Packington Free Range Features on Channel 4’s Drop Down Menu

Channel 4 food’s latest offering is Drop Down Menu, which features local food producers alongside celebrity chefs and guests, and sees the audience vote on which dish will be cooked.

Packington Free Range joint owner Alec  Mercer featured live on the show’s 13th episode, hosted by Matt Tebbutt and Gizzi Erskine with Radio1’s Dave Vitty plus celebrity chefs Paul Rankin and Jun Tanaka.

The programme first showed Alec at Packington Free Range talking the farm’s high welfare standards, explaining, “I felt that the consumers were getting concerned about where their food was coming from, so as a result I decided to set up a very transparent chicken farm of the highest welfare.”

Alec then appeared live in the studio where the audience were asked to choose between three dishes made with Packington Free Range Chicken: Chicken Sweetcorn and Clam Casserole, Roast Chicken with Winter Vegetable Broth and Lemon Chicken Paillard as host Gizzi Erskine praised the ‘beautiful chickens’ produced at Packington Free Range.

The audience’s choice of Chicken Paillard was then skilfully prepared and cooked by chef Jun Tanaka, who butterflied the free range chicken and coated it in a marinade of lemon confit with honey, chilli and garlic before cooking it on a hot griddle and serving with a bulgar wheat salad.

Talking about his appearance on the show, Alec says “To have respected chefs using our product not only convinces me that what I’m doing is right, but you’re getting recognition from people who are very knowledgeable and that’s hugely rewarding”

He adds “Appearing on the show was a fantastic experience. The hosts and other guests were brilliant and to get such positive feedback about the produce we feel so strongly about makes it all worthwhile”.

Alec also had the chance to talk about the pork farming side of the business, run by his brother Rob, to which host Matt Tebbutt replied “We should get your brother on to try his pig one day”.... Watch this space!

About Packington Free Range:

Packington Free Range, based in Staffordshire, is a farm with a traditional family heritage spanning four generations. As well as a commitment to pork and poultry of the highest quality, Packington’s award-winning animal welfare ethos is supported and accredited by the RSPCA. Packington Free Range’s pork and poultry are Free Range in the truest sense of the word, with a firm belief that happy, healthy animals will produce the best meat.

Contact:
Carrie Eames
Cream Communications and Marketing Ltd
1 Howard Street
Nottingham, NG5 4GE
0845 3889584