Sheffield blog

This year’s results

Last night the 2011 Eat Sheffield awards took place in the Winter garden and St Paul’s Mercure hotel. The winners were:

The Eat Sheffield Restaurant of the Year
The Devonshire Arms

Green and sustainable award
The Milestone

Newcomer
The Wig and Pen

Sheffield food hero
Ed Andrews from Our Cow Molly

Food outlet
Street Food Chef

Family outing
Endcliffe park cafe

Traditional pub
The York

Gasto pub
The Devonshire Arms

Asian/oriental
Hui Wei

Indian
Aagrah

Italian
Nonnas

European
La Mama

British
Silversmiths

Cafe
Fusion

What do you think, are these winners deserving of their awards? Or was your favourite restaurant, pub or cafe overlooked?

There’s more about the Eat Sheffield awards in this news release from Sheffield Hallam university and you can see some more pictures from last night on the @eatSheffield Twitter feed.

Upcoming Sheffield photo and craft exhibitions

Two exhibitions launch next month, one marking the end of a great photography project and the other heralding the start of a new arts and craft showcase.

The Sheffield 365 project saw photographer Luke Avery taking portraits of Sheffield people at different locations around the city on each day in 2010. You can read more about the project in this interview with Luke that I did after the project had come to an end.

You may have seen some of the photos on display in one of the empty shops on the Moor earlier on this year. The good news is that all 365 photos are to be displayed at the Workstation on Paternoster row in an exhibition next month.

The free Sheffield 365 project exhibition launches on Wednesday 4 May (6-9pm) and runs until 31 May.

And the night after, on Thursday 5 May, Sheffield craft city launches its first exhibition at PJ Taste on Glossop road. It has been set up as a rolling showcase for work from the local arts and craft scene.

The opening exhibition includes contributions from:

• James Green, linocut and etching print specialist
• Lianne Mellor, tea ware with a contemporary feel
• Jessica Flinn, maker of handmade modern jewellery using traditional metalwork techniques
• PJ taste, providing support, sustenance and creativity with locally sourced food

The artists’ work will be on show at PJ taste from the 6 May, with a launch party from 6pm on the 5 May. The event is free but ticketed.

Tickets for Sheffield craft city launch

Live webcast at 7pm on Friday

On Friday night, chefs from the Milestone are doing a live cook-along from Meadowhall.

The idea is that you buy the ingredients for Fish pie with pipérade beforehand and then at 7pm, have a go at putting the dish together as you watch on the web at www.meadowhall.co.uk.

They’ve listed the ingredients you need on this recipe card (PDF, 1.1MB) and also the kitchen utensils (PDF, 487KB) you’ll require. You’ll be able to ask questions as you go via a web chat.

Head chef Simon Ayres will also be creating the dish for spectators and answering questons in the food court throughout the day.

Bees, beers and bovines in Bradfield

North west of Sheffield lies a community which is making a bit of a name for itself with the production of local food and drink. Bradfield and neighbouring village Dungworth are home to some of the city’s best known local producers and on Saturday I popped up to Bradfield farmers’ market to catch them all as they gathered under one roof.

Bradfield farmers’ market

I’ve not been to Low Bradfield before, which is where the monthly market is located. The last couple of markets have coincided with snowy weather but today it is fine, which makes the drive up through the countryside on the edge of Sheffield even more pleasant. In the spring sunshine the village looks very picturesque, nestled in among the hills with a pub, village store and central green area.

The market is held in a modern village hall building. There are around fifteen exhibitors selling products such as beef, pork, milk, pies, chicken, ice cream, fruit, vegetables, beer, cheese, bread, honey, wax products, cheesecake, jams and cakes. Other items on sale include soap, bird feeders and fire wood. Refreshments are also available from a cafe.

At places like this, half the fun is going around each stall and enjoying the free tasters. Although that isn’t to say that all the food is overpriced.

For example, the cheese (three for a fiver) is comparable to what you might pay in a supermarket plus you can pick up a dozen eggs for £1.70. And of course you know you are getting good products as well as supporting independent producers.

The major Bradfield and Dungworth names in attendance include the Sheffield honey company, Our cow Molly ice cream, Bradfield brewery and Bradfield meats.

The Sheffield honey company has been around a couple of years now and as well as producing various types of honey (my favourite being the one with a vanilla pod in it) they now sell other beeswax products such as candles. You can now even buy a block of straight honeycomb which is supposed to be delicious melted on toast.

