Chewing the Fat star helps local ChildLine raise £4,000
David Carnduff • Published 28 Oct 2010 09:30
Around £4,000 has been raised for ChildLine at fundraising event in Helensburgh.
The money - described as a “fantastic amount” by the charity - was raised at a junior masterchef competition in the Buffet Shop on Sunday.
The popular delicatessen and coffee shop in Colquhoun Square was packed for the fun event which saw five secondary pupils compete in a “cook-off”.
The five were Rebecca Campbell from Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School, Dumbarton, Scott Casey and Ross Gardner from Lomond School and Katie Burke and Ben Gibson from Hermitage Academy.
Making a star appearance at the event was Ford Kiernan, star of the BBC comedy series Chewing the Fat and Still Game, who was a judge for the day along with Guy Cowan from Guy’s Restaurant in Glasgow and Stewart Boyles, head chef at Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond.
Dave Ross, programme controller at YourRadio, compered the event which was officially opened by Provost Billy Petrie.
After a tough afternoon’s cooking, the judges announced that because the cooking was of such a high quality they had chosen two winners - the Hermitage Academy contestants Katie and Ben.
As a starter, Katie had prepared goats cheese and caramelised beetroot salad with horse radish oil and for the main dish she excelled with lamb meatballs tagine served with couscous and celery and orange salad. Ben’s winning dish was salmon with a herb crust and parsley vols-au-vent, dill sauce and asparagus, followed by lemon posset with shortbread.
All contestants had to bring along a prepared cake decorated in birthday fashion - a fitting touch as the Helensburgh branch of ChildLine is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year.
Ben, a previous winner of Helensburgh Rotary Club’s young masterchef competition, hopes to make a career in cooking, while Katie said while she enjoys cooking immensely, she probably won’t make it her career.
The fundraising event was the brainchild of Anna Curley - who runs the Buffet Shop with husband Michael - after she learned that a third of calls to ChildLine go unanswered because of a need for extra funding and trained volunteers.
After the event, Linda Shields, Helensburgh Childline chairman, said: “£4,000 is a fantastic amount to have raised
This article appeared in Helensburgh Advertiser 28 Oct 10
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