The sun is actually shining in London, Spring is here and on top of all that cheer we hear that some rather brilliant chefs managed to raise a whopping £381k for charity last night.
The event - Leuka Who's Cooking Dinner sees 20 London kitchens and their chefs (pictured right) turn up to each cook for a table that has paid £6k for the privilege. All proceeds go to the leukaemia and blood cancer charity Leuka.
But where the evening really gets interesting is when the auction begins for the chefs to come and cook at the bidder's home. This year those bids were as follows:
Mark Edwards - NOBU: £18kAshley Palmer-Watts - DINNER: £18k
Michele Lombardi - HARRY'S BAR: £10k
Chris & Jeff Galvin – Galvin La Chapelle/Galvin Bistrot du Luxe: £10k
Marcus Wareing - at THE BERKELEY: 14k + 14k (bidder doubled price) £28K
Angela Hartnett - MURANO : £15k
Peter Gordon - PROVIDORES: £17k (includes John Torode - the evening's master of ceremonies as waiter)
Jason Atherton - POLLEN ST SOCIAL : £17k
Tim -Hughes - SCOTT'S : £16k
Brett Graham - THE LEDBURY : £18k
Laurence Keogh – THE WOLESLEY : £16k
Clearly someone with either hollow legs or an iron constitution bid for a joint dinner with Mark Hix and Richard Corrigan - the evening includes two courses at Corrigan’s Mayfair, then two courses at Hix, then a night on the town with both chefs. That went for £20k. Chris Corbin of Corbin & King kindly offered 'recovery breakfast' at the Wolesley for the bidders.
The biggest bid of the night went to the lot for Rainer Becker of Zuma which went for a massive £36k - key to that is that the meal will actually be for 10 people at the first night Becker's restaurant Oblix opens at The Shard.
In total, the event since it started 13 years ago has raised £4.3 million for charity. Who's Cooking Dinner? 2013 was an overwhelming, awe-inspiring and rewarding experience," said Corbin. "So many contributions from so many generous people all resulting in an astounding total raised towards Leuka's fight against Leukaemia."
To find out how to book tables for next year go to www.whoscookingdinner.com
