FFD August 2014 by Guild of Fine Food

SOPHIE’S STORE 14

SALLY JACKSON 4

DELI OF THE MONTH 48

Anglophile Sophie Lion-Poulain on selling British food to the French

For farm shops, it’s “get different, get bigger or get out”, says FARMA chair

Nick Hoare’s family connections add spice to lease negotations at Stourhead Farm Shop August 2014 · Vol 15 Issue 7

GET FRUITY Cram in more jam with our round-up of sweet preserves CHEF’S SELECTION 45 Nieves Barragán Mohacho keeps El Navarrico white asparagus, Calasparra rice and Don Bocarte anchovies in the larders at London tapas restaurants Barrafino and Fino

GET FESTIVE 23 August’s the time to get serious about your Christmas range, so read our round-up of new lines for the 2014 season

NEWS CHEESEWIRE CHARCUTERIE CAKES & PUDDINGS JAMS & PRESERVES TEA SHELF TALK

4 17 21 31 33 37 43

AOP, the sign of special products... A traditional cheese

Appellation d'origine protégée

The cheese of western Switzerland, with a delicate, distinguished flavour. Made since at least 1115 AD in and around the small town of Gruyères, today it is still produced by village cheese dairies in western Switzerland according to the traditional recipe. Le Gruyère AOP owes its characteristic delicacy and flavour to the top quality raw milk produced by cows fed on grass in the summer and hay in winter, coupled with the skill of the mastercheesemakers. No less than 400 litres of fresh milk are needed to produce a single wheel weighing around 35kg. During the slow maturation process, which takes several months in special cheese cellars, the wheels are turned regularly and rubbed down with saltywater. The maturing process lasts between five and 18 months.

Each cheese is systematically identified by the number of the mould and code of the cheese dairy. The day and month of production are also noted on the wheel. These black markings are made with casein, the cheese protein. No artificial additives are involved here either.

Le Gruyère AOP takes pride of place on any cheese platter. It makes for a delicious desert and can be used in tasty warm dishes. What’s more, no real fondue would be complete without genuine Gruyère AOP.

From this time on, the name ‘Gruyère AOP’ and the code of the production facility appears on the heel of each wheel of Gruyère AOP as an effective way of preventing fakes and guaranteeing authenticity. This technique employs branding irons, which give an indentation in the wheel. It is this marking that makes it possible to identify and trace each individual cheese.

The humidity and rind washing process develops the characteristic appearance of the cheese and assists in bringing the cheese into full maturity. This is what gives Le Gruyère AOP its famous, distinct flavour. It’s no great surprise that this authentic gift of nature is appreciated by cheeselovers throughout the world.

www.gruyere.com ruyere.com Cheeses from Switzerland. Switzerland. Naturally. 2 August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

www.switzerland-cheese.com

What’s new this month: Last year, I judged the Guild’s Great Taste Shop of the Year and visited top delis and farm shops, some of which were verging on ‘super-size’ and while each was very BOB FARRAND good, one or two larger stores fell short of excellent. The larger the shop, the more shelf space to fill and buyers at I have a friend, quite a wealthy friend, several had opted for the lazy route who buys food from Harrods when – almost everything sourced from entertaining but shops at the local two or three large wholesalers. Yes, supermarket the rest of the time. they stocked local bread, high quality “Sainsbury’s Canadian Cheddar,” local meat (often their own) and she once told me, “is as good as it cheeses made in dairies close-by, but gets and I’m not prepared to pay the overall range of ambient goods more for a West Country Farmhouse lacked individuality. Cheddar.” At Macknade’s Farm shop in My friend’s comments underpin Kent, I stood for 30 minutes at George Streatfeild’s claim in the cheese counter listening to last month’s FFD (July, p13) that three engaging youngsters talk British shoppers, rather than the knowledgably and enthusiastically supermarkets, were responsible for about their range. the demise of In other shops, I Denhay cheddar. Larger shops will heard much less He believes negotiate better communication, consumers have which is surely stripped the profit deals from suppliers. Some may take fatter what makes our out of cheddartrade unique. making with their margins, others may Supermarkets endless quest for decide to compete on have staff cheap food. price with the likes of don’t capable of talking If George is Waitrose and M&S knowledgeably right, the news about what they sell. on page 4 that a new generation If super-sized farm shops lack of ‘super-sized’ farm shops is about individuality in their ranges and to emerge is not good. Larger shops employ staff lacking enthusiasm and will negotiate better deals from product knowledge, they’ll be little suppliers and while some may take more than up-market supermarkets fatter margins, others may decide to competing on price with Waitrose, compete on price with the likes of M&S and Sainsbury. And let’s not Waitrose and M&S. forget, it was the supermarkets in the Graham Redman of the first place that persuaded consumers Andersons Centre believes super farm all food could be bought cheaply shops are “a genuine alternative to – even finest quality West Country supermarkets like Waitrose”. FARMA’s Farmhouse Cheddar. Sally Jackson, on the other hand, warns if farm shops become mega “they could lose what made them Bob Farrand is publisher of special in the first place”. That’s the Fine Food Digest and chairman real danger. of the Guild of Fine Food

Opinion

p17

p33

p43

p24

p37

❛

p34

❜

EDITORIAL

GENERAL ENQUIRIES

editorial@finefoodworld.co.uk

Tel: 01747 825200 Fax: 01747 824065 info@finefoodworld.co.uk www.finefoodworld.co.uk

Editor: Mick Whitworth Assistant editor: Michael Lane Art director: Mark Windsor Editorial production: Richard Charnley Contributors: Anne Bruce, Clare Hargreaves, Patrick McGuigan, Lynda Searby

ADVERTISING advertise@finefoodworld.co.uk Sales manager: Sally Coley Advertisement sales: Becky Stacey, Ruth Debnam Published by Great Taste Publications Ltd and the Guild of Fine Food Ltd Chairman/publisher: Bob Farrand Managing director/associate publisher: John Farrand Director/membership secretary: Linda Farrand Marketing & circulation manager: Tortie Farrand Administrators: Charlie Westcar, Julie Coates, Karen Price, Jilly Sitch Accounts: Stephen Guppy, Denise Ballance

Guild of Fine Food, Guild House, 23b Kingsmead Business Park, Shaftesbury Road, Gillingham, Dorset SP8 5FB United Kingdom Fine Food Digest is published 11 times a year and is available on subscription for £45pa inclusive of post and packing. Printed by: Blackmore, Dorset, UK © Great Taste Publications Ltd and The Guild of Fine Food Ltd 2014. Reproduction of whole or part of this magazine without the publisher’s prior permission is prohibited. The opinions expressed in articles and advertisements are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations.

p23

Editor’s choice

Selected by MICK WHITWORTH

Roundsquare Roastery whisky cask coffee www.roundsquareroastery.co.uk

❛

I’m developing a bit of an aversion to stuff that’s smoked, unless it’s fish, meat or (at a push) cheese. I think this comes from sampling a smoked rapeseed oil that tasted like it had shared a bed with a kipper for several nights. But the sweet, whisky smoke on this Peruvian Arabica, which comes from burning Arran Distillery malt casks, is so subtle as to hardly appear on the nose at all. If your dinner guests fancy an Irish coffee but have to drive afterwards, try them on this.

❜

p45

For regular news updates from the industry's favourite magazine visit:

www.ffdonline.co.uk Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

fine food news Multi-million pound destination stores can boost sector but experts are wary of potential damage

Local food boom spurs rise of ‘super’ farm shops the expert’s view

Developments such as the £20m Gloucester Services (above) and the £6.5m Bodnant Welsh Food (right) are part of the new breed of farm shops By PATRICK McGUIGAN

A new wave of super-sized farm shops is set to redefine the UK’s fine food sector as retailers invest millions in new sites, but industry experts have warned operators face major risks. Spurred on by the improving economy and the public’s continued appetite for local food, several retailers have recently announced ambitious new shops, which will bring a new level of sophistication and buying power to the market. Keelham Farm Shop in Bradford is planning a new £4m farm shop in Skipton next year, Macknade Fine

the supplier’s view Paul Hargreaves, Cotswold Fayre Larger farm shops are better for us not just because of their size but because small farm shops tend to have a higher percentage of products they grow or make themselves. Some of our larger customers like to negotiate on price but the bigger the order, the easier it is for us to give a discount because quite a lot of the cost is transport. Our suppliers want to be listed in these kinds of shops, too, because it helps raise their brand, so they are more likely to help out with tastings and events.

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

Foods has just secured planning permission for a £5m food hall in Faversham and Cannon Hall Farm Shop in Barnsley is about to embark on the second stage of a £3m expansion. These follow the opening of rural food destinations, such as the £6.5m Bodnant Welsh Food in North Wales and the £20m services and farm shop on the M5 in Gloucester. “There are some really amazing farm shops setting up at the moment that are redefining the market and customers’ expectations,” said Graham Redman, partner and research economist at farm diversification consultancy the Andersons Centre. “Twenty years ago it was enough to have a shed with a few trays of apples, but it’s a much more mature and sophisticated market now. These new super farm shops are now a genuine alternative to supermarkets like Waitrose.” Stefano Cuomo, owner of Macknade Fine Foods, said retailers taking on these ambitious projects were generally mature “generational” businesses (Cuomo’s father set up Macknade more than 30 years ago). “Previously it would have been, ‘Let’s spend £250,000 on a cafe’. Now it’s a case of doubling the size of the food hall or going to a new site altogether, so you need much greater investment. “There’s a discrepancy in retail between the big supermarkets and the little independents – there’s nothing in the middle. That’s where

there is an opportunity.” Sally Jackson, who runs the Pink Pig Farm Shop in Lincs and is the chair of the Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association (FARMA) said the trend for super farm shops was good news for artisan producers, but did warn there were risks. “The sector has reached a point where it’s either get different, get bigger or get out,” she said. “But if farm shops become mega food hubs there is a danger they could lose what made them special in the first place and they could be seen as a threat to other farm shops.” This is the situation at Town End Farm Shop near Skipton, which will soon have to compete with Keelham’s much larger new shop. “We’re hoping it won’t have too big an impact,” said owner Chris Wildman. “We’re a destination farm shop. People come out to the

❛

If farm shops become mega food hubs there is a danger they could lose what made them special in the first place

❜

Sally Jackson, FARMA

Sandy Boyd, former boss of Ludlow Food Centre, Chatsworth Farm Shop and Bodnant Welsh Food There are huge risks involved [in setting up a large farm shop], but the biggest danger is expecting instant results. You can’t build a £3m turnover overnight – it takes a lot of marketing to get there and money tends to get sucked into the build so there’s nothing left to promote the shop once it’s open. My concern is that we are now seeing people coming into the sector who don’t understand it. Garden centres are one of those. They try to formularise farm shops and miss the point. It worries me that they will eventually devalue the sector for everyone. Indie retailing has always been about creating a niche that you truly believe in, whether that’s a damson orchard or a special breed of meat. The ones that think opening a farm shop is a good idea because everyone else is doing it and there’s money to be made just don’t have the values behind their businesses that they need. Dales for lunch and to do a bit of shopping. I see the new Keelham store as taking spend away more from the supermarkets.” Wildman is also a producer, supplying Keelham’s shop in Bradford with his Yorkshire Chorizo, so any drop in trade will hopefully be offset by an increase on the food production side, he said. He added: “With some of these large farm shops, they’re not really farm shops anymore, they’re farm supermarkets. I personally visit the cheese-makers and chicken farmers that supply us, but it will be hard for bigger shops to do that. “It’s down to the consumer to see the difference between a farm shop like ours where we have sheep, pigs and cattle and the larger shops where they don’t actually have any animals or grow anything anymore.” Follow us on

@ffdonline

Waitrose adds British speciality brands to export catalogue By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Small producers are being offered a quick route to markets around the world after Waitrose announced plans to expand its export business. The supermarket chain already exports own-brand products, such as Duchy Originals and Essential Waitrose, to top-end supermarkets and department stores in 50 countries. It has now extended the business to include brands from its smaller British suppliers, such as Cornish Sea Salt, Doves Farm Organic cereal, Farrington’s rapeseed oil, Bacheldre flour and Windsor & Eton beer. This follows a 30% increase in export sales in the last

financial year. David Morton, Waitrose director of business-to-business, said: “Our own-label exports are now an established part of our business with markets ranging from Chile to South Africa. However, there’s also a significant appetite from retailers overseas for the premium British brands and niche brands from smaller producers that we sell in our UK shops – and we’re developing our export business in response to that demand.” At Cornish Sea Salt, sales director Suzanne Skerry said Waitrose’s plans would give the company access to new markets. “We already export to 20 countries,

Cornish Sea Salt is among the smaller brands benefiting from Waitrose’s export activities

but Waitrose covers parts of the globe where we are not present like the Caribbean, Malta and Portugal so it makes a lot of sense to us. “It will help open up new markets to us by getting our brand known in countries that don’t already know us.” Waitrose will pay Cornish Sea Salt the same amount and order in the same way for exports as it does when buying for its UK stores, said Skerry. It is not yet clear how much extra business it will bring to the company. Exports accounted for around 8% of Cornish Sea Salt’s sales at the end of 2013, but are expected to reach 30% at the end of 2014 with key markets including Scandinavia, Dubai and China. “Britain has a reputation for quality, which is really important in markets like China where consumers are concerned about provenance and food safety following several food scares,” said Skerry. Waitrose first started exporting products in 1996 and now supplies retailers in countries including Singapore, Canada, Thailand, New Zealand, Barbados and India. Earlier this year, the retailer announced a deal to supply 120 Food Lover’s Market stores in South Africa, with Waitrose-branded prawn crackers and poppadoms proving popular. Other success stories include Essential Waitrose mayonnaise in Chile and Duchy Originals jam and biscuits in Japan.

Free course to improve seafood skills Food halls and farm shops that want to create a new fresh fish section or improve an existing counter are being offered the chance of free staff training at London‘s Billingsgate Seafood School. The school is offering free places on a two-day City & Guilds (C&G) Fishmonger Certificate course on October 14-15 for experienced and new entrants into the fish trade. A spokesman described the C&G retail certificate as a great way to gain real knowledge and provide formal recognition of skills for experienced fishmongers. The programme is staged at London’s famous Billingsgate fish market and requires students to build a portfolio of their knowledge and then demonstrate the skills they have learned. They are expected to learn how fish are caught and landed and the skills required in preparation, display

and storage, together with quality assessment, cookery and nutrition advice. The course also gives attendees a chance to visit Billingsgate’s trading floor, where over 150 varieties of fish and shellfish from all over the world are on sale. For more information contact Adam Whittle at Billingsgate Seafood School on 020 7517 3548 or email: adam@seafoodtraining.org

HOP HOP HOORAY: Farm shop group Country Food & Dining has teamed up with local brewer West Berkshire Brewery to develop its own exclusive ale. Goldy Horn is a golden hoppy beer, similar in style to a traditional IPA, and will be sold across the group’s six shops. “Our beer is brewed using traditional methods and in small batches to ensure absolute consistency,” said operations director Tom Newey. The company hopes to develop a dark ale with West Berkshire Brewery for the winter.

IN BRIEF l Contrary to trade speculation quoted in last month’s coverage of the liquidation of Shropshire Fine Herbs, Fine Cheese Co and Artisan Biscuits are not seeking private label work with any company.

l Farrington’s Farm Shop (above) is inviting artisan producers and local suppliers to join its ‘Food Revolution’ and pay the shop a visit during an open week it is holding later this month. The event, which runs at the Somerset farm shop from August 25-29, will give all-comers a chance to meet Farrington’s buyers and its owners. “There are hundreds of local producers in the region but trying to attract them through our doors before they’re snapped up by the multiples is proving a constant battle,” said Farrington’s Nick Rose. For more information about the event email info@farringtons.co.uk or call 01761 452266 and ask for Paul Castle or Nick Rose. l Newton Farm, which is on the Duchy of Cornwall estate in Newton St Loe, plans to convert a milking parlour into a 35-seater café with money raised through crowdfunding website Funding Circle. The website allows businesses to access loans funded by private investors. l High Jervaulx Farm, the home of Brymor Ice Cream, has been put up for sale due to the owner’s ill health. Located in Lower Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, the 213-acre farm features a Grade II listed farmhouse with cottage annex, a three bedroom house and a range of diversified general purpose buildings. The ice cream business’s processing and production equipment is excluded from the sale but is available, together with the Brymor brand, by separate negotiation. Contact Sam Johnson at Carter Jonas on 01423 707 801 l Cole’s Puddings, a subsidiary of preserve-maker Wilkin & Sons, has bought Sherborne-based Puddings & Pies. The move will see Cole’s expand its Christmas pudding business having acquired Puddings & Pies’ private contracts, including work for Mossiman’s. Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

fine food news Distributor continues to expand under new name By MICHAEL LANE

Heart Distribution has rebranded itself Blakemore Fine Foods as it continues to expand but it said it would not alter the business’s producer-driven ethos. The company, a division of wholesale giant A F Blakemore, said the change reflected its wider geographical reach and evolution since it was first set up seven years ago, with now-defunct food group HEFF, to help small producers. “The name change now reflects what we do,” commercial manager Caoire Blakemore told FFD. “It doesn’t mean we’ve lost our focus on how we work with producers” She said that the company had been “proactively” expanding its supplier-base beyond the Heart of England region for several years but

was still working closely with every producer in its catalogue. While the distributor has recently moved to premises five times the size of its previous building, Blakemore said her team would not be rapidly adding to the 190-strong line-up of producers. “We can’t flood ourselves with new products because we couldn’t work one-on-one with all of them,” she added. Having achieved a 55% sales increase in its last financial year, Blakemore Fine Foods is now targeting a 47% lift this year. Caoire Blakemore said that she and her team would be thoroughly reviewing their customer service processes to boost sales but added that there was a lot of potential for growth with both existing and new

Heart Distribution has taken the name of its parent company and will now trade as Blakemore Fine Foods, reflecting its increased geographical coverage

retail customers. She said more farm shops and garden centres had been placing orders in the last six months while sales of chilled goods and alcohol were performing well, which is partially down to the company’s £100 minimum order quantity. She is also hoping to gain more business in the coming year with retailers in Norfolk and Wales. www.afblakemore.com/fine-foods

Plaudits for Blakemore’s work with producers Blakemore’s rebrand coincides with the company taking a national award recognising its work with small and medium food producers. The division’s Producer Growth Scheme, which includes a producer loan facility, was named overall winner in the ASDA Enterprise Growth category at the Business in the Community Responsible Business Awards 2014. “It’s not just about the hard work my team are doing, it’s a credit to the producers as well,” said Caoire Blakemore. “I don’t see us a distributor. I see us as a partnership.”

