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Chefs put the boot into hunger with football tournament

28 July 2014

Chefs put the boot into hunger with football tournament

The Great British Chefs team emerged victorious from the Chefs Football Tournament.

Sunday 27 July saw 16 teams from across the UK food and hospitality industry take part in a football tournament over the weekend that raised over £2,700 for Farm Africa.

The footballing foodies swapped their kitchen whites for footballing colours as they lined up in Birmingham for the tournament, the brainchild of the multi-award winning chef, Paul Foster, currently Head Chef at The Dining Room at Mallory Court Hotel near Royal Leamington Spa.

Paul came up with the idea of a chefs’ football tournament last year as a way of raising extra money for a fundraising climb of Mount Kilimanjaro that he undertook for our Food for Good campaign. Food for Good is bringing restaurants and the food industry together to help tackle hunger. The 2013 tournament, staged in Cambridge and won by the Colchester-based Direct Meats, created such a buzz in the restaurant world that Paul decided to make it an annual fundraiser. And this year’s Birmingham tournament proved no less popular.

Looking back on a second highly successful tournament, Paul said:

“After visiting Farm Africa projects in Kenya last year it was an honour to organise the football tournament for a second year. The interest has been massive and it is amazing how many teams have got involved. Hopefully this will help raise even more awareness about the brilliant work that Farm Africa does”

This year’s tournament was sponsored by Wellocks, a leading supplierof quality fresh and dried produce to the restaurant trade. Wellocks entered their own team into the tournament, alongside other food industry key players including Restaurant Sat Bains and TRUEfoods. Emerging victorious after more than 40 extremely hard-fought games was Great British Chefs, a digital publisher that provides food lovers with recipes from Britain’s best chefs. They beat the Cambridge-based Restaurant Alimentum 3-1 in the final to lift the trophy exhausted, but elated.

Due to the popularity of the Birmingham event, a second tournament has been arranged to take place in Slough on Sunday 21 September 2014. For further details on how you can get involved, please email Sarah Wren at Farm Africa.

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