A RETIRED Malvern chef was among volunteers from Worcestershire who helped an international charity celebrate 30 years of work in the Third World.

Maurice Bunton, a former hotel proprietor, joined British Executive Service Overseas (BESO) for a recent champagne birthday celebration.

He was one of 30 professionals at the reception in Winchcombe, including teachers, doctors, engineers and nurses, who have passed on their skills to people in countries like Indonesia, Africa and India.

Mr Bunton, originally from Kent and trained as a chef at the Ritz in London, came to Malvern when he bought the Walmer Lodge, in Abbey Road, 30 years ago.

After retiring several years ago, he spent two months as a volunteer with the BESO in India and another month in Lviv, in the Ukraine, passing on a lifetime of culinary skills.

He said: "BESO has got a huge repertoire of people with the time and will to volunteer in developing countries. The request can be for any skill. My job was to help develop continental cuisine for the tourist industry."

In India, Mr Bunton spent a week at a hotel and then a further week teach- ing senior chefs at local technology colleges in Delhi, Bombay, Jaipur and Calcutta.

Despite his prior assumption that demonstrating English menus and dishes would be a "doddle", he found he had to overcome obstacles such as poor hygiene and low standard ingredients, particularly relating to water supplies, tough meat and lack of reliable refrigeration.

Mr Bunton admitted he found experience "exhausting" and that towards the end he became dehydrated.

"It was a culture shock," he said. "I had never been to India before and it was a shock because of the abject poverty and great division between haves and have-nots.

"It's appalling to know that the great mass of people can hardly afford to eat anything.

"One of the sad things I found in Delhi was that after dinner in the evening, any food not used was put into bags and taken a few hundred yards down the road to the traffic island. There were hoards and hoards of people waiting because that was their meal for the day."

Anyone wanting to find out more about BESO, should call Ian Thomas on 0207 849 7885 or visit www.beso.org.