What’s New In Food This Month
Otto’s Pasta
Top chef Phil Howard (owner of Chelsea’s esteemed Elystan Street) has launched a collection of high-end, at-home pasta kits. Otto Pasta has a seasonal menu with eight rotating dishes to choose from: options currently include raviolo of oxtail with mushrooms, onions and red wine; fusilli with octopus, red onion, garlic, fennel and chilli; and gnoccetti with preserved late-summer tomatoes with mascarpone and basil; plus, a range of snacks and store cupboard essentials like olives, pesto, burrata, focaccia, antipasti and chocolate brownies. Dishes start from £8, and delivery is free to most London postcodes.
Visit OttoPasta.com
Libby’s
The first Libby's bakery and café quietly opened in Notting Hill last October, and has steadily achieved cult status among locals. The selling point? All its products are sugar and gluten free. Masterchef: The Professionals winner Keri Moss leads a team that spent over a year developing and honing recipes for a range of products that not only taste delicious, but replace sugar with more nutrient-dense alternatives. Now she’s launched an online shop, where Libby’s products can be ordered for delivery anywhere in the UK. We love the look of the bagels, apple crumble traybake and sourdough, which comes ready to be finished in the oven at home.
Visit Libbys.co
Provisions Wine & Cheese
Provisions Wine & Cheese is set to land on Hackney Road on 25th March. The original store, which opened on Holloway Road six years ago, quickly established itself as a neighbourhood favourite and has since gone on to provide goods to the likes of Chiltern Firehouse and Bibendum. Specialising in organic and natural wines, raw milk cheeses and deli items sourced from some of the finest small suppliers across Europe, the new east London concept will showcase Provisions classics alongside a daily sandwich menu created by chef Maximilien Truel (ex-Pollen Street Social and Frenchie). Together with its online shop, which delivers nationwide, Provisions also sells a selection of signature hampers, melted cheese kits – plus, monthly wine and cheese subscriptions.
Visit ProvisionsLondon.co.uk
Dabba Drop DIY Dosa Kit
We’re big fans of Dabba Drop, the south Asian plant-based takeaway service that delivers sustainably made food to homes across the capital. Now it’s added a dosa-making kit to the range. A thin Indian pancake made with ground rice and lentils (so naturally vegan and gluten free) the dry dosa mix comes with instructions, Dabba Drop’s Gunpowder (an Indian-style dukkah), ginger jam and a stainless steel dosa ladle. There is zero plastic in any of the packaging and the whole box is wrapped in a cotton checked cloth from Chennai.
Visit DabbaDrop.co.uk
Per Diem
Per Diem is a new kind of delivery company. By its own admission, the company sells “slightly tedious repetitive basics” of the sort used in 90% of households – think flour, sugar, pasta, olive oil, rice, soap and cleaning products. More boldly, it says its own brand is better quality than those you tend to find in the supermarket. All products come from independent suppliers or cooperatives, there’s one product in each category to combat choice fatigue, and there are just 50 products in total. The goods are only available in monthly batches: new customers only need to set up an order once, meaning their weekly food shops can focus on more interesting items.
Visit GetPerDiem.com
Jarrd by Harvey Nichols
Real chefs make Jarrd’s restaurant-quality sauces. Based in Chester, the female-owned business was established by a group of friends responding to the lack of luxurious, premium cooking sauces in jars. Now its sauces are stocked in Harvey Nichols. Of the selection, we love Pomarola, made with sweet tomatoes, sautéed onions, carrots and celery, white wine, basil and truffle. Simply warm the sauce and toss it through freshly cooked spaghetti, then top with parmesan. Best of all, Jarrd donates 5% of its sales to The Trussell Trust, a charity that supports a nationwide network of food banks.
Visit HarveyNichols.com
Perfect Ted
Perfect Ted has launched a range of sparkling canned natural energy drinks powered by matcha green tea. The brand’s mission is to promote healthier caffeine consumption. Designed to fight fatigue, the three refreshing flavours currently on offer are Pineapple Yuzu, Apple Raspberry and Pear Ginger, all made from real fruit juice. Each contains 80mg of caffeine for energy, and 80mg of L-theanine (an amino acid) for focus. The drinks are 100% natural, plant based, gluten free and free from additives, preservatives and added sugars. The range is available to buy at Planet Organic and directly from its website.
Visit PerfectTed.com
Belvoir Farm X Chelsea Physic Garden
Belvoir Farm has launched three low-calorie botanical sodas in collaboration with Chelsea Physic Garden. The three complex flavour profiles – Floral Fizz, Bitter Orange Spritz and Spicy Ginger Fizz – contain just 4.5g of sugar and fewer than 20 calories per 100ml. Bridging the gap between soft drinks and mixers, the botanical infusions are blended with sparkling spring water to create a depth of flavour that makes these ready-to-drink sodas the perfect replacement for alcohol.
Visit Sainsburys.co.uk
The Podster
Following the success of its Velvetiser hot chocolate maker, Hotel Chocolat has turned its attention to coffee. It’s teamed up with Dualit to create the Podster, a sleek pod coffee machine that can be used with any of the brand’s five blends – or Nespresso-compatible pods – to deliver a café-quality caffeine kick at home. Each one comes with a complimentary Podcycler that allows you to recycle the used capsules at home. The Podster has been styled to sit alongside the Velvetiser (it has the same charcoal grey body and soft-touch buttons) and can be used in tandem to create a frothy coffee or ultimate mocha.
Visit HotelChocolat.com
Chilli & Mint by Torie True
Chilli & Mint is a cookery book aimed at those who love spice – but not necessarily spicy food. Written by Torie True, a food writer and cookery teacher, the book contains over 100 recipes, from breakfasts worth getting up for to comforting dahls, punchy chutneys, sweet and savoury treats, staple Indian breads and spice blends. There are plenty of tips and tricks for creating successful dishes from scratch, alongside information on Indian spices, suppliers, kitchen equipment and menu ideas. So far, we’ve made her Bengali mustard fish curry and spiced smoky aubergine, and can confirm both are delicious.
Visit Waterstones.com
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