Chef bursary set up in honour of Eddie Gilbert’s founder Jonny Dunhill
Dunhill, who opened Eddie Gilbert’s fish restaurant in 2009 in Ramsgate, Kent, died in February at the age of 49.
The restaurateur and fishmonger's head chef, Craig Mather, now also a chef-lecturer at Thanet College, came up with the idea to run a bursary in Dunhill's memory, which will give a catering student at one of Kent's catering colleges the chance to train under a seafood chef, either in the UK or overseas.
Mather, who has designed the menu for the six-course fundraising dinner at Thanet College's Bay View Restaurant in Broadstairs on 28 May, said: "By creating a local young chef award and bursary, we can continue to keep the memory of Jonny fresh in the minds of local people for years to come, whilst helping raise the standards of local cooking, something very dear to his heart."
Fundraising events
The bursary will rely on funds raised from ticket sales from the dinner and a charity auction on the night with money to also be shared with Pilgrims Hospice in Margate where Dunhill spent his final days.
With the dinner already a sell-out event with Eddie Gilbert's fan and TV personality Janet Street Porter expected to attend, organisers are already planning more to enable them to raise enough money to fund the bursary scheme.
Eddie Gilbert's spokesman and the event's organiser, George Shaw, added: "Jonny was highly enthusiastic about raising local culinary standards, seafood and reviving the area's economic fortunes. He was hugely popular locally and the numbers of gastro tourists attracted year round to Eddie Gilbert's has been instrumental in helping revive the town's fortunes. The bursary is a way or promoting the two and creating a lasting legacy."
Dunhill, a wholesale shellfish supplier to restaurants in London for 12 years, first opened a fishmongers in Ramsgate in 2007, expanding the business two years later to include a fish and chip shop and the 50-cover restaurant.
Named after his two sons Edlyn and Gilbert, Eddie Gilbert's in King Street, Ramsgate, continues to be run by Dunhill's brother Mark for the benefit of his two boys and his one-year-old daughter Georgia.
