“Shop happy”

Fine Food with

Charles Campion

Food writer and critic

• It’s time to go left field rather than safety-first
• “Fashion or for keeps?”
• “New year and new possibilities”
• “What is in a name?”
• “The art of shopping”

Every year, early October sees a good number of restaurants holding their breath in anticipation. Setting aside the merits of a tyre-maker’s opinion about gastronomy, the Michelin Guide to Britain and Ireland is a plump red book much beloved of chefs. For many otherwise sane and sensible cooks this guide is the one, and to win a star is the ultimate cheffy ambition

At the last count there were over two dozen different British restaurant and hotel guides to choose from, and that’s without the growing number of opinions strutted on the web and in the social media. At last, Britain has restaurants to be proud of. But what about food shops, delis, farm shops, and bakeries? Where is the shoppers’ guidebook? In the 1987 Henrietta Green toured the country with her dog Violet and produced the first guide to food shops and small producers, British Food Finds, which went on to become The Food Lover’s Guide to Britain. This book was an absolute godsend to anyone interested in food and drink – both foodies and cunning shoppers.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Channel, an American food writer called Patricia Wells published The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris. This book had a brilliant lay out. There was a section reviewing restaurants, there were the favourite recipes from each of those restaurants, and then a section on food shops and kitchen hardware shops. Over the last couple of decades there have been a few attempts to publish a comprehensive guide to British food shops, but they have all failed. For one thing, the level of churn in the food shop sector means that keeping any guide up to date is a well nigh impossible task. Shops change hands, a limitless host of new products flood onto the marketplace in time to catch the eye of the Christmas shopper, and, simultaneously, half as many products are discontinued. For anyone contemplating a comprehensive shoppers’ guide, even a glance down the possible schedule of visits required would be enough to send shivers down the spine. That’s a compelling reason why no one has attempted a Food Lover’s Guide for the 21st Century.

Maybe the internet would be a better bet? Nowadays, the tablet on the kitchen table is the first port of call for recipes; it just remains to create the Food Shop equivalent to Wikipedia and then somehow to keep it updated. Perhaps it is time to look into crowdfunding? While the chefs are worrying about their star spangled future, everyone else is starting to shop for Christmas. In our household there is a simple division of labour: I am very fond of food shopping while my wife hates it. Her idea of hell is to wander aimless from butcher to deli to cheese shop, sampling while unfurling menus in the mind.

When selling, everything from the store layout to the rigid smiles of the sales folk has a single objective – a happy shopper is more likely to be a spending shopper.

It’s time to embrace the run up to Christmas and make the shopping experience more enjoyable, whether you are selling Louboutins or Stilton. It’s such a pity that there is no longer a Food Lover’s Guide – it would’ve made a splendid Christmas present.