Fine Food Digest October 2013 by Guild of Fine Food

CHARLES MARTELL 13 The creator of Stinking Bishop cheese tells FFD: ‘We don’t want the average punter’

BILL GRIMSEY 4 ‘Independents have to branch out into value-added experiences,’ says former Iceland boss

DELI OF THE MONTH 46 Belfast’s Kieran Sloan: edging upmarket but holding on to his ‘bread-and-butter’ trade October 2013 · Vol 14 Issue 9

instant Winners We round up the best new ready-to-use cooking sauces and ingredients CHEF’S SELECTION 42 Tapas Revolution owner Omar Allibhoy picks Spanish Mancha saffron, Oro Bailen olive oil and Fragata pimiento piquillo peppers

CHARCUTERIE 26 Cranswick gets serious about air-dried hams as it builds its Woodall’s brand

Full report from the 2013 ‘GOldeN FORKS’ dinner – p14 NEWS GREAT TASTE 2013 CHEESEWIRE COOKING SAUCES SPECIALITY PIES SHELF TALK GREAT TASTING IDEAS

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October 2013 路 Vol.14 Issue 9

What’s new this month:

Opinion

Meanwhile, a family of Brits at a table outside the English Pub enjoyed a late breakfast washed down with several litres of Peroni. A passion of sorts. BOB FARRAND Jeremy Cheung uses the ‘passion’ word when describing Greenhill Food Hall’s (page 11) concept of working with ‘vending Have you noticed how many partners’. He claims the best people in our business tell you, people to present fine foods ad infinitum, how passionate are the people who make it – they are about artisan food and presumably, with passion. drink? Makes you wonder if there’s Jamie Oliver’s got passion, enough passion to go round. bucket loads of it. The Essex foodie Mrs F and I spent the last half super-hero used it to rid schools of September in southern Italy. We of turkey twizzlers and for turning go there as much for the food as work-shy teenagers into kitchen the sunshine, and the locals rarely porters and waiters. His recent tell you about their passion, they attempt to muscle his just live it. The maitre d’ in our way into delis and farmhotel brought us a plate filled with shops with his Jme range chunks of fresh young Parmigiano of speciality food hasn’t Reggiano. “Only 20-months-old,” been quite as successful he said. “The perfect age to eat (page 5). with our local Aglianico wine.” He All that passion used for was right. ‘nipping down to Italy’ seeking The chef of the classy artisan pasta sauces, olive oil and restaurant close by came to our balsamic so table after we’d we Brits could commented Perhaps we Brits have enjoy ‘proper on the lamb. Italian grub’ “At one time,” too many self-styled rather than he said, “we ‘passionate foodies’ imported it whose motives might be that imitation stuff sold in frozen from a little questionable supermarkets New Zealand. ran thin for Now we breed Jamie once the margins turned out our own flock and the animals live to be thin too. outside for 11 months for better Perhaps we Brits have too texture and more flavour.” He was many self-styled ‘passionate right too. foodies’ whose motives might be On a table in the piazza a little questionable. So let’s ditch outside, four Americans tucked into the ‘passion’ word for a little Italian slabs of comminuted Argentinian ‘amore’ – they just love great food. beef served between two halves of Buon appetito. a bread roll and a slice of melted cheese for good measure. They need to get out of their country Bob Farrand is publisher of Fine Food more – and that doesn’t mean Digest and chairman of the Guild of invading other people’s. Fine Food

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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 News editor: Patrick McGuigan Art director: Mark Windsor Editorial production: Richard Charnley Contributors: Clare Hargreaves, Anne Bruce

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 Accounts: Stephen Guppy, Denise Ballance, Vicky Missen

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 2013. 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

House-blend milk chocolate bar with tonka bean Coco Pzazz www.cocopzazz.co.uk

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The Welsh government may have wound up its long-running True Taste campaign but it still knows how to promote its small producers, as anyone who visited the Welsh section at Olympia last month will attest. One big change year on year was a visible upgrading of branding and packaging across many Welsh products, not least the handsome new packaging and branding for Coco Pzazz, produced by Montgomeryshire’s Rural Foodies. I’m a sucker for next-to-the-till impulse gifts, but they're often a triumph of style over substance. Not this range of 80g bars, which are surely worth well over their suggested £3 RRP.

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www.ffdonline.co.uk Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

fine food news Former Iceland boss tells FFD high street delis must offer ‘value-added experiences’

Grimsey’s deli vision: WiFi, apps and real-time pricing The future is now

matt fowler photography

Grimsey’s vision of the future for delis is already becoming a reality in some parts of the country:

Bill Grimsey sees an ‘active role’ for high street delis despite the shift away from bricks-and-morter retailing By PATRICK McGUIGAN

The deli of tomorrow will operate on new ‘community hub’ high streets, using smart phone technology to offer real-time deals to shoppers and creating unique in-store experiences. That’s the vision of Bill Grimsey, the former boss of Wickes and Iceland, whose Grimsey Review – outlining what must be done to arrest the decline in Britain’s town centres – was published last month. Grimsey told FFD delis must embrace smart phone technology to reward and communicate with customers, while also providing “experiences” that cannot be found elsewhere. He said delis could play an active role in his vision of the high street as a community hub that is no longer reliant on “bricks and mortar retailing” but features housing, office space, entertainment and education facilities. “To survive in tomorrow’s world, independent food retailers have got to branch out into value-added experiences,” he said. “If you go to a really good Italian deli with good coffee and pastries it works because it’s an experience that operates with its own personality. The key is conveying that personality, the quality of the produce and the variety and experience of being there.”

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

One of Grimsey’s main recommendations is for town centres to be ‘wired’ so they could offer free wifi to shoppers. This would enable food retailers to offer EasyJet-style ‘real-time’ pricing through tablets and smart phones, providing customers with deals and lower prices at quiet times of the day. “The independent deli retailer can now look to technology to reward loyalty through mobile phones. There are already apps out there that you could tap into relatively inexpensively,” he said. He added that QR codes, which can be scanned by shoppers with their mobile phones to get the story behind the products or the shop itself, could also be used more by delis. Grimsey, who has criticised the government’s Portas Pilots scheme, outlined a total of 31 measures in his review, subtitled ‘An Alternative Future for the High Street’. These included a call for big chains to invest in independent retail start-ups, a year-long freeze on parking charges and an overhaul of the business rates system. He also recommended the creation of Town Centre Commissions to develop 20-year business plans for high streets.

l The Transition Town network is helping town centres become community hubs through local food initiatives. The organisation, which is highlighted in the Grimsey Review, encourages communityled initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions, with local food playing an important role. Transition Town Lewes in East Sussex has set up a weekly food market in the town centre and has introduced its own currency ‘the Lewes pound’, which is accepted by around 80 independent retailers in the town. “Several market traders have gone on to open their own shops and cafés in the town and the Lewes pound helps keep money in the local economy,” said spokeswoman Sue Fleming.

l Chiswick’s Grove Park Deli has set up a smart phone loyalty scheme for customers, using a free app called Kooki. Instead of paper loyalty cards, customers download the app to their phone and scan a QR code at the till when they buy a sandwich. This instantly adds a digital ‘stamp’ to their virtual loyalty card and their 10th sandwich is free. “It’s been amazingly successful. People don’t have to fiddle around getting cards out of their wallets,” said owner Janice Timothy. l Italian speciality food importer Vallebona has embraced the concept of providing unique experiences for its customers. Its new shop in a converted

warehouse in Wimbledon is based on the idea of ‘slow shopping’, encouraging customers to enjoy the shopping experience with a walk-in cheese room, cookery demonstrations, wine and cheese tastings at various place around the store and even an art gallery. “It’s about creating an environment where people want to spend time,” explains the company’s owner Stefano Vallebona. “We want people to stop, taste and talk.”

l Harrods has worked with the Guild of Fine Food and 60secondreviews.com to launch the Great Taste Award Winners 2013 app, highlighting this year’s Great Taste Top 50 Foods. Available through the iTunes app store, it features links to one-minute films about each Top 50 producer. Another initiative, Farmers on Film, creates short 30-second films about food producers, which people can watch on their phones in shops when they scan QR codes on products. Founder Sarah Gayton, launched a competition at this year’s International Cheese Awards to get cheese-makers involved in the scheme. “A few shots of beautiful countryside and fresh food will ensure the purchaser will have a greater understanding of where their food comes from,” she said.

www.vanishinghighstreet.com

@ffdonline

Jamie pulls plug on indie range Sales agent NR&A will create a new brand ‘in the spirit of the current Jme ethos’

By MICK WHITWORTH

Freelance sales agency Nick Robinson & Associates (NR&A) is due to announce its plans for the former Jme food and housewares brand this month, after taking over the range from the Jamie Oliver Group. The TV chef’s commercial arm wrote to clients on July 31 announcing the withdrawal of the food and homewares brand from wholesale channels by the end of 2013. It will instead focus on sales of homewares through its direct-toconsumer “party plan” business. No reason was given for the move, but sources close to the brand have questioned whether it was delivering the hoped-for margins. NR&A, which has handled sales of Jme products in retail since September 2012, has taken over the existing Jme stock, which it will continue to sell until Christmas. Zoe Jackson, formerly executive director of the Jme Collection, has joined the NR&A team. Nick Robinson told FFD it was developing a brand “in the spirit of the current Jme ethos” which it hoped to launch during October once trademarks had been secured. He said the new brand would be

IN BRIEF l Farm retail specialist Sandy Boyd, who set up high-end farm shops on private estates at Chatsworth, Ludlow and Bodnant, has been named manager of the Q Guild of butchers. Boyd has been a member of the Q Guild for around 20 years, since his time at Chatworth.

l Harrods has gained full gluten-

broadly similar in products and image to Jme’s. “One of the strengths of Jme is its packaging, so we’re going to continue with a very similar look.” Several well-known speciality firms, including Olives Et Al, Essfoods and Bacheldre Watermill, have been making products for the range. Jme caused controversy on its launch in March 2011, with some deli owners feeling Oliver, closely linked to supermarkets, was trying to muscle in on the independent sector. Plans to sell into Budgens were dropped, although John Lewis and Wyevale garden centres have been among its

stockists. Robinson said there were no plans to extend the brand beyond independents and department stores. “We are in 150 top delis and farm shops in the UK, and we’re just about to go into Harrods,” he said, adding that export accounted for two-thirds of sales. Asked how NR&S could make a success of the brand without the strength of the Jamie Oliver name, Robinson said: “One thing is that we believe in the quality of the product, but also it’s a question of focus. We will have a couple of other brands, but this will be our absolute focus.”

free accreditation from Coeliac UK, the charity for people with coeliac disease. It will be offering glutenfree afternoon tea in its Georgian Restaurant and plans to roll out further gluten-free offerings throughout the store.

l Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University has launched a Master’s degree in Gastronomy, the first UK qualification of its kind. The Scottish Funding Council is supporting 12 fully funded places on the course, which embraces cultural, historical and anthropological issues, the science of food, the marketplace and political and economic issues relating to how we bring food to the table. For details, email bquinn@qmu.ac.uk.

l A coffee shop owner has

Dorset protestors victorious in anti-Tesco campaign By PATRICK McGUIGAN

TOP OF THE YORKSHIRE SHOPS: Drewton’s Farm Shop has been named Best Independent Retailer in the 2013 Deliciouslyorkshire awards. Owner Katie Taylor (pictured) described the win as the “icing on the cake” after 12 months in which the South Cave store has collected a string of regional and national awards. Specialist baker Lottie Shaw’s was the major product award winner, taking both Best Bakery and Supreme Winner with its Seriously Good Yorkshire Parkin. Staal Smokehouse, the British Premium Sausage Co, Womersley, Mercers and breadstick maker Nib Nibs were among other category winners. www.deliciouslyorkshire.co.uk/ awards

A deli in Sherborne, Dorset, is among local firms celebrating the success of a campaign to stop Tesco opening a store in the town. The No Thanks Tesco group declared victory last month after the multiple’s MD Chris Bush revealed it had withdrawn plans to re-develop a hotel site in the town with a 28,000 sq ft superstore. It followed a highly co-ordinated local campaign that gained national media coverage. A petition with over 11,000 signatures was handed to cabinet minister and local MP Oliver Letwin. The group also lobbied planners and councillors,

engaged with Tesco directors and organised demonstrations. Anni Partridge, owner of The Pear Tree deli, backed the campaign. “Our fear was that Tesco would have drawn more and more footfall out of the town, making it untenable for businesses like ours,” she said. “Tourism would have been badly affected too if the hotel had closed.” Chris Bush said in a blog post: “Protesters will celebrate, but in the end it was planning, not the protest, which drove this conclusion. Road access proved too difficult and expensive to resolve, the plan was not workable, so we did not submit an application.”

reported Waitrose to the Office of Fair Trading for offering free drinks to its customers. Garry Sutherland, who runs the Gelateria Gazzeria in Meadow Lane, Buckingham, said coffee sales had fallen by 40% since a nearby Waitrose store started giving free hot drinks to loyalty card holders. He claimed the offer was ”unfair trading”.

l The Better Food Company in Bristol was named Best Independent Retailer at the Soil Association Organic Food Awards. The shop was commended for “embracing every opportunity to pull in more customers, innovate on ranges and communicate to customers through newsletters and staging events”.

l The Irish Quarter shop at Belfast International Airport has expanded its range of local artisan foods. The retailer, based in the Departures Lounge, already stocked ambient products from small food and drink suppliers, such as jam and biscuits, but has now launched a range of fresh products. Producers in the new local food chiller cabinet include Fivemiletown Creamery cheeses, organic smoked salmon from Ewing and breads from Jeffers Home Bakery.

For regular news updates from FFD visit:

www.ffdonline.co.uk Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

fine food news Cheese specialist set for growth after takeover by Aubrey Allen Supplier Fromage to Age is poised to become a national player in the artisan cheese market after being acquired by high-end meat retailer and wholesaler Aubrey Allen. Previously based in Chipping Campden, the company has relocated to Aubrey Allen’s headquarters near Coventry and continues to be run by Simeon Hudson-Evans, who established the company in 2003. Fromage to Age mainly operated in the Cotswolds region, but the deal with Aubrey Allen will provide it with access to a much larger customer base. Set up in 1933 and currently headed by Russell Allen, the meat supplier, butcher and deli operator has a strong presence in foodservice, supplying well-known restaurants

such as Waterside Inn, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and Hix. “The growth potential for cheese is enormous,” said HudsonEvans. “Aubrey Allen supplies customers around the country with three or four vehicles going to London every day. The deal will make us much more of a national player.” Aubrey Allen, which was previously a customer of Fromage to Age, has invested significantly in its Coventry base to accommodate the cheese business, with plans to build further maturing rooms as the business grows. Hudson-Evans said the deal would enable him to spend more time meeting cheese-makers. “We’ll be upping our game both in range and quality,” he said.

Brooking and Teideman split with Bay Tree Somerset-based distributor and producer The Bay Tree has parted company with Gavin Brooking and Mark Teideman, the founders of private label jam company Forest Products with which it merged in 2011. Brooking and Teideman were both directors at The Bay Tree. They left last month to focus on their jam business, Cherry Tree Preserves, which was set up in 1997 and was not part of the merger.

Brooking and Teideman will continue to run their Cherry Tree Preserves franchise business

Brooking, who was MD of Forest Products before becoming a director at The Bay Tree, would

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

Will Docker Balgove Larder, St Andrews, Scotland My business partner Henry Cheape and I were like two young bulls when we set up Balgove Larder three years ago. We had vast amounts of enthusiasm and passion for what we were doing and went from concept to opening the doors in just 13 months. The project got bigger and bigger as we went along, but we just wanted to open as quickly as possible. I’ll never forget the first day. It’s amusing now, but it wasn’t at the time. We had put big signs up on the main road and on our first day cars just started pouring down the drive. We looked at each other and thought ‘shit’. We hadn’t had

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

Simeon Hudson-Evans, pictured (right) with Russell Allen, says the deal will enable Fromage to Age to raise its game ‘both in range and quality’

not comment on the split but said he and Teideman remained shareholders. In a statement, The Bay Tree MD Emma Macdonald said she wished Brooking well with Cherry Tree preserves. “I have enjoyed working with Gavin over the years as I have known him since we started The Bay Tree 20 years ago,” she told FFD. Cherry Tree Preserves is a franchise operation with 13 franchisees in different areas of the country selling pickles, chutneys, jams and marmalades at markets and agricultural shows. The company does not manufacture its own products, buying product from The Bay Tree

instead. “We have no immediate plans to change that relationship,” said Brooking. “We are aiming to build up our network of franchisees and to get more out of the areas we already supply.” After the merger with Forest, The Bay Tree moved production of its chutneys, preserves and sauces from Westcombe Farm near Shepton Mallett to Forest’s manufacturing site in Ivybridge, Devon. Forest’s Bridport base was closed earlier this year. The company, which employs around 80 people, also has a 10,000 sq ft distribution warehouse in Pylle and an office in Wincanton.

our first customers. A few of them even offered their children as staff members, which we took them up on and they turned out to be brilliant employees. I remember thinking, ‘What is this monster I’ve created?” Luckily the staff were fantastic and delivered beyond belief. We quickly found that the café wasn’t big enough. There were queues forming, but in some ways it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. A small queue can increase

compared to 45 seats, but it was a good lesson in how to adapt. Before the extension we also had a tiny office, which was basically a large cupboard with one desk – the rivets started popping on that pretty quickly with the amount of admin we have. We’ve now got a four-desk office with two full-time office staff and a part-time book-keeper, which allows me to focus on the business. It would have been much smoother to do that from the beginning, but you have to weigh up what sort of lifestyle you want as a business owner when you start. Are you going to dedicate your life to it or are you going be burdened with extra costs and have a bigger office staff? I’m happy with the decision I made, but if I was 10 years older it might have been a different story.

any training on the coffee machine and we only had seven members of staff. To put that in perspective, this summer we had 55. We were vastly understaffed and nearly had to take the signs down because so many people We played off charm as much as were coming. It possible and there was a degree of was a wonderful endearment and sympathy from our problem, but also very serious. You first customers get one chance people’s desire to eat somewhere with the public and it needs to be and we used it as an opportunity really good. to do tastings of new products. We played off charm as much We’ve extended the farm shop since as possible and there was a degree then, so there are now around 65 of endearment and sympathy from

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Interview by PATRICK McGUIGAN

@ffdonline

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fine food news new openings

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

De Beauvoir Deli chooses Islington for second site By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Some of London’s best-known artisan food and drink brands, including Monmouth Coffee, Neal’s Yard Dairy and St John Bakery, are helping to pull in customers at De Beauvoir Deli’s second shop, located in the Angel area of Islington in North London. The new store, which joins the original deli and café in the East London borough of Hackney, is initially focusing on a handful of high profile suppliers to highlight its foodie credentials to new customers. “They are all premium producers and brands that people in this area are familiar with,” said owner Harry Davies, who set up the business in 2009. “People in London are discerning when it comes to food. They read the food supplements in newspapers, are interested in street food and like to shop at Borough and Broadway markets, so they will be familiar with these brands and know what they stand for.” Coffee will play an important role in attracting customers, he added. “Takeaway coffee really helps generate footfall. When we opened the first shop in Hackney the fact we were serving Monmouth Coffee was definitely a hook for customers.” However, Davies said there were important differences between the two locations. “There seem

At a glance l Other suppliers to the shop, which is on Theberton Street, off Upper Street, include London Borough of Jams, Regents Park Honey, Ginger’s Kitchen readymeals and The Kernel Brewery.

l Top selling products in the first few weeks of opening included Iberico ham and burrata. “Fresh food is a massive seller for us in the Hackney store and I think it will be the same in Islington,” said Davies.

l Davies previously worked as a live events producer, organising awards ceremonies, conferences and catwalk shows. He is also a partner in pizza restaurant Sweet Thursday.

