TABLE TALK #65
Thinking back to the origins of Table Talk is to remind ourselves that it exists to celebrate the joys of sitting down with family and friends, to gathering around a table and to luxuriate in the simultaneous silliness and seriousness that often ensues. And that’s only the people, we haven’t even thought about the food or the drink yet, so today, we’ll be ruminating on what it is that makes a home-cooked roast quite so special.
🍡 AMUSE-BOUCHES 🍡
Eat: London’s best meals for under £10.
Listen: nothing but good energy right here.
See: book tickets to David Hockney’s Bigger & Closer before they’re all gone.
🍝 MAIN COURSE 🍝
No Introduction Required
Weird as it is to think, we’re almost halfway through “roast season”. Perhaps not its official name, that’s more likely Autumn or Winter, but nonetheless a moniker that reflects the fact that these colder, darker months are absolutely perfect for hunkering down, bedding in and getting to know your oven.
Quite what makes a home-cooked roast so special is up for debate. Whilst it sure is lovely to go to a pub or a restaurant for Sunday lunch, most would agree that nothing beats one prepared in the confines of your own or someone else’s home. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s never enough gravy (at least initially) when having a roast out or the fact that it’s significantly harder to lay low in the other room reading the Sunday papers or watching sport when in a pub, but I suspect for most people it’s down to nostalgia.
Whether real or imagined, a Sunday roast conjures images of a bygone era or at least days gone by. There’s an unmistakable comfort to it, a reassuring sense that you’re insulated from the outside world and all the complications that come with it.
That’s not to say that a roast isn’t without its complications. First of all, you have your centrepiece - whether meat or otherwise, people will debate their favourite roast until their dying days, often with very little consensus ever emerging. Next, what are you serving with it and once you’ve decided that, how are you cooking them? Are carrots boiled or roasted, covered sparingly in butter or caked in honey and mustard? These are all questions that both divide and unite households in equal measure, and to think that we haven’t even discussed who’s in charge of making the gravy yet…
To be able to make a good gravy is to possess one of those most underrated of skills. Good gravy may win the odd plaudit but bad gravy is inescapable, its presence robbing those around the table of a final flourish that can take a roast from merely very good to world-beating.
And if all this sounds a little tiring, that’s because it is. Roasts aren’t straight forward - they take hours, involve almost every pan you own and are gone within minutes - but that’s part of the joy. It’s rare that a roast is the product of one person’s work - it’s often a team effort. Whether that’s peeling potatoes (skin on for us, please), washing pans or topping up people’s glasses, it’s the ultimate act of pulling together and quietly celebrating the ties that bind us. Long live the roast.
🍮 SWEET ENDINGS 🍮
Place Donna Summer’s inimitable I Feel Love on repeat and dive into the fascinating story behind her and Giorgio Moroder’s disco classic right here.
🍷 WHAT'S NEW
FROM
WEDNESDAY'S DOMAINE? 🍷
If we could distil our focus for the coming year into one phrase it would essentially be - get our wines into people’s hands. This takes various forms, but this week our wines will be making their first appearances at Sessions Arts Club, Drop, dry. and wild + lees, as well as being served all night long at Bre Graham’s book launch this Thursday.We'll see you again next week,
The Wednesday's Domaine Team x
