JUST FOOD COMPANY COBH
Friday 19 February 2010
Just before Christmas I was wandering around Hurley’s Supervalu in Midleton, Co. Cork, where the eponymous John Hurley, with the aid of the gregarious Finin O’Sullivan of Finin’s Gastropub in Midleton, was hosting his annual ‘Christmas Party’ for customers by way of lavishly plying them with sandwiches, smoked salmon, Irish Coffees, wine and so on. I was quite taken aback at the genorosity of spirit as I can’t say I have ever seen this happening anywhere else. Still you can’t please everyone as one ‘aul wan’ screwed up her face sceptically and said to me “he must be making a fortune”. God, you can’t win can you? Don’t do anything and the punters bleat, do something and there is resentment. Hurley’s Supervalu is a really beautiful shop extending to some 21,000 square feet with an amazing range of produce. Anyway, whilst walking the aisles, I spotted a row of organic soups by the “Just Food Company” and succumbed to a ‘Sweet Potato and Lemongrass’ soup which proved delicious.
The Just Food Company is the enterprise of Deirdre Hilliard and husband Kevin, Accountants by profession. Kevin is from County Meath, whilst Deirdre is a native of Cobh where the Company is based. When they met the couple first moved to Hilversum in Holland where they worked for six years in telecommunications. Hilversum is a big TV Centre where, as Kevin reminded me, the Dutch Eurovision verdict “calling from Hilversum” comes! Hilversum sees many international celebreties doing interviews or performances at the TV station and consequently there are a lot of good restaurants in the town. They were also impressed by the organic movement in Holland where, back as far as 1993/94, every town had organic butchers and farmers as a matter of form with no elitest pretensions. From Holland too they could visited many different countries developing their interest in food.
On returning to Cork, Kevin worked for Musgrave’s and Deirdre resumed an accounting role but also did a ten week course in Ballymaloe, just to improve the standard of cooking in her home. A baby arrived on the scene which posed the work life balance question so, in 2002, Deirdre packed in her job and started making soup, purely as a hobby, selling it in Midleton Market “in a tiny bit of a stall”. In summer, soup sales would fall off so she added hummus, pesto and salads, to her repertoire, eventually working up to her own stall, but it was still a hobby up to end of 2006. She was selling then into 6 shops and the business was outgrowning its ‘hobby’ status. She was already using organic produce but to be Certified Organic they had to have a commercial kitchen so, it was “either grow the Company….” They got a grant from the Cork Enterprise Board who were very helpful and also did a Food Programme with them. Their aim was to provide fresh tasting and ‘just made’ home made quality organic produce to health conscious and sometimes ‘time poor’ customers at an affordable price. Many of their products include healthy pulses and beans and seeds.
While they operate from a commercial kitchen, the food is prepared by hand. It is cooked in small batches by Head Chef Stephen Farley, Chef Clare Allen, and four assistants “using big pots and long handled wooden spoons because it cooks faster and the flavour tastes better”. Most of their food is cooked on the day it leaves their kitchen and is in stores within 18/24 hours. They now have a dozen and a half varieties and I have tasted quite a number – all delicious – with that pure homemade taste. Their soups include Moroccan Chickpea, Sweet Potato and Lemongrass, Spicy Lentil, Corn & Red Pepper Chowder, Summer Minestrone, and their latest addition to the range, Potato, Fennel and Parmesan, which is lovely. The RRP for 670 ml tub is €3.75 and generously feeds two people. They also do delicious wholesome salads including curried couscous, a chunky 3 bean, cucumber pickle, tomato salsa, marinated peppers and Feta, and a delicious Puy lentil salad. Their efforts have not been going unnoticed for, at the Blas na hEireann Awards in Dingle, they have won Gold Medals for their cucumber pickle, Brazil and raisin muesli, and Silver Medals for their delicious organic chicken liver pate which sells in tubs at a RRP of €5.88 for 180 ml. It is so dense it goes a very long way. This has proved so popular that Deirdre says they are currently using all the organic chicken livers available in Ireland!
They use distributors purely to deliver and merchandise orders to individual stores whilst they manage the orders and maintain a direct relationship with the stores themselves. Deirdre says they cannot over emphasise how vital this relationship is especially to tiny producers. By doing this too they are able to offer better value and spend more on their ingredients, as there is no middleman and they can offer more interesting and varied soups. Their weekly stall at Midleton Farmers market is vital for product research. They started selling their now best selling soup, Spicy Lentil, at the market about five years ago, and it was an instant hit. However, it took a very long time to take off in the supermarkets - “if it was a person, one would wax lyrical about its personality but avoid all mention of appearances - we would definitely have dropped it, were it not for the enthusiasm of our regular market customers.”
Just Food are selling now into about 75 shops including Mortons of Ranelagh, Wilde & Green of Milltown, lots of Supervalus, The Organic Shop in Blackrock, Get Fresh Rathfarnham, Select Stores in Dalkey, Field & Vine Rathmines. However, in a couple of weeks time Just Food’s muesli will be in over 500 shops around the country, so it just goes to show what you can start, if your produce is right, from a market stall. Check it out on www.justfood.ie
With the recession sales of hummus have slowed, as it is viewed as a luxury, but all is not lost for soup, chocolate, and lipstick sales are up!
Your Granny was right - take the soups folks – it will do you good.
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