Taste of success as food shops pull in the independent-minded customers

The supermarket giants have been quick to cash in, spreading their corporate empires to practically every postcode in the UK during the past decade. For a while it seemed that artisan bakers, cheese makers and delis were slowly disappearing from our high streets, but this trend has reversed in recent times, fuelled by a growing public appetite for local produce and an increasing awareness about what we eat and where it comes from. It’s not only in our big towns and cities where these independent stores are popping up, but also in the kind of villages where they were once commonplace.

What is particularly interesting is that many places not only set up during the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, but are actually flourishing in the face of it.

Leeds-born chef David Bennett returned to Yorkshire in 2009 to open his own bakery at a time when businesses were closing left, right and centre. David, who trained under Marco Pierre White, spent 15 years plying his trade in some of London’s top restaurants but dreamt of setting up on his own, and since opening its doors 14 months ago the Sunshine Bakery, in the popular North Leeds suburb of Chapel Allerton, has done a roaring trade.

The queues, especially at the weekend, often lead out the front door and it’s the kind of place you suspect would have tickled Marie Antoinette’s fancy, having both the ambience of a quaint French patisserie and the most delectable cakes.

David believes the success is in part down to a renewed appreciation for traditional skills. “I think we are seeing a resurgence in artisan skills and if people can see that you’re working hard and care about what you do, then they will support you.”

David, who has a team of two, was crowned Cupcake Champion of Britain last year after he overcame stiff opposition from more than 60 professional bakers and the award helped raise the profile of his French-inspired bakery.

“It definitely made a difference because people started coming from all over the place to see us and it’s just grown from there,” says David, who has experimented with more than 200 different flavours, including Eton mess and even pina colada, as well as his prize-winning banana and mango. “We try to make the shop as colourful and friendly as we can because that’s what all patisseries should be like, full of beautiful things that make you smile.” For David, it’s a labour of love. “We start at five in the morning and we usually don’t finish till 10 at night, so it’s tough. But we have a couple of days off and if you enjoy what you’re doing then it doesn’t really matter.”

As well as cakes, they also sell their own bread and sandwiches and have recently started a supper club during the week. For David, the key is using good local produce. “Everything is made from scratch, we make our own mayonnaise, our own butter, and it’s cheaper because we’re cutting out the middle man,” he says. “The farthest anything travels is the flour from Huddersfield. But that’s common sense to me, because if you support local producers and independent shops then the money you spend stays in Yorkshire.”

Down the road in Leeds, a group of independent retailers joined forces last November to create the Dock Street Market, a collaborative food emporium. Among those signed up include Chocolates by Mike Wallis, fish&, Italian coffee shop La Bottega Milanese, Riverside Sourdough Bakery and Swillington Organic Farm. However, it’s not just trendy city centre streets where you can find this mini revolution in action. In the village of Cottingham, near Hull, husband and wife team Robyn and Phil Mountain-Wade run Dolly’s Country Larder, specialising in local homemade foods and gifts. Since opening last summer, business has boomed.

“Considering this is our first year of business, we have done much better than we hoped, we’ve exceeded our expectations,” says Robyn. “On Saturdays, the queue for the bread and tea cakes is outside the door and we never have anything left by the time we close.”

Robyn, who used to work as a fundraiser for Macmillan Nurses, runs the shop while Phil, an education advisor for Hull Council, spends most of his spare time indulging his passion for food. “He does all the baking in the morning and evening and on Saturdays. There’s something homemade every day but it’s not on a huge scale, we’ll only make 20 pasties and once they’re gone, they’re gone. But that’s the idea, we don’t want to be mass producing things.”

But given the fact that neither of them had run a food shop before, what made them take such a big risk?

“We’re passionate about food and where it comes from, but we really struggled to find little shops in the area selling local produce and we used to end up having to go to the supermarket. So we started looking around to see if there were actually local producers around here, but once we started it was amazing how many we found,” explains Robyn. “People warned us. They said it was a crazy time to try and start a business. But I’m just an optimist and I thought I can either sit and wait until someone says the recession is over, or go for it. People still have to eat and they still want to buy nice things.”

They both felt that Cottingham was the ideal place to set up shop. “We wanted it to be in Cottingham because it didn’t have anything like this. But now people in the village have started coming here rather than going to Beverley, so we seem to be doing something right. We get a real mix, we have a lot of elderly people who like it because it sells good old-fashioned homemade food.”

They make everything from quiches and bread, to chutneys and even their own ketchup, with everything sourced locally. “We only sell one cheese which is made by a local woman who runs a little farm and she milks her own cattle and makes the cheese herself.”

Robyn believes there is a groundswell of support for local producers right now. “People are more interested in where food comes from and they’re more clued up, they don’t just pick up a tomato they stop and look at where it’s come from.”

Leading campaign group deliciouslyorkshire supports and promotes food and drink businesses across the county and out of its 450 member businesses, 51 are less than a year old. Jonathan Knight, chief executive of deliciouslyorkshire, says although the recession has had an impact, there is more support available to new businesses.

“In the past, people’s hobbies tended to stay as hobbies, but now if someone has a good idea there are more ways of turning it into a viable business,” he explains. “Producers have had to become smarter and offer good value as well as find ways of promoting what they have. In the past if someone was selling a product in a Yorkshire valley it stayed there, whereas now a quick tweet and everyone knows about it,” he says.

“The biggest trend last year was for local produce rather than organic and Fairtrade. There’s undoubtedly an emotional pull because people want to support their local shops, and they think if something is produced locally it should be fresher.

“There’s also a big health agenda going on right now and people want their freshly-pressed apple juice from the Wolds – and long may it continue.”

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