SHOP TALK

IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW...

RACHNA DHEER,owner and founder, Starter Culture, Shawlands, Glasgow

Ten years ago I opened Babu Bombay Street Kitchen, introducing authentic Bombay street food to Glasgow. In search of good cheese, I was constantly having to travel to the West End, as there were no options in the South Side where I live. That was how Starter Culture came about.

In 2018, I found premises and, after a costly and lengthy transformation, the shop opened its doors in September 2019. Covid hit a few months later, so this has been our first year of operating without any restrictions.

Interestingly, the pandemic had a positive impact on the business. When people weren’t able to go out, artisan cheese and wine became their treat and we were able to meet that demand by being agile.

In many ways it’s a more challenging environment now. Our suppliers are increasing their prices and consumers are sticking with their money while no longer relying as heavily on their local suburban shops. Our strategy for dealing with these price increases is to offer some products at a cheaper rate – products that people specifically come in for – and give them guidance on our artisan offering while they are there. You can’t put the prices up on everything.

In this climate, you’ve got to think outside of the box. We are launching monthly tasting nights, starting with a craft cider & artisan cheese evening. Tickets are £40, which includes five craft ciders and five artisan cheeses as well as a 10% discount on any products purchased. We are also introducing picnic boxes (priced at £15) this summer, which we can deliver to the park. You can’t afford to wait for customers to come to you; you have to think of ways of getting out to them.

Festivals are another great opportunity and a one-hit cash injection. We will be at the Fringe this year with our grilled cheese sandwiches.

Consumers have so much choice available to them, it is important to also offer something different. Minger cheese is always a talking point due to its pungent aroma and the name itself, as is our single cask malt whisky.

From my street food business background, working at the markets, I know a lot of microproducers. We work with them directly rather than sourcing products via wholesalers. Dealing directly with suppliers is time-consuming but worth the effort.

My street food business taught me that quality is paramount, even if that means travelling to London to source ingredients. Quality has been a differentiator before, and I am confident it can be again.

CONFESSIONS OF A DELI OWNER

ANONYMOUS TALES FROM BEHIND THE COUNTER

WE SELL COFFEE and reusable co ee cups, tea but not teapots, camembert and camembert bakers. ‘Yes’ to wine but ‘no’ to wine glasses. We don’t sell sh or sushi mats. We do sell pottery-type stu – but only at Christmas. Non-food is a funny old game, really.

Where do we draw the line? I was getting a sandwich in a café the other day. It was a standard narrow retail unit, kitchen at the back the other side of a counter, tables on each side between the door and the counter.

They had dedicated one of the tables and a bit of wall space to cards and small pottery from a single brand (not known to me). It was not in keeping with the place, nobody would have guessed they did cards and pottery.

It got me thinking. When is it a good idea to make a real departure from my norm? For this café, the pottery seemed like a reach. They didn’t have stock-appropriate display units and they lacked merchandising skills. It all seemed a bit out of place.

Perhaps the owner was the artist, hence the shoehorning of this display. It just didn’t seem relevant.

MODEL RETAILING

Don’t mind us, Mr Deli. We’ll just be digging up the road for the next two weeks

If I want to try something new... I creep up on it, like a leopard in the night, stalking my prey

But on the other hand, a “give it a go mentality” is good in retail. I, possibly like you, have tried branching out. Perhaps you’ve tried a sh counter in your farm shop, or stay-fresh storage bags next to your lettuce, or those reusable co ee cups (which have been a big success for me, by the way).

These extra add-ons that push up basket spend are good practice. I dip my toes in a every now and again. But the big leaps into a new department usually require a bit more investment than it rst appears.

Maybe it is new display equipment, adverting committment or new team skills. It just isn’t easy.

Plenty of deli owners will mention the curious randomness of what sells where. Ask any small producer that has more than ve minutes’ experience and they will tell you stock can shi like ice creams on a hot day in one shop, and stick like glue in another apparently similar one.

To avoid getting lumped with stu I can’t sell, I try to think of new departments as extensions of my territory, not disconnected islands of interest. If I want to try something, I grow towards it slowly using my existing ranges. I creep up on it like a leopard in the night, stalking my prey until it is so close I can smell it.

Okay, okay. Putting it like that seems a bit dramatic when you consider that my next foray is into reusable wax sandwich pouches for our food-to-go. But if that works, I may expand the wax wrap range.

Gently does it.

SOLVING EVERYDAY SHOPKEEPING DILEMMAS. IN MINIATURE.

Here you go, lads. Would you like a coffee?

Yes, please.

Actually. Free coffee for anyone who comes into the shop during the next fortnight!

Oh no, this timing is so lousy. I feeling like swearing at them. No, wait… How kind!

FFD says: If the last two-and-a-half years have taught us anything, you can’t control most of the things that will disrupt your footfall. You just have to adapt. Try to work with these hindrances and turn them to your advantage. Free coffee (or some other incentive) solves a myriad of problems and will help to keep everyone more happy – whether it’s those construction workers or your customers.

CODE OF PRACTICE

Technical and regulatory advice from the Guild of Fine Food’s Assured Code of Practice for Deli Retailing

This month we take a look at...

waste management

• Full requirements for businesses handling food waste are outlined in Regulation (EC)

No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs,

Annex II, Chapter VI.

• To facilitate the prevention of contamination, a waste disposal contract must be in place with a licensed refuse collection company.

• Waste must be removed regularly during working hours, as and when required, and placed in outside bins. Refuse and waste food must not be left overnight inside.

