London Places

New Covent Garden Market used to be all about traditional wholesale – buyers came to the market, saw what they wanted and took it away with them. Today, one-third of the Market is devoted to wholesale distribution – companies who pack and deliver the produce to other companies in the catering trade, such as restaurants and hotels.

One reason for this shift is the rise in power of the major supermarkets no longer need to buy from wholesale markets. Therefore, supplying the food service industries has become an increasingly important part of New Covent Garden Market.

Chef's Connection

Chef's Connection is a family-run wholesale distributor that has been based at New Covent Garden Market for eight years. They supply fresh produce to some of the top restaurants and hotels in the capital. It is a hi-tech operation that is as far away from the stereotypical image of a market trader as you could possibly imagine.

The company employs 86 full-time staff and the only time it shuts is from midday Saturday to midday Sunday.

Orders are faxed, phoned or emailed through to the upstairs office, and are then placed in tubes which are sent hurtling through the pipes to be packed and delivered downstairs. The walls of the office are covered with photographs of the chefs and restaurants that it supplies: Gary Rhodes and Gordon Ramsay are just two of the famous names.

 Paul Murphy, whose father Danny founded the company, explains:

Paul Murphy of Chef's Connection

"A night manager will start at 4pm in the afternoon, leading a team of 20 packers. He will distribute the tickets for which lorries and rounds have to go out first. We probably send out between 450-600 orders per day to different places, 75% will be in London or surrounding counties."

The company can make multiple deliveries to the same restaurant or hotel on a single day, for example when a party has been arranged at the last minute.

Satellite tracking

"All the vehicles are satellite tracked. If a chef phones up and wants to know where his order is, we can tell him exactly where it is, the traffic information and so on."

"For example, a hotel chef once called us at half ten claiming not to have his order. We could track the vehicle and we could see that it was there at 7.45am. Their loading bay hadn't got it up to the kitchen and their order had been sitting there for two and a half hours."

"We try our hardest to get whatever the chefs want; given 48 hours we can pretty much get anything. Yesterday we got asked for holly with berries on, which is quite hard to get at the moment but I went into Epping Forest near where I live and managed to pick some myself. The chef was doing photo shoots for Christmas."

"If a chef phones us up and wants toilet roll, then we will get him toilet rolls. It's how we have made ourselves a little different to other people."

As well as satellite tracking, the company's storerooms have five different temperature zones to ensure that produce can be kept at the optimum temperature. The work areas are swabbed twice a week and sent to a laboratory to be tested to ensure it is as clean as humanly possible.

New food trends

"We are definitely finding a trend towards locally grown and the chefs are questioning where the products come from now, which wasn't really happening a couple of years ago," says Paul.

"Through the summer this is quite good because we can offer a lot of English products. Seasonal products have also become more important. We always try to find local farms to buy the products from them."

Operating at the top end of the market means that Paul Murphy is constantly looking for new and better produce that they can supply to their clients.

"I've been to South America, Central America, Asia, Africa, everywhere in Europe. As you walk down the New Covent Garden Market we all get offered the same products and it is nice to find something different so that that sets you apart."

Food science

"And food is so scientific now. I was out visiting a company in Holland and these people work with NASA, seriously! You go out there and all you can see are fields that are this colour, and then fields that are another colour. It is crazy and each of these micro-cresses has a different flavour, a different texture."

"They didn't exist about 5 years ago. Micro-cresses of chive, basil and coriander have very, very intense flavours. It is not grown in earth, it is almost like cotton; but it's all edible. They've got some really funky stuff now, it’s like a bud and you put it on your tongue and it gives you can electric shock."

Distributors

There are around 70 wholesale distributors based at New Covent Garden. Chef's Connection caters for the top-end of the market, while some of the other distributors may have simpler operations for their less demanding clients.

Helen Evans of the Covent Garden Market Authority says:

"These units are exactly the same as the wholesale units, but Paul and his family are running a much more sophisticated operation and they have had to invest a huge amount of money to bring this up to standard. That's why we're looking to re-develop the market to make it easier for companies like this to work to the standard that their clients require."

"The strength of Chef's Connection being based at the Market is that they have the fruit and veg. on their doorstep."

Only foodies need apply

"You definitely have to love food and care about it," says Paul "When we interview for staff we always ask them if they enjoy food themselves."

"Last night I was at the opening of the new restaurant. I was there until 11 o'clock, got a taxi back home got in bed for about an hour and a half and was here for 2 o'clock this morning. And that's the same for a lot of people here."