Recipe Development

Although most of the work at The Spicery is involved in actually producing the product each month - measuring, grinding and packing spices, then assembling orders and sending them out the door, the heart of it all is the test kitchen above the warehouse.

Here, development chefs cook every day, testing recipes which we enjoy for our staff lunch (or occasionally mid-afternoon, when it’s a dessert!).

We test the recipes over and over again before using them in our Legend books, Subscription boxes, Gift Boxes or Recipe Kits (or using as seasonal blends or free samples!).

Where do the recipes come from?

Staff

We often draw on the experiences and knowledge of our staff, many of whom were either born overseas, or have family links around the world. We employ lots of international students from the local universities to help at busy times, and they're often keen to show off their favourite dishes from back home, provide some insight or verify a taste so our recipes are as authentic as possible.

Guest chefs

Alongside this, over the years we've built up a network of cooks and friends all over the world who send recipes, suggestions and feedback. These are individuals and chefs who we ask for advice, contribute recipe ideas or who assist our research when visiting the country.

Our link-up with Refugee Action and Bristol Refugee Rights has built this network even further so that we now have a group of new Bristolians originally from all round the world (Sudan to Kurdistan, Jamaica to Iran) who come in and cook with us from time to time. It's a project that has had so many benefits - from helping the refugees themselves feel more valued and integrated, to our staff learning more about their stories and experiences, to just the human value of sharing wonderful food together and getting to know each other.

Travel!

Most often though, our recipe development process is inspired by travel. The whole fun of what we do is bringing a bit of the wider world into your own kitchen - trying something new and recreating some of those amazing flavours from favourite places around the world. Everyone here is encouraged (and even incentivised as we pay staff bonuses to travel) to discover new recipe ideas from around the world . Spice travels have taken us to Bodinayakanur, India’s cardamon capital - Tamil Nadu - a wedding in Yucatan, a gourmet tour of Ghana, food and football in Marseilles, all over the world in fact … and that’s just within a year! The recipes and memories of food we've eaten overseas then go into our recipe development, and maybe turn up in future books and spice boxes that arrive through your letterbox!

Our Work with Refugee Action and Bristol Refugee Rights

We started working with Refugee Action (and subsequently with Bristol Refugee Rights) in 2014 after (for the first time ever!) finding ourselves with a little bit of extra money that didn’t immediately need to go straight back into the business.

To date we've donated over £15,000 to the 2 charities by selling fund-raising kits (based on recipes from the refugees themselves) and making donations for guest refugee cooks to come into the Spicery kitchen to help with our recipe development. It's been an eye-opening and hugely rewarding experience for all of us here - we've really enjoyed meeting refugees and asylum seekers from around the world, hearing their stories and learning a little bit about people and places.