Preheat the oven to 175 degree C.

Cut the chocolate and butter into chunks and melt them together in the microwave in a mixing bowl. Do this in 30 sec sessions, mixing well between sessions to even out the heat and help the chocolate melt faster. With my 850kW microwave, it takes me about 3 sessions. If you don’t have a microwave, place the chocolate and butter into a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and stir regularly until all ingredients have melted.

In a second bowl, lightly beat the egg whites and sugar with a fork until the mixture looks homogenous, for about 20 sec. Do not use a whisk or an electric beater for this, you don’t want the whites to start foaming.

Add the almonds to the chocolate mixture and stir well. Dip your finger into the mixture, it should be just warm, i.e. you should not have any sensation of heat. If you do, wait a bit before moving on to the next step.

Add the egg yolk to the chocolate mixture and stir energetically. Add the egg whites and mix until reaching a homogenous batter.

Butter the cake tin and pour the batter into it.

Peel, quarter and core the pears, and cut them into segments about 3 mm thick. Press the segments into the batter leaving the tops of the segments visible and following a pretty pattern (concentric circles for a round tin, or neat, parallel lines for a square one). Make sure you place them very close to each other – leave about 1 cm between each slice. You may not use up all the pears, I tend to fill my dish with 2 1/2 pears.

Bake for 35 minutes or until a uniform crust has formed. Don’t worry if the cake feels a bit soft and creamy under its ultra thin crust, it will set when cooling down. If you did not use a loose base tin, wait until the cake is nearly cold before demoulding it.

Eat the fondant warm or cold. The slices will be easier to cut once it is cold, but I usually can’t wait, even if it is much messier!

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Mix the flour with the baking powder.

Add in succession the eggs, yogurt, olive oil and pepper, mixing with a wooden spoon.

Once you have reached a homogeneous mixture, pour the batter into the cavities of a greased muffin tray or individual ramequins, filling them to 2/3 of their height.

Remove grossly the skin off the Reblochon with a knife and cut the cheese into as many cubes as you have muffins (i.e. 8 or 9)

Place the muffins in the oven. 4 minutes into the baking, stick a cube of cheese into each muffin. Try not to push all the way down as this would pierce the bottom crust that will have started forming on the muffins. The cheese, which is denser than the muffin batter, would then “leak” underneath. Don’t worry if the cheese sticks out on top, it will melt.

Bake for another 15 minutes or so, until the muffins reach a nice golden colour.

Prepare the salad:

Do this while the muffins are baking. Quarter the figs, core the pear and apple and cut them into segments.

Wash the lettuce and mix it with the fruit quarters. Add the oil and vinegar and gently mix.

Serve the muffins hot with the salad.

Dip the tomatoes for 2 mins in boiling water, this will allow you to peel them effortlessly. Rinse them under cold water and peel their skin off. Deseed and cut into chunks.

Peel and cut the apple into small pieces, discard the core. Peel and cut the aubergine and mix both with the juice of the lemon to prevent oxidation.

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and sauté the aubergine, tomatoes and apple until they start getting some colour. Add the apple juice, Espelette pepper or chili powder, a pinch of salt and simmer until the aubergines are tender. If all the juice evaporates during simmering and the pan gets too sticky, add a bit more apple juice.

When ready, whizz the vegetables into a smooth puree. Pour into a jar, cover with a bit of olive oil and allow to cool down.

Cook the fish

Preheat the grill of your oven.

Peel and crush the garlic cloves and mix with the olive oil.

With a sharp knife score the skin of each fish in criss cross marks on both sides, making sure you pierce the skin through (see picture above).

With your fingers or a brush, cover each fish with the garlic and oil mixture, making sure you rub some inside the criss cross marks to flavour the flesh. Insert any remaining garlic inside the fish, along with 2 whole stems of dill. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Grill the fish in the oven for about 10 mins (a bit longer if your sea breams are larger), or until the flesh nicely separates from the bone when a knife is inserted, and the skin is brown and crispy.

