The FoodTalk Show

How to make Farmers Markets Totally Sweet

Sue Nelson and Paul Andrews are plunged into the varying worlds of Farmers Markets, Fortnum & Mason and a healthy alternative to the traditional baddies that goes by the name of sugar in this week’s Food Talk. 

We start with a chat with Daniel Reeds from Total Sweet. Trying to cut sugar out of your diet isn’t easy but Daniel believes he has found the answer with the ingredient Xylitol. It looks, tastes and feels like sugar – but it’s better for you. We needn’t say anymore – take a listen for further information. 

Steve Woods was then able to tell us all about Farmers Markets work in Kent. His experience managing Tonbridge Farmers Markets and being on the board at Kent Farmers Market gives us a great insight into something we all ought to support.

Surely one of the goals for the stallholders at Steve’s market is to get their produce sold in one of the big department stores in this country – therefore it was apt that we heard from Andrew Cavanna, a buyer from Fortnum & Mason, arguably one of the best-known stores in London.  He explains exactly what you need to make the cut.

Food Matters Live 2016 Special (finale)

Sue Nelson and Paul Andrews present the final special show from Food Matters Live 2016 that took place at London's Excel Arena a few weeks ago.

We hear from some fantastic companies who were exhibiting at the event...Everything from a company growing greens underground in an abandoned WW2 bunker to a company creating easily chewable foods for Hospitals and Care Homes.

Join us again next week for some more FoodTalk.

Moven

Sue was busy looking for interesting companies at the Takeaway Innovations show, and she came across Graham Cowe and his company ‘Moven’ and their new cooking system.

The concept sounds simple enough – it’s water immersion – however, Graham’s company, fascinatingly, have made it possible to cook food in bags without gas or power and instead use things like engine coolant…ideal for people at sea and others on the move.

Find out how it all works by visiting their website

Hey Menu

While on a hunt for new and innovative companies at the Takeaway Innovations show, Christie and Brady bumped into Chris Howard from Hey Menu who are shaking up the online takeaway industry. 

You’ve heard of companies like Just Eat, but Hey Menu are keen to distance themselves from their commission model which Chris says is negatively affecting the hard-working takeaway companies.

They want to be fair and their subscription-based service is better for customers and companies alike.

Find more information here.

Green Man Packaging

Christie and Brady are on a recycling hype at the Takeaway Innovations show, and therefore it’s fitting that they run into Adam James from Green Man Packaging.

They are packaging experts and, as the name suggests, they are making sure that they are eco-friendly. Adam notes how the industry has become a lot better at recycling in the last couple of years too, and why it was one of the reasons behind him setting out a business that he wanted to be future proof.

Find out more about Green Man Packaging here

Dempson

Our presenters Christie and Brady took the time at a busy Takeaway Innovations show to go and visit Peter Ellis from Dempson.

Dempson is a UK paper products manufacturer – basically, they are the kings of papers bags, they make everything you could possibly think of related to a paper bag. Graham explains you how you can put any branding over their bags and they are keen to be eco-friendly.

Find out more about Dempson here

The Artisan Food Trail

Sue caught up with Graham Childs from The Artisan Trail at the Takeaway Innovations Show.

The experts on packaging and branding explained how they started-up to help out new food producers through marketing and advice. Graham stresses the need to stand out and make sure you know who you are selling to.

It was a real treat to hear from The Artisan Trail and it gave a fascinating insight into getting started and how to progress in such a tough market.

Find their website here, and listen to the podcast here.

Nutcessity

Mike joined FoodTalk presenter Christie to discuss his sensational nut butter brand; Nutcessity.

After venturing around Australia a few years ago he discovered Almond butter and loved it! After returning home he created a selection of organic Peanut free nut butters (full of nutrients and minerals!) that are made from Brazil & Cashew nuts AND coconut. Yum.

Want to find out more about Mike’s fantastic bew product? Find them here.

Green & Black's natter while food shows matter

Sue Nelson and Paul Andrews present a special pre-record show after a week where the team have been busy at London’s Excel Centre for Food Matters Live 2016.