The new shop will focus on some of London's best-known artisan brands

to be fewer young families and less of a community feel in Angel, compared to Hackney, with lots of people working, rather than living, here. There is also much more competition. When I opened the first store in Hackney, there was nowhere to buy a decent loaf of bread in the area, so we were able to corner the market. That’s not the case in Angel.” www.thedebeauvoirdeli.co.uk

Green Owl Café

Brindisa Food Rooms

Cheeses in Warwick

Brixton, South London

Warwick

Marc Linch, who founded The Food Company in Colchester, has teamed up with wife Jane to open the Green Owl Café and Deli in Buckhurst Hill near Chigwell in Essex. The shop sells artisan bread, olive oils and vinegars, as well as artisan cheeses and meats. The café serves dishes such as hot salt beef sandwiches, sweet lentil cakes and buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup. The Food Company was named Shop of the Year at this year’s Great Taste.

Located under two railway arches on Atlantic Road, Brindisa Food Rooms is a new concept shop and bar scheduled to open in Brixton in November. It will sell popular and practical ingredients for cooking and eating at home. Hams will be carved to order, while Manchego and torta cheeses, fresh Iberico meat and Basque salt cod will fill the deli counters. The shop will also sell fresh produce sourced directly from Barcelona, rotisserie chicken (pollastre a l’ast) and loose ingredients such as beans, pulses, rices and marinated olives. The bar will use the shop’s ingredients in simple dishes inspired by Catalan 'llesquerias’, which serve food such as ham, cheese and anchovies, on slices of toasted bread (llescas).“I couldn’t think of a better way to place these crafted foods centre stage in such a pure and simple

A new Warwickshire cheese shop is benefiting from the government’s business rate relief scheme. Cheeses in Warwick, which is owned by Martin Nichols, gets 100% rate relief until April 2014 because his property has a rateable value below £6,000. “It’s a really big help for start-up companies like mine,” he said. The shop sells 64 different cheeses, plus crackers and chutneys, with best selling lines including Hereford Hop, Berkswell and Thomas Hoe Red Leicester.

Buckhurst Hill, Essex

www.greenowlcafe.co.uk

www.facebook.com/cheesesinwarwick

way – a slice of toasted bread is the perfect partner,” said Brindisa founder Monika Linton (pictured). www.brindisa.com

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

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fine food news FARMA’s Jackson slams ‘imitation’ farm shop By PATRICK McGUIGAN

The head of trade body FARMA has criticised a new Spar convenience store that models itself on a farm shop. The 3,000sq ft outlet in the village of Calver in Derbyshire, which champions local products, has been set up by independent retailer Edward White. It is part of Spar’s new Differention programme, a national initiative highlighting the role stores play within their community. White said his aim had been to “create a store with a farm shop feel that sells locally produced stock”. “I am really proud of the top-quality products from local suppliers we can offer, with everything from fruit and veg to regional wine,” he said.

However Sally Jackson, owner of the Pink Pig Farm Shop in Lincolnshire and chair of FARMA, the Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association, criticised the store for imitating ‘real’ farm shops. “What a shame the Spar in Calver village has to jump on the ‘farm shop’ bandwagon,” she said. “Supermarkets are desperately trying to emulate the success of farm shops and it is a shame if Spar follows suit. “FARMA are delighted local shops are supporting local food and this is what they should shout about. Luckily, the beauty of real farm shops is the passion that the owners and staff have, not only for their shops, but for what they grow and rear on their farms. Imitations are just that.”

makes in the shop with our growers, which they can then use to buy other products,” said Edwards. Landshare was launched through River Cottage in 2009, bringing together people who have land to share with those who need land for cultivating food. More than 55,000 people are currently taking part nationwide. Transition Chepstow is part of the Transition Network, which sees local people working together to make their towns more resilient to the impact of rising fuel prices and climate change.

A new 15,000 sq ft food hall housing fine food producers, retailers and restaurants opened last month at the new Croydon Village Outlet, located in the former Allders department store. The ground-floor Greenhill Food Hall comprises retail and takeaway concessions as well as an ambient grocery section run in-house. Concessionaires include Amoretti Mediterranean Deli, Dash Coffee Co, Le Perron Boulangerie, The Cheshire Cheese Co and Chocopolis. Director Jeremy Cheung, who developed the concept, said the food hall went beyond serving and selling fine foods . “It’s about the Greenhill food community becoming a hub of food-related ideas and an educational resource nationwide, guided by experts who are passionate about the food they produce and sell. “Greenhill Food Hall will become a Mecca for people across London and the South East who really care about the quality and provenance of the food they eat.” He told FFD working with “vendor partners” meant the food hall offered an enhanced shopping experience. “There’s no greater person to present fine foods than the people who are making it themselves,” he said. “We aim to bridge the gap between top-end supermarkets like Waitrose and food halls like Harrods and Fortnum’s.”

www.landshare.net

www.croydonvillageoutlet.co.uk

Sally Jackson: ‘What a shame the Spar in Calver jumped on the farm shop bandwagon’

Landshare group pools produce to pay rent By PATRICK McGUIGAN

The customers of a new farm shop near Chepstow in Wales are also its suppliers thanks to an innovative Landshare scheme set up in conjunction with Transition Chepstow. Organic farmer Lyndon Edwards has given over two acres of land to the community to grow fruit and vegetables, a proportion of which he then sells through his newly opened Hanley Farm Shop in Tidenham. The land is split into 20 plots and a larger community garden, which are tended by local residents

and run by Transition Chepstow. In return, Edwards takes at least 10% of their harvest to sell in the shop. “Next year we’re looking at splitting any profit the produce

Local residents have been given land to grow produce in return for a share of the crop

New Croydon food hall opts for concession approach

By MICK WHITWORTH

Six new entrants and nine new products have been recognised in this year’s National Trust Fine Farm Produce Awards. Now in their eighth year, the awards highlight produce grown, reared or produced on land owned or managed by the Trust, including tenant farms, orchards and gardens. Forty-two product from 27 producers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took awards this year. Successul new producers included the Hewitt family, tenants of Dunham Massey Garden near Altrincham, Cheshire, who took an award for their Cox & Bramley apple juice, and High Street Bitter from Derbyshire’s Tollgate Brewery, Follow us on

@ffdonline

a microbrewery opened last year in a converted cow byre on the Calke Abbey Estate. Other product recognised included Mexican seasoning from The Mushroom Garden in Gwynedd and Towy Valley wild venison & hazelnut terrine from Cnwd in Carmartheshire. The overall winner for 2013 was fallow deer venison from the Belton Estate in Lincolnshire. This year’s judges included the National Trust’s food & beverage development manager Tim Howard and development chef Clive Goudercourt, as well as Richard McGeown, chef patron at Couch’s Great House Restaurant in Cornwall. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ finefarmproduceawards

James Dobson

National Trust names its 2013 award winners

Derbyshire’s Tollgate Brewery: first-time lucky Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

Traditional handmade Christmas Puddings from the edge of The Lake District

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

October 2013 路 Vol.14 Issue 9

www.countrypuddings.co.uk

fine food news

With his staff handling day-to-day cheese-making, Martell has more time for interests like his National Collection of Perry Pears

Fruit of his labours

Interview

Cheese-maker turned distiller Charles Martell shows MICK WHITWORTH around his idyllic Gloucestershire base, the product of four decades of hard graft Gloucester and the nettle-coated, soft, cows’ milk May Hill Green. “The staff decide what to do and when,” he says. “They’re much more intelligent than me, anyway.” Which is patently untrue. Born into a branch of the old Timothy White’s pharmacy family, but missing out on most of its wealth, Martell has grafted for everything he has today, driven by his love of all things natural and traditional. He claims never to have been a campaigner – “I’d be too scared to wave a placard” – yet he has spent a lifetime fighting the good fight for old-fashioned foods. A zoology graduate and lifelong nature buff, he worked at Sir

Aardman Animations 2005

trolling through Charles Martell’s perry pear orchard on a balmy, late summer afternoon, it’s impossible not to get a bit green-eyed. The maker of Stinking Bishop cheese, and now distiller of boutique spirits too, has lived at Hunts Court Farm, Dymock, in rural Gloucestershire for more than four decades, turning a derelict property into a picture of Country Living perfection. The 70-acre spread provides a snapshot of everything that makes Martell tick. The orchard nearest his house, for example, hosts part of the National Perry Pear Collection, which he began curating nearly 25 years ago. He also keeps the National Collection of Gloucester Plums here, and 106 varieties of Gloucester apple. Fenced off in a paddock are a bevvy of traditional-breed beasts and birds, including several of the rare Gloucester cattle he helped rescue from extinction. A barn near his farmhouse houses production of his seven artisan cheeses. The most famous, Stinking Bishop, was last month named Best Export Cheese at the British Cheese Awards. Its close relative, Starvall Royal, made exclusively for the Prince of Wales, earned Martell his Royal Warrant. Behind the cheese barn, a 17th century building contains Martell’s latest venture: a micro-distillery, producing premium spirits from apples, pears, cider and perry. It’s believed this building operated as a distillery more than 200 years ago, making it Britain’s oldest working still-house. And adjoining the orchard is a small but immaculate parterre, where, as we talk, Martell’s Ukrainian-born second wife Sasha is cutting globe artichoke flowers to dry for winter decorations, watched by their young daughter. (Martell, previously widowed, has two grown-up children from his first marriage). “The whole point of this place is to give us a living,” he tells me. “We don’t have a speedboat in the Mediterranean but we do live well, and the kid has new shoes when she needs them.” A lean, tanned 67-year-old, Martell has “no worries” beyond a vague anxiety about the future of the high street, where his sales are concentrated. “I’m in the lucky position that I don’t need to look for more business,” he says. “People come to us.” He hasn’t exactly retired, but he lets his staff of 10 full- and part-timers, led by former Dairy Crest operations manager Richard Dunnett, take the strain. They produce a tonne of cheese a week, including Double and Single

Wallace & Gromit gave Martell and Stinking Bishop 15 minutes of global fame in 2005

Peter Scott’s Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge before buying the dilapidated High Court Farm, with 10 acres of land, in 1972 for £18,000. While he and his first wife ran the property as a smallholding, Martell drove livestock trucks to “keep the family afloat”, and in

doing so came across the rare Gloucester cow. “There were only 68 left in the world when I came here,” he recalls. “I thought we should start making cheese to try to publicise their plight.” He wasn’t much of a cheesemaker back then, but turned out to be a surprisingly good retailer. Made redundant from his driving job in 1977 he began selling other farmhouse cheeses from a market stall – blue Wensleydale, Cheshire, all “in the rind” – making enough cash to give his first brood a good private education. “We had a queue at the stall from day one,” he says. “People were fascinated because you couldn’t get real cheese in those days. If you went into a Fine Fare supermarket there was five metres of cheddar, a bit of Edam, some Danish blue, and at Christmas you had Stilton. And that was it. That was cheese.” He sold the stall in 1987, bought more land, more cows, and set up a pukka dairy making Double and Single Gloucester. In fact, he brought back Single Gloucester from oblivion – there were no other makers left when he began – and went on to win EU Protected Designation of Origin status for Single Gloucester. Today there are seven producers, and around 700 female Gloucester cattle. Stinking Bishop was an early Martell creation, a powerfully pungent, perry-washed product loosely modeled on Reblochon. In 2005 it gave him his 15 minutes of

global fame when it made a comical appearance in Aardman Animation’s ‘Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit’. The world’s media were intrigued by the story of this tiny English cheese-maker facing a sudden doubling of demand for his unlikely movie-star cheese. Stinking Bishop was never meant to be popular with “Mrs Half A Pound Of Mature Cheddar”, Martell says, and in naming it (after a variety of perry pear) he wanted “to make it abundantly clear that it was smelly”. “Some people love their smelly cheese,” he points out. He is similarly clear about the niche for his spirits, which retail at around £45 for 70cl. Martell isn’t trying to compete on price with multinationals like Diageo, or with the new, smaller ‘distillers’ who buy in cheap neutral spirit as a base and add flavours, rather than distilling their own base spirit from scratch (see FFD May 2013). “All I’m saying is, when you buy gin, ask where the base spirit came from.” Of his own products, he says: “The average punter might not appreciate it, but it’s like the cheese – we don’t want the average punter. We want people who’re interested in provenance and taste.” Ironically, the creator of Stinking Bishop says the subtler pear and apple notes of his new spirits pass him by. “I’ve not got much sense of taste or smell these days, even for the most disgustingly smelly of my cheeses,” he tells me. “It’s just old age.” www.charlesmartell.co.uk

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

the big winners Marybelle delivers boost to B Taking the Great Taste Supreme Champion trophy didn’t just mean overcoming nearly 10,000 other entrants. For the Suffolk farming family behind Marybelle Dairy’s top-ranked yoghurt it was a genuine triumph over adversity.

he annual Great Taste ‘Golden Forks’ awards night always presents a few lumpin-the-throat moments, but none more so that when Katherine Manning went on stage at the Royal Garden Hotel on September 9 to collect this year’s Supreme Champion trophy. Manning’s family, the Strachans, have been dairy farming in Suffolk for five generations, and have been at their current farm near Halesworth for 35 years. But it was the aftermath of the BSE and foot-and-mouth crises a decade ago, in combination with plummeting milk prices, that forced the family to set up their milk, cream, yoghurt and ice cream business Marybelle Dairy in a last-ditch attempt to secure a sustainable outlet for their milk. “Ten years ago it got desperate,” said Manning, interviewed on stage by awards co-presenter and chair of judges Nigel Barden, “so we started something new.” A decade on, however, Marybelle’s Greek-style yoghurt has been judged the best-tasting food product in Britain, after being blind-tasted time and again by over 30 experts. Nigel Barden told guests at the Great Taste dinner: “Our judges were completely blown away by it at every stage of the process.” Telegraph cookery writer Xanthe Clay, a member of this year’s supreme judging panel, described the product as simply “glorious”, adding: “Britain should be celebrating dairy products like this.” Asked what the award meant to her and her family, an emotional Manning told Barden: “It means that the last 10 years has not been a wasted journey.” “It’s fair to say that this yoghurt had our judges in raptures,” said Guild of Fine Food managing director and Great Taste

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

Marybelle’s Katherine Manning: ‘Last 10 years have not been wasted’

ROLL OF HONOUR: Guild of Fine Food founder-directors Bob and Linda Farrand, surprise recipients of the Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award, were joined on stage by a host of Guild committee members, former Supreme Champions and previous winners of the Lifetime Achievement Awards, including Margaret Carter of Patchwork Paté, John Shepherd of Partridges of Sloane Square and Tony Howard of Lewis & Cooper.

organiser John Farrand. “It’s plain and simple, has nothing added, and relies 100% on the quality of the milk from which it is made.” After once struggling to create a viable outlet for the milk from their own 200-strong herd, the Strachans are now taking supplies from three other local dairy farmers: the Walker family at Low Farm, Sotherton, the Burroughs family at Wheatacre Hall Farm near Beccles and the Crickmore family at Fern Farm near Bungay. Farrand said: “Our huge congratulations go to the Strachan family and their farm partners for this amazing achievement for the British dairy industry.” The presentation of the Supreme Champion trophy by Bruce Langlands of sponsor Harrods was the culmination of a night that saw 20 major prizes awarded, all of which are detailed over the following pages. Patrick Moore of More? The Artisan Bakery collected the Speciality Producer of the Year trophy for the Cumbrian firm’s consistently strong performance in Great Taste over many years. Among a number of new trophies for 2013 were the Great Taste Shop of the Year (see facing page), which went to The Food Company in Marks Tey, Essex, and the Nigel Barden Heritage Award, created by the BBC Radio 2 food correspondent to recognise products that help sustain traditional British ingredients or recipes. This went to Stag Bakeries’ Stornoway water biscuit with Hebridean seaweed, which had already been named Best Scottish Speciality. Northern Ireland baker, caterer and retailer Simon Dougan, of Yellow Door Deli, collected the first Deli & Farm Shop Signature Dish award, created to recognise excellent among deli and farm shop chefs, with his braised Irish beef cheek & smoked potato pie. The new trophy for Small Artisan Producer of the Year went to Corleggy Cheeses of Co Cavan, Ireland, a maker of farmhouse cheeses and accompaniments, including a three-star winning port jelly. Scotland’s Great Glen Game took the inaugural Charcuterie Product of the Year title for its green pepper venison salami. It was presented by FFD editor Mick Whitworth on behalf of the eight trade sponsors of this year’s joint FFD/Guild of Fine Food charcuterie promotion. In a twist on the usual

o British dairy farming harrods trophy Supreme Champion 2013

Behind-thescenes hero

Marybelle Greek style Yoghurt Marybelle Dairy Food writer Xanthe Clay, pictured on the final judging panel with Masterchef judge Charles Campion (left) and Whole Foods Market speciality coordinator John David Harmon, describes the winning yoghurt as ‘glorious’

proceedings, Guild of Fine Food founder-directors Bob and Linda Farrand were presented with the Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award by surprise guest David Gower, the former England cricket captain. Bob Farrand established Great Taste 19 years ago and has fronted the awards ceremony every year until handing over to son John for 2013. This year’s Great Taste again exceeded all records, with 9,738 products entrered and over 400 professional judges involved during two months of judging. Just over 3,000 products received either one, two or three stars, but only 125 took the top three-star rating – only two more than last year. To search a full database of 2013 winners, visit:

