An inspector calls at Lucia's charity banquet.

Chefs from around the UK gathered in Newcastle last night to cook a five-course meal for charity.

Terry Laybourne, restaurateur and owner of the North-East's Cafe 21 establishments, organised the event at St James's park to raise money for the Children's Kidney Unit at the nearby Royal Victoria Infirmary. The banquet was held in honour of Lucia, the daughter of Victor Castro-Quiroga, who manages Mr Laybourne's Bistro 21 in Durham.

Two-year-old Lucia suffers from a rare and incurable kidney condition called diffuse mesangial sclerosis and has been treated at the RVI. Mr Laybourne said: "Victor asked me to take part in the Great North Run and you can guess what my answer was to that. I felt awful because I couldn't contribute.

"I thought if we are going to raise a few quid, let's do a dinner, so I called my friends and they came along.

" It is a great cause and people are having fun eating good food, hopefully, and raising some money."

Celebrity chef Paul Rankin flew in from Northern Ireland and Roy Brett travelled from Padstow in Cornwall, where he overseas Rick Stein's empire.

Mr Brett provided one of the meal's highlights ( a fillet of sea bass with vanilla butter vinaigrette and pommes rosti. Mr Castro-Quiroga said: "I feel happy, proud and lucky to be here.

"We have turned something bad into something good."

Libby Davison, who plays DI Liz Rawton in The Bill and hails from Newcastle, was among the 500 guests who paid pounds 100 to attend the banquet.