Sauce: The Podcast

Sauce caught up with Chef Stuart Collins about his restaurant, the Great British Menu and the age old debate of chips or roasties!

For our first episode of the New Year and our final episode of series 2, our guest is Shaylyn Kent, co-founder of one of Stone High Street’s newest additions - Clover Café. She talks to us about opening a business with her mum, the inspiration for their name and menu offering, their approach to working with other local independents, and the imaginative ways they’re putting their coffee grounds to good use.

It’s our Christmas Special and we’re joined by Ben Griffiths - aka Grub with Griff - to see out this shocker of a year. Ben speaks candidly about the lows of being ineligible for financial support when he wasn’t able to start his new job in the spring, how cooking at home reignited his passion for being in the kitchen, and the highs of launching Stoke’s Grub with Griff in early summer and building a loyal army of customers and followers. Plus we delve deeper into what it means to be a chef in the age of Instagram. 

Our guest this week is Thom Bateman, chef patron of The Flintlock at Cheddleton. With upwards of 20,000 followers (and counting) on his food-focused Instagram account @bboxfood, where he shares recipes and his own drool-inducing photography, Thom is also a chef and creator for FoodSlut. He tells us why he decided to open a restaurant in the Staffordshire Moorlands in the middle of a global pandemic, and why he’s evangelical about making the most of high quality, seasonal, sustainable produce.

This series, we share a Perfect Day in food and drink with Bert Blaize, a sommelier and wine writer from Staffordshire, who started his career in food and drink at Aston Marina in Stone. He was Flint Wines’ Young Sommelier of the Year in 2018 and released his first book, Which Wine When, this year. We talk everything from High Lane Oatcakes to world-renowned vineyards, with a few stops in between. You can also read our review of Which Wine When here: https://bit.ly/3qAdnIS 

All the festive foodie gift inspiration you need in one tasty morsel. In this special edition of Sauce: The Podcast, Katy is joined by Rosie and Angus from Dalton’s Dairy, Helen from The Good Life Meat Company, Sarah and Beth from Scrumbles Cake Shop, and Julia from Just Perfect Wines. From Christmas Eve treats for the little ones to fabulous fizz for the grown ups, our guests share details of some of the delicious food and drink we’ll all be hoping to find under the tree on 25 December. Find more ideas in our Christmas gifting article: https://bit.ly/3mGrHgv 

Jay and Claire Gibbs founded Staffordshire Gin Company back in 2017, and they’ve been on quite a journey since. After finding success with their core range at events and food festivals and in local pubs and bars, they decided to pursue their goal of having their own bar and distillery open to the public. In this episode, we chat with Jay about the challenges of building and opening Castletown Distillery in Newcastle-under-Lyme during the course of a global pandemic. You can book their workshops and tours and buy Staffordshire Gin online at www.staffordshiregin.co.uk.  

This is the episode in each series where we bring in a guest who lives in (or is from) Staffordshire to tell us about their perfect day in food and drink. We chat about their most memorable dining experiences, their favourite dishes and favourite restaurants, with permission to share recommendations from beyond the county borders. Our first guest to share their Perfect Day is Mike Lawton, who was heavily involved in the organisation of the Michelin charity dinners at World of Wedgwood in 2018 and 2019. A passionate foodie from Stoke-on-Trent, you can also read his review of the Sauce Supper Club and Tom Shepherd Dine at Home experience here: https://bit.ly/34lDvgn. 

This time we chat to Luke Pearson, founder of an exciting modern chocolate brand based in the heart of Staffordshire - Wnder Chocolate. Luke explains how his love of science took him from mixology to product development and now to chocolate making, and we hear how he soon hopes to bring visitors inside the chocolate factory at Thorpe Constantine. Visit ageofwnder.com to find out more and order.

Professional chef Curtis Stewart decided to leave restaurant kitchens behind and start his own artisan bakery, Trentham Bakehouse, which has become locally renowned for its amazing viennoiserie. In this episode, he tells Sauce how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected shopping habits and why he hopes people will continue to support smaller independent businesses like his in the ‘new normal’. Read our afternoon tea review here https://bit.ly/3jatSGQ and order yours via facebook.com/Trenthambakehouse.