A Dinner Party Made Easy With La Belle Assiette

I do love to throw a good dinner party. Having all my friends over to a good old girly chat with some good food and a glass or three of wine. You can’t beat it.

Well at least that’s what I thought.

Until my friends and I experienced a stress free dinner party courtesy of La Belle Assiette.

We were very lucky to have the fantastic Steven Vanderveken cooking for us for the evening. It felt a little bit bizarre handing over the kitchen and letting someone else take complete and utter control, but I won’t lie it was bloody lovely not to spend hours in a hot kitchen. It is so relaxing knowing everything is completely taken care of from start to finish.

La Belle Assiette translates to The Beautiful Plate and you can see why, with the beautiful dishes that were presented to us.

We started with a nibble; a mascarpone pistachio ball with pickled strawberry and basil. My only complaint is I couldn’t eat all 5! This burst of flavour was just perfect before we had our starters. It certainly got us feeling very excited about what was to come.

For our starter we had white truffle lasagna with dried porcini mushrooms, parma ham and parmesan. If I had a dream dish, this would pretty much be it. Mushroom and cheese are my two favourite foods in the whole world – this was incredible. I was worried that for a starter it may be a little heavy but it was perfectly balanced, not too creamy yet full of flavour. My mouth is watering just remembering it!

For mains it was a slow cooked lamb shank with sweet potato puree, roasted carrots, sweet potato crisps and rosemary gravy. I don’t think there’s a better way to describe it than – wow. The lamb was cooked to perfection so tender it just fell off the bone. I don’t think I have ever heard so many people around the table commenting on a carrots but what ever Steven cooked them in took them from plain old vegetable to incredibly tasty. There was a lot of meat for each serving probably a little more than we needed but it’s always better to have too much than not enough.

After our mains we all thought is there even going to be space for dessert but when we were presented with chocolate ganache with raspberry coulis, roasted almonds and fruit the answer was immediately – yes, yes there most definitely is.

Have you ever seen such a pretty plate of food? That’s what I love about this service, the food is all of a high restaurant quality but in the comfort of your own home!

My friends and I couldn’t rate the food enough, it was perfect. Steven is an seriously talented chef who I would highly recommend. His passion for food and cooking was clear as he talked us through what has gone into each dish. We felt completely at ease throughout the dinner, it was a great evening all round.

A little more about La Belle Assiette; La Belle Assiette provide a private chef service in Bournemouth, they take care of everything from the shopping to the cooking, serving and even the cleaning. The kitchen was left spotless! Prices do depend on the menu you choose but for an experience similar to ours you’re looking around £45 a head. For a special occasion it’s really quite reasonable as everything is included apart from your drinks.

The girls and I have already been planning our next dinner party with La Belle Assiette – it was fantastic!

A huge thank you to Steven and La Belle Assiette to treating us to such a great evening that will not be forgotten in a hurry.

Share:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Pin It on Pinterest