the chipbox - Fish Chips & Fast Food Magazine

Volume 20 No 4
MAY/JUNE 2012 FISH
In this issue:
& CHIPS
fast food
The magazine for all of Britain’s favourite take-aways
Read it on-line at www.fcffmag.co.uk

Pukka Pies Limited • The Halfcroft • Syston • Leicester • LE7 1LD
Tel: 0116 264 4004 • www.pukkapies.co.uk

Publisher
ANNA McNAMARA
Newco Media Ltd
Unit 30 Aston Business Park
Shrewsbury Avenue
Peterborough
PE2 7BX
Tel: 0845 878 7030
Mobile: 07876562856
email - anna@fcff.uk.com
Advertising Sales Manager
REBECCA SAYERS
Tel: 07507 404889
email - rebecca@fcff.uk.com
Editorial, Production & Circulation
WENDY DURHAM
30 John Morgan Close
Hook, Hants, RG27 9RP
Tel: 01256 764270
email – wendy@fcff.uk.com
You can request your own regular free copy
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Fish & Chips and Fast Food is
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the month, by
Newco Media Ltd
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PE2 7BX
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www.fcff mag.co.uk
Many of the views expressed in this magazine
are those of individual contributors and do
not necessarily represent the views of the
publisher.
Welcome
May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
comment
It’s not often that a trade magazine editor gets the chance to shout “Hold the front
page!” - but that’s exactly what happened when I turned on the TV to watch the
BBC news irst thing this morning - press day for the issue you are now reading...
Reporters were agog with the fact that the much hated “pasty tax” had been
subjected to some smart back-pedalling by the Chancellor, and that bakery and
other takeaway products that “just happened to be hot” because they were freshly
cooked would not now be subject to 20% VAT.
That’s great for Greggs. All they need do is reschedule their cooking times so
that their pasties and pies “just happen to be hot” at elevenses or lunchtime -
allowing them to continue to sell hot takeaway food intentionally, without having to
collect tax and hand it over to the government.
Not so great for the real providers of hot takeaway food. Fish and chip shops,
for example, will still be obliged to charge 20% more for a hot pie or pasty than the
local baker’s shop, and hand that tax over to the revenue. So the level playing ield
that the NFFF have fought so hard for has been promptly tilted sharply again leaving
the fast food sector right back where it started - losing out by 20% on price to unfair
competition from the high street retailing chains who again can exploit the VAT
rules with impunity.
We don’t think that’s fair -
whats your view? Let us know!
By the time you read this
issue, the new FCFF website
will be up and running, with all
its bells and whistles and some
brand new features - don’t miss
it!
Visit us today at
www.fcff mag.co.uk
Contents
News from around the industry 2
The chipbox - by friers, for friers, about friers 14
Ices, icecreams & desserts 24
Potatoes & potato products 28
COVER FOCUS
Rebecca Sayers
Advertising
At Kerry Foodservice, our watchwords are
“quality”, “customer service” and “innovation.”
We adhere to the strictest quality control
procedures at every stage of manufacturing and
hold a number of recognised accreditations.
Our products include batter mixtures, sauce
mixes, lours, breadcrumbs, coaters and other
mixes, speciically created for use in fast food
outlets.
We have market-leading brands including
Goldensheaf batter mix, Henry Jones batter mix
and Dinaclass curry and gravy sauces. Each range
includes a variety of taste and texture options to
suit differing regional trends.
Wendy Durham
Editor
Poultry & poultry products 34
Food to go! 40
New products and ideas 44
Chip on his shoulder 48
Kerry_KeytoSuccessAd_2012_FC_6D.indd 1 23/05/2012 12:49
1

2
news
Chip Week 2012 hit the spot
review of the 2012 campaign, run by Potato Council, reveals
A the Week encouraged enough media interest to reach every
adult in Great Britain more than 2.5 times, providing opportunities
for increased sales and driving up awareness that chips can be
eaten as part of a balanced diet.
The media evaluation reported that Chip Week generated almost 600 news or feature
items across the mix of channels – national and regional press, consumer magazines, TV
and radio and online. The value of coverage reached in excess of £3.4million, which in real
terms is a return of £23 for each £1 invested.
Chip Week campaign manager, Kate Cox, said: “This is fantastic news and shows that
Chip Week is a hard-working campaign that delivers a really positive impact. There were
over 169 million opportunities to see our messages, which encouraged consumers to
celebrate Chip Week and the nation’s love for a traditional and favourite food.”
“Of course, we’re always interested in feedback on our campaigns to ensure they
continue to perform each year. Post-Week questionnaires were issued to chip shops and
are being analysed so we can start preparations for Chip Week 2013.”
To discuss opportunities for next year’s Chip Week please contact Kate Cox on 024 7647
8776 or email kate.cox@potato.ahdb.org.uk.
Diamond surprise for local chip lover
Gateshead resident Michelle Foody
proved that diamonds are indeed
a girl’s best friend after winning a
spectacular diamond encrusted chip fork
worth £2,000!
Michelle will be eating her chips in
true Hollywood style after winning the
star prize in a competition held by Potato
Council, as part of Chip Week 2012. The
Week asked chip lovers to share their
enjoyment of chips which resulted in
Michelle penning a winning entry of “I
enjoy my chips...any time, any plaice. They
give me a happy, smiley face.”
Michelle was presented with the silver
plated chip fork – which bears a heart
shaped emblem made up of 16 individual
diamonds – by William Smith, owner
of Smiths Chippy in South Shields (and
winner of the North East ‘Best Chippy
Chips’ award) and Kate Cox from Potato
Council.
Michelle said of her win: “I didn’t
believe it at irst and thought it was a wind
up! Once it sunk in that I really had won
the diamond encrusted fork I was over
the moon. It’s a fantastic prize that I will
cherish – although I’m a bit scared to use it
in case I ruin it!
“I love a chippy tea and ish and chips
are deinitely my favourite takeaway. You
can’t beat it. I heard about Chip Week on
the radio and we were discussing it at work
too. We found the website and decided
to enter for a laugh, my entry was really
very spur of the moment. That said, it has
inspired me to try my luck on other competitions
now.”
Chip Week campaign manager for
Potato Council, Kate Cox, said: “We’re
absolutely delighted for Michelle and hope
she gets great use out of her very special
diamond encrusted chip fork – particularly
throughout this Diamond Jubilee year.
www.chips.lovepotatoes.co.uk
Mr Chips wins a
tonne of sustainable
Norwegian cod!
M r Chips, a Horsham based fish & chip shop, has
won a tonne of cod thanks to the Norwegian
Seafood Council (NSC).
The cod, worth some £4,500 in value and
supplied by Unique Seafood, was caught in the
Barents Sea by Norwegian factory trawler Granit1V
which delivered the fish to a processing unit in
Norway. The FAS cod fillets were then shipped
directly to the supplier in Thamesmead, London
and were delivered to the shop in Horsham.
To win the Norwegian Seafood competition
the team at Mr Chips simply had to request and
display a free Point of Sale (POS) kit that the NSC
were distributing to promote their Fisk Forever
campaign. The POS kit is designed to communicate
Norway’s sustainable seafood message to
customers: Enjoy your fish and chips with a clear
conscience by asking for cod and haddock from
the cold, clear waters of Norway.
Peter Scroggs, who with his son and business
partner Simon own the shop and two others in
the area, said: “We are thrilled to have won this
fantastic prize and would like to thank the NSC
for the wonderful sustainable Norwegian cod.
We have used Norwegian FAS fillets for over 40
years because they are consistently the best in
terms of quality, taste and of course sustainability
credentials. About 75 per cent of our turnover is
Norwegian cod and we offer Norwegian line caught
haddock as well.”
NSC director Johan Kvalheim said: “The NSC
would like to congratulate Mr Chips on its win
– we are so pleased Norwegian seafood has had a
positive impact on their business. Norwegian cod
and haddock are both totally sustainable, and we
know that this is very important to British fish and
chip shops and their customers. Although there
is only one winner we hope that the kits we have
created will help all 480 businesses that requested
them – as more and more of their customers
understand that they are buying sustainable
Norwegian fish then their bottom lines should
grow.”
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

4
news
It just makes sense to have the
right plates!
The Q PARTNERSHIP has introduced
high quality but very affordable
porcelain ish-shaped plates into the ish
and chip market.
Duncan McLean from the Q
PARTNERSHIP commented:
“The Q PARTNERSHIP
continues to bring
new products and new
ideas to the Fish & Chip
market and following a conversation with
Richard Ord of Colman’s of South Shields
and prompted by Richard, we started to
look for plates that we thought would be
of interest to the Fish & Chip Restaurant
market.
“We are now offering 4 different sizes of
ish-shaped plates, small @ £3.99, medium
@ £4.99, large @ £5.99 and extra-large @
News from FASFA
This deep, long-lasting recession
is proving a great challenge for
the fish & chip industry, and a time
when we must all co-operate in every
way possible to take advantage of
whatever opportunities arise. One
such opportunity is the recent review
of Seafish and the government’s clear
statement that Seafish must react
better to the priorities of industry.
As such, Seafish has just established
three new industry panels with the
specific responsibilities of advising
the Board on areas of work including
the scope, objectives and outcomes
necessary.
Fasfa will be represented on two of these new advisory panels with responsibilities
(a) for Processing and Imports, and (b) for the Supply Chain & Consumers.
Fasfa has deliberately engaged with the NFFF, who also are represented on the
Consumer panel, and agreed a collaborative approach to make sure the importance
of the fish & chip sector is properly recognised. Fasfa’s own position, which
has been shared with the NFFF, is:
Fasfa will want Seafish three year strategy and annual tactical plans to help
Fish & Chip shops in particular increase their sales by a strong, consumer-focused
education and information campaign explaining the abundant supply of high
quality, sustainable cod and haddock.
Key points to be included:
Sustainability for cod and haddock in the North Atlantic (including
Icelandic & Barents Sea fisheries) is all-inclusive and an equal function of
national as well as MSC and other jointly-agreed management criteria
Excellent final eating quality is a direct result of the very quick
processing (filleting) and immediate freezing at sea
£6.99 per plate and packed in manageable
boxes of 30s, 24s, 16s & 12s respectively.”
The small plates are ideal for either a
starter or for a children’s small portion.
The medium plates are
perfect for a child’s regular
portion and the large
and extra-large plates for a
regular and large adults portion
respectively.
These porcelain plates are both
microwave and dishwasher proof.
For immediate delivery please contact your
nearest Q PARTNERSHIP company
Henry Colbeck Ltd 0191 482 4242
V. A. Whitley & Co Ltd 01706 364211
Friars Pride Ltd 01733 316400
Doubles 01202 743177
In terms of technical work for the Processor panel, Fasfa projects to test and
demonstrate how best to handle FAS fillets through the supply chain, how long
they can be stored frozen without deterioration and how best to defrost FAS
fillets in a Fish & Chip shop before use.
I will be glad to hear comments from anyone in the fish & chip sector ahead
of our first meetings with Seafish towards the end of June.
Congratulations to the NFFF for introducing HRH Prince Charles to the skills
required to fry top quality fish & chips, but isn’t it sad that good news rarely
sells newspapers? All too many reports failed to mention the excellent stock
management associated with all frozen at sea cod and haddock used by fish &
chip shops. FAS sustainability in many cases is guaranteed by MSC accreditation
and always by strictly-enforced international government controls around
Iceland, Norway and the Barents Sea.
The economics of running freezer-trawlers still favour their producing H&G
rather than fully filleted fish, so it’s only reasonable for the catcher-producers
to be doing whatever they can to earn a better return for FAS fillets. And while
the big PR investment by Norway certainly makes selling Norwegian fish easy,
there’s no evidence of any more being sold, or at any different prices. Interesting!
The market at home still is relatively quiet. Supplies of smaller cod remain a
real problem and there’s no sign of any improvement in the near future.
Following bumper catches in the first quarter keeping prices down, things
are beginning to move upwards for all sizes now and you will certainly have
to pay more if you really want 5 – 8oz fillets. We expect cod prices to keep on
firming through the
summer and with
limited haddock
available, it too
will only get more
expensive.
John Rutherford
Exec Director
Fasfa Ltd
Pukka launch new
poster for chip shops
A s part of their commitment to supporting the
nation’s chippies, Pukka Pies have created a
bespoke poster to celebrate England’s qualification
for the European Championship finals in Poland
and Ukraine.
The brand new poster, which is available
to download on the website, is part of their
commitment to helping Roy Hodgson and his team
triumph in Europe this summer.
Get yours at www.englandband.pukkapies.co.uk
FISH TODAY - FISH TOMORROW
The FAS cod & haddock fillets used in this
fish & chip shop come from the cold, well
managed waters of the Barents Sea north of
Norway and the North Atlantic off Iceland
and the Faroe Islands.
The fish is plentiful here and through fishing
policies designed to ensure good stocks, we
intend to be supplying your favourite fish for
many years to come.
www.fasfa.co.uk Email info@fasfa.co.uk
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

