Way back in 2000 many parts of our rural economy were devastated by the Foot and Mouth disaster, in the years that followed good things happened to rejuvinate and regenerate the area, ‘Local Food’ became cool and top chefs accross the region championed the producers, to the point where, in places, you could trace the steak on your plate back to the field it last poo’d in.

This is all good, farmers markets continue to thrive and multiply, but, at a frightening speed so does the power of the multiple, not content with wiping out independant butchers, green grocers, bakeries …  there’s  now a ‘multiple’ on every street corner! End of negativity, this is about happy things, good things, positive things …

Maybe because of the current economic climate, maybe people have less income to spend dining out so choose more carefully, or more interest in cooking at home, whatever the reason there is a fantastic feeling to Leeds just now, a real buzz and that buzz is around food … sourcing, cooking, selling, eating, tasting, demo’ing, new things, traditional things, international flavours, international regional flavours, from cup cakes to curries, from fish and chips to fashionable chips … opportunities abound.

So, Hoteliers, restauranteurs, chefs, retailers, bakers, makers, marketeers … jump on board and find those links and … Growers, farmers, producers come out of the shadows and shout very loudly about what you are doing and if shouting isn’t ‘your thing’ then whisper it to me and I’ll shout about it … for a relatively small person I can shout pretty loudly and there’s a load of people out there who want to listen ..

Consumers, aged from 2 to 102, they DO care and they DO want to buy it just needs a little co-ordination, we have the will you need to give us the way …

If that was all a little too cryptic, it is late, I am a little over excited, quite simply there are opportunities.  If you are in any way connected to food in the region send me an email and let’s talk … there are opportunities awaiting right now to promote your establishment or your product to an audience who are willing to listen.

Don’t be left behind DO IT NOW rebecca@feastfresh.co.uk and IF you are already doing it tell us that too because people need to know where they can go right now to buy or eat produce from the region.

I can’t beat Wiki for the history, here are a few notes … is that allowed? I added a link back.

You probably knew it’s origin was Italy “The word panino[pa'ni:no] is Italian for “small bread roll”; its plural form is panini.”

“Although the first U.S. reference to panini dates to 1956, and a precursor appeared in a 16th-century Italian cookbook, the sandwiches became trendy in Milanese bars, called paninoteche, in the 1970s and 1980s.”

The genuine version would involve a small loaf or ciabatta filled with salami, cheese, ham, mortadella … A pause to reflect on childhood memories here … I was brought up in a restaurant, although my father is Italian the food we served was actually ‘modern British’ way before that was trendy.  

To compliment the very expensive food, my Father insisted on only linen tablecloths and napkins, it must have been argued and agreed, before I was old enough to understand, that if he wanted linen he could damn well iron them himself … and so he did!

And my point is … The ironing was an afternoon ritual, after lunch time service (people ‘did’ lunch in the 70′s) he’d set up the ironing board in front of the TV, to watch the racing. Whilst the iron was warming he’d have a mortadella sandwich .. a huge length of french bread, soaked in olive oil, slices of tomato, sea salt, lashings of black pepper and slices of mortadella.

Back to the panini, so, it’s a small loaf or ciabatta, cut diagonally, filled with cheese or meat and grilled in a press … I don’t think it’s two square slices of mother’s pride, or even warburtons ‘toastie’ loaf, I don’t think it counts unless it’s pressed rather than placed carefully under a grill, I doubt if toastie bags do it any favours either.

Of course as I started to write this I just knew that there’d be reference to the fabulous La Bottega Milanese in leeds, luckily Katie has done her stuff and reviewed on the brilliant Leeds GrubWebsite so I don’t need to expand on that other than to wonder, as I saw reference in my research to Sourdough Panini, if there is an opportunity for Riverside to supply to … well you get my drift, collaboration is king today.

That’s my lot really other than to paste another chunk of interesting info from Wiki which links ThePet Shop boys to the Panino,

“During the 1980s, the term paninaro(slang for a maker and seller of panini, or his shop), was extended to its patrons as well. It was used to denote a youngsters’ culture typical of teenagers supposed to eat and meet in sandwich bars such as Milan’s Al Panino and then in the first US-style fast food opened in Italy. Paninariwere depicted as fashion-fixated, vain individuals, delighting in showcasing early 1980s status symbols such as Timberland shoes, Moncler accessories, Ray-Ban sunglasses and articles from Armani. A track entitled “Paninaro” appears on Pet Shop Boys‘ albums Disco and Alternative”

I probably don’t recommend you ‘try this at home’ some things, like a really authentic curry, or a truly Milanese pizza are best left to the experts, if you have the urge to toast a sandwich do it and enjoy it for what it is … otherwise experience the real thing at a real Italian deli.

