• 2 years ago
This week Sofia Akin is joined by Liz Jeffery, the woman behind Faversham's very own edition of Monopoly.
Transcript
00:00 Hello and welcome to Made in Kent live on KMTV. I'm Sophia Akin and on tonight's show,
00:24 the former counter-terrorism officer who turned his passion for chocolate into a sweet success.
00:29 We'll take you inside his award-winning kitchen and find out what makes his creations so delicious.
00:35 And Favisham gets its own Monopoly board, featuring some of the town's most iconic
00:39 landmarks and businesses. We'll speak to the woman behind the project and see how she
00:44 raised £70,000 to make it happen. And of course, Halloween is just around the corner
00:49 and some of you have been sending us pictures of your spooky decorations. We'll show you
00:53 some of the best ones and tell you how you can get involved.
00:56 But first tonight, from counter-terrorism to counter-top chocolates. One man from Birchington
01:02 has had quite the retirement. Nick Johnson left the police force a couple of years ago
01:06 and decided to pursue a lifelong ambition of creating homemade culinary delights. In
01:12 that short space of time, the ex-copper has won himself an award for his luxury chocolate.
01:17 Well, our reporter Gabriel Morris visited his back garden kitchen to find out the secret
01:22 behind the success.
01:25 Ex-master chocolatiers take decades to craft their technique. But for this ex-copper, he's
01:31 been in the business for a little under two years. Spending much of his career in counter-terrorism
01:37 deployed to Belgium. And from all that chocolate influence in Bruges, he's now specialising
01:43 in bonbons.
01:44 It's a product that in this country hasn't got the same cultural appeal as in Belgium
01:51 and Holland. It's all a different kind of culture where people often buy luxury chocolates
01:55 instead of going out and buying more mass chocolate, shall we say. There's nothing wrong
01:59 with mass chocolate. However, it's a different culture and I think that aspiration to produce
02:04 something I was very proud of and to be able to introduce lots of different tastes and
02:09 flavours really appealed to me.
02:11 All of his products are completely handmade, coming up with his own unique recipes. And
02:17 although his career might have had a lot of secrecy, Nick is more than happy to share
02:22 some secrets. And apparently, it's all about getting the temperature right and plenty of
02:28 patience.
02:29 But a final product has some spectacular designs. They are sprayed onto the mould first.
02:35 Once you get the design into the mould, obviously that then, you can see it's just, as you
02:40 would say, stuck I suppose, or resting on top of the polycarbonate. The reason for the
02:45 importance of getting the right temperature of chocolate in there is the chemical process
02:48 that allows the chocolate you put in to bind with that cocoa butter. They then become stuck
02:54 together, cohesively stuck together, at which point, once that then crystallises, the shell
02:59 crystallises, that kind of pulls the cocoa butter with it, which is where you get the
03:03 retraction that you saw earlier on.
03:05 And there we go, the finished product. But with recent rises in inflation, the cost of
03:11 making chocolate has skyrocketed. Nick says he will always ensure the products are sustainable.
03:17 I think chocolate has had a very bad name in the past, where the growers and the producers
03:21 have had near on slave conditions at times. And I think that's something that all of the
03:27 big suppliers now have recognised through pressure from others, which is great. And
03:31 now we're looking much better at fair trade. People are very much more involved in people
03:37 getting the fair prices. I mean, if that were the reason for the rising price of chocolate,
03:40 then I would accept it. It's not, because I think it's inflation. However, you don't
03:45 mind paying slightly more for something that is much more ethical.
03:49 For an ex-police officer, you have to say his retirement and his chocolates are criminally
03:54 good. Gabe from RSVP TV in Birchington.
04:01 Well Nick joins me now with some of his creations with him. So Nick, quite the career change.
04:06 What made you want to put the police days behind you and go for chocolate?
04:10 Well, it was a 30 year retirement, so that was natural progression anyway. But I've always
04:15 cooked so I knew that what I wanted to do post retirement was something to do with cooking.
04:20 And I spent an awful lot of time in Belgium and Holland when I was working. So I kind
04:23 of picked up the bug for chocolate and chocolate making because it's a very different thing
04:27 that we have generally over here, although it's growing over here, growing in popularity.
