Recipe for success – Orkney’s lockdown food boom

The Council’s Environmental Health team have been dealing with a boom in food business – with the number of new catering start-ups almost trebling during the COVID-19 lockdown year.

While all non-essential business ground to a halt in March 2020 as a national lockdown was imposed on the nation, many prospective entrepreneurs were devising their own recipe for success.

With pubs, restaurants, cafes and eateries all closed, the public were craving something new and different – and have responded generously, giving tremendous support to those new catering businesses.

Paul Turner, OIC Acting Environmental Health Manager, said 22 new catering businesses have registered with the Council in the past 12 months – compared to 8 in the previous year. Seventeen are based in a domestic setting and five are mobile caterers.

“We are a very small team in Environmental Health and have been kept very busy thanks to the innovation and entrepreneurship being shown by a considerable number of Orkney residents who have approached us for guidance and support in regard to setting up their businesses.

“Any business handling and selling food must register with our Environmental Health team at least 28 days before opening. Food legislation places an obligation on food business operators to ensure that all their activities are carried out in a hygienic way – it is an offence to supply food which is unsafe or harmful to human health. It is our job to make sure that businesses comply with these requirements.

“Home-based food businesses are subject to the requirements set out in food law. It should be noted that running a food business from a domestic setting is still running a commercial food business. They will be rated according to risk and they will come under the food hygiene information scheme as other commercial food businesses do.

“We also carry out inspections on premises as often as is required based on the perceived risk to ensure standards remain high and the public protected. A food safety risk assessment is a requirement for all food business, and it is their responsibility to undertake these and keep them under review.

“With any new venture there can be compliance issues to overcome and that is where we come in to provide guidance and support – businesses and potential businesses are always encouraged to discuss matters with Environmental Health. For example, there is an element of added pressure as areas of food law such as labelling/customer information can be complex.”

While the pandemic has encouraged many in Orkney to take the plunge, the restrictions has placed an additional pressure on the local authority team in how they have also had to adapt to ensure checks can be carried out.

If you would like to arrange an appointment to discuss registering a food business or for any other related guidance and advice, please contact the Environmental Health team on 01856873535.

BOX’D! – restaurant quality food in a box!

A lover of cooking from a young age, Gary Nicolson became inspired by how businesses and restaurants across the world adapted during the pandemic – and this is where the concept of BOX’D! came from.

During the first lockdown Gary, a chef at the oil terminal on Flotta, watched on social media how local businesses changed the way they worked to enable their services to continue.

Inspired, he began to develop his own concept.

“I live in Rendall with my wife and our four children. I knew whatever we did, that we were limited with our kitchen in our family home. I loved the idea of families cooking together and I wanted people to enjoy restaurant quality food, in the comfort of their own home.

“Everything you need for a meal, including the instructions, is provided in a box, so that's where the name BOX'D! came from. Once the plan was made, I called Paul Turner at Environmental Health, who was fantastic. He provided me with everything I needed to know to register as a food business with OIC, and passed me on to a colleague of his who made sure we were compliant and supported us to make any changes and have all the relevant paperwork.”

 On 15 August 2020, the BOX’D! first kits – pizzas - went live, largely advertised on social media, and was a massive success.

“Everything needed to make a fresh pizza at home was in the box, from the dough to the sauce, along with instructions. I have tried to make the menu suitable for everyone, with sides, dips and something for kids. Being able to use the Kirkjuvagr Gin Distillery as a collection point for our customers has been essential for BOX'D! to operate, and we are extremely thankful to Stephen and Aly Kemp for supporting us!

“Over time, we have added our homemade marshmallow and cookie dough kits, which are now being posted all over the UK! It’s been fun getting creative over the various holidays, and at Christmas we sold over 200 marshmallow toasting kits. I have always said I didn’t want to stick to one thing, so we have tried to keep things fresh and new. After a few blocks of pizzas, we decided to change things up and introduced our 'around the world curry kits'. “We then moved on to Mexican Kits, and for Valentine’s Day we decided to create something a little more special with BOX'D! Exclusive.”

As to why it has been such a success, Gary believes that during the first lockdown folk were missing being able to go out for a nice meal and get dressed up.

“For Valentines I knew I had the perfect opportunity to do something different! I planned a 5 course, fine dining meal, that could all be done at home in under an hour! People decorated their dining tables, got dressed up, poured some fizz and put so much effort into the whole experience. Forty-two very large boxes went out that weekend! We did another Exclusive for Mothering Sunday which sold out in 15 minutes! There are a few more Exclusive kits planned over the next year, and I am really looking forward to providing something more unique and fresh to my customers.”

Gary’s wife, Charlene, has adjusted her own work life to allow her to assist Gary with the paperwork side of business.

