The Bath Soup Company Blog

Bath Soup at The Rec!

2012-01-17T20:52:00.000Z

We're very excited to announce that we'll be offering fresh, hot soup at the Rec for Bath's next home game against Glasgow Warriers on the 21st January!

This will mark the start of a trial period to see how the fans take to us but we're really proud of the opportunity and will do everything we can to make it a permanent fixture!

If you're going to be there on Saturday, do come and check us out. We'll be in the Beer Tent, offering our tasty handmade soup, local artisan bread and homemade chocolate brownies!

We source our vegetables from local growers and growing initiatives so we have chosen two quality traditionals for the weekend to show that off...

Leek and Potato

(Sourced from Bath City Farm)

Carrot and Coriander

(sourced by Chris Rich from his farm on the northern slopes of Bath)

Either of these soups, served with bread will only cost £3.50 so why not come and give it a try?

There's so much more to us than just soup.

To find out more about us and the work we do across the community, check out bathsoupcompany.co.uk

Frome's Big Christmas Get-together

2012-01-16T20:51:00.000Z

On Christmas day, more than 60 volunteers threw a Christmas Day party in Frome for those people who may otherwise have missed out on celebrating in a traditional way.

This amazing event was organised by Charlie Thomas, our friend from Frome's St. Catherines Market, and we were proud to help out by making soup for it.

Ian, our head chef, received a really nice thank you letter from Charlie last week, which I'd thought i'd share you. In doing so, I hope I can highlight how well this event was run and catch the eye of a few other local volunteers or producers who might like to get involved next year!

Dear Ian,

Thank you so much for your support of the Frome Big Christmas Get-together. With your help, we were able to feed over 80 people on Christmas Day, who otherwise would have spent the day alone. We had catered for 100 people, so there was some food left over, however on Boxing Day all leftover food was donated to YMCA on Bath Street. So you will be glad to hear that the project generated no wastage at all.

Prior to the event, we produced a poster for each of our sponsors and covered a wall with them, so that everyone taking part could see who had made the event happen. This will hopefully be visible on the film that Froe TV are currently editing, and will be available on www.frome.tv soon. I have also written a letter to the Somerset Standard, which will be printed in next weeks newspaper, with a full list of all our sponsors.

Without the generosity of the local businesspeople of Frome and surrounding areas, this event could not have happened.

I look forward to working with you again in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Charlie Thomas

fromechristmas@gmail.com

Moving back to Bath!

2012-01-02T20:47:00.002Z

For the last year or so I have run the Bath Soup Company whilst maintaining my day job near London. This meant a huge amount of time was spent on Great Western trains and regular 4-meetings-a-day visits to Bath!

Although I am still keeping my day job, I am really excited to have just moved back to Bath, both to spend more time on the Bath Soup Company but also because, as I'm rediscovering, it's an amazing place to live!

I graduated from the University of Bath 3 years ago (where I set up BSC) so already knew the city fairly well but it's great to be back after being away and see it in a new light. It's fun to visit some of my old favourites like the Little Theatre and Jika Jika and I'm also enjoying getting to know some of the newer bars like Opium and The Cosy Club. You can only buy Bath Soup in a couple of places at the moment but I'm really proud to say that one of them is Jacob's - located just off the abbey courtyard, this cafe really reminds me of the Bath Soup Canteen, which we ran back in the summer of 2010.

I'm a big fan of Bath's "healthy vibe" and I've already enjoyed evening runs through the city centre and early morning runs along the canal, which is just as well as I am due to take on a sprint triathlon at Dorney Lake in May...

Having finally got the new flat sorted (despite friends visiting every weekend since we've been here!) I'm really looking forward to what January has in strore for us as I have some exciting meetings with local organisations and will be taking part in the final round of a funding competition that would make 2012 our year! The final round involves a Dragons Dens style pitch, which Ian and I will be attending in the next few weeks, fingers crossed!

One of my New Years Resolutions is to be more chatty online so keep checking back here to see how I'm getting on!

Also, do get in touch if you're on Twitter! @bathsoupcompany

Introducing Ian Duff.

2011-08-21T19:39:00.000+01:00

Ian Duff has been with the company for nearly 4 months now, and in that time has made an immediate impact in all areas. After Ian was invited to write for the Big Issue Magazine, and enjoyed the process, I invited him to contribute to the Bath Soup Company Blog. Ian has a great deal of catering experience to share and a developing story to tell and i'm sure his posts will make for an interesting read.

My story is a simple but a not so rare one nowadays. I went from working 7 days a week to finding myself homeless. After a period of sofa surfing I ended up sleeping rough in Bath, just me and my dog, Boycey.

After 2 weeks, someone approached me and told me about the night shelter, Julian House, so after some soul searching and swallowing of pride, I ended up in the shelter. There I was assigned a Key Worker who put me on the road to find accommodation. I then signed up to the Big Issue in Bath and became a vendor, selling the magazine to make ends meet.

I have now been selling for just over a year and have met some wonderful people, plus a few not so nice ones. You learn to block out these people to a certain degree but it is hard sometimes. Anyway, one day about 3 months ago, a member of staff at the office mentioned this soup company and knowing something about my back ground in catering, suggested I give them a call. I did and now I volunteer once a week at the soup school where, with Helen, I help teach basic kitchen skills and, of course, the art of making good soup.

I am now developing soups for the company and hope to be working for them on a full time basis in the near future.

Food historians tell us the history of soup is probably as old as the history of cooking. Soups, stews and gruel were ideal for the rich and the poor and for travelling cultures. Soup was commonly prescribed to the sick and invalids around Europe to help them rebuild their strength.

The first modern restaurant industry is said to be based on soup. The first items served in public restaurants in the 18th century Paris was soup, which was called consomme. French cuisine has, therefore, generated many of the soups we know today.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be talking about the soups that we are making, the development of the recipes and the sources of our ingredients, as well as continuing my personal story, which will hopefully take me back into employment.