Meet the supplier - Udale Speciality Foods

This month we are continuing our series of blogs checking in with some of the wonderful people who supply the Three Shires Inn with produce for our kitchen.

Great food doesn’t exist without wonderful ingredients and we work with a network of local businesses to source the very best for our bar and restaurant.

This month we are catching up with Neil Udale, of Udale Speciality Foods, in Morecambe. Neil and his brother Ian are the fifth generation to run the business, which employs 45 people and supplies meat, poultry and game to Michelin-starred restaurants, major pub groups and hospitality and sporting events all over the country.

"The business started in about 1905, so it's been going for over 100 years,” says Neil.

“It started out as a butcher’s in Sedbergh but in the 1990s we moved into catering supplies and began covering the whole of the north of England.

“Our products are mainly sourced from Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire. Our suppliers include Yew Tree Farm, not far from the Three Shires Inn, which produces award-winning Herdwick lamb. It’s obviously really important for us to work with the best meat we possibly can and so we are very focused on building good relationships with high quality suppliers.

“About eight or nine years ago we built a Himalayan salt chamber with 2000 salt bricks imported from Pakistan. The salt blocks are put together to form a cold room, which acts as a state-of-the-art natural refrigerator more commonly associated with the production of Parma ham. Typically, the meat is aged for 28 to 35 days.

“The salt draws the moisture out of the air so the meat can dry naturally, improving the taste and enhancing the texture.

“We began with beef, but then we began experimenting with other products like pork and duck. That has really taken off and we now have the biggest Himalayan salt chamber in the UK, which is about one-and-a-half thousand square feet with about 5000 salt bricks. We supply those products all over the country.

“We supply the Three Shires with a salt aged, eight ounce sirloin steak, which has spent up to 35 days in the salt chamber on the bone. This produces deliciously tender and succulent meat with a real intensity of flavour.

“The important thing for us has been coming up with new ideas and staying one step ahead. It’s also really important to provide a good service, ensuring our customers get their orders nice and early, which makes their lives a lot easier when they’re trying to run a busy hospitality business.

“I really enjoy dealing with our customers far and wide. Many of them have become good friends over the years and it’s a pleasure to know our products are gracing plates in so many excellent hospitality businesses and bringing smiles to the faces of diners across the country.”