6
news
Fair shares for all
FareShare is the UK’s
leading food charity.
Its mission is to fight food
poverty and food waste
in the UK. It does this by
rescuing good quality food
that would otherwise go to
waste and sending it to over
700 local charities so that
it can be eaten by people
in need. This network of
charities uses FareShare food
to encourage marginalised
and vulnerable people into
an environment where they
can receive help and support
as well as a good meal.
Last year FareShare
rescued 3,600 tonnes of
surplus food from landfill
and worked in close partnership with leading retailers and manufacturers,
including Pukka Pies, McCain’s and Brakes.
What is surplus food?
The term ‘surplus’ applies to any food that has been produced for sale but then
doesn’t make it into the shops, but that is still good to eat. This can happen for lots
of reasons; overproduction, errors in forecasting, labelling errors and damaged
packaging are all common factors in food becoming surplus. This is food that has
lost its commercial value but that still tastes good, is safe to eat and that provides
all the comfort and nourishment of a good meal.
What does FareShare do with this food?
FareShare delivers surplus food to a network of 700 community projects all over
the UK, including hostels, day centres, women’s refuges and breakfast clubs. These
are grassroots projects providing a vital lifeline to people in need and good food
is at the heart of their services. One client of a day centre in London said: “Since
I’ve been coming to the day centre, I feel a lot better. It’s good because the food is
prepared for you and it’s done with such care. It really makes a difference to me and
it’s good to know that someone cares”.
The issues at a glance...
Food Waste in the UK 1 :
• 362,000 tonnes of food waste in retail
• 4,000 tonnes in distribution
• 2,591,000 tonnes in manufacturing
Food Poverty in the UK:
• 3.2 million people live in poverty 2
• 7 million are affected by low income 3
• 5.6 million are classed as living in deep poverty
In the past year FareShare increased its reach by opening operations in 4 new
areas; Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff and Hull, and the demand for food is soaring.
According to a recent survey 42% of the charities FareShare supports have seen
an increase in demand for food in the past year, while 65% said they were cutting
food budgets in an effort to stay afloat. It’s tough out there for people to make ends
meet, and with food and energy prices rising its getting tougher: “Far too often
older people have to choose between food and staying warm – thanks to FareShare
Pukka Pies donate 88,000 pies
to Fareshare
In 2011 Pukka Pies donated over 88,000 pies to underprivileged people as
part of their support of national UK charity FareShare.
FareShare is a national UK charity supporting communities to relieve food
poverty and addresses two major issues facing the UK: food poverty and food
waste.
Pukka Pies joined the scheme in May 2010. In 2011 alone Pukka Pies
donated in excess of 42 pallets of packing mis-shapes (safe products but not
suitable for general sale).
Tim Storer, joint managing director of Pukka Pies, said: “I am particularly
keen to support our partnership with the FareShare charity. At home no-one
likes to see good food wasted, and we employ the same maxim at Pukka Pies
too. A business of this scale does produce a very small percentage of products
which, while not acceptable to sell, are perfectly acceptable to eat. It may be
a case of sauce on the lid or a product which is slightly dented. It is especially
pleasing to see these products being used in such a positive manner. I would
urge other companies to take a look at this scheme and participate if at all
possible.”
FareShare CEO Lindsay Boswell says, “We are delighted that Pukka Pies
is supporting our mission to fight hunger in the UK by sending their surplus
food to our network. Getting regular access to a hot meal can make a huge
difference to the lives of people struggling with food poverty in all of our
communities, and the support of companies like Pukka Pies makes it possible
for us to reach 35,500 people a day.
“I join Tim Storer in urging other companies to get involved – generating a
small surplus in order to meet demand is totally understandable. Allowing it
to become waste when FareShare offers an ethical way to dispose of it is both
wrong and expensive. “
FareShare addresses the issue of food poverty in three key ways:
• Providing quality food - surplus ‘fit for purpose’ product from the food
and drink industry – to organisations working with disadvantaged people in
the community
• Providing training and education around the essential life skills of
safe food preparation and nutrition, and warehouse employability training
through FareShare’s Eat Well Live Well programme
• Promoting the message that ‘No Good Food Should Be Wasted’
For further information, please contact Peter Mayes Marketing Controller
Pukka Pies
Clarke-Hill
this is one meal they no longer have to find.” Sally, Age UK Hull
Phil
FareShare needs more food to meet this demand, which is why it’s
©
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Before
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we offer our customers the very finest,
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• UK service network
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Fax: 01642 492489
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Web: www.me-ff.com

© Rino Pucci
8
news
On a Mission...
Our regular news column about the
work of the Fishermen’s Mission
continues this week with a letter from
Monty Halls, star of the BBC TV series
The Fisherman’s Apprentice
Dear Friers
As the ‘Fisherman’s Apprentice’ I came face to face with the
everyday trials, tribulations and dangers of being a commercial
isherman. Up and down the country offshore as well as inshore
ishermen are often struggling to make a living whilst putting
their lives at risk. Fishing remains by far and away the UK’s most
dangerous occupation.
There’s one national charity that provides a safety net for
ishermen and their families. The Fishermen’s Mission is there
24/7 providing emergency and welfare support in over 80 ports
and harbours for the injured and shipwrecked, bereaved and
vulnerable families and men unable to cope with the hardship and
debt that more often than not go hand in hand with ‘the ishing’.
The Mission is pledged to ight the hardship and despair that
stalks our ishing communities but they can’t do it without our
help. The charity receives no government funding and depends
“Pasty tax” U-turn announced
In a move which will delight some and infuriate others, the Chancellor, George
Osborne, has reversed his controversial plans to impose VAT on certain types of
hot food sold to the public.
In the past, hot food sold in some types of retail outlet has escaped VAT
entirely, on the grounds that the food is not intended to be consumed hot - but
is sold hot merely because it has just come out of the oven after cooking and has
not yet cooled. The Budget introduced proposals that all hot food sold above
“ambient temperature” in any retail outlet would attract the standard rate of VAT.
Although welcomed by the foodservice industry, in particular the fast
food takeaways like fish and chip shops, for whom these proposals removed a
long-standing source of unfair price competition, the proposed tax has met with
reaching out to businesses and asking them
to use FareShare as a safe and ethical way of dealing
with their surplus food. CEO Lindsay Boswell says:
“We’re committed to working with grassroots charities
upon voluntary
donations to continue
its vital work. I’m
proud to support the
Mission and hope you
will too.
I’m encouraging
everyone to get behind
the Mission’s national
fundraising day, Fish
Friday, 22nd June. It’s
an opportunity to ‘do
something ishy’, have
fun and raise much
needed funds for this
great cause.
Simply go to www.
ishermensmission.org.
uk/ishfriday for loads of ideas on how you can get involved
and support our ishermen, their families and a way of life that’s
fast disappearing.
Yours sincerely
Monty Halls
to make a significant difference to the diets of people
in communities all over the UK but we need more food
to meet this increased demand. We’re asking anyone
who works in the food industry in any capacity to look
at what is happening to
their surplus food and to
ask themselves a simple
question: ‘Could this food
stop someone going
hungry?’”
FareShare have
over 16 year experience
working closely with
the food industry and
their warehouses can
store ambient, chilled
and frozen food. The
charity has over 100
food industry partners,
including Sainsbury’s,
Nestlé, Marks & Spencer’s,
opposition from many retailers, not least Greggs, the bakery chain that sells vast
numbers of hot snacks such as pasties and pies, particularly at lunchtime.
The Chancellor has now announced that his proposals will now be modified
to exclude food that is not deliberately kept hot. Food which is simply taken
from the oven and left to cool on racks will not attract VAT at all.
This will not affect pies, pasties, chickens etc which are sold from heated
cabinets - these foods are clearly intended to be eaten hot by the consumer and
will attract the standard rate of VAT.
So consumers wanting cheap hot snacks need now merely time their
purchases carefully to avoid paying VAT. Buy a hot snack from Greggs, fresh out
of the oven at lunchtime, and it will be VAT free. Whist the same hot snack in a
takeaway will continue to attract the full standard rate.
Fair? We don’t think so. Do you?
Gerber Juice and Pukka Pies, and they can work with
businesses of any size.
As well as being voted the Third Sector’s Most
Admired Charity in 2010 FareShare was recently
named as one of the Global Journal’s Top 100 NGO’s
worldwide.
Lindsay Boswell: “If your business is throwing
away good-quality surplus food we want to hear from
you. Just 1 pallet of food can help us to deliver 2,800
meals, so even a small amount of food can have a
significant impact. Please pick up the phone or drop
us a line to see if we can work together to get the this
food to people who need it.”
www.fareshare.org.uk • foodoffers@fareshare.org.uk
020 7394 2460 • Find us on Facebook at: http://www.
facebook.com/pages/FareShare/116625838402686 or
follow us on Twitter@ @FareShareUK
Sources: 1 “Waste arisings in the supply of food and drink to households
in the UK”, WRAP, 2010 • 2 “A minimum income for healthy living”,
Journal of epidemiology and Community Health, 2007 • 3 Monitoring
Poverty and Social Exclusion, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2007
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

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news
It’s about time!
Kevin McWhinney of McWhinney’s Sausages gives his views on DSM and
the new rules on its incorporation into food products
Over recent weeks there has been an avalanche of articles in the press
referring to the new EU ban on desinewed meat and its negative and
damaging implications on the meat industry. For those that don’t know,
desinewed meat, or DSM, refers to meat that is left on bones after butchering
that is grated off mechanically to create a cheap mince-like substance. This is
then used to ‘bulk up’ food products to portray a higher true meat content and
quality to the consumer.
To our huge disappointment and, to be honest, disgust - even the vast
majority of our own industry ‘experts’ seem to be outraged that DSM can no
longer be considered as viable meat content. We are overjoyed that this is now
no longer the case, as we have always argued that DSM is NOT meat.
The Food Standards Agency is enforcing this new ban because, like us, the
European Commission sees DSM and MSM (Mechanically Separated Meat) as
the same.
Unsurprisingly, the ‘big boys’ of the industry – the British Meat Processers
Association (BMPA) are horriied that using DSM must be stopped in some
products or clearly declared as iller, and not meat, in others. These are the
manufacturers that see proit and price as king, with product quality a very
distant second. At McWhinney’s Sausages, we are simply delighted that after
all this time the industry is soon to be on a level playing ield.
For the record, McWhinney’s has a very clear ethos on using any variety
of mechanically reclaimed meat - we never have, we never will. For the past
114 years and through 6 generations, we have beaten the ‘quality over price’
drum. We don’t have a single issue with other manufacturers producing cheap
products with the aid of DSM, but we have always battled the fact that with
the laws allowing DSM to be classiied as ‘meat’, customers have justiiably
struggled to understand the reasons for our higher prices. Now with this
new law announcing DSM as non-meat, many others are now adapting their
product in order to remain legal. McWhinney’s do not have to make a single
tweak to its products, as we have only ever used real meat.
Since we have never used DSM, we have always been on the higher end of
the pricing scale, and buyers have always been able to source other sausages
cheaper. Given DSM’s right to be called meat, the fact that others in the
industry were getting away with it was just a hard pill for us to swallow. Now,
a new era is beginning when the entire industry will be legally obliged to
declare the meat content of a product separately from its DSM content. Our
reaction…it’s about time.
We would like to see this taken a step further and would welcome
legislation whereby product details were available not only on food trade
packaging, but throughout food consumption. We feel that diners in restaurants,
bars, and cafes must be in a position to know what they are eating. Take
the case at McDonald’s in the US last year, whereby all usage of the infamous
‘pink slime’ in beef burgers ceased. This may well have been because its hand
was forced by external pressures, but at least McDonalds, Burger King and
Taco Bell - the world’s largest burger chains, have now made the move away
from pink slime in all of their products. We see the pink slime revelation in
the US which disgusted the uninformed general public as the equivalent to the
use of DSM in the UK.
Essentially, it is vital to let every food consumer (whether in a restaurant or
from a supermarket) decide what they want and what they don’t. In terms of
the use of pork and poultry DSM - by all means allow those who use it to use
it, but clearly and concisely declare it and let the public know that it is in their
food! Let the customer make their own informed decisions.
As a company, we look forward to a more equal playing ield in our
industry. Because of our permanent stance on DSM, McWhinney’s Sausages
and others like us welcome the change.
10
New FCFF website!
Listen to Podcasts from signiicant players in the
industry, read the latest issue, browse the archives,
keep up to date with news, views and opinions.
It’s your portal for accessing and contacting advertisers,
important trade bodies within our sector, and
keeping your events calendar up to date.
Find it all at www.fcffmag.co.uk
What is DSM?
So what is de-sinewed meat? When an animal is slaughtered,
remnants of meat remain on the bones after initial butchering.
This meat is removed by mechanical means to produce a
paste-like “filler” which can be added to muscle meat in order
to bulk out a product inexpensively. Mechanically separated
meat - or MSM - has not been allowed to be counted as meat
for some time. But desinewed meat - DSM - which is separated
by gentler process and does retain some texture - has been
allowed to be called “meat”. But no more.
This doesn’t constitute a ban on DSM - far from it - but it
does mean that DSM can no longer count as part of the meat
content of a processed meat product, and any DSM content
must in future be clearly labelled as such on all products that
contain it.
This could entail significant reformulation for many
producers of meat products. If they wish to ensure that their
meat content claims remain valid, they will have to substitute
real meat for the DSM content in their products. This will,
of course, make for much better products, that actually do
contain real meat rather than the pap produced by mechanical
separation methods. But it will, of neccessity, mean an increase
in prices. The whole purpose of using mechanically recovered
meat is to keep product costs - and therefore retail prices
- down, whilst still claiming “xx% meat content”. This is no
longer allowed.
Products that claim “xx% meat” will now have to contain
meat. Real meat, proper meat - muscle cuts, and not the
reconstituted pap that is recovered from bones by either high or
low pressure scouring after butchering.
The decision seems - as you might expect - universally
unpopular among UK producers. However, had the EU-led
rulling not been implemented, there was a very real risk of a
ban on the export of British meat products to Europe, which left
the Food Standards Agency with little choice.
For consumers, it is another victory. Cheap meat products
that use DSM as a bulking agent will still be sold in the shops,
but now the customer cannot be conned into believing he is
buying “meat”.
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

