MFB Meet up at 99 Station Street and Staffordshire Fine Foods

Last weekend we had our most recent Midlands Food Bloggers (MFB) meet up. We were a group of 10 that met up including the organiser of this particular event Louise of Comida y Vida and her other half Owen, creator of MFB Jo of Jo’s Kitchen, Becky from Girl Interrupted Eating,  Julia of A WannabeFoodie, Jules of The Butcher, The Baker and Georgina of Culinary Travels. We were joined by some foodie friends  including Gavin from To Bizzy 2 Bake and James and Kate from Eat the Midlands and Gourmet Life.



The venue for our meet up was a perfect fit with what we at MFB are most interested in – seasonal and local food! 99 Station St in Burton-on-Trent is an award winning Modern British restaurant that sources as much as possible from local suppliers. When we contacted owners Ross & Susan Boardman about hosting a MFB meet they were more than happy to allow a “bounty of bloggers” to descend upon them and also offered some extra special treats.




We sampled their 3 course lunch menu for a bargain price of £10.95. All the dishes are based on local and seasonal ingredients as was explained by the Head Chef, Daniel Pilkington, who explained that wherever possible they made the products in-house including  homemade sausages, ice-cream and pies.

After lunch we journeyed to just outside of Burton-On-Trent to the home of Susan and Ross and the HQ of Staffordshire Fine Foods (SFF). Launched earlier this year to satisfy customers who dined at 99 Station Street and wanted to get their hands on some of the menu favourites, SFF sells sausages, pies and smoked products online here or in specialist retailers like Brown and Green.



During the afternoon we spent a fabulous couple of hours with Ross, lapping up his knowledge and enthusiasm on curing, smoking and foraging.

We sampled all manner of smoked ingredients including peanuts, salmon, venison and pigeon breast. Then we had a stroll into the local woods to learn about foraging and picked some nettles and wild garlic and then headed back to the house to make a lovely fresh broth with some chicken stock that had been flavoured with some of the new air-dried Chorizo that Ross is trialling.

It is with a massive thank you to Ross, Susan and the staff of 99 Station Street and Staffordshire Fine Foods that the meet up was enjoyed by all. You can read more here.

• Louise at Comida Y Vida writes her thoughts on the visit here
• Becky of Girl Interrupted Eating was inspired to create a Summer Caldo Verde
• Jo of Jo’s Kitchen sums up her views here
• Ross of Staffordshire Fine Foods lets us know what hosting an MFB meet up is like on his News page

It was such a fantastic day we can’t wait for the next one.

If you’re a local food business in the Midlands and would like to host a MFB meet up then please drop us an email, as we’re always on the look out for interesting places to visit.

 If you’re a blogger that wants to come along to the next meet up then contact us to be included on our mailing list.

Written by Louise of Comida y Vida on behalf of MFB