A PIONEERING company based in Marton is trying to out-do a traditionally French form of cuisine.
Great British Confit has become the country’s first supplier of confit products – meats which are cured and slow cooked in oil or fat – produced from UK game and livestock.
Owner Ian de Courcy’s confit products – including pheasant, rare breed or Gloucester old spot pork, grass-fed beef and duck, and confit-derived products such as rillettes, cassoulet and confit sausage – sold out within five days when they had a trial run at The Red Lion in Hunningham.
Ian, who has 22 years of experience in the food industry, said he was tweaking the confit process to suit British tastebuds, rather than copying the French method to the letter.
He said: “Traditionally, the cure before cooking uses salt and a few spices, but we will add other ingredients to improve the flavour such as ale-cured beef or apple-cured pork.
“Confit is traditionally cooked in its own fat, but our products will generally be cooked in British Virgin Rapeseed Oil which is healthier.
“The next stage is to now start selling it and we will be targeting restaurants and gastro pubs as well as the pizza sector and speciality retailers.”
He got the business off the ground with a £15,000 grant from Innovation Networks – a Coventry University Enterprises initiative to help local entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Judy Lambourne, project manager for Innovation Networks, said: “Entrepreneurs such as Ian are proof that with a great idea and being able to access Innovation Networks’ funding that brilliant concepts can become reality.”
Visit www.innovation-networks.co.uk or email [email protected] for more information.
