Strawberries and cream

One of my Italian colleagues was collecting his daughter from summer school in Newbury on Saturday and he came over for lunch with his three children, two of whom had never been to England before. I have learned my lesson with children's eating habits in the past. They have turned up their noses at poached salmon and new potatoes and sat dolefully picking at lettuce leaves. Pudding has never been a problem, however. I asked my colleague what they liked. "Keep it simple," he advised, "burgers and chips always go down well." In the end, bearing in mind that it was a very warm day, the table was set with a variety of salads: chicken salad, rice salad, tomato salad, green salad, smoked salmon and, to make them feel at home, a large plate of various salami and some ciabatta and these were largely well received. I'd put together a red fruit salad and cream for pudding. Marco, aged 8, piled into a large helping of fruit with no cream at first. He was then persuaded to try a little and he pushed his fruit over to one side of the bowl and poured a little cream into the other side. He returned for second, third and fourth helpings. He then asked if he could have a fifth helping. That consisted of no fruit, just double cream.