• India meets Italy – Atul Kochhar welcomes special guest Giorgio Locatelli for a one-off Slow Food evening at Benares in Berkeley Square on Monday 3^rd June.
• New Flavours with Forgotten Foods with Anna Hansen from The Modern Pantry and Stevie Parle at Dock Kitchen on Portobello Docks on Tuesday 4^th of June.

Catherine Gazzoli, CEO of Slow Food UK, says “The Slow Food Chef Alliance chefs are a powerful set of champions for promoting artisan producers. Indeed by furthering their customer’s awareness of these unique ingredients, we can help preserve part of our cultural food heritage as well as support these local producers by increasing demand for their products.”

As well as the events above, other leading chefs will be showing their support for the movement, including Richard Corrigan at Corrigan’s with a Forgotten Foods banquet prepared by four Michelin-starred chefs, and Forgotten Foods appearing on the à la carte menu in the evening. John Pratt at The Traddock in the Yorkshire Dales will be holding a Slow Food supper, cheese and wine event.

Slow Food Week provides a forum for reinforcing the movement’s work with local artisan producers to preserve special British flavours. The Week will launch six newly saved Forgotten Foods from Britain’s disappearing culinary landscapes, to be announced by Matthew Fort, one of the Slow Food Taste Ambassadors.

Weekly Forgotten Foods menus will run in various chefs’ establishments, including William Drabble at Seven Park Place, Jose Pizarro at Pizarro, and John Pratt at the Traddock in Yorkshire. Raymond Blanc’s Brasserie Blanc will be running a special Slow Food menu in all their London branches throughout the week, too.

Recipes from leading chefs will also be available for those who choose to celebrate Slow Food Week at home. These come from Giorgio Locatelli of Locanda Locatelli (whose dishes feature recently designated Forgotten Foods Aylesbury Duck and King Henry), Theo Randall of the InterContinental, Jeremy Ford, Atul Kochhar, Richard Corrigan, William Drabble, Anna Hansen, Stevie Parle, Peter Weeden from Newman Street Tavern and Neil Forbes of Café St Honore in Edinburgh.

Slow Food Week Event Calendar:

 Sunday 2^nd June:

Forgotten Foods banquet hosted by Chef Alliance Spokesperson Richard Corrigan at Corrigan’s Mayfair, with different courses prepared by Michelin-starred chefs from around the UK including Adam Simmonds, Bryan Webb, Colin McGurran, and James Sommerin

Monday 3^rd June:

• Restaurant Associates, partner of Slow Food UK, will host an interactive cooking demonstration at CitiBank. Prue Leith will present the Slow Food Forgotten Foods story to an estimated 200 attendees (invitation only event)

• India meets Italy – Atul Kochhar welcomes special guest Giorgio Locatelli for a one-off Slow Food evening at Benares in Berkeley Square

Tuesday 4^th June:

• New Flavours with Forgotten Foods with Anna Hansen from The Modern Pantry and Stevie Parle at Dock Kitchen on Portobello Docks
• Slow Food supper, cheese and wine event with John Pratt at The Traddock in the Yorkshire Dales

Wednesday 5^th June

• Join the Cookery School in Little Portland Street for an interactive cooking class Fishing and Foraging with Caroline Bennett from Moshi Moshi and Chris Bax from Taste the Wild

Thursday 6^th June

• Drop into Vini Italiani in South Kensington to listen to wine expert and enjoy some  wonderful Italian ‘slow’ wines, served with Italian salami and cheeses from Gallucci & Gilmour

 Saturday 8^th June

• Family lunch at L’Anima, with a Slow Food Kids Taste Adventure to enable the children to experience good, clean and fair food with their five senses. A four-course lunch including champagne reception and Welsh lamb is prepared by Francesco Mazzei and his team. Children eat for free.

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For further information please contact Shelley Sofier at Red Kite PR  slowfooduk@redkitepr.com  0207 284 6960

The Edinburgh food industry is a close knit community, where everyone seems to know one another. This kind of network has allowed the Slow Food group in Edinburgh to really flourish, creating a strong united front to promote the good food cause.  Members, chefs and producers are frequently working together making the Edinburgh Slow Food group one of the biggest and most active in the country.

