15 August 2009

Photo ops at Steenbergs

I am slightly apprehensive about having had my photo taken this week. We have been suppliers of spices and sea salt to Tanfield Food Company since they were established a few years back. They make ambient convenience meals in a pouch under the brand-name "Look What I've Found" and for Marks & Spencer and a few others.

Look What I've Found is the brainchild of Roger McKechnie and Keith Gill who founded Phileas Fogg in the 1980s and so creating the premium adult snacks marketplace. They came up with the idea of Phileas Fogg after being made redundant by one of the large crisp companies, just like Sophie and I started Steenbergs after being made redundant - there's hope after failure, or at least nothing more to lose!

They wanted a photograph of me for the front label of a new mixed peppercorns sauce that they are doing based on a blend of our finest peppercorns from India and Africa. Having your photo taken is one of those weirdly artificial times when your face freezes up and even humour makes it impossible to relax and it becomes hardly possible to catch that elusive smile, and this photo was taken while leaning on a fence beside a reed bed system for cleaning the sewerage.

I suppose I should be flattered that they think our spices are great and that my mugshot won't detract from the product, but I am still a bit nervous about having my face staring down at me from a supermarket shelf. But let's hope that in the future they will be able to say that Axel Steenberg's face was the face that sold more than a thousand packets of peppercorn sauce!

For more on the products by Tanfield Food Company, visit http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk/.