Fresh and Wild Cookbook: A Real Food Adventure

Anthony Collazos Customer at Fresh & Wild, Clapham Junction, May 2004.

We are lucky enough to have choices in a world where most are not. Whilst millions of people face starvation every year, we can choose to buy high-calorie, low-nutrition foods from corporations whose ruthlessness beggars belief, or fairly-traded, high-flavour, high-nutrition, artisan-made foods that are as strong on ethics as they are on taste.

If you shop at Fresh & Wild, you have made a choice to support small family farms, wholesome businesses, importers who pay people both locally and in faraway lands fairly, and decent people who believe that craft and artistry are essential to the food we eat. Naturally, you’re tasteled too, buying real foods full of flavour for the enjoyment of great eating.

At the end of a hard day’s work, the last thing you want to do is make moral and ethical decisions about your shopping. You just want to get a bunch of tasty stuff, go home and eat it. And that’s the beauty of Fresh & Wild. Not only is the experience of shopping there so much nicer, but you can trust that their team of buyers have made all the big decisions for you.

You don’t have to worry whether the fish is sustainably caught or humanely and safely farmed. There’s no need to waste time wondering if the hens that laid the eggs have been routinely injected with antibiotics; if the fruit and veg are covered in pesticides or anti-fungal waxes; if the milk and cheese is full of hormones; or if the breakfast cereals, biscuits and sweets contain dodgy E numbers and battery farm eggs. You can be certain that everything for sale at Fresh & Wild is untainted by all these things, that it’s GM-free, full of flavour, full of nutrition and fresh as can be.

It’s not really about what it doesn’t contain, but what it does. In short, the store is stuffed with real, proper, tasty and unadulterated food – lots of organic foods, lots of imaginative foods, lots of food that you will love. It’s not a health food shop so much as a real food shop, full of flavoursome, healthy foods. This can be a bit of a culture shock if you’re used to the standard run-of-the-mill supermarket sweep.

That’s where this book comes in. I want you to explore, experiment and have lots of fun with things that you’ve never tried before. Fresh & Wild has plenty of staple foods that you know exactly how to eat – like the excellent hand-baked organic breads, or incredible artisan cheeses, or the many varieties of apples, cucumbers and potatoes – but what exactly is mochi? And what are you supposed to do with burdock roots, nori, or Ras-el-Hanout?

I love playing with food. Mixing and matching the most amazing ingredients and recipes from near and far, sometimes making an authentic meal from another continent, other times cooking up a mélange that could only happen in a multicultural city like London or Bristol. We’re blessed with choices, so why not enjoy the amazing opportunities we have to tickle our taste buds with local, traditional delicacies or exotic, fairly-traded delights? And have a browse at the culinary gadgets they’ve got, too. The Rookie chopsticks are great for kids, while the cast-iron griddle pans are top for char-grilling just about anything, from fennel to fish.