My last meeting with Andy (in September 2015, together with Barbi and my wife Laure) was a dinner in a well known restaurant not far Covent Garden - an evening of wonderful friendship and nostalgia that I shall never forget.  The meal itself, though, was a disappointment, particularly for Barbi and Laure. Andy rose to the occasion with all his experience of more than two years of active Asparagus club dinners. I quote below the review he emailed to the restaurant management- an analysis that only a Cambridge natural scientist could have produced (I still have a copy of the email):

Great Expectations, Big Disappointment
 
Good greeting and ambiance, average service and poor food.  It's rare to see a menu with traditional things such as sweetbreads, steak and kidney pie and Welsh rarebit.  Sadly all were well below par:  the sweetbreads were breaded and grossly overcooked so that there was none of the soft succulence left,  the steak in the pie was hard and chewy, not melt in the mouth as it should be - even I can cook a better one, the Welsh rarebit was very tasty but came with burnt crusts.  The ladies had salted sea bass which was inexpertly filleted at the table leaving lots of small bones.  The vegetables were adequate, uninspiring and expensive as were the deserts.  The wine list was good but expensive.
 
All in all a very expensive disappointment.

Of course, it was perfectly natural for me to defer to Andy’s critical abilities when it came to culinary matters. I had already witnessed his incisiveness when, at the 2011 celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Asparagus Club, he took the then club President to task for serving a meal with only three sticks of asparagus per diner!!

With fond memories

Richard