An imagined gathering
1978 · London, England
Carrier hosts Grigson and Freud for an evening that sets elaborate French showpieces against plain English cooking.
Carrier's restaurant has made him one of the most visible cooks in Britain, and tonight he has closed a corner of it for friends. Jane Grigson, who has spent years arguing that English food deserves the same respect as French, has come with a notebook and a raised eyebrow; Clement Freud has come for the wine.
Carrier serves chicken Kiev so that the butter spills across the plate, and Grigson counters with a baked ham in cider and a gooseberry fool. The disagreement is friendly but real: whether a cook should aim at spectacle or at the plain truth of good ingredients. By the time the bread and butter pudding appears, both of them are too full to keep arguing properly.
Host: Robert Carrier
Jane Grigson — Food writer and champion of English regional cooking.
Clement Freud — Columnist and broadcaster, a steady customer and a sharp observer.
This gathering is an editorial recreation grounded in the biographies of those present; it did not necessarily take place as described.