Sacred Heart - Dining with Heart

Disclosure: I was invited as a guest to the Dine with Heart preview

The Sacred Heart Mission dining hall. 

With all the tables cleared away, and the ginormous commercial kitchen with sparkling stainless steel filled with some of Melbourne’s top chefs…it certainly isn’t your usual dinner venue. 

But for some people, this is their regular dining room through the day. The Sacred Heart Mission’s meals program serves 400 free and nutritious meals a day to people who are homeless or disadvantaged. 

Throughout the month of May, restaurants and cafes around the City of Port Phillip will partake in ‘Dine with Heart’, which will run throughout the whole month and either have a signature dish which will have the proceeds from that dish go towards helping fund the Mission’s meals program, or diners will be encouraged to add $4 to their bill…which is the cost for one meal at the Mission. 

Certainly puts your meal in perspective after that doesn’t it? 

As part of ‘Dine with Heart’ month, for the second year running, ten of Melbourne’s top chefs will work together for the Dine with Heart dinner for 200 people, held on the stage of St Kilda’s Palais Theatre on Tuesday the 26th of May. 

And on this particular evening, we were very fortunate to be getting just a taste of what the chef’s might offer on the night. 

From refreshing smoked salmon on a potato blini with creme fraiche and salmon roe from Tony Collis (The European) to Adam Draper’s (Donovans) simply moreish toasted (and crunchy) sourdough with olive tapenade with home-cured bresaola, even though we were just getting little mouthfuls, the chefs were not shy in flexing some flavour. 

I was thrilled to see Jesse Gerner’s (Bomba) sumptuous ox cheek croquettes floating around the room, quickly grabbing two…or maybe three. And Chris Watson’s (Luxembourg) foie gras pate en croute, with a couple of raisins was a very lush little nibble. 

Daniel Wilson (Huxtable), Derek Boath (Bay Leaf Catering), Philippa Sibley, Sean Judd (St Hotel) and Themi Milikouros (Phamish), will also be taking part in the dinner on the 26th and really, for $220 per person (tables of 10), you can’t get a better price for that much talent all in one meal!

I think it’s great this year that Dine with Heart has expanded from just one meal, to a whole month, so that no matter what your budget is, you can be involved and help giving back, even if it’s just a little. Although I’m not often in St Kilda, I’ll certainly be making the effort to hit the beach suburb a little more often (even if it’s getting a little chilly!)

If you’d like to find out which restaurants are involved with Dine with Heart, visit Sacred Heart’s website, or if you’d like to book for the amazing Dine with Heart dinner, call or email Peter Mercer at 1800 443 278 or pmercer@sacredheartmission.org…there won’t be many places for long!

Sacred Heart Dine with Hearthttps://www.sacredheartmission.org/support-us/events/fundraising-event-dinner