FFD October by Guild of Fine Food

DELI OF THE MONTH... 54

How Darts Farm in Devon became the ultimate ‘destination’ shop

…& DELI OF THE YEAR! 12 Sangita Tryner’s Delilah Fine Foods is really moving up in the world

CREATING A STINK 30

Why Tom Harding’s beer-washed cheese ‘smells like death’ – but in a good way October 2012 · Vol 13 Issue 9

FRYING HIGH The sizzling Italian-style bacon that gave Northern Ireland its second Great Taste triumph CHEF’S SELECTION 79 Nathan Outlaw on the virtues of Kashmir Gold saffron, smoked Cornish sea salt and Hanayuki panko breadcrumbs

GREAT TASTE 2012 17 All the Golden Fork winners from this year’s Great Taste awards night

NEWS 4 CHEESEWIRE 29 CHOCOLATE 35 COOKING SAUCES 43 SHELF TALK 47 DELI OF THE MONTH 54 GREAT TASTING IDEAS 57

All sales enquiries to OXFORD BLUE CHEESE COMPANY LTD 01844 338055 October 2012 路 Vol.13 Issue 9 www.oxfordfinefood.com

What’s new this month:

Opinion

a while. An overnight stay in Tours provided one such opportunity, as did a week in the Dordogne, where hypermarkets and small shops are packed with local produce and young BOB FARRAND people in restaurants are eager to explain why I must taste their local food and wine. A new generation of town centre Writing in The Grocer magazine, ‘farm shops’ intrigued me – none independent retail consultant Kevin with butchery counters but most Hawkins welcomes the fact that “the selling quality, vacuum-packed, local silent majority have made themselves fresh meat and everything else found heard”. in quality farm shops at home. The silent majority he refers to Signs everywhere acknowledge is the “ordinary shoppers who are EU funding for local projects – and coming out [in support] for more not just for farm shops, as this supermarkets in their locality.” Mr month’s news suggests is the case in Hawkins used to work for Safeway. the UK. He says new supermarkets rarely It’s a truth universally have the detrimental impact on acknowledged that Defra has thrown high streets that the “noisy, usually cartloads of EU well-heeled money at the oppositionist Defra has thrown farming sector. cliques” claim. cartloads of EU money Some of it has He tells us at farmers. Some of it worked, particularly his Berkshire the Foot and village boasts two worked… but it’s the Mouth Recovery co-ops, a butcher, high streets that need fund, which a cheese shop, it now. fostered a new an organic shop, generation of farm a newsagent and shops, increasing rural employment three coffee shops, despite Waitrose and driving sales of local food. and Sainsbury’s stores 10 minutes But deli owners tell us (page 4) down the road. that it’s the high streets that need the Mr Hawkins, that’s not a money now, not farm shops. Parking village, it’s a bloody town and those charges, high rents and business rates supermarkets are still a 10-minute make competing with rural farm drive away. The Safeway (now shops impossible. Morrisons) you helped build on the So here’s my cunning plan – edge of Wincanton, where we’re high street delicatessens all convert based, sucked the lifeblood out of the to town centre farm shops, each town and did nothing for local food. commits to selling 60% local produce Things are different in France. and everyone gets a chunk of EU During a recent holiday, the tedium cash from Defra. of driving on French motorways was Even Mr. Hawkins’ silent majority marginally relieved when passing couldn’t object to that. from one département into another and reading large roadside signs Bob Farrand is publisher of Fine Food heralding the local food and drink Digest and chairman of the Guild of I would enjoy if I cared to stop for Fine Food

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EDITORIAL editorial@finefoodworld.co.uk Editor: Mick Whitworth Assistant editor: Michael Lane News editor: Patrick McGuigan Art director: Mark Windsor Editorial production: Richard Charnley Contributors: Lynda Searby, Clare Hargreaves

ADVERTISING advertise@finefoodworld.co.uk Sales manager: Sally Coley Advertisement sales: Becky Stacey, Gavin Weeks Published by Great Taste Publications Ltd and the Guild of Fine Food Ltd Chairman/FFD 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

GENERAL ENQUIRIES Tel: 01963 824464 Fax: 01963 824651 info@finefoodworld.co.uk www.finefoodworld.co.uk Guild of Fine Food, Guild House, Station Road, Wincanton, Somerset BA9 9FE UK Fine Food Digest is published 11 times a year and is available on subscription for £43pa inclusive of post and packing. Printed by: Advent Colour, Hants, UK © Great Taste Publications Ltd and The Guild of Fine Food Ltd 2012. 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.

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

www.ffdonline.co.uk

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Editor’s choice

Selected by Mick Whitworth

Keogh’s Irish potato crisps www.keogh.ie

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Do we need another brand of ‘hand cooked’ potato chips? Of course we do, but with the last year or two seeing a fresh crop of home-grown producers pop up it’s almost a relief to find one that isn’t British. I bumped into two well-scrubbed members of the Keogh family at Olympia last month, where they were on the Irish group stand. I liked their crisps (especially the Shamrock & Sour Cream, which I’m munching as I type) and thought they had their branding and supporting point-of-sale thoroughly sorted. Tina Keogh tells me the business is in advanced talks with a "well known and aspirational retailer” in London, and could be on-shelf there soon, so now’s the time to take a look.

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Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

fine food news Farm shops can access public money to fund developments. Why can’t high street stores?

Delis demand grant aid for ailing urban stores By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Deli operators have questioned the fairness of farm shops receiving grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds under the Rural Development Programme at a time when high street retailers are struggling to stay afloat. Store owners have told FFD that the creation of an equivalent ‘urban development programme’, backed by similar funding levels, would be far more effective in revitalising town centres than the current Portas scheme, and would help to create “a level playing field” between rural and town-centre retailers. “There are several farm shops around me that have benefited from six-figure grants,”said Tony Sykes, owner of Deli Central in Wakefield. “If I could access £100,000, it would transform my business. It’s not the rural economy that is suffering at the moment. The areas that need development are city centres and high streets. It’s based purely on postcode. That’s the unfairness of it.” Maggie Wright, owner of Deli on The Square in Ludlow agrees. She contrasted the fortunes of the nearby Ludlow Food Centre, which opened in 2006 with a £160,000 grant, to retailers in the town centre itself. “It benefits from Ludlow’s reputation for food, but boasts free parking and modern facilities courtesy of government-sourced grants,” she said. “Meanwhile Ludlow’s butchers, bakers and delis have to put up with a steady increase in rents and parking charges. The greatest use that EC funds could be put to would be to offset parking charges and help put us on a level playing field.” The prospect of such a scheme is highly unlikely, however, as the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), and equivalent schemes in Scotland, Wales and NI, are funded by the Common Agricultural Policy. A similar EC policy covering urban areas simply does not exist. At Turnbulls deli in Shaftesbury, Dorset, Charlie Turnbull said that for a deli owner to earn a decent salary, the shop must turn over at least £220,000. “Grant funding allows farm shops to leapfrog this and go to enterprises that are turning over up to £2m straight away. You could argue that’s proof that it works, but you could also argue that it’s pulling the rug out from smaller businesses.” Farm shops say they face unique challenges that city centre retailers do not, such as huge start-up costs,

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

Moor Farm Shop opened a new £250,000 store in Shropshire in 2011 with the help of a £62,500 RDPE grant

Marsh Green Farm Shop near Matlock in the East Midlands opened in June this year with an RDPE grant of just over £170,000

Ludlow Food Centre opened in 2006 with a £160,000 grant

remote locations and planning restrictions dictating what they can sell. “Most delicatessens are able to move into a high street location with existing footfall and density of population,” said Gareth Jones, managing agent of farm shop organisation Farma. “The capital costs of buildings and infrastructure are already provided by the landlord and local authority, and delicatessens can sell what they choose.” Heather Copley, owner of Farmer

and has introduced measures to cut red tape, kick-start bank lending and create a competitive business tax system. She said: “Rural businesses have traditionally faced more challenges than those in towns and cities such, as slow internet speeds and a shortage of local work premises and training opportunities. These have frustrated rural economic growth. We want it to be just as easy to grow a successful business in a remote area as in a city.”

Copley’s farm shop in Pontefract, added: “Everybody wants to keep the green belt, but rural retailers need people to travel to their site, so the attraction needs to be good enough for people to make the effort. Certain areas of farming are not as profitable as they once were, so they need a lift up the ladder via funding to establish the business, which then enables them to maintain the countryside.” A Defra spokeswoman said the government supports all businesses

@ffdonline

What is the RDPE? The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) is funded by the European Commission and the UK Government. It aims to support farmers and foresters to deliver environmentally beneficial land management and help these sectors to modernise and adapt to changing circumstances. The current RDPE, which runs from 2007-2013, has a total budget of £3.9bn. Of this, £2.3bn came from the EC and £1.6bn from the Exchequer. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own rural development programmes, with respective budgets of £1.6bn, £795m and £500m covering 20072013. The EC has indicated that funding levels for the 2014-2020 rural development budget are likely to remain the same, although it is not clear how much the UK will contribute.

New man in charge of Portas Pilots Last month's cabinet reshuffle saw Tory MP Mark Prisk take over from Grant Shapps as Housing Minister with responsibility for the Government’s project, fronted by TV retail guru Mary Portas, to revitalise UK high streets. Previously Minister for Business and Enterprise in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, Prisk is a former chartered surveyor and worked in the property sector for many years, so should have a good understanding of some of the challenges facing high street retailers, said Alex Jackman, senior policy adviser at the Forum of Private Business.

EU to speed up PFN applications

IN BRIEF l Suffolk-based jam maker Stonham Hedgerow has been fined after falsely claiming its products contained locally sourced fruit. Trading Standards officers discovered that the business was using fruits from Poland and China in some cases, as well as rhubarb and blackberries from Yorkshire. The company and its director Katherine Neuteboom admitted the charges and were fined £8,500 and ordered to pay £6,500 costs.

l The owner of Padstow Farm Shop,

Angelsey Sea Salt is currently waiting on an application for protected status By PATRICK McGUIGAN

The time it takes to gain protected food name (PFN) status for foods could be halved under new regulations that were endorsed by the European Parliament last month. The new rules could see a rise in the number of applications to the EU’s PFN scheme from producers who are put off by the time it can take to gain accreditation, often stretching to several years. Currently the European Commission must respond to an application for PFN status within 12 months, but this would be cut to six months under the new proposals. The registration of products at a national level will be made more simple and the time allowed for raising objections will be reduced. A new ‘mountain’ label is also being introduced so that producers in mountain regions can better promote their products. A label for food and drink made on islands

may follow next year. According to Irene Bocchetta, who heads up the PFN scheme in the UK, there is as yet no interest from producers in the mountain label. The PFN scheme in the UK has recently been brought in house by Defra, after it was previously run by consultants ADAS. A Defra spokeswoman said the change would not affect the way applications are processed. She said: “Defra has had to, in the current financial situation, look carefully at the cost of outsourcing this work. Bringing the work into Defra represents the most costeffective mechanism for processing and consideration of applications under the EU scheme.” There are currently 48 food and drink products in the UK with PFN status. Applications for Fal Oysters, West Wales Coracle-Caught Sewin (sea trout) and Anglesey Sea Salt are all in the pipeline.

Matt Watson Smyth, forced his local Tesco to remove a large advert claiming its meat was supplied by a local butcher. Watson Smyth objected to the sign, which read “100 per cent British meat from our butcher”, because the store does not have a proper butcher’s counter and some of its meat is imported.

l Nearly 50% of people prefer to buy locally sourced food when they can, according to a survey carried out by YouGov. The report also found that a quarter of people are happy to pay more for locallysourced products and that one in five respondents said they make the effort to buy meat and poultry at retailers other than supermarkets.

l Adverts promoting pork under the Red Tractor quality scheme have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) because of misleading claims. The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board said the ads, which ran under the strapline ‘pork not porkies’, were designed to compare pig welfare in Britain with the rest of the EU, where sow stalls are still in use. However, the ASA ruled the ads could convince consumers that pig welfare in the UK is better than it is.

l Scottish food and drink producers have received £1 million of extra government funding to ensure they are ready to make the most of opportunities in 2014 when Scotland hosts the Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup and a year-long promotional campaign called the Year of Homecoming.

l Tracklements has hired a new sales manager to oversee expansion across both the retail and foodservice sectors. Justine Kite joins the Wiltshire-based producer from Clipper Teas, where she was senior business manager. Previously she was the national account manager at chocolate brand Green & Blacks.

MP Mark Prisk will oversee the Goverment’s plan for high streets

GIVING IT MORE WELLY: West Midlands-based Heart Distribution has taken on a range of beers and ciders brewed by Muddy Wellies, a social enterprise run by staff and students at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Showing the range at last month’s Speciality & Fine Food Fair, Heart’s Caoire Blakemore said the deal would help the quirky brand reach more farm shops and delis across the region.

For regular news updates from FFD visit:

www.ffdonline.co.uk Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

fine food news Rising feed costs threaten charcuterie price hike By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Fine food retailers should brace themselves for price rises and shortages in key product areas, such as bacon, sausages and charcuterie, as soaring feed prices take their toll on British and Continental pork farmers. The National Pig Association (NPA) warned last month that rocketing feed prices, due to disastrous world harvests, meant many pig farmers had to sell their herds. “It usually takes at least six months for higher production costs to filter through to shop prices, but pig farmers simply haven’t got that long,” said NPA chairman Richard Longthorp. “Some have got only a few weeks left before they run out of credit at the bank and have to sell up, and this is happening all over Europe.” Some forecasters believe prices will increase by over a third eventually, he added. “We would rather see a more immediate, modest but sustainable rise that would allow producers to get into profit sooner thereby preventing the wholesale reduction in the pig herd with the inevitable record prices that would follow.” According to the British Pig Executive (BPEX), pig producers have been in a loss-making situation for almost two years with farmers currently losing, on average, £15 on each pig they rear. At Lane Farm, which has 1,100 pigs and is well known for its Suffolk Salami charcuterie, owner

The National Pig Association said rocketing feed prices would force some farmers to sell their herds

Ian Whitehead said he had seen wheat prices rise from £130 a tonne to £200 a tonne in the past year, while soya had increased from £300 to over £400 a tonne. “There could well be shortages next year and there will probably have to be an increase on all pork products at some point,” he said. “We’re trying not to increase our prices by keeping costs down and developing new added value products like air dried pancetta. It doesn’t matter whether you are supplying supermarkets or farm

shops, it’s very tight out there at the moment,.” Croots Farm Shop in Derbyshire buys pork from local farmers to sell on the butchery counter and to make sausages and bacon. Owner Steve Croot said his supplier had recently implemented a 10p increase from £2.20 to £2.30 a kilo. “We put our bacon prices up last year and we’re looking at raising sausage prices at the moment, but offsetting it by doing more offers,” he said.

Continental charcuterie products, such as Parma ham, chorizo and Iberico, are also likely to rise in price as EU pig farmers are hit even harder by the pork crisis. According to BPEX, the weakness of the euro means that feed price rises may be even higher in the EU, given the importance of commodity markets priced in US dollars. This comes at a time when many EU producers still need to make investments to comply with new animal welfare regulations, which come into force at the start of next year.

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

especially in the current climate. I don’t mind working really hard. I’m not a routine person and I really enjoy what I do. I’d hate to wake up on Monday morning and wish it was Paul A Young Paul A Young Fine Chocolates, London Friday. Splitting my time between the three shops has been the hardest part of getting bigger. Customers say because you are running your own We opened the first shop in Islington they haven’t seen me for ages when business, you can have time off in April 2006 and now have three I have actually been in when you like, but shops in London. I wouldn’t change the shop. It’s just that actually you can’t. anything that we’ve done. We I work six to seven I’ve been downstairs You’re married to got the formula right in the very days a week… It’s in the kitchen working your work and you beginning, which is why we’ve been on new products have to completely able to expand so quickly. We do been like that for or helping with absorb yourself in everything by hand in the shops, six years. It’s the I’m still it. Looking back I from tempering the chocolate to only way, especially production. very hands on. underestimated that. packaging the products. People in the current I’ve also had to I work six to might think that’s crazy, but we are learn how to be a seven days a week. climate. the only company doing it that way, businessman. As Even when I’m at which makes us unique. a chef you’re product based and home on a Sunday, I’m typing up Before you start a business, you creative, but I had to get to grips spec sheets for new products and think you know what the experience with things like VAT, costings and replying to emails. It’s been like is going to be like, but the reality margins pretty quickly. that for six years. It’s the only way, is very different. You think that,

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October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

British fizz outsells Champagne Delis should be making more room for English sparkling wines on their shelves, judging by recent figures. According to a report from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, patriotic Brits popping bottles of native fizz during the Jubilee helped English sparkling wines out-perform Champagne in the year to July. Off-sales of sparkling wine grew by 5% in volume terms and 8% in value terms during the period, while volume and value sales of Champagne fell by 9% and 7% respectively. The report also showed a 29% jump in the sale of bottles of wine over £10, with big increases for Italian and Spanish wines. The biggest learning curve for me has been managing people. We’ve now got 25 people in the team. If I was going to do something different I would have put myself onto a management course. Even though I’ve managed people throughout my career, it’s very different when everyone is responsible to you – it can be stressful and puts pressure on the business and me. Keeping everyone happy, inspired and motivated is not always straightforward. You’ve got to make sure staff are up to date with everything and are continuing to help the business grow. You also really need to make sure their voices are heard. I’ve now got shop managers and two head chocolatiers, so a lot of that is their responsibility, which makes life easier. That’s one of the benefits of getting bigger. Interview by PATRICK McGUIGAN

@ffdonline

A taste of paradise all the way from Cheshire… Introducing Mrs Darlington’s divine Passionfruit Curd. My Lemon Curd is the fastest selling preserve for most of our retailers, so there are high expectations from any ‘new curd’ my family and I introduce. I have spent many weeks in my kitchen perfecting this new addition, which I am thrilled with. I do hope you and your customers enjoy it too.

To find out who your nearest independent wholesaler supplier is, please call to speak with myself or my daughters Sarah & Wendy on 01270 250710

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

fine food news new openings

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

Bristol’s Mud Dock grows to match cycling boom

At a glance l The deli product range includes homemade quiches, pastries, biscuits, jams, chutneys and cakes, plus Bath Ales and coffee from the Clifton Coffee Company. The café has 50 covers, set over two floors and an outside seating area.

l Most of the products on sale

http://bristolculture.wordpress.com

TailorMade

in the deli are made on-site in a state-of the-art kitchen, which was fitted by TailorMade of Portishead, and includes a Rational SelfCookingCenter oven and fridge and freezer equipment from Foster Refrigerator.

