Lamb's lettuce is being hailed in the restaurant trade as "the new rocket".
As the year-round arrivals of Lamb's lettuce form the Loire Valley enter their winter season, the food team at French promotion body Sopexa report a highly successful summer campaign culminating in the Restaurant Show in London last month and the declaration from one chef that Lamb's lettuce is set to emulate rocket's appeal.
More than 3,500 chefs, caterers and restaurant-owners sampled the product at the three-day show. "A lot of visitors to our stand said they knew the product but it turned out they didn't know as much about it as they thought," said Nina Lainas of Sopexa. "There was a lot of interest and the perception is that Lambs lettuce has a milder and nuttier flavour than rocket or watercress."
The promotional effort ran during the peak production and consumption period from April to September and targeted wholesalers as well with a theatrical Eliza Doolittle promotion that brought an uplift in sales and awareness.
Sopexa also ran recipe challenges over the five-month spell and a competition to highlight the product's versatility to 60,000 pub and restaurant chefs and direct mailings to 500 gastro-pub chefs.
