For some strange reason, Channel 4 culinary reality TV show 'Come Dine with Me' truly seems to have permeated my sub-conscious of late, with this the third dream based on this highly entertaining, dining-based series in as many weeks...
Is this a reflection of my underlying competitiveness / unconscious cravings for fame and attention? An indication that I should vary my (admittedly rather mundane pasta-for-one / wine based) diet more? Or have I just been watching that one Sunday afternoon omnibus session too many recently?!?!? Either way, as with both my earlier dreams on the subject (see episodes 1 and 2), again this episode had a corresponding socio-cultural twist, following on from the previous religion / sexuality / family based themes this time with education - or more specifically, my own.
In yet another dream flashback, in this episode I basically found myself back in my Home Economics kitchen at my old school, with my old HE teacher (not the obese one who furtively took bites out of all the food we'd cooked after the lesson - the other one) dividing the class up into teams to each serve as joint competitors in a new episode of 'Come Dine with Me'. However, in this case there would also be a variation from the standard 'Come Dine' format (in which the host partakes in the meal they have prepared) in that each of our teams' efforts would be judged by an independent panel - one table of 15 judges per team (which as a team we actually had to wait on as well as cook for) - and the highest scoring table would win the night.
Initially my main concern was not to be put in a team with a certain real-life snide little bitch with whom I actually did share my year 10 and 11 HE class (see entry on recurrent dreams), but once this transpired not to be the case, my worries quickly moved on to keeping order within the team (how to divide responsibilities between cooking / waiting etc etc), coming up with an appropriate menu (quickly decided on as crispy spring rolls followed by Thai curry and sticky rice), and the sheer logistics of cooking and serving 15 people at once, when the most I think I've ever cooked for at one time in my real life has been about 8 (and then of course I wasn't being competitively judged). Unfortunately, however, things were quick to unravel for my team, as we soon realised we didn't have any coconut cream for the curry, none of us knew how to make spring rolls, and we had no time to shop for essential ingredients / research alternative recipes etc.
In the end, I actually decided the sheer and utter pressure of it all easily outweighed both the kudos of being on television and the (increasingly remote) chance of winning a share of the thousand pounds prize, so simply walked out of the competition, leaving my former classmates (none of whom I felt even the slightest guilt whatsoever towards for leaving in the lurch) to haphazardly muddle on in my absence. Instead, I decided I much preferred cooking in my usual convivial, unpressurized surroundings of a small group of friends in my own cosy flat, so went out an bought loads of new ingredients (including, I believe, fresh gnocchi, prosciutto ham, and several expensive bottles of lovely Robert's wine) to rustle up a feast for my Prague girlfriends. Sadly for me though, for some reason I rather thoughtlessly only sent out an invite just hours before I actually wanted to host my dinner, so at such short notice no-one was able to make it, and I ended up having to polish off my duly delicious concoctions and much of the wine all by myself instead... :-((
Am not sure what any of the above means from a psycho-analytical angle, but whatever the deep psychological ramifications of this continued reoccurence of night-time reality TV, I for one am definitely hoping for a next nocturnal weekly installment... :-))
Is this a reflection of my underlying competitiveness / unconscious cravings for fame and attention? An indication that I should vary my (admittedly rather mundane pasta-for-one / wine based) diet more? Or have I just been watching that one Sunday afternoon omnibus session too many recently?!?!? Either way, as with both my earlier dreams on the subject (see episodes 1 and 2), again this episode had a corresponding socio-cultural twist, following on from the previous religion / sexuality / family based themes this time with education - or more specifically, my own.
In yet another dream flashback, in this episode I basically found myself back in my Home Economics kitchen at my old school, with my old HE teacher (not the obese one who furtively took bites out of all the food we'd cooked after the lesson - the other one) dividing the class up into teams to each serve as joint competitors in a new episode of 'Come Dine with Me'. However, in this case there would also be a variation from the standard 'Come Dine' format (in which the host partakes in the meal they have prepared) in that each of our teams' efforts would be judged by an independent panel - one table of 15 judges per team (which as a team we actually had to wait on as well as cook for) - and the highest scoring table would win the night.
Initially my main concern was not to be put in a team with a certain real-life snide little bitch with whom I actually did share my year 10 and 11 HE class (see entry on recurrent dreams), but once this transpired not to be the case, my worries quickly moved on to keeping order within the team (how to divide responsibilities between cooking / waiting etc etc), coming up with an appropriate menu (quickly decided on as crispy spring rolls followed by Thai curry and sticky rice), and the sheer logistics of cooking and serving 15 people at once, when the most I think I've ever cooked for at one time in my real life has been about 8 (and then of course I wasn't being competitively judged). Unfortunately, however, things were quick to unravel for my team, as we soon realised we didn't have any coconut cream for the curry, none of us knew how to make spring rolls, and we had no time to shop for essential ingredients / research alternative recipes etc.
In the end, I actually decided the sheer and utter pressure of it all easily outweighed both the kudos of being on television and the (increasingly remote) chance of winning a share of the thousand pounds prize, so simply walked out of the competition, leaving my former classmates (none of whom I felt even the slightest guilt whatsoever towards for leaving in the lurch) to haphazardly muddle on in my absence. Instead, I decided I much preferred cooking in my usual convivial, unpressurized surroundings of a small group of friends in my own cosy flat, so went out an bought loads of new ingredients (including, I believe, fresh gnocchi, prosciutto ham, and several expensive bottles of lovely Robert's wine) to rustle up a feast for my Prague girlfriends. Sadly for me though, for some reason I rather thoughtlessly only sent out an invite just hours before I actually wanted to host my dinner, so at such short notice no-one was able to make it, and I ended up having to polish off my duly delicious concoctions and much of the wine all by myself instead... :-((
Am not sure what any of the above means from a psycho-analytical angle, but whatever the deep psychological ramifications of this continued reoccurence of night-time reality TV, I for one am definitely hoping for a next nocturnal weekly installment... :-))
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