TailorMade

l The 19th century building was

The deli-café, which is in the new Wapping Wharf development, has 50 covers over two floors By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Bradley Wiggins may have inspired a new generation of cyclists to take to the road, but they still need somewhere to stop off for a cappuccino and a bite to eat. That’s where Bristol bike shop and café the Mud Dock comes in. And it has opened its second deli and café in the new Wapping Wharf development on the city’s harbour. The new outlet, launched in August, sells homemade cakes, chutneys, olives, pork pies, Scotch eggs and pastries, while the café serves sandwiches, salads, tapas and

pizzas in a relaxed environment. The new outlet joins the company’s original bike shop and café near Queen Square, which first opened 17 years ago, and includes bike storage facilities with lockers, showers and changing rooms for commuters. Like its predecessor, the new premises has references to cycling built into the interior design with suspension forks used as table legs and old bikes hung around the café. A flat screen TV shows cycling races and other sports. “There’s a strong cycling culture in Bristol with mountain bike trails

nearby in the Mendips and Wales, and eating good healthy food goes really well with that,” said co-owner Beverly Arron, who set the business up with husband Jerry. “We’ve built up a regular trade over the years, but the success of Bradley Wiggins has also sparked more interest. ” The building is located at the north end of the Gaol Ferry Bridge, which crosses the New Cut of the River Avon and connects the south side of Bristol to the Wapping Wharf area. “The location was one of the

once a jail house and had been derelict for many years. It was fitted out with reclaimed wood and has been painted in a Mediterranean orange to reflect the tapas-style menu.

l The Wapping Wharf development will eventually include 625 homes, as well as local shops, cafés, restaurants, offices and a 150-bed boutique hotel.

reasons we took it over,” said Arron. “This area is in the process of being completely redeveloped with lots of new restaurants and local shops. If you live in south Bristol and want to visit the new development then you will come across the bridge and straight past the shop.” www.mud-dock.co.uk

Sawers Belfast

Sawers deli in Belfast has moved to substantially bigger premises beside its existing shop in College Street. The extra space has enabled the shop to increase its range of products from small suppliers, including an expanded cheese and charcuterie section, fresh fish from Ardglass and Portavogie and a larger choice of own-brand products. “We’ve seen rapid growth in artisan producers in Northern Ireland,” said owner Kieran Sloan (pictured). “We intend to showcase the best that we have in Northern Ireland with quality food from overseas.” www.sawersbelfast.com

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

Brown & Green

Newent, Gloucestershire

Keelham Farm Shop Thornton, near Bradford

Keelham Farm Shop in Thornton, near Bradford, has invested £500,000 in a new-look farm shop with expanded butchery and delicatessen counters, and the introduction of three additional ‘express tills’. Displays containing photographs and stories about many of the 400 local producers and farmers that

supply the shop are a key part of the new store, which is owned by siblings James and Victoria Robertshaw. The business has also submitted a planning application for a second outlet in Skipton, which would include a farm shop with a butcher, bakery, delicatessen and areas for cookery demonstrations, alongside a free outdoor animal croft, café and warehouse facilities.

Farm shop operator Susie Keenan, who runs stores in Staffordshire and Derbyshire under the Brown & Green name, has converted her third outlet, Shepherd’s Farm Shop in Gloucestershire, to the same fascia. Shepherd’s was formerly located alongside 3Shires Garden Centre in Newent, operated by the Blue Diamond group, and has now moved into the main 3Shires building under the Brown & Green banner. Keenan is also in partnership with Blue Diamond at its Derby Garden Centre in Little Eaton.

www.keelhamfarmshop.co.uk

www.brown-and-green.co.uk

Lincs farm shop sets up online allotment service

Harry Loweth: i-Grow scheme will need 400 takers to turn a profit By PATRICK McGUIGAN

Lincolnshire farm shop Abbey Parks has come up with a novel way of appealing to people who prefer using an iPad to digging up onions: the online allotment. The brainchild of Harry Loweth, the i-Grow scheme allows people

who are short on time or don’t have space to grow their own vegetables to rent a plot at the farm, all with the click of a mouse. Loweth and his team plant, tend and harvest the allotment for customers, before sending out produce in a vegetable box direct to their front doors.

Letter from Farrington's Given the importance we place on great service at Farrington’s – our shoppers pay our wages, after all – why shouldn’t we expect the same when we’re the customer? Yet in the last 12 months we’ve been badly let down on service, and I’m not happy. Here are some examples: We have an excellent local telecoms company. Unfortunately, it cannot install the new lines we need on our site. This has to be handled by a well-known monopoly operator for which the word ‘service’ doesn’t exist. After numerous phone calls and weeks and weeks of waiting, we finally see an engineer. He’s shaking Follow us on

@ffdonline

“People just need to choose what they want to grow on their plots and when they want to plant it. We’ll do all the hard work for them and send them out regular updates on how their crops are doing, but they’re also more than welcome to come and visit their allotments themselves,” said Loweth, who works with his parents Ros and Nick and sister Sophie on the farm. “We’ve put aside an acre of land for the project, which is enough space for 800 plots and have already rented out 58 allotments to people as far afield as Lancashire.” An allotment costs £104 per year and eight rows of veg cost £21 to plant, which equates to around five veg boxes throughout the year. There is also an option to replant during the season at a cost of £3 per row. The scheme is run by Loweth and his father, with one member of staff tending the allotments and another focused on communicating with customers online. Loweth estimated that for the scheme to start making a profit he would need to rent out 400 plots. “Any farm with land could do what we’re doing and I’m sure there are potential competitors watching to see how we get on, but we are first to market and are working to build up our brand,” he said. “We also have the advantage of having excellent land on which we can grow pretty much anything we want.” www.abbeyparks.co.uk

companies, saying it could offer us a good rate on refuse collection as it had a half-empty lorry going past us regularly. Excellent, I thought. Our old contract was up for renewal and the cost-saving would make the change worthwhile. Emails went back and forth assuring me we’d be getting exactly the same service on the same his head and drawing breath through size of skip as from our existing his teeth before he has even seen the provider, and the job, then tells me: contract was signed. “Not sure if I can If a deal sounds six months into do this in the time too good to be true, Then, the contract, I receive allowed. I’ll have to it probably is a note telling me our pass it over to the skip is too heavy and survey team.” we are being charged more. As far as I’m concerned, if he’s While the new contract gave got cables, sockets and a screwdriver us the same size skip as before, it in his van, he’s not going anywhere. apparently didn’t allow for the same But then it transpires the new lines weight of rubbish. This was never have not been activated at the made clear in any email but was exchange, so we’re facing another buried somewhere in the six pages 10-week wait. Call that service? of small print under the heading of Recently, we were approached by ‘exclusions’. Three months on, the one of the ‘big four’ waste disposal Call that service? PAUL CASTLE is not a happy customer

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IN BRIEF l North West retailer Booths is to open its 29th outlet next month in Milnthorpe, Cumbria. The 10,000 sq ft store will give pride of place to fresh food counters stocking artisan and local foods, including a butcher, fishmonger, delicatessen, hot food area and cheesemonger.  l Scottish Bakers has announced that it will be running its Scottish Baker of the Year competition in 2013 after receiving around 12,500 public votes for last year’s awards. TV judge and artisan baker Paul Hollywood will once again support the competition by compering the event, which will be held in May. l The BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards ceremony will be taking place on November 28 as part of the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC in Birmingham. Chefs Raymond Blanc, Angela Hartnett and Valentine Warner will be among those joining Sheila Dillon, presenter of Radio 4's The Food Programme, for the ceremony. Tickets are available free of charge by applying online. tinyurl.com/bpwnb8n

l Indian food specialist Geeta’s will be supporting Britain’s Biggest Curry Party, run by the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer. Now in its fifth year, the event, which encourages people to hold curry parties in their local areas to raise funds, runs from October 13-21. For regular news updates from FFD visit:

www.ffdonline.co.uk company still hasn’t sorted a new agreement and still keeps billing us the wrong amounts. And we are still not paying it. More poor service, and proof that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Meanwhile, our kitchen equipment suppliers are, as I write, dragging their heels over a critical and ongoing oven repair. Will they fall into my ‘take your money but don’t care about the service’ box or will they put a value on the last 10 years of business and protect the next 10? All this is far removed from the fantastic personal service we get from our local, independent suppliers. They may be a little more expensive in the short term but they certainly value us over the long term – as we do them. Paul Castle is business manager at the award-winning Farrington’s Farm Shop near Bristol and provides consultancy services to other farm retailers. Email: paul@farringtons.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

fine food news New HEFF service goes head-to-head with Heart By MICK WHITWORTH

Regional food group Heart of England Fine Foods (HEFF) has launched a new delivery service with distributor Weddel Swift that puts it in direct competition with former partner AF Blakemore. HEFF, which unveiled the Delivery Service last month at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair, previously worked with AF Blakemore’s Heart Distribution division to provide a consolidated delivery service for smaller regional food businesses in the West Midlands. However, that deal broke down late last year, and in March HEFF launched a new Trading Desk service. This offered retailers and caterers a central buying point for regional foods from HEFF members, but left producers to handle their own distribution or use a local courier. Meanwhile, AF Blakemore, a major Spar wholesaler, has continued to develop Heart Distribution as a one-order, one-delivery, one-invoice service, representing nearly 140 regional suppliers. Now HEFF will work with Northants-based Weddel Swift to again provide its own full-service operation, which will be live from October 1 offering more than 2,000

May: HEFF’s Delivery Service will focus on orders from London

lines from the region. HEFF supply chain manager Jon May (pictured) said the Delivery Service would focus initially on developing sales in London food halls, which were not targeted under the previous arrangement with Heart Distribution. “Since we launched the Trading Desk we’ve had a number of enquiries from London buyers,” he told FFD, “but those customers are not always happy about taking deliveries through couriers. Weddel

Swift has already got well-established routes into those stores.” He added: “London’s a core focus because it’s about new markets and that’s what we’re interested in.” A key issue for both HEFF and Heart is likely to be whether the West Midlands sector can sustain two regional distributors. Blakemore told FFD: “Over the last five years Heart Distribution has developed a sustainable supply service delivering over 1,500 products from 149 local producers to several hundred outlets, which is working extremely well for all parties involved. “We are proud of the great service we give to these local producers and the close relationships we have built with them, and customers. “We are pleased to see that another organisation believes in the growth of local products in a competitive marketplace.” Jon May said: “I can’t speak for Heart’s business model, but we have done our homework and believe that what we have built [with Weddel Swift] is sustainable.” www.afblakemore.com/heart www.heff.co.uk

BBC Good Food to host Guild’s World Cheese Deli

TRUCKLER’S GUIDE: Distributor Cheese Cellar teamed up with artist Kate Lowe to create a cheese map of the UK and Ireland as useful tool for retailers. It hopes customers will also use it to decorate their shops. Featured cheeses include Montgomery's Cheddar, Kirkham's Lancashire and Appleby's Cheshire that reflect the heritage of cheese-making, alongside cheeses such as Wyfe of Bath and Celtic Promise.

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

Visitors to this winter’s BBC Good Food Show at the NEC Birmingham will be able to shop at a new World Cheese Deli, set up to highlight the 2012 World Cheese Awards (WCAs). The awards – the biggest of their kind in the world – are being staged at the show on its opening day, November 28. Visitors will be able to buy cheeses from WCA entrants, winners and sponsors at the deli throughout the show, which runs until December 2. “The World Cheese Deli will operate like any good cheese shop,” said John Farrand, MD of the Guild of Fine Food, which organises the WCAs. “Visitors will be able to get loads of advice and information, and we’ll be sampling many of the award-winning cheeses. “We’re also producing WCAbranded cooler bags, and we’ll be running multi-buy offers to tempt people to take home varieties they wouldn’t normally buy.”

As well as the World Cheese Deli, this year’s WCA theatre area will host a programme of cheese-and-wine matching talks in conjunction with CellarVie Wines. It will also see the climax of the Le Gruyère AOC Cheese Counter of the Year competition, where the finalists’ cheese retailing prowess will be tested by a panel of experts. Entries for the 2012 World Cheese Awards opened last month, with a closing date of Friday October 19 for cheese-makers in the UK and Europe and Friday October 12 for the rest of the world. Visit the WCA website for more details and an entry form. www.finefoodworld.co.uk/wca www.bbcgoodfoodshow.com

IN BRIEF l A new campaign intended to generate millions of pounds for the local economy has been launched at the Cornwall Food & Drink Festival. Choose Cornish – a joint project with the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce – has been set up with the aim of encouraging public interest in local food and drink suppliers. l Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Blue was named the supreme champion at this year’s British Cheese Awards. The cheese, which has an unusual dry grey “snake skin” crust, is made by Wensleydale Dairy Products at its Hawes creamery in Yorkshire. l The 392 ‘Town Teams’ that missed out on funding from the Portas Pilot initiative are eligible to bid for a share of a new £5.5m Government support package. Each team, which must receive the backing of its local MP, is eligible to bid for £10,000. l Taste Cumbria has reported that visitors to the county spent £429m on food and drink in 2011 – the highest spend of any tourist activity including accommodation. The organisation was due to unveil a “groundbreaking” piece of research at its food festival in Cockermouth as FFD went to press. l Alex James is set to launch a new cows’ milk cheese through Cheese Cellar, which has also secured exclusive distribution for the Blur bassist’s whole artisan range. Cheese Cellar has worked with James and cheese-maker Pete Humphries at White Lake Cheeses, to develop the Guernsey milk Goddess, which is washed in cider brandy to create an orange rind. l Colston Bassett Dairy will be celebrating 100 years of production next year with a number of events to mark the year that Dr William Windley set up the farming co-operative. As well as a party and fireworks display in the village, an event will be held at London’s Neal’s Yard Dairy while dairy manager Billy Kevan will be making a trip to visit customers in America. l Slow Food has added 12 foods to the list of products that it will support under its Presidia system. They include wild palm oil from Guinea Bissau, Camapara Mountain coffee from Honduras and Alpziger ricotta from Switzerland. For regular news updates from FFD visit:

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whole purpose is ❛toThe figure out whether the Delilah concept works in a bigger environment

❜

Onwards and upwards Interview

Just weeks after being crowned 2012 Deli of the Year, Nottingham’s Delilah is on the move – to the former city centre branch of HSBC. Owner Sangita Tryner tells MICK WHITWORTH how she came to buy the bank.

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

angita Tryner was almost a no-show at last month’s Great Taste Awards dinner, where she’d been invited, along with store owners from around the UK, to hear which would be crowned Olives Et Al Deli of the Year for 2012 Her Nottingham deli-café, Delilah Fine Foods, had already been named East Midlands regional winner in the competition and was a frontrunner for the top slot. But Tryner was in the midst of major upheavals – the relocation of her business in Nottingham’s Middle Pavement to new, much larger premises nearby – and it was only some careful arm-twisting by Olives Et Al’s PR that ensured she and husband Richard were in the audience in London when their victory was announced. Delilah becomes the third winner of the Deli of the Year trophy, collected last year by Arch House

Deli in Clifton, Bristol, and in 2010 by Lawson’s in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Arch House has credited the competition, run by Olives Et Al and supported by the Guild of Fine Food, with adding around 25% to its trade over the past year. But for Tryner, last month’s news arrived at both the best and the worst of times. It’s the culmination of seven years’ hard work and can only help drive footfall at the ‘new’ Delilah. But it’s another ball to juggle while dealing with planners, banks, shopfitters and the demands of a young family. When FFD featured this popular, packed-to-the-rafters 1,000 sq ft deli-café back in 2009, Tryner was already looking as far afield as Birmingham for new premises, driven by a severe lack of space and an ongoing rent row with her landlord. But by the following June, when we invited her to join a panel

of buyers for a Dragon’s Den-style session at Harrogate Speciality Food Show, she was heavily pregnant with her second child and had taken her foot off the retail gas again. “I had to put any move on hold for two years while I sorted out my ‘kid life’,” she says.“Even if it had happened a year ago I would have struggled – my youngest is still only two years old, so I wouldn’t have been able to give this the time.” In fact, it was a year ago that she identified the new site – the former HSBC bank at 12 Victoria Street, just a couple of hundred yards from Nottingham’s busiest shopping street. But it has taken a full 12 months to secure the freehold and gain permission for change-of-use and alterations of the listed building. Now, with a little more time on her hands, she needs to get moving. When FFD visited Delilah in early September, a blackboard declared the shop would be relocating “some time in October”. “We’re going to close here on a Saturday night, and then we’re giving ourselves Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to move,” Tryner says. “It might take a few days more than that, but every week we’re empty [at the new store] it costs us close to two grand, so I have to get open sharpish!” The new building – a grand three-storey Victorian edifice – is as magnificent as any deli-café

