Bed and banquet

Any shooting party is immensely improved by good wine and an evening dinner you can look forward to after a day on the hill or riverbank. It is a compliment to one’s guests, a time to come into one’s own as host, and an opportunity for immediate – and reflective – sporting conversations. Nowhere is this more important than when hosting a week in a Highlands sporting lodge.

Some groups take turns with the cooking, with varying degrees of success. Others demand that the host’s spouse does all the honours, which is hardly a holiday for them. Yet there is a way round this, often overlooked, which is to employ one or two cooks who have honed their skills at any of the award-winning cookery schools that may be found from London to Leith. With a lodge taken for, say, from £5,000 for the week, what extra is it – given that few of us have been out anywhere for the past year – to chuck in another grand for a professional chef to place exquisite meals on the table and