Time for my annual holiday dilemma: who can I bear to allow to cook alongside me?
It is August, the month of my great social experiment, or the summer holidays as other people call them. Here’s how it works. Each year we book a large house with too many rooms for my own family. It could be anywhere but this year it happens to be in Spain; the Spanish stay up later than the Italians, and the food is less exhausting than in France. Then we invite other families to join us. There is just one condition, beyond us all liking each other. They don’t just have to be willing to do their share of the cooking. They have to be eager to do so.
And then the social experiment begins. Because you can learn more about a friend by cooking alongside them, than through almost any other common pursuit. Certainly, you can learn more than simply by eating their food. When it comes to character assessments what matters is not the ends, but the means that got you there.
I have watched someone put Marmite in the salad dressing. They winked at me while they did it
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