Camp, But Only Slightly, Dinner for 6

All of these courses may sound like comic turns, a culinary joke made by someone with an overdeveloped sense of kitsch. I admit I am that person, but you don’t have to apologise for this menu, or to explain it, or do anything to it other than cook it.

The pheasant is the better for being cooked in advance, and the pavlova can be made the day before. You can store the meringue in a tin before using it, but to be frank I just don’t take it out of the oven. I cook it and leave it till I want to anoint it with cream and passion fruit. It is the astringency of the passion fruit which makes this work so well after the sweet herbalness of the gin-and-vermouth-cooked game. You want the soft, sweet, creaminess of the meringue, but you need the sharpness, too.