Nice day for a white picnic
The weather came to the party when Tauranga’s Le Diner en Blanc popped up on the waterfront. Denise Irvine donned a panama hat for the occasion.
Itake my hat off – in this case a white one – to the organisers of Tauranga’s Le Diner en Blanc. This white-themed pop-up picnic was held on Tauranga’s waterfront a couple of Saturdays ago; 800 people (including our party of six) set up tables on a grassy area adjacent to The Strand and it could have been mistaken for a massive wedding where whiteclad guests were trying to outshine the bride.
There was good weather (lucky), delicious food, happy camaraderie, and sharp white clobber. One man wore a pith helmet, another man a classic white tux, and umpteen women had extravagant white floral head wreaths. I shopped in my own wardrobe and found a 20-year-old linen shirt in good nick, white trousers, and a pristine panama hat.
Deciding what to wear was very small biscuits compared with the logistics that Le Diner en Blanc organisers Rachelle Duffy and Kimberley Cleland dealt with, getting hundreds of people comfortably transported, seated and entertained.
They have acquired the Tauranga rights for Le Diner en Blanc International, and this month’s white picnic was their second. They doubled the numbers at the first staged last summer at Mt Maunganui’s Pilot Bay.
Le Diner en Blanc originated 30 years ago in Paris and has spread to 70 cities worldwide, including Tauranga and Auckland. Rachelle Duffy was inspired by one she saw in Paris a few years back, attended by 10,000 people. ”It’s a really great event and I wanted to bring it to the Bay.”
Rules and rituals set down by the French founders must be faithfully observed. Guests dress top-to-toe in white and are transported to a lovely public location only revealed on the night. Dinner starts with guests waving their white table napkins, and sparklers are lit as the sun goes down. The site must be entirely cleared by the end of the evening.
The Tauranga evening’s core cost of $57.50 covered items including transport, permits, security and entertainment. Guests provided their own white tables, chairs, crockery, and food (in white containers). Alcohol had to be pre-ordered, and you could pre-order picnic boxes as well.
Our group did the pre-order thing (with seamless service); we waved our white napkins and dived into colourful treats that were the work of Auckland company Picnic Box, run by former Tauranga woman Diane Stanbra.
We had cheese and baguettes, antipasto platters of prosciutto, salami, chorizo, labneh and an excellent red onion and fig chutney (see recipe). We moved on to mains of prawn cocktail, Caesar salad, smoked salmon, and tender sliced sirloin with herb salad and balsamic reduction.
Stanbra says picnic food is a French classic, and it fitted perfectly with Le Diner en Blanc. She chose edibles that would travel well, combining cheeses, meats and other artisan products with homemade dishes from her company’s kitchen. All neatly packaged in white compostable containers.
Dinner was done by the time a cool breeze blew in off the sea. Everyone headed to the dance floor to warm up, and the show went on. As Rachelle Duffy says: “We couldn’t have hoped for a better night.”
Hamilton has beautiful locations that would work for Diner en Blanc. Just saying.