OK, it started out as a blog, I spent weeks messing with wordpress and the themes to arrive at a layout that I was happy with, I added links to some great people and wrote a few posts, problem is I’m way too busy to do this on a regular basis, if you’ve read any of the ‘about me’ stuff I have two businesses, a hectic household containing several children, a granny and some dogs, a big garden and a slightly dodgy heart!

At the top of my wish list is a simple yet effective website, in the meantime this is what I have, but a blog that isn’t updated often is as bad as having a brochure and leaving it in a drawer in the office.

So excuses over, I WILL update the links, so many amazing REAL bloggers deserve a mention, Chris Wildman brilliantly covers all things food in the Southern Dales, Leeds Grub does fab restaurant reviews, if something really annoys me, usually related to customer service, and it won’t fit in the 140 characters on Twitter then I may be moved to rant a little, in the meantime I will focus on promoting my lovely clients in the hope that I can find a few more and eventually afford a ‘proper’ website that doesn’t look like an unloved blog.

Hull City Council are reviewing their procurement policy, a most difficult task given the myriad of red tape enforced by European contact law, the public sector food procurement initiative, recent efficiencies directives…..

Interest in supplying the Public Sector is undoubtedly enhanced in recent years, even in a recession school meals have to be served, care homes need supplies, people still get ill, it’s a good market to be in, they tend to pay on time and pose little risk in the long term, whilst contracts might be incredibly difficult to win, once you’re ‘in’ the work is guaranteed for a set period of time, allowing longer term planning within your business.

Various agencies have done a great job of promoting the benefit of supplying the public sector, but today I wondered if they had possibly raised the expectations of some SME’s beyond what is actually achievable. Listening to various presentations I wondered if there was coherence between the parties involved, on the one hand a couple of hours of the many reasons why HCC want to engage with local producers, the benefits to HCC, the benefits to the economy, the benefits to the producers…. then WHAM! just before lunch a body blow when it was announced that it is their intention to consider streamlining, from 8 suppliers to one key partner.

You could feel the tension in the room, those producers, encouraged along to the event by their advisors, must have wondered what on earth was going on, all the build up and hype, the growing excitement that here was an opportunity for them, blown away in one sentence.

This isn’t a dig, or meant to be controversial, it is only my view of the event and I stress that no decisions have been made but, as the holder of a significant contract, with a sizable, Yorkshire, local authority I would say to HCC ….

Take care with your ‘key partner’ if you REALLY want to be able to influence their choice of suppliers to you then there will have to be some pretty hefty, and possibly costly, contracts drawn up, in my experience as a very Sme the ‘big boys’ don’t really want to play with us, they will attend events, make sympathetic noises and then do their own thing before the ink on the contract is dry.

Are you REALLY familiar with your end users … reducing number of deliveries to sites is commendable but any supplier in this day and age cannot afford to send out vans that are half empty, ok, by the time we’ve delivered to half the schools on our route the van is less full … but no vehicle leaves our warehouse with space in, that’s just commercial suicide, I think you’ll find the same with most suppliers, so, what to do?  increase the size of the vehicles? have you attempted to negotiate a 10 tonne truck in to a housing estate!

Consider temperature, frozen, ambient, chilled, cross contamination, smells, fishy bananas won’t be well received.

To the Producers I would add … there are opportunities, the public sector truely do want to work with you, they love what you do, it’s vital for the regions to keep the £ close to home, it makes environmental as well as economic sense, if you get the relationship right from the start it can be the most fun and rewarding thing you’ll ever do, it’s taken me three years to get my contract running like clockwork, there have been nightmares along the way, from working 18 hour days, receiving a folder full of written complaints, having a driver assaulted, by a dinner lady wielding a stick of celery … but also the absolute joy of knowing that you are playing your part in this £63 billion pound business.

Keep talking, make sure the advisors are well informed, don’t build up false hopes, it’s all going in the right direction, just don’t let it collapse through lack of communication or misinformation.

Prompted to update at the thought of spending two days at THE top food event in the North, handing out business cards, pointing people here to find what … out of date updates, that’s bad!