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feature
Florigo in North Wales
Frying Solutions have been installing Florigo ranges up and
down the country and have recently installed two great ranges
in North Wales.
The Golden Fry
When the Hulme family took over the Golden Fry in Benllech,
Anglesey, in August 2009 they fulilled their various wishes: whilst
Ged wanted to run a business, his daughter Carol had always
wanted to run a ish and chip shop. Carol had originally set her
sights on a ish and chip van thinking it was a more achievable
option but now they have bought the shop, she says they have
made “the best decision ever.”
“The shop is very seasonal as it’s so close to the coast so there
is often a queue of customers out the door,” Carol said. “We’ve
actually won Fish and Chip Shop of the Year in a local competition
for two years running. We found that although the original range
was only four years old, it couldn’t cope with the amount of orders
we get so we made a decision to invest in a new range.”
The family knew that they wanted a High Eficiency range and
took the opportunity to research into their options when they
visited the T Quality exhibition in Leeds. A Florigo range was soon
high on their list, being one of the fastest ranges available, but it
was the range’s high quality build that really swung their decision.
“I ind that the Florigo ranges are built really solidly and also
they look impressive,” Carol explained. “There are no gaps which
makes it easier to clean and makes it look better.”
The best test to see whether a range really works is often
during a bank holiday and since the installation in March this year,
the Golden Fry’s Florigo has passed with lying colours! “We’re
really pleased with it and its managing to cope with our queues!”
Frydays
Meanwhile in Llandudno, Paul Blanchard has been in the catering
industry for almost 50 years and for him, quality catering
equipment is the only way to go. When he took over a restaurant
in the area, he saw how well the small quantity of ish and chips
sold and decided to diversify into ish and chips, choosing, as
always, the best catering equipment he could ind.
“I had looked at other ranges but it was a visit to Enochs in
Llandudno that really swung it for me,” Paul explained. “They
have a Florigo there and Danny from Enochs explained how it was
a good brand and although it was expensive, it was well worth it.
For me, if something is expensive, it means that it’s good quality so
I knew that Florigo was the choice for me.”
Although he has been working in catering for almost 50 years,
this is his irst foray into ish and chips and since the shop, Fridays,
has been opened since January, his decision to try out ish and
chips has proved to be a wise one: “Business has been doing really
well and I’m glad I’ve chosen a Florigo.”
And talking to the Shop Manager, John Jaap, you can see why:
“I’ve been working in ish and chips for 30 years but this is my irst
time that I have worked on a Florigo and it copes really well with
the amount of trade we get,” John said. “It’s very different from
the other ranges I have worked on: the iltration is fantastic and
the safety mechanisms are very good. It really is a very modern
range.’”
So for a modern and quality range, call on Florigo!
12
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Because your business is our business
• 5 years pan warranty
• 3 years parts warranty
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www.fryingsolutions.co.uk

the chipbox
Federation to set out a
bluprint for the future
A t a meeting aboard the Marine
Scotland research vessel FRV Scotia,
moored at Leith Harbour, Edinburgh
during the World Fisheries Congress,
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
discussed practical ways in which the
Fish and Chip sector can help to ensure
sustainably sourced ish stays at the top
of menu and in the mind of the consumer.
He heard from ish and chip shop owners,
from suppliers and Young Fish Friers of the
Year, Zohaib Hussain and Carlyn Johnson,
presented their vision for the future of the
sector.
In conclusion Gregg Howard, President
of the NFFF presented a pledge to ensure
sustainably sourced ish in the nation’s
Fish and Chip shops. Realising this will
mean working with suppliers, supporting
well managed isheries, educating shop
owners and consumers alike.
Long live fish and chips
A personal perspective from Richard
Ord (below) and Peter Fraser, (right)
inaugural and current holders of the
Good Catch Award
On Tuesday 8 May, representatives of the Fish
and Chip industry had the honour of giving a
briefing to HRH Prince Charles on the challenges
and initiatives being employed to tackle issues
relating to sustainability of fish resources. The
meeting occurred on the research vessel Scotia
docked in Edinburgh Harbour as HRH was up in
Scotland opening the World Fisheries Conference.
He has been a champion of environmental issues for
many years and the meeting was arranged through
his International Sustainability Unit (www.pcfisu.
org), whose aim is to facilitate consensus on how to
resolve some of the key environmental challenges
facing the world.
The format of the meeting
was five short presentations
followed by a lively discussion
and ended up with HRH
joining Zohaib Hussain and
Carlyn Johnson, 2012 Drywite
Young Frier of the Year winner
and runner up, to fry some
MSC certified haddock in the
ship’s galley.
Denise Dodd, General
Secretary of the National
Federation of Fish Fryers NFFF,
14
HRH The Prince of Wales with Carlyn Johnson of Frankies, and Zohaib Hussain of Zero Plus
Fish Bar, the current holder of the Young Fish Frier of the Year title
opened the proceedings by
giving a history and overview
of the sector. HRH enjoyed
hearing that in the Second
World War, allied parachutists
would identify themselves
when landing in the dark in
France with the challenge
“Fish” and the response
“Chips”. Next up was Peter
Fraser who talked about how
the Harbour Lights decides
how all the fish it sells is from sustainable sources
and the reasons for and the lessons learnt from
their Cod Free Week last November. Zohaib and
Carlyn are glowing examples of the young blood
and future of our beloved industry, so it was only
appropriate that they talked about a Vision for the
Future. We have just celebrated 150 years of the UK
Fish and Chip industry, they gave their thoughts
on how we could guarantee
a rosy future for the next 150
years. Andy Weightman of
Fastnet and Simon Smales
of Smales teamed up to
talk about the challenges of
supplying responsibly sourced
fish. They believed that the
majority of the NE Atlantic’s
Cod & Haddock fisheries were
very well managed and an
ever increasing amount was
acquiring MSC certification,
which certainly is a great
endorsement that the stocks
are currently sustainable.
The problems for the UK Fish
& Chip industry were likely
to be more commercial than
environmental with a permanently
escalating world
demand for quality fish likely
to mean prices will start to
significantly increase. Gregg
Howard, NFFF President,
completed the presentations and detailed the
commitments of the NFFF towards sustainability.
2013 is a big year for the NFFF, being its centenary
year. Gregg re-iterated the importance of the Fish
and Chips in the DNA of Britishness, in terms of icons
we are No. 2, just behind the Royal Family!
In the lively open discussion that followed,
previous Good Catch winners: Richard Ord of
Colman’s and Ronnie McCulloch of the Chip Box,
Stewarton, added their personal experiences of the
best ways to communicate sustainability issues to
customers. We all thought HRH was a very good
sport when he changed into Chef’s whites to try his
hand at some frying in the Scotia’s galley.
Overall, it was a very uplifting experience
- Prince Charles is very well informed about all the
environmental issues we all face and he genuinely
holds much affection for our industry. He reminisced
fondly about sneaking out of his boarding school
as a young lad to enjoy some fish and chips in
Inverness...
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Initially a
Responsible Sourcing
Code will be drawn
up by the NFFF in
conjunction with the
Young Fish Friers
group and Good Catch
Award winners. Fish
and chip shops throughout
the UK will then be urged to share the good
practices in ish sourcing, to help ensure
that the ish they are serving has come
from well managed sustainable isheries.
Another great achievement for today’s
modern ish and chip industry would
be the ability to serve ‘conscience free’
cod or haddock to their customers. The
NFFF has agreed to work with the Marine
Stewardship Council and Good Catch to
support ish and chip shops wanting to
gain the MSC Chain of Custody certiication,
and to provide a simpliied process that
allows more shops to become involved.
The NFFF also joined over 100 other
signatories from around the world, in
signing up to the Prince’s International
Sustainability Unit’s global declaration on
good isheries.
Wht is the ISU?
The ISU was set up in 2010 to facilitate
consensus on how to resolve some of the
key environmental challenges facing the
world. The Marine Programme, launched in
February of this year, identiied several key
priorities:
Fisheries must be managed at levels
of ishing effort consistent with long-term
sustainable yields, in accordance with
sound scientiic advice, using an ecosystem
based approach
Robust isheries management is
better achieved by using tools such as
rights-based management, more selective
ishing gear, a culture of compliance, better
and more transparent data collection,
effective monitoring and enforcement and
an awareness of marine spatial considerations
Sound economics must create
positive incentives for robust management
so as to achieve long-term sustainability
while at the same time making short-term
unsustainable practices less attractive
Critical for success at all levels is
the empowerment and participation of
ishers. The ISU urges all stakeholders to
work in partnership with those who take to
the seas in search of the ish which provide
society with such an important and healthy
source of food.
May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
the chipbox
Former fi sh and chip shop in Fleetword
returns to the trade
B ack in 1911, the premises at No 3 North Albert
Street in Fleetwood was a fi sh and chip shop
and restaurant. Recorded in the 1911 census,
it was occupied by the Irish-born Mr William
Harkness Thompson and his Whittaker in-laws from
Todmorden in Yorkshire and was listed as a Fish and
Potato Restaurant.
Local history recalls it to have been a fi sh and
chip emporium earlier than that, though - in 1906
it was known as Cleggs, and according to Chatchip
(William Loftas) in the Fish Trades Gazette, in the
small Lancashire town of Fleetwood, Theodore
Clegg provided sitting accommodation for 70
people, and “he divides his customers into three
classes - fi rst, second and third, based on their
personal appearance and social status”.
Cleggs - also known as the Central Fish & Chip
Potato Restaurant - was at No 3 North Albert
Street, right next door to what was today’s Granada
Fish Bar. Careful examination of old and contemporary
photos reveals this from the positioning of
the various windows, the bricked up front door (to
the left in the old image) which once led to the
upper storey and is now part of the shop frontage
and - a dead giveaway - the position of the
basement grill, clearly visible in the historic photo,
but now concreted over.
Knowing the history, Granada owner Steve
Lynton bought No 3 last summer. It was by then a
bike shop, having been a camera shop previously,
but now it has returned to its roots as a fi sh and chip
restaurant.
Steve has done the building conversion himself
over the last 6 months, and is justifably proud of
what he has achieved. Now known as The Reef
Lounge, it can seat 60 people (Mr Clegg must have
crammed them in more tightly!) and adds signifi -
cantly to the potential for Granada. As Steve says:
“Besides our valued local customers we can now
cater for coach parties, birthdays or celebrations of
any kind.” The new tram service in Fleetwood has
a stop just a few yards away, and the buses stop
right outside, so there’s plenty of scope for passing
trade, too.
It’s a big year for Fleetwood. Steve’s a great
football fan, and is a proud sponsor of Fleetwood
Town Football Club, aff ectionately known as The Cod
Army. His team have just made his dreams come
true by winning the Blue Square league, and gaining promotion to League Division 2 for the fi rst time in its
history. Instrumental in that achievement was striker Jamie Vardy, who - along with FTFC mascot Mr Cod
- opened the Reef Lounge last month.
“I enjoyed opening the new extension.” said Jamie. “I also liked the fi sh & chips but don’t tell the gaff er
that! It’s good to go out into the local community and support local businesses. I know Steve is a season
ticket holder and sponsor at Highbury and I wish him every success in extending his business.”
For more about Granada Fish Bar, visit the website at www.granadafi shbar.com
15

the chipbox
School Report
A regular roundup of news and tips
brought to you by the tutors and team
at the KFE School of Frying Excellence
in Market Deeping
Fry-Days Serving delicious fish and
chips seven days!
Shah and his family have been cooking
mouthwatering Indian cuisine for their
customers for countless years.
Seeing an opening in the market they
took the decision to venture in to Fish and
Chips.
It was during the planning of their new
unit in Motherwell, Shah and his brotherin-law
David, devised a business plan with
the intention to do everything right from
the beginning.
Through rigorous research and recommendations
they were conscious that to
embark with they should enroll on to the
KFE School of Frying Excellence two-day
training course. David at present is a
professional golf player; however, he does
pledge to devote any spare time in the Fish
and Chip Shop.
David’s primary role would be customer
service, whilst Shah would focus his
attention on the preparation and frying.
The two-day training course proved
suitable to both attendees, as they each
learnt the best practices and skills for their
chosen roles.
David was astounded with the extent
Mark Petrou guided him through the
Customer Service Segment and illustrated
samples for marketing and advertising.
With this freshly learnt knowledge, both
were conident to take the plunge and open
the new unit Fry-Days.
Fry-Days began trading in January
2012, KFE trainer Gordon Hillan was there
16
to ensure everything ran smoothly and
eficiently.
Both Shah and David were more than
capable of putting their newly learnt skills
into operation and were soon serving
delicious portions of Fish and Chips.
On the wall for customers to see,
they have proudly displayed both the
KFE School of Frying Excellence Course
Completion Certiicates and the Food and
Hygiene Certiicate Level 2 (see below!)
Shah and David have both commented
regarding the skills, advice and knowledge
they were both taught during the two-day
training course. They believe it has been
invaluable, and are thoroughly prepared to
commence into their new business venture.
With existing Fish and Chip Shops
already trading within the area, they knew
the task would not be painless, but with
sheer hard work and Scottish passion they
were thrilled to be triumphant in the local
Primary School’s “Best Chip Award”
They attribute part of their success
to the knowledge and conidence gained
through attending the KFE School of
Frying Excellence, Combine this with their
existing expertise Fry-Days continues to go
from strength to strength.
Fry-days eagerly await The National
Fish and Chip Awards 2013 where Shah is
expecting David to step up to the “PAR”…
Good Luck with this years competition
from all at KFE.
Top Tips
Easy menu changes to make
more money in the current
climate
As you plan for the year ahead, there are
many practices you can use to influence
the purchasing behavior of customers in your
takeaway – restaurant.
Below are 3 easy tips you can adapt to your
menu to increase profitability.
Place high – profit items where your
customers are most likely to look first
on your menu. Studies have shown that
a three-panel menu proves to be very
successful.
If you have categories on your menu, such
as Starters, Sundries or Specials, that have
8 or more items in them, understand that
the first, second and last items will sell
the most in that category. So place your
priority (i.e. most profitable) items in
these spots to move them so you make
more profit.
Don’t let your menu become a price list.
Price list menus have an item and then to
the far right it shows the price all by itself.
Stick the price at the end of the item
description without the pound sign and in
a smaller font size.
Let your customers read the description
and want the item first, rather than
shopping for the price they want to pay.
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

