“The meal’s surprising coda will be a Basque Cheesecake based on a recipe he learned in Spain. As if reading the recipe in the canopy of maple leaves overhead, he recalled ‘a savory cheesecake with goat cheese, blue cheese, mascarpone and cream cheese…”

‘For the entrée, I want lamb shanks, the tough cuts,’ he said, arms outstretched as if grasping the animal. Instructions for cold smoking the lamb follow quickly: ‘Use barrel bungs, ideally, light them, let them burn briefly, then blow out the fire to create about 90 minutes of billowing, cold smoke.’