Food –

Is staying in the new “going out”?

November 10, 2010 By emglass Leave a Comment

by Emily Glass

Recent figures from J Sainsbury Plc show that the British are choosing nights in rather than going out in town to have a good night.

Whilst the country is still feeling the effects of the economic downturn British people are combating these tough times by curbing spending that seems unnecessary – such as eating out.

Sainsbury's motto. food.leeds.ac.uk

Brits are not all simply reaching for cheap ready meals, however, but are seemingly still aiming to eat well but on a tighter budget. Sainsbury’s high-end “Taste the Difference” range’s sales has seen a significant rise in sales since it was launched in September, says Chief Executive Justin King. With rising sales and expansions into non-foods areas such as its clothes line Sainsbury’s is planning on opening new stores across the UK.

Sainbury’s “Taste the Difference” range satisfies consumers’ demands for up-market ready meals to satisfy their now too-pricey restaurant meal alternatives. Other Supermarkets have followed suit and created similar gourmet ready meal lines such as Tesco’s “Finest” range and Asda’s “Chosen By You”.

The "face of Sainsbury's". The Daily mail.

The Supermarket’s relaunch was fronted by Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver who was seen giving cooking demonstrations and tips in the back of Sainsbury’s lorries in their adverts. Another increasingly popular food trend are the ‘cookalong’ television shows with various celebrity chefs. Delia Smith was the original host of these ‘cook along with the chef’ television shows as she taught her viewers how to cook both on TV and in her Cookery Course books. Now the “face of Waitrose”, Smith caused sell-outs in supermarkets across the country and Sainsbury’s were maybe hoping for the same effect with Oliver as the helm.

Oliver’s Thirty Minute Meals and Gordon Ramsay’s Cookalong Live invite viewers to cook along with them as they produce ‘simple’ meals that the audience can reproduce easily. But with the inclusion of some not so average ingredients on the shopping lists for the menus, Jamie Oliver’s Sainbury’s affiliation is often apparent.

With so much choice in the leading Supermarkets and celebrity chefs making cooking look so easy with shortcuts, meal ideas and cooking tips galore is there really any reason to eat out again? The guarantee of lower stress levels from being cooked for by somebody else, however, may keep the restaurant business ticking over for a while yet.

Filed Under: Economy and Business, Entertainment Tagged With: Eating out, Food, Jamie Oliver, Sainsbury's

Gold standard food at Rudolf Steiner

September 17, 2010 By Mairi Thomson Leave a Comment

By Màiri Thomson

The Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School

The Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School has become the first independent school in Scotland to receive a Gold Food for Life Catering Mark from the Soil Association.

This award requires the school to make use of local and seasonal produce as well as showing it and sets an example of good food culture in the community, which the school has done by involving parents and local groups in the growing and cooking of meals.

The Food for life Partnership involves the Soil Association, Focus on Food, the Health Education Trust and Garden Organic and is also a national programme funded through a £16.9million grant from the Big Lottery Fund.

Alistair Pugh from the Rudolf Steiner School said: “When we started working towards this prestigious award, we adopted a whole school approach. We involved our parents, our local suppliers and our pupils to determine how the menu would evolve. By simplifying what we prepared each day, we have been able to ensure that everything, where possible, is locally sourced, organic and fresh.

“As a result, we have reduced cost, wastage and food miles while providing an innovative educational experience for our pupils.”

The school canteen is run by final year pupils who treat it as a business and put any profits at the end of the year towards a cultural trip to Europe: this year pupils toured Russia and Ukraine. Younger pupils also use locally sourced ingredients to create healthy pizzas which are sold once a week as a fundraiser.

The Food for Life programme has been undertaken in school across the UK

The Soil Association state that the Food for Life Partnership evolved “out of a growing concern that individuals and communities are getting more and more detached from how food is produced, and losing the skills and knowledge needed to take active control over what we eat.”

