Are pricey picnics worth it?

Eating al fresco is a seasonal idyll which should be grasped when the British weather allows - and yesterday, by the look of all the salmon-pink, tieless, strapless workers clinging to every green inch of Hyde Park, the opportunity to sunbathe in 80oF degree heat and eat at the same time was grasped most eagerly.

In a sense we're blessed in London - the fabulous green spaces make up for a depressing lack of decent outdoor restaurant tables that don't force you to digest more fumes than food. But unless you're happy making do with that same old Pret sandwich and packet of crisps, what you really need in a sweltering week like this is to splash out on a picnic hamper.

Many of London's best food halls and delis offer services that make it even easier to take lunch or dinner in the park. But they're not cheap, averaging out at around £30 a head.

Oliver Peyton's In the Park hampers, ideal for takeaway dining in St James's Park, launches mid-summer. The food halls at Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges, long the suppliers of hampers to the sorts who spend their summers at Glyndebourne, Ascot and Henley, generally require 24 to 48 hours' notice, and prices can go sky high if you want to let loose with the wine and fois gras.

Carluccio's cafés offer great value, as do smaller independent delis such as La Bottega del Sole in Fulham (020 7351 7370) and East Dulwich Deli on Lordship Lane (020 8693 2525). We plumped for Villandry in Great Portland Street (020 7259 9222) which will deliver for free in central London seven days a week if you order before 1pm, and spend at least £50. Gwyneth Paltrow recently had a Villandry hamper delivered to her mate Stella McCartney.

Two boxes were delivered to a parkside café, which worked out at £36 a head. We unloaded the boxes with much oohing and aahing, having asked for a general selection of what was on offer in the deli that day. It was a bit like unloading your picnic box on a school trip, seeing what Mum had sent you off to the museum with, except it far exceeded a Penguin biscuit and a chicken drumstick.

Instead we are talking a couple of great French cheeses, chilled soups, charcuterie, poached salmon with homemade aioli, fat grilled prawns, grilled vegetables with chicken, two bottles of Chablis and Pouilly Fumé (corkscrew included), fruit tart, champagne syllabub, pats of posh French butter and ancienne bread, and of course the requisite lashings of ginger beer and packets of handmade crisps.

Could it get any better than a shady corner of Hyde Park with a favourite friend and a bespoke picnic? Well, apologies if I sound a little spoilt here, but I have to admit yes, it could.

Don't get me wrong, the food was all wonderful but the problem was that, a bit like when one is faced with a buffet, there was simply too much choice. Something about lying on grass and eating a huge variety of foodstuffs simply necessitates terrible indigestion. Picnics require simple foods, that can be eaten with your fingers.

Where were the simple and lush options of some British seasonal fruit and veg? A selection of crudité and a couple of dips would have beaten the complicated salads hands down. English strawberries and asparagus in particular are such dreamy things to eat, as opposed to a rice salad.

Finger food is simple food, and that's what really makes a picnic fun. In the end, half the fun is choosing the food yourself from a deli cabinet: interesting charcuterie and cheese stuffed inside some fresh bread, chicken drumsticks cooked in a tasty seasoning, cold cooked sausages, with a sachet of mustard.

Everything we ate was a little, too, well, warm, which didn't do the white wine any favours.

Walking from the local deli to the local wine merchants (where you can buy a bag of ice as an impromptu wine cooler) is as much a part of the picnic as the eating of it. Personally speaking, caviar, chips, strawberries and champagne make the perfect al fresco dinner - if you can walk to the park fast enough to keep the chips hot.