Melbourne's top chefs are banding together in March for #CookForSyria, a fundraising initiative for UNICEF Australia's Syria Crisis Appeal for Children. The initiative involves a month-long campaign in March that will see participating restaurants, bakeries and cafés around Australia putting a Syrian-inspired twist to one of their dishes and donating $3 from the sale of each dish towards children affected by the conflict in Syria, which this March reaches its seventh year.
The campaign will culminate with a charity dinner in Melbourne that will see the hottest chefs in town cook up a storm. The all-star kitchen line-up includes: David Thompson (Long Chim), Karen Martini (Mr Wolf), Shane Delia (Maha), Shaun Quade (Lûmé), Frank Camorra (Movida), Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook), Jacques Reymond, Dave Verheul (Embla), Andy Harmer (The Point), Thi Le (Anchovy), and David Moyle (Franklin and Longsong). As per the campaign's theme, the chefs will be switching up one of their signature dishes with ideas from Syrian classics. Check out a sneak peek of the menu items for the charity dinner here.
#CookForSyria started in London last year, when chefs including Jamie Oliver and Yotam Ottolenghi joined the initiative in a month-long series of supper clubs, pop-up restaurants, bake sales and restaurant donations that raised over £125,000. The Melbourne charity dinner will take place on Monday March 6 at the Point, Albert Park and tickets are $329 per person including canapés, cocktails on arrival and drinks with dinner. If you're coming along for the ride, 75 per cent of the ticket price will be donated to UNICEF's Syria Crisis Appeal.