A Field Trip, by Natalia
Pictured: Bix (right) & Highmore (left)
A field trip. You remember those right? It meant a day out, away from lessons and school. It was so FUN! Seeing the world, learning something new, sitting in the back of the bus with the cool kids. The good old days. Well who says that education stops when we grow up? Especially if you work in the world of hospitality, a land where palates are ever-evolving and changing, and the more we travel the more we educate ourselves and our guests. Beyond taste, there is getting to know where food actually comes from, how it’s made and the impact using local produce has on these makers’ day-to-day. Here at L.O.R. we understand your hunger for food, but also for your want and need to learn! And it was a beautiful day in Borough Market, when Amelia of Foodchain fame and I put our heads together to come up with the best way to combine forces. How can our two communities work to further the food industry we know and love? LIGHTBULB MOMENT - we bring everyone to the source. Introducing the Foodchain x L.O.R. Field Trip; a series (at least we hope).
It was a sunny crisp October day when we embarked on our journey to the Cotswolds to meet Rose Grimmond of Nettlebed Creamery, Kitty Tait of The Real Orange Bakery and Lizzie Dyer of Cotswold Kid Meat. Three incredible women, making and doing wonderful things. Fifteen year old Kitty was not only transparent about her past with mental health issues, but exuded such confidence, she had the entire room wrapped around her fingers. Kitty set up The Real Orange Bakery six months ago, finding solace in sourdough bread. Baking helped flush out the sadness and instead left her with a profound belief in herself and her future. With the majority of the room in awe, we scarfed down soft and perfect Kanelsnegles (Danish cinnamon rolls), delicious sourdough bread, marmite rolls and her experiment with Manilife peanut butter, stuffed into a doughnut with jam. We were hooked. Not only on her baking skills, but pure tenacity and awesome reminder as to why we love this industry, and why schools need to consider re-introducing food tech.
Pastries from Kitty’s Bakery; The Orange Bakery
Next, Rose, an absolute powerhouse of a person. Business owner, mother of three and wife, Rose doesn’t see obstacles, she just sees solutions. Take the reason why Nettlebed makes cheese! A family farm that needed to diversify and keep up with the times. Let’s turn the cows milk into cheese! Nettlebed make three different types of cheese, and they make them well. Rose has a real love of food, a passion for it, but also a love of family; and you can taste both in their products. Additionally, Nettlebed work with ex-offenders, to help re-introduce them into the world, so when they come out of prison they have a skill and perhaps a place to work. We love Rose.
Dairy cows at Nettlebed Creamery
Hopping back on the coach we drove 90 minutes to Cricklade, where Lizzie Dyer owns Cotswold Kid Farm aka Just Kidding. But don’t be fooled, Lizzie is no joke. She raises the goats in a happy and healthy environment, I honestly believe they were smiling. Lizzie cares about these kids as if they were her own. And in the most vegetarian friendly manner, she cares how they are slaughtered, butchered and prepared by some of the nation’s best restaurants. You might not eat meat, you might not believe in the killing of animals for sustenance, but if you did, you’d want to eat Lizzie’s goats.
Lizzie and her goats.
Finally, the whole day culminated in a perfect three-course lunch, prepared by chef (and client of Lizzie’s through Foodchain) Margaux Stepzcynski. Margaux is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu and hails from Geneva, Switzerland. She has been taking up residency in Chelsea, with her aptly named restaurant; Goat in the Garden. Incorporating Rose’s cheese in the first and last course, it was a menu that represented what a chef can do with excellent products. At the end of this year, Margaux will move back to her home country to work on a farm, she wants to eventually open a restaurant that is completely transparent about where and how they source their products. We will be there!
We washed it all down with wine from Le Grappin and Vino South Africa, a cheeky sharpener to kick us off, using Kamm & Sons and then we rolled back onto the coach for two hours of traffic (there were not one, but two accidents - c’est la vie) back to London. Road collisions aside, the day was not only informative, it was FUN. Just like those old school field trips you had when you were younger. That is because food, cooking and hospitality IS fun. We see day in and day out finance women and men throw in their laptops for kitchen knives (only to find out you might need a laptop to do the ordering and wage costs, it’s also handy for recipe filing). We are also seeing more and more women enter the industry, going it on their own. In fact more than 50% of the attendees on this trip were female business owners or freelancers. If this trip was a snapshot of the food future, count us in.
To learn more about Foodchain, please click here. If you’re keen to try some of the produce we were so lucky to taste - Lizzie is on their app chatting to chefs and fulfilling orders of her kidmeat & Rose’s delicious cheese is available through The Cheese Merchant, another supplier on the app.
To learn more about suppliers mentioned, click their name below.
