It's always nice to tuck into a great meal, secure in the knowledge that in addition to adding to your own inexorable weight gain, you're giving something back to society. And happily this weekend's Dream Team dinner, given in aid of Action Against Hunger, scored on all counts.
Held at Hawkmoor's newly opened restaurant, Hawksmoor Guildhall, the Dream Team in question consisted of TV chef Valentine Warner, Pollen Street Social's Matt Laville, Jun Tanaka from Pearl, Richard Turner from Hawksmoor itself and former Iron Chef winner now Playboy Club chef Judy Joo.
Bloomberg's Richard Vines and TV chef and food writer Ravinder Bhogal were our hosts for the evening which raised a whopping £35k for the charity. And the food, well that was as good as you could imagine. Valentine served up a Roman duck liver mousse with mascarpone and carta musica, Pollen Street gave us a ham and foie gras terrine with piccalilli gel, squid and caco beans, Jun made a mackeral fondant with baby vegetables and Judy Joo deconstructed a snickers bar to expert effect.
But the indisputed star of the night was the Hawksmoor course which featured several cuts of steak and a huge bowl of their heavenly beef shin macaroni which is normally only available when you order Guildhall's beef tasting menu at a table for 10. We're not ashamed to say that we demanded a doggy bag so we could ensure nothing got wasted of this dish of brilliance.
Hot Dinners staggered off into the night, happy that we'd been able to be part of such a great charitable event. And we're mainly writing this so that the next time you hear that Action Against Hunger is throwing one of their legendary dinners, you're the first to book a table. And tell them we sent you.
Find out more about Action Against Hunger
