Made in Britain finalist: Chef on the Run Preserves

Chef on the Run preserves in Hay-On-Wye, Powys was one of the prestigious finalists in the Country Living, Waitrose and Farmers Guardian annual Made in Britain Awards.

Country Living magazine features local food producers every month - the Made in Britain Awards were launched by the magazine, together with Waitrose and Farmers Guardian, to reward those who are creating the best-quality and most innnovative foods, while keeping traditional skills alive. Five food producers of the year each received £5,000 from Waitrose to develop their business. The overall Made in Britain Food Champion, Gigha Halibut, (selected from these five) received an additional £5,000. Seven finalists were given the chance to have their product stocked in local branches of Waitrose. The Farmers Guardian Best Farm Entrepreneur will also receive £5,000 from Waitrose. 

Mike Carnell couldn't have picked a better time to launch his
ginger marmalade. Based on a wartime recipe that substitutes apples and ginger for hard-to-find oranges, this prudent preserve suits the mood of the new make-do-andmend era. It's not just because it's made with home-grown apples and British beet sugar in an old fashioned copper preserving pan in the kitchen of a family-run tea
room. It's also because it tastes as comforting as the hot buttered
toast to which it's such an addictive accompaniment, its barley-sugar
sweetness spiced up with hand shredded slivers of fresh and
crystallised ginger that add heat and bite to this delicate jam.

"The nostalgic flavour appeals "The nostalgic flavour appeals to our customers - it reminds them of the jams their mothers made" to our customers," says Mike, who runs The Old Stables Tea Rooms in
Hay-on-Wye with his wife, Rachel. "It reminds them of preserves that
their mothers and grandmothers used to make. Some claim the
ginger peps up their taste buds in the morning. The original recipe
used dried ginger, but I've adapted it to use fresh. Puréed root ginger
and chopped crystallised ginger go in during cooking, then I add
grated fresh ribbons at the end."

Ginger marmalade is the latest addition to a range of jams and
preserves that has won Chef on the Run Foods a string of awards
during the past seven years. Mike was a marathon-running relief
chef - hence the business's name - when he had to stop work for 12
months because of an ankle injury. "I began making marmalades and
jams for something to do," he says. "Friends and family really enjoyed
them, so I started selling them at farmers' markets and festivals."

When he and Rachel took over her aunt's tea room in 2006, Mike reaped the benefits of a bigger kitchen and a wider group of
customers. "We offer preserves with our scones and teacakes, so I often try out new flavours," says Mike, whose innovative blendsinclude Wow (Whisky, Orange and Walnut) Marmalade and Whimberry and Apple Jam. He also found a new source of cooking apples to supplement those grown by his father-in-law and himself: customers swap bags of homegrown fruit for a jar of two of jam.

The washed, quartered apples are stewed in their own juices before being put into jelly bags through which they drip slowly overnight. "You can't push or shake them to hurry it along, or it goes cloudy," Mike says of the precious strained apple liquid that is then boiled with sugar and ginger until it reaches setting point. "Nothing else is added - apples are full of natural pectin so we don't need setting agents. I work in small batches, making just 30 jars at a time. Once you mass-produce, you start losing the flavour of the fruit. I do things the traditional way to retain as much natural flavour and colour as possible."

Mike's insistence on doing it all by hand is not just about producing
great preserves, though. "At the end of a busy day, I enjoy being
in the kitchen by myself, slicing away. Making jam is how I relax."

Chef on the Run Foods (01497 821557;
www.chefontherunfoods.co.uk)

Find all of this year's Made in Britain Awards winners here 

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