Pheasant Farm Pate is where it all began; it was made at the Pheasant Farm from January 1979 to November 1996. It was our first ever commercial product that was always made with chicken and pheasant livers  at the farm. It was never  called  Pheasant Pate, it was named after the farm, the Pheasant Farm where the pheasants were raised and the pate was made. The volume of pheasant livers  used in each batch were very small from a flavour perspective, as much as an availability, in that pheasant livers have such a high iron content so they were actually not great eating.  The pate was made in such volumes that it was a way of utilising what would otherwise be a waste product; the liver.

When we opened the Export Kitchen in November 1996 we were no longer able to use the pheasant livers, as the only livers that could be used in an export accredited pate (overseen by Aqis) were those processed at an export facility. And the rub here was that such facilities will not allow other poultry in their plants, a matter that is still so today. At this point I adjusted the recipe to be entirely of chicken liver, whilst still maintaining a reference to its Pheasant Farm origin, in the name.

The quality of the Pheasant Farm pate has always been about the freshness of the ingredients; the attention to detail in the making where the perfect temperature has a window of variance of nothing more than one, or, at the most, two degrees. However, it’s not just the quality and freshness of  free range eggs and chicken livers that we use, a major factor in this pate is that we make each batch, not much more that those original days of that first commercial food processor we bought.     

Each batch is 10 kg at a time, a continuous process where the pate is made and filled in the containers that it is then baked in and then chilled quickly for safety. This is very rare. Pate is such a vulnerable product its quality is dependent on the sum of all these parts, the highest standard of processes, the continuing chill chain from finished product to retailer allows us to make this without adding any chemical preservatives that are so much part of most pate production, both here and overseas. This has a huge flavour and texture impact and I’m very proud that we are able to do this. The quality and detail and years of history of testing to prove this, give us a real edge in the marketplace.  

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