Sangita Tryner: ‘We’d never have been able to do this if there wasn’t a recession’

could hope to occupy, with soaring ceilings, massive timber windows and two entrance doors flanked by neoclassical columns. The Tryners have formed a property company, Haliled (that’s ‘Delilah’ backwards), to buy it, and will now rent it back to the deli while converting the top floor into five apartments to generate rental income. The main shop, 15-seater deli-bar and kitchen will occupy the ground floor, and a mezzanine floor is being created, taking advantage of the high ceiling, to house a further 40-50 cover café area. It’s a massive step up in size from the original Delilah, where the only indoor seating has been a nine-seat deli-bar and where Tryner had to spend £10,000 erecting a glass and steel conservatory to provide a few extra seats outside, shielding customers from passing trams and cars. Last year 12 Victoria Street was on the market for around £1.3 million – not surprising for its size and location but a sum that might make you wince given the recent chequered history of fine food stores moving into expensive city centre premises. But Sangita and Richard Tryner eventually paid around half that price, thanks to plummeting property values. Now, she says, it’s great to tell people, “I bought the bank”. But she adds: “We would never have been able to do this if there wasn’t a recession, and the bank has been very demanding.” Funding eventually came from the Co-op Bank, which already handled the deli’s money, but the bank is “taking absolutely no risk”, Tryner says. “The only reason we managed to

get a mortgage was because Delilah was a confirmed tenant, and the bank stipulated Delilah has to pay us £60,000 a year rent to give it some kind of security.” The mortgage may be hedged with conditions, but Tryner is happy just to have more control of her own destiny. She began property-hunting four years ago after a “complete disaster” of a rent review. This year her rent on 15 Middle Pavement has risen £6,000 to £40,000, and she will have to back-pay that increase by four years to get out of the lease. “So I had to do something. I was just lucky this property came up.” The former HSBC was still an empty shell when FFD visited last month, but filled with the sound of hammering and drilling by shop-fitters from contractor DG Professional Interiors. “I’m using the same fitters as before, because they seem to be able to get out of my head what it is I’m looking for,” Tryner says. “DG have done work for Harrods and the Hurlingham Club, but they’re based in Nottingham and they’re very down to earth.” And this is certainly not a noexpense-spared project. “We’re reusing a lot of our existing shelving because I can’t afford to buy new after buying the property.” It’s ironic that the shop newly crowned as Britain’s best deli soon won’t exist in its original form. But Tryner says retaining all the best features of the Middle Pavement store has been “at the forefront” in developing the new site. “All along, I have said to DG that I want bring Delilah into this new space.” At the heart of the award-winning experience is its deli-bar, where customers can sit, surrounded floorto-ceiling by deli products, to enjoy a coffee, hot breakfast, a lunchtime deli platter or an early-evening glass

of wine and tapas. The menu, designed to showcase the shop’s retail offer, will stay broadly as before. But it has always been refreshed regularly, driven by a team of enthusiastic young staff, all of whom are kitchen-trained. Having this “core level of capability in the kitchen” has been essential, says Tryner. “If you work with the products you can talk about the products.” She continues: “Nottingham is struggling for nice places to eat. There are a lot of chains but people are looking for something different. Even if it’s just a sandwich, you don’t want to have the same menu every day. With all the ingredients we’ve got here, that would be a crime. “I give the staff autonomy, and that keeps them enthused – although it did mean we had a Lincolnshire Poacher & Crisps sandwich the other day!” So the deli-bar will be replicated at Victoria Street, upped from nine to 15 seats, with a larger kitchen behind it. But crucially there will be the extra seating upstairs on the newly-constructed mezzanine overlooking the shop. More storage space and a bigger kitchen will also enable Tryner to pursue outside catering more seriously. Up to now, she says, just two or three requests for sandwich platters on the same day would over-stretch the tiny Middle Pavement kitchen. But the shop has begun providing upmarket buffet meals for weddings in the past year, and she is conscious of the higher margin possibilities in catering – although the absence of an EPoS system until now means she hasn’t been properly analysing her sales splits and margins. That’s about to change too, with a system from Open Retail Solutions going into the new Delilah. “The

last seven years have taught me so much, especially about [financial] visibility. You get enthused about things that don’t make you any money. “I set up a monthly management spreadsheet, but I didn’t have finger-tip stock reports, I didn’t have monthly sales splits, I had no idea of average spends. That’s a big gap, and there’s no way I would be starting this new venture without that visibility. “Up to a point we have sometimes been ‘busy fools’. And that’s got to change.” Born in Wales to Indian parents, Tryner spent her early career at the corporate end of the food market, selling everything from eggs to curries into supermarkets. It culminated in a stint at Northern Foods as an accounts manager for Marks & Spencer, until she became disenchanted by seeing quality endlessly compromised to hit lower price points. Just as she left the financial security of a major PLC to start Delilah, husband Richard, a onetime wine merchant and a Master of Wine, was made redundant. But he and an ex-colleague then launched a business supplying racks of nonfood items for supermarket gondola ends, and it has done well, buying Tryner the financial space to get Delilah where she wants it to be. She has always aimed to develop a model that could be replicated elsewhere, and says the new store is the first step in proving that model. But while she knows she will need better management systems, she is clear she won’t water down the ethos that made Delilah a winner. For example, she’s not going to limit the range of cheeses she can offer on a lunch platter to suit the limitations of an EPoS system. “The whole purpose is to figure out whether this concept works in a bigger environment, but if I have to tweak it too much, I won’t do it.” Taking time out to have kids has proved, she says, that Delilah is a solid business that can stand on its own feet. She has a “very good manager”, Nik Tooley, a core team she can trust, and the business has been growing, even without her constant attention. “Sales have been up every year we’ve been open. Even last year, we were up 16% – and that’s when I haven’t really been concentrating on it.” With Tryner fully back in harness, Delilah could do the whole sector a favour by proving that swish new city centre deli-cafés really can work. www.delilahfinefoods.co.uk

Tryner says she has asked shopfitter DG Interiors to recreate the feel of the original Delilah (pictured) in the new store Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

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Italian Continental Stores Ltd Denmark Street in Maidenhead is dominated by the recently rebuilt premises of Italian Continental. They have absorbed the next door buildings of a tyre company and now have 15000 square feet of retail and warehousing space housing their products over 2 locations.

he range, quality and presentation of the food and wines in the shop rivals famous London stores while the offices and meeting rooms are all appointed to the highest possible standards with luxury furniture and expensive tiling. They are the scene of press visits and book signings by famous Italian chefs. It is a far cry from May 1968 when Carmelo and Assunta set out to provide good Italian food for immigrants, firstly with a stall and later with an old Co-op van. Nevertheless by 1990 they had grown to 4 retail stores. Their son Rosario had worked closely with them throughout. His enthusiasm was for wholesale, “I wanted to spread the availability of good olive oils, parmesan cheeses and so many other great products”, he says. As the wholesale business in Maidenhead grew they reduced the retail operation to one shop. In 2008 came the opportunity not just to develop the business dramatically, but to develop it according to their exacting requirements, and they embarked on the four year plan which has resulted in the company it is today.

Italian Continental have not ignored IT and started with a German Kienzle System. They replaced this with Xeres Unix based software in 1994 and in 2010 ordered the Intact Software package from Ramtac Computer Systems in Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. “We saw a lot of systems, but so much of the decision is based on the people you will deal with; it’s an act of faith”, says Rosario, “it helped that there was a warm long term personal relationship.” The benefits of the modern Windows system have included far greater efficiency and much easier integration with Microsoft products. Their 11,000 products are sold by proactive telephone sales and are mainly fine Italian food and wines which they sell to top Italian restaurants, to top chefs, and to special cocktail bartenders who blend exotic drinks in some 25 central London bars. Four 12 ton lorries travel into London daily. Despite turning over in excess of £7 million and increasing by some 15% over last year Rosario prudent and shrewd always, is adamant about good service and he is insistent that all customers are equal and will remain so. He is highly regarded by all his associates for far more than the splendid premises that he worked so hard to acquire.

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Big congrats to Delilah, Nottingham - our Deli Of The Year 2012 And equally big congrats to all 9 of the Regional Winners and 332 Nominees - utterly brilliant. Join us on Twitter @olivesetal #delioftheyear to find out more about them all. (More than a million olives every week can’t be wrong. Find out why and just how we can help you be a Delilah, too. Just give us a call - we like to help)

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October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

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the big winners

Hannan brings home the bacon – Italian-style A second Supreme Champion win for Northern Ireland caps another record breaking year for Great Taste. Our six-page awards night report starts here.

An overjoyed Peter Hannan (left) is interviewed by BBC Radio 2 food correspondent Nigel Barden after claiming Northern Ireland’s second consecutive Great Taste Supreme Champion trophy. Before 2012’s major trophy winners were announced, dozens of this year’s three-star gold winners provided pre-dinner tastings for guests (below) at the awards venue, the Royal Garden Hotel in Knightsbridge

ncredible was the word used by County Antrim meat processor and merchant Peter Hannan after his Moyallan guanciale, an Italian-style bacon made from cured pigs’ cheeks, was named Great Taste Supreme Champion 2012. The award, presented at the Great Taste finals at London’s Royal Garden Hotel on September 3, meant a second consecutive triumph for a Northern Ireland meat company in the speciality food & drink world’s most prestigious competition. It followed the Supreme Champion win last year for corned beef maker George McCartney, whose butcher’s business is located just 400 yards or so from Hannan Meats in the small town of Moira. “George, it’s always a pleasure to follow you,” said Peter Hannan, as he received the 2012 trophy from Simon Burdess of sponsor Fortnum & Mason. Hannan developed its bacon-style guanciale, a spicier but softer-textured alternative to pancetta, after requests from Italian restaurant clients. The delicacy is becoming hard to find even in its heartland of Lazio and Umbria, and Hannan is believed to be the only UK producer. “This is simply an exquisite example of a product that has its roots in Italy but has been made brilliantly in Great Britain,” said Bob Farrand, chairman of the Guild of Fine Food. Other major winners announced included Simple Simon’s Perfect

Pies, based in Lanarkshire, named Speciality Producer of the Year for its consistently strong performance in the awards over a number of years. Paul Kelly of Kelly Turkeys received a new Great Taste VIP Award sponsored by consumer magazine Woman & Home. The Guild of Fine Food’s Lifetime Achievement Award went to Nigel Cope, founder and chairman of Cottage Delight. The evening also saw Delilah Fine Foods of Nottingham, run by Sangita Tryner, named 2012 Deli of the Year in the annual competition run by Olives Et Al and supported by the Guild. Great Taste 2012 was judged during 45 days of blind-tasting by groups of food experts that included Masterchef winner and restaurateur Mat Follas, restaurant critic and Masterchef judge Charles Campion, food writers Lucas Hollweg and Xanthe Clay and more than 300 food buyers from leading food halls, such as Harrods, Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason. Deli and farm shops owners from across the country also took part. From beers to brownies, 8,807 different products were entered, with 2,670 awarded one- and twostar golds and just 123 receiving the coveted three-star gold. www.finefoodworld.co.uk Peter Hannan interview – p21 Major trophy winners – p22-25

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

the big winners

More than 300 guests joined goldwinning food and drink producers for a pre-dinner tasting session at September 3’s awards night. Every product showcased, from Trealy Farm’s lamb carpaccio to Lyme Bay Winery’s Jack Ratt vintage cider, was a contender for one 2012’s ‘Golden Fork’ awards.

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

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October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

the big winners

Hannan’s hot streak Peter Hannan describes his Supreme Champion guanciale – and pays tribute to 2011 winner George McCartney

etting out to match any Italian delicacy in a UK factory is brave, aiming to better it is braver still. But when Northern Ireland’s Hannan Meats was asked by restaurant clients to make a version of the hard-to-find guanciale, a pancetta-like bacon made from pig jowls, it wasn’t content with copying the original. “When we started, we were using recipes from Italy,” says managing director Peter Hannan. “But then we thought, maybe we could make it a little better and put our own thumbprint on it.” Guanciale (it’s pronounced ‘gwancharlie’) is an unsmoked bacon, cured for three weeks in a blend of salt, sugar and spices to create a stronger, richer flavour than pancetta but a more delicate texture. Often used in dishes such as pasta alla carbonara, it’s particularly associated with central Italy, and quite hard to find, even in its home country. “It’s a very special piece of meat, the pork jowl,” says Hannan. “It has totally different fat to traditional cuts like back bacon or belly bacon.” The island of Ireland has been producing prize-winning rashers for years, with Hannan Meats taking around a dozen Great Taste Awards

for bacon since 2010, along with a string of golds for beef, lamb and other pork products. Peter Hannan, who set up the company in 1991, hails from south of the border in Co. Kildare. His family farmed beef and sheep, and he was slaughtering animals and selling meat before he reached his teens. By his early 20s he was running abattoirs in the US. But he hasn’t gravitated towards the industrial end of the meat market. Instead, he is selling to some of Ireland’s top restaurants, as well as retailing through his store The Meat Merchant and packing sausages, burgers and bacon, including the guanciale, under his Moyallon brand. “There’s a great pleasure in getting up in the morning to make great food,” he says. “So the guanciale is our type of product.” Like all Hannan’s bacons, Moyallon guanciale is dry-cured, so – in contrast to those phosphatepumped supermarket brands – you won’t find a pool of scummy water accumulating around it in the frying pan. “We don’t own an injector and we never put anything else into our bacon,” Hannan says. “We handcure it, and we try to concentrate the flavour by taking the moisture out.”

Talking Italian: Hannan Meats MD Peter Hannan (right) speaks to Guild of Fine Food director John Farrand about his firm’s prizewinning pork jowl bacon

Hannan Meats is based in Moira, near Craigavon, and amazingly is just a stone’s throw from McCartney’s of Moira, which won the Supreme Champion title last year with its corned beef. “There’s a little bit of competition, of course there is,” says Peter Hannan. “But George [McCartney] and I have been mates for 25 years.” He pays tribute to a man who not only gave corned beef a new lease of life but has, over the past year, helped raise the reputation of Northern Ireland’s speciality food sector. “George is the daddy of them all,” Hannan says. “He’s a legend in his own lifetime, and if we can walk

in George’s footsteps, that’s great. “He’s a tremendous individual, a meticulous butcher and a very good friend.” Winning the Supreme Champion title was a life-changing for George McCartney. This year will be life-changing for Peter Hannan. But he also recognises the wider significance of two consecutive Supreme Champion titles for his part of the British Isles. “We’re delighted for Northern Ireland,” he says. “It‘s tremendous.” www.hannanmeats.com Peter Hannan was interviewed by Guild of Fine Food director John Farrand at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair’s Fine Food Forum on September 4.

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

the big winners Great Taste 2012 Supreme Champion

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October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

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(l-r) Bee Hodge of inkREADible Labels, Gavin Brooking and Emma Macdonald from The Bay Tree Food Company and Nigel Barden

Sponsored by

Best Speciality from the North of England Sourdough Miches More? The Artisan Bakery

Patrick Moore of More? The Artisan Bakery (centre) receives his award from Duncan Hider (left) and BBC Radio 2’s Nigel Barden

Sponsored by

www.hiderfoods.co.uk

Sponsored by:

Best Speciality from Northern Ireland Moyallon Guanciale Hannan Meats Sponsored by

(l-r) Invest NI’s Norma Darragh, Hannan Meats MD Peter Hannan and BBC Radio’s Nigel Barden Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

The best chutneys on earth? You decide.

“Inspired by family recipes I have combined carefully selected spices with succulent fruit to create these two unique tasting and award winning Indian chutneys. Perfect as a meal accompaniment, with Indian bread and poppadums or with sandwiches, BBQ’s, jacket poatoes and snacks.”

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

the big winners Best Speciality from the Midlands & EAST Anglia Jaipur IPA Thornbridge Brewery

Thornbridge Brewery’s Caolan Vaughan (centre) collects the trophy from Richard Fozard of Aga Rangemaster and Nigel Barden.

Best Speciality from the South East Gizzards Confit 1 Chef 4U

Sponsored by (l-r) Rowcliffe’s Steve Smith, Thomas Maieli and Anna Lidia-Soto of 1Chef4U, and the BBC’s Nigel Barden

Sponsored by

Best Irish Speciality

Best Imported Speciality

Smoked Rack of Bacon Oliver Carty Oliver Carty’s Ted and Gillian Carty collect their award from Gillian Swaine of Bord Bia (left)

Jamon Iberico de Bellota Jamones Juan Pedro Domecq S.L.

Sponsored by Isabel Domecq (centre) of Jamones Juan Pedro Domecq receives the Golden Fork from Soraya Gadelrab of Speciality & Fine Food Fair organiser Fresh Montgomery and the BBC’s Nigel Barden

Sponsored by

Olives Et Al Deli of the Year 2012

Ambient Product of the Year

Delilah Fine Foods, Nottingham

Passion Fruit Curd The Bay Tree Food Company

(l-r) Nigel Redmile of Petty Wood, Gavin Brooking and Emma Macdonald from The Bay Tree Food Company, with Nigel Barden

Sponsored by (l-r) Olives Et Al founder Giles Henschel, Delilah owner Sangita Tryner, Richard Tryner, and BBC Radio 2’s Nigel Barden

Sponsored by

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

Get lovely and cosy with Belvoir This winter, keep the chill out with our two brand new warming cordials. Honey, Lemon & Ginger is full of zesty goodness, and spicy Apple, Plum & Cinnamon is perfect for the colder months. Just add hot water.

To ﬁnd out more, pop along to www.belvoirfruitfarms.co.uk

It’s Not Too Late To Order For Christmas! Genuine Innovation Traditional favourites at great prices Great promotional offers 776 lines

235 prices frozen

445 exclusive lines

513 Skus retailing for under £5

298 new products

209 British products

To place an order or for more information please call:

01858 438000

Fosters Traditional Foods Ltd, Great Bowden Road, Market Harborough, LE16 7DE

www.fosters-foods.co.uk | asktheteam@fosters-foods.co.uk 26 Untitled-1 1

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9 21/09/2012 17:17

A promotional feature for Horgan's Delicatessen Supplies

Horgan's Award Winning Cooked Meat Range a must for any Deli

Horgan's Delicatessen Supplies, located in Mitchelstown, a town in County Cork, Ireland are specialists and innovators in the sales, marketing and distribution of chilled food products.

he extensive product portfolio ranges from Irish farmhouse and continental cheeses, to speciality cooked and fermented meats, pate, salami, antipasti and fresh pasta. Foods are sourced throughout Europe and Ireland. Horgans are delighted to announce its award winning cooked meat range. There are three recipes in our Speciality Ham range – Unsmoked Ham on Bone, Lightly Smoked Cooked Ham on Bone and Honey Baked Ham on Bone; all recipes were created by Michael Horgan, Managing Director, Horgan's Delicatessen Supplies. Our top seller and award winner is “Honey Baked Ham” - Horgan's Honey Baked Ham on the Bone. Horgan's Honey Baked Ham on the Bone (Sold at approximate weight of 6.75 to 7.25 kg) is made using an old, traditional method of curing whereby the pork leg is immersed in brine for some days, which gives it a wonderfully moist (but never wet!) texture. The addition of unrefined brown sugar to the recipe adds a subtle sweetness to this mild and delicious ham. This ham is steam cooked and then baked with a honey, brown sugar, mustard and ground cloves glaze to give a fresh edge to the ham's delicate flavour. It’s the perfect choice if you are trying to find a real ham that will appeal to all members of your household! Horgans only use Irish Pigs from selected farms to produce their Honey Baked Ham on the Bone. This ham won a two star gold at this year’s Great Taste Awards.

“Horgans have always strived for quality and value for all their products but above all great taste has been imperative. So to receive a Great Taste Award is confirmation that we are delivering to our customers. The Great Taste Awards symbol shows our customers that our products have been through a rigorous judging process and have come out on top!” stated Michael on the win. Being the third generation of a butchering family which was founded by my grandfather in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork in 1921, the Horgan family name has become synonymous with premium quality meats. “I have no doubt that we have played a significant part in helping to open up the taste buds of the consumer in Ireland” said Michael. Other products include Horgans other two star gold winners, our boneless Honey Baked Half Ham and Horgans Lightly Smoked Ham on the bone. As customers have found the boneless honey baked ham, is a natural low salt product, produced from Irish pork and sourced from selected producers with full traceability. It is a premium ham suitable for both retail and home catering, owing to its approximate weight of 2.50 kg, without excess fat or waste. All our cooked beef and ham’s are available for export to the United Kingdom and other European countries. E-mail: michaelhorgan@horgans.com Tel: +353 (25) 41200 Fax: +353 (25) 24992 Web: www.Horgans.com

Beef it Up Certified Irish Angus Spiced Beef, winner of The Great Taste Awards Gold 2012 two star, is another Horgans family recipe dating all the way back to 1921 so you know you are getting the best beef possible! We use only the highest quality ingredients. With the Silverside of Beef aged for a minimum of 14 days prior to being lightly salted and marinated in a secret blend of spices. It is then cooked with a coating of herbs and spices giving an aromatic spicy flavour which is tantalising to the taste buds. A sister product is Irish Angus Pastrami, and two star great taste award, 2012, with our Corned Beef a one star winner. Our beef range is made from 100% Certified Irish Angus beef and is low in fat with no artificial colourings or flavourings. This tasty product also offers farm -to- fork assurance. Our Spiced beef is a local speciality, full of flavour and a best seller during the Christmas festive period. Certified Irish Angus Cattle are reared on natural grass based diets FREE from illegal additives and growth promoting substances. This guarantees the superior taste, succulence and flavour of the Horgans beef range. All meats can be ordered by calling customer service at +353 25 41200 or visiting our web site at www.horgans.com. If you require delivery, it can be provided. Even better, all meats are cooked and ready to serve at your Christmas lunch, festive party or other family occasions and can be reheated in the oven if required.

