Life in the slow lane: a Slow Food blog by Nathalie Nötzold

This is the first of our blogs from Slow Food UK by Nathalie Nötzold, coordinator of Slow Food’s Chef Alliance scheme. Slow Food is a charity championing healthy, environmentally-friendly, ingredients with good provenance sourced locally and seasonally. Starter I am excited to welcome you to my first blog, introducing you to Slow Food and the world of Britain’s forgotten culinary jewels. As a social scientist with a background in sustainable development my path into the food industry was rather accidental. When I stumbled into the Slow Food office more than a year ago, I was less attracted by the focus on food and more intrigued by the combination of charitable organisation and global grassroots movement. As soon as I engaged in Slow Food’s efforts to change our current food system I realised that food was the missing link between my concerns for sustainability and my passion for good food and cooking. As a German I was equipped with the stereotypes that ‘British’ food equates to English breakfast and fish and chips. Boy was I wrong! Now I know more about British food heritage than my own food culture and have embarked on a path far more exciting than I had imagined… As Chef Alliance Coordinator at Slow Food UK, I am working with the brilliant and passionate chefs, who all have a responsibility in shaping our food culture and who support the Slow Food ethos of good, clean and fair: food that tastes good, is produced without harming the environment, human or animal welfare and pays a fair price to the producer. Slow Food tries to re-connect people with their food and promotes sustainable sourcing and consumption. While many of you might have heard something about Slow Food, less well- known is that everything started with the opening of a McDonalds in the tiny Italian village of Bra. The invasion of fast food caused a group to campaign for local farmers, regional food production and old traditions of gastronomy. Carlo Petrini was the main advocate to counter the growing influence of industrial agriculture, and by 1989 the Slow Food movement was officially born. Now present in over 150 countries, the overarching goals of our work are raising awareness about food issues, educating the public about making conscious food choices (through Slow Food Baby, Slow Food Kids and Slow Food on Campus) and preserving edible biodiversity while championing small-scale producers (through the Forgotten Foods and Chef Alliance programmes). Main As Chef Alliance Coordinator I work with our network of 100 plus chefs in the Slow Food UK Chef Alliance. Spokesperson Richard Corrigan and ambassadors like Francesco Mazzei, Giogrio Locatelli and Angela Hartnett have helped set up this network and we are thrilled to have their support. One of my major goals is to encourage chefs to use Forgotten Foods. We call a food ‘Forgotten’ when there is only a small quantity available or when only very few producers are left producing it the traditional way. Great examples are the Authentic Aylesbury Duck with a clean bloodline cultivated over six generations by Richard Waller or Good King Henry, a semi wild plant similar to spinach, usually known only by foragers. Our chef members of the Alliance are our true food ambassadors, championing Forgotten Foods and small scale producers. The network of foods, producers and Chef Alliance heroes is currently thriving: from the Shetland Islands, home to producer Richard Briggs and his rare breed Native Shetland Lamb to chef Marcello Tully’s Kinloch Lodge; from Robin Jones’ rare breed Badger Faced Welsh Mountain Sheep to chef Shaun Hill’s Walnut Tree Inn; from the home of Sea Lavender Honey, Bloaters and Grey Chicken in Norfolk