Recently, I joined a group of food journalists and critics at Hawksmoor Guildhall for breakfast. Generally speaking, we don’t travel as a pack, but on this instance we weren’t there to write reviews.

We had been invited by the charity Action Against Hunger, which is raising awareness about its Too Many Critics dinner this April. At the event, food critics including Charles Campion, Giles Coren, Fay Maschler, Bill Knott, Tom Parker-Bowles and Jay Rayner will don chefs’ whites and cook diners a three-course meal. In essence, the tables will have been turned. Tickets cost £120 and diners will include top chefs like Coq d’Argent’s Mickael Weiss, Anna Hansen and Theo Randall.

What it’s all about:

Founding members of Too Many Critics Charles Campion and Bill Knott welcomed us to the breakfast and reminded us what the event was about. Money raised goes to Action Against Hunger, which fights to save the lives of malnourished children and their families in more than 40 countries around the world. All funds raised at the event go to its life-saving programmes and with West Africa facing a looming food crisis it couldn’t come at a better time.

The last Too Many Critics dinner in 2008 raised £35,000 and, as Mickael Weiss reminded us, it could also be a good laugh. (The last time he let Giles Coren into his kitchen for an AAH event, he caught him snoozing in the restaurant mid-service and hauled him back behind the stove.)

Live footage streamed from the kitchens this April will ensure diners can watch their critics’ blind panic and fear from the comfort of seats in Hawksmoor Guildhall, where the event will be held.

And to eat…

Duly welcomed, we enjoyed one of Hawksmoor’s fine breakfasts. I chose Scotch pancakes with streaky bacon and maple syrup and couldn’t resist trying a freshly baked doughnut with vanilla custard and jam. Food blogger Sabrina Ghayour of Sabrina’s Passions and I neatly carved one up, before tucking in (does that make it any better?).

Thanks very much to Will and Huw at Hawksmoor and to the Action Against Hunger team.

Further information

Find out more about Too Many Critics and how to buy a ticket.

Every autumn Action Against Hunger runs a national fundraising campaign for Love Food Give Food. Read an Artful Diner interview with an AAH member on the ground in Kenya last September.