The evening took place at the Cedar Court Hotel, Wakefield and was a celebration of local produce with the ingredients for the meal being donated totally free of charge to the hospice from award winning producers from our area. Blacker Hall Farm Shop supplied the starter of ‘Yorkshire Tapas’, Richmond Butchers supplied all the main course ingredients which was Jean-Christophe’s Chicken Fricassee with Chocolate and the final course was a cheese platter supplied by Cryer & Stott. Thanks must also be extended to Deliciouslyorkshire who donated the use of their cookery theatre for Jean-Christophe’s demonstration totally free of charge to the hospice as well.
Wakefield Hospice’s very own Hilary Trotter (Area Retail Manager) was invited by Jean-Christophe, up on stage to assist him during his demonstration. Hilary is a self-confessed novice at cooking and this, combined with her unique sense of humour, made for a thoroughly entertaining half hour of cooking.
The end result was a Chicken Fricassee with Chocolate which, having also been prepared by the Cedar Court chefs, was then served on mass to the 260 guests, one of which was Sean Wilson, more commonly known as Martin Platt (Coronation Street) who was in town promoting his cheese company, Saddleworth Cheese, during the Food, Drink and Rhubarb Festival.
The event will have raised £9000 (profit) in aid of Wakefield Hospice, helped greatly in part by an exceptional and unexpected auction prize donated from Jean-Christophe himself. He offered a day at his cookery school, initially for 4 guests. 
However, he cunningly played the 4 top bidders off against each other and intentionally ended by offering them all the opportunity if they agreed to each pay the lowest amount bid between the four of them, quadrupling the auction total and meaning 16 lucky guests will have one-to-one tuition from the man himself at his school!
One of the successful bidders was Ian Taylor from Media Displays, Wakefield who bought the prize as a wedding present for his partner’s mother who is set to get married later in the year. The bride and groom, Rose-Marie Knight and David Stidston who travelled from London to attend the event, were so impressed by the energy and sincere effort from all those involved, that on the night they decided to ask for donations in lieu of wedding presents, which they will be donating to Wakefield Hospice. However, we are sure that the day with Jean-Christophe Novelli is one present they will be taking advantage of! (David and Rose-Marie will be having a civil ceremony at Yorkshire Scultpture Park on the 30th July this year.)
Emily Murphy, event organiser from Wakefield Hospice says “This was the first time we have ever attempted an event of this nature on such a scale and Jean’s eternal professionalism and generosity, provided an evening that will be remembered and talked about for a long time to come.”
Wakefield Hospice would like to acknowledge thanks to our sponsors, who, without their support we would not have been able to host the event: Deliciouslyorkshire, Blacker Hall Farm Shop, Richmonds Butchers and Cryer & Stott.
