Roberto hunting down some fantastic muscat grapes

There’s great fortune at having our own buyers in some of the most important fresh produce markets in Europe and with it some personal misfortune as well. Our buyers’ (Roberto & Thierry) excellent work along with the invaluable daily communication between us means that our customers get the latest information and the finest produce available. I, on the other hand, have less reason to go to the markets!

Wholesale markets are wonderful beasts – they’re vibrant, incredibly visual, they inspire you to cook, and mystify you with the freshness, quality and variety of produce.

As you source from over six varieties of artichokes – we’re now in prime artichoke season in Italy – you can’t help but question why do we find not one single artichoke in supermarkets today? The reason has little to do with sourcing policies, as pre-prepared pineapples sold in supermarkets are prepared in Africa and flown to the UK.

When you taste a superb winter tomato like the Sardinian Camone or the Merinda (AKA Costoluto) from Pachino in Sicily – both green varieties which are cultivated with salty water and eaten raw – the same questions come to mind. Fantastic products are still grown as they were hundreds of years ago, yet what is readily available to consumers, especially in large metropolitan areas, is abysmal. (It is worth noting our Cherry Vine Tomatoes from Pachino are cheaper than incomparable supermarket varieties.)

Roughly five years ago I managed to leave a life of banking behind to work in what I love. I still remember finding myself at four in the morning sometime in the middle of September, evening streetlights still shimmering in the distance, while the humming noise of forklifts and lorries moving towers of fresh produce gave life to an otherwise perfectly still dusk. I could not believe it, this was work.

Pink Radicchio - Only available for a few short weeks in February

Markets are places I feel very much at home in, although I spend less time in them than I used to when I first started. Inside them I forget the nagging issues and daily problems, the difficulties of taking on the distribution behemoths of today. As you taste your way through the market, walking briskly from stand to stand, negotiating prices and taking in an earful of tips, recipes and other invaluable if sometimes fantastical knowledge, you realise how varied and amazing the world of fresh produce is. And how little of it makes its way to the vast majority of us.

Over four very short years we have managed to put in place a distribution system which allows us to source some incredible produce – no better tetstament to this than the restaurants we supply – and at the heart of it are our buyers.

Having our own people, sourcing and selecting for our clients, working closely with our suppliers on a daily basis is why today we are the only greengrocer in the whole of the UK where you can find Pink Radicchio (even if in season only three weeks a year), five varieties of artichokes, winter tomatoes, Grumolo (wild radicchio), the marvelous Bergamot which has made its way onto the menus of Hibiscus, Wild Honey, Santini, The Greenhouse and Sketch…all thanks to our sourcing ability and ultimately our passionate team. Both Ruth and Rose of the River Café have told me that since we started sourcing fresh produce especially for them, their restaurant is the better for it. As a small young company it is really inspiring to the level of chefs which are amazed by the quality and variety of our produce – to see it all end on their plates is an exceptional achievement in a very competitive industry.

It is a very personal goal and the main driver for Natoora. We select food not by shelf life or outside appearance but by tasting it, and ensuring the farmers and producers we source from have the necessary combination of passion, tradition and ethical standards. We are not in search of anything new, nor do we want to change the way man has provided for him for thousands of years – what we seek is to revive the traditions that we have lost, allowing people to once again have access to the highest quality food with incomparable flavour. That is our philosophy, our commitment.