the chipbox
Chamberlains
leads the way
Cyril Solomons interviews Dan Lynch,
one of the partners of Chamberlains ,
winner of The Best Newcomer Award
sponsored by Frymax. The other
partners and family members are
Annabelle Curtin and Simon and Eileen
Shaw
It’s a few months since you won the Award. How did
you feel about winning and what has happened to
the business since then?
Our irst reaction was that we were
“happily shocked”. Although it is The Best
Newcomer Award we didn’t expect to
win it within a few months of opening. It
was nice to be recognized for all the hard
work of the staff in helping us set up a top
quality establishment.
The irst weekend was manic. Sales
doubled on Friday, Saturday and Sunday
and we could just about keep up. We
didn’t think this could continue but it did.
Monday was the same. We decided to
double all our orders and start recruiting
more staff. The business has now settled at
double the level of turnover.
Lets go back to the beginning. How did you get
involved with fish and chips?
I had been a fresh food chef for 16
years and a head chef for the past 8 years.
I wanted to establish my own business.
Annabelle and I started looking for a small
bistro and then Simon and Eileen sold their
business so we all came together to look
for something larger. We found this great
location and then thought what could work
here? We’d all grown up loving ish and
chips so we decided to go for a quality ish
and chip restaurant with a comfortable
dining experience. Our concept was ‘
A quality ish and chip experience at a
reasonable price’ We wanted something
18
that would appeal to grandchildren
through to grandparents, something that
was fairly recession proof and that would
not go out of fashion, after all everyone
loves ish and chips!
What was your thinking in opening right next to a
McDonalds?
We saw this as an advantage. We knew
that McDonalds would bring trafic to the
area and we were conident irstly that ish
and chips was still a very popular meal and
secondly that we could produce quality
ish and chips. What then happened was
very interesting. Families would come and
the parents would order ish and chips.
While it was being prepared the kids would
pop next door for their happy meals. We
noticed that the children were coming
back with chicken nuggets, so we added
chicken nuggets , made with 100% chicken
breast, to our menu and the result is that
all the family now eat with us. We have a
good range of meals for under 12’s in the
restaurant which are priced at just £4.95
including a drink and an ice cream.
What encouraged you to enter the Best Newcomer
Award ?
Our ambition was to establish a high
quality ish and chip venue offering
takeaway as well as a restaurant. We
entered the trade with ambitions to reach
the top so it made sense to enter the award.
When we opened
we put on our
publicity material
“Our aim is to be the
best Fish and Chip
experience in the
Birmingham Area”
and that has been
our focus from day
one. Our customers
kept saying that our
product was great so
we thought lets see
what the trade says
about our product.
What do you put your success down to ?
I would say four things. Firstly the
quality of our food. Before we opened the
business we tested the quality of every
ingredient and selected the best. My
experience as a chef obviously helped. All
our food is cooked to order which means
that every customer gets a fresh and hot
meal. We present our meal in boxes which
enhances the appearance of the food. In the
restaurant we serve ish and chips on nice
crockery, tartare sauce in small ramekins
and even a slice of lemon in a lemon
squeezer.
Secondly excellent customer service
in both the restaurant and the takeaway.
We used our previous experience to
establish written procedures for all staff
activities and we have an excellent training
programme. An important part of the
training is product knowledge as we think
it is vital for our staff to have conidence
in our product and the ability to talk about
it to customers. Our staff are our point of
contact with our customers and they can
make or break a food service business. We
are also very hands on, we speak (but most
importantly listen ) to our customers every
day. Fish and chips is a meal that people
will eat regularly so it is important we
make our customers feel very welcome.
Thirdly we offer our customers
choices. In the takeaway we offer cod,
haddock, plaice, mackerel and scampi.
Our restaurant menu has all these plus
Tuna, salmon, hake, king prawns and we
do regular specials with things like coley,
monkish etc. We introduce new items
every three months. We have a gluten free
day which enables coeliacs to enjoy ish
and chips. When we opened we cooked
in dripping but we had a vegetable pan
option. Today 40% of our trade is vegetable
oil ( Frymax ) based. This shows the importance
of responding to customer tastes.
Fourthly before opening we spent a lot
of time talking to people in the trade and
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

working in shops to prepare ourselves as
much as possible for a smooth opening. We
liked The Wetherby Whaler concept of ish
and chips as a quality dining experience
at a reasonable price so we spent a few
days with them both in the kitchen and
the front of house. We then attended the
NFFF course in Leeds. Although I had been
in catering for many years this was a real
eye opener. We realized that training and
gaining knowledge about the trade did not
end here.
As a big part of our operation is
restaurant based we visited a lot of eat in
ish & chip restaurants, particularly on the
North Yorkshire Coast; being in a large city
conurbation we wanted to try and bring a
“taste of the seaside” to Birmingham. We
tried to pick up tips from each one, when
we opened we tried to look at everything
from the customers point of view “what
would we like”
We consulted with Mike Pili, of the
Midlands Seaish Training Association
who has been a great help and almost
like an unoficial mentor and I think Mike
has enjoyed working with us as he knows
how much time, effort and money we have
put into the business and how much we
feature on “quality” with everything we
do. When we opened Mike arranged for
an experienced fryer (Terry Antonio at
Chris’s Fish Bar in Great Barr ) to spend
10 days with us, helping and advising us
on all aspects of preparation and frying
on our own premises. Mike continues to
work with us offering advice and staff
training. We believe it is very important to
ask questions and learn from experienced
fryers before opening your business and
we found that fryers were very happy to
help and advise us. We found lots of people
in the trade eager to help and you can’t be
afraid to ask questions and learn; since we
have gained our reputation we have had
other ish and chip shop owners coming to
us asking how we do things ,which is a nice
compliment.
Can you tell us something about your marketing
programme?
We see marketing as an investment and
believe that if you invest wisely you will get
the results. We have probably tried every
form of marketing some have worked
some haven’t; just because one form of
advertising doesn’t work don’t give up. We
have used social media (Facebook and
twitter and update this daily) We have a
good website where customers can see our
menus, interact with us on social media
or message us, it is also a great
way to show your
product. We also
monitor our website
and regularly have
over 1000 hits a
month In the early
stages we used
Groupon and Living
Social to connect with
our customers and get our
deals across. We use comment cards not
only to measure customer satisfaction but
also to obtain contact information which
we then use to text deals to our customers.
We operate a text service and have over
400 customers signed up so we can notify
them of special events and offers. We have
obtained good publicity through radio
interviews and press reviews and of course
winning such a prestigious award has given
us more publicity.
We have been featured in all
Birmingham and Sandwell newspapers, we
have been on independent radio, BBC radio
and on 24th February had over 2 minutes
exposure on Central TV at 6.20pm on a
Friday!
We also try to get involved in things in
our local area, charity events etc; we also
took part in Birmingham Food Fest which
showcased Birmingham’s best restaurants,
one of our creations the Mackerel
May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
the chipbox
Frymax to
sponsor Best
Newcomer
Award in 2013
Frymax, the leading all-vegetable frying
fat for the fish frying trade, is once again
sponsoring the Best Newcomer Award at the
annual National Fish & Chip Awards competition
in 2013. Frymax is a product from Archer Daniels
Midland Company.
The Newcomer Award recognizes
outstanding new talent entering the trade. There
were many applicants in 2012, and the standard
was extremely high.
“Frymax is a top quality product, and
is rightly associated with encouraging and
rewarding the best newcomers coming into the
trade,” comments Cyril Solomons.
Frymax also award a number of ‘Highly
Commended’ certificates as a means of
promoting individual entrants.
Entry forms can be downloaded from
www.fishandchipawards.com. The
closing date is 14th July 2012
& Cod Scotch Egg even made
it into the Big Brum Cook
book alongside dishes from
Michelin Star restaurants. It
put us, and ish and chips on the
map.
You’ve obviously had some good times in the trade.
Can you share some of these with us?
Winning The Best Newcomer Award
and The King Frost Challenge at the Fish
and Chip Awards was the highlight of our
irst year in business. To be recognized by
trade judges as the best newcomer and
then to spend the day with so many other
top fryers and award winners was great.
The irst time we illed our 76 seater
restaurant, that was very satisfying, we
can now do this on a regular basis. We
get great pleasure from the number of
regular customers who visit our premises,
we have over 5000 completed customer
comment cards that have rated us either
very good or outstanding. I’ve been in
catering for 16 years and I’ve never seen
so many customers returning on a regular
basis. A regular customer who comes into
the restaurant once a week for ish and
chips can be worth £1000 per
19

the chipbox
year – statements like this really
makes us and the staff focus on quality
food and service.
Let me tell you about one incident
which gives me immense satisfaction.
An elderly lady came into the takeaway
and ordered her ish and chips. She was
used to being served ish and chips from
a hot box and wrapped in paper so she
complained about the delay and the
need for a box. She went outside , ate
her meal and came back in to say ‘ that’s
the best ish and chips I’ve ever had’
Not only was that great for our business
but its good for the ish and chip trade
that customers appreciate the quality
of a freshly prepared meal served in a
modern fashion.
Finally, would you encourage other shops to enter
the award in the future?
Deinitely. Its worth it for the whole
experience. Firstly the preparation
forces you to re-look at your business a
few months after opening which means
conducting a thorough review. Then if
you reach the inal you beneit from the
publicity, the feedback from experienced
judges and you meet a lot of the top
fryers at the awards ceremony. If you are
fortunate enough to win you may double
your takings but most important of all
its nice for your staff to be recognized
for all the hard work they have put into
the business. Winning the award gives
you something to shout about; we put
banners and posters up, contacted the
media and the publicity you get from
winning an award is worth thousands of
pounds.
www.chamberlainsishandchips.co.uk
You can follow us on twitter
ChamberlainsB68 or on Facebook
Chamberlains Quality
Licenced to thrill...
All 2013 Seafish
Awards now open
to entries!
Entry forms and details of rules
for all award categories in the
2013 Awards are now available.
The closing date for the
submission of entries in all award
categories is 14 July 2012.
Visit www.fishandchipawards.com
or full information and entry forms
20
To celebrate 50 years of James Bond, KFE hosted their annual Kiremko KFE Dinner
Dance on Sunday 13th May with The Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club playing
host to the ‘Licenced to Thrill’ themed event. As always the day started with golfers of
all standards competing on the Arden Championship course for the prestigious Kiremko
KFE trophy. This year this was won by Newcomer, Darren Bloodworth with last year’s
winner Mathew Silk of Fish and Chips at 149 coming Runner Up. The eagerly awaited
International Trophy was easily retained by England!
The evening started with Jaws and Oddjob greeting the guests. After dinner guests saw
the ‘one night only’ viewing of our own James Bond’s (Paul Williams) adventures! Gaming
tables opened after this with Nigel Ramsey of Middletons winning a complimentary round
of golf for 4 on the championship course, whilst other guests danced the night away to the
fabulous Shakedown Soul band.
With KFE hosting recent events including Burns Night, Rat Pack and Motown what will
2013 hold? Watch this space for more information...
Clockwise from top left:
• The winning England
team - Paul Williams of KFE,
Mathew Silk of Fish & Chips
at 149, Reece Head of Fry
and David Lovell of Kerry.
• Paul Williams about to
release the ‘one night only
KFE Bond adventures’
• The Shakedown Soul Band
• Matthew Silk and Alastair
Horabin of Seniors, both
Kiremko Fish and Chip Shop
of the Year Winners, with
Oddjob and Jaws
• KFE Bond with Jaws and
Oddjob
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

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the chipbox
Chester’s - a converted pub - provides
new fi sh restaurant for Chesterfi eld
Bernard Anghelides talks to Chris
Ioannides of Chester’s, a new takeaway
and restaurant in Chesterield
In his book Fish & Chips – a National
Treasure, Mark Petrou looked at the
future of chippies and came up with a
rather intriguing suggestion. A lover of all
things British, Mark noted
that while one iconic UK trade – ish
and chips – was thriving, another - the pub
industry - was in decline. Fish and chip
shops, he argued, “may well do better to
depart from our high streets to make a
more sustainable future as the Champion
Salvation of the Great British Pub.”
A strange idea? Not according to Chris
Ioannides
When the Hare & Hounds pub on
Shefield Road in Chesterield, Derbyshire,
came up for sale, Chris spotted an opportunity.
He’s been in the frying trade
virtually all his life. “I grew up in ish and
chips and have been working in it for about
18 years,” thanks to mum and dad – Clare
and Andrew (“He’s really called Andreas
but everyone has always called him
Andrew at the shop in Derby”).
22
And he even married into another ish
and chip family with wife Chrisoulla being
the daughter of fryers Maria and Charlie
Chris opened his new venture – dubbed
Chester’s - at the former Hare & Hounds
three months ago. He says one of the
things that attracted him was the building’s
impressive frontage with two bay
windows. “And the place has got loads of
parking at the front and back,” he adds.
Chester’s operates as both a conventional
chippy and a restaurant. There are
55 covers inside and a further 55 outside
(under cover), though Chris notes that
there’s room for expansion in the external
area.
The takeaway side is a traditional ish
and chip shop though the restaurant offers
a more in depth choice including lemon
sole, Dover sole, trout, hake, piri piri
kebabs, steaks and burgers.
“We cater for people who want to eat
ish and people who don’t want ish,” says
Chris, noting: “And it’s all British.”
He didn’t publicise the launch. “We just
set off on day one,” he says, “and it spread
through word of mouth.
“We did have had
some editorial in the
Derbyshire Times,
I think one of their
writers came in and
enjoyed the food
and decided to do an
article.”
The catchment
area, particularly
for the restaurant
side, is quite wide.
As well as coming
from Chesterield,
“we’re attracting
people from further
away. We’re getting them from Shefield,
Dronield…”
The main attraction, Chris believes, is:
“We only use fresh ish. Nothing is frozen.”
Pensioners are encouraged to visit with
specials during the week such as “a small
cod illet and a cup of tea.”
And Chester’s get a boost in trade when
Chesterield FC plays home games at its
new 10,400-seater B2net Stadium further
along Shefield Road.
When picking the range for his venture,
Chris opted for an Omega open top high
eficiency four pan model with two chip
boxes and four top boxes.
Explaining his decision, he says: “I
hadn’t used a Martyn Edwards/Frank Ford
before but my brother-in-law has a 6 pan
one. I tried it out and was impressed.”
Chris says he is “very happy” with his
new range. “It’s high temperature and it
leaves very little grease on the chips. And
it’s very fast. It has great consistency and it
doesn’t burn the oil.”
He’s also impressed with the chicken
humidiier “and there’s all the standards
like the timers and the temperature
settings.”
Since launching Chester’s (in the
process creating 25 jobs) Chris has joined
the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire
Chamber of Commerce. Next on his list of
things to do is to launch a website.
“In the future, I may look to expand with
something similar to Chester’s,” he says.
Though will another brand be needed?
“We got the name from the Chesterield
[FC] mascot,” explains Chris. “My dad’s a
big Chesterield fan.”
And while perfect for a ish food venture
on the same road as the B2net Stadium,
it might not prove as popular with the
Wednesday and United fans if his second
outlet is in Shefield.
For more information about ME-FF ranges,
call Dave Atkinson on 01642 489868 or
visit www.me-ff.com
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

