Lobster through your letterbox? Cheese by courier? Emma Hughes goes behind the scenes with the firms keeping connoisseurs posted
I WILL always remember the day our Waitrose opened. It was 1993 and the small town I grew up in had never seen the like before. On the first day of trading, there were scenes that I was reminded of when watching the locusts decimating Madagascar on David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II. People crowded around the counters with the open-mouthed astonishment of Howard Carter peering into Tutankhamun’s tomb. Yorkshire rhubarb! Potted shrimp from Morecambe! Six different types of Cheddar!
Since then, we’ve come a long way, but the real jewels in the country’s culinary crown —by definition, seasonal and hyper-local— can still be tricky to get hold of and enjoy at their peak. Step forward the savvy suppliers who make it possible to feast on the best of British, whether you’re in Land’s End or central London.
Leading the way is Donald Russell. A Royal Warrant holder, the company will let you order restaurant-quality cuts of meat online, then it packs them into special dry-ice boxes and couriers them across the UK (and further afield; it’s worked with the Raffles Hotel in Singapore). Recently, it’s branched out into life-savers for frazzled hosts, such as stuffed pork shoulder and Jacob’s ladder that’s been slow-cooked for 10 hours.
‘I’m really protective of what we do,’ says head of production Mark Farquhar. ‘It’s so different to anywhere else.’ He’s been with the company since 1990, when, as a young butcher, he became ‘one of the guys on the line’.
‘It was a real step up for me,’ he remembers, ‘seeing meat being matured for 28 or even 35 days and learning the difference between cutting fresh meat and meat that had been aged. It was such an eye-opener.’
この記事は Country Life UK の Decenber 06, 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Country Life UK の Decenber 06, 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
