Now I am not so foolish as to presume that there is any universally pleasing multigenerational meal.
But before we moved on to the excuse-generating portion of our evening ("The babysitter just called and has to leave early, so we'll just take the rest of this to go, please"), our meal took an unanticipated turn.
You sit at sky-blue tables on lawned or cobbled terraces (there's a covered pavilion for wet days); the food is fresh, hearty and cooked to order by farmer's wife Nikki Exton – who manages to juggle gardening with lambing, growing herbs and salad leaves, making chutneys, baking cakes and dishing up crowd-pleasing meals.
The new wife cooked every night, knocking herself out to make meals as pleasing as his first wife's, and every night the husband would taste them, shake his head and say, "Not as good".
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That second night at J.D.'s showed that it was possible to have a very good meal here, as pleasing as those at its renowned sister restaurants.
("I'll have the lardo pizza value meal, please").
Aside from the lightly cooked meat, Ms. Edrington was for the most part pleased with the meal, which was prepared by George McNeill, one of the nation's 55 master chefs.
Photograph: Zoe Williams 2.37pm GMT Reader Recipe (One of our commenters has shared this recipe for a Red Lentil Tart that is sure to use up a bunch of leftover food from your cupboards. If you have a recipe for turning neglected food into a tasty meal, please share it in comments below).
1934: Lucky Chef's Horse Comes In One night, last fall, a casual customer in a small restaurant on lower Broadway was so pleased with his meal he gave the chef, William Merringer, two Irish sweep tickets for the Grand National, saying: "I hope they will bring you luck".