So here’s what I have been up to that’s kept me from updating more often …..

Leeds City Council

The 300 sites, mostly schools, that we deliver to daily, went back in early September, this is the first time since we won the contract almost 4 years ago, that the ‘back to school’ has gone without a hiccup and I am so grateful to my fantastic team including suppliers and the guys in the warehouse, for pulling out all the stops to make this happen.

A recent review with the team at the Catering agency went very well, I love these slightly unconventional meetings, such a pleasure to spend time with people who are so passionate about what they do, particularly when they are under so much pressure to keep costs to a minimum. I was very impressed at a recent meeting with the Head Teacher of St  in Armley, to learn that the school governors there subsidise the lunches to ensure they are accessible to all and as a result they have a very high take up … maybe more schools should consider this, after all well nourished children make for a much happier environment all round.

Whilst the warehouse is in full swing I have been spending time with those companies who entrust their Sales function to us…..

Class One Direct

A wonderful company based in Skipton, I met Class One at an event in the spring and we quickly realised there would be many benefits to us both to form a close working relationship, I needed a larger warehouse, they had space, they needed ‘sales’ I sell!

We embarked upon a complete re-branding, working with Flat Cap Marketing Class One will shortly have a new image and a website to match, this will assist me to promote the business to Chefs, caterers and retailers accross the north of England. Several new customers have recently come on board including The Northcote Group, The Angel Inn, and just this week the fabulous Coniston Hotel Thank you to Nigel, Lisa and team at Northcote, Bruce et al at the Angel and Tom, Craig and team at Coniston for being an absolute pleasure to work with.

Gilbert Thompson, Leeds

I have maintained a good working relationship with Richard and Andy at Thompsons since we won the Leeds Schools contract and in the past few months I have been helping them to develop an exciting new concept at the Market, it’s all a bit hush, hush just now but more soon and it’s BIG news for local producers … of all types!

Acquamara

Thanks to 40 characters, typed by Elaine Lemm, on her twitter feed, I found Acquamara. It is rare in this industry to come across a ‘product’ that is absolutely innovative and new … of course there’s nothing ‘new’ about seawater but seawater that has been purified, passed as safe for human consumption and packaged ready to send to the kitchen …

I was hooked from the outset and so, it seems, were some of the UK’s top Chefs … Acquamara can be seen on the menu at Ondine and JSheekey along with many others, I hope to close the gap between the sites in London and Edinburgh, adding chefs in Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Lake District.

Food Miles

Tis is not entirely about saving the Planet but it is about helping to reduce the number of vehicles transporting food around our roads … just with the handful of contacts I have in the industry I am aware of so many wasted journeys, vans taking produce to the point of delivery and returning empty, half full vans delivering to far flung points, pausing on narrow roads to let another half full van pass by! co-ordination … it’s a vast undertaking but if we can just get a few companies to really work together we would make a start on saving some of the congestion, not to mention the damage … well, you know what I mean …. email me if you think you have space or could do better!

The Garden is being neglected … I’ve done plums to death, pies, jams, chutneys and still a freezer full of stewed…. Apples might be the same, blackberries have been superb this year, grapes just don’t happen in this climate but I’m most excited by lots of hazelnuts ripening on my kitchen windowsill … pics to follow.

Alex Barlow is ‘passionate about beer’ and has the credentials to back that up … 26 years in the industry, with much of the last 7 years spent developing sensory presentations to inspire brewers, retailers, chefs, press and, ultimately, consumers … a link to the website follows and this excerpt sums up beautifully the passion behind the ‘product’

WE BELIEVE

We believe in beer…
We believe beer is the best, most diverse and interesting drink in the World
We believe that brewers are passionate craftsmen and women, they are scientists, artists and flavour alchemists
We believe that drinkers should be offered a genuine choice of beer styles and flavours
We believe beer can be enjoyed by women and men of all (legal drinking) ages
We believe there is a beer for you, no matter what your tastes or preferences
We believe that beer should not be discriminated against on style, flavour or colour
We believe that, with all its diversity, beer is the most natural partner for food
We believe beer can be served in a shot, schooner, balloon, stem, flute, wine, half or even a pint glass
We believe draught beer should be served fresh, in a clean glass, by knowledgeable, friendly bar staff
We believe that drinkers, retailers and brewers benefit when bar staff understand beer better
We believe in Ale, Lager and Lambic
We believe in beer, ALL BEER

Recently we seem to have been dining out more ‘en famille’, and quite a family it is, from teens and early 20′s, girls with assorted boyfriends,  to a 7 year old with a fetish for chicken nuggets, a husband who still judges a meal by how much is on the plate and me, who doesn’t really care so long as it’s fresh and cooked with passion.

