In preparation for the busy festive season in their pubs, the Bristol-based brewery recently produced enough Christmas pudding mixture to make 1,000 Christmas puddings at the food and drink innovation centre in Weston-super-Mare.
As well as making Christmas pudding, Butcombe's chefs from across the country, including chefs from the Liberation pub group in Jersey, spent a week in the specialist kitchens at The Food WorksSW perfecting some of the brewery's delicious Christmas creations and training for the holiday season under the watchful eye of Butcombe's Head Development Chef Jasper Prickett.
Forthcoming delicious festive dishes prepared by the chefs included sticky figgy pudding, toffee apple, fig and chestnut crumble, mince pie ice cream, gilt head bream and Ox Cheek Wellington.
Butcombe Brewery hires the state-of-the-art kitchens at The Food WorksSW for menu development, training and business meetings throughout the year and make full use of the food and drink innovation centre's specialist equipment and spacious well-equipped kitchens.
Jasper says, “The Christmas pudding mixture we made in the commercial kitchen at The Food WorksSW is now currently steeping and will be ready to be shaped and steamed for the festive season and sent to all our pubs for Christmas Day."
He added: "We're really big fans of The Food WorksSW and we absolutely love it there. It offers so much and meets all our needs for menu development, training, equipment, storage, even meeting space. It's also in a great location just off the motorway so it's easy for all our staff to get to.”
Zoe Plant, who is new product and innovation manager said, “Whether it's equipment you need or expert technical advice, if you are a food or drink brand, be it big or small, you'll find everything you need at Food WorksSW and at very reasonable rates, too. You can hire any of our five specialist kitchens for just one day if that's all you require as we understand everyone's needs and budgets are different.
"Our top-of-the-range equipment within each of our kitchens, like the commercial kitchen Butcombe used, really do offer the perfect space for chefs and producers the chance to come in, experiment, develop and fine-tune food and drink products or menus.”
The only centre of its kind in the south west, The Food WorksSW is based in the heart of the Weston-super-Mare Enterprise Area, under half an hour from Bristol, and close to Junction 21 of the M5 motorway.
"It has state-of-the-art facilities including five product development kitchens available for flexible short-term contract hire for food and drink businesses of all sizes to test, develop and manufacture their products, prices begin at start just £96.90 per day (inc VAT).
Technical support packages are also available at the centre where a team of food industry experts provide technical support to businesses navigating their way through a range of food disciplines, from new product development and quality assurance, hygiene and food safety and efficiency. The team helps food and drink businesses develop products in a safe and efficient way.
For more information on how The Food WorksSW can help businesses, visit them at foodworks-sw.co.uk, or stay up-to-date follow @foodworks_sw on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. A range of case studies can be found on the website and on The Food WorksSW YouTube.