Paul Ainsworth and Sat Bains to take part in charity football tournament

Chefs and staff from twenty leading UK restaurants will swap their kitchen whites for footballing colours later this month as they line up for a major charity football tournament to be held in Birmingham.

To include Paul Ainsworth, Sat Bains and Purnell’s Restaurant amongst others, the tournament has been organised to raise as much money as possible for Farm Africa, a charity working to tackle hunger in eastern Africa. They have also received sponsorship for the tournament from the Lancashire-based company Wellocks, the leading supplier of quality fresh and dried produce to the restaurant trade.

The Chefs Football Tournament is the brainchild of chef, Paul Foster, currently Head Chef at The Dining Room at Mallory Court Hotel near Royal Leamington Spa, and whose previous experience includes stints at renowned restaurants like Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire, French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley, Tuddenham Mill in Suffolk and Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham.

Paul came up with the idea of a chefs’ football tournament last year as a way of raising extra money for a fundraising climb of Mount Kilimanjaro that he undertook for Farm Africa’s Food for Good campaign. Food for Good is bringing restaurants and the food industry together to help tackle hunger.

The 2013 tournament, staged in Cambridge and won by the Colchester-based Direct Meats, created such a buzz in the restaurant world that Paul decided to make it an annual fundraiser for Farm Africa. And this year’s tournament has proved no less popular with the Birmingham clash of chefs so over-subscribed that a further tournament has been scheduled for September in London.

Looking forward to the footballing foodies’ battle in Birmingham later this month, Paul said: “After visiting Farm Africa projects in Kenya last year it is an honour to organise the Football tournament for a second year.

“The interest has been massive and it is amazing how many teams have got involved. Hopefully this will help raise even more awareness about the brilliant work that Farm Africa do”

The line-up of restaurants taking to the pitch in Birmingham is:

• Alimentum (Cambridge)


• Birmingham Hippodrome (Birmingham)


• Burger and Lobster (London)


• Casamia (Bristol)


• Continental Chef Supplies


• Corpus Christi College (Cambridge)


• Freemasons at Wiswell (Clitheroe)


• Goodman Restaurants (London)


• Great British Chefs (London)


• House of Tides (Newcastle)


• Les Deux Salons (Covent Garden, London)


• Paul Ainsworth Number 6 Restaurant (Padstow)


• Purnell’s Restaurant (Birmingham)


• Restaurant Sat Bains (Nottingham)


• TRUE foods, Wellocks (Lomeshaye, Lancashire)


• The Dining Room at Mallory Court Hotel (Royal Leamington Spa), White Hart Lydgate (Oldham).

Tournament details:

At the Lucozade Powerleague Stadium in Birmingham:

Salford Stadium, Lichfield Rd, Birmingham, West Midlands B6 7TG

0121 328 4842