Production of the tasty Our cow Molly ice cream grew out of a dairy farm set up in 1947. In 2007, with the value of milk plummeting, they decided to diversify and the Our cow Molly brand was born. You are more likely to see it on sale in north or west Sheffield, although the Crucible and Lyceum stock it so make sure you try some as your interval snack next time you go.

Bradfield brewery beers are already all over Sheffield and can also be found further afield. I think their most popular beer is probably Farmer’s blonde, which I would recommend. They all have Farmers in the title though so are pretty easy to spot and are available in bottles and kegs as well as on draught.

Lambing season at Our cow Molly

Laden with local produce, we decide to head back to Sheffield. We’d been given stickers at the market which entitled us to a freebie from the Our cow Molly ice cream shop, so can’t resist calling in on the way home.

It is a great time of year to visit Cliff House Farm in Dungworth, the home of Our cow Molly. The weather is finally warming up and lambing season is here, which means there is plenty on view.

I last came to the farm for their big bonfire in November, which was great fun. On pulling up in the car park we are greeted this time by a lamb and its mother. There are also new born calves and goats to see, as well as cockerels, rabbits and of course cows.

Eddie the farmer is currently giving short tours of the lambs and their barn, and although we had just missed one, he is more than happy to take us round and talk to us about his livestock and the meat, milk and ice cream they produce.

Children are enjoying the animals and of course the prospect of finishing off our visit with an ice cream in the parlour is a treat for everyone.

Our cow Molly lambing tours: weekends in March and April, 11am and 3pm

Bradfield farmer’s market: upcoming dates

Sheffield: land of milk and honey on the culture vulture by Lucy Harper

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Independents versus chains in Sheffield

In case you have missed it, the winners of the 2010 Eat Sheffield awards are:

The Eat Sheffield Restaurant of the Year (judged category)
The Milestone

Favourite Family Friendly Food Operation
Endcliffe Park Café and Our Cow Molly Ice Cream Parlour

Favourite Gastro Pub/Bar Dining
The Milestone

Favourite Café/Deli
Fancie

Favourite Theme restaurant
Cubana

Favourite British/Modern European
Silversmiths

Favourite Italian/Mediterranean
Ego

Favourite Indian
Kashmiri Aroma

Favourite Asian/Oriental
Wagamama

Best Local Produce Menu (judged category)
Silversmiths

Sheffield Food Champion (judged category)
Amanda Perry, Fancie

Best Newcomer (judged category)
Lokanta

When I heard rumblings on Twitter last night that Wagamama had won the best Asian/Oriental category, I was a bit disappointed that the winners might be mainly chain restaurants, which would reflect badly on the city’s restaurant scene.

However, if I’m not mistaken, only two chains were crowned winners last night (Wagamama and Ego), with the rest being local, independent businesses. But thinking about it – and given that many of the awards are voted by the public – why shouldn’t a chain win an award?

Sheffield is a proudly independent city and I’d much rather we were home to stunning local restaurants in every category, but the truth is we still have some way to go. So if anything I hope the results of this poll spur on city restaurants to up their game even more and prove to the public that the food they produce really can compete with the biggest names out there.

Of course a chain like Wagamama is helped by the clout of being an international name, with no doubt a marketing budget to match. But the majority of last night’s results also confirm what we already knew, that Sheffield people love Sheffield names. So there is an opportunity there for the independent restaurants to grab.

I think a good restaurant scene in a city needs both independents and chains as part of its offering. Some people like a chain, as they know what they’re getting, can offer good food and also can be great value for money.

But we also need our independents to give Sheffield something distinctive. In turn, this keeps more money in the local economy through direct revenue for the owner and also supporting local suppliers.

What do you think – would a Eat Sheffield 2011 winners list that was 100% full of independent, local businesses be a triumph? Or would it show that we are inward looking and content to live in our Sheffield food bubble?

Inside the Sheffield Fancie bakery

The other day I had the pleasure of an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Sheffield’s favourite cupcake company, Fancie.

Fancie is only a young business. In just two years it has quickly become one of the city’s most recognisable and loved names in food.

Prior to Fancie, there wasn’t much in the way of gourmet cupcakes in Sheffield. They have created a market for their product and now bake over 4,000 cupcakes a week in their modest Sheffield 7 base.

A Sharrow vale road shop opened in April last year and an outlet in the Winter garden followed earlier in 2010. Two more stores are due to open this year, the first in Sheffield university’s refurbished student’s union just in time for fresher’s week.

