NEVER ANOTHER DULL FOOD MOMENT

Looking for a new and special ingredient? Hilary Biller spoke to the founder of The Really Interesting Food Company, Andrea Rutherford

I love to travel and have come across so many wonderful food ingredients we don’t get in South Africa and realised there was a market here, particularly if they are good quality and had an interesting story behind them.

We sell a wide variety of food

products from interesting salts and peppers to top quality balsamic vinegars. We also have a range of food-related gifts. After all, it’s more interesting arriving at someone’s house with handcrafted chocolate sardines than another bottle of wine.

Among chefs the most popular products are the molecular range.

South Africans enjoy making their own meals but don’t want to start from scratch and so items such as our mezze mix and herbed artichokes are popular.

Once you’ve tasted a good balsamic

vinegar you will never buy the massproduced stuff again. Did you know that mass-produced balsamic vinegar contains gluten? A pure balsamic is just heaven on any salad. One of our family favourites are espelette pepper, a variety of chilli pepper cultivated in Espelette in France that is deep red in colour with mild heat and smoky sweet flavour. It works well with prawns and seafood. Salt and pepper are no longer thought of as everyday ingredients. The Blue salt from Persia is only mined once a year and has a flavour profile like no other salt. Our range of peppers come with all kinds of sensory experiences; some taste like lemons, others like herbs de provence.

Liquorice seems to be the flavour of

the moment. We sell a salty liquorice syrup that is great for cooking, baking and cocktails.

The provenance of an ingredient is

important. One of the most interesting trips I did was to a truffle dealer in France. Truffles are “food gold” and the security he employed was something to behold.

Freekeh is one of our “new”

products. An ancient grain that is highly nutritious and knocks the socks off quinoa when it comes to nutrition and flavour. It cost about R110 for 500g. thereallyinterestingfoodcompany.com Tel: (021) 876 2009