Here comes summer!

Ping. Boink. Ping. Boink. Clunk. Cheers.  Fifteen love. If it’s Wimbledon, it’s the strawberry season and summer, after several weeks of dress rehearsals, is here.

Don’t knock the strawberry. It’s a little ball of vitamin C. Although a large helping can get a little bit acid by the end, it’s not the sort of fruit that makes your mouth sizzle up and your lips pucker. Even though the fruit has become more easily available in recent years, the kids still seem to think it’s a treat, so you can lay off the spinach a little and nurture them on food they love.

British Summer Fruits, the industry body which tries to get us to eat more summer fruit (like all really hard jobs, someone has to do it) never ceases to find new ways to tempt us. They have just commissioned scientists at the University of London to experiment in their labs to find the link between emotions, memory, taste and smell to discover the ultimate multi-sensory experience. They found that strawberries evoke more happy, relaxing, exciting memories than other fruits, and their fruitiness can be enhanced further by listening to summer soundscapes (just tune that telly into Wimbledon this teatime).

The next British Summer Fruits move was to find a chef who was up for responding to the scientists’ findings. They came up with Chef James “Jocky” Petrie. Now, pause a moment – change ends, as it were. That’s not just any James Petrie. It’s the James Petrie who used to be Head of Creative Development at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck. It’s the James Petrie who started there as a pastry chef. It’s the Scottish James Petrie (Scottish people are anecdotally known to have a genetic predisposition to expertise with soft fruit). It’s the James Petrie who is now Head of Development at the Ledbury. Who better to look afresh at our strawberries?

And look afresh is what James – Jocky – has done. Jocky’s crazy concoctions have been created to fuel all our senses for the ultimate summer eating experience. Taking inspiration from the research, Jocky’s recipes stimulate all the senses and recall typical British summer scenes – from strawberry sandwiches inspired by picnics in the park, to edible sandcastles evoking a halcyon family day at the beach in a seaside town.

Jocky said: “No flavour shouts summer to me more than that of a strawberry. It’s an extraordinarily diverse berry that adds real depth of flavour to any sweet or savoury dish, which complements bitter and acid ingredients. Barry Smith’s exciting work at the lab shows that strawberries trigger happy memories of years gone by and the sounds of summer make them taste even better, like beaches, garden parties and picnics in the park.”

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