Marriage of fine food for a Royal wedding

Street parties held across Britain featured cheese and pineapple chunks impaled on cocktail sticks, palm tree paper napkins and children wearing Union Jack hats held together clumsily with Sellotape, as the yummy mummy had also yet to rear her perfect head.

TV chef and restaurateur Anthony Worrall Thompson, 59, remembers he was preparing to open his first restaurant, Ménage à Trois, when the Prince and Princess of Wales got hitched on July 29, 1981.

“It was all nouvelle cuisine in those days and I was testing our recipes,” he recalls from his dining pub, The Greyhound, near Henley-on-Thames.

Worrall Thompson believes the food on offer at street parties for this month’s Royal wedding will have moved on considerably since 1981.

“People now want to see the ingredients. You’ll find interesting salads such as nicoise, white bean and roasted red peppers, plus olives and dips,” he says.

“We’ve become more Mediterranean, in the sense that we like food that can be eaten at room temperature, as opposed to the old days of cold poached salmon.”

And he predicts that the rolling-pin-wielding wives of yesteryear will yield to the lure of supermarket convenience.

“We’ll be buying in. While hours would have been spent last time devotedly creating sausage rolls, making fairy cakes and cutting crusts off sandwiches, in 2011, we’ll see a lot more bought in. Shops will have plenty of ready-to-serve platters on offer.”

Worrall Thompson’s own catering company, Windsor Larder, is already getting requests for hand-made sausage rolls, Scotch eggs and British favourites such as Bakewell and treacle tarts, and he thinks there will also be more exotic foods on the trestle tables.”

As far as he’s concerned though, the best way to entertain a crowd is to do a roast – and you couldn’t get more British than that.

“It’s one of my wife, Jay’s, favourite meals. I am a big fan of Middle White pigs. The meat has a lovely flavour and there’s enough fat to produce lovely cracking.

“It’s perfectly possible to cook a roast on a barbecue with the lid down – the secret is to keep it away from direct heat. If it’s a charcoal barbecue, put the coals around the outside so there are none directly under the meat. For gas barbecues, turn off the centre grill and put the meat in the middle.”

When cooking for large numbers of people, Worrall Thompson’s advice is to keep things simple.

“Foods such as dips with fresh vegetables, chicken legs and wings and ribs, score with adults and kids alike, and you can’t go wrong with a few decent sandwiches.

“Prepare some big bowls of chilli and curries but don’t make them too spicy if you’re aiming to appeal to a crowd. It’s also always worth making at least a couple of vegetarian versions, as well as some fun food for the kids.”

SESAME CHICKEN AND PEPPER STIR-FRY

Serves 6

3tbsp cornflour, 450g chicken stock, 3tbsp light soy sauce, 1 1/2tbsp olive oil, 600g chicken fillets, cut into pieces, 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced, 1 1/2 bunch spring onions, finely sliced, 6 small peppers, preferably different colours, de-seeded and cut into strips, 1 1/2tbsp sesame oil, 3tbsp sesame seeds, 750g long-grain rice

Place the cornflour in a bowl and whisk in the stock and soy sauce to a smooth consistency.

In a large wok, heat the olive oil and fry the chicken pieces, garlic and half the spring onions until the chicken is just cooked through.

Add the peppers and cook, stirring, for a further 5 mins, then add the sauce.

Cook for a further 5 minutes, until the sauce has thickened slightly. Stir in the remaining spring onions, then drizzle with the sesame oil and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Meanwhile, make the rice according to packet instructions, and serve with the chicken.

SMOKED SALMON AND ASPARAGUS NIÇOISE SALAD

Serves 6

1kg new potatoes, 250g asparagus, halved, woody ends removed, 200g green beans, topped and tailed, 100g pitted black and/or Kalamata olives, 1/2 red onion, peeled and finely sliced, 4 hard-boiled, free-range eggs, quartered, 200g smoked salmon, sliced into ribbons

For the dressing: 2tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped, 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1tbsp white wine vinegar, 1/2tsp caster sugar

Place the potatoes in a large pan of cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15-20 mins, until tender, then drain. Allow the potatoes to cool, then cut in half. Blanch the asparagus and beans for 3 mins in a pan of boiling water. Drain and place in a bowl of cold water for 10 mins to set the colour, then drain.

In a bowl, mix the ingredients for the dressing.

Place the potatoes in a large bowl and toss with the asparagus, beans, olives, onion and dressing.

Serve topped with the egg and salmon, and season with salt and freshly-ground black pepper.

GUACAMOLE DIP

Serves 6

2 avocados, 1 lime, 1 garlic clove, 1tsp cumin, 1 red chilli, 1 small red onion, 1x250g pack tomatoes, packet of tortilla wraps, freshly-ground salt and pepper

Mash the flesh of two ripe avocados in a bowl with the juice of a lime. Add a peeled, crushed clove garlic, 1/2 teaspoon cumin and a drop of Tabasco (optional) and mix well. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then add half the de-seeded, finely chopped red chilli and half a small red onion, peeled and finely chopped, and half the packet of tomatoes, chopped.

Great served with tortilla wraps cut into triangles and baked until golden.

* Recipes from the Summer Recipe Collection cook book by Sainsburys, £5, available in-store from May 16.

* Visit www.AWTRestaurants.com to find out more about Worrall Thompson’s restaurants.