Dining for a Cure: Meet the restaurants making a difference for cancer research

By Emily Usher | 22 July 2024

We’re shining a spotlight on the amazing restaurants that have helped us with Dining for a CURE to make a meaningful impact on cancer research.

With July now upon us, Cure Cancer is looking ahead to another exciting season of Dining for a Cure, a unique fundraising initiative that invites your favourite food and wine venues to help Cure Cancer.  

We are thrilled to have previously partnered with some incredible dining venues, including go-to noodle spot, P’Nut Street Noodles, as well as the gorgeous Matteo Downtown in central Sydney and its coastal sibling, Matteo Double Bay, to offer diners restaurant experiences that were not only delicious, but also helped fund the work of Australia’s best and brightest cancer researchers… 

P’Nut Street Noodles

It was really special to see Cure Cancer Ambassador and everyone’s favourite personal trainer Shannan Ponton come together with P’Nut Street Noodles owner and Head Chef Ankur Sehgal to design two exclusive dishes for Dining for a CURE. The delicious bites were available across all 11 of their New South Wales branches for one month, with $1 from every dish donated to help Cure Cancer. 

Cure Cancer was excited to help boost the initiative with a press launch to national entertainment media and by promoting the event across our channels to made sure P’Nut Street Noodles had everything they needed to let their community know about the difference they could make to help Cure Cancer.

"With so many people affected by cancer including our friends, family and acquaintances, we’re proud to partner with Cure Cancer and Shannan Ponton to do whatever we can to help fight this disease,” said Ankur Sehgal at the press launch event held at the venue’s flagship store. “The dishes we’ve created with Shannan Ponton aim to help locals enjoy a nutritious and delicious meal while helping raise money for cancer research. Helping people be healthy and happy while giving back to the community is important to us.”  

Matteo Downtown & Matteo Double Bay

Matteo Head Chef Orazio D'Elia with Cure Cancer Ambassador Zoe Bingley-Pullin in 2019.

Cure Cancer was thrilled to partner with Sydney’s Matteo restaurants as part of Dining for a CURE 2019. Head Chef Orazio D’Elia worked with Cure Cancer Ambassador and nutritionist Zoe Bingley-Pullin to design an exclusive pasta dish and mocktail for the Matteo menu which featured on their menu for one month. All profits from the items were donated towards funding lifesaving cancer research. Matteo went to even greater lengths to increase their impact, hosting a delicious dinner for its staff and even matching the donations raised in venue.  

Cure Cancer worked in collaboration with Matteo restaurants to help spread the word about the initiative; providing co-branded promotional materials for use both inside the restaurants and online, and hosting an exclusive launch dinner for national media with Zoe Bingley-Pullin and Head Chef Orazio D’Elia. 

The initiative was a wonderful success. Matteo’s diners enjoyed the delicious new addition to the menu and the limited time promotion not only increased footfall within the restaurants themselves, but also raised an incredible $30,000 towards a novel cancer research project. 

A huge thanks to all those who have supported Dining for a CURE so far. Your participation has directly supported cutting-edge cancer research, bringing hope to millions affected by this disease.  

Interested in taking part?

Whether you’re in the restaurant, bar, hotel or cafe business, you can get on board with this year’s Dining for a CURE in a way that suits your venue and customers. From special menus, signature dishes and exclusive mocktails through to themed nights and collaborations with our Ambassadors, we encourage you to showcase your dining venue’s unique style in whatever way works for you to drive footfall and recognition to your venue.  

Keen to help but want to keep it simple? Why not offer your diners the option to add a donation to their bill or contribute proceeds from corkage fees as easy, no-fuss ways to support groundbreaking cancer research.

Choose the concept and timeframe that suits you best – whether it's a single night event or a month-long initiative – and participate in a way that works for you. Cure Cancer will be right behind you, promoting from our end and providing a bespoke toolkit filled with ideas and resources to help you activate and promote the campaign to the widest audience possible.

So join us for Dining for a CURE and together, we can support cutting-edge cancer research.