Our house did ‘Come Dine with Me’ and honestly, I want to do this every week

What a sad little life Jane x

3 years ago

Just like a real family, our house sits down every night to watch an episode of Come Dine with Me and it got us thinking: we could do this! It can’t be that hard, can it? Just dress up in your finest clothes, whip up a roast and throw some ice cream into a bowl. Just add some awkward silences, two break downs and passive aggressive eye rolls and you have yourselves an episode of Come Dine with Me.

This is our student rendition of the beloved show. Cooking isn’t always the easiest thing to navigate as a student at uni, but surely if you got into Lancs uni, you must have some capability to fry an egg, at least. We’d hope.

We scored each other as fairly as possible. We rated each night out of 60 points as a collective mark from the six people who dined. It was a lot of fun, here’s how it went…

David, Mexican night, fajitas

Kicking off the week right, David was the first to cook, and in our opinion, nothing can go wrong with fajitas. Due to the fact that there were some vegetarians in our house, David made chicken and veg to meet the needs of everyone. He pulled out all of the stops by providing cheese, sauce and everything else you would desire within a fajita. What a legend.

Everyone wanted to make a speech to end of their night, and David was inspired by friendship and said he was “thankful for us all.” How pure. Or was that just a tactical move to gain more points? Can you trust anyone in Come Dine with Me? I think not.

Overall rating: 51/60

Charlie, exotic night, red wine Ratatouille risotto

This gave me Disney Ratatouille vibes. Who else remembers that film? What a classic.

Not only did the food contain red wine, Charlie bought a big bottle of wine to accompany our meal. How considerate. This exotic dish was really nice. This rice based dish had everything cooked to perfection. It was very filling, so had me sorted for the rest of the night.

In his speech, Charlie said that “it was a pleasure to cook for us all” and that he “hopes we enjoy our meal.” We did. The theme for this night was smart-casual, so everyone came dressed to fit the criteria.

Overall rating: 49/60

Sam, formal dress, vegetarian chilli con carne

Sam’s night was vegetarian chilli. This chilli had a kick to it, but still was lush. He served his chilli with cheesy tortilla chips, garlic bread and dips. These are the ways to any student’s heart. He did make three pans worth of rice which definitely lost him points – we don’t want any waste.

Sam showed his appreciation by thanking his mum for teaching him how to cook. She did a great job.

The theme for the night was formal, so suits and dresses were worn. It was definitely a challenge not to spill anything on our formal clothes, in which we all failed.

Overall rating: 49/60

Sean, fancy dress, Stroganoff

For Sean’s night, he made beef stroganoff for the meat-eaters and mushroom stroganoff for the vegetarians. He also made bread for us all, that’s right, he made his own bread. What a culinary king.

I can only speak for the beef dish because it is the only one I had, but the beef to mushroom ratio was spot on. Sean also made dessert, which was an almond Bakewell tart, which was delicious. Cheers Sean.

The theme for this night was fancy dress, so we all dug out our witch’s hats from Halloween and homemade costumes to make the night more entertaining and fun.

In Sean’s speech, he said it was “so much fun” cooking for us all and “luckily nothing went wrong.”

My food puns are never Stroganoff. (I’ll see myself out.)

Overall rating: 42/ 60

Hannah, pyjama night, vegetarian lasagne

Cooking in a dressing gown. What a mood.

Hannah made vegetarian lasagne, with garlic bread and veg. Bit of a theme going on here with the garlic bread, but it’s a house favourite. Honestly, this lasagne was amazing, so good that if I ordered it in a restaurant I wouldn’t have any complaints.

The theme for this night was comfy clothes, so PJs, dressing gowns and onesies were all welcome.

Hannah’s speech made it clear that she “enjoyed cooking for us all” and “hopes we can do it all again.”

Overall rating: 46/60

Liv, dress like you are going to Sugar night, stuffed garlic bread

Not going to lie, I saw this recipe on TikTok and it turned out pretty well.

This was my night so I had to impress. I made garlic bread topped with rice, peppers, onions and cheese. I made caramelised wedges, which turned out to look more like burnt wedges, but they went down a treat and I didn’t receive any complaints.

Everyone got dressed up like they were going out to Sugar and we reminisced about the good old days when clubs were open. We took a trip down memory lane and dined in the nostalgia of VKs, dancing to Mr Brightside and missing the Sugar bus back to campus – those were the days.

Overall rating: 42/ 60

Alvin, Italian night, pasta

For the final night of the week, Alvin made spaghetti with chicken thighs, a tomato sauce and a white vegetable sauce. Who could ever turn down spaghetti? What a beautiful way to end the week. Everyone spoke about their favourite moment of the week, and it was great for us to bond over the meals we’d eaten.

It was an amazing end to a week of cooking. Our kitchen looked a bit worse for wear and I don’t think we are going to be cooking any more extravagant meals any time soon. I think we’ll all go back to Pot Noodles and microwavable meals for the mean time as our bank accounts are looking a little sad after buying all the ingredients.

Overall rating: 48/ 60

The things I’ve learnt from this week are that people can get very competitive and that we all secretly like to cook. This week has been one of my favourites, not only because I didn’t have to make something everyday, but because I had food made for me. It was a wonderful experience and we definitely want to do this again and encourage every Lancs household to do the same.

David’s fajitas won the night with a sparkling 51 points, however there was no thousand pound prize as we spent all our money that week on food. We are students after all.