FFD July 2014 by Guild of Fine Food

DELI OF THE MONTH 48

DORKING DELI’S LOUISE HOLME 6

GLOBAL REACH 19

From Great Taste champion butcher to great fine food all-rounder

‘Believe strongly in your business concept – and stick to it,’ advises the Surrey store owner

Why The Food Co uses specialist importers to cover each world region July 2014 · Vol 15 Issue 6

A SUP PLE

MEN T TO

2014 Guid Importe e to r Distribu s & tors Atlantico Bespoke Foods Blakemo re Fine Foo ds Brindisa Cheese Cell ar Cotswold Fayre The Cress Compan y Delicioso

EXOTIC FRUITS

Districts of Italy

YOUR DIR

ECTORY

EDITORS’ CHOICE 47 Our writers make their personal pick of new launches from Harrogate 2014

FOOD IMP

ORTERS,

Med Foo ds Medallio n Foods Michael Lee Fine Cheeses RH Amar Pallas Foo ds Patriana Products From Spa in Samway s Fine Foo ds Villanov a

WHOLE

INSIDE

Everything from mild black Taggiasca to giant Chalkidiki in our latest olive update CHEF’S SELECTION 45 Jeremy Lee of London’s Quo Vadis ensures whole Marcona almonds, Bonduelle pois de jardin and Burgess anchovy essence are always in his larder

OF FINE

Divine Del i El Olivo Entremont Fratelli Cam isa Gorgeous Food Com pany Hf Chocola tes Hider Foo d Imports Iberica Del ights Infinity Foo ds

SALERS

& DISTRI

BUTORS

Your annual guide to importers, distributors & wholesalers

NEWS 4 CHEESEWIRE 13 IMPORTERS & DISTRIBUTORS 17 OLIVES 43 SHELF TALK 44 DELI OF THE MONTH 48

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.

What’s new this month: Or maybe this aging rock and roll relic is going slightly mad showing so much love for a wild animal that has bred unhindered for two decades, has no natural enemies BOB FARRAND and, in many areas, is riddled with disease. Agriculture is under enough pressure coping with climate Mrs. F and I recently spent a change and the need to feed our cracking weekend at the Specialist ever-expanding world population Cheesemakers Association annual without wealthy musicians get-together in Kent. We visited the complicating any attempt to fight Hardy family at High Weald Dairy the disease. and then toured Robin Betts’ dairy May claims vaccination is the and ripening cave at Winterdale answer, which it might well be, but Cheese. A tutored tasting by six in reality the TB issue is a disastrous cheese-makers followed and during red herring. In most parts of the the evening, a hog roast and much country, there are now far too wine was served. A great time was many badgers. The population is had by all. completely out of balance with the Our enjoyment was tainted with environment and needs controlling. news that a cheddar-maker using The sooner milk from her Government closed herd has Agriculture is under clamps down lost 82 cows to TB. enough pressure, from on ill-informed, In common with so many British climate change and our tree-hugging dairy farmers, ever-expanding world protestors and allows farmers to she’s certain that population, without humanely control badgers are the their numbers source of infection wealthy musicians complicating any (badgers not and knows tree-huggers), exactly where the attempt to fight TB the sooner the diseased animals countryside can be re-balanced. are located. She can do nothing People close to farming accept about it. the need to cull animals when A cow reacting positive to TB populations become excessive, in must be slaughtered. A family pet exactly the same way we accept the with a terminal illness is put to need to protect species that become sleep. But badgers, in common with endangered. Badgers are in no way humans, are left to suffer to the endangered. So Mr. May, you might bitter end. want to pause just for a moment The cheese-maker described the and consider the very real possibility grief suffered by everyone on the that too much love could kill British farm, which left me wondering how dairy farming. Queen’s wiry-haired lead guitarist, Brian May might react to the sight of grown men shedding tears as the Bob Farrand is publisher of Fine Food cows they’ve bred, nurtured and Digest and chairman of the Guild of Fine milked are led away to slaughter. Food

Opinion

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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.

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Editor’s choice

Selected by Mick Whitworth

Stag Bakeries cheese straws www.stagbakeries.co.uk

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Always one of my favourite bakeries, Stornoway-based Stag is continuing to harness the selling power of Scottish ingredients with this new fourstrong range of cheese straws, made with cheeses from north of the border. My personal favourite is the version with Ayrshire Bonnet – with so few goats’ cheeses delivering any flavour of goat these days, it’s good to get a definite goaty kick from a cheese straw. The Dunlop is mildly cheddary, the Strathdon Blue releases its flavour as the buttery biscuit melts. Only the Smoked Dunlop could do with a bit more oomph, but I’d give all four a go.

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

www.ffdonline.co.uk Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

fine food news Indies concerned about costs as all three major political parties moot above-inflation rises

Minimum wage hikes may increase pressure on shops By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Level of noncompliance fines also goes up

Dennis Owusu-ansah / dreamstime.com

Fine food retailers have welcomed the upcoming above-inflation rise in the National Minimum Wage but have warned that further increases could quickly become unsustainable. In October, the minimum wage for people over 21 will rise by 19p (3%) to £6.50 – the first in what is likely to be a series of real-term increases. All three major political parties have committed to restoring and then surpassing the wage’s prerecession values, after five years of below-inflation increases. Labour pledged last month to link it to average earnings, while Chancellor George Osborne has recently voiced his backing for a rise to £7-an-hour. Most delis and farm shops contacted by FFD already pay above the minimum wage but said further inflation-busting rises would put a serious strain on business. “This has to be covered by something somewhere, more sales have to be achieved and we are certainly not guaranteed new customers every week, nor can we tweak our margins more and more,” said Georgina Mason, owner of Gonalston Farm Shop, Notts. “Further rises just increase the pressure on the whole team. The people who lead the business and are paid above the minimum wage, like the managers and supervisors, are often short-changed because the minimum wage players have taken the increase you would have given to those higher up.”

Minimum wage for over-21s will rise by 3% in October and may rise further

At the Sussex Produce Company in Steyning, owner Nick Hempleman said he may have to cut staff hours to ease wage pressures. “We pride ourselves on our social responsibility but we are still a business, with costs to cover and targets to meet. The thin margins of the retail world mean that we will continue to look for ways to make the most efficient use of staff and in practice that could mean reductions in hours and shifts.” Mark Farnsworth of William’s Farm Kitchen in Yorkshire echoed the point. “We need to be very careful and not push this too hard

In last month’s Queen’s Speech, the Government revealed plans to increase fines for employers that avoid paying their staff the National Minimum Wage. The maximum amount will rise from £5,000 to £20,000 per employee and employers will also be “named and shamed” in public. Tighter regulations around zero-hours contracts were also announced in the speech, although specific details have not yet been revealed. James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores said the contracts can be “a valuable tool for retailers when they need extra cover over busy periods, and are also beneficial for employees with commitments such as childcare or study who need that extra flexibility”.

too fast. Any wage increase has to be recouped through savings elsewhere or increased prices. At the moment I would be very, very nervous about increasing prices given the intensely competitive grocery market. “As good as Managers and supervisors our strawberry are often short-changed jam may be, it’s because the minimum wage hard to sell a jar at players have taken the £2.75 when it’s on increase you would have a £1 BOGOF deal at Tesco just a bit given to those higher up.” further down the road.” Georgie Mason, Gonalston Farm Shop

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Retailers’ views on National Minimum Wage rises £7 ❛andAbove I would have serious concerns for my business. My main concern is that the NorthSouth divide has accelerated sharply as we are coming out of this recession. Is it time for a weighting on the minimum wage? Rather than have a single rate, do we need a London and South East rate?

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Mark Farnsworth, William’s Farm Kitchen, Hornsea, Yorkshire

I can’t see the minimum wage rising ❛above £7 for some significant time

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

yet and if that was to happen I think you’d see an enormous backlash from businesses from all sectors. The two major parties are gearing up for an election in 2015 and are willing to make woolly statements that could win votes.

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Tom Newey, Country Food & Dining, various locations

outstripping people’s wages. In London, £6.50 is not a living wage. Companies may complain that they can’t afford to pay their staff more, but frankly if their business model is based on not having to pay their staff enough to live on then that is a very flawed business model.

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Ben Lidgate, Lidgate’s, London

Above ❛inflation rises

If the NMW was to rise to ❛£7.50 and beyond it would

are necessary, at least for the next few years, because we’ve had several years of price rises

start to become an issue for us. The financial pressure on small independent businesses is already tough. The addition of forced upward pressure on staffing costs would simply impose another burden on an already under

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pressure indie food sector.

Laura Brown, Arcadia Deli, Belfast

❛costsOurasstaffing a percentage of gross turnover are increasing. It’s not sustainable for a small business like ours for staff costs to continue going up by more than inflation indefinitely. I might have to cut back on staffing but it’s hard to see how, given that patterns of trade are unpredictable.

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Diane Brown, Provender Brown, Perth Follow us on

@ffdonline

Apprenticeships help farm shops plug skills gap

IN BRIEF l Selfridges has appointed Nathan Herrmann as its new food and restaurants director. Herrmann, who joined the retailer last year from management consultancy firm McKinsey, will move to the new post from his previous role as director of business planning. His new role will see him lead Selfridges’ food and restaurant team, which includes director of food Nicola Waller and newly appointed director of restaurants Hannah Bass.

By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Farm shops are turning to apprenticeships as a way of tackling a shortage of skilled workers in key areas such as butchery and bakery. There are around 900 food and drink employees hoping to complete a Modern Apprenticeship in Scotland this year, according to figures from skills body the National Skills Academy for Food & Drink, while in England a record 1,941 apprenticeships were successfully completed in the sector between August 2012 and December 2013 – almost double the number over the same period in 2011/12. Kilnford Farm Shop in Scotland is one of a growing number of retailers using the training scheme to recruit and hold on to staff. It recently took on its fifth apprentice in partnership with Scottish Meat Training. “We recognise that when it comes to developing the next generation of employees we have to grow our own,” said manager Maurice McMenemy. Douglas Scott, chief executive of Scottish Meat Training, told FFD that the number of farm shop butchery apprentices in Scotland was increasing all the time with six at Hopetoun Farm Shop and 10 at other retailers. “There are farm shops addressing the difficulty in obtaining skilled butchers, but those starting up find it hard to come by good trained craftsmen,” he added. Cheshire farm shop Cheerbrook has just advertised for two apprentices to work on its butchery counter and in its production kitchen in conjunction with Reaseheath College. “The best way for people to learn how we do things is for them to learn on the job and it will make people see working here as a long-term trade,” said Cheerbrook co-owner Andrew Shufflebotham. School of Artisan Food director Joe Piliero said he received daily calls from retailers and producers looking for staff skilled in bakery, meat and cheese. “There is still a gap and skills are in danger of being lost,” he said.

Hiring apprentice butchers is addressing a shortage

l Shepherds Markets expanded outside of London for the first time with a new market in Reading last month. The food and crafts market provider – run by the three daughters of Partridges’ John Shepherd – also added another market to its portfolio in Ealing, West London.

l Bermondsey Hard Pressed, made by Bill Oglethorpe of KappaCasein, has won the 2014 James Aldridge Memorial Trophy for best raw milk cheese. Members of the Specialist Cheesemakers Association decide the award by casting votes.

l Gog Magog Hills Farm Shop has

PERFECT PITCHES: Yorkshire cheese wholesalers took both of the gongs for best stand at the 2014 Harrogate Speciality Food Show, which took place on June 22 and 23. Cryer & Stott was named as pick of the show by Tony Howard, of Lewis & Cooper fame, while Michael Lee Fine Cheeses was voted Best Stand by visitors. The West Yorkshire firm, which has been runner-up at the previous two shows, came in ahead of Sally’s Pasta, Ten Acre Crisps and English Spirit Distillery, who finished joint second. This year’s show saw a record number of exhibitors – more than 170 in total – while in excess of 1,000 visitors came through the doors over the course of two days.

HEFF plans to shut down By MICHAEL LANE

After 16 years in business, West Midlands food group Heart of England Fine Foods is on the brink of closure after deciding to go into voluntary liquidation. In a statement, HEFF’s board of directors branded the Government “short sighted” after the group lost a large portion of its income from the public purse. It also warned the liquidation of the business would place “100s of jobs within small businesses at risk” across the eight counties it served, in addition to the 15 staff being made redundant at the group itself. The board cited the early termination of its six-year contract to manage the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre as one of the reasons for the business’s collapse. As a result, it relocated to Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology in March. It added that funding for export projects, pledged by UK Trade &

Investment in January, had failed to materialise while other areas of HEFF’s business experienced “slow trading” conditions. The board said it had made “valiant efforts” to secure either public or private funding over the last few months. In January, HEFF’s chief executive Karen Davies launched a revamped version of its distribution operation the Delivery Service, complete with its own vans. “Whilst the company still has healthy reserves, it continues to trade at a loss and we do not genuinely expect that we will be able to trade out of our current financial difficulties in the short term,” said HEFF in the statement. As FFD went to press, HEFF was due to hold its final shareholder meeting and the food group was appealing to Government to save the business from closure. www.heff.co.uk

won the title of England’s Best Burger 2014. The Cambridgeshire retailer’s Magog Marrow burger had already won the EBLEX competition’s Independent Retail Butcher category and saw off challenges from both Asda and Morrisons to take the overall crown.

l Artisan flour supplier Bacheldre Watermill has been placed on the market for £1.4m. Current owners Matt and Anne Scott said they had put the business up for sale because they were “seeking a new challenge”. Based near Churchstoke in Powys, the company supplies Waitrose, as well as independents.

l Heart Distribution will now be known as Blakemore Fine Foods. The distributor changed its branding and has incorporated the name of its parent company, wholesaler AF Blakemore, as it looks to continue its expansion across the UK.

l Bank lending to UK businesses fell sharply in the first quarter of the year, according to Bank of England figures. The UK central bank said yesterday that lending under the scheme dropped by £2.7bn in the three months to April with lending to small and medium-size enterprises falling by £700m.

l The Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s farm shop Fodder celebrated its fifth anniversary last month. The Harrogate retailer’s turnover is on course to hit £10m this year. Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

fine food news Biscuit-maker Shropshire Fine Herbs in liquidation

While primarily focussed on private label, Shropshire Fine Herbs had recently rebranded its own range in a bid to boost sales By MICHAEL LANE and MICK WHITWORTH

Less than a year after a major re-brand, savoury biscuit-maker Shropshire Fine Herbs has ceased trading and gone into voluntary liquidation after apparently running into cashflow problems. The company, which launched its own Shropshire Purveyors’ range in September 2013, was primarily a private label supplier to a number of high profile customers including cheesemongers Paxton & Whitfield and La Fromagerie. One client told FFD: “I think Christmas was okay for them but then in the New Year they were not getting the orders through and they just ran out of cash.” According to a statement of affairs filed at Companies House at

the beginning of June, Shropshire Fine Herbs Ltd owed more than £220,000 to its creditors, including Lloyds Commercial Finance, directors Hugh and Annie Laughton and numerous suppliers. The Fine Cheese Company and its sister company Artisan Biscuits are understood to be among those looking to pick up private label business as a result of the closure. Stag Bakeries, in the Outer Hebrides, confirmed to FFD that it was also speaking to some of Shropshire Fine Herbs’ previous customers. Stag general manager Alasdair Maclean said: “The complexities of some of these projects means that there will be variable lead times and a bit

of back and forth as we look to accommodate enquiries.” He said it was “never good to hear of producers going out of business and of jobs being lost”, adding: “Our experience is that the UK specialist biscuit market is very competitive with a large number of products jostling for customer attention.” According to the Shropshire Fine Herbs website, other private label clients have included flour producer Gilchester’s Organic, Daylesford Organic and Harrods. Paxton & Whitfield MD Ros Windsor told FFD she was “very sad” about the demise of the baker, which supplied the cheesemonger’s branded cheese bites range. She said: “There are so many sweet biscuit makers out there and so few savoury ones that we need all the savoury producers we can get.” Last September, founder and director Hugh Laughton told FFD he hoped the 12-strong Shropshire Purveyors’ range would match the company’s private label output. The company was also planning to phase out its Jannocks branded range of oatmeal biscuits.

