Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is serving Irish beef in a selection of his restaurants as part of a deal with John Stone.
The Co. Longford-based business, which is a joint venture with Kepak, is currently supplying meat to Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen restaurants for dishes including beef wellington.
“We’re not in all of his units worldwide yet but that’s one of the things they want to do with us because they want consistent quality product in every one of their restaurants,” Tim Stone, managing director of John Stone, told Agriland.
“We’ve got some challenges with some of the locations but we’re working through that and hopefully we will be supplying them worldwide.
“I have met him, a long time ago. You can’t deny his talent, he is a superb chef and he runs a very good ship,” Stone said.
The company, which focuses on dry-aged beef, was among the Irish producers on Bord Bia’s Origin Green stand at the major Food and Hotel Asia trade fair in Singapore.
“Singapore has always been a window for the rest of Asia. Singapore knows good quality product, you can tell by just walking around the city. That fits in with John Stone perfectly.
“Transport is one of the problems that we all have to face but we really don’t have much of an option, we either fly it out or go by ship.
“We’re looking at more and more customers taking it by ship because it’s cheaper and more efficient. It’s slower, that’s why we’re freezing the product for some people. Those customers who purely want fresh [beef], we’re air freighting,” Stone said.
“We started as an international business with Europe. We’ve gone further afield to Dubai and Singapore now. I was in the Philippines last week, they’re very interested as well and keen to move forward,” he added.
Stone outlined that the company’s next target for growth is Malaysia.