Darren Takes Part In Masterchef/Second Bite Dinner

Darren with George, Matt, Gary and the Victorian Premier Hon. Ted Baillieu

Darren's dessert

Visit www.secondbite.org for more info

Presenting the dessert course

85% of the dessert course was food saved from waste

All guests took away a gift from Sweet Studio

Main course is served

The menu

I was very flattered to be asked to take part in a prestigious fundraising dinner last month for a charity called Second Bite. Second bite are an organisation that reclaims and receives donations of food destined for landfill and they then pack up and distribute this to organisations that help the less fortunate. You can find out more about Second Bite by clicking here www.secondbite.org/about_us/

The dinner was held at the Sacred Heart mission on Grey St, St.Kilda here in Melbourne. The mission are one of the grateful recipients of perfectly good food donated by the Second Bite team and it provided the perfect setting for this event.

Masterchef Australia's Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan were on board to take part and they asked of my assistance for the dessert course. The canapés were designed by Matt, the first course cooked by George and his team from The Press Club and main was cooked by Gary Mehigan and his team from Fenix. The brief from Second Bite was to ensure that as much food as possible cooked on the evening was food destined for landfill, this was to highlight the obscene amount of perfectly good food that goes to waste every year. I am happy to say that we filled the brief and a staggering 85% of all of the food served on the night would have gone to waste.

On a personal level, I was extremely impressed with the work that Second Bite do and the work that St.Kilda's Sacred Heart mission do to help those less fortunate than us and I am happy to say that 90% of the food I used in the dessert was saved from Second Bite.

I produced a dessert that seemed to be well received by the guests including the Victorian Premier himself and his charming wife. The dessert was Banana, Caramelised White Chocolate, Avocado, Coffee and Passionfruit. I must say thanks to my chocolate sponsors Chocovic for the generous donation of chocolate that only had two weeks left on the best before date.

The night produced a stunning result for Second Bite and enough money was raised to provide 200,000 meals to the local community. Here at Burch & Purchese we now donate any of our unsold cakes to Second Bite and we are confident that someone deserving appreciates our efforts.

Thanks to the following for helping make the night a success

George, Gary & Matt
Sacred Heart Mission St.Kilda - www.sacredheartmission.org/
Peter Jones Events (especially Eliza) - www.pjse.com.au/
Bright Young Things - www.brightyoungthings.net.au/
Donna Le Page Communications    
Chocovic - www.cocoaalliance.com/
Rachelle Davey Photography