The FoodTalk Show

Getting zingy with it

To be honest, not a great deal happened in the world of food this week – so we had to make sure that our show was fiery enough to make up for it. It didn’t disappoint, don’t you worry.

In fact, it got so hot in our studio at one point that Sue Nelson had to leave – much to the amusement of Guy Routledge and Ollie Lloyd.

Who’s to blame? Probably Pritesh Mody. ‘The Spice Guru’, as he’s known on television for shows like Sunday Brunch, brought his flavoursome ‘World of Zing’ products along to the show for everyone to try. There was one that had just a little too much zing for Sue though. To cool the tongue, he brought along some special Negronis – all forgiven.

From spicy to sweet, we took some time to hear about another Sugarwise-accredited product that is helping us stay away from the harmful white stuff.

Back in the studio, we had some more fantastic goodies in front of us. These ones didn’t have a Zing, instead these were just winners. B-Tempted took gold in our free-from category at the FoodTalk Awards a few months ago. Sarah Hilleray told us how she turned her home cooking into an award-winning brand.

The Spotify of wine

While a walnut shortage whipped up a frenzy in the food industry, FoodTalk decided to hit the bottle. We like wine, so we intended to enjoy it.

Don’t worry though, neither Sue Nelson, Guy Routledge nor Ollie Lloyd have gone off the rails – we just had a full discussion with the ‘Spotify of wine’ Pulp Wine and their founder Paolo Zanelli.

They call themselves the wine club for people who don’t do wine clubs.
Pulp is the new way of discovering and learning about wine – their subscription service is allowing customers to sample a wide range of different wines and is telling them the stories behind the bottle.

In between our wine lovefests, we also heard from Ian Dorr from All Food Experts.

They are a global expert community transforming the agri-food industry through collaborative innovation and sharing value creation. We gained some valuable insight.

After all that talk of vino, it’s time to crack open a bottle yourself.

A dash of kitchen innovation

We had our full quota of presenters again this week, as Ollie Lloyd from Great British Chefs returned to the studio – alongside Guy Routledge and Sue Nelson – armed with stories about his tortoise, Flash. Yes, this happened.

We’d rather let you listen to the podcast than explain the link between Flash and water, but it worked nicely. Jack Scott and Alex Wright are the collective brainpower behind Dash Water – they explain how they turn wonky fruit into refreshing sparkling water.

From water with a dash of goodness to angels with a lot of cookies – Harry was recently at the Allergy & Freefrom Show and heard from Karen Capetta. Her company, Angels & Cookies, was proving so popular that they were running out of samples. 

Our first two guests had proved to be a big hit – so maybe they should consider applying for The FoodTalk Awards next year. Our last guest would have sold it to them. Ritam Gandhi from Studio Graphene told how they scoped the Gold Award in our Smart Kitchen category with their Hawk Safety technology. Make sure you press play and find out what won over our judges.

Sweet life for your little urchins

You either love it or hate it – it turns out holidaymakers in this country just cannot get enough of Marmite, with the revelation that copious amounts are being seized at airports every day. You’ll love our FoodTalk guests this week too.

Sue Nelson and Guy Routledge were delighted to welcome another of our fantastic FoodTalk Award winners into the studio first-up. Danny Kingston proved he really is as Fabulous as Fanny after scooping gold for his Food Urchin blog. Hear the stories of calamity and success, in equal measure, which provide the backdrop for his popular writing.

Danny is a bit of an experimenter when it comes to food and drink, so he would have been interested to hear about the work of the Autumn Brewing Co. We caught up with them at the Allergy Show to hear how they are brewing beer with rice and quinoa.

Our last guest is on a mission. Luke Fernandes is from Sugarwise, which is a certification scheme for sugar claims made by the food manufacturing and food service sectors, with retail and brand support. Get your unrotten teeth into this one.

Top of the chocs

The summer holidays are here, but don’t bother jetting off to foreign lands – we have a perfect FoodTalk podcast for you right here, right now. Sue Nelson and Guy Routledge have a couple of high-profile interviewees for your pleasure.

