Marks and Spencer's new Fusion range has all the right ingredients for success ­ a top chef, exotic flavours and a trendy audience Last week Marks and Spencer rolled out its most ambitious ready meal programme to date, launching its Fusion food range in 30 major stores. Fusion food is a modern cuisine that combines flavours, textures and cooking methods from around the world, such as New Zealand, the USA and Australia. Appealing to the urban and trendy, its creator is Sugar Club restaurant chef Peter Gordon. M&S spokeswoman Sue Sadler says the multiple has great expectations for Fusion. "We think the market is ready for it. The cuisine is starting to become well known and we want to be the first to introduce our customers to it. Although it's different, it has elements that people know as well as less familiar ingredients such as harissa, lime leaves and galangal." Among the more exotic of the 22 restaurant quality dishes are seared salmon on green tea noodles with pickled ginger and a wasabi dressing (£5.99), sweet potato & onion seed fritters with roast spiced aubergine and a raita dressing (£4.99), and chocolate & pear spring rolls with a caramel dipping sauce (£2.99). M&S is putting a large marketing effort behind Fusion. "As well as displays on walls and pillars, we've created a menu card outlining the dishes and how they should be used," says Sadler. "Plus there's a larger brochure explaining Fusion and what wines to serve with it. "Food sales assistants from the 30 stores have sampled the Fusion range so they can advise customers with authority. Foodies will get it quickly, but it may take longer for our general customer profile to understand it." {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}

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