If I'd known then what I know now...

We are well into our second year of trading. Many products have come and gone and we are settling in with repeat orders of only proven movers. When we first opened we visited the JEREMY HAGUE, J ONES DELI, THE EGERTON ARMS, Harrogate Speciality Food Show and the Farm Shop & Deli Show and got CHELFORD, CHESHIRE swept away by beautiful, high-end products, such as truffle oil and deluxe the idea that we might want to sell The concept of delis and farm shops in confectionery, which sat on the shelf bread other than the sliced variety. pubs originates from Derbyshire and gathering dust. Finally, in August 2012, they Yorkshire, where large pubs literally Now, we take guidance from refused a farm shop but accepted a had too much space and rural villages Cotswold Fayre and Rowcliffe and deli with restrictions on products such welcomed local food outlets. focus on faster-moving shopping as meat and bread. With hindsight I My wife Anne and I have always basket items, such as lemon curd, wish we’d been stronger rather than wanted to have a deli from the olive oil and chutneys. just accepting everything to get it over moment we bought our pub. We have We know what sells from our with. been in the restaurant trade for over EPOS system, 25 years and love everything to do which we’ve with food. When we first opened, we got swept In 2009, we needed to refurb the away by high-end products, such as truffle had from the start, though pub and thus applied for planning oil, which sat on the shelf gathering dust I can’t say to build an extension housing a deli. we chose the A three-year planning battle ensued. right system. We spent £5,000 on a Two years on, the dust has We were up against a parish council sophisticated system and it has been settled and we sell artisan bread, who assumed we would be selling like driving a Ferrari in first gear. I wish fresh vegetables, frozen sausages and bacon butties and lottery tickets and we’d bought a simpler system with a pies, homemade dips and numerous were concerned about the impact that view to upgrading it later on. One of products not found in any other local would have on other local businesses. the problems has been that to derive store. They couldn’t get their heads around

❛

❜

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

More losses at Whole Foods UK By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Whole Foods Market reported yet another big loss for its UK business last year despite a 30% jump in sales. The upmarket US retailer’s UK business made a pre-tax loss of £14.2m in the year to September 29 2013, according to accounts filed at Companies House. It blamed losses on investment in new stores in Cheltenham, Richmond and Fulham, plus an exceptional store impairment charge of £6.4m. The poor performance means the company has made losses of more than £100m since it first entered the UK in 2004. Total sales rose by nearly 30% to £81.5m, reflecting both the store opening programme and an 8.6% increase in like-for-like sales. The company now has nine stores in the UK. “Whole Foods has a history of going for expensive sites in inner city locations and they tend to pay over the odds for them,” said David Gray, a retail analyst at Planet Retail. “They also don't have enough stores for an efficient supply chain. There just isn't the availability of space in the UK as there is in the US, which is why their expansion has been so slow.” Whole Foods UK regional president Jeff Turnas said: “We are pleased with our healthy store sales growth, which we believe highlights the increasing awareness of the Whole Foods Market brand and demand for the differentiated shopping experience we offer. We expect our investments to deliver strong returns over the long term.”

any benefit from it, you need to input every order taken, which no-one has the time to do. Our fridges were another major purchase I’d have done differently with hindsight. I bought them second hand on ebay for about £3,000 each, which is half of what I would have paid for them new. The problem is that they didn’t come with any guarantees and they break down far too often. I’ve spent more on repairs than I’ve saved. Most of our customers are pub clients – our pub menu has many deli products which creates a “try before you buy” scenario. A further synergy between the two sides of the business is that out-of-date products are never thrown away. Stock is transferred to the pub kitchen before expiry and used in dishes on the specials board. We advertise in local guides and magazines and take stalls at artisan markets and school fairs. It’s a slow and costly process but it is a long term strategy that seems to be working. Interview by LYNDA SEARBY

@ffdonline

JOIN OUR

FOOD REVOLUTION Would you like to supply one of the UK’s largest, award-winning Farm Shops?

OPEN SUPPLIER WEEK

We’re looking for new suppliers to be part of our new revolution.

August

Calling all PRODUCERS and PURVEYORS of ARTISAN FOODS

25th - 29th

Tel: 01761 452266 Email: info@farringtons.co.uk

•L

an Cr T RE c ac • 1- as A & as ke Se st t T e En h d a S a i g re Bl al r: li B a t sh l ck & a M ck Pe u P pp st u e ar d r d din g

www.farringtons.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

...when the livin’ is easy ack. G Gershwin

Folkington’s Juices, The Workshop, Endlewick House, Arlington, East Sussex BN26 6RU 01323 485602 info@folkingtons.com www.folkingtons.com

NEW

Make your Christmas special with Empire Bespoke Foods For more information, get in touch: Phone: 020 7091 3200 Fax: 020 7091 3300 8

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

Email: sales@bespoke-foods.co.uk

Web: www.bespoke-foods.co.uk

fine food news new openings

Opening or expanding a shop? Email details to editorial@finefoodworld.co.uk

Harp Lane puts a deli back on Ludlow’s square

At a glance l Harp Lane Deli has opened on the former site of Ludlow’s Deli on the Square.

l Manager Henry Mackley is a long-time Ludlow resident and previously worked as the cheesemonger at nearby Ludlow Food Centre.

l Harp Lane’s suppliers include

Ashleigh Cadet, www.acadet.co.uk

English Preserves, Ludlow Nut Co, Usk River, Smoke & Pickle Food Co, Peter’s Yard, Joe’s Tea Co and Easy José coffee.

l The deli carries a range of wines supplied by Enotria and American craft beers from specialist importer James Clay.

l Mackley plans to put on private dining evenings in one of the building’s upstairs rooms.

Henry Mackley has remodelled the prominent site on Ludlow’s square and re-opened as Harp Lane Deli

Six months after Ludlow’s famous Deli on the Square changed hands and closed for renovation, it has returned to the town’s Castle Square with a new name and a new look. Since he got the keys in January, manager Henry Mackley – formerly Ludlow Food Centre’s cheesemonger – has been overseeing the transformation of the building into Harp Lane Deli. The deli – which takes its name from one of the old side streets flanking the building – now features

an enlarged 36 sq m ground floor with a deli counter, cheese display cabinet and a small coffee bar. “While Deli on the Square had been very successful, we were very conscious about putting our own stamp on it,” said Mackley, who bought the business with friend Robbie Underhill. One former stockroom upstairs, with enough space for 10 covers, will soon play host to private dining evenings while Harp Lane Deli is also licensed so customers can sample its selection of “sensibly priced” wines

Appleton’s

The Pig’s Pantry

After 147 years of running one shop in Ripon, Appleton’s has opened a second outlet in Wetherby. Modelled on a French-style charcutier, Appleton’s specialises in pork products such as cured whole hams and cooked meats such as roast ham, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs, faggots and ox tongue. The butcher is also famous for its pork pies, made to an old family recipe, and sells more than 3,500 from the Ripon store. The new branch, which features Victorian-style fixtures and fittings, will offer the pies as well as a new range of charcuterie, pork rillettes and patés.

The Peppered Pig restaurant and tearoom in East Cowick, near Snaith, has added a deli to its premises. Owners Sam and Glen Mitchell will sell a range of homemade cakes and artisan products from Yorkshire, including Yorkshire Ales, Cartwright &

By MICHAEL LANE

Wetherby, West Yorks

www.appletonsbutchers.co.uk

East Cowick, East York

and American craft beers on outside tables overlooking the square. In addition to a range of food-togo and hot sandwiches made in the deli’s kitchen, products are sourced from near and far. Cereals from Ludlow sit alongside preserves from London and Spanish goods supplied by importer Bellota. Joe’s Tea and Easy José supply tea and coffee respectively. While the majority of Mackley’s cheese counter is from Cheese Cellar and Fromage To Age, he also buys cheese and dairy products direct from Herefordshire-based Neal’s Yard Butler jam, Cryer & Stott cheese and Harrogate Preserves. Formerly a British Airways business class air stewardess, Sam Mitchell has trained in bread-making at the School of Artisan Food and will be baking bread every morning using Yorkshire Organic Millers flour. www.thepepperedpig.co.uk

Creamery. “Ludlow Food Centre’s local sourcing policy is hugely admirable but I did find it slightly restrictive,” said Mackley of his previous job. “When I walk into a deli I want to be able to get lots of stuff from all over the world.” He is stricter about local ingredients when it comes to the kitchen’s output, like the Harp Lane Deli Reuben sandwich made with local beef brisket that Mackley cures, his own sauerkraut and rye bread specially baked in the town. www.harplane.com

Angela Malik’s Modern Asian Deli Ealing, West London

Chef and cookery school owner Angela Malik has opened a second deli at a site overlooking Ealing Green. The Modern Asian Deli serves a range of eat-in and takeaway items for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a variety of the ingredients used in its dishes, such as quinoa and coconut oil. Malik’s range of sandwich alternatives includes Masala sausage rolls and chicken Tikka wraps while dinner options include curries and British-Asian salads. There is also a Lassi Bar offering Indian-inspired smoothies and shakes. www.angelamalik.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

SIAL, The Global Food Marketplace

19 – 23 OCTOBER 2014

Paris Nord Villepinte France - www.sialparis.com

SOPEXA UK : Tel. +44 207 312 36 41 anne.burchett@sopexa.com SIAL, a subsidiary of Comexposium Group

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7 SIAL14_FineFoodDigest _204x141,5_UK.indd 1

Celebrate

Images by

www.stockfood.com. *

« I love SIAL »

ge bad e m anc ntr ris.co e r a u alp yo er ww.si d r O at w

By years G R O U P

of innovation

www.sial-group.com

09/07/2014 11:57

fine food news Harrods, Fortnums, Selfridges and Whole Foods Market all took part in Great Taste final judging in mid-July

Masterchefs and more pick Great Taste’s greatest hits With the bulk of product judging in Great Taste 2014 wrapped up by early July, the final team of senior chefs, food writers and retail buyers gathered at Guild of Fine Food HQ in Dorset mid-month to select this year’s major trophy winners and Britain’s Top 50 Foods. The main one-star, two-star and three-star winners in the world’s biggest fine food award scheme, organised by the Guild, are due to be announced on August 11, while the Top 50 will be trickled out over Twitter during the first five days of September to generate consumer interest. However, the top regional trophy and special category winners and the 2014 Supreme Champion product will not be named until the Great Taste dinner at London’s Royal Garden Hotel on Monday September 8, coinciding as usual with the Speciality & Fine Food Fair at Olympia.

More than 40 top foodies including Harrods food chief Bruce Langlands, Woman & Home food editor Jane Curran, 2013 Masterchef winner Natalie Coleman, Whole Foods Market buyer Grace Roberts and Selfridges director of food Nicola Waller gathered on July 16 to re-judge all of 2014’s three-star gold winners and produce a short-list of potential trophy winners. These were then tasted one last time by a final panel of 15, including Telegraph food writer Xanthe Clay, Sam Rosen-Nash of Fortnum & Mason and The Food Programme presenter Sheila Dillon, who chose the big winners in categories ranging from Charcuterie Product of the Year to the Supreme Champion. Guild of Fine Food MD John Farrand said: “What’s so good about our final judging team is that they really reflect our industry – and also reflect the composition of the panels throughout the seven-week Great

Taste judging process. “So we had senior buyers from all the major food halls, we had great chef input, with two Masterchef finalists and people like James Golding from The Pig Hotel, but we also had representatives of really great local farm shops and delis, like Stefano Cuomo from Macknade Fine Foods. And then we had the top food journalists and critics, like Charles Campion and Karen Barnes [editor of Delicious magazine].” After several years of rapid growth, entries to Great Taste were capped at 10,000 this year to maintain the integrity of the judging process. Despite the volume of entries, only around 150 products will be seen to have received the maximum three stars when the results are released on August 11. Entries from premium fresh meat producers have been particularly strong, Farrand said.

“We seem to be really reaching out to the meat sector now, possibly thanks to the recent successes in Northern Ireland with McCartney’s of Moira [2011 supreme champion] and Hannan Meats [2012]. “You can expect to see a lot of meat in the top rankings. It made up around 9% of entries but over 14% of the three stars, which has meant there was an awful lot of meat for our judges to chew over before they decided the Top 50 Foods in Britain.” Three-star products included in the Top 50 Foods – the 50 highest scorers from the final day of judging – are once again to be featured on video in a series of “60 second reviews“, each presented by a leading foodie. These will be available free for winning producers to feature on their websites and through the free-to-download Harrods Great Taste app. www.finefoodworld.co.uk

Ros Windsor of Paxton & Whitfield

The Food Programme presenter Sheila Dillon

Jane Curran of Woman & Home

Karen Barnes of Delicious magazine

Grace Roberts of Whole Foods Market

Shane Smith of Ireland’s YesChef magazine

2013 Masterchef winner Natalie Coleman

2013 Great British Bake-Off winner Frances Quinn

Nicola Waller of Selfridges

Blogger Regula Ysewijn aka Miss Foodwise (right) with Sam Rosen-Nash of Fortnum & Mason Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

VE NE C gi Ol G N W ng ym o U da pia od E: y: Lo Fo N nd od ov o , em n be r1 4 BB

Ju d

BE A WORLD CHAMPION The World Cheese Awards sees more entries, from more cheesemakers, from more countries, judged by more international experts than any other cheese competition. OPEN FOR ENTRY SEPTEMBER 1

www.finefoodworld.co.uk/wca | #worldcheeseawards

Guild of Fine Food · Guild House · 23b Kingsmead Business Park · Shaftesbury Road · Gillingham · Dorset SP8 5FB · UK · +44 (0)1747 825200

Kent’s Kitchen seasonings will add a taste sensation to bbq meat and fish this summer. Simply rub on the meat or fish and throw on the bbq for delicious flavours and aromas. Perfect for steaks, chops and fillets for the bbq. Or use to coat whole joints before roasting for an added flavour burst. Flavours include:

• Pork

• Pepper steak

• Chicken

• Lamb

• Fish

Visit www.kentskitchen.co.uk, email emma@kentskitchen.co.uk or call 07966 888240

C Sa ots w m Ke w old nt ays Fa ’s ra Kit sto yre ng ch ck & es en al . ’s l

• Beef

CELEBRATING

YEARS

Kitchen Garden limited edition Orange Marmalade with Cointreau Delicious, dark, bitter, sweet – 25 years of experience in making speciality preserves captured in a jar Call or email for details of this and other product information 01453 759612, info@kitchengardenfoods.co.uk www.kitchengardenpreserves.co.uk Follow us on

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

Agence APPA

fine food news

Gallic crusader

Sophie Lion-Poulain runs a retail and distribution operation, selling British and American products, from her home in Bordeaux

Interview

British food has never enjoyed much of a reputation with the French but retailer and distributor Sophie’s Store is on a mission to change their minds. MICHAEL LANE speaks to owner Sophie Lion-Poulain.

hether it’s croissants with our morning coffee, saucisson in our sandwiches or Brie de Meaux after dinner, French food figures somewhere in a lot of Britons’ diets nowadays On retailers’ shelves up and down the country, you’ll find Gallic specialities nestled into categories alongside British foods, adopted almost as our own. But browse any shop in France – from its vast hypermarkets to its quaint fromageries – and you’ll soon discover that the feeling is definitely not mutual. It seems like a case of our chalk

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

versus their cheese but Bordeauxbased Sophie Lion-Poulain doesn’t buy it. “Britain and France are exactly like cousins,” she tells FFD. “They love each other and they hate each other.” Lion-Poulain’s fledging retail operation, Sophie’s Store, seems to be tapping into a rare case of the former when it comes to British, and even American, products. Demand from consumers, both online and in person, for the range she has assembled has been so strong that she has even begun setting up as a distributor for British producers.

While she isn’t the first person in France to do this, she might have a legitimate claim to being the most enthusiastic individual to take on the crusade. “England has always been my first love in the English-speaking world,” she says. “I once told my parents: ‘Later on I’m going to marry a British guy and we will live abroad’.” This did actually happen but unfortunately her first marriage didn’t work out. However, Lion-Poulain did re-marry, to a Frenchman, and relocate to Miami successfully. It was when she returned to

her homeland in late 2011 that she discovered the earning potential of her passion for the “Anglo-Saxon way of life”. “I love fine food, selling and the English-speaking world and I thought: ‘I’m going to unite it in a concept’,” she says. What began as pop-up stalls selling English and American food and homewares soon became a viable retail business plan. LionPoulain originally intended Sophie’s Store to be just an online business but wanted to keep the human interaction of the stalls, which was vital for getting people to sample the products.