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

A WINNI NG FOR M U L A Luscombe Sicilian Lemonade was voted ‘best organic cold beverage 2012’ by the Soil Association; it’s a recipe that the judges termed ‘fresh, light and not too sharp or sweet’… The accolade underlines the Luscombe mantra of strict attention to detail and using the purest raw organic ingredients. If you’ve yet to try it, get in touch for a sample pack of Sicilian Lemonade today.

T. 01364 64 30 36

w w w. l u s c o m b e . c o . u k

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

cheesewire

news & views from the cheese counter

Camphill invests in Yorkshire site after success of Loch Arthur By PATRICK McGUIGAN

The charity behind award-winning Scottish cheese-maker Loch Arthur is set to increase availability of the organic raw milk cheeses made at its other creamery in Yorkshire. The Camphill Village Trust, which is a national charity supporting adults with learning disabilities, has invested in a new 1,500-litre vat at its Botton Village site in North Yorkshire, which makes four organic raw milk cheeses: Botton Gouda, Moorland Tomme, Summerfield and Dale End cheddar. “The majority of our production is eaten by the residents and volunteers in the village, with around six local shops also taking stock,” said Alastair Pearson, head cheesemaker at Botton Village. “We make around nine tonnes a year, using all the milk from the four farms in the village, but we hope to build up milk and cheese volumes so we can supply further afield.” Camphill has long won plaudits for the four cheeses made at its Loch Arthur creamery in Dumfries – Criffel, Kebbuck, Crannog and Loch

Bodnant to host Jongia conference next March Cheese equipment and ingredients supplier Jongia UK will stage its second conference for cheese-makers next year at the new Bodnant Welsh Food centre in Conwy. The one-day conference, which takes place on March 12, will include presentations from equipment and marketing experts, as well as a tour of the new food hall and dairy at Bodnant. Jongia’s MD Jaap de Jonge said: “I want to give cheese-makers something more than just the goods they pay for. They work very hard to make fantastic cheese, so it’s nice to give something back.” Jongia is also funding a scholarship scheme, which will pay for an artisan cheese-maker to attend short courses at the School of Artisan Food and AB Cheesemaking. Jaap de Jonge: ‘It’s nice to give something back’

Arthur cheddar – which helped the site win the Best Producer category at last year’s BBC Food and Farming Awards. However, due to capacity limitations these cheeses are only sold to Scottish wholesalers and via mail order. Later this year a new 800 sq m farm shop facility is due to open at Loch Arthur with a bakery, café and production kitchen, which will put further pressure on availability of its Scottish cheeses. “Alastair is making some very good cheeses in Yorkshire and it will be good to add them to the Camphill range,” said Barry Graham who heads the Loch Arthur creamery. “We’re also going to look at cheese production [at Loch Arthur] next year after the farm shop has opened.” The Camphill Village Trust is a network of 11 communities spread across the UK, where adults with learning difficulties and special needs live and work with the support of volunteers. www.cvt.org.uk

Botton residents Rob and Jane with head cheese-maker Alastair Pearson

Conference highlights need for research geared to artisan sector Neal’s Yard Dairy and the Specialist Cheesemakers Association hope their recent conference on the science of artisan cheese will be a first step to having greater influence over dairy research. Nearly 100 people, including cheese-makers, scientists and public health officials, attended the conference in North Cadbury, Somerset, to hear a series of technical presentations from leading dairy scientists from the US, France and the UK. Neal’s Yard buyer Bronwen Percival, who helped organise the event, said it had highlighted the importance of engaging with science so that research could be directed to properly meet the needs of artisan cheese-makers. “It did become apparent that some scientists’ research was geared much more towards industry than others,” she said. “I think the key to mobilising research on the subjects that we’re interested in is to show the economic need for the knowledge and the direct impact that it will have: research on better detection methods for, or a cure for, bovine TB is a perfect example. “If we don’t make our needs and questions clear, the research will be informed by others’ priorities,

for instance the development of low-salt cheeses or adjunct starter cultures – cheats’ tricks that ultimately lead to convergence and homogenisation of flavours of the cheeses from different places.” Another conference is planned in the next few years, while presentations from the most recent conference will be made available online. To be included on a list to gain access to the videos, email: bronwen.percival@nealsyarddairy.co.uk

Delegates heard that artisan makers needed to engage more closely with food scientists

Aldridge win for Ragstone This year’s James Aldridge Memorial Trophy for the best raw milk cheese in the UK was won by Charlie Westhead of Neal’s Yard Creamery in Herefordshire for his goat’s milk cheese Ragstone. Westhead was presented with the trophy and a commemorative scroll at Sharpham House in Devon as part of the Specialist Cheesemakers Association’s annual farm visit. The unpasteurised cheese, which is made by Westhead and head cheese-maker Haydn Roberts with traditional kids’ rennet, was one of 17 cheeses nominated for the award, which was judged by the late James Aldridge’s partner, Pat Robinson, Neal's Yard Dairy's Randolph Hodgson and Tim Rowcliffe of Anthony Rowcliffe & Son. James Aldridge, who died in 2001, was a pioneering cheese-maker and affineur, who helped revive artisan cheese traditions in the UK. Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

cheesewire

Tom Harding: ‘We wanted to put our own mark on the cheeses that we sell’

Beer-washed in Bermondsey Interview

London cheesemonger Tom Harding has combined Welsh-made Golden Cenarth with a locally brewed IPA to create a new washed-rind variety. PATRICK McGUIGAN reports.

t doesn’t have quite the same romance as the caves of Roquefort, but the cool, damp climate of a railway arch on an industrial estate in South East London is proving to be the perfect place to make a new washed rind cheese. Bermondsey Spa takes its name from the local neighbourhood (it’s hard to believe that this inner city area was once home to a natural spring) and is the brainchild of cheesemonger and maturer Tom

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

choice for making a washed rind cheese.” Bermondsey Spa starts life as the Welsh cheese Golden Cenarth, which is made by Carwyn Adams of Carmarthanshire-based Caws Cenarth. Mootown has long sold this organic washed rind cow’s milk cheese on its One of our customers market stalls, but said, in a nice way, that by washing it even more with it smells like death. It pale ale over two has a big meaty smell, to three weeks but the flavour is mild it creates a very different product, and creamy. with a darker, stickier rind and a stronger fruity washed with an India Pale Ale from flavour. “One of our customers a fellow urban food producer – a said, in a nice way, that it smells micro-brewery called The Kernel, like death,” says Harding. “It has a which is housed in the railway arch very big meaty smell, but actually next door. “We wanted to put the flavour when you eat it is much our own mark on the cheeses that more mild and creamy. we sell,” says Harding, “and The “We took advice from Carwyn Kernel’s beer is so yeasty and full of about washing the cheese and the character that it seemed the obvious Harding. His company, Mootown, is one of a new breed of microbusinesses that have sprung up over the past five years as London’s street food scene has blossomed, selling everything from cupcakes to beer at London’s trendy farmers’ markets and food festivals. Bermondsey Spa is actually

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environment we should keep it in. We don’t claim it’s perfect, but we’re quite happy with it.” Originally from Mumbles in Swansea, Harding first fell in love with cheese while doing a university project that led him to visit some of Wales’ best farmhouse cheesemakers. A three-year stint working at Neal’s Yard Dairy, when he first moved to London, cemented his interest, before he set up Mootown with his wife Gurjit, selling Welsh farmhouse cheeses at markets in South London. Today the business turns over £100,000 a year – not yet enough for Harding to leave his job as a policy advisor, but not bad when you consider sales are based on attending just two markets a week in Herne Hill and East Dulwich, plus online and a small wholesale business. The launch of Bermondsey Spa earlier this year has helped boost wholesale orders, says Harding, with customers including Cannon & Cannon deli in Brixton Market and the café at Brockwell Lido. “The fact that it’s linked to London and has this story behind it, with the brewery next door and the railway arches, seems to have helped,” he says. “If you’re a deli or a restaurant it really adds intrigue to your menu.” Beyond Bermondsey Spa, the company’s best sellers at the markets are the brie-style Perl Wen and Hafod cheddar, which retail alongside other Welsh modern classics such as Teifi, Gorwydd Caerphilly, Perl Las blue, and, of course, Golden Cenarth. Selling at markets does not require anything like the investment of setting up a bricks-and-mortar shop. The rate for a pitch at East Dulwich and Herne Hill is £25 and £40 respectively, with the average daily take at each market around £700-£800. But there are challenges, especially when it comes to to keeping the cheese in optimum condition. The company has invested in a portable display fridge for its soft cheeses, which it has customised with a special humidifying device, while harder cheeses are stored in back-up fridges and displayed at ambient temperatures on the stall for short periods. “We’ve found that suburban markets where there is more of a local, regular crowd work better than on the South Bank or bigger central London markets,” Harding says. “At those kinds of markets, you’re better off doing a street food offer like toasted sandwiches. If you’re in London for a few days, do you really want to take home a cheese that smells like death? It’s much better to have regular customers who give you regular feedback.” www.mootown.co.uk

Back in season! Yes, it’s that time of the year again, and the cheese we have all been waiting for... French Vacherin Mont D’or is back in season. That wonderful crusty soft spooning cheese with its spruce lined box comes in three sizes, the 3kg cutting cheese for the counter, the ‘party’ 800g cheese ideal for the oven and the 500g petit version for the romantic dinner for two. Simply one of the highlights of the year... no more to say! 01892 838999 www.rowcliffe.co.uk

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

WORLD CHEESE AWARDS CHAMPION 2010 Supreme Champion Bath & West 2010

There’s is no need to settle for second best when you can stock the eight times World Champion cave aged Premier Cru Gruyère and Emmental from von Mühlenen von Mühlenen UK • c/o Paul Clarke • Badgers Barn St Mary’s Barns • Weeford • Staffordshire WS14 OPW T +44 (0)1543 480 484 • M +44 (0)7771 931 246 pclarke@vonmuhlenen.ch Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

THE ESSENCE OF QUALITY FOR CHRISTMAS 2012 Our new packaging design has a celebratory style that really enhances the Christmas Product Range. With a satin finish, our striking new design features an embossed green bow, gold foil lettering and a small fleet of twinkling red stars. The range includes a brand NEW confectionery carton, all designed to catch your customer’s eye. Of course, it goes without saying that the carefully selected, delicious contents are, as ever, the essence of quality.

www.hiderfoods.co.uk 32

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

01482 504333

sales@hiderfoods.co.uk

A promotional feature for the Guild of Fine Food

OCTOBER’S MONEY MAKING PROMOTIONS The Guild of Fine Food has developed its Retail Promotion Scheme to help retailers survive recession hit Britain. We are negotiating with our producer members and have handpicked a selection of great products on which we’ve secured big discounts unique to Guild retail members.

BRADLEY’S JUICE

MINTER’S FINE FOODS

THE OLIVE OIL CO

Following the success of its apple juices at Great Taste 2012, Bradley’s Juice is launching of a ginger beer – using fresh root ginger brewed for at least four days – and a still lemonade. All drinks are available in 33cl (wholesale 80p, launch RRP £1.60) and a 75cl (wholesale £1.77, launch RRP £2.90) glass bottles in shrink-wrapped packs of 12 and 8 respectively. Bradley’s Juices are sold exclusively through independent retailers. THE DEAL: Purchase 6 cases of ginger beer or still lemonade (can be a mixture of sizes and flavours) and get 2 extra cases free. AVAILABILITY: Nationwide CONTACT: Miles Bradley on 01934 822356 or miles@bradleysjuice.co.uk

Now run by founder Stanley Minter’s son Sean, Minter’s Fine Foods has been supplying its customers since the early 1960s. The firm makes a range of products including conserves, curds, marmalades, chutneys, cakes, biscuits and cooking sauces, which are all available under the Minter’s branding or bespoke own labelling. THE DEAL: 10% off first order and no artwork origination charges on own label products for any new customers spending over £250. AVAILABILITY: Free nationwide delivery every two weeks CONTACT: Ed Lowe or Karen Taylor on 01477 500660 or farmhouseproducts@live.co.uk

The producer’s range of balsamic vinegar glazes is made from Italian Aceto Balsamico di Modena IGP. The glazes are obtained from the vinegar through cold extraction rather than using heat, which can cause bitterness. These products are designed to provide the flavour of balsamic vinegar without the mess and are well suited to salads, risottos and desserts or for decorating dishes. THE DEAL: Buy 4 cases of balsamic vinegar glazes, get 1 free (worth £47.40). Orders can be mixed. AVAILABILITY: Nationwide, free next day delivery CONTACT: 0207 7401717 or info@theoliveoilco.com

SIMPLY ICE CREAM The Kent-based firm offers more than 30 different flavours of its handmade, additive-free ice cream and sorbet, as well as a bespoke flavourmaking service. Retailers can also purchase Simply Ice Cream-branded fridges in a number of sizes from the producer. THE DEAL: 15% off new customers’ first orders or free ice cream when any new or existing customers purchase a Simply Ice Cream branded fridge AVAILABILITY: South East CONTACT: Sally Newall on 01233 720922 or info@simplyicecream.co.uk

COTSWOLD FAYRE

COUNTRY PRODUCTS Due to popular demand Country Products is launching its luxury glace fruits in reusable 400g presentation pots. The range includes cherries (red, green, gold, natural & mixed coloured), mixed peel (chopped and whole), angelica, glace apricot and glace pineapple. The trade price of these jars is £10.50 + VAT each. THE DEAL: 20% discount on new glace fruit products (offer price £8.40+VAT per 400g jar) on all orders placed before end of November. AVAILABILITY: Nationwide. Free delivery: orders over £150 CONTACT: Mark Leather on 01423 358858 or mark.leather@countryproducts.co.uk

SCRUMSHUS GRANOLA

This granola contains an “abundance” of jumbo oats, honey, coconut, raisins, sunflower seeds, maple syrup, almonds, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, sunflower oil, cashew nuts, and hazelnuts. It also contains no added salt, sugar or preservatives. Cases of 12x500g eco-friendly jars (trade £4.50/jar, RRP £5.49/jar) are available direct. THE DEAL: 1 jar free in every case of 12 ordered, plus 500g sample bag AVAILABILITY: Nationwide, minimum order one case CONTACT: Fay Miller on 07967 655632 or fay@scrumshus.co.uk

The Gourmet Candy Company’s Twinkle Pops are exclusive to Cotswold Fayre. These clear lollypops come in eight different designs and the distributor says they will make an eye-catching display. Each case contains 120 individually wrapped lollies of the same design in a variety of colours. THE DEAL: Buy 3 cases of Twinkle Pops, get 1 free AVAILABILITY: Nationwide CONTACT: Shana Howard on 08448 404048 or sales@cotswoldfayre.co.uk

UNCLE ROY’S Uncle Roy’s range of “Eat Me!” edible flower petals has a wide variety of culinary uses. The producer suggests using its lavender florets in meringues, sauces, shortbread, or gravy, while it recommends its array of rose petals for floating in champagne and its safflower petals for colouring soup. There are almost thirty different products in the range, including both dried and sugared petals. THE DEAL: Buy any 5 cases of “Eat Me!” flower petals and get a case of top-selling lavender florets (worth £10.30) free. AVAILABILITY: Nationwide as part of any carriage paid order CONTACT: Uncle Roy on 01683 221076 or uncleroy@uncleroys.co.uk

GUILD RETAIL PROMOTION SUMMARY (Available to Guild members only)

COMPANY

DEAL

BRADLEY’S JUICE COTSWOLD FAYRE

Purchase 6 cases of ginger beer or still lemonade, get 2 cases free 01934 822356 miles@bradleysjuice.co.uk Buy 3 cases of Twinkle Pops, get 1 free 08448 404048 sales@cotswoldfayre.co.uk

TEL

COUNTRY PRODUCTS 20% discount on new glace fruit products FARMHOUSE PRODUCTS 10% off first orders and no own label artwork origination charges for any new customers spending over £250

01423 358858 mark.leather@countryproducts.co.uk 01477 500660 farmhouseproducts@live.co.uk

SCRUMSHUS GRANOLA 1 jar free in every case of 12, plus 500g sample bag SIMPLY ICE CREAM 15% off first orders or free ice cream with any purchase of a branded fridge

07967 655632 fay@scrumshus.co.uk 01233 720922 info@simplyicecream.co.uk

THE OLIVE OIL CO UNCLE ROY’s

0207 7401717 info@theoliveoilco.com 01683 221076 uncleroy@uncleroys.co.uk

Buy 4 cases of balsamic vinegar glazes, get 1 free Buy 5 cases of “Eat Me!” edible flower petals, get a free case of lavender florets

RETAIL MEMBERS – To sign up to the retail promotion scheme contact: tortie.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk or ring her on 01963 824464 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.

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

PACKAGING & CREATIVE PRESENTATION

Your one stop Shop!

F Deliree very To ma inland ord UK ers ov on a exclud er £125. Pr ll ices e VAT. Ter condit ions a ms & pply.

Handmade sweet and savoury preserves and condiments

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Miller Park, Station Road, Wigton, Cumbria CA7 9BA Tel/Fax: 01697 345974 Email: claire@claireshandmade.co.uk

www.claireshandmade.co.uk

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Handmade, flavoured chocolate bars and bags of flavoured chocolate disks.