Marybelle’s Katherine Manning with (l-r) awards organiser John Farrand, Bruce Langlands of sponsor Harrods and BBC Radio 2’s Nigel Barden

Sponsored by:

Food & travel writer Nick Baines – pictured (centre) with Guild MD John Farrand and BBC Radio 2’s Nigel Barden – was the first recipient of the Great Taste Co-ordinator of the Year award, created to recognise the hard work that goes on behind the scenes of Great Taste. This year, for the first time, the Guild of Fine Food recruited a team of specialist food writers to co-ordinate the judges’ feedback from each tasting table at every session during nearly two months’ of judging. The co-ordinators’ job was to ensure each food producer received constructive feedback on their product and an accurate summary of the judges’ comments. Nick Baines brought his expertise to more sessions than any other co-ordinator and was commended for the quality and balance of his feedback.

www.greattasteawards.co.uk

@nlbaines

Winning producers pick The Food Company as Shop of the Year Essex food hall and eatery The Food Company was named Great Taste Shop of the Year 2013 at the Golden Forks night – the first time a retailer has been recognised in the Great Taste scheme. Jointly sponsored by distributors Hider Foods and Dell’ami, the new award is unique in being based on nominations from awardwinning speciality food producers rather than consumer votes. Guild of Fine Food MD John Farrand said: “We wanted producers of Great Taste award-winning food and drink to be central to the nomination process – they, after all, are working with fine food retailers every day.” During August, hundreds of Great Taste winning producers were asked to name the best shops in the sector. The highest ranking delis, farm shops and food halls then received unannounced visits from retail experts to judge the “customer experience”. Judges felt that the winner, based close to the A12 in Marks Tey, excelled

in all areas. “The Food Company was praised for the provenance of its food, customer service, accessibility and information, sensible prices and the enthusiasm of every person in the team,” said Farrand A close runner-up was Gonalston Farm Shop in Nottinghamshire, which was recognised both for its customer service and for the quality of its fresh produce and meat offer. The third finalist, Macknade Fine Foods in Faversham, Kent, was praised for its cheese and charcuterie counters and its knowledgeable staff. The Guild of Fine Food has run a number of initiatives over the past 20 years to honour the best food shops in Britain, but this is the first year such a scheme has been linked directly to Great Taste. “Simply put, the very best producers in the UK nominated the very best shops in the UK”, Farrand said. www.thefoodcompany.co.uk www.gonalstonfarmshop.co.uk www.macknade.com

The Food Company excelled in all areas, from service to accessibility Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

Fruit from the Fall

Folkington’s Juices, The Workshop, Endlewick House, Arlington, East Sussex BN26 6RU 01323 485602 info@folkingtons.com FINE FOOD DIGEST 141,5X204+ 5 ALIMENTARIA INT.pdf

CMY

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

25/07/13

11:41

www.folkingtons.com

the big winners nigel barden heritage award

deli & farm shop signature dish

Stornoway Water Biscuit with Hebridean Seaweed Stag Bakeries

Braised Irish Beef Cheek & Smoked Potato Pie Yellow Door Deli L-R: John Farrand, Yellow Door Deli’s Simon Dougan and Angela McCluskey of sponsor Huhtamaki

L-R: John Farrand celebrates with Stag Bakeries’ Jenny Burton, Kathryn Graham and BBC radio’s Nigel Barden

Sponsored by:

great taste shop of the year The Food Company, Essex L-R: John Farrand, Duncan Hider (Hider Foods), Emma Fews (The Food Company) and Graham Stoodley (Dell’ami)

Best Scottish Speciality Stornoway Water Biscuit with Hebridean Seaweed Stag Bakeries

L-R: Stephanie Pritchard (Scotland Food & Drink), Kathryn Graham and Jenny Burton (both of Stag Bakeries) and John Farrand

Sponsored by:

Sponsored by

charcuterie product of the year

Sponsored by

Best Speciality from Northern Ireland

Green Pepper Venison Salami Great Glen Game Salt Aged Rack of Glenarm Shorthorn Beef Hannan Meats Sponsored by

L-R: Guild MD John Farrand, Jan Jacob Baak and Anja Baak (both of Great Glen Game) and FFD editor Mick Whitworth Nigel Hardy of Invest Northern Ireland (left) with Hannan Meats’ Peter Hannan Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

the big winners SMALL ARTISAN PRODUCER OF THE YEAR Corleggy Cheeses

Speciality Producer of the Year More? The Artisan Bakery

L-R: Tom and Silke Cropp of Corleggy Cheeses receive their Golden Fork from Nicola Waller of Selfridges

Sponsored by:

Best IMPORTED Speciality Virgin Pistachio Oil Azada

L-R: Guild of Fine Food MD John Farrand, Patrick Moore of More? The Artisan Bakery and John Shepherd of Partridges

Sponsored by:

ambient product of the year Sea Salted Caramel with Fennel Pollen En Place Foods UK L-R: John Farrand, Phil Brown (En-Place Foods UK) and Gerry Monkcam (Petty Wood)

Guild MD John Farrand (left) and Soraya Gadelrab of S&FFF organiser Fresh Montgomery (right) present Azada’s Kevin Russell with the Golden Fork

Sponsored by:

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

Award-winning Greek Yoghurt. From Suffolk, naturally.

‘...beautiful creamy consistency and lovely aroma that makes you want to dive in…’

Our Greek Yoghurt is like no other, and the Golden Fork Judges agree. Isn’t it time you dived in and discovered the Marybelle difference?

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Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

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October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

the big winners Best Speciality from the Midlands & EAST Anglia Marybelle Greek-style Yoghurt Marybelle Dairy

Best Speciality from london & the South East Acacia Honey, Rosemary & Orange Zest Gelato Le Gelatiera

L-R: Guild MD John Farrand, Katherine Manning (Marybelle Dairy) and Sun food columnist Alex James

Sponsored by La Gelateria’s Antonio Parisi and Simona Corradini received their award from food writer Glynn Christian

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Best Irish Speciality

Best Speciality from the north of england

Stonewell Medium Dry Cider Stonewell Cider

Banana Habanero Mr Vikki’s

John Farrand (left) and Bord Bia’s Gillian Swayne (right) present the Golden Fork to Stonewell Cider’s Jamie Collins

L-R: John Farrand, Adam Marks (Mr Vikki’s), Nikki Castley (The Cress Company) and Mary Ballantyne (Mr Vikki’s)

Sponsored by Sponsored by

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

For a real Farmhouse cheese made in the New Forest, Hampshire. Makers of Lyburn Gold, Stoney Cross and Old Winchester.

Tel: 01794 399982

Love Wensleydale Cheese… make sure it’s from Yorkshire! Not all cheeses bearing the Wensleydale name are actually produced in Yorkshire! By stocking Yorkshire Wensleydale your customers can be assured that they are buying an authentic product, traditionally handcrafted with integrity in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.

www.wensleydale.co.uk 22

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

cheesewire Unsung heroes Hidden gems from British producers

news & views from the cheese counter

New start-up Thimble to focus on the small things By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Wiltshire Loaf In a nutshell: Wiltshire Loaf is a semi-hard cheese made with pasteurised cows’ milk by Ceri Cryer of Brinkworth Dairy in Wiltshire. It is matured for around three months and comes in tall 4kg rounds, which were traditionally called ‘loaves’. Flavour and texture: Very creamy with a crumbly texture, the cheese has a buttery and nutty flavour with floral notes. History: Wiltshire Loaf was popular in the 18th century (it was mentioned in Jane Austen’s novel Emma), but died out with the rise of cheddar and the construction of the railways, which made it more profitable for farmers to sell their milk rather than make cheese. The cheese was resurrected in 2006 by fifth generation cheesemaker Cryer, who uses milk from her farm’s herd of Pedigree British Friesians.

Size does matter, according to a new Hampshire cheese company, which has developed two very small raw milk cheeses that it hopes will find space on retailers’ counters. Thimble Cheesemakers has been set up by former IJ Mellis employee Hannah Roche and partner Paul Thomas, who is head cheese-maker at Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers. The company’s first product is a 40g lactic cheese called Little Anne, which will retail for around £2.50. It is also producing Dorothy – a mixed rind (washed and natural mould) cheese that is a cross between Reblochon and St Vernier, and weighs in at just 100g. Both were named after Roche’s grandmothers. “Cheese shops tend to have very limited counter space, so the last thing they want to see is a new 44kg Comte-style cheese. A 40g or 100g cheese, on the other hand, should be fairly easy to fit in,” said Paul Thomas, who is still working full-time for Lyburn but will join Thimble in December. His partner Roche, who learned to make cheese in the US before working for Scottish retailer and

Hampshire-based Thimble’s lactic Little Anne weighs in at just 40g

wholesaler IJ Mellis, currently makes all the cheeses in a small unit at Wick Hill Farm. Fellow cheese-maker Julie Cheyney is located in separate production premises next door and is a good friend of the couple. “We’ve spent five years researching the best style of cheese for British cheese counters,” said Roche. “We didn’t want to replicate what anyone else was doing; we wanted to make cheeses that were a little bit unique.”

Why should I stock it? It was named Best Territorial at this year’s British Cheese Awards and has a rich history and provenance.

Where to get it: Turners Fine Foods or contact the dairy. info@brinkworthdairy.co.uk FFD features a different ‘unsung hero’ from Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association members each month. To get involved, contact: patrick.mcguigan@finefoodworld.co.uk

www.thimblecheesemakers.co.uk

Brixton site for specialist

Cheese care: Uncut cheeses will keep for up to a year, although the cheese is best eaten young. Once cut, it should be stored in wax paper or foil and sold within a few weeks to prevent it drying out.

Perfect partners: Fantastic for cheese on toast or melted over potatoes, Wiltshire Loaf is a great cheese for cooking. Cryer likes to pair it with local pressed apple juice.

Both cheeses are made with unpasteurised cows’ milk from local dairy farmer Sam Martin. The curds for Little Anne are set over a 16-24 hour period and the cheese is matured for between 10 days and three weeks. “It has quite a clean flavour at the start, but develops smoky, floral notes as it matures,” said Thomas. Dorothy is matured for around two months.

WELSH GOLD: Producer Caws Cenarth has revived a traditional Welsh cheese using an old family recipe and discovered that it tastes like a cross between cheddar and Parmesan. The new hard cows’ milk cheese, called Lancych (after a nearby hamlet), was made using a recipe passed down through generations of the Adams family, who have been making cheese for over 100 years. According to current MD Carwyn Adams, the resulting cheese has the creaminess of a buttery cheddar with a touch of sweetness and the rounded flavour of a Parmesan. Lancych is hand made with unpasteurised milk from Montbeliarde cows and is aged for six months. It comes in 4kg wheels and has a suggested retail price of £17/kg.

Retailer Champagne + Fromage will open a second site in London in October as it looks to build a chain of four to five shops. The company, which is a partnership between Champagne supplier French Bubbles and French cheese distributor Une Normande a Londres, already has a bistro and shop in Covent Garden. The new 40-cover site in Brixton Village will follow the same model, selling French cheese, charcuterie and Champagne in the shop, which will also be served in the restaurant. Une Normande a Londres, run by brothers Franck and Yann Le Blais, also wholesales to restaurants and delis. Stefano Frigerio, who runs French Bubbles, plans to open four or five outlets in the capital. www.frenchbubbles.co.uk/ Champagne-Fromage

www.cawscenarth.co.uk

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

cheesewire

Growing up is hard to do

Cambus O’May currently produces three cheeses including the cheddar-style Lochnagar, the crumbly Lairig Ghru and the eponymous curd cheese

Interview

Like so many burgeoning artisan businesses, Cambus O’May is trying to expand beyond its local area and maintain its credibility. PATRICK McGUIGAN talks to the Aberdeenshire company about the challenges it faces.

emand for local food has undoubtedly been a boon for farm shops, delis and the producers that supply them. But the trend is now so entrenched that it is presenting something of a hurdle for small food and drink companies that want to grow into national players. As soon as they venture more than a county or two from their home turf, their product is – by definition – no longer local and hence less desirable. Aberdeenshire cheese-maker Cambus O’May is facing just such a challenge. It has built a good market for its hard, unpasteurised cows’ milk cheeses across Scotland since setting up in 2009, but is now looking to crack the English market and is suddenly up against a plethora of local players. “We’ve done Harrogate [Speciality Food Show] twice now and have got a lot of interest from retailers,” says the company’s general manager Ian Wilson. “The difficulty is that when you contact them again, they say they’ve already got a lot of local cheese and can’t take more. Just having a really tasty cheese is not enough. If we are going to break into England we need to find a point of difference.” To this end, the company is developing a new blue cheese, provisionally called Cairngorm Blue (after the National Park where the creamery is based) and has started trials on a whisky-flavoured cheese made with a peaty single malt. These will join the company’s

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

Dairy. What makes expansion all the more difficult is that Reid spends most of his time in Singapore as the vice president of a company involved in the oil and gas industry. When I speak to him on the phone he is hot-footing it to the airport after one of his quarterly trips to Scotland to visit the cheese business. “As the owner of the business it would help with sales if I was here more, but I Skype regularly and have a solid team who are doing a good job,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll get to a point in the future where the business can sustain a high-cost asset like me!” When the company was first set up, Reid was based in the UK, which meant he had a more hands-on role. “I’ve put on the kilt and stood outside Paxtons doing tastings,” he says. Fancy brochures Setting don’t sell cheese, and up a cheese the provenance of our business was products and their Scottish a long-held ambition for roots are important, but Reid, who is it’s really about phoning the son of a Alex Reid people up farmer and used to help his mother Barbara make cheese at building sales south of the border home – the sixth generation of the over the coming months. family to do so. “She didn’t have a The company has already recipe written down, so when we made some progress in England, first started planning the business with Paxton & Whitfield, Booths John Knox and I sat down with and wholesaler Rowcliffe listing my mum and took down as much its cheeses, while Reid says he has information as possible about how been in discussion with Neal’s Yard flagship cheese Cambus O’May – a two-day curd cheese, which is matured for three months – plus the cheddar-style Lochnagar and a crumbly cheese called Lairig Ghru (pronounced Lari-groo). The company’s owner, Alex Reid, says that breaking the English market will also come down to putting in some old-fashioned legwork. “Fancy brochures don’t sell cheese,” he says. “The provenance of our products and their Scottish roots are important, but it’s really about phoning people up, meeting them and getting them to try the cheese.” Experienced cheese consultant John Knox, who helped set up the creamery in Royal Deeside and is currently working on new product development, will help with the push, switching his attentions to

❛

❜

she used to make the cheese. Then we did trials and tastings with her until we got it just right.” Reid’s mother and father still drop by the creamery to see how things are progressing, while his nephew James Reid also works alongside head cheese-maker Scott Sutherland-Thomson in the make room. The company currently runs production for two or three days a week, processing between 5,000 and 7,500 litres of milk in that time. Unpasteurised milk is sourced from local Deeside farms through processor Wiseman, which gives the company added safeguards. “The tanker drivers test the milk before filling up and there are further tests back at the dairy,” says Wilson. “Some of the tests are a bit of a rearguard action. If they identified a problem we might have to scrap a batch of cheese but we’ve never had that problem.” The company’s main customers in Scotland are IJ Mellis and wholesaler Clarks, and it has recently signed a deal to supply Scotmid Co-operative stores. Wilson does not rule out supplying other chains in the future, but is wary of the big boys. “Waitrose would be a very good fit, but we have to careful with major players because we don’t want to lose our traditional base,” he says. “I think we would end up reducing our margin and reducing our customer base.” www.cambusomay.com

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Buckets& Tubs& Jars& Bottles

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

www.taylor-davis.co.uk 01373 864324 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 nEW Ami R 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) Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

cut & dried Cranswick unveils air-dried hams range under Woodall’s brand By MICK WHITWORTH

One of the UK’s biggest pork processors used last month’s Speciality & Fine Food Fair to unveil the first serious British alternative to Continental air-dried hams such as prosciutto. The range, introduced by Cranswick plc under the Woodall’s brand and all air-dried for six months, includes a standard Cumbrian ham, a spiced and oak-smoked Black Combe ham and Royal Ham, based on “an old family recipe for the pickled Suffolk Ham”. Woodall’s starting as a family butcher’s in Waberthwaite, Cumbria, in 1828 but was acquired by the £820m-a-year Cranswick group in January 2011 when the last family owner, Colin Woodall, closed the shop due to ill-health. He has since worked with Cranswick to develop the charcuterie range based on family recipes. Woodall’s is now run by MD Rollo Thompson, who joined Cranswick with its acquisition of deli distributor Continental Fine Foods in 2001. He said air-dried hams had a long British heritage. “We’re not trying to replicate something from the Continent but to make a typical British product that people have forgotten. “York Ham, for example, was traditionally salted for three months and then usually soaked to remove the salt, but some of it would have been hung in cellars over the winter and dried out. That heritage

The Woodall’s operation is currently processing 100 legs a week to build stock

and those skills were lost with the migration of people from the country into cities, but it did exist.” New artisan charcutiers have struggled to develop air-dried hams. It involves tying up cash for long periods and the cost of product losses during development can be high. They also cannot compete on price with mainstream Continental hams, most of which

are today produced in high-volume factories with computer-controlled temperature and humidity. For this reason, Thompson said he was not hiding the fact Woodall’s was part of a major public company. “It takes fairly deep pockets to try these things,” he said. “It’s a high-risk strategy. At the moment we’re preparing about 100 legs a week, so we are constantly

building up stock. If you don’t have them, you can’t sell them.” The Woodall’s range includes a smoked pancetta and a Cumberland salami, the latter being made for the brand by Trealy Farm Charcuterie. All are available in pre-packs or whole pieces, with the three air-dried hams selling to the trade in whole pieces at around £22/kg. www.woodallscharcuterie.com

