Having taken on the role of Kitchen Manager late last year it is my job to ensure that all of the ingredients are here at the Divertimenti kitchens for the start of each class. I take great pride in the quality of all of the produce that is supplied to us everyday and really want to be able to tell our students about the traceability of our goods as well as being able to fulfil the requests of all of our teachers and their amazing recipes. Everyday I speak to our various suppliers but have yet to put faces to their voices and so decided it was about time to get out and about in London, meet these fantastic people in person and have a butcher’s hook. First on my list is our butcher – HG Walter. I have been consistently impressed by the quality of our meat and the wide variety of produce that they have been able to supply us with and as for their sausages well they have to be some of the best in London.
Armed with a map, camera and a list of questions I set off on the tube to Barons Court. How silly it was for me to think that I required a map since as soon you leave the station you really can’t miss the traditional blue awnings and inviting glass fronted shop.
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Immediately I was greeted by Adam and Claire whose father established the business some 35 years ago and who still to this day plays a very large role in the business’s daily goings on. Adam’s knowledge is vast; from the different cuts of meat to the farms where everything is sourced from as well as just about every customer’s first name. Both Adam and Claire worked through the whole counter explaining the benefits of the different types of chicken they sell, where the onglet is on the cow as oppose to the bavette, the argument on veal and finally the secret to those highly sought after sausages. Claire then invited us downstairs where we donned the traditional white butchers jacket and into the fridges we roamed.
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There was so much to take from half lambs ageing (their label indicating they had been running around the fields only 5 days previously) to buckets of offal and then piles of bones all set for stock, I didn’t know where to look. Absolutely nothing is wasted and from watching the boys work you can see how much skill is needed to take the meat off the bones cleanly. Onto another cool room, Claire explained how important the humidity was in ageing the beef and we could clearly see the different stages that each of these carcasses were at. Up the secret side staircase we then travelled to discover that not only is HG Walters a butcher but they have a kitchen on site which is constantly on the go making stocks, scotch eggs and shepherds pies which are all for sale downstairs.
Throughout our visit I was constantly astounded by the way that almost everyone was greeted on a first name basis and what an amazing business that has developed whilst keeping it very much within the family. It is now with great pleasure that I have been telling the rest of our staff about our butcher, encouraging them along with the students to shop there and reminding them that they can also pick up their fruit, vegetables, cheese and a selection of cupboard ingredients.
Website: http://www.hgwalter.com/
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