DE R ON

Retail Display • Protective Packaging • Gift Boxes Gift & Shoppers • Deli Trays • Wooden Boxes Wicker Baskets • Bows & Ribbons

Freephone 08000 85 85 95 | sales@wbc.co.uk | wbc.co.uk 34

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

Flavours include Chilli and Lime, Raspberry and Bergamot, Lavender, May Chang, Peppermint, Orange, Lemon and Caramelised Hazelnut. Innovative, distinctive, eye-catching packaging. To request a brochure contact Nigel, email: nigel@bittersweetchocolates.co.uk or tel: 07968 163706 www. bittersweetchocolates.co.u k

product update

chocolate

Small, dark and handsome From new start-ups to re-branding, MICHAEL LANE rounds up the latest products available in speciality chocolate James Chocolates in Somerset has a number of new additions for seasonal selling occasions coming up over the next few months. Its Hopping Popping Frogs (trade £1.73 per unit) – made with milk chocolate and popping candy – and caramel eyeballs (trade £1.44) are part of the firm’s new Halloween range. It also has several new festive lines, including Christmas tree lollies (35g, trade £1.44) and Christmas baubles (35g, trade £1.38) in dark, milk and white chocolate. Meanwhile, the chocolatier has developed three varieties of chocolate beans – dark espresso, milk caramel vanilla & sea salt and chilli & raspberry – in pocket-sized packaging (50g, trade £1.28) that its says would be ideal as stocking fillers. www.jameschocolates.co.uk

Chococo will be selling some of its new festive lines to the trade. Its foil-wrapped studded snowballs (trade price £1.88 per ball, cases contain 12) are available in milk chocolate with handmade honeycomb, milk chocolate with dried raspberries & meringue pieces, dark chocolate with crystallised ginger and dark chocolate with dried oak smoked chilli & Peruvian roasted cocoa nibs. The firm, which is based in the Dorset town of Swanage, also offers a range of chocolate coated fruits and clusters in newly designed sleeves. Candied orange segments (125g), Turkish apricots (125g), and Turkish Delight (135g) all come enrobed in 70% cocoa Trinitario bean dark chocolate. Its honeycomb, salted popcorn and raspberry pavlova clusters (all 100g packs) are coated in 44% cocoa milk chocolate. Trade prices for the range start at £2.48 each. www.chococo.co.uk

Chilli specialist Grim Reaper Foods has altered the packaging of its three 100g chocolate bars made with essential oils and ultra hot Naga Jolokia chillies. Black Widow (dark chilli chocolate infused with lemon oil & geranium), Hell Raiser (milk with sweet orange clove oil & cinnamon) and Purgatory (white with mixed spices, cocoa nibs & bergamot) now tie in with the firm’s Grim Reaper character and backstory. “Every other product I’ve done had a story about the reaper on it. The majority of people didn’t want to know about the chocolate they wanted more about the reaper,” explains founder Russell Williams. The bars come in cases of 12 units (can be mixed). Each one has a trade price of £2.36+VAT and an RRP of £4. www.grimreaperfoods.com

Sarah Bunton Chocolates has developed a box of 12 rose and violet creams, which are available to the trade for £5.80 per unit or £55 per case of 10. The Welsh chocolatier also has a range of chocolate covered fruit in 120g tetra packs including dark chocolate coated ginger and milk chocolate coated candied orange peel. Trade price is £2 per box or £38 for case of 20. Bunton has also created new lines for Christmas including mulled wine trees, Christmas pudding chocolates and seasonal selection boxes of 12 or 24 chocolates.

Gnaw has recently unveiled new packaging for its range of handcrafted ‘Gnawfolk’ chocolates as well as adding three Christmas products to its extensive selection of bars, buttons, and hot choc shots. Snowberry Drift (white chocolate with honeycomb & strawberry pieces) and The Speckled Pud (milk chocolate with fruit pieces) join a line-up of chocolate bars that already includes Banoffee Pie, Fudge Crunch and Gnawfolk Chilli. It has also created a caramel version of its Hot Choc Shots. Bars and 150g bags of chocolate buttons both have an RRP of £2.99, while the Hot Choc Shots have an RRP of £1.99 - £2.19.

www.sarahbuntonchocolates.co.uk

www.gnawfolkchocolate.co.uk

Valrhona has put the world’s first ‘blond’ chocolate into production after it was created by accident at its Ecole du Grand Chocolat eight years ago. Ever since, the French luxury brand has been trying to upscale the recipe discovered by chocolatier Frédéric Bau when he absent-mindedly left some of the firm’s Ivoire chocolate in a bain marie for 10 hours. After years of experimenting by it engineers, Valrhona’s Dulcey 32% has the same colour and creamy, biscuity notes of Bau’s original with a touch of salt at the finish. It is available in 85g bars (RRP £3.99) from distributor Classic Fine Foods. www.valrhona.com

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

Exciting new ranges from James Chocolates available now The Original Candy Company Confectionery Corner 路 4 Wessex Road 路 Bourne End Buckinghamshire SL8 5DT enquiries@originalcandyco.com www.chocca-mocca.com

Call 01749 831330 and quote FFD10 for our new brochure and free samples

12 Shades of Chocolate COMING SOON! J&A Ferguson introduce a new seductive range of their fine hand made chocolates. The Ultimate Deluxe Selection comprises of such tempting treats as Hazelnut Gianduja, Peppermint Dream, Salted Caramel, Almond Praline, Turkish Delight & Coconut Cream. Strictly for grown-ups only.

Fort Matilda Industrial Estate, Greenock, Scotland PA16 7QF Tel: 01475 721099

October 2012 路 Vol.13 Issue 9

Almond Praline

Hazelnut Gianduja

Peppermint Dream

Salted Caramel

Violet Cream

Rum Truffle

Turkish Delight

Rose Cream

Lime Delight

Marc de Champagne Truffle

Stem Ginger

Coconut Cream

product update The Good Food Network is now selling dark chocolate Florentines prepared by French artisan chocolatier Michel Chatillon, to the trade. These Florentines come in 100g boxes (12 Florentines) with a wholesale price of £2.45 and an RRP of £3.95. They are part of a range of high end French confectionery offered by the firm.

chocolate iQ chocolate is Scotland’s first, and only, bean to bar manufacturer. The firm uses single origin Criollo cacao beans from Peru and retains their high level of anitoxidants and nutrients by preparing the chocolate at low temperature. As well as its original 35g iQ chocolate bar it has created four more bars – chocolate with pure peppermint, chocolate with cayenne & cinnamon, chocolate with gourmet coffee and chocolate with cacao nibs. The bars, which have a 12-month shelf life, are available in cases of 36 for £59.76 (+VAT). The RRP is £2.99 per bar. www.iqingredients.com

www.thegoodfoodnetwork.co.uk

While it may seem like the latest in novelty luxury, Harrods’ newest chocolate offering could benefit those who get the hump with normal dairy chocolate. The famous London department store’s loose chocolate counter is now selling an own-branded chocolate with a ganache filling made from camels’ milk, which was first popularised in Dubai and is now gaining an international following due to its health benefits. “While similar in taste it is proven to contain over five times the vitamin C of cows’ milk but has a much lower fat content,” explains a Harrods spokeswoman. “It is also a great option for diabetics and those who are lactose intolerant.” The retailer sells milk and dark chocolate versions at £12/100g. www.harrods.com/food-and-wine

Launched at the beginning of 2012, Menakao is a bean-to-bar producer based in Madagascar. Unlike other chocolates made with the African island’s cocoa beans, the firm takes the product from “the tree to the packaged bar” before exporting. Its range of 75g bars (wholesale £1.45, RRP £3) is made using single plantation beans and local ingredients such as combava (kaffir lime), tsiperifery pepper, and “fleur de sel” from the Menabe region. Both its 63% dark bar with combava & pink pepper and its 63 % dark chocolate bar with sea salt & fleur de sel were awarded two-star gold awards in Great Taste 2012. www.menakao.com

Mark and Emma Baravelli recently closed their Llandudno shop The Little Deli to concentrate on their artisan food business, Baravelli’s, which has become Wales’ first bean to bar chocolate producer. The couple, who have won several awards for their preserves and chocolates, hope to be in full production this month. But they are taking orders for their 50g bars of chocolate made using beans directly imported from a farmer in Costa Rica. The proposed trade price per bar is £2.75 (RRP £4.99). Although the Baravellis are still experimenting, the range currently includes a 70% bar (made with

Diana David makes a variety of dairy-free chocolates by hand, which she currently supplies to retailers in London. The Diana’s Chocolates range includes sea salt caramels, cranberry & orange rustic slabs and roasted almond roses. The trade price for a 100g bag is £3.50 while the almond roses cost £6.40. David will also be producing chocolate Christmas trees and gingerbread men for the festive season.

Kokonoir has redesigned its branding and overhauled the packaging across its entire line-up of bars and hot chocolate sticks. The Flintshire-based producer offers seven different types of bars in 45g and 100g (trade price £1.46 and £2.43 respectively for orders of less than 50 units) including 70% dark, milk with Halen Mon sea salt & caramel, and white with raspberry. Its luxury hot chocolate sticks come in retail packs of two sticks (trade £1.40) and catering packs of 20 (£11) in dark, dark orange, dark peppermint, milk, and milk hazelnut. All of the firm’s products are made with Belgian chocolate.

diana@dianadavid.co.uk

www.kokonoir.com

British sugar (30%) and no cocoa butter) an 80% cocoa bar (10% milk, 10% sugar), and a 100% bar. The Conwy-based producer has also recently secured the trademark for Chocstix (previously owned by Cadbury’s) for its range of flavoured hot chocolate sticks. It offers a wide variety of flavours and packaging options including single patterned hot chocolate sticks in individual retail bags (trade £1, cases of 12), retail bags of two Chocstix (£21 for case of 12) and catering packs of 50 white, dark or milk chocolate sticks for £37.50. Other flavours include dark chilli, milk spiced orange, and white rice pudding. www.baravellis.com

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

product update

chocolate

Building the house brand House of Dorchester’s Katherine Ebbs talks to MICHAEL LANE about trying to grow the firm’s branded range in a busy market

ouse of Dorchester is approaching its fiftieth year and the firm’s marketing operations manager Katherine Ebbs has been there for more than 20 of those, but neither is resting on their laurels. Over the next 18 months the firm is planning to double the size of its 20,000 sq ft factory, located in Prince Charles’s Poundbury development in Dorchester, Dorset, while Ebbs is looking to increase sales of its branded range of chocolate. Currently, the House of Dorchester brand accounts for only 15% of the company’s output with the lion’s share of business coming from a wide range of own label clients. “The business was founded on own label,” Ebbs tells FFD, “and it was really only 10-12 years ago that we heavily started to promote a House of Dorchester brand.” Unlike its ownlabel business, House of Dorchester supplies its branded range both direct and through wholesalers Cotswold Fayre and Hider, which Ebbs says improves their coverage of the speciality market. While the firm has shied away from consumer shows, it will also be exhibiting at the Chocolate Unwrapped event, being held as part Chocolate Week (October 8-14), to

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

improve public awareness. As Ebbs points out, there are more choices for increasingly food-conscious consumers than ever before, with more producers recognised as good chocolatiers. “There are The Paul A Youngs, the Will Curleys – what you call super premium,” she says. “You’ve then got what we call premium – the Charbonnels, Prestats, and Hotel Chocolats of this world. And within that you’ve got a lot of very small artisan chocolatiers, who all want a slice of the cake. They are all producing very nice product so it is very competitive.” Despite the number of speciality producers, Ebbs feels that there is always room for more to give “buoyancy and life” to the market. “You wouldn’t want to stop new people coming in. When you see product ideas coming out of new companies you think ‘Oh that’s really clever. Wish we’d thought of that’.” Although keeping track of

other producers aids product development, House of Dorchester can also draw on its experiences supplying bespoke own label products to work out what consumers are looking for. “Visual is very key. That’s the way we understand it from a lot of retailers. People want to see the chocolate, see what they’re buying and get the taste buds working while they’re looking around the shelves.” House of Dorchester has taken this into consideration with its new strawberry Marc de Champagne truffles (see box) launched as part of its Spring 2013 range together with its original Marc de Champagne truffles, which have been re-launched in new packaging. Ebbs adds that while packaging is expensive, and has seen bigger cost increases than notoriously volatile cocoa, it is as important a quality indicator as a premium price tag. As for the actual products, Ebbs says embellishment with artisan-style Ebbs says lines like The Tasty Christmas Tree reflect demand for embellished products

drizzles or sprinkles is a key trend. “It looks more homemade,” she adds. While House of Dorchester has been innovating this year with gingerbread flavour hot chocolate spoons and decorative Tasty Christmas Trees, Ebbs says the firm has to be careful not to alienate its more conservative customer base. “I don’t think you ever move away from traditional favourites. In recent years we’ve played on the design themes, with chocolate centres based on household desserts and ice cream flavours. “But we’ve never got into taste trends that heavily, because they come and go.” While its customers may not be asking for wacky new flavours, Ebbs says there is definitely more of an interest in provenance, even if it’s more for the retailer’s peace of mind. “I don’t know how much of that gets passed back to the consumer, other than whatever is on our packaging, but retailers need to feel that they’re stocking quality tasting and looking product.” www.hodchoc.co.uk

Among House of Dorchester’s recently launched Spring 2013 collection is a strawberry version of its Marc de Champagne truffles – a white Marc de Champagne ganache infused with real strawberry pieces and coated in white chocolate. Each individual chocolate is topped with freeze-dried strawberries and finished with a hand stickling of pink chocolate. The firm has also updated the packaging for its original Marc de Champagne truffles. Both products have a trade price £5.17 each and are sold in cases of six.

Vol.13 Issue 9 路 October 2012

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A promotional feature on behalf of Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Union fulfill our ‘Best’ end of the category as our premium offering. Their coffees provide a diverse range of filter and wholebean, covering both single estate and blended styles. What are the deciding factors in stocking a premium roast and ground coffee brand? Positioning within the category, shelf space, brand support and consumer awareness and, lastly, margin are all key in the decision process. That all said, consumers seek a spread of choice both in terms of brand and price but retailers also need a category hero, which for us is Union Hand Roasted Coffee. A hero needs to add more than just a range. Provenance – a good back-story – and taste are important to consider too. We know that Union tastes great as a direct result of its sustainable and ethical sourcing policy where 100% transparency is guaranteed. Whether customers shop for their favourite origin e.g. Colombia, or for a roast style, there comes a real story and sense of connection with the producers Union source from. People want to know where their food and drink comes from now.

Why every deli needs a coffee category ‘hero’ Stocking must-have brands in influential categories can help to define your business in your customers’ eyes. Union Hand Roasted Coffee asked key customer JOHN SHEPHERD of Partridges about the role of coffee in his London store.

Understanding Coffee Many boutique retailers are understanding the benefits of speciality roast and ground coffee and the need to tier their offering. We asked John Shepherd, managing director and owner of London’s Partridges and Shepherds stores, to explain the role the category plays and why Union Hand-Roasted Coffee is a must-stock brand. What are the key challenges for boutique top-end retailers? One of the key issues for the top end delis and foodhalls is to stay ahead of the multiples by working with

artisan producers who share a similar business ethos to us, bringing a point of difference with their offering. This might be brand support at store level with staff training and education, or could be the supply of an interesting and niche product ahead of the curve. We then have to balance this with the consumer’s requirement for core range, everyday items which need to be priced sensitively. We are constantly travelling and seeking that point of difference, which is why we chose to work with Union Hand Roasted Coffee. For us, staff education and knowledge is the key differentiator – our people really do interact with consumers who seek help and assistance. What role does the roast and

ground coffee category play in boutique independent retail? As the coffee category “grows up”, consumers have become more aware of the nuances and differences between coffee styles. These consumers tend to be interested in their food and typically a higher than average demographic. Such customers are seeking premium quality products and stocking roast and ground coffees adds to a perception of being a top-end retailer. In addition, roast and ground coffees generate typically twice the margin of the instant coffees. The category can now be broken down to ‘Good, Better, Best’ tiering, where the opportunity at the ‘Best’ end is providing a faster-growing rate of sale than the more basic brands within the category. At Partridges,

Do you think that the independent retail customer is looking to be informed and intrigued, by discovering new brands? Or is it all about impulse and convenience? Our customers seek knowledge, so they can have confidence in their purchase. They are looking for new and interesting brands to intrigue them, so it’s important to have a supplier like Union supporting our efforts with education on tasting notes and provenance. For the impulse and convenience purchase, the bigger brands traded on price rather than flavour/quality fulfill this purchase occasion but not necessarily a discovery experience. What activities do your stores employ to excite and engage the customer and help upsell to a superior brand? As a Royal Warrant holder, we consistently seek and offer the best of the best. So to ensure we provide a quality and engaging shopping experience we often undertake tasting sessions in partnership with premium brands, which is why I started our Saturday food markets. This also aids staff education and builds confidence in selling our hero brands like Union. www.unionroasted.com

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

R FO EG R IST FR E EE R T O OD N A LI Y N E

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October 2012 路 Vol.13 Issue 9

irs food mag half page advert july 2012 v3.indd 1

01/08/2012 15:04

product update

cooking sauces

Instant korma The vast and varied flavours of India still dominate new launches in speciality cooking sauces, but Africaninfluenced lines with melon seeds, palm fruit and pulses are quietly catching on. LYNDA SEARBY reports.

Raspberry and chilli might sound an unlikely combination, but according to US producer Fischer & Wieser, its roasted raspberry chipotle sauce is a smoky, sweet and spicy sauce that makes meat, fish and fowl ‘extraordinary’. The product can be used as a glaze or finishing sauce for beef, pork tenderloin or chicken, basted over prawns while grilling or stirred into chocolate cake or brownies before baking. It is available from Hider Food Imports in six-pack cases at a trade price of £3.99 per 270g bottle (RRP £5.99).

Top sellers… The Speciality & Fine Food Fair last month saw the launch for four teriyaki sauces from South East Asian fusion food producer Karimix. The teriyaki, teriyaki sesame, teriyaki orange and teriyaki wasabi sauces can be added to noodles or stir fries or used as a marinade or glaze. They come in 250ml bottles, 12 to a case, and retail at £4.25-4.50. .

tate Farm ... at Hawarden Es Shop, Flintshire

ce with Italian cooking sau Own homemade ices ves, herbs and sp tomatoes, black oli doro e basilico Nonna Teresa pomo balti Company medium The Curry Sauce sala Company tikka ma The Curry Sauce n creamy peppercor Sauces of Choice

www.karimix.com

Jamie Oliver’s team has collaborated with Olives Et Al to add a pesto to the Jme collection. A British version of the Italian classic, Hey Pesto! is made with watercress, British herbs and farm-made cheese. Besides its conventional role as a pasta sauce, the pesto can be spooned into soups, spread onto pork chops or mixed into mash. RRP is £4.50 for a 165g jar.

