A few weeks ago Arianna and I were very lucky to be invited to Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons by Villeroy & Boch to have a look at some of their newest collections.

It was an absolutely idyllic day.  The weather was just perfect for a trip out into the country;  the brilliant sunshine was interspersed with white fluffy clouds and we wandered round the gardens of Le Manoir drinking in the scenes of English rural life and row upon row of vegetables.

But we were not there just to look and observe.  Before long we were in the kitchen with our pinny’s on and our sleeves rolled up, measuring and beating and mopping our brows.  It was such fun!  And we were joined by Raymond Blanc himself in a whirlwind of gaelic arm gestures and swoon worthy french vowels.

We baked a cake each to take home and to bring out our competitive spirits we had to ‘plate up’ a lamb dish we had just cooked on our choice of Villeroy & Boch plates.  For anyone who doesn’t know (and I didn’t) ‘plating up’ means ‘to put the food on a plate’.  Oh, and Arianna’s was judged the best.

Of course the best bit was lunch.

And the star of the show really was Villeroy & Boch.

I cannot ignore the fact any longer that I have been eating off the same old china for far too long.  Isn’t it funny how you don’t notice the things you use every day?  So, I am going to put that right very soon and I’m no longer going to put food on the plate, I’m going to ‘plate it up’!