If you’re going to Wimbledon this year you’ll need a mac and a picnic. Firstly because I’ve looked at the forecast and towards Finals Days, it’s going to rain (groan). Secondly, it’s a food-fest of the first order – whether you’re there as a person soaking up the atmosphere, or watching it on TV (cheer!).
1962 was a memorable Wimbledon year for me - ‘O’ level revision time coincided with my parents being away on holiday. So you probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that I avidly watched Wimbledon in glorious black and white on TV, ate for England and watched Bob Hewitt, a sort of proto-Nastase and my bad-tempered hero. What can I tell you? Revision crashed out of my schedule. I failed most of the exams and walked out of the Latin literature paper. Bob and I were rebels you understand.
But I learnt what made a great picnic that hot summer of ‘62, and it’s full-flavoured, seasonal food and TREATS. So strawberries and crème fraîche for a sweet/sour experience. Lightly black pepper the strawberries and you’ll never want sugar again. A couple of chilled half bottles of Beaumes de Venise and a couple of chilled bottles of water. That’s the easy bit.
As a lacto-vegetarian I use a lot of Quorn products, but apart from fresh rolls with salty butter and ham/chicken/ beef flavour slices, a special treat are the Quorn Mini Snacks range. My carnivore friends would kill for a Quorn Savoury Egg, and I don’t even tell them that those little cocktail sausages and sausage rolls aren’t meat. Why worry the darlings? Good food is good food.
Pack into a stylish coolbox. No garish colours or logos please. Take a flask of hot soup if the weather turns foul. There’s a roof on Centre Court now. But don’t forget the mac …