ices and desserts
Ice cream
Pete Petrou reminisces on what
icecream has meant to him throughout
his life - an enduring British favourite
seen through the eyes of child, teenager
and man
Old or young rich or poor everybody
loves ice cream. No matter who you
are or where you come from, rest assured
there is one out there for you, gluten free,
lacto free, vegan friendly, Halal, low fat,
low calorie and even a company making
special ice cream for dogs.
My experience of ice cream began at an
early age as a mixed race kid growing up
in the East End. My brother, my cousins
and I would walk to Joe’s at the bottom of
my nan’s road and buy ourselves a Marvel
comic, a lucky dip bag and a jubbly. A
jubbly was a kind of frozen ice pop in a
triangular paper sleeve that we used to
make pop up and down to melt or suck so
we could drink the cool refreshing fruit
juice on the long walk back to nan’s.
As we got older we were allowed to play
outside (things were different back then
- doors were left unlocked and kids would
just wander in and out of their neighbours’
homes to see who was coming out to play
with no fear of being abducted) and would
listen for the rag and bone man or the
chimes of the ice cream van! We would run
into the front garden screaming “Mum!
Mum! The ice cream man is coming - the
ice cream man is coming - throw down
some money!” Usually my mum or my nan
or one of my aunties would throw down
some money and the chase would be on -
we would be running at top speed and I am
sure the ice cream man must have seen us
but he would drive on just a little further to
make us chase.
Once he had stopped the real dilemma
began, the choice. Britain’s best selling lolly
the Fab or a Screwball (a kind of ice cream
served in a plastic cone with a bubble gum
in the bottom) or maybe if the pennies
were plentiful the legendary 99 soft serve
ice cream with a Flake - maybe even with
strawberry sauce and nuts. At age 7 or 8,
this was the “Daddy” of all icecreams.
Over the years we would take turns
holidaying sometimes with my Nan at
her caravan on the isle of Sheppey and
sometimes in Cyprus in the heart of the
Med.
When in the UK, we would often take a
rake and bucket during the day and go off
cockling and then in the evening go into
24
town for a game or
two of bingo,
a bag of chips
and an ice cream.
The Greek holidays
however brought us
a totally new ice cream
experience in the form
of a hard scoop ice cream
served by a guy on the beach
who used to walk bare foot across
the sand (a feat not to be attempted
by mere mortals). This ice cream was
epic! The lavours lavours were out of this world
- chocolate, rose, orange, strawberry and
all so so refreshing. The ice cream guy here
used real fruit and was clearly an icecream
legend.
Adolescence came and went and I got
my irst car. Yet again, there was a type of
ice cream to suit the lifestyle - one that you
could grab and go, eat on the run, un-wrap
while you drove on a hot day. The dribbly
99 just couldn’t cut it. To bridge that gap in
my life I turned to a new friend in the form
of a illed cone called the Cornetto. Having
big glitzy tv ads made it seem like a good
thing to be seen eating.
I moved swiftly on from the Cornetto
to the Feast - a legendary lolly that always
seemed much bigger back then (like Wagon
Wheels and Big Macs?) And then from the
Ice cream trivia...
It takes 50 licks to eat a single scoop ice
cream.
An average dairy cow can produce enough
milk in her lifetime to produce 9000
gallons of ice cream.
Hawaii has a fruit known as the ice cream
bean or the monkey tamarind that actually
tastes like vanilla ice cream.
70 % of all 2 litre supermarket own brand
ice cream is made by R&R ice cream in its
Leeming Bar plant - they also make over
600 million ice lollies every year.
Walls, one of the world’s biggest ice cream
manufacturers, is a UK originated brand
now owned by Unilever with annual sales
estimated at over 5 billion euros
The most popular fl avour is vanilla
followed by chocolate then strawberry
It is estimated that 9 litres of ice cream are
consumed in the UK per person every year,
which is not as much as most Scandinavian
countries or the Americans who consume a
whopping 20 litres per person every year!
Feast
evolved the
Snickers, the Mars
and the Magnum.
Life through my late
twenties through to now
(mid forties) seemed to go
so fast and become a bit of
a blur because I’ve done so
much!! I am a father to several
children, indeed a grand father,
I’ve been a publican, a restauranteur,
a property developer, a
cinema owner and an award winning chip
shop owner. I’ve been close to the edge and
I’ve been blessed with some great times as
well and through all of this, silently in the
back ground, icecream has always been
there in an appropriate form to suit my
age and my life style and has never, never
let me down. It has to be one of the most
universally loved products on the planet.
As a chef I used to make my own
ice cream with a paco jet, a great Swiss
machine used by chefs and caterers world
wide to make healthier, sometimes more
obscure lavoured icecreams. It’s a great
machine for smaller batches of real artisan
ice creams and sorbets. I’ve also used the
Magimix ice cream maker with its self
churning and freezing chamber to make
more conventional custard-based ice
creams and I hope one day to be able to
attend the Carpagianni Gelato Academy
and expand my ice cream knowledge even
more from the world’s leading ice cream
making machine manufacturer.
The world of ice cream is vast and
has more variations than I can possibly
do justice in these pages. I have learned
to love and appreciate ice cream as an
affordable treat readily and easily accessible
and that when home made can also be
healthier than many people think, too.
The opportunity not only for proit but
to make life long customers with ice cream
should never be underestimated. Whether
you want to make your own or soft serve,
hard scoop or stock “grab and go”, the thing
you must do is get in some ice cream!!
Pete Petrou
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

The lucrative soft ice cream market
opens up to everyone
Having spent the winter months in development, Snowshock
reveal their amazing new soft ice cream product.
The brand new technology they have adopted, now makes it
affordable for all outlets to sell soft ice cream. Before now the
smallest table top ice cream machine was in excess of £5000,
SnowShock’s machine is
1/3rd of this price, easier
to maintain and there is no
requirement for a costly
service package.
Now the lucrative
soft ice cream market is
open to everyone and
whatsmore; SnowShock
will throw in enough
stock to cover the outlay.
Return on investment is
expected to be very quick,
with their slush machines
it is only an average of 11
weeks and the ice cream is
expected to be even faster.
SnowShock developed
the ice cream with the
expertise of an Italian
May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
ices and desserts
consultancy and the product is manufactured there too, ensuring
the highest quality to make sure your sales soar. It’s very
proitable, a large tub which sells for £1.30 rrp only cost’s 43p to
make including tub & spoon, which is a GP of 67%, pretty good
yeh?
Gear up for 2012, the year of celebrations, festivities &
spending!
With extra Bank Holidays, the Olympics, the Euro’s and the
Queens Golden Jubilee, this is sure to be a great summer, give a
boost to your opportunities by adding one of SnowShock’s highly
proitable summer products.
Whether it’s delicious, soft ice cream or refreshing, fruity, slush
or both, you will ensure you make the most of this special, one off
summer. Consumers are expected to throw caution the wind and
indulge themselves, like never before, so gear up for some serious
extra income.
With proits of up to 75%, free
stock to cover your investment,
lifetime parts warranty and expert
backup you could not prepare
better. Did you know? Last year
the average SnowShock slush
customer sold their free stock
through within 11 weeks!
For more information contact
SnowShock on 0191 2869000 or
visit www.snowshock.com
25

ices and desserts
Sweet profits up
for grabs...
Fryers may be missing out on an opportunity
to “upsell” customers through
failing to exploit growing demand for
desserts, Moy Park Foodservice is warning.
Jayne Hall, the company’s Marketing
Manager, says: “There is certainly an
opportunity for more fryers to consider
adding desserts to their offering because
they can generate new sales opportunities.
“Fryers need to look at the beneits
of offering desserts and to understand
how easy it is to offer something their
customers will really appreciate. Some may
be put off because they think desserts may
be dificult to make and may delay service
particularly at busy times. However, they
can overcome these concerns by focusing
on products that are easy to prepare and
serve up and will have great appeal to the
many consumers with a sweet tooth.
“There is actually a great choice of
products for fryers that suit their practical
and commercial needs and can help them
boost their takings by encouraging more
customers to include a dessert with their
food order.”
Ices from Kerry
Anthony Wilkinson, foodservice marketing
manager for Kerry Foodservice, comments on
the UK ice cream market:
“Despite the recession, Euromonitor research
showed 4% growth in the UK ice cream market
last year. This appears to confirm the suggestion by
IBIS World that, as a ‘feel good’ product, ice cream
has resilience to times of economic duress because
of its perception by consumers as an inexpensive
indulgence.
“Indeed, a report on the UK market from
Canadean says that over 50 per cent of consumers
state indulgence as an influence over their ice cream
consumption and Mintel’s report indicates limited
interest in low-fat and low calorie propositions,
which also appears to support the idea that people
still like to treat themselves.”
While consumer demand for ice cream tends to
be higher during the summer months, caterers can
26
Moy Park Foodservice’s dessert range
includes its apple pie: “Fryers who want
to get into desserts can perhaps start
by offering apple pie as part of a ‘meal
deal’ to emphasise value to customers
– something that is very appealing to
people at the moment when they are
watching their spending. This approach
will also encourage customers to trade up
and increase their spend. Something like
an apple pie is ideal as part of a meal deal
because it is perceived as an affordable,
everyday treat.”
Moy Park Foodservice’s apple pie
has beneits for fryers because it comes
individually packaged for ease of handling
in a colourful sleeve so is perfect for
consumers wanting to eat on the move. “It
can be deep fried from frozen in under six
minutes making it ideal for busy outlets
where people want their food served up in
a hurry. Fryers can also download an eyecatching
poster to highlight the offering to
customers.”
Another way for fast food outlets to
cater for dessert-lovers is the “thaw and
serve” Donut range. “These indulgent
treats are ready to eat in just 30-45
minutes from frozen, they defrost at room
temperature and have a shelf life of 12-24
hours. It means they are a really practical
capitalise on the trend for nostalgia all year round
by adding items such as ice cream sundaes and
Knickerbocker Glories to their dessert offering.
By using a combination of the Margetts range of
dessert sauces and Kerrymaid Ice Cream Mix – part
of the complete Kerrymaid dairy ingredients range,
developed with professional craft and Irish charm
– contract caterers can create colourful, tasty and
attractively priced desserts to entice customers to
treat themselves to on-trend retro dessert.
Adrian Coulter, Business Development Chef
for Kerry Foodservice, comments: “Kerrymaid Ice
Cream Mix provides the deliciously creamy taste
and texture of traditional dairy ice cream, delivers
excellent margins, is gluten free, contains no hydrogenated
fat and is suitable for vegetarians.”
The Margetts sauces come in ten moreish
flavours perfect for drizzling, including indulgent
Chocolate Fudge, refreshing Lemon and, for a taste
of the tropics, Coconut.
Caterers can use Kerrymaid Ice Cream Mix and
Margetts sauces to create unique recipes that will
revitalise menus and help them capitalise on ice
cream’s continued popularity.
For more information on Kerrymaid, Margetts and
the rest of the Kerry Foodservice portfolio, please
visit: www.kerryfoodservice.co.uk
solution for busy shops looking to provide
a simple to serve dessert. Preparation and
serving could not be easier: caterers simply
need to thaw and serve.”
Moy Park Foodservice is helping
fryers stimulate impulse sales through
offering free striking point-of-sale which
is downloadable from its website: www.
moyparkfoodservice.com or by calling
Prime Line on 01480 445 900.
For more information about Moy Park
Foodservice products please visit www.
moyparkfoodservice.com or call Prime
Line on 0800 085 2749.
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

www.us4slush.com
Tel: 0845 3387041 / 01202 666922
Want some serious profit? Buy direct from the factory.
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maximum profit from your slush machine.
We have 16 flavours of syrup, 4 sizes of cups
with lids and straws.
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and maximize profit with refills.
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*Based on 7oz cup not including any waste.*Minimum orders value applies. All prices subject to VAT
May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
ices and desserts
Twin Bowl machine
£1330 + vat
Supplied with
60ltrs slush syrup x 1500 cups and
straws
+ Flags and other POS
Pizza
Equipment
Specialists
Official UK
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Call 0151 548 5818
www.cater-bake.co.uk
27

potatoes and potato products
The key to success - growing
quality potatoes
Market leading fresh chip supplier,
Triple F Chips Director, David Linton
believes growing quality potatoes is the
key factor in the growth of business.
From humble beginnings, serving a few
shops in the Blackpool area 6 years ago,
Triple F Chips has now customers all over
the UK. David believes this would not be
possible if Triple F Chips hadn’t built a
reputation for quality and consistency.
“We grow the majority of our frying
potatoes in North West England. We do not
have the water shortage issues currently
being experienced in the South and East
and do not need to irrigate crops.”
Triple F Director Colin Bradley has over
30 years’ experience growing chipping
potatoes, being instrumental in many of the
developments to improve potato quality.
“Potatoes can be grown in two ways, for
appearance required for the supermarket
shelves or for the inside of the potato used
for chipping and other processing.”
“We aim for less yield but ensure the fry
quality and dry matter is right for the chip
shops. If we ind a batch is not right, we
don’t use it.”
The chip trade normally acknowledge
that potatoes can be more dificult at the
end of the season in May and June, but our
customers have now got used to a quality
chip 12 months of the year.
28
David says “It’s fun sometimes, when
new customers try Triple F Chips for the
irst time. They can’t believe that they are
as good as or better than their own peeled
potatoes. I explain that all we are doing is
replicating their current process, but on
a much larger scale, but with a rigorous
Quality Assessment on the potatoes before
they get peeled.”
“Once they start using Triple F Chips,
customers rarely go back to peeling their
own, seeing the savings in water use,
labour , waste, electricity , machinery costs
and all the issues with buying potatoes.”
Testament to the high quality level is
the success of Triple F Chip Customers at
the 2012 SeaFish Awards with Seniors,
McDermotts and Fish’n’Chick’n winning
their respective categories.
There is an open invitation for any chip
shop owner to visit Triple F Chips.
Further information is available on the
website www.fyldefreshandfabulous.com
or by calling David Linton 07917 850378
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Award Winning
Fresh Chips
Chips Made Simple!
Quality Fresh Chips • No Prep Time
No Water Charges • No Mess
Next Day Delivery
Triple F Chips are used by Seniors at Marsh Mill,
Independent Chip Shop Takeaway of the year 2012 and
by McDermott's of Croydon, Independent Chip Shop
Restaurant of the year 2012.
01253 836000
www.fyldefreshandfabulous.com

