Kokova Magazine

Opening closed doors and unveiling secrets to the serious food lover. A brand new rural food tourism business, based in the beautiful Forest of Bowland has been launched.

Food Hero Tours is a collaboration of North Lancashire’s finest food producers and a determined food lover. Together they have created unique “field to fork” safari tours to offer food lovers the opportunity to discover first hand why their produce is coveted by many of the UK’s top chefs, and encourage them to buy direct for their own tables at home.

With a pedigree dating back four generations in the hospitality industry Julie Whalley from Newton-in-Bowland, Clitheroe, has teamed up with many of the finest food producers in North Lancashire to enable the food lover to really discover first hand, why top chefs have turned to Lancashire producer’s to flavour their menus.

Julie set about her vision for raising the profile of Lancashire produce, having worked with many food, drink and tourism businesses in her time as a national award winning rural business advisor. She set up Buns of Bowland in 2010, producing beautiful filled and decorated ‘Buns’ (far more than a cupcake!) and from this came requests to visit food producers and run artisan food workshops.

With sheer determination to run more than just a cookery school and adding texture to the award winning Ribble Valley Food Trail (with which she is also associated and is about to be re-launched in Spring 2011), she hopes Food Hero Tours will help improve the way chefs, customers and producers interact to enhance food provenance knowledge for everyone in Lancashire, by working collaboratively.

I trained as a chef and hotel manager years ago and worked in the industry for over 20 years. Although I don’t cook professionally now I still love creating new dishes using the best local ingredients as did my great grand parents when they were in their hotel kitchen. When I go out for a meal, I am also quite selective as to where I dine, I tend to support the chefs who have gone out of their way to source the best local produce for their menus and work with it creatively. When I entertain at home for friends and family, I do the same – and I am not alone. If you seek out the finest wines for a meal then you should be equally as conscientious about selecting the finest foods to eat with it , really it should be visa-versa. This is why Food Hero Tours is aimed at the new breed of food lover and tourist, people really interested not just about how food looks and tastes, but how it’s creation affects our countryside

Julie Whalley

Groups as small as six can benefit from Julie’s food producer knowledge. The food tours will also allow visitors to see North Lancashire’s stunning countryside, which is still an amazing discovery for most people, and provides a greater appreciation of local history, for which Julie is herself a fine ambassador.

A typical day consists of a traditional Lancashire start with a bacon or local sausage ‘butty’ and a brew at Julie’s home. Boarding luxury transport provided by a fellow small rural business you will visit several artisan food producers straddled by a sumptuous lunch in many of the areas renowned eating establishments. This could be the infamous Inn at Whitewell, a celebrity chefs restaurant or a cosy rural country pub. Each tour is different, tastings are aplenty and true Lancashire characters are abundant to provide entertainment!

The Ribble Valley Food Safari’s are only the beginning for Lancashire, I am hopeful that producers in other parts of Lancashire may wish to join the group and then I can bring the serious food lover to them to purchase directly and build their own rapport with them as do our top chefs.
As much as I love keeping busy in the kitchen with the buns I also love going out to pick up my ingredients from my suppliers. This led me to thinking that you might also wish to join me.

Julie Whalley

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