Cannon & Cannon plans demo facility at Borough By MICK WHITWORTH

British charcuterie will be showcased in a new wholesale warehouse, training and demonstration facility to be opened at Borough Market by Cannon & Cannon. The specialist business already has a popular retail outlet at the famous foodie market near London Bridge station, as well as a shop in Brixton. But it has now taken the lease on one of six wholesale units currently being prepared in Three Crown Square, close to the main market hall. Co-founder Sean Cannon said the 9m x 9m unit would become the company’s office and wholesale hub. It will include a slicing and packing station to service foodservice clients, who include Ottolenghi and The Hospital Club. But it will double as a charcuterie school and demo area for trade and consumers. “We’ll be running everything from an hour-long introduction to British charcuterie to

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

week-long production courses,” he told FFD. “We’re going to get people like Graham Waddington of Native Breeds, [charcuterie trainer] MarcFrederic Berry and James Swift from Trealy Farm to come and do talks.” The unit will be run by wholesale manager Owen Davidson Knight. He told FFD education was a key part of Cannon & Cannon’s role. As well as running courses, the firm plans to provide more background information to retail stockists. “Even though we can get on the menu in restaurants, they don’t have that interface with the public. “We want to educate buyers, deli owners, and shop assistants about what the products are, where they come from, what breed of pig they’re made from and so on, so they can educate the buying public.” The company would also be more proactive in guiding retailers towards a balanced range – for example,

Cannon & Cannon: educating trade and consumers about British charcuterie

combining one or two local lines with complementary products from further afield. “That’s much better than just sending them a list of 50 products,” Davidson Knight said. “We have to be much more active.” Last month saw Cannon & Cannon given a dedicated section in Selfridges’ Oxford Street deli counter to showcase British brands. Sean Cannon said with the British

sector “still in its infancy” and the products still expensive, producers needed to work on creating more customer-friendly formats, such as stick salamis designed to hit affordable price points. “Producers are making extraordinary stuff,” he said, “but we’re working on them to make it sellable.” This includes reaching minimum levels of accreditation, such as the SALSA food safety standard, to reassure bigger restaurant and retail clients. “We’re trying to get all our producers through SALSA eventually, but it’s difficult. They’re small companies with not a lot of time or money.” Owen Davidson Knight added: “Over the next 18-24 months, all of these guys are going to have to make a decision about the kind of business they want to run. Some of them are not going to meet the requirements [of bigger clients].” www.cannonandcannon.com

making more of british & continental charcuterie

Why ‘bacon’ is one of Rod’s rasher decisions Interview

Smoked turkey king Rod Adlington is refocusing on the speciality sector with the launch of a turkey ‘bacon’ and a move into chilled distribution

Packaging and consistency key issues in charcuterie “Charcuterie is all about texture,” As Adlington Ltd starts building a he says. “If you get that right, the third-party distribution service from rest will follow. its base near Coventry (see main “To get the texture right you story), MD Rod Adlington says he have to start with low-stressed is keen to hook up with up-andanimals, whether coming charcuterie it’s poultry or pigs, businesses that Charcuterie is all and then you have need a distributor about texture. If you to cook it slowly. with specialist If you don’t cook market knowledge. get that right, the slowly, the only “We know rest will follow. way you’ll get the exactly what texture back is to fill it with brine the customers want,” he says. and e-numbers. “We’ve already tested the market “With ham, it’s the texture with Continental products but that’s often inconsistent, and that people have been asking for British makes customers unhappy.” charcuterie too. Producers focusing on “Packaging is the big challenge traditionally reared British meat – there’s a very fine line to tread also face problems of inconsistent between being artisan and being carcass size and fat covering, he attractive on-shelf. says. “We’ve had huge issues with “At the moment we’re working our own sliced smoked turkey, on the consistency of our own ham. trying to put it into trays without The pork comes straight from a making it look too supermarkety small farm in Wiltshire, and we’re and commercial. But we’ve found having to work closely with the the right trays, and that’s something producer. We can only drive volume we can help other producers with.” if the consistency is there day in, Product consistency is also a key day out.” issue for trade customers, he warns.

❛

❜

Rod Adlington says the family firm is going ‘back to artisan’

et your thinking cap on. Adlington, the supplier of premium cooked and smoked turkey to stores like Harvey Nichols, Fortnum’s and Selfridges, is about to introduce a new line for deli counters – but it needs help finding the right name. “Finally, after years of development, we’re about to launch a turkey bacon,” says Rod Adlington, MD of the Warwickshire-based producer. “We’ve called it ‘bacon’ initially because we want people to use it as a low-fat, healthier alternative to pork. But ‘bacon’ and ‘rasher’ both sound too commercial. Maybe we should have a competition to come up with something better!” Adlington has been promising a bacon-style turkey line for several years but has struggled until now to perfect the recipe. “One obstacle has been finding an alternative to nitrate salt,” he says. “Nitrates react badly with poultry – they affect the colour – and they’re not good for the factory environment either.” So Adlington has been spending time with meat processing experts in Germany in search of solutions. He is now convinced he has the

right method to produce a tasty, nongreasy ‘bacon’ using a natural, herb alternative to nitrates and without needing to add pork fat for flavour. “We’re very excited about this,” he says. “The texture is to die for: it’s melt-in-the-mouth, it’s not greasy and it doesn’t leave you feeling bloated.” Launching in whole pieces for the deli counter and in pre-packs, the new line will be artisan but affordable, Adlington says, selling at “more like £6/kg than £12/kg”. It will be targeted firmly at deli counters, food halls and high-class butchers, and comes as the producer starts to re-focus the business on its independent heartland. “We see the independent trade as flourishing and blossoming,” says Adlington. “It’s very exciting,” Recent years have seen the firm win contracts with mainstream foodservice operators, but this has not sat comfortably alongside its premium cooked and smoked poultry products, and Rod Adlington admits to having his fingers burned. “One major restaurant order for cooked chicken overtook everything,” he says. “It was high-end, Freedom Food chicken, but we were failing our core product because we were trying to process three or four tonnes

of sliced chicken a week. Our factory just wasn’t big enough for that.” So now, Adlington Ltd is “going back to the artisan”. With the family’s thriving Christmas turkey business split off as a separate company (it will sell 9,000 whole birds in November, as well as 4,500 multi-bird roasts and other turkey breast lines), it will focus on three core areas. The first is its respected, hand-crafted cooked and smoked charcuterie (turkey, chicken and ham). Its turkey is listed by most major London food halls, by Booths in Lancashire, Darts Farm in Devon and by dozens of delis, but Adlington says: “We want to get it to a wider audience.” It will also develop its sous-vide poultry (slow-cooked in vacuumpouches) for restaurants, mainly in London – a relatively low-volume,

bespoke product that suits the size of the business. But the third point of focus will be a new move into chilled and ambient distribution. “We’ve run our own distribution for 20 years,” says Adlington, “and we couldn’t be better located as a small transport company. We’re in London every day, we’re in Yorkshire and Lancashire twice a week. So we’re looking for small, bespoke companies that want to drive themselves forward in the independent sector.” Adlington has already struck a deal to distribute Midshires rosé veal from Farmers Fayre, another Warwickshire-based farm-assured meat producer. “It’s about finding products that are interesting, different and trying to offer a broad range,” he says. www.adlingtonltd.com

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

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20/09/2013 15:28

product update

sauces & ingredients

Stir it up Whether you’re looking for curry, gumbo or just a pinch of salt, MICHAEL LANE discover the latest launches for the home cook

Newark-based The Progressive Food Company has launched a four-strong range of dried wild forest mushrooms under its Foresta brand. Chanterelle, shiitake, porcini and mixed forest mushrooms all come in shelf-ready trays of 10 x 25g bags (RRP £2.65 each). The range, which has an ambient shelf life of two years, is available from distributors including Hider and Mintons Good Foods.

Dart Valley Foods now offers four multipurpose sauces under its Butler’s Grove brand. The Tasty Thai One: chilli & lemongrass (300g), The Funky Yellow One: spicy mango (250g), The Hot and Spicy One: chilli & ginger (300g) and The Smokin’ Hot One: smoky barbecue (260g) all have a trade price of £3.70.

www.forestamushrooms.co.uk www.theprogressivefoodcompany. co.uk

www. dartvalleyfoods. com

As usual, Seasoned Pioneers has a selection of new lines that span the globe. The latest addition to its sauce line-up, Vietnamese Kho sauce, has now claimed a one-star award in Great Taste 2013. The braising sauce, described as “powerfully spiced yet sweet”, comes in cases of 6 x 400g sachets (trade £2.45, RRP £3.50 each). The company also has a Chermoula Moroccan spice mix (35g, trade £1.50) for fish and vegetables as well as two varieties of ground Peruvian chillies. Yellow, fruity Aji Amarillo (42g) and dark red, smoky Aji Panca (40g) both have a trade price of £1.95 per unit. www.seasonedpioneers.co.uk

A Thai restaurant based on the Welsh coast has created a selection of cook-at-home sauces and pastes. The Coconut Kitchen’s range was developed by the Abersoch eatery’s coowner and head chef Preechaya Phetprasert and is now available to retailers UK-wide. Sweet chilli & garlic, Pad Prig Pao, Khao Yai, Pad Thai and Great Taste onestar Pak Chong hot chilli sauces all come in 250ml glass bottles (trade £2.85) as does the honey, garlic & pepper dressing. Its Thai Massaman and green curry pastes both come in 125ml glass jars with a trade price of £2.95 each. www.thecoconutkitchen.co.uk

Developed by MRC The Flava People for butchers, delis and farm shops, the Great British Butcher brand features six all-natural crumbs (Crunchy Curry, lemon & mustard and roast garlic & 3 onion) and rubs (British BBQ, Bloody Mary and apple, sage & onion). All come in 500g vintage-style tin shakers. www.greatbritishbutcher.com

www.ntolmadakia. gr/en

has launched a smoked tomato sauce, made with hot smoked tomatoes, red chilli and shallots. The “thick, piquant” product comes in cases of six (trade price £2.40 per jar) and can be used as a condiment or a cooking sauce. www.welovemanfood.com

l Real Organic Foods relaunched its ambient pasta sauce range, based on authentic Italian regional recipes, this summer. Arrabbiata (Lazio), tomato, pepper & herb (Lombardy), Sicilian tomato & olive and mushroom & red wine (Umbria and Tuscany) come in cases of 6 x 350g jars for £10.44. www.realorganic.co.uk

l Process and Supplies relaunched its Mussalli’s brand of seasonings in March. Varieties available in 75g bags include falafel seasoning, chicken kebab seasoning and seven spices. Wholesale prices range from 85p to 99p per bag.

Determined to show consumers the world beyond poor takeaways and “Chinese gloopiness”, Bonnie and Philip Yau have created a range of sauces without the dreaded monosodium glutamate. The Yau’s range includes the Vietnamese-style Zingy Zum as well as Chinese sauces Firecracker Kung Po, Aromatic Cantonese, Intense Black Bean, Fragrant Sweet & Sour and Flaming Szechuan. All are gluten-free and available in retail bottles (265g or 280g, RRP £2.49) and 2 litre catering containers (£6.95). www.bonnieyau.co.uk

Greek vineleaf and sultana specialist Marianna’s Products is now selling its petimezi (cooked grape must) in the UK. This thick, concentrated grape juice can be used as a natural sweetener in cooking or as a base ingredient for dressings. It is made from sultana grapes picked at Marianna Kazakis’s family’s organic vineyards in Halkidiki. Marianna’s petimezi comes in cases of 24 x 105ml bottles. The wholesale price per bottle varies between £3.20 and £3.94, depending on the quantity ordered and the delivery method.

l New brand Manfood

The Shropshire Spice Company has developed a range of World Blends designed to help home chefs create a meal with the minimum amount of additional ingredients. The range includes unusual dishes such as an African-inspired Swahili curry and a Goaninspired Xaccutti curry. It also features more traditional cuisines including a classic Italian herb blend for Bolognese and meatballs and casserole mixes for chicken and beef. Each recipe (RRP £1.70 per pack) comes in shelf-ready packaging holding 10 units for £12.

psfoodbev@onetel.com

l Launched last Winter, Gran Luchito smoked chilli paste (cases 12 x 110g, trade £3.20 each) is made using chillies sourced from remote farms in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The producer has also expanded its range with a smoked chilli mayo and a smoked chilli honey. www.gran.luchito.co.uk

l The Anglesey Sea Salt Co is now offering gift packs featuring trios of its Halen Môn salt in ceramic clamp-top jars (red, white or navy). Customers can choose from pure Halen Môn, cracked black pepper, chilli & garlic, roasted garlic or the producer’s Great Taste three-star umami seasoning. www.halenmon.com

l Asiri Foods has added Sri Lankan-inspired Ceylon tomato curry sauce to its Giggy & Goo range in mild, medium and hot strengths. The sauces are completely natural and come in 350g jars (RRP £1.99). www.asirifoods.co.uk

www.shropshire-spice.co.uk

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

Stock up for National Curry Week with Bespoke Foods Email: sales@bespoke-foods.co.uk

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October 2013 路 Vol.14 Issue 9

product update American Food Wholesalers has increased its range of products from the Slap Ya Mama brand produced by Louisiana’s Walker & Sons. These three Cajun dinner mixes – red beans & rice, gumbo and jambalaya – all come in cases of 12 and allow the consumer to create a meal in minutes by adding meat or seafood and cooking on the hob or the microwave. www.americanfoodwholesalers. co.uk

Based on the rugged west coast of Ireland, Irish Atlantic Sea Salt is now looking to sell its range into the UK’s independent market. All of its certified organic salt is produced using the ocean waters surrounding its base on the Beara Peninsula in Co Cork. Its pure & natural salt, which won one-star in last year’s Great Taste, comes in trade cases of 12 x 220g and 24 x 110g boxes as well as 1kg catering tubs. It also produces a smoked version of its salt as well as a number of blended salts: salt infused with Aran Dillisk seaweed, lemon & pepper, aromatic garlic and chilli & paprika. All four blends won a star in Great Taste 2013 and come in cases of 24 x 110g. Irish Atlantic Sea Salt is currently seeking UK distributors for its range.

sauces & ingredients

Distributor Cotswold Fayre has added a number of products to its catalogue that might appeal to home cooks. It is now carrying Vinichef’s 5 Bottles of Wine: a reduction of exactly that. Made from Italian grapes, it comes in red and white varieties in cases of 12 x 125ml bottles for £37.45. It is also carrying the five-strong British seasoning range from Dorset-based producer Saison! All-in-a-Stew, British Root Roast, Brixham Fishmarket, London Chop House and The Welsh Rabbit all come in cases of 8 x 27.5g tubs for £15.85. For those looking further afield for culinary inspiration, the Enso range of Japanese sauces and vinegars (cases of 12 x 150ml, £19-£24) is exclusively available in the UK through Cotswold Fayre. www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

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Isle of Wight firm The Tomato Stall has created two new products using its speciality tomatoes grown in the island’s Arreton Valley. Launched in July, its tomato & pepper pesto is a blend of roasted tomatoes and red peppers with olive oil, cashews, thyme, basil and lemon juice. This vegetarianfriendly sauce comes in 130g jars with a wholesale price of £3.10. This summer also saw the producer unveil a balsamic vinegar infused with oak-smoked tomatoes (250ml, wholesale £5.75). www.thetomatostall.co.uk

Another London-themed curry has joined the Mamajaan’s range of fresh, cook-in sauces. Waterloo Windaloo is the producer’s hottest yet but is described as “tangy with red chilli and lime with undertones of cumin and ginger”. Each pot (trade £1.96, RRP £3.49) will help home cooks create a meal in 20 minutes by adding meat, fish or vegetables of their choice. The other three, milder curries in the range are Belsize Bhuna, Hampstead Harooni and Keats Kashmir.

Yorkshire-based Italian importer Etruscany is set to launch its own range of game pasta sauces. Named after founder Yara Gremoli, the Yara’s Kitchen range will include hare, venison, wild boar and pheasant ragus, all with very high game content. Each 180g jar has a trade price of £3.20 and an RRP of £4.95. www.etruscany.co.uk

www.mamajaans.co.uk

North Devon’s Boom Kitchen has three curry kits featuring its signature Boom Base base gravy, which it says is every Indian restaurant’s secret to creating curries. Its korma, jalfrezi and bhuna kits also all contain a blended spice mix, whole spices and instructions for cooking up a curry in 25 minutes.

www.irishatlanticsalt.ie

www.boomkitchen.co.uk

Currently in the middle of a major rebrand, Fosters Traditional Foods has developed several cooking sauces that can be used in pasta and meat dishes or in pies. Fosters has used fresh ingredients wherever possible, including fresh cream and real chopped mushrooms, to give consumers a genuine homecooked feel. The full range comprises tomato & basil and tomato & grilled vegetable pasta sauces, red wine & beef, ale & porcini mushroom, creamy white wine & herb and wild mushroom & thyme. The producer says that all of the jars have been priced (RRP £3.99) to compete with other brands in the speciality market. www.fosters-foods.co.uk

Based on its founders’ childhood experiences growing up in the Middle East, Bis*Bas is a new range of three versatile Arabian cooking sauces. Fozia, a sweet tomato & coriander sauce, was traditionally cooked with aubergines but can be served with chicken or fish. The tomato-based Safia is a kofta sauce for meatballs but can be served with lamb and chicken or used a base for vegetable curry while the spinach & coriander Saba sauce pairs particularly well with fish and chicken. The producer says that all three sauces (RRP £3.50 per jar, cases of six) can also be served cold as dips. www.bis-bas.co.uk

Irish spice specialist Green Saffron is bringing its curry sauces and spice mixes to the UK. The Cork-based firm produces 460g jars of korma, jalfrezi and tikka sauces (RRP £2.95) and 25g spice blend sachets (£2.25) for creating korma, red lentil dahl, madras, tandoori, and tikka masala dishes. All of its products are 100% natural, Coeliac- and vegetarian-friendly, and Halal-certified. Each sachet and jar has a QR code taking the customer through to videos of each dish being cooked. www.greensaffron.com

Scarlett & Mustard’s Rudolph’s Left Overs Curry Sauce has arrived for the festive season. The coronation-style, oil-free dressing is described as “tangy, fruity and lightly spiced” and will be available until the end of January 2014. The producer recommends stirring the sauce through rice with left-over chicken or turkey. www.scarlettandmustard. co.uk

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

Isle of Wight Tomatoes ened ine rip mato v , d o ke ique t ly pic Fresh es and un tomatoes w to toma ucts... @io d pro

Make The Pepper Jealous The top selling gourmet salt in Sweden, Falksalt, is harvested in Cyprus using a unique natural system that provides large crystal flakes, which are then infused with powerful flavours. Falksalt comes in 125g tubs in a range of nine flavours including fruity lemon, spicy chipotle and a visually striking black flake. All with great shelf standout.

