Craft Guild of Chefs builds its Brick Fund

A staggering £7,500 was raised at the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Brick Fund dinner held at Westminster Kingsway College on June 3.

More than 110 supporters of the Guild – members, business partners and friends – attended the dinner to help raise funds for its head office in Victoria Parade in Richmond to preserve it for future members, re-establishing an initiative first introduced some 35 years when the head office was purchased.

The Brick Fund, reintroduced last year during the chairmanship of Nick Vadis, was aimed at tackling immediate repairs to the building but, he said, "there is more yet to do as the building is in need of further repair work".

The four course menu created by the Craft Guild's culinary team, which included Vadis plus past and present culinary team captains, showcased a range of produce from its business partners. This included slow cooked pave of salmon, roasted loin of pork with slow cooked belly pork and chocolate torte, plus petit fours.

The event was also supported by a host of business partners who contributed some fabulous auction prizes, ranging from golf for three on Wentworth's Edinburgh course and a gourmet trip to France for two, to a team building day at Westminster Kingsway College and celebrity designer collectable plates, all of which were quickly snapped up.

Craft Guild chairman Andrew Green said he thought it was a great, informal, social event, with great food and wine, all for a good cause. "Everyone commented favourably on the event and the food. These evenings don't happen just by chance; they take a great deal of planning and preparation, and particularly in the case of the chefs – Nick, Chris Basten, Andy Twells, Fergus Martin, Ben Ford and Simon Stocker – a lot of people's own time was given up freely in aid of a very good cause.

"The Westminster students did the college and the industry very proud – something we've come to expect, and a lot of the credit should go to the tutors and lecturers who day in day out teach our chefs and front of house students of tomorrow."

Words: Sheila Eggleston

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