Adam Simmonds to hold ‘pay what you like’ dinner for Grenfell Tower
The fundraiser dinner will take place on 17 June, with guests asked to pay what they like for their meal. Every penny raised will go towards the Just Giving appeal for Families of Grenfell Tower.
Reservations are being taken on the restaurant’s website or by phone.
“This is a shocking tragedy and this is my small way of supporting those affected by the fire,” says Simmonds.
Simmonds opened The Test Kitchen in April this year, as a 12-month pop-up on Soho’s Frith Street. Set up as a developmental kitchen (or in Simmonds’ own words, a ‘foodie testing room’), it serves food organized by ‘fish’, ‘veg’, ‘meat’ and ‘desserts’.
Current options include cured red mullet with green tomatoes; quail with English asparagus and lardo; salt baked swede with blackberries, cocoa nibs and goat’s cheese; and a raspberry dessert with wasabi and buttermilk.
The chef is the latest to offer public help via his restaurant to victims of the disaster, after Marcus Wareing director and chef Chantelle Nicholson used the group’s restaurants to collect goods for the relief effort, and chef Jamie Oliver offered free food and drink to victims at his nearby Jamie's Italian restaurant in Westfield White City.
Both have been inundated with the response, with recent news reports suggesting 500 Jamie's Italian meals have been sent out so far, and Nicholson been forced to pause her call for donations.
The 24-storey Grenfell Tower apartment block in North Kensington was destroyed by fire on Wednesday morning, with 30 people confirmed dead and as many as 76 people still missing.
The death toll is still predicted to rise, according to the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade, the latter of which have been searching the site for a third day, and said that they expect to find no more survivors in the building.
The cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed.
The Queen, Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and singer Adele have been among those to visit the site of the disaster.
Industry charity Hospitality Action has also alerted workers to its support for those affected.
