Slow Food comes to Harringay
Shane Williams - CEO Slow Food UK
It’s no secret that Harringay High Street is now a popular and valued restaurant hub for many Londoners. What people may not know however, is that the broadway’s eateries and grocers could also make the area a hot spot for ‘Slow Food.’
To learn more about this concept, the Green Lanes Traders Association had the pleasure of welcoming the Executive Chair of Slow Food UK Shane Williams to Harringay where he visited local businesses, experienced the high street, and of course, sampled some fantastic dishes!
Ahead of the visit, Shane told the Special Edition that Slow Food “is an idea and a movement.” As a movement, Slow Food is the world’s largest food and farming organisation, with operations in 150 countries.
The organisation works with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO), and as Shane explains, “much of our work globally is around food sovereignty and protecting cultural heritage and varieties which are disease and climate resistant.”
As an idea, he says, Slow Food is “an opposite to fast food (hence the name), but that doesn’t mean Slow Food has to take six hours - it’s about food with a sense of place, cooked with love, using real ingredients and preferably enjoyed with others. An omelette at the end of the day would be faster than a burger and fries takeaway, but the omelette would be Slow!”
“It needs to serve traditional food from a region (not just the UK),” Shane adds, “and use ingredients and methods typical with that food. No industrial ingredients. No brought in sauces. No short cuts.”
Many of Harringay’s restaurants and food businesses could fit these criteria. Plenty have specially strong connections with south eastern Turkey (as well other regions and countries). Better yet, these local restaurants are often family-owned and employ specialist chefs, which ensures that traditional recipes, ingredients and cooking styles run deep throughout the street.
Slow Food UK, is already active in the London Borough of Haringey, and partners with the Wolves Lane Garden Project. Shane himself enjoys lunch there, “they grow the vegetables on site, lunch is whatever is picked, it’s cooked and eaten communally, and it’s priced on a “what you can afford” basis.”
“Whilst not a formal restaurant,” he explains, “this embodies the ideas of Slow Food. Many of the varieties grown are from outside of the UK, as the project is run in connection with Black Rootz (the UK’s first multigenerational Black-led growing project) who try to grow varieties of veg which are culturally appropriate.”
The foundations have been laid for a new partnership in the borough between Slow Food UK and the Harringay Traders to take off too. Traders are already taking an interest in the organisation’s initiatives.
One of these in particular was the “Time for Lunch” programme. Last June, Slow Food UK encouraged the public to make full use of lunchtime, and as they put it, “enjoy all the benefits of relaxing with something good to eat. Then return refreshed to work or whatever else you’re up to.”
Such benefits are not only nutritious, but also social, then there’s the opportunity to look after your mental health and wellbeing. Best of all, the scheme caters to a variety of budgets and circumstances, covering everything from sit-down meals at restaurants to affordable ingredients and recipes. In short, there’s something for everyone.
After discussing “Time for Lunch” with Shane, traders are keenly considering replicating the scheme on Green Lanes, so residents may notice the Slow Food snail logo on participating store and restaurant windows soon. Watch this space!