Tyson and Vanessa at the fabulous wines they offered us that evening.
My children chose a Penfolds Grange Bin 30, 1990 to show their love for us.
Pity it wasn’t one of those multi-million dollar lotteries, but from the exhilaration from my son Tyson’s household you would think they had won the jackpot. However, in an exciting win, his wife, Vanessa’s name came up in the ballot results for reservations at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant at Melbourne’s Crown.
Thousands missed out. There was an unbelievable 89,000 entries meaning more than 267,000 people were vying for each one of 14,000 seats in the six-month period next year.
Why am I so intimately involved in this big win when I live in Adelaide? Because the first telephone call to share the good news was to me, the grandmother of the two little children Scarlett and Zachary, whom I shall be caring for when they take up their seat on August 11 next year.
They probably won’t remember, but it will be almost three years since that special night in August 2011 when this enterprising couple held an exceptional dinner party for their two sets of parents – Vanessa’s parents, Sandra and John, and my husband, Tyson’s step-father Olivier, who was terminally ill, and myself.
It was a big surprise and we were told to dress up with bling and we parents expected to be taken out to the theatre for the night. Instead, they had cooked a fabulous meal and even more special was the Penfolds Grange Bin 30, 1990, which Tyson opened to share with the six of us. But the best part was not the exquisite wine – it was the heartfelt speech my son made about what wonderful parents we had been and how they appreciated our support.
Now that my husband has died, that evening, with the stunning l’art de la table, the attention to detail, an illustrated menu, and finally all the food so beautifully cooked and presented, was such an act of love.
It is no co-incidence that my daughter-in-law was the Dux of the Le Cordon Bleu Hotel and Resort Management Degree course some years ago. Now the mother of my two grandchildren thoroughly deserves her great treat. And they are not coming home that night either, which is why I will be winging my way over to Melbourne to babysit. Their dining companions, you see, are my daughter, Felicia and her soon-to-be-husband Justin.
That ballot ticket couldn’t have gone to a more deserving couple.