I was really excited at being invited by Booths to join their Slow Food evening once again but this time at their Ilkley store.
The evening followed a very similar format to the evening at the Ripon store, but this time it was the West Yorkshire Slow food group as well as some potential Slow Food converts.
Hosted by Andrew, the store's Deputy Manager and Sarah, Booths Senior Marketing Manager, the group were split into two ready for the Slow Lane tour of the store. I was lucky enough to be in Sarah’s group who gave a fascinating insight into Booths growing partnership with Slow Food and how they are forging unique supplier customer relationships through the signage and promotion in stores.
A really special treat for everyone this time was Ray (Booths Wine Specialist) who offered everyone three different types of wine, which were absolutely perfect to go with cheese - just a shame I was driving!
Rose, the stores Cheese Specialist was as amazing as ever and it was great to see her again following her visit to Shepherds Purse last September. She was championing four lovely cheeses, two of which were European and two were home grown. All four very different to the Shepherds Purse range but very tasty nonetheless!
I was tasting three of our blue cheeses, Yorkshire Blue, Mrs Bells Blue and Buffalo Blue to highlight the differences in milk and how this affects the flavours and textures of the cheese despite being made to the same recipe. Along with these I also had the Bells Bluemin White, Yorkshire Fettle and my namesake, Katy’s White Lavender!
I hope that everyone found the evening really interesting and enjoyed all the cheese and wine on offer. Hopefully the group have a better insight into the partnership between Booths and Slow Food and how they are planning to cement the relationship further.
We are looking forward to getting together with the Slow Food group soon to start planning “become a cheesemaker” for a day!
Thanks everyone for a fantastic night!
Katie x
