A MAGIC performing Edinburgh food producer and restaurateur, and his skilled production team, is up for a national award in the annual Food & Farming Awards organised by the BBC.
Chop Chop Foods has been nominated for the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2018 in the ‘Food producer’ category, highlighting their production kitchen in Loanhead, just south of Edinburgh, where the local workforce have become experts in North-east China’s Dong Bei style cooking.
Never mind being mesmerised by the in-house produced banquet laid out before you: be mesmerised by the card tricks and close up prestidigitation of Yin Fei.
He’s the driving force, and the magic man, behind the oriental innovation of Chop Chop Foods, the traditional Chinese foods range, prepared by a skilled team with fresh ingredients and completely shunning artificial additives.
Chop Chop is all about traditional Chinese foods, served in traditional style. From jiao zi (boiling dumplings) and guo tie (frying dumplings), to noodles, chicken wings and pork ribs, all prepared authentically, in a modern commercial kitchen.
The company supplies to wholesale, retail, take away, and the fashionable restaurant of the same name in Edinburgh’s West End (ChopChopEdinburgh.co.uk).
As their BBC Food & Farming Awards nomination says, Chop Chop Foods brings the fresh tastes of a Chinese family kitchen to your plate. Imagine being under the Tang dynasty bell tower of Xi’an, or enjoying the flavours of a street vendor in Shanghai’s Pudong, or watching the skill of a food stall chef by the Great Wall in Beijing, and translate that essence to Edinburgh.
As previous reviews have said about their restaurant business – it’s the sort of combination that would have queues around the block in fashionable parts of London, New York or Singapore.
Yin Fei though respects his loyal followers in Edinburgh. “Not only do we produce from Edinburgh, but the community has really taken to us,” he says.
“We literally opened the back door of the factory in Loanhead, and we have a take-away kitchen catering directly for the local market.
“It’s really like a traditional street kitchen in a Chinese city. That’s what makes this place so popular for diners, and seem so much like home for me. I’d have more difficulty leaving Edinburgh than I would have leaving anywhere else.”
The BBC Food & Farming Awards have been around since 2000. The closing date for entries is midnight on Monday 29 January. The shortlists and winners will be announced over TV and radio in March and April.
Yin Fei thinks it would be magic if Chop Chop Foods pulled another rabbit from the awards hat. Then again, Yin’s used to that sort of thing.
Notes for editors:
Dong Bei: The provinces of North-east China, often known as Manchuria, where the cuisine is characterised by bases of rice, wheat and corn. There’s typically a wide range of flavours for meat and vegetable fillings in the ever-popular staple of dumplings, both boiled and fried.
For more information, images and interview opportunities, contact Simon Walton for Chop Chop on 07540 313018 or waltonsg@uwclub.net
Chop Chop website: www.chopchoptogo.co.uk
BBC Microsite: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zxv3j
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