Our first virtual fundraising event, “Gala in Your Parlour” was held on Saturday 17th October 2020. Over 130 guests joined us for a virtual night of gourmet food, fine wines, and lots of other delicious goodies, hosted by Chef and TV personality Brian Turner CBE.
Our guests enjoyed a Michelin-starred feast delivered directly to their door!
The banquet began with a lightly-smoked tranche of salmon, matched with a quenelle of tangy horseradish cream and a luxurious spoonful of caviar. Designed by John Williams MBE, Executive Chef of The Ritz Hotel, the salmon came from the celebrated Severn & Wye Smokery, while the Imperial caviar had been especially selected by Kings Fine Food to complement Chef Williams’ dish.
The main course was a sumptuous boeuf à la bourguignonne, made according to celebrity chef Brian Turner CBE’s classic recipe. Garnished with radically seasonal produce from Natoora including baby onions, button mushrooms turned Carrots, Swede and crisp lardons of pancetta, it featured Glenarm Shorthorn beef from the award-winning Hannan Meats, dry-aged in their Himalayan salt chamber.
For dessert, our executive chef Jimmy Garcia created an “Edible Garden”, using the finest Amedei Chocolate from Tuscany. Dinner concluded with a superb British cheese board from the family-run Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses in Lancashire.
Guests were also treated to a gourmet box containing the finest chocolates from Rococo, the world’s highest-scoring artisan coffee from the Difference Coffee Company, bottles of white and red wine from Accolade Wines to complement their meals, two delicious pre-mixed cocktail spritzes from Pedrino, and miniatures of Tarsier and Sipsmith Gin.
We enjoyed amazing musical performances from Professor Dan Reinstein on Saxophone and renowned Classical Guitarist, Andrew Keeping performed the beautiful theme from The Deer Hunter, Cavatina. You can view all the highlights and performances from the evening HERE.
The dress code for the evening was : Top half chic and elegant, bottom half whatever you like (one guest even had a tuxedo top half and salmon pink shorts on his bottom half!)
“Our aim was to channel the goodwill and camaraderie from our previous events by designing an unforgettable evening full of great entertainment, superb food and a stellar online auction and we’re delighted that the evening was a great success.
The fundraising from the evening means that not only can we now purchase another state of the art Microscope for the Neurosurgical team at St. Georges but we also have funds left to start planning our next project which is to create a garden for ICU patients and their families, a haven away from the busy wards and a place where the nursing staff can take patients down to exercise and breath in fresh air which will aid their recovery.”
– Laura & Holly King
