Give Snowdrops at Valentines, Cupid

Yesterday I noticed my wife crouching, phone out, in a distant corner of the garden. As I mocked her for taking yet more pictures for Instagram, I noticed that she was actually filming the most pristine patch of snow drops that had literally ‘sprung’ overnight. Then I looked at the rose bush in the courtyard which (and I’m no gardener) looked dead.

And then I got cross because for the first time in my life I realised that roses don’t grow in this country in February and yet we present to our loved ones millions and millions of over-priced bunches of them that are largely transported from Kenya via Holland in massive fridges.

Why do we accept this? We talk endlessly about eating seasonally whilst simultaneously sending roses that have the carbon footprint of Lewis Hamilton. Sorry Darling, (and I’ve been as guilty as anyone on this) from now on I’m no more likely to get you roses on valentines Day than I am to put Peruvian asparagus on my Christmas menus.

So we won’t have roses on the table on Monday but we will have beautiful dried flowers from our brilliant friend Bex at Botanical Tales and whatever we have growing in the garden . The menu is of course hyper local - I’ll be cooking the fillet of a 9kg Lyme Bay Turbot- pictured below- for example, as well as these other good things…

Cocktails and Canapes served round the fire pit

Smoked baked potato soup, crispy skin, sour cream and caviar

Citrus-cured sea bass, EV olive oil, pea shoots

Wood-fired turbot, confit chicken nuggets, chicken and turbot sauce

Slow-smoked featherblade, purple sprouting and salsify, bone marrow gravy

Barbecued chocolate souffle, chocolate and orange ice cream

Coffee

We only have a couple of tickets left here, but if you fancy a rose-free Valentines night then (snow) drop by (sorry).