potatoes and potato products
New All Seasons from
Drywite
We are delighted to announce the launch of our exciting new
development ALL SEASONS!
A brand new concept in Potato treatment, developed to
provide variable dosing, a positive answer for sugars and starch
found in potatoes, and a product to address Acrylamide too, for
use all year round!
Will we continue to supply Drywite#2? Yes of course we shall,
it’s the number one brand and always will be. The development
of All Seasons is for the premier fryer, someone who wants to
achieve the very best results. Of course we as a business will
always aim to be at the forefront, providing the very best we can
for the industry. I hear you ask will this replace Drywite Powder,
we hope not, and feel it unlikely, but as always we are led by our
customer’s choice!
We hear the mis-understanding of friers when they talk of only
needing Drywite in winter or not needing it on new potatoes. Of
course neither is true. Spurred on by friers’ issues with starch
and sugar leading to darkened frying medium we have developed
All Seasons. For most of the year they need a standard dose, at
warmer times they can reduce the dose and at colder times they
can increase the dose to suit, thus offering a variable dose.
We have been testing and trialling with some premier friers,
experts in their ield, and their response has been very positive
hailing the new product as the way ahead!
We are conident that this is new technology, and as such
unique to Drywite, we encourage you to try the new product
immediately, and don’t get left behind.
30
Buy safely online at our secure website - where you will
fi nd a huge range of essentials from Rational, Lincat,
ClassEq, Interlevin and many more
Whatever you need to know our friendly, specialist team are here to help.
There’s never any obligation to buy so why not take advantage of some free
advice that could save you a lot of money?
Order online today or
call on 01733 231764
www.blue-cross-catering.co.uk
For all your catering equipment needs
With the cost of treating 5 portions at less than one and half
pence! We think it’s the best investment you could make.
Samples are ready now!
Call 01384 569556 or visit the website at www.drywite.co.uk
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Call us for your FREE sample on
01384 569 556
www.drywite.co.uk
Manufactured in the UK by Drywite Ltd.
PREMIER
Chip Shop Potato Treatment
SPRING
SUMMER
AUTUMN
WINTER
Dry and white chips whatever the season
Formulated to work even on increased sugar potatoes
Suppresses the formulation of Acrylamide on chips
Technically superior for a superior frier

potatoes and potato products
Buy & Fry - a real chip shop chip!
D uncan McLean from the Q PARTNERSHIP commented on the
Colbeck Buy & Fry pre-prepared chip: “The vast majority
of ish & chip take-aways and ish & chip restaurants peel and
chip their potatoes in the “back shop”. This incurs a signiicant
overhead cost in terms of labour and water usage as well as the
cost of the machinery! It is also an activity that can result in a loss
of proit by rumbling the potatoes for an excessive period of time
and also there is the ongoing concern about the day-to-day quality
of the potatoes.
“More and more ish & chip operators are using chips that have
not been produced on the premises. The products that are being
provided are delivered to shops and restaurants in either a chilled
or an ambient condition. This type of product is very acceptable.
However, they have a very limited shelf-life, usually 4 days. This,
we believe, for most ish friers is not a practical proposition.
“So the Q PARTNERSHIP, in conjunction with McCain Foods,
have developed what we believe to be the authentic chip shop
chip…Buy & Fry. The plan presented by the Q PARTNERSHIP to
McCain was very simple…
Take a potato. Peel it… but not too perfectly. Chip it. Freeze it.
The inished product is not uniform so they look just like the
chips that most ish & chip operators would produce…but with
none of the work. And they can be allowed to defrost and cooked
from chilled, as well as from frozen.
To prevent damage during the freezing process. they are steam
blanched and for a few seconds, “lashed-fried” in sunlower oil.
And that’s it. Try them and see.
www.colbeck.co.uk or call Duncan on 0191 482 8406
32
B28
WILLIAMS
CATERING EQUIPMENT
Specialist in Potato peelers & chippers
B56
B14
FULL RANGE OF NEW BOLD EQUIPMENT
CRYPTO C56 IMC PC1 CRYPTO C28 CRYPTO F2F
IMC PC2
RE-CONDITIONED EQUIPMENT – NEW AND USED SPARE PARTS
Servicing – Repairs – Baked Re-Gritting Service
BOLD - IMC - CRYPTO - HOBART - METCALFE & MORE
All credit and debit card accepted
01626 890871
WE BUY YOUR OLD EQUIPMENT www.williamspotatoes.co.uk
Exeworthy Farm, Staplake Lane, Starcross, Exeter, Devon EX6 8QT
R1
S1
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Developed specially for the Fish & Chip market to provide you and your customers with the authentic chip shop chip.
• TRADITIONAL TASTE
• NATURAL LOOK
• CONSISTENT QUALITY
• REDUCED OVERHEADS
• NO WASTE
• EASY TO HANDLE
SAVE40%
UP TO
ON YOUR OIL & FAT COSTS
Frying oil & fat usage analysis is available on request.
•
NO HIDDEN COSTS
•
BRITISH, SELECTED POTATOES
FRY FROM FROZEN OR CHILLED
Chipped from
REAL Potatoes!!
• AVAILABLE TO USE IMMEDIATELY
Available from:
Chipped from REAL Potatoes!!
Henry Colbeck Limited V. A. Whitley & Co. Limited Friars Pride Limited Doubles
Telephone: 0191 482 4242 Telephone: 01706 364211 Telephone: 01733 316400 Telephone: 01202 743177
www.colbeck.co.uk www.vawhitley.co.uk www.friarspride.com wwwdoublesfoodanddrink.co.uk

potatoes and potato products
Lord Chips, proper chips
Lord chips - the purveyors of proper
good old fashioned chip shop chips
- has been an integral part in the lives
of fryers for nearly 60 years. Trusted by
chip shops across the land to provide the
very best in quality chilled chips, value
for money, and, most importantly – taste,
Lord Chips are chilled pre-fried chips
designed for fryers who want to offer their
customers proper, fresh chips.
Made using the very best yellow lesh
potatoes for crispy, golden and delicious
quality chips, Lord Chips are the connoisseur’s
chip of choice. Available in two
cuts, 10mm and 15mm, consistent
quality and reliability underpin the Lord
Chips offering, as such, the company has
developed a strong following and a loyal
customer base of fanatical fryers.
Why chilled?
From higher yield to a better taste, there
is a raft of reasons why chilled chips have
the edge over frozen. For instance, chilled
chips have approx 10% quicker frying time
than frozen chips, making peak hours a
doddle to cater for. With quick turnaround
frying, you can increase eficiency, offering
your customers a better service.
Chilled chips also offer more portions
than from the same quantity of frozen
chips, as they contain less water. It may not
sound like much, but this can amount to a
big saving over the course of a year.
With chilled chips you can also save up
to 50% per portion on energy costs as the
frying oil will reach its required temperature
sooner than with frozen. Chilled
chips can then be stored in a chill room
at (0 - 4˚C) as opposed to a freezer, saving
even more on energy costs.
34
Aviko Potato
Products
“Side dishes are
an added extra
that can be highly
beneicial for your
proits. Being savvy
with your sides
can lead to incremental
or impulse
purchases, so it is
vital to pick the
right range to tempt
your customers into
spending that little
bit more.
“Casual dining is an exploding market,
with a focus on quality, value and convenience.
As a dedicated foodservice supplier,
Aviko has a comprehensive range of
potato products that will help keep your
customers satisied, from our new Herb
Diced Potatoes to Spicy wedges, we’ve got
it covered.”
Aviko Herb Diced Potatoes
Caterers can enhance their menus with this
latest offering from Aviko.
Herb Diced Potatoes combine the appeal
of two complementary herbs – parsley
and basil – to provide a versatile accompaniment
with a real point of difference that
can enhance a range of dishes.
They can be used as a chip alternative,
part of a sharing platter, or a delicious onthe-go
solution in a takeaway box.
As with the entire Aviko range, Aviko
Herb Diced Potatoes have been developed
for convenience which means they can
be prepared to order quickly – just three
and a half minutes in a fryer supporting
the needs of busy kitchens, with minimal
wastage.
Aviko Potato Wedges
Aviko’s premium wedges include delicious
Garlic & Herb, Spicy, Tex Mex and Crinkle
variants. A premium alternative to regular
chips, Aviko’s Wedges are supplied
frozen, and can be prepared in a matter
of minutes, helping caterers deal with the
demands of a busy service when serving a
large number of people in a limited timeframe.
Another bonus is that the Wedges
offer guaranteed portion control, because
they don’t have to be prepared in advance,
helping caterers reduce costs by cutting
down on preparation time and food waste.
New Website and Facebook Page for
Fryers’ Favourite
Lord Chips has launched a brand new
dedicated website: www.lordchips.com
promoting its trusted range of traditional
chilled chips while offering fryers a wealth
of practical information at their ingertips.
The company has also created a Facebook
page: www.facebook.com/lordchipsproperchips
giving fryers the perfect platform
to shout about their shops, chat about their
chips, win fantastic prizes and keep up to
speed with the industry.
The new website is a one stop shop,
highlighting the many advantages of chilled
chips. One visit will demonstrate just how
Lord Chips can provide a real boost to the
proits.
For more product information on The Lord
Chips call 01442 239 536 or visit www.
lordchips.com
Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.
com/lordchipsproperchips
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Juicy, tender chicken? Use a pressure fryer
S outhern Fried Chicken is always prepared from fresh, daily, so it is guaranteed to be
served at its peak every time, and for that we use a Broaster pressure fryer.
Because it’s pressure fried, Southern Fried Chicken is more tender, juicier, and tastes
better than open fried chicken – and even better than other pressure fried chicken for that
matter! Pressure frying seals in more of the foods natural lavours. Chicken retains up to
44% more moisture than when open fried, and seals out more of the oil. Plus, pressure
fried foods cook signiicantly faster, so you can produce more volume in less time, and the
retained moisture increases the holding time of the inished product.
The Broaster pressure fryer beneits from many features, including lower cooking oil
consumption due to the fact there is very low oil absorption into food; between 40 – 70%
less fat than compared to open fried chicken. Available in 3 size models, and in gas or
electric, the Broaster is designed for maximum energy eficiency, and increased productivity,
as the food is cooked in less time. For example, the 1800 model has a food capacity
of 6.2Kg (36-38 pieces of chicken). The built in ilter system, with user friendly operation
saves labour, and aids trouble free maintenance and clean up. This also prolongs oil life.
An option is to have the pressure fryer with the ‘Fastron’ controller, which is pre-programmable
with multiple time & temperature settings for up to 8 products enabling easy one
touch consistency to your product.
May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
poultry and poultry products
35

poultry and poultry products
Changes to poultry duty
means price rises may be
imminent
July 2012 sees the duty charges on poultry imports from outside
the EU changing on all products with a meat content of less than
57% (this includes products such as nuggets, steaks, burgers etc).
These changes will undoubtedly see a hike in raw material prices,
leading to a likely industry move to a more EU-based supply
– obviously the purpose of the new legislation.
At this stage, it is not certain whether this duty change will
induce a generic increase across the whole market as a result of
the tightening of supply inside of Europe.
Central Foods sources poultry for it’s own brand, Golden Valley
Foods, from within the EU and outside. This, combined with our
bulk storage facility, should reduce the level of any possible raw
material increases for our customers across this branded range.
The Golden Valley Foods range includes:
Battered Chicken Nuggets (approx. 22g each)* 1 x 2kg
Battered Chicken Steaks* 24 x 85g
Crunchy Chicken Fillets – plain (approx. 35g each)* 1 x 2kg
Southern Fried Chicken Breast Fillets (approx. 45g each)* 1
x 2kg
Crunchy Chicken Chunks - plain* 1 x 2kg
NEW for 2012, Golden Valley Foods Hot ‘n’ Crunchy Chicken
Wings, packed 1 x 2kg (count 25-38 per kg). These delicious,
ready-cooked, IQF wings are coated in a tasty, hot and
spicy, crunchy breadcrumb and offer a different lavour and
texture option to traditional wings. Great on their own or
as part of a combo meal, these Wings can be reheated from
frozen in the oven, deep fat fryer or even a pizza oven for
maximum versatility. Finger food at its spiciest and most
creative!
All Golden Valley Foods products are made from high quality
meat, perform consistently every time and many are also Halal
approved. This means they are fast becoming the market-leading,
“go-to” range for operators in the fast food industry.
In addition to the fast food industry, Central Foods can also
supply the following Golden Valley Foods products, which are
whole muscle and ideal for plated meals and buffets/functions:
Luxury Chicken Kievs (boneless) 10 x 184g
Luxury Chicken Kievs (sprig-bone in) 10 x 198g
Breaded Chicken Drumsticks (85-120g each) 1 x 20
Mini Chicken Kebab Selection (12 each of 3 lavours) 36 x
30g
All Golden Valley Foods products are available throughout the
UK from leading frozen food wholesalers.
For further information on Central Foods or Golden Valley
Foods products, please call our sales advisers on 01604 858 522,
email enquiries@centralfoods.co.uk or visit our website: www.
centralfoods.co.uk
*Halal approved
For further information, please contact: Gordon Lauder, MD
Central Foods: 01604 858 522 E: glauder@centralfoods.co.uk
Alison Lauder, Marketing Director Central Foods: 01604 858 522
E: alauder@centralfoods.co.uk
36
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

