I received an email out of the blue a few weeks ago from a couple of former work colleagues asking if we happened to be in town. We were, so that set off plans for a casual dinner and a long‑overdue catch‑up. It’s not as though we’ve been completely out of touch, they send a Christmas newsletter every year filled with photos from their travels and adventures, and I send my periodic newsletter from Inspired Cuisine, so we’ve always had a sense of where the other was in life. Still, we weren’t close friends, just people who shared a meaningful stretch of time working together at a small company in Toronto, and later again when one of them moved to one of our clients.
Not knowing much about their culinary likes or dislikes, I chose a neutral, easygoing menu, something I could prepare ahead of time so the evening could be about conversation rather than cooking. Here’s the dinner menu from that night, and I think everyone genuinely enjoyed it:
Dukkah, Market Produce, Sesame Oil & Fired Naan
Each component has a purpose. The hardboiled egg slices and the market vegetables are meant to be dipped first into the sesame oil, then dunked into the dukkah so that the spices cling to every bite. I added some warm naan for extra flavor and texture, and of course, another excuse to dunk.
Hoisin Glazed Smoked Breast of Duck
With just three ingredients and about five minutes of prep, you get a dish that tastes far more impressive than the work involved and it has a very mild flavor and mimics the texture of a cut of sirloin steak.
So simple, so easy, especially for someone like me, a savory cook at heart rather than a pastry chef. This little mango parfait also checks the box for that must‑have dessert after dinner with friends.
Everything was straightforward, comforting, and easy to serve, exactly what the evening needed.
Once we sat down, the years seemed to collapse in an instant. We revisited what felt like a thousand memories: long workdays, the cast of characters we worked alongside, the occasional pub lunches, the projects that nearly broke us, and the ones that made us proud. Then, naturally, the conversation drifted to where we all are now, how our lives have changed, and the paths we’ve taken since those early days.
It turned into a genuinely lovely evening, comfortable, nostalgic, and full of stories. By the end of it, we were trading invitations to visit their corner of Vancouver and ours in Florida. A simple dinner, twenty‑five years later, and somehow it felt like picking up a thread we didn’t realize was still there.
