Traders of the month

Family-owned business Joli was founded by chef Salina Khairunnisa in 2009. Meaning ‘joy’ in Salina’s regional Baba Malay dialect, Joli specialises in traditional Malaysian clay pot cooking. Expect beef rendang, slow cooked organic beef brisket curry with coconut rice; roti canai (flatbread) served with a Pajeri salad; and noodle dishes such as traditional Singapore laksa with chicken and prawns; and freshly made gyozas.

Brought to you by the team behind Mildreds, mallow is a 100% plant-based, sustainable restaurant. The mallow menu is inspired by flavours from all over the world, using fresh, seasonal and sustainable ingredients. The restaurant’s aim is to minimise waste wherever possible, with ingredients sourced from small, sustainable businesses, including those right on its doorstep at Borough Market.

The Free From Bakehouse began with Caroline Aherne challenging herself to create a range of ‘free from’ cakes, breads and crackers of the calibre of their counterparts – and she has continued to do so with aplomb, many awards later. Handmade at her dedicated gluten-free premises, many of her bakes are now also vegan, while some remain dairy-free and others have no cane sugar.

What Noel Fitzjohn doesn’t know about the wild fruits, vegetables and fungi of southeastern England probably isn’t worth knowing. This enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable forager brings his seasonal haul and own off-beat mustard, pesto and vinegar creations to Borough Market, where they share table space with a range of handmade pâtés, terrines, confits and condiments from his estates in France and England.

Northfield’s butchers sell the best seasonal cuts from their own herds of white park and angus cattle, as well as lleyn and border-leicester sheep, along with meat from a long-established list of trusted, like-minded producers. The Northfield team, true artisans, have a wealth of knowledge which they are ready to share, happily advising customers on preparation and cooking techniques to ensure they get the most from their meat.

Brought to you by Mark Dobbie and Andy Oliver, the team behind the acclaimed Som Saa restaurant in east London, the Kolae grill and bar is named after the southern Thai technique of cooking skewers of meat, seafood or vegetables over an open flame, basted with a coconut curry sauce. The restaurant’s small, ever-changing menu explores the full kolae repertoire, using the very best seasonal produce.

The Olive Oil Co imports olive oil and vinegar from specialist producers across Italy, including many from founder Danilo Manco’s home region of Puglia – the centre of Italian olive oil production. Specialities include the famous single estate cinque foglie extra virgin oil, for which olives are picked before they are fully ripe then pressed just once soon after picking, using a traditional cold press.

Self-taught cheesemaker Arthur Alsop has ploughed his own furrow, producing a range of unique cow’s milk cheeses that have won them both public affection and a number of gold and silver gongs. Based in East Sussex, the team use milk from a local farmer to make their cheeses, the most successful of which is the Lord London: a semi-soft, cow’s milk cheese created in honour of the 2012 Olympics.

The Trethowan Brothers stall sells a range of artisan cheeses made by a collective of small-batch cheesemakers based in Britain. Two of the cheeses the brothers make themselves: Pitchfork Cheddar and Gorwydd Caerphilly. Both are produced in north Somerset, five miles from the historic town of Cheddar, using raw milk, hand-turned presses and heritage methods.

Founded by Eduardo Florez, The Colombian Coffee Company is a social enterprise dedicated to introducing high-quality, single-origin Colombian coffee to the UK. By buying beans directly from farmers at a fair price, Eduardo and his team are able to provide a reliable source of income for communities scarred by a decades-long civil war and the harsh nature of the global commodities markets, with profits invested back into local social projects.