Now available from Hider Foods mail@hiderfoods.co.uk For more information please contact Luke Hodgson via Luke.Hodgson@salinity.com

www.thetomatostall.co.uk

Training from the Guild of Fine Food What will you learn?

The five golden rules for increasing deli sales How to select the best cheese and charcuterie How to create the best counter display How to avoid bad quality cheese and charcuterie How to sell proactively rather than reactively The difference between artisan and massproduced cheeses and meats through LD RETA UI comparative tastings

London Gillingham, Dorset Glasgow Wilmslow, Cheshire West Retford, Notts

CHEESE Wednesday October 2 Tuesday October 15 Wednesday October 23 Monday November 4 Monday November 11

TRAINING CUTE

LD RETA UI

Gillingham, Dorset Glasgow

CHARCUTERIE Monday October 7 Monday October 21

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

TRAINING CH

EESE

For more information:

E-mail: linda.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk Tel: 01747 825200 www.finefoodworld.co.uk

Course costs

Members of The Guild of Fine Food just £70, plus VAT (@ 20%). Non-members £95, plus VAT (@ 20%). *NB. Unfortunately there is a £10 plus VAT (@ 20%) surcharge for London training dates due to higher venue costs.

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

product update

speciality pies

Can’t keep a lid on it ANNE BRUCE rounds up the latest launches and newest bakers in the ever-growing speciality pie market Pies launched this year by Norwichbased Silent Partners Catering include steak & ale with horseradish, vegetable breakfast pie, game pie with cranberries, free range Blythburgh pork, lamb with mint & tomato, chicken & ham with leek & potato and a Welsh rarebit pie. These hand-raised hot and cold eating pies can be ordered in 70g, 150g, 220g and 350g portions and upwards. All pies are made by hand in a SALSA approved (Safe and Local Supplier Approval) factory in Norfolk. Silent Partners, whose customers include Fortnum & Mason, has also developed a range of sweet pies including Parkin pie with salted caramel crust and an After Eightinspired tart. www.silentpartnerscatering.co.uk

Cornish savoury pie company Grumpies added three new pies to its range in April. Its venison & red wine and chicken, sweet chilli & chorizo are now both listed at Harrods. It also added The Beast of Bodmin – a steak & ale pie made with Beast Ale from the local Pen Pont Brewery – to the range. The producer is currently introducing a fish pie in collaboration with upmarket Cornish fish company Tregida Seafood. Pies retail at between £2.90 and £3.50. www.grumpiesofcornwall.co.uk

New Yorkshire-based start-up Voakes Free From produces a gluten- and wheat-free range of pies. All products are made by hand using locally sourced ingredients, including pork reared on the Voakes family’s Whixley Grange Farm. All of its pies are available in individual or large sizes. The range includes pork pies (£1.50 or £3.20 for large), special pork pies with pork, chicken & stuffing (£1.95 or £3.40), steak & chicken pies (£1.80 or £3.40) and a traditional pasty (£1.60). Pies can be supplied baked, frozen raw or frozen cooked, with a minimum order of 36

units. Voakes Free From is a sister company to four times Yorkshire Supreme Pork Pie Champion Voakes Pies and was founded due to director Laura McGowan being diagnosed with coeliac disease. www.voakesfreefrom.co.uk

London’s Square Pie chain is to offer its “canapies” in retail packs. The mini two-bite pies come with three fillings: spinach, sweet potato & goats’ cheese, steak & Guinness and chicken & mushroom. The “canapies” are currently on sale in its canteens. www.squarepie.com

Northamptonshire’s Moulton Pie Company launched in April with its first creation: a tall, layered leek, potato & Stilton pie. Founder Mark Stevens has since added pork, leek & cheddar, spinach & Parmesan, pork & Stilton and pork & chorizo pies to his range. His Moulton Pasty pie – a take on the Cornish Pasty – is the latest launch. Pies are available in small (230g), medium (450g) and large (900g) sizes. www.facebook.com/ pages/The-Moulton-PieCompany/153456588152476

Pieminister’s three limited-edition Christmas pies are available from November until the end of December. The Three Kings pie is made with free range British turkey, smoked bacon and cranberry stuffing in a creamy sauce. The Vegetarian Society-approved Christingle pie features honey roast parsnips, West Country Cheddar and chestnuts while the Deer Santa pie is filled with British venison, dry cured bacon, red wine and puy lentils. The Bristol-based firm has also just launched a 270g Moo & Blue pie this month, made with British beef steak and Stilton. All Pieminister pies are made in-house in Bristol using British ingredients including British beef, outdoor-reared bacon, turkey and fresh vegetables and herbs. Fresh and chilled Pieminister pies (270g) arrive with an eight-day shelf-life and trade prices start from £2.50.

Top sellers…

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www.pieminster.co.uk

Jolly Pies was set up earlier this year in Belfast by two old friends and pie fans, Stephen McComb and Jamie McAlister. The company uses local ingredients, with meats sourced from the directors’ families’ farms in the area. The range includes Aberdeen Angus & Guinness; chicken, ham hock & parsley sauce; pulled pork, apple & red cabbage; chicken, leek & tarragon and butternut squash, roasted red pepper & goats’ cheese. Pies are available in two sizes: 225g in retail boxes (trade £1.80, RRP £3) and a 375g loose product for chilled display (trade £2.25, RRP £4). Pies are available in mainland Great Britain through wholesaler Hendersons. www.jollypies.com

Simple Simon’s Perfect Pies’ newest recipe, beef & horseradish pie, has proved such a hit that the Lanarkshirebased producer has decided to make it a permanent fixture on its roster. Like all of the company’s pies, it is made using demipuff pastry and features a bottom layer of steamed skin-on Rooster potatoes topped with hand-diced beef shoulder from Scotland’s Southern Uplands casseroled with fresh horseradish and cream. www.simplesimonspies.co.uk

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

product update

speciality pies Poultry and game dealer turned piemaker Paul Sykes launched a new handmade range in February including steak & , Delicatessen Guinness Pie with 21-day e ...at Truffles sh Hereford ir matured British beef in suet s-on-Wye, os R crust pastry. The range also ey pie steak & kidn includes a seasonal venison & Moor Meals mushroom pie with wild, British n pie steak & onio Moor Meals venison, chicken & mushroom e pie and a Homity pie. Paul’s spicy beef pi Moor Meals e Pies retail at £3.50 each. mushroom pi

Top sellers…

As the game season commences, Timmy’s Pies partridge & poached pear pie is going back on sale. Among the London-based producer’s other new releases is a free-range chicken, mushroom & white truffle oil pie, launched this month. It has also teamed up with Kingscote Farm vineyard in Sussex to make a pheasant & Kingscote Cyder pie, that will launch in midOctober. Other additions for the winter season are venison, stout & prune and vegetarian Homity pie. The company delivers within London and by courier to the rest of the UK. @timmys_pies

www.paulspies.co.uk

Essex-based catering specialist Fuud is working with The Brentwood Brewing Company on a range of local ale-based pies, the first of which is steak & ale pie. The pie is available in a 370g retail pack or as 275g square pie for serving from deli counters. The RRP for the retail packaged version is £4.75 and trade price for the square pie is £1.75.

chicken & Moor Meals pie ham & leek Moor Meals

www.fuud.co.uk

La Petite Epicerie in Fife, Scotland, says it has perfected the recipe for its steak pies. Made using locally sourced Scotch beef, onions, gravy and seasoning, the pies come in 0.5lb and 1lb sizes, but the producer can bake other sizes upon request.

Devon-based Tom’s Pies has recently launched a chicken, ham hock & leek pie. The Tom’s Pies range also includes Teign Valley venison with squash, caramelised onion & juniper berries and a spiced cauliflower, spinach & lentil pie. Pies are sold in multiple boxes for deli counters. Individual retail packaging will be rolled out within the next year.

www.la-petite-epicerie.co.uk

Following a change in ownership last year, The Real Pie Company is just about to relaunch its products in new packaging. The West Sussex-based firm’s pie range includes 12 varieties in individual (230g, trade £1.75) and family sizes (670g, trade price £4.35). It also makes three family-sized sweet pies: apple, apple & blackberry and apple & cherry (650g, trade price £2.80). All pies are baked to order. www.therealpieco.co.uk

www.toms-pies.co.uk

Steak & Stilton – a tale of two pies This year, not one but two retailers made the Great Taste Top 50 list for their handmade shortcrust pies with a steak & Stilton filling. Mark Scrace of family-run Quality & Excellence says that the company likes to experiment with recipes and its three-star steak & Stilton – described by Great Taste judges as “very handsome” – proved to be a winning formula. The judges also commended the texture of the pie’s pastry, the generous amount of meat in the filling and the judicious use of Stilton to complement, rather than overpower, the other ingredients. The Theydon Bois butcher currently retails the large and small pies for £5.39 and £2.99 respectively. Now being run by a third generation of the Turner family on the South Coast in Bognor, Turner’s Pies also claimed threestars with its steak and Stilton combination. Phil Turner, who runs

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

Turners Pies of Bognor Regis (above left) and Essex-based butcher Quality & Excellence both scored top marks with a combination of beef and blue cheese

the business with his two brothers, says that they knew they were on to a winner from the earliest tasting sessions. The judges agreed, praising the pie’s texture, the tenderness of the Highland top rump steak used and the subtle addition of blue cheese.

It is sold in four sizes from individual at £2.50 to a catering size, which serves 8-10 people priced at £19. Turner adds: “We are now planning to expand the business, keeping to traditional methods of production.” And it looks like steak & Stilton

is going to be an increasingly popular filling, with The Real Pie Company in Crawley, West Sussex also offering this flavour and Bristol’s Pieminister recently launching a Moo & Blue pie. www.qualityandexcellence.co.uk www.turnerspies.co.uk

An excellent range of award winning sweet and savoury food carefully prepared by hand

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Judges’ Comment: Wonderfully moist chunks of meat in a very flavourful sauce, the notes of chutney compliment the creamy Cheddar

Chocolate & Orange Meringue Roulade Judges’ Comment: Nice soft meringue and good balance in the cheesecake filling

Winner of 12 Great Taste Awards since 2010 /Handmade-Food-from-Okemoor Tel 01837 53601

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Martyn & Melanie Reynolds Tel 01768 863841 Fax 01768 868900 info@burbushs.co.uk www.burbushs.co.uk

Simple Simon’s Perfect Pies

A simple solution to serving top quality British produce.

60 varieties of Perfect Pies A complete meal for one, wrapped in light crisp puff pastry. Quick, convenient and easy to use. Heat and serve perfectly with a mixed salad.

www.simplesimonspies.co.uksales@simplesimonspies.co.uk tel 01899 220118 Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

www.gruyere.com ruyere.com Cheeses from Switzerland. Switzerland. Naturally. 38 October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

www.switzerland-cheese.com

A promotional feature for the Guild of Fine Food

OCTOBER’S MONEY MAKING PROMOTIONS TOM’S PIES

CURRY CUISINE

YORKSHIRE PROVENDER Yorkshire Provender soups come in 600g pots and are available in the following flavours: Pea & Spinach with Fresh Mint; Tomato & Red Pepper with Wensleydale; Beetroot with Horseradish; Root Vegetable with Pearl Barley; Silky Butternut with Gentle Spice; Rustic Veg & Ham with Lentils; Chicken & Butternut with Lentil & Cumin and Creamy Mushroom with Fresh Herbs. The range can be ordered in mixed cases of 24 x 600g. THE DEAL: 25% off price of mixed cases of soups (Promotional price £25.92) AVAILABILITY: Nationwide. £12 packing and courier charge. CONTACT: Call 01765 641920 or email yp.orders@btconnect.com

TEAPIGS From the teapigs range of whole leaf teas in biodegradable tea temples, the brand’s chief tea-taster Louise recommends its Winter Spiced tea as the perfect stocking filler. Described as “Christmas in a cup”, it comes in cases of six packs, each of which features 15 tea temples. Teapigs says this warming seasonal tea will “sell like hotcakes.” THE DEAL: Place an order of £150 or more and get a free case of Spiced Winter tea AVAILABILITY: Must order over £150, delivery within 2 working days CONTACT: Rosie Baulcombe on 0208 8473980 or trade@teapigs.co.uk

Curry Cuisine produces a gift pack of its Chutnee’s range featuring four Great Taste winning products (Indian Tomato, Spiced Plum, Luxury Mango and Rhubarb & Mango) as well as its Yorkshire Rhubarb Chilli Jam. Every clear gift pack (RRP £10) includes a 130g jar of each chutney. Trade cases contain six gift packs and normally cost £45. THE DEAL: £6 discount on cases of Chutnees gift packs (Cost £39 rather than £45) AVAILABILITY: Mainland UK, delivery cost £5.95. CONTACT: Paresh Tejura on 07952 112810 or paresh@currycuisine.co.uk

UNCLE ROY’S Uncle Roy’s Gourmet Salts have been described as “serious, indispensable ingredients” so he was not surprised when two of them (Scottish Seaweed salt and Smokey Scotch Whisky salt) picked up Great Taste one-stars this year. There are eight varieties (including Scottish Heather, Lovely Lemon and Scotch Bonnet), all of which come in tall jars. THE DEAL: Buy 6 cases of Gourmet Salts, get 1 free AVAILABILITY: Nationwide, part of any carriage-paid order CONTACT: Uncle Roy on 01683 221076 or uncleroy@uncleroys.co.uk

CURRY CUISINE

Curry Cuisine’s Luxury Mango Chutney, which is infused with freshly roasted spices and saffron, won two stars in this year’s Great Taste 2013. Also a winner of Best Sandwich Condiment in Yorkshire 2012-13, this product comes in cases of six jars, which usually cost £10.50 each. THE DEAL: £3 discount on cases of Luxury Mango Chutney (promotional price £7.50 rather than £10.50) for all new customers AVAILABILITY: Mainland UK, delivery cost £5.95. CONTACT: Paresh Tejura on 07952 112810 or paresh@currycuisine.co.uk

Tom’s Pies makes all of its pies from scratch using the best free-range meat, eggs and dairy. The range features 10 flavours, including steak & organic Exeter ale and mushroom & spinach with hazelnuts & white truffle oil. Its pies, which have a list price of £2.15 each, have won golds in The British Pie Awards, Taste of The West Awards and EBLEX awards as well as Great Taste stars. They are only available in quality independent retailers. THE DEAL: 30% discount on all orders from new customers AVAILABILITY: Nationwide CONTACT: Tom Little on 01395 239000 or tomlittle@toms-pies.co.uk

GRANNY’S SECRET The producer’s new organic range of fruit juices, extra jams and preserves is made from fruit and vegetables, grown in ecologically protected areas of the Balkans, and prepared within 24 hours of picking. The firm also offers a host of non-organic products and sugar-free fruit juices and nectars. All of its products in jars come in cases of six units while juices come in cases of 12 x 200ml or 6 x 700ml bottles. Free shipment for orders of £250+. Money back & returns guarantee if 50% of goods are not sold within 6 weeks. THE DEAL: Buy 4 cases (from more than 70 lines), get 1 free or buy 10 cases and get 2 free. AVAILABILITY: Nationwide. Allow one week for delivery CONTACT: Snezana Knowles on 01454 660130 or snezana@grannyssecret.co.uk

RAISTHORPE MANOR The company’s new 9ct Shimmering Vodkas are sparkling liqueurs that have been launched especially for Christmas. Both Blood Orange and the Toffee/ Caramel flavours are mixed with edible glitter. As well as cocktails, the producer also recommends adding it to coffee to create a sparkling espresso or making a twinkling toddy. THE DEAL: Buy 4 cases of 9ct Shimmering Vodka, get 1 free AVAILABILITY: Nationwide CONTACT: Julia Medforth on 01377 288295 or rasithorpe1@btconnect.com

GUILD RETAIL PROMOTION SUMMARY (Available to Guild members only) COMPANY

CURRY CUISINE CURRY CUISINE GRANNY’S SECRET RAISTHORPE MANOR TEAPIGS TOM’S PIES UNCLE ROY’S YORKSHIRE PROVENDER

DEAL

TEL

£6 discount on cases of Chutnees gift packs (Cost £39 rather than £45) £3 discount on cases of Luxury Mango Chutney ( £7.50 rather than £10.50) for all new customers Buy 4 cases, get 1 free or buy 10 cases, get 2 free Buy 4 cases of 9ct Shimmering Vodka, get 1 free Place an order of £150 or more and get a free case of Spiced Winter tea 30% discount on all orders from new customers Buy 6 cases of Gourmet Salts, get 1 free 25% off price of mixed cases of soups

07952 112810 paresh@currycuisine.co.uk 07952 112810 paresh@currycuisine.co.uk 01454 660130 snezana@grannyssecret.co.uk 01377 288295 rasithorpe1@btconnect.com 0208 8473980 trade@teapigs.co.uk

RETAIL MEMBERS – To sign up to the retail promotion scheme contact: tortie.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk or ring her on 01747 825200 to ensure you receive your shelf-barkers to help promote these discounts instore. SUPPLIER MEMBERS – want to take part? Contact sally.coley@finefoodworld.co.uk for more information.

01395 239000 tomlittle@toms-pies.co.uk 01683 221076 uncleroy@uncleroys.co.uk 01765 641920 yp.orders@btconnect.com

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

Limited Edition - Perfect for Christmas!

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Three & Five bottle gift packs available for Christmas!

