Justin Woods, head chef at The Castle Green Hotel, Kendal, and Greenhouse restaurant

I’ve been delegated to make a bonfire party buffet this weekend. What would chef serve to make it a little different?

Harriet Goodfellow, Kirkby Lonsdale

Bonfire night is great fun as long as it stays dry and everybody stays safe. I’m going to suggest a few simple dishes because you want to enjoy the night as well, rather than being kitchen bound the whole night. Make the whole event self-service, so start with a lovely pan of carrot soup, flavoured with some honey to sweeten slightly, plenty of chopped coriander and a few spoons of crème fraiche, serve with some warm bread rolls and lots of butter. For a main course, buy a boneless shoulder of pork, smother the skin with loads of barbecue sauce and bake for about 5 hours at 150C. While the pork is cooking, put some jackets in the oven and serve with some barbecue beans, smother some pork sausages with some HP sauce and a little honey and bake in the oven as well. Core and stuff apples with raisins, brown sugar, mixed spice and a few breadcrumbs and bake alongside the pork as well. When the pork is cooked, whack the heat up to 200C for about 20 minutes to get some extra crispy crackling. Remove the pork from the oven, allow to cool slightly, remove the crackling, then shred the meat with two large forks and serve with some burger buns and apple sauce and with the jacket potatoes, the barbecue beans, the barbecue sausages and buy a tub of coleslaw to serve alongside. Serve your baked apples with some warm custard. Enjoy your night and most importantly, stay safe with fireworks.