Artisan goodbye

My time at the School of Artisan Food has now come to an end. It’s been an incredible year of intensive learning, making, and thinking.

The days of early morning cycles across Nottinghamshire farmland, past red-tiled farm buildings, poppy fields and limestone crags, evenings spent cooking, drinking wine and taking about food into the small hours, the days spend thinking about making cheese whilst sipping Monmouth coffee have all drawn to an end.

 It would be massively clichéd to say it has been a life changing experience, but in all honestly, is has been. I’ve met the most outstanding people who sometimes have challenge the way I think about, not just food, but life. I’ve had the opportunity to spend a year at Welbeck; one of the most historic, secret and beautiful country estate in the UK, and to travel across the UK, France and America to visit, work with and learn from artisan food producers and suppliers of all types.

Here are some of the producers I’ve been able to visit and spend time with and foods I’ve been able to help make or seen being made over the past year:

• Joe Schneider at Stichelton  • Montgomery Cheddar • Tom Calver at Westcombe Cheddar • Keen’s Cheddar •Charlie Westhead at Neal’s Yard Creamery •  Tim Jones from Lincolnshire Poacher • Robin Betts from Winterdale • Linda Dutch at Berkswell • Val Bines • Stacey Hedges at Tunworth • Neal’s Yard Dairy • Marcel Petite Comté • Hervé Mons • Mateo Kehler at Jasper Hill Farm • Cellars at Jasper Hill • James Swift from Trealey Farm Charcuterie •Ray Smith • Saucisses de Morteau •  Arthur Potts-Dawson • Carolyn Steel • Flour Power • and the man who invented Mars ice-cream

These people have mostly been introduced to me through the School of Artisan Food. Some gave inspirational talks, others allowed me to work with them or visit their production site. There have been plenty of others too, those behind some really exciting transitional food movements and not-for-profit food projects; food writers and journalists; scientists and microbiologists.

But the people who have been shared this experience with me, from such a range of backgrounds and past careers, all drawn together by a hunger for real food, have been amongst the most special people I’ve met – the artisan food producers of the future. Children of the revolution. The revolution that is the growing interest in food; whether it be cooking, producing, eating, or concern for the one thing which humans depend on for life. Food.

So now, having examined my own thoughts, morals, and beliefs on food and food production, I find myself asking the same question I did 12 months ago. Actually, a question I ask most days…What is “artisan”? Or, at least “who is an “artisan?”

“Artisan – Person, Place, Product, Passion”

“A kind of personal integrity that can be confused with eccentricity: “However strange it may seem to you, this is the way I do things.””

“The belief that their work is not a means to something else, but one of the ways to give meaning to their life.”

“Artisan. Genius: the brilliance that comes to those driven by their personal vision rather than a desire for success, money or fame.”

“An artisanal product is passionately handcrafted, using traditional methods, sometimes combined with modern innovation. By using knowledge, skill and quality ingredients, the artisan creates a special product; embarrassing the individual characteristics of the maker.”

From the authority, the School of Artisan Food’s website, “There is no single definition of artisan food. Artisan producers should understand and respect the raw materials with which they work; they should know where these materials come from and what is particularly good about them. They should have mastered the craft of their particular production and have a historical, experiential, intuitive and scientific understanding of what makes the process that they are engaged in successful. They should know what tastes good and be sensitive to the impact of their production on people and the environment. Artisan producers get better over time and probably never stop improving or tweaking their practise, learning from other people and their own mistakes”