First up, we had a TV star on the radio – how ironic. Paul A Young is on our screens at the moment as part of a BBC series that is looking at the history of chocolate – Paul has developed a reputation as one of the best chocolatiers in the country, and he brought some of his products to the studio. Perfect. 

From amazing luxury chocolate to brilliant vegan treats. There were plenty of awesome companies at the Allergy & Freefrom Show and one of those was Miiro Ice Cream – we caught up with Rym who told us all about how they’ve spent years developing their product to prosper in a growing market.

Our last guest was part of the team that has turned Red Bull into the megabrand it is today. Their former Marketing Director Huib van Bockel has stuck with the energy drink industry but has stripped back all of the chemicals with his new brand, Tenzing.

Summertime specialities

We love summertime at FoodTalk – it’s always the best time for food and drink and we had a bit of a summer special this week. Sue Nelson and Guy Routledge were most impressed.

 Our first guest is certainly a fan of the summer – he’s just had a special edition of his drink on sale at Wimbledon; I bet the Dalston’s Cola’s Strawberryade was Roger Federer’s winning drink of choice. Most will know the company better for their fantastic hand-made all natural cola though – Duncan O’Brien tells us how he has gone from Orient Express Chef to cola king.

Summer is also food exhibition season, so we sent Harry to the Allergy & Freefrom Show recently and he returned with a demonstration of a fantastic new Granite pan. No oil needed at all, not even for Fried eggs. Crazy stuff.

To top it off, we had a bit of a celebration with one of our FoodTalk Award winners. Sarah Ward took home a Big Apple award for Boozy Udders – a quite brilliant alcoholic cocktail ice cream. Sarah was also refreshingly honest about how tough it can be in the food industry too – definitely worth a listen.

Banishing crisp cash

With Wimbledon proceedings approaching the business end, we made sure that we served up an ace for everyone to enjoy from Henman Hill to Timbuktu.

First up, there were no backhanded compliments from our presenters Sue Nelson, Guy Routledge and Ollie Lloyd when they tried Emily Fruit Crisps. The trio were blown away by the fantastic, innovative and perfectly presented products put in front of them by founder Emily Wong.

We like to keep ourselves busy at FoodTalk HQ, so we made sure that we didn’t miss out any of the action from last weekend’s Allergy & Freefrom Show at Olympia. You might know their bread already, but we heard how Genius are looking to take the Freefrom world by storm in other areas too.

Finally, we welcomed Oliver White from Preoday onto the show. If you hate cash, then these guys are right up your street. They are developing white label technology which you can use everywhere from restaurants to music festivals.

 

Think foodie around the globe

In a week where Spam turned 80, we made sure we were a million miles from the tinned horror in our shish London recording studio – you wouldn’t catch Sue Nelson, Guy Routledge or Ollie Lloyd eating that stuff.

To start the show, we ended up taking a foodie tour around the world by discussing Ollie’s latest research with Great British Chefs. Which international countries are giving us inspiration? You’d better find out.

Sticking with the worldly theme, we welcomed Jack Fleming onto the show to talk about his venture SOOP (Stories on our Plate). They are running workshops around London with professional chefs to give refugees in the UK a chance to test their skills and maybe move into the industry.

The help didn’t stop there either though – next up was Rick Hay, The Superfoodist. Rick is a bit of a star when it comes to helping everybody keep fit and look younger through our food choices. You may have seen him on one of many TV shows on which he features.

 

Bready beer - the perfect match

Thank goodness – we’ve returned to our normal British summertime climate; blustery wind and drizzling rain. How reassuring. To keep the theme of normality going, we’ve got another fabulous FoodTalk for you.

First up, we got a bit saucy – we were trying to find our perfect match. Nope, we weren’t looking to replace Sue Nelson or Guy Routledge as presenters. Instead we had a great chat with Tiggs. They have created some fantastic sauces/dressings/marinades – whatever you want them to be really.