04:31 Amazing. And these are an art in themselves, very brightly coloured. And there's a bit
04:37 of a scientific process to it, isn't there? So tell me a little bit about, I mean you
04:40 don't want to give all your secrets away, but how do you get them to look like that?
04:45 The chocolate basically has to be perfectly tempered, which means the crystals align which
04:49 gives it that shiny finish. You use a polycarbonate mould. But it's basically temperature and
04:55 time are the two secrets, if you like, of tempering chocolate to get it shining and
04:58 to get it to snap.
05:00 Incredible. Well, what different flavours have we got here as well? They're not all
05:04 the same flavour, are they?
05:05 No, they're not. I make collections based on seasonal ingredients and what I can get
05:09 hold of and Kent-based ingredients as well. So in that one we have some pistachio, some
05:14 hazelnut, there's a mango cheesecake, there's a roast orange caramel, a peanut and a salt
05:20 caramel.
05:21 What's your own personal favourite?
05:22 That's a very difficult question. Pistachio is probably my favourite.
05:26 Is that the one that's green? I mean there are two that are green.
05:29 Yes.
05:30 Interesting. They are calling to me. I do want to try one. Which would you say is the
05:32 best?
05:33 I mean, if you like pistachio, go for it.
05:36 Which one is it? Sorry, this one?
05:37 It's that green one, yes.
05:38 Oh, amazing. And I'm wearing green so it kind of matches. And talk to me a little bit
05:42 about the sort of sustainability aspect. You're saying it's all Kent ingredients, a lot of
05:48 it. So talk to me about that as well.
05:49 Yes, I mean as much as I can get Kent ingredients. Obviously chocolate doesn't come from Kent.
05:53 You can't get chocolate from Kent. But wherever possible, it's got to be ethical. The chocolate's
05:58 got to be ethical because chocolate, like coffee, has had a few issues in the past with
06:02 sort of modern slavery and people being abused overseas. Very much important to my making
06:08 is to make sure that's ethical. And I say the fillings, if I can get something local,
06:12 for example, there's a lady local to me runs Carly's Kitchen and she just grew some what
06:17 are called jostaberries. I'd not heard of them before. They're a cross between a gooseberry
06:20 and a blackcurrant. So she's given me a couple of kilos of that and I'll make a fruit caramel,
06:24 I have made a fruit caramel from them to then put into the collection. I think last year
06:29 my auntie had a glut of apples, so made apple caramel and in they go. So it's trying to
06:34 be as local as possible where I can, but also doing those collaborations with other makers.
06:38 I must say that is as incredible as it looks. I almost didn't want to eat it because it
06:42 looks so pretty. Tell me a little bit about how much this costs. It's something that does
06:50 cost you, doesn't it? Because it's kind of that high luxury. So talk to me a little bit
06:54 about the cost of making these.
06:55 Yeah, the cost involved really is because obviously it takes time and that's one of
07:00 the biggest costs I suppose if you're going that way. But things like everything really
07:05 has increased in recent times. The dairy's gone up, chocolate's gone up probably 30 or
07:09 40% over the last 12 to 18 months. So everything's getting more expensive, although I'm trying
07:13 to keep the cost as low as humanly possible because it's a luxury product but you still
07:18 need to keep it affordable for people to be able to enjoy it.
07:21 Is it that you have a concern that people, if they have to start putting their money
07:28 away, are you worried that they won't be able to splash out on the luxury, would you say?
07:32 Yeah, I would say that's probably accurate. What they tend to be most of the time nowadays
07:38 is gifts. People want to give something that's very unusual for the same kind of price as
07:41 you'd buy a decent bottle of wine so that they can give that to a gift for birthdays,
07:47 parties or whatever else. So that tends to be the popularity at the moment rather than
07:51 people buying for themselves. That's the difference in culture I think between the UK and say
07:55 the continent where buying chocolates for oneself is very, very regular and they'll
07:59 have one or two through the day.
08:03 And you've got Christmas right around the corner as well so very exciting. Now as well
08:08 as this, you won an award, congratulations. Tell me a bit about that, what it was like
08:13 to win an award and remind us what the award actually was as well.
