This just in – from The Daily Mail a couple of days ago actually. A nice piece with Lance Forman about opportunities – or lack of – for small businesses and banging the drum for the legacy.

Small firms urged to grab last £50m of Olympics contracts By HELEN LOVELESS 22nd January 2012

About £50million of contracts for the London Olympics are still up for grabs and small firms are being urged to act quickly.

One that didn't get away: Lance Forman is expanding his fish smoking business on the back of the Olympics

Nearly 70 per cent of suppliers to the Games are small and medium-sized businesses, with more than 250 such firms having been awarded contracts. Two-thirds of those companies are based outside London.

The Olympic Delivery Authority, which is responsible for the infrastructure of the Games, has some 1,500 suppliers, most of which are small businesses.

Chris Daniels, head of London 2012 activation for Lloyds TSB, a ‘tier one’ sponsor of the Games, says that areas where there are still contracts to be won include banner signage, security and hospitality.

He says: ‘There are still many contracts in cottage industries, for example, creative areas such as costumes and flowers.’ Details of available contracts can be viewed on competefor.com, a website set up in association with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Lance Forman runs family business Forman’s Smokehouse in Stratford, east London. The firm, which was set up in 1905, claims to be the oldest producer of smoked salmon in Britain and supplies luxury foods to the House of Lords, the Savoy hotel and department store Fortnum & Mason.

The business was forced to relocate from its original premises on the Stratford site of the Games after London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

However, Lance, 49, has more than made the most of the opportunities offered as a result. Not only are the new premises the nearest building to the Olympic stadium, but Lance has launched three new businesses, including a hospitality venue that will play host to major Olympic-related events including the Olympics after-party.

He has also opened a restaurant by the site and an art gallery which shows the works of local artists. The company employs 85 staff, but Lance expects to take on hundreds more during the Games.

He says: ‘This is a chance for us to boost business, but also to showcase what we do, in particular how good British food can be. What is most important is ensuring that the boost given by the Olympics is sustained after the event is over.’

Steve Wheeler, local business director for small and medium-sized firms at BT, a partner to the Games, says: ‘Businesses need to prepare thoroughly for the Games – leaving it to the last minute will not work.

‘Our research shows that 74 per cent of small firms expect disruption during the Olympics, yet only a quarter are taking steps to address it.’

What do you mean you don’t crack Scotch Eggs?

Oh, alright then but whoever let hardboiled facts get in the way of a good play on words.

We’ll stop now but do please have a read of this review of our Scotch Eggs in The Guardian.

Eggcellent stuff.

If you like the sound of them you can order them here – http://www.formanandfield.com/homemade-scotch-eggs-p-3032.html

Here’s a lovely post from the Eat Hackney following her recent visit to Formans. This is a perfect summary of smoked salmon according to Forman.

If you’re thinking of buying a Christmas hamper this year then do please have a read of this review of a sample hamper we put together of some of our favourite foods. You can be sure all our hampers are just as good!



We sent food blogger gastronomy domine one of our Christmas hampers to review, click on the image below and have a read of what she thought.

“Forman and Field hit it out of the park with this hamper. There wasn’t a single dud in there. Every item in the hamper was something I’d consider ordering off my own bat. And there is nothing nicer than opening up a beautiful wicker box like this to rummage through on the living room floor, finding surprise after surprise. If there is a greedy somebody you love very much this Christmas, I can’t  think of a better present. The hampers are packaged with ice and insulation, so they arrive fridge-cold.”

There’s a lovely piece on our smoked salmon in the latest delicious magazine. An interview with Lance Forman explains our process and why we think ours is a hundred times better than a mass-produced product. There’s also a similar interview with Paul from Kelly Bronze Turkeys who supply our birds and lots of lovely Christmas recipes so it’s well worth picking up a copy.

If you like that then you might just be interested in the video we have of a day in the life of our smokery, click here to view!

Thank you very much to the ‘Wandering Scotsman’ writer of the ‘London is cool’ blog and for the following review of our London Cure smoked Scottish salmon, next stop will be ice to eskimos methinks…

“I can’t fault Forman & Field. The product arrived on the day specified, well packaged and in good condition and more importantly the London Cure Smoked Scottish Salmon was full of delicious flavours.”

If that has you inspired then… click here to buy our smoked salmon

“Authentic”, “smooth, excellent”, “strong taste of roe – this is a taverna flavour”, “a real colour” – The FT review our handmade tarmasalata.

The standard offered by the supermarket offerings in this taste test is typical, we’d be horrified if any of our products performed didn’t trounce the equivalent from any of the multiples. To be favourably compared to two restaurant offerings just goes to show that when you order from Forman & Field you can be sure of enjoying restaurant quality food at home, very good restaurant quality at that.

