Relais & Chateaux to bring annual Diner des Grands Chefs to London this spring
Luxury hotel and restaurant consortium Relais & Chateaux is bringing its annual Diner des Grands Chefs to London this April, Caterer and Hotelkeeper can reveal.
The dinner, which gathers top chefs from around the world, including Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud and Michel Troisgros, will take place at London's Old Billingsgate overlooking the Thames on Monday 22 April.
The London event will be Relais & Chateaux's third annual Diner des Grands Chefs after Versailles in 2011 and New York last year. It will offer 600 guests the chance to attend this unprecedented culinary spectacle, bringing together more than 50 of the world's most celebrated chefs in the capital.
Commenting on the event, Jaume Tàpies, international president of Relais & Châteaux, said: "It's a very good year for us to come to London because after the Olympic Games last year it's a city that is on many people's minds around the world. The gastronomic trends in London over the past few years in London have been amazing and we feel it's time to celebrate this."
The Diner des Grands Chefs in London will showcase and celebrate British produce, with the list of main ingredients likely to include lobster, scallops, beef and lamb. The theme of the event will be the great food market of London and it will bring together suppliers as well as chefs.
"The Diners des Grands Chefs are not just about feeding the guests, they're also about bringing the chefs together to exchange ideas and learn about local produce so we will have a special event where the chefs will be able to meet some of the UK's top suppliers," Tàpies added.
There are 163 Grands Chefs around the world, including stellar names such as Marc Meneau, Anne Sophie Pic, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Juan Mari and Elena Arzak. In the UK there are eight Grands Chefs: Raymond Blanc, Claude Bosi, Heston Blumenthal, Martin Burge, Michael Caines, Andrew Fairlie, Alain Roux and Michel Roux Jr.
Fairlie, chef patron of his eponymous two-Michelin-starred restaurant at Gleneagles in Scotland, said he was delighted that the event was coming to the UK. "The expectations on London will no doubt be high both after the success of the previous DIners des Grands Chefs and also the 2012 Olympic Games," he said.
"The Americans put on a fantastic show last year in New York and really showed off their city. The support we had was amazing. They all came together as a team, everyone made us feel so welcome and the organisation was phenomenal.
"An event like this doesn't just happen and needs more than one or two people to get involved. For it to be equally successful in London, everyone will have to come together and really get behind it."
Tickets for the London Diner des Grands Chefs are priced £650 and available on the Relais & Chateaux website.
Chefs in the city: Relais & Châteaux Dîner des Grands Chefs >>
Image gallery: Relais & Châteaux Dîner des Grands Chefs New York >>
By Kerstin Kühn
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