Serve the fish with the cold caviar and rocket salad, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and a bit of oil.

Bring another litre of water to the boil with the sugar, vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean slit lengthwise, grains scraped off into the water), star anise and mixed spice. Don’t be tempted to re-use the water in which you parboiled the peaches as it will have been contaminated with pesticides.

Plunge the peeled peach halves into the lightly bubbling syrup and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

While the peaches are cooking, save the 12 best looking raspberries for garnish. mash the remaining raspberries with the back of a fork with the icing sugar and a squirt of lemon juice.

Using an electric mixer, whip the cream into a silky crème Chantilly. The top tips for achieving the perfect Chantilly are: 1. make sure the cream, bowl and whisk are all very cold. I place the whisk and cream in the freezer 20 min beforehand. 2. beat the cream at low speed first, moving in stages to high speed, and wait until the cream starts bubbling before adding the sugar (slowly) and vanilla extract. 3. stop once the whisk leaves well defined marks in the cream. Dip a spoon in it and turn it upside down. If the cream peak on the spoon stays up, it is ready. If not, give it another whisking. The Chantilly should only take 2-3 minutes to make. Don’t overbeat otherwise you will reach the consistency of butter.

Just before serving:

Pour some raspberry coulis in martini or wide glasses, place a good sized ice cream scoop on top and a peach half. Top with the Chantilly and a few fresh raspberries. Serve right away.

Mix the onion with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large gratin dish, and place in the hot oven for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft and transluscent. Take out of the oven and turn the heat down to 180 degrees.

Meanwhile, slice the vegetables finely. You will need a very sharp knife to slice the tomatoes. Alternatively you can place the tomatoes in the freezer for 20 minutes beforehand, this will make the slicing easier.

Stack the vegetables in neat rows on top of the onion, alternating between rows of aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes. Make sure the vegetables overlap within and between the rows. It’s OK if the diameter of the courgette slices is smaller, just stack more in each row. Season with salt and pepper.

Crush the anchovies with a pestle and mortar or the back of a fork, and mix with the garlic, 3 tablespoons olive oil, herbs, and bread crumbs. Brush the mixture evenly over the vegetables.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 50 minutes. Uncover, crank up the oven to 200 degrees, and roast for another 20-25 minutes or until nicely browned.

Serve hot or cold with grilled meat, fish or chicken.

Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface into a 1-2 mm thick round. Cut out pastry circles slightly larger than the size of the cavities of your tartlet tray, using as a cut out a suitably sized bowl placed up side down on the pastry. Press the trimming together into a ball and roll it out again for more cut outs.

Butter the cavities of the tray (this step is not needed if using a silicon tray) and place the pastry circles inside each cavity. Pierce holes into the pastry with the help of small fork and bake for about 10-12 minutes, until the pastry is lightly browned. Take out of the oven and let cool.

Place the cream and mascarpone in the freezer 15 minutes before using. Very cold cream is a key to a successful Chantilly – check out my tips here, which also apply for this mascarpone version. Mix both creams together into a bowl and whisk until the cream starts to thicken. Add the vanilla extract and sugar in small batches and stop as soon as the whisk leaves defined marks into the cream.

Unmould the pastry shells and fill them with whipped cream. Cover them with berries and reserve on a serving tray. Store in the fridge until time of serving.

Pierre Hermés shortcrust pastry recipe (2 hours before using)

Crack the egg into a small bowl; slice open the half vanilla pod and scrape the beans into a teaspoon. Reserve.

Chop the butter into small chunks, toss them into a large mixing bow and beat them with a spatula to soften. Add in succession the icing sugar, almonds, salt, vanilla beans, egg and flour, stirring well after adding each ingredient.

Shape the dough into a ball with your hands, wrap it in cling film and chill for 2 hours in the fridge before using.

Crush the anchovies and garlic into a paste. Mix the paste with the olive oil and lemon juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Stir the oil and lemon dressing  into the pasta and add the olives, cherry tomatoes, rosette, rocket and basil.

