A Stoney Street feast for International Women’s Day

A star line-up of female chefs will serve a one-off lunch at the London restaurant in support of female achievement – and a charity helping women survivors of war.

To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, Alex Hely-Hutchinson, founder of Neal’s Yard’s 26 Grains, has gathered together some of London’s most respected female chefs for a one-off Sunday lunch at her second restaurant Stoney Street by 26 Grains in Borough Market. Each culinary star has chosen to make a dish inspired by the women who have shaped their lives for the event (£45 per person, plus wine), and all profits will be donated to the charity Women for Women International, which helps survivors of war rebuild their lives.

Hely-Hutchinson and Stoney Street head chef Henrietta Inman will be joined in the kitchen by Anna Jones, author of The Modern Cook’s Year, which scooped the Cookery Book Award at the Guild of Food Writers Awards in 2018, and Israeli-born Sarit Packer of Honey & Co, who is also a co-author of FT Weekend Magazine’s recipe column. Shuko Oda, whose formative years were spent between London and Japan before founding her Koya restaurants in Soho and The City is also among the female brigade, as is Freddie Janssen of Snackbar, a café, urban farm and co-working space in east London. Francesca Diliberto, sommelier at Flor, meanwhile, will be selecting the wine list.

Diners can expect a menu featuring Janssen’s Mexican-inspired scallop and blood-orange tostada; Oda’s lemon sole and white asparagus with miso butter; and Packer’s feta and honey cheesecake on kadaif pastry for dessert.

“We’re not only celebrating women in the industry, but women everywhere,” says Hely-Hutchinson of the event. “It’s a real honour for me to have all of these women cooking in Stoney Street’s kitchen. They’re people I respect and who inspire me, and this lunch will be an opportunity to showcase a host of different flavours, influences and talents in one afternoon.”