08:16 It was the Taste of Kent Confectionery Product of the Year. So the category that I entered
08:21 my chocolates into. Not that I didn't have expectation because I have got faith in my
08:25 product but in that first year of business you don't expect to win anything. And what's
08:29 really, really nice is that it's judged by industry experts so you know that what you're
08:35 making, you kind of get a, or I did, I got a confirmation that what I was doing was about
08:40 right.
08:41 Incredible. And packaging as well, the packaging all comes into it. This looks like a pig on
08:47 the front, why was that your choice?
08:49 So the chocolate pig came about as a bit of a play on words really, obviously from the
08:53 previous profession but also trying to make it kind of something amusing. And yeah it
08:59 just came about on a whim I suppose, a happy accident walking back from the pub. It didn't
09:06 have anything to do with that I promise. But yeah it's kind of stuck and it is something
09:09 that people mention every time they come past a stall at a market, it's something they mention.
09:13 Some of the best creations happen at the pub, some of the best inventions. You've got some
09:18 other creations on the table. Is this a hot chocolate stirrer?
09:22 It is.
09:23 Okay, why did you sort of want to branch out and do sort of a range of different types
09:27 of chocolates?
09:28 Yeah I think the bonbons are kind of my passion, they're the most difficult thing and there
09:32 is no forgiving them at all because if you get it wrong they just don't work. But they're
09:36 also the most expensive so to make luxury chocolate more affordable it's making other
09:42 things that take slightly less time but are more affordable. So for example the chocolate
09:46 stirrers and the chocolate bars go for about £4. I mean that chocolate stirrer has got
09:51 about 60 grams of chocolate in it and if you think that's probably about half of your cup
09:55 when you're drinking one. So it is very much a luxurious ingredient.
10:00 What's the plan? How do you hope to take this further? We're a nation of chocolate lovers,
10:05 it must be a fairly competitive industry. So how do you hope to continue to differentiate
10:10 your products?
10:11 I think it is a competitive industry depending on what it is you're trying to make. There's
10:15 room enough for everybody I think. There's enough customers, there's enough people, there's
10:19 enough variety out there. I think what I want to keep going for my individuality really
10:24 is keep making the collections that are based either with local collaborations or Kent collaborations
10:30 and keep on that seasonal element because it keeps it different, keeps it fresh rather
10:34 than making things that, I don't know, you make salt caramels all year round. Yes it's
10:40 lovely but these represent more seasonal offerings and something different.
10:45 Do you have sort of like Christmassy ones as well? What flavours are secret?
10:49 Not quite secret, yeah, mince pie is going to be one of them for definite. There's a
10:54 sort of a garden mint one because the mint chocolate around Christmas is very nice but
10:57 I use a mint from the garden and then infuse it over a long period of time. So it's slightly
11:01 different, it hasn't got that kind of peppermint flavour. But yeah, then there's ones with sort
11:08 of Baileys in them or various other sort of Christmassy alcohols. Bound into a ganache,
11:13 it's not a liqueur chocolate necessarily, it's a flavour in the ganache so it's quite
11:17 light but I think it's very nice. So it's a whole experience really when you're trying
11:22 these chocolates. Well Nick, thank you very much and thank you for giving me a little
11:26 snack during presenting, great to speak to you. Lovely, thank you very much. It's time
11:30 for a break now but coming up, Favresham gets its own Monopoly board featuring some of the
11:35 town's most iconic landmarks and businesses. We'll speak to the woman behind the project
11:39 and see how she raised £70,000 to make it happen. And Halloween of course is just around
11:45 the corner, some of you have been sending us pictures of your spooky decorations. We'll
11:49 show you some of the best ones and tell you how you can get involved. I'll see you in
11:53 just a few minutes.
