CHEFS’ SECRET “VERJUICE” IS ROLLED OUT NATIONALLY
Chefs’ favourite secret ingredient finally available wherever you live in the UK Verjuice enjoys a renaissance: out with the new and in with the old in 2010
Verjuice (also known as verjus) is found in restaurant kitchens up and down the country. It features in the latest recipes by creative chefs.
Yet, for the rising number of passionate home cooks in the UK, verjuice has been almost impossible to get hold of, unless you have easy access to an incredibly good deli…that was until Verjuice.co.uk officially opened for business in February 2010.
Verjuice is a regular purchase by chefs in the nation’s leading restaurants: not only is it a food flavour enhancer, but it’s the premium alternative to cooking with lemon juice, white wine or vinegars. Providing a unique and subtle taste profile, Verjuice is not a flash-in-the-pan new ingredient: it dates back to medieval times and is made from the unfermented juice of unripe wine grapes.
Jayson Hunter, a South African foodie living in London, decided to introduce Verjuice to the UK after sampling it during a recent trip to South African vineyards in 2009. Recognising a gap in the UK market for excellent-quality, flavourful Verjuice that is easily available and competitively priced, Jayson officially launched Verjuice.co.uk at the start of 2010.
Word has already started to spread within the hospitality trade about the arrival of a more cost-effective Verjuice range, and Internet searches by ardent foodies led to a raft of orders before the first shipment had even arrived on UK shores (in January 2010).
Jayson Hunter, director of Venator Investments Ltd, which is importing the Verjuice range into the UK, says: “I have introduced the South African Verjuice to the UK with the aim of making it easily available for everyone who has struggled to find it to date, increasing availablitity and helping chefs (and home cooks) to make cost savings through a more reasonable retail price and wider distribution. We want chefs to know that they can trade up to this new range of Verjuice products and make cost savings.
“I’ve already had a large order from a woman who loves cooking with Verjuice at home but hasn’t been able to find it in any local shops. She even went to France in search of a good bottle of Verjuice but came home empty handed. One Google search later she’d placed an order and her month’s supply was delivered the next day.”
Recent strong interest in Verjuice from destination restaurants and celebrity chefs has spurred demand for this ancient ingredient within the HoReCa market. Following a recent surge in interest in the restaurant world, Jayson is certain that Verjuice will be the next big thing among foodies who love replicating restaurant-quality dishes at home.
Verjuice was a popular, mainstream ingredient in the 19th century and is currently experiencing a renaissance, particularly in the UK, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the US. The Romans, famous for their love of all things grape-based, experimented with Verjuice as a condiment and flavour enhancer. The French used it as a staple in provincial cooking centuries ago, before it was replaced by the cheaper, less flavourful alternative of lemon juice. Verjuice is still used in traditional French mustard recipes.
Verjuice is the ideal ingredient to experiment with, regardless of your culinary skills, not only as an alternative to vinegar in vinaigrettes, but also for deglazing pans, as a gorgeous addition to salad dressings, sauces and reduction sauces (Jayson recommends simply reducing Verjuice until it is thick and pouring immediately over fresh strawberries). It provides a very clean flavour while lemon juice and vinegars are typically more acidic. Verjuice complements other flavours rather than overpowering them (such as balsamic vinegar) and adds an original dimension to traditional recipes.
Talking to chefs ahead of the introduction of the new Verjuice range in the UK, Jayson found that its reintroduction to modern cooking has been embraced by inventive cooks who are always looking for new ways to incorporate subtle variations to their foods.
Notes to editors
Available directly for next day delivery at www.verjuice.co.uk are three Verjuice products: TVC Verjuice (750ml bottle £13.99), Green Harvest Verjuice (750ml bottle £13.99) and Caramelised Verjuice Syrup (250ml £7.99), which is used as a versatile sweet-sour syrup that adds zest to desserts, dressings, cheese and meat dishes, and is used as a delicious alternative to sweet ingredients such as maple syrup or honey.
There is a minimum order of six bottles (1 case) if you work in the the HoReCa trade. Recipes, more product information and Verjuice history can be found at www.verjuice.co.uk
An example recipe
Warm Verjuice Salad (serves 2) with crusty bread rolls
1 medium onion (diced), 1 cucumber (in long strips), 1 red or orange pepper (diced), rocket/salad leaves (as much as you want), 2 large tomatoes (sliced), 1 tbsp olive oil, 1-2 tbsp Verjuice (depending on how much salad dressing you want to create), salt and pepper to season.
Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add half the tomatoes, onion and pepper. Heat until the onions have softened. Take the pan away from the heat and scoop the mixture on to the bed of salad leaves, add the cucumber strips and remaining raw tomato.
Add the Verjuice to the remaining juices in the pan and stir to deglaze the pan. Season to taste and drizzle the juices over the salad. Serve warm with fresh, crusty bread rolls.
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