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October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

shelftalk

products, promotions & people

Peter’s Yard’s new size fits all independents By MICHAEL LANE

Peter’s Yard is releasing a new size of its signature S U P LI E Scandinavian recipe P crispbread as it looks to maintain its strong sales growth in independent retailers. The firm, which recently gained listings for two of its lines in selected Waitrose stores, has developed the product specifically as a cheese accompaniment and expects it to sell well across its deli customer base. At 18g per slice in weight, the new line sits between the firm’s standard and large format crispbreads in terms of size. The brand’s co-founder Wendy Wilson Bett said this should be the ideal portion for a person eating from a cheeseboard. “In the UK, it’s a little bit harder to explain that the really big ones can be used like artisan bread, as they do in Sweden,” she said. “This [new size] takes the traditional Scandinavian shape and characteristic hole and puts it in a format that works well for a UK audience” Each 220g pack will contain 12 of these crispbreads with eight packs in each trade case. EDITE CR

The new 18g crispbreads have been developed as a cheeseboard accompaniment

“We see this size as being targeted towards outlets where consumers spend much more time considering a cheeseboard,” she added. “So we imagine our best trade customers will be the independent delis, food halls and specialist cheese shops.” Wilson Bett said that the decision to move into Waitrose at the end of April (with its 105g mini pack and its 180g box of standard size crispbreads) was taken “very carefully”, including a consultation with 25 of its regular trade customers.

“We understand our target market and believed the brand awareness of being in Waitrose would help to drive sales in all channels,” she said. “Our sales results show it’s been a good decision for us but also our distributors.” This year distributors Hider, The Cress Co and Cotswold Fayre have continued to see significant growth in sales of Peter’s Yard’s products and count these lines in their top sellers by value. Wilson Bett said there was

potential for the brand, which also includes the original Edinburgh bakery and coffee house founded by Swede Peter Ljunquist, to expand the wholesale operation into other bakery items. “We are already more than a crispbread company. We’ve got three bakery outlets in Edinburgh and have a much wider range of products in those retail outlets,” she said. “Sales have doubled every year since we launched and we plan to continue that growth.” www.petersyard.com

Shropshire Fine Herbs revamps house brand By MICHAEL LANE EDITE CR

After years of baking biscuits for other brands Shropshire S U P LI E P Fine Herbs is looking to revive its own offer with a 12-strong range called Shropshire Purveyors. Co-founder Hugh Laughton told FFD that he wants to grow this range to match the company’s private label output, which sees it produce biscuits for clients such as Harrods, Paxton & Whitfield and La Fromagerie, “We’ve unwittingly become specialists in private label. It was not what we set out to do,” he said. “If we can get this up and flying I don’t see why we would do any less private label but it may come down closer to a 50:50 split rather than the 80:20 it is at the moment.” Laughton said that the brand name had been chosen because Shropshire Fine Herbs – referring to the business’s beginning as a herb grower – would not work as a retail name. He said that the Jannocks range the firm currently produces would be phased out. “It still has a following in many cheese shops but it’s the same biscuit in 10 flavours,” he said. “Shropshire Purveyors is about being able to express what we can do.”

CHOCOLATE REBORN: Formerly know as Rural Foodies, new brand Coco Pzazz has launched with new flavours and formats. The Welsh producer’s fresh line-up includes 13 flavours of hand-poured buttons, hot chocolate, truffles and eight flavoured Origin chocolate bars. The new look was created by Suffolk-based agency Holy Cow, which commissioned young illustrators to create orginial artwork for each product. Last month, the brand launched a new range of six 80g bars, which features a bar that combines Coco Pzazz’s house blend milk chocolate with freshly grated Tonka beans. Other unusual ingredients include Umami seasoning, Lapsang Souchong and smoked salt. The Tonka bean bar comes in cases of 12 x 80g bars (trade £1.75 each, RRP £3). www.cocopzazz.co.uk

The range has launched with four classic savoury biscuits, three types of olive oil crackers, three breadsticks and two lines marked as “curiosities” but Laughton said there was room for further NPD. “If it can go into an oven and if we think we can do it better than someone else, we will give it a go,”

he said. All 12 products are pitched with an RRP of between £3.50 and £3.75. ”The middle market for cheese biscuits has been stuck at £2.99 for the last 10 years and no one has been brave enough to go a level higher with something really handmade.” www.sfhbakery.com

What’s in the range Classic savoury biscuits: Sweet chestnut digestives, seeded rye and sea salt butter biscuits all come in cases of 12 x 120g boxes while rough oatcakes with apple & walnut come in cases of 12 x 150g boxes. Mediterranean olive oil crackers: fennel seed & honey, sun dried tomato & olive and pesto, parmesan & pine nut are sold in 6 x 120g boxes Breadsticks: Cream cheese & rosemary, Garlic chive and paprika, chilli & black onion seed (8 x 120g) Curiosities range: Spiced cashew & apricot Melba (12 x 120g) and Shropshire Blue Uglies (12x 100g) Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

S U P LI E P

Paxtons boosts range of cheeseboard add-ons R

Potted meats, ale chutney and fruit confits are among the latest products added by Paxton & Whitfield to its range of branded cheese accompaniments. Its new Pots of Pork range features two rillette-style products (£7.95) – classic shredded pork and shredded pork with sloe gin – are made for Paxton’s in the UK with cured, slow-cooked pork. Both varieties come in 140g kilner jars (trade £5.20 and £5.45 respectively) and can be bought in cases of six. The firm is also wholesaling a trio pack of confits for cheese (RRP £5.95 each, cases of 12 for £41.40), which each feature a 45g jar of apricot & EDITE CR

S U P LI E P

Omar Allibhoy Chef-owner of Tapas Revolution

orange confit for soft cheese, pear & vanilla confit for hard cheese and quince & apple confit for blue cheese. In addition, Paxton’s has also created a chutney (RRP £4.95) made with its No. 93 Ale and Bramley apples in cases of 12 x 198g jars for £36.96 as well as boosting its ‘Nuts about…’ range. Nuts about Chestnuts and Nuts about Prunes are both made by an artisan producer in the French Pyrenees with the former said to be well-suited to blue and goats’ cheeses. Both come in cases of 18 x 90g jars for £34.20. Each jar has an RRP of £2.95. www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

Pie and sausage roll manufacturer Pork Farms is hoping to break into the deli and farm shop market with a range of runny centred Scotch eggs launched under its Dorset Food Company brand. The firm’s Scrummy Eggs, which are produced and hand-finished at the manufacturer’s site in Shaftesbury, come in three flavours: classic, spicy chorizo and honey roast gammon. Twin packs of each variety have an RRP of £4.95. The Dorset Food Company said that each Scotch egg, which can be warmed in the oven before serving, is guaranteed to have a runny centre

www.tapasrevolution.com

Fragata pimiento piquillo peppers www.fragata.co.uk

In Spain we have a love affair with peppers, which were brought from the Americas in 1492, and the tender, sweet piquillo is probably the most popular. Fragata is best known for olives, but my staff introduced me to their piquillo peppers and now I always have them in my storecupboard. They’re great added to any salad, stuffed with cod, or simply dressed with parsley, garlic and oil. At home I serve them with pardinas lentils or as an aperitivo with cheese, olives and bread.

Oro Bailen extra virgin olive oil www.orobailen.com

I heard about this fruity aromatic oil when it won two gold stars in the 2010 Great Taste awards. I tried it and was smitten. It’s incredibly fragrant and tastes green and herby. Made from Picual olives grown in the foothills of Spain’s Sierra Morena, it’s very affordable given its quality. It’s too expensive to use in the restaurant, however, so I keep it for myself at home. I eat it at least once a day, usually on pan con tomate, which is my staple breakfast.

Pork Farms targets speciality trade with Scotch egg brand By MICHAEL LANE

Top chefs tell CLARE HARGREAVES their deli essentials

Bruce Robinson

By MICHAEL LANE

CHEF’S SELECTION

EDITE CR

shelftalk

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

Nomen arroz bomba (bomba rice) www.productsfromspain.co.uk

thanks to a “unique and highly specialised process”. North West chain Booths and Washingpool Farm Shop are among the firm’s current stockists. www.dorsetfood.co.uk

This variety of polished short grain rice is grown in Catalonia, Valencia and Murcia. It’s the most expensive rice in the world as it’s extremely absorbent and takes in the flavours of other ingredients it’s cooked with. It also stays intact when cooked. So it’s no wonder that this is the paella rice. It may seem pricey, but you only need 80g per person. I buy it in boxes of a dozen 1kg cloth bags.

Beher Iberico de Bellota gold label ham www.delicioso.co.uk

This ham, from the Beher estate in Guijuelo near Salamanca, has won heaps of awards, including Best Ham in the World in the IFFA 2013 awards in Frankfurt and several Great Taste stars. It comes from small, black Iberico pigs that roam freely in the woods and feed on acorns (bellota), which give the meat its lovely nutty taste. The hams are salted for 12 days then hung for three years. It’s got such a good flavour that you don’t need much. We offer it in our restaurants at £8.95 a portion – a bargain.

Spanish Mancha saffron DOP www.saffronsoftheworld.com

No paella can be made without this bright red saffron, produced and packed in Spain’s La Mancha region and considered the best in the world. Unusually, the saffron is toasted, which gives it a distinctive aroma. Its taste is far more fragrant than any other I’ve tried. One gram of this one is worth three of any other. We use it in our Pollo Pepitoria, an Arab-style dish of chicken, almonds and saffron. I buy it a kilo at a time from Saffrons of the World. Omar’s book, Tapas Revolution (Ebury, £20) is out now.

Sponsored by

ADDED ZING: Sussex-based Gran Stead’s has rebranded its whole range and added Blackcurrant with Zing (750ml, RRP £2.25) to the line-up. The S U P LI E P new addition is made with blackcurrant juice and ginger and is based on a 19th Century recipe that can be traced back to Christina ‘Gran’ Stead, whose 150-year-old ginger wine recipe inspired the producer’s first drink. Mellow Ginger (formerly Dark & Mellow), Gran Stead’s Fiery Reduced Sugar Ginger (formerly Light & Fiery), Traditional Still Lemonade and Still Lemonade with a Zing all come in 750ml bottles. www.gransteadsginger.co.uk EDITE CR

Found in all good delis Cheeses from Switzerland.

Switzerland. Naturally.

www.switzerland-cheese.com

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

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No one should even consider entering any form of fine food retail without completing the Retail Ready course at The Guild of Fine Food. The two day course is brilliantly structured offering advice on every aspect of the business from insider experts and successful retailers. It gave me insight I was lacking, to feel fully confident about getting started.

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Matthew Drennan, former editor of delicious. and aspiring deli owner

RetailReady is a two day course that will steer you through the minefield of opening and running a fine food store. The course is designed to equip managers of prospective, new or developing delis and farm shops with the business essentials of fine food and drink retailing. The next course takes place on March 18-19 2014. Visit www.finefoodworld.co.uk/retailready for more details and an application form. Call us to find out more on 01747 825200.

RetailReady VERNER WHEELOCK ASSOCIATES

hickory smoked cashews with black pepper

hickory smoked almonds and cashews

hickory smoked macadamia nuts

possibly the finest nuts in the world certainly the best real smoked ones...

most smoked nuts have flavour added - ours are real real nuts, real smoke, real taste

visit www.smokednuts.co.uk for more information exclusively distributed by Hider Foods. tel: 01482 504333 www.hiderfoods.co.uk

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

Spoilt for choi ce mas his Christ t

a adlington

Buy one smoked turkey joint and get another free to new customers throughout the month of October

The

Original Candy Co Ltd

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

01628 520927

enquiries@originalcandyco.com

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

October 2013 路 Vol.14 Issue 9

Perfection on a plate Joint pictured is 4kg, production spec would be 2kg. Offer available across UK only, excluding posting and packing

Adlington Limited, Pheasant Oak Farm, Hob Lane, Balsall Common CV7 7GX www.adlingtonltd.com

Mr Trotter’s rolls out ale and crisps

Mallow bars

BONNY CONFECTIONERY www.bonnyconfectionery.co.uk AC

EDITE CR

S U P LI E P

Apple crisps TYRRELLS

www.tyrrellscrisps.co.uk

raspberry or double chocolate. Both raspberry vanilla and double chocolate vanilla bars come in cases of 24 units and have a 20-week shelflife. Each bar has an RRP of £1.80 and a wholesale price of 90p.

Rapeseed oil Trotter’s pork scratchings with its honeyed and sourdough notes. Each 50cl bottle has an RRP of £2.45 and can be purchased in cases of eight. Mr Trotter’s Great British Pork Crackling was originally launched in November 2011 by Parker Bowles and Fort together with farmer Rupert Ponsonby and crackling specialist Graham Jebb, whose RayGray snacks operation makes the product. Earlier this year, the brand added jalapeno chilli pork crackling in 60g bags (RRP £1.90£2.20). www.mrtrotter.com

MEDALLION CHILLED FOODS

The crisp-maker has expanded into yet another snack sub-category with the launch of two varieties of apple crisps. Made from thinly sliced skin-on Red Delicious apples, Proudly Plain and Smashingly Cinnamony both come in 30g bags with an RRP of £0.99-£1.29. The new snack is being pitched as a healthy alternative, with each bag containing 2% of the daily saturated fat allowance.

Cocktail biscuits

www.westphalia.co.uk

CRADOC’S

The firm has branched out into the oils category and is now distributing fellow Bedfordshirebased business Mrs Middleton’s cold pressed rapeseed oil. The seed is grown and the oil is produced just four miles from Medallion’s Luton HQ. The oil, which can be used for roasting, frying and salad dressings, comes in 250ml and 500ml bottles. Every batch of oil is labelled with the name of the field where the seed was grown and its OS grid reference number so customers can see exactly where the product has come from.

www.cradocs.co.uk

David Griffen Photography

Premium pork scratching brand Mr Trotter’s has doubled its range with potato crisps and the UK’s only commercially brewed chestnut beer. The company, whose founders include food writers Matthew Fort and Tom Parker Bowles, will launch the skin-on crisps in Fortnum & Mason before selling them to the wider market. The crisps, which are made by rapeseed oil and crisp producer Just Food Co at Wade Lane Farm, have an RRP of 99p and are sprinkled with a specially developed Mr Trotter’s seasoning. “We know it's a crowded market, so it's got to be a cracking crisp to stand out, and that’s what we’ve got,” said Matthew Fort. The 4% ABV chestnut ale, made by Lancaster Brewery, has already been listed with Selfridges and North West supermarket chain Booths. It is described as having a “deep, sweet sourdough flavour”. The blend of Marris Otter barley and sweet chestnuts, which is brewed with English-grown Cascade and Bramling Cross hops, has been developed to complement Mr

S U P LI E P

what's new

The latest format from the Welsh gourmet marshmallow specialist is the grab-and-go MallowMunch bar. Each bar consists of three naturally flavoured mallow cubes – one of vanilla and two of either

By MICHAEL LANE

EDITE CR

shelftalk

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

The savoury biscuit producer has launched three flavoured Golden Bake cocktail biscuits, two of which use traditional cheese from the producer’s native Wales: pear & Earl Grey, Perl Las cheese & walnut, and leek & Caerphilly. Made by Brecon Beacons baking duo Allie and Ella Thomas, the biscuits are recommended as accompaniments to drinks or on cheeseboards. Each 80g box has an RRP of £2.99. Retailers can order all of these lines from distributors Diverse Fine Food or Suma Wholefoods.

Looking for some last-minute Christmas ideas? Based at Isle of Man hotel Aaron House, Berries produces a range of award-winning Christmas puddings by hand to an old family recipe. Its Manx vintage Christmas pudding was awarded three stars in Great Taste 2012. The puddings, which come wrapped in white linen and tied with a black satin ribbon and swing tag, are available in 1lb (454g) and 2lb (908g) sizes in cases of six for £50.70 and £81.90 respectively. www.berries.co.im

It has gained a big following as a Bloody Mary mix in both 25cl and 75cl bottles but now Big Tom spicy tomato juice, which has a Royal Warrant, is available in 15cl cans just in time for the winter party season. Producer James White Drinks developed the new size after it penned a deal to supply the drink to Scandinavian Airways but says the can is ideal for a number of markets, including picnics and hampers. www.jameswhite.co.uk

Those looking for something a little different for the Christmas table might consider some of French patisserie Maison Blanc’s Great Taste winning products. The firm won awards for five different products this year including two stars for its Josephine – an exotic fruit mousse and vanilla genoise resting on a macaroon base topped with fresh fruit. They come in boxes of nine (RRP £5.20). www.maisonblanc. com

Vol.14 Issue 9 October 2013

shelftalk Kieran Sloan started with Sawers as a trainee fish-boy in 1985. He bought the business in 2002.

Rolling with the times Deli of the Month INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL LANE

Sawers may be Belfast’s oldest deli but it is keeping pace with cultural change in the city

t’s where Dracula buys his coffee and it’s One Direction’s first port of call for a salad when they are in Belfast. Another regular is a man called Littlefinger, who often needs to stock up on cannolis for his brothel. It says a lot about the changing nature of the Northern Irish capital that a traditional deli is catering for the world’s biggest boyband, selling Turkish coffee to the crew of Hollywood’s latest Dracula film or supplying Italian sweets for the sets of HBO series Game of Thrones.

