WHY BUYING BRITISH MATTERS
Sam Morgan , executive chef at The Venues Collection , says it ’ s never been more important to buy local
ood is a really important part of our lives . The last 18 months has reinforced that with the resurgence of home baking as we all passionately made our banana bread , sourdough starter , cookies and cakes , creating a nationwide shortage of flour and eggs . Being in lockdown and staying local over the last year and a half , has reconnected us with the idea of buying locally , with more and more people buying from local farms , thinking about food miles , and becoming aware of the provenance of what they eat .
We may be out of lockdown , but this reconnection will live on , and it will have a permanent impact on how consumers source their food for their homes and for their events . Buying locally and supporting our local farmers and producers has never been so important – especially with new EU regulations making it more complex to import food , and more difficult for our farmers to sell overseas .
This and our parent company ,
Compass Group UK & Ireland , commitment to be Net Zero by 2030 has inspired us at The Venue Collection to review our menus and to give ourselves the target to make 80 % of the ingredients that we use in our venues grown , reared , or made in the UK . But this isn ’ t as straightforward as it may sound .
Many UK restaurants have their own gardens and greenhouses which makes it relatively easy for them to grow produce onsite . We are more than a single restaurant though , we are a collection of seven venues spread over a large proportion of the UK , serving a range of events and customers from apprentice training and big conferences to weddings and www . conference-news . co . uk