#EssexEatsIn with La Belle Assiette

Last week three Essex Bloggers and our other halves were lucky enough to have a gourmet chef sent to my house to cook for us! La Belle Assiette have had the incredible idea of bringing together outstanding chefs with exquisite menus that means you can select a time and a date that suits you for them to come and cook at your house… an excuse for a dinner party, right?!

We were paired with Richard, owner of Reem Catering, as he’s a fellow Essex dweller.  He arrived at my house at half past six laden with bags, boxes and of course full chef attire!  He was incredibly friendly and even brought his own plates, pots, pans and some cutlery!

Penny from A Penny For Them and Nicki from Nicki Kinickie rocked up at seven with wine and cider and all we had to until dinner was served was have a good old catch up! It was really great to finally meet Nicki in real life after being twitter buddies for well over a year now!

Not long after seven the first amuse bouche was served; Scallops with lime puree.

Followed by a Gazpacho shot with poppy seed twists.

These were actually amazing! They really set the scene for the night, and even my parents snuck in to try the Gazpacho!

We carried on chatting, and sharing stories from everything to the London Marathon to those cheeky drunken stories we all have!

Our starter of Asparagus three ways with quails eggs and pink grapefruit hollandaise was served shortly after.

Good lord, this was outstanding!! I have never enjoyed asparagus as much as I did that night! The scotch style eggs made with quails eggs were such a quirky and tasty idea!  I didn’t want them to come to and end!

I was starting to get slightly filled up but I could of course make room for my seared Sea bass, aromatic couscous with spicy pepper, chorizo & black olives!

Yet again, I didn’t want this to come to an end! The cous cous was filled with nuts, raisins and onions which complimented the sea bass perfectly.  The spicy pepper, chorizo & black olives had the amount of kick just right and I’d eat this time and time again… it was that good!

Lastly we had desert, be prepared to get serious food envy!

Here we have assorted lemon treats in the form of a lemon curd donut, lemon drizzle cake, lemon tart, lemon sorbet and lemon clotted cream! Oh my. I don’t even like lemon and I cleared my plate!!

I can’t recommend this idea of having a chef come into your house and cook for you enough.  Our kitchen was left spotless, all we had to do was pop the glasses in the dishwasher and we even got to keep the left overs!! We are planning to have Rich back fro a New Years Eve party as I can;t think of a better way to spend it!

If you would like your own chef to cook at your place then use code ESSEXEATS to get £30 off your first booking!

Thank you to La Belle Assiette for a great night, Rich for amazing cooking, and of course my chap for taking some of these photos!