A big buzz was created at this year's Chef Conference by our Marketplace, created by Caterer to showcase some of the best and most exciting suppliers in the food business. This was no trade exhibition, just an intimate gathering of suppliers chosen because they're the type of people chefs like to meet.
Richard Vine, specialist salad and shoots supplier to the likes of Tom Aikens, Zuma, and Maze came up from Somerset brandishing his new DVD. Vine has built up a cult following for his devotion to micro chards and pea shoots, quality and innovation. The film is worth watching alone for the almost orgasmic moment Vine puts a shoot in his mouth to grunts of "Yes!"
Meanwhile, South London artisan bakers Born and Bread proved that there's more to the Old Kent Road than van hire and vandalism.
The South-east London thoroughfare used to be a thriving baking community before superstores took over and is now biting back. The likes of Born and Bread's rye bread and Kentish flutes recently got backing from Conran Restaurants as well as a number of smaller independent operations.
There was plenty of interest, too, for chocolatier Paul Wayne Gregory. He trained in Spain with El Bulli acolyte Oriol Balaguer, and has just set up his own bespoke chocolate company in Streatham, south London. His serried ranks of oblong chocolates not only looked fantastic, but thanks to some amazing flavour bursts in the fillings (space dust was a star turn) they tasted incredible too.
The Marketplace proved useful for Gregory himself, who took the opporunity to source some green tea to work with thanks to Jing Tea, another of the companies present. Edward Eisler, who started the company two years ago, travels to China to work directly with farmers and bring back the finest rare green, white, oolong and black teas. Eisler is trying to generate a stronger culture of taking green tea after meals in restaurants - the Fat Duck is already a customer - and plans to open his own tea house next year.
Food technologist Forum Biosciences, meanwhile, represented the more scientific end of the market, showcasing, among other wonders, the transglutaminase enzyme, which is sold as Activa. This agent will bind any form of protein together - so, to demonstrate, hearts had been stuffed with sausage meat, while a bundle of salmon and white fish were pressed together to form a single slab of two-tone fish.
Spanish food expert Brindisa created the biggest queue when it started carving a whole leg of Pablo Bolleta acorn-fed Iberico ham for conference delegates, while suppliers Premier and the Cheese Cellar had their usual array of top-notch cheeses. Chef's Connection showed off some unusual squashes, while perhaps the biggest sigh of pleasure was heard at the Aubrey Allen stand, where mesmerised delegates tucked into 28-day dry aged roast sirloin from a Charolais-Aberdeen Angus cross.
Contacts
- Forum Biosciences 01737 857730
- Brindisa 020 8772 1600
- Aubrey Allen 02476 422222
- Born and Bread 020 8772 1600
- Richard Vine 07778 29812
- Paul Wayne Gregory 07916 162778
- Jing Tea 07876 561739
- Chefs Connection 020 7627 4809
- M&J Seafood 01296 588221
- Cheese Cellar 020 7501 0600
- Premier Cheese 01494 680300
- Leathams Larder 020 7635 4087