Places of origin

Places of origin

An insight into provenance, one of the most enduring trends of the moment, including its highs and its lows, by Sheila Eggleston

Provenance food miles gate to plate FDA conference local sourcing hotel menus national organic consumer trends products drink natural locally produced origin authentic artisan Salone del Gusto Orkney supermarkets retail seasonal

People get passionate about provenance - that feelgood factor about knowing exactly where the meat, fish and vegetables come from that end up on your dinner plate. This year the FDA conference covers the whole gamut of provenance and local sourcing - a Michelin star chef view, the impact on hotel menus, local sourcing on a national scale, organic and consumer trends - and the chance to smell, savour and taste good quality food with impeccable credentials. The warning to its audience is ignore it if you dare.

Today the majority of consumers are willing to pay a hefty premium for a product that has all the right endorsements, as can be seen from the dramatic growth in sales of organic and natural food and drink.

A survey carried out by the University of Reading revealed that consumers were prepared to pay a premium for locally produced food over imports. Its sample of 222 people were asked for their views on topics such as origin, organics, price, freshness, food miles and support for local businesses. Principal investigator Professor Bruce Traill says: "Consumers think of local food as being produced and sold within a 30-50 mile radius. Focus groups suggest local food is considered to be fresher and tastier."

Provenance is a global trend as can be seen from the biennial Salone del Gusto show where authentic, artisan products captured the flavour of the moment and mesmerised visitors from around the world.

Sometimes the rules of local sourcing get blurred as Orkney Food managing director Ken Sutherland explains: "The problem with some big retailers is they have a local sourcing policy but they will only see food from the Orkney islands as a Scottish product, so they will only stock it in their Scottish stores." However he admits that not all take this view and chains such as Waitrose have a better understanding of the difference. His seafood range in fact has good national coverage with 70% of the products going south of the border.

Some organisations in the UK take the traceability of their food very seriously. The Castleton House hotel in Tayside can be sure of its produce because it rears its own Tamworth pigs, Jacob sheep, quails and chickens on site, and it has an extensive vegetable garden.

Local sourcing doesn't come any closer than the huge kitchen garden at Great Fosters near Egham, Surrey, where its chef de cuisine Christopher Basten can help himself to an abundance of seasonal fruit, vegetables and herbs to enhance his menus.

But there are pitfalls and steps have to be taken to ensure that provenance aficionados aren't hoodwinked into buying something that isn't what it seems.
One of our regular writers is Edwin Cheeseman, who runs the Thieves Kitchen Consultancy in Javea, Spain. His strong views about most of what goes on in the industry are legend and, on the subject of provenance, there is no exception.
"I have a natural nagging in the back of my head to say 'I don't believe you'," he says. "In my view provenance has replaced the flowery explanations on food. But that's not honesty, that's just words.

"Even if something is special, it doesn't make it good. You want something to aspire to. I'm worried about chemicals, injecting and vacuums. If you inject food with saltpetre and put it in a vacuum, it's not good. Does the most expensive ingredient make up your favourite meal? No."

Going in search of perfection, as Heston Blumenthal has discovered, can be a long journey, but for Cheeseman his journey to find a good Spanish blackfoot ham turned into a 1,500 mile mission and more explicit detail will no doubt appear in FD at a later date.

But his trip took him to Extremadura, where he had been advised to go for the best Spanish blackfoot pigs, and he spent a week around that area testing out the restaurants, the markets and talking to locals before he found what he wanted. But even the local restaurants, which he thought were selling bellota ham, turned to extraordinary lengths to pass off cheap as the real thing including nail varnish and paint. He says that when you buy, first look at the colour, and then the drip cups under the ham. He found out that some unscrupulous people put in olive oil to make it look acorn colour so that you assume it is the real thing because acorns are the staple diet of these pigs.

He believes all this was worth checking out as belotta blackfoot pigs aren't cheap. The ham he eventually bought cost €450, which is equivalent to £350, and was found at Joselito in Guijuelo (Salamanca), which he says is arguably the "best in the world", and hidden away from the main area among farm buildings.
The first slice of "the very best money could buy" was thought disappointing by Cheeseman but, he says, like a fine wine matures, it developed into a glorious taste sensation.

Photography Southover Foods
This article originally appeared in the Food Development Association's fd magazine
For more information on the FDA, go to
www.fooddev.co.uk