Another perfect match that we’ve had recently is pairing up some fantastic innovative companies with the awards that they deserve at The FoodTalk Awards. One of those was Kitchup, we matched them with a silver award for their app which helps growing companies find kitchen space to expand their operation. Charlie Jones gives us the lowdown on what they do.

From one winner to another, we welcomed the ‘Chief Toaster’ Rob Wilson on to the show. We didn’t grab him from a random canteen – he’s actually the brains behind a quite brilliant brand of beer called Toast Ale. We love these guys…they turn beer into bread, need we say anymore?

No rats in mi kitchen

Brexit looks to have given us an expected benefit this week, we’re living in a Caribbean climate right now – it’s fantastic. Don’t worry though, we’ve been getting too hot too but, alas we have some things to cool us down on this week’s FoodTalk Show. 

Now, our first guest is probably more akin to an interview on Radio Two rather than FoodTalk radio, but hear us out. We love red wine, so how perfect that we had the Red Red Wine hitmakers UB40 on the show. Yep, that’s right! The reggae band’s frontman Ali Campbell joined us on the phone.

So, why did we have UB40? Well, we had Jerome Jacob from Eminent Life to put it into clarity. Jerome’s company team up with musical legends to create limited edition bottles of wine and UB40 make a perfect fit thanks to their Red Red Wine link.

If you think that’s award winning radio, you should come along to the FoodTalk Awards next year. A couple of weeks ago we hosted an amazing night at the Oxo Tower and Sue Nelson lends her thoughts on how it went and why we did it. 

So, after that, to really cool us down we had to get some Ice Cream on the show and The Coconut Collaborative hit the spot perfectly. You may have seen their coconut-based products in the shops already, and James Averdieck was on-hand to run us through the success story.

Cheers to the award winners

It has been a week of celebration here at the FoodTalk Show. On Monday we hosted our first-ever FoodTalk Awards – a fantastic night of foodie innovation, which took place at London’s Oxo Tower overlooking the Thames.

We heard from a couple of the winners on the night, including Toast Ale, Boozy Udders and B-Tempted, but on Thursday we returned to the relative normality of the FoodTalk studio. Sue Nelson, Guy Routledge and Ollie Lloyd blasted away any awards night cobwebs with the help of some fantastic guests.

Presenting can be a hungry job, so luckily our first guest had their finger on the pulse when it comes to street food. We heard from Leon Travers of Kerbstop – they have developed an app to beat the big takeaway giants by helping people to find pure and simple food. 

Moving on… If there were any hangovers from our night in the spotlight, we had a bit of a hair of the dog remedy thanks to Lee Caulfield. He brought along a nice mobile freezer full of delicious ice cream and, even better, it was also filled with booze – Cheers have developed the world’s most alcoholic ice cream.

 

Spanish sojourn in the studio

As the UK went to the polls for the General Election, we had no losers in our FoodTalk studio this week with Sue Nelson being joined by Guy Routledge and Ollie Lloyd.

First of all, to take us away from the palaver at Parliament – we had a sumptuous snifter of Spain. Hams, oils, cheese and much more; Brindisa have fantastic shops in Balham and Borough to showcase the Mediterranean marvels and Monika Linton told us all about their work.

From fantastic food, we moved on to energizing water. We caught up with Henry Weston a while ago and flexed our interviewing muscles to chat with the Protein Water Co.

From Spain and the UK, we then spoke to somebody who grew up in Italy – our guests this week have certainly rattled up some air miles. Alessio D’Antino is one of the founders of Crowdfooding and gave us some valuable advice as to how make your food business rise like a good bread should  in the oven.

Make sure you tune-in next week to hear the first reactions from The FoodTalk Awards which are taking place on Monday 12^th June.

Working magic on alleviating allergies

Everybody struggles to get going after a long weekend, but there was no slacking in the FoodTalk studio for Sue Nelson and Guy Routledge – they had some fantastic advice to hoover-up too.

