IT was midway through our starter when the inevitable game of rock, paper, scissors began. My girlfriend and I were using this famous argument settler to decide who was drinking and who was driving, a verdict that was delivered when my scissors defeated her paper.

This left me free to embrace a new wining and dining experience called Cook The Books, which is proving popular with foodies in Ringwood.

The concept is simple; diners rendez-vous at a meeting point in the town before embarking on a tour of three restaurants, where they eat a starter in the first, a main in the second and dessert in the third.

Each course comes with a cookery demonstration by the chefs, who are all following a recipe taken from a different cookbook, a book that diners get chance to win in a quiz. Think of it as a restaurant crawl.

The novel dining experience is the brainchild of Trevor Johnson, who runs a bookshop in Ringwood called Paperview. The friendly foodie wanted to bring the local community together and felt that Cook The Books would be the perfect way to do it – and judging by the turnout on this Monday night, he was right. Our meeting point was Seven Fish, where we quaffed cocktails and nibbles while the stragglers arrived. All present and correct (there must have been about 30 people there) we hotfooted it to the Curry Garden for our first course – garlic and chilli prawns with homemade chapatis (Indian flatbread).

On arrival the cheery waiters took our drinks order and furnished the table with some poppadoms. They then delivered a lively cookery demonstration and recruited members of the audience to have a go at making the chapaties themselves, which was a definite icebreaker. Our appetites whetted by the exotic aromas, we were given our prawn starters, which were testament to the fact that sometimes it’s the simple things that are best.

There was a brief quiz to decide who won the first book (not us) and an opportunity to sample some other Indian dishes. Problem was, we were already starting to feel full.

Happily, the stroll back to Seven Fish helped us walk up an appetite. It seemed a tad odd to be going back here; it would have been more logical to meet in the Curry Garden to start with, but hey, being logical is boring.

In the salubrious surroundings of the restaurant, we were given another cookery demonstration; this time how to cook stuffed pork tenderloin and fondant potatoes, which we’d be eating later.

The demo was great; there were plenty of useful tips and the chefs managed to simplify what sounded like a complex dish. More importantly, all the talk of food stirred my appetite so I was delighted when the dish arrived. And it was, frankly, beautiful; the fondant potatoes were sublime – soft in the middle, crispy on the outside – and the pork had taken on the incredible apple and fennel flavours of the stuffing. Marvellous.

As we sat back contentedly there was a raffle for the next cookbook, but we didn’t win it.

Still, we had one last shot at victory in La Bettola, where we were heading for dessert; a folded pancake filled with ricotta cheese, icing sugar, chocolate chips, candied fruit peel and drizzled in chocolate sauce.

The proprietor of this little Italian restaurant gave us a demonstration about how to make the dish, during which he confessed that all the ingredients (including the pancakes) were bought from a supermarket. I was a bit disappointed that he was merely assembling this dish.

Still, we enjoyed a coffee in La Bettola and I’m pleased to say we won the final quiz of the night, taking home a mammoth Mediterranean cookbook for our efforts.

Cook The Books is a great concept; it’s a fabulous marketing opportunity for the restaurants and a novel experience for diners. However, its long-term success will probably depend on whether or not more restaurants get involved – currently Seven Fish, Curry Garden and La Bettola are the only ones participating.

By keeping it fresh diners will invariably come back, especially at just £25 a ticket, which excludes drinks but includes a £5 voucher for Trevor’s shop.