News and Reviews - February 2010

As usual, the new year has brought a profusion of sales to the high street and restaurants have joined the shops and stores offering discounts. You can find deals such as two for one at Café Rouge; main courses for £7 and kids eat half price at Pizza Hut; half-price vouchers at PizzaExpress; and second main meal for just £1 at Zizzi.
These deals have become an accepted and reliable way for mid-spend restaurants to build consumer traffic in quiet times. But they have now been around for more than 12 months and their currency is in danger of becoming debased.
Restaurant chains have got themselves into a tight corner over discounting that is likely to be difficult and time-consuming to get out of. And with so much competition on the high street between broadly similar outlets, it would take a brave operator to put an end to price promoting when the competition continues to discount.

Opinion piece by Peter Backman, the Times, 22nd February 2010. Read more:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article7035574.ece

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Food Glorious Food: 20 March – 28 November 2010
From grow your own to celebrity chefs, school dinners to Sunday roasts – a new family-friendly exhibition at Weston Park will take a look at food’s place at the heart of British culture. Curated by Museums Sheffield, Food Glorious Food will explore our relationship with all things edible to tell the stories that lie behind what we choose to eat. 
Food – how we grow it, prepare it and eat it – is at the very heart of our society. What we eat, when, and who we share it with reflects who we are and forms a large part of our daily lives. Working in partnership with the University of Sheffield, Museums Sheffield has drawn on The British Library’s vast oral history archive and interviews with people from across the region to look at what’s gone from our farms, into our shopping trolleys and onto our plates over the last fifty years. From the influence of rationing, through the post-war expansion of world flavours, to our present crusade against fast food and focus on nutrition, this new interactive exhibition will show how the nation’s changing relationship with food has reflected the concerns of the age.
Exploring the journey from field to fork, Food Glorious Food will draw from Museums Sheffield’s collections of Social History, Visual Art and Decorative Art as well as loans from the V&A Museum of Childhood and The Museum of Brands. Budding cooks of all ages will enjoy our eclectic displays of labour saving gadgets, historic culinary devices and unusual recipes, before delving into our larder, stocked with interesting food stories and nostalgic packaging. Little green fingers will be kept busy in our vegetable patch play area, while the Food Forum will showcase archive footage from the British Pathe archive and allow visitors to share their own food likes, dislikes, recipes and memories.
Food Glorious Food is created in association with the University of Sheffield and will tour to the V&A Museum of Childhood, London, in 2011. The exhibition is supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Sheffield – Let’s Change4Life, a city wide programme focused on addressing overweight and obesity in children and families.
www.museums-sheffield.org.uk

Location: Weston Park Museum
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NATIONAL festivals supremo Phil Jones has been drafted in to run Sheffield's first food extravaganza, in a bid to put the city on the culinary map.

Jones, aged 53, is the man behind the UK's biggest annual celebration of food and drink, in Manchester. He has built it up over the last 12 years and also runs successful events in Greenwich, Richmond, Southport and Nottingham.

But Sheffield's scope eclipses all these, he says, adding: "This is our key event now.

"Rome wasn't built in a day and the truth is it's going to be hard work and a long-term project. But the potential to develop into something really big and on the national stage is superb."

as reported in the Sheffield Telegraph by Lesley Draper, 11 February 2010
http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/City-working-up-appetite-for.6061744.jp

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The Clearly Food Kitchen has opened its doors at 46 Howard Street (formerly Alfie & Bella’s). Under new ownership the CF Kitchen offers freshly made, home cooked seasonal food to eat in or takeaway. Owner Stuart Baker has a long established history in the food business; training originally at a number of Michelin starred establishments including the Dorchester in London and Clievden House. Followed by twelve years in food manufacturing, developing chilled ready meals for major retailers. Now, using his years of experience he is keen to provide freshly cooked, seasonal, real food, at affordable prices for all to enjoy. Stuart says “I have lived here for twelve years now; I love this city and want to feed it well with home made, freshly cooked food”. Feedback from CF Kitchen twitter followers has been great so far with comments including: ‘excellent food, just what Sheffield needs’ and ‘good, hearty, real food, long overdue in south Yorkshire’.
CF Kitchen is open daily from 8am, breakfast through to the commute home. Pop in early for the breakfast favourite ‘Pride of Britain’ (Cumberland sausage, smoked bacon, field mushroom, plum tomatoes and an egg served up in a bread cake), healthy porridge or a freshly baked muffin such as banana and blueberry, marmalade and apricot or chocolate and orange. Daily specials include a choice of two hot pots, one meat, one vegetarian, flavours include chicken casserole, chilli beef with cornbread or Moroccan vegetable tagine, daily soups include  celeriac and butterbean or butternut squash and chilli as well as freshly made pizzas, tempting tarts, hot pork rolls and fresh salads. Not too mention an array of home baked treats such as oatmeal and raisin cookies, rocky road and plum crumble tray bake. Freshly made ready meals to pick up and take home for tea will shortly be available.
 

Location: Clearly Food Kitchen
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More than 30 catering establishments came together last week to celebrate healthy eating at the first annual Healthy Choices Award Ceremony. The Healthy Choices award ceremony, funded by the Sheffield Let’s Change4Life Programme, saw winners from across the city including:
● ‘Best Healthy Food establishment’ went to Homemade, who not
only offer healthier menu items but also healthier cooking methods used during preparation
● ‘Most breastfeeding friendly establishment’ was awarded to
Nonnas for their pro-active promotion of a breastfeeding policy and welcoming environment
● The award for ‘Sourcing food locally’ was presented to
Silversmiths, who actively support the local economy by sourcing 70% of ingredients from Sheffield
● ‘Fairtrade’ award went to Sharrow’s new Fair-trade coffee
shop SMaRT Venue
● The ‘Community Champion Award’ was awarded to the Burton
Street project, who are visited by 1500 people each week, are involved in local food initiatives, and provide work experience for people with learning difficulties
● And finally the ‘Most Inspiring Award’ was presented to
Nonnas, who showed high achievement in all of the award categories
Carol Weir, NHS Sheffield’s Programme Director for the Sheffield-Let’s Change4Life Programme said: “The ceremony was a phenomenal success and demonstrates how important the healthy eating agenda is to local businesses. All the winners and shortlisted entries are already achieving so much by contributing towards offering healthier alternatives to the people of Sheffield.”
Siobhan Horsley, Food Programme Manager at Sheffield Wildlife Trust who runs the Healthy Choices programme said: “We’ve had nothing but positive feedback from all the participating establishments and I’m sure that the award ceremony will grow from strength to strength as more caterers become Healthy Choice Award accredited”
Trudi Coleman from award winning Nether Edge café Homemade said: “We were delighted to win the award for Best Healthy food establishment in Sheffield and to be a part of an exciting new initiative that can only benefit the people of the city.
“We have always endeavoured to source and use local produce and offer unusual fresh salads, homemade soups and warm dishes of the day that challenge conventional ideas about vegetarian cuisine. We as owners, prepare, cook and serve all our own food, and therefore know exactly what each dish contains. This is an important aspect of offering people healthy food choices.”

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