A showcase for local produce

Oct 22 2010 By Richard McComb

If you see a chef haggling over the price of some prime rib at a farm gate, it could well be Nick Turner.

The head chef at Birmingham’s Hotel du Vin likes nothing better than discovering a new supplier in the city’s rural hinterland.

Nick is a passionate advocate of local produce but like any chef in a big kitchen he struggles to get sufficient quantities to satisfy the demands of a busy bistro. Quality levels also have to be maintained.

We meet on a Monday and the partridge that Nick bought from a local gamekeeper, served with game chips, bread sauce, a red wine jus and watercress, has had to be taken off the menu – because it sold out over the weekend. It’s the ultimate vindication for a kitchen but it also underlines the supply problems faced by venues such as Hotel du Vin.

One way of boosting the profile of local produce has been occasional farmers’ markets at the hotel, which has allowed Nick to strike up relationships with suppliers and generate interest among guests in the delights to be harvested in the West Midlands.

“I spend a lot of time going to farmers’ markets,” says Nick, who joined the hotel eight years ago. “I went to the Ludlow Food Festival recently to see what was going on there. It is important to speak to people and find out about produce by word of mouth.”

The 36-year-old chef has been scouring the countryside for organic meat but admits: “It is hit and miss what you get because a farm will butcher a cow but that is it until they sell it all. It can be a long process waiting around, so you need to get the farmer at the right time.”

Hotel du Vin has been putting on specials at the weekend, such as classic beef Wellington, rack of lamb and chateaubriand, with old-school carving at the table for a dash of dining room theatre.

Nick says he would like nothing better than using local farms for the showcase dishes.