Faces & Places

Belles of the Chocolate Ball The Chocolate Ball took place at London's Caf‚ Royal earlier this month in aid of the charity, Sargent Cancer Care for Children.

The ball, which was attended by Cherie Blair, Gaby Roslin, Linford Christie, Gordon Strachan, Lord Brocket and Alex Best, raised a whopping £120,000 for the charity.

It featured a 12ft x 12ft chocolate room designed by artist Prudence Emma Staite from chocolate supplied by Callebaut.

Chocolate designer Paul Young and fashion designer Frank Usher added their support by designing a chocolate dress and chocolate jewellery, the former modelled by Alex Best.

Help for Bam earthquake victims A Cardiff restaurateur has helped raise £7,095 for the victims of the Bam earthquake, which hit Iran last December.

Babak Arabestani, originally from Iran, pledged £5,000 of his own money to the relief fund he set up in response to the disaster, which levelled the ancient city of Bam and killed thousands.

The restaurateur, who owns Signor Valentino in Cardiff Bay, Bella Napoli in Swansea and a couple of bistros, is pictured presenting a cheque for the full amount to Tamsin Mitchell of the charity, Action Against Hunger.

Arabestani is continuing to donate 50p to the fund each time customers buy selected items on the menu at any of his restaurants.

US school meals chief comes to London in search of healthy-eating tips Scolarest, the Compass-owned education-sector caterer, played host to an important US guest recently, showing the VIP around two London-area schools.

Eric Bost is the undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services at the US Department of Agriculture, with responsibility for the administration of the US national school meals programme.

Bost, on a fact-finding mission to see how Britain encourages healthy eating in schools, visited Bishopsford school and Townsend Primary School, in Southwark, watching a Ready, Steady, Cook-style chef battle at the first and dining in the dinosaur-themed Nurture Our World caf‚ in Southwark.