Competitors on Gordon Ramsay's Future Food Stars will be put to the test in a sauce-making challenge by Nottingham's very own experts. Masters in the field, Sauce Shop, were invited to feature in this week's episode on the BBC series where food and drink entrepreneurs are set tasks in a bid to win a £150,000 investment of the celebrity chef's own cash.
Co-founders Pam and James Digva appear as the secret industry guests when the two teams are tasked with creating a bottled sauce for what is described as a crowded market. The sauces were made at Sauce Shop's factory in Nottingham and sold at Hawker Market in Gateshead.
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Pam said: “Gordon was a pleasure to film with. He is incredibly passionate about small food and beverage businesses and an all-round lovely person to spend time with. James and I had a brilliant time filming the show and are so proud of the Sauce Shop team for turning two brand new recipes round within 24 hours for the show.”
The show was filmed around a year ago. The team which secured the most orders was declared the winner. Pam said: "Both teams had to sell the sauces to members of the public and we had some secret buyers planted as well.
"I can say, without being specific, the winner was the most marketable sauce and the flavours worked really well together. I could see there being a really clear use for it whereas the other one I don't know what you would use it for."
The episode will be screened on Thursday, April 27, at 9pm on BBC One, when the winning sauce will be available as a limited edition on Sauce Shop's website priced £3.50. Pam said: "It will appear on our website at 9pm but it will be a mystery so people will be able to put it in their basket and purchase it but they won't know what flavour it is, so it's a bit of a risk whether they like it.
"At 10pm when the show is over, we'll reveal all. We've made one batch of it but if it sells like hot cakes we will make some more."
James and Pam, who are husband and wife, founded the company after experimenting in the kitchen at their West Bridgford home in 2014. Last year Sauce Shop had a £3m turnover as well as a whole host of awards and plaudits. The range features everyday favourites tomato ketchup and brown sauce to more adventurous flavours such as chipotle and lime aioli, honey sriracha drizzle and the hottest they've ever made ghost pepper ketchup.
Sauce Shop's main office was called out of the blue last year and invited to appear on the show. "They said they were thinking about doing a sauce episode and we were the ones that came to mind. Because we've been manufacturing our own sauce for so long, they pegged us as experts which was very kind of them," said Pam.
So far this series, the Future Food Stars' competitors have had to make pizzas, devise a healthy food brand and create a a canned vodka. Members of the team which lose the challenge are grilled by Gordon about what has gone wrong before at least one of them is sent home.
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