France takes up Olive Branch “When I first tasted Olive Branch’s products earlier this year, I knew I had found something special and we have had some excellent feedback from all the shops we’ve visited as we build the brand and distribution around France,” says Sophie LionPoulain. “The sweet olive is a delightful product, especially for cheese, which the French famously consume in large quantities so, following this award, we expect the sweet olive to become a key condiment in the cheese category.”

Olive Branch has won a major French food award, after Sophie’s Store entered its sweet olive, fig & almond relish into the Prix les Épicures. The relish was the only British product to take one of the medals up for grabs, winning a silver award in the Condiments B category. Hosted by industry publication Le Monde de L’Epicerie Fine, the awards are judged by France’s top chefs, food critics and fine food buyers. Only three medals are awarded in each of the 15 categories.

www.myolivebranch.co.uk

As in the UK, retail premises in France do not come cheap or without complications so LionPoulain converted her front room into a showroom last November. “Doing this from my house, expenses were lower and we’re already located on a major street,” she says. While the 30 sq m room with its wooden floor, high ceiling and paintings hung on the wall doesn’t sound much like Arkwright’s, Lion-Poulain says the situation adds to the cultural experience for

customers visiting Sophie’s Store “People ring my doorbell before they come in,” she says. “It’s homely and cosy. People love it and think it’s very British’.” Despite the small space, Sophie’s Store carries about 500 different lines from more than 20 producers. The split between American and UK suppliers is even but it’s the British brands that dominate the food section. The line-up includes bigger names in UK premium food like Rude Health and Luscombe, as

Lion-Poulain has converted her front room into a showroom

the UK but her prices are much higher. She cites the EasyBean crackers she stocks as an example. “They retail for around €2.60 in the UK but they are €6.50 in my store once I add shipping, currency rate and my margin,” she says, adding that this may dissuade some producers from supplying her. “People that want to sell abroad have to realise that they will make a little less margin but the volume will balance it out.” Surely, French consumers baulk at that kind of price, too? “It’s a niche market but customers exist,” says Lion-Poulain, adding that her range is largely artisanal rather than packed with mainstream ex-pat favourites. “Ultimately my products are more for people who can afford them – people that have travelled before, speak English and are interested in things like glutenfree.” She stresses that these consumers are a minority – mainly people who have lived in England or the US like her – but Lion-Poulain says that British food has the potential to do well on a wider scale. Her advice is simple and has appeared many times before on FFD’s pages: get them to taste it, tell them the story and they will buy it. “If you want to buy a What I love about these regular product, you go to a brands is they are British grocery store,” she says. “If you want fine food, you go companies with roots in to a fine food shop. You want Britain but they make a different taste, different products with a twist, that packaging and a different je ne sais quoi story.” The French’s growing interest in foreign travel and display in the room but Lionculture could also play its part in Poulain also has a cramped 1m x encouraging them to buy from 3m storeroom while online orders Sophie’s Store. “People can travel are dealt with on a table under her through these products. It’s a cheap stairs. ticket to England.” With the shop open Monday Now, Lion-Poulain is searching to Friday and by appointment on for more of these “tickets”, Saturday, Lion-Poluain says she has especially those with a modern to be “very, very organised” and look (“French products can look concedes that if the business grows like a grandmother”). She is also much more it will become invasive. planning to invite the public into “These are good problems,” she another room in her house – the says philosophically. Having already kitchen – for cookery classes using run and expanded a commercial the products she sells. radio equipment business with her Then there’s the task of getting husband from their Miami home, out on the road to sell Olive Branch she is unfazed about the prospect products to her fellow retailers. of taking some warehousing space. She hopes she can capitalise on a That may soon be a possibility if problem that seems to affect many her plans to expand the distribution independent retailers on both sides side of the business come to of The Channel. fruition. “You have some fine food She is currently looking to find stores here with all the same some more producers to work with brands,” she says. “Soon there will directly as their French distributor, be no fine food stores, just fine like she does with Olive Branch. food supermarkets.” Buying in larger quantities at a more Suddenly her “cousins” theory favourable distributor’s rate will sounds more plausible. Maybe we afford her more margin on her own are more closely related than we retail sales of any of these products. think. Her current target of 30-40% on items is similar to most delis in www.sophies-store.com well as traditional items like tea, fudge and shortbread, sourced from established importer and fellow Bordeaux business Emma’s Corner. And, with the help of Marcus Carter and his Artisan Food Club, Sophie’s Store also features a number of emerging items and brands such as Fiddler’s Lancashire Crisps, Scarlett & Mustard curds, Easy Bean’s crackers and preserves from Gloucester’s The Artisan Kitchen. “What I love about these brands is they are British companies with roots in Britain but they make it with a twist, that je ne sais quoi,” says Lion-Poulain. One company that fits the bill perfectly is London-based Olive Branch, which produces a range of lines – including olive oil, wine vinegars, jarred mezzes and tapenades – using Cretan ingredients. Not only has Sophie’s Store taken on its full range but she has also become the exclusive distributor for the brand in France. Lion-Poulain isn’t the only person in France that likes Olive Branch’s products, either. She entered the producer’s sweet olive, fig & almond relish into a major awards scheme and it came away with an award (see box). The majority of stock is on

❛

❜

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

AWARD-WINNING SINGLE-ESTATE EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

olives & antipasti

Discover La Bandiera Premium Olive Oil

Connoisseurs of olive oil will delight in tasting the exceptional extra virgin olive oil from La Bandiera. This delicious olive oil is produced in the traditional wine growing area of Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast – home of the Super Tuscan vineyards of Ornellaia and Sassicaia.

The team at La Bandiera continues to use the traditional methods of selecting the best time to harvest the olives to ensure the acidity level is low thereby creating the perfect blend. The result is a smooth yet full-bodied olive oil, endorsed by the IGP in recognition of its quality and origin. Gold award winner in the 2013 New York International Olive Oil Competition, La Bandiera olive oil is available for delivery throughout the UK in sizes ranging from 250ml bottles up to 5 litre cans. Visit www.labandieraoliveoil.com or call 0207 243 5150

01582 590999 www.westphalia.co.uk • Family company established 1977 • BRC certified at the highest level • Over 1000 products • Specialists in quality cooked meats and continental charcuterie • Full range of British and continental cheeses also supplied • Vast selection for the deli counter and retail packs for the chilled cabinet • FREE delivery anywhere in England & Wales (Ts & Cs apply) 16

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

For more information visit www.silverandgreen.com or give Rachel a shout at rachel@silverandgreen.com

cheesewire Unsung heroes Hidden gems from British producers

news & views from the cheese counter

Ex-Paxton’s manager sets up in Central London

GRACEBURN In a nutshell: Made by London start-up Blackwoods with organic unpasteurised cows’ milk from Kent, Graceburn is similar to feta. The curds are pressed and drained in cloth and then brined for up to two weeks, before the cheese is broken up and put into jars of olive and rapeseed oil with thyme, garlic, bay leaves and peppercorns. A 250g jar (160g of cheese) retails for £6.50 upwards. Flavour and texture: It has a soft curd-like texture and simple milky flavour, which picks up the herb and garlic notes from the marinade. The oil can be used in salad dressings. History: Set up by Englishman Tim Jarvis and Australians Rory Holwerda, Cameron Rowan and Dave Holton, the company’s success is partly down to Holton’s other job in the maturing rooms of Neal’s Yard, which has listed the cheese in its shops and supplies it wholesale. The cheese is based on marinated Persian feta cheeses that are common in Australia and is named after a river in the Yarra Valley. Cheese care: The jars have a twomonth shelf life and should be stored at below 8°C. Why stock it? There are very few examples of this kind of cheese being made in the UK, especially with raw milk. The jars look good on the counter and the cheese can go on a cheeseboard or be used in cooking (catering tubs also available). Perfect partners: Works well in salads, on pasta or served on bread. Holton recommends a Riesling or a dry Rosé as an accompanying drink. Where to buy: Neal’s Yard Dairy or direct: info@ blackwoodscheesecompany.co.uk FFD features a different ‘unsung hero’ from Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association members each month. To get involved, contact: patrick.mcguigan@ finefoodworld.co.uk

By MICHAEL LANE

The former manager of Paxton & Whitfield’s flagship store has set up on his own as a wholesaler, retailer and affineur in an old Victorian shop in Central London. Rhuaridh Buchanan’s new venture, Buchanan’s Cheesemonger, has already been supplying cheese by foot and bicycle to a number of highend restaurants in the Capital from its maturing rooms based just north of Marble Arch. The building, on Porchester Place, also features a shop floor for tutored tastings and, following successful Saturday trials, this space will act as a retail area for five days a week from September onwards. Buchanan, who managed Paxton’s Jermyn Street store for six years, told FFD that he was focussed

Rhuaridh Buchanan now runs a wholesale, retail and maturing business in an old Victorian shop near Marble Arch

on developing his wholesale operation despite his blossoming customer base. “If I’d wanted to open only as a retailer, I would’ve been mad,” said Buchanan of the side street premises. “Wholesaling to delis is where I want to go but it will take some time to build up the buying capacity.” Buchanan said that he is aiming to serve a similar market to London’s established cheese suppliers, including his former employer, Neal’s Yard and La Fromagerie. “We want to come in and do things a little bit differently,” he said. “A lot of the top-end wholesalers have successful retail business in very premium locations, with very premium rents and they pass that on

South Caernarfon Creameries plans £8.5m production upgrade By MICHAEL LANE

Wales’ oldest farmer-owned dairy co-operative, South Caernarfon Creameries will nearly double its production capacity with an £8.5m facility it plans to build on its site in Chwilog, Gwynned. Work on the new facility, which will increase capacity from the current of 9,500 tonnes to 17,000 tonnes, begins this summer and will be operational within a year. The co-operative, which produces pre-packed and deli counter ranges under the Welsh Dragon brand, plans to roll out the redevelopment in two stages. The £6m first phase of construction will see capacity upped to 11,000 tonnes before total capacity is reached with the £2.5m second phase, which will be implemented as South Caernarfon’s milk field grows. Current cheese production will not be affected by the new-build and the co-operative will continue to use the existing production unit until the new one is fully operational.

The new facility will safeguard the existing 90 jobs on the site while Phase 2 could create as many as 10 extra jobs. “We are extremely grateful to our customers and members for their continued support,” said South Caernarfon MD Alan Wyn-Jones. “We are also grateful to the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Welsh Assembly Government for their support to this project” www.sccwales.co.uk

to their customers.” As well as competitive pricing and personal deliveries, Buchanan’s will also offer its own range of cheeses, matured on-site. One creation is a British take on the classic Calvados-washed Camembert from Normandy. Foxwhelp, named after a traditional cider apple variety, is made with Hampshire Cheese Co’s Tunworth and Somerset Cider Brandy. Buchanan is currently working with a food safety consultant on a SALSA accreditation for his premises before his range goes on sale. He has also applied for a license to serve wine to retail customers. www.buchananscheesemonger.com

Riverford with UK organic first Devon’s Riverford Organic Dairy has unveiled what it says is the first organic mascarpone to be commercially produced in the UK. The Soil Association-certified cheese, which was several months in development, is made with lemon juice rather than the citric acid used by larger scale manufacturers. It comes in cases of 12x200g tubs, which have an RRP of £3.45 each. Originally from the Lombardy region of Italy, mascarpone is used as a main ingredient in the dessert Tiramisu as well as in savoury dishes like risotto. Riverford Organic also produces curd and cottage cheese as well as milk, cream, clotted cream, butter and crème fraiche. All of these products are made with milk from its own grass-fed mixed herd using traditional farmhouse methods. www.riverforddairy.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

cheesewire

Meeting their makers Interview

Cheese Cellar has many strings to its bow but it remains focussed on relationships with artisan cheese-makers. PATRICK McGUIGAN visits the distributor’s own cheese-making operation to find out more.

hen wholesaler H&B Foods took over rivals the Cheese Cellar in London and David South in Manchester in 2007, some delis voiced serious concerns about their dwindling supplier base. One retailer told FFD that he was “running out of options” and the supplier would have a “near monopoly” position that was “frightening”. These apocalyptic predictions of meltdown (pun intended) in the artisan cheese sector thankfully didn’t become reality. Carron Lodge, Neal’s Yard and The Cress Co have extended their reach significantly since then, while national players like Rowcliffe and Premier continue to flourish. At the same time, demand for local food has been good news for small regional wholesalers, while delis and farm shops are also sourcing more directly from cheese-makers. As Owen Davies, category manager at H&B (which is better known as Cheese Cellar these days) told me when I spent the day at its Worcester depot: “There’s always going to be demand for wholesalers and suppliers at a local level.” Cheese Cellar employs around 400 people across sites in London, Worcester, Manchester and a newly opened depot in Scotland with turnover for this year expected to be £83m. The company was bought out by its founding management team of Nick Martin, Jonnie Archer and Simon Yorke in 2009 and they have resisted the lure of the multiples (except for Whole Foods) to focus on supplying restaurants, contract caterers, airlines, other wholesalers and independent retailers, which account for around 25% of the business. The rise of local food has been such a trend that, rather than becoming a faceless national wholesaler, Cheese Cellar has actually built closer relationships with artisan cheese-makers in the past five years. It updates its range at least twice a year with new lines from micro-dairies and exclusive products made in collaboration with artisan cheese-makers. Last year, it teamed up with Quickes to create an elderflower cheddar while Catherine Mead of Lynher Dairies has just launched her new Gouda-style cheese Cornish Kern exclusively with Cheese Cellar. Other new additions for this summer include Helford Blue and White from Treveador Farm Dairy and

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

Nicky Philp and Owen Davies (top) are part of Cheese Cellar’s senior team working with artisan cheese-makers, including the in-house dairy that is run by George Bramham

Brinkworth Blue made by Ceri Cryer in Wiltshire. “As a leading speciality supplier we should be out there refreshing our range and finding new producers, even if they are sometimes difficult to work with because of their size,” says Davies. “The paperwork can be a bit daunting but we work with them on things like testing and traceability so that they can supply us.”

As well as selling other people’s products, the company also makes its own cheese at its Worcester premises, which are housed in converted farm buildings. Landlord Colin Anstey, who converted the farm into business premises, sold his cheese-making operation to Cheese Cellar around four years ago and today the company makes four varieties: Old Worcester White (a cheddar-style cheese aged for

We’ve learned a lot from having the cheese❛making business. It helps you to appreciate the product and the work that goes into it. ❜

six months), Double Worcester (hard, double milled, coloured with annatto), Bishop’s Tump (hard ewes’ milk) and Snodsbury (hard goats’ milk). Former School of Artisan Food student George Bramham runs the dairy, which has just been expanded with a new £30k maturing room, and all his cheeses, plus a range of curd products, are part of Cheese Cellar’s retail range. Old Worcester White has also recently gone on the cheeseboard for British Airways’ first and business class flights, but there are other benefits to having your own dairy, explains purchasing director Nicky Philp. “As part of their induction, our staff will make cheese with George and customers are also really keen to visit,” she says. “We’ve learned a lot from having the cheese business. People don’t realise how much work goes into making cheese – how much washing up there is for a start! It helps you to appreciate the product and the work that goes into it, and what it takes to make a cheese like Old Worcester compared to a block cheddar.” The new maturing room, which can be seen through a viewing window in reception, is currently filled with the Cheese Cellar’s own products, but the company is looking at ageing cheeses from other producers. On my visit, a Brie de Meaux had been ripened a week or so longer than normal until it was nicely gooey. “Wholesalers and retailers want more life on their cheese, but hotels and restaurant generally want it to be bang on and ready to go so we need to be able to offer that flexibility and have more control over the maturity of our cheese,” says Philp. Buying, making and maturing cheese is one thing, selling it is another, which is why Cheese Cellar hosts regular supplier days when cheese-makers will come to the office and hold tastings and talks for the staff. The regional sales teams also do their own informal tastings on Friday afternoons – known fondly as ‘Fat Fridays’ – most recently comparing different washed rind cheeses. “They are a lot of fun and everyone really enjoys them,” says Davies. “But they also help people understand what we are selling and the amazing stories behind our cheeses.” www.cheesecellar.co.uk

Cornish Blue

When it comes to exceptional cheddar, the old ways are still the best. Our award-winning, traditional truckles are wrapped in muslin and allowed to breathe as they slowly mature, resulting in a creamy complex flavour with a long finish.

Corn

ish Blu

h eC

Stuff of legend

Cornish, sweet and creamy

Gold winners at

the ideal Christmas gift!

British Cheese Awards (Best Cheddar, Best Goats Cheese, Best Export Cheese & Best Traditional Cheese) World Cheese Awards, Great Taste Awards, Nantwich, Royal Bath & West EES ISH CH E AWARD Great Yorkshire, Devon County Show, Taste of the West and Frome RIT

www.cornishcheese.co.uk

SUPREME

CHAMPION 2010

enquiries@cornishcheese.co.uk

Home Farm . Newton St Cyres . Devon . www.quickes.co.uk .quickes.co.uk

B ES

Tel: 01579 363660

T OF CATEGORY

Long Clawson Dairy proudly present:

Aged

Creamy

Smooth Blue

Leicestershire Red The cheese is cloth bound, buttered and matured for 6 months to deliver a flaky, open texture cheese with a slightly sweet, nutty, caramelised flavour from the rich orange curd.

This delicate blue cheese is hand crafted and specially created for a soft, creamy texture and mild blue taste. It is crafted to be eaten straight from the fridge.

