Head Chef & Director of Food • Paul Hogben
A Beast has Stirred
IN late September my mind wandered as to how we could engage with you during these difficult times. How could l offer you, your family and friends a food experience at home, whilst still enjoying the products that you expect when you dine with us at the Club? Would my suppliers be able to help me with this and could it all be put together in time for Christmas? Then a thought hit me… and the “A Taste of The Farmers Club” Hamper was conceived. After many a ZOOM meeting with my suppliers, we sent out marketing for The Farmers Club first ever hamper. The day we went into the 2nd National lockdown, the Kitchen & Restaurant team all had a guess at what number of orders we might expect to see on our return. Well, no one was even close to the massive response we had, and orders just kept coming in. Craig, Member Experience Manager, was desperately trying to keep up with the incoming orders and I was constantly updating my numbers, revising amounts we would need to be producing and talking to suppliers about how the numbers
were jumping daily. Then we hit the closing date and the fun began. How many Chefs could l bring out of Furlough to run The Restaurant and how many would l need to produce foods for the hampers? Do we have enough room to store everything as it starts arriving? This was going to be a massive team effort from organising deliveries, producing the contents, packing the baskets and getting them dispatched. It was all hands on deck! As I write this we hope we’ve made all the right decisions and you, your family, friends and anyone else that ordered one will have enjoyed them. To note all the cauliflower trimmings from the production of the piccalilli were made into soup, the majority of which we dispatched to a Homeless Kitchen that one of my Chefs was volunteering at.
“No one was even close to guessing the massive response we had.” “It was all hands on deck!”
You might be asking: “What else does he have planned for 2021?” Well, l do have some other ideas, but they are not for this page. Watch out for more information in due course! Enjoy! Chef
www.thefarmersclub.com • 19