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

registered in March and we’ve just done our first return. Had I known what a huge effect it would have on the finances – particularly in terms of coffee, hot food and eat-in lunches – I probably would have started trading Louise Holme The Dorking Deli, Dorking, Surrey with VAT included in my pricing structure. I’ve introduced a two-tier system of eat-in and take-away pricing, and products – and stick to it. We On day one, we didn’t have any tables but I’m not convinced it’s the easiest or started with a basic level of stock and in store. We were offering takeaway most lucrative method. customers kept asking for items we baguettes, quiches and salads, We use an iPad and iZettle as our didn’t have. I was so eager to please together with homemade cakes, but till and card reader. It’s served a great that the number of products quickly discovered an immediate demand purpose up until now. However I’d multiplied. Recently – while analysing for everyday eat-in capabilities. Later like to keep that week we’d introduced a couple a closer eye of coffee tables but it wasn’t enough. Had I known what a huge effect VAT stock and We now have 12 covers, with four would have on the business’s finances, on wastage so more outside, and are planning a I probably would have started trading I’m looking for refurbishment to fit more in as we with it included in my pricing structure. replacement have to turn people away most days. software. The As we’ve only been trading just iPad really works for us as our shop the value of shelf space versus tables over a year, I’m still learning. The most layout was designed to be flexible. and chairs – I’ve realised how diluted important lesson has been to believe For example, our counter is on wheels the stock themes have become. strongly in the business concept – in so it can be pushed back against a VAT has been a huge learning our case a deli that supported the wall to create more space for pop-up curve. The business had to be VATrise of popularity in British cheeses

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Cotswold Fayre moves into chilled Distributor Cotswold Fayre is set offer retailers chilled products and will begin trialling the new service in autumn. The Berkshire-based firm is planning to offer 150-200 lines, in addition to its large range of ambient products, and has promoted South of England regional account manager Tessa Evans to a role managing the new service. MD Paul Hargreaves said: “The distribution of chilled products is a topic we are frequently asked about by current and potential customers. It is clear that there is a demand for a broader product offering and we need to do as much as we can to help the retailer by providing a more consolidated shopping experience.” Cotswold Fayre is the second major fine food distributor to make the move into chilled distribution after The Cress Co, which serves Scotland and the North of England with dual temperature vehicles. Tessa Evans, who will now join the board of directors after 13 years with the distributor, said the move into chilled was “a huge milestone” and was planning to contribute to the company’s “dramatic growth”. Cotswold Fayre has also appointed Lizzie Vinnicombe as regional account manager for the South of England. www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

Tessa Evans: move is “huge milestone” for the business

restaurant evenings. As I’ve chosen to do my own bookkeeping, I would highly recommend KashFlow online accounting software. Even for an accounting novice like me, it creates easy to read reports that I get along with much better than Excel. On occasion, I have questioned why I’ve chosen to do this whilst my friends are in steady, secure, well-paid jobs. The lifestyle of a retail business owner is tough, especially since we started offering breakfasts and lunches. Most days are 10 hours long and the shop is open seven days a week. The business is doing well, though. Year two sales are up 130% on last year’s turnover of £101,000 and I have six staff. I’ll use the second year of trading to concentrate our product offering, train staff and guide the business along the path set out in my original plan rather than getting distracted by other demands. Interview by LYNDA SEARBY

@ffdonline

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Life’s a beach!

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

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

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

Add a few fresh ingredients and follow the simple instructions for a fabulous meal for four. Perfect for home cooks who are short on time and cooking novices.

fine food news new openings

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

More seats and space at House of Bruar following £2m extension At a glance l Following the extension, including the addition of a 4,500 sq ft glass conservatory, House of Bruar now has 13,000 sq ft of food retail space in its food hall and 7,000sq ft restaurant area with 600 covers.

l New features in the food hall include a self-service oil and vinegar station, an extended deli counter and handmade bespoke display stands.

l New suppliers include Your Piece

Perthshire’s House of Bruar now boasts a 13,000sq ft renovated food hall with several bespoke display tables By MICHAEL LANE

The ‘Harrods of Scotland’, House of Bruar, has added another 7,500sq ft of floor space to its food hall and restaurant areas after a £2m renovation and extension of its premises. The project has seen the Perthshire store boost its food retail area to 13,000sq ft, while the construction of a glass conservatory has added another 4,500sq ft to the existing 2,500sq ft restaurant, effectively doubling capacity to 600 covers.

Swallows & Amazons Tea Room Coniston, Lake District

Bank Ground Farm’s Swallows and Amazons Tea Room has added a farm shop section. The 10sq m area holds around 400 lines. These include jams and preserves made on the farm, such as lemon & lime curd with thyme, as well as local ales from Coniston Brewing Co, Cumbrian Legendary Ale and Hawkshead Brewery. There are also a number of locally made non-food items like soap and clothing. Rather than shelving, the shop features displays made from wall-mounted apple and orange crates.

Increasing these covers to cope with lunchtime demand was one of the primary reasons for carrying out the extension, said food buying manager Robert Thain, adding that the heaving shelves in the food hall also needed some relief. “One of the reasons that suppliers are constantly knocking on our door wanting to be stocked here is due to the brand exposure that we offer,” Thain told FFD. “The extra space has allowed us to, once again, enhance the exposure of key brands amongst our 320-plus

suppliers, along with bringing in some new and exciting suppliers.” The delicatessen counter has been increased by over a third, allowing the retailer to procure more than 25 new cheeses for its range. The extra floor space has also allowed it to double its display of Mediterranean olives and nuts from around the world with two handmade bespoke tables. Along with the new bespoke display units and tables, The House of Bruar has added a self-service oil and vinegar table, holding a

Jenius Social Islington, North London The brainchild of Jennifer Yong, this new social food hub has been opened in a purpose built 1,315sq ft site, which includes a “state-of-theart” professional kitchen, flexible dining space and a deli. Among the products stocked are Italian olive oils and balsamic vinegars from Seggiano, deli meats from Capo

Caccia Fine Food, olives and patés from Brindisa and artisan chocolates from specialists Ubuntu. As well as hosting cookery classes, the kitchen area can be hired for food styling and TV shoots while the dining area can be used by visiting supper clubs. www.jeniussocial.co.uk

Baking, Strathleaven Distilleries, NB Gin, Reids of Caithness, Sharpham Park, Lucy’s Dressings and Three Little Pigs.

wide range of pure and naturally flavoured oils and vinegars. Throughout the food hall, there are a number of new bespoke display stands, which the retailer has had hand-made by a local shop-fitting company. Thain said these stands have added “a new dimension and sense of theatre” to the space. The retailer has already listed a number of new lines and suppliers to its range but Thain said there are plans to add more in the coming months. www.houseofbruar.com

Leicester Food Hall Leicester

Exactly a year after it closed for refurbishment, the new food hall at Leicester Market opened its doors with eight traders including Sherwin’s Cheese Company, Mroz Sausages and Country Fayre, which carries a range of cheeses, pies and cooked meats, as well as specialist butchers and fishmongers. The new food hall – designed by architects Greig & Stephenson – is the first phase of the city council’s £9.2 million redevelopment programme for Leicester Market. www.leicestermarket.co.uk

www.swallowsandamazons.net

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

fine food news Report on Portas Pilots finds keys to success

IN BRIEF l The Bristol Cider Shop has launched a new delivery scheme aimed at businesses looking to hold a cider festival. The Cider Festival in a Box service includes detailed tasting notes and a hand-picked selection of award-winning cider and perry. Peter Snowman, owner of Bristol Cider Shop, said: “A lot of publicans and festival organisers are absolute experts when it comes to beer, but they don’t necessarily have the same background in cider. That’s where we come in.”

By ANNE BRUCE

Fine food retailers have agreed that local leadership is the key to a successful High Street, in line with the conclusions of a Future High Streets Forum report, published at the end of May. While compiling the report – Good Leadership, Great High Streets – the Forum looked at four towns which took part in a “Portas Pilot” initiative to turn around their High Streets, led by retail consultant Mary Portas. Portas Pilot projects in Bedminster, Dartford, Rotherham and Sydenham were examined, and the report said local authority engagement, sustainable and smart investment, communicating a vision and entrepreneurial spirit were the four ingredients required for a successful High Street. Liz Gill, co-owner of Linda’s Deli on Rotherham High Street said parking and local town planning were two main local problem areas. She told FFD: “We have a nice customer base but things could be a lot better. We are held back by parking. And new competition has come in which was not here when we started. A large Wetherspoons pub opened just near us – it was supposed to be an apartment block. “People don’t want to pay for our organic barista coffee when they can buy it cheap in Wetherspoons.

l The Government has offered a helping hand to small food producers with the launch of a free online tool for developing food safety systems. MyHACCP provides a step-by-step guide and templates for drawing up a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan, which is seen as a cornerstone of food safety practice. To sign up for an account, visit myhaccp.food.gov. uk

l The Burren Smokehouse in Ireland has signed a 12-month deal to supply Harrods with wild Irish smoked salmon. The County Clarebased company, which was set up in 1989 by Birgitta Hedin-Curtin and her husband Peter, sources its wild salmon from commercial fisherman Michael Murphy, who fished the River Nore in County Kilkenny using traditional fishing methods.

l Rococo Chocolates founder Chantal Coady has been made an OBE in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Coady, who opened her first shop on London’s Kings Road in 1983, received the honour for services to chocolate-making, as well as her contributions to charity. The chocolatier was also recently awarded the Grenada Ruby Award for outstanding contribution to the business development of Grenada where it jointly owns a cocoa farm.

”Places just open and close down round here, and it’s not because the owners don’t have business sense.” Southville Deli in Bedminster, a 13-year old business on the borders of the Bedminster Portas Pilot project, had seen benefits from it, owner Helen Boote told FFD. She said: “It has created a nice atmosphere here, there are flowers down the High Street now and there were Christmas trees at Christmas, it makes it a nicer place to shop. We are also getting a collective of local businesses together to get a better deal for buying electricity.” Keith Mulford owner of Dennis of Bexley has a shop about a mile away from Dartford town centre. He said: “I would say the major bugbears for a business like ours are parking and rents, which would come down to the leadership. “We had to move eight years ago due to high rents and lack of parking. Now we have a lovely site and business is good. We opened a second shop in a garden centre last year, which is doing well as there is lots of parking and lots of other concessions at the garden centre which bring shoppers in.” He said he had not noticed any improvements in the High Street in Dartford, which still boasts “estate agents and barbers and not much else”.

from Wiltshire was named Supreme Champion at this year’s British Cheese Awards. Humming Bark, a Vacherinstyle cheese produced by Carrigbyrne Cheese in Ireland’s Co Wexford, took the trophy for reserve champion, while Cropwell Bishop won the Best Blue with its organic Stilton as well as Best PDO cheese for its non-organic cheese. Quickes’ vintage cheddar was named Best Cheddar and Butlers’ Rothbury Red took the title for Best Territorial.

l Fermanagh Black Bacon has been crowned as the first Taste of Ulster, a new category in the Northern Ireland Tourism Awards. It is made using a secret curing process by O’Doherty’s Fine Meats in Enniskillen.

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

James Ram

l Rosary Garlic & Herb Goats’ Cheese

BOUND FOR BODMIN: Cornish fudge producer The Buttermilk Confectionery Co has acquired a site to build a new £500,000 factory, which will see it increase its capacity by 50%, in Bodmin. The business, which supplies farm shops across the country as well as The Eden Project, hopes to complete the move from its current building in Wadebridge by January 2015. Currently being run by a second generation of the Goad family, the producer plans to add four more staff to its 20-strong workforce. Buttermilk produces over 70 different flavours of fudge and a range of confectionery including brittle, toffee, truffles and Turkish Delight, using local ingredients where possible. www.buttermilkconfections.co.uk

Guru turns on Government By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Three years after being appointed to help revive British town centres streets, Mary Portas has slammed the Government for being too slow in providing finance and guidance to high streets. In an essay entitled Why Our High Streets Still Matter, the celebrity retail expert said the government had not acted quickly enough to support local communities to turn around their ailing town centres. “Progress from central government has been far slower than I’d hoped,” she said. She added that the 27 Portas Pilot towns, which have been widely criticised for being ineffective, were hampered by “vague supporting processes” and “insufficient guidance from Government”. The essay, which was upbeat about the future of British high streets, was published the day before the report from the Future High Streets Forum – a government taskforce headed by Costa’s Jason Cotta. The report – Good Leadership, Great High Streets – outlined a five-point plan based on the experiences of the Portas Pilot towns to be used by town centres as a template for future improvement. Portas defended the performance of the Portas Pilot towns in her essay, but criticised the Government’s performance on planning. “‘Town centre first’ as a policy is convincingly bandied around but the approval of out of town development still happens at a depressing rate so I question whether local and central government really mean it,” she said, adding that local authorities needed to do more to protect independents from the rise of supermarket convenience stores.

A promotional feature for the Guild of Fine Food

July’s exclusive Guild member promotions FIELD FARE

PATCHWORK TRADITIONAL FOOD CO TEN ACRE CRISPS

Frozen food supplier Field Fare has recently launched a range of ready meals including ‘Best of British’ lines like Lancashire Hotpot and Venison & Roasted Vegetable Casserole as well as European dishes, such as Lasagne Verde, and meals like Chicken Tikka Masala and green Thai Chicken Curry. All meat dishes are made with Red Tractor meat. All of these meals fit into Field Fare’s branded upright freezers, which take up less than 0.5 sq m of floorspace. THE DEAL: Approximately 50% off cost of branded upright freezer (must be installed with at least 18 field fare ready-meals or pre-packed lines), through supply of 8 free cases of FOC ready meals at installation. AVAILABILITY: Nationwide CONTACT: 01732 864344 or enquiries@field-fare.com

Patchwork’s latest range of patés in jars are the result of teaming up with Chase Distillery. Chicken Liver Paté with Chase Smoked Vodka has a “delightfully earthy” flavour while Duck Liver with Chase Marmalade Vodka is a new twist on the classic combination of duck and orange. Chicken Liver Pâté with Chase Extra Dry Gin has the “enchanting aromatics of juniper”. These products can all be purchased with a gift box. THE DEAL: 9 cases from the Chase Distillery pate range for the price of 7 AVAILABILITY: UK and Ireland, next day delivery CONTACT: Zoe Cooper on 01824 708600 or zoe@patchwork-pate.co.uk

MR HUGH’S Larchwood Foods grows the seed and bottles Mr Hugh’s extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil. With a high smoke point, the oil robust enough to fry with, but is also suitable for drizzling. The producer says its “moreish rich nutty flavour and smooth texture” make it an ideal substitute for olive oil and butter. It also contains 7.7g of saturated per 100g and comes in 500ml and 250ml bottles as well as a low calorie spray. THE DEAL: Buy 5 units, get 1 free AVAILABILTY: Mainland UK delivery at additional cost CONTACT: Emily Nichols on 01366 348025 or emily@larchwoodfoods.co.uk

WARNER EDWARDS Warner Edwards artisan gin is distilled by Tom Warner and Sion Edwards in their 200-year old converted barn on Falls Farm, in the village of Harrington, Northamptonshire. They blend spring water, grain spirit, homegrown elderflower and 10 other botanicals inside their still, Curiosity, to create a “fantastically smooth and aromatic” dry gin, which recently received Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Warner Edwards focuses on selling through independent retailers. THE DEAL: Buy 6 bottles, get 1 free to use for in-store sampling AVAILABILITY: Nationwide, free delivery on one case orders. CONTACT: Harriet on 01536 710623 or harriet@warneredwards.com

COMPANY FIELD FARE

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HARRY BROMPTON’S ALCOHOLIC ICE TEA Harry Brompton’s Alcoholic Iced Tea is hand-made in limited batches using ethically sourced Kenyan black teas from the Great Rift Valley and craft-distilled grain spirit. This is infused with natural citrus to create a lightly sparkling 4%ABV drink. It contains no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and is gluten-free. It is available in cases of 12x275ml bottles from distributor Hider Foods Imports. THE DEAL: 20% off orders AVAILABILTY: Nationwide CONTACT: Hider Foods on 01482 504333 or sales@hiderfoods.co.uk

PROMOTION SUMMARY DEAL

Every pack of Ten Acre Crisps is gluten-, dairy- and MSG-free, Vegetarian and Vegan Society approved, and suitable for Halal and Kosher diets. The eight-strong range of flavours includes The Amazing Adventures of Salt and Vinegar, When the Chilli Got Sweet and The Day Sweet and Sour Became Friends. All come in boxes of 36x40g bags (£16.02+VAT). THE DEAL: Buy 2 boxes, get 1 free AVAILABILITY: Nationwide. Free delivery on 8 or more boxes, otherwise £10 CONTACT: David Leadbeater on 0161 2661932 or david.leadbeater@yumshsnacks.com

As well as being producer of argan oil, vegetable spreads and preserves, Verita Vita also sources olive oils and deli lines from producers across the Mediterranean region. Among these is Tomato Frito sauce from Mata in Spain. This versatile sauce can be used with pasta, fish and tapas dishes and is made without artificial additives or thickeners. It comes in cases of 24x370g jars (wholesale £1.95, RRP £2.95 each) THE DEAL: Buy 18 jars of Tomato Frito, get 6 free. 25% discount available across the company’s range. AVAILABILITY: Nationwide. P&P 6.95 per 20kg. CONTACT: Monica Smith on 01493 718052 or info@veritavita.com

All offers valid until the end of this month and available to Guild retail members only TEL

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RETAILERS: To take advantage of these promotions, you have to be a retail member of the Guild of Fine Food. For more information or to join, contact karen.price@finefoodworld.co.uk SUPPLIERS: You must be a producer member of the Guild to promote your latest offers on this page. If you’re already signed up and interested in booking a slot, contact sally.coley@finefoodworld.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

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July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

e usa

cheesewire Unsung heroes Hidden gems from British producers

news & views from the cheese counter

Gorywdd Caerphilly quits Wales for West Country By MICK WHITWORTH

Wild Garlic Yarg In a nutshell: Lynher Dairies is famous for its crumbly Caerphillylike Cornish Yarg, which is wrapped in nettles, but the company also makes a version wrapped in wild garlic leaves, picked in local woods between March and April. The edible leaves are placed in concentric circles on 900g truckles, made with pasteurised milk from the farm’s herd of Ayrshire, Friesian and Jersey cows in Pengreep, and other farms. Flavour and texture: Creamy and crumbly with a nice yoghurty tang but also has a gentle garlicky flavour from the wild ramson leaves. History: Cornish Yarg was first made on Bodmin Moor by Alan Gray in the early 1980s and is a backward spelling of his name. Ben and Catherine Mead took over in 1995 and a second dairy was built at their farm with all production moving there in 2006. Wild Garlic Yarg was Best Flavour Added Cheese at this year’s British Cheese Awards. Cheese care: Wrap in wax, grease proof or cheese paper. Store at 8°C or below. Wild Garlic Yarg stays fresh for up to 10 days from cutting. Why stock it? Wild garlic has become fashionable as an ingredient and appears regularly on menus. A great counterpoint to traditional nettle Yarg, its green leaves look great on a cheese counter or wedding cheese cake. Perfect partners: The cheese has a low melting point so is nice crumbled over bruschetta or quiche. Catherine Mead recommends a light IPA as her top tipple, but it also works well with Champagne or an English sparkling wine. Where to buy: Cheese Cellar, Longman’s, Hawkridge. FFD features a different ‘unsung hero’ from Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association members each month. To get involved, contact: patrick.mcguigan@finefoodworld.co.uk

Eighteen years after setting up as a cheese-maker in west Wales, Trethowan’s Dairy is this month moving production of its awardwinning Gorwydd Caerphilly to a new purpose-built dairy at Puxton Court Farm in north Somerset. It is a homecoming of sorts for co-owner Todd Trethowan, as the new site is less than 14 miles from where he learned Caerphilly-making from the late Chris Duckett. The new dairy is just yards from Puxton Court Farm’s milking parlour, where a 100-strong pedigree Holstein herd is milked twice a day, promising Todd Trethowan and brother Maugan more control over quality and consistency. Maugan Trethowan said: “The facilities will be brand new and we will have the capacity to produce more cheese, but we will still be making Gorwydd in exactly the same traditional, hands-on way. “Importantly, we will still be maturing it for two months to allow the deep, rounded flavours to develop beneath the natural rind.”