Steiner teacher Pugh adds: “We would encourage other schools to pursue a Food for Life award as it supports not only the benefits of healthy eating but also food education for the whole school. For example, gardening is part of our curriculum and our pupils grow their own organic vegetables in the school grounds, which are used where appropriate as part of the seasonal menu. In addition, they volunteer at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital’s Community Garden and enjoy a varied programme of farm-based activities, food preparation and cooking classes throughout the year.”

Filed Under: Life and Society Tagged With: Award, Food, organic, Rudolf Steiner

Snail farm on fast track to success

November 20, 2009 By mylesedwards Leave a Comment

EXCLUSIVE

By Calum Liddle

A young Scottish pioneer has opened the country’s first commercial snail farm, in his parent’s back garden.

Malcolm Stewart, a 17-year-old from Leith, is successfully breeding and nurturing common garden snails as escargot for some of Edinburgh’s finest restaurants, and the orders are filling fast.

Malcolm said: “The snails come from a designated plot in my dad’s back yard before they are treated, cleansed and put into forced hibernation in the kitchen fridge.”

The slimy creatures have proved a hit with the town’s restaurants and Malcolm claims he cannot keep up with the demand for around 300 snails every month.

“I’m now earning an income for when I start studying for my business degree next year, selling fresh and delectable home grown produce to top-notch restaurants.”

The bourgeoning sales of the helix aspersa and pomatia variety are not exclusive to restaurants with a Gallic flair, but include the city’s cafés and bistros from Morningside Road to Leith Walk.

Gerry King, head chef at the Chez la Mère restaurant on Haddington Road, Musselburgh said: “We bought our first batch of 160 snails last week. It’s been popular so far, although, customers are generally taken aback by the sight of the very familiar snails.”

He added: “Why would we want snails that have been frozen and shipped from the continent? The snails are fresh, of supreme quality due to their diet and ultimately delicious.”

Grub's up

The snails are fed on a diet of dried food, chalk to make their shells strong and fresh leafy vegetables.

Malcolm said: “I’ll admit to becoming quite attached to them. They are really quite friendly and somewhat curious creatures. They don’t smell, make any noise or mess. They’d make perfect pets.”

The snails, which are usually shipped from farms in Eastern Europe, are in short supply with the French alone consuming 700 million tonnes each year.

A spokesman for Scottish Enterprise said that Malcolm’s business, which is yet to be named, had “scope for further development and enlargement”.

“During the recession, it has become apparent that individuals look to exploit market gaps. In this case, we have witnessed the creation of Scotland’s first snail farm and it looks to be doing very well.”

Malcolm added: “As long as the Scottish winter isn’t too bitter for the snails, then I’ll remain confident for the future.”

For recipes on cooking escargot visit the BBC food website.

Filed Under: Economy and Business Tagged With: Calum Liddle, farming, Food, snail, snail farming, www.theliddlejournalist.co.uk

The Zulu Growth

November 2, 2009 By Phynchy Leave a Comment

by Christian McBride

image from www.thezululounge.com

The Zulu Lounge, a small South African cafe based in Morningside Edinburgh, has defied economic stress on small business and has enjoyed substantial growth in the past year. Run by siblings Chris and Kim Wedge the South African brother and sister have relied on their unique approach to to cafe culture and innovation in product selection (and quite impressive baking including Malteser Muffins and Ferrero Rochers milkshakes) to build a sound customer base, both local and far flung. They draw custom from as far afield as Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. Their impressive selection of biltong, African dried meat somewhat like jerky, and their trademark product Red Espresso of which they are now major distributors for the company, being sole suppliers to the United Kingdom, Ireland and temporarily the Netherlands, they draw custom from South Africans now living in Scotland looking for a little taste of home.

With such a monopoly they are clearly avoiding the pinch. Predicting a £180K turn over in the next year with roughly £80K profit The Zulu Lounge has stood firm against local competition, with neighboring tea house Loopy Lorna’s and Cafe Nero in close proximity. Co-Owner Chris Wedge claims to have “stolen early morning custom from Cafe Nero with our £1.50 morning coffee deal…we’re half the price of Loopy Lorna’s so we don’t compete much for customers.”