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

But the store in question, Sawers, has seen it all since it began selling fine food to the city’s residents in 1897. Now in its fourth incarnation, the retailer has been under the ownership of Kieran Sloan for just over a decade. Having joined as a trainee fish-boy at 16 in 1985 and worked his way up to manager, he is well versed in the shop’s tradition and history. “It’s been iconic for over 100 years,” he tells FFD. “If you sat out there long enough you would hear people walking by saying ‘Oh, I’m just outside Sawers.’ It’s a name that has always been part of Belfast.” “They call us the mini Harrods of Belfast,” he adds. “We sell a lot of caviar, foie gras and truffles. People come here for something different.” Despite its size, there is definitely a food hall vibe about the latest version of Sawers, a 2,800 sq ft unit on College Street immediately next door to the smaller unit Sloan inherited when he bought the business in 2002. An enormous L-shaped chilled counter runs the length of one side of the shop (and most of the

back wall), crammed with cheese, olives, charcuterie, Turkish Delight and prepared salads. There’s also a glistening fish slab loaded with fresh fish, winkles and herring prepared in-house and a number of seafood tapas dishes. Salamis, baskets, dried chillies, flags of the world and signs proclaiming offers hang from every available space on the ceiling. Each shelf is stacked flush to the edge and every fixture heaves with ambient lines ranging from homely jams and

chutneys to American breakfast cereals, pasta and a global palette of ingredients. Little wonder visiting film crews like to buy their food here. “In a deli, everything has to be a display,” says Sloan. “If people are going to pay a premium for things that they’re not going to get anywhere else, it has to look the price.” At least two sections of the shop are remerchandised every week to keep regular customers interested, and there’s not a bottle out of place. “My brother came in one day and said ‘Kieran, do you ever sell anything in here?’” says Sloan, acknowledging his obsessive presentation standards. And this attention to detail isn’t just for the benefit of regular customers. It took a couple of days to get Sloan on the phone to set a date for FFD’s visit, because he was occupied with preparing for a tour group of cruise ship passengers. A new liner arrives in the city every Wednesday and passengers can book a foodie tour of Belfast for when they dock. It begins with a demonstration at James Street South restaurant and cookery school and ends with an Irish whiskey tasting at Direct Wine Merchants. Sawers is the middle destination and Sloan has about 20 minutes to give the party a little bit of history about the shop and sample some local delicacies like dulse (seaweed), then they get a brief window to shop. He has a similar arrangement as a stop on a tour called Belfast Bred, led by an actor who plays a chef from The Titantic. One group of Americans recently spent £600 in their 10 minute shopping slot, but Sloan says these tour groups are more about longerterm promotion than immediate sales. “We’re getting tweets and emails back, and if we go on sites like TripAdvisor they’re saying ‘You’ve got to visit Sawers’. That’s really what I want out of it.” Since moving into the new shop in August 2012, Sloan has also

products, promotions & people class treats” like potted herring, succeeded in raising the average winkles and dulse, even though spend across his whole customer sales are waning. It also explains base – partly because many large displays of supermarket staples customers felt there wasn’t room to like Blue Dragon Asian ingredients, use a basket in the smaller shop. De Cecco pasta, and Wilkin & Sons “If we can get somebody to preserves. It’s not like he’s selling pick a basket up, I would say you’re tons of soy sauce, spaghetti and talking £30-£40,” he says. “Once strawberry jam, he says. His volume they get on to the cheese and olive comes from lines that you won’t counter, they go mad.” This is find in supermarkets, like Panko particularly true of the dinner party breadcrumbs, bucatini and Little foodies that frequent the shop on Scarlet jam. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Perusing the shelves, you’ll also and Sloan estimates that he makes find well-known speciality brands up to 50-60% profit on fresh items like Cottage Delight (which also compared to a more modest 30packs some own label for Sawers), 40% across the store. several ranges from importer The shop also caters for a more Bespoke Foods and lots of fresh and mature crowd who remember the ambient Italian goods supplied by “old” Sawers, which started off on Dublin-based specialist wholesalers, the High Street and moved to Castle including Del Gusto and Sicilian Fine Street in the mid-’60s before the Foods. shift to College Street in 1982. These About 75% of Sawers’ stock customers come in for fresh fish and is sourced through wholesalers. traditional items like Sawers’ own The remainder comes from local pickled herrings (a recipe passed on producers. As well as Hannan Meat’s through generations of staff) and Great Taste Supreme Champion O’Doherty’s black bacon. guanciale, Sloan’s local roster The real growth area, says Sloan, includes preserve-maker Erin Grove, is the younger consumer who likes Suki Tea, Kearney Blue cheese, Keen to cook and has an interest in food nut butters and a firm called Our from abroad. “Way back in 1985, Daily Bread, which specialises in we sold things like Parma ham but it fresh and ready-to-bake wheaten was only the people with the money bread. to travel who would Sloan gets buy it. Because They call us the mini fresh focaccia of the Troubles Harrods of Belfast. from another people didn’t get Belfast artisan away. There was no People come here for baker, Barley EasyJet then.” something different. Cove, which You might say has a stall at St George’s Market, this foodie awareness phenomenon a fruitful source of new producers. is no different from anywhere else “I’ve seen a huge rise in the last year but Sloan still feels his home city lags of local suppliers popping up,” he behind the rest of the UK. “There are says. The best thing about them, he things I want to throw out and I’m adds, is he can just buy a dozen or always looking for new products,” so units at a time “whereas when he says. “But within Belfast there’s you’re with the big companies you’re a line. If you cross it too far you’re screwed to spend £1,500 and every putting your customers into a corner. order has to be £1,000 before you “We have a lot of Italian can qualify for a discount.” sauces but maybe only 20% of Barley Cove’s focaccias are our customers would know what especially popular during the they are. If you start going really lunchtime rush, filled with meat and upmarket you have to watch your cheese from the deli counter and customer base, your bread and toasted. In the space of an hour and butter.” a half, Sloan sells roughly 60, for This is the reason Sloan keeps around £5, with a drink and a salad the fish slab (something that Sawers dressed with one of his own brand has always had) and “working

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balsamic vinegars. “We’re maybe shop. giving away a free 10p salad but Ultimately, his dream is to they go away and say ‘God, isn’t restore Sawers to its historical that gorgeous?’ and come back and position on the High Street, buy a bottle of balsamic for £6.” hopefully within the next five years. Food-to-go accounts for around “This wee side street’s nice, 10-15% of sales and Sloan wants but because Sawers is so iconic I to increase that share and get his believe we should be in the High prices up with his next plan for the Street competing against Marks and business: expanding back into the Tesco,” he says. “I’m always up for old unit next door. a fight.” He’s already put the idea forward www.sawersbelfast.com to his landlord, who has kept the building free since Sawers vacated it despite ST-STOCKS Sawers MU advances from mic pearls several other Belazu balsa t chilli feta businesses. Even Sawers’ swee if he can’t get a fast Brew Suki Tea Bel café in place for en read wheat a while, Sloan Our Daily B bread mix wants to open a mic vinegar wberry balsa pop-up hamper cati and Sawers’ stra silli lunghi bu shop for Christmas De Cecco fu with a short-term bucatini son paté eser ves veni lease of his old Edinburgh Pr

gift box ney (made seboard chut Sawers’ chee ight) Del by Cottage arinara sugo alla m Don Antonio pasta sauce hot chilli jam Erin Grove r olive mix ic & coriande Sawers’ garl s) ht (Med Food Turkish Delig black bacon ta O’Doher ty’s Jamon Bello z pre-sliced ue zq la B es Jamon s) an Fine Food nnolis (Sicili Chocolate Ca e) se (Rowcliff rgogne chee Délice de Bou s potato crisp San Nicasio Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

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All-star line-up Looking to stock some Great Taste winning products? Here is a selection of 2013’s very best. Quickes makes a number of awardwinning traditional cheeses using milk from its own dairy herd. It describes its traditional vintage Cheddar, which is matured for two years in muslin cloth, as “both complex and balanced with a truly unique flavour”. The judges certainly agreed, awarding the rinded cheese three stars and it also bagged a spot in the Great Taste Top 50. Available in both 25kg whole cheeses and 1.5kg cuts, the cheese has a suggested retail price from £24 per 1.5kg piece. www.quickes.co.uk

Hampshire-based Atkins & Potts claimed a two-star award for its wasabi mayonnaise, a blend of its classic mayonnaise with the powerful Japanese horseradish. The producer says the condiment, which is made with British free-range eggs, works well as an accompaniment for seared tuna, smoked fish and, of course, sushi. It can also be used as a dip for prawns and crudités. Retailers can purchase the product in cases of 6 x 195g glass jars for £11.40. Each jar has an RRP of £2.75. www.atkinsandpotts.co.uk

The entrepreneur and olive oil connoisseur Alexandros Spiliadis introduced Greek brand Eleia to the market in 2010. Its olive trees, located in the famous Lechaina village, West Peloponnese, have yielded fruity and “extremely aromatic” extra virgin oil for over a century. The oil, which was awarded one star, comes in 200ml (wholesale £5, RRP £10) and 500ml (wholesale £7, RRP £17) glass bottles, as well as 1 litre (wholesale £8.50, RRP £22) and 5 litre tins (wholesale £18.50, RRP £35). www.eleia.gr

Bell and Loxton’s three-star award winning cold pressed rapeseed oil is grown, pressed and bottled on the family farm in South Devon. As well as being ideal for dressings and drizzling, the producer says its high burn temperature also makes it well-suited for roasting and frying. This Omega 3-rich oil is sold in 700ml bottles, for a wholesale price of £3.50 per bottle (cases of 12 units, RRP £6.99 each), and 5 litre catering cans. www.bellandloxton.co.uk

Two varieties of Nim’s Fruit Crisps proved a hit with the Great Taste judges. Both the apple (“lovely crisp, apple-y crunch”) and the orange (“crisp and light with a delicious, bitter tang”) were awarded a star. All of the producer’s crisps are 100% natural and airdried, skin and all, to enhance the fruits’ natural flavours. Shelf-ready cases of 10 bags are sold to retailers for £7.50 (RRP £1.20-£1.35 per pack). Starter packs containing three cases, taster packs and information cards cost £22.50. www.nimsfruitcrisps.com

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

Judges were so impressed by the “rich honey flavours and good balance” of Mendip Moments’ clotted cream & honeycomb ice cream that they gave it two stars. The producer was pleased to receive the accolade for a product that is already a firm favourite with its customers across the independent retail and café sector. The ice cream comes in 500ml tubs with an RRP of £4.69. All of Mendip Moments’ ice cream is made on the family dairy farm on the Somerset Levels using its own milk and cream. www.mendipmoments.co.uk

Cumbria’s Hawkshead Relish teamed up with Hawkshead Brewery to create a three-star winning “golden and fragrant” jelly (180g, RRP £2.95) using the brewer’s Windermere Pale Ale, which won two stars itself. The preserve-maker says the cask beer’s American hops provide citrusy high notes that marry well with harder cheeses. The judges agreed One of three jellies made using local beer and cider launched by the Cumbrian company in 2013, Windermere Pale real ale jelly can be purchased in trade cases of six for £12.60. www.hawksheadrelish.com

First-time Great Taste entrant Taste of the Country claimed two stars for its handmade dark chocolate brownie, which is a top seller in its Warwickshire shop and is now available by the slab or in individual pre-packed pieces as part of its wholesale range. All deliveries are made by courier in easy-to-store packaging. The wholesale price is £16.50 for a pre-marked slab of 21 pieces or £11.30 for an outer of 12 prepacks at a RRP of £1.45. www.tasteofthecountry.co.uk

Norfolk’s Bhaji Man, aka Don Lear, has won a Great Taste star for his premium mango chutney, made with fresh mangoes, red chilli and cumin and coriander seeds. The judges praised the chutney for marrying all of its ingredients well and called it “delightful”. The chutney comes in 220g jars, which are available to the trade at £2.85 and have an RRP of £3.95. www.bhajiman.co.uk

Ices maker Hadley’s added to its Great Taste award collection with a personal best of 12 this year. The pick of the bunch is its raspberry & cream flavour, awarded three-stars. It is made with fresh milk and cream sourced from this year’s Supreme Champion Marybelle Dairy (which took the top honour for its Greek-style yoghurt), free-range egg yolks, golden granulated sugar and Tulamen raspberries from Norfolk. Described by judges as “rich with raspberry sharpness and a delight on the tongue”, it comes in 100ml, 500ml (RRPs £1.80 and £4.95 respectively) and 2lt catering tubs. www.handmadebyhadleys.co.uk

Greek specialist The Life Goddess picked up a star this year for its “proper” Greek yoghurt produced by Koukakis Farm in Northern Greece. It says this product’s unique taste is down to the freshness of the milk used – the yoghurt is made within hours of milking. And it is just milk and yoghurt yeast that goes into the product, which is sold in 200g glass jars (wholesale £1.10 each, 24 per cases) and 5kg catering containers. www.thelifegoddess.com

M & M Products has been awarded stars at Great Taste 2013 for two of its fresh stuffings including the M & M-branded 250g garden herb stuffing (RRP £2.99). The Irish firm says that the key to its success is that all of its fresh stuffings and breadcrumbs are produced in its on-site bakery and are entirely preservativefree. As well as its fresh products, M & M also makes dried breadcrumbs and croutons. sales@magusm.ie

Italian coffee and panettone specialist distributor Caffe Vero has another award winning panettone on its hands this year. Produced by Vicenza-based Loison over the course of three days, each one-star panettone with Prosecco is made with carefully sourced ingredients including Prosecco from Valdobbiadene, candied oranges from Sicily and Mananara vanilla from Madagascar. It comes in 500g, 750g, and 1kg sizes and in several styles of packaging. Cases of six cost £60, £76.20 and £84 respectively. www.caffevero.co.uk

As well as providing smoothie ingredients and equipment to a range of clients, Love Smoothies also supplies teas. In fact, it was the success of its frozen smoothies “Made-Easy” concept that led the London-based company to develop a frozen tea product for the winter months. All of its teas are made with 100% natural ingredients, such as its one-star winning wildberry & elderflower tea which contains rosehip, hibiscus, raspberries and elderflower. Cases of 20 x 36g cost £13.50.

The South Devon Chilli Farm’s one-star winning chilli drinking chocolate is available in a kilner-style clip-top jar (200g, wholesale £5.25 +VAT, RRP £7.50). This Aztec-style hot chocolate drink is said to give “twice the warmth of a regular hot chocolate”, making it ideal for the winter season. It also comes in a re-fill pack (250g, wholesale £3.36 +VAT, RRP £5.25), which offers retailers an environmentally friendly selling point. A catering size of 2kg is also available for £21. www.sdcf.co.uk

www.lovesmoothies.com

Slightly milder than the Stilton that Colston Bassett is best known for, the Nottinghamshire dairy’s “delicately sweet” Shropshire Blue won three stars and was named in the prestigious Great Taste Top 50. This smooth and creamy cheese, which has a distinctive blue-veined orange body and a deep orange-brown natural rind, is best eaten at 6-8 week’s maturity. Whole cheeses weigh 8kg but can be cut to size by distributors. The RRP per kg is £17-£24.

Mike’s Smokehouse has won five one-star awards in Great Taste 2013, continuing its unbroken run of success every year since the smokehouse started in 2006. Among this year’s winners was its one-star smoked rainbow trout, which is lightly cured in sea salt and molasses and gently hot-smoked over Manuka woodchips. They are packed as individual fillets (approx 100g) at a trade price of £19/kg. Its other winning products were traditional smoked salmon, Manuka salmon paté, Manuka smoked duck and Manuka smoked chicken. www.mikes-smokehouse.co.uk

www.colstonbassettdairy.com

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

chiltern cold pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil

Our Award winning oil now infused with: Garlic, Basil, Chilli, Lemon, Thyme, Oak Smoked, Porcini, Rosemary & Stir-Fry

Salad Dressings Honey & Mustard Classic Vinaigrette Balsamic Dressing

Bottles available Direct or from Cotswold Fayre

Rapeseed Oil

Oak Smoked

Honey & Mustard

Stir-Fry Oil

Available Direct in: 5L & 2.5L Tins

www.chilterncoldpressedrapeseedoil.co.uk 01442 828478

October 2013 路 Vol.14 Issue 9

Cottage Delight’s two-star winning English chilli sauce is made using Serenade chillies grown in Bedfordshire. This sauce delivers both a natural sweetness and a slow growing heat whilst retaining its own fruity characteristics. Made in small batches at the producer’s Staffordshire HQ, It is a versatile product that can be used for dipping, glazing, basting or as an ingredient in salad dressings. The chilli sauce, which is also gluten-free, is available to the trade in 200ml bottles for £1.97 with an RRP £2.95.

Judges said there was nothing they would change about Alder Tree’s damson cream ice. That’s why this handmade ice from Suffolk was awarded three stars and made Great Taste’s Top 50 list. Made in small batches using British grown damsons, sugar and British cream, this product is described as “intensely rich and fruity”. It is available through wholesalers Stratford Fine Foods and Tastes of Anglia in cases of 6 x 500ml for £19.14 + VAT and in 4 litre catering containers for £18.99 +VAT.

www.cottagedelight.co.uk

www.alder-tree.co.uk

French and Spanish food importer Patriana received a one-star award for its Serrano Bodega ham supplied by Lopez Puerto. This artisan producer from Salamanca also specialises in the full range of Iberico hams and applies the same quality standards to its Serrano, which is matured for a minimum of 18 months. The ham, which is produced from the region’s free-range white pigs, is avaialable both on the bone and de-boned and vacuumpacked. www.patriana.com

All of the olives harvested at Avlaki’s two organic groves on the Greek island of Lesvos are picked by hand, milled immediately and bottled within weeks. The result is a fresh, single-estate, extra virgin olive oil with a very light consistency. The oil produced by the mountainside Agatheri Groves was awarded one star at Great Taste 2013. Agatheri has a “mild start with complex aftertones and a slight hint of pepperiness”, which makes it well-suited as a finishing oil for delicate dishes. It comes in cases of 6 x 500ml dorica bottles ( £12 each, minimum order 12 bottles). www.oliveoilavlaki.com

In 1910, a woman named Ines Rosales Cabello began making sweet, crispy biscuits to sell at the train station in Seville. One hundred years later, Ines Rosales Tortas de Aceite are still made the same way: flattened by hand, one by one, and wrapped in wax paper. These 100% natural biscuits are made using extra virgin olive oil and have recently been relaunched in a foil pack to improve quality and freshness. Each 180g pack (cases of 10 for £21.90) contains six individually wrapped tortas. Two flavours – original sweet olive and Seville orange – were awarded one star. www.inesrosales.com

Ireland’s Horgan’s has been making corned beef and pastrami to a family recipe that dates back to 1921. Made from 100% Irish Angus beef with no artificial colourings or flavourings, both of these deli meats took two stars in Great Taste 2013. The firm also took a star for its roast beef. All of these products are sold by the kilo and can be ordered direct from Horgan’s. www.horgans.com

With a family history stretching back over 30 years, Blackacre Farm Eggs says it knows a thing or two about chickens and the one-star it picked up for its free-range eggs this year supports that. Each of its birds is cared for by Dan, Briony and their specially chosen South West Farmers. Whether very large, large, medium or small, 6’s, 8’s or even 10’s, every one of Blackacre’s award-winning eggs are printed with a unique code, which will tell you exactly where it has been laid when you enter it on to the website. RRPs start at £1.29 for six medium free-range eggs. www.blackacrefarmeggs.com

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

Lyme Bay Winery Festive Winter Tipples and Gifts. Are you looking for a range of products which is beautifully packaged, delicious and made with the utmost care? • Festive Wines, Liqueurs and Ciders • Presentation boxes (perfect gifts for “HIM” or “HER”) • Small stocking filler ideas

Try our new Organic Brazilian Plateau, cold pressed, rich in minerals and enzymes, reputed blood cleaning qualities, perfect for having with yoghurt Balkan Acacia, cold pressed, low in GI

Call us for advice on your Winter & Christmas orders.

