Hooray! The warmer weather is beginning to show its face and just in time for outdoor social gatherings. This means we need to don our research hats and find the best things to make the sunny days even better. For this feature, we sampled a sweet and savoury picnic from Noble House, and the good news is our tastebuds are still rejoicing!

Regular readers of Luxurious Magazine will likely recall our Mothers Day meal feature, our first Noble House experience. We enjoyed it so much that we’ve come back for a second helping.

One of the reasons Noble House are such experts when it comes to its in-house gastronomic creations and the super-high-quality of the associated products they include is partly down to a man by the name of Owen Sullivan.

Owen is the executive chef at Noble House and has worked with Gordon Ramsay for many years in various locations. And as you’re no doubt aware, Mr Ramsay is well-versed in the art of creating fine food. Owen has also worked with a particular person by the name of Elton John, and this was on his celebrated Oscar’s viewing party in LA.

In my books, if Owen Sullivan’s skills are good enough for Gordon Ramsay and Elton John, then they’re good enough for me!

Picnics are lovely things, they get you outdoors, among good company and more often than not, food always seems to taste better when way from the usual eating places in ones home. The only way you can improve things is by upping the food ante, and this is where Noble House comes to the forefront.

2020 was far from the best year for picnics; something in the air meant that we all had to spend more time indoors. However, the good news is that changes are afoot, and many shackles have been removed, making the outlook far rosier.

The warmer days in 2021 are days to be celebrated, and after the shock of the past twelve months, the onus is on everyone to makes outdoor gatherings as special and memorable as possible.

This means, no more limp cucumber sandwiches, soft crisps and rock-hard cubes of cheese, we’re talking about creating a moment that people will cherish, after all, if there’s one thing the past twelve months has taught us; it’s our time can sometimes be far shorter than any of us would’ve expected.

About the Noble House Picnic Boxes
For well over a decade, Conrad Baker and Emma Noble-Baker have been creating exquisite foods for the most prestigious events and extremely high-profile individuals. The good news is they’re taking their incredible catering experience direct to people’s homes, and this includes a complete revamp of the humble picnic.

All of the items within the Noble House Prepared picnics have been carefully chosen, allowing you to bring a healthy dose of sophistication to your gatherings which pretty much guarantees to make boring picnic’s a thing of the past. I’ve added the caveat ‘pretty much’ as although I can assure readers the food will be far from boring, I don’t have any control over the quality of the guests!

Noble House offers pre-prepared picnic boxes. However, if you’re after something a little different, they also allow you to create bespoke ones to meet your exacting needs and tastes. You can do this by choosing individual items from their extensive range of luxury foods and drinks displayed on their website.

The taste test
We knew exactly when our picnic was arriving, courtesy of a plethora of emailed updates. The picnic arrived in an exceptionally well-packaged box filled with refrigerated packets ensuring the food was as fresh as when it was packed.

When we opened the box, we discovered a treasure chest of sweet and savoury goodies.

In our household, it’s not my wife blessed with a sweet tooth, that honour is mine alone, and I will say that I was delighted by what I saw.

Inside our Noble House Picnic was:

  • Sausage Roll with Blythburgh free-range pork and red onion confit. (Serves four to six).
  • Tempus British Charcuterie Board.
  • H Forman & Son London Cure Smoked Salmon.
  • Traditional Scones, two fruit and two plain with Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream.
  • A 225g pack of Golden Cross soft ashed goat’s milk cheese.
  • Two British no-bake cheesecakes with strawberry jelly.
  • Two British no-bake cheesecakes with passionfruit jelly.
  • A Rocky Road Slab with chocolate, brownie, biscuit and marshmallow (serves four).
  • Nocellara Olives from the Belice Valley in Sicily.
  • Rosebud Preserves Green tomato chutney.
  • Rosebud Preserves Strawberry Jam.
  • Focaccia with Rosemary and Onion (serves four).

We’re not going to discuss the merits of each item in the picnic as this will entail a lot of reading. Instead, we will focus on a couple of highlights to give you the gist of what you can expect.

First on the taste test was the sausage roll with free-range pork and red onion confit. The first thing that comes to mind is its size; it is a whopper! We followed the cooking instructions, and after the required time, the gorgeous looking pastry and meat creation was ready to be sampled.

As mentioned, it’s a large piece, so we cut it into slices and then offered it to our guests. It was delicious, and this was in no small part to the intense flavour coming from the meat.

Yes, the pastry was light and tasty too, but it was the meat that shone through. I will admit that although my task was simply to pop it in the oven for a set time, the result of this made me feel rather proud. Although this was Noble House prepared, it felt as if it was me that made this exceptional sausage roll for my guests.

Another of the first things we tried was my personal highlight, the Rocky Road Slab with chocolate, brownie, biscuit and marshmallow. Again, this was a substantial, weighty item which in my books is no bad thing! It is a delightful looking piece, covered in chocolate confectionery, popcorn etc. Although the decoration enhanced its look, the real treat was the slab itself. No word of a lie; every bite was akin to popping smooth chocolate fudge in my mouth.

When it came to the act of sharing, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about letting our guests try some. On a couple of occasions, my wife had to say, “Come on, don’t be stingy!” That short phrase should help to explain what I thought of it!

All of the foods we tried were of the highest quality, and people a little less honest than us could easily claim credit for the mouthwatering items guests will experience. That’s not us; we told our guests that Noble House Prepared did all the hard work, and when explained who the people were behind it, that was just as impressive.

Noble House Prepared Picnics – Where and how?

The picnic hampers are all available for home delivery and, as mentioned previously, are packaged with ice packets to ensure maximum freshness. The picnic boxes are available with or without a bottle. You can add a bottle of sparkling Crémant d’Alsace Brut NV for an additional £18.00.

There are currently three dedicated picnic hampers available:

  • Noble House Picnic Sweet selection from £40
  • Noble House Picnic Savoury selection from £75
  • Noble House Picnic Deluxe selection from £115

Full details of what is inside each picnic hamper can be found by visiting www.noblehouseprepared.com.

Please note that the wicker hampers in the photographs are not supplied with the picnic sets.