Great food doesn’t begin in the kitchen. It begins with the ingredients behind it.
Long before it reaches a chef’s chopping board, someone has grown it, harvested it, packed it and delivered it. Behind every meal are producers, growers, suppliers and communities whose work shapes the quality of the food we serve.
As customer expectations continue to evolve, those relationships matter more than ever.
For Angel Hill Food Co., local partnerships aren’t simply about shortening supply chains. They help strengthen communities, support regional businesses, develop future talent and give customers greater confidence in what’s on their plate.
As part of our #ForTheLoveOfLocal campaign, we spoke to Tony Winterbottom, Sales Director for Catering, about why local matters and how it will continue to shape the future of workplace catering.
What Does ‘Local’ Mean to You?
“When people think about local, they often think about where food comes from. That’s important, but it’s only part of the story. For me, local is about creating opportunity.
It’s about investing in growers, producers and businesses within the communities we serve. It’s about helping those organisations develop, creating employment, supporting apprenticeships and giving local businesses the confidence to grow.
At the same time, we’re bringing fresher produce into our kitchens, reducing food miles where possible and delivering better food to our customers.
Ultimately, local benefits producers, businesses, communities and the people who enjoy the food.”
Tony believes that’s exactly where the real value lies.
It is more than fresh food or local produce. It’s about benefiting the local economy, generating jobs, creating opportunities and helping businesses develop. As a major catering organisation, that’s something we absolutely want to promote.
For Angel Hill Food Co., every supplier relationship has the potential to create a wider impact.
Working with regional producers strengthens local economies. As businesses grow, they create employment, develop skills and invest back into their communities.
The result reaches far beyond the kitchen.
Why Has Local Become More Important to Customers?
“Customers understand food differently today,” Tony explains.
“They’re more interested in where ingredients come from, how they’re produced and the story behind them.
There’s now an expectation that food should come from local sources wherever possible.
People recognise that local produce is often fresher, tastes better and supports the communities they live and work in. That shift has accelerated across every sector we operate in, whether that’s workplaces, education or healthcare.”
For customers, quality and provenance increasingly go hand in hand.
What Changes When You Know the People Behind the Ingredients?
This is where Tony believes workplace catering can tell a much richer story.
“When you genuinely know the people behind your ingredients, you know their heritage. You know where the food was grown, who produced it and the journey it’s taken before arriving in the kitchen.
That creates opportunities to tell customers something meaningful about what’s on their plate.
Imagine being able to say today’s vegetables came from a farm just a few miles away. That connection changes how people experience food.”
Understanding provenance doesn’t just strengthen customer confidence.
It gives chefs a deeper appreciation of every ingredient they work with.
How Do You See Local Partnerships Evolving?
Tony believes the next stage will be collaboration.
Rather than expecting every independent producer to develop complex logistics networks, he sees opportunities for regional producers to work together through local supply hubs.
“Smaller growers may not have the infrastructure to supply national caterers on their own.
But by working together through regional networks, they can create opportunities that simply wouldn’t exist individually.
That gives businesses the chance to grow while allowing organisations like ours to bring even more local produce into our kitchens.”
He believes that approach has the potential to strengthen regional economies while creating more resilient supply chains for customers.
What Does Local Mean to You Personally?
After more than three decades in catering, Tony’s answer comes back to one thing.
Quality.
“After more than 30 years in catering, local partnerships represent what quality means to me.
Better ingredients. Better produce. Better food on the plate.
Knowing where our food comes from gives confidence to our chefs, reassurance to our customers and recognition to the people who’ve produced it.
That’s why local matters. Not because it’s fashionable, but because it helps us serve better food while supporting the communities behind it.”
Local partnerships don’t happen by accident.
They are built over time, strengthened through trust and sustained through shared success.
Every producer, supplier, college and community partner plays a role in shaping the food we serve.
Because great workplace catering starts long before the kitchen. It starts with the people behind every ingredient.
