The doorbell rings late in the evening. It's some of your friends, calling in for a natter and a cup of tea. And they're starving. You know they are, because friends tell you things like that. You are on the point of filling them with tea and lots of Old Mr Brennan's Bread, toasted, when you take pity on them.
Your friends are slumped on the couch, with not a word out of them, only the inarticulate conversation of their empty stomachs. To look at them, you would swear they had spent the day either ascending Everest or cycling across the Russian steppes. If you are female, you are genetically bound to weaken. You offer to cook them a little something. Let's face it, (most) men either go for the Elderly Mr Brennan's Bread option or simply pick up the phone and order a take-away.
Astonishingly, in the blink of an eye, your friends revive at the offer of a little something. They even come galloping out to the kitchen in your wake, to make sure you keep your rash promise. You begin to feel like someone in a pet food ad, looking at all those expectant tongues hanging out. So what do you feed these strays, and how come they have ended up on your doorstep?
`Because I live so close to town, I'm on people's beaten track," explains Beth O'Halloran. "They're always dropping in. If people come round after the pub, I'll make sandwiches. But other people drop in for a cup of tea in the afternoon and then we keep on talking and it's eating time, but I haven't planned anything. It doesn't bother me at all; I just keep everything super-casual. "I'm vegetarian, so there are always a few of what I call basics that I'll have in the fridge, like goat's cheese and mushrooms. I'll fry the mushrooms up in some butter, and then add plain yoghurt and dill. That's my absolute signature dish.
"The other thing I do a lot is using up the rest of the goat's cheese and the jar of pesto that's always around. I put them on thinly-sliced batch loaf and make a kind of bruschetta. To me, something like goat's cheese is very simple, but that always seems to impress people, which is very gratifying.
"Coucous is another staple. That gets mixed with whatever veg are around - an onion, tomatoes, half a pepper. There's always something, and it's very quick to make.
"Friends always seem to be impressed with very little - I guess they're just glad to be fed at all. I don't get stressed out at all by people turning up unexpectedly. I love it. There's no pressure, because everyone has such low expectations. And it's a bit like being a magician, creating things out of what you already have. Beth O'Halloran is a painter. Her next show will be in June, at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery (formerly Jo Rain) on Great Strand Street.
`It's incredibly unusual in London for people to just drop in," reports Judith Murray. "Everything gets arranged in advance here. What does happen sometimes is that I'll have been out to the cinema or out having a drink and the film is over or you've had a drink but there's been no real puncutation to the evening. So I'd invite people to come back for something to eat. It's a way of trying to extend the evening onwards - the Londoner's way of being spontaneous.
"I always serve this dish - pizzoccheri - to unexpected guests. I cut some gruyere, emmental, or fontina cheese into small cubes. There'll always be one of those three in the fridge. And the local shop sells Savoy cabbage, so if I don't have one, I can pick one up on the way home with the friend. I slice that up, then peel one or two waxy potatoes and cut them into smallish cubes - this dish is all about cooking things quickly.
"I boil up a pan of water, then bung in the potatoes. Five minutes on, bung in buckwheat pasta and cabbage into the same pot. This takes about five minutes and then you drain the lot. While all this is cooking, I chop up two cloves of garlic - which is always to hand - and fry very gently in butter. Lots of butter, depending on the friend's preference. There's always parmesan around, so I grate up a bowl of that.
"Then I spoon about a third of the drained pasta etc into an ovenproof bowl, sprinkle with the cubes of cheese, and keep on layering until it's all gone. On top of the final layer, I pour garlic and butter over everything, grind lots of fresh black pepper and salt and toss in the parmesan. I give the cheese a few minutes to melt, then a good stir so butter and garlic get everywhere and serve it up to my hungry guest. It's even better if there's a bottle of red wine to go with it.
Judith Murray is a literary agent with Greene & Heaton in London, which represents Bill Bryson, P.D. James, and Mary Morrissy, among other writers.
`We've just had a new baby, Theo, who's only eight weeks old. So we've had more people than usual calling into the house and less time than ever to cook," reports Robbie Millar. "The thing I serve up most to unexpected guests is Quefadill, which means cheese.
"One of the things we always have in the house are fresh flour tortillas. There's eight in a packet, and they are in a vacuum pack, so they keep fresh for a few months until you open them. Quefadill is like a fried cheese sandwich. I fry a tortilla, and grate cheese on top - cheddar, usually, something with a strong flavour - and then fry another tortilla and turn them over and there you are.
"I serve that up with some chilli sauce from a bottle that'll be in the fridge. It's the ultimate comfort food, it's quick and tasty, it hits the spot and it takes only a couple of minutes to make. And it's good with beer, which people often arrive with. "That's what I make the most, but the other one has to be pasta. Pasta's big advantage over potatoes is that you can serve up a bowl of pasta with olive oil and parmesan and it's so fast and good, but potatoes take longer and you don't think of eating them on their own. Unless they're baked, but that's not going to go down well with hungry people who've just arrived.
"I'll always have pasta in the cupboard, either De Cecro or Fini, they're the best brands. And a block of parmesan is ubiquitous in our fridge. Once it starts getting low, we buy another block. Pasta with oil, parmesan and salt and pepper. It's so simple and so good. If I have tomatoes or basil around, I'll add them, but really, they're just extras to hungry people."
Robbie Millar is the chef and owner of Shanks Restaurant, at Bangor. They received a Michelin star four years ago.
`There's a group of about 10 of us who met in college and who have kept in contact ever since. We tend to go out together a lot and end up in one of our houses at the end of the night," relates Natasha Byram. "So cooking goes on in a whole range of different houses, including my own, but it's almost always me who gets roped in to do the cooking, because my friends know I love it.
"Contrary to what people might think, I eat loads. I work such strange hours that if I didn't eat, I'd drop. No matter what house I'm in, there'll be pasta in the cupboard. I use penne, if it's there, because the sauce sticks to the texture of penne better. Or spaghetti. Then I raid the cupboards. I nearly always come up with tuna and tomatoes. Sometimes olives and herbs. Anything edible with a flavour gets thrown into the sauce.
"I think that even if you can't have a great fast meal to feed your friends, you can always provide a bit of atmosphere anyway. I always have candles in the house, and a bottle of wine does wonders to any bowl of pasta. If there isn't one in the house, I'll make sure we pass an off-licence on the way or send one of the hungry arrivals out to get one while I cook. At the end of the day, it's all about making people feel welcome. Natasha Byram is a model with Assets Model Agency.