Restaurants are turning to unusual and exotic ingredients to fulfil customer's demand for unique dining and wining experiences
Chefs and bartenders at some of the world's top establishments looking to get their hands on the most elusive of exotic ingredients
Kevin Taylor may look likeyour average green grocer, with his stall of neatly stacked boxes of broccoli, carrots and strawberries. But he has developed a reputation for being somewhat of a detective. His clients - not suspicious spouses or shady lawyers - are chefs and bartenders at some of the world's top establishments looking to get their hands on the most elusive of exotic ingredients.
Taylor's family business, Taylor and Son, was founded in the early 1900s in the street markets of London's Islington district. In the 1970s and '80s, it started supplying directly to local restaurants. Now, chefs and bartenders across London and beyond phone Taylor daily for fresh goods from as far afield as Colombia, Kenya and the Caribbean.
One of Taylor's long-standing clients is Nightjar, voted the third best bar in the world in The World's Best 50 Bars 2016. Nightjar is known for its cutting-edge, creatively presented cocktails using unfamiliar ingredients such as North African alligator peppers, a Central American herb called epazote, a South American citrus fruit called lulo, and buffalo worms - crunchy edible beetle larvae. For the bartenders here, Taylor has sourced an incredible array of items, including Asian staples that are considered exotic in the West, such as galangal, longan and osmanthus.
"When chefs and bartenders ask if I can find a certain ingredient, I ask around with my suppliers, who get in touch with their suppliers, who talk to their guys … It's a network that stretches all across the world," Taylor says. "The bartender at Nightjar asked me for baobab pods, these big green tree pods from Africa. But no one was importing them. I managed to track down a supplier in Kenya, who put a box of the pods on a pallet with other produce being exported."
Nightjar now uses candied pineapple and baobab syrup in their Punch A La Burroughs, which combines tequila, Inca berry infusion, lime juice, orange blossom liqueur, bergamot bitters, green rooibos matcha and Mercier Brut Champagne.
Even for the world's biggest hotels, sourcing exotic ingredients can rely on a loose and informal network.
"I travel and read a lot. That's where I get ideas in sourcing various ingredients. Also, we've built up a network of suppliers, friends and chefs who share if they've found something new or rare with me," says Uwe Opocensky, executive chef at the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong.
It's also part of executive sous chef Robin Zavou's role to find new and rare ingredients, and do the in-depth research with suppliers on locating them. Some ingredients don't come through the usual import networks at all, however.