Clara Whitfield started Fresh Market & Co in the autumn of 2017 after eight years working in restaurant kitchens, the last four as a head chef at a small bistro in the city. She kept noticing the same problem:…
The first year was a steep learning curve. Clara ran the shop alone, six days a week, with a fold-up table and a borrowed set of scales. The first winter nearly finished it: turnover dropped by half and she ha…
Clara Whitfield trained in professional kitchens from the age of 19, spending eight years cooking before she opened Fresh Market & Co in 2017. Her last role before the shop was head chef at Larder Bistro, where she started driving out to farms on her days off because the distributor produce was not good enough. She opened the shop on a fold-up table with borrowed scales and has been buying direct ever since. She visits farms in person when she needs to see what is actually growing, and she reads seed catalogues in the evenings the way other people read novels.