Sheeran’ Loves Babylon

‘Sheeran’ Loves Babylon

Henry’s try new variety - your chance By Austen Dack to try them too

Cambridgeshire potato merchant Isle of Ely Produce have launched a new platform to promote the great British Chip in association with Agrico. Our aim will be to carry on the good work we have been promoting via our hugely successful open days, and the ‘Field to Frier’ award.

The Chip Ambassadors will become part of an UK wide group of shop owners and fryers who will promote best practice for potato buying, storing, and of course frying. The chain will also include key growers too like PJ Lee & Sons, and A. L. Lee Farming Company, as IOE looks to cement the relationships they have grown across the whole supply chain over the last twenty years.

Agrico have partnered with Isle of Ely Produce to bring two new varieties into the trade initially via our Chip Ambassadors. The two varieties Babylon and Lugano will be sampled at some of these ambassadors to back up the results of early trial successes.

Recently I visited Henry’s fish and chips in Hunstanton for owners Ian and Jane Wallis and head fryer Ed Sheeran look alike Chris Marks-Burton to try Babylon for themselves.

Ian said “We were only too pleased to try this variety in our shop. We know and respect Agrico, and Isle of Ely Produce, and are proud to be part of something so important. Every week we look for the best potatoes for our customers and are always looking for the next best variety to come into the marketplace.”

It was great to visit the team at Henry’s and see their million-pound shop. To have Chip Ambassadors like them trying samples and giving us valuable feedback is great for the whole industry.

Babylon offers the customer outstanding frying and eating qualities that challenge Agria, whilst Lugano offers a sustainable future for the grower in the fight against potato cyst nematode (PCN), while producing excellent frying and eating quality for the customer.”

Jane said of Babylon “Wow what a lovely tasty chip. They fried so well and were of a good size. They were fluffy in the middle and crisped well on the outside too.”

Chris said “We are on Sagittas at the moment. The first thing that struck me was the colour difference. Babylon are a rich yellow colour even before frying. Babylon were great to peel, and chip with little effort needed pre-rumbler. It was a good clean bold sample. They fried very well and I would be very happy to serve these to my customers on a regular basis.”

Alex Moore, Agrico UK Sales Manager said: “We are thrilled to be working closely with Isle of Ely Produce & the Chip Ambassadors to launch two exciting new varieties. As a business we

are always trying to breed better tasting and more sustainable potato varieties. In Babylon and Lugano we have both! We place a lot of emphasis on product management and this link with the Chip Ambassadors, Isle of Ely and the growers will help us ensure that each area of the supply chain know how to get the best out of Agrico varieties, to give the end customer the best chips they can buy.”

Oliver Boutwood Isle of Ely Director says. “We have met so many great chip shop owners over the years, all who have brilliant knowledge of what it takes to choose, store and of course fry a potato. We have supplied enough potatoes during that time to serve over 600 million portions of chips. This new scheme will give us even more information across the UK, that we can use to make sure we have the right variety in supply at all times.”

Chip shop owners already signed as Chip Ambassadors for Isle of Ely Produce include Colin Cromer – The Fish Hoose, Kerry Brennan – Golden Union, David Henley – Henley’s, Richard Ord Jr – Colmans, Eric Snaith – Eric’s, Kelly & Tim Barnes – Krispies, Lauren Kellaway – Kellaways, Charlie Collins – Frydales, Fred Capel- Chez Fred, Matt & Ashley Phillips – Shap Chippy, Malachy Mallon The Dolphin Takeaway, Richard Foster – Fish and Chips at Weston Grove, Emir Hikary – Hiks, Alan Shillingford – Shillingfords, Gregg Howard The Chip Shed, Ian Wallis Henry’s Hunstanton and Sarah Heward – The Real Food Café.

We will be featuring Babylon and Lugano in the coming months both inprint and online to showcase their merits to the fish and chip industry.

Email austen@chippychat.co.uk if you too would like to become a Chip Ambassador and try Babylon and Lugano for yourselves.