11:55 [music]
11:59 [music]
12:01 [music]
12:03 [music]
12:05 [music]
12:07 [music]
12:09 [music]
12:11 [music]
12:13 [music]
12:15 [music]
12:17 [music]
12:19 [music]
12:21 [music]
12:23 [music]
12:25 [music]
12:27 [music]
12:29 [music]
12:31 [music]
12:33 [music]
12:35 [music]
12:37 [music]
12:39 [music]
12:41 [music]
12:43 [music]
12:45 [music]
12:47 [music]
12:49 [music]
12:50 [ Silence ]
12:56 [ Silence ]
13:00 [ Silence ]
13:04 [ Silence ]
13:08 [ Silence ]
13:12 [ Silence ]
13:16 [ Silence ]
13:20 [ Silence ]
13:24 [ Silence ]
13:28 [ Silence ]
13:32 [ Silence ]
13:36 [ Silence ]
13:40 [ Silence ]
13:44 [ Silence ]
13:48 [ Silence ]
13:52 [ Silence ]
13:56 [ Silence ]
14:00 [ Silence ]
14:08 [ Silence ]
14:16 [ Silence ]
14:24 [ Silence ]
14:28 [ Silence ]
14:36 [ Silence ]
14:50 [ Silence ]
14:54 [ Music ]
15:05 >> Hello and welcome back to Made in Kent live on KMTV.
15:10 Now, Fathershim has been reimagined by one of the most famous board games in the whole world.
15:15 A new monopoly board featuring businesses and landmarks from the town such as the pools and of course the Sheppardine Brewery.
15:22 The medieval markets towns version was confirmed last May with bosses behind the project raising 70,000 pounds to make the dream a reality.
15:30 Well, joining me in the studio now is the driving force behind the boards, Liz Jeffery.
15:34 Liz, I'm incredibly excited about this one.
15:37 Why did you want to essentially put your town on a monopoly board?
15:41 >> I love Fathershim. It's got such a great community and everyone's really passionate about it.
15:49 So when we started talking about the idea, the public just absolutely jumped on board and --
15:56 >> Hard than fun.
15:57 >> Exactly. They've been really supportive.
15:59 >> How did you raise 70,000 pounds for it?
16:01 >> It was actually 60. We wanted to do 70 to do our own town tokens, but we finished it.
16:09 I was walled out of 60.
16:12 Basically it's been down to our sponsors who are all on the board.
16:17 Some of the roads actually crowdfunded to get their own road on.
16:22 We had a crowdfunder to actually make the game as well.
16:25 >> Incredible.
16:26 And the things like the money and the sort of houses and the flats have stayed fairly authentic, haven't they?
16:34 But we've got some of the properties here.
16:38 How did you decide which ones?
16:39 You said some of these are sponsors, aren't they?
16:41 We've got Harrison's Estate Agents, Ospring Road, Preston Street.
16:47 How did you decide?
16:48 I mean, Fathershim's a fairly big place.
16:49 >> So we had competitions.
16:51 We had votes.
16:53 None of the roads have been chosen by me.
16:55 So it was all down to the community.
16:57 So please don't hold me responsible.
16:59 >> And has this been officially released yet?
17:03 How sort of successful has that been?
17:05 Has it mostly been people from Fathershim or have you seen people from across Kent?
17:09 >> So we've had 2,500 made.
17:12 We've got about 340 left.
17:18 It's been really successful.
17:20 So the majority of the games have actually been sold out of Fathershim as well.
17:24 >> Amazing.
17:25 Are we going to see this sort of stretching outside of Fathershim into other parts of Kent as well?
17:30 That would be really interesting.
17:32 >> I think, well, anyone can do it.
17:34 We think we're the only town to have done it in this way completely.
17:38 Normally the town games are actually run by Hasbro.
17:42 So any towns that have got a good community spirit could do it.
17:47 >> And we've got all the different characters.
17:49 I've chosen the cat, of course, because I'm quite a big cat fan.
17:52 How have these all been chosen as well?
17:55 We've got sort of a variety of different sort of pieces for people to play.
18:00 We've got what looks like a hat, a thimble.
18:04 How did you choose all these?
18:05 >> I didn't get to choose those.
18:07 They're the standard Hasbro-issue clothing.
18:10 >> Okay, brilliant.
18:11 >> You can have ones made for your town, but, again, that's raising even more money.
18:16 >> I don't think we have time to play the entire game, but I would like to see where we land on.
