For the fifth year running, some of the UK’s top chefs and their teams will be downing tools in the kitchen and pulling on their boots as they come together to compete in Farm Africa’s charity 5-a-side football tournament.
On 2 July 2017, teams from around the country will descend upon Birmingham to try and claim the prize and bragging rights from reigning champions, Corpus Christi College, who returned to Cambridge victorious after beating Leamington Spa’s The Tame Hare in 2016’s hotly contested final.
The event is now a regular fixture on the culinary calendar and has raised thousands of pounds for Farm Africa’s work with farmers in eastern Africa as part of their Food for Good campaign, which brings together the food and hospitality industry to help build a prosperous rural Africa.
Tournament organiser and award-winning chef, Paul Foster – whose new restaurant, Salt, opened in Stratford-upon-Avon last week – is a long-time supporter of Farm Africa. In 2012, along with Ashley Palmer-Watts, John Freeman, and Paulo de Tarso, he summited Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, and raised over £50,000. Safely home from the challenge, Paul decided to make the tournament an annual event and it continues to grow each year, with 2017 looking to be the biggest to date.
There are still places available, so if you think you and your crew have got what it takes to bring home the trophy, you can register on the Farm Africa website-www.farmafrica.org/chefs-football-tournament/chefs-football-tournament, or by contacting Paul directly. If you can’t make this year’s tournament, you can still get behind the teams by making a donation at the official tournament JustGiving page-www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Chefs-Football-2017
