A charity dinner put together by a crack team of local chefs has raised £10,483 for a young people’s charity in St Albans.

Lussmanns on Waxhouse Gate hosted 76 guests at the event to counselling service Youth Talk, including Lady Verulam, a patron of the charity, Trevor Fromant, its chief executive, and Maggie Turner OBE, a trustee.

The guests were treated to a first course of pressed pork shoulder and apple by Oxscale’s Richard Cramer, with a mackeral fish course by Lussmanns’ Nick McGeown.

The main was a red wine braised ox cheek with cauliflower and beef dripping, by Drew Knight from Dylan’s at the King’s Arms, followed up by a rhubarb and custard arctic roll by Phil Thompson of Thompson St Albans.

Ticket sales and a raffle held on the night raised £5,241, and a donation from Luke Johnson, a shareholder of Lussmanns, nearly doubled that amount, and helped break the £10,000 barrier.

The cheque for the full amount was presented to Mr Fromant and Lady Verulam by Lussmans owner Andrei Lussmann.

Mr Fromant said: “The amount raised for Youth Talk was incredible. It will make a significant difference to the number of young people that we can work with this year.”

Mr Lussmann said: “Every hour of labour and every ingredient was donated for free to raise as much money as possible to support the excellent work of Youth Talk.

“Huge thanks to all the guest chefs and Lussmanns staff that volunteered and to everyone who joined us.”

More information about Youth Talk and its services can be found at www.youthtalk.org.uk