The taste test: taramasalata

By Peter Bazalgette

Published: September 9 2011 19:32 | Last updated: September 9 2011 19:32

Full disclosure: I have a fetish for taramasalata, and eat it at least twice a week. Up to now I’ve been content with whichever sloppy pink concoction I happen to pick up from the supermarket. But the interesting thing about blind tasting products against each other is this: you can think you’re happy with a brand until you compare it with others. Then any imperfections are cruelly exposed. This week’s winner, for instance, beat all the products I normally consume with an original take on the classic smoked cod’s roe/olive oil/breadcrumbs/garlic/lemon juice recipe.

Tasting panels are a bit like making a movie – casting is everything. Taramasalata is a Graeco-Turkish speciality so this called for our eastern Mediterranean bureau. When we summoned the Greek Magnate (GM) and the Lebanese Gastronaut (LG), they came with alacrity. GM declared he had an open mind about the various products since, “there’s no authentic recipe – you do it your own way”. At this point his eyes met those of a sleek urban fox peering at us from the garden. But, with the Discerning Litigator (DL) and the Gluttonous Pig (GP), this was to be a panel of only four and we sent the animal on its way.

We were a mite disappointed by Tesco’s Taramasalata: “bland leading the bland”(GP); “over blended”(GM). Perhaps its none-too-generous 8 per cent cod’s roe prevented it delivering enough flavour. We had a similar criticism of the smooth but fainthearted tara sent to us by The Real Greek, a chain of Greek restaurants across London: “not fishy enough”(GP); “is this mayonnaise?”(LG). But the product that really surprised us was Essential Waitrose Taramasalata: “old cardboard”(GP); “stale taste”(DL); “not my cup of tea”(LG). It came bottom by some margin, making us wonder if we’d happened to get one of a substandard batch.

The supermarket taras were not only quite runny but also uniformly pink from the frankly, peculiar addition of beetroot juice. The best was Asda’s, one of our runners-up: “pleasant”(DL); “more like the real thing – bring on the grilled octopus”(GM). We thought that its judicious use of onion powder gave it a good kick. We also liked the more pungent, oily tara from the Turkish restaurant Sedir (does its superior performance over The Real Greek tell us anything about their respective economies?): “very olivey”(GP); “good flavour”(GM).

Now to our winner on the day – a pale white tara that comes from H. Forman & Son in a spring-sealed Kilner jar: “authentic”(DL); “smooth, excellent”(LG); “strong taste of roe – this is a taverna flavour”(GM); “a real colour”(GP). So taken was the panel with Formans’ recipe that, the tasting completed, we toasted some brown pitta bread and polished off the jar with a glass of white burgundy.

Later, I telephoned Lloyd Hardwick, Formans’ director of operations, to find out more about the tara. Its ingredients are smoked cod’s roe, mascarpone, garlic, yoghurt, lemon juice and seasoning. Hardwick says that the unusual addition of mascarpone makes it silky smooth while also helping to stabilise the blend. And the yoghurt gives it a sharpness, which balances the saltiness. What about the cod’s roe? “We buy it from Iceland – IQF Grade A” – this means Independently Quickly Frozen, and is better quality than bulk-bought roe. Then it is smoked in the company’s east London smokery.

In summary, Formans buys the best raw materials and then controls the process carefully. And it shows – this is a first-class product. Hardwick told me that it’s difficult to sell much of it because it’s not pink. But why should our tara be the same colour as our newspaper? The good news is that Formans’ tara is available for home delivery. We highly recommend it.

British charcuterie is about a whole lot more than just cooked ham and bacon these days, producers like Northfield Farm and Woodside Farm are making meats that rival anything from the continent. BBC Good Food magazine put together a beautiful spread for a feature in their current issue.

It’s always particularly satisfying to hear of a new ‘convert’ to our smoked salmon, and it just so happens that ‘The Foodie Gift Hunter’ has come around to our way of thinking.

“It was firm, mildly smokey flavoured and tasted of salmon but not fishy. It was as delicious on its own as it was stirred through a pasta sauce.”

“Forman & Field have never struck me as the cheapest place to hunt for a gift for a food lover, but if everything comes up to this standard then they’re definitely delivering quality for the money. Which makes it a good source for the future to me.”

Read the review in full here – http://thefoodiegifthunter.co.uk/http:/thefoodiegifthunter.co.uk/coming-round-to-the-smoked-salmon-cause

…and if that convinces you, order our London Cure smoked salmon here!