After our meetings, it’s easy to see why Slow Food has such a strong base in Scotland’s capital; the chefs were simply inspirational. Here was a group of people who are just programmed to cook the Slow Food way. Why, they ask, would you use foreign suppliers when you have one of the world’s most renowned natural larders on your doorstep? Why buy premade products when you can produce better in your own kitchen?

It was a pleasure to watch the chefs creating their own sour dough, their own bacon, curing their own beef, growing their own herbs and vegetables and using a full range of meat cuts, leaving nothing to waste. This no waste ethos is particularly strong in Edinburgh as 2 of the restaurants we visited have been awarded a 3* rating by the Sustainable Restaurant Association. But it’s not just sustainable growing, cooking and eating our chefs are interested in. They are also passionate in creating a sustainable food culture by investing in their kitchen brigades, giving them the necessary tuition to ensure that the future of Scottish food is in good hands.

This trip reinforced the importance of the work our local Slow Food groups do at a grassroots level. We witnessed a real enthusiasm and passion for good eating and an extraordinary willingness to donate time and effort to promote the Slow Food cause.

Slow Food Week kicks off on the 1^st of June across the country, and the fundraising event at Summerhall on the 9^th will provide a fitting finale. Tickets are coming soon… And we look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you to all the chefs (Tony Borthwick – The Plumed Horse, Finlay Nicol – The Edinburgh Larder, Craig McKend – The Cumberland Bar, Neil Forbes – Cafe St. Honoré, Jason Gallagher – The Stockbridge Restaurant, and Carina Contini and Suzanne O’Connor – Centotre and The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant) and Slow Food Edinburgh for meeting us!

The leading organisation committed to good, clean and fair food is asking us to prepare a dinner party at home using those delicious leftovers that seem to accumulate in every fridge, supplemented with fresh, seasonal ingredients and delicious examples of the Slow Food Ark of Taste Forgotten Foods – over 50 varieties of produce which have been selected by the Slow Food Flavour Savers to protect Britain’s edible bio-diversity.

The suggested donation to Slow Food is £5.00 per person, which will be used to continue Slow Food UK’s educational and Forgotten Foods programmes. Details for participating and registering can be found on www.slowfood.org.uk

“It’s estimated that half the national food waste comes from our homes.  If we can encourage people to use their culinary creativity and initiative to entertain with food that may have been thrown away for no good reason, we hope we can start to change these habits,” says Prue Leith OBE, Slow Food UK Board Member, judge on The Great British Menu, founder of the Leith’s Good Food Group, cookery book and food writer, and pioneer for healthy school food.

“We’re equally wasteful of our culinary heritage, and by including Forgotten Foods in our Slow Food Week UK dinner party initiative, we can work towards eating it, not losing it,” says Cat Gazzoli, CEO of Slow Food UK.

Forgotten Foods which will be in season in June include Devon Ruby Cattle, Shetland Kye, South Down Sheep, Portland Lamb, Hampshire Watercress, Formby Asparagus, Traditionally Grown Jersey New Potatoes, Shetland Black Potato, North Ronaldsey Sheep, and Good King Henry.

This will be taking place on the Slow Food website www.slowfood.org.uk/auction/ from Tuesday 7^th May until the last day of Slow Food Week 2013, Sunday 9^th June.

Catherine Gazzoli, CEO at Slow Food says: “The auction is a great way to back Slow Food campaigns and advocacy to preserve British biodiversity and artisan producers, as well as to continue our education projects and awareness raising, which promote the benefits of a healthy diet and enjoyment of tasty and natural food.”

There are nearly 30 special auction items, which everyone can bid for, including an overnight stay at the Tyddyn Llan Hotel in Wales with breakfast and dinner in their Michelin-starred restaurant, provided by Slow Food Chef Alliance Chef Bryan Webb, and the ‘Chef for a Day’ experience in Scotland with Chef Ian McAndrew at the Blackaddie Country House Hotel.

Other experiences for auction include an artisan gelato-making course at La Gelateria in London; a cold smoking course at Coldsmoking in Buckinghamshire; a chilli tour and tasting for two at Edible Ornamentals, and a Scottish seashore foraging workshop with Mara Seawed.