Going from strength to strength The Zulu Lounge expects comfortable growth in the years to come. And with any luck some new and interesting cakes and shakes.

Filed Under: Economy and Business, News in Brief Tagged With: Coffee, Edinburgh, Food, Lounge, Zulu

Consumers back in the lap of luxury?

October 21, 2009 By rtotheh Leave a Comment

Increased consumer confidence at the tills

by Ross Haig

With consumer confidence seemingly on the rise again after a difficult year on the high street, demand for luxury food items has rocketed. Aisles once filled with discount and value brands are seeing the return of their expensive counterparts, following on from figures released earlier this month which showed that a 2.8% sales increase at Tesco included significant growth in their Finest food lines. Last week the supermarket launched a Finest Restaurant range which includes dishes such as the Roasted Peppers and Cream Cheese Pasta Tartlets with Basil Dressing. Retailing at £5, it’s a significant step up from a 75p Value Lasagne.

Similarly, while 2008 was all about the rise of cut-price retailers such as Lidl and Aldi, upmarket supermarket Waitrose is now the UK’s fastest growing food chain after a 10.2% surge in sales. It’s reassuring news for retailers after an uncertain 12 months.

Filed Under: Economy and Business Tagged With: Food, Tesco, waitrose

50:50 Peebles – food miles

October 21, 2009 By Luke Rajczuk Leave a Comment

by Luke Rajczuk

Courtesy of ScottishFarmers

It is getting more and more popular for the Scottish country side to produce and buy local foods. Peebles is a great example of how people take initiative producing and using foods only from the area of 50 miles radius from where they live.

Local food is on everyone’s agenda, from Transition initiatives to government policy makers. More and more people are aware that we need to develop a much more local, non-oil and chemical reliant food infrastructure as a matter of urgency, because the present system is forcing us up hard against the limits of the global eco-system, manifesting as climate change, peak oil, peak phosphorous and a host of others.

When we eat local food we are more likely to be eating fresh food which is in season – and this keeps us in touch with the natural world around us Eating local food supports local livelihoods in the food and farming sector, and the money we spend on local food tends to get recycled in our own community – but it is also important to support the livelihoods of producers in developing countries Local food often has a lower carbon footprint – not just because of the energy used to transport food but also because it uses less energy in refrigeration, processing and packaging. (Latest figures from the Food and Climate Research Network suggest that about 12% of our total ‘foodprint’ comes between the farm gate and our own cooking and storage at home) More importantly, local food is not damaging the environment somewhere out of sight. WWF research shows that 40% of our foodprint in the UK comes from deforestation in other countries to produce commodities such as beef, soya and palm oil. When we buy local food we can see for ourselves if it is being grown in a sustainable way which is helping the environment and biodiversity.

Is local better than organic? No – at least not from the point of view of climate change and sustainability. Organic crops have under half the carbon footprint of non-organic crops because they do not rely on the use of factory-made nitrogen. Making nitrogen in a factory uses significant amounts of fossil fuel, and the application of fertiliser can also create emissions of nitrous oxide (a powerful greenhouse gas). In all 3-4% of total UK emissions come from use of artificial nitrogen – considerably more than from air travel.

The 50:50 project seems to be improving our environment along with encouraging people to buy locally which is a benefit to the Scottish economy and great injection of motivation for farmers to fulfill the need of consumers.

Filed Under: Life and Society Tagged With: Food, local foods Peebles, organic foods, Peebles

The Way We Eat Now

February 21, 2009 By andovertoyou Leave a Comment

http://www.clipartguide.com

By Vikki Graves

If you believe everything you read, our eating habits have gone into a steep decline. This time last year, your average Brit was walking home from the farmers’ market chomping an a fluffy organic roll stuffed with freshly roasted pig and apple sauce. But then this nasty credit crunch business came along and pushed many of us away from the hog and towards the Big Mac.

