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Mission
statement – No Way!
(John Piper M.D.)
 It
seems to be another
of the 21st centuries great spins. M Ds making mission
statements. What does it mean? I think it follows
on from “company policy and future growth”.
And more spin. Well we are not going to play. We don’t
talk about it, we do it, and that’s about it.
For example we do not believe in commodity lines!
We believe all fresh produce should stand on its own
merit, after all, what is the point in buying, preparing
and then finally smothering a tomato in some expensive
gunge (of course it is to disguise the inadequacy
of the tasteless tomato) when you could have the real
thing! And what about potatoes? A wholesaler tells
us in one breath that he wants the cheapest baby potatoes
known to man and then complains when his customers
tell him its falling apart in the pan! How cheap was
that!!
Whether we are talking about wild strawberries, endangered
culinary herbs or spuds, we must always tell the truth.
The word quality is banded about everywhere, delivery
vehicles, company headed paper, web sites etc etc.
What does it mean, good quality, indifferent quality,
quality we can get away with or just plain bad quality.
What we say is let the produce do the talking. Two
of the most important ingredients in catering, whether
fine dining or a greasy spoon cafe are tomatoes and
potatoes. That’s probably why messrs Sinatra
& Crosby sang about them. Get those right and
your well on the way to salvation, get them wrong
and oh dear.....! No excuses.
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Seasonality
We all have our own ideas on what
seasonality means, to Oakleaf it generally (but not
entirely) means following the sun. We say that because
we like nice tasting fresh produce. Produce that has
not been grown in water but soil, has not had hot
air pumped at it but is warmed by the sun, in short
– grown as nature intended. When we walk through
a field of fresh peppers that’s what we want
to smell and nothing less will do. Lets take peppers
as an example! During the winter we work with peppers
from Morocco & Tunisia followed by Turkey, Sicily
and then Southern Spain. In the Spring, as the heated
Dutch glasshouse crop gets underway, we prefer to
start with the better tasting new outdoor harvest
from Northern Spain, protected only by covers (not
tunnels) to protect from rain and wind, but grown
in soil. This will take us into the summer when we
will work with the outdoor French Mediterannean peppers
which we just love. Taste, texture and loads of colour.
When you really think about it, Ratatouille is a Mediterannean
dish, why would we expect the main ingredients to
be successful grown anywhere other than in the sun.
So what are we enjoying now?
Sweet peppers from Northern Spain;
soft yellow Fine Frizzee from Normandy; baby red Mache
from Fontainbleu; Salanova rose shaped lettuce from
Sarthe; dried fennel sticks from Presles; round yellow
or green courgettes from Provence; outdoor red rhubarb
from Calvados; artichokes from Brittany; wild asparagus
from France; white asparagus from Landes; outdoor
vine tomatoes from Provence (ALPILLES); baby potatoes
from Noirmoutier; Tulameen raspberries from the Loire
Valley; sweet charentais melons from Morocco; guariguette
strawberries from Marmande; Mara de bois strawberries
from the Perigord and Poppy blush apricots from Spain;
This is just a tiny part of the vast
range of ever changing produce available to us, its
quite simple really, lets just follow the sun and
stay in season. We will continually update this list.
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