Vegetables first, meat optional
The Summer Garden Menu
A vegetable led dinner where nothing feels like a substitution: charred hearts, raw and pickled elements, a grain, a whole roasted centrepiece, and cheese or fish for the guests who want it.
Preparation
What happens when
- The day beforePickles made, grains cooked, dressings mixed, yoghurt strained.
- The dayVegetables charred in the afternoon and served warm rather than hot, centrepiece roasted to finish as guests sit.
Service
How to serve it
Everything on platters, family style, with the centrepiece carved in front of the table. Warm rather than hot is correct for most of this menu, which makes it forgiving outdoors.
At home
Whole roasted cauliflower for eight
The dish that converts sceptics. Two hours, mostly unattended.
- Simmer a whole trimmed cauliflower in heavily salted water for 12 minutes, then drain completely dry.
- Rub with 80 g butter or oil, salt and cumin, and roast at 200 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes, basting twice, until deeply coloured.
- Serve on a base of 400 g yoghurt whipped with tahini, lemon and salt, scattered with toasted almonds, herbs and pomegranate.
- Carve it at the table in wedges, with flatbread and a sharp pickled salad.
Editor’s tip: Dry the cauliflower properly before roasting. Wet vegetables steam, and steamed vegetables are the reason people distrust this menu.
Plan it
Quantities and timing
How much to buy
Quantity Calculator
Guest count, service style and menu shape turned into a shopping list in kilos, litres and pieces.
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Menu Composer
Build a menu course by course and see the balance: weight, technique, temperature, colour, repetition, oven conflicts and a wine suggestion for each course..
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Service Timeline
A backwards plan from the minute your first course leaves the kitchen: crew arrival, prep, table setting, briefing, doors, courses, speeches, coffee and strike..
OpenFormats
Where this menu belongs
Format
One table, eighteen people, no wallsGarden Long Table
The format everyone photographs: one long table, family service, a fire or a grill and a dessert that does not mind waiting.
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Format
A chef for the week, not the eveningVilla Residency
Breakfast, lunch, dinner and the shopping, for a house of eight to sixteen, for five to ten days.
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Format
The kitchen is the stageChef’s Table at Home
One chef, up to ten guests, everything finished in front of you.
Read onMarkets
Where it eats best
Market
Canyon gardens, produce to match Europe, dinner at sevenLos Angeles
Los Angeles hosts outside eleven months a year, shops at the best farmers markets in America and eats earlier than anywhere else on this list.
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Market
A short, expensive season with the best private chefs per square kilometreIbiza
Ten weeks of the year Ibiza hosts more private dinners per head than anywhere in the Mediterranean, and the island’s chefs have built a trade around fincas with no kitchen and guests who arrive at eleven..
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Market
Nine months of outdoor dinners and a staff pool that speaks four languagesMarbella
The Costa del Sol has the longest outdoor dining season in Europe, villas built for entertaining and prices a third below the French coast.
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Market
Villas, olive trees and a food culture that needs no helpTuscany
Tuscany gives you the best produce to price ratio in Europe, villas built for thirty at one table and a trade that understands weddings better than anywhere on this list..
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