GREAT

YORKSHIRE SHOW 2013 FIRST/GOLD

EES ISH CH E AWARD RIT

Available now from all good Wholesalers

S ILVER

G OLD

www.clawson.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 路 August 2014

ho fir ld e

Devil’s Dynamite launch their explosive gift pack!

Supreme Champions in 2006, regional winners in 2009 and with continued success at Great Taste year on year, you can be assured of quality from Woodcock Smokery

Our website has had a HOT facelift! Take a Smouldering Look at

www.devilsdynamite.com Telephone 07840426947 Email sales@devilsdynamite.co.uk

Hot-smoked Atlantic Mackerel

Smoked Wild Atlantic Salmon

Hot-smoked Albacore Tuna

Cold-smoked Irish Haddock

+353 28 36232 | www.woodocksmokery.com

Lyme Bay Winery

Award-winning Festive Drinks & Lovely Gifts • NEW eclectic range of Collectors Liqueurs – special promotional offer for first orders • Delicious accompaniments to Christmas Fayre • Beautiful gift boxes including small stocking fillers • Jack Ratt Ciders, Lyme Bay Ciders, Mulled tipples, Fruit Wines, Meads, Fruit Liqueurs, Cream Liqueurs Call us for advice on your Winter & Christmas orders.

An amazing African traditional, all-purpose chilli sauce made from quality fresh ingredients for natural goodness. Goch sauces are an explosion of flavours and heat that is additively refreshing with a taste that really stands out! Delicious as dip, spread, added to soups, salads and any cooking – steam, roast, fry, BBQ, marinade and much more. Gluten free; Suitable for vegetarians; No artificial additives and preservatives; No added sugar; Made to the highest quality.

The Lyme Bay Winery, Shute, Axminster, Devon EX13 7PW Tel 01297 551 355 · sales@lymebaywinery.co.uk 20

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

01978 842981 gochcompany@gmail.com www.gochandcompany.com

cut & dried

making more of british & continental charcuterie MAKING A PRESENT OF PATÉ: Cornish Charcuterie has shown FFD a mock-up of its first gift-packs, to be launched shortly. Each will hold 3x50g jars of the artisan producer’s ambient rillettes or patés, with the option to choose any lines from the range. These include traditional pork rillette, aromatic duck rillette with cranberries & Grand Marnier and its first vegetarian product: mushroom paté with chilli & coriander. Made at the company’s artisan food centre at Norton Barton Farm, near Bude – which also hosts a bakehouse and farmhouse cheese-maker – the patés and rillettes are filled in German-made Weck jars and have a nine-month shelf life. A three-jar box costs £6.20 (trade), while individual jars cost £2.10. www.cornishcharcuterie.co.uk

Touch of Hart says the wild grazing habits of its parkland deer lend a gamier flavour to their meat

London listings for parkland venison By MICK WHITWORTH

Venison specialist Touch of Hart has secured a listing with prestigious London food store Partridges, shortly after been invited to take part in the summer-long Meet The Makers artisan food campaign in Selfridges’ London food hall. Partridges will stock the Touch of Hart range from September, initially in its main Sloane Square branch, after a direct approach from the producer. At the end of June, Selfridges launched several items from the Touch of Hart venison charcuterie range, including coriander & garlic salami, bresaola and jerky. The producer also carried out a ‘carcass to charcuterie’ demonstration at

the Oxford Street store in early July as part of the Meet the Makers campaign. Touch of Hart was set up my Lord Ivar Mountbatten, owner of Bridwell Park in Devon, and butcher Julian Hodge. It sells a range of fresh and cured venison products made using its own parkland deer, culled at Bridwell Park and processed in its own on-site butchery. Unlike farmed deer, Bridwell Park’s fallow deer are classed as ‘wild’, since they are free to roam the woodlands and graze on grass, acorns and other mast or forest fruits. This diet is said to give the venison a gamier flavour than meat from farmed deer. www.touchofhart.com

Sales up more than a third as Deli Farm edges further afield By MICK WHITWORTH

Deli Farm says 70% of sales are now outside the West Country

Cornwall’s Deli Farm Charcuterie has added a new storage facility and upped the space devoted to air-drying, slicing and packing, as it reports sales rising “close to 40%”

Meat from woodlandreared animals is the basis of Forest Pig‘s range

Harrods students meet the foraging pigs of Wyre Forest Eighteen diploma students from Harrods’ in-house Gourmet Food Academy visited Worcestershire-based Forest Pig last month to find out more about its British charcuterie made from woodland-reared pigs. The students, who are mainly employed in Harrods’ food hall, were hosted by James Levell, who runs Forest Pig with wife Sally. The small family firm has created a range of slow-matured chorizo, salamis and air-dried whole-muscle products such as lomo and coppa, made from pigs that forage in the Wyre Forest. Jeremy Levell arranged for the Harrods students to visit the forest, meet the pigs, and learn about the

benefits of woodland foraging to both the pigs and the ecology of the forest. He then gave a tour of Forest Pig’s processing unit and delivered a learning module covering the manufacturing process from butchery through to finished product, and ended with a tasting session. “We are quite a small unit, so it was tricky fitting everyone in,” Levell told FFD, “but it was a super day. “We’ve received excellent feedback from the participants and it was a great opportunity to meet the staff at Harrods and assist in extending their product knowledge.”

over the past year. “This has been organic growth,” says Jean Edwards, who set up the firm with husband Martin in 2006. “We haven’t had any marketing drive or sales campaign to achieve that figure.” Based near the north Cornish coast, Deli Farm makes a broad range of Italian-style salamis and cured meats, including coppa, bresaola, duck prosciutto and pancetta. Sold direct and through distributor Cheese Cellar, its products were on the menu in the athletes’ village at the London Olympics and it

has supplied mixed platters into the members’ and players’ pavilions at Wimbledon. Edwards said the past 18 months had seen a major shift in the balance of sales, with 70% of Deli Farm’s products now sold outside the West Country, compared with 30% before 2012. As well as doubling the size of its slicing and packing area the company has brought in a second slicer, while a new vacuum-packing machine has given a fivefold increase in packing speeds.

www.forestpig.com

www.delifarmcharcuterie.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

Winner of 41 Great Taste & Academy of Chocolate Awards

Fine handmade chocolate gifts from multi-award winning Chococo New range of unique chocolate gifts with strong on-shelf appeal & attractive price points.

• Measured doses of natural flavour • Each droplet delivers the equivalent of a third of a teaspoon of dried herb or spice • Each ampoule has the flavour equivalent of 2.5 jars of the dried herb • Two year shelf life • Adjusting flavour at the end of the cooking process retains far more aroma

All handmade in-house with fine origin chocolate from Venezuela, Grenada & Madagascar & presented in our distinctive, contemporary packaging.

Order now for Halloween, Advent & Christmas Contact Chris for a price list: chris@chococo.co.uk I www.chococo.co.uk

01929 421777 @chococotweet

Chococo Chocolates

Proudly handmade in dorset

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

A L L T H E F L AV O U R … NONE OF THE WOOD! Available from: The Flavour Workshop, Tissington, Derbyshire DE6 1RA ed@flavourbaron.com · 07581 400482 caroline@flavourbaron.com · 07818 000227

www.flavourbaron.com

product update

christmas

Seasonal stocking It’s never too early to think about Christmas if you’re a retailer. ANNE BRUCE sifts through the latest sackful of gifts and festive flavours.

l Preserves company Rose Farm is offering a Bit on the Side-branded gift pack this Christmas, a range of three 110g jars (strawberry jam, three fruits marmalade and Pa’s Pickle). These are stacked in a clear acetate tube gift pack (RRP £5.95). www.rosefarmsomerset.co.uk

l Newton&Pott Along with a limited edition Christmas coffee, specialist coffee supplier Cherizena has created festive gift boxes featuring two 100g packs of coffee (one each of Christmas coffee and Blue Mountain blend, either beans or ground). The selection boxes are available as own-brand or under the Cherizena label with an RRP of £7.50. Orders accepted in multiples of 10. www.cherizena.co.uk

Belvoir Fruit Farms is revamping its range of winter warmer cordials with new labels that urge customers to try them hot. The new labelling highlights the multitude of uses for the cordials from making hot toddies to using as an ingredient in baking. The range includes apple, plum & cinnamon cordial, spiced winter berries cordial and mulled winter punch. RRPs start at £2.99. www.belvoirfruitfarms.co.uk

The British Aperitif from Kamm & Sons is a bittersweet botanical spirit that is said to stimulate the palate before food. It is distilled in London using a blend of 45 natural botanicals including ginseng, fresh grapefruit peel and Manuka honey. It can be served with bitter lemon or in a hot toddy. A 70cl bottle costs £26.99.

Start-up biscuit company Aberffraw Biscuit Co produces Aberffraw biscuits (pronounced A-ber-fro) – a traditional Welsh shortbread said to be Britain’s oldest biscuit. It dates from around the 13th century and is pressed in the shape of a scallop shell. The biscuits are all-butter and are hand-made in North Wales. The company has created a 225g gift box of the biscuits. A carton of 10 gift boxes is £25 (£22 for 4+ cartons) and they have a RRP of £3.95 per unit. www.aberffrawbiscuits.com

www.kammandsons.com

Cottage Delight has launched its mammoth 2014 Christmas collection. Festive products on offer include raspberry, Cognac and cassis liqueurs. These are presented in clear tubes and supplied in a display box with an RRP of £5.95. A muslin-wrapped apple & calvados winter pudding (RRP £7.95) is one of three hand-tied puddings on sale. Its new Roulades for Cheese (RRP £2.95), a combination of dried fruit and nuts, are designed to complement soft and hard cheeses for a festive starter or party snacking. The Staffordshire-based company is also offering two selections of its best-selling sweet and savoury products, presented in wicker baskets with a contemporary whitewash finish. Traditional Favourites and the Farmhouse Hamper have RRPs of £19.95 and £30 respectively. www.cottagedelight.co.uk

sells home-made chutneys, jams and preserves produced in a kitchen in Hackney, London. Christmas options include homemade cranberry, orange & port sauce and tamarillo chutney. The 228ml jars’ RRP starts at £4.80. www.newtonandpott.co.uk

l Lyme Bay Winery’s range of festive drinks includes mulled wine, Christmas mead, ginger liqueur, cream liqueurs and the new bespoke Collectors Range of liqueurs. www.lymebaywinery.co.uk

l The

Loseley’s speciality stollen is hand made with dark rum-soaked fruit, and a natural almond marzipan centre. Once baked, the stollens are soaked in rum syrup and finished with clarified butter. They have a shelf life of three months. Trade price is £62.50 for 10x650g stollens or £6.50 each. Recommended retail price is £8.95. www.loseleybakery.co.uk

All-natural Barú offers a range of Christmas gifts containing Dreamy Chocolate Hippos, which are filled hippo-shaped chocolates. The Belgian chocolatier’s range includes small Christmas ball with sea salt caramel chocolate hippo (15g, RRP £3.49), small handbag with sea salt caramel chocolate hippo (75g, RRP £5.79), stylish handbag filled with sea salt caramel chocolate hippos (180g, RRP £9.99) and stylish handbag filled with mixed flavoured chocolate hippos (180g, RRP £9.99). These products are available through distributors Cotswold Fayre, The Cress Co, HF Chocolates and Springvale. www.baru.be

Pittenweem Chocolate Company is offering single malt whisky liqueurs produced by an artisan, family-run chocolate maker in Belgium this Christmas. These are presented in a wooden box with a Chocolate Tartan label. www.pittenweemchocolate.co.uk

l Preserves company The Artisan Kitchen’s Gift Pack is a natural card pack filled with two preserves and finished with natural raffia and a card swing tag (RRP £9.99). www.theartisankitchen.co.uk

l Luxury marzipan brand Niederegger, which makes products with 90% marzipan, recently launched caramel brownie flavour. For Christmas, it has a selection of gift boxes with festive packaging. These include 8x12.5g loaves (RRP £4.95).

l Escargot de Crete supplies snail meat from breeding snails in extra virgin olive oil with vinegar, rosemary and sultanas from Crete. This is made to a famous Cretan recipe known as Chochlii Boubouristi. www.escargotdecrete.com

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

product update Chocolatier Sir Hans Sloane’s Christmas range includes handcrafted chocolate snowflakes and handcrafted truffle Christmas trees. The snowflakes (4 per pack) are handmade and decorated (RRP £7.99) and the truffles (12 per pack, RRP £9.99) come in six flavours including salted caramel, cinnamon and peppermint.

christmas New for 2014 from The Bay Tree is The Sweet Preserve House (trade £5, RRP £8.30), a snow dusted house featuring Father Christmas. The three windows contain a trio of preserves – Seville orange marmalade, strawberry jam and raspberry jam – in 113g jars. The Bay Tree’s Christmas range also includes a Father Christmas Biscuit Tin filled with double chocolate chip cookies and a Snowman Biscuit Tin with white chocolate and raspberry piece cookies. Both 200g units have an RRP of £5.25.

Olives Et Al has created a threejar gift pack of its Neat & Dirty cocktail olives, called a Neat & Dirty Threesome. The gift pack includes jars of gin- and vodka-soaked Nocellara olives infused with lemon and a jar of gin-steeped olives infused with orange, all to be served frozen. The Neat & Dirty Threesome (RRP £30) is available through Olives Et Al’s wholesales direct. www.olivesetal.co.uk

www.thebaytree.co.uk

www.sirhanssloane.com

Cheshire Chutney Co makes a range of handmade chutneys, preserves, drizzles and curds, using old family recipes. Its Christmas range includes a seasonal quartet box (4x200g jars, RRP £13.50), with Christmas chutney, Cheshire chutney, High Dumpsy Dearie jam (plum, pear, apple) and sweet chilli jam. It also offers a seasonal hamper (1x250ml jar and 4x200g jars, RRP £18.50) of balsamic syrup drizzle, Christmas chutney, apricot chutney, damson jam, sweet chilli jam. The jam and third chutney selection in both packs may be varied to give a wider market appeal. Products are available for delivery from October 1 to December 15 2014.

Paté and terrine specialist Ross & Ross Food’s seasonal range includes the Man Box – a small, stamped picnic box containing Pale Whale Ale from Whale Ale brewery in Oxfordshire, 75g of British charcuterie from the Cotswold Curer, a bag of Mr Trotter’s Great British Crackling and smoked apple chutney. The company is also offering a selection of seasonal paté and terrines in 100g slices, including potted pork terrine (RRP £3.75, trade price £2.50). www.rossandrossfood.co.uk

www.cheshirechutney.co.uk

Distributor Cotswold Fayre is offering a Christmas range including David and Oliver soups, made from British ingredients. The soups are available in three flavours: Royal Game soup (chunks of venison in a stock made from pheasant, partridge and venison), pheasant mulligatawny soup (combination of Indian spices, pheasant and red lentils) and wild game bird soup (a mix of pheasant and partridge with rosemary and garlic). The wholesale price for 8x300g is £14.25 (RRP £2.50 per unit) and cases of 12x500g cost £33.30 (RRP £3.90 per unit). www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

The packaging for Creamy Toffees Slabs, made by family company Walker’s Nonsuch is being refreshed for Christmas. The slabs come with a metal toffee hammer along with instructions on how to use them. Varieties include Original Creamy, Nutty Brazil and liquorice toffee. The RRP is £4.50 for each 400g slab, which come in cases of 10 available through distributor Hider.

Paxton & Whitfield has a selection of new cheeses and fine food products on offer for Christmas. These include black-waxed Dorset Goat cheese (200g, RRP £6.45) and Paxton’s Stilton Jar (100g, RRP £9.50), a stockingfiller sized ceramic jar with black and gold branding. And there is a selection of four different flavours of Biscuits for Cheese (300g, RRP £5.75). Made by an artisan bakery, the box contains original, charcoal, malted and seeded wheat crackers. There is also a handmade, cloth-bound cheddar truckle (RRP £36.00) made to a traditional recipe using pasteurised milk from local herds and vegetarian rennet.

www.hiderfoods.co.uk

www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

Merangz’s Christmas Decadence Bites Box features six meringues. This limited edition box includes Merangz flavoured, dipped or topped with layers or sprinkles of Irish whisky gold, dark chocolate and Sicilian orange, brandy-soaked fruit Christmas pudding, vanilla sherry trifle, chocolate & cherry and peppermint dark chocolate. Each box has an RRP of £5.95. www.merangz.co.uk

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

All I want for Christmas is...