“Even with restrictions easing, we have had people messaging saying that it’s made it possible for them to have a ‘date night’ when they struggle for childcare. We have some customers that have bought kits every weekend, and the feedback we receive makes it even more worth it!”

They are excited to see what the future holds for BOX’D as the restrictions ease and they also look to adapt.

“We will continue to do our food kits, but I’m also looking forward to some planned events and also being able to provide a more personalised service! We have lots up our sleeve, and I’m really excited for the future of BOX'D!”

Tankerness tREEts – old-style homebaking

A slower pace of life during the first lockdown was enough to finally spur Ruth Eunson into starting up her own “bun box” in Tankerness.

Ruth, who is a part-time clinical coder with NHS Orkney, finally took the plunge on 19 July 2020 ensuring her baking commitments could fit in around her work, a husband and two children!

She explained why she chose a national lockdown to finally bite the bullet and start up a long-held aspiration.

“The pace of life completely changed for the majority of people during the pandemic. It was something that I welcomed into our family as life was always hectic (in fact it’s even more hectic now with baking every spare moment I have!) There wasn’t the same for folk to do and I thought that a bun box was a place for people to visit and hopefully get a bit of enjoyment from. There was already a number of boxes up and running when I opened my one so I wanted to offer people some different kinds of baking.

“I offer good old-style home baking such as traybakes, cakes, cupcakes, scones, cookies and fudge, but I also offer puddings and some chutneys and curds when time allows. I always try to have a good variety of stuff available each week to give people a choice. I get a huge sense of achievement seeing the box bursting full first thing in the morning and then it being empty at the end of the day.”

Ruth contacted the Council’s Environmental Health team for assistance with her small business.

“The start-up process for initially opening was relatively straightforward. I had to register with Orkney Islands Council as a food business. I also completed some online courses, mainly a Food Hygiene Course and an Allergens Course. Environmental Health helped me with the essential policies and procedures I needed to have in place, such as temperature control records, cleaning schedules and stock management.

“They also visited my home to make sure that my set up was up to standard and gave me some good advice on how I should be doing certain things. The labelling side of the products is a huge task and a very time consuming one. You have to make it very clear what is in each product, so the customer knows exactly what they are purchasing.

“When you are selling products to the public, I want them to be of as high a standard as I possibly can. I want my customers to be happy with what they have purchased.”

Tankerness tREEts is booming and Ruth is very grateful to the public for their support.

“I can’t thank them enough for visiting Tankerness tREEts and buying my produce. It gives me great satisfaction when people get in touch to say that they have loved what they’ve purchased and keep coming back week after week. It makes it all worthwhile!

“Orkney has an amazing amount of food outlets on offer and we’re so lucky to live where we do and enjoy all of the fabulous produce that businesses have to offer. I think the pandemic has really proved this. I would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported me since opening, I greatly appreciate it and look forward to a busy summer ahead.”

Beiting and Brew – Orkney Street Food and Coffee

Business has been booming for Beiting and Brew founders Kit Bichan and Daniel Gould thanks to an appetite among the Orkney public for street food from around the world.

They launched in the summer of 2020 as the lockdown was beginning to ease, offering restaurant quality food and coffee, using the best of local produce to create a regularly changing menu full of homemade dishes inspired by street food from all corners of the globe.

Helped on their way by a Business Gateway start-up grant, Kit explained that they also received support and advice from Orkney Islands Council.

“The registration process was quite daunting at first because there were several departments within the Council I had to talk to but everyone was very helpful and pointed me in the right direction,” Kit said.

It was a long-term goal for Kit to work for himself, using his experience in hospitality to launch something innovative and unique to Orkney.

“With my cousin, Daniel, who is a trained chef, we previously looked at taking on our own premises, however the costs were not feasible, so we bought the trailer. Marcus Cordock, who has worked full-time with us since the start travelled the world as a successful musician and, as a result, has actually tasted the food we are preparing first-hand.

“The first couple months were brilliant. It was such nice weather, there was a real buzz as people had been locked down for so long and this all fuelled a spark when returning. It was extremely long days, but it made it easy seeing such a positive reaction from the public. We had to try and find a bigger space and found a kitchen at the Waterside in Finstown. This has allowed us to continue changing our offering with more storage space and a bigger oven!

Many folk are curious about the name itself – Beiting and Brew, so Kit explained how it came about: “The name was a group effort. We wanted something that would say about food and coffee. We knew we wanted it to have the tag line 'Orkney Street Food' as this enables us to venture out and try other things. Beiting means grazing in Norwegian and the brew side is the coffee.”

The aim is to secure their own premises – but only if the place and time is right.

Kit added: “I believe in being part of a collaborative economy. Orkney is already brilliant for so many things but importantly to me for food, drink and produce. Expanding on this offering and focusing on quality will undoubtedly encourage people to continue to come here and then we have another way of sharing what special place our homeland is."