Steve Reid is the founder and driving force behind the Northampton Charcuterie Company changing his passion into his business when in 2019 he decided to make charcuterie his full-time career and reinvented himself from his previous career in transport and logistics.
As we are all well aware, starting a business in 2019 had the unforeseen issue a few months later of a global pandemic in the form of COVID-19. Like all small businesses, this caused problems with how Steve took his products to market and had to pivot into focusing on internet sales and his online shop. But through perseverance, excellent products and imagination, this route quickly saw his business grow despite the issues.
Steve is clearly proud of and enthusiastic about Northampton and all it has to offer. Not only is the produce and raw ingredients sourced locally but he also takes advantage of old recipes from the region. Steve and his team produce a wide range of high-quality charcuterie, and he is unique in that he also produces cheese, and sauces from the same building.
Steve's hard work and passion for charcuterie has paid off. In 2021, Northampton Charcuterie moved into an old brewery, with its original history of making beer, charcuterie, and cheese before being used as a tanner to serve the local shoe industry and eventually being converted back into a food producing.
To produce a quality and consistent product it is essential to create a controlled environment, where the temperature and humidity is regulated. In the case of cheese, the stores are kept at 10°C and 80%rh to allow it to ripen without cracking the outlet layers. The charcuterie is held at a variety of conditions dependant on the product, to create the curing and right sort of mould.
Supplying local restaurants and hotels, Northampton Charcuterie can also be found at prestigious events such as the F1 Grand Prix down the road at Silverstone.
Humidity Solutions sponsored the World Charcuterie Awards British Rising Star category and we were delighted to nominate Northampton Charcuterie as winners for of this award. We judged this not only on the quality of their products, but also on the company’s website, route to market and profile built up over such a short period of time. We we’re happy to visit Northampton Charcuterie in person and present Steve with a Denbies bottle of English Sparkling Wine.
If you would like to find out more about Northampton Charcuterie Company, click the link here: https://northamptoncharcuterie.com/