I had a lady come to me, years ago…

I had a lady come to me, years ago… pre 2020 if you can remember such a time. She came to me because she wanted to lose weight.

Almost the first thing she said when I met her was “I have to get this done in a month!” I replied that that shouldn’t be a problem but I asked why the urgency?

What she said next made me laugh, but in hindsight made perfect sense. She was booked to fly to France for a month-long gastronomy tour. She was going to get on a bus with a group of like minded foodies. Together they were going to travel from café to bistro to restaurant around France enjoying fantastic meals.

I promised I would have her on track in time but in return, when she got back, she would have to tell me how it went.

A few months later she got back in touch with me. She had loved every minute of the trip she told me. One of the first things that happened was that she made a new best friend. 

He was a big bloke who soon realised that she rarely, if ever finished her meals. So, being a gentleman, he polished them off for her. She soon realised though that she was getting much more out of the trip than anyone else around her. 

Where everyone else was ploughing into their meals with gusto she was instead savouring the flavours, imagining how the food was being made and enjoying the contrasts.

The highlight of the trip was a Michelin starred restaurant where she had had a lovely meal consisting of several courses. She was content and her friend was very happy with his share of her meals too. 

Then she noticed the dessert menu. It would be a criminal shame to be at the restaurant and not try a dessert, right? So, she ordered some chocolate coated truffles with some sort of complicated sounding rich sauce. 

When it came out her eyes grew huge, his eyes grew even bigger. As a pyramid of heaped truffles in this sauce was placed in front of her.

She thanked the waiter and proceeded to take the top truffle off, she sliced it in half and swirled the half truffle in the sauce and then slowly and thoughtfully bit into it, savouring the flavours and textures, admiring the composition.

Then she was done! She passed the rest over to her friend and sat back to digest her meal and enjoy the company and atmosphere. 

She had got exactly what she was wanting out of the meal and out of the trip. The best part was that she was continuing to lose weight the whole time she was there.