Slow Food UK has launched a new initiative calling on UK chefs to support the organisation's bid to champion small suppliers and sustainable produce.
The Chef Alliance aims to unite chefs across the UK in actively supporting Slow Food by getting them to sign up to the network and promoting local, sustainable food at their restaurants.
The initiative already has the support of ambassadors including Richard Corrigan, Michel Roux Jnr, Mark Hix and Brett Graham as well as Francesco Mazzei and Angela Hartnett.
Those signed up to the Chef Alliance will be required to offer local, sustainable food on their menus wherever possible, including Ark of Taste products, which are in danger of extinction.
Slow Food UK chief executive Catherine Gazzoli (pictured above with Richard Corrigan) said: "Many chefs are already actively trying to use sustainably sourced, great tasting local produce; the alliance will allow them to shout about it.
"It's great to know we have so much support out there; I truly believe this is the start of something very special."
Richard Corrigan, who hosted the launch event of the Slow Food Chef Alliance at his eponymous restaurant in London's Mayfair earlier this week and is the spokesman for the initiative, added it was vital for chefs to come together and support artisan suppliers.
"Back in the day when produce wasn't from France it wasn't good. But today things are so much better and we have incredible suppliers on our isles," he said.
"If we don't support the small guys, they will go under. I would like to see more chefs buying into the culture of supporting small suppliers and producers."
Founded in Italy in 1989, Slow Food is a not-for-profit organisation that is represented in 150 countries around the world.
The movement is about the universal right that good, clean and fair food should be available for everyone. Good, because food should taste good; clean, because it should be produced in a way that fully respects the environment, human health and animal welfare; and fair, because the workers at all stages of production should be paid a fair and honest wage.
Andrew Fairlie speaks at Slow Food Edinburgh >>
A Minute on the Clock: Catherine Gazzoli >>
By Kerstin Kühn
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