Catherine Gazzoli continues; “We’re hoping that our auction items will bring in some bids to provide funds for our cause and campaigns whilst highlighting and enjoying the exclusive and delicious treats, which have been so very kindly donated by Slow Food Supporters and members of our Chef Alliance. From a pack of organic chorizo and meals for two at delicious restaurants including Wahaca, to overnight stays in delightful countryside locations, we have an interesting line-up of goodies to suit everyone’s pocket.”

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 For further information please contact Sarah Morgan at Red Kite PR: slowfooduk@redkitepr.com  / 020 7284 6960

What is Slow Food?

Slow Food is about helping people think differently about food. In the UK, we work to reconnect people with where their food comes from so they can better understand the implications of the choices they make about the food they put on their plates. We encourage people to choose nutritious food, from sustainable, local sources, and which tastes great, through our education programmes. Slow Food is a non-profit organization, supported by members and donations. To become a Slow Food member or supporter, to join our Chef Alliance, or find out more about our education programmes go to www.slowfood.org.uk

Head Office: Notting Hill, London

Slow Food Week is a great opportunity for our supporters as well as our chefs to show their support to our cause. Therefore we are especially happy to have several supporters involved in their own events this year! The Supporters’ Scheme started out as a response to members asking “how can my business be a part of Slow Food?” and in only 18 months, our supporters have grown to a proud number of 80 diverse and unique businesses.

Proceeds from the ticket sales will go to Slow Food UK as a donation to continue its work, thanks to all our supporters who make that possible!

On Wednesday, 6^th of June, three of our supporters come together for an interactive fish and foraging cooking class. Charlotte Whitting at the Cookery School at Little Portland Street will be welcoming Caroline Bennett from Moshi Moshi as a sustainable fish expert and Chris Bax from Taste the Wild as experienced forager. On Thursday evening, 7^th of June, Vini Italiani in South Kensington will host a wine tasting event ‘slow style’ with a wine expert coming to speak about a selection of carefully selected wines. Matching Italian nibbles will be provided by Gallucci & Guilmour, one of our most recent supporters. The entire event calender can be found here.

We spoke to Vini Italiani owner and founder Bruno Cernecca about wine, Slow Food and the event and asked him why he joined the Slow Food Supporter’s Scheme and why he is participating in Slow Food Week.

“Vini Italiani is very young, and we definitely need some publicity. We believe that the SF Supporter’s Scheme can help us to reach our communication targets, whether they are peers, press, buyers, fellow professional and, of course, potential customers.

SF Week is a major event that lines up stars from the UK food world sharing the Slow Food cause. To be part of this for us is an honour, a pleasure and a very good opportunity to involve a receptive public in one of the many tastings we organize to promote Italian wines and wine making.”

On top of to these special events, which help supporting the charity and its work, we are running a special online auction to raise awareness of our business supporters and their beautiful products and services. Already over 20 supporters have donated both products and experiences, which can be enjoyed across the country by Slow Food members and passionate foodies. The participating supporters, to which we are very grateful to, are: Androuet, Boutique Foods, Cheskin House, Coldsmoking, Edible Ornamentals, Enjoy Bed and Breakfast, Fincalink, Hello Fresh, La Gelatiera, Mallsgate Hall Estate, Mara Seaweed, Nudo Italia, Old Swan Minster Mill, Orzo Coffee, Rude Health, Taste the Wild, Three Little Pigs, William Chase Distillery and Wyken Vineyards.

Secondly, 56% of our followers said that they eat meat two to four times a week,  17.9% do it five or more times, 15.5% once or less than once. 10.7% are vegetarians.

Among those who usually eat minced meat, most of our followers have not changed their habits: 66.7% replied they still eat the same amount of minced meat. That is not surprising, as the majority of them already had good consuming habits: 38.2% of the survey participants replied they still buy from the same local, small-scale producers as they did before the scandal. One of the participants commented: “British and organic, like I have always done”. Furthermore, 77.6% said they pay more for meat that they know they can trust.

Still, the horsemeat scandal has changed the consuming habits of some of our followers: 15.9% said that now they eat less minced meat, whereas 19.1% said they picked different suppliers after the issue and they now buy from local, small-scale producers.

If you would like further guidance to buy clean and fair meat, check out ‘Too Much at Steak’, a booklet which covers good practices and recommended consumption levels of meat which can be applied to everyday life.