When Jamie Oliver first made his cheap salmon fishcakes in the Sainsbury’s advert, the idea of ‘credit crunch cuisine’ was not yet fully formed. Many of us foodies still sneered at supermarket bargain ranges and headed for the now dwindling organic aisle. These days however, more and more of us will be throwing a few tins of cut price tomatoes into the trolley.

But doesn’t look like us foodies are quite willing to give up our gourmet fishcakes just yet. In response to this week’s news of rising profits for McDonald’s and Domino’s, and the expansion of KFC, The Guardian’s food blog declared the situation to be “utterly depressing. Penny-watching consumers are turning away from conventional restaurants and slobbing out on the sofa at home, not with a bowl of hearty, homemade soup, but with a whopping great bucket of fried chicken or a calorie-laden pizza.”

Have these people not embraced the true spirit of credit crunch cuisine? Why do they not pinch their pennies bycooking sensible healthy meals from scratch? And eat out occasionally at their locally owned and run bistro which serves fashionable, cheap (but still delicious and healthy) cuts of meat at reasonable prices? Because apparently they prefer “slobbing out” which, though cheap, is not fashionable.

Before, many of us could afford to eat premium quality foods if we liked. The buzz words were ‘fresh’, ‘organic’, ‘ethical’, ‘local’. But did we want those things because we believed they were better for us, or because they were de rigueur?

Now the doom and gloom has struck our wallets and our trolleys. And the word on the street is ‘cheap’. The diehard foodies have dusted down their slow cookers, but it may well be that some of us have fallen off the home cooking wagon, decided eating out is too expensive and landed comfortably on the sofa with a Domino’s.

For all of us, what we eat has become firmly associated with a need for cheapness and value. For some that will come from their own kitchen, and for others it will come from KFC. Because if you want to talk about calories and fat, even a home cooked pizza can provide ample quantities of both.

Filed Under: Life and Society Tagged With: Big Mac, Credit crunch, Domino's, eating, Food, Jamie Oliver, KFC, McDonald's, organic, pizza, Restaurants, Sainsbury's, salmon, soup, supermarket

Edinburgh Feasts on Winter Wonderland

December 4, 2008 By daniellewisparker 2 Comments

Like a scene from a Scandinavian Christmas, Edinburgh’s Princes Street gardens set a somewhat romantic backdrop to the famous historic sky-line.

Winter Wonderland has two markets that offer a feast of traditional German, Scandinavian and Scottish specialties.

The German market, consists of 25 wooden huts. Their character and warmth are enough to forget about the bone chilling evening air.

Some of the highlights include the German Weinerschnitzel. These Bavarian beauties are considerably larger than their average British counterparts, taste more smoked, their texture less gritty. Lathered in mustard, ketchup, or the more European mayonnaise, the king’s of the sausage world are gentle on the pallet whilst satisfy starving stomachs quite adequately. At a cost of between £2.50 and £4 with add ons, they’re worth a try.

If you don’t like a bit of sausage over Christmas, why not try a hamburger, a little more expensive, a steak burger, or take a wonder over to the Scottish market for a few more options: Venison, wild Hogg, Haggis and Veal dishes, all for between £3 and £5.

Drinks are festive two.The Gluiwein hut offer piping hot alcoholic and non alcoholic wines, including raspberry, apple and mulled wine for around £3.50, and for another 50p you can add in a shot of schnapps or amaretto.

Beers are also on offer at a number of outlets, offering lager, but also some more unusual mixers with it, such as cola. Half pints are £2.50, pints £3.50. A point to note however is the deposits for glasses, from £4 a beer glass to £2 for the gluiwein mugs which make an average round of four drinks nearly £30.

The most disappointing fact is the weeknight opening hours, from 10am-8pm on Sundays to Thursdays, there’s little time for evening festivities, an hour or two later would be perfect. However, Friday and Saturday’s opening hours are 10am to 10pm giving those looking for a little more festive cheer, some more time to feast on the charm and scent of Edinburgh’s winter markets.
Photos courtesy of Richie Laurie Photography (http://www.richielaurie.com)

review by Daniel Parker

video by Jen Lavery