Uppingham Fine Food store to open in Rutland specialising in gourmet pork scratchings and other quirky products

Everything was going swimmingly for Damon Le Geyt at the start of the year - he’d married the love of his life and his business selling quirky food products was soaring.

And then the coronavirus lockdown happened.

“It’s not exactly what we were hoping for in our first year of marriage!” said Damon, 50, who tied the knot with Ellie, 30, last June.

“We’d just got settled, the business was going nicely, and then this. It certainly made things interesting!”

The couple met two years ago at a Starbucks cafe in Ellie’s native Indonesia when Damon was in the country sourcing products for his business, Uppingham Fine Food.

She had a good job working in PR for multinational banking company DBS but decided to give it up for a life in the UK helping Damon.

His company specialises in supplying high quality snacks - including gourmet pork scratchings and pickled onions - as well as a range of products and ingredients for chefs.

He had previously worked closely with the likes of ‘Pub in the Park with Tom Kerridge’ and the ‘BBC Good Food Show’.

After the wedding the couple had to arrange Ellie’s permits before heading back to Indonesia to transport her belongings to the UK - a process they finally completed in February.

“So basically Ellie gave up working for the biggest bank in Asia to come and sell pork scratchings in Uppingham!” joked Damon.

“I’m just glad she got here before the lockdown happened.”

As the reality of the pandemic hit home, and the business saw all 46 of its summer bookings cancelled, the couple found themselves in a position they never saw coming.

“It wasn’t the greatest start to our marriage but we just thought ‘we can sit here and moan and do nothing or just get on with it and do something’,” said Damon, who is originally from Jersey.

So they decided to lease a shop on Orange Street in Uppingham, through Moores estate agents, and are now preparing for a grand launch on Thursday, June 25.

“Our business went from 100 per cent to zero but in the middle of adversity we’re going for it!” said Damon.

They aim to sell everything they offered before, but to make it all available to the general public - including snails, vegan products and 15 different flavours of pork scratchings.

Damon said they had been overwhelmed by the support from the community, and everyone had “rallied round” and wished them good luck.

Through the shop they will also be selling locally-grown produce and handing over 50 per cent of profits to Uppingham projects as a way of saying ‘thanks’.

“I’m a Jerseyman originally and it reminds me of that local community where everyone knows each other,” he said. “Everyone has been fantastic.”

Damon and Ellie hope that the shop combined with supplies to reopened restaurants and pubs will keep the business afloat and allow them to enjoy the life they had planned together.

“It’s going to be difficult but we’ll get there,” said Damon. “We will prevail!”

For more information visit the Uppingham Fine Food page on Facebook, call 01572 842526 or email finefoodandhome@gmail.com