Leuka here!

It could have been the scene for tantrums and tiaras, but the Leuka dinner, which took place earlier this month, was, in fact, verging on sedate. Twenty of London's leading chefs - not to mention their sous chefs - were shoehorned into the kitchens of London's Berkeley hotel to cook and raise money for Hammersmith Hospital's specialist leukaemia centre.

Upstairs, meanwhile, in rather more luxurious surroundings, 200 diners nibbled on canap‚s, courtesy of party caterer Word of Mouth, which also provided vegetarian options for the night, and waited to hear the result of the draw that told them which celebrity chef they would be paired with. Each diner had paid £500 a head to be there.

It was the fifth year of the event, masterminded by Providores chef-proprietor Peter Gordon, which sees each chef/restaurant cook for a table of 10.

Gordon and chef-partner Anna Hansen removed themselves from the stoves this year in order to oversee the smooth running of the event, while former Berkeley executive chef Paul Knight was clock-watcher extraordinaire and monitored service.

After being attended by head waiters and sommeliers from the participating chefs' restaurants, the diners were also given the opportunity to bid for their favourite chef to cook a meal in their home. Eighteen chefs offered themselves up for this prize, while Leuka newboy Jamie Oliver auctioned off a table for six (dining from the tasting menu) at Fifteen, which went for a tasty £15,000.

Jancis Robinson, a guest at the dinner, lent her expertise to make a wine and food award in the form of a silver corkscrew to the best food and wine pairing from all 20 menus, the winner the Glasshouse at Kew.

In total, £215,000 was raised by the auction. Overall, £330,000, a record amount by Leuka standards, will be donated to Hammersmith from the auction and ticket sales combined. In five years, the chefs have raised more than £1.8m for the centre.

The Community Channel (Sky Digital 684, Telewest 233 or Freeview 46) is planning to show the Leuka event in the next few weeks. To find out when it's being televised, log on to www.communitychannel.org.