As food is my business, more specifically fresh produce and ‘local’ food this tends to preclude the multiples, another post another day about how cross it makes me that when a business has sites in several areas of the country they insist on using only suppliers who can deliver from Lands End to John O’ Groats yet still feature ‘local’ on the menu!

Sadly, I’m not at the stage where money is no object, and when booking a table for between 6 and 10 people it’s nice if we can all eat for under £150.00.

So, I guess we’re looking at independant pubs and restaurants (to make me feel better)  not fine dining (most of my lot wouldn’t appreciate it)  usually British food (to satisfy unadverturous boyfriends)  and with a children’s menu – which includes chicken nuggets (to keep littlie happy, REAL chicken please, to keep me happy)

I’ll get to the point now, it usually starts ok, the first thing I notice is the welcome, does anyone acknowledge us as we enter, this can set the tone for the whole experience, if we are ignored it puts me on edge and in critical mode. Being in business myself I know that 90% of ‘the sale’ is getting a customer to walk, voluntarily (as opposed to the expense of a salesperson, on the road, to coerce and cajole them) in to your premises; welcome them like they’re your friend or next time they’ll pass right by to the place next door.

It’s tempting to staff with ‘kids’ and actually, one of the most amazing dining experiences of my life, at the fabulous Langer Hall, I was served by a team of ‘students’ … but pick carefully, I am sure there is a role for the ‘shy, shuffley, awkward, pimply friend of a friend’s son’ but it’s not greeting your customers as they walk through the door .. find the drama student, the one who sparkles, with a natural smile and a personality that’s evident, not hidden under last night’s hangover.

Asses the party, different ‘types’ call for different measures, if it’s a crowd of young adults with no children, maybe they’d rather hit the bar first, opportunity to sell more drinks! if the group is elderly they’ll want seats so find them a table quick! prefereably with plenty of light – I didn’t mention that we sometimes take along my ageing Mother, natural light is important with eyesight that’s lost it’s edge.

The next one is really basic, but incredibly so many places just don’t get this … please, please, please clean the tables properly, that is an anti bac spray, wipe with a clean cloth then dry with a dry cloth, if I’m seated at a table with the previous diner’s debris evident, or it’s had a half hearted lick with a germ covered tea towel….. revolting, it happens, a lot!

This is not about commenting on the menu, the food, this is about service, it may be that ‘we’ have to order from the bar, i’m cool with that, I won’t criticise the taking of a credit card at the order stage, sadly it’s necessary in many places now.

The next opportunity to mess up is delivery of the meal,  please have sparkly cutlery, that lacklustre, dullness, dishwasher residue, ugh! you’re paying a fab chef to create wonderful food and you serve it on grubby plates or with grotty cutlery … why!

Serve the child first, I can’t remember the last time this happened to us, it allows their food longer to cool, it keeps them quiet whilst the ‘grown up’s food is delivered … what usually happens is all the main dishes come out then a few minutes later a plate of red hot nuggets, with congealed baked beans that have been sitting under a lamp. It would be really perfect if the child’s plate doesn’t give them third degree burns.

I know these littlies are often more trouble than the few £’s their meal generates but DO NOT underestimate the absolute power they hold in the decision making process, a happy child = happy parents = repeat business and we all know the benefits of customer retention don’t we?

Just to finish, my final annoyance, salad ‘garnish’ a bit of limp iceberg and a drooping tomato, warmed to room temperature, on the side of a hot plate, it really is vile and unnecessary. If your customers want salad with their lasagne ‘up sell’ them a side order, otherwise reserve the greenery for menu items which have salad in the title and serve it on an icy cold plate (think dishwasher warm again!)

Living in the Yorkshire Dales I was affected by the Foot and Mouth disaster of 2002, as was anyone with a shred of compassion, I had recently left a well paid job managing a lovely Hotel, to open a shop! That needs a little explanation…. Having taken the Hotel from a hole in the ground to 60% occupancy and won several major awards, including a Catey, I felt it was time to do something for ‘me’ I couldn’t afford a Hotel and the shop was an opportunity, unfortunately I hated retail with a passion and I opened the shop the week F & M closed the Village!

