Wealden Times | WT169 | March 2016 | Fashion supplement inside

Foodie treats to look
forward to at the fair
We’re really excited to announce that tickets are
now on sale for Wealden Times Midsummer Fair
this June. We’ve got so much on at Hole Park this
year – from hand-picked exhibitors providing a
fabulous shopping experience to the action-packed
Priceless People Wellbeing Festival – there’s plenty
to do and see. In the run-up to the fair, we’ll be
chatting to some of the talented foodies who will be
sharing their passion for all things fresh and locally
sourced with visitors over the three days. First up
is Jonathan from Urban Truffle in Sevenoaks...
How did you come up with the
name? I trained in Michelin-star
restaurants worldwide, and with my
growing experience came an appreciation
of the world’s finest food products.
The truffle is regarded as an elusive,
exquisite and exclusive ingredient,
normally found only in top restaurants and rarely in a
home cook’s kitchen. This ugly looking fungus is foraged
from the woods of Europe and is free to all who can find
it, given the right directions, a dog or two, and some damp
weather. Somewhere between its humble beginnings and a
porcelain plate, this fragile short-lived mucky ball is traded
at speed internationally with an associated rapid escalation
in its value. It is not an item freely available at the local
supermarket or greengrocer’s in the UK, so fresh truffle is
not an ingredient frequently found in recipe books.
We wanted to help bring this earthy, strange, pungent but
delicious and unique forest fungus to more people, to enable
them to appreciate the power of the truffle, and to give them
the knowledge to enable them to incorporate truffle into
special dishes at home. We have a passion for all fine food
ingredients – but the truffle seemed the best to illustrate
our desire to introduce new, exciting, different and
hard-to-source elements of fine cuisine to the UK.
We called our truffle ‘urban’ to signify its journey,
not only to the city, but also into the modern
experimental kitchen.
Where are you based? Our head office and distribution
centre is in Sevenoaks, Kent, allowing easy access to London
and the home counties. Our aim is to open select retail
outlets and restaurants focusing on truffles and other
fine ingredients.
Who are your customers? People who love food will
love what we do (doesn’t everyone love good food?!).
Our customers come from anywhere in the UK as we are an
online retail outlet set up for home delivery.
This year we will have a regular stall in Tunbridge Wells, at
the fortnightly Saturday market, and we are at many of the
local Kent food festivals. We are particularly looking forward
to meeting everyone at the Wealden Times Midsummer and
Midwinter Fairs, so please come along, taste some samples,
and learn more about what we can do.
Along with our online fine food delivery service, and our
luxury hampers (coming soon), look out for us at your local
race meeting or festival, where we might be popping up to
offer first class food and wine to complement the occasion.
What products are you most excited about selling
this year? Our product selection process is as considered as
that of any first class restaurant and, as serious foodies, we are
passionate about all the products we sell.
We stock seasonal truffles, of course, but we also have a
selection of organically sourced smoked salmon, gravadlax,
various caviars, saucissons, wild mushrooms, terrines,
handmade pasta, savoury sauces, the best risotto rice, aged
vinegars and the finest oils. We will also offer matching wines,
champagnes and aperitifs very soon.
What is your ethos / philosophy? The best
combination of the finest ingredients lets every element
shine. It fulfils all senses; therefore, to see, to touch, to smell,
to taste, to savour, becomes one of life’s simplest but most
memorable and joy-inducing things.
Find out more about Urban Truffle Ltd
at www.urbantruffle.co.uk
Wealden Times Midsummer Fair runs from 9-11 June at Hole Park, Rolvenden. To book your tickets visit www.wealdentimes.co.uk/events
119 www.wealdentimes.co.uk