We attended the inaugural charity dinner by the Dorset Chefs. Who, I hear you ask, are the Dorset Chefs? They are half a dozen of Dorset's finest including Michelin star holder Russell Brown (Sienna), Masterchef winner Mat Follas (Wild Garlic and Chesil Beach cafe), David Mason (Global Harvest), Brett Sutton (The Eastbury), Jean-Paul De Ronne (Chesil Beach) and Mark Hammick (The European Inn). They were also joined by some of their team members including Alex (Sienna), Dann and Katy (Wild Garlic).
These chefs, sharing the cooking burden, laid on a first class meal for 50 or so guests to support two local charities:
Sticky Friends Dorset Pollinator Trust.
The second charity, Sticky Friends, supports pollinating insects reflecting their significance in the food cycle where one third of all our food is dependent on pollinators.
All food eaten during was donated by local groups, as were some fabulous auction and raffle prizes. The Eastbury Hotel also generously closed the dining room for the night to host the event. The chefs did a remarkable job, so much so, I hastily demolished the scallop dish before taking a picture so apologies to Mat Follas for being unable to showcase his contribution.
There will undoubtedly be further Dorset Chefs events and you should, if possible, support this fledgling chef alliance because they're trying hard to make a local difference. For most of the chefs, the event, on a Sunday night, took place on their sole night off, but everyone here was smiling. All in all, the evening raised over £7,000 for the two charities.