Husband and wife team Vini and Bal (Varinder and Baljit) Aujila have set out to demonstrate that the flavours of India are as varied as its people and demand something better than a typical ‘British’ Indian takeaway. The duo, who call themselves Rustic Indian, have created a range of ‘authentic and appetising’ Indian sauces for busy individuals and working parents. The four Punjab-inspired variants are the traditional tomato-based North Indian dish shahi; fiery mirchi (chilli); tharka cook-in sauce and jeera (cumin) cook-in sauce. The sauces, which have an RRP of £3.60 for 350g, are in a handful of Budgens stores and are due to launch nationwide with Budgens later this year. Rustic Indian supplies the independent trade direct from its London kitchen.

www.jme-food.com

www.rusticindian.com

www.jelly.com

Yorkshire-based Kashmiri restaurant chain The Aagrah has branched out into retail with a range of four Indian tarka sauces. They feature The Aagrah’s signature dishes and ‘known favourites’: the hydrabadi, the korma, the balti and the achari. The 270g sauces (RRP £2.49) are already on sale in Tesco across Yorkshire and have just been rolled out in Asda stores in Yorkshire and the North East. Distribution to the independent trade is via The Locally Sourced Food Company.

The latest additions to Seasoned Pioneers’ range of world cooking sauces are Mexican manchamantel, Indian jeera & tamarind daal and Chinese Sichuan plum & mandarin sauce. RRP is £3.50 for a 400g pouch. www.seasonedpioneers.co.uk

www.aagrah.com

Mamajaan’s Hampstead harooni, Camden chitur, Belsize bhuna and Keats kashmir curry sauces are now on sale across the capital, after securing listings with Planet Organic and Whole Foods Market. The sauces, which retail at £3.99 per pot, are already stocked by Budgens, As Nature Intended and a number of independents.

Consumers can choose their desired heat level with Really Indian’s new original curry sauces. Intended to be used either as curry sauces in their own right or as a base for other Indian dishes, they contain a blend of 15 spices and come in mild, medium and hot versions (RRP £2.99 upwards for a 350g tub). The sauces are the first products from the Leeds-based business, which was formed last year by husband and wife team Amrik and Sharon Rauth. So far they are only on sale in delis and farmshops in Yorkshire.

www.mamajaans.co.uk

www.reallyindian.com

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

Handcrafted sauces, organically and lovingly prepared with the freshest, natural ingredents. Healthy, nutritious and low in salt and fat without compromising on taste. Each sauce is a little pot of goodness in its own right. Mamajaan’s easy to use Curry Sauces enhance meat, fish, pulses and vegtables beautifully. You can find Mamajaan’s sauces in the chilled food section of Fortnum & Mason, selected branches of Budgens and the fine food outlets listed on our website. If you would like to become a stockist please email: mamajaan@mamajaans.co.uk RRP £3.99 Keats Kashmir

Belsize Bhuna

www.mamajaans.co.uk

DELI FOR SALE

78558 Karimix Fine Food ad Oct FAW.indd 1

19/9/12 10:38:07

Leasehold, Somerset

Gross annual turnover £225,000 Shop - 410 sq ft Terrace/Garden - approx 430 sq ft Charming licensed Deli/cafe for sale in attractive, busy, popular Somerset village. A3 consent with seating for 25 inside and 25 outside. Genuinely interested? In the first instance contact john.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk or call him on 01963 824464.

Kent’s Kitchen has recently launched its range of Sauce Sensations. The easy to use and traditional sauce bases will enhance meat, fish or vegetable dishes. These rich, creamy concentrates will create authentic sauces just by adding milk and heating. Flavours include Hollandaise, Béarnaise, Peppercorn and Parsley sauces.

Visit www.kentskitchen.co.uk or email emma@kentskitchen.co.uk

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

product update Top sellers…

rganic uir – The O m it h W t a ... tland Linton, Sco Place, West

rosso Suma pesto ganic Essential or a passat Organico vegetable uce bolognese sa Mr Organic basilico

cooking sauces Tapping into the emerging popularity of South American cuisine is Adesso, with Chimichurri, a herbaceous Argentine marinade for grilled steak, chicken or fish (RRP £5 for 220ml).

Real Organic ny Foods Compa korma

Chaat-tastic tamarind sauce is claimed to be completely different to the ‘low grade’ tamarind sauces in supermarkets and ethnic food stores, which the company says “are loaded with artificial ingredients, skimp on tamarind content and are often imported from the Indian sub-continent in leaky bottles”. Made from just four ingredients – raw tamarind, water, sugar and salt – the sauce can be used as a cooking sauce for curries and stir-fries or as a marinade. RRP is £2.49 for a 300ml bottle. Online aside, Chaat-tastic is currently only available in selected Asian independents and a handful of delis. www.chaat-tastic.com

New to Cotswold Fayre’s JulyDecember 2012 catalogue are two cooking sauce lines: organic chicken bolognese (RRP £1.95 for 130g) from Little Pasta Organics, which caters especially to toddlers and children, and Indian Tree, a new range of curry sauces from The Curry Sauce Company. The korma, tikka masala, rogan josh, jalfrezi, Thai green and Thai red curry sauces all have a trade price of £10.35 for six 350g jars (RRP £2.45). www.cotswold-fayre. co.uk

www. adessofoods. com

Mediterranean food brand Belazu has moved into cooking sauces this autumn, with a range of pastes in 90g jars (RRP £2.99). The four new lines are tagine paste, black olive tapenade, roasted aubergine paste and chermoula paste – which is a spicy coriander and parsley fusion for seasoning white meat, fish, vegetables and dips. www.mybelazu.com

The Fresh Pasta Company has launched three sauces to complement its unfilled fresh pasta. Pesto Genovese, ragú Toscano and ragú di Cinghiale (wild boar) are all made in Italy. The pesto comes in a 150g tub while the ragús come in 200g packs. www.thefreshpastacompany. com

While there are plenty of red and green Thai curry pastes on the market, Old School Thai curry pastes, which debuted at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair, are different in that they are sold fresh, not ambient. “By selling them chilled, the aromatics retain their zest and vibrancy – there is no dulling of the flavours which can occur when you’re producing something that’s designed to sit on a shelf for a year,” explains Brett Cowie, the Bangkok born IT consultant-turned-Thai-chef behind the business. The red and green pastes are made to exactly the same recipe used by his grandmother in Thailand, with ingredients such as garlic, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and peel and toasted spices. Despite containing no artificial preservatives, Old School Thai pastes (RRP £3.99 for a 110g pouch) still have a shelf life of three months. The company is in the process of developing a distribution network and is partnering regional distributors who can handle chilled products. www.OldSchoolThai.co.uk

Bringing Africa to the table Consumers might be more familiar with Africa’s wines than its food, but the continent’s cuisine has been slated as an up-and-coming trend and new producers are springing up to take advantage of the opportunity. Pepper and Stew is on a mission to popularise African cuisine through a four-strong range of sauces. “We saw a gap in the market; there were no cooking ingredients targeted at mainstream Britain to make African dishes quickly and easily,” explains founder Racquel Mafura. “So we created four new cooking sauces based on real African recipes.” Jollof sauce is a West African blend of tomatoes and chilli used to make the traditional jollof rice, a one-pot dish of rice and meat or vegetables. Palm nut sauce, made with the pulp of the palm fruit, is used to make the Ghanaian traditional palm nut soup but can be a base for any meat, chicken, fish or bean slow-cooked stew. Cape Malay curry sauce is a sweet and fruity South African curry sauce and egusi stew sauce combines unrefined palm oil,

tomatoes and melon seeds (egusi) to create a sauce with a sweet, smoky and nutty flavour that can be used as a base for any stew. RRP is £4 for a 370g jar. Pepper and Stew sells cases of six direct to the trade for £15. At Bim’s Kitchen, husband and wife team James and Nicola Adedeji have created chickpea & melon seed curry sauce and tomato & pepper sauce as easy cooking sauces for meat, fish, vegetables or tofu. The London-based producer has also introduced a baobab pepper jam as a

no-chilli alternative condiment to its baobab chilli jam. Trade price for all the new products is £17.40 per case of six; RRP is £4.59. www.bimskitchen.com www.pepperandstew.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

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 hickory smoked cashews with black pepper

hickory smoked macadamia nuts

hickory smoked marcona almonds

visit www.smokednuts.co.uk for more information exclusively distributed by Hider Foods. tel: 01482 504333 hickory smoked almonds and cashews

www.hiderfoods.co.uk

RetailReady 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 October 9-10 2012. Visit www.finefoodworld.co.uk/retailready for more details and an application form. Call us to find out more on 01963 824464.

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

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

shelftalk

products, promotions & people

By MICHAEL LANE

A medieval herbal drink first made in Norfolk by Benedictine monks has returned to its ancestral home after years of corporate neglect that saw it leave the UK entirely. For the last six years Norfolk Punch, a drink made from 30 herbs and spices, has only been available from a producer in Australia but artisan production has now been revived in East Anglia. The drink, which can be served hot or chilled, first found fame in the 1980s after an ancient recipe was discovered at Welle Manor, near Upwell, and put into production by Eric St John-Foti. In its pomp more than 1 million bottles of the brew, which was designed to cure “tenseness, tiredness and lowness of sprit”, were produced each year. Once St John-Foti retired, the drink was sold to drinks manufacturer IVD, then to Orchid and finally Brtivic before production ceased in 2006. “It went from being a muchloved and cherished artisan business to something kicked round the

corporate football field,” said Ranald Boydell, the man who has brought the drink back to the UK through Norfolk Punch Ltd. For the last two years, Boydell has been importing the drink from Australia where St John-Foti’s son Blair MontagueDrake makes the drink to his father’s recipe. Boydell told FFD that Norfolk Punch’s recipe was altered under its various corporate owners but that the new batches have been restored to the authentic original recipe first brewed up in the ’80s. He added that the key ingredient he has restored is molasses sugar, which reduces the sweetness and boosts the healthy properties of the drink. Norfolk Punch Ltd – a completely separate business from its Australian namesake – will ensure the drink is produced in batches of no more than 700 units by a bottler in East Anglia. Boydell aims to get production up to 100,000 bottles per year but is adamant that batches will remain small as the business grows. All of his customers, who previously stocked the imported version, will now be switching to the locally-brewed drink and he

Ranald Boydell is the man behind Norfolk Punch’s return to production in East Anglia

hopes the move will also attract new independent customers. “A lot of shops in that market can have quite strict policies about local production,” he said. “When the product was imported some said they were not able to look at it. Now we’re over that hurdle we’re hoping to get a lot more [retailers].” Original Norfolk Punch is available direct or through distributors including The Health Store, Tree of Lide, CLF, Goodness Foods and Shire Foods as well as through Taste of Anglia. It comes in cases of 6x700ml bottles (RRP £6.99, trade price circa £4.37 each). www.norfolkpunch.com

Tea importer unveils East African brand

www.imporient.co.uk

A range of olive oil jams unveiled at the Harrogate S U P LI E P Speciality Food Show earlier this year by Cretan oil brand Olive Branch is being harnessed by one London’s trendiest bars as a cocktail ingredient. Three of Olive Branch’s four flavours of jam, which use the brand’s 25% extra virgin olive oil mixed with honey and a variety of dried fruits, have found their way behind the counter at Nightjar in Shoreditch, which styles itself on the old-fashioned speakeasies of Prohibition-era America. The strawberry, apricot, and forest fruits jams, all made in Crete with ingredients from the island, are being used by Nightjar’s mixologists in a range of cocktails created inhouse. According to Olive Branch co-founder Kamil Shah, the jams’ relatively low sugar level means they dissolve more effectively into cocktails to provide “a smooth, natural not overly strong sweetness”. Although Olive Branch’s jams are currently only available in 250g retail jars (RRP £4.99) they are attracting attention from chefs. The fourth flavour, cherry, was used last month by Trevor Ogden of The Dining Room in Surrey during cookery demos as the Kingston Food Festival. “Trevor demonstrated a few different dishes including a chocolate brownie using the cherry olive oil jam,” Shah told FFD. Nightjar is also using Olive Branch’s extra virgin oil in its bar snack recipes. Maria Koinaki, who set up Olive Branch to market quality oils from co-operatives on the island where she was born, said the new jams had seen “enormously positive results” since their UK launch this summer.

www.myolivebranch.co.uk

EDITE CR

Patchwork has introduced gift boxes for its ambient S U P LI E P patés and chutneys, enabling retailers to assemble three-jar multi-packs of their choice. Three styles of box are available for 50p each, but in the run-up to Christmas Patchwork is offering six free cartons with every three cases of 12 jars sold. Trade price for its ambient patés is £2.15 for 190g while the chutneys cost £1.75 each. D

gardens across East Africa and Kenya’s Rift Valley. The blend will come both in packs of 20 pyramid bags and 80 everyday tea bags (RRPs £3.99 and £4.50 respectively). Imporient created the range to commemorate its beginnings in the tea industry 140 years ago when Captain Birchall Graham (an ancestor of current MD Daniel Graham) first planted tea in Darjeeling, North India.

EDITE CR

Imporient has launched a collection of three East S U P LI E P African teas, including two single estate varieties, under a new brand called Birchall. The company’s Pfunda Tea Estate in Rwanda will pack Birchall’s Pfunda and Pfunda Earl Grey teas, which will both be available in packs of 20 biodegradable prism tea bags with an RRP of £3.99. It will also offer a strong breakfast blend, Great Rift, sourced from tea

EDITE CR

By MICK WHITWORTH D

Norfolk Punch comes back with a clout

Nightjar nabs olive oil jam

www.patchwork-pate.co.uk

London’s Nightjar is using three of Olvie Branch’s jams in cocktails Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

what's new

S U P LI E P

Festive products STEENBERGS

www.steenbergs.co.uk

www.greatnessoil.co.uk

The Shropshire-based producer has come up with a selection of flavoured oils – cardamom, orange zest and lime EDITE CR

S U P LI E P

www.terra-rossa.co.uk

The latest product from Middle Eastern food specialist is Baba’s Rashi & Dibis – a sweet spread made from tahini, date molasses and a secret mix of spices devised by Terra Rossa EDITE CR

www.cottagedelight.co.uk

The firm’s recently launched ‘fruit for cheese’ range of set jellies now includes two Great Taste one-star gold winners – cranberry with Port and fig with Madeira. The four strong ‘fruit for EDITE CR

TERRA ROSSA

COTTAGE DELIGHT AC

Sweet spread

Fruit for cheese

S U P LI E P

Vegetarian haggis

MACSWEEN OF EDINBURGH www.macsween.co.uk

cheese’ range comes in a mixed display case of 16x120g for £42.24.

Warm cordials

BELVOIR FRUIT FARMS www.belvoirfruitfarms.co.uk

founder Hanan Samara’s father. The product can be used as a snack or to top desserts in the same way as treacle, maple syrup, honey or chocolate spread. It is available in 200g jars with an RRP of £4.50.

Strawberry gin

As winter approaches, the Lincolnshire-based soft drinks firm has added two varieties to its warm cordials range, which are designed to be mixed with hot water. Its “zesty” honey, lemon & ginger cordial and the “aromatic” apple, plum & cinnamon EDITE CR

The haggis and black pudding specialist has adjusted the recipe for its vegetarian haggis so it no longer contains peanuts. The firm has substituted the nuts with sunflower and pumpkin seeds to ensure that the product still has the same “crunch”. The Macsween HQ is now a completely nut-free environment and the company’s traditional haggis

GREAT NESS OIL

& black pudding no longer carry a nut warning.

Flavoured rapeseed oil

Jules & Sharpie has also launched a brown version of its hot red Saucish – a cross between a sauce and a relish – in 300g bottles. Cases of six cost £11.55.

Following the launch of its coconut water in the UK last year, Go Coco has added three flavoured versions of the drink, which is said to have a number of health benefits. Lychee & lemon, pineapple and mango coconut water all come in 330ml bottles (£14.16 for case of 12). Both the pineapple and natural (£17.52 for case of 12x500ml) won two-star gold awards in Great Taste 2012.

www.gococodrinks.com

marinade for pork and venison. The drink comes in 10cl and 50cl bottles and is available wholesale from Gordon & Macphail.

GO COCO

Flavoured coconut water

Steenbergs has developed a range of five organic stuffings, including the seasonally orientated cranberry & apple stuffing, sage & onion stuffing, herby lemon, sultana & onion and apple & onion. These stuffings are all created, blended and packed by the firm at its spice factory in North Yorkshire. They are packed in re-sealable 150g black pouches (RRP from £2.95) and come in shelf-ready trays for easy display. The producer has also redesigned its organic, Fairtrade drinking chocolate range, which now comes in silver tins. The original hot chocolate, chilli drinking chocolate and Christmas drinking chocolate all come in 125g and 250g pouches (RRP from £4.25).

S U P LI E P

BERRY GOOD

www.berry-good.co.uk

The producer’s latest creation is a Scottish gin infused with Elsanta strawberries. It recommends mixing the spirit with lemonade or tonic or using it as a EDITE CR

S U P LI E P

Ginger biscuits DOVES FARM

www.dovesfarm.co.uk

Doves Farm has added organic ginger oat biscuits – made with wholegrain oats, soft wheat and stem ginger – to its range. Certified by The Soil Association and The Vegetarian Society, these new biscuits are additiveand GM-free and produced using non-hydrogenated palm oil sourced from sustainable farms. The firm describes the new product as “simple, yet luxurious” and recommends using it as an accompaniment for both sweet and savoury foods, such as cheese. EDITE CR

– developed with the help of two local chefs. The three new products will all be available as individual bottled products in both 100ml and 250ml and as an Eastern gift box selection of three 100ml bottles (RRPs £1.95, £3.95 and £7.95 respectively).

S U P LI E P

Yellow pepper sauce Jules & Sharpie

www.julesandsharpie.co.uk

The hot pepper jelly pioneer has reintroduced its yellow pepper variety with a ramped-up chilli content. The reformulated product (£13.65 for case of 6x300) has been named Hhhot Pepper Jelly to reflect “the scorching amount of chillies” it now contains. EDITE CR

S U P LI E P

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

EDITE CR

shelftalk

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

cordial are both caffeine-free and can also be used as mixers. The cordials come in 50cl bottles, which are supplied to the trade in cases of six for £16.10. The range also includes apple & ginger and spiced Winter berries cordials.

Training from the Guild of Fine Food What will you learn? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

he five golden rules for increasing deli sales T 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 mass-produced cheeses and meats through comparative tastings ‘I’ve

Cheese

Monday October 8, Weds October 10, Tuesday October 16, Monday October 22, Thurs October 25,

Charcuterie

Glasgow Manchester London* Wincanton Solihull

Monday October 15 London*

ot now g nthusiasm, less e ce and I d n u o b den to fi n k l o a c t l a o re ant t about w y l l rea omers r.’ t s u c my unte o c i l e my d vies, ton a D o J ly Bar e k o t S Shop Farm

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.

