An Evening at Rick Stein, Porthleven, Sunday 8 March 2015

Well, what can I say, other than a humongous THANK YOU to everyone involved with this awesome event. I am going to try to include everyone that I want to thank so please bear with me! 

First of all, I must thank the awesome Steins team: Rick, Jill and Jack for agreeing to the event, Lee Williams the Manager of Rick Stein, Porthleven, Sarah Collins at Padstow, Ian Fitzgerald Operations Director, and the kitchen and front of house team at the restaurant in Porthleven. You are all absolutely awesome. I had the pleasure of working with Ian and his team before at a Gala Dinner and they were so slick and professional, which is why I asked if I could have the event with Stein's. I knew they'd do an excellent job.

The event started for me at 4pm when I went to the restaurant with Toni Shaw and Marie Tomlinson to make up the lovely goody bags that each guest would be taking home. I must thank them both for their help. I had contacted about 20 Cornish companies asking if they would donate a sample of their product and amazingly a few said that they would! So, I must thank the Rebel Brewery in Penryn for the bottles of Sail Ale, Cornish Orchards for the bottles of Cornish Gold cider, Proper Cornish for the Furniss ginger cookies and Cornish Sea Salt for their sea salt samples. The tables looked fab!

The guests started to arrive about 6.30pm and were greeted with a red welcome drink to fit in with the Cornwall Air Ambulance colour scheme. Everyone then took their seats and the starter and main course were served.

While enjoying their food, guests were able to check out the list of auction lots that they would have the opportunity to bid on later.

Just after the main course I asked the Head Chef to pick a number between 1 and 66 to select which lucky guest would win a bottle of champagne. He chose 54 and Richard collected his prize!

After the delicious chocolate and peanut pudding, the auction began. It was quite raucous but great fun. Fireman, Writer, Actor and all-round excellent chap, David Carlisle, did a fantastic job as Master of Ceremonies and Auctioneer.

At this point I must thank everyone who donated prizes for the auction: Seasalt Cornwall, St Austell Brewery, Slate of the Art, Sally and Hugh at Methleigh Farm, Halzephron Herb Farm, Rick Stein's Padstow Seafood School, Customs House Gallery, Cornishware, Origin Coffee, Bespoke Window Cleaning Services, House of Colour Cornwall, Roland's Happy Plaice, The Bottle Bank, Who Gives a Rock, Vertical Blue SUP, Trevaskis Farm Shop, Four Crows Gallery and Harbour View Gift Shop.

During the evening there was a phone call to the restaurant from a chap called Anthony who lives in Yorkshire but has a holiday apartment in Porthleven. He was taken ill with a heart attack on a visit here last year and the Air Ambulance had been called. He had seen that the event was happening on Twitter and wanted to show his support. He bid £300 for the Rick Stein's prize of 2 places on a cookery course at the Padstow Seafood School and he ended up being the highest bidder so won this fantastic prize. Isn't social media great!!

One of the guests was eagerly bidding on lots of auction prizes and to stop him bidding against other family members elsewhere in the restaurant his wife sat on him and friend gagged him!

The auction itself raised a total of £1,003 which far exceeded what I had hoped for so I'm absolutely thrilled. I must thank Mary McCarron and Suz Cunliffe who used their contacts to help me gather prizes. I'd also like to thank Sally Dawson for helping me spread the word about the tickets and encouraging her friends to come along and also to Naomi Belert and Toni Shaw for helping spot bids and taking money during the auction itself. You're all awesome!

When I was preparing the goody bags during the afternoon I asked one of the Stein's staff to pick a chair anywhere in the restaurant as the 'lucky chair'. I then stuck a "Congratulations, you have won a prize just for picking this seat" label underneath it. After the auction, guests were asked to look under their seats and the lucky person who had chosen the special chair was Naomi Belert and she won a bottle of wine. 

At the beginning of the evening I had placed envelopes on the tables which guests could write their name on and place £5 inside to be in with a chance to win a St Michael's Spa family voucher. Fantastically 27 people did this and the winner was Tony Woodhams. Enjoy your swim/sauna/steam Tony and Karen!

To finish the evening we played a 'heads and tails' game to win Sunday Lunch for 2 at Merchant's Manor Hotel in Falmouth, and my step-daughter Toni Shaw won. Wonder if she'll take me or her Dad with her!

I wanted to ensure that everyone would go home with something to show my appreciation for their support and the goody bags seemed to go down very well! I am so grateful to everyone who made the event possible and to Miguel Belert for taking these fab photos for me. I must also thank Darren who puts up with me during all my mad escapades. I couldn't do all that I do without his support. 

The final photo of this perfect night. Thank you one and all ...

Click here to see more photos of the night courtesy of Rick Stein, Porthleven.


Total profit on the night: £2,200.

Current fundraising total: £3,006 (65% of my goal)