To kick us off, we noticed we were in a bit of a Wandsworth world. Sue was born there, Guy lives there and, most importantly, our first guest Helen Roberts is working Wandsworth magic for local companies in the food industry. Advice, workshops and events – they do it all to help.

For the rest of the show, we got to grips with a massive talking point in the Food Sector at the moment – food allergies and intolerances. With more and more people discovering health issues, it has coincided with many more businesses sensing the gap and popping up to help.

First of all, we heard back from Mannavida – they create some amazing kits designed to help people with a gluten intolerance to enjoy delicious breads in their home without having to scour the supermarket shelves for a bread that’s not only expensive but doesn’t taste as good as bread should.

Our final guest, Mittun Sharma, wishes that cost was the only issue in his weekly shop – he currently has the added drain of time, ever since his family discovered that his daughter is allergic to nearly all food types. The hours spent trying and failing to find suitable foods led him to creating his myAllergy app – a tool of good for people aghast at their allergies.

Going nuts about gin

Unprecedented for the UK, we’ve had virtually a whole week with warm weather. Not unprecedented in the FoodTalk studio, however, is a high calibre of foodie guests – Sue Nelson and Guy Routledge had some tasty treats for a summer’s day.

It all got a bit boozy in the beginning though. Despite connecting via a phoneline to Scotland, Martin Murray had managed to sort us out with some beautiful Rockrose Gin and Holy Grass Vodka. The guys at Dunnet Bay Distillery are certainly going places and we got a taste of exactly why.

After all that Gin and Vodka, we had a lethargic moment – we all know the feeling. You never want to cook when you’re in that state, so it was quite handy that we heard from Asa of iRaw. They have some cracking healthy snacks!

For most, our final guest needs no introduction. You’ll probably have seen the perfect Pip & Nut Peanut Butter in all of the big supermarkets – but did you know the fantastic story behind it too? Pippa Murray is a bit of a business superstar and has a fantastic story to tell. 

 

Grilling Puff Daddy

We had a wonderfully weird FoodTalk Show this week. There was a member of the Cadbury family and Puff Daddy, but we weren’t talking chocolate or rap music . What on earth would Sue Nelson and Guy Routledge be discussing then?

Well, first of all, let’s explain Puff Daddy. Craig Hughes isn’t the Puff Daddy, but he’s our Puff Daddy. I know you’re still confused though, why is he our Puff Daddy? Basically, he has it stitched into his suit jacket and is one of the driving forces behind Hippeas – the chickpea delights with a perfect puff. 

Moving from peas to beans (we were right on the pulse this week), we heard from the flavoured coffee company, Beanies. Mark explains all about their rise and how they have managed to make a perky cuppa that’s only two calories…

Now to explain the Cadbury bit. This story is much more simple, but the story is just as amazing. Justin Cadbury, great-grandson of the chocolate founder, is the Chairman of a revolutionary bit of kitchen technology called Synergy Grill. Words cannot do justice as to how amazing this is; no fat and halved gas bills anybody?

This little piggy is souperb

We breathed fire this week, in more ways than one. Sue Nelson struggled to tame some snacks with a kick and both of our guests have been in the belly of Dragons. 

We do of course mean the BBC show, Dragons Den. It was a bit of a shock before recording when it turned out that Andrew Watmuff and Nick Colman knew each other well as a result of winning investment from the same dragon.

We were ready to try some lovely food to kick-off the conversation but ready-made meals are, as we know, mostly terrible. The dark days of the manky microwave meal may be over though. Watmuff & Beckett have developed some superb soups and risottos that genuinely taste like the real deal.

Sticking with soup, we had a look at some of the options that are available to vegans and those with other certain dietary requirements. Soupologie are leading the way in that field, so we heard more on their story.

By this point we were ready to pig out with some porky snacks. Luckily we had The Snaffling Pig Co. on hand. They make some cracking crackling – these are nothing like scratchings and they even make a meaty advent calendar.

