❤ LOVE LOCAL ❤
Bringing food to a village near you
TIM MADDAMS TALKS SUSTAINABLE, ETHICAL FOOD… Y
ou may remember him as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s slightly geeky right-hand man, but these days you are just as likely to fi nd
Tim Maddams cooking in your local vil- lage hall than at River Cottage. It was Hugh’s values that fi rst drew
Tim to take up a role as sous chef at River Cottage Canteen in Axminster. The focus on provenance, sustainability and ethical- ity made Tim feel much more comfortable than his previous role as a chef for the Ferrari F1 team. Tim stayed at River Cottage for four and a half years, working his way up through the ranks and making guest appearances alongside Hugh on TV, before making a break for a freelance career. “I realised that working as a development chef for another company wasn’t really the way I wanted to go with what I was doing.” In 2012, Tim set up his own company called Green Sauce, under which he teaches at cookery schools, runs food demonstrations at events, caters private events, works with companies to create recipes and writes. He is currently writ- ing a game handbook for River Cottage among many other things.
Whatever the project, ethics play a
strong part, particularly when it comes to his latest venture with fellow ex-River Cottage chef and charcuterie wizard Robin Rea. Hall & Hearty sees Rea and Maddams pack up their pots and pans and take to village halls and community centres across the South West to provide local food to local people. “We’re on a mission to not only provide ethical food to local people, but to make the whole business ethical, from the point of view of profi tability and sustain-
producers on their doorstep. “We’re get- ting their story out to the people who are going to go back to them.”
By hiring local halls, and allowing them
to run the bar, the project is supporting them too, and if the event sells out the hall will also receive a bonus on top of their normal hire fee.
When asked to describe his style of
“We’re on a mission to not only provide ethical food to local people, but to make the whole business ethical, from the point of view of profi tability and sustainability,”
ability,” Tim explains. Taking the food to people in villages as opposed to them driving to a restaurant reduces the num- ber of journeys per plate of food and is, “a much better way to combat food miles,” says Tim.
The events, as you might expect, use local produce, which is important to Tim because it is people within these local communities who are more likely to of- fer their continued support to the small
48 | THE WEST COUNTRY FOODLOVER
food, Tim says it’s, “honest, seasonal cookery. I don’t really limit it to one cuisine. People talk about modern British, which is a great way of saying a mish mash of everything and I guess I kind of fall into that group.” Tim trained with the likes of Alistair Little and Fergus Henderson, re- nowned for his nose to tail philosophy, so his style has undoubtedly been in-
fl uenced in that way. “It’s good old fash- ioned cookery, no bells, no whistles, just honest food. When you realise the secret to that is just taking amazing ingredients and cooking with them, you can’t really believe your luck!” Seasonality has a big role to play in the
sourcing of such fabulous ingredients and also helps to ensure food is sustainably sourced. “Cooking seasonally takes a bit of commitment. You have to be prepared
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