We spoke to some fascinating companies and people at Food Matters. In the first part of the show you’ll hear from ‘The Superfoodist’ Rick Hay, and Go Faster Foods. Following that, we get a real treat from The Truffles Co and take a look at some Vanilla extract from Little Pod.

Before we end this week’s special, Sue excitedly introduces one of the interviews we had at Bread and Butter Festival a few weeks ago. We’ve hit the jackpot by speaking to Craig Sams from the world-renowned chocolate company, Green & Blacks.

Bread, Butter and brilliant Baklava

Sue and Paul present the latest edition of FoodTalk, and it’s been a busy week for us catching up from the Bread & Butter Festival.

Bread & Butter took place at the IOD in London, and we caught up with some fantastic food producers; including Nom Foods, Sparefruit, Kinomi Nuts, Mindful Bites and Borough Broth. Sue also had a great chat with Ben and Michael who are both buyers for Whole Foods Market.

We love interesting food stories, and thankfully the day of the show also happened to coincide with National Baklava Day, so obviously Sue and Paul had a good reason to give it a try, if ever they needed one.

The Food Rush whizzes into the studio and it's Simply Good

Paul Andrews and Sue Nelson are back in the FoodTalk studio after a week of Donald Trump and Toblerone madness, so what's better than a busy show to calm the world's worries. 

After kicking off the show with a Paul-inspired cheesy tune, we are joined in a phone interview with Peter Sidwell from Simply Good Food Tv. He talks us through his career and how his app can help turn you into a proper chef.

We had to revisit the great tastes of the Speciality and Fine Food Fair earlier this year, and with that in mind we had a pre-record with Colin Jeken of African Sky Foods. Paul and Sue are very impressed with the chocolate-coated Macadamia Nuts...

For the rest of the show, we chat with Guy Routledge from The Food Rush. This is an online magazine producing content all around topics like food sustaininability, the future of food production and new technologies in place. George Clooney's Nespresso advert even gets a mention for you Clooney fans. 

GB Chew

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Sue Nelson and Paul Andrews caught up with Lucy Ponsonby at GB Chew at the Speciality and Fine Foods Fair at Olympia.

 

Going under the catch-line ‘Stealthily Healthily’, GB Chew have created a range of Vegan-friendly, Gluten-free and GMO-free slices which are perfect for curing hunger without the guilt of eating junk food.

 

Paul is clearly impressed as he takes the opportunity to try as many samples as possible, while Sue champions the health benefits of the slices.

Sustainable farmers with a spicy kick

Sue Nelson and Christie Ellis are immersed in sustainable farming with an urban and a rural farmer in the studio to state their cases for efficient food production methods.

Tom Webster from GrowUp Urban Farms discusses their city-based farms where they produce tasty greens and fresh fish, utilising aquaponic and vertical growing technologies.

He's followed by Matt Havers from Peck Drinks. They've created a variety of free-range egg protein drink products that will be officially launched at Food Matters Live later this month - we'll be there too!

And our We Hate Heston comes courtesy of Bit Spicy's Andrew Anderson who provides us with some curry ideas with a kick.

Healthy Noodles with a side of Fruit Jerky

Paul Andrews and Sue Nelson are introduced to the world of healthy fish-inspired noodles and fruit jerky in a busy FoodTalk show.

First of all, we hear from Sue's trip to Inn Doors, a micro-brewery based in Sandgate, where she bought along producers Christie and Lucy. The team sample some all-British Gins and were impressed with what they tried. 

Next up we are introduced to Michael Minch-Dixon and his company, Snact. They are all about sustainability, and that's why they are making their Fruit Jerky products out of surplus supplies and so-called 'wonky fruit'. Their eco-friendly packaging has also been in the news recently...

Keeping with the sustainability trail, Emily Herrero from Oomi Noodles is next in the studio and she is also championing the friendly packaging. However, the real story here is with the healthy noodles that she is creating. They are based on sustainable whitefish and are a million times better than Pot Noodles! 

A lovely Homemade Curry and a Whitstable Beer...Insects too

As The FoodTalk Show hit the road with a fantastic Unboxing event at London Food Tech Week, Paul Andrews held the fort with Brady Last at FoodTalk HQ.

