In this era of food it’s all about taste, it’s got to taste good, and it’s got to be fresh. People have wised up to food so they don’t want artificial flavours, and you need to try and source your ingredients locally, so if you are going to succeed you have to do all you can to provide this.
Look at London for instance you’d think you can’t find things locally because it’s so built up, but you’d be surprised, go to an allotment near you they’d be happy to sell you some veg. Borough market is an ideal place to buy veg just ask where it was grown and i guarantee you find somewhere where it was grown not more than 5 miles away. So if your catering for friends impress them with your locally sourced veg grown with no pesticides, and i bet you will taste the difference.

To make a vegetable stock

1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 sticks celery, 1 parsnip, 2 cloves garlic, salt and pepper, 1 bunch parsley and 1litre water.

Put the water in a pan and boil, now chop every thing into 1 inch pieces, don’t even bother to peel, and put everything in the pan, now season with salt and pepper, bring to boil, now cover the pan and leave to simmer for about 2 hours. Now strain the stock so all you have is the liquid, and there you have it, vegetable stock, now use this to make gravy or maybe a nice pie or casserole.