Dine and dash: Francesco Mazzei was among those cooking for 10 people at once
(Picture: Richard Young/Shutterstock)Some of the city’s top chefs were to be found at the Dorchester hotel last night as London’s finest culinary talent cooked in aid of both Leukaemia UK and Hospitality Action.
The evening — called Who’s Cooking Dinner? — managed to raise £263,000 for the charities, adding to the £7 million the event has raised since it began in 1999. Yesterday’s fundraiser was the first since 2019; both last year and 2020 were cancelled owing to the pandemic.
Among those at the stoves yesterday were Phil Howard — who also cheffed at the very first Who’s Cooking Dinner — alongside Francesco Mazzei, Masaki Sugisaki of Dinings SW3, Cubitt House chef director Ben Tish, the Galvin brothers, Chantelle Nicholson of Apricity, Allegra (and soon-to-open Midland Grand Dining Room) man Patrick Powell, Simon Young and Nokx Majozi of the Rosewood’s Holborn Dining Room, and Daniel Stucki, who is head chef of the three Michelin-starred Sketch Lecture Room and Library.
The event is named for its premise: 20 tables of 10 arrive on the evening for a Champagne reception, but do not know who will cook for them until a random “Chef draw” matches cooks with their diners. Each chef, sharing the hotel’s kitchens, plates up a four-course meal and the entire room is served together. Dishes yesterday included a cured liquorice black cod from Mazzei and butter poached pollock from Nicholson.
Following supper was an auction, commandeered by Harry Primrose, Lord Dalmeny, who has worked for Sotheby’s since 1990. Primrose auctioned off various culinary experiences, most offering guests a chance to have a chef come and cook a private party in their home: bids began at £5,000 and reached the £18,000 mark on occasion. Mark Hix and Russell Norman were among those diners could bid on.
Guests on the evening included Fay Maschler, this paper’s restaurant critic for some 48 years, as well as ex-footballer Ashley Cain and his former partner Safiyya Vorajee, who lost their eight-month-old daughter to acute myeloid leukaemia.
Yesterday’s festivities were hosted by their co-founder, Chris Corbin, who’s best known as one half of restaurant group Corbin & King. Corbin started the event with Peter Gordon, as both felt passionately about funding research into leukaemia: in 1995, Gordon’s then 33-year-old sister was diagnosed with the cancer, and he became her donor, while in 1990, Corbin was diagnosed with it himself, then aged 38, and went without a donor for four years. Gordon was unable to attend the evening, but sent a video message from New Zealand.
