Friendships feeding off TV dinners craze

An amateur version of the game – in which budding chefs are marked out of ten as they take turns to cook for one another – has already attracted more than 60 daring diners.

Barry Church-Woods, 33, who lives on Easter Road, came up with the idea after discussing it in the pub with friends who were all keen on finding a unique way to make new friendships.

He said: "We all love the TV version, but don't like the idea of getting slagged off on national television, so we decided to host a local version so we could enjoy good food and socialise.

"However, there are only four people in our Come Dine With Me, instead of five. And we're doing it in three rounds. We start of with 16 groups of four, then the winners in the groups will play again. The winners of the second round will go on to compete in a grand final, and the last person standing wins 500."

Mr Church-Woods, venues and performers liaison officer for the Edinburgh Fringe, is currently running the first Come Dine With Me competition and players are enjoying the first round.

The final winner is due to be announced on 26 January.

He said: "We're not sticking to the rules of the game show, where each person hosts a dinner party over four consecutive nights, because a lot of the people involved are professionals and we can't commit to that.

"But it is nice this way and people are forming solid friendships."

He added that a few people had been inspired by his idea and had branched out into other versions of the show.

He said: "One of my friends is planning to set up a Come Knit With Me event, and another has gone for a Come Wine With Me, which sounds very interesting indeed."

Following the success of the event, Mr Church-Woods is already planning a second competition early next year

He said: "I can't believe how much it has taken off. I thought people might not follow through with a real event. But after we posted a silly video of our dinner party on Facebook everybody could see that it was a laugh and not to be taken seriously.

"We've been inundated with people who want to get involved. It's a much nicer version of the game."

One of those taking part is Danielle Jeffrey, 27, from Easter Road, who heard about it from one of her neighbours and decided to give it a try.

She hosted her dinner party a couple of weeks ago and is looking forward to hearing the results. She said: "I thought it was a great idea and a nice way to get people together. Sometimes you get stuck with your own little groups.

"My dinner was fun and I made some friends who I'm still seeing, but it was a lot more stressful than I expected. I've only cooked for one person before, so four was quite a chore."