Mix well and serve topped with parmesan flakes.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

Beat two of the egg yolks with the cream, until reaching the consistency of thick stirred yogurt (best to use an electric whisk if you have one). Be patient, this can take a good 5 minutes.

Pick the mint leaves from the stalks and chop finely.

Beat the egg whites into soft peaks. You know you have reached this stage when peaks with a top that curls over are formed.

Add a ¼ of the cream mixture to the melted chocolate and mix with a spoon, then pour the remaining  mixture and stir in gently with a spatula.

Fold the egg whites into the mixture and about 2 tablespoons of the chopped mint.

Pour into individual serving glasses.

Serve immediately with fresh raspberries and a mint leaf on top (on the picture I used the tips of the sprigs), or store in the fridge for serving later. Enjoy!

Kids friendly version

If you are worried your children may find the mint off-putting, you can save some of the mousse before adding the mint for the adults.

To balance out the sweetness of the white chocolate, crush a few raspberries into a coulis with a sprinkle of sugar.

Then fill individual glasses by alternating dollops of mousse and a bit of the raspberry coulis.

Finish off each glass by making a couple of eight-shaped swirls in the mousse with the back of a teaspoon to make beautiful pink ribbons.

Serve with fresh raspberries on top. This dessert will not only be a visual feast for your highly discerning little customers, but will also be a guaranteed success! By the way, this can also be a lovely variation for grown ups.

Rub the mustard on the beef joint, season it with salt and pepper and wrap it with the pancetta slices. Place it carefully into a lightly oiled roasting tin. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 190 degrees and roast for another 35 minutes for rare beef  (count 15 minute per 450 g of boned beef), a bit longer if you like it medium and a bit less if you like it blue (my style!). You can tell if the joint is cooked to your liking by sticking a skewer into the middle of the joint. If the juices are clear it is well done. Pink shows it is medium, and red shows it is rare. When the beef is cooked, cover it with a foil tent and let it stand for 15 minutes. This will allow the juices to settle into the meat, enhancing its juiciness and flavour and making carving easier.

Turn the oven temperature back to 240 degrees and reserve the roasting tin.

Wash the asparagus and cut 2 cms (1 inch) off their bottom. If they have a fat root with a thick, fibrous skin, peel the bottom third with a vegetable peeler. Boil the asparagus in salted water for 5 minutes; toss the peas into the boiling water for the last minute of cooking. When ready, drain the vegetables, plunge in cold water to preserve the colour and reserve. 5 minute before serving, toss the vegetables into the meat tin and roll them into the juice (if you used fillet, there may be no juice in the tim so in that case add a drizzle of olive oil). Roast for 5 minutes while carving the meat.

Mix all the Thai gremolata ingredients.

Serve the meat sliced with the vegetables and Thai gremolata liberally poured over both.

With the back of a fork, crush the anchovies into the butter and mix thoroughly. Brush the butter on all sides of the shanks.

Preheat the oven to 210 degrees C.

Cut four large squares of baking paper and place half the onion springs divided into four equal portions at their centre. Lay two lamb shanks on top and add the remaining onions. Sprinkle with salt (be gentle, the anchovies are already salted) and freshly ground pepper and close the papillotes. Do this by first joining and folding together a couple of times two opposite sides of the paper square, then twisting tightly the opposite ends like a candy wrapper. Make sure you twist the paper at a raised angle so the juice does not leak when cooking.

Cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

In the meantime, cook the quinoa. Rinse it first under running water and pour it into lightly salted water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 12-15 minutes. The quinoa is done when the grains are translucent with a white sprout-like spiral curled around them (the germ of the grain). The grain must feel soft and juicy, while the thread remains deligthfully crunchy. When ready, drain the water out.

While the quinoa is cooking, mix the lemon juice, oil, herbs, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly with the cooked quinoa when it is ready.

Take the meat out of the papillote, making sure to pour the juice over the meat, and serve with the green quinoa for a most delightful meal.