So what is the Fancie bakery like? It you’re expecting it to be lavishly decked in the trademark pink then you’re wrong. The only clue from the outside that we’d arrived at the right place was the small www.fancie.co.uk in the window.

Inside there is a small office, the main preparation area and a store cupboard.

We meet the proprietor Amanda who ushers us in and starts to show us round. We’d arrived at 9:30am but the five or six people busily attending to various stages of the cupcake-making process have been working since five that morning.

The Fancie team look as if they are nearing the end of the cooking process and the fruits of their labour are indeed on show.

Adjacent to these trays is a personalised order which is half way through being prepared. These special orders account for about 15% of the business, the rest being standard cupcakes sales.

We’re then left to explore the rest of the bakery and see how the Fancie cupcakes are made. Although the process is what you would expect, seeing the craft behind something you know well is still interesting.

First of all, the sponge mix is created and then pumped into the waiting bun cases.

There are plenty of flavours on offer, and each batch is labelled before it is baked in the oven.

A good cook always tests their recipes as they go along.

The cupcake filling is added: for example jam for the Victoria cupcakes or peanut butter for Snickerlicious, Fancie’s biggest seller.

The icing is then mixed and generously pumped onto the cupcakes to create the thick Fancie topping.

None of the icing is wasted. When all the lighter colours have been applied to cupcakes, the spare icing is mixed together and combined with cocoa to create  the chocolate icing.

The toppings are then put on. Judging by the contents of the store cupboard, they won’t be running out of coloured sprinkles soon.

The finished cupcakes are then stored in crates until the delivery van arrives to take them to outlets in Sheffield and Leeds.

The hard work wasn’t quite finished there though…there was first the washing up to do.

After looking round we washed down our cupcakes with a cup of tea and had a chat with Amanda in the office.

I asked her about the background to Fancie and her setting up here. She was born in Cornwall and worked as a pastry chef in the Lake district before moving to Sheffield. An alarming fact was that the choice of city to move to was completely random; she literally stuck a pin in the map. So it would have been possible for another town or city to be the home of Fancie, which seems hard to imagine now.

However, Amanda’s passion for Sheffield is clearly evident and she would be the first to say that being based here is a big part of what makes Fancie the company it is.

The fast growth of her business and the numerous outlets that sell her cupcakes show that Amanda has ambitions for Fancie. But the PR trips to London to raise the company’s profile are not what motivates her and her dream isn’t to see Fancie cupcakes in every supermarket in the land.

Instead she is happy to build the company up so it doesn’t become another supplier both driven and bullied by the big supermarkets. The people enjoying her cupcakes are happy to pay for them knowing that they are made fresh, locally and by an independent producer, and she is in no hurry to ramp things up on an industrial scale.

Being considered a treat product obviously hasn’t done Fancie any harm in the current recession. And the occasional special flavours are giving people excuses to keep coming back for more: I can personally vouch for the goodness of the butterscotch one.

The success of the business hasn’t gone unnoticed, with at least two other gourmet cupcake companies springing up in Sheffield.

For now though Fancie is still the number one, and remains one of Sheffield’s culinary treasures.

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A box of Sheffield food delights

Some relatives are moving back up to Sheffield so we decided to make them a little welcome home present:

They are into their food so we wanted to show them some of the best food and drink brands in the city. After crowdsourcing the best Sheffield food products on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, we had plenty of suggestions for what to include. This is what made it into the box:

• Henderson’s relish – first thing on the list, obviously
• Yee kwan ice cream – two flavours: green tea; chocolate and chilli
• Yorkshire crisps – Henderson’s relish flavour
• Catherine’s choice blueberry and lime conserve
• Sheff’s special mojo chilli sauce
• Yabba cho cho and aubergine pickle
• Sheffield honey company soft set honey
• Kelham island brewery beer – Pride of Sheffield
• Our cow Molly ice cream – blueberry muffin flavour

We also threw in a copy of Our favourite places guide to Sheffield and wrapped the box in postcode wrapping paper from the Museums Sheffield shop. The present was given last weekend and went down very well.

Some Bassett’s allsorts would have also fitted in there nicely, as well as perhaps some fresher items like Fancie cupcakes. Were there any other Sheffield goodies that we missed?

Sheffield’s urban music festival returns for a second year

So once again the hordes descended on the city centre for the second year of the Tramlines festival. This time it was much bigger than 2009, with an estimated 125,000 people creating an amazing atmosphere around town.

