Beachcomber: 101 years old and still gratefully grating

I have so often filled up on the first four or so courses, only to discover that the main course has yet to arrive.

Had I but known that the food so far uploaded to my stomach was only around 35 per cent of the meal rather than the 70 per cent I had thought, I might have been a bit more abstemious and certainly better able to pace my eating.

I later upgraded this idea to include two download bars, the second for the wine as well, but an astoundingly impressive meal I had last week was the first time I felt I might benefit from a third download indicator for cheese as well.

The occasion was a feast organised by the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium at Magpie Restaurant in Heddon Street, just off London’s Regent Street, where the head chef, Sebastian Merry, concocted a six course meal to demonstrate the delights and versatility of Parmesan cheese.

We are all used to having a hunk of Parmesan grated over pasta dishes, but the imaginative things this hugely talented chef did with it were mouth-wateringly impressive.

There was Parmigiano and black truffle foam adorning a lettuce; there was Parmigiano Reggiano pesto to go with the ox heart carpaccio; there was asparagus with shaved Parmesan, ravioli with Parmesan sauce, charred cod with Parmesan panna cotta and Parmesan frosting on a sorrel mocha cake. And every course tasted so exquisite that we needed only a small portion to appreciate it.In fact, it was always love at first bite, with the cheesy aftertaste lingering to give a realisation that the chef had created some truly special dishes.

At the end, I felt very well fed but not even slightly over-stuffed, with all my download bars nuzzling the 100 per cent mark to perfection.

The matches with a variety of Italian wines were pretty sensational too. When the meal was over, I prostrated myself before Sebastian Merry in thankful worship and asked him how he had made the soy cured egg yolk through which I had so gleefully swiped my slivers of asparagus. “Separate the eggs,” he said nonchalantly, “douse the yolks with Kikkoman soy sauce and leave in the fridge for three days.”

I told him that I usually get hungry more quickly than that, but he pointed out that some things are worth waiting for.

“After the three days,” he went on, “we beat up the yolks and soy with a gelatin spray.” Alongside the asparagus, wild garlic, shaved Parmesan and hibiscus pickled grape, it had played its role perfectly in a glorious third course.

Finally, after this amazing meal, I think I fully appreciated the wisdom of the great diarist Samuel Pepys whose first act on seeing the Great Fire of London approaching his home was to rescue his round of Parmesan by wheeling it out into the garden and burying it.

It’s a cheese worth saving if ever there was one.