Restaurant critics staff teashop to fundraise for two food-related charities
Howard Lake | 31 May 2006 | News
This year’s Taste of London food festival in Regent’s Park (June 15 – 18) will feature The Critz, a teashop staffed entirely by restaurant critics. The teashop’s income will be divided between two food-related charities.
Those wishing to take tea at ‘The Critz’ can taste a variety of cakes and biscuits cooked by the nation’s food critics. Items on sale will include a fruitcake baked by the Evening Standard’s Fay Maschler, some chocolate brownies made by the Mail on Sunday’s Tom Parker-Bowles and some friands personally prepared by the Independent on Sunday’s Terry Durack.
The festival’s opening day will include a chefs versus critics’ fruitcake competition. Chefs Michel Roux Jr, Giorgio Locatelli, Tom Aikens, Shane Osborn and Pascal Aussignac will pit themselves against critics Fay Maschler, Tom Parker-Bowles, Charles Campion, Terry Durack and Toby Young. All the cakes, both winners and losers, will be on sale at The Critz.
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The Critz has been created by food writers Bill Knott and Toby Young. “Most of us have been dishing it out for years,” said Young, who writes a weekly restaurant column for the Evening Standard. “This is an opportunity to see if we can take it. Who knows, perhaps being on the receiving end for once will give us pause for thought next time we feel like sticking the boot in.”
All the money taken at The Critz will be divided between Action Against Hunger and the Ark Foundation.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.