Island Expo 09: Food Tour Part One

Rosemary Hutton spent the afternoon at Island Expo yesterday and reported back her experiences.

Catering services were covered in the first two parts.

Little Goddess Foods
The first food stop I encountered on my venture at the Expo was Little Goddess Foods (Tel: 07968472608 – Marianne Jones). Island Expo 09 Catering And Hospitality ExhibitionIf you’ve been to any of the Spar shops on the Island, you will know who this company is.

They have the most gorgeous selection of traditional cakes and pastries, and the best part is that they only use fructose (fruit sugar) in their cakes, which means that they’re suitable for diabetics!

Not only are they found in many of the local stores, but they are now looking at branching out into catering, so if you’re in need of traditional cakes for your business, or you know someone who might benefit from knowing more about Little Goddess Foods, give Marianne and her team a call, or stop by on today’s Expo and say hello!

Carisbrooke Cuisine
Next up for me and my foodie partner-in-crime was the Carisbrooke Cuisine stand (Tel: 01983 408409 – Philip and Stuart).

Filled to bursting with fresh exotic lettuce leaves, bunches of herbs, big juicy vegetables and many different varieties of mushrooms, it was a culinary dream!

Carisbrooke Cuisine sources its vegetables from both Covent Garden and also the Island in order to offer extremely high quality produce for use by chefs and bigger restaurant chains, although they are also very much hoping to open a shop on the island, in addition to their units.

Rew Valley Dairies
Next I got the chance to chat to Rew Valley Dairies (Tel: 01983 865555), who supply a majority of the Island’s milk, either in local stores or in Tesco supermarkets across the Wight.

Along with their ranges of milks and creams, they also produce Free Range Pork. I don’t know how many people managed to see Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie Saves Our Bacon‘ on Channel Four recently, but pig welfare and British pork is something that I am very interested in.

Hearing the Rew Valley Dairies’ representatives talk about rearing “happy pigs” made me very happy, and they had some superb looking bacon and pork on display.

Hamilton Fine Foods
Elsewhere, there were stalls for Hamilton Fine Foods – an award-winning supplier of local and county-wide meats, along with hams and bakery produce.

Next section of the Expo food tour up shortly.