poultry and poultry products
A world of taste
sensations
Chicken remains an extremely popular
fast food option in the UK and is likely
to hold its own following recent news
that eating an extra portion of red meat
every day will increase your risk of death
by 13% annually. Harvard Medical School
researchers have concluded that a diet high
in red meat can shorten life expectancy, so
are we likely to see an increase in people
opting for chicken as a healthier substitute
in the fast food market? If so then Love Joes
Foodservice is well-placed to help, with its
premium range of chicken products…..
Health is certainly high on the agenda
in the UK, so it makes sense that chicken,
which is naturally low-fat and high in
protein, remains a irm favourite when it
comes to eating food on the go.
Toni Koumi, operations manager for
Love Joes Foodservice, one of the top
chicken product specialists in foodservice,
said: “The chief reason for offering chicken
products is that poultry - and chicken in
particular - is still a top choice for hungry
and health conscious Brits.
“Chicken constitutes over two ifths of
the UK protein market, with sales in 2009
of £2.4 billion, beneiting in the recession
as a better-value alternative to red meat.
“In addition, nearly one in three adults
are trying to lose weight most of the time,
a sizeable minority with a potentially high
interest in low-fat protein like poultry and
a largely untapped market for fast food
markets to break into. Now together with
the news that excessive consumption of red
meat can seriously damage your health,
38
chicken is likely to be even more popular
on UK menus.
“It therefore makes sense that fast
food outlets start looking outside the box
when it comes to chicken and poultry in
order to tap into the public’s demand for
alternatives to red meat. All too often the
British public think of fried chicken when
the words fast food and poultry are seen
together, but fried chicken is just the tip of
the iceberg when it comes to chicken on
the go.
“At Love Joes we are all about adding full
lavours and spices to our chicken dishes
and we are certainly well placed to spice up
any fast food menu.”
Curry creation for the nation
Love Joes has spiced up its chicken product
portfolio with the launch of Love Curry.
Using only the inest spices, the new Asian
concept gives customers the opportunity to
choose from plain or marinated chicken, 13
sauces including Korma, Balti and Jalfrezi,
and accompaniments including rice, naans
and vegetable samosa rolls.
Each authentic curry sauce is speciically
developed to either a vegetarian or
vegan recipe to enable operators to offer
their own meat-free or protein illings and
appeal to a wider audience.
Toni said: “Our new curry on a plate or
in a branded pot relects the fact Indian
food is now one of the most popular ethnic
cuisines in the UK. As a proitable and
lexible solution utilising the power of a
respected brand, it is a proitable solution
for the fast food industry.”
Love Joes’ ever growing portfolio of food
concepts offers a quick and nutritious way
to enhance a diverse selection of menus.
Dual compartment vehicles means Love
Joes can deliver both fresh and frozen to
your door.
The concept is supported by a range of
Love Curry point of sale material to raise
awareness of the offer, including branded
curry pots, posters and menu boards.
Equipment and serving suggestions are
also available.
All wrapped up
As one of the leading suppliers of chicken
products, Love Joes’ Asian offering aims to
help operators explore new opportunities
while making proit through a tried and
tested format.
Toni said: “We have seen many a
customer reap success with branded
concepts such as Love Wrappin’ Joes.
Traditionally it is our Mediterranean and
Tikka chicken marinades that tend to be
the best sellers but other lavours such as
Piri Piri are now becoming more popular,
and with a total of 19 chicken marinades
there’s plenty to choose from.
Try something new
Love Joes continues to grow its portfolio of
grill it, bake it and fry it chicken products,
to offer quick and nutritious ways to
enhance a diverse selection of fast food
menus.
Whether you want premium chicken
burgers, hot chicken wings, fresh chicken
for kebabs or succulent marinated chicken
products, which are undemanding and easy
to prepare, Love Joes has it covered. To
help support the chicken concept Love Joes
has recently introduced special branded
boxes and pots too.
Toni added: “Quality assurance is
key and all our products are carefully
developed in our purpose-built production
unit and tested by our selected team of
tasters. Our fast food customers are also
welcome to come in for a ‘cook off’ and
sample our products to taste the difference.
“The product receives accreditation
from The British Retail Consortium (BRC),
with its Gold Standard regarded as the
benchmark for best practice in the food
industry.”
For further information, call 08700 601240
or log onto www.lovejoes.co.uk.
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Chicken under pressure
Kuroma Pressure Fryers - Southern Fried Chicken as it should
be, crisp spicy coating covering moist succulent meat.
Pandet Limited, the home of Kuroma, was formed in 1980, and
has been based in South Wigston, Leicester, for nearly twenty
years. From the beginning Pandet Limited have supplied, not only
the smaller shop but also major restaurant chains. They supply
and service the Kuroma Pressure fryer and sell original Kuroma
spares, at home and abroad.
For over 30 years they have been manufacturing Kuroma
Pressure Fryers and earning their reputation for good
performance, reliability and excellent customer support.
KUROMA Pressure Fryers have been designed and made,
here in the UK, so that the smaller shop can afford to give their
customers quality Southern Fried Chicken, without having to
break the bank to buy the equipment. Don’t worry if space is a
problem, they will it on a standard catering worktop in addition
to being light enough to be portable. Whether your shop is on the
high street, a hut on the beach, or even on the end of the pier, you
can set up a highly proitable Southern Fried Chicken trade, all you
need is a 230v 13amp power supply.
Kuroma Pressure Fryers produce fried chicken in exactly the
same way as the large expensive fryers but gone are the days when
you had to spend lots of money to produce irst-rate Southern
Fried Chicken. You are not restricted to chicken; potato wedges
are tasty, as are mushrooms, caulilower, parsnips and many other
foods.
The KUROMA fryer is easy to use. To bread the chicken shake
the chicken joints in a bag with the breading mix, for best results
the breading should be done at least 30 minutes before frying.
Switch on the Kuroma about 20 minutes before you want to start
to cook, when the temperature reaches 165ºC place the breaded
joints one at a time in the oil and fasten the lid. Set the timer
to about 14 minutes and leave it. Pressure will build up in the
pot and excess steam will vent from the dead weight valve. The
solenoid valve will release the pressure once the timer reaches
Moy Park Chickwich
The UK quick service restaurant and take-away sector, now worth £9.1bn (in
revenue), serves over 2.5bn meals per year. Current trends see consumers
looking for healthier choices, even in fast food, but not at the expense of fl avour.
They also want really tasty and even spicy menu ideas to meet their adventurous
tastes and Moy Park Foodservice can help you take advantage of this new
opportunity.
Moy Park Foodservice off ers an exciting and highly appropriate range of
tasty chicken and vegetable products, along with desserts, for this sector, which
help you off er menu choices which are new and diff erent in order to retain the
interest of your regular customers as well as attracting new consumers.
All products within the range are very easy to cook and produce consistently
high quality end results, whatever the skill set of your kitchen. Here see
our Battered Chickwich Steak - chicken breast meat coated in our deliciously
light, crisp and golden signature batter. Off ering the perfect 4” bun fi ll this is the
foodservice number one branded chicken burger. Available in 85gm (battered)
and 114gm (crumbed) sizes, and with a variety of diff erent batter fl avours, as
well as wholemeal breadcrumbs, the Chickwich is a perfect menu off er.
See www.moyparkfoodservice.com for the full range
May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
poultry and poultry products
Proven Reliability
Kuroma based in South
Wigston, Leicester, have
been manufacturing
pressure fryers for
Southern Fried Chicken
for over 30 years.
We believe our success
is due to not only to our
excellent products but
also our excellent
customer service.
KuromaRegistered Trademark
Pandet Ltd. the home of
The Kuroma Pressure Fryer.
The original British made
counter top pressure fryer.
We supply original
Kuroma Spares.
We are here to answer
any of your questions,
please give us call on
0116 2772372.
Want to know more
before phoning, visit
www.kuroma.com
zero. As soon as the pressure gauge also reads zero you can
unfasten the lid and lift out your basket of superb Southern Fried
Chicken.
Should you wish to know more about the Kuroma Pressure Fryer
or you just want to contact Pandet Limited, visit them at www.
kuroma.com or www.facebook.com/kuromapressurefryers.
39

food to go!
Building your brand on the high street
Will Hopkins looks this month at
building customer loyalty to your brand
During our last article we deconstructed
the brand and looked at what
component parts were needed to make
one. We found that a fundamental part of
successful brands were their ability to offer
a speciic style and method of delivering
something generic. Giving the customer
what the cynic would say was the illusion
to some extent that the product was better
and the experience improved by choosing
a particular brand. We looked at why the
brand coupled with an operating system
that was franchiseable, provided an even
better guarantee that the experience
would be enhanced for the customer and
therefore more successful for the operator;
and in this issue we’re going to look at
what it is about the independent fast food
operation, in particular ish & chips that
seems to prevent it from evolving into
something franchiseable.
If you take a look at any successful
franchise whether fast food or otherwise
you’ll usually ind one overriding characteristic
in the business model. They
focus on doing one thing and they aim to
do it to the best of their ability. In most
cases, especially within the food franchise
game, each concept works hard to deine
itself as a brand and it deines itself in
this way by creating points of difference
that are anchor points of difference in
the particular way of doing something
fairly generic such as frying chips….for
Mcdonalds it’s the fries perhaps, for Burger
King it’s the lame grilling. But overall
the brand irst of all identiies its market,
deines its core product and then builds its
story around it.
This has traditionally happened in an
organic way. One business is opened, it
grows in success, others follow, they grow,
the concept is reined, the brand is honed
and then the franchise is established as
a natural process of that success….one
person’s very tangible success is recognised
and recreated in a format that means
another can short circuit this learning
curve and leverage off this experience and
at a price, reap those rewards learned at
the sharp edge.
So immediately we can see that for
the independent, focus seems to be their
main point of difference as they try to
offer different parts of many successful
fast foods, inding they can do none of
40
them well enough to achieve any notable
difference. With ish & chips certainly it
appears that those operators who work
hard to produce a unique version of
their product seem to earn a reputation
for being better than others in the same
game in the same area. But are they doing
enough? It would appear that what makes
a successful franchise different is the fact
that they do whatever they do with some
obvious differences that set it apart from
the rest. So that the customer knows they
are different. It is often in style and design
and in menu choices but also in cooking
methodology and system of service.
Rarely though does any independent
retailer do anything that different and it
isn’t often you walk in to a ish & chip shop,
however good, and ind they are offering
something that makes the customer feel
what they are experiencing is in some way
so different to the experience somewhere
else. Shops are never that different and
little is consideration is given to design,
...what makes a successful
franchise diff erent is the fact that
they do whatever they do with
some obvious diff erences that set it
apart from the rest
style or character. Yes they are sometimes
better maybe but different? But perhaps
that is not the point. Perhaps what the
customer is looking for in this experience is
just a better experience….the most golden,
light and crisp batter served with chips
that are so moreish they simply can’t get
enough of it.
As I see it there is certainly a process
that must be experienced that leads an idea
to franchise status and that’s usually the
journey from one shop to multiple shops
demonstrating enough of a difference that
a brand can emerge and a franchise can be
born. So why is it that a successful brand
and bankable franchise has not emerged?
Perhaps it is because no one operator has
been able to train the kind of customer
they consistently receive into becoming
loyal to their particular menu or system of
delivery. And perhaps that’s because when
they try new things the customer is not
keen to step out of their ‘comfort zone’ and
try something new….and perhaps that’s
because they have come to expect ish &
chips to represent something speciic that
they’re not ready to let go of. Perhaps it is
price driven….a branded franchise usually
means more expensive products at irst
anyway, something that they resent…or
is it variety of menu or consistency of
service? Whatever it may be it appears
that so far no one has worked out how
to up their game to the level where their
product and service warrants brand status
and is therefore worthy of franchising.
What does seem true is that a brand
comes before a franchise. And a brand is
something that has taken a generic product
or service and focused on delivering it with
greater eficiency, speed and consistency
and hopefully greater quality and better
value for money. It then presents as better,
different and unique and builds on that
model until it has earned a good enough
reputation that someone is prepared to pay
to be part of it.
Following this then, it would appear that
for independents to elevate themselves
they need to go in one of two directions 1)
either work collectively to improve their
product and service so that customers
can trust them 2) or work independently
and compete against one another until
eventually one emerges triumphant as a
local brand that is worth franchising. But
to achieve either it would appear that at
irst irst stop, the basic product needs consideration.
If we take a closer look at ish ish &
chips, surely it is about menu. A really well
patronised ish ish & chip shop offers a very
good and quality product. But beyond that
what is it offering? Surely what it needs
to do is address the quality of the product
it’s using, so ish that is fresh, from reliable
sources – even sustainable ones. And
then chips that are ‘best in class’ using the
right kind of potatoes and then cooking
them three times to ensure that lowery
crunchy and ‘moreishness’ that brings
a person back time after time: A great
and homemade or at least quality tartare
sauce; consideration for packaging and
the experience that made ish & chips so
much a part of our national identity – using
newspapers over polystyrene containers
which make the ish sweat and the chips
soggy. In other words detail and focus.
Beginning there seems to be the place that
every successful franchise has begun. And
an unerring commitment to delivering one
thing better than anyone else has proven
time after time to be the best way to reach
success. Think for a moment – Pizza
Express, GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen),
Starbucks. What do they share,
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
food to go!
KIREMKO ELECTRIC RANGE FOR SALE - £17,500
This island fish and chip range is in excellent condition
and has been well maintained
It is a conventional 4 pan range with pass-through chip scuttles, 2 large heated displays W134cm x D45cm, and 2 large
storage compartments measuring W60cm x D45cm. Each pan measures W65cm x D40cm x D18cm to the batter plates.
This range is complete with a fully active Ansul Fire Suppression system. Easy to understand and use controls and highly
efficient temperature recovery via powerful 3 phase elements.
The chassis and internals areas are in excellent condition and the whole range is in superb condition.
The range will be professionally prepared and tested.
3 Phase 63kW power supply required
More pictures available on request.
“the UK’s largest supplier of reconditioned
catering equipment”
Call CATERQUIP today
01733 777-778
QUALITY TOP BRANDED RECONDITIONED CATERING EQUIPMENT WITH LONG GUARANTEES AT A FRACTION OF THE PRICE
We can supply: Refrigeration, Chargrills, Six Burner Ranges, Frying Ranges, Peelers, Chippers, Coldrooms, Microwaves, Sinks, Tables etc
www.caterquip.co.uk or email us at sales@caterquip.co.uk
41

food to go!
what is their common denominator
contributing to their success? Choosing
to do one thing and doing it the best way
they know how – their way. The moment
they start compromising that, they start to
confuse their customer who is not looking
for anything more than satisfaction…offer
choice and you ask him to make judgements
about quality, offer him something
speciic and you ask him to make a
different choice. What is he in the mood
to eat, because if what you offer is the best
in class, chances are before he even thinks
about your product he has decided he
wants it anyway. Why? Because it is exactly
that - the best in class. What makes a brand
different and better is that when he thinks
about eating your product, which is usually
pretty generic (i.e. something basic that
anyone can make) he is thinking about
your brand before he thinks about your
product…and if you have achieved that on
any level – however local you have, without
even realising it, created a brand that with
work can be franchised.
Innocent Smoothies was started by
three guys who had day jobs and they used
to make their smoothies at festivals around
the country on weekends. Seeing the
success of their sales they decided the best
way to work out if this was an enterprise
worth pursuing and giving up their day
jobs for was to ask their customers. So
they put two trash bins next to their kiosk,
one saying DO and one saying DON’T with
the all deining question above it – Are
our Smoothies so good that we should
give up our day jobs and do this full
time? Innocent are now one of the largest
specialist Smoothie retailers in the world!
So perhaps that is where it should
begin, with the customer. Ask them what
they think of your product and how you
could improve it and what they would like
to see more of. They are after all the ones
consuming what you make, so include
them and take them on your journey from
independent outlet to fast food conglomerate…..
For more information on building
your business or if you think you
have something that could be turned
into a branded franchise contact me
williamahopkins@gmail.com
42
Register 535959
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