18:21 Three, three, four, five.
18:24 Oh, gone straight to jail!
18:26 What are the chances of that?
18:28 >> Where are the jails of that?
18:30 Well, apart from that, tell me a little bit more about some of the other sort of locations.
18:38 As we know sort of classically with Monopoly, you have the sort of slightly more expensive properties.
18:43 And then how did you sort of decide those as well?
18:46 >> Well, again, that was all voted for by the public.
18:49 So some of the roads that you would think are the better roads are actually on the cheaper properties on the board.
18:56 So it's all mixed up a little bit.
18:58 But I think the roads that are on there are just really happy to be on there, and they don't care which colour they are.
19:07 >> And the money's all been raised to sort of go back into the local community as well, hasn't it?
19:11 So where could we see some of this money actually going towards?
19:15 >> So some of the charities that we've already got on the boards are benefiting.
19:20 We've got Favisham Food Bank, Favisham Pools, Favisham Umbrella and our Physic Gardens.
19:29 But we're also going to the next stage as we start to see the fundraised money coming in.
19:35 We'll be asking people for their ideas of where they'd like to go.
19:40 It'd be nice to get some of the small charities as well.
19:43 >> Brilliant. Well, yeah, hopefully we can see a few more introduced into other parts of Kent.
19:47 Thank you very much for bringing this in.
19:49 Next time we'll have a proper game. We're a bit tight for time.
19:52 Thank you very much for joining us.
19:54 >> Thank you.
19:55 >> Well, next this evening, it's only one week left to go until Halloween,
19:58 and hundreds of people across Kent are decorating their houses ahead of trick-or-treaters expected on the 31st.
20:05 These are some of the houses that viewers have sent in to us.
20:09 This is Emma from Gillingham. Some pretty creepy spiders there.
20:13 And over in Dartford, some danger tape has been put up at Zoe's house.
20:17 Very good. And finally in Raynham, it looks like a pirate ship has got a bit lost off the River Medway.
20:23 Very good. I need to start decorating myself.
20:26 But have you decorated your home? Is it missing from our list?
20:29 Do get in touch with us, and it may just feature on next week's show, which will be our Halloween special.
20:33 But it seems a lot of effort into decorating houses has taken place this year.
20:37 We've been asking people in Rochester.
20:39 >> Why?
20:40 >> Absolutely.
20:41 >> Yeah, I have as well.
20:43 >> I've got black and orange, lots of Nightmare Before Christmas things.
20:48 You've probably got lots of gongs.
20:50 >> I've got more autumnal than Halloween, so I've got loads of velvet pumpkins that I got here last year.
20:56 We went to pumpkin picking yesterday and I got some more there.
20:59 So I've got more like pumpkin-y and autumnal leaves and stuff like that, more than Halloween.
21:04 >> It's mostly around the kids. I have two daughters, so it's to dress them up.
21:08 And then my daughter this year, she asked for a pumpkin, so she has said that she's going to do some decorations on that.
21:15 >> Oh, no, I hate Halloween. Can't bear it.
21:18 It's the worst excesses of America that we never used to have here.
21:21 >> I have decorated for my three children.
21:23 We're doing a pumpkin carving in a couple of days.
21:25 We've put all the decorations up.
21:27 Yeah, it should be fun.
21:28 I decorate most years for Halloween.
21:30 >> Yes, cobwebs and spiders and things that are kind of obscure.
21:34 >> I'm hoping to get some pumpkins from -- there's a pumpkin patch near us.
21:39 Last year, we did it really -- we done like tons of pumpkins outside our house, and it looked really pretty.
21:46 >> Well, it's not too late to make some Halloween decorations of your own.
21:49 As we said, it's only a week to go.
21:51 On tomorrow's Kent on Climate, we'll find out how to be more eco-friendly when making your own displays.
21:56 Our reporter Daisy Page will show us how you can use items that you already have lying around at home.
22:01 She'll give you a whole host of tips and tricks.
22:04 You won't want to miss it.
22:05 Kent on Climate is on KMTV at 6 p.m. tomorrow straight after Kent Tonight.
22:10 And now the first ever Dover Youth Festival is taking place this week.
