Fell Bistro's executive chef Sean Wrest and head chef Brett Thornton discuss the explosion of smaller artisan food producers in Lancashire, and why it's so important for restaurants and their customers to have high-quality local produce on their menus.
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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.