The crazy creation was the idea of chef Daniel Cropper who has helped inspire a host of food gurus to try and outdo one another with outrageous crumpet accompaniments
Brits are loving a bit of crumpet – thanks to wacky new toppings such as ox tongue, Marmite, cockles and pickled turnip.
The crazy creation was the idea of chef Daniel Cropper who has helped inspire a host of food gurus to try and outdo one another with outrageous crumpet accompaniments.
Fellow kitchen king Tom Brown piled his high with potted shrimps, shredded kohlrabi, gherkins and parsley at his trendy Cornerstone restaurant in Hackney, east London.
Michelin-starred Lyle’s in east London serves its with oxtail.
As a result of superchef endorsements crumpet sales are booming.
They were up 25% at Waitrose last month (feb) compared with the same time last year – with searches on the supermarket’s website up 84%.
Web trawls for sourdough crumpets increased 200%.
Almost 20,000 crumpet videos have been posted on TikTok.
Clips of folk making Nutella French toast versions of the flour, water, yeast and baking powder treats have been viewed 100 million times.
Warburtons, the world’s largest crumpet-maker with 60% of the market, said sales had shot up by a third in the past four weeks.
The company’s commercial director Colin Bebbington said the increase was `remarkable’ and he believed down to customers realising it was a healthy, value-for-money snack.
“Crumpets are low in salt, fat and sugar. They are also very affordable. A pack of six of our crumpets is typically about 79p,’’ he said.
Ian Endfield, who founded Jones’ Crumpets in 2012, delivers them across the country by post and supplies upscale supermarkets such as La Fromagerie.
Endfield, 27, who makes his at a factory in Cricklewood, north London, said: “We’re in the best position we’ve ever been in.
“We were making between 700 and 1,000 crumpets a day but we moved into a bigger unit in September and doubled our production capacity. We’re on course to double last year’s revenue.’’
Joe Fallowfield, head chef at Michelin-recommended Fallowfields in Helston, Cornwall, dished up a crumpet for the judges on this year’s series of the BBC’s Great British Menu.
Though they scored it just four out of 10 it is a smash hit on the menu where it is listed as `That Crumpet’.
Fallowfield, 36, said a crumpet was a “perfect vessel which holds any buttery unctuous flavour you have,” adding: “It lends itself to anything.’’
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