Nottingham bakery seals deal with national coffee chain

Specialist baker Butt Foods has gained a contract to supply its sourdough naans to independent coffee shop chain SOHO Coffee Co.

The coffee shop company, which has 40 branches, has created a range of applications for the four-inch Baked Earth sourdough naans, which have just been unveiled on the group’s new Autumn menu.

Handmade in SOHO’s own kitchens using the Baked Earth naans, the menu items include chicken fajita naan, chickpea masala and paneer naan, and pulled pork and red pickles naan.

Nottingham-based Butt Foods launched the sourdough naans earlier this year in response to trends for premium and new wave Indian food dining experiences. Following a study of the Indian restaurant sector, the firm highlighted that the sector is moving away from traditional curries into a world of new flavours, snacks and small plates, different presentation and extended meal occasions – and created a special sourdough naan which would be just right for this exciting new trend.

The Baked Earth artisan sourdough recipe naan benefits from a live cultured sourdough with a long fermentation process to improve flavour and texture – creating a naan bread that’s bubbly, soft and suitable for a range of meal applications throughout the day and ideal for both the Indian restaurant world and the foodservice sector in general, with its current demand for street food-style dishes.

The company, which has been baking naan breads for more than 25 years and also produces a range of other breads, commissioned celebrity chef and former BBC Food Personality of the Year Cyrus Todiwala OBE to develop a number of uses for the naans to illustrate the flexibility of the flat breads.

He created a range of dishes for all times of the day – from breakfast and brunch through to tapas small plate dishes – for the sourdough naans.

David Williams, commercial director of family owned Butt Foods, said: “We are thrilled and proud that SOHO Coffee Co., with its tremendous reputation for serving innovative, on-trend delicious food and drink, has selected the Baked Earth sourdough naans for its new menu.

“The dishes that have been created for the menu are exactly the type of applications we had in mind when we developed the sourdough naan – items that would be simple and convenient for chefs to create, and incredibly appealing and tasty for customers of cafés, pubs, bars, restaurants and other foodservice outlets.”

Penny Manuel, managing director of SOHO said: “We love it when our suppliers develop innovative products like these – the great pairing of the sourdough texture and flavour with what we all know as traditional naan complements each other perfectly and allows us to develop an exciting range of fillings, offering our customers something deliciously different, whilst being a true reflection of SOHO’s artisan roots.”

The Baked Earth naans, which come in four-inch and six-inch sizes, are available through frozen food distributor Central Foods.

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