Dave Whelan passes pies to ‘the next generation’
It’s a classic northern rags to riches tale. A tough,
working class boy made good who could never
forget his roots, helping his local football team make
it to the top fl ight, and even buying the country’s
oldest pie company in the heart of his home town.
This week Britain’s fortieth richest man and
founder of JJB Sports, Dave Whelan, has signalled
the end of an era after announcing the sale of one of
his prized possessions, Wigan-based Poole’s Pies, to
Neil Court-Johnston.
Dave Whelan bought Poole’s - which was
founded in 1847 - in the late 1980s, transforming
the Pemberton factory into a state of the art
200,000sq ft. plant that could make up to 25,000
pies and pastries an hour.
Now, he believes that in Neil Court-Johnston, he
has found the right man to step into his shoes and
realise the company’s potential. He said:
“Poole’s is a company steeped in tradition
that has managed to grow with the times. It has
incredible facilities, a revered portfolio of sweet and
savoury products, and a strong reputation for quality
and service. As such, it presents an exceptional
opportunity to dominate the North of England, and
develop nationally.
“I recently talked about the importance of
supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs
who are going to create prosperity and jobs. In Neil,
I feel I am handing over the reins to someone with
the necessary ambition, talent and know-how to
lead a bright new phase of growth for this proud
and well respected business.”
Mr Court-Johnston joins Poole’s from his role
as Director of Peter’s Food Service in South Wales,
with 20 years of commercial management, sales
and marketing experience, including two years as
MD of Holland’s Pies. As such, he is seen to have the
right qualities to move Poole’s forward, a company
he knows very well: “I am thrilled to be the new
custodian of this great company. I have a real affi nity
with the fabric of this area and have been well
aware of Poole’s for some time. As the oldest pastry
brand, it has such a proud heritage, a time honoured
tradition for quality, and world class facilities. It is
my remit to complete the work of Dave Whelan and
his team, and unlock its true potential.”
He added: “The pie industry brings around an
annual £1 billion to the UK economy, making it a
major player – and the popularity of British cooking
and ‘good wholesome’ food is rising steadily.
“Working with the Poole’s team, I intend to
provide the kind of quality, innovation and service
that customers instantly recognise. I see the future
of Poole’s as a strong, cash rich, profi table and secure
business with a series of new sales channels. I’m
very much looking forward to the challenge.”
May/June 2012 Fish & Chips and Fast Food
food to go!
With £2 million working capital at his disposal,
Court-Johnston has wasted no time in setting out his
plans - which include a sales target of £100 million
per year. He is also keen to buy Holland’s Pies, the
company he ran for two years until joining Peter’s
Foods in 2010, and says he would defi nitely be
interested to talking to Ranjit Boparan - the current
owner - should he wish to sell. In the meantime, he
has persuaded some of his Holland’s colleagues to
join him in his new venture.
See www.poolespies.co.uk for more information.
43

new ideas
Gourmet grillsteaks
upgrade burger market
One of the UK’s leading burger manufacturers, Paragon Quality
Foods, has launched an exciting new top of the range product.
Produced in an elongated shape, Grillsteaks are ideal for
serving in a ciabatta or sub roll for a distinctly different offering.
A simple combination of top quality beef, seasoned with salt,
black pepper, onions and sweet red peppers, gives Grillsteaks a
succulent, melt-in-the-mouth texture and exceptional taste.
Launched under the Gourmet Grill brand, the 160g Grillsteaks
are packed 36 to a box and are targeted at hotels, restaurants and
gastropubs as well as specialist fast food outlets and burger bars.
“We are always looking to produce new and exciting products
to expand our range of high quality burgers. Our latest addition,
the Grillsteak, is innovative and unique in both shape and taste,
allowing businesses to be creative with the product. This has
already been recognised as a positive move by food service
suppliers and stocks will soon be available nationwide,” said
Paragon sales manager, John Healy.
For more information, call Russ Harmer on 01302 834141 or visit
www.paragonqualityfoods.com
Natural fruit juice is good to go
Pago’s mission to excite the taste buds of the nation with its exciting range
of premium fruit juice flavours steps up a gear this summer with the
Pago 330ml PET range.
The Pago fruit juice brand trades on its health appeal with 100% natural
with no artificial colourings, preservatives, sweeteners or flavourings and is
sold in the convenience and snack sector on its long shelf life, its taste test
appeal and profit margin opportunity.
As a premium fruit juice, Pago offers a very competitive retail and
promotion price but delivers high cash margin across a wide
range of stand-out flavours.
Marvin Henshaw, UK Country Manager from Pago
explained: “Despite the UK’s high consumption of juice,
we remain a very conservative nation in our choice of
fruit juices, with the majority of the volume in orange and apple. Whilst our taste
for international food has grown, we haven’t really caught up in our choice of
juice flavours.
44
Lincat introduce new larger
capacity pie cabinet
Lincat, the UK’s leading manufacturer of commercial catering
equipment, has redesigned its popular pie cabinet, the LPW/
LR to accommodate an additional shelf and thereby provide 33%
more display capacity for hot pies and pastries. The new, larger
capacity, cabinet is offered at the same price as the product it
replaces.
Of stainless steel construction, with toughened glass
throughout for safety, Lincat’s stylish LPW/LR pie cabinet is
robust, hygienic and easy to clean. It’s stylish, compact design,
is ideal for where space is limited, measuring 710mm wide by
520mm high.
It is equipped with precise thermostatic control to ensure
accurate holding temperatures from 72°C to 95°C. Its two 25watt
diffused switchable lights enhance food presentation, and a
humidity feature keeps the food in perfect condition for longer,
and minimises waste.
“Ideal for ish and chip shops and a wide range of food service
outlets, our LPW/LR pie cabinet offers an economic way to display
hot pies and pastries”, said Nick McDonald, Marketing Director of
Lincat Ltd.
“And, as with all Lincat products the new LPW/LR has been
rigorously tested by our development chef, Paul Hickman.
Customers can therefore be conident that our equipment will help
them to operate within rigorous safety standards.”
The LPW/LR pie cabinet forms part of Lincat’s Seal range of
food display equipment, which extends to 67 products including:
heated, refrigerated and ambient models in a variety of styles and
capacities.
Lincat Ltd manufactures one of the world’s most comprehensive
ranges of catering equipment. Products are sold in the
UK and in over 50 countries worldwide through a comprehensive
network of distributors. Lincat Ltd is a member company of the
Middleby Corporation.
For more information visit www.lincat.co.uk
“During the summer it’s the right time to excite the palates of our
customers and consumers with our incredible range. How about a “juice
bar” section in your soft drinks section or a fruit juice of the month? I’m
not saying that we should banish volume and value but let’s improve
our retail proposition. There’s an opportunity in the premium juice
drink category to provide real soft drink choice for consumers with
attractive retail margins for operators.”
The eight flavours include Orange, Orange-Carrot-Lemon (ACE),
Lemon Lime, Multivitimin Red, Pineapple, Multivitimin
Tropical, Cloudy Apple and Peach and are available in the
distinctive green 330ml bottle.
Marvin Henshaw added: “Our unique packaging
and premium quality taste means that we offer
retailers a point of difference with a premium retail
margin to match.”
Pago fruit juices are available through trade drinks wholesalers in the UK and
further details can be found at www.pagofruitjuice.co.uk.
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

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45

new ideas
46
Colpac launches new Union
Jack range for summer of
British celebrations
Proud of its British manufacturing heritage, Colpac, which
celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, launches a new range
of Union Jack food packaging products for the Fish & Chips and
fast food sectors.
The comprehensive range comprises 6 products ideal for a
wide range of fast foods including ish, chips, hot dogs, sausage
rolls, bacon rolls, baguettes, paninis, pastries, scones, strawberries
and cream, popcorns and much more.
Neil Goldman, Colpac’s Managing Director, comments: ‘Keeping
with Colpac’s tradition of UK manufacturing and innovation, the
range is unmistakably British, but with a twist. The in-house
quirky design is typical of Colpac’s creative and fresh approach’.
This stylish range is perfect for catering needs at the Diamond
Jubilee celebrations and the Olympics and Paralympics games and
will add a touch of elegance to food on-the-go.
Aligned with Colpac’s ‘green approach’ the board used for the
packaging is recycled, compostable, recyclable and biodegradable.
In this special anniversary year, Colpac continues to innovate
with new lines such as Clasp®, the all-in-one ilm to board pack;
a new range of platters ideal for foods including sandwiches,
crudités and bakery; extensions to the award-winning Fuzione®
range; and the new ground-braking ST17 sandwich pack, a cartonboard
sandwich which is laminated inside and constructed in
such a way that it is possible to seal the pack with MAP (Modiied
Atmosphere Packaging) technology so that food keeps and looks
better for longer.
Neil Goldman, son of the founder and Colpac’s Managing
Director, comments: “As the food industry commemorates
250 years of sandwiches, we are proud to celebrate our 75th
anniversary of manufacturing world-class packaging products in
Britain.”
For more information on Colpac, please visit www.colpac.co.uk,
email: info@colpac.co.uk or call 01525 712 261
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

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47

chip on his shoulder
Upper crust?
Bernard Anghelides wonders what the
reactions of our politicians to the “pasty
tax” might reveal about them!
Class war has broken out over the
humble Cornish pasty. The cause of the
fuss is the government’s decision to impose
VAT on the product when sold by bakers:
an eminently sensible move that will be
welcomed by ish and chip shop owners
across the county.
In my home town, we have a (Greggs
subsidiary) Bakers Oven which – under
present regulations - can sell pasties sans
VAT. The ish and chip shop 50 yards down
the road has to slap on the tax.
It seems such a reasonable move
(though, if I ran a chippy, I’d prefer the
government to level the playing ield by
axing VAT on all food: prepared hot or
otherwise.)
But, instead of arguing for or against
the merits of putting tax rules for bakers
in line with those applying to ish and chip
shops, the left wing parts of the national
press have lambasted the government as
if the proposed laws were an attack on the
working class.
“David Cameron’s efforts to show he
loves a hot takeaway far more than a
private dinner with his rich backers came
to a crumbly end when his fond memory
of eating a large Cornish pasty at Leeds
railway station turned out to be somewhat
faulty,” chortled The Guardian.
The Eton educated PM, when asked
when he had last bought a Cornish pasty,
said it was from the West Cornwall Pasty
Company.
“I seem to remember I was in Leeds
station at the time and the choice was
whether to have one of their small ones or
one of their large ones. I have got a feeling
I opted for the large one, and very good it
was too.”
The Guardian pointed out that the West
Cornish Pasty Company on Leeds station
had closed down a couple of years ago.
The paper also had a guffaw at the
chancellor (another old Etonian). “At the
Treasury select committee,” the paper
wrote, “Labour MP John Mann asked
George Osborne why he was imposing
VAT on hot foods such as pasties. He asked
the chancellor when he had last eaten a
pasty at Greggs the bakers. Osborne looked
nonplussed and said he could not recall.
One tweet suggested he was then probably
48
subjected to a Treasury presentation where
he was told that pasties were ‘similar to
mini boeufs en croute’.”
How The Guardian reporters must have
chuckled to themselves about George being
so out of touch with the working class as
they tucked into their chirashizushi at the
local sushi restaurant.
Mr Osborne, as reported here in the
past, is actually a ish and chip fan though
I doubt that would enhance his ability
to understand the working class as he
probably dispatches his butler to do the
chippy run.
There’s been no sightings of deputy
prime minister, Lib-Dem leader and
Westminster School old boy Nick Clegg
tucking into a Cornish pasty. Though, as he
is an MP for Shefield, his constituency is
far enough north for the local chip shops
to stock something a bit tastier like a meat
and potato pie.
Labour leader Ed Miliband, however,
couldn’t resist jumping on the bandwagon
and playing the working class card. Though
an ex-comprehensive school boy, he’s not
exactly your horny handed son of toil – he
and brother David went to the same highly
expensive prep school as London Mayor
and yet another old Etonian Boris Johnson.
But, with pasties making the headlines,
it wasn’t long before he and shadow
chancellor Ed Balls (privately educated at
Nottingham High School) were spotted at
a Greggs in Redditch eating sausage rolls,
probably not realising that they weren’t
pasties. If only they’d had a word with
working class-friendly George Osborne
he’d have told them to look for the things
that are similar to mini boeufs en croute.
Mr Miliband also announced that his
party would make common cause with
west country MPs and vote against the
move to impose VAT on bakers’ pasties.
If he’d said this during his visit to Greggs,
that would have been ine. But, if he had
made the same statement while buying a
Cornish pasty or sausage roll at a ish and
chip shop, we could well have been reading
the headline: “Leader of the opposition
placed in fryer”.
Greggs chief executive Ken McMeikan is
miffed about the proposed pasty tax,
has denounced George Osborne as out of
touch, and warned that hundreds of jobs
were at stake if pasty prices were raised by
20%.
Methinks the gentleman protesteth too
much. Last year Greggs made a pre-tax
proit of over £60m.
T he most beautiful woman in Britain
works in a chippy. Eighteen yearold
Saturday girl Florence Colgate
was persuaded by friends, family and
customers to enter a competition run by
ITV’s Lorraine programme to ind the
country’s most attractive face. (Supposedly,
a woman’s face is most attractive when
the space between her pupils is just under
half the width of her face from ear to ear,
and the distance between eyes and mouth
just over a third of the measurement from
hairline to chin.)
Florence beat off 8,000 other hopefuls
to take the top spot.
The Daily Mail reports that she would
love a career in modelling. But, when Fish
and Chips & Fast Food rang the Middle
Street Fish Bar in Deal, staff conirmed that
she’s still turning up every Saturday (and
so are more customers than normal).
Presumably, she’s trying to inish her
A-levels at Dover Grammar irst. Or maybe
someone pointed out that the chips in
Milan and Paris aren’t a patch on those
from the Kent coast.
Fish & Chips and Fast Food May/June 2012

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