Gorwydd: still matured for two months to develop flavour under the rind

Todd Trethowan added: “It’s an amazing opportunity to work with beautiful milk from a fantastic pedigree herd. “We’re really looking forward to working with the herdsman to develop our understanding of the variations in the milk and the effects

they have on our cheese,” He said there was a long history of Caerphilly-making in Somerset. “Between the wars, cheddar makers turned to Caerphilly because it’s a quicker maturing cheese and so helped cash flow.” www.gorwydd.co.uk

“We’re all to blame for loss of Denhay” Summer in By MICK WHITWORTH While Denhay has maintained the Cellar a herd of 1,000 cows for the A year after announcing its total withdrawal from cheese-making, Denhay Farms’ owner George Streatfeild has blamed consumers, not supermarkets, for the move. Speaking at a party to mark the 5th birthday of Town Mill Cheesemongers in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the former West Country Farmhouse Cheddar producer said British shoppers were responsible for stripping the profit out of cheesemaking. “I’m just as bad as you,” he told his audience. “We all want a deal [and] we all buy on offer”. Pointing out that 85% of massmarket Cathedral City cheddar is sold on promotion, he said Denhay was “not the only casualty” of price pressure. “Five farmhouse cheesemakers went out in 18 months because they were either to big or too small.” Niche producers such as Montgomery, Keen and Westcombe survived by selling “right at the top end”, but larger farmhouse operators could not compete against major producers that could buy in milk for less that it cost Denhay to produce. “It cost us £1,000 to make a tonne of cheddar, over and above the milk price. It cost Dairy Crest £93,” he added. “It’s not that we were extravagant, just that they have huge economies of scale.”

liquid milk market, it is focused on curing bacon for the multiples. “We are going into medallions, we are looking at gammons,” said Streatfeild, “so we haven’t gone away with our tails between our legs. But we made the decision [to quit cheese] in time to protect 55 jobs,” George Streatfeild and wife Amanda helped Town Mill owner Justin Tunstall celebrate his multiaward-winning shop’s fifth birthday by cutting one of the last ever truckles of Denhay cheddar. www.townmillcheese.co.uk

George and Amanda Streatfeild of Denhay look on as Town Mill’s Justin Tunstall blows out five birthday candles on one of the last truckles of Denhay cheddar

Distributor Cheese Cellar is championing artisan producers with a “summer collection” of 17 cheeses that includes 15 British varieties from nine producers. It includes an exclusive deal to carry Cornish Kern (above) from Yarg maker Lynher Dairies, described as “more in the style of an aged Gouda with meaty, caramel notes”. Also in the new range is Royal Bassett, a small, individually boxed creamy blue from the Brinkworth Dairy, as well as Barwheys Smoked from Ayrshire in Scotland. The latter is smoked in oak from whisky barrels used by Glen Grant distillery. www.cheesecellar.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

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July 2014 路 Vol.15 Issue 6

EES ISH CH E AWARD RIT

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cheesewire

Small but highly scientific

Interview After working for other cheese businesses, Paul Thomas has set up his own operation, called Thimble, with his

partner. PATRICK McGUIGAN finds him packing a wealth of technical knowledge into some pretty tiny raw milk cheeses.

fter cranking out hefty 5kg rounds of Old Winchester at Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers for the best part of six years, Paul Thomas has started small at his new cheese company Thimble. So small, in fact, that he looks like a giant as he carefully tends to what, at first glance, appear to be miniature Camemberts at the Hampshire dairy he has set up with partner Hannah Roche The perfectly formed cheeses, called Little Anne after Roche’s grandmother, only weigh 40g and look tiny in his hands, but are proof that size really isn’t everything. Each one of the raw milk St Marcellin-style cheeses retails for between £2.50 and £3, which works out at around £70/kg – a price that most cheese-makers could only dream about. “Cheese shops tend to have very limited counter space, so the last thing they want to see is a new 44kg Comté-style cheese. A 40g or 100g cheese on the other hand should be fairly easy to fit in,” Thomas told FFD last year just after he set up the company. Twelve months down the line and Little Anne’s diminutive charms seem to be working on some of the country’s best cheesemongers with customers including George Mewes in Glasgow, La Fromagerie and Paxton & Whitfield in London, and the Courtyard Dairy in Yorkshire. “We’re probably one of very few cheese-makers making a profit on 200 litres of milk a week,” he says. “We produce 400 Little Annes in each batch, but that’s only around 16kg of cheese.” Put another way, 400 Little Annes weigh about the same as three Old Winchesters, but there is a reason why these kinds of cheese are made small, explains Thomas. “With a lactic cheese a lot of the flavour comes from the yeast and geotricum [in the rind]. In a smaller cheese you get more of an influence so it shows up more interesting flavours.” Little Anne has recently been joined by a big sister called Dorothy (named after Roche’s other grandmother) – a washed rind Reblochon-style cheese that weighs in at around 150g. The original business plan was to launch Dorothy soon after Little Anne, but the cheese was delayed as Thimble was forced to jump through various health and safety hoops. The main problem was that targets for e.coli levels in

Paul Thomas (left), together with partner Hannah Roche, makes the 40g Little Annes in batches of 400

Thomas is better qualified than pasteurised cheese were incorrectly most to talk about the subject. He applied to the raw milk cheese. But has a degree in microbiology from by staying on good terms with his Dundee University and worked for EHO and working with the Specialist Scottish retailer and wholesaler IJ Cheesemakers Association, the Mellis before joining Lyburn. Around company has finally been given half his time is now spent working clearance to sell the cheese. as a consultant, providing technical Thomas says the hold-up is advice to other cheese-makers, and symptomatic of the suspicions, held teaching at the School of Artisan by authorities nationwide, about Food. raw milk cheese. “There’s a battle “Not everyone is going to know on our hands constantly,” he says. about ‘pseudomonas competition’ “There’s an element of being overin the bulk tank, but everyone is cautious or not understanding. The going to encounter a problem at world isn’t sterile. You are going to some point or another when they get low levels of various bacteria in are going to need some external raw milk cheese. help,” he says. “In some “The thing I ways it’s a good We’re probably one of bang on about way of exposing very few cheese-makers the most to your body cheese-makers is to low levels making a profit on 200 acidification and of potential litres of milk a week. taking care of pathogens so your pH meter. If when it does hit you monitor acidification, pay really you one day, you’ve already been close attention to the development pre-warned. If we try to make all of the pH and graph it as you’re foods sterile, we’re going to make making. You’ll learn so much about ourselves sick in the end.”

❛

❜

your cheese.” Working as a consultant and teacher also has its benefits for Thimble with Thomas recently finding a new milk supplier after helping a local farmer write a HACCP plan for his fledgling butter business. The company previously used milk from cross-breed cows at Wallops Wood Dairy (the same farm that supplied St Jude producer Julie Cheyney, until her recent move to Suffolk), but its new supplier has a small herd of Guernsey cows. “Guernsey milk is very rich and shouldn’t really work for Little Anne, but it does,” he says. “We’ve seen a more stable cheese with much better flavours. There’s a hit of clotted cream right on the finish, which comes from the milk. “The cheeses look beautiful too. The rinds hold the yeast and geotrichum interaction that you want to see on a lactic cheese and the cheese is a lovely custard colour.” www.thimblecheesemakers.co.uk

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

A promotional feature on behalf of Le Gruyère AOP

Me and my cheese counter This month, we talk to Candice Fonseca of Liverpool’s Delifonseca Dockside

hatting with Candice Fonseca, you might reach the conclusion the launch of her first deli and restaurant in Liverpool eight years ago – followed by her second four years later just 2½ miles down the road – was part of a perfectly formulated business plan. You’d be wrong. Her single objective in 2006 was to fulfill a deep-rooted wish to stand behind a counter and sell cheese. “I grew up in Bury which has a vibrant food culture – fruit and veg markets and good butchers and being part Portuguese, food was always important in my family,” she says. “Eight years ago, Liverpool was a food desert – nothing but supermarkets – so I figured it needed a good deli.” Delifonseca opened as a deli-restaurant in a listed building on Stanley Street in the heart of Liverpool’s business district a listed building in 2006. “It worked well,” she recalls, “particularly lunchtime trade for sandwiches and the restaurant was more like an American diner but it made me realise a delicatessen on its own would struggle – a restaurant is what gets people through the door.” Candice began with just 40 cheeses but there was much trial and error. “It takes a lot of sampling to sell really nice cheeses and I have to go along with some big sellers I personally

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

wouldn’t eat,” she says. 2008 was the year Liverpool became European City of Culture and Candice sensed a change in the food culture too. “The restaurant and bar scene began to lift off and I wanted a larger deli-restaurant catering for customers doing a weekly shop. The answer was Delifonseca Dockside – billed as a food hall, butcher and eatery. “The main difference, apart from the location in the rejuvenated dockside and size, is the introduction of a butchery and a large car park.” Everything about the venture is larger – the restaurant seats 80, the cheese counter boasts over 70 varieties and the fresh meat counter guarantees greater footfall. The result was more serious shoppers, some of which were from the original shop, which Candice transformed into a café/wine bar with a reduced stock of a dozen cheeses that feature on platters served at table. “They’re mostly old favourites like Colston Bassett Stilton, Kirkham’s Lancashire, Old Smokey and

Hennart’s Brie de Meaux,” she says. It was a tortuous process finding the right partner to handle the butchery concession before finally appointing Broughs Butchers. “Each one I looked at wanted to only sell pre-pack. I needed a proper butcher selling meat cut to order and able to advise how to cook it. That’s essential to attracting younger customers.” The deli counter remains her first love. “I have set times during the week selling cheese and charcuterie but as the business grows, there are so many other things to grab my time,” she says. Her best-sellers represent a wide spectrum of tastes, from ‘lots’ of Old Amsterdam which she alternates with a two-year-old VSOP Reypenaar Dutch speciality to ‘loads’ of Black Bomber due in part, she believes, to the fact most of her staff love it too. “Cornish Yarg sells well,” she says, “as do three aged Manchegos and we stock two Le Gruyères, one at around six months (our everyday Gruyère) and the three times World Champion Reserve from Von Mühlenen.” Close to the counter, there is a range of chutneys and crackers alongside more esoteric offers like fig balls wrapped in leaves and honey with truffle for drizzling on ricotta or Le Gruyère’s Helen Daysh comments “Candice is so goahead in the way she selects and sells cheese. Her success is clearly down to giving her customer base exactly what it want to buy. That’s always been the secret of clever retailing.”

just about any blue cheese. Above the counter, as you might expect, there is very good port from Fonseca and a Vouvray which Candice says “goes extremely well with all sorts of cheese.” When asked which cheeses have, over her eight year history, not sold well her answer is immediate. “Amazingly, it’s Cheshire,” she says. “Liverpool doesn’t seem to have any real affinity with the county of Cheshire although we’re so close. Lancashire is right next door and that’s doesn’t sell well either.” Despite that, Appleby’s Cheshire and Kirkham’s Lancashire occupy her counter, as do Lancashire Blue, Mrs Bell’s Yorkshire Blue and Blacksticks Blue. “I call them my conversion blues as it normally converts those who don’t like blue cheese.” Hennart’s Brie de Meaux, the Welsh Perl Las and Wigmore (“I could sell more if I could get it”) all sell well. “Promotions and tasting are essential,” she says. “We do the Le Gruyère promotion but we always offer tastings from our side of the counter. We find we sell more if we control tastings by handing samples to customers. It means we engage with them and tell them a little about each cheese.” “I never want to leave anyone out,” she says. “If we’re busy, I offer a piece to everyone queuing. It’s what I enjoy best – sharing cheese.” Even though the business may have grown way beyond the original business plan, she is still doing exactly what she always wanted to do – stand behind a counter and sell cheese.

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July 2014 路 Vol.15 Issue 6

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importers & distributors

An abroad range ANNE BRUCE talks to Essex retailer The Food Company about successfully stocking and selling imported foods

t can be a tricky proposition but, if retailers can get their selection and merchandising right, international food and drink can be a big driver of footfall. For The Food Company in Essex, its range of imported goods is frequently the hook to get customers through the doors. Often it’s American ex-pats looking for authentic candy and sugary breakfast cereals but settlers from around the world regularly come in searching for a taste of home, says shop floor manager Matt Ingham. Even if customers are just doing their regular shop and are not looking for an imported line, he continues, they might spot something that they have tried overseas and buy it. He adds that the range appeals to others who are just curious enough to try something new. As with every department and category in the Marks Tey shop, there is a wide range for customers to choose from. The shop – which has meat, fish, cheese, charcuterie and bread departments as well as a large ambient grocery offer – merchandises its international lines by food category, rather than sectioning them off. It also duallocates them in feature displays to maximise the exposure to the customer. This has proved a good way of attracting customers’ attention. Muraglia Olive Oil, a favourite of TV cook Nigella Lawson, was moved to a feature display after two years in store and sales have since doubled, says fine groceries buyer Graham Briggs. Currently, Thai drinks supplied by Peridot Trading are very popular, CocoMax Coconut Water has been selling strongly for months and a range of five flavoured Aloe Vera drinks under the Vera brand are taking off, Briggs says. In the last six months, sales of Lucky Charms cereal, previously the strongest selling international line in the store, have dropped as the product becomes available in the mainstream. Currently, soft drinks cans from America such as A&W Root beer, Vanilla Coke, Cream Soda and Grape Fanta are selling strongly in the hot weather. American candies are also a top seller, including brands like Reese’s and Twizzlers. The retailer introduced online sales recently and American candies are its best sellers on the web. The Food Company’s US ranges come in from several importers,

Around the world in seven best sellers Graham Briggs’ top imported products Fine groceries buyer Graham Briggs sources a variety of international food and drink, including the perennially best-selling American candy brands

novel products to stay ahead of including Empire Food Brokers, multiples “muscling in on world Americatessen and PS Foods. foods.” Briggs says maintaining stock Briggs believes the shop is a levels of products from around the three or four years ahead of the world can be challenging but he has supermarkets. It led the way on a large pool of importers to draw Chinese and then Thai foods, he from, including Bespoke Foods, says, and it is now seeing strong Envis Foods and O’Kane Irish Foods. sales of Malaysian lines, sourced He tends to use specialist importers from Bespoke Foods, that are not yet for each region. found in the mainstream aisles. “A perfect example is Taste of When it comes to world foods, Barbados, importers of our Tortuga Briggs says independents will be able rum cakes,” explains Briggs. “Yes, to maintain an edge on the multiples there are other Bajan products out if they offer wider ranges and there but these guys work hard to authentic “real deal” recipes, rather bring the best.” than products reformulated for the Despite the effort of having so British market. many different Briggs gives suppliers, the example Briggs says that We don't do failure. Once a product is on our of Oreo the volume Cookies, once of paperwork shelves we work very hard a big seller. involved with with our suppliers to get The cookies importing it recognised. were altered products for the British direct remains market with a “health conscious” enough of a deterrent from going recipe when Kraft started selling down that route. them into the UK. These Oreos were Even if it proves tricky to cheaper than the originals and the get some of these lines on the supermarkets ended up “killing” the shelf, that doesn’t mean they’ll product. sell themselves so The Food Inevitably supermarkets will Company trains its staff to act as catch up with trends and they will “store directories” and to educate offer products cheaper, Briggs says: customers about any new arrivals. “This is where we, as independents, “We don't do failure,” says have to spot the trends as soon as Briggs. “Once a product is on our they emerge. With existing areas we shelves we work very hard with our also tend to offer a broader range suppliers to get it recognised.” than our competitors.” As well as heavy promotion, Briggs says that he tries to choose www.thefoodcompany.co.uk

Asia – frozen duck pancakes (supplied by Infusions for Chefs) France – Sabarot escargots with shells (Bespoke Foods) Germany – Lorenz Pomsticks (Envis Foods) Ireland – Cadbury Dairy Milk Tiffin bar (O’Kane Irish Foods) Greece – Avlaki organic olive oil USA – A&W root beer Italy – I Love Italia sweet moments Cannoli with cream

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Surprise best seller – Punku quinoa cookies. “These little delights from Bolivia cover all bases, great taste, gluten-free, low cholesterol, and they're filling,” says Graham Briggs.