Following feedback from last year, there were some changes for 2010. The problematic ticketing system for the main stage was scrapped in favour of a one-in, one-out policy. This meant that there was queuing down Devonshire street, particularly on the Saturday, but on the whole I think it worked much better and led to the main arena being much fuller for more of the day.

The capacity for Devonshire green was increased to around 8,000, with a bigger area fenced off.  This meant that the spontaneous barbecues and gatherings that took place along the Rare’n'racy stretch of Devonshire street didn’t occur, which was a shame. Most of the businesses along there were inside the enclosure. I understand that the intention was for there to be public access to it via the side gates, but this didn’t seem to happen.

It was good that you were allowed to drink anywhere inside the main stage area, Food wise, I think there is room for more outlets offering a bigger variety of cuisine than we saw this year.

If you wanted to see a particular band then you needed to get there early, allowing time to queue to get in the different venues. Some people seemed annoyed at this but as it is a free festival, I don’t think that much can be done about it. I found that when one band finished playing there was the opportunity to move inside and get a good spot for the next one.

It was possible to avoid the queues if you chose your venues carefully. Drifting between the new music stage in Barker’s pool and also the world stage in the Peace gardens was easy. And I had no problem walking straight in to the Leadmill, Frog and parrot and Soyo at various times over the weekend.

If you didn’t go on the Busker line bus, then you missed out. As well as a practical means of getting around, it became a venue in itself. I overheard one old couple sat behind me on there discussing whether they should go round again. It sounds like they had been on it a while.

The organisers have said they’d like to make Tramlines even bigger if it returns in 2011. It will be interesting to see how they go about this. I can’t see how the main stage can increase its capacity, although they could also open it on the Friday night.

I also get the feeling that there is a limit on the size of the headliner that Tramlines can accommodate on Devonshire green. Echo and the bunnymen was a perfect fit: an established band that appeals to different generations and has at least a few songs that most people will recognise. If the main band was were really big then although that in some ways would be brilliant, it would also bring with it a whole new level of logistical and security issues.

There isn’t another obvious city centre location for a bigger stage than Devonshire green. They could look to using the Don valley bowl, but part of the appeal of the festival is its compactness and the atmosphere that is generated in town because of this.

Also, at the moment I don’t think Tramlines is just about getting big names to play. Although having very well known bands playing where you know the songs is great, the festival is as much for me about soaking up the atmosphere around town, checking out some new music and supporting local artists and businesses at the same time.

The organisers have acknowledged that some elements of this year’s festival could have been run better and are still looking for feedback (they have over 500 points on the list already). You can get in touch via Facebook.

And if you want to increase the chances of Tramlines happening again next year, they have also set up a voluntary donation scheme.

All in all it was another great weekend, I think the most exciting of the year to be hanging out in the city centre.

Flickr photos

• arepeejee Friday, Saturday and Sunday
• dansumption
• robinbyles
• Starquake
• Subterranean Tourist Board

Tramlines TV videos

Three new blogs for 2010

When I started this blog two years ago, the first question I asked was where are all the Sheffield blogs?

I soon discovered the Beginner’s guide to Sheffield blog and there were others that seemed like a good idea but didn’t get updated very often.

Since then, a trickle of Sheffield-themed blogs have appeared including the two restaurant review ones at the end of last year. 2010 has now brought us three new Sheffield blogs.

Run as a full time concern by seasoned journalist Russell Cavanagh, North west Sheffield news online (on Twitter too) is an excellent example of hyperlocal blogging. Its area extends from the northern edge of the city and west of the A61 (Halifax/Penistone road and beyond) so if you live on this patch then make sure you log on.

You’ll soon see how its independence, tight geographic focus and effective use of digital platforms means it can cover community issues in a way that a traditional, city-wide newspaper like the Star struggles to do.

Love Sheffield launched at the end of January and will be ‘scouring the city with a homegrown steel (city) scouring pad’. So far it has covered the comedian photograpahy exhibition at the Graves, City of sanctuary and a post about the slightly chilling story of Sheffielder Horatio Bright.

Finally, Seven hills blog documents ‘random thoughts, hidden gems and why the city is so great’. Sheffield favourites the Rude shipyard and Record collector have already been blogged, as well as the ongoing Sheffield verses Leeds rivalry.

If there are any others out there then why not make yourselves known? And if you’re thinking about setting up a Sheffield-themed blog then do it. The tools are out there for free – all you need is a bit of enthusiasm to get going.

Aerial shots of Sheffield and beyond

This ITN video of  the current snowy conditions includes shots of Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium the Cadbury factory, as well as the Emmerdale set and Harewood house.