Michel Roux Jr and all-star team of chefs break record at Debra charity dinner, raising £130,000

The £130,000 will go towards fighting the potentially fatal Epidermolysis Bullosa skin condition
Dream team: (l-r) Chris King, Eric Lanlard, Steven Doherty, Monica Galetti, Michel Roux Jr, Stephen Terry and Nieves Barragán
Handout
Jochan Embley3 November 2021

More than £130,000 was generated at a charity dinner hosted by Michel Roux Jr in London on Monday evening, November 1, aiding research into a potentially life-threatening skin condition.

The Great Chefs Dinner — a black tie, £345-a-ticket feast at the Roux at the Landau, the restaurant inside the five-star Langham hotel in Marylebone — was raising funds for DEBRA, which supports those suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). Some 5,000 people in the UK live with EB, which causes painful blistering of the skin, both internally and externally, and is currently incurable.

The event was also held in tribute to Roux’s late father, Albert, who passed away in January this year and was also a keen supporter of DEBRA.

A team of world-class chefs assembled for what Roux Jr described as a “wonderful feast of a dinner”. Chris King, executive chef of the Langham, took care of the canapes, while Nieves Barragán of Sabor cooked up ham croquetas with celeriac and tarragon. Stephen Terry, owner of The Hardwick in Abergavenny, served a Chalk Stream trout viennoise, while Steven Doherty, the former head chef of Le Gavroche, was on hand with navarin d’agneau.

Later, Masterchef judge and chef-owner at Mere, Monica Galetti, created apricot tartlets, while master pâtissier Eric Lanlard offered a selection of petit fours first devised by Albert and Michel Roux.

A luxury raffle, with gifts donated by the likes of The Ritz and the Beaumont Hotel, bolstered the fundraising, helping the event to generate a record amount of money. Across six years, the dinners have raised more than £380,000 for DEBRA and this week’s evening marked a roaring success, topping the £40,000 raised last year and the £70,000 raised the year before that.

A spokesman for DEBRA said: “The Great Chefs Dinner 2021 raised more than £130,000 – our most successful ever. We are so grateful to Michel, all the team of incredible chefs and staff at Roux at The Landau, and The Langham who made it all possible.

“These funds will go to providing vital research into a cure for EB and in supporting our community on a daily basis with pain and wound management.”

Roux Jr said the charity was “very close to my heart”.

For more information, visit debra.org.uk

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