With London Food Tech Week in full swing already, Lucy and Harry have been busy giving Insects a try at one of the events; apparently the future of our food consumption - we'll let you make your own minds up on that one. 

Natalia and Jonathan Conroy, the husband and wife team, join us on the phone to talk about their new venture Kitchen Orchard. They call themselves wholesalers of exceptional evening meals. We then chat to our studio guest, Whitstable Brewery's Tim Abbott, who gives us the lowdown on their Kentish beer. 

Fishy puns, one brilliant app and a breakfast on a mission

With Sue Nelson busy speaking at an event, Paul Andrews is joined in the studio by Christie Ellis this week for a packed FoodTalk Show. 

In one hour, the topics ranged from Seafood to Apps and finally to Granola. There was even time for a few fish puns – no squidding. 

First of all, we welcomed Juliette from Seafish UK on the phone; very apt considering its National Seafood Week. She tells all about the how much fish you should be having and which time of year to have them. Paul had some interesting calorific content of crab input and we heard all about the top ten super food fishes.

Next up we had Nathalie from the Treat Out App, a very interesting tool to help people with food allergies and intolerances determine which restaurant is best for them bearing in mind these difficulties. Nathalie explains her story and how the idea came about.

Before the show came to an end, attention switched to Helenor from Troo Granola. She has experienced success on Channel 4 cookery show ‘Come Dine With Me’ in the past, but now she is conquering the world of missed breakfasts with her easy-to-use Granola Toasting kits.  Of course Christie and Paul had to sample a bowl-and in Pauls case two!

Next week it will be Brady joining Paul in the studio while Sue and Christie hit the road with a fantastic Unboxing event as part of London Food Tech week, be sure to listen-in for further details.

Takeaway Innovations Expo special (part 2)

Our Final instalment of takeaway expo special 

We get a taste of a new dinner party dipping winner, a brand that's taking on THE leading brand with pure passion and fresh thinking plus the cheeky champion of authentic outdoor cooking..

We visit Takeaway Innovations Expo and discover everyone's favourite Bread & Butter

Sue Nelson and Paul Andrews are back in the studio and catch up over the Takeaway Innovations Expo and their joy over being best placed for spotting trends and new foodie noms.

First we get to hear from Ben Carter of Just Eat who met Sue Nelson at the Takeaway and Innovations Expo. This foodie giant is known for helping restaurant partners grow and Sue tries to get her head around how Just Eat disrupted buying a takeaway and the amount the industry has changed in the past decade - no more arguing about what to order over paper menus dug out of an overstuffed kitchen drawer! Finding your local food hero - wherever you are - has never been easier, let Just Eat handle it. Sue is hoping that a robot dog will be knocking on her door with a curry one day soon.

Next up we have Jeremy Eames joining Sue and meeting Hannah McCollum, founder of ChicP, a rare healthy option amongst all of the greasy, fried offerings that seem to be dominating the Takeaway Innovation Expo - who'd have thought it?! ChicP was born out of a love for houmous and a hate for food waste and Jeremy is fully on board believing that food retailers should be responsible for reducing the amount of food they end up throwing away. Digging into a golden turmeric and ginger based houmous, new to FoodTalk tasting, Jeremy thinks it's perfect, but may have a slightly confused palate as he thinks the next one tastes a bit like cheese! Sue is quick to counter that it doesn't, and gets more of a herby flavour. To be fair, Jeremy is allergic to dairy and hasn't eaten any cheese for many years!

Jeremy and Sue meet Ashmail Mushtaq of Mushtaq's - the largest kitchen in the UK, with 55 chefs cooking fresh Indian food. Sue loves Indian cuisine, so she's rather excited at the prospect of having this food done properly but on a huge scale and is planning her Friday night takeaway - perhaps she could be one of Mushtaq's 1000 weekend night deliveries? Sue marvels at Ashmail's slim figure which he puts down to Mushtaq's Indian food not having any of the westernised fattening additives like cream that you tend to get in UK curries.