For more information: E-mail: linda.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk Tel: 01963 824464 www.finefoodworld.co.uk

shelftalk CHEF’S SELECTION

CHEF’S SELECTION

Top chefs tell CLARE HARGREAVES their deli essentials

Nathan Outlaw Rob Whitrow Photography

Chef patron Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, St Enodoc Hotel, Rock, Cornwall www.nathan-outlaw.com

Veg crisp brand finds rapid roots to market

Kashmir Gold saffron www.msk-ingredients.com

This aromatic golden saffron is tip-top quality, not like the shrivelled up stuff you often find. I discovered it when I was working at Rick’s Seafood Restaurant in Padstow – it was one of the ingredients in his fish soup. Because of its quality, you only need a small pinch at a time. I make a saffron oil and then marinade fish in it, which turns it a lovely yellow colour. I also make a saffron sauce to go with velvet crab. Saffron bread, a true Cornish classic, is good too.

Smoked Cornish sea salt www.cornishseasalt.co.uk

John Brumby: ‘Retailers are asking for a full range’

This salt, harvested from waters off the Lizard Peninsula, is slowly smoked over apple and cherry wood chips. I scatter it on cod and pollack for a couple of hours then wash it off, which infuses the fish with a smoky taste – it’s like an instant smoking. The salt is good sprinkled on fried, breaded fish, or a steak, just before serving. I like the ethics of the company as it returns the seawater back to the ocean as seawater rather than as distilled water, so there’s no upset to salinity levels.

By MICK WHITWORTH

Simply Cornish rapeseed oil www.simply-oils.com

This cold-pressed rapeseed oil, grown and bottled on Coswarth Farm on the North Cornwall coast near here, is wonderful for cooking fish. It has a mild nutty flavour which I love, and I generally use it if I’m pan-frying or deepfrying fish. It gives a pleasant kick to a bland white fish. I get through quite a lot so I buy it in five-litre cans.

Valrhona chocolate www.valrhona.com

This chocolate costs a lot more than others but, boy, does it make a difference to a dessert! We use it in our famous chocolate mousse with raspberry sorbet, and in our petit fours and truffles. With other chocolates you sometimes get an aftertaste that’s not very nice, but with Valrhona the bitterness of the chocolate is less harsh, and you get a fuller flavour that lasts longer. You don’t need much – a little goes a long way. We buy a 2kg block at a time. Using such a precious product, you have to be careful with it, so our pastry chef always ensures it’s safely locked away.

Hanayuki panko breadcrumbs www.japanesekitchen.co.uk

I became familiar with these breadcrumbs when I was working at the Intercontinental in London and we had a Japanese chef. He used them in his chicken teriyaki to add crunch. Coarser in texture than ordinary breadcrumbs, panko breadcrumbs are a great thing to have in the store cupboard as they’re so incredibly versatile, and also inexpensive. They’re great for making things crispy when shallow fried. We use them, for instance, to make crispy oysters. We coat oysters with flour, egg and panko breadcrumbs, then deep-fry them in hot oil for a minute until crispy. It’s a great way to introduce people to oysters. Nathan’s first book, Nathan Outlaw’s British Seafood, was published by Quadrille earlier this year. His new London restaurant, Outlaw’s Seafood & Grill at the Capital, opens in October. Sponsored by

Found in all good delis Cheeses from Switzerland.

Switzerland. Naturally.

www.switzerland-cheese.com

The owners of vegetable crisps brand Scrubbys have had to rethink their business plan after picking up sales sooner than expected. The Grimsby-based brand launched earlier this year with a mixed pack of premium vegetable crisps fried in high oleic sunflower oil that it claims are the lowest fat crisps in the sector. Scrubbys is competing directly with Tyrrells, which bought out the UK‘s main vegetable crisp maker, Glennans, in January. Because of the high start-up costs involved in snack production, Scrubbys founders John and Claire Brumby are having their products

www.scrubbys.co.uk

Shamrock crisps get UK launch By MICHAEL LANE

A family-run firm from Ireland has introduced shamrock-flavoured crisps into the UK and is seeking listings with independent retailers. Keogh’s Crisps launched its shamrock & sour cream flavour, which is made with shamrock grown in County Kerry, in Ireland for St Patrick’s Day and is now hoping to sell the unusual variety – as well as its entire range – into the UK market. The County Dublin-based business, which launched itself to the UK trade at Speciality & Fine Food Fair last month, also produces Dubliner Irish cheese & onion, Atlantic sea salt & Irish cider vinegar, and roast beef & Irish stout. Every bag of Keogh’s crisps can be traced back to the field the potatoes were grown in using the firm’s Spud Nav service. It even provides a service on its website which allows consumers to view the field on Google maps. The range is available in three

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

GRU_Annonce_99x29_EN.indd 1

contract-packed in the Netherlands. But speaking at last month’s Speciality & Fine Food Fair in London, where Scrubbys exhibited under the Taste of Lincolnshire banner, John Brumby said the pair were actively looking at raising capital to build a UK factory within three years. “If we can bring production to Grimsby we will look at using a British rapeseed oil and getting farmers to grow for us under contract,” he said. Scrubbys launches a second product this month – parsnip crisps spiced with chilli & lime – with a third variety to follow soon after. “We’ve had retailers telling us that if we can offer a full range they will delist other vegetable crisps,” said Brumby, adding that Scrubbys is picking up stockists who “don’t want a brand that’s in Tesco”. He told FFD: “We’ve had to restructure our business plan, because we’ve attracted interest from larger retailers and distributors faster than we thought. Cotswold Fayre will be listing us in the catalogue from January, we’ve been listed with Suma since September 1 and we have Dan Connolly of New Alliance [owner of the Your Piece oatcakes brand] distributing us in Scotland. “A lot of catering outlets have been using our crisps as garnish, croutons in soups or crushed in salads and pasta bakes. And we’ve just had an enquiry from a London hotel group that want an exclusive range for their mini-bars.”

11.06.12 17:59

pack sizes – 125g share bags, 50g individual packs, and 100g re-sealable drums. They come in shelf-ready cases of 24, 12 and 12 units respectively. www.keoghs.ie

Siblings Tom and Tina Keogh met the UK trade at last month’s Speciality & Fine Food Fair

final quarter page advert 100mmx141mm

18/9/12

4:55 pm

Page 3

new chocolate ! M!!!!!! !! ! !!w !h!!!l!t! !!!p!!y !!d !! !!! !! th! r!r! !h!!!l!t! b!!!-t!-b!r! t! b! pr!du!!d !! th! !!!!! !r!g!! !!u!try: M!d!g!!!!r! ate col cho e for l l r se we vertu onals. cou fessi us ! pro ntact !!!!! ! co !!!! !! ! ! ! !!

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'Award winning Novus Tea' If you don't stock Novus Tea, perhaps you should? Call now for a free sample. We are not the only one's who think it's great, with consecutive Great Taste Awards from 2009 - 2012 2012 - Six Great Taste Gold Awards achieved. The must have Tea product of the year

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For more details visit www.novustea.co.uk or call 01621 776179.

THIS CHRISTMAS

YULE

HAVE A GRUMPY YULE Organic Grumpy Yule in packs and tins Our special Grumpy Yule Christmas Blend, a must for the festive season, is now available in 250g gift tins and 227g soft packs. The bittersweet notes of our dark roasted Organic Grumpy Yule entwine with the velvety body and long lasting aftertaste - the perfect coffee to compliment your Christmas dinner and celebration. The screw top gift tin has been designed to keep your coffee fresh for longer. • 250g gift tin available in ground coffee only • 227g packs available as beans or ground coffee

For our Rwanda Musasa Cooperative, Red Bourbon Arabica – just one of our 10 Great Taste 2012 award-winners

The Roastery, Bent Ley Industrial Estate, Holmfirth, HD9 4EP.

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

www.grumpymule.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

For Mary Steele, when it came to home-baked biscuits, good enough simply wouldn’t do. She was a true perfectionist, always trying to make the next

tray of delicious creations more tempting than the last. Enjoy biscuits that turn the finest ingredients into something truly out of the ordinary. Treat yourself or your friends and family to Mary’s Exquisite Biscuit Collection, Splendid Oat Biscuit Selection or her Petit Four Delightful Duet.

www.marysteele.co.uk

Premium crisps for your customers Consumers are placing greater emphasis on brand exclusivity and provenance, which comes in abundance with Fiddler’s Lancashire Crisps. Our crisps are made metres from the field where the potatoes used to make them are grown – on first class soil, using the very best local produce for the delicious flavourings our golden crisps have. We’ve also invested in service right for retailers. Quick turnarounds on orders, flexibility of mixed flavour cases and exclusive point of sale material. We also support sales launches with tasting sessions so retailers can gain maximum exposure.

ly Fiddler fami

Fiddler fa mily

To Order – Get in touch sweet chilli

lancashire cheese & onion

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

lancashire sauce

sea salt

sea salt & ellsey’s malt vinegar

Tel: 01704 823 572 Email: info@fiddlerslancashirecrisps.co.uk Web: www.fiddlerslancashirecrisps.co.uk

shelftalk

products, promotions & people

Christmas product update Here are some last minute ideas for those still looking to sweeten their festive offer The Ochil Fudge Pantry has once again launched its Christmas range of flavoured fudges including Christmas pudding, Cointreau & orange and cinnamon & nutmeg as well as malt whisky tablet. This range will sit alongside the firm’s line-up of fudge and traditional Scottish tablet, all of which are produced in small batches to 100-year-old recipes in open pans. Every Ochil Fudge Pantry product is gluten- and soya-free and contains no artificial preservatives. The fudge comes in 90g bars (RRP £1.30) or 250g bags/ballotin boxes (RRP £3.95). www.ochilfudgepantry.co.uk

The Nut Free Chocolatier has created more gift lines for Christmas including mulled wine chocolates in boxes of 8 (wholesale £3.85, RRP £6.99) and solid bars with Christmas messages and pictures (wholesale £2.10, RRP £4.50). For deli-cafés, the York-based firm recommends its hot chocolate sticks and caramel hot chocolate sticks (wholesale price from £1.10 each RRP £2.30) as well as caramel melts (40p per 10 pieces) for serving with coffee. In November, it is offering free sample packs (quote GFF12). www.thenutfreechocolatier.co.uk Cole’s new range of festive puddings includes Cherries on Top, a rich fruit pudding with cherries and a generous helping of Tiptree Morello cherry conserve on top. The 454g pudding has an RRP of £8.99 and is available to the trade in cases of six (minimum order 10 cases). The range also includes a line-up of Christmas puddings (such as traditional, organic, gluten-free, and port brandy & walnut), new twin pack steam puddings, mince tarts and fruit cake for cheese. www.colespuddings.com

Chocolati has a range of Christmas pudding truffles, which are piped, dipped and decorated by hand. Each stick pack (RRP £4.50) contains eight of the dark chocolate truffles. Cases of 12 packs are available direct from the Ayr-based firm for £25 (excl. VAT) and there is no minimum order. www.chocolati.co.uk

Traditional gingerbread specialist Image on Food has a wide range of hand-decorated festive biscuits. The new addition this year is Gingerbread Noel, a hand decorated Santa Man holding a candy cane. Clipstrips are available for Gingerbread Noel to help retailers drive impulsive purchases. These will be available alongside other popular choices including the best-selling Deluxe Father Christmas, Percy Penguin and Reindeer gingerbreads. The firm’s Christmas range encompasses stocking fillers, gifts and counter top sales (trade prices range from £0.90-£1.75) and can be ordered direct or through House of Sarunds, Hider, The Cress Co and Cotswold Fayre. www.imageonfood.co.uk

Irish luxury chocolatier Butlers Chocolates is launching a new range of premium sharing packs to celebrate the firm’s 80th Anniversary, just in time for Christmas. Each deluxe 170g box features 17 individually wrapped chocolates with an RRP of £4.99. The five varieties are chocolate salt caramels, white mixed berry chocolates, mint chocolate truffles & fondants, honeycomb crisp chocolates and chocolate caramels & hazelnut pralines. Butlers Chocolates are distributed by Crème d’Or. www.butlerschocolates.com

Unique Chocolate has created a premium novelty gift range featuring 28 themed Belgian milk chocolate tablets. Each tablet (minimum weight 200g, box dimensions 24.5 x 14.5 x 4.5cm) is hand-decorated with an edible motif covering a number of sports, hobbies, pastimes and celebrations. The products are hand crafted using at least 33.6% cocoa solids at the firm’s base in Towcester, Northamptonshire. The RRP is £14 each. www.uniquechocolategifts.co.uk

This Christmas, School of Choc is offering retailers 100g bars of white, milk and dark chocolate with personalised wrappers. The minimum order is 50 bars (or 100 bars for Fairtrade versions) and cost per bar is £1.15-£1.35 depending on variety and order size. The producer is providing a similar service for boxes of truffles and luxury chocolates. Boxes of six chocolates (75g) and 12 chocolates (150g) start from a trade price of £3.65 and £5.90 respectively. Some minimum orders of these products will also incur a £35 fee covering the design of artwork. www.schoolofchoc.com

Edinburgh-based producer and retailer The Marshmallow Lady has launched a range of festive flavoured gourmet marshmallows including chocolate orange, eggnog, mulled wine, vanilla bean & clementine and a Christmas edition of Reverse Rocky Road (chocolate marshmallow filled with amaretti biscuits, cranberries, brazil nuts and topped with milk and dark chocolate). These creations sit alongside the producer’s classic range, which includes flavours such as lemon meringue, beer and recent Great Taste two-star gold winning raspberry. All of The Marshmallow Lady’s products are made in small batches with real ingredients, freshly squeezed fruit, and handmade caramel. The minimum order is six 100-110g packets per flavour (£1.95 - £2.50 per packet) and orders over £50 receive free delivery anywhere in the UK. www.themarshmallowlady.com

www.cremedor.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

shelftalk

James Dart: ‘If the whole site does well, everyone benefits’

The ultimate destination? Deli of the Month INTERVIEW BY MICK WHITWORTH

With its AGA and Fired Earth shops, on-site cider-maker and Pashley cycle hire, Devon’s Darts Farm has put down a hard-to-beat marker for other ‘destination’ farm shops

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

t’s late August, and fixing an interview with one of the brothers behind Darts Farm Shopping Village in Devon is proving a headache. First Michael Dart, the business strategy man, is on holiday. Then James, who looks after retail operations, is away. Then I get a slot with Michael into the diary, only to be bounced in favour of an all-day council meeting. It seems odd that two of the top bods here (there’s a third brother, Paul, who runs the 500-acre farm) would be absent so much during the peak holiday season. But as James Dart points out when we finally meet in the vast glass-roofed atrium that houses the main caférestaurant, trading patterns here are not always predictable. “We are a tourist destination, and we do get a slight summer peak, but some of our busiest days are in February, and we can have very quiet Saturdays in the summer if the sun’s out.” Just outside picturesque Topsham on the River Exe, and

only a 10-minute drive from Exeter itself, Darts is surely the ultimate ‘destination’ farm shop. It has all those extra attractions other rural retailers bolt on to their businesses – café, butchery, fishmonger, cookware, furniture, country clothing – but on an altogether more serious scale. There’s an AGA Shop, a Fired Earth, a Cotswold Outdoor and an RSPB shop. There’s also a furniture and homewares concession, run for more than a decade by local firm The Orange Tree, and a huge butchery operated by Exmoor-based Gerald David. There’s even (this being the West County) an on-site cider-maker, Green Valley, whose cider vats have been an integral part of the farm shop since the business began. Café? There are two, both owned and operated by Darts Farm itself: a 50-seater deli-bar in the main farm shop, selling food to eat in or take-away, and a much larger café-restaurant in the atrium, adjoining a substantial gift shop. Oh, and there’s a fish &

chip café too, operated as part of a fishmonger’s concession. There’s nothing quite like Darts Farm in the UK, and I’m forever sending people there to take a look. “It’s probably quite unique,” agrees James Dart, who credits his father with, quite literally, laying the foundations of a business that the three brothers have since built upon. Back in the 1970s, after being denied planning permission for a garden centre, Ronald Dart erected two huge agricultural buildings – a tractor shed and a cowshed – which got round the planners and gave Darts Farm the massive footprint it benefits from today. “He put up the biggest buildings he could at the time,” says James Dart, “which was pretty far-sighted.” A small shop was established in a corner of one barn, and since Ronald Dart’s death three decades ago the site has evolved “phase by phase” to become a kind of rural department store, covering around 50,000 sq ft in total. First one barn was converted for an expanded farm shop, deli and butchery. Then the second was developed to house AGA and Fired Earth. Ten years ago the gap between the barns was enclosed in glass to create the atrium, and most recently an extra 10,000 sq ft, two-storey unit was bolted on for Cotswold and the RSPB. To my mind, it‘s the type and scale of its concessions and tenancies that help set Darts Farm apart, and James Dart says they have each evolved differently. “We have various leases, and no two are

