PROFILE

Autohorn helps to raise over £4,700 in cooking challenge!

Picture this, it’s January, it’s cold and we’re busy doing what we do best – delivering lots of shiny new cars right across the UK and the phone rings. However, this phone call was different, it was a challenge to put to us directly by non other than The York Grand Hotel.

The challenge in mind was a fine dining experience, to fundraise for the Lord Mayor of York’s three charities – York Mind, Safe and Sound Homes (SASH) UK and The Wilberforce Trust. Now, we’re no strangers to the kitchen and we thought, how hard could it really be? So we sent 10 of our very best, each from different teams, to act as front-of-house chefs to serve guests in a fine dining experience. To ensure nothing awry, the teams were all under the watchful eye of cookery school head tutor Andrew Dixon. In true ‘Ready Steady Cook’ style, both teams were tasked with creating dishes around venison which was kindly donated by Holme Farmed Venison, Starting with our appetiser, we went with grilled goat’s cheese on a sourdough crouton with heritage beetroot and balsamic reduction. Our star dish was venison wellington with individual venison cottage pie, parsnip mash, broccoli and red wine gravy. To finish with something sweet, our dessert was Jamaican ginger cake with rhubarb compote and homemade vanilla ice cream. And with it being us, we opted for a full-on ‘Yorkshire’ theme! While Team Grand offered sous vide venison loin in herb crust with cherry and port sauce, accompanied by glazed carrots and mousseline potatoes and Goats cheese and honey tartlets were offered as starters and rhubarb and custard Grand-style for dessert. Both teams began prep at lunchtime, 10th March ready for the evening guests who had the arduous task of enjoying a gin cocktail and fine wine and had to sample meals from each team before voting for who would be placed at the end of the night. And the result? “A draw!” exclaimed the Lord Mayor, Chris Cullwick. “But everyone had a great evening raising funds for the work of these charities and I thank the Grand Hotel, Autohorn and all the sponsors whose generosity made this possible.” “Despite the draw, the real winners are York Mind, Safe and Sound Homes (SASH) UK and The Wilberforce Trust. These are three fantastic organisations which provide so much for our local community and to be able to raise more than £4,700 for them in one night is incredible and something we are very proud of” Scott Jenkins, Operations and Sales Director at Autohorn