Confectionery Corner, 4 Wessex Road Bourne End, Bucks. SL8 5DT

01628 520927

enquiries@originalcandyco.com 015394 36614 • info@hawksheadrelish.com • hawksheadrelish.com 015394 36614 • info@hawksheadrelish.com • hawksheadrelish.com

www.chocca-mocca.com www.originalcandyco.com

Spe

ciali

ty Find & Fin us a e Fo t sta o nd n d Fair o.1 080 2014

New Gift Ideas

More new exciting gifts available. www.thewoodenspoon.co.uk 01233 812251 sales@thewoodenspoon.co.uk The New Oast, Coldharbour Farm, Wye, Kent, TN25 5DB

80937 WS GIFT PACK AD 204X141_FAW.indd 1

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014 09/07/2014 13:41

www.ashridgecider.co.uk | e: drinks@ashridgecider.co.uk | t: 01364 654749

Gourmet Indian Snacks

A class of its own. The award winning Gruyère Premier Cru and Emmental Premier Cru

Perfect snacks for Christmas

 GLUTEN FREE *selected snacks

 BEST GRUYÈRE & BEST SWISS CHEESE 2013

No artificial colours, artificial flavourings or preservatives

Suitable for Vegans

 and Vegetarians

There’s is no need to settle for second best when you can stock the ten times World Champions cave aged Premier Cru Gruyère and Emmental from von Mühlenen VON MÜHLENEN UK • c/o Paul Clarke • Badgers Barn St Mary’s Barn• Weeford • Staffordshire WS14OPW T +44 (0)1543 480 484 • M +44 (0)7771 931 246 pclarke@vonmuhlenen.ch 26

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

www.howdahsnacks.co.uk

@Howdahfood

Tel: 01204 702 925

facebook.com/howdahwall

product update Anno Kent Dry Gin is a smooth gin from the first micro-distillery in the county of Kent for over 200 years. It is distilled and bottled by Anno Distillers in Marden, Kent, in a copperpot still called Patience. The gin is made using local Kentish botanicals including samphire, hops and elderflower. It is said to have traditional juniper notes to start but finishes with aromatics. Anno Gin comes in a 70cl bottle (RRP £34.95) or miniature 5cl bottles for the Christmas gift market.

christmas

Chef d’Italia is a new range of Italian specialities from the Italian bakery Chiostro di Saronno, available via Empire Bespoke Foods. The Chef d’Italia range is presented in retro, rustic Italian-style packaging. It includes Pandoro, a selection of panettone including a hand-wrapped option and chocolate or amaretto cream-filled panettone. Case size varies from 5-12 units per case. Also from Empire Bespoke Foods are new Mr Potato Head and Barbie games (trade £3.53) from Games for Motion. This company has been producing chocolate versions of some of the world’s favourite board games for more than 20 years. Each game comes with its own set of rules, board game format and chocolate play pieces. Continuing on the board game theme, the distributor has a Monopoly-themed Advent calendar (trade £1.86), with Belgian chocolates, featuring a world map to travel around in the run-up to Christmas. The Advent calendars and board games both come in cases of 12.

France’s CastelaS produces aromatic olive oils made by crushing olives simultaneously with fresh herbs or fruits during the olive harvest season. The range includes olive oil & citron, thyme & rosemary, basil & mint, ginger, garlic and espelette chili pepper, each in 250ml bottles or together in a gift box of 6x50ml mignonette bottles. Products are available in the UK from the Oil Merchant. www.oilmerchant.co.uk

www.bespokefoods.co.uk

www.annodistillers.co.uk

The Roots & Wings Christmas collection includes Christmas pudding in a ceramic bowl (454g, RRP £11.99) with organic raisins, currants and sultanas soaked in Cognac and ale and a Christmas pudding with glutenfree ingredients in a ceramic bowl (454g, RRP £12.99). A trio of mini Christmas puddings gift set (RRP £7.65) and a small richly fruited Christmas cake (RRP £4.45) are also available.

ZaraMama Foods’ new Christmas gift product is a quad pack of four assorted 90g bags of its Gourmet Popping Corn with 4x10g sachets of seasoning – cheese, chilli & lime, vanilla, and maple flavours. The pack makes four large bowls of popcorn and has a trade price of £4.50 and an RRP of £7. It is available direct or from distributors The Bay Tree Food Co, Cotswold-Fayre and The Cress Co.

www.rootsandwingsorganic.com

www.zaramama.com

All-natural cake mix company House of the Rising Bun is selling a winter spice cake mix with snowflake sprinkles included. The mixes come in case sizes of 6, presented in a shelf ready box. The trade price is £4.20 and RRP is £6.00. The company distributes through Cotswold Fayre and Hider Foods. www.houseoftherisingbun.co.uk

Surrey-based artisan mustard producer Cuzacks is offering a gift hamper containing four jars of mustard products. These are coarse grain beer mustard, grain beer mustard, smooth beer mustard and a mustard pickle. All jars are 200g and the price per hamper is £12.00, with an RRP of £15.69. Alternatively a two-pack gift of coarse grain beer mustard and smooth beer mustard costs £6.90 (RRP £8.95).

Field fare has launched a new range of 20 premium ready-meals, perfect for busy households at Christmas when time is precious. The dishes, which have a high meat content, have been inspired by flavours from around the world. Varieties include venison & roasted vegetable casserole (360g, RRP £5.99), Chicken Cacciatore (480g, RRP £4.50), meatballs pomodoro (370g, RRP £4.50), lamb rogan josh (347g, RRP £4.99) and green Thai chicken curry (300g, RRP £4.99).

www.cusacks.biz

www.field-fare.com

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

For a delicious range of artisan Spanish foods, call now for our new catalogue! Speciality Importer of the Year 2008 01865 340055 | info@delicioso.co.uk | www.delicioso.co.uk

August 2014 路 Vol.15 Issue 7

Join the Guild of Fine Food for a night when the stars are out… THE GREAT TASTE GOLDEN FORK AWARDS The most delicious night on the calendar, the most anticipated results in fine food, climaxing in the crowning of the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2014 Monday September 8 2014 at The Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London. Drinks Reception, followed by Dinner and Presentations.

Join us in the company of leading chefs, food writers, top retailers and the very best food & drink producers for the biggest night of the year. With drinks – mingle with awardwinning producers and retailers and chat with like-minded food industry folk as you enjoy a Great Taste cocktail. With dinner – Four superb courses, beginning at 7.30pm, created by Royal Garden Hotel chef, Steve

Munkley using some of the 2014 Great Taste award-winning foods to create a magnificent menu of mouthwatering morsels. With wine – fine wines, chosen by The Guild of Fine Food and served with each course along with the story of the 2014 Great Taste journey. BBC Radio’s favourite foodie, Nigel Barden will host the announcement of this year’s Golden Fork trophy winners.

With coffee – Tension will mount as the evening comes to a close and the moment when the supreme jury of judges reveals its choice for the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2014. Lives will change after the evening’s announcements… come and enjoy being part of this celebration. Reserve your tickets today, and hurry as places are in demand and strictly limited.

To avoid any disappointment, please contact charlie.westcar@finefoodworld.co.uk or call the Guild of Fine Food on 01747 825200.

We’re Spice Specialists We love all things spice! An award winning family business based in Co. Cork, Ireland.

Please contact our brilliant UK distributors, Cotswold Fayre for all supply queries on

Special Christmas Grumpy Yule blend is available to order from 1st September 2014.

t: +44 (0)8456 121 201

Available in 250g gift tin and 227g pack

TONGUETINGLIN’TASTETWISTIN’... SPICES!

For tips click onto http://www.greensaffron.com/videocookery

Our organic Christmas blend makes an unusual gift and is the perfect coffee to compliment any Christmas dinner.

The Roastery, Bent Ley Industrial Estate, Holmfirth, HD9 4EP. SCAN THE CODE FOR DETAILS!

Tel: 01484 855500 email: coffee@grumpymule.co.uk

www.grumpymule.co.uk

L u x u r y a n d Tr a d i t i o n a l C h r i s t m a s P u d d i n g s m a d e o n t h e I s l e o f M a n

Highest Awarded Christmas Puddings at The Great Taste Awards 2012 & 2013

BERRIES

ISLE OF MAN

Wholesale Enquiries: 01624 838384 E m a i l : i n f o @ b e r r i e s . c o. i m S h o p O n l i n e : w w w. b e r r i e s . c o. i m

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

product update

cakes & puddings

Stuck on sweet LYNDA SEARBY tucks into the latest desserts and teatime treats

Since launching Big Banana Bread Co last year, Sharon Luff has been on a mission to bring Aussiestyle banana bread to the British breakfast table. “Not to be confused with banana cake, banana bread is spongy, not too rich or too sugary and can be toasted and spread with butter or crème fraiche and honey,” explains the Australia-born baker, who is now Notting Hill-based. With a 40% banana content, Big Banana Bread is touted as an energyboosting, vitamin-packed snack or breakfast alternative. Besides 450g family loaves (RRP £5), the company produces individually wrapped 105g slices for the on-the-go market (RRP £2-2.20). Stockists so far include Fortnum & Mason and Crussh Juice Bars. www.bigbananabread.com

Earlier this year, Ursula Evans of My Cottage Kitchen in Shrewsbury was charged with resurrecting a fruitcake recipe from the arts and crafts designer William Morris that was recently discovered at his family’s country retreat, Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire. Evans says she followed Morris’s fruitcake recipe almost to the letter, soaking the vine fruits in brandy, baking slowly in her AGA and incorporating pineapple, cherries, brandy, muscovado sugar and glacé fruit into the topping. The cakes are on sale at Kelmscott Manor for £18, with proceeds going towards conservation of the heritage site. www.mycottagekitchen.co.uk

Orkney based Argo’s Bakery has collaborated with Highland Park distillery to create a Scotch whisky cake. Made with Orkney butter, the 275g spiced fruitcake is infused with 12-year-old Highland Park single malt. It is currently retailing for £7 in Highland Park’s visitor centre, the Argo’s Bakery shops in Stromness and Kirkwall, local visitor information centres and on board NorthLink Ferries’ vessels. www.orkneybakery.co.uk.

Bas ed on mak an un br in Hig g stre oken hlan tr tc d P hing ba aditio n of ark ck is sing argu over 2 whisky le m ably 00 ... alt in the mos years, over ....wit the four h skill world t respecte d gene s hand ...... the O wit rkney ration ed do h th w s e S Baker of Art n cotl y ha is an to an s B an produc d's mos worke akers, exce e th t n d toge ption e fines orth ther al fr t in O erly di wit uit rk hH cake ney stiller pr ighl y and , moist oduc e; Par an Sin

gle

Hig

hlan

Mal

12 Ye d richly ar

hisk

Old

lace

uniq k Whisk ue ta y Cake st e of

the

AGED

is tr

Isle

uly

YEARS

ake hisky C Malt W

Captured Cakes, launched by Lesley Stewart in Christmas 2013, claims to offer a completely new cake concept: all its cakes are baked in a jar, decorated in the jar and eaten directly from the jar. The range so far includes handdecorated fruit and chocolate & cherry cakes for gifts and special occasions, and as well as standard designs, Captured Cakes accepts commissions. The cakes come in 1062ml jars and have an RRP of £20 and trade price of £15. Smaller 560ml cakes are also available. www.capturedcakes.com

Ginger Bakers from Kendal has brought a local cake back from the brink of extinction. The Westmorland pepper cake was originally produced using the spices brought into Cumbria from the West Indies and exchanged for wool, so what would have been just a regular fruit cake became a distinctive cake using spices and black treacle. Ginger Bakers describes the cake, which can be eaten alone or with cheese, as “moist, fruity and robust, with a slightly sticky texture and an appealing distinctive flavour of ginger and cracked black pepper”. The cake has been awarded Forgotten Food status by the Slow Food Movement. Trade price is £5.50 (RRP £7.70) for a 600g loaf.

Having found very few bakeries that offer quality frozen cheesecakes, Emma Plumb has set up the Plum Perfection Cake Company. The Sussex start-up, which opened its doors in January, produces handmade baked and unbaked cheesecakes with a variety of fillings and toppings, from salted caramel to apple crumble and Bakewell. So far they are stocked in farm shops, where they retail at £18 for an 8” and £10.99 for a 6” cheesecake.

www.gingerbakers.co.uk

www.plumperfection.co.uk

D E S I G N

Merangz, the slow baked Swiss-style meringues made by Shropshire bakery The Little Round Cake Company, are now available in a miniature version. Merangz Bites come in packs of six (RRP £4.50), in a variety of flavours, including passion fruit, black cherry, lemon, Belgian chocolate, mocha and pistachio. With their crisp shell and mallowy centre, Merangz are made with hand-separated free-range egg whites and natural flavours and essences according to a traditional Swiss recipe.

London catering firm Sissi Fabulous Food has added Linzertorte to its repertoire. The famous Austrian jam tart is encased in delicate pastry made from hazelnuts and vanilla. Trade price is £9 for a 28cm round tart or £1.50 for individual squares. Delivery is free within central London for orders over £100, otherwise there is a £35 charge. www.sissifabulousfood.com

Hunter’s Puddings has agreed deals with The Cress Company, Hider Foods Imports and Cotswold Fayre to provide nationwide distribution for its gluten-free Christmas cake for Christmas 2014. The handmade fruit cake, which launched in autumn 2013, is packed with fruits and nuts, dosed with brandy then decorated with rolled marzipan and icing. RRP is £14.95. www.hunterspuddings.co.uk

www.thelittleroundcakecompany. co.uk

Having been based in James Asquith’s home for two years, The Cheesecake Emporium will soon be leasing its first premises on the Fylde coast after being awarded a £10,000 loan through the Government’s Start Up Loans initiative. Asquith makes and sells over 100 flavours of chilled cheesecake, from peanut & salted caramel to orange & lime, under the Love Cheesecakes brand. So far he has mainly been trading at food festivals, but has just secured a listing with Bents and hopes to break into the deli trade. www.lovecheesecakes.com

The Proof of the Pudding is about to launch two new puddings: jam roly poly and apricot & almond pudding, made by Susan Green in her Northumberland farmhouse kitchen. www.theproofofthepudding.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

Captured Cakes, the cake baked in the jar, decorated in the jar and eaten directly from the jar.

Eat Me...

Deluxe Christmas Pudding

Golden Syrup Pudding

Captured Cakes are an artisan high end product, with the “wow” factor you have been looking for. This unique cake in the jar is ready to eat, has a great shelf life, looks stunning and tastes amazing. They make great gifts and are ideal for Christmas. Please contact us to place an order today.

07540 343302/07990 792897 | www.capturedcakes.com

Truly SCRUMPTIOUS

CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS STICKY PUDDINGS

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Winners of

great taste Awards

Gluten Free Christmas Pudding

Voted... “The best gluten free Christmas Pudding.’ theguardian

www.burtreepuddings.co.uk enquiries@burtreepuddings.co.uk @burtreepuds 01325 463 521

0831 A5 Flyer Burtree.indd 1

12/06/2014 15:52

Traditional handmade Christmas Puddings from the edge of The Lake District

y l u r t a For s a m t s i r h C t a e gr Country Puddings Lodge Farm, Dacre, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 0HH tel: 017684 80864 fax: 017684 80249 email: info@countrypuddings.co.uk

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

www.countrypuddings.co.uk

product update

jams & preserves

Laying it on thick LYNDA SEARBY sticks a spoon into the latest jars of sweet preserves

l Raspberry & cassis and strawberry & cracked pepper are two new summer jam flavours from Carreglefn-based Anglesey Preserves. RRP is £3.50 for a 340g jar. www.angleseypreserves.co.uk

The Pickled Village warns that its new Hot-Blooded breakfast marmalade – a “heady concoction” of thick-cut blood orange and red hot chilli peppers – is “not for wimps”. The explosively flavoured marmalade is said to be as at home on buttered toast, crumpets and oatcakes as it is on pork sausages or barbecued chicken wings. RRP is from £2.99 per 340g jar and distribution is via Brambles Foods and Goodness Foods. www.thepickledvillage.com

At the 2014 Ludlow Food Festival, The Mini Jar Company will unveil its new chocolate mojito jelly (45ml, RRP £1.25). The recipe is under wraps but the company says the new addition will be in the same vein as its strawberry, grapefruit, raspberry, orange and pineapple mojito jellies, which use juice, rum, soda, sugar and fruit mint from Urban Herbs. www.minijarcompany.co.uk

Top sellers…

Deli, ...at Dorking ey rr Dorking, Su

ange en Seville or Artisan Kitch marmalade nder lemon & lave Ouse Valley marmalade eser ve mbleberry pr Deerview Ju e peanut an chocolat Perrins Belgi butter

ney ter truffle ho Truffle Hun

Confit d’olives noires is the newest addition to the preserve range at Hertfordshire’s Made in Provence. The sweet olive jam comes from Nyons, a small town in the Drôme Provencale, southern France. Wholesale price starts at £2.85 per unit (RRP £4.50).

l Henshelwoods has followed up its Olympics success by supplying its Scottish raspberry jam and Seville orange marmalade to the Commonwealth Games athletes’ village. www.henshelwoodsfinefoods.co.uk

www.madeinprovence.co.uk

As of July, marmalades from Exmoor based Cranfields have been rebranded under The Proper Marmalade Company label. As part of the exercise, Cranfields has also divided its marmalades into Proper and Improper ranges, to appeal to two different demographics. Proper marmalades include blood orange, pink grapefruit and other traditional flavours, while the Improper range takes in chocolate splattered, lemon & horseradish and blood orange & black pepper. The trade price for a 227g jar is between £2.45 and £2.55 and the minimum order for free delivery (England and Wales only) is 84 jars. www.cranfieldsfoods.co.uk

To mark its 25th year in business this October, Kitchen Garden Preserves is launching a limited edition celebration marmalade – a dark, traditional Seville marmalade flavoured with Cointreau. The company will be giving away 200 jars in presentation boxes to loyal customers and producing a further thousand or so to sell in cases of six on a first-come, first-served basis. www.kitchengardenfoods.co.uk

l Sister team Wedderspoon is now selling its raw manuka honey in individual portion packs for on-thego consumption. Each 120g box of ‘honey on the go’ contains 24 individual packs and has an RRP of £16.99. www.wedderspoon.co.uk

l Lincoln producer Heavenly Hedgerows’ pectinfree three fruit and Seville orange marmalades, which were developed at the request of Bath’s new Pig Hotel, are now available to the trade in 28g and 228g jars (trade price £2.50, RRP £3.95). Also new from the Bath producer is rose petal jelly, a limited edition product made from the scented roses of West Country gardens. www. heavenlyhedgerows.co.uk

Jenny’s Jams has added two new jams – blueberry & strawberry and cherry – to its range. RRP is £3 per 340g jars. Trade price is £14.10 per case of six. jennysjams@hotmail.co.uk

l New this season from Ouse Valley Foods is a rhubarb & vanilla conserve, which can be spread on toast or swirled into Greek yoghurt. Trade price is £2.75 and RRP is £3.95 for 340g. www.ousevalleyfoods.com

Nectar of the Gods A growing number of Greek honey producers are hoping to build a following in the UK. Grecotaste has started importing Cretan mountain thyme honey into the UK. Thyme, herbs, flowers and coniferous trees give this honey a rich summery aroma and a clear thick texture, says Grecotaste. It comes in 490g jars, priced at £4.68 (RRP

£8.50) or £93.50 for a box of 20, and 970g jars, priced at £8.50 (RRP £15.50), or £93.50 for a box of 11. Also launching a Cretan thyme honey into the UK is Rhyton. It says its thyme honey is a “characteristic example of a fascinating natural and cultural ecosystem in balance”, with thyme, sage, heather, Cretan mount tea, marjoram and oregano all contributing to its qualities. A 430g jar with gift box has an RRP of £20-25.