London calling to faraway towns

On a day where Social Media reached a frenzy over an ‘emergency announcement’ at Buckingham Palace, there were no unwelcome surprises in the FoodTalk studio as the trio of Sue Nelson, Guy Routledge and Ollie Lloyd returned to present another fantastic show.

While the crowds hit the Queen’s residence, the more chilled half of the city were still counting the days until Ben Leask reopens his popular shop, Ben’s House. A fantastic boutique of the capital’s finest and quirkiest food and drink will be hitting Kings Cross soon after the success meant that it had outgrown its Fitzrovia home. Make sure you find out about his story.

Earlier in the week, Sue visited a fudge factory too – blue hair cap and everything. This is not a variation on Willy Wonka though, we caught up with Sian Holt who is developing some amazing drinking fudge at Fudge Kitchen.

Now, you may have heard about our FoodTalk Awards already – but now it’s time to book some tickets here. Need some convincing? Just listen to the presenters run through some of the amazing finalists. This is not one to be missed.

 

 

Honey, I'm Beeing social

We don’t believe in the term ‘too many cooks spoil the broth.’ On this week’s FoodTalk Show we welcomed Ollie Lloyd from Great British Chefs to present alongside Sue Nelson and Guy Routledge.

 With so many people in the studio, it was lucky that we were talking about being social. Chris Nicholas is a bit of an expert when it comes to food marketing, his company Sumwot Social are all over the latest trends on Social Media and he gave some valuable advice and insight into the best platforms. 

We simply had to hear from FoodTalk’s Social Media man, Harry, too. He is nearing the end of his #HarryEatsHoppers insect diet. There’s been no wriggling out of this one.

From insects on the ground to insects in the sky, we had a chat about bees. Don’t worry, we weren’t being stung on the tongue, we were just looking at honey and how Hannah Rhodes has managed to turn the nectar into a beer. Hiver Beers is the name you need to look out for.

Sweet superfood surprise

We’ve just had Easter and eaten far too much chocolate over the long weekend, so of course we had yet more chocolate in the FoodTalk Studio for Steve Griffiths and Guy Routledge to enjoy. It’s not as unhealthy as it sounds though…

 

Why is chocolate and the phrase ‘not as unhealthy as it sounds’ in the same sentence I hear you ask? Well, we met Ed Smith and Rich Wilkinson from Doisy & Dam. They are making waves in the industry with their superfood chocolate, it’s so much better for you and it tastes great.

 

While Sue couldn’t join us in the studio this week, she did meet Clare & Sebastien Dont from Create a Cabin. They are a manufacturing company whipping up quick solutions for the food industry.

 

Our next guest was also helping us to keep nice and healthy too. If we’re talking superfoods, we must mention coconuts – luckily we had The Coconut Company to chat to. Vicky Henley introduces her products to us which have benefited massively from the surge in popularity.

The Pitta Patta of Ugly Drinks

Sue Nelson was MIA this week – we’re sure it was nothing to do with the wonderful weather that we’ve been enjoying this week. Thankfully we had Lucy Ellis to jump into the hotseat to join Guy Routledge.

With the nice weather in mind, you may well have been enjoying a few evenings having a couple of beers, but what’s your beer snack of choice? If it’s not Soffle’s Pitta Chips, then perhaps it should be. Sophie Harvey explained to us how the tasty snacks have taken off through visiting festivals and brewery tours – Lucy and Guy can testify to their great taste.

Lucy has been busy this week, not only has she been presenting the show, she also caught up with Simon Cannell from the Baker’s Bicycle. Together with Brady Last, they tasted some fantastic and fresh bread and puddings from a company cycling in the right direction.

Next up, we had an Ugly guy called Joe Benn. Don’t worry, we aren’t being mean to him and it’s no reflection on his appearance. Ugly Drinks are also hitting their busiest time of year with the mercury rising – they are developing completely unsweet flavoured water. Put that flavoured Volvic rubbish down.