Showtime for the big breakfast

Mar 19 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

WHAT’S your preferred foodie start to the day? Muesli and milk? Toast and marmalade? Or are you a coffee and croissant on the run type of person?

How about getting the day off to a good start with a Northumberland breakfast?

A new campaign is being launched to coincide with St Cuthbert’s Day tomorrow to encourage more of Northumberland’s accommodation providers to serve and promote the county’s quality produce on their breakfast menus.

The tasty initiative tied in to the celebration of Northumbria’s patron saint, is the brainchild of the Made in Northumberland project, which strives to increase the range of locally produced goods offered to visitors and promote England’s Border county as a culinary destination.

But what makes a great Northumberland breakfast? Is it Seahouses-based Swallow Fish kippers or grilled Lindisfarne oysters? Maybe it’s Craster smoked salmon with Belford produced Sunny Hill free range scrambled eggs? Or perhaps it’s locally produced sausages and bacon encased in a stottie cake?

The argument could be settled tomorrow when Made in Northumberland and the Country Landowners’ Association – also strong backers of local produce – join forces to highlight the wide range of breakfast ingredients raised, grown and made in the area.

Invited guests will be served breakfast using only Northumberland produce at Alnwick’s famous White Swan Hotel before award-winning consultant chef Richard Sim gives a cookery demonstration.

Paul Smith, general manager of The White Swan Hotel, Angus Collingwood Cameron from the CLA and Adam Ellis Jones, project manager of Made in Northumberland – part of Northumberland Tourism – will also be on hand to stress the importance of using and promoting local produce.

Mr Ellis Jones hopes the campaign will encourage as many accommodation providers and restaurants as possible to take up the local gauntlet.

He said: “Ingredients from Northumberland are used by many establishments. However, we need more people to tell their guests their breakfast is made from Northumberland produce.

“We hope that people from the county will get involved and recommend what they would class as a great Northumberland breakfast.”

They can either do this at Richard Sim’s breakfast cookery demonstration at Alnwick’s Northumberland Hall at 12.30pm, which is open to the public, or log onto www.visitnorthumberland.com.

Accommodation providers can see Mr Sim in action at 10.30am and 2.30pm. Any accommodation or food providers interested in attending should email Helen Spark at helen.spark@northumberlandtourism.co.uk

Tell us about your favourite local breakfast at Journal Forums by logging on to www.journaltastene.co.uk or email taste@ncjmedia.co.uk

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The makings of the perfect local breakfast

THE Journal Taste North East England Campaign was launched at the end of January to encourage consumers, retailers, restaurants and hotels to buy, use and eat more of the wealth of local produce available on our doorstep.

We asked three well known Northumberland residents what makes their perfect local breakfast.

BRENDAN HEALY, comedian, who lives near Haydon Bridge

"I really love bacon, eggs and sausages for breakfast – all local of course. I get my bacon and sausages from a butcher in Haydon Bridge who has a board telling customers where all the meat is from. The eggs are free range from a local farmer who just sells to a couple of outlets. T

"I’m a fan of local produce in general and I eat as much as I can. I buy at the farm shops like Brocksbushes at Corbridge. The food is more expensive but it’s worth paying a bit more for the best …"

SIMON KING, one-half of TV’s unconventional cooks, the Hairy Bikers who lives in Prudhoe "My favourite breakfast is locally laid organic poached eggs given to me by a fella I know, on Melmerby Bakery bread from just over the county border in Cumbria. I also like scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast. As a treat I love grilled Craster kippers on my own home made soda bread. They stink the house out, but it’s worth it. It’s good local produce, of which we have a lot in Northumberland."

TOM SILLAR, co-director with wife Emily of the Comfort Food Company with restaurants in Newcastle and Meldon Park, near Morpeth. The couple live at Meldon Park.

"My favourite breakfast? Scrambled free range eggs from Belford, bacon from Moorhouse Farm at Stannington, locally produced black pudding and my wife Emily’s own homemade bread using stone ground flour from Gilchesters Organics at Hawkwell. It is an antidote to the high end cooking we do. It is usually a Monday treat as it’s my one day off.

"In second place would be Swallow Fish kippers from Seahouses grilled with butter."