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

Our

Local suppliers, Nationwide delivery.

specialists work with local suppliers to bring quality & freshness to

you.

Alasdair MacInnes, Fruit & Veg Category Specialist

T: +353 (0)69 20200 / +353 (0)1 45 66 550 Free Fax: 1800 20 20 10 W: www.pallasfoods.eu E: sales@pallasfoods.eu Pallas Foods, Ardagh Road, Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, Rep. of Ireland. 20

July 2014 路 Vol.15 Issue 6

importers & distributors Hider Foods

Wiltshire Rd, Hull, East Yorkshire, HU4 6PA 01482 561137 (office), 01482 504333 (sales) sales@hiderfoods.co.uk www.hiderfoods.co.uk

Established in 1965, Hider is a family-owned importer, supplier and distributor working with farm shops, delis, garden centres and leading department stores up and down the country. Its expanding product portfolio features more than 3,500 lines, including speciality food brands as well as nuts, dried fruit, confectionery and cakes. It also offers a large range of seasonal products through its Christmas and Easter brochures. The Yorkshirebased company, which operates its own fleet of vehicles, also imports, cleans and packs an array of nuts and dried fruits on-site.

Brands include: Creative, Falksalt, Au olive oil, TT Sauces, The Persian Trader, Corsini, Schlunder, Hazer Baba Turkish Delight, Border Biscuits, Belvior, Lindt, Green & Black’s, Tyrrells, Farrington's Oils, Atkins & Potts, Peter’s Yard, Crabbies, Hider Essence of Quality pre-packed nuts, snacks and dried fruit

fig & cinnamon and lemon, honey & seaweed, all of which come in cases of 6x240g. Its Piri-Piri sauces, including Extra Hot and Piri-Piri with pineapple, all come in cases of 6x125ml. Hazer Baba Turkish Delight   This brand of Turkish Delight (Lokum) is available exclusively from Hider Foods in over 50 varieties. Also available enrobed with chocolate or studded with pistachios, they come in a range of sizes, from 125g to 3kg, and packaging.

Creative vinegars and sauces Creative’s sixstrong line-up of vinegars includes apple & honey,

Blakemore Fine Foods

Infinity Foods

46 Dolphin Road, Shoreham-by Sea, West Sussex, BN43 6PB 01273 456376

Longacres Industrial Estate, Rose Hill, Willenhall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV13 2JP 01902 308996

www.infinityfoodswholesale.co.uk

heartdistribution@afblakemore.com www.afblakemore.com/heart

Previously known as Heart Distribution, Blakemore Fine Foods was set up 7 years ago to help British food and drink producers distribute their product to market. It offers independent retailers access to chilled, ambient and frozen product from over 190 producers on a “one order, one invoice and one delivery” basis. Its range covers the bakery, snacks, dairy, meat, ready-meal, grocery, deli, ice cream, desserts, soft drinks and alcohol categories. Blakemore Fine Foods works in partnership with all of its producers, giving them full control of their commercials, providing advice and operating a producer grant scheme to aid growth. Brands include: Purity Brewing Co, Hobsons Brewery, Hogans cider, Coopers Gourmet Sausage Rolls, The Flavoured Butter Co, Wolfy’s Porridge, Propercorn, Scarlett & Mustard, Cornish Sea Salt, Bibijis, Cheshire Farm Chips Croome Cuisine   The recently rebranded cheesemaker, blends cheddar with a number of local ingredients including Worcester Sauce – from the factory just a few miles down the road – and shallots.

Corsini Corsini, an Italian family business established in 1921, is a leading manufacturer of Cantuccini, the classic Tuscan biscuit with almonds. It also produces an extensive range of speciality biscuits, panforte and panettone for Christmas.

Wolfy’s Porridge   A sister brand of preserve-maker Kitchen Garden, Wolfy’s porridge pots all come with a portion of handmade jam. The threestrong range features no artificial flavourings and come with shelf strips for easy display.

Purity Saddle Back   Purity’s 7%ABV Saddle Black is dedicated to cyclists and is also the brewery’s first craft black beer. Chinook and cascade hops lend a full, smoky, citrus aroma to the beer, which has a “lingering bitter finish”.

Since starting up in 1971 with a small shop in Brighton, Infinity Foods has become a national distributor of organic, Fairtrade and natural products. It boasts an extensive range of vegetarian and gluten-free products, from store cupboard essentials to freshly baked bread and seasonal fruit and vegetables.  The West Sussex-based company sources its fairtrade products from around the world. The first company in the UK to stock Fairtrade organic Basmati rice from Pakistan, its range now includes quinoa from Ecuador and dates from Tunisia as well as cashew nuts, brazil nuts, sesame seeds, mango and various rices. Its Infinity Foods organic range is all certified by The Soil Association. Alongside hundreds of food lines, the company also supplies a variety of non-food items including cleaning products, packaging and publications. Brands include: Fentiman’s, Nairn’s, Doves Farm, Belvoir Fruit Farms, Angelic Gluten Free, Montezuma’s, Rude Health, Hodemedod’s, Meridian, Biona Organic, Clipper Tea, Union Hand-Roasted, 9 Bar, Quinola, The Cornish Seaweed Co, Divine Chocolate

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

importers & distributors Mo’s Cookie Dough Using ingredients like Hebridean sea salt, AA graded raisins and real butter, Mo’s Cookie Dough produces natural pre-prepared cookie dough in rolls, ready to slice and bake. The three flavours available are chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and gingerbread, which will soon be joined by a gluten-free dough.

The Cress Co

Unit 8, Castle Industrial Estate, Queesnferry Road, Dunfermline, Fife KY11 8NT 0845 643 1330 info@thecressco.co.uk www.thecressco.co.uk

Established by Joe Wall just over a decade ago, The Cress Company has grown from a solo operation in a small industrial unit to two depots in Dunfermline, Scotland, and Wetherby, West Yorkshire. It distributes more than 12,000 chilled and ambient products, from around 200 suppliers, via temperature-controlled vans driven by its own drivers. These vans now cover over 40 counties, delivering as far south as Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire and pallet deliveries can be sent anywhere further afield. Over 85% of its suppliers are from the UK, including a variety of cheese-makers, but The Cress Co also sources some popular products from abroad such as Italian pasta, Greek olives and ginger beer from Australia. It supplies delis, cafés, farm shops, food halls, garden centres, butchers and hotels.

Merangz   Merangz are slow-baked to a traditional Swiss recipe, using hand-separated, free-range egg whites and an array of natural flavours. Merangz have a “perfectly crisp shell with a delicious mallowy centre” and come in a variety of flavours and three formats: Giant Swiss, nests and bites. Brands include: Bundaberg, Tracklements, Mo’s Cookie Dough, Summer Harvest, Fentimans, Stag Bakery, Little’s Coffee, Nevis Cakes, Merangz, Luscombe, Peters Yard, Pipers Crisps, Eat 17, Rannoch Smoked Meats, San Pellegrino, Duskin, Potts Partnership, Farmhouse Biscuits, Little Turban

Med Food Wholesale

RH Amar

Turnpike Way, High Wycombe, Bucks HP12 3TG 01494 530 200

Unit 9 Bethune Road, Park Royal, London NW10 6NJ 0208 9656528

info@rhamar.com www.rhamar.com

Now in its 70th year, High Wycombe-based RH Amar is a third generation family-owned company, which sources ambient fine foods from around the world. From its 90,000 sq ft central warehouse, it supplies goods to independent and multiple retailers, foodservice and wholesalers across the UK. Mediterranean foods are at the core of RH Amar’s business and its portfolio includes olives and olive oils, meze and regional sauces. The company also specialises in products from Northern Europe and the USA but it sources its range, spanning everything from Indian ingredients to baby food, from 23 countries in total. Its catalogue features more than 30 leading brands, some of which it has represented for over half a century. Brands include: Budweiser, Busch, Carbonell, Cardini, Certo, Cooks&Co, Crespo, D’Aucy, Del Monte, Drogheria & Alimentari, Ella’s Kitchen, Gaea, Geeta’s,

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

Luscombe Luscombe’s range of adult soft drinks is made on its farm in Devon with a variety of ingredients, from locally sourced apples and elderflower through to specific lemons from Sicilian growers. None of its products can be found in supermarkets.

sales@medfoodwholesale.com www.medfoodwholesale.com

Kikkoman, Kühne, Mary Berry’s, Ortalli, Sacla’, Taylor & Colledge, Wing Yip Cooks&Co   This RH Amar brand offers an “extensive” range of products sourced from a variety of producers. It includes speciality seed and nut oils, a unique butter taste rapeseed oil and a meze range featuring stuffed vine leaves and marinated artichokes. In addition, Cooks&Co offers a selection of pulses, dried mushrooms, vinegars, pestao and recently added meal kits. Mary Berry’s   This range of gourmet sauces, marinades and salad dressings made to original family recipes from one

of the nation’s most experienced cooks. These products, including her original dressing, lemon & thyme sauce and Hollandaise sauce, are 100% vegetarian and free from preservatives and artificial flavourings. Drogheria & Alimentari   Founded in 1880 in Florence, this family-owned and operated company specialises in authentic Italian spice-infused oils and spice grinders. Seasoning mills include Himalayan Pink salt, cinnamon, red pepper and nutmeg. Among the oils it offers are basilinfused, porcini & truffle-infused and infused oil for fish.

Med Food is a manufacturer, importer, exporter and national distributor of authentic Mediterranean products. With sister companies based in Greece and Turkey and a warehouse in London, the company supplies olives, antipasti and other delicacies from the Mediterranean region to retailers, foodservice and wholesalers. It also carries mezes, sun dried tomatoes, Italian biscuits, baklava and olive oils. Its Deli Med range is sourced from small producers to ensure authentic tastes. In addition, Med Food offers bespoke packaging and private labeling but can also help customers develop products to bespoke specifications. Brands include: Deli Med, Royale, SAPORE

NEW

Discover international flavours from Bespoke Foods For more information, get in touch: Phone: 020 7091 3200 Fax: 020 7091 3300

Email: sales@bespoke-foods.co.uk

Web: www.bespoke-foods.co.uk

Grinder ready and ideal for hand sprinkling as a finishing touch to any dish each of our salts combine a blend of brightly flavoured seasonings. Customers will buy these salts just to get their hands on the package as the jar has unlimited kitchen applications long after the product is finished.

Designed especially for home cooks wanting to create authentic Indian meals, Arvinda’s range of premium Indian spice blends are an ingenious combination of perfectly balanced spices used to make exceptional curries. Made with hand-selected spices and passionately roasted, ground and blended in small batches, Arvinda’s blends bring a truly authentic Indian cooking experience. Beautifully packaged in tins for freshness, Arvinda’s blends double up as a rub or can be added to soups or stews for an Indian infusion. We are highlighting just 2 of our ranges here. For full details of all that Divine Deli can offer please contact us:

01706 313001 | info@divinedeli.com | www.divinedeli.com Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

S Rd g E A in EES AW nn Ch i W iSh n A Sp

01582 590999 www.westphalia.co.uk

uinE gEn k YOR W E n i RAm pASt

• 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)

At Brindisa we are proud of the exceptional quality of our hams, expertly cured for up to four years. This year we’ve added a range of fresh and frozen meats that form the basis of some of the most loved traditional Spanish dishes, such as tender, pink milk fed lamb and succulent cuts of iberico meat. We’ve also introduced some delicious seasonal fruit and vegetables, and are continuing to grow our selection of rare shepherds cheeses; just a few of the additions to this year’s new catalogue and price list.

F O R I N F O R M AT I O N P L E A S E C A L L OUR SALES TEAM ON

020 8722 1600

W W W. B R I N D I S A W H O L E S A L E . C O M

sales@brindisa.com I

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue1 6 AFFineFoodadv2014_black.indd

@brindisa

19/06/2014 11:56:46

importers & distributors Cotswold Fayre  River Barn, 14 Tessa Road, Reading RG1 8HH 08456 121201

Building a Latin American range

Partnership, Prestat, Rude Health, Scarlett & Mustard, Union Coffee, Wessex Mill, Whittard of Chelsea, Willies Cacao

Itamara Dall’Alba Regis, managing director, Casa Brasil Londres, London

sales@cotswold-fayre.co.uk www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

For the last 15 years, Cotswold Fayre has supplied a wide range of ambient food and drink from the UK and Ireland, and the best of the rest of world, to delis, farm shops and food halls. It specialises in taking small new brands within the speciality food sector and growing them across its customer base. At the core of its range are brands exclusive to the company but it also stocks all the well-known brands that independent retailers ask for. Cotswold Fayre organises tastings and runs promotions every week of the year. Brands include: Belvoir Fruit Farms, Brown Bag Crisps, Cotswold Meringues, Crosta & Mollica, Curry Sauce Company, Garlic Farm, Kent’s Kitchen, Olive Branch, Olives et al, Pelagonia, Peter’s Yard, Portlebay Popcorn, Pott’s

Patriana

The Goods Shed, Station Road West, Canterbury, Kent CT2 8AN 07734 114295 info@patriana.com www.patriana.com

Canterbury-based Patriana imports products from Spain and France, and specialises in items from the Basque Country. It carries Basque Kintoa ham, Kintoa chorizo and saucisson as well as the region’s famed Espelette red pepper and Ossau Iraty ewes’ milk cheese. From further into Spain, it imports Iberico Bellota, together with a compliment of other Iberico products, made by a specialist in the Sierra Mogarraz, south of Salamanca. It also carries Serrano ham and Spain’s most famous cheese – Manchego produced

malt Vinegar, lightly salted and Westcountry cheddar & onion. Available in 40g and 150g bags, at 70-90p and £1.95 respectively.

Galvanina  Cotswold Fayre is the exclusive independent retail distributor for this Italian range of gently sparkling organic fruit drinks (355ml and 750ml, RRP £1.85 and £2.95 respectively). The four flavours are Sicilian lemon, Sicilian ruby orange, Sicilian clementine and red grapefruit. Brown Bag Crisps  Made by the Lambe family, this five-strong range’s flavours include oak-smoked chilli, salt & British

by an artisan specialist in La Mancha. Patriana has direct relationships with its producers, guaranteeing full knowledge about their processes and complete traceability of the meat used.

and matured for 18 months and has a rich, succulent taste. Saucisson and chorizo are also available.

Kintoa ham   A former Great Taste three-star winner, this ham is produced from Basque Kintoa pigs from one farm in the French Basque region. It is cured

Bayonne ham Patriana’s Bayonne ham has won multiple awards, including Great Taste two-star. It is cured for a minimum of one year by a farm that produces a large range of traditional Basque charcuterie.

Entremont

Renard Gillard In production since 1886, this Brie de Meaux has won seven golds at the annual Concours National du Brie de Meaux since 2013.

25 Faubourg des Balmettes, 74000 Annecy, France 07929 418672 jreignier@entremont.com www.entremont.co.uk

A French farming cooperative, Entremont distributes a range of French artisan cheeses in the UK. It supplies Entremont-branded Emmental, Raclette, Reblochon and Beaufort as well as the exclusive deli counter range of Comté,

Rubies in the Rubble  Whether it’s wonky, in overabundance, or simply unsold, Rubies in the Rubble sources and rescues fresh fruit from farms across the UK and uses it to produce a range of chutneys and pickles.

Morbier and Le Gruyère from Monts & Terroirs, Renard Gillard Brie de Meaux and Val de Weiss Munster.

Val de Weiss  This brand of Munster (founded in 1994) is named after the river Weiss in the Alsace where the cheese is ripened in one of six mountain cellars in Lapoutrie.

