Curiously Kentish Short-Listed In Great British Farm Produce Awards

Curiously Kentish, the café-delicatessen in Birchington-on-Sea has had its Salami Chorizo Verdi short-listed in this year's Great British Food Farm Produce Awards.

Having made it through the qualifying round of the charcuterie section, the salami will be judged by TV chef Rosemary Shrager, who runs an eponymous cookery school in Tunbridge Wells.

The winners will be announced on Monday 29th June.

The salami, which is unique to Curiously Kentish, is based on a South American version of green cooking chorizo. Curiously Kentish chefs Jason Freedman and Kevin Faux developed their salami based on the same concept.

"It's a secret recipe that we hold dear to our hearts, as it is our most popular and our customers' favourite salami," said Jason Freeman, adding, "Essentially, it's Kentish pork and back fat with spinach, coriander, green chilli, green peppercorn, parsley and a little bit of magic."

The salami is cured and dried for between 2 and 3 months to mature fully and create the delicate balance of flavours.

"It has a great flavour profile – sweet, fragrant, a little fiery with a smooth and lingering aftertaste," said Jason, who is in discussions with a number of high end retail and wholesale establishments, so make Curiously Kentish's Salami Chorizo Verdi available to a wider audience.

Kent food festival goers will also have the opportunity to taste the salami from the Curiously Kentish mobile Kahuna Hut and 'Sir Galahad' VW microbus. The hut and VW will appear at the Canterbury (25th to 27th September and Broadstairs (2nd to 4th October) food festivals.www.canterbury.co.uk/canterburyfoodfestival.aspxwww.broadstairsfoodfestival.org.uk.

Jason Freedman recently announced the sale of the Minnis Bar & Restaurant to Shepheard Neame, where he first developed a keen interest in ancient culinary crafts brought to the Kent coast by Roman invaders 2,000 years ago. He is now preserving the abundance of high quality meat, game, fish and seafood available locally, using a range of curing, pickling, brining, salting and cold smoking techniques. The unique flavours that these bring can now be sampled through a selection of homemade salt beef, pastrami, sweet-cured pork loin, venison, corned beef, sausages and chorizo, accompanied by homemade pickles and chutneys at the Curiously Kentish deli-café.

In November Freedman and Faux will travel to Tuscany in Italy to advanced 6-day Sapori (theory) & Salumi (practice) course to extend their knowledge, learning how to making a wide variety of traditional artisan Tuscan salumi (cured pork products), to enhance their existing range of home cured meat offerings. www.sapori-e-saperi.com

Further details of the awards at: www.greatbritishfoodmagazine.com/producerawards

ENDS

Editors' Notes:

Press Contact: Hi res images and samples available. Please contact George Shaw at Avocado Media on 01892 750851 orgeo@avocadomedia.co.uk

Curiously Kentish Delicatessen & Cafe

151 Minnis Road, Birchington, KentCT7 9NS

T: 01843 841180 W: www.curiouslykentish.co.uk

E: info@curiouslykentish.co.uk Tw: @curiouslykent