Melitheon Vanilia Special Reserve Fir Tree Honey PDO, launched by Vasiliki Company last month [July], is a single variety honey said to have a “delicately smooth flavour, creamy texture and stunning off-white colour with metallic highlights”. It is already on sale in Harrods in 250g jars. www.grecotaste.co.uk www.rhyton.gr www.vasilikicompany.com

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

product update

jams & preserves

Chocs away!

Top sellers…

Billed as “the chocolate spread that’s good for you”, Savvy is a new brand of carob syrup and tahini-based spreads containing no refined oils or sugars. “Unlike other attempts at this combination, they actually taste amazing,” says founder Jonathan Drury, who created the range after falling in love with a traditional sweet dip made from carob syrup and tahini during a visit to Turkey. Savvy is now on sale in around 20 shops in Yorkshire, including Fodder. There are two chocolate Following the success of its beer marmalades made with Newcastle Brown Ale and Belhaven 80, Perthshire Preserves has created a marmalade that uses Allanwater Brewhouse’s double espresso ale for a coffee kick. The RRP is £4. www.perthshirepreserves.co.uk

This summer sees four new introductions from Cheshire’s Mrs. Darlington & Daughters. Pink grapefruit marmalade (RRP £1.95), wild blueberry jam (RRP £2.85), peach melba jam (RRP £2.25) and tropical fruit jam (RRP £2.25) all come in 340g jars. www. mrsdarlingtons. com

Crossogue Preserves has created sugar-free versions of its raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, plum, gooseberry and marmalade spreads. The sugar-free versions are sweetened with xylitol, which contains fewer calories than sugar and is suitable for diabetics. www.crossoguepreserves.com

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

varieties: chocolate honey spread and chocolate agave spread (RRP £2.95, trade price £2.21). Nonchocolate varieties – wildflower honey spread, agave spread and date & sesame spread – have an RRP of £3.25 and trade price of £2.43. The minimum order is three boxes (18 jars) and each first box comes with a free sampling jar. Also going

down the alternative chocolate spread route is Wild About Honey, a company that sources honey directly from five master artisan beekeepers in southern Portugal. It is combining raw carob honey with organic cacao, carob and cinnamon, in a product called ChocoMella, which will be positioned as “chocolate spread for grown-ups”.

ns of Lenzie, ...at Billingto Glasgow m raspberry ja a fruity Claire’s extr berry n label straw Billingtons ow e gn h Champa preser ve wit e ge marmalad Claire’s oran

i jam S’Aussie chill y ossom hone s Scottish bl Heather Hill

www.savvyfoods.co.uk www.wildabouthoney.co.uk

Cwrtau Bach Farm’s Pamela Gresty has drawn on her American roots to create two new products that are reminiscent of her homeland. Carrot cake jam combines carrots, pears, pineapple and apple with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, while pumpkin pie jam is an accompaniment for toast, brioche and scones made from locally grown pumpkin, ginger root, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Both come in 225g jars, with an RRP of £3.50 and a trade price of £2.20 each when buying a pack of four, or £2 when buying two packs or more. At present the mid Wales producer is only selling direct to the public, but is on the lookout for stockists. www.cwrtaubach.co.uk Lemon sherbet, raspberry ruffle and Pernod & blackcurrant are the three original new flavour combinations from Baked in Belfast. Lemon sherbet marmalade is a fresh lemon marmalade with the sparkle of white lemonade; raspberry ruffle jam is reminiscent of its dessert namesake and Pernod & blackcurrant jam is rounded off with a good splash of the aniseed liqueur. Jars are boxed in 12 units at a trade cost of £18 per box, or £1.50 per jar. The RRP is £2.50-£3.

The Artisan Kitchen has added four new preserves for 2014. Blaisdon red plum jam, damson & fennel blossom jam, lemon & vanilla vodka marmalade and sweet orange, bergamot & lime marmalade are hand-made in copper pots in owner Sarah Churchill’s Gloucester kitchen and are said to have an “exceptionally high” fruit content. Cases of 6x200g cost £14.79. Each jar has an RRP of £3.99.

www.bakedinbelfast.com

www.theartisankitchen.co.uk

Hawkshead Relish is hoping to create a stir with four new preserves inspired by cocktails: mojito marmalade (RRP £2.60 for 227g), margarita jelly (RRP £2.95 for 200g), Bloody Mary chutney (RRP £3.75 for 180g) and strawberry daiquiri jam (RRP £2.60 for 227g). www.hawksheadrelish.com

New to jams and preserves... Since starting out last September, Sam’s Chilli Preserves has made impressive inroads in the North West, where stockists of Sam Jenning’s fiery preserves include the Cheshire Smokehouse, Grantham’s in Alderley Edge and Gastronomy in Hale. Her chilli jams are also on the menu at Aiden

Byrne’s Cheshire restaurant as well as What’s Cooking in Liverpool. www.facebook.com/ samschillipreserves

In September 2013, Jenny Scarbrow, Samuel Cropper and Peter Ralph bought a small, established preserve company in Ipswich, and rebranded it The Naughty Sheep. Their mission: “to re-energise the glory of jams, jellies, marmalades and chutneys, by using both the finest age-old traditions and cleverest cutting edge technologies, whilst being ethical and fair. Having taken over the previous company’s existing staff, recipes and customer base, The Naughty Sheep is starting from a strong position; The Goring Hotel,

Selfridges and Snape Maltings are three of its most prestigious customers. The Naughty Sheep is in the process of launching Sheepers Keepers – a hot courgette & mustard relish – and banana, ginger & rum jam and lemon & gin marmalade are in the pipeline. Retail jars come in three sizes: 125ml, 190ml and 300ml, with respective RRPs of £2, £2.50 and £3.50. www.thenaughtysheep.com

Artisan-produced, all-natural, condiments & preserves, a colourful array of products from traditional favourites to innovative specialities.

Extra Fru ity A warm ta Strawberry Jam ste of su nshine a any time t of the ye ar.

Extra Fruity Gooseberry Jam

A delectable jam, full of tart flavour.

Very Fruity Blackberry & Apple Jam Delight in these delicious autumn fruits.

To find out more about our tasty products call: 016973 45974, email: claire@claireshandmade.co.uk or visit our website: www.claireshandmade.com

Scan for Fosters Christmas Brochure

Fosters Traditional Foods Christmas brochure available now, with over 1000 lines and includes the New Fosters Festive Range.

Tasty Tra

ditional Fay

Make Christmas Special With Fosters Fosters Traditional Foods Ltd, Great Bowden Road, Market Harborough, LE16 7DE | Tel: 01858 438000 www.fosters-foods.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 路 August 2014

easy Utterly delicious, ith w g tin to use and burs urs, a vo fla y ng fresh and zi d savour y range of sweet an ealtime ym offerings for ever fo – just add od!

We’re Wild About Good Food

Lavender Jelly

“We were blown away...!” Fortnum & Mason

le Gift packs availab for Christmas

Hawthorn Jelly

Wild Plum Jam

The Colonel’s poppy seed dressing

Naturally foraged and other fabulous ranges of award-winning preserves www.heavenlyhedgerows.co.uk info@heavenlyhedgerows.co.uk 07828 786513

@HeavenlyHedgero

G F Food (Final).pdf

www.scarlettandmustard.co.uk

08/07/2014

17:54

Manufacturers of depositors & filling machines for the food production industry

CMY

Stocking filler

An exciting range of delicious handmade preserves perfect for Christmas

Tel: 01282 440040 info@autopack.co.uk www.autopack.co.uk 36

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

T 01934 712974 www.thebitontheside.co.uk

product update

tea

Blend and brew New speciality teas continue to pour into the market, as LYNDA SEARBY reports.

l After a threeyear absence due to radioactivity, Japanese green teas Gyokuro Asahi, Sencha and Genmaicha are back on the menu at Tea Palace. www.teapalace.com

Sunderland loose-leaf tea business Sri Tea is expanding its range this month to take in 10 new flavours, including green tea, Earl Grey and Lapsang Souchong with Tulsi. All tea comes from one plantation in Sri Lanka, where most of the ingredients used to flavour the teas are also grown. Trade prices start at £1.20 per 50g tin (RRP from £4.80).

Following its launch as an online tea shop in November 2013, The Tea Co of London is keen to break into the retail market. New products for this year include Japanese green teas Sencha Midori no Kaori, (trade £15, RRP £25/50g and £28.50, RRP £47.50/100g) and Hojicha (trade price £5.64, RRP £9.40/50g, and £10.75, RRP £17.90/100g).

www.sritea.co.uk

www.theteaco.co.uk

l The entire CHA Tea range is now Rainforest Alliancecertified. www.hancockandabberton.com

l The latest addition to Zacely’s Teaforia tea powders range, Ginja Ninja, uses rooibos as a base, mixed with orange and spices. www.zacely.com

Dorset tea merchant Comins Tea House has added Taiwanese Oolongs to its collection following a trip to the Taiwanese tea fields. The semioxidised teas are classified as Jade, Amber or Brandy Oolongs according to the colour of the liquor and the degree of oxidisation.

Now available in mesh pyramid bags, Higher Living’s loose-leaf brews feature new flavour combinations such as Green Tea Coconut and Oregon Mint, as well as “mood” blends including Power, Sweet Dreams and Good Mood. The RRP is £4.79.

l Mulberry leaf and Moringa leaf are the two latest introductions under the Birt&Tang brand.

www.higherlivingherbs.com

l Caribbean specialist Dalgety Teas has introduced an instant ginger tea.

www.cominsteahouse.co.uk

Williamson Tea has redeveloped the blends and packaging of its loose teas. Now sold in silver cylinders and available from Cotswold Fayre and Samways, the range spans floral teas from the high hills of Nandi to pure green from Kaimosi. Williamson Tea is a fifth generation tea farmer, and teas are grown on its own four farms in Kenya and India. www.williamsontea.com

www.birtandtang.co.uk

www.dalgetyherbalteas.com

l Using cocoa as an indulgent starting point, Suki Tea has created Dark Cocoa Tea and Spiced CocoaChai herbal blend. www.suki-tea.com

l In September, London’s Joe’s Tea Company is launching Queen of Green tea, a blend of organic green tea that is said to be lighter, brighter and smoother than regular gunpowder blends. www.joesteacompany.com

Already on sale in Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Whole Foods and Planet Organic where it retails for between £16.80 and £19.80 for a 30g jar, Bloom Matcha is a range of six antioxidant-rich tea powders purported to promote younger looking skin, reduce stress and boost concentration. In the Japanese tradition, green tea leaves are ground to extract the maximum potency, and Bloom has added variety and flavour with ingredients such as mango and grapefruit.

Last December saw the launch of Tea Huggers, a Londonbased specialist in whole-leaf and herbal blends founded by Esther Thompson. Its initial range features seven wellbeing blends, from Good Morning and Good Night to Flu Fighter and Skinny Fit. www.teahuggers.co.uk

www.bloomtea.co.uk

New to speciality tea

Founded by Svetlana and Miriman Nela, Brighton based newcomer Balcony Tea claims to be the only tea brand in the UK dedicated to using Mediterranean ingredients. “We believe that you will not find some of our ingredients, Greek mountain tea, for example, in our competitors’ products,” says Svetlana. Its teas include black and green varieties, such as Thyme Chai, Mediterranean Grey and Breakfast Blend, as well as herbal infusions such as Hibiscus & Greek Mountain Tea, ginger & orange and chamomile. RRP is between £4.55 and £5.45 for a box of 15 pyramids.

l Vanilla Chai Rooibos and Chamomile Rose are two new caffeinefree infusions from Kandula Tea. www.kandulatea.com

Top sellers…

Company, ...at The Food x Marks Tey, Esse

rry apple riot Eteaket cranbe npowder green We Are Tea gu tea arb patch fruit The Lawn rhub occa-roo-brew Joe’s Tea Co ch rry & flower Birchall red be

www.balconytea.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 August 2014

August 2014 路 Vol.15 Issue 7

product update

tea

Aimed at the gifting market, Silver Lantern’s blending boxes contain nine loose-leaf teas that can be enjoyed on their own or combined to create blends such as English Breakfast, Earl Grey & Russian Caravan. Trade price is £14.99 while the RRP is £24.99. www.silverlanterntea.co.uk

Steenbergs is taking a more targeted approach to herbals with a new range that matches the benefits of certain herbs and plants with specific occasions or consumer groups. Chillax Herbal Tea, Energising Herbal Tea, Moon Brew, Morning Brew and Bloke’s Herbal Tea have RRPs ranging from £3.75 to £5.50. Also new on the herbals front from the North Yorkshire company are Happy Hippy (a blend of chamomile flowers, rose petals and mint), hibiscus, lemon verbena and Double Mint. www.steenbergs.co.uk

Coinciding with the start of the Japanese tea season in June, Momo Cha Fine Teas launched a collection of Japanese green teas which includes new sencha teas Shincha Okumidori and Yabukita, Tamaryokucha Gold and Shiraore: a twig and leaf tea stemming from Tamaryokucha tea production. The RRP is £6.95 for a 20g taster pack and £14.95 for a 50g standard pack, except for the Shiraore, which has an RRP of £3.45 for 20g and £7.95 for 50g. www.momochafineteas.com

Borough Market tea trader Tea2you is trialling a new white tea from Nepal with some of its customers. Complementing its existing Darjeeling white, the “grassy flavoured” Nepalese white tea combines both the leaves and the buds of the tea plant. Tea2you expects to follow up this trial with Nepalese first and second flush teas in the autumn. The tea retails at £12.99 for 50g. www.tea2you.co.uk

French organic and Fairtrade tea company Les Jardins de Gaia has brought together its 10 best-selling loose-leaf teas in 50g packs in a new Pick&Mix range, distributed in the UK by EqualiTea. Flavours that made the cut include Lady Yang Guifei (green tea with litchi & pear), Bollywood Flush (green tea with cardamom and flower petals) and Babouchka (black tea with bergamot and citrus fruit).

May saw the introduction of a new tea brand from a Dublin company better known for its coffees. Java Republic teas are presented in hand-stitched, silken pillows, each filled with 2-3g of leaf tea. Tie Guan Yin and Yunnan green teas, Gunpowder & Mango Green Tea Plus, Moroccan Mint, Rooibos & Caramel and Irish Breakfast are among the 18 varieties. The RRP for a box of 15 pillows is £6.49.

Danish social enterprise Tealure is looking to introduce Nepalese tea into the UK market. Since December last year, Tealure has been marketing tea varietals such as Himalayan Emerald, Oolong and Gold sourced directly from smallholder tea factories. It plans to donate a percentage of its profits to small farming villages. Founder Ernestas Klevas says most tea varieties from Nepal have been overshadowed by Darjeeling even though the two share common geographical and climatic conditions. www.tealure.dk

www.javarepublic.com

The Gourmet Collection of looseleaf teas from London’s Newby Teas takes in three black and two green varieties. Black teas Prime Darjeeling (RRP £29.20 for 100g), Majestic Himalaya (£15.80 for 50g) and Rare Assam (29.20 for 100g), sit alongside two loose-leaf green teas from China and Taiwan: Special Formosa (£33.20 for 50g) and Supreme Jasmine (£33.20 for 100g).

Six teas from The Tea Experience’s loose collection - All Day Breakfast, Earl Grey Blue Lady, Mr Tea’s Chocolate Orange, Peppermint, Rooibos Chai and Very Berry - are now available in pyramid teabags, 15 in a box. Trade price is £2.95 (RRP £3.95). www.teaexperience.co.uk

Taking inspiration from the catwalk, Ronnefeldt hopes to take tea lovers on an international tour of seven tea-growing countries with its new TeaCouture collection. Rooibis Chocolate Truffle, Korean Flower, Masala Chai and Nepal Jun Chiyabari are four of the 11 varieties available via Cup of Tea. They retail for between £11.70 and £12.40 per 100g caddy.

