How Brindisa became a trailblazer in bringing Spanish cuisine to the UK | Analysis & Features
Few businesses can claim to have played such a key role in the introduction and development of Spanish cuisine in the UK as Brindisa.
Now in its 35th year, Brindisa has grown from a small cheese importer to operating a state-of-the-art warehouse and distribution centre, a cheese and charcuterie delicatessen, a string of tapas bars and an online store.
Brindisa develops many of the products it sells, and in April received a gold award in the inaugural Farm Shop & Deli Product Awards for its beetroot gazpacho. For founder Monika Linton, the award is recognition of the quality of the business’ suppliers.
“It highlights the work our Spanish producers put in, making great traditional products as well as wonderful innovative products such as this gazpacho, and brings this quality to the attention of a wider audience,” she says.
And widening the audience for great Spanish food has long been Linton’s passion.
She lived and worked in Catalonia in the early 1980s, first as a chef de partie in Begur on the coast, and then as a language teacher around the inland villages of the Vic area. Returning to London after three years, she realised there was a gap in the UK market for the Spanish wines and cheeses she had come to enjoy.
Linton and her brother Mark Lavery, who had moved to Spain as she returned to the UK, began importing cheese and wine to assess how big that gap was. “Cheese won out as the line to follow. There was none in the UK,” she explains.
To bolster sales, the siblings added ambient lines such as Nunez de Prado olive oil, Ortiz anchovies and Navarrico piquillo peppers.
The business built slowly, mainly through sales to a few small retailers already familiar with Spanish foods, and through restaurants run by British chefs such as Mark Hix, Simon Hopkinson and Alastair Little.
“The early range was really chef-led and cheese-led,” says Linton. “These products didn’t need sophisticated packaging or brand identity as chefs needed catering…
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