Five years ago, we had just a few non ex-pat customers. Now I’d estimate that our customer base is made up of 50% Brazilians, 30% Europeans and 20% Brits. People are travelling more to South America and want to recreate at home the dishes they eat in restaurants. With the FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympics both being staged in Brazil, we’re expecting this sentiment to grow. We stock over 1,000 lines from various Latin American countries – Venezuela, Argentina, Columbia and more – but interestingly, it is the Brazilian products that non ex-pats come here to buy. They seek out Brazilian black beans for making feijoada, the traditional Brazilian stew, and go mad for the meat. Picanha, the rump cap, is the cut they come to buy. It’s a small, tender cut that is great for BBQs and eating as a steak. Our flours are another strong selling range. In Brazil, people have in a variety of flours for everything and each South American country uses different flours. We stock six different corn flours alone. Yoki does a wide range of flours, including seasoned cassava flour, as well as batata palha crispy potato sticks, which are used in many Brazilian dishes to add salt and crispy texture. Other cooking ingredients people ask for are dende oil, a bright orange cooking oil from the fruit of the African oil palm, and hearts of palm for adding to salads. Also popular are Predilecta quince and guava pastes. In Brazil, this product is most often eaten together with cheese – a combination called Romeo & Juliet, but can also be used in biscuits or melted into a syrup and used in cheese cakes or other desserts. Interview by LYNDA SEARBY

Itamara’s KS MUST-STOC

Picanha beans Camil black

Pilão coffee ava ince and gu Predilecta qu pastes n imarrão gree Maté and ch tea Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

importers & distributors Cheese Cellar

44-54 Stewarts Road, London SW8 4DF 0207 819 6001

Brands include: Croxton Manor, dell’ami, Huge Sauce Viron, Shipton Mill, Fresh As Freeze Dried Fruit, Ponthier

Fresh As  Cheese Cellar is the exclusive distributor of Fresh As Freeze Dried Fruits, ideal for patissiers, home bakers or healthy snackers. Fresh As products come in powders, flakes and whole/sliced fruits, which come in 50g retail packs.

info@cheesecellar.co.uk www.cheesecellar.co.uk

Cheese Cellar is a distributor of cheese and speciality foods to delis, food halls, hotels, restaurants, food manufacturers and caterers. From small artisan producers to well-known brands, its range covers speciality cheese, charcuterie and Mediterranean foods, such as olives and antipasti, as well as flour, chocolate, freeze-dried fruits, ingredients and condiments. All products are selected directly from producers and growers across the UK and Ireland as well as further afield from France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece and beyond.

Samways Fine Foods

Unit 7, Little Ann Bridge Farm, Andover, Hampshire SP11 7DN 01264 332128 sales@samways.uk.com www.samways.uk.com

Samways describes itself as pure distribution. It specialises in supplying independent delicatessens, farm shops, cafés, coffee houses, pubs and garden centres from its 4,000sq ft warehouse in Andover. If customers order before midday Monday they will have their order delivered to the shop by Friday. Orders can be placed online and products can be re-ordered with one click. The company prides itself on the freshness and long dates across its ranges, whether they are ambient or fresh. It also offers a wide array of goods because it carries full ranges from a number of different

Pallas Foods

Ardagh road, Newcastle West, Limerick, Republic of Ireland 00353 6920200 sales@pallasfoods.eu www.pallasfoods.eu

Since the early 1980s, Pallas Foods has grown into one of the leading foodservice and independent retail distributors on the island of Ireland. Part of Sysco since 2009, Pallas Foods procures, markets, sells and distributes a portfolio of 16,500 food and non-food products but specialises in Irish meat and poultry. It also carries cooked meat and

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

Summer cheese selection  Cheese Cellar “religiously” updates its cheese line-up twice a year. This summer’s additions include the hard cows’ milk Cornish Kern, the 300g baby version of award-winning Barkham Blue and Sharpham’s latest creation, the Jersey milk Cremet.

Dell’ami charcurterie  Cheese Cellar’s in-house brand has boosted its charcuterie offer with the addition of three salamis from new French producer Salaisons de Montagnac as well as venison salamis from Scottish producer Great Glen Charcuterie.

importers. Samways also exports products to Europe and the Far East.

include oils and olives from Puglia in Italy and a range of chocolates, sauces and condiments from the UK.

Brands include: Makers & Merchants, Belvoir, Folkingtons, Sugar & Spice, Moores Biscuits, Tyrrells, Olives Et Al, Wilton Wholefoods, Tiptree, Paxton & Whitfield, Atkins & Potts, Thai Taste, Brindisa, RR Spink, Truffle Hunter, Dorset Smokeries, Fosters Traditional Foods, Cambrook Foods, Kents Kitchen, Epicure, Walkers Shortbread, Baxters, Cooks & Co, Lavazza, Roots & Wings, Daucy Makers & Merchants   Makers & Merchants works with “some of the world’s best producers” to bring a range of artisan products together under its banner. These

deli items, seafood, cheese eggs, antipasti, baked goods, condiments and groceries. It offers next-day delivery, islandwide via its own delivery fleet, operated from a central warehouse in Newcastle West and seven regional distribution and delivery centers. Brands include: Irish Nature Beef, Irish Hereford Prime Beef, Tounafulla Puddings, Slaney Valley Lamb. Glin Valley Poultry, Silver Hill Farm, Wild Irish Games, RIF Responsible Irish Fish, Cais Artisan Cheese, Pallas Green, Marguerites, Glenown Farm, Follain, Dilmah, Coopers

Laverstoke Park Farm  Samways carries the full range of organic and biodynamic products made on the farm set up by former Formula 1 champion Jody Sheckter. In addition to its buffalo milk, cheeses and meat products, Laverstoke also makes a range of stocks and beers.

Irish Hereford Prime Beef  This award-winning beef is renowned for its superior flavour and tenderness due to its natural fine grained marbling of fat in addition it is processed using patented ‘ultra-tender’ techniques and is matured for a minimum of 21 days.

RR Spink  Whether it is smoked trout or salmon, each RR Spink & Sons product is handprepared in Arbroath using prime fillets sustainably raised Scottish fish. The firm has nearly 300 years of smoking experience under its belt and offers loch-to-plate traceability.

Slaney Valley Irish Lamb  Slaney Valley Irish Lamb is selected by Pallas Foods for its “superb” quality and flavor. Selected matured and prepared by supply partners Irish Country Meats, every cut is traceable from farm to table. Responsible Irish Fish  Pallas Foods has recently become the first foodservice company to implement the Responsible Irish Fish Programme, designed to support Irish fishing communities and promote sustainable fishing practices. The scheme covers hake, haddock, whiting, monkish, mackerel, ray, cod and prawns.

making life taste better

famous for fine foods since 1945 For almost 70 years, RH Amar has been a pre-eminent UK importer and distributor of ambient ﬁne foods. A progressive third generation family business, RH Amar supplies specialist retailers through its extensive network of ﬁne food wholesalers throughout the UK. Representing over 40 of the UK’s best-loved specialist food brands, coming from 23 countries, RH Amar is your perfect partner for premium, innovative foods. Please contact us for details of your nearest wholesaler. E-mail: info@rhamar.com

Tel: 01494 530200

Website: www.rhamar.com Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

Free delivery for new UK based clients.

To take advantage of our superb July promotions please call Maria on 0131 668 4751

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“Celebrating 85 years supplying the finest Italian Speciality Gourmet Foods” 1929-2014

Please contact us for a copy of our extensive full colour brochure 01992 763076 email sales@camisa.co.uk

CHEESE · CHARCUTERIE · OLIVES · FRESH PASTA · OLIVE OILS · VINEGARS 28

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

importers & distributors Delicioso UK

Unit 14 Tower Business Park, Berinsfield, Oxon OX10 7LN 01865 340055 / 341564 info@delicioso.co.uk www.delicioso.co.uk

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Delicioso specialises in importing and supplying Spanish foods, drink and kitchenware to delis, farm shops and restaurants. Its range features hams and charcuterie, seafood, cheeses, patés, salsas, pickles, olives, oils and vinegars. The company, which sources the majority of its products from artisan, family-run producers, also carries spices, chocolate, biscuits, confectionery and paella rice as well as a selection of wine, cider and sherry.

Districts of Italy   Bryn Melyn, Bodafon Road, Llandudno, Conwy, LL30 3BB 07725 010015 sales@districtsofitaly.com www.districtsofitaly.co.uk

Districts of Italy has more than 20 years’ experience in sourcing products from Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. Its specialities include Parma ham, Sicilian and Apulian extra virgin olive oil, ParmigianoReggiano, Culatello di Zibello, and Tuscan Pecorino cheese. The company, which also offers chocolates, dessert wine and fresh pasta, is the sole UK agent for many of the producers it represents. While it supplies multiple retailers and foodservice, Districts of Italy also supplies independent retailers

The Gorgeous Food Company  25 The Glenmore Centre, Jessop Court, Quedgeley, Gloucestershire GL2 2AP 0845 4633356

hello@gorgeousfoodcompany.co.uk www.gorgeousfoodcompany.co.uk

The Gorgeous Food Company was formed in 2011, but the Cotswoldbased business boasts more than 40 years’ experience of catering and food retailing. Its range is sourced from the UK and imported from Spain, Italy and Ireland. It supplies delis, farm shops, garden centres and food halls as well as hotels and caterers. The company prefers not carry lines available in supermarkets and tries to develop personal relationships with all its suppliers.

Brands include: Bernardo Hernandez, Pujado Solano, Conservas de Cambados, Artequeso, La Cuna, Delicioso, Conservas Valerio, Jose Lou, Arroz Tomas, Mykes, Majuelo, Sanmel, Flaper, De lo nuestro artesano, Jose Pelluz, El Lobo, Upita de los Reyes, Vira, Posada, Solan de Cabras and Vichy Catalan, El Gaitero and Trabanco, Rioja Vega, Garcima, Regas Sobrasada  The national sausage of the Balearic Islands, sobrasada is a soft, spreadable chorizo. Delicioso’s is made by a small

and offers them the same logistical and private label services. Brands include: Tanara Giancarlo SPA Parma Ham, Az. Agr. Coppini Arte Olearia, Extra Virgin Olive oil, I Sapori della Rossa ParmigianoReggiano, Podere Cadassa, Culatello di Zibello e Strolghino, Torta Pistocchi, Ovis, Bella Emilia, La Fenice

artisan producer in the mountains of Mallorca, and comes packed in the traditional way, tied with string and wrapped in waxed paper (300g). Delicioso salsas  Made in the UK using imported Spanish ingredients to authentic recipes created by Delicioso, this four-strong range features ali oli (a Catalan garlic mayonnaise), Madridstyle salsa brava, and two Canary Island salsas, a mojo picon rojo and mojo verde. All come in cases of 6x200ml jars and 1.2kg catering formats.

months. The pure Apennine air, which the meat hangs in, is said to lend this ham a superior quality. Torta Pistocchi  Very little cocoa powder is used and no flour, egg, butter or sugar is added to the mixture for this chocolate truffle cake with a “rich, velvety texture”. Every Torta Pistocchi cake is vacuum-packed and can be refrigerated for six months without losing its flavour.

Tanara Giancarlo Parma ham   Made with meats selected exclusively from Emilia and Lombardia and preserved only with salt, these hams are left to hang for a minimum of 18

Brands include: The Bit on the Side, Atkins & Potts, Scarlet & Mustard, Áine Handmade Chocolates, Paddy & Scotts, Mr Stanleys, Two Spots, La Chinata, Il Giardino, Brewhaha Tea, Hampstead Tea, The French Dressing Company, Olive Branch, Taste Gourmet Spice Company, Taylersons, Anila’s, Asiri Food/ Giggy & Goo, Stainswick Farm, Grandma Wilds, Simply Cornish, Paxton & Whitfield, Shropshire Spice Company, Caballo de Oros Áine Handmade Chocolate  Founded in 1999 by master chocolatier Ann Rudden,

Áine Handmade Chocolate has been racking up awards for its handmade chocolates, all of which are made from fresh, natural ingredients and free from hydrogenated fats and gluten. Anila’s  Anila’s authentic Indian sauces, pickles and chutneys are “infused with generations of culinary expertise and passion”. Free from preservatives and artificial additives, the range is well-suited to vegetarians, vegans and those with other dietary requirements.

Building a South East Asian range Philip Yau, owner, Yau’s and Janson Hong, Peterborough

Chinese and Indian cuisines have always been popular in the UK, but now Thai and Japanese have caught on, and more recently, Filipino, Malaysian and Indonesian are starting to come through. I think this latest wave stems from interest in specific dishes – laksa, rendang and nasi goreng. Half of our customer base is Chinese/Thai. The other half is nonethnic customers buying authentic ingredients. In terms of store cupboard ingredients, most recipes require soy and oyster sauce. Both Amoi and Lee Kum Kee – the number one brand in Hong Kong – are strong sellers in my store. Other essentials include sesame oil and peanut oil for stir frying, and shao hsing wine for meat and fish dishes. We sell tonnes of rice every week, mainly Green Dragon rice by the 10kg bag, because it is what Chinese and Thai customers want and they know what they are buying. South East Asian cuisine generally uses Thai fragrant rice rather than basmati or long grain as it is softer and stickier. It’s a similar story with noodles – we have our own brand of Yau’s chow mein noodles and we sell a lot of these into the catering trade. They are the same as you would get at a takeaway – they have a firmer texture and aren’t as brittle as the ones you’d buy in the supermarket. When delis are choosing which products to stock, they should be aware that their customers need to be able to understand and see what the product is from the label. Interview by LYNDA SEARBY

stocks Philip’s must

rice Thai fragrant e Oyster sauc Soy sauce d si goreng an Rendang, na laksa pastes sauce – for Sweet chilli g in dipp y d green curr Thai red an es past noodles Chow mein wine Shao hsing Peanut oil

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

importers & distributors Bespoke Foods   1st Floor, 80-84 Bondway, London, SW8 1SF 020 7091 3200

sales@bespoke-foods.co.uk www.bespoke-foods.co.uk

With over 50 different product categories and 80 different brands, Bespoke Foods offers a wide range of speciality foods including beverages, biscuits, savory snacks, spreads, sauces, salad dressings, mustards, mayonnaises, oils, meal kits, pasta, rice, tinned fish, authentic world foods and a number of seasonal lines. Among its specialities are Thai, Malaysian and Vietnamese meal kits and ingredients, American confectionery, German gingerbread, fairly traded vanilla from Uganda, traditional French lemonade and Mexican salsas. Recently acquired by American food specialist Empire Food Brokers, Bespoke is now working to grow the business into one of the UK’s major fine food distributors. Brands include: Thai Taste, Malay Taste, Nem Viet, Briannas, Delouis, Connétable, Borgo de’medici, Filotea, Murgalia, La Mortuacienne, Macario, Oogavé, Buiteman, Amaretti del Chiostro, Madéccase, Games For Motion, Chiostro di Saronno, Wellaby’s,

Brindisa

9B Weir Road, London SW12 0LT 020 8772 1666 sales@brindisa.com www.brindisa.com

Brindisa began importing products from Spain 26 years ago. The first cheeses were Manchego, Idiazabal and Mahon. These were soon followed by cured meats – including jamón Ibérico de Bellota, chorizo, salchichon – and now the range has since grown to include the country’s many regional specialities. As well as artisan cheese and charcuterie, Brindisa also offers salted and preserved fish, olive oils, cured olives, almonds, chocolate, mountain honey, peppers, dried herbs, vinegars, dried legumes, rice and spices. The company currently supplies many of the UK's top restaurants and delicatessens as well as running two shops in South London, at Borough and Brixton. This year, Brindisa plans to provide a more flexible cheese range, including cut cheeses, and a programme of cheese schools – similar to its ham-carving courses – from its warehouse.

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

Ndali, Peanut Butter & Co, San Marcos, Filet Bleu, Jardine’s, La Truffe Cendrée, Marine Gourmet, Pertzborn, Plaza del Sol, Quinta D’Avo

Atlantico UK

Thai Taste   This range of authentic and traditional Thai meal kits, cooking sauces and ingredients is locally sourced and exclusively produced and packaged in Asia for Bespoke Foods. Each product has on-pack recipe ideas and cooking tips.

info@atlantico.co.uk www.atlantico.co.uk

Unit 10, Commerce Park, Commerce Way, Croydon CR0 4YL 020 86497444

year is Sauce Cocktail, a traditional Marie Rose Sauce in a 125g jar.

Delouis   Established in 1885, Delouis was the first company to create preservativefree mayonnaise in 1991. Its range of ambient and fresh condiments includes mustards, vinaigrettes, sauces and mayonnaises. New this

Madécasse   Madécasse is a range of premium, socially responsible, bean-to-bar chocolate produced in Madagascar. Ethically sourced, these single origin chocolate bars (25g and 75g) are made in small batches and are free from artificial additives, ingredients and preservatives.

Brands include: Brindisa own label, Alemany, Artzaigazta Idiazabal, Calasparra, Casa Riera Ordeix, Castro y Gonzalez, Cecinas Pablo, Conservas Nardin, Conservas Ortiz, El Navarrico, El Petit Obrador, Embutidos Alejandro, Gredos Norte, La Chinata, Núñez de Prado, Olivar de la Luna, Paiarrop, Payoyo, Perello, Queserias del Tietar, Unio, Señorio de Montanera, Soincar, Torta de Barros, Villarejo.

over 300 years. The groves are in the province of Baena in Andalucia, and the organic olive varieties (picual, picudo and hojiblanca), are handpicked, taken to the mill within 8 hours and crushed using traditional granite millstones.

Iberico bellota ham   Produced by a small, fourth generation family firm to Brindisa’s specifications, this ham is taken from acorn-fed Iberico pigs and cured for a minimum of four years, resulting in a flavour that is “both sweet and salty, rich, nutty and intense with a lingering finish”. Nuñez de Prado “Flower” olive oil The estate producing this oil has been owned by same family for

Campos Goticos Queso Castellano From the area to the north of La Mancha, Spain’s Manchego producing area, this cheese is made by Queseria Hermanos Paramio in Palencia from the milk of native Churra sheep. Brindisa imports two different age profiles, a 3-4 month semi-cured cheese and a 7-8 month cured version.

