I enjoy cooking and I believe I’m pretty decent at it, but as soon as you have more than 5-6 people to feed, things get a bit tricky. Suddenly the quantities don’t work and your pots and pans are too small and if you plan to cook several courses, it all turns into a logistical nightmare.

A Mediterranean menu is not very original, but it has its advantages: it works well in the heat (it’s been very hot in Brussels), almost everybody likes the food from that region, the ingredients are accessible and you can easily find high quality appetizers. It has taken the perfectionist in me some time to realize that you really don’t need to marinate your own olives/prepare your own eggplant paste. Seriously, you don’t.

So in case you need a ready-made lunch menu or just some inspiration, this is what I served yesterday for a party of 10:

1. Appetizers: Jamón ibérico; a selection of olives; smoked eggplant, artichoke and Kalamata olive pastes, grilled red peppers in olive oil and good white bread.

2. First course: ajo blanco. This cold Spanish garlic and almond soup is one of my favourites – it’s wonderfully creamy and aromatic and less well known than gazpacho, so it adds a small element of surprise to the menu. Ajo blanco is a good choice for summer when you don’t want to serve a warm soup and – crucially – can be prepared a day ahead. Greg and Lucy Malouf have a good recipe in their New Middle Eastern Food (see the picture below), but as I forgot to buy bread, I used this breadless Delia version yesterday, which was also delicious. For 10 people, you have to at least double the quantities.

3. Main course: slow roast Greek-inspired chicken with vegetables. I am a big fan of slow cooking meats and it makes especially good sense when you have guests, as it’s much less time sensitive than conventional cooking (if needed, you can just keep the thing in the oven at a low temperature and turn it up 20-30 minutes before ready to serve). I used this recipe as a rough guide, but substituted rosemary for oregano, tarragon and thyme and added carrots and fennel to the potatoes. For 10 people, you of course have to cook two birds rather than one. I prepared everything on one big baking sheet, which ensures that all of it cooks in sync and is ready at the same time.

4. Dessert: lavender, orange and almond cake. I always think I’m a cook rather than a baker, but my cakes have been very successful lately – not because I’m that skilled, but because I’ve found a few recipes that really work for me. One of them is this Diana Henry’s cake from Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons: it’s wonderfully fragrant and flavoursome and nicely moist. I skipped the candied orange peel and added some orange blossom water to the frosting. It’s just enough for 10 people and to make things easier on the day, I prepared the lavender sugar and frosting in advance.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of any of this, as it seemed impolite to take photos when we had guests and afterwards, there wasn’t anything left…