Come shoot and eat with me

Do you enjoy a spot of Come Dine With Me, screened every week on Channel 4? I know I do.

For the uninitiated, the programme follows the exploits of four total strangers brought together to host three-course dinner parties for each other over four days. Each of the hosts is marked for their food, hospitality and general provision of a good dining experience.

There is also the added incentive of a £1,000 cash prize for the person with the highest marks, and the winner is usually the one that hasn’t been rude, burnt their guests food/pride or called in a juggler, stripper or magician to dazzle them.

Occasionally they do celebrity ones but they aren’t as good. 

Anyway, I caught a re-run of the show on More 4 last night. My good lady and I sat down to watch the third of the four episodes of the week’s serial, set that week in Bath. 

I was pleased to see that the chap hosting in the episode was serving game (roast pheasant on a bed of puy lentils), and better than that, they also showed him out shooting his quarry ready for the plate. The game was hung for five days – is that too long? 

The chap was even shown preparing the breasts in his kitchen. It was good to see the sport of shooting in full swing on a prime time programme, and the narrator didn’t make any disparaging remarks about what was going on. He sometimes does but that’s what makes the programme as good as it is. 

So are we turning a corner with the television coverage of shooting when food is involved? It’s a start if nothing else. 

Happily, the thought of eating game went down well with most of the guests, even if the host’s preparation wasn’t quite up to Amy Willcock standards. Still, he was offering something new to his guests, and that’s a good thing. Alas, he only scored 14 out of 30 and finished last.

I didn’t see the last episode because my tea was ready, a piping hot chilli no less.

I was however still pining for game by the time I’d mopped up the last splodge of chilli sauce.

But all is not lost. I’m having venision burgers on Friday. Lovely.