I struggled along for 2 years until eventually the strain was too great, I applied for planning permission to turn the shop in to a house and sold the property, no great losses but no cash either … so I looked for a job.

The Hotel industry moves quickly, my youngest daughter was 2, my elder in her teens, a husband who worked away during the week, so travel and Hotel hours were impossible.

There was post F & M funding and I was taken on by a local town to help the businesses to recover, a kind of mini regeneration role, I loved it … the role involved creating B 2 B networking events, encouraging businesses to leave the cities and relocate to the rural idyll and last but most importantly, to me, working with farmers to help them to find a better market for their produce.

This element of the role captured my imagination and my heart and when the funding ran out, as these things inevitably do, I continued to work with the farmers … they in turn were supportive, paying a small annual fee that paid myself and my, then, business partner, enough to buy a new pair of wellies every few months; we launched Feast.

We had over 100 members of the network within 6 months, we were commissioned to produce a website for a Local Council to promote the food producers of the region then were asked, by a respected local editor, to write a book on food from the Dales.

So far, so good .. For 2 years we thrived, we ran food festivals, introduced chefs to farmers, sourced products for retailers and even consumers, we had fun!

We faced growing respect from the farming community and felt a little niggled by ‘competition’ from the publicly funded Regional Food Group (oh hell, this could get controversial) just to clarify, when we launched the regional food groups were not interested in primary producers as, at that time, RDA funding didn’t apply to them, but with the demise of DEFRA (as was) there was a shift in focus.

Everything changed in January 2005. The Government introduced the PSFPI (Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative) this encouraged local authorities to source more of the food they required from local producers. The RDA asked us to bring together a group of producers to tender for a large contract.

At the same time my business partner moved to live a couple of 00 miles away and we agreed to split the business with me retaining our northern contacts and she launching a similar operation in the midlands … I still miss her terribly, we had some brilliant times in the early days, driving high up in the Dales, holding meetings with farmers in their fields, they stop for no one except possibly the bank manager! it was very ‘James Herriot’ with lipstick.

We brought together some growers and tendered for a fruit and veg supply contract, the growers formed a co-operative and I was to manage the tender on their behalf. We never expected to win it, I think the desired outcome was to produce a report for the RDA stating why the growers weren’t ‘ready’ for such a contract to enable the RDA to spend some money developing them for future business … but, we did win it … a contract involving over 300 deliveries each week and turning over more than 500k per year.

There followed 6 intense months of working 7 days, 18 hour days to get the contract bedded in, we contracted out the transport to Igloo, who, at that time had just appeared on Dragons Den and were successful in gaining funding which enabled them to open a depot in the north to service the contract. I believe Duncan Bannatyne actually completed some deliveries to our schools at a subsequent update to the programme.

I was shattered, my family started to hate me for never being there, I was dashing from warehouse to schools and back to the office .. if we failed in a delivery I took it personally and there were days when I was out topping up orders in my car, screeching to a halt in a layby to deal with 20 messages on my mobile .. the council must have wondered what on earth possesed them to give the contract to this bunch of rookies, our competitors stood back and laughed at our attempts, a couple even called me and said ‘ready to give up yet’…

Probably enough for one post, I’m exhausted just reading this and I haven’t even got to the scary bit yet … more another day if anyone has followed thus far!

Nuffield Health, a not for profit organisation, carried out research with 2,000 adults and some of the results were truely shocking:

More than half of dog owners did not walk their dogs, one third of those surveyed said they would not run to catch a bus and 1 in 6 said they would rather watch a tv programme they didn’t like than leave the sofa to change channels if the remote control was broken … c’mon!

There is some good news, one third said they would be prepared to exercise if they felt it would make them more attractive, isn’t that kind of obvious? and possibly linked to anothr statistic which showed that 73% of couples said they regulalry do not have enough energy at the end of the day to have sex.

As with all changes, take it slowly … it’s more likely to become a way of life, a longer, better life… a couple of times a week try walking to your local shops, buying fresh food and cooking it … the walk will give you the boost to hit the kitchen with a renewed energy, you’re supporting your local shops and cooking with fresh food … so much better than a microwave meal slumped in front of some TV programme that you’re only watching cos it followed Corrie! .. worse still, the programme is probably telling you that you should exercise more, eat more fresh food…. vicious cirlce… break it…

Tell us if you and when you’ve done it, we’ll send a packet of energy boosting seeds to everyone who responds.