products, promotions & people the rest of us. “It was growing at a fantastic rate of knots,” Dart says, “but as the business has matured the growth has shrunk. “At this particular time, in a tough trading market, it‘s more about analysing the business and seeing where you can shave a bit off costs. When you’re growing you’re not as focused on saving money; now it’s about being as efficient as you can.” Next on the agenda – and following the pattern of outlets like Ludlow Food Centre and Farrington’s Farm Shop – is the introduction of more small producers to the site. “For a while, it was chefs who were seen as the heroes, but more and more it’s the small producers,” says Dart, adding: “They’ve always been the heroes for us.” His brother Michael visited the US on a Nuffield farming scholarship in 2010 and was struck by the development of “agri-clusters” of small, complementary food businesses working together. He tells me: “We’ve got an instore cider-maker and an instore butcher, so that’s a start but we need to get even closer to the producers.” James Dart says Harrods’ food chief Bruce Langlands, interviewed by FFD last month, “has it right” in wanting to give shoppers more the same. For instance, in the food their trade,” says James Dart. “It’s a contact with artisan producers. hall we’ve always liked the customer good example of similar businesses Dart also flags Chatsworth Farm to be able to do a single shop, in a cluster.” Marketing manager Shop, where the on-site bakery is so with the butcher, fishmonger, Morgan Salmon developed the ‘spa’ in full view of shoppers. “A lot of florist and cider man we take all the branding, he says, and it has been places are doing that very money through our own tills. “a real driver of footfall”. well – bringing consumers “They pay a base rent, and then All of this might suggest the closer to producers and we take a percentage of turnover, original farm shop is just creating more in-store because we’ve always felt that an afterthought. On the s K OC M MUST-ST experiences.” encourages us to grow the business. contrary, it remains the core DARTS FAR y ne Farm shop operators If the whole site does well, everyone of the business – a 10,000 ut ch on ev Otter Vale D can always learn from benefits. If it doesn’t, then their rent sq ft space, always well ts each other, he says. But goes down as well. The base rent is merchandised, heavy on Teonis biscui the bad news for retailers there as a buffer for us, but it never local brands but majoring on Bur ts crisps r who head to Topsham for really comes into play.” fresh produce and making da ed ch ure Quickes mat inspiration is that Darts When the first concessions much of Darts’ own seasonal e cheese Farm is a hard model came in, this was pioneering stuff. produce, as well as its Devon Cornish Blu to replicate. It’s just a “We were just a small farm shop ft cheese Red Ruby beef, slaughtered so am ph ar Sh wine n couple of miles from io and no-one was quite sure how it and sold by Gerald David. ct le Se tate Sharpham Es the M5, on a significant would go. It takes a lot of hard work Growing fresh produce sé wine A-road and in a part to get these things started, and if for the shop is not a vast Pebblebed ro voury of the country where you asked for a lity Foods sa earner, ia ec Sp e sid Hill interest in good food, substantial rent says James They all pay a base ts biscui especially local food, at the start it Dart – in armalade m lle vi Se rent, and then we take a s Cranfield has gone crazy. just wouldn’t be fact, the percentage of turnover, rhubarb “Every situation viable.” whole Dar ts own in n w because we’ve always paragus (gro as is different – that’s Fired s farming n' to Ea Chris leford) the wonderful thing Earth, which is felt that encourages us to operation Newton Popp d dough brea about farm shops,” owned by AGA, grow the business. has Crumbs sour Continental says Dart, “but at the approached “historically n lemonade lia ci Si s ic rgan end of the day it’s the Dart family because it “wanted struggled to make a profit” – Luscombe O e) ade on-sit ‘location, location, y Cyder (m a site in the Exeter area and didn’t but it’s key to the Darts Farm Green Valle location’. like industrial estates”. And the message about food “locally “You can spend fit could not have been more grown, reared, baked, caught or £1 million building perfect, as Darts Farm has evolved produced”. “We look at the farm something like this into a middle-class paradise. Most in the context of the business as and it’s not going recently, the complex has added a whole. We have a little market to work – and there a hairdressers’ concession to its garden area supplying the shop have been examples existing beauty treatment rooms and and no-one else, and we hopefully of that up and pilates studio to create a full-blown get a good retail price, but it’s down the country.” spa offer too. “We’ve now got labour intensive. If you purely three businesses working together, looked at the economics, you’d be www.dartsfarm. and they’ve all seen an upturn in put off. co.uk “But having the stuff come into the shop with the morning dew on it is what makes us different. It’s one of the few edges we have got over the competition. And if your fresh caulis or your big display of broccoli has brought people in, then they can buy their coffee and their greetings cards here too.” Part of the genius of Darts is its ability to hold people on site for hours at a time. The spa is contributing to that – you can envisage mother and daughter indulging themselves there while father and son have a slap-up breakfast, buy some fillet of Red Ruby, then head off to Cotswold to buy their trendy outdoor gear. There is even, now, a bike hire shop (hiring, naturally, Country Livingstyle, British-made Pashley cycles, not cheapo mountain bikes), since the farm is right on the newlycompleted Exe Estuary Trail cycle route. It makes Darts the potential hub for a full day out and attracts the cycling fraternity, just as the RSPB tie-up makes this a twitchers’ destination. Since only the food concessions put their sales through Darts Farm’s tills, it’s hard to pin down the site’s overall turnover. The Dart family’s business is split into three companies - the farm partnership, trading company (for the shop) and property (handling the tenancies). The trading element alone is bringing in about £5m a year, although it is subject to the same economic realities as

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Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

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All fats processed, packed & delivered by Amko. Vegetable Suet also available. Amko Foods, Bolton BL1 8AH | Tel: 01204 388801 email: amkofoods@btconnect.com | www.amko.co.uk

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

shelftalk

Made of stars Looking to stock some Great Taste winning products? Here is a selection of 2012’s very best. All four teabags in the Tea India range, which has recently been launched in the UK through Spicers, won awards. Its black tea (80 teabags, 250g pack, RRP £2.69), which has a high Assam content, and its vanilla chai were awarded two stars while both its masala and cardamom chais received one star each. All three chais come in 100g boxes (40 teabags) with an RRP of £2.49. www.teaindia.co.uk

As well as its Supreme Champion guanciale, Hannan Meats took another 19 Great Taste awards. While many of its award winners are foodservice products, the Northern Irish firm is planning on selling its onestar winning naturally smoked and unsmoked butty bacon to the retail trade. This dry cured collar bacon, already supplied to Hix restaurants, will be available in 250g packets (trade £1.50) or in 1.8kg catering packs (£5/kg). The company’s collar bacon joint (£4.50/kg) – another onestar winner – will also be available to retailers. www.hannanmeats.com

The Smoke & Pickle Food Company of Shropshire won four one-star awards. Among the products were its potted Roquefort, pear & walnut (125g, trade £2.78) and its fish soup (made with British white fish and shellfish), which comes in 350g and 650g pots (trade £2.10 and £3.19). The Shrewsbury-based firm’s Bolognese sauce and the vegetarian paneer & pea dhansak curry were the other two winners. Both come in 350g and 650g tubs for £2.63 and £3.71 respectively. www.smokeandpickle.co.uk

Bradley’s says the success of its two-star winning apple & ginger juice is down to the balancing of sweetness and ginger warmth. The drink, which is made by pressing fresh root ginger and the firm’s newly picked red pippin apples, comes in 25cl (£9 for case of 12) and 75cl (£14.60 for case of eight) bottles. Bradley’s produces a range of seasonal juices at Box Bush farm in north Somerset.

Yog frozen yoghurt is made with 100% probiotic yoghurt, handmade and churn-aged on a working dairy farm in Kent. All of its products are free of preservatives and artificial flavouring as well as completely fat- and gluten-free. The firm’s natural flavour, which was awarded one star in this year’s awards, comes in 500ml tubs (RRP £3.99-£4.25), which can be purchased from distributor Stratford Fine Foods.

www.bradleysjuice.co.uk

www.stratfordfinefoods.com www.yogyogurt.com

Thursday Cottage makes a wide range of preserves including several Great Taste winning curds. Both its lemon and blackcurrant curds won one gold star while the Essex based producer’s passion fruit curd took two gold stars. The curd is made to a simple recipe, packed full of concentrated passion fruit juice, and slow cooked in small batches. Cases of 6x310g jars have a trade price of £11.48 and are available direct or from wholesalers nationally. www.thursday-cottage.com

Peter’s Yard’s crispbread – a twostar winner – is made to a traditional Swedish recipe with sourdough and all-natural ingredients. The firm says the product’s subtle flavour and light, crisp texture makes it suitable for sweet or savoury toppings, particularly cheese. The crispbreads come in large (available in a 350g box or 620g tin), standard (200g bag or 300g tin) and small (105g box) sizes with trade prices ranging from £1.88-£8.68 per unit. www.petersyard.com

Aberdeenshire-based Mackie’s picked up one star for its toffee apple dairy ice cream, which is available to retailers in 1litre tubs (RRP £3.49). Whole milk and cream from Mackie’s own cows is used to make apple flavoured ice cream, which is then rippled with toffee sauce and apple pieces. Judges describe the product as “well balanced, clean, and not over sweet with a good natural apple flavour”. www.mackies.co.uk

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

shelftalk Flour Power City Bakery’s Hoxton Rye Levain is certified organic and made using a 100% sourdough starter, natural fermentation and 90% organic rye flour. The product, which was awarded one star, comes in 1.6kg, 800g, or 400g sizes and is named after the firm’s first bakery in Hoxton, East London. Flour Power’s rye breads and sourdoughs can take up to 20 hours to make as the dough is left to prove slowly. www.flourpowercity.com

Womersley raspberry vinegar won three stars and was named one of the Top 50 Foods in Britain. The Yorkshire-based producer uses locally grown raspberries, British sugar and vinegar to create a “crisp, clean and incredibly fruity” product, available in 100ml and 250ml bottles or 1litre catering containers. It can be used in dressings, marinades or sauces but is also recommended drizzled on ice cream or in a glass of sparkling wine.

Made by gently pressing the best quality selected dessert apples, Polgoon’s sparkling Original Cornish cider is described by its producer as light and refreshing. This one-star winning product is meant to be served chilled or with ice and has some floral notes with a dry finish. It comes in 330ml and 500ml bottles with RRPs of £2.50 and £3.00 respectively.

Preserve maker No. 98 is now open to wholesale enquiries in the South East and London for its one-star apricot & vanilla jam. Made with organic Spanish apricots and Madagascan vanilla pods, this soft set jam is prepared using traditional copper pans in 12 jar batches. It is available to the trade in 228ml jars for £3.25 with an RRP of £4.75, direct from the Redhill-based producer. www.no98.co.uk

www.polgoon.co.uk

Kam’s South American Products took home a gold star for its Kam’s hot pepper sauce. This all-natural hot sauce is made to a fifth generation recipe, originally from Guyana, using Scotch Bonnet chillies. Each 100ml bottle has a wholesale price of £2.50 while 230ml bottles cost the trade £5.00 each. www.kamspeppersauce.co.uk

www.womersleyfoods.co.uk

Just Crisps picked up one-star golds for both its sea salt and its black pepper & sea salt crisps. All of the firm’s crisps are produced on its own farm in Staffordshire and cooked in Just’s own cold pressed rapeseed oil (also a winner this year) before being flavoured by hand. They are available in 40g (RRP 85p), 150g (RRP £1.85) and 1kg catering bags. www.justcrisps.co.uk

Scottish smokery Inverawe has won four Great Taste Awards in 2012, including two stars for its smoked Loch Etive trout – the first product to be created at Inverawe. The trout is farmed at Loch Etive, about half a mile away from the smokery, where an age-old, slowsmoking process creates a product that has a deep natural colour and a less oily texture than smoked salmon. The trout has an RRP of £17.95 per 400g and is available throughout the UK.

So Baby Organics won a gold star at this year’s Great Taste Awards www.smokedsalmon.co.uk for its Moroccan lamb & couscous baby meal. Each and every meal is hand made with the purest organic ingredients. The firm’s range includes four different smooth first stage purées (110g) and nine textured main meals for older babies (180g). All products (RRP £1.55-£2.75) are supplied frozen. www.so-baby.co.uk

First created in August 1987 on the back of a bumper crop, Alder Tree’s raspberry cream ice is made with just three ingredients – British cream, East Anglian sugar and raspberries grown on the firm’s Suffolk farm. Described as “an exceptionally fruity alternative to ice cream”, each tub is 38% fruit but still creamy in texture. The threestar product – one of seven award-winning Alder Tree cream ices in 2012 – comes in 125ml (£12.96 for case of 12) and 500ml (£19.14+VAT for case of six) tubs as well as larger catering sizes. www.alder-tree.co.uk

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

Patriana

High quality speciality food from France and Spain

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

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tel: 01274 590397 e-mail: kaneezkishver@hotmail.com www.chillifusion.co.uk

Winners of 22 Great Taste Awards.

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

shelftalk White Pearl basmati rice is a single variety harvested from the region of West Punjab in Pakistan, where it was first grown over 5,000 years ago. It is also a Great Taste one-star gold winner. After aging it for a minimum of 18 months, Map Trading has the rice de-husked in West Punjab before completing the milling process in the UK. The grains are lightly polished for a superior aroma and flavour and contain more nutrients than highly polished grains. The rice can be bought from Bestway Group wholesalers.

Seto Co-operative Tea Farm’s Satsuma-Rose organic black tea – a two-star gold product – is made on a single estate in Makurazaki, in the southern region of Kagoshima, Japan. This tea is made using the best Benifuuki variety, developed in Japan. The young shoots are picked by hand and wilted, creating a rich, flowery flavour. Due to limited production this product is sold for the equivalent of £33 per 40g can in Japan. The cooperative, which is run by the Kayano family, also received a one-star gold for its Satsuma-Kaori. This organic tea – a blend of green tea variety Yabukita and roasted rice – is sold in 100g packs for around £10 in Japan. Both of these teas bear the JAS mark, the Japanese government’s organic certificate. Interested retailers should contact Masataka Yamashita on:

www.whitepearl.co.uk www.bestwaygroup.co.uk

my813@ad.wakwak.com

Yorkshire-based Indie Ices has won three two-star awards this year for its Kulfi, a traditional ice cream-style Indian dessert. The award-winning products are its pistachio, saffron, pistachio & rosewater and Indian Neapolitan (layers of mango, roasted almond and roasted pistachio Kulfi). The firm’s products were previously only available to restaurants but now come in 4x60g portion packs for retail. Indie is currently looking for a nationwide distributor. www.indie-ices.co.uk

Kent-based ice cream producer Simply Ice Cream received a two-star gold for its lemon sorbet this year. The sorbet is described as “smooth in texture with a compelling lemony punch and a hint of lemongrass”. The producer recommends it as both a palate cleanser and a dessert. All of Simply Ice Cream’s products are made by hand in small batches using locally sourced ingredients (where possible), natural flavours and seasonal fruits. Part of the Simply Sorbets range, the lemon sorbet is available in 500ml (RRP of £4.65) and 120ml tubs (RRP £2).

The Elizabeth Ann Dessert Collection was set up in 2010 in a home kitchen in Sligo, Ireland. Its range now features a selection of baked goods including the rose scented berry tart that received two stars this year. The shortcrust pastry tart (RRP €7.49) has an almond base and is topped with a mixture of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, redcurrants and strawberries. All of the firm’s tarts are supplied in a brown windowed boxes (8in x 8in x 2in) and have a 10-day shelf life.

www.simplyicecream.co.uk

elizabeth.anndc@gmail.com

House of Ceylon’s Date and Lime Chutney – awarded two gold stars – is hand-made in Kandy, Sri Lanka using mainly locally-sourced ingredients. Described by judges as “well balanced, spicy and hot”, the chutney is a blend of limes, dates and Sri Lankan spices. It is available to the trade for £2.30/jar and sold in cases of at least 12 jars. House of Ceylon was launched in November 2011 by Bristolbased mother and daughter-in-law team, Judith Blagg and Manisha De Silva-Blagg. The team also import banana & ginger chutney and authentic Sri Lankan Curry Paste. www.houseofceylon.co.uk

October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

Gorno’s has been producing premium quality pepperoni – awarded one star this year – in Wales since 1978. The firm says its unique family recipe – based on Neapolitan style salami – for the semi-dried sausage creates a perfect consistency. Made with 100% meat and spices, ground freshly on the day of production, this pepperoni (wholesale £5.85/kg and RRP £7.50-£8.50/kg) comes sliced and vac-packed or gas-flushed in 1kg bags with 12 in a case. www.gornosausages.co.uk

Oxfordshire’s Ross & Ross saw one of its range of potted meat & chutney combos – duck rillettes with apricot chutney – pick up a gold star. The duck rillettes is made by confiting free-range English duck legs. The meat is then shredded, potted and sealed in its own fat. All three of the company’s potted meats – the range also includes chicken liver parfait and pork rillettes – are available in single jars (trade £2.60-£2.90) or in duo packs with a complementary chutney (trade £3.20-£3.60 per pack). www.rossandrossfood.co.uk

Two of Midfields’ granolas bagged one-star awards this year. Its Sweet Freedom granola (British oats mixed with wheat, almonds, pumpkin seeds & sunflower seeds) is lightly baked in honey and Somerset rapeseed oil, as is the wheatfree version. Both products contain no added salt or sugar and are available in 500g (£31 per case, RRP £4.20 each) as well as 1kg packs.

Middle Eastern specialist Terra Rossa scooped seven awards at Great Taste 2012. Its zesty sumac – an Arabic cooking ingredient made from roasted red berries – won two stars. Its Manna from Heaven – a sweet made from tree resin mixed with pistachios, almonds and cardamom – and its zaatar herb mix (thyme, sumac & sesame seeds) received one star each. Meanwhile, the firm’s fairtrade, organic extra virgin olive oil and a trio of the firm’s flavour infused oils (chilli, garlic, and olive) all took one star each.

www.midfieldsgranola.co.uk

www.terra-rossa.com

Gywnedd-based Welsh Lady Preserves was founded more than 45 years ago with one product: lemon curd. While the range has expanded, its curd – awarded three stars this year – is still made to the same recipe devised by Dio Jones in 1966. Dio, his wife Marion and the producer’s staff conduct weekly tasting sessions to guarantee the standard of the curd and ensure a lemony tang. The product, which is made with British eggs and British butter, is available direct in cases of six or 12x311g jars. www.welshladypreserves.com

Tsuki-No-Sizuku, a Kamairi green tea from Japanese single estate Issin-en, was award two stars in Great Taste 2012. It is made with the Yabukita variety, which is grown in the cool, mountainous region of Miyazaki on Kyushu. The tea – certified organic by the Japanese government – is pan-fired twice during production to create a fresh flavour and savoury smell. The RRP for a 100g bag is £8. Interested UK retailers should contact Masataka Yamashita on:

Ciren Calui’s expanding range of spicy chilli, savoury and fruity jams now includes Great Taste 2012 winners. The Londonbased producer’s yellow chilli jam – made with three different types of yellow fiery chillies, yellow pepper and freshly milled spices – took a gold star this year. All of Ciren Calui’s 16 preservative- and additive-free jams come in cases of six 235g glass jars (trade £2.50, RRP £4.00 each)

Scarlett & Mustard’s latest dressing, Scarlett’s Ornamental Sauce, won a gold star before it was launched to the trade last month. It is now available in cases of 12x250ml bottles (wholesale £3 per bottle). The dressing is made with local rapeseed oil – grown, pressed and bottled on a farm within 10 miles of the Scarlett & Mustard kitchen – as well as freshly chopped ginger and garlic. The firm, founded in October 2011, now offers a range of five dressings, which can also be purchased in three bottle gift packs (wholesale £10 each) www.scarlettandmustard.co.uk

Spice ‘n’ Easy picked up three stars for its Christmas mincemeat with whiskey & ginger and two stars for its spiced mulling syrup. The firm makes all of its chutneys, relishes, pickles, flavoured oils, dressings, and Christmas specialities by hand and uses raw ingredients sourced from the New Forest when possible. The range is available in 180g and 300g jars or 250ml bottles as well as gift packs for retailers and larger catering formats. Wholesale prices start from £2.20 (RRP £3.85) per jar and £5 (RRP £7.50) for gift packs.

FruityFoods’ spiced apricot chutney was developed in June 2011, and is now a Great Taste award-winner, picking up one star this year. The chutney is made in batches of 100 jars at a time and is supplied to retailers in cases of 6x280g jars (£11.99, RRP £3.10 per jar). It can be ordered direct from FruityFoods along with the Hampshirebased producer’s range of 20 chutneys and 12 jams

www.spiceneasy.co.uk

www.fruityfoods.com

my813@ad.wakwak.com

www.cirencalui.com

Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

 

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October 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 9

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www.vwa.co.uk Vol.13 Issue 9 · October 2012

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. 40 September 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 8