Gaudeamus: Autumn Gaudy

A College Feast is under way!

Twice a year we invite back former undergraduates to a Feast in a strict rotation of the year in which they started: each group gets to come back about once in seven years. This cohort arrived at the end of the '70s and beginning of the '80s, and are therefore aged about 50. They include the first women ever admitted to the college. After perhaps many years of not meeting up, old friends always have a wonderful time, and even seem to enjoy talking with their old Tutors. Many have made their mark in the world in one way or another, and are at the peak of their careers. Quite a few are Lecturers or Professors in their own right. Others are writers or journalists, distinguished musicians or television producers, in business or consultant surgeons and physicians. One of my own former pupils is now an Air Commodore! Some are already thinking of retirement, while others are worried about the security of their jobs.

At a feast, of course, one eats and drinks as well as talks! Our menu is shown here. Unusually, there were just three courses, but all were prepared at the highest level of skill, and each accompanied by wines of considerable distinction.

I thought that the vegetable terrine was perhaps slightly boring, but many of the guests were impressed by it.

Quite certainly, the Fillet of Beef with Ceps and so on, and its 'hat' of Pumpkin Raviolo, was delicious.

The third course, described just as Apples and Blackberries was so much more, as the photograph reveals. The blackBERRY sorbet sits on an 'exploding' crème brulée (the pyrotechnics brought about by the inclusion of 'angel dust'), while there is an individual apple crumble, and some sort of small toffee apple.

By the way, the quality of the main photograph is relatively poor, for which I apologise. It was taken hand-held and using the ambient lighting mainly from just the table lamps. Even with the highest ISO speed I have (2000, which makes the image rather noisy), the exposure was 1/12 s, and I fear my hand isn't quite steady enough. But I hope that the picture gives an idea of what a fun occasion this was (and I managed to get home by 2 am).