of the menu for this evening?
“Definitely the ham hock canapé. Achieving the presentation of a toasted sandwich has been a real challenge.”

There is always a lot of enthusiasm around the Ambassadors dinners, they are something I personally look forward to every month. Despite the fact we had so many other events to plan and deliver, there was an extra bit of excitement around this event. Sir Kev was going to be joining us and Katie Glossop (Dine, Events Assistant) was beside herself, she is a die-hard super fan of the Leeds Rhinos and Sir Kev is one of her childhood idols. Katie was given the opportunity to be one of the four hosts on the night and was beyond excited. I was impressed with how she managed to remain composed and professional through out the dinner. Katie is a model example of our team and encompasses many of the Dine values.

We served the same menu as the previous month, so we could make some small tweaks to improve the presentation and delivery of the menu. As a team we are constantly striving for perfection and honestly the cheese beignet was a huge hit for me.

The feedback from our guests was pretty good as well…

A firm favourite of the evening was the contents of the picnic baskets. Charlotte Gale (Food Photographer) said …

“The highlight of the meal for me was definitely the miniature individual picnic hampers … such a talking point! I am not usually the biggest fan of pies, but I have to say that the chicken pie was delicious. It was so light and the optional jus served in the glass teapot was a nice touch. I thought the rice, balsamic and strawberry canapes presented a really interesting combination of complementary flavours too.”

Kev Sinfield’s favourite part of the meal was the potted smoked salmon and asparagus with hollandaise.

It was an absolute pleasure hosting this months dinner (as always) and we are really looking forward to the next dinner in October.