Sissinghurst celebrity Ian Hislop popped on a pinafore at a Goudhurst ‘Devil’s Kitchen’ fundraiser to help a host of local chefs raise an ‘astonishing’ £88,690 for Demelza Hospice Care for Children earlier this month.
Hislop, who edits satirical magazine Private Eye and is a mainstay of the BBC’s hit news quiz Have I Got News for You, joined former West Indies cricket legend Gordon Greenidge and Benenden TV star Raj Bisram, who took part in BBC Two’s latest Antiques Road Trip, at the ambitious Devil’s Kitchen 2016 fundraising dinner and auction at The Goudhurst Inn on September 7.
All three celebrities donned aprons to help a team of amateur chefs prepare a four-course dinner for the guests and greet and serve them at their tables, while local auctioneer Clive Emson banged the gavel and helped Mr Hislop draw the raffle.
Mr Hislop, who revealed to the Times that Have I Got News for You will be back on screen next month, also gave a comical speech which included jokes about former quiz show panellist Boris Johnson and guest host Jeremy Clarkson. “I’m delighted to help this excellent charity,” he said.
Organiser Dionne Banks, of Claygate Distribution Ltd in Marden, said: “We are very grateful to all our special guests, and our wonderful amateur chefs, who were led by professional Alex Tang from the Honeymoon Chinese Restaurant in Tenterden.
“We are so overwhelmed at the success of the evening. At the moment I am actually feeling quite emotional about what we achieved.
“We thought we might raise £50,000 so the final amount of £88,690 is astonishing. Generally, there was a whole lot of love in the room. It was brilliant.”
