Farmison

Farmison is the brainchild of John Pallagi and Lee Simmonds, two old friends and colleagues who share a great love for fantastic food. One year, they attempted to order rosé veal from a supermarket Christmas brochure only to find that it had sold out by November. Undaunted, they tracked down the source and ordered straight from the farm. The veal itself was great when it arrived but the overall shopping experience (packaging, delivery, ease of ordering etcetera) wasn't. So they came up with the idea of farmison.com, short for 'farm produce is online', an internet shopping site for foodies, where small producers with excellent food to sell (but little or no expertise in marketing and internet retailing) could do business with consumers looking for a convenient but delicious alternative to supermarket shopping. John and Lee then set about road-testing their idea, buying from all the major online suppliers of meat and fruit and vegetables. Unimpressed by both the patchy quality of what was delivered and struck by the very limited nature of food available to ordinary consumers (compared to the long list of goodies professional chefs could order), they became convinced that there was a considerable unsatisfied appetite for online orders of excellent and interesting foods with sound provenance. When they aren't looking after farmison.com, which is based in Yorkshire, John (a former restaurateur) and Lee (a former media marketing executive) run an award-winning marketing agency dedicated to the hospitality business. Otherwise, their main preoccupation is a rather pleasant one: eating their way through a list of the World's Top 50 restaurants.