The countdown to Fabergé’s “Big Egg Hunt”, which starts on Shrove Tuesday in London, has now begun, following a lavish Champagne countdown launch party on 18^th January at the headquarters of luxury private members’ club Quintessentially, at 29 Portland Place.

The Big Egg Hunt, which will see 200 giant Easter eggs beautifully decorated by artists such as Vivienne Westwood, Rob Ryan, Marc Quinn and Giles Deacon hidden in secret locations around London, is aiming to raise £2 million pounds for the charities Action for Children and Elephant Family.

Selected by Fabergé as a partner for this fantastic event, Harbour & Jones is sponsoring one of the designer eggs and we also provided the food for 250 guests at the Champagne countdown, which was hosted by British travel writer, conservationist and founder of Elephant Family, Mark Shand and attended by VIPs and celebrities including Bianca Jagger, Nicky Candy, Holly Valance and Kay Burley.

Hot and cold canapés included roasted Tamara duck with vodka infused cherries, smoked eel and caviar soldiers with savoury duck egg custard and squid and Cornish mackerel dumplings with parsley and caper salsa.  We also served Russian and Fabergé inspired bowl food and finished with sweet bites such as chocolate covered honeycomb, cinnamon doughnuts and carrot and beetroot caramel glass lollies.  The centrepiece for the evening was a stunning ice carving of a Fabergé egg which also cooled a variety of flavoured fruit foams.

The Golden Collection, thirty of the most valuable hand-crafted eggs, will be auctioned on March 20^th at an invitation-only gala evening and the remaining collection will be auctioned on-line offering everyone the opportunity to own a unique piece of art.