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The very height of dining out
Yorkshireman joins Mount Everest team aiming to set a world record for the loftiest formal dinner ever eaten YORKSHIREMAN Tom Bottomley is taking part in a quest to set the world record for the highest ever formal dinner – close to the summit of Mount Everest. David Parkin
A 10-strong British team will clamber more than 23,000ft up the world's highest wearing white tie and tails and top hats to hold a four-course meal with wine, port and cigars.
They will take a table, chairs, flowers and even a candelabra as part of the bizarre charity challenge to break the 15-year-old world record set by an Australian team.
As well as consulting the Guinness Book of Records to get approval for the attempt, the team has also contacted etiquette guide Debrett's for advice on the correct formal attire for a dinner held in temperatures that could reach minus 40 degrees celsius.
Mr Bottomley, from Huddersfield, has resigned from his job as assistant director with the Leeds-based executive search business Directorbank in order to take part in the month-long challenge with nine friends, culminating in the dinner on May 1.
He admitted: "It's a bit of a madcap idea but we are also hoping to raise a significant amount of money for charity."
He said he and one of his former clients, Henry Shelford, who works in the City, came up with the plan to break the world record.
"Henry was very ill with the lung disease sarcoidosis, and while he was lying in his hospital bed he decided to do something totally different and challenging.
"He wanted it to involve climbing, but with something extra.
"It really appealed to me, perhaps it sums up the classic trials and tribulations of a guy in his mid-30s who realises he has not done enough with his life. I certainly now feel like I'm alive and learning new things again.
"There is also the challenge of the British getting something over on the Aussies."
The record is currently held by the Ansett Social Climbers from Sydney, who climbed and dined on Mount Huascarn, Peru, 6,758 metres (22,204ft) high, on June 28, 1989. They took with them a custom-made Louis XIV dining table and chair set, morning suits, wine and a candelabra. The meal consisted of smoked chicken in mango, trout with three vegetables, cherry jubilee and chocolates.
However, the British team aims to climb several hundred feet higher, four-fifths of the way up Everest.
The team aims to raise thousands of pounds for the British Lung Foundation, and Mr Bottomley is also collecting money for Kirkwood Hospital in Huddersfield, where his mother is a volunteer.
Menswear chain Moss Bros is providing the group with white tie and tails and they are currently looking for other sponsors. For more details see their website at www.formaldinner.co.uk or phone Tom Bottomley on 07740 592834.
david.parkin@ypn.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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