What came next was designed not to be photographed. It was a rectangle of dark brown aubergine with a white sheet of what looked like icing but turned out to be ricotta placed on top. From directly above, the dish merged into the white plate becoming almost invisible, but looked at side-on it was like a slice of cake. The Italians traditionally tend to cook aubergine with balsamic vinegar, but Angelo had drawn on his love for Asian flavours once more and used soy sauce – a brilliant move. The dish was pleasantly bitter, and provided a good reminder that food is there to be eaten and loved, not tweeted.

Now it was Marco’s turn to wow the dining room – and he did just that. Apparently when Marco turned forty he became very interested in stars, space and the cosmos, which in turn inspired this dish. On top of black slate was a thick puree with a dark, ominous rock dragged through it, making the whole dish look just like a fallen comet. The rock actually turned out to be deep fried bread flavoured with cabbage, which we then tore apart and dipped into the sauce. It was enormous fun and incredibly delicious – there’s something quite earthy and nicely dirty about deep fried bread, which turned the dish into a guilty, moreish pleasure, and the uneven surface was so satisfyingly crunchy. It certainly got the conversation going and we asked for more.

This really was like eating the floor of a forest – the amount of earthy flavour Marco managed to get into this dish was incredible. Italians cook risotto so differently to us here in the UK; there was a real bite to Marco’s which worked brilliantly with the crispy, soil-like bits of onion, truffle, herbs and spices scattered over the top like an Italian dukkah. It was another plate of dark, colourless food, but it was true to its name; the little sprinkles reminded you of ferns, moss and insects, while the bed of rice was earthy and full of texture. If anyone doubts the creative potential of risotto, you need to eat Marco’s.

Angelo returned with an absolute beauty of a dish, which was actually presented in the way you expect traditional Michelin-starred food to look like. The lamb loin was of the very highest quality, cooked to perfection and covered in golden spices that really added a rich depth of flavour, especially when combined with the dusted coffee. This richness was cut with a little island of mandarin gel and the little cube of potato was to die for – everyone wanted another one! It was by far the prettiest dish on the menu.

While the photograph above has quite a bit of colour to it, the dish we were served was fully covered in a blanket of thick white foam, completely obscuring whatever was below. It tasted phenomenal and every time you dipped your spoon in you kept discovering new things – a pool of gooey caramel, little wobbling islands of panna cotta, crunchy salted clusters – that combined together in an explosion of textures and flavours. It was an indulgent Italian dish, evocative of the white church walls and lace found throughout Tuscany.

As you can see from the title of this dish, the final plate of food put in front of us was by no means an afterthought. The incredible (some would say insane) combination of flavours produced a truly once in a lifetime experience; the artichoke liqueur was like a bitter grappa with a hint of aniseed, to which the chef added finely chopped confit onion. Angelo’s Asian influences made a final appearance in the bon bons, which were made from something similar to dumpling wrappers with a hot chocolate filling. It was the kind of dish that made everyone stop their conversations and turn their attention right back to the food. The Grand Marnier drinks pairing was sheer genius – it must have been quite hard to find something that matched with such an otherworldly dish.

One of the most stand-out parts of the night had to be the wines Craig Bancroft, Northcote’s director of wines, chose for the evening, supplied by the fantastic Wright Wine Company. There were no safe, traditional choices; we enjoyed German, Cypriot, Portugese and Basque varieties that were full of flavour and character. When enjoyed alongside their matched dishes, however, they transformed into something truly sublime: From the Cypriot white served with Marco’s meteor of bread to the earthy red from Dao, Portugal that enriched the forest-like risotto, it became clear that Craig is an absolute expert when it comes to wine. Even though some of his choices sounded a little too out there, all doubts instantly vanished when you tried the food and wine together.