GREAT Yarmouth hotelier Nicholas Mobbs has a special reason for wanting to help the town's parish church raise three-quarters of a millions pounds towards its organ and tower pinnacles.

GREAT Yarmouth hotelier Nicholas Mobbs has a special reason for wanting to help the town's parish church raise three-quarters of a millions pounds towards its organ and tower pinnacles.

And he turned to the Imperial Hotel's three chefs to cook up something a little special to support the St Nicholas Church Preservation Trust.

Simon Wainwright, Mark Dixon and Peter Clarke all donned their aprons for around 80 enthusiasts at a Take Three Chefs cookery demonstration at the hotel.

“St Nicholas Church has a special place in my heart,” said Mr Mobbs. “It gave me my first paid job - as a choirboy when I was seven. We were paid five shillings a time to sing at special occasions so if you had four weddings on a Saturday, that was worth �1!

“I learned a bit about discipline too. Two of us were chattering when we should have been paying attention at a rehearsal and the then choirmaster threw a tuning fork in our direction. We kept quiet after that.

“I've had close links with the church ever since and I'm delighted that we can do something to help out now. It's amazing to think that there was a new organ appeal when I was a choirboy and they needed �50,000. Now 40 years on, it's going to cost more than a quarter of a million.”

Guests at the demonstration were enticed by a series of mouth-watering recipe demonstrations - including chump of lamb with aubergine caviar, baked belly of pork, smoked haddock fishcakes, North Sea cod wrapped in Parma ham, American-style pancakes and a tulip of fresh fruits. And they stayed on afterwards for lunch and a glass of wine.

Dr Paul Davies, chairman of the St Nicholas Church Preservation Trust, said he was delighted at the support given to the event, the fifth of a series of local money-raisers which was set to bring in a total of �5,000.

Although the trust was seeking grants towards the work, much depended on local support and he was grateful to the Imperial for staging its event free of charge.

St Nicholas Church was founded in 1101 and is the largest parish church in the country. Its organ is in need of a complete overhaul and refurbishment.