CELEBRITY chefs took over a hotel kitchen to provide a night of unforgettable food and great entertainment. 

A host of huge names arrived in Cumbria for the fourth annual Lake District Farmers Armstrong Family Charitable Fund celebrity chef event. 

The event, which is hosted and sponsored by Clarence House Country Hotel and Restaurant, welcomed celebrity chefs Tom Aikens, Alyn Williams and Jeff Galvin. 

On the first of the three-night event guests crowded into the hotel eager to taste the food that awaited them. 

With each chef concentrating on two courses each the culinary experience was expected to be better than ever. 

Speaking before the first course was served, Dan Austin, Lake District Farmers' managing director, said: "It's a nerve-racking event to organise and we feel that this year we have put together a better event than ever before, which is a huge credit to the team that's doing it all. 

"This is the best line-up of chefs we have had. We have got people who have been here since day one and then we have got some huge new additions and, because of this, I think this will be the greatest food we have ever served." 

The annual event is held in honour of fund founder Ray Armstrong. 

The Barrow businessman set the scheme up following his diagnosis with liver and pancreatic cancer in 2012 and his family, friends and staff have continued his legacy since his death in 2013. 

Alyn Williams, who has starred at the event since it began, has worked with some of the industry's giants, including Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing and runs his own restaurant, Alyn Williams at the Westbury in London. 

He said: "It's such a great charity. Every year I say to my missus that this is an event I am never not going to do. 

"Its my favourite charity because it's a great cause for local people. I love Cumbrian food and I love this part of the country - it's nice to get out of the big smoke."

Among the guests was the family of  popular Evening Mail journalist Jo Davies, who have already raised more than £20,000 for the FGH oncology unit, St Mary’s Hospice and the Eve Appeal women’s cancer charity since she died in August last year.

Jo's mother, Norma Halpin, said: "It's very humbling to be nominated when there's such a lot of deserving people out there and it's lovely that people care.

"It's just an honour to be present at such a lovely event and I wish the Lake District Farmers continuing success in all their fundraising for local charities and I can't thank them enough for donating to Jo's Appeal."