Hrishikesh Desai cooks for The Cateys 2022

"As soon as [The Caterer's editor] James [Stagg] called me, I accepted," he says. "It's a very rare honour to cook for the Cateys guests.

"Then the penny dropped and I thought, oh, OK, it's 900 people and I need to appeal to every person. It was then about deciding on dishes that would work for a banquet, that have a keeping quality, look fresh and appealing, have lots of flavour, colour and a big a wow factor.

"It had to be something that has a personality of me and the food we do at the Gilpin, luckily I had done Obsession [at Northcote in Lancashire] earlier that year and I was able to draw inspiration from that."

Cooking for 900 people is no small feat but banqueting don Nigel Boschetti and his brigade were on hand to guide Desai and sous chef Ben-hur Gaikwad through the behemoth kitchens of Grosvenor House, a JW Marriott hotel, advising the pair on avoiding the pitfalls of a banquet service.

The meal started with roasted Cornish scallops, served with sweet and sour tempered yogurt, tamarind gel, mint oil, pomegranate seeds and a quenelle of finely diced vegetables. The tempered yogurt was flavoured with cumin infused oil, garlic paste, salt, sugar, lemon juice and a little chilli with a little xanthan gum to ensure it could sit on the plate prior to service without splitting.

Desai single-handedly seared 2,700 scallops in the hours leading up to the event, however he describes this as a simple task compared to the four hours Boschetti spent plating 900 individual quenelles of diced carrots, shallots, blanched chili, celeriac and pumpkin, bound with a tamarind chutney, ensuring each was identical.

Finally, the team garnished the dish with pomegranate seeds, dusted peanut, a little more tamarind chutney and mint oil. Desai says: "The flavours in that dish were tamarind chutney, mint oil, the vegetables seasoned with tamarind and mint, and then there were peanuts to give extra texture, as well as the yogurt tempered with cumin and garlic paste.

"These are the dishes I would love to eat and I think people will enjoy. I also felt that it would be something new for the Cateys."

The main course saw the chef and his team serve roast loin of lamb, a laal maas spiced braised neck fillet, confit potato, carrot and laal maas gravy. The laal maas spicing used mathania chilli, which Desai says creates a "amazing red paste with a beautiful aroma, but not spicy at all".

He explains: "We are using a chilli that you can't find here, so we knew if we used this for the sauce it would be something different.

"The chillies come from a village in Rajasthan and are very famous because of the red colour they impart to the dish – that's why it's called laal maas, laal means red.

"But we don't get mathania chillies in the UK and I had to do a bit of hunting for them and they cost a fortune, but I'm hoping now I can germinate seeds from the dried chili to grow them here. We braised the lamb neck fillet in the sauce with the chillies, which give the sauce so much flavour."

A delivery of 2.2kg of mathania chillies was delivered to Grosvenor House, from which the team meticulously removed every seed, before blanching the chillies and turning them into a paste, which was added to the braising liquor for the lamb fillet. The resulting liquor was reduced into both the sauce served with the dish and a glaze, into which the portions of fillet were dipped before being topped with crispy onions and chives.

The Herdwick lamb loin was dry aged for 24 days and roasted to medium, while fondant potatoes and carrots were cooked in the lamb fat before being plated alongside asparagus. The dessert was a signature dish of Desai's that has been on the menu of his Michelin-starred restaurant HRiSHi for many years. The chef says: "We dare not change it, it works perfectly with the flavours and textures. It has the wow factor, it works really well."

A French chocolate delice (pictured top) is topped with a classic banana bread before being frozen and coated with a mirror glaze and toasted hazlenuts. Separately a pumpkin spiced panna cotta is set into cubes. Cocktail sticks are popped into each cube before they are dipped in an orange jelly and sat on top. The final flourish is a Japanese Namelaka, a caramalised white chocolate and cream blend. A milk sorbet was served alongside.

The first feedback came from the most august of attendees, with John Williams, executive chef of the Ritz London, sending a message to the kitchen to say how much he had enjoyed his first two courses.

Desai says: "He said he'd enjoyed the style of food. There was a huge positive feedback from a lot of people. With 900 covers you can't get every little thing right, but we tried our very best."

Selecting the wines, by Nick Zalinski, Matthew Clark

Vine Trail Gewürztraminer 2021, Rapel Valley, Chile

Made by the talented team at Luis Felipe Edwards, this is an off-dry Gewürztraminer with a mouth-watering dab of citrus. This dance between freshness and residual sugar plays with the natural sweetness of the scallops and tames the tart tamarind. Finally, the wine's gentle spices weave around the mint to create a delicious pairing.

Tierra Fuerte Graciano 2015, Mentrida, Spain

From the family-run Abanico Bodega comes this brooding red. While this is a seriously structured red that matches the meaty lamb elements, its melting centre of rich plum and smoky vanilla also acts as a foil for the chilli hum in the sauce.

Malamado Fortified Malbec, Zuccardi, Valle del Uco, Argentina

How exciting is this?! Ultra-ripe Malbec sourced from the world's best vineyard (according to Decanter), vinified by Sebastien Zuccardi, then fortified like a Port. The balance between rich red berry fruit and the deep dark chocolate is a flavour sensation – it's like Black Forest gateau in your mouth.