To order call 01780 450 377 or email at info@ogilvys.com

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

Fermented excitement for the cheeseboard

“The ladies’ swim team put their success down to large snacks between meals”.

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

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

NEW! Proudly Plain and Smashingly Cinnamony Apple Crisps www.tyrrellscrisps.co.uk T: 01568 720244

shelftalk Originally developed after a request for a Robinsons pubs chef, the first of Patchwork Traditional Food Co’s chutneys with ales proved such a hit that the producer extended the range. All hand-made in small batches, this range provided two Great Taste onestar winners this year. Apricot & orange with Wychcraft Ale & coriander seeds has a peppery kick with a warm hint of coriander while tomato & roasted red pepper with Unicorn Ale & cumin is described as sweet and earthy. www.patchwork-pate.co.uk

Badu’s Indian Feast produces a range of spice mixes and pastes for making curry and it was the Colchester firm’s authentic masala that bagged it a one-star in this year’s Great Taste. Each 200g pack (RRP £5.50) combines fresh herbs, roasted spices and tomatoes topped with onions, bay and fragrant curry leaves. One pack of this chilled, preservativefree masala together with 900g of meat, fish or vegetables will make a curry for four people. The wholesale price for each container is £3.90 plus delivery costs (based on order size). www.badusindianfeast.co.uk

Currently seeking UK distributors, Rosie & Jim’s Southern fried chicken goujons are made from whole breast inner-fillets of chicken, coated in a light batter infused with the producer’s own unique blend of spices and an extra-light breadcrumb. The product is flashfried and ready for oven baking or deep-frying, but it is supplied raw as opposed to the fully cooked varieties which are widely used in the foodservice sector. The Irish supplier feels this gives the product a superior texture and succulence to that of other suppliers. The judges agreed awarding the goujons one star. www.rosieandjim.ie

One-star winning Perkier fruity berry porridge is billed as “the most generous gluten-free porridge on the market” and the producer says every spoonful should contain lots of berries and raisins. Free from gluten, wheat and with no added sugar, it can also be deployed as a muesli, used as a crumble topping or mixed into a base for flapjacks. Cases of 6 x 450g boxes (RRP £3.99 - £4.25 each) are available from Tree of Life, Marigold, Goodness Foods, The Health Store and CLF. www.perkier.co.uk

Gourmante travelled to the countryside in the Liguria region of Italy, near the port city of Imperia, to source its red pesto, which was deemed worthy of a one-star award. The “magic ingredients” in this product, which comes in 130g jars (trade £1.49, RRP £2.39), are basil, sundried tomatoes, garlic, pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil and cheese, either a Pecorino or Parmigiano. www.gourmante.com

Atkins & Potts added to its Great Taste success with this one-star winning Béarnaise sauce, made at its Hampshire base using British free-range eggs, tarragon, chervil and shallots. While this classic sauce’s primary use is for serving alongside steak or smoked fish, the producer also recommends using it to dress potato salad. It comes in Atkins & Potts’s bespoke 195g glass jars (RRP £2.75 each), which are available in cases of six (£11.40). www.atkinsandpotts.co.uk

Radnor Hill’s Heartsease Farm traditional lemonade, a blend of sparkling mineral water and fruit, has won one star in this year’s Great Taste. The Heartsease range of premium pressés is named after the farm that has belonged to the family-owned mineral water business for more than 100 years. Situated in the Welsh Marches, Heartsease Farm is where Radnor draws the spring water for its products. All of the Heartsease range comes in 750ml and 330ml glass bottles as well as 425ml plastic bottles. They retail for £2.89, £1.99 and £1.25 respectively. www.radnorhills.co.uk

Belfast-based preserve-maker Quince Grove gained a star with its flagship product, quince fruit cheese. The company, which makes all things quince, claims its secret is small batch production because the Mediterranean fruit does not respond well to large scale manufacture. This fruit cheese pairs particularly well with sheep’s and goats’ milk cheeses but also complements blues. It comes in 195g jars (trade £2.60, RRP £3.95).

Pip Organic never adds any sugars, waters, preservatives or concentrates to its juices so that consumers can just enjoy the taste of organic fruit. The one-star winning juice, which is aimed at children, comes in 180ml wedge cartons (RRP £0.99-£1.60) or multipacks of 4 x 180ml (RRP £3.99). Cases of six multipacks cost £15.60 + VAT. Pip Organic supplies juices and smoothies to the retail, foodservice and leisure sectors.

www.quincegrove.com

www.piporganic.com

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

shelftalk The Real Basmati Rice Co sources all of its one-star winning white rice from farms in The Punjab in Pakistan and Northern India. The company says that rice gets better with age like wine so it ages the grain for 12 months to bring out a “unique aroma and taste”, before packing it in recyclable Kraft brown bags (1kg, RRP £4.90). Cases of 10 x 1kg bags can be purchased from distributor Cotswold Fayre for £28.

Relish the Taste is a Gloucestershire-based family business which specialises in handmade chutneys, relishes, pickles and jams. As well as using as much of its own home-grown produce as possible, the company also operates a local swapping scheme – trading jars of chutney with local home-growers for their excess fruit and veg. In its first year entering Great Taste, Relish the Taste claimed a star for its hot spiced aubergine chutney (190g, RRP £3.80, cases of 12 for £31.80), which can be used as an accompaniment or an ingredient.

www.therealbasmatirice.com

www.relishthetaste.co.uk

Cretan olive oil specialist Olive Branch picked up a single star for for both its <0.3% extra virgin olive oil and everyday extra virgin olive oil as well as the sun dried tomato paste from its jarred mezze range. The paste, which comes in 190g jars (RRP £2.99), can be used as a dip, spread and even a cooking ingredient. Its low acidity oil, which was described by judges as having a “persistent taste from start to finish”, comes in 250ml, 500ml and 1 litre bottles (RRPs £4.99, £8.99, and £14.99 respectively).

The second of Irish foodservice supplier Rosie & Jim’s one-star winners, these garlic chicken kievs are made using whole chicken fillets, pure Irish butter and crushed garlic cloves. As with its other products it is flashfried but supplied raw to boost the final cooked-off product’s succulence. It is supplied both chilled and frozen to the Irish market, in catering packs and also in frozen retail bags. Rosie & Jim is now looking for distributors in the UK. www.rosieandjim.ie

www.myolivebranch.co.uk

Certified as vegetarian, vegan and organic, Conscious Chocolates makes 11 different raw chocolate bars by hand. The producer’s plain 60% bar, which is the basis for the rest of its range, claimed one star in Great Taste 2013. The “rich, creamy” bar is a blend of Ecuadorian cacao powder, cacao butter, agave nectar, coconut butter, carob powder, cinnamon and Himalayan salt. Single flavours are sold to retailers in cases of 10 x 50g (RRP £2.50-£2.99 each) for £16. They are available from wholesalers Marigold, Queenswood, Goodness, Infinity and Essential. www.consciouschocolate.co.uk

Whether you’re a vegan or you have a special dietary requirement Pudology says that everyone can enjoy its puds because they are both gluten- and dairy-free. Despite these restrictions the company has managed to produce a chocolate pud – made with Belgian chocolate, coconut milk and Madagascan vanilla – and it’s won a Great Taste star. The 85g puddings come in single and twin packs, which have RRPs of £2.49 and £3.99 respectively, and are available direct or from wholesalers Goodness Foods and Suma. www.pudology.com

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

Shortbread House secured five Great Taste Awards in 2013 bringing the total it has won to date to more than 50. The family-run bakery credits its “consistent attention to detail” as the reason for this success. This year’s batch of winners included sweet oatie biscuits, lemon bites and orginal shortbread bites, made by hand to give it a signature taste and texture. All products are made to order and delivered fresh, direct to the customer. www.shortbreadhouse.com

Highland Bay Seafoods’ diver-caught wild Scottish King scallops took three stars at Great Taste 2013. Caught off the Orkney Islands using a method that causes no seabed damage, waste or by-catch, these extra large scallops are presented on the half shell and come in packs of two (280g, RRP £5.99). They are supplied frozen in cases of 12 packs for £52.32. Customers receive free delivery if they buy more than five cases from Highland Bay’s range of frozen seafood. www.highlandbayseafoods.co.uk

Chilli specialist Mr Vikki’s banana habanero pickle is made in 20kg batches in order to retain the freshness and colour of all the ingredients, including the spices that are all hand-roasted by the producer. The pickle is tended throughout the cooking process as “there is only a minute between perfection and disaster”. It was clearly a case of the former at Great Taste 2013 with the product picking up three stars and making the Top 50 list. Jars of 210g (cases of 12 units) have a wholesale price of £2.25 each and an RRP of £3.75.

Anybody who picks up a Real Pasty will notice how heavy it feels, says creator The Real Pie Co, because its is “crammed to the crimp” with minced beef, swede, potato, turnip and carrot. The Sussex-based firm adds that its puff pastry is lighter than that found in Cornish versions. Retailers can buy the individually wrapped pasties (trade £1.12, RRP £2.50 each) in cases of 12.

www.mrvikkis.co.uk

www.therealpieco.co.uk

Following up on last year’s triumph as the Great Taste Speciality Producer of the Year, Simple Simon’s Perfect Pies took three one-stars this year. Both its chunky beef & fresh horseradish and mince & tattie pies were winners as was its complete Christmas-dinnerin-a-pie: turkey with gammon & chipolata. All of the Lanarkshirebased firm’s layered pies feature a base of shredded steamed skin-on Rooster potatoes (65g) and topped with the main ingredient (125g), always made from Scottish meat or seafood.

Produced by Welsh Lady Preserves on the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales, this lemon curd (cases of 6 x 311g jars) has won three stars for the second year in a row. It is still made to the original recipe developed by Dio Jones in 1966, and has always been the producer’s biggest seller. Its creator says it’s all down to “selecting good ingredients, using real butter, and traditional cooking methods”.

Isle of Wight vinegar and oil specialist Wild Island produces a number of balsamics that work well both as dressings or dips. The blackberry and spiced fig varieties from this range won two stars and one star respectively. These products can also be mixed with the producer’s range of flavoured oils. Both of these vinegars come in 250ml apothecary style bottles with stoppers (Cases of six cost £27) with an RRP of £7.50 each. www.wildislandstore.co.uk

www.welshladypreserves.com

www.simplesimonspies.co.uk

Launched in early 2013, Tropical Sun’s crushed red chilli sauce is made in Jamaica using the island’s red scotch bonnet chillies. It says that all of the chillies used are only picked at the right maturity, after ripening in the Caribbean’s tropical climate, to ensure the right balance of heat and flavour. This one-star winning product is available in cases of 12 bottles (RRP £1.49 each) from distributor Wanis International Foods. www.tropicalsunfoods.com

Yog frozen yogurt is made by hand from the fresh milk produced on its farm in Kent and with natural ingredients. The producer says the key to the success of its flavours, two of which have won awards, comes from making its yogurt in a churn. Like all of its range, one-star winning natural and passion fruit come in 500ml (RRP £3.99) & 172ml sizes (RRP £1.89, with spoon in lid). www.yogyogurt.com

Vegan-friendly, dairy-free No-Moo Melty from Vegusto is described as having a “tender mozzarella texture and strong fragrant cheesy flavour”. The vegetarian food specialist recommends the one-star cheese as a pizza topping, cubed in salads or served in cheese toasties. Each pack (wholesale £5.63, RRP £7.49) features 2 x 200g barrels of the cheese, which is made using nut butters, rock salt, potato starch and rice flour. www.vegusto.co.uk

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

ld be taken

mium seed and

Macsween multi award winning haggis is a versatile ingredient perfect for all seasons, occasions and places. The only haggis to be awarded 3 stars.

ase include ward logo side the na please... Not only is Newgrange Gold’s Range of Oil a tasty and healthy alternative to Olive Oil, their Camelina Oil is a Great Taste Awards 3 Gold Star Winner. Nutty and nutritious Camelina oil is • Exceptionally high in Omega 3 • Contains Vitamin & antioxidants • Perfect Omega 3 to 6 ratio of 2:1 • High in Polyunsaturated fats which promote good cholesterol • Cold-pressed at source resulting in higher health benefits • Fully traceable • Produced in Ireland by familyowned and operated business For details and more information visit www.newgrangegold.ie To become a stockist please call email jack@newgrangegold.ie or call 00353 857 288416

Choose Newgrange Gold, everyday goodness in your kitchen

Macsween of Edinburgh www.macsween.co.uk 0131 440 2555 haggis@macsween.co.uk @macsweenhaggis macsweenhaggis

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Pónaire Coffees – Aroma, Taste, Satisfaction With over 14 Great Taste-winning hand-roasted coffees to its name, Pónaire has been catering for the discerning coffee lover since 2006. Its expert roasters take great care to draw out the natural flavours in each batch, resulting in the six award-winning speciality coffees you see here. Please order online: www.ponaire.com or email info@ponaire.ie 56

October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

Delicious desserts using the best of ingredients Our 2-star winner is a delicious combination of our mallow textured meringue, home-made toffee, whipped dairy cream and Cornish Sea Salt, delicately hand rolled into a scrumptious dessert suitable for every occasion. Fusco Foods has been rolling out meringue roulades for over ten years and this is our fourth Great Taste winning meringue roulade.

Call Nicky now for your quality dessert requirements on +353 1 295 3024 or mobile: +353 86 8186810 www.fuscofoods.com

shelftalk Organic brand Roots & Wings won two stars for its Fine & Fruity Brown Sauce, which is hand-made in Wiltshire with apples, dates, spices, molasses and cider vinegar from Suffolk. Described as “robust and richly flavoured”, it is recommended as an accompaniment to cheese, cold meats and, of course, bacon sandwiches. Retailers can buy the sauce in cases for 6 x 250ml bottles from distributors Petty Wood and Tree of Life. www.rootsandwingsorganic.com

The Pie Mill proved its credentials in both sweet and savoury pie-making with its one-star wins this year. The Cumbrian producer’s rhubarb pie features a sweet shortcrust pastry, made by hand and fingercrimped for that homemade feel. Its other awarded product, the Grizedale pie, is filled with local pork, sausage, apple and cider and encased in shortcrust pastry. Fruit pies are available in family or individual sizes (RRP £3.00/£0.75) while individual meat pies have an RRP of £3-£3.75

As well as gaining a three-star award and a place in the Great Taste Top 50, Great Glen Game’s green pepper salami also took the Golden Fork for Charcuterie Product of the Year. The Highlands-based business makes this salami entirely from locally sourced wild venison and green peppercorns. The producer sells whole salamis to the foodservice, restaurant and deli sectors as well as pre-sliced packs for independent retailers. www.greatglengame.co.uk

www.piemill.co.uk

Made with sustainably farmed fish smoked over whisky casks, The Smokehouse’s hot smoked Atlantic trout paté (150g and 300g, RRP £4.25 and £8) with horseradish & dill was one of three products from the company to claim a Great Taste star. The Aberdeenshire producer, which also won stars for its smoked & kiln roasted almonds and Glendronach salmon, recommends spreading the paté on oatcakes, making canapés, or filling sandwiches. www.thesmokehouse.co.uk

Owton’s Corporal Jones Wartime Recipe pork sausages were launched in August 2011 when Rob Owton discovered a recipe in the old family house. Rather than the industry-standard dried rusk, these sausages are made with bread and milk, which creates a richer, moister sausage. All of the pork used in this one-star product is sourced from farmers local to the Hampshire butcher. Wholesale trays weigh 2.5kg. www.owtons.com

Wantage-based Marcopolo Bakery uses a slow fermentation method to produce its light rye bread, which is proved in wicker baskets and baked on stone soles. All the time taken has certainly paid off, resulting in a two-star award. Described as a “superb alternative to the boring white bloomer” and recommended as a good introduction to a sourdough, it comes in two sizes. Large 900g loaves have a wholesale price of £1.80 while smaller 500g loaves cost £1.45. www.marcopolobakery.co.uk

Top 50 food and three-star winning ginger & fennel filled chocolates made by Frederick’s Chocolaterie in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, are now available to the trade. They come in small, medium or large art deco-style presentation boxes, which contain nine, 16 and 25 chocolates respectively. The filling of this chocolate uses an organic 60% Grenadian dark chocolate infused with Chinese stem ginger and organic fennel seeds and the shell is a 39% milk chocolate from Java with a swirl of Venezuelan 72% dark chocolate through it. www.frederickschocolaterie.com

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

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October 2013 · Vol.14 Issue 9

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Gourmet date brand Bateel has installed a refrigerated drawer system from Adande in its boutique café in New Bond Street, West London, and now it plans to roll out the units across its•other outlets worldwide. training The drawer unit is built into the café’s counter, providing temperature controlled storage at the point of service and eliminating the need for staff to leave the workstation to fetch ingredients. The unique and patented technology features an insulated drawer and a modified air flow pattern, which delivers high efficiency cooling, as well as accurate and stable temperature control, no matter how frequently the drawer is opened. Adande has also supplied two drawers to Bateel’s concession within Harrods – one for chilled storage and one for frozen. “Upright freezers simply aren’t

suitable for our boutique café operations,” said Bateel’s Deputy General Manager Europe Alf Hunter. “Having the drawer built into the service counter not only makes the best use of floor space, but also has positive implications for staff efficiency.” Bateel is now planning to install the systems across its portfolio of 35 • training outlets spread over 16 countries. 01502 533794 www.adande.com

Vol.14 Issue 9 · October 2013

October 2013 路 Vol.14 Issue 9