00:00 There is definitely a food revolution in Lancashire, there's so many good restaurants.
00:07 As a county I think the food scene here is unbelievable.
00:10 It's just amazing, it's so exciting as a chef that there's all these places opening up and
00:16 everyone's inspiring each other with ideas, with technique, products, everyone's promoting
00:22 what product they're using.
00:23 How important is Lancashire sourced ingredients to the menu you guys have here at the Fell?
00:28 I think it's massively important, as long as we keep it local and it keeps everyone
00:32 happy, keeps people in jobs.
00:34 We've got all the good stuff for chickens, we use Crafty, we've got Oltham's in Morecambe,
00:41 there's Katerite up in Lakes, so we just try and keep everything pretty much in North West.
00:46 And what's the difference between locally sourced ingredients to if you were going to
00:51 buy it from the bigger chains?
00:52 I think the biggest thing obviously with buying local is you're obviously supporting local
00:57 businesses and we're a local business ourselves so we need that support back.
01:02 I think using small scale suppliers like Wireside Mushrooms, obviously Paul over there, he's
01:09 just kind of started over the last few years so we're trying to support him with his Lion's
01:13 Mane that we're buying, we've used it on the menu here, we want to look at a dish to use
01:17 it at 263.
01:19 I think what you do is you build up that relationship with people, so he comes in with really passionate
01:25 and you can see the passion in the product as well and then if we can use our passion
01:30 to create a dish out of that, it works both ways.
01:33 And you're also supporting each other because he'll come here and sell us his mushrooms
01:37 and then hopefully come and eat.
01:39 The more we support each other then hopefully as a business we can be more successful, they're
01:43 more successful and they'll expand and then with expansion you need more staff so then
01:49 in turn we're supporting people because you need local people to go work there.
01:54 And it's just having that relationship, if we get a potato from a farm just down the
01:58 road, we're getting the best off them because we're creating that relationship.
02:04 If we get a potato from somewhere in Japan or Spain or something like that, there is
02:09 no common ground if there's a problem, we're just another cog in the wheel, they're not
02:14 going to directly deal with us and I think that's the biggest thing, it's directly dealing
02:18 with those people on a one to one level.
02:20 And do you think people who come into the restaurants, obviously a lot of them are local
02:24 people, see the brands that they recognise and that encourages them to come?
02:29 Massively I think, I've seen here from Fel as well, the amount of people that come to
02:33 Passing on, "Oh do you use Gooseneck Chicken?" or "Do you get gin from there?"
02:36 "Oh my cousin works for that company."
02:39 And I think it's that local sort of spirit isn't it, somebody knows somebody that works
02:43 for one of the companies that we're promoting.
02:45 If we were using a company that was down in London for some apples or something like that,
02:49 there wouldn't be that sort of conversation and I think it kind of excites people now,
02:55 I think there's been a massive change in the last five years, people want restaurants to
03:00 be using local produce and they want the communities to be supported, people now want to see businesses
03:05 being successful because there's so many businesses that are going under.
03:09 What we've realised is that basically people don't want mediocre things, we know everything's
03:14 going up in price, there's no way around it, there's no such thing as a cheap meal anymore,
03:18 so what people want now is quality.
03:20 If you keep it local, I find that the stuff's better, because obviously not travelling as
03:27 far and then obviously with carbon footprint and stuff, I just think it's so much better
03:31 when you know it's just around the corner and it's not perishing or anything, it's just
03:35 the freshest it can be.
03:37 It's just so inspiring isn't it, when you see how much passion and hard work goes into
03:41 everything that they do, it resonates with us because that's what we do as chefs, we
03:46 want to produce the best dish that we can produce and we can only do that with our suppliers,
03:51 so it's really inspiring I think.
03:59 So another dish that we're going to put on the menu when we come back is using Tarleton
04:02 tomatoes which are super local.
04:05 Normally when people are putting tomato dishes on at this time of year it's all Islay white
04:09 tomatoes, our veg supplier literally just brought these in and was like "try these" and
04:12 I was like "oh my god they're amazing" and obviously Islay white tomatoes, and he was
04:15 like "no they're literally from a farm just around the corner" and literally they're so
04:20 good that we don't really need to do anything with them, so it makes our lives easier because
04:25 it's just a case of the tomatoes are so good, here you go, try them.
04:28 If a tomato comes in and it's the best tomato you can buy, which to be honest with you these
04:32 Tarleton ones are, then it's just about simplicity and I think people are becoming more aware
04:39 now that there's actually really really good tomatoes that we can get from this country,
04:45 or whatever it is, whether it's the perfect potato from a farm, I think people are becoming
04:50 more aware and they're interested in it, which is why it's causing us a little bit of a shift
04:54 now where people are like "I don't want to just go into a supermarket and buy a load
04:59 of old tomatoes that are sat in packaging with a date label on it, let's go local" they've
05:05 probably just picked it an hour before you've arrived and it's in the best condition it
05:09 can be in, it's not been sat in a fridge for three weeks with people squeezing it to see
05:13 how ripe it is, so I think that's why people are becoming more aware and I think it's just
05:19 like an education, almost through food, the more we can promote what people are doing
05:25 and them taste that, then the understanding is there and then people go "actually yeah
05:30 that's how I want to eat at home" because it's so much better for them as well.
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