Katherine Jenkins' Fantasy Dinner and Cognac Fave, Raymond Blanc, Does Not Reciprocate Very Special Night

Distance runner, cruise ship crooner and all-around diva Katharine Jenkins has joined the famous chef Raymond Blanc to launch Martell new cognac's series Very Special Nights. But while she ranks Blanc as part of her ideal all-time dinner party, she fares less well when it comes to his choices.

Given that Martell had held a survey to find the U.K.'s top guests for a fantasy dinner party (and both personalities chose from, well, all of history, rather than limiting themselves to anyone alive today), perhaps La Jenkins would not have been offended.

Still, chef Blanc pointedly favored honesty over gallantry on this occasion.

Jenkins cited her would-be guests as--wait for it--"Mandela; musicians who inspired me, Mozart and Maria Callas; Ms. Monroe for a bit of glamour and my Mum for support! Raymond Blanc would prepare my favourite dishes...Music would play an important part, and I would want Ludovico Einaudi to perform a song he composed specially for the occasion."

Blanc's list, meanwhile, did not reciprocate (though as he would, strictly speaking, have been working at Jenkins's party, perhaps he was not obliged). His fantasy team--"...an intimate performance by Nicola Benedetti or Lang Lang, followed by dinner...with Louis Armstrong playing an after-dinner set..."

Jenkins's list is interesting for another reason. The question of quite how much that singer, controversial in classical circles, would have been rated as a real opera singer by the notoriously strict (in vocal matters) Callas is one that might have made for quite a feisty evening!

Especially if Katherine's mum had got involved...

As for Classicalite's fantasy dinner guests? We're not saying. As this little exercise has perhaps shown, just like choosing the right outfit for such a party, it's a social minefield.