Speciality Food Magazine JulyAugust 2024

You can have really banging dishes, but a bit of beetroot ketchup with your chips, or elderflower barbecue sauce going into a burger, or coffee barbecue sauce in a bacon sandwich in the morning when you’ve got a bit of a hangover, makes life worth living. Food is great, but sometimes it needs a bit of love to get it over the line.” Kier also seeds barbecue sauce as a key line for speciality retailers going forward – if they select varieties that push the boundary flavourwise. “People have always loved it. You can very easily get a normal barbecue sauce, but people are after a twist of stuff they already know,” he says. “So we do a maple jalapeno barbecue sauce. When we make candied jalepenos we have the syrup leftover, and we use that as a base. It’s delicious. Anyone can go to a supermarket to get any type of brand, but really, people want to try something different.” 33 TRACKLEMENTS RICH & CREAMY MAYONNAISE This is the mayonnaise for mayonnaise lovers; authentic, rich, creamy and as good as the best homemade. tracklements.co.uk THE GARLIC FARM BLACK GARLIC KETCHUP A vegan, gluten-free sauce, balancing sweet undertones with a distinctive black garlic edge. thegarlicfarm.co.uk STOKES SAUCES HABANERO CHILLI MAYONNAISE The smooth, creamy free-range egg mayonnaise Stokes is known for, infused with fermented red habanero and coriander. stokessauces.co.uk SOUTH DEVON CHILLI FARM HOT HABENERO CHILLI KETCHUP The farm’s hottest ketchup with a smooth, fruity flavour. Goes with everything from chips to barbecue food. southdevonchillifarm.co.uk WILDERBEE SRIRACHA HOT HONEY A sweet and spicy honey that gives a Thai kick to everything from pancakes with bacon to pizza and noodles. Infuses organic honey with scotch bonnet chillies and fermented sriracha. wilderkitchenfood.com CONDIMANIAC KYUBI HOT SAUCE A medium hot sauce, inspired by the flavours of East Asia. Infuses fresh habanero chillies into a base of pineapple, carrot and five spice. condimaniac.com specialityfoodmagazine.com hot Bird’s Eye chillies to keep it lively.” While Amrit says he’s working on a range of Caribbean products to tap into the global condiments trend, delving into the flavours of his heritage, he believes products containing Mexican chillies, or an authentic taste of Mexico should be on retailers’ radars. In fact, he adds, the farm is only just keeping up with demand for its homegrownMexican chilli varieties. “We can’t grow enough poblano,” he says, explaining that there are huge opportunities in the UK for brands to explore and deliver Mexican sauces and relishes, made on home turf... perhaps even using chillies (like his), grown in the UK. “People want to make authentic Mexican food. Moles, and they need the chillies their recipe calls for.” ‘NewMex’ is the trend to watch from across the pond, Amrit continues, saying it’s leading the way with new varieties and breeds that are causing genuine excitement in America particularly, which should filter into the UKmarket. A twist on BBQ A number of chefs pivoted during Covid times to create their own food brands as a way of keeping their businesses alive. Inmany cases, these products have remained, becoming a further, lucrative revenue stream. Amongst them is Richard Bainbridge, chef patron of Norwich restaurant Benedicts, and a regular on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen . Richard adores condiments, and when he found himself cooking at home more with his family in lockdown, says he wasn’t too impressed with the sauces and accompaniments he could get ‘off the shelf’ locally. “So we decided to come up with our own”. Under the RB Provisions banner, Richard developed chutneys, jams, barbecue salts, and a granola based on his wife Katja’s own recipe. “We created products we wished existed on shelves. It’s one of the most selfish things we’ve done,” Richard says. “We loved them ourselves and we weren’t thinking about customers!” Today the products can be found in premium retailers, and it’s barbecue sauces that Richard says consumers are gettingmost excited about. He sees this as a real area of growth for himself, and other condiment producers in the UK. “People are cooking at home a lot more, and they’ve got the confidence, after lockdown, with barbecuing. If we’re blessed with a great summer, barbecuing is going to be bigger than ever this year, and having the right barbecue sauce can really take their food to the next level.” Richard says a good condiment should “make a dish come to life. SPOTLIGHT ON: OXFORD SAUCE While it may not have hundreds of years of history behind it, relative newcomer Oxford Sauce is a spicy table sauce that’s now being used as a staple bymany top chefs in England. Oxford Sauce was created by Baron Robert Pouget, also known for founding the Oxford Cheese Company in 1986, to mark the millennium. Not to be confused with the 18th century Cumberland Sauce derivative that’s also referred to as ‘Oxford Sauce’, which the Baron believed to be “too sweet and insipid” for his tastes, this version used a more “exciting” blend of ingredients. A spicy brown sauce with a complex flavour, it is described as “deceptively sweet” followed by a “surprising afterthought” of chilli heat, and it is made with ingredients like tamarind, anchovies, garlic and real Birds Eye chilli (not chilli powder). It can be used in numerous ways, on meat and seafood, in Mexican-inspired dishes or even in the Baron’s version of a Bloody Mary, in addition to Worcestershire Sauce. making its mark in retail right now. “For example, WilderBee Gochujang Hot Honeymade it into Harrods the summer of last year, and into the Co-op last October.” Consumers, he believes, are seeking out products with an Asian vibe in this growing category – particularly gochujang. “The sweet/spicy Korean condiment staple is now turning up in all manner of dish types and product settings, be it as a crisp seasoning, creamy pasta sauce addition, fried chicken glaze, ice cream enhancer or Korean BBQ seasoning.” World flavours As Mintel reports, consumers are becomingmuchmore adventurous and globally astute. Becky thinks this is “possibly a hangover fromCovid restrictions, or maybe just continuing the British love of exploration. Flavours from around the world are experiencing a boom in popularity”. Becky cites Mintel’s UKWorld Cuisines report from 2023, which found 50% of Brits enjoy at least five different world cuisines at home. “This is just one of the reasons why Tracklements launched Chimichurri Chilli Relish as its latest special edition. It’s a popular South American sauce. A veritable fiesta in a jar, with coriander, oregano, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, and a cheeky helping of STOCK CHECK S P E C I A L I T Y F O O D M A G A Z I N E * 2 0 2 4 *