Natur Boutique is targeting health-conscious consumers with a new five-strong range of organic teas. The Antioxidants, Diet, Relax, Uplifting and Digest blends (RRP £2.99) draw on the health halo surrounding ingredients like ginger, artichoke, lemongrass and green tea.

www.cupoftea.uk.com

www.naturboutique.com

www.equalitea.co.uk

www.newbyteas.com

The Tea People has infused Darjeeling green tea with rose petals and coconut pieces to create loose leaf Coconut Green Pauchong (RRP £4.95/50g or £7.95/100g). The social enterprise says it has also added character and aroma to English Breakfast by marrying the hearty, malty teas of Assam and Ceylon with refreshing muscatel from Darjeeling (RRP £6.50/100g). Taster packs and tin caddies also available. www.teapeople.co.uk

Cotswold Fayre is now carrying fruit tea from Whittard of Chelsea, whole leaf tea from Brew Tea Co and Prism tea bags from Birchall Tea. Whittard fruit teabags come in three summer flavours: raspberry & peach, pomegranate & orange and strawberry & kiwi (RRP £3.85; trade price £16.40 for 6x20 bags). The Brew Tea Co offers English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Moroccan Mint, green tea and Fruit Punch (RRP £4.45 each, trade price £18.90 for 6x15 bags). The Birchall Tea range (RRP £4.55-£4.85 each; trade price £19.3520.60 for 6x20 bags) is sourced exclusively from estates across East Africa and boasts 10 flavours, such as red berry & flower, camomile and organic redbush.

New under the Eteaket label are Chillaxin’ Chamomile, a floral flavoured brew with whole chamomile flowers, and Chilli Rooibos, which adds chilli highlights to a base of classic Rooibos tea and wild cherries, rosebuds, safflower petals, peony petals and carrot flakes. RRP £4.95, trade price £2.95 for 50g. www.eteaket.co.uk

www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 7 August 2014

Discover our exciting range of tea, coffee and hot chocolate Winners of 14 Gold Great Taste Awards in 2013. A comprehensive range of Whittard products is now available through Cotswold Fayre.

www.whittard.co.uk Whittard. Tea And Coffee Passion, since 1886

www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk t: 08456 121201

North Dorset based tea merchants Comins Tea House personally source fine single estate & single origin loose leaf teas from COMINS TEA HOUSE around the world. FINE TEA & BRITISH TEAWARE

We [Rob & Michelle Comins] regularly travel to source our range of fine teas which covers a wide spectrum of types and flavours. From our Malty Assam {perfect for breakfast} to our calming Japanese Gyokuro green tea {great in the afternoon} or the lightly floral Taiwanese AliShan Jade Oolong {a treat after dinner} we have a tea to suit every time of day. We offer consultation, education & training sessions to partner businesses with a strong focus on making loose tea service simple and appealing.

Get in touch & let’s talk tea | Complimentary consultation & tasting sessions for businesses wishing to upgrade their tea offering.

Email | rob@cominsteahouse.co.uk

Phone | 01258 475389

COMINS TEA HOUSE | STURMINSTER NEWTON | NORTH DORSET 40

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

Love tea? At Hampstead Tea our iced tea are made using organic single estate leaf tea giving it the clean taste and high quality found in our boxed tea ranges. Better yet, as they’re made using real tea leaves rather than extracts or concentrates, they contain all the goodness of freshly brewed leaf tea. But don’t just take our word for it! Our customers have told us how much they love their Hampstead iced tea moments and our elderflower and raspberry have both scooped a Great Taste star!To top it all our packaging uses 50% less energy and creates 80% less greenhouse gases. So, good for you and great for the environment too! info@hampsteadtea.com Hampstead Tea London, PO Box 52474, London NW3 9DA T: + 44 (0) 207 431 9393, F: + 44 (0) 207 431 3700

Selecting...

We are tea farmers with over 140 years of experience in the art of growing, selecting and blending fine teas. We are a family owned business and we care deeply about our tea and the people who grow it. All our tea is entirely grown on our own Kenyan farms which are Rainforest Alliance and UTZ certified. To find out more about our farms and our products visit our website www.williamsontea.com

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

final quarter page advert 100mmx141mm

18/9/12

4:55 pm

Page 3

'Award winning Novus Tea' If you don't stock Novus Tea, perhaps you should? Call now for a free sample. We are not the only one's who think it's great, with consecutive Great Taste Awards from 2009 - 2013 2012 - Six Great Taste Gold Awards achieved. The must have Tea product of the year For more details visit www.novustea.co.uk or call 01621 776179.

Rather rare Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Kefalonia The Grandest Confectionery in the World

Premium range of the crumbliest texture and sweetest butter fudge, taste-tastic toffees, brilliant brittles and classic coconut ice. All crafted in Harrogate since 1843. Follow us on Twitter @UltimateEng

Join us on Facebook Search ‘Ultimate English’

(0)1423 873920

www.ultimateenglish.co.uk 42

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

Ionio is a rare and unusual oil. Normally reserved for the islanders themselves, and never released to open sale, Ionio breaks the mould. This oil is vibrant, grassy, very well balanced with a beautiful rounded finish of wonderful pepperiness and delicious flavour. Produced in a limited volume from our groves which lie at the highest extremes of Mount Aenos, Ionio is quite simply an unusual, first-class olive oil. Email for further information

www.ionianproducts.com info@ionianproducts.com Tel 07775 646073

shelf talk

products, promotions & people

Modular display stands among WBC’s latest NPD By MICHAEL LANE

Retail display and merchandising specialist WBC has unveiled a new modular display system that will allow independent retailers to be more nimble with their store layout. The BRIX modular range – designed in Brixton, South London, and engineered in the UK – requires no tools for assembly and allows retailers to build their own configurations of shelving and floor displays. The system consists of four basic components, finished in vintage wood and distressed metal. WBC says the ease of dismantling and construction means BRIX units are ideal for retailers who want to alter the size of their displays or relocate their stores. The system would also suit those who run pop-up shops, franchise areas in larger stores or stalls at farmers’ markets as well as trade show exhibitors. “Over the years we’ve recognised that the traditional, static, shop-fit not only required a large initial outlay, but it was specific to that retail unit alone,” said WBC managing director Andrew Wilson. “BRIX allows complete versatility, and in the competitive high street market, customers expect an ever-changing, fluid and interesting customer experience and environment. “For the independent businesses

New shapes and flavours for Peter’s Yard By MICHAEL LANE

we work with, their retail space is one way they can differentiate themselves from the multiples.” Celebrating its 25th year in business, WBC has also recently published a silver edition of its 2014/15 product directory. It features more than 160 new lines, including gift packaging, display items and bags for life. Among these new products is a premium range of cake stands in food grade acrylic or vintage wood, both

what’s new Champagne popsicles POPS

www.wearepops.com

Less than two months since its launch, the world’s first Champagne ice popsicle has already been seen in the hands of Miley Cyrus, Kate Moss and Katy Perry. The classic – which contains 37% champagne and is manufactured in the UK using organic and natural ingredients – is the first creation from Pops in collaboration with London gelateria Gelupo. Each 110ml paper ‘push up’ tube (RRP £5-£10) contains less than 100 calories and 0.5 units of alcohol. Cases of 24 tubes cost £72+VAT.

Chocolate starter

DAVENPORT’S CHOCOLATES www.davenportschocolates.co.uk

The North East chocolatier has created a starter pack to reduce the

of which are easy to clean, that can be used by independents to display their muffins, cupcakes or pies instore. Prices start from £13.97+VAT with free delivery on all orders over £150+VAT. The London-based company recently relocated its office to new premises, featuring an onsite showroom, in Herne Hill in the Capital’s south east while its warehouse is now in Croydon.

Crispbread brand Peter’s Yard has deviated from both its traditional round shape and its original recipe with the launch of its two latest varieties. The seeded wholegrain crispbread and spelt & fig crispbread are made using naturally fermenting sourdough but come in squares and rectangles, respectively. Both crackers can be used for snacking, dipping or as canapé bases but have also been designed to pair with cheese. The whole oat groats, buckwheat, roasted sunflower seeds and linseeds of the seeded wholegrain crispbread are said to work well with hard cheeses like mature cheddar while the sweet fig pieces in the spelt & fig variety work well with goats’ and blue cheese. Spelt & fig is packed into a 100g box and seeded wholegrain comes in a 105g box. Both have an RRP of £2.50.

www.wbc.co.uk

www.petersyard.com

make a range of cornbread bakes or a pancake batter. Whether it’s cornbread muffins, toad in the hole or croutons, all consumers need to do is add eggs, butter and milk. The cornbread mix comes in cases of 6x220g tubes (trade £2.63 per tube)

(trade £9.30 each, RRP £18), charcuterie platter (trade £11.70, RRP £23), and salad bowl (trade £5.95, RRP £12).

WBC’s new BRIX system requires no tools for assembly

Homeware and gifts risk for new customers, particularly smaller delis. For £142.00+VAT, stockists will receive a mixture of Davenport’s best-selling collections – including the vintage collection, violet creams, and strawberry & Champagne truffles – with a retail value of £247.75. The pack includes tasters and point of sale material.

Cornbread mix HONEYBUNS

THE GORGEOUS FOOD COMPANY

www.gorgeousfoodcompany.co.uk

The Cotswold-based distributor has launched a range of gifts and homeware items sourced from several designers and producers. The new lines include a number of cheese gift sets, cookware and tableware. In addition, there is a selection of white porcelain platters and bowls. These include a fromage platter

Single origin pods CAFÉPOD

www.cafepod.com

The Nespresso-compatible capsule specialist has added a second variety to its Origins Inspired range of singleorigin coffees. The Sumatra Lake Tawar variety (£2.99 for 10 pods) is made from 100% Organic Fairtrade Arabica beans slow-grown by smallholders on the hills surrounding Lake Tawar, in northern Sumatra. The resulting cup is “full-bodied with a slight coffee cherry note, and passion fruit and cinnamon spice to finish”.

www.honeybuns. co.uk

Honeybuns says the versatility of its latest gluten-free baking mix could make it a store cupboard staple. It can be used to Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

Taste the Twist for Yourself Each cake in our award winning range is based on traditional methods with an added twist

our cakes aren’t just for christmas take a piece of ginger bakers all year round Call Lisa on 015394 22084 or email info@gingerbakers.co.uk

01484 443130/766068 M: 07799 293244 E: hello@propermaid.co.uk

www.propermaid.co.uk

We would be happy to bring our gorgeous goodies to your premises so that you can sample them for yourself, alternatively you are more than welcome to visit us to discuss your requirements and “Taste the twist” on site at the bakery

S Orefrigerant R B A - F R Epads EZE Sorba-Freeze Ltd, Unit 5, Girdleness Trading Estate, Girdleness Road, Aberdeen AB1 8DG, Scotland Tel 01224 894417 Email info@sorbafreeze.com www.sorbafreeze.com

Refrigerant Packaging you can

TRUST

Phone 01224 894417 for a

FREE TRIAL PACK

quoting FFD14

Visit our website www.sorbafreeze.com 44

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

what’s new

Looking for suppliers accredited by the Guild of Fine Food? Follow the logo

Top chefs tell CLARE HARGREAVES their deli essentials

Whisky cask coffee

farmers involved in the reforestation project around the Mount Elgon region of Uganda. Each 227g bag (RRP £4.29) of Mount Elgon coffee has a unique tracking number to show the farmers on-going conservation efforts in the region.

www.roundsquareroastery.co.uk

Lentil crisps

ROUNDSQUARE ROASTERY Roundsquare claims to be offering a world first with its latest coffee. The Ayrbased company roasts Peruvian Arabica beans in small batches before cold-smoking them in a purpose-built unit over oak chips soaked in Arran Single Malt whisky. To increase the depth of whisky flavour the beans are in Arran whisky casks during the smoking process. Formats include corked 250g glass bottles (trade £7, RRP £12) with a minimum order quantity of 12 units.

Flavoured tortilla chips MANOMASA

www.manomasa.co.uk

The producer has doubled its tortilla range with the launch of three new varieties in 160g packs (RRP £1.60). Green lemon & pink peppercorn is a circular chip made with white corn and a host of beans, including chickpeas and

red kidney beans, while manchego & green olive is a pure corn chip in a rectangular shape for dipping. The tomatillo salsa variety – flavoured with green tomatillos, Peruvian Amarillo chilli and lime – comes in the classic triangle shape, studded with quinoa grains.

Organic Ugandan coffee GRUMPY MULE / SOURCE CLIMATE CHANGE COFFEE www.grumpymule.co.uk www.sourceclimatechange.com

The second collaboration between Grumpy Mule and Source is a single origin, organic coffee, which supports the 300 or so coffee

CHEF’S SELECTION

BURTS CHIPS

www.burtschips.com

Burts Chips has branched out with the launch of Lentil Waves, a snack made from lentil flour and potatoes. The Devon producer’s three-strong range consists of sour cream & chive, Thai sweet chilli and lightly salted, all available in multipacks of 6x20g bags (RRP £1.99). Each bag contains 99 calories and 40% less fat than Burts’ potato crisps.

Liquid Herbs

Nieves Barragán Mohacho Executive chef Barrafina and Fino restaurants, London www.barrafina.co.uk www.finorestaurant.com

Patricia Niven

shelf talk

Nieves Barragán Mohacho grew up in Bilbao, in the Basque region of Spain. She moved to London in 1998 and in 2003 began working at Sam and Eddie Hart’s Fino, a Spanish tapas restaurant in Fitzrovia. She rose to be head chef and now also heads the kitchen at Barrafina, another Spanish tapas outlet. In July this year, she also took charge of a new, second Barrafina, on Covent Garden’s Adelaide Street.

El Navarrico ‘Cojonudos’ white asparagus www.brindisa.com

In Spain, we eat white asparagus fresh in May and from a tin during the rest of the year. At home, we used to eat it with mayonnaise mixed with Tabasco and lemon juice. This asparagus, grown in Navarra, got its name (cojonudo is a slang word meaning ‘brilliant’) after King Juan Carlos raved about it when trying some. The spears are extraordinarily thick. I sometimes do a tempura with it but, more often, I use it in a salad as a starter, combining it with red onion, red and green peppers, and prawns. Customers are often pleasantly surprised; they come in thinking they don’t like white asparagus but then love it. I think it’s now catching on.

El Navarrico Piquillo peppers www.brindisa.com

These whole red peppers come in a jar or a tin, but I always get tins as they’re safer in a restaurant environment. I tend to buy small 390g tins to prevent the peppers drying out once the tin is open. Compared to these, other red peppers are very inferior. These ones are roasted and peeled by hand, and taste piquantly smoky and sweet. I sometimes combine piquillos in a salad with asparagus and eggs. I also stuff the peppers with salt cod mousse and serve them with a squid ink sauce or I stuff them with spinach and pine nuts.

FLAVOUR BARON

Calasparra rice

www.flavourbaron.com

www.brindisa.com

Flavour Baron has created a range of natural liquid herbs and spices, which come in small droplet dispensers called Flavour Amps. Each 8ml Amp (RRP £3.50) contains the equivalent of 2.5 jars of dried herbs and is airtight to keep the concentrated liquid fresh for two years. Each pumped droplet from a Flavour Amp will deliver the “flavour equivalent” to a third of a teaspoonful of dried or a half teaspoon of fresh herbs or spices. Flavours include cardamom, cloves, thyme, coriander leaves, marjoram, cinnamon and nutmeg.

This Spanish short-grain rice is grown around the village of Calasparra in Murcia and I love it. It’s highly absorbent so expands by around 70% during cooking, yet the grains remain firm and separate. The rice comes in 1kg cotton sacks. I use it in my black rice (arroz negro) or in my seafood rice dishes.

Don Bocarte alta restauracion anchovies www.donbocarte.com, available from www.lescaves.co.uk

These anchovies are really special, the best there are – as you’d expect at around £25 a tin. They are fished in the Bay of Biscay and prepared quite near to where I come from in Spain. The salted anchovies are washed and dried, then filleted, and cleaned by hand. The anchovies are so special you don’t want to put too much with them – the best way to really taste them is on toasted bread with olive oil. At Fino and Barrafina I also serve a dish with baby gem lettuce, anchovy and smoked pancetta.

Morcilla iberica www.mediteria.com

I always remember the smell of this when I lived in Extremadura. It’s made from Iberico pork, which gives it its acorn flavour (the pigs feed on acorns). The sausage comes semi-cured. I prepare it by taking the skin off, adding chicken stock and vegetables, and steaming it until soft. The reason I love this black sausage is that it’s not too dry or spicy. Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

NEW!

The BRIX display system is a dream for retailers, pop-up shops, market stall holders, and exhibition designers. Designed and engineered in the UK, BRIX modularity allows you to change design as and when space or seasonality demands. Simple to build. No tools required. Endless configurations. All elements come pre-assembled, leaving you to simply - slot them together. BRIX is a timeless piece of retail design. See the full range at wbc.co.uk/brix

QUALITY & EXCELLENCE Award winning pie makers since 2004

“There’s nothing simple about our pies”

Our award-winning pies now come in 4 sizes – Perfect for Christmas! The classic 225g pie – 12 per case The new gourmet 300g pie – 12 per case The large 600g pie – 6 per case The 1.8 kg plate cutting pie – 2 per case, each pie is 8 portions

TRADE SUPPLIER OF GIFT PACKAGING RETAIL DISPLAY & BAGS FOR LIFE Visit wbc.co.uk | Email sales@wbc.co.uk | Freephone 08000 85 85 95 | Follow us @wbc 46

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

Steak & Ale pie

Quality and Excellence Ltd 12 Forest Drive Theydon Bois Essex CM16 7EY

Chicken, Ham & Leek pie

Steak & Stilton pie www.qualityandexcellence.co.uk sales@qualityandexcellence.co.uk Tel: 01992 813283

550384 Kompleat Fine Food World Advert.pdf

15/07/2014

16:28

Charlotte Brown’s Handmade

Artisan Preserves and Relishes

Passionate about Preserving What is it that makes Charlotte Brown’s products so good? Charlotte would say that fresh, high-quality ingredients, mastery of traditional methods and great attention to detail are what make the difference. Her growing band of devoted return customers rate her PiCCalilli, rasPBerry Conserve, Chilli Jam and other delicious treats outstanding. One described them as “life-changing”!

