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“We have a strong love of colour in my family,” says Alice Moireau, co-founder of the homewares brand Table. “My dad is a watercolour artist, my mum was a painter and my godmother, possibly the most festive of us all, is renowned for throwing vibrant colour-themed parties.” Moireau once turned up to a yellow-themed event dressed as a giant jonquille [daffodil].
Feeling nostalgic, she chooses a pink and green theme for today’s lunch, an intimate, three-course meal hosted at her home on the river Loiret. “I’ve always liked this colour combination,” she says, citing a childhood obsession with Ladurée macarons and their towering pastel window displays. “And I find a theme really helps gather people.”
The guestlist includes Moireau’s partner, the osteopath Pierre Blondon, casting director Marlène Jacquet, art director Lucie Coudurier and architect Monica Klink, who helped Moireau renovate her family’s neighbouring homestay, Le Chalet Olivet. Without planning it, they turn up as four greens and four pinks, perfectly matching the pink branded tablecloth. Moireau wears a pink sequinned Chanel two-piece.
“I always like guests to see the food before they experience it,” says Moireau of the spread she has laid out on Christofle silver platters. From tapenade infused with basil leaves to fresh radishes and cucumbers from the farmers’ market, everything befits the colour scheme. The tableware is a thrifty mix of flea-market finds and creations Moireau’s mother designed for Gien, a traditional French manufacturer of dinnerware dating back to 1821.
After some mingling, the group sits down to a square-shaped starter of buttery jambon persillé and a green salad. “It’s nice to integrate guests into the cooking process,” says Moireau, observing her friends’ devotion to preparing a Béarnaise sauce for the main, a classic roast beef with green beans. “Everybody loves to feel like they are part of it.” Monica and Marlène whip mascarpone for dessert, a green pistachio cake with raspberry coulis.
Blondon is tasked with music, a playlist of Portishead and Scone Cash Players, to accompany dancing and games (musical chairs and a French version of Time’s Up!) . Somewhere in between, the most enormous hunk of Tomme des Pyrénées cheese emerges along with a new bottle of wine, a fruity pét-nat rosé from Domaine de Berguerolles in the south of France. “The theme has put us all in a really childish mood,” says Moireau. “We’ll be dancing all weekend.”