All-rounder potato brand from Greenvale connects with influential chefs and food writers by hosting five-course meal at London’s Sky Garden
Greenvale’s Golden Kings brand has reached out to the UK foodservice sector with a glitzy dinner to showcase the versatility of its premium potato variety.
Since launching in 2022, the brand has won listings at supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda. And in March Golden Kings set out on a deliberately antagonistic campaign aimed at displacing Maris Piper and making room for newer varieties like its own.
Greenvale makes the point that Maris Piper and King Edwards are generally the only varieties referenced by UK chefs on menus, identifying an opportunity to shift the dial and win exposure for Golden Kings instead.
In the foodservice sector, where there is more visibility for fresh produce brands, the main sales opportunity is to start supplying its potatoes to chefs via wholesalers and foodservice suppliers. But by attempting to win over chefs and food writers, Greenvale also hopes to influence home cooks and drive more retail sales.
The dinner took place at Fenchurch Restaurant at Sky Garden on the 37th floor of London’s iconic Walkie-Talkie building, featuring five dishes to encourage guests to “rethink potatoes”.
Created by the Fenchurch chef de cuisine Kerth Gumbs – who won BBC Two’s Great British Menu 2020 in the London and Southeast region – the dishes featured a Golden Kings salt cod brandade, as an accompaniment to roast halibut, and a Golden Kings white chocolate and crème fraiche espuma (or foam), on top of a caramel cake.
Greenvale’s brand and marketing manager Katy Pook has been the driving force behind Golden Kings. At the event she spoke of Britain’s continuing over-reliance on Maris Piper, describing it as a “legacy variety” that has been around since the 1960s but “no longer delivers for farmers or end consumers”.
The supplier’s director of agriculture Rick Clay listed a number of Maris Piper’s shortcomings in his speech, namely easy bruising, susceptibility to scab, climate vulnerability, large carbon footprint, and relatively low yield.
Meanwhile, Greenvale MD David Rankin emphasised Golden Kings’ high yield, pest and disease resistance, cooking versatility, and high scores in independent taste tests. He added that the brand has started to attract new shoppers to the category.
From a culinary perspective, the variety stands out for its buttery flavour, golden flesh, and easy peeling. According to Greenvale, the all-rounder potato is well suited to roasting, mashing, frying, steaming, boiling, baking, wedging, scooping, filling or loading.
