Chester chef to bake wedding cake fit for a prince

Chefs from the Welsh National Culinary Team, led by a chef from a top Chester hotel, have been commissioned to bake a wedding cake fit for a Prince.

Team manager and executive chef at Carden Park Hotel, Golf Resort and Spa near Chester, Graham Tinsley’s offer to make a cake to celebrate the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29 was accepted.

With the couple’s blessing, it will be donated to Centrepoint, a charity for homeless young people of which Prince William is patron.

Graham said the team was honoured to be asked to bake the wedding cake.

The Welsh team includes another representative from Carden Park Hotel, Golf Resort and Spa, near Chester - senior chef de partie Dion Jones - plus Toby Beevers, executive chef at Chester University.

“I wrote to St James’s Palace on behalf of the team in December to congratulate Prince William and Kate Middleton and offered to bake a wedding cake when the wedding was announced,” said Graham. “We are delighted and honoured that our offer has been accepted.

“With Prince William being stationed on Anglesey with the RAF search and rescue team and, apparently, gong to live in North Wales with his bride following the wedding, I think it’s fitting that Welsh chefs should cook a cake for them.

“We haven’t yet finalised the decoration, but it will be traditionally Welsh and there’s a good chance that harps, dragons and the national flag will be represented.”

A letter from St James’s Palace thanked Graham for his kind offer and sent the team the couple’s best wishes.

Centrepoint chief executive, Seyi Obakin, said: “We are delighted to be receiving a cake from the Welsh National Culinary team. It will be a special way for young people supported by Centrepoint to be involved in our patron’s wedding day celebrations.”

The Welsh National Culinary Team, which won a gold medal at the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg last November, is proud of its royal connections. The Prince of Wales is team patron and the chefs have cooked for him, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh several times.

The Welsh National Culinary Team is sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government, C&C Catering Equipment Ltd, Brakes, Unilever Foodsolutions UK, Hybu Cig Cymru/ Meat Promotion Wales, Gourmet Classic Ltd, Villeroy and Boch, Friedr. Dick, Germany, Metcalfe Catering, All Clad, S. A. Brain and Co and Callebaut.

You can follow Carden Park on Facebook and Twitter at: facebook.com/cardenpark hotel page and twitter.com/cardenpark