According to Marks & Spencer, the humble rhubarb is experiencing a renaissance and is flying off the shelves. M&S customers have rediscovered the delicate taste of this classic British ‘fruit’ (botanically it is actually a vegetable), creating record sales increases of up to 300%.

Britain’s top chefs have helped drive the resurgence, thanks to an increase in rhubarb recipes, which include new and usual ways to cook with rhubarb.

Acclaimed chef Gordon Ramsey has created recipes* including pan-roasted scallops with rhubarb, lemon mousse with rhubarb pureé and rhubarb and ginger fool millefeuille. Magazines like Delicious, Good Housekeeping, Olive and Woman & Home have also featured rhubarb recipes in the past few months. Gordon Ramsey recently wrote that “One of the highlights at this time of the year is the abundance of bright pink, slender stems of ‘forced’ rhubarb from Yorkshire.”*

The striking shelf appeal of rhubarb with its pretty pink colouring could also add to its popularity, offering a hint of spring after such a dismal winter.

Marks & Spencer rhubarb grower Janet Oldroyd comments: “Rhubarb has a delicious flavour which Briton’s have been enjoying for over 300 years. We’ve been growing it for five generations, and it’s marvellous to see it flourishing as people rediscover its distinctive flavour and how easy and versatile it is to cook with.”

M&S is also using Yorkshire rhubarb in one of its exciting new ‘Hot Fruits’  range – four fruit desserts - specially designed to be eaten hot. And its no surprise that apple, rhubarb and orange with its orange and ginger sauce is the favourite.
More…

Marks & Spencer fresh rhubarb is on sale priced at £2.99 for 400g.
M&S ‘Hot Fruit’ apple, rhubarb and orange with orange & ginger sauce is £3.99.
Other flavours are:
- Pineapple & Passion Fruit with Demerara Sugar (£2.99,330g).
- Mango, Pineapple, Peaches & Strawberries with Toffee Butter (£3.99, 320g).
- Pineapple, Peaches, Passion fruit & Pomegranate with Toffee Butter (£3.99, 355g).

ENDS

For further information, images and samples please contact:
Vivienne Jawett Marks & Spencer Food Press Office    0208 718  4904

Notes to Editors
*The Times Magazine 29.03.08

According to Ancestry Aid

1. The earliest recorded use of rhubarb was 2700BC, although it was probably used much further back than that. At this time, rhubarb was used as a drug, to treat a variety of ailments, mainly gut, lung & liver problems. Marco Polo is attributed in bringing it to Europe in the 13th Century when it was called the Rhacoma. Rhubarb was first seen growing in the UK in the 16th Century.
2. Rhubarb was first used in cooking in the UK in the late 18th Century, although it had been used in Syria since the 13th Century. It only gained favour with the British when the forcing process was discovered in Chelsea Physic Gardens in 1817, when some roots were accidentally covered with soil in winter. When the soil was removed some time later, tender shoots had begun to grow. These had a much better taste & quality than any other before.
3. The forcing of rhubarb began in 1877 in Yorkshire, with the Whitwell family in Leeds. This was the first place in the world that erected sheds to grow rhubarb out of season. This early basic technique was made their own by the rhubarb growers of Yorkshire.
4. The Yorkshire growers were concentrated between Leeds, Wakefield & Bradford, which became known as "The Rhubarb Triangle", the centre for the world's growth of forced rhubarb.

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