British food will beef up your basket
Craving premium fare? Lidl’s British range gives you maximum flavour – and support to our brilliant producers
From farm-fresh eggs to succulent steaks, there’s nothing quite like prime home produce. And if you want to savour the best of British fare, there’s plenty of it on leading supermarket Lidl’s shelves. You can be sure, for example, that its everyday own-brand range of fresh products – including eggs, milk, block butter and cream, beef and chicken – are 100 per cent British. And two-thirds of the other food products in Lidl stores are sourced from British suppliers.
What’s more, every item of Lidl’s fresh British produce is assured to a third-party standard, such as Red Tractor – meaning that the chain’s British meat, poultry, fruit and vegetable ranges are sourced with traceability and quality in mind.
Lidl’s close relationships with Red Tractor suppliers up and down the country ensure they adhere to strict food hygiene, animal welfare and environmental standards.
Because Lidl truly believes that quality starts with the farm, it participates in the RSPCA’S exacting labelling scheme, guaranteeing high animal welfare standards.
Lidl was the first UK retailer to introduce Welfare Windows to pork, poultry and egg ranges – and the labels have empowered customers to make informed decisions about the produce they put into their basket.
Lidl’s latest commitment to sourcing the best of British is their new grass-fed beef range, featuring lean mince and extra thick-cut steaks – matured for 36 days for maximum quality and flavour.
The range guarantees 180 days’ field grazing in our beautiful British countryside – including the Devon farm, bordering the River Tamar, farmed by Sylvia Dart and husband Mike, who supply Lidl with grass-fed beef from their 350-strong herd. Sylvia says of her cattle: “When you see them grazing, they are roaming around among the bluebells and by the river in beautiful surroundings.
“It’s a lovely way of life, and some of our cattle will be with us a long time so they have a good long life with us. The flavour of grass-fed beef is lovely too, and I think that grass-fed helps make the steaks from the cattle very tender.”
retired clothes designer John Playfair in 2016.
“I do recommend geriatric love,” she laughs. “One of the sad things about getting old is that so many think you can’t wear colour. I say just do it, and it is the same about love. What makes you think you can’t fall in love?
“I have only been in love three times in my life. The first was my first husband, the next time was when I was in my sixties and I fell in love with a wonderful man who was a pianist. I’m still very fond of him. Then I fell in love with my present husband.”
With a cookery career spanning 60 years, Prue has lots of delicious stories about the people she met and cooked for following her move to London in 1960.
After attending the Cordon Bleu cookery school, she became a caterer, launching Leith’s Good Food, and then she opened her restaurant Leith’s in Notting Hill in 1969, which became popular with celebrities.
“The Beatles came in one night and wanted a full English breakfast. I explained it would be an expensive fry-up as we had a fixed menu, and they said, ‘Oh, we can afford it.’”
Leith’s also hosted Princess Margaret, as Prue remembers. “She turned up one night quite late, about 11pm, with two friends. Princess Margaret was every restaurateur’s dream – if she would grace your establishment, you’d think you’d made it. I couldn’t bear the thought of her being in an empty restaurant so I said to my waiters, ‘Half of you have to get back into your uniforms
‘Princess Margaret was every restaurateur’s dream’
and go back to work, and the other half, scrub up as best you can and come in the front door and try and look like happy, sophisticated customers. The waiters pretending to be customers were having a ball, clicking their fingers and ordering champagne.”
Serving Princess Margaret wasn’t Prue’s only brush with royalty. As the in-house caterer for the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in London, she was on hand to welcome the Queen and offer her a cup of tea during a royal visit.
Prue rang the palace in advance to ask what type of tea the Queen would prefer.
“Her equerry told me, ‘What we do at the palace is we bring a silver tea tray. On it is a silver tea pot, a silver hot water jug, milk jug, bowl for the sugar and a cream jug. Then we pour her tea in front of her.’
“So I had to hold this heavy tea tray, and I had to stand at the end of a long line waiting for her. I took a Valium as I thought, ‘That will stop the shaking, perfect.’
“I asked if she wanted it black and I put a piece of lemon in and then she said, ‘No lemon.’ I got a cocktail stick and fished out the lemon, and topped it up with hot water. She then said, ‘I like it strong.’ Poor woman. I gave her weak lemon tea and she wanted strong black tea!”
Tea mistakes aside, Prue has had a phenomenally successful career and is still working on a variety of projects including her judging role on Bake Off, which she joined in 2017, taking over from Mary Berry.
“When Mary decided she didn’t want to do Bake Off any more, it did occur to me that I would love that job,” she says. “But I thought, ‘They’re not going to have another white old lady.’ And then I got the call. I was astonished.
“It is the best job on television,” she adds. “I don’t have to learn anything. I don’t have to write a script. I don’t have to rehearse anything. All I do is walk on, eat cake and say what I think, walk off and get paid. Fantastic!”
The Great British Bake Off is on Tuesdays, 8pm, Channel 4