The new initiative, called Hospitality Action Sunday, is intended to run on the first Sunday in June each year, with the first one taking place on Sunday 7 June.
For the debut event, Atherton is to close all his London restaurants, including Berners Tavern, located at the London Edition Hotel, for the one-off meals. His aim is to raise £100,000 for the charity - the largest sum ever raised for it in a singe event - with around 800 people being served on the day.
The line up for the event is yet to be finalised, but chefs including Ollie Dabbous, Tom Aikens and Isaac McHale will work alongside chefs in Atherton’s group, including Paul Walsh from City Social, Paul Hood at Social Eating House and Lee Westcott at The Typing Room. The pairings will each create a special menu likely to cost around £125 with wine.
“We want to lead by example as a high end restaurant group,” said Atherton, who is a trustee of Hospitality Action. “The people who have the less time are the people we want to be involved, which is why I decided to it on only one day. Our dream is that once a year all other chefs close their restaurants and everyone teams up to raise as much money as we possibly can.”