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The day my son irrevocably lost his right to youth tax relief, we decided to celebrate with a dinner together with his sisters.

Given the gravity of the circumstances, however, there could be no talk of a regular meal. No fast food, no slow food, not even comfort food. We had no doubts that we would serve elegant "fine food."

For the first course, an appetizer of my own creation. Tuna fried for 20 seconds on each side in a lemon pepper breadcrumb, then sliced. Served on chicken liver mousse cooked in a water bath with brandy, cream and raisins, and with a reduced raspberry and white chocolate sauce, garnished with thyme.

The soup was prepared by Maja. It was a spicy cream of peppers, tomatoes and carrots in a guinea fowl broth. Seasoned with chili, paprika, salt and butter. Garnished with crispy chickpeas, oregano and basil sauce.

The main course was my own guinea fowl cooked in suwi with thyme, oregano, rosemary, pepper and salt, then fried in butter. Served on a mash of sweet potatoes and carrots fried in olive oil and boiled in a small amount of water, with cranberry sauce, and grilled chicory with bacon crisps.

Julka prepared the dessert. It was a chocolate mousse with coconut milk, egg yolk, sugar and beaten egg white, served on a reduced orange sauce with rosemary, decorated with dots of raspberry sauce, passion fruit and orange peel, sprinkled with rice cake crumbles.

We served the meal with Cellier Dauphins red wine and finished it with a glass of Jagermeister.
Each dish was served by its author, and we ate it together.

Mateusz consumed the next courses with a poker face. His facial expression did not reveal which of the served items he liked more. Every now and then, however, his face would take on an expression of clear satisfaction and his eyes seemed to ask "what did they add to make it taste so good?"

We had to wait until the end of the meal for the verdict.

Despite the not-so-attractive visualization, I was rather calm about the evaluation of my dishes, after all, I had put a whole day and half of my heart into their preparation. However, when I tried Maja's soup, I knew that first place would be rather difficult, and all illusions were brutally dispelled by the first bite of Julia's dessert. Fortunately, I had a place on the box secured, even if I had served bread with sugar.

The tuna received 10 points for well-balanced flavors, 6 points for a less than perfect presentation, and 7 points for creativity, because the judge remembered that I had served him a similar dish before. The soup received 8 points for taste, because the judge thought it was too spicy, 10 points for presentation, and 10 points for creativity. The judge rated the guinea fowl 8 points because it was not salty enough, 8 points for presentation, because of the poor composition, and 10 points for creativity. The dessert received three tens and one comment: "perfect."

Well, if we ever open a family catering business, it seems like the most suitable place for me would be operating a menu printer and washing dishes.

I'm not giving up though. Maja's birthday is in three months. I'll show them then.