Celebrity chef backs trend to promote quality British food

The TV cook has given his support to the "Cattleman's Academy" which has been set up by retail giant Asda and Askham Bryan College.

Under the scheme, up to six Askham Bryan agriculture students will be offered placements – four on beef farms and two on sheep farms.

The aim is to give 16 to 24-year-olds the opportunity to work with livestock producers and Asda is looking for its own farmers to act as hosts.

The project was unveiled as the Yorkshire Farmers Market, which manages the distribution of local products at Asda, announced a 55 per cent increase in year-on-year sales.

Among their success stories is Andrew Jones Pies, of Huddersfield, which recently won a gold award at the British Pie Awards for their steak and ale pies.

It is an example of the growing trend towards promoting regionality as consumers become more clued up about where their food comes from.

This has seen the big supermarket chains falling over themselves to show how they are forging closer links with regional farmers and producers.

Taking a break from entertaining the crowds, the TV chef said he believed this shift had come about because customers' expectations had risen.

"I know some people think there's too many chefs like me on TV, but we've given people knowledge and confidence when it comes to food," he said.

"Customers want to know where their food comes from and the supermarkets have taken this on board. They've started to realise that people want to buy quality, British produce and that if they want customers to come back week after week then the produce has to be consistently good.

He said this desire to know exactly where food comes from extends to chefs themselves.

"A lot of my friends now go straight to the farmer rather than the butcher. So they know which field a cow was grazing in and you can't get any more traceable than that."

Morrisons is another retail giant making a big show of promoting British produce. It already has 325 livestock farmers in Yorkshire, alone, and is planning to increase its farming supply base here.

The supermarket has also pledged that all of its beef, lamb, pork and chicken has to be British.

Andrew Thornber, Morrisons' meat manufacturing director, said this was part of a long term plan to support the country's farmers and give customers what they want.

"There's no other supermarket where the buyer from the supermarket talks direct to the farmer. People want to support British agriculture and we allow customers to have that proper choice."

Timothy Abel, who runs Thorpe Farm, in Ripon, is one of Morrisons' livestock suppliers.

He said: "The general public tend to blame supermarkets for being heavy handed with farmers. There's this idea that they beat them with a stick and drive down prices, but I can say as a farmer myself that Morrisons have never had that approach."