Morning:
13°c
Top chefs make a meal out of raising cash for the starving
Sri Carmichael, Consumer Affairs Reporter28.07.09
London's top chefs are to host a banquet for 180 bankers and financiers to raise money for a hunger charity.
Cooks including Heston Blumenthal, Angela Hartnett, Fergus Henderson and Herbert Berger will help produce a four-course meal accompanied by fine wines in aid of Action Against Hunger.
Guests will bid for lots including dinner for two at the El Bulli restaurant in Spain, five times voted best in the world.
To publicise the banquet at City restaurant 1 Lombard Street, Henderson posed in a "wine-filled" bath to signify its aim of "turning wine into water" to fight malnutrition. (It was actually water coloured with blackcurrant).
The meal on 10 October is to highlight World Food Day six days later. Guests will pay £160 each. Agent Provocateur has donated a lace kimono hand-crafted with hundreds of Swarovski crystals. Other lots include dinner for 12 at Corrigan's in Mayfair and two jeroboams of Felton Road Block 2006 pinot noir, worth more than £3,000.
The wines, from Hallgarten Druitt, will be chosen by leading British sommeliers with David Elswood, international head of wine at Christie's, hosting the auction. AAH hopes to raise £100,000.
Blumenthal, chef and owner of the Fat Duck in Bray, said: "I'm delighted to be a part of this amazing event. It gives food and wine lovers the opportunity to enjoy a night to be remembered, while raising much needed funds for Action Against Hunger."
An AAH spokeswoman said: "Our charity is not about making people feel guilty because they have food. We have long run a successful campaign called Restaurants Against Hunger in October to coincide with World Food Day, where restaurants ask diners to add a small amount to their bill which goes to charity." AAH is part of ACF International, founded 30 years ago to save malnourished children and their families in more than 40 countries.
