With a passion for vegetarian cuisine, a husband and wife team set up Withy Kitchen from a derelict barn two years ago. Already, they've built a solid business, won a clutch of food awards and caught the eye of a Michelin-star chef
Keith Field Helen is a third-generation vegetarian. I'm not, but I married into it. One evening we were out for a meal and there was a fantastic choice for meat eaters, but the vegetarian options were limited.
Helen Field Vegetarianism is much more on people's agenda now, but sometimes the food is still not brilliant. We were sitting in a pub; I'd finished my pre-dinner drink and everyone else was still choosing their food—wondering whether they fancied fish or chicken or whatever—and I thought, I'd like a choice.
KF We decided that there was an opportunity for high-quality vegetarian and vegan ready meals. We did research that proved the vegetarian market—for pure vegetarians—was limited. Combined with the fact that the UK is the biggest market in Europe for ready meals, but those in the supermarkets are not nice.
HF We both wanted the challenge. I'm trained as a social worker, but when the office moved I couldn't get back in time to pick our two children up from school. I still wanted to do something with my brain and this fitted.
KF The thing that tipped the balance was when Helen's father offered us a derelict barn and an old goat shed on his farm (in Somerset). I was working for a management consultancy and got wind I was probably going to be asked to relocate to Düsseldorf, which didn't appeal to me. We sold our house in Oxfordshire and used the proceeds to set up the business.
HF We lived in a caravan for nine months (with two children and an aged Labrador) while we turned the barn into a commercial kitchen and the goat shed into a house for us. It was interesting practising dishes on three rings and with one saucepan. We took our first orders just before Christmas 2007.
KF I'm the cook. I did a 12-month Cordon Vert Diploma with the Vegetarian Society—all funded by the sale of the house. Helen is more back of house, handling administration such as accounts, VAT returns, packaging, labelling and delivery.
HF Keith is a brilliant cook. I'm dreadful. I've taken on the accounts so I had to put myself on a book-keeping course, which was an enormous challenge being somebody who took several years to get to maths O level.
KF Phase one of our business plan was always to go direct to the consumer through the internet. I knew nothing about commercial websites and I'd say this is the one area where we were caught out. We wasted £5,000 on the original website, which wasn't up to the job.
HF We assumed we were aiming at 30 somethings who had got reasonable disposable incomes but were pretty short on time and wanted to eat something they knew had no preservatives, no additives and with provenance. As it's turned out, what we've got in the first phase is hardcore vegetarians and a lot of older people.
KF To expand our market we need to move into retail. We're actively looking for a distributor that can move us into independent grocers.
HF Last November, we got an email from Heston Blumenthal and his team, who were researching Channel 4's Big Chef Takes On Little Chef. They asked us to send them some of our dishes to taste. I assumed it was a wind-up from one of my dear friends. Once we pulled ourselves off the floor and stopped squeaking, it was very exciting.
KF We got the contract to take part in the three-month trial Heston was doing with Little Chef. We incorporated some of his recommendations on a couple of the dishes and, as you'd expect, they were transformed.
HF I like being my own boss and I like working with Keith. We make a good team and that makes it good fun.
KF I admire Helen's determination. She won't take no for an answer. If you set her off on a task you know it's going to get done.
HF Three of our dishes won Taste of the West awards last year. In the year of the Olympics, we got our own gold, silver and bronze.
KF We've got a 10-year plan. We see this as an opportunity to produce good-quality food but also to build a good business. I'm 54. In 10 years' time we'd be looking either for an MBO or one of the bigger boys to be buying it because the brand is so strong.
