Food Festival Fun, Charity Capers and Celebrity Washing Up!

Published: 2nd October 2016 | By: Janey Green

As the main sponsors of the Stratford Food Festival last weekend, we were delighted to take part in such a wonderful event organised by Stratforward, culminating in our Exclusive Charity Dinner where we raised over £2,500 for the Shakespeare Hospice. Celebrity chef, Jean-Christophe Novelli was our guest for the evening and entertained us all with his stories, even offering to do the washing up....but more of that later.

The weather was kind to us for the three day event meaning that the town centre was packed with locals and tourists alike, all swarming to sample the goodies on offer and watch some of the demos in the Waterside Cookery Theatre.

We had a stand in the town centre and served hundreds of pulled pork baps over the event, not forgetting all the wine and Prosecco consumed too ! 

 

Robin the Loxley bear put in a guest appearance and awarded prizes for the best photos taken with him over the Festival weekend.

We were overwhelmed with entries but finally awarded a £50 Loxleys voucher to Amelie for our favourite picture.

During the charity dinner on the Sunday night, the restaurant was closed to the public and we served a beautiful one-off menu designed and produced by Head Chef Paul and his team. 

Jean-Christophe Novelli enjoyed our food and chatted happily to all of our guests, recounting tales of his culinary experiences and keeping everyone entertained all evening. All profits went to our chosen charity.

As the evening progressed we had a silent auction and superb raffle where everyone generously donated to further boost the amount raised for the Shakespeare Hospice.

As a final gesture, Jean-Christophe announced that if somebody would place a bid he would do the washing up himself! One of our favourite locals stepped in and generously won the bidding! There was much celebration and laughter in the kitchen as all the dessert plates were dutifully made gleaming by Mr Novelli under the supervision of the bidder and the kitchen team! This took the final amount raised to over £2,500.

Jean-Christophe was so generous with his time and enjoyed chatting to Head Chef Paul and his team, congratulating them on the quality of the dishes they produced.

Thank you to everyone who visited our stand and restaurant over the weekend and we look forward to welcoming customers, both existing and new to Loxleys in the future and at the Food Festival next year!