Starlight’s annual Five Chefs Dinners for 2013 are in full swing, with Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane events delivering unforgettable experiences for all who attended. Adelaide and Perth follow soon on August 1st and September 12th respectively.
As the first events unfolded, it was clear that something special was in the air, with all three events enjoying unprecedented support in celebration of Starlight’s 25 years. The Starlight Five Chefs Dinners are held in five cities across Australia and are arguably the greatest food and wine fundraising dinners in Australia. The novel concept sees five top chefs come together to create a decadent five course meal, matched perfectly with Australia’s top wines, all generously donated in support of Starlight.
To celebrate in Sydney this year, the bar was raised just that much higher with the dinner, featuring not five chefs this year, but ten! Culinary masters such as Armando Percuoco, Matt Moran, Maggie Beer, Dan Hunter, Adriano Zumbo and Pierrick Boyer have generously donated their time and skills in each state to deliver menus that have been, quite simply, delectable!
Guests in each state were entertained and hosted by wonderful Starlight supporters – Mahalia Barnes and Matt Tilley in Melbourne, Jess Mauboy and Catriona Rowntree in Sydney and Anthony Callea and Eva Milic in Brisbane. Shawn Cosgrove in Melbourne and Stu Gregor, from Liquid Ideas, in Sydney and Brisbane auctioned holidays, dinners in the home, weekend getaways and celebrity meet and greets in both Sydney and Brisbane, keeping everyone entertained (and the auction bids climbing!)
As signature fundraising events for Starlight, these dinners are highly anticipated by avid foodies and supporters alike. Starlight’s Chief Executive, Louise Baxter, explains,
“Thanks to the generosity of the chefs, entertainers, suppliers and supporters responsible for bringing this year’s Starlight Five Chefs events to life, Starlight can continue to deliver its many innovative programs to thousands of chronically ill children around the country. These dinners are quite unique in that almost everything on the night is donated, which means nearly all funds raised can go towards Starlight’s programs.”
In keeping with our 25 Year theme of ‘Shine On’, all three dinners exceeded expectations, raising over 1.5 million dollars, which are vital funds to help Starlight ‘Shine On’ into the future and deliver many months of in-hospital programs in each state.
Touching the lives of over 130,000 children and their families every year, Starlight is the only children’s charity to have a permanent presence in every major pediatric hospital in Australia. Receiving no government funding Starlight needs to raise over $20 million dollars a year to deliver its programs, including our aim of keeping the doors of our Starlight Express Rooms open 7 days a week.
Five of Sydney’s ten esteemed chefs discovered the magic of Starlight first hand when they visited the Starlight Express Room at The Children’s Hospital at Randwick leading up to the Sydney event. Check out the fun they had creating dumplings, painting honeycomb and piping macarons with the amazing kids and Captain Starlight.
For supporters in Adelaide and Perth, you can still contact Starlight to secure your table for the event. Just visit the Starlight Five Chefs website.
A special thanks goes to our Event Partners Virgin Australia, Vittoria Coffee, Four Seasons, Trumpet Events.
Blog of Starlight Children's Foundation 