Find out what people have said about the Real Eating Company on the pages listed below, or view our recent newletters.

14th December	Financial Times Entrepreneur Many people have the same dream: to quit their job and open a swish restaurant. What better way to combine your passion for good food with your well-honed business skills?
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18th November	Sunday Telegraph Magazine “Not so Little Black Book” An exhaustive guide to the best food shops, delis and restaurants across Britain and Europe – as chosen by leading chefs and food writers. Angela Hartnett MBE, chef with the Gordon Group for 12 years, chooses the Real Eating Company as one of her favourite places to eat “A small chain of lovely restaurants serving real, seasonal favourites. Go for lunch of dinner or just for a slice of cake in the afternoon. They’ve also got a bakery serving a mouthwatering array of delicacies”.
November	The Guardian Food Directory Named by Grocer magazine as one of the 50 to watch, Helena Hudson's delis balance excellent quality stock with unusual ready-made items such as custard, jelly, soups and pesto. Local cheeses are well represented, with Flower Marie and Golden Cross both in stock. The bakery on site makes traditional goods such as flapjacks, millionaire shortbread and farmhouse loaves. The manager recommends the "droolsome" raspberry tartlet: a handmade pastry case coated in dark chocolate, filled with a white chocolate mousse and topped with glazed raspberries. The white-washed basement acts as a cafe during the day and at night is set with candles to welcome diners.
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24th October	Restaurant Magazine “Back to Reality” It must take some nerve to open a venture like the Real Eating Company just down the street from Bill’s Produce Store, but nerve is something that the owner Helena Hudson has in spades. After moving from London to Brighton and leaving her life in advertising behind, she spotted a gap in the market for the kind of produce and food that was available in London. So the Real Eating Company was born, in 2004, part café-restaurant, part-deli, bakery, foodstore and wine shop. The chef who set up the menu was Cass Titcombe, (now of Canteen), and the restaurant soon went on to garner critical acclaim. With the opening of Hudson’s second, £525k site, in the pretty village of lewes, East Sussex, last November, her audacity is on display once more in the person of head chef Darren Velvick – ex-head chef of petrus. Even considering Hudson’s acumen, however, what would have drawna Gordon Ramsey Group chef away from the bright lights, competition and Michelin stars of the capital’s fine dining scene? The short answer is family. He and his partner Tracy, were looking for a pub to buy in the Sevenoaks area, but found that securing one would take all their funds and offer no security. “I looked after my son for eight months, which was great after seven years at Gordon Ramsey Holdings” says Velvick. “Then I met Helena, and I liked what she had to say. After the regime I’d been in before, the attitude to food seemed young and enthusiastic.” “I’d already started going for interviews at country house hotels, which seemed stuffy and old-fashioned – you don’t want to upset the clientele there.” So, Velvick took the job at the Real Eating Company, were the site was already under construction, but spent the first month at the Hove site “seeing what they do”. Velvick is now in charge of the food for the whole operation, and although he didn’t want to change much, he has come up with some innovations, such as the ‘promotion menu’, served on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with two courses for £12 and three for £15. And this is where Velvick’s experience in fine dining, combined with the local supplies in rural, coastal Sussex really forge a force to be reckoned with. “The suppliers here keep you up-to-date with what is going on. In London, they didn’t have the time” says Velvick. “At 7am I get my fish supplier on the phone from the quayside – it’s the same supplier we used at Petrus but I didn’t even realise they were based here – and he’ll tell me what he has, so I get to choose from his catch”. Also remaining from his years at Gordon Ramsey is his perfectionism and ways of working. “When I went to the Hove kitchen you couldn’t see who was doing what” he says. “So I said – you do starters, you do mains – and straight away you get a smooth service. Chefs have a standard inside them” he explains “but I am very happy with what I am doing here. If standards were slipping, if we had to buy cheaper ingredients, I’d be unhappy but I’m proud to say that Helena is as happy with the standards as I am”. The differences with his past could not be more marked however. “I quite liked having sommeliers at Petrus” Velvick says. “but that is the problem with a place like that – you’re spoilt. It takes balls to break away from that kind of elegance. Not many chefs have done what I have done – taken a massive pay cut to go back on the stove, slogging their guts out. But then, they don’t get to cook a puffball from the local forest that’s the size of one and a half footballs”. When it comes to eating, you’re not going to get much more real than that.
August 2007	The Times Online "Foodie at large: The real deal. Things are looking up in the South Downs for Lewes's lucky few." " Did you read that stuff I wrote the other week about Newbury being the new Ludlow? Sorry. Absolute tosh, wasn't it? It's just that back then, in benighted July, I'd never been to Lewes..."
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July 2007	Guardian Unlimited "Mushrooms on toasted brioche with melted Montgomery cheese passes muster, but is knocked for six by a subtle and freshly flavoured garlic and pea risotto. Mains couldn't be more familiar and while the warmed chicken breast salad with honey and mustard mayonnaise lacks gusto, the perfectly pink poached salmon with spinach, poached egg and hollandaise delivers on all cylinders."
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April 2007	“Women do their own thing” Eve Magazine The deli-entrepreneur ‘I get such a buzz from running my own business’ says Helena Hudson, 40, owner of three deli-cafes in Sussex. ‘Every time the door opens, there’s a surprise’.  Helena was managing an ad company with a turnover of £75 million when she moved to Brighton ‘for a quiet life’ and spotted a gap in the market for a café that did interesting, authentic food all day. 'We’re always thinking of ways of presenting old favourites’, she says.  ‘Learning about restaurant legislation has been a steep learning curve, but now I’ve opened two more sites, the hard work is paying off’.
Feb 2007	Observer Food Monthly. The Real Eating Company gets five stars for its fresh vanilla custard.
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Feb 2007	The Grocer – Top 50 Independents ‘Ones to Watch’ Helena Hudson set up the Real Eating Company in Hove after moving to Brighton from London and deciding there was a gap in the market for a high-quality food retailer.  Three years on and the influx of organic and specialist food retailers appears to have supported Hudson’s notion.  But consumers never forget a trailblazer and her store was last year voted one of the UK’s best retailers by readers of the Observer.  The Real Eating Company, which includes a restaurant, is a haven for all things local.  The majority of its products are British.  Its cheeses come from Neal’s Yard Dairy and products are sourced as locally as possible.    The company has recently expanded.  A second store opened in the nearby town of Lewes in November and a coffee shop in Horsham opened its doors six months ago.  The Lewes store has been the company’s biggest challenge – the town already has two other specialist food shops and a large Tesco and Waitrose.  But Hudson insists: “There is clearly enough business to go around”.  Nothing demonstrates this more than the booming sales of Spanish pata negra ham.  It sells for £12.50 for 100g.
Feb 2007	Fits the Bill – Olive Magazine. Two-thirds deli, bakery, foodstore and wine shop, the Real Eating Company opened in 2004 when London escapee Helena Hudson decided to jack in her advertising job and start up the kind of place she’d enjoyed in London but couldn’t find near her new home in Hove.  Breakfast and lunch is popular all week and from Tuesday to Saturday the tables in the white-washed basement are lit with candles and laid for dinner.  Stylish Mediterranean menus are based on the ingredients sold upstairs with plenty of locally sourced produce.  The fish comes from the day boats further down the coast and lamb and rose-veal is Sussex-bred.

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