Lesley’s creamy new deal

10:30am Tuesday 22nd April 2008

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Maxine Gordon reports on the York woman who really did break into Tesco.

SUPERMARKETS are full of everything we could ever desire and more.

The sheer choice of products is dizzying and yet new lines keep being added.

Anyone who watched the Channel 5 series Breaking Into Tesco would have seen just how hard it is for independent producers to get their goods on to the supermarket shelf.

From tweaking the recipe, to thinking up a brand name, and designing packaging, there are many hurdles to conquer.

Among the competitors in the TV show was Jennie Cook, of York, who hoped her Malaysian street-style curry soup, would impress the Tesco judges and make it into store.

Jennie's Hawker soup reached the final, but lost out to Soup In A Bun, which is now on sale at Tesco.

Another York woman has been more successful in getting her product into Tesco. Lesley Buxton runs Yorvale ice-cream, with husband Ian, from their dairy farm at Acaster Malbis.

After humble beginnings 18 years ago, when they began making ice-cream to use up surplus milk from their cows, the couple have now made it into the UK's leading supermarket.

Lesley, left, admits breaking into Tesco was a tough order. The process began a year ago when Lesley took a stall at the International Food Exhibition in London and impressed a buyer from Tesco. But it was after the giant supermarket opened a regional office in Yorkshire, with the aim of sourcing local products, that the door really opened.

With the help of the Regional Food Group, which supports local producers, Lesley secured a chance to pitch to a team from Tesco.

They loved the ice-cream, so much so that they agreed to take on four flavours: vanilla with vanilla pod; caramel honeycomb; strawberry and blackberry crumble.

Lesley says the blackberry crumble ice-cream, a new line for Yorvale, came about because of a mix-up.

"We make blackcurrant sorbet, using a blackcurrant concentrate which we order in. But we were sent a blackberry concentrate by mistake.

"So I stuck it into some dairy ice-cream to see what would happen and it turned out to have a really nice flavour. I decided to put it with crumble, so sourced that and it works really well. I think it's lovely."

Innovative flavours are a hallmark of Yorvale. Over the years, Lesley and her team have been on many culinary adventures; they've made shallot ice-cream and green-tea flavoured ice-cream as well as liquorice and Turkish delight flavours, alongside their bestsellers, vanilla and double chocolate.

When Royal Ascot came to York, Lesley won the order, and made ice-cream fit for the Queen. The royal chef requested lemon curd and orange yoghurt flavours, and Lesley was only too happy to oblige. Last year, Yorvale was asked to produce six new flavours for Royal Ascot, including balsamic vinegar with strawberry.

As with tradition, Yorvale is bringing out some new flavours for 2008: lemon curd with butter shortcake and prune with Armagnac.

Ice-cream lovers in York will be among the first to taste the latest lines because they will be available from Yorvale's mobile ice-cream vans through the summer, at the riverside in York, in Museum Gardens and at York races.

Besides Tesco, Yorvale is now stocked at Sainsbury's and Morrisons, which sell a small range of flavours. Wider selections are on sale at local farm shops such as the Farmer's Cart at Towthorpe.

Lesley believes Yorvale has broken into the big stores because of the quality of the product but also its down-to-earth business style.

"We are Yorkshire, honest and straight-forward. If we say we can do it, we can. Everyone has said to us that we are very straightforward and honest and the sort of people they like to work with."

Lesley's sights reach further than the supermarket freezer. Husband Ian has had to buy more cows to meet the growing demand for Yorvale ice-cream, and the company has just secured a deal to supply Saga cruise ships. From producing only 45 litres a day when Yorvale started, the company expects to be churning out 1,800 litres a day over the summer.

"We still want to expand into wider areas," said Lesley. "We are looking at more ferry lines. We'd like to get on to P&O and into airlines. And we'd love to sell in Waitrose."

Jennie spices up soup

WHEN Jennie Cook learned Tesco was running a competition with Channel 5 to find a new product to stock in its supermarkets, the keen chef thought she had just the dish.

"Hawker soup," said Jennie, who was born in Malaysia but lives in Bishopthorpe Road, York. "All my friends love that dish and the ones who have been to Malaysia like it so much they bring back the powder so they can make it at home."

Hawker food is Malaysian street food, bought from outdoor stalls, and is hugely popular in the Far East.

Jennie thought she might stand a chance of winning the Tesco TV challenge, Breaking Into Tesco, because she believed her product was unique - and delicious.

"I don't think Tesco has any authentic Malaysian products," said Jennie, whose Hawker soup included noodles, shrimp and chicken in a broth flavoured with curry spices, lemongrass, lime leaves and coconut milk.

In the series, Jennie impressed the judging teams at Tesco, which included in-house chefs and a tasting panel, to make it through to the final five.

Unfortunately, she lost out to Soup In A Bun, a butternut squash soup that comes with a part-baked bread roll.

But Jennie says the experience opened her eyes to how difficult it was to make it on to the supermarket shelf.

One of the many hurdles she faced along the way was how to make her dish work in one pot, so that packaging could be limited. She worried that her noodles would go soft, but got round this problem after experiments with top chef and mentor Simon Rimmer.

She also had to come up with a brand name and other recipes to complement the Hawker soup.

"Tesco didn't like the name Hawker, they thought it was too much like hooker," said Jennie.

Although Jennie didn't get her big break, she believes Tesco will be selling Malaysian food in the near future.

"I think they will have a range of noodle soups," she said. "They won't have my name on it, but I'll be flattered that they copied my idea.

"I didn't go into it for money. I just wanted to see Malaysian products on the shelf."