Local production has fallen to negligible quantities, which means that Poland is now having to import lamb to satisfy a slowly growing demand. We have written about how BPCC supports the promotion of British Lamb on the Polish market before (http://bit.ly/2ctAYHc), but the work does not end here.
As the next step of promoting British Lamb in Poland, the BPCC’s Food is GREAT team was involved in organising a prestigious competition – L’Art de la cusine Martell for the young talents. The prize was quite a catch for the participants as a part of it was a chance to win a trip to the UK and visit the best restaurants serving lamb and the Randall Parker factory and see for themselves the process of preparing and cutting the meat which is crucial in its preparation.
The contest had been overseen AHDB’s by export manager (AHDB being the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board, which incorporated the snappier-titled English Beef and Lamb Executive, EBLEX) export manager, Randall Parker producer, and the distributor of British lamb in Poland – Janex.
The three best teams – Hotel Heron nad Dunajcem, Hotel Platinum Palace Residence Enjoy Restaurant from Poznań and Szeroka No 9 restaurant – won the trip. Its focus was to learn about British lamb, its breeding, processing and cutting. The knowledge will help the chefs prepare lamb better, knowledge which hopefully will be shared with other Polish chefs. The trip gave the distributor Janex the chance to learn about British lamb and see its unique selling points and what differentiates it from other lamb products already available in Poland.
The starting point of the trip was a dinner at Benares, a London restaurant with a Michelin star, where all participants could taste the perfectly prepared lamb.
Day two was educational in character as the participants were taken to Randall Parker’s factory in Andover. There they watched the way the carcasses to gain the best knowledge about the process and tackle any difficulties, under the watchful eye of experts in the field. The representatives of the distributor Janex have also found the second day educational, giving the firm new ideas for ways of promoting British Lamb on the Polish market.
The trip has been a success. The team from Hotel Platinum Palace Residence Enjoy Restaurant said: ‘It was an adventure, an amazing experience and a chance to meet new people. And it was a great chance to become familiar with a high-quality product – British lamb. Such a prize offered us an amazing chance for personal and professional development, bringing new inspiration which is always necessary in our profession.’
Representatives from Janex and Randall Parker were delighted by the excellent organisation and nice time. We hope that this will result in the strengthening of our cooperation with Randall Parker.