When did you last eat a Yarmouth bloater? Or a Welsh faggot or a Dorset knob? Don’t snigger – I’m serious. We’re lousy at supporting regional food in this country. Every French village has a sausage, cheese or root vegetable it’s insanely proud of, yet some of Britain’s regional produce have been neglected to the brink of extinction.

Thankfully, it’s not quite dodo time yet. “Local” is a now foodie buzz word, and the supermarkets are starting to act.

I recently visited Booths, the northern supermarket chain, which is impressively supportive of local producers. All its lamb, beef and pork comes from the four counties it operates in (including Cumbria’s excellent Herdwick lamb), and there are no fewer than eight Lancashire cheeses on the deli counter of its flagship store.

Waitrose has a regional sourcing initiative that supplies 1,200 products to stores in the area where they were produced, and has teamed up with Country Living magazine to launch the Made in Britain campaign, to highlight and support the UK’s small artisan producers (bloater smokers and knob bakers can find out more at www.waitrose.com/madeinbritain).

Regional food producers are also helping themselves. Growing numbers of them are applying for protected designation of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indication (PGI), the EU equivalents of appellation contrôléefor food. We still have only 35 PDOs and PGIs (among them, stilton, Arbroath smokies and Whitstable oysters), compared with 157 in France. But there are 30 more in the pipeline, including Yorkshire indoor rhubarb, Manx Loaghtan lamb and, perhaps less thrillingly, the cornish pasty. It involves lots of small producers pulling together, but if rhubarb can do it, why not the bloater, the faggot and the knob?

CLUCKING THE TREND

Hurrah for Jamie O and Hugh F-W: research suggests that 38% of shoppers have swapped from intensively farmed chicken to free range in the wake of their campaign for better-bred birds.

CAFFEINE HIT

I think I’ve discovered my perfect espresso. It’s from a new microbrand called Azorieblue, which has a slick line in marketing (“Imagine a coffee that’s smoother than a tiger in a tuxedo and more luxurious than a cashmere codpiece”) and an even slicker line in coffee. Blended from ethically sourced Brazilian arabica, it’s dark, rich and zesty, with underlying nutty, chocolate flavours that are brought out by adding milk. I’m told it’s a big hit with racing drivers. It certainly gets me revved up in the morning.

£9.99 per tin; www.azorieblue.co.uk for stockists and mail order

TAKE 3

This punchy veal cordon bleu is from Simon Conboy of Le Deuxième

Serves 2

300g veal fillet
2 slices Black Forest ham
150g Blacksticks blue cheese

Cut the veal fillet into two pieces. Place on a chopping board and cover with a piece of clingfilm. Using a meat hammer or rolling pin, gently flatten the meat until it is ½cm thick. Cut the slices of Black Forest ham in half and chop the cheese into pieces. Season the veal with salt and pepper. Heat a little olive oil in a heavy frying pan, add the veal and cook for 1 minute on each side. Transfer to a baking tray, top with the ham, then the cheese, and put under a hot grill until the cheese has melted. Drizzle with a little olive oil to finish.

Le Deuxième, 65a Long Acre, WC2; 020 7379 0033, www.ledeuxieme.com

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