22:14 The organizers say it's an exciting week, a long event for young people in the area to highlight their cultural passions.
22:21 All the events are taking place in the Future Foundry project space located in the Charlton Shopping Centre.
22:26 Some of the topics this year are food, nature, and waste.
22:29 Well, we spoke to one of the organizers earlier.
22:32 >> Yeah, well, the idea started when we decided to go into schools to run surveys to ask young people about what they were doing culturally and what they'd like to see more of.
22:44 And we kind of thought that the idea would be that we could provide what they want more of, really.
22:50 But we actually found out that they're doing loads of things by themselves anyway.
22:55 And so we felt that we really wanted to celebrate how culturally engaged young people in Dover are.
23:01 We've got loads going on.
23:03 We've got the -- we'll have the upstairs of the Charlton Shopping Centre in Dover set up with loads of installations of the work we've been doing as part of the festival, kind of exploring all of the different activities that Dover's young people are doing.
23:17 So we've got installations on food and football.
23:21 And young people are apparently spending loads of time walking in nature, which was a really fantastic surprise to us.
23:27 So we've got some information about that.
23:31 >> And before we go, earlier this year, you might remember we brought you a package about a Canterbury Streetwear brand, which is beginning to make waves in the fashion scene.
23:40 Vision 03 has amassed more than 40,000 views on TikTok and already has thousands of followers on Instagram.
23:46 It's even been featured in GQ magazine.
23:49 Jamie Levy's report and all our others are available to watch again on our website, kmtv.co.uk.
23:55 [ Music ]
24:04 >> In 2023, the rise of streetwear brands has been astronomic.
24:08 And with the nature of social media, creating and pushing a brand is now more accessible than ever.
24:13 Dennis is just 19, but his brand, Vision 03, is already making shockwaves in the scene.
24:19 With more than 40,000 TikTok likes and thousands of Instagram followers, the brand has already been recognized by some big names in the fashion industry.
24:27 >> So in here is where it all started for Dennis, from making designs on his laptop to being featured now in GQ magazine.
24:33 The work still continues to this day.
24:36 >> But way before the GQ articles, Dennis started by just designing clothes for his peers at Sixth Form.
24:42 >> I just did like a run of like 20 t-shirts, went into Sixth Form, handed them out, my friends bought them.
24:49 Like I had a lot of support like straight away.
24:52 And I sort of like, it was just that after the first run of t-shirts from my friends, I just thought I'll try and design another one and just see what that's like on a t-shirt, just do something different.
25:03 >> But with so many streetwear brands all coming up at the same time, it can be hard to find your own niche, especially when following a trend is likely to generate more sales.
25:11 >> It can be quite negative. People can be quite harsh about it because they love to see like just these big brands and only these specific people grow.
25:20 But before they were about, there was other people doing it and they got the same reaction.
25:25 So it's difficult to kind of be in the streetwear clothing line because it's just like, it's very easy to do.
25:34 I'd say it's very easy to get into, but to maintain is the most difficult bit.
25:38 >> Some have attributed this rise in the emergence of new clothing brands to the popularity of sites like TikTok and Instagram, giving more people a chance to push their brands to wider audiences.
25:47 >> Social media, as much as people are going to hate all these brands that are using like TikTok, Instagram, all of those things, I think it is definitely vital for you to use because it's free publicity.
25:59 You can get thousands of people seeing your products or whatever you do for free.
26:06 >> Right now, Dennis runs the brand from his bedroom. He's in charge of the whole operation from designing to shipping.
26:12 In the future, he wants to build a team around him to see how big the brand can get.
26:16 >> I just want to keep growing it and see what I can do and sort of just get the name out there for those who want it.
26:24 >> So from the net to the streets, Visiono 3 hopes to conquer the market with innovative designs and authentic urban flair.
26:30 And it might one day be the brand that you end up seeing in a clothes shop near you.
26:34 Jamie Levy for KMTV.
26:37 >> That's all from us here at KMTV. You've been watching Made in Kent.
26:40 I'll be back at the same time next Tuesday for our Halloween special. I'll see you then.
26:45 [Music]
26:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Recommended