how to add a pinch perfect of picnic to your

From the dreamiest dishes to what you should leave out, top chefs cook up the perfect Bank Holiday banquet

SMALL and perfectly formed, or sprawling spreads shared with friends and family. Whatever the size, all good picnics should make you feel as if you’ve packed a holiday into a hamper. Part of the skill is in knowing what to take, and what to leave at home. Here, our finest foodies share their memories of the feasts they will never forget and their tips for an occasion to remember . . .

RICHARD CORRIGAN

Award-winning chef and Great British Menu judge

I’ll NEVER forget the picnics I had with my dad out in his boat. He was a great fisherman but, honestly, when we weren’t eating I’d long to get off that boat. Once he was on it he’d never get off. We might set off at 6am and finally come in at 9pm.

I was about seven when I first went out with him, we’d fish for wild trout on lough sheelin, County Meath and for lunch he’d cook us a perfect brown trout over a few embers. He made a potato salad which I still make now, with onions and extra vinegar.

Outdoor eating is one of the finest pleasures. Occasionally, I’ll leave my restaurant in london and pop a few things from the kitchen in a box or bag, ideally plenty of dressed crab — my favourite picnic food — plus bread, butter and a chilled bottle of Chablis. Or I might have some smoked eel.

I take it to Hyde Park when there’s a concert that I can eavesdrop on. let me tell you, this is the greatest free treat in london. you don’t get to see the band or musicians, but you can hear every note, which is just as good.

ESSENTIAL: Maldon sea salt and an old fashioned ‘butterhead’ lettuce salad.

NUISANCE FOOD: spanish hams ( Iberico, serrano) and pate — they sweat, it’s a waste.

SIGNATURE PICNIC DISH

Potato Salad — serves 2: 500g waxy potatoes, peeled Sea salt and freshly ground pepper 4 tbsp white wine vinegar 2 tbsp chopped white onion 2 hardboiled eggs

COOK the potatoes in boiling water until they are just tender enough to pierce through with a knife. Drain them, allow them to cool then place in a bowl and mash to soften the edges.

season with the salt and pepper. Put the vinegar in a small saucepan and heat until it simmers. Continue to cook until the volume is reduced by half. Cool, add the onion then stir it properly into the potato.

Chop the hardboiled eggs, scatter over the salad, and serve.

NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT: big serving spoon and fork.

PRUE LEITH

Bake-Off judge and founder of Leiths School of Food and Wine

My best picnic memories are hardly gastronomic. When my son was at eton, 30 years ago, someone told me that the thing to do was to go to the June 4 celebration, taking a picnic which you could eat in Agar’s Field.

I had no idea what any of that meant, but a picnic in a field sounded good, so I bundled a rug (actually an old bedspread quilt) into the car, made a pack of smoked salmon and cream cheese wholemeal sandwiches and a yogurt pot of eton Mess for each of the family. that’s my favourite picnic. Delicious, easy to eat, and no washing up.

but when we arrived we realised we’d missed the point. Agar’s field was packed with Range Rovers and bentleys. Out of these cars came picnic tables, tablecloths, linen napkins, crystal glasses, buckets of champagne, vases of flowers and even the odd butler.

Canopies and pagodas were erected, while several families had caterers. No one else was driving a clapped-out subaru and dressed in shorts. We crept away to the bank of the river, under a willow tree, perfectly placed to see the main event, the Procession of boats. It was a heavenly day, as we knocked back champagne and watched the adolescent rowers standing upright in narrow racing eights, holding their oars aloft and then shaking the flowers off their boaters before serenely rowing down the river, the petals drifting in their wake.

A romantic, eccentric, wonderfully english sight.

ESSENTIAL: My favourite drink — half ginger ale, half fizzy water (or prosecco), elderflower cordial, lemon juice, mint and ice.

NUISANCE FOOD: Hot supermarket bbQ chicken — it goes tepid, soggy, greasy and, left in the sun, it’s positively dangerous.

SIGNATURE PICNIC DISH

My Best Guacamole — serves 4: 2 avocados, roughly chopped 2 ripe tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and chopped 1 large clove garlic, crushed 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tsp balsamic glaze Sea salt and ground black pepper 6 basil leaves, shredded

MIx the garlic, oil and balsamic together, season with the salt and pepper and mix with the avocado and tomato pieces. tip into a container and sprinkle with the basil.

NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT: A wet J-cloth in a plastic bag. Wasp-ease. A corkscrew.

MARK HIX

Top chef and restaurateur

I PICNIC often, and remember every one of them as being perfect, but the most recent was a delight.

I was in Hampshire with my friend Robin Hutson, founder of the Pig hotel group. We always cook on our picnics. I took a rib of Hannan’s aged beef and cooked it on the barbecue — it was blue-ish rare on the inside, absolutely outstanding.

I made a version of the sicilian dish caponata and we ate it with burrata, a creamy, richer version of ‘buffalicious’ mozzarella, made in somerset. Robin always brings the wine — often a good red so there’s no need to faff about chilling it.

Food aside, the making of a great picnic is about good company — just one friend or many more, as long as they’re convivial and the scenery is pretty. because I like to cook when I picnic, I need the land Rover nearby for the equipment — I’m not one for walking miles with a backpack full of food.

ESSENTIAL: A spice mix to season meat and fish.

NUISANCE FOOD: supermarket sausage rolls — not worth the extra weight.

SIGNATURE PICNIC DISH

Cardoon caponata with burrata — serves 4: 1 cardoon stalk* (300g) 2 medium aubergines, cut into rough 1cm cubes 3 tbsp olive oil 1 red onion, sliced thinly 4 medium tomatoes, chopped 1 heaped tbsp capers 1 heaped tbsp raisins 1 tbsp sugar 75ml passata 50ml red wine vinegar 1 tbsp grated dark chocolate (80-100 per cent cocoa solids) To serve: toasted pine nuts, flat parsley leaves * Or use 4 celery sticks, pared of strings and chopped

CARDOONs are cousins of artichokes but you use the stalks only. Pare the leaves from the stalk, then pare lengthways to remove the ‘strings’. Cut into 3cm dice then simmer in boiling water with a pinch of salt and sugar to soften them.

Drain, refresh in cold water then set aside. Meanwhile, salt the aubergine pieces and leave in a colander to sweat for half an hours. Rinse and pat dry. Heat the olive