Blogger and and publisher of The Food Place Steph Walker makes us crave hot days and cold sundaes with this full fat feature on Ginger’s Comfort Emporium. Luckily we’ve only got a few weeks until Amazing Graze, so we’ll have to sit tight until we can give in to our desires…
Claire Kelsey, owner of Gingers Comfort Emporium, has a long experience in the food industry with over 10 years working as a chef and then as a food stylist. In 2009, Claire wanted to take her passion to the next level, so she traveled to Brighton and bought an old ice cream van with the idea of selling food at markets and events. Claire spotted potential where others were sceptical, Ginger’s previous mechanic considered the van too old and past it. However, a new pair of eyes and hands saw the potential, and she now runs like clockwork.
The name ‘Gingers Comfort Emporium’ was dreamt up by Claire’s friend, describing food which makes people feel good and fans young and old, exclaim her ice cream to be “like nothing I’ve ever tasted before”. What’s even better is despite the outward appearance of an ice cream van there’s more to it than meets the eye, sometimes you’ll find Eton mess, brioche and hot sundaes.
Claire is proud of her handmade ice creams and all flavours are seasonal, based on availability of ingredients at the time. She sources much of her fruit from Smithfield’s Market in Manchester and as she needs slightly overripe fruit, she gets to take her pick from those overlooked by other customers. With apples being plentiful, Claire is busy concocting creations such as ‘apple, mint and wheatgrass’ and ‘honey and apple’, made with the honey of her local beekeeper.
Claire’s ice creams have been a real success story and impressed the industry. In 2011 she collected British Street Food Awards Best dessert for “This Monkey’s Gone To Heaven” – roast banana, salt caramel and peanut ice cream, served in hot toasted brioche. Meanwhile, in 2012, she collected Best of the Best with her toast and marmalade creation. April 2013 sees the publication of Claire’s first book, Melt, which has been one of the biggest challenges she’s faced so far as there were only 20 recipes written down when she was approached. The book details how easy it is to make ice cream at home without specialist equipment and even reveals that a third of them don’t need churning.
We’re really looking forward to Claire attending Amazing Graze, and luckily so is Claire, having previously traded next to Manjit’s Kitchen at the Street Food Awards she and loved the cart and sound system and is looking forward to more of the same. For this event she is compiling a tantalising menu of Fridaes and Saturdaes, the ingredients of which will remain a mystery.
Like most street food traders, Claire finds keeping in touch with her growing legions of fans is helped massively by twitter and Facebook.You can keep abreast of her upcoming events on her website
Check out the other Amazing Graze street food stories here