Aprons should be removed before handling waste or disinfected a erwards

• Lidded bins, with bin liners, should be used to store waste inside. The types of bins present should be based on the potential for crosscontamination. The bin liners must be sealed properly and disposed of in outside bins.

• Aprons should be removed before handling waste or cleaned and disinfected afterwards. Hands must be washed after handling waste.

• The bins must be cleaned and disinfected to reduce accumulation of bacteria and odour.

Broken glass/crockery should be placed in a sealed plastic container before disposal.

• Outside bins must be kept in a secure location, away from the food delivery area and in an accessible location so that refuse collectors can get to them easily.

• The bins should be placed on a hard standing that should be swept and cleaned weekly, as part of the cleaning schedule.

The guide is available in PDF format and is free for Guild members. For non-members, it costs £250+VAT. To request a copy of the Code of Practice, or for further information, email support@gff.co.uk

Producer’s View

PERI EAGLETON, CO-FOUNDER OF SEGGIANO, EXPLORES HOW WE DEFINE THE WORD ‘ARTISAN’

‘Artisan’ is a word or concept invoked often in food marketing, both subtly and overtly.

In the UK, the term is widely appropriated on food packaging, especially in the baking industry to push factory-produced food. We’ve all witnessed scenes of romantic country life in advertisements, and the allusion to foods being somehow lovingly handmade for us.

Rarely are such cases challenged and it remains understandably tricky to police the use of the word ‘artisan’ and, harder still, the use of allusion and image.

That said, ‘artisan’ no longer particularly means contact with the human hand, which is more literally described by saying ‘handmade’. Where it once referred to traditional craftsmanship of objects by hand, in English-speaking nations it now commonly describes the way food is produced, the care and attention given to the quality of a product and to its authenticity as a curated, non-industrial food.

While the usual hype and hyperbole in advertising is common, you don’t often see ‘artigianale’ used to describe industrial foods in Italy. One reason may be that the country has an active agricultural and food fraud police force. But perhaps it’s because ‘artisan’ is an ethos.

At Seggiano, we see plenty of traditional Italian foods that can’t be improved upon but we also continuously discover new elements that redefine artisan production.

For example, the simple dough preparation, shaping and baking of our Lingue flatbreads remains unchanged. Meanwhile, our latest tomato passata is cooked in a temperaturecontrolled vacuum to minimise heat stress and maintain antioxidants.

Whatever the method, provenance is the cornerstone. There is no place for commodity ingredients or anonymity of origin in something labelled as artisanal.

For us and Italian producers, ‘artisan’ also means small-scale, minimally processed and free of shortcut additives used to speed up production or lengthen shelf life.

An artisan panettone takes 36 hours to make, and a genuine chocolate nut spread is sieved and mixed for hours on end to blend the fats and liquids together, in lieu of quick-fix emulsifiers.

This is real food. It costs more but delivers better nutrition and a considerably more enjoyable taste experience, while meeting modern challenges like shelf-life stability.

That’s what artisan really means.

WHAT’S TRENDING

1 NICK BAINES KEEPS YOU UP TO DATE WITH THE NEWEST DISHES, FLAVOURS AND INNOVATIONS IN FOOD & DRINK

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1 New-wave Chinese We have a longstanding relationship with Chinese food here in the UK, but it tends to be a simplified mix of Cantonese cooking partnered with Peking duck. However, restaurateurs are beginning to set their sights on the unsung corners of Chinese food. Fatt Pundit has recently opened a second site, specialising in IndoChinese cuisine – hefty momo dumplings, pakora potatoes and a wealth of noodles. Meanwhile, Chinatown’s Bun House is expanding and is now serving up its steamed, meat-filled buns in Camden. At the fine dining end of the spectrum, lauded chef John Javier will soon open All Under Heaven in East London, a high-end Sichuan-Cantonese restaurant.

2 Mushroom crisps A recent addition to the plant-based snack category, mushroom crisps are proving a force to be reckoned with. One of the standout launches at this year’s Fancy Food Show in the US was Popadellics. Replete with on-point branding, this crunchy mushroom snack comes in flavours like Thai chilli, rosemary & salt, and truffle parm. Closer to home, the UK’s Otherfoods are in on the action, too. Seasoned only with salt, its lines include single variety mushroom crisps made from oyster, shiitake and trumpet varieties.

3 Bringing shandy back While low-ABV beers are certainly a thing right now, another yesteryear classic is being revived. Shandy is being explored by independent brands, alongside imports of classic Radler-style beers from the likes of Germany’s Stiegl. Oxfordshire’s Shandy Shack puts out an elderflower lager-top, IPA shandy, and a pale & ginger, all clocking in at under 3%. The brand recently closed a second round of funding. Could this be the summer of shandy?

GUIDE TO AMERICAN PIES

MISSISSIPPI MUD PIE

Made with rivers of chocolate, this pie resembles the muddy banks of America’s famous Mississippi and became a national treasure because of the association. Waterway to go mainstream. BOSTON CREAM PIE

A Boston Cream Pie consists of sponge cake, vanilla custard and chocolate ganache. A Boston Tea Party consists of 92,000 pounds of tea, one harbour and a number of unhappy Brits.

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE KEY LIME PIE

New Yorkers are insistent their rich and creamy cheesecake is the greatest in the world. An out-of-character boast from the usually shy and retiring residents of the big apple.

The Florida Keys lie close to the Caribbean island of Cuba. A slice of Key Lime Pie costs $3 in Cuba, $4 in the Bahamas and $5 in Jamaica. These are the pie rates of the Caribbean.

Meet the new range from Miller’s. Miss American Pie, bite-sized biscuits inspired by American desserts.