I’m using my 12 Days of Giving nomination to support a charity which continues to be there for my Grandpa, and family, the incredible Alzheimer’s Society…
Now in its third year jellybean’s 12 Days of Giving is our way of giving back during the festive season, where we donate a day’s average jellybean salary to 12 charities of our choice.
Conceived by one of Britain’s best chefs and located just a stone’s throw from culinary institutions such as The Ritz and Fortnum’s & Mason’s, you’d be forgiven for thinking that NOTTO may be beyond the budget for a casual get together.
Despite what my family say, you’re never too old for an advent calendar. And it seems that many companies agree with me on this, whether it be M&S and their cosmetic advent calendar or the many flavoured gin advent calendars. It now seems to be fact that we grown-ups should also enjoy daily gifts in the run up to Christmas! As such, here is my list of the top ten foodie advent calendars to keep your eyes peeled for, or put on your own wish-list.
As a lover of both football and eating stuff I thought I’d have a stab at twinning my dual passions by examining the national dishes of each of the 32 teams involved in the forthcoming World Cup. What follows will hopefully surprise, delight, disgust and anger you in equal measure. Much like watching the home nations in action.
The rain may have been torrential, but the spirits were high as we headed to Old Billingsgate for the 2022 B2B Marketing Awards. Having scooped a win in the B2B category at the Alliance of Independent Agencies Wing Awards, with our ‘You Don’t’ Know Philly!’ campaign for Mondelez UK, earlier this year we had everything crossed for the night ahead. This time the campaign was shortlisted for ‘Best Use of Customer Insight’ in what is essentially the Oscars of the B2B marketing world.
Amsterdam is one of the most popular European tourist spots – the city attracted around 20 million tourists per year pre pandemic. Famous for its art, culture, canals, and bikes on every corner I was eager to sink my teeth into everything the iconic city had to offer! So much so, my first trip to Amsterdam was a whirlwind of food and fun.
As Hallowe’en, Bonfire Night and (dare we utter) Christmas roll around once again and the summer heatwave feels like a distant memory, classic winter warmers are popping up all over the place. Roast season has well and truly returned, and soup, casserole, and pie inspiration seem to be saturating social media feeds.
So, you’ve booked your events and exhibitions for 2023, whether you’re planning a host of regional shows, focusing on a niche sector, or perhaps going big at the next William-Reed expo, there are some simple things you can do to boost awareness around your stand, get more traffic and help market your business pre, during and post show. As a leading food and drink marketing and PR agency we know a thing or two about foodie shows and how to make the most of them. So here are our 10 top tips…
As a leading food and drink agency with over 35 years working with chefs us beans are used to working closely with chefs. Indeed, over this past month I was incredibly lucky to spend time in the company of many brilliant chefs. Chefs of all ages and levels, they had either shined at the Salon Culinaire, Zest Quest Asia, or were in training to compete at the highest level – representing England at the World Culinary Olympics this November.
Food brings people together in a huge variety of ways, from family gatherings or a friendly pick-me-up to first dates or peace-offerings. Everyone has a favourite food, ranging from pizza to pasta, cookies to cakes, and all the good stuff in between! So many amazing dishes and ingredients are available to indulge in today, and World Food Day (16th October) celebrates them all.
If you ever needed an excuse to indulge in a curry, and believe me as a leading food and drink agency we need very little excuse, well, here it is. This week marks National Curry Week during which we have been hugely excited to launch an on-pack retail promotion for Cinnamon Kitchen. A newly launched brand which offers Indian fine dining at home with a range of premium ready meals developed by celeb chef Vivek Singh of The Cinnamon Collection. The range which is available exclusively through Tesco includes everything you could need to re-create fine Indian cuisine at home, without any of the hassle or effort – result! Having tried it myself I can testify to the quality and frankly my local Balti may have some serious competition on its hands.
If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that we beans enjoy a cocktail or two in the sun. Never has this been truer, than when I went bar hopping in the serene and scenic harbour town of Cavtat in Croatia with my best friend, sampling Piña Coladas whenever possible.
Let me take you through our experiences, rating each Piña Colada along the way.
You may recall my last Lumina food strategy forum exec summary blog was split into the good news and the bad news. I’m sad to say that the weight of bad news is rather overwhelming this time around, however that isn’t to say there isn’t some good news. As ever things are changing on a daily basis as this debrief happened on 21st September two days before the Chancellor’s ‘mini budget’. However, that said, it offers up a useful snapshot of the market. My top take outs from the debrief are as follows:
Earlier this month, we made our way to the Islington Metal Works in London for the 2022 StrEAT Food Awards, hosted by Contract Catering Magazine. The event saw some of the UK’s biggest and best contract caterers including Amadeus, BaxterStorey, Elior, Lexington and Sodexo, battling it out to take home one of three coveted titles including Street Food Dish of the Year, StrEAT Food Chef of the Year and Meat-Free Dish of the Year.
National Hospitality Day was launched last year to celebrate the brilliant, resilient restaurants, pubs, hotels, bars, cafes, and the amazing people who work within them. Despite the worst of the pandemic, the industry demonstrated just how hospitality makes our communities better. Last year, over £50,000 was raised as businesses were asked to incorporate a fundraising element into their activities to support charities (specifically Drinks Trust, Springboard, Hospitality Action, Only a Pavement Away and Licensed Trade Charity).
The Lumina team are no stranger to a food tour, well versed as they are with the hottest new concepts in town. But this time they wanted to mix things up a bit and treat the Food Strategy Forum members to a tour around not Soho, but Angel and not one, but three meals! Had I had known I perhaps would have opted for an elasticated waist but that frankly is my only complaint.
Note to self: when you book a last minute, spontaneous trip to Paris with your vegan friend, make sure you do your foodie research.
If you didn’t know before (which I certainly didn’t), France isn’t the most ‘up to date’ when it comes to vegan and vegetarian options. Practically every menu in traditional Parisian restaurants offers meat-only dishes, with minimal vegetarian choices and zero vegan options – making it impossible for a carnivore and a vegan to eat together *sobs*.
