The John King Brain Tumour Foundation, set up by the widow of a Dorchester-trained chef who died of the disease, holds its gala ball at The Dorchester on Friday 30 October 2026.
The John King Brain Tumour Foundation holds its gala ball at The Dorchester in Mayfair on Friday 30 October 2026. The hotel’s kitchens are among those John King worked in as a chef.
King spent more than forty years in kitchens that included The Connaught and The Ritz Club, and took gold with the Ritz Club at the 1988 Culinary Olympics. He had trained at Westminster College, later lectured there part-time, and was a member of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts.
He was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 2015 and died in November 2016. His wife Laura registered the foundation in March 2017, after the two had spent his treatment restoring the neurological patients’ roof garden at St George’s Hospital.
The foundation works with one hospital, the Atkinson Morley Wing at St George’s, and buys what the neurosurgery team asks for. Its first project was £150,000 for a neurological microscope, and a robotic guidance platform followed. The total raised is above £1.3 million.
The evening has dinner, entertainment and an auction. The foundation last held the ball at the same hotel in 2024.