In business for 20 years now, Atlantico is an importer and distributor of Portuguese and Brazilian food and drink. The company supplies more than 700 accounts across retail and foodservice from its 10,000 sq ft warehouse in Croydon. Its range includes charcuterie, cheese, extra virgin olive oils, confectionery, fine chocolates, tinned tuna and sardines, frozen savouries and desserts, as well as soft drinks, wines, spirits and beers. Among its specialities are Brazillian cheese rolls (supplied frozen), Portuguese natas (custard tarts) and pork and charcuterie from Alentejo black pigs. Brands include: Nobre, Casa do Porco Preto, Terras do Demo, Casa da Prisca, Gallo, Casal da Memória, LactAzores, Saloio, Sabores da Idanha, Saloio Gourmet, R&G Queijaria de São Romão, La Gondola, Imperial, Vieira de Castro, Telhas, Serramel, GelPeixe, Sumol+Compal, Forno de Minas and Bazzar

For the best that Spain has to offer…

Call us for our catalogue!

With no minimum order and next-day delivery throughout the UK, let us bring the best of Spanish food right to your door.

Speciality Importer of the Year 2008 01865 340055/341564 | info@delicioso.co.uk | www.delicioso.co.uk

ADDRESS: RIVER BARN, 14 TESSA ROAD, READING, RG1 8HH

CALL US TODAY! TELEPHONE: 0845 612 1201

TWITTER: @cotswoldfayre

Here at Cotswold Fayre we regularly review our product portfolio to ensure that it provides customers with the best selling opportunities and the very latest products available. We have recently added 400 new products across bakery, grocery, store cupboard, cooking and baking, snacks and confectionery categories.

WEB: www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

EMAIL: sales@cotswold-fayre.co.uk

FOR ALL YEAR ROUND CATALOGUES AND SEASONAL SUPPLEMENTS PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE.

LEADING SPECIALITY FOOD WHOLESALER Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

importers & distributors Divine Deli Supplies

The Pavillions, Bridgefold Road, Rochdale OL11 5BY 01706 313001 info@divinedeli.com www.divinedeli.com

Divine Deli supplies a range of gourment foods and ceramics to department stores, specialist food retailers, garden centres and farm shops. The range features bread dipping oils and brie bakers from Canada, Indian spice blends, BBQ sauces and organic British chocolate as well as ceramics from Spain, rustic olive wood from Tunisia and slate from the Lake District. Andrew Chadwick bought the business from founder Andy

Villanova Food

Barley Mow Centre, 10 Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4OPH 0203 7355155 info@villanovafood.com www.villanovafood.com

Villanova Food specialises in organic and artisan Italian produce. Its range contains classics such as organic Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma Riserva 24-months, 100% buffalo milk Mozzarella di Bufala, organic Pecorino Sardo and charcuterie from Emilia Romagna. It also supplies niche products like limited production Prosciutto Crudo di Desulo Rovajo and handmade steamed tuna fillets in organic extra virgin olive oil, both from Sardinia. Its range also includes pasta, olive oil, biscuits and balsamic vinegars. Orders are delivered to its deli and foodservice customers by logistics company Wholegood.

Products From Spain

Brands include: Wildly Delicious Fine Foods and Petite Maison, Seed and Bean Chocolate, Arvinda’s, Mr Fitzpatrick’s Wildly Delicious   Based in Toronto, Canada, this family business produces brie bakers (trade £7.98 each) and brie brule topping

Brands include: Casarrigoni, Centrale Del Latte Di Brescia, Cesare Regnoli, Deseo, Faella, Fratelli Carta, Giuseppe Giusti, Golfera, Mengazzoli, Montanari E Gruzza, Pedrazzoli, Pinna, Rovajo, Sarda Affumicati, Satra Sardinia, Secchi, Tanda E Spada Golfera organic charcuterie   Golfera has introduced a range of charcuterie, that is not only made with 100% organic meat but is also responsibly produced. The entire production process is performed under the strict control of a certifying body, which inspects and checks that all products meet organic standards.

mail@productsfromspain.co.uk www.productsfromspain.co.uk

400-plus lines it carries are charcuterie, regional cheeses, extra virgin olive oils, table olives, pulses, spices, fish and vegetable preserves, pickles, larder ingredients, hams, honeys, traditional confectionery and chocolate.

Products From Spain has been supplying Spanish food and ingredients throughout the UK since 1950. It prides itself on it standard of service and its knowledge of the diverse regions of Spain that it sources from. It carries a number of EU protected foods and Great Taste award-winners. Among the

Quiñones smoked panceta  This artisan wood-smoked panceta from León, Northern Spain, is described as “aromatic and versatile”. It has also won three Great Taste stars.

Unit 18 Cumberland Business Park, 17 Cumberland Avenue, Park Royal, London NW10 7RT 020 8965 7274

Shepard in the summer of 2013 and continues to find new products for the catalogue.

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

sets (£2.75) as well as bread dippers (£2.72) in nine different flavours, including roasted garlic & parmesan. Arvinda’s   Gluten-, preservative- and oilfree, Arvinda’s traditional range of authentic spice mixes contains virtually everything required to make a dish. There are seven blends available in total and all come in packs of 12 (trade £2.74 each). Mr Fitzpatrick’s   The cordial-maker has been in business since 1899 and offers a 13-strong range of flavours, including lemon & ginger, rhubarb & rosehip and elderflower & Bramley apple, as well as six Mocktail flavours.

Pasta Faella Faella pasta is made with a combination of semolina, slow dough, bronze plate drawing and drying at low temperatures. It produces a range of long and short shapes at its factory in Gragnano, “the pasta capital”. Sea urchin Villanova’s sea urchin pulp (100g, £20) comes from Alghero in Sardinia. It is unpasteurized and frozen but, once defrosted, it tastes “as if it has just come out of the Sardinian sea”. A good source of Omega 3, it can be eaten with bread or stirred into pasta.

Huz D.O. Semi Mature Manchego   Another three-star winner, this “rich” manchego from Central Spain is matured for more than six months to develop its “individual, rounded” flavour. Cardeña Morcilla de Burgos   This two-star winning Spanish black pudding is made with rice from Burgos in the country’s north. It can be sliced and grilled or used as an ingredient in dishes.

Building a Polish range Stefan Najduch, Barbakan Delicatessen, Chorlton-cumHardy, Manchester I counted five Polish delis that have opened up in the surrounding area recently, but I can’t see that they will last. We’ve been in business for 50 years and have done this by diversifying and being open to new ideas. We started off as a store for post-war Polish immigrants, but today, we don’t just sell Polish bread to Poles, but to other nationalities, and we make more German and Greek bread than we do Polish. Interestingly, we probably also sell more Polish cucumbers, gherkins and smoked ham to non-Poles than we do to Poles. We sell 400kg of Polish meat every three to four weeks – it’s a massive seller for us. At the weekend we have three sausage pans on the go outside the front of the shop, where we cook Polish slaska pork sausage, German bratwurst, French saucisson de Paris and Spanish chorizo. This really drives sales and we must shift 10kg of Polish sausage on a Saturday. There are umpteen brands of Polish food to choose from. We avoid Pek because it’s in all the multiples, and rate Krakus for pickles and Strawa for meats. Interview by LYNDA SEARBY

ST-STOCKS Stefan’s MU

ly age – coarse Wiejska saus age us sa rk ed po minced smok l na io it ad tr cooked in a ape horseshoe sh oked long, thin, sm Kabanos – of e ad m sticks dry sausage ced pieces of in m ly se ar co rk po cured d pork loin Smoked cure oked ham Cyganska sm age ed BBQ saus Slaska smok ber m led dill cucu Krakus pick and gherkins

Atlantico UK Ltd is the leading importer and distributor of Portuguese and Brazilian food products, wine and beer to the UK market. Based in Croydon with offices and warehouse covering over 10,000 square feet the company deals mainly with independent on and off-trade accounts.

This year the company proudly celebrates 20 years of continuous business in the UK. For further information please go to our website

www.atlantico.co.uk or phone our office on 020 86497444 Email: alv@atlantico.co.uk

r s fo n u ive i o J clus ex fers of

Exclusively bringing you the unique culture and gastronomic heritage of Italy When you sit down to eat food this good, you have actually arrived at the end of a journey; a journey that combines the skills of master craftsmen passed down over generations with ingredients of the highest quality to produce something that is unique and unmistakably Italian.Come with us and discover the skills, ingredients, passions and places that make the products we’ve chosen so special.

Love Great Food?

Iberica Delights offers a wide range of products, authentically Spanish, traditionally prepared in small farms with natural ingredients.

Email: sales@districtsofitaly.co.uk

No minimum order, next-day delivery through the UK. For more information visit www.idelights.co.uk or call 01273 590282

www.districtsofitaly.co.uk

Iberica Delights | 01273 590282 | info@idelights.co.uk | www.idelights.co.uk Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

Patriana

Depots in London, Worcester, Manchester and the South West.

High quality speciality food from France and Spain

Serrano Bodega Ham

Bayonne Ham

Basque Kintoa Ham

We offer award-winning high quality, traditional speciality food directly from artisan and farm producers representing the very best of South West France (the Basque region) and Spain – including air cured hams, chorizos, saucissons, patés, cheeses and much more. Please visit www.patriana.com, or contact us for more information: E mail: info@patriana.com Tel: 07734114295 Patriana Ltd. The Goods Shed, Station Road West, Canterbury, Kent CT2 8AN

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

Supplying and supporting independent retailers, restaurants, caterers, national hotel groups, events, stadia and travel.

Our Brands

Head Office 0207 819 6001

www.cheesecellar.co.uk

importers & distributors Iberica Delights  Units H34 & H36, 2 Coombe Road, Brighton BN2 4EA 07557797988 info@idelights.co.uk www.idelights.co.uk

Brighton-based Iberica Delights imports and distributes a range of authentic Spanish foods from more than 30 small traditional producers, with which it works closely, across the country’s regions. Its catalogue covers charcuterie items like chorizos, jamon Iberico, jamon Serrano, salchichon and morcilla as well as cheese, olive oil and olives. It also offers wines, anchovies, membrillo (quince paste), organic honey, marmalades, white asparagus and piquillo peppers. The company

Medallion Chilled Foods

153 Camford Way, Sundon Park, Luton LU3 3AN 01582 590999 www.westphalia.co.uk

Established in 1977, Medallion supplies more than 1,000 items to delis, farm shops, butchers,

is also prepared to search for new products requested by wholesale customers. Brands include: Martin Martin Blazquez, Torre Nuñez, Lordi, Quesos Sasamon, Almendras Sarralde, Degustust, Conservas Silvia, Bodegas Vega Izan Pena Amaya   Made from raw sheep’s milk by Queso Sasamon and naturally cured for 5-6 months, Pena Amaya (900g-1kg, RRP £19.50) has a “strong aroma and intense flavour”. This firm cheese is described as oily on the palate with a slightly piquant aftertaste.

with rice, onion, pork fat, pig’s blood, salt and spices by a familyrun business, Cuevas, based in the village of Zalduendo in Castilla y Leon. The product comes vacuum-packed (approx. 400g) with an RRP of £4.50. Jamon Iberico bellota  Iberica Delights is the exclusive importer for this producer’s ham, made solely from free range Iberico pigs reared and fed in the meadows of Extremadura. This 36-month aged ham is available in sliced in 100g packs (RRP £12), whole (£46.65/kg) or off the bone (£75.35/kg).

Morcilla De Burgos  This slightly spicy sausage is made

convenience stores, wholesalers and caterers across England and Wales. It specialises in Continental charcuterie, imported from Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary and Poland, but it also carries cooked meat and cheese from Britain and further afield. The BRC-certified company also sells pasta, paté, sausages, olives, salads, natural yoghurt, seafood, German bread and rapeseed oil.

Brands include: Reinert, Casa Modena, Caula, Pick, PEK, Maryland, Wooky Hole, Barbers, Colston Basset, Snowdonia, Delicatessen Fine Eating, Little Swallow, House of Westphalia, Chunk, Fresh Olive Co, Maxwell Street Deli, Son Of A Bun, Italfresco, Delicasa, Mrs. Middletons

Building a Middle Eastern range Sally Butcher, owner, Persepolis, Peckham, London We’re a faddy nation and Middle Eastern food is big at the moment. Middle Eastern food suits the modern palate and Yotam Ottolenghi has put it on the map and made people realise there’s more to it than falafel. As a nation, we’ve got a long history of eating fruit – if you go back to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, cooking with plums, apricots and barberries was common. In Iran, barberries are used in great quantities in the classic dishes zereshk pulao and khoreshte-gheimeh khalal, and for stuffing fish. People in this country are now rediscovering how to cook with fruit through the Middle Eastern trend. Middle Eastern food uses lots of spices – the four Cs (cinnamon, cloves, cumin and coriander) and saffron – are staples in most dishes. On our deli counter, dolmeh stuffed vine leaves, variations on houmous and tzatziki, baba ghanoush smoky aubergine dip and bean dips all fly. We’re increasingly supplying small shops around the UK and usually my advice is to start small, with about nine or ten lines, and focus on ingredients, as people discovering Middle Eastern food want to cook for themselves. Top brands to look out for include Cortas, Al Rabih, Chtoura, California Garden, 1 & 1 (which is Persian) and Persepolis (our own brand). Interview by LYNDA SEARBY

Michael Lee Fine Cheeses

Unit 9 Lister Park, Green Lane Industrial Estate, Featherstone, West Yorkshire WF7 6FE 01977 703061 info@finecheesesltd.co.uk www.finecheesesltd.co.uk

Michael Lee distributes more than 500 artisan cheeses to foodservice and independent retailers across the UK. It specialises in sourcing and developing new cheeses. It champions smaller producers and will not buy from suppliers with supermarket branding. The company’s own fleet of vans fulfills orders across the North of England while it offers an overnight courier service to the rest of the

country. Michael Lee also supplies charcuterie, olives, dried fruit, pasta, herbs and spices. It sources from a variety of countries including France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Turkey.

Brands include: Charcoal Cheese, Coombe Castle, Websters Dairy, Barbers, Ford Farm Char Coal Cheese This totally black cheese, coated in black wax, is a Michael Lee exclusive. It is a mature cheddar, dyed using a secret method with charcoal, that comes in the shape of a lump of coal. It comes loose (200g, £2.60), presented in a hessian sack (£2.99) or in 1kg (£12.24). Barncliffe Brie  Michael Lee assisted Danny Lockwood of Yorkshire Fine Cheeses near Holmfirth, to develop the first brie to be made in Yorkshire. It is made by hand from local cows’ milk and comes in both a 1kg and 200g size.

stocks Sally’s must

ries Dried barber ngy, lemony ta Sumac – a spice e versatile spic Za’atar – a om wild thyme fr e blend mad d salt , sesame an with sumac g – for makin Dried limes s ew Iranian st and som water Orange blos rose water molasses – Pomegranate form of ed at d a concentr juice, reduce pomegranate ed us p ru sy rk to a thick, da ss h and richne to add dept vegetables and h, to meat, fis ews vegetarian st – typically Date syrup e h tahini in th it enjoyed w Middle East - for use Grape paste d dressings, la sa in stock, marinades Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

So Mmmmm MEDITERRANEAN

• Manufacturers, importers, exporters and national distributors of authentic, innovative & quality Mediterranean food products. • We pride ourselves with having the highest quality olives, antipasti and other Mediterranean delicacies. • Combining competitive pricing structures, bulk supply and modern distribution methods with a commitment to delivering outstanding service. • We also offer bespoke recipes, packaging and private labeling and are ready to develop any idea you may have from conception to a fully ready to eat product to your specs.

www.medfoodwholesale.co.uk

AWARD-WINNING SINGLE-ESTATE EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

Salumi Rovajo Mix

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

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

Rovajo is a small artisan producer in the town of Desulo is a small agricultural settlement in the centre of Sardinia. It sits at a height of 860 mt, midway between the sea and the beautiful Gennargentu mountainrange. All Rovajo products are lactose and gluten free. Organic Sliced Pre Packed Charcuterie from Golfera This pre-packed organic range is lactose and gluten free. Golfera’s Bio(organic) products are environmentally sustainable right down to their packaging and are ready to serve on a board or as filling for panino sandwich.

t: f: e: w:

0845 3697121 020 80433651 info@villanovafood.com villanovafood.com Villanova Food Limited VillanovaFood

importers & distributors El Olivo Olive Oil Co  27 Ratcliffe Terrace, Edinburgh EH9 2NU 0131 6684751

maria@elolivo-olive-oil.com www.elolivo-olive-oil.com

Set up in 2005 by Maria Cumming as a Spanish olive oil importer, El Olivo now carries 13 varieties of oil but also specialises in supplying 100% natural chorizos and jamon. It now offers independent retailers a wide range of Spanish fine foods, including antipasti, patés, spices and ambient seafood. All of these products are sourced from small artisan producers and a number of items are sold under the El Olivo brand.

