It’s never been a better time to be a shopper in the UK with the high quality and breadth of products available to the consumer, according to chef and businesswoman Thomasina Miers.

Hosting The Grocers Own Label Awards in London yesterday, Miers – or Tommi, as she is widely known – congratulated the audience of around 600 retailers, suppliers and food experts, on how far the UK retail scene has come in terms of innovation and choice.

“You used to have to buy olive oil in a chemist and even ten years ago, Delia was the only one talking about rocket,” she said, “Now we’re all growing it in our back gardens!”

She contrasted today’s picture with the relatively recent past, when, fresh from her Masterchef success, she set up her first restaurant Wahaca. Trying to find a supplier who understood chillies or the hundreds of different avocados available in Mexican cuisine had been a virtually impossible task, she said, largely because Mexican was then a relatively unknown cuisine.

But fast forward seven years and the influence of TV shows, the rise of scratch cooking and the wider availability of ingredients has had a marked effect, not least on the choice offered in the supermarket.

Retailers have become infinitely more adventurous, she said, offering an ever widening choice of cuisines, as well as more innovative in their use of ingredients and pursuit of quality.

“Ten years ago, no-one was interested in sumac, chipotle, pomegranate molasses or fermented black beans, and while not everyone wants it, there is definitely a small proportion of people who would not be without it – but you have to cater for everyone!” she said “Even Joe Blogs now really knows his onions.”

“It’s really exciting,” she told The Grocer after the event, admitting that she had been hugely impressed by the products showcased and the quality and breadth of the innovation as well as the sexier packaging. “The retailers have really embraced the fact that the consumer is better educated and knowledgeable about foods from around the world – and wants to eat more of it.”

From spicy Sichuan pork noodle ready meals to Moroccan soups, pulled pork and chipotle chilli soup, (the ultimate winner) to classics with a twist, done really, really well, a brief flick through of the finalist reveals the quality and diversity she is talking about, which given the chill economic winds blowing over the country for the last five years, is quite a feat.

Which reminds me, I must dig out my packet of chilli seeds and rocket and get planting.

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