Supermarket customers can tuck into tasty and award-winning dishes made from Welsh Beef with the launch today (April 26th) of Asda’s Welsh café menu.
The Authentic Curry Company’s Welsh Beef Curry and Celtic Pride Ltd’s Premium Welsh Beef Pie will be served daily at Asda cafés across Wales.
A True Taste Award-winner, the Authentic Curry Company produces 120 different dishes at its base in Hirwaun, and three of its dishes will feature on the Asda menu.
While Carmarthen based Celtic Pride Premium Welsh Beef is one of Wales’ most recognised beef brands, a joint venture by three of Wales’ leading agri-food businesses: Celtic Pride Ltd, Wynnstay Group Plc, and Castell Howell Foods Ltd.
Wales and British Lions rugby player, Martyn Williams, who is the Celtic Pride Beef Ambassador, trialled the dishes at Asda’s Swansea store ahead of today’s launch.
Martyn Williams said:
“It’s a real honour to be one of the first to taste these new Welsh dishes and it’s great for Asda customers in Wales that the cafés are calling on local companies to source good quality products and dishes that use Welsh beef.”
Two of the six core lines on the café menu are now Welsh and an additional two from the Authentic Curry Company; Traditional Lamb Cawl and Faggots in Sweet Onion Gravy, will be available on the specials menu.
Paul Trotman, founder and managing director of the Authentic Curry Company and Authentic World Foods said,
“We are delighted to have won this new contract and that Martyn Williams was able to help us launch the menu.
We have been working with Asda for a number of years as part of their commitment to local sourcing so to expand this relationship into the café sector across all the Welsh stores is a fantastic opportunity for us.
Being a True Taste winner has filled us with confidence to go Asda and lead their launch of their new Welsh menu in their cafes. This really is a team effort and our strong relationships with Castell Howell Foods, Celtic Pride and Welsh Pantry have proved invaluable.”
Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones said,
“One of the priorities of the Welsh Assembly Government is to make it easier for consumers to buy food and drink produced in Wales and Asda’s new Welsh menu will significantly help in achieving that goal.
Local sourcing of food and drink is one of our priorities as set out in One Wales and the Local Sourcing Action Plan. The Plan aims to support local food and drink producers as well as assisting them in their efforts to access local markets. The Plan also aims to help Wales maintain high standards in food safety, develop local food cultures and reduce “food miles”.”
The move comes as part of Asda’s current development plans for its cafés and an ongoing commitment to improve customer experiences and its menu offer.
Duncan Watson, Café Buyer at Asda said,
“There has been a significant investment made in Asda’s cafes and we’ve been working hard to transform the menu.
Asda are always looking to work with suitable local suppliers, so it’s fantastic that our core menu can have a Welsh influence using locally sourced products from Welsh companies, as well as a further two dishes under the specials menu. This is the first step in delivering a Welsh café menu that we can be proud of.”
The new dishes will be available at fourteen Asda stores across Wales:
Llandudno, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff Supercentre, Leckwith Road, Pentwyn, and Cardiff Bay, Swansea, Merthyr Tydfil, Wrexham, Aberdare, Newport, Brynmawr and Tonypandy.
