Bed and banquet

Reminiscing about the day’s sport over dinner is an essential part of a week in a sporting lodge – so it makes sense to splash out on a cook

- RORY KNIGHT BRUCE

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 take the heat out of the kitchen?

George Goldsmith knows sporting Scotland like the back of his hand and has been involved in letting Highlands estates for more than 25 years. “Now, more than ever, it is worth going that extra mile and employing a cook and an assistant, depending on the size of your party,” he says. “Taking a lodge without or with a cook is like chalk and cheese.”