Gareth Ward, Chef-owner of two Michelin-starred Ynyshir
The team behind Restaurant Pine are thrilled to announce the return of their charity fundraiser concept BiteBack in aid of Cancer Research UK, as they set out to do it all again with SecondBite 2025.
This year’s plans are already well underway as the team set out to deliver a bigger and better event for 2025 and smash last year’s fundraising total of £82,063.
A stellar line-up of 20 of the UK’s leading multi-award-winning Michelin-starred chefs has been signed up, and seriously tasty street food dishes are being discussed.
The date and venue have been confirmed, and tokens will go on sale soon: 6th July 2025 at Wylam Brewery, Palace of Arts, Newcastle.
Like last year’s mega event, SecondBite has been designed to take each chef out of their regular kitchen environment and instead will see them wow paying guests with their unique and individual takes on street food dishes.
Each carefully curated dish will provide guests with a distinctly different insight into each of these acclaimed chefs’ different styles. With only 500 portions of each dish available on the day, diners will need to be quick to be in with a chance of securing their chosen dishes.
The event is free entry, and dish tokens can be purchased in advance and are priced at £10.
Guests can keep up to date on the event by following the announcements on the Second Bite website: https://www.secondbitefestival.com/ and instagram @second_bitefest where the first four chefs have already been announced as:
- Chet Sharma, chef-owner, of Michelin-guide listed BiBi, London, GQ Restaurant of the Year and National Restaurant Awards Opening of the Year 2022.
Chet Sharma
- Gareth Ward, chef-owner of two Michelin-starred Ynyshir, the most highly awarded restaurant in Wales, named best restaurant in the UK in 2022 and 2023 and ranked in the Good Food Guides’ top Five UK restaurants. (Pictured in the featured image).
- Tom Shepherd chef-owner of Michelin-starred Restaurant Upstairs, Lichfield, Tom is famed for being awarded a Michelin-star for his restaurant within just four months of opening, but also winning the main course on Great British Menu 2023 with his Desperate Dan’s Cow Pie, taking the dish to the banquet, which was also the first dish to sell out at BiteBack 2024…
Tom Shepherd, credit Video Box Studios
- Ian Waller, head chef of Northumberland’s Michelin-starred and Michelin Green-starred Restaurant Pine, which was recognised by SquareMeal as the UK’s leading restaurant in 2024 and ranked in the prestigious French gastronomic list La Liste 2025 for the first time.
Ian Waller, Photographer Joe Taylor
As well as a stellar Chef line-up and the usual drinks offering from Wylam Brewery there will also be DJs and a special online auction, which will see some amazing foodie experiences up for grabs.
All proceeds from SecondBite will be donated to Cancer Research UK to help support over 4,000 researchers, clinicians, and nurses to transform how they help prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, bringing hope to millions of people, now and in the future.
Photographer Joe Taylor
Why is it so important?
Every year thousands of adults and children are diagnosed with cancer and many of us know someone who has been impacted by the illness. This is why we must do everything we can to increase funding to combat cancer. Funding ultimately helps charities like Cancer Research UK deliver better treatments and outcomes for people who are living with cancer. It also helps people plan whilst they’re still able to make important decisions about their future care and support needs. As well as helping individuals and their families prepare through the provision of practical advice and support, especially as they face new challenges cancer inevitably brings.
Siân Byerley, co-owner of Pine commented: “BiteBack 2024 was an amazing success, but we want to go even further and make this year’s event SecondBite bigger and better and by doing that we hope to raise even more funds to support Cancer Research UK in their early diagnosis research. We all know someone who has been impacted by this illness, which is one of the reasons why we think it’s vital to help this amazing charity in all that they do to fight this disease. Please come and join us and buy lots of tokens on the day!’’
Sian added: ‘’We’re incredibly grateful to the 20 chefs who have kindly volunteered their time to help beat this terrible illness. We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Wylam Brewery for so generously providing the venue. We’d also like to thank the various sponsors who are providing fridges, generators, and all manner of equipment needed to ensure the event runs smoothly.”
SecondBite will take place on 06th July 2025 at Wylam Brewery, Palace of Arts, Newcastle.
For more information visit: https://www.restaurantpine.co.uk/events/ and the official Instagram page @biteback_fest
