A Banchory man is on a mission to bring the flavours of Japan to the north-east with his new business venture.
Former London chef Jonathan Hope has launched Slow Sauce after two years of planning.
The 35-year-old is to make miso and shoyu (soy sauce) using organic, locally sourced ingredients and mature it in old whisky barrels.
The former Banchory Academy pupil has turned the former Macintosh and Steven funeral parlour in the High Street into a commercial kitchen.
Jonathan hopes to produce and sell five tonnes of miso in the first year of trading.
Local and organic ingredients
The dad-of-one, who has a business partner Robin Sherriff, spent 10 years working as a chef in London.
During that time he was head of fermentation and it’s this which led him to the idea of making miso.
He said: “I was head of fermentation at the restaurant, which involved making all sorts of things from sauerkraut and kimchi to kombucha.
“We started making miso and soy sauce and I thought it was something I could do so it took off from there.
“But we’re making it a different way using local ingredients.
“The Japanese use rice or barley when they’re making miso but we’ll be growing it on oats.”
Slow Sauce plans to target Japan
Slow Sauce recently won £10,000 from Scottish Edge which will be used to buy the last pieces of equipment for the new kitchen.
Jonathan, dad to two-year-old Sunny, plans to use his culinary experience to sell the products and eventually aims to target the Japanese market.
He said: “We have the capacity to produce 20 tonnes of miso a year but hope to sell five in the first year.
“The plan is to do online sales and I’ll be getting in touch with restaurants.
“Eventually we’d like to sell miso to the Japanese eventually and we’d like to sell soy sauce to the Chinese.
“They’re the biggest consumers of soy sauce but I think that’s a 10-year plan.”
What is miso?
Miso is a type of seasoning, but not like the powder we may usually shake from jars.
This is a thick paste formed by usually fermenting soybeans with salt and the fungus aspergillus oryzae (or kōji). But Slow Sauce will use oats.
It’s known for being healthy and is slowly building popularity in the UK.
And shoyu is a type of soy sauce usually made from fermented soybeans, wheat, salt and water. However, again Slow Sauce won’t be using soybeans, instead opting for oats.
Jonathan said: “A lot of people may have heard of miso but don’t really have a understanding of what it is.
“We want to show people how to use it and how to cook with it and what’s good about it.
“Since coming back to the north-east I feel people are quite adventurous in what they eat and they’re keen to try out new stuff.”
Other north-east Scottish Edge winners included InGlaze Ltd, Brigid Bio, Ovis and Windstorm Holdings.
Conversation