Next Sue gets to meet Gary Evans whose Synergy Grill has just won an award at the Takeaway Innovations Expo. Sue is amazed at this greaseless grill, where the fat can just be hoovered away! A rather excited Sue got to witness the dust vacuumed away, but wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. Sue's also rather pleased to learn that there's lots of energy being saved by using one of Gary's grills. He's surprised no one else had thought of it yet, as he puts his creation down to knowledge gained during secondary school science - a bit above Sue's head, she failed her Chemistry O Level.

Back in the studio and Paul and Sue are joined by Tara Mei of Bread and Butter Festival; a food entrepreneur gathering born out of Tara's own personal experiences of starting a food business and finding it a bit of a lonely road. Paul recognises that people starting a food venture often do it from a place of passion, but can struggle with the business side of things. Sue is keen to hear who will be featured at the festival and the themes they'll be tackling, also keenly noting that some of the guest speakers have been here on the FoodTalk show!

The final Speciality and Fine Food Fair episode

The third and final part of our Speciality and Fine Food Fair FoodTalk special.

Sue Nelson and Paul Andrews discuss theweek’s food news and the shock and controversy around the Great British Bake Off channel 4 buyout and Mary’s decision to stay with Mel, Sue and the BBC. Paulmakes the shock revelation that he’s never watched a single episode of GBBO! I think we’ll be reviewing someone’s contract…

Sue talks about her shock recent discovery lots of beers containing fish bladders – not great news for vegetarians!

Moving on to our first part of the SFFF16grand finale, and Christie Ellis and Brady Last are sampling Sweet Potato booze with, well, less so Brady as the poor lamb has to drive later. Christie, says ner ner na ner ner, or something to that effect and is please to be promised a bottle of delicious, beautifully packaged nectar.

Next up are 10 Acre crisps and their extremely flavoursome, yet free from pretty much everything, which means they’resuitable for all diets. Brady can barely believe how tasty they are, and bothhosts love the story behind them. Tony believes that snacks are for fun andtheir fun is fully inclusive. 

We’re trying something a bit unusual now with Harry Harrison and his tasty insect snacks. Yup, Christie and Brady are eating crickets! We find out about the eco arguments for eating creepy crawlies, and Christie is dying to dive in to these healthy, world friendly insect snacks. Brady is carefully selecting the bugs which make her least squeamish, whilst Christie is ready to scoff a bagful.

Christie and Brady meet The London Jam Man and his tasty preserves which have half the sugar of regular jam. Self-confessed food addict Pierre-Louis Phelipot uses under ripe fruit to give a less sugar laden, but still flavoursome jam. Brady commends this preserve purveyor on his ability to retain the texture of the fruit in his products.

The FoodTalk team get to try vodka made from milk, with Harry Roper from Black Cow. Yup, milk vodka. You’d think it would be cloudy wouldn’t you? Well, it isn't! Pleased that the Black Cow boys have turned up with both cheese and booze, Christie is keen to get going by downing a shot straight away, but is told to sip and the team are impressed with the smooth texture. Brady, not being a vodka drinker finds this is going down rather well, especially considering it's neat.

Our final guest has impressed both Brady and Christie with some awe-inspiring meringues! Having clearly had an eventful show, meringue maker extraordinaire Lianne of Flower and White is quite husky voiced by this point and has managed to nurture her passion for massive sweet treats into it's own living entity! The girl with the giant meringues has certainly captured the attention of our hosts, who can't keep making cooing noises and are just dying to dive in and try them.

Champion and Reeves

I hope you've got your good teeth in, as the FoodTalk team meet Jacqueline Champion of Champion and Reeves with their old fashioned confectionery at Speciality and Fine Food Fair, London Olympia. Noticing a decline in availability of sweets from her childhood, Jacqueline is bringing back "proper sweets", Sue hopefully reasons that they might even be for grown ups. Paul is uncharacteristically quiet for the beginning of the interview, choosing nommy noises over words. We're all pleased that this is radio, when we hear that Sue has managed to get toffee all over her teeth. Sue is surprised that she had forgotten what butterscotch tasted like and is happy to be reminded.