We are happy to send samples of these or our Great Taste winning Raspberry Conserve. Call or email today Tel 02380 671047 / 07826 835127 charlottebonney@hotmail.com

www.charlottebrowns.co.uk

Introducing 7 new members of the family! Pink Grapefruit Marmalade

Tangerine Marmalade

Extra Jam Wild Blueberry Jam

Extra Jam Tropical Fruit Jam

Spicy Tomato & Sticky Onion Chutney

Extra Jam Peach Melba Jam

Ploughman’s Pickle No.7

I’ve been selling my curds, preserves and chutneys for nearly 30 years. Many of our products come from family recipe books that have been around for longer than that! My daughters and I are still creating recipes, and as you can see from our seven new products, there’s something for everyone. They may be new, but they remain true to our beliefs, with the proper homemade taste that you’d expect.

Mrs Darlington’s

www.mrsdarlingtons.com

For more information contact your local Mrs Darlington’s distributor, or call us on 01270 250710 Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

shelf talk

Nick and Sara Hoare (above) are partners in Stourhead Farm Shop with farmers Steve and Louise Harris. Above right: butcher Reece Neale

Loosening the lease Nick Hoare‘s family gave Wiltshire’s Stourhead house and gardens to the National Trust. Now he’s among its tenants, as one of four partners in the privately run Stourhead Farm Shop.

Deli of the Month INTERVIEW BY MICK WHITWORTH

ine years after setting up shop on Wiltshire’s beautiful Stourhead estate, Nick and Sara Hoare and their business partners Steve and Louise Harris have just completed a tricky lease negotiation with their landlord, the National Trust. The privately run farm shop is in a rented barn by the main entrance to the estate, one of the Trust’s flagship properties. The 18th century Palladian house and its world-famous landscape gardens see nearly 400,000 visitors every year – and the Trust jealously guards the income it can generate from that footfall. So there were “an incredible number of restrictions” in the lease

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

when Stourhead Farm Shop opened in 2005, says Nick Hoare. For example, not only were the partners unable to add a café, they couldn’t stock alcohol or any kind of food for immediate consumption. “We could sell a pack of three flapjacks, but we weren’t allowed to sell singles,” he recalls. There were also tight limits on physically extending the barn, which has just 600 sq ft of retail space, making it hard to add new sources of income. Steve and Louise Harris are tenant farmers on the estate’s organic Coldcot Farm, so as well as selling their beef through the shop, they wanted to develop a wholesale clientele to sustain the business when estate visitors were scarce. Prevented from extending the barn, however, they built a separate, EU licensed cutting operation back on Coldcot Farm – a 2,000 sq ft unit

which has since proved unsustainable. Similarly, there was no room to add a kitchen to the shop, making it harder to produce those home-made pies, patés and quiches that reduce wastage on fresh food. Up to a point, these constraints reflected tension between different arms of the Trust. The local property manager and national farming manager were keen to see a farm shop established on the estate, as part of a drive in the mid-Noughties to get more produce from tenant farmers sold on Trust properties. But the charity’s trading arm, National Trust (Enterprises), was just as keen to protect sales in its own shop and restaurant. Ensuring the commercial viability of a privately run outlet was perhaps less of a priority than attracting more visitors to Stourhead. Sara Hoare says: “You could almost see the ‘thought bubble’ over their heads that said, ‘We’d like you

to dress up in a smock and talk like yokels.’” Ironically, she adds, farmer Steve Harris does occasionally push a butchers’ bike laden with produce around Stourhead’s main car park to attract visitors to the farm shop – and looks so much the stereotypical Dorset farmer that visitors often assume he’s an actor. Feeling they were in something of a straightjacket, the business owners at first simply bent a few rules. Then in 2010, when the recession drove several of their trade meat customers to the wall, they decided something fundamental had to give. They largely pulled out of wholesaling, made three butchers redundant, mothballed the purposebuilt cutting plant at Coldcot Farm and gave the National Trust an ultimatum of sorts. “Basically, we would have closed unless we could extend here,” says Nick Hoare. “We

products, promotions & people

still needed a cutting room [for the retail butchery] and we also needed somewhere we could cook.” So in the last couple of years, with help from a sympathetic Trust local property manager, they have added two small production units in a shed behind the shop. One is a 180 sq ft fresh meat cutting and sausagemaking unit – the domain of butcher Reece Neale – while the adjoining unit is a compact 90 sq ft kitchen for making and baking pies, pastries and other ready-to-eat foods. There’s even a small smoking oven, designed and built by Nick Hoare, a former Rolls Royce aerodynamics engineer. (He describes himself now as the shop’s “head of IT and DIY”.) And in the last few months, the shop owners have negotiated a new 10-year lease on the shop that sees them freed of many of their earlier constraints. “We basically went through the lease with a big pen and crossed out half the restrictions,” says Nick Hoare. If this seems more than most tenants would get away with, Nick Hoare does have one notable advantage. It was his distant ancestor Sir Henry Hoare who gifted Stourhead house, its gardens and 3,000 acre estate to the National Trust in 1947. The family retained the 2,000 acre Stourhead (Western) Estate, which was then inherited by Nick Hoare’s grandfather, and Nick quit his job at Rolls Royce in 2001 to

run the operation, which is mainly under commercial forestry. So while he is now technically a tenant of the National Trust though the farm shop, he also has “another line of influence” as part of a donor family. According to his wife Sara, a former chartered accountant and international tax expert, securing the new lease has been a “breakpoint” moment for the business. “The National Trust has become very commercial,” she tells me, when I

❛

We had a consultant look at the demographics when we came here, and the As and Bs come here. The C1s go to Longleat!

❜

meet the couple at the shop on a quiet Tuesday in mid-July, “and until we got a new lease at a sensible price I was not keen on spending a lot of money here. Now we’re thinking about a refit, which could be our next step-change.” Adding the adjoining kitchen and butchery units was the first such step-change. Contributing to a rise in turnover from £220,000 to £300,00 in two years, it opened the door to higher-margin lines made in-house and also provided an instant outlet for potential waste. Fresh and cooked meat is the shop’s single biggest category,

accounting for around 40% of revenue. This is led by organic beef from Coldcot Farm, but Nick Hoare tells me: “An extraordinary proportion of the meat we sell is sausages. We sold 120kg one Easter – that’s a pigand-a-half’s worth. If any farm shop was thinking of doing just a bit of meat, that’s the thing to go with.” He continues: “We also cure our own ham and we smoke hams, sausages and chicken in the little smoker I built. “We do salt beef and pastrami, which are good for using up the whole animal because they’re made from the less popular cuts like silverside and brisket. And we do a [beef] merguez sausage and a beef & Guinness sausage, again to use the beef forequarter meat.” The shop’s ready-to-eat pies and pastries are a mix of home-made, bought-in, and some made on its behalf, using Coldcot Farm meat, by Southfield Sweet & Savoury of nearby Wincanton. One top margin-earner is a home-made ‘potted sausage’ – a Fill’n’Bake mini pork pie case from MK Ingredient Suppliers filled with sausage meat and baked in the kitchen. “We’ve tried it all – sausage rolls, proper pork pies filled with jelly – but they take too much labour,” says Nick. “But when we make sausages there is always half a kilo left in the bottom of the filler, so we just use that to fill these pots. You could really say Fill’n’Bake pastry cases are one of our ‘must-stock’ products.” Fresh meat is a magnet for local trade but also pulls a steady flow of visitors from a little further afield, often making repeat visits. “We get people coming from Bristol [40 miles away], not just for the quality of the meat but because it’s a great day out,” says Nick Hoare. “It might be once a year or it might be more often, but people who come here once a month and spend over £100 on meat are very useful. A lot of our sales gain over the last two years has been from these ‘regular, irregular’ customers.” Given the space constraints and a relatively remote location that puts a limit on passing trade, you won’t find shelf after shelf of ambient goods at Stourhead Farm Shop. But alongside meat, regional cheeses are another speciality. The the owners have taken a ‘local only’ stance, with over 30 varieties from the South West supplied mainly by Longmans (Somerset), Leopard Dairy Products (Dorset) and Ashton Farms (Wiltshire). When I suggest this is a brave move, Sara Hoare says it has been “quite a subject of discussion over the years”, but the idea is to offer substitutes for better-known imports: Old Winchester for Parmesan, for example, or Harbourne Blue for

Roquefort. And as with the rest of the store, the owners have avoided being driven towards lower-price options. “We’ve actually dropped some of the block cheeses because they’re not expensive enough,” says Sara Hoare. “If you give people too much choice, they’ll go for the cheapest. But none of our cheeses are going to waste – they’re all turning over.” Price is not a major issue with the affluent local clientele, she adds, or with the type of visitor drawn to Stourhead compared to its more family-oriented competitors. “We had a consultant look at the demographics when we came here, and the As and Bs come here. The C1s go to Longleat!” Sara Hoare is typically in the shop once or two days a week, while her husband focuses on his forestry business and the other partners get on with farming. Long-time manager Doreen Thomas is in day-to-day charge, assisted by Kim Eaglestone and butcher Reece Neale, along with two Saturday staff. But all the partners tend to pile in for the busy periods, says Sara Hoare, asking me when I think these are. Summer holidays and Christmas? “Wrong! Our peak periods are around Easter and the May bank holidays, when the rhododendrons are out, and September to November, when people come here for the autumn colours. Takings can be over £10,000 a week then, and down to £4,000 in December. “That’s why I try to ban staff holidays in April and October, and it’s also when the partners pitch in. I tell Steve Harris to think of it as harvest time – harvesting tourists.” www.stourhead.com

FARM SHOP STOURHEAD KS MUST-STOC eese Bath Blue ch cheddar y farmhouse Montgomer eddar farmhouse ch Westcombe af cheese Wiltshire Lo se tt Blue chee Royal Basse ing cider Pilton sparkl ruton fruit Taylor’s of B es scon ick oatcakes Stockan’s th rs and Bath water cracke Fine English ovals d ’ gingerbrea od ‘farmyard Image on Fo biscuits scuits set ginger bi Moores Dor eam cr d e clotte Devon Cottag fudge er Bottled wat d ckled eggs an pi Rose Farm ) rs ja e rg (la ns pickled onio

Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

classified • baking equipment

Do you make PIES or other sorts of pastry products? We make incredibly versatile PIE MACHINES VISIT www.johnhuntbolton.co.uk TO SEE OUR RANGE OF MACHINES, PLUS VIDEO CLIPS OF THE MACHINES IN OPERATION OR CALL + 44 (0) 1204 521831 / 532798 OR FAX + 44 (0) 1204 527306 OR EMAIL spencer@johnhuntbolton.co.uk

JOHN HUNT (Bolton) Ltd Rasbottom St, Bolton, England BL3 5BZ

• baking equipment

• food processing machinery

Refractometers for Quality Control For New & Reconditioned Equipment

Windsor food machinery Ltd

Bandsaws l Burger Machines Cookers l Dicers Smokers l Fillers Filler Linkers l Mincers Mixer Grinders l Slicers l Tenderisers Utensil Washers Vacuum Packers Z Arm Mixers

Freshness & Flavour sealed in ice

Pure, Chilled or Frozen Lemon, Lime & Orange Zest & Juices

can be supplied as non-organic, organic or wax-free

Tel: 01233 733737 Mob: 07831 486921 Fax: 01233 733392 Email: sales@windsorfoodmachinery.com Web: www.windsorfoodmachinery.com

• food processing machinery

Windsor food machinery Ltd

www.refractometershop.com • food processing machinery

Food Process Solutions for Specialist Food Producers

‘‘Dynamically Designed Depositor’’ Contact: Daniel Dunne

Built in Britain

• ingredients

• labelling Cooking Vessels with Mixers Available in Gas, LPG, Electric & Steam

LABELLING MACHINES For jars, bottles & containers

EASY ROLLER Tel 44 (0)1706 364103 mike@becketts.co.uk www.becketts.co.uk www.bakeryequipment.co.uk

• bottles & jars

 Quick &

consistent label application  Semi-auto & auto machines

tel: 01404 892100 email: sales@vigoltd.com www.vigoltd.com • ingredients

HS HS French Flint Ltd. FF Speciality Glassware, for the more discerning producer.

Fabrications for the food industry Stainless Steel & Aluminium Fabrications Tables • Sinks • Racks • Trolleys Bespoke Fabrications • Ware Washing Contact:

John Armstrong on either

07825 44 44 03 or 01909 519098 Unit 4G, The Leathermarket, Weston Street, London SE1 3ER Tel: 020 7407 3200 Fax: 020 7237 9093 www.FrenchFlint.com

August 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 7

e-mail: john@jkstainlesssolutions.co.uk www.jkstainlesssolutions.co.uk

01761 470523 F: 01761 471018 E: info@zumozest.com w: www.zumozest.com

• labelling

The heart of UK food manufacturing

Sugar & dairy Standard & ingredients bespoke dairy blends Starches & sweeteners Emulsifiers & stabilisers Fats & oils Tel: (01454) 411446 sales@garrettingredients.co.uk www.garrettingredients.co.uk

Unit 2, Bridge Mills Rochdale Road, Edenfield Lancashire, England BL0 0RE Office: 00 44 (0)1706 825596 Fax: 00 44 (0)1706 826686 Mobile: 07710 723901 Email: david@interbake.co.uk

Produced to order by FA Young Farm Produce Ltd., Timsbury, Bath, Somerset BA2 0FQ

@Refractoshop

Liberty Process

• bottles & jars

• ingredients

For the Production of Sauces, Jams, Chutneys, Preserves, Pie Fillings, Stews and much more! Accurate Control of Product Temperature with Variable Speed Mixing Labour Saving: Let the machine control the cooking and mixing, freeing you up to do other things Product Quality: Eliminates burning & boiling over and improves consistency between batches

Tel: 0845 094 0187 www.libertyprocess.co.uk • ingredients

• packaging

Guild of Fine Food Retail Members Take an ad here at a discount for: • Selling kit • Recruiting staff • Sourcing something unusual? 01747 825200 • labelling

Sweeten up your sales. Advertise in Fine Food Digest

01747 825200 Inkreadible Labels Ad artwork - 10.7.14 47.25x60mm - CH6020

Call our sales team on 01747 825200 today to discuss the right classified heading for your equipment, ingredients or services

• labelling

• refrigeration

“We can help you label every step of the way, manually, semi and fully automatically” Label Solutions That Add Value and Boost Brand Impact Proudly supplying British made packaging equipment and labelling machines for 50 years 1964-2014

01274 681022 info@norpakltd.com www.norpakltd.com

Premium label suppliers to: Langham Wine Estate Olives Et Al Fortnum and Mason Get in touch Amberley Adhesive Labels Ltd tel: 01258 455772 email: sales@amberley.net www.amberley.net Visit us at the NEC Packaging Innovations on 25-26 February 2015 (stand H20)

• training

DELI-GHT FOR FINE FOOD MANUFACTURERS THE ELF BRINGS AFFORDABLE LABELLING TECHNOLOGY

• Digital short run labels • Inkjet printing • Hot foiling and domed labels • bar coding, variable data and consecutive numbering • Reeled/laminated/sheeted • High volume plain labels (We have turret winding capacity) • High volume printed labels upto 8 colours

Weighing Labelling Epos

Top quality HACCP, food safety and auditing training courses delivered online or at our dedicated training facility.

In addition with in-house design and plate making we can offer unrivalled service and response to meet your needs

Advanced Dynamics Ltd T +44 (0)1274 731222 E info@advanceddynamics.co.uk Visit www.advanceddynamics.co.uk • packaging

Model D955

12.1” Full Touch

7” Hybrid Price

DIBAL UK Limited W: www.dibal.com E: info@dibal.co.uk T: 020 8892 9465

• packaging

Unit C McKenzie Industrial Park Birdhall Lane, Stockport SK3 0XX TEL : +44 (0)161 428 1617 FAX : +44 (0)161 428 1603 www.windmilltapes.co.uk

T: 01756 700802 www.vwa.co.uk

X-Class

Getting into the future The latest computer technology in a compact design teamed with an “all-purpose” printer. The XC represents affordable access to highperformance PC-based scales with touchscreen operation. Comfortable, intuitive and easy to work with.

Highlights:

• ingredients

• packaging

– Easy Clean for quick and easy cleaning of the scale – Easy Load enables paper rolls to be changed in a matter of seconds – Label printer* – Easy Level tilt compensation* – High-end PC-based scale with outstanding Intel® Dual Core processor for optimum performance and perfect graphics with minimum power consumption – High-end software packages * Option

01908 682740 info@bizerba.co.uk www.bizerba.com Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

Trade Only

airs.co.uk/finefood1 df oo ef fin nd ya lit ia ec .sp w w w

Find 1000s of products, ingredients and new ideas

owcase

See live inspirational Explore the UK’s largest sh olate om t choc Gain insight – learn fr try demos from leading chefs of luxury & gourme experts in your indus

JOIN US FOR THE 15TH ANNUAL SPECIALITY & FINE FOOD FAIR #SFFF14 #SCF14 www.specialityandfinefoodfairs.co.uk/finefood1 Vol.15 Issue 7 · August 2014

SFFF Fine Food Digest Advert.indd 1

03/07/2014 09:18