Fratelli Camisa   Unit 4 I.O.Centre, Lea Road, Waltham Cross, Herts EN9 1AS 01992 763076 sales@camisa.co.uk www.camisa.co.uk

Specialist Italian food importer Fratelli Camisa began life in 1929 as a deli on Soho’s Berwick Street. Now based in Waltham Abbey, the firm has grown into a national distributor. It supplies a full range of deli products, including charcuterie, cheese, dried and fresh pasta, olive oil, sweet and savoury biscuits, vinegar and fresh olives. More than 90% of these products are sourced direct from small, family-run producers in the Italian countryside, but the company also carries products from Switzerland and Spain.

Paella rices  This “very innovative” range of flavored paella rice includes thyme, lemon and cinnamon varieties, all of which come in 500g bags. El Olivo says there is currently nothing similar available to the UK market.

El Olivo chorizos  These Spanish chorizos and Serrano ham have no E numbers whatsoever, which the company says is very unusual for this type of products. The ambient chorizos are sold under El Olivo’s own label in packs of three (approx. 330g). Cointreau fruit truffles  Following last Summer’s launch of dark chocolate-

Brands include: Martelli pasta, Borgo Dora, San Francesco, Meroni, Astorino, Brescia Lat, Rosso, Molino di Ferro, Santagata, Copaim, Antichi Colli, Raineri, Frutibosco, Favella, Minasso, Vecchio Mulino, La Gallinella, La Sassellese, Von Muhlenen, La Alegria Pier Luigi Rosso artisan cheeses   Situated in the high pastures of northern Italy in Biella, Pier Luigi Rosso produces a range of artisan cheeses using milk collected from 37

hf Chocolates

Established in 1957, hf Chocolates supplies chocolate and confectionery from countries including Belgium, Sweden, UK, Italy, USA and New Zealand. The range includes bean-to-bar, organic and Fairtrade chocolate as well as liquorice, nougat and nuts. Its customer base is primarily small, independently owned, specialist food shops, including delicatessens, fine food shops and department stores, but it also supplies gift shops, garden centres,

small farms around the district and matures them in underground caves. Raineri Oro di Frantoio extra virgin olive oil  From the ancient mill of Raineri in Liguria, Oro di Frantoio extra virgin olive oil comes in a 500ml tin with its own pourer. This filtered extra virgin olive oil is cold pressed, yellow in colour and has a “delicate and slightly fruity” flavour.

Dolfin salted caramels  New to Dolfin’s range for 2014 are crisp salted butter caramels coated with Belgian chocolate with various fruit and nut toppings.

5 Fitzhamon Court, Wolverton Mill South, Milton Keynes MK12 6LB 01908 315003 sales@hfchocolates.co.uk www.hfchocolates.co.uk

covered black figs filled with truffle and Cointrea, El Olivo has launched two further varieties made with orange segments and cherries. These are all presented in canisters containing 12 units.

farm shops and hamper companies. It re-packages an array of lines and supplies own label products to a large number of customers but it also sells personalised confectionery to corporate buyers. Brands include: Amarelli, Amatller, Anthon Berg, Barú, Booja Booja, Divine, Dolfin, Fudge Kitchen, Gnaw, Grown Up Chocolate Co, Happy People.planet, Ko-Koá, Koska, Leone, Macarons de Pauline, Montezuma’s, Noble, Prestat, Quaranta, Willie’s Cacao

La Praline  This Swedish brand of cocoa-dusted truffles comes in 200g boxes in flavours such as natural caramel, orange, strawberry, chilli, sea salt, cocoa nibs and mint.

Building a Scandinavian range Jonas Aurell, Scandinavian Kitchen, London In the last three or four years, people have latched onto the Scandinavian love of foraging and the idea that Nordic food is good for you. Then this year Noma in Copenhagen was voted the best restaurant in the world, further boosting the appeal of Nordic food among non-Scandinavian consumers. We sell a lot of seafood, salmon, herring and crispbread. In all we stock 27 varieties of crispbread, but our best seller is an Egyptian-Swedish spelt crispbread baked in openhearth ovens. The salads and sauces we make for our deli café have really caught on to the extent that we are now supplying our beetroot salad to Ocado. Our salads are sweet – owing to the dill that is in there – and include beetroot salad, seafood Skagen salad and a dressing for gravlax. Then there are the jams that are unique to Scandinavia, made with native berries such as lingonberry and cloudberry. Lingonberry has been hailed as a weight-loss superfood following a scientific study earlier this year, and sales of frozen lingonberries have increased on the back of this. Brunost (brown cheese), although a national treasure in Norway, still remains an acquired taste among most non-Scandinavians. This is probably because the salty, sweet taste can come as quite a shock to the uninitiated. It is made from the whey of goats’ milk which is boiled for hours until most of the water has evaporated and the sugars in the whey have caramelised, giving the cheese its distinctive brown colour. Interview by LYNDA SEARBY

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Goat Hill

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July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

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SCAN THE CODE FOR DETAILS!

PRODUCTS FROM SPAIN Ltd.

13/03/2014 16:52

importers & distributors

International flavours More inspiration from Asia, South America and Europe Toucan Fruit Among the many varieties of exotic fruit that Toucan imports is the Soursop, aka Graviola or Guanabana, as it is known in Colombia where the company sources it. This large, green fruit has small, spike-like protrusions on its skin but ivory flesh studded with large black seeds on the inside. When ripe, the interior is soft and creamy, almost like custard, and offers a sweet-tart flavour. Its aroma is likened to pineapple or banana. One fruit (2.5kg-3kg) comes in each box and has a shelf life of a few days at room temperature once ripe.

Robert Wilson Ceylon Tea Robert Wilson has been bringing Sri Lankan tea to the UK since 1840. The company handles the operation from the manufacture and packing in the country’s capital Colombo through to shipping, UK storage and distribution across Europe. The company offers many teas, sourced directly from individual estates, including the Bio/Organic Iddalgashinna Green tea. The product, which is manufactured with traditional rollers for a large O.P.1 Spl grade of leaf, comes from an worker-owned estate. It is available loose in 125g white wood boxes, 125g cartons, handmade gift packs and in 1kg pouches or 25- or 250-tea-bag cartons www.wilstea.com

www.toucanfruit.com

Yara’s Kitchen All of the products sold under the Yara’s Kitchen brand are sourced from small and medium-sized producers in the Tuscany region of Italy. The range includes traditional pasta (cases of 12x500g), game pasta sauces (6x180g), pre-packed charcuterie, sun-dried tomatoes (250g and 1kg bags) and extra virgin olive oil (250ml, 500ml, 3litre and 5litre tins). The brand is the brainchild of Yorkshire-based distributor Etruscany, which carries more than 200 Italian products across its range. All of the products under the Yara’s Kitchen brand carry a long shelf life. The charcuterie will last for 3-6 months while the other lines have shelf lives of 12-24 months. www.etruscany.co.uk

Badu’s Indian Feast Badu’s produces authentic East African Gujarati curry kits that produce dishes to serve 4-6 people. Each kit features fresh herbs, roasted dry spices, tomato paste topped with onions and whole Garam masala, including fragrant curry leaves and bay leaves. All of the dry spices used in this five-strong range of chilled, preservative-free kits are imported from Sri Lanka and India. The line-up includes Authentic Curry Masala (in mild, medium, & hot), Masala with coconut & almond (similar to Korma) for making Kerala-style fish curries and Almond Pasande (Emperor’s Favourite) for lamb or beef curry prepared with plain yoghurt. All of these kits are available in cases of 12. www.badusindianfeast.com

Pónaire Artisan Roasted Coffee Pónaire (Irish for Bean) imports fully traceable Arabica coffee beans from around the world and roasts them at its premises in Annacotty Business Park, Limerick, cupping every batch before it is sent out. Its blends include the Costa Rica blend – shade grown, bird-friendly Costa Rican and dark roasted beans from El Salvador – and the Indian blend, featuring “chocolatey” Indian Monsooned Malabar beans and the “intense” dark roasted beans from El Salvador. Pónaire supplies its coffee, which is suitable for a variety of coffee-making mechanisms, in 250g, 500g, and 1kg bags. www.ponaire.ie

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

July 2014 路 Vol.15 Issue 6

Bringing the best of The Mediterranean to you

40 MILLIONCAN’T OLIVES BE WRONG “THE BEST OLIVES IN THE UK” THE OBSERVER FOOD MONTHLY

40 million Olives Et Al olives get bought, eaten and enjoyed every year. That’s more than one per second. By the time you’ve read this another 60 will have been bought, eaten and enjoyed. Get some quick! Call the original Oliveers on 01258 474 300

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40 Million Olives Et Al olives a year – all fully fermented and naturally ripened then hand sorted, double graded and rather nicely prepared by us. So that means more than one Olives Et Al olive is being bought, eaten and enjoyed every second of every hour of every day each year. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That’s almost 40,000 olive trees worth. No wonder the Oliveers are busy. No sleep till olive time.

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

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July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

product update

olives

Fruity little numbers Olives might be one of the original deli lines but there is still plenty of new product development taking place, as LYNDA SEARBY finds out Taggiasca olives – a small sweet and mild black olive cultivated in the northern Italian region of Liguria – are now available from Valentina Fine Foods. Roi’s Taggiasca olives in brine are said to be “delicious as an aperitif or in salads and used abundantly in pasta and meat dishes”. Trade price is £2.85 for a 190g jar, and RRP is between £4.95 and £5.25. www.valentinafinefoods.com

This month, Olives Et Al is launching a brand new range of loose olives specifically designed with foodservice in mind. The Bistro Olive range offers customers five entirely brand new varieties of olives. The three green olive lines – basil, citrus and thyme – are all made with just pitted Manzanilla olives, while the two mixed olive lines – chill and garlic & herb – also feature dark pitted Cuquillo varietals. Each variety in the five-strong range will all be available in Olive Et Al’s new 2.5kg bucket format. Every bucket has a re-sealable snap-shut lid, for improved quality and freshness, and is stackable to make storage and stock rotation easier. All of the Dorset-based company’s loose olive and snack bucket ranges have been designed to be instantly recognizable for ease of ordering www.olivesetal.co.uk

Greek fine food specialist Gaea has added green olives stuffed with whole garlic cloves to its line-up. Colossal green Chalkidiki olives are hand-stuffed with whole cloves of garlic and marinated in extra virgin olive oil, making for a great appetiser or inclusion in pasta or salad dishes, according to importer RH Amar. The 295g jars (RRP £2.49) feature recipe suggestions such as fennel bulb stuffed with green olives. www.rhamar.com

Urbangrains has added organic black Kalamon olives (RRP £3.65 for 230g) to its portfolio of handproduced, seasonal Mediterranean food essentials. Urbangrains’ Kalamata olives are hand-picked, hand-processed, preserved only in olive oil (no brine) and marinaded in vinegar and oregano. These almond-shaped, dark purple olives are renowned for their sweetness and rich fruity flavour. www.urbangrains.net

Olive Branch has unveiled four chunky olive tapenades based on coarsely ground olives and authentic Greek ingredients. The recipes have been two years in development but co-founder Kamil Shah said the wait has been worth it. “We began experimenting with olive tapenade back in 2012 to create an accompaniment to a grilled fish dish,” he says. “We found this coarsely ground approach balanced the ingredients perfectly, providing a unique crunch that is not evident in a traditional tapenade.” The four tapenades, which can be used in pasta dishes, on salads and vegetables, and as a cheese or meat accompaniment, are: green & black olives with sundried tomato, Feta & Greek basil; green olives with goats’ cheese, rosemary & chilli; green olives with Florina peppers & chilli and Kalamata olives with fig & mint. They have an RRP of £3.99 and a trade price of £2.39 per unit. www.myolivebranch.co.uk

London-based importer The Oil Merchant is bringing a new range of olive-based products from French brand L’Olivier to the UK. Called L’Huile d’Olive and featuring the famous face of cartoon character Olive Oyl, the products were created to celebrate traditional Provençal cuisine, and are said to be “full of the flavours and scents of southern France”. The range, which has been chosen by The Conran Shop as part of its Season in France summer range, includes black olive grissini (wholesale £4.05) and black and green olive tapenades (wholesale £3.65).

The Fresh Olive Co has drawn on the current trends for ‘Real Spain’, North African cuisine and the fashionable food of the Amalfi coast to develop three new seasonal loose olive mixes. Zesty Maroc, Smokey Salamanca and Chilli Rosmarino launched at the start of 2014 with an RRP of £2.50 for 100g (trade £22.95 for 2.5kg). All three mixes are based on giant pitted Manzanilla olives. The Zesty Maroc mix is flavoured with Beldi lemons, coriander and turmeric; Chilli Rosmarino combines rosemary, crushed chillies and infused oils and the Smokey Salamanca mix sees the olives sprinkled with Spanish paprika, cayenne pepper and garlic. www.fresholive.com

www.oilmerchant.co.uk

Green olives stuffed with jalapeños are the latest introduction from Portuguese gourmet food producer Nono Sentido. The olives are preserved in extra virgin olive oil that has been infused with lemon and aromatic herbs. RRP is £6.99 for 212ml. Nono Sentido is currently on the lookout for distributors in the UK. www.nonosentido.com

Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

shelf talk Ex-Grumpy Mule man sets up new coffee project

what’s new

By MICHAEL LANE

After more than a decade at the company, Grumpy Mule’s brand manager has struck out on his own and set up an artisan coffee roastery in West Yorkshire. Damian Blackburn will now be using his wealth of sourcing and roasting expertise at Dark Woods Coffee, which will provide wholesale coffee, equipment and barista training to foodservice as well as retail-ready packs of whole beans. The operation, founded with two fellow coffee enthusiasts, is already underway in a 4,000 sq ft former textile mill on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. Dark Woods also plans to use half of the floor space as a café, events and retail area, subject to planning permission. While the range and packaging was still being finalised as FFD went to press, Blackburn said it would feature two or three espresso blends in cases of 6x1kg for wholesale and 6x250g packs for retail. Two or three filter blends and single producer coffees will also be available in these formats and case sizes. The company takes its name from a nearby wooded area and the branding, created by local designer Lucas Jubb and landscape photographer Richard Littlewood, reflects West Yorkshire’s “moody” countryside. Dark Woods should soon be

Love from Russia and more NPD for Stag Bakeries By MICHAEL LANE

The flavours of its homeland continue to serve Stag Bakeries well with the baker unveiling a range of Scottish cheese straws and receiving an order for its seaweed water biscuits from Russia. Among the cheeses used in the Outer Hebrides firm’s new all-butter straws are three from the Highlands – Strathdon Blue, Highland Dunlop and Smoked Highland Dunlop. All three come in 100g packs (RRP £3.49) as does the fourth variety made with Ayrshire Bonnet goats’ cheese (RRP £3.89). One of last year’s new products, seaweed water biscuits, was part of a major order sent to a Russian distributor and they are now on the shelves at top Moscow department store Tsum. The biscuits, which won three stars and Best Scottish Speciality in Great Taste 2013, were joined on the pallet

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

Three granolas SENSIBLE DAVE

www.sensibledave.co.uk

Damian Blackburn will roast coffee on a refurbished Probat roaster at Dark Woods’ HQ. The branding is inspired by the “moody” West Yorkshire landscape.

roasting between 500-1,000kg of coffee (in 20kg batches) each month on a vintage Probat drum roaster. The roaster is controlled by modern software so every aspect of each roast will be carefully controlled and repeatable. “For us, certain aspects of what we do are already a given: a seasonal, high quality product; a very consistent, artisanal coffee; direct and ethical sourcing from our producer partners at origin,” said Blackburn. Blackburn will be supported by two business partners: MD of

barista training firm Coffee Community Paul Meikle-Janney and Ian Agnew programmes & operations director at charity Lorna Young Foundation. Meikle-Janney is the co-creator of the City & Guilds barista skills qualification while Agnew has worked on a number of projects with tea and coffee producers in the developing world. Previously independent, the Grumpy Mule brand was bought by Irish tea and coffee supplier Bewley’s in April 2013. www.darkwoodscoffee.co.uk

by the Isle of Lewis bakery’s signature Stornoway water biscuits and other seaweed flavoured biscuits. “It is fantastic to see that Stag has international appeal,” said Stag Bakeries’ owner Charlie Macdonald. “We are particularly pleased that an emerging market like Russia has expressed interest and Stag is now on sale in some of the best stores. There is huge potential for Stag in international markets.”

Already listed in Harrods, this new cereal brand has launched with three granola recipes: The Original One, The Strawberry One with white chocolate shavings and The Berry One. Every 600g box (RRP £5.95) of granola contains the zest of one orange, oats from Cheshire and rapeseed oil from Herefordshire, as well as other “carefully sourced” British ingredients. Creator David Rose, who runs The New White Lion hotel in the Brecon Beacons with his partner Kath, is already working with business partner David Madden on new products to add to the range.

Smoked rapeseed oil

YORKSHIRE RAPESEED OIL / STAAL SMOKEHOUSE www.yorkshirerapeseedoil.co.uk

These two Yorkshire artisan producers have teamed up to create a smoked rapeseed oil, smoked over oak and apple wood. Each

250ml bottle of oil, which was several months in development, has an RRP of £4. Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil and Staal are now at work developing more new products.

www.stagbakeries.co.uk

Added condiments LE MESURIER WIGHT MOVE: The Tomato Stall has unveiled a new look to mark the beginning of the tomato season. The Isle of Wight business worked with designer Anonymous to match the look to the brand’s strapline ‘more sunshine more taste’. The company, which started life as a tomoato grower, now produces a range of tomato-inspired products, including golden tomato Sunshine Juice and the unique oak roasted tomatoes. Its latest product is a tomato cordial. www.thetomatostall.co.uk

www.lemesuriers. com

Patrick Le Mesurier has four new additions to his range of condiments. The latest is cranberry & port sauce (180g), made with a high proportion of cranberries (70%).

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

CHEF’S SELECTION

Top chefs tell CLARE HARGREAVES their deli essentials

Michelin trained Le Mesurier has also added béarnaise sauce (240g), Dijon mustard (175g) and an apple & cider sauce (175g) made from English Bramleys. All of these lines have an RRP of £3.35 and are sold through Cotswold Fayre.

Jeremy Lee Chef, Quo Vadis, Soho, London Danny Elwes

www.quovadissoho.co.uk

Pepper cake

GINGER BAKERS www.gingerbakers.co.uk

The Kendal-based baker has brought an old local cake back from the brink of extinction. The Westmorland pepper cake was originally produced using the spices brought to the west coast of Cumbria from the West Indies and exchanged for wool. Now with the backing of The Slow Food Movement, which has awarded the cake Forgotten Food status, Ginger Bakers is producing it in 650g loaves (trade £5.50, RRP £7.95).

Summer soups

TIDEFORD ORGANICS www.tidefordorganics.com

The Devon producer has introduced three summer soups that can be served hot or cold. Pea & mint, beetroot with crème fraiche & dill and classic gazpacho come in 600g pots. All three are gluten-free, low in fat and salt and organic.

Infused vinegars

HUNTLY HERBS www.huntlyherbs. co.uk

Preserve-maker Huntly Herbs has launched three vinegars infused with raspberry, horseradish and tarragon respectively. Like all of the Aberdeenshire producer’s jams, jellies and chutneys, these vinegars are hand-made using 100% organic ingredients.

Shortcross Gin

RADEMON ESTATE DISTILLERY www.shortcrossgin.com

Shortcross Gin is the first product from Co Down’s Rademon Estate Distillery, the first and only craft distillery to be established in Northern Ireland. By distilling

fresh apples, elderberries and wild clover with other botanicals – including juniper, coriander, orange peel, lemon peel and cassia – it creates a gin with a “smooth and long peppery finish”. From the distilling in a copper still through to bottling and labelling, every element of the drink is created by hand.

Summer chocolates CHOC ON CHOC

www.choconchoc.co.uk

The Somerset-based chocolatier has a range of slabbed chocolates (trade £1.70) with various designs, including a deck chair, ice cream cones and a campervan. It has also recently launched a box of chocolate daisies and chicks (trade £3.50). Meanwhile, Choc On Choc’s founder Flo Broughton has been tipped as “one to watch” on the UK’s Business Insider news and technology website as she made the South West “42 under 42 programme” list of entrepreneurs.

Whole blanched Marcona almonds www.brindisa.com

Powdered almond is almost always rubbish – it has no taste – so we grind whole ones. They are well worth the extra buck and you can put them in almost everything. You will see them all over the menu. I sling them into a pesto or serve them with wild garlic and mint. They’re also wonderful toasted and placed on top of rhubarb to make a delicious and elegant little thing.

Bonduelle tinned peas (pois de jardin) www.bonduelle.com

There is no point saying you have fresh peas in February, so at that time of year these tinned peas really come into their own. Mix them with cabbage, lettuce, spring onion, bacon and a glug of cream, then add thyme and sage, and you have a fabulous dish. The tinned peas are great with lamb, kid or boar, and are also cheaper than frozen peas. I buy them in 5kg tins. Great on a Sunday when it’s bucketing with rain.

El Navarrico chickpeas 660g jar www.brindisa.com

We are very British here, but when in the depths of winter there is only cabbage and turnips, storecupboard goods really come in to their own. These jars of cooked chickpeas, grown on the banks of the River Ebro in Spain, are a case in point. They are wonderful in soups and stews, or whizzed up in to humous. Jarred chickpeas are creamy, and have a thin smooth skin, which is a great boon. Tinned chickpeas can be so tough and hard to work with – unlike tinned peas, which I love.

East Coast bagels

KOMPLEAT SOLUTIONS www.kompleatsolutions.co.uk

The specialist bakery supplier is launching the Original East Coast Bagel Company into the UK. These kettle-boiled and hearthbaked bagels are available in five flavours: plain, sesame, Everything (sesame and poppy seeds, onion and garlic), cinnamon & raisin and blueberry.

Burgess anchovy essence www.debonofoods.com

At home when I was a boy, we often had power cuts so a good larder was essential, and my mum’s was superb. Anchovy essence was one thing she always stocked. I now buy it in 75ml jars through wholesalers such as Debono. The essence is great for fish and meat stews, and soups – although often you wouldn’t know it was in there as it’s more notable by its absence than its presence. If I don’t have any anchovies I will also put it into a rouille to go with our crab soup.

Geo Watkins Mushroom Ketchup www.thecressco.co.uk

This is a very old fashioned British thing – George Watkins started making this in 1830 – and it’s definitely one of my storecupboard staples. It tastes half way between Worcester sauce and soy sauce, with undertones of mushroom. I love it with mince and tatties, and I also put it into braised oxtail or ox cheek, or in steak and kidney pie. It’s good with game, too, as it helps to elevate it. Use this ketchup and you need less stock cube. Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

Sri Tea – high quality loose leaf tea & accessories All of our teas are made without any pesticides or insecticides, and with 100% natural flavourings. Each tea has been carefully selected to provide unique health benefits as well as great taste. The Grandest Confectionery in the World AS SEEN AT HARROGATE!

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July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

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shelf talk

Favourites from Harrogate 2014 Editor MICK WHITWORTH teamed his traditional tastebuds with those of spice-loving assistant editor MICHAEL LANE to present their WBC-sponsored Editors’ Choice of the best new lines at the Harrogate Speciality Food Show. Galore! Foods Beetroot, orange & caraway chutney You’ve got to like beetroot to like this one from a first-time exhibitor at Harrogate, but Mick really went for the combination of earthiness and an orangey tang. Verita Vita Mata Alfajor Nazari sweet almond pastries An interesting alternative to fudge, we’d split a box of these pastries to accompany coffee then cross-sell the boxes on the café or deli counter.

Hider Au olive oil Not an oil for the fainthearted – we found it a little more bitter than Hider’s catalogue description – but we really like the can and this could make a flavoursome finishing oil. The Little Round Cake Co Luxury Merangz Bites Definitely more for the laydeez, these new bite-size meringues from Shrewsbury come in three flavour options and at £4.50 RRP will make a great base for dinner party desserts or a colourful gift.

MRC The Flava People The Great British Butcher allnatural rubs We do like nice little packages with a sensible price ticket, and at a trade price of just £1.40 a tin, this range of meat rubs has got to be ideal for any independent’s meat counter, especially in farm shops.

South Devon Chilli Farm Dried Kashmiri Chillies Another simple product that has been tailored to customer demand. Apparently this West Country business has had a flow of requests for Kashmiri chillies recently, possibly driven by Rick Stein's use of them in his latest TV series and book (India, In Search of the Perfect Curry). Hodmedod’s British organic split dried fava beans Mick couldn’t fail to include Norfolk firm Hodemedod’s dried Britsh fava beans in his Harrogate line-up as they had already made Editor’s Choice in FFD a few months earlier. Perfect provenance and that “garden seed catalogue” packaging style make these a winner.

Verita Vita Baby green walnuts Michael couldn’t quite forgive Verita Vita for the hard-to-read label, but the look on Mick’s face when he sampled the contents meant these had to make the cut. A good oldfashioned high street deli line, they might need a bit of sampling so customers know what to do with them. Exquisite Handmade Cakes Ginger & lime chilli cake The two key flavours are in perfect balance here – one fades smoothly into the other – and considering we sampled the cake when it was nearly out of date (sorry!) it was beautifully moist. Could easily be passed off as home-made. The Fine Cheese Co Gluten-free water crackers We rarely find fault with any of The Fine Cheese Co’s crackers, and could easily have picked its quince, pecan & poppy seed Toast For Cheese. But these gluten-free crackers fill more of a gap. They look pretty on the cheeseboard and are neutral in flavour. Made with maize, they have a touch of tortilla chip about them.

Harjinder’s Kitchen Punjabi Tarka Masala kit We thought long and hard about which of the many curry sauces and curry kits at Harrogate deserved a place on our shelves, but opted for the bold packaging of Manchesterbased Harjinder Kaur. Harjinder is also out there in the media, promoting a product that offers “a true taste of the Punjab”.

Bird & Wild Yeti Farm organic Ethiopian coffee beans In an overcrowded market the Bird & Wild brand really stands out, and the coffee’s great. We also liked its Raul Mamani coffee from Peru. Staal smokehouse Whole kippers We are grateful to Justin Staal for getting a second sample of kippers to us after the first was lost among thousands of Great Taste entries. These are just delicious, with Staal’s trademark light smoke and a sweetness enhanced by his use of a blend of oak and applewood. Try his smoked duck and chicken too. Scarlett & Mustard The Colonel’s poppy seed dressing We’d heard good things about this brand and were not disappointed by its poppy seed dressing. This one is a salad dressing with texture and you can taste the orange zest. There’s also a quid going to the Royal British Legion from every bottle sold. Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

shelf talk

Beefing up the butchers

With a new generation taking the reins, 2011 Great Taste champion McCartney’s of Moira has been transformed from award-winning high street butcher to one of Northern Ireland’s best speciality food stores

Deli of the Month INTERVIEW BY mick whitworth

July 2014 · Vol.15 Issue 6

t’s nearly three years since George McCartney, a veteran butcher from rural Co Down, stepped on stage at London’s Royal Garden Hotel to collect the Great Taste Supreme Champion title. It was, to say the least, unexpected to see a product from Northern Ireland – for many years a backwater in terms of speciality food – rising from nowhere to take the fine food equivalent of the Jules Rimet trophy. It was even more unexpected that McCartney’s winning product was (as

we all kept describing it) a “humble” corned beef, handmade by the man himself in the sixth-generation family butcher’s shop in the sleepy village of Moira, 20 miles south-west of Belfast. The Great Taste triumph made a minor celebrity out of McCartney. In tandem with the following year’s Supreme Champion win for his near-neighbour Peter Hannan of Hannan Meats, it has also helped change perceptions of Northern Ireland’s food scene. This year, business development agency Invest

NI sponsored a week of Great Taste judging in Belfast, bringing a pack of food buyers, critics and journalists – including yours truly – from the British mainland to get a closer look at NI’s burgeoning food culture. This was a perfect excuse for me to visit Moira, meet the affable George again and take a proper look at a business that has progressed since 2011 from popular high street butcher to one of the best all-round food stores on the island of Ireland. George McCartney will celebrate 50 years in the business this September. But it is daughters Judith Millar and Sarah Price – with a mere 16 years and six years respectively in the family firm – who have taken forward his long-term plan to extend into the neighbouring premises and transform this from a butcher’s to a full-on speciality food emporium. What was formerly their “granny’s house” next door has been converted into a sleek, stylish deli, three times the size of its adjoining butcher’s shop, with a small patisserie-café area at the rear and a 40-cover bistro upstairs. After just 18 months, it is cheese distributor Rowcliffe’s second biggest client in Northern Ireland after long-established Belfast deli Sawers. Retail space across the enlarged building is now 3,000 sq ft out of a total 6,000 sq ft that includes storage, back-room operations for the butchery and a bustling kitchen serving the café and the deli. McCartney’s of Moira will turn over £2 million this year, Judith Millar tells me when we sit down with her father for coffee and shop-baked cake in the upstairs bistro. The butchery is still “the bread and butter”, accounting for 60% of sales. But the café and fresh food deli together bring in 35% of revenue. Ambient grocery provides just 5% but nonetheless amounts to £2,000£3,000 in sales every week, with many of the key brands drawn not from Ireland but from the British mainland. “I like to support local where I can,” says Millar, who runs the shop and café while her younger sister, a business graduate who formerly worked for global accountants Ernst & Young, takes care of finance. “But I have a policy of not stocking what everyone else is stocking, because it bores me to see the same things everywhere I go. “There are many local suppliers, but there are also so many places between here and Belfast that stock them, including the supermarkets. “We have customers coming from 50 miles away – more than we have from Moira itself – and I don’t want them driving that distance to find the same things they can get at home.” So, for example, McCartney’s was one of the first shops in Northern Ireland to stock Joe & Seph’s gourmet popcorn, Eat 17 Bacon Jam and The Bay Tree preserves.

products, promotions & people Judith Millar (below left, with her father George McCartney) says she supports local brands but avoids filling the shelves with lines widely sold across Northern Ireland. ‘I don't want people driving 50 miles to find the same things they can get at home,’ she tells FFD.

While McCartney’s had long offered a chilled deli range alongside its butchery, most of the ambient grocery lines only arrived with the shop extension. “When I was first ordering, it was literally guesswork,” says Millar. “I’d done a lot of research in England, and a lot of products I ordered had never been sold over here before. But by the end of the first week I was reordering a lot of them, and now we have at least three times as much grocery shelving as when we opened.” She puts in monthly orders with “at least three of the big English wholesalers” and has 30-plus direct independent suppliers on the grocery side alone, looking for a robust 40-50% margin on ambient goods, partly to reflect high staff costs in this service-focused business, which employs 35 if you include family. “I used to work on 30%,” she says, “but it didn’t pay the bills. Wages are between a third and a half of turnover, so it’s hard to make money.” Millar, who has worked in the shop since she was a child, adds: “Looking in from any other industry you’d question why we do it, and there are certainly jobs where you could make more money for less work. But we

do it because we’ve never known anything different.” Although McCartneys’s has long made its own pies and ready meals and bought in a few salads, the building development has seen it dramatically scale-up in-house food production “We’ve now got four fulltime and two part-time chefs,” says Millar, “in addition to the cook who always worked here, and that has allowed us to be more adventurous. “So, for example, we still have our bread-and-butter mince & onion pies, but we also have about 25 salads, too, on a daily basis. So the freshness is much better, and if we run out on a busy weekend we just ask the chefs to make more, so no sales are lost.” The shop’s biggest ever “barbecue Saturday” saw it shift a staggering 2.25 tonnes of sausages, and a good day in the butcher’s helps balance the performance of the bistro. “In hot weather there aren’t so many people eating in,” says George McCartney, “so I’ll pinch the chefs to make kebabs for the butchery counter.” The menu in the upstairs eatery is honest, pub-style fare: fish & chips (£9.95), beef stew (£5.50), lasagne (£8.95), burgers (£6.95) and pulled pork baps (£6.95). There is, naturally,

a Supreme Champion corned beef hash (£5.50), and the signature breakfast option is a champ potato bread stack (£5.95) of homemade potato bread with black or white pudding, caramelised onion, apple puree and crispy coppa or bacon. The bistro has also begun staging occasional evening events, when head chef David Kenny can flex his culinary muscles. “It started as a pop-up restaurant,” says Millar. “We lowered the lights, lit candles and let people bring their own wine, with no corkage. But we weren’t skimping on portions, and when we analysed sales we found a few people were only having a main course. So we changed it to a ‘supper club’, where everyone pays £30 for four courses, and we doubled takings because we were making the most of every seat.” As well as looking terrific, McCartney’s of Moira is an impressively businesslike operation, with an LCCS EPoS system used to track sales and promotions, and even the temperatures of fridges monitored on a wireless system. George McCartney and his family are

also keenly aware of their customer base, and have been careful not to frighten them with overly “speciality” products, while still creating a modern, premium image. On the cheese counter, for example, crowdpleasers like Cashel Blue and Mull of Kintyre cheddar do well, but serious artisan cheeses like Ireland’s Ardrahan and Gubbeen are “a bit strong, except for the hardcore foodies”. “People can be a little conservative,” says Judith. “If we get too complicated with the naming of products in the butcher’s or the deli – like too many herbs in the title – it becomes a block and people can’t get past the words. And with something like Joe & Seph’s popcorn, I can sell the sweet ones, but the savoury ones are a bit too far outside the box.” You would expect a family firm to understand its customers after 140 years, but you also have to admire the way, with a new generation coming through, McCartney’s is moving forward without losing sight of its butchery origins – even down to the ‘latte art’ on its coffee. When my cappuccino arrives, it’s not embellished with the usual rosette or tulip but with a cocoa stencil of McCartney’s “sausage man” logo. “The sausage man gets everywhere,” Millar laughs.“At the end of the day, that’s the reason we’re here.” www.mccartneysofmoira.com

OCKS ’S MUST-ST McCARTNEY

Yellow Man Glastry Farm cream e ic b honeycom en chilli jam Bim’s Kitch own corned McCar tney's beef teddy bear The Bay Tree pasta t le Loves Min Suki Tea App hani curry uce Co’s Mak The Curry Sa sauce oatcakes Ditty’s Irish chilli crisps oak smoked Brown Bag re cheddar Mull of Kinty ings range Bar ts season relish Ballymaloe tted olives classic mix pi Olives Et Al deli pies home-baked McCar tney’s potato salad fully loaded McCar